Weaving Mix and Match

There is so much stuff going on here that I’m on a roller coaster that vacillates from highs of excitement to lows of panic when I think major things are falling through the cracks and I’m certain I cannot keep up!

The highs:  Archie’s blog is finally up!  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for months.  I have wanted to share some of the many photos and some excerpts from his writings. It just doesn’t feel right to have access to all this incredible stuff and not share it, ‘share the love,’ so to speak, throughout the process.  Meanwhile, others have contacted me that they have things to share as well!  That’s exactly what I was hoping! I installed a counter yesterday (should have done it from the beginning, a week ago) and found that there were 70 visitors in less than 24 hours!  Boy, do I love looking at that counter!

The Lows: none of the lows are bad things.  In fact, they are all wonderful things!  It’s just too much all at one time, and I’m certain I will lose track of some important bit no matter how many ‘notes to self’ I write!

I have tapestry work to do.  At the other end of my medieval lady’s head I’ve started my ‘talking pears,’ or ‘pair of pears,’ which is a Wednesday group project. 

This is the cartoon.

 

 

 

Next week I will participate in a workshop at the Jockey Hollow Weavers’ Guild, which meant I needed to warp a floor loom by the end of today.  The instructor is Ruby Leslie from Vermont, and the class is “50 Ways to Weave Your Color.”  I really enjoyed warping my Baby Wolf. I love to warp floor looms!  It’s very zen to me and feels as good as doing yoga!  On the flip side, I don’t like throwing the shuttle so much.  I’d like to dress looms and have someone else weave the cloth for me.

If you click on this to magnify it, you’ll get an idea of how well Ruby blended colors for this warp! It’s an 8S straight draw with a tie up for weaving lozenge shapes.

Who doesn’t love a freshly dressed loom?  All the potential for beautiful cloth lies ahead, and none of the tedium of throwing the shuttle has dampened the excitement!

Oh, and there was another bonus to taking this workshop.  I needed the reed that is currently on my AVL!  In order to get it I had to weave off the last part of a warp I’d made for a minister’s stole a year and a half ago!  I had added a scarf to the length of that warp, and I just couldn’t throw the shuttle any longer, even with a good book on my ipod.  Needing that reed did the trick.  Photos of the scarf will follow shortly.  I will twist the fringes and wet finish this evening.

With tapestry weaving I have the opposite feeling about warp and weft.  I really don’t care for warping, weaving the header, putting in the soumak.  I only like the weaving.  I’d like to find someone who’d get the loom set up for me so I can just weave.

We leave for a week of sailing tomorrow which is why I had to get both the floor loom and tapestry loom ready by end of today.  When I get back I have three days of classes…a bit too much yinging and yanging for me.  In today’s inbox I got the next version of the ATB8 catalog that must be edited by early next week.  I guess I’ll try to edit while on board. 

Wishing for calm seas and smooth sailing,