ArgoKnot

ArgoKnot has Moved

2011-03-25T14:41:00.001-07:00

Please follow me at my my new location!

Happy Dance!

2011-03-09T13:26:00.001-08:00

Need I say more? Lace classes started again so I am a happy camper!

10” of scallop border! I would like to have a yard so I’m almost 1/3 done!

Waiting for March

2011-02-22T07:06:00.001-08:00

Hasn’t it been a long winter? In many ways beautiful, and in some ways lllooonnnngggg… I know I will better appreciate the spring when if comes!

So….no images of snow here! Just a few things that define my February.

Threaded and ready to begin a boundweave wall hanging on my wonderful hand-me-down Toika.

My 2-yr. old camellia blooming for the first time! A wonderful pink for these grey/white days. It’s called “Kramer’s Delight” and it is delighting me!

A frequent visitor to our woods, but my first success at catching him on film! (Actually, my husband’s success, not mine.)

A newly finished bracelet. Two rows of Right angle weave attached, beginning to end, to form a closed ring, then crystals are added. You can tell I was thinking of spring when I chose these colors!

Inspiration

2011-02-02T13:41:00.001-08:00

I just watched this video three times. The woven image is beautiful and the filming is so well done. Marvelous! It makes me want to get my big Shannock warped!

A Winter Haiku by Charles de Lint

You can't trust the sun
this time of year; it's bright light
holds a bitter cold

A scene from our recent trip to the vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island. We missed getting any photographs in sun, although it was sunny during part of our stay. I have an image in my head of rows of dark vines casting clear blue shadow patterns on the brilliantly sunlit snow .

Ice on my “Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick.”

Tapestry in the Depths of Winter

2011-01-26T16:08:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine pointed out to me today that I have not posted a photo of my finished “Medieval Spinner.” I was certain I had….

So here she is….

Actually, I haven’t spent any time weaving tapestry for the past couple of months. I have been decidedly ‘under the weather.’

Today I had to miss my class with Archie and Susan due having quite a bad cough left over from my recent bout with the flu.

So I spent some time working on an unfinished tapestry and making plans for my next tapestry warp.

I have to admit I am pretty intimidated by my never-used Shannock loom. The heddles need to be re-made, and I’m not sure I can figure that out. I know I can use the loom without the heddles, but….

If I can conquer my fears, maybe I can get the full sized Medieval spinner warped this weekend.

Can you see her? I can just barely see her if I ‘bigify.’

Peace on Earth, Good Will to All

2010-12-27T09:00:00.001-08:00

What an amazing holiday season! On the first day of Hanukkah we had a torrential rain storm that ended shortly before sundown with a double rainbow. A new meaning for Festival of Light!

On the winter solstice we were treated to a full moon with a total eclipse, and in my little part of the world the skies were clear for viewing it!

Christmas arrived quietly but deluged us with snow the next morning. It’s a winter wonderland!

I wish you warmth and safety, and a hot cup of cocoa! This particular cup of cocoa was captured by my son, who made it, photographed it, then drank it…on Christmas morning.

May the year ahead be rich with blessings….

Crazy for Monk’s Belt

2010-12-20T19:54:00.001-08:00

Remember these? They came off the loom in September, and I gave them to my older son and his wife for their 2nd anniversary, which is cotton.

The pattern for this Monk’s Belt project came from the Spring 2004 issue of Jean Scorgie’s “Weaver’s Craft.” She used soft blue/greens to make a small purse for the project, and I saw them as place mats at a friend’s house. I did mine with a cotton warp and tabby weft and tow linen in the beachy blues from my kids’ dining room.

I guess I wasn’t quite done playing with this fun version of Monk’s Belt. I set up my Baby Wolf with the same pattern for a demonstration recently. I used 8/2 unmercerized cotton for the warp and the same single tow linen as the place mats, only in different colors, for the weft. I used reds and purples to coordinate with the cranberry Christmas decorations in the show house where I demonstrated. I have quite a collection of linens since I’m completely smitten it! I made three kitchen towels, treadling the traditional little flower motif at each end of the towels, then went back to the treadling from “Weaver’s Craft” for the last bit of warp, which is the cloth on the left, above. A good friend suggested making the little scrap into a small shoulder bag, like the purse in the original magazine project! I plan to do it. I just need to find an interesting lining fabric first!

And still I am not done playing with this pattern!

These are on the Toika now. The warp is 16/2 linen with tow linen for the pattern weft. They are for my younger son, and I hope the colors will go well in his apartment.

I admit that the weaving has gotten a little boring, but I do love the outcome so I’m sticking with it! I’ve listened to some wonderful books while weaving these projects…

…starting with Figures in Silk this summer, then parts of The Girl Who… books when I was home in between sailing (you know, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest). Then came the Tracy Chevalier story, Remarkable Creatures. Now I’m listening to Cutting for Stone which is so engrossing and beautifully written (and read) that I hardly know I’m weaving!

At least two of these placemats must be cut off, washed, hemmed and wrapped so that they can be under the tree on Christmas Eve! I’d better get cracking!

Lastly a couple of shots of Monk’s Belt projects from the past that always come out around this time of year.

My kitchen window valances that always get hung for the winter…

and …

a table runner

I guess I do have a big soft spot for Monk’s Belt…

Weaving and Spinning at Skylands Manor

2010-11-28T08:44:00.001-08:00

My local weaving guild, the Palisades Guild of Spinners and Weavers, will be setting up a weaving/spinning/dye-ing studio at the New Jersey State Botanical Gardens that has a Tudor Revival Mansion on the property called Skylands Manor. This opulent building was built in the 1920s out of stone that was quarried right on the property. It is completely out of character with the image of a weaver’s studio, but that’s what we are going to create!

Here is the room that will become a fiber studio! Like no studio any of us will ever see in real life!In any event, I will enjoy sitting in the room to weave all day on Thursday! The open house will take place from Thursday, December 2, through Sunday, December 5, from 10am until 4pm each day. Then there will be evening wine and cheese events as well. Someone will be weaving at my loom each day, and others from my guild will be spinning, knitting and doing some bobbin lace! So if you are anywhere nearby, drop by!

And here is the entrance to our studio. I’ll have the loom set up at the window near the fireplace to take advantage of natural light during the day. We are setting up tomorrow!

This is what I’ll be weaving: kitchen towels in Monk’s Belt, which I hope to use as presents later in the month!

New Projects

2010-11-21T07:11:00.001-08:00

Don’t most of us return from summer travels full of ideas for new projects? It’s hard to implement all the new ideas that crop up from even the shortest weekend away from home. There is something about a change of scenery that always makes me start brewing up ideas for what to do when I return.

On top of spinning, weaving, and knitting projects that I’ve dreamed up, I am also currently taking two new classes. Once a week I take a bobbin lace class from a group of women who are expert lacers. I’m so lucky to live in an area with an active guild of lace makers. They are a gold mine of experience and help. I’m on my third lace exercise now, and terribly smitten by the process.

This weekend, at the annual Lace Day (with classes!) I learned how to move my lace up in order to keep weaving beyond the length of the pricking card. What you see in the photo is my re-attached weaving. Now I can continue down the length of the card to make the little lace edging longer.

Once a month I drive up into the hills of Putnam County to a basket maker’s house where we work on Nantucket Lightship baskets. I’m making a medium size oval, and I’m quickly discovering how much more effort it takes to place the staves in an oval than in a circle! I may never get the staves ready, so I truly may never weave this basket. The camaraderie is wonderful so as long as they can put with my inexperience I will be going back!

The top photo is my basket in progress. I have more staves to shape, and you can see that the staves change shape as they get into the sharper curves of the ends of the oval. The basket in the lower photo is what I’m striving to achieve and was made by one of the women in the group!

Beading and sewing are two other areas I’m dabbling in this fall. These small projects are destined to be Christmas presents. I haven’t focused on making the the majority of my presents in at least a decade. Right now it feels good. I might not be so chipper when the deadlines get closer!

I pruned back my bay tree in order to bring it in the house since we have dismantled our greenhouse this year, in preparation for possibly selling our house. I’ve saved all the cuttings and am drying small sprigs as well as individual leaves. These will be gifts also, to all my cooking friends. Look out, Martha!

The leaves are mostly down here, the clocks have turned back, we had a killing frost recently. It’s time to cozy up in the nest and keep the fires burning, both in the furnace and in the creative process. I’m ready…

Fall Brewing

2010-11-03T13:00:00.001-07:00

It’s time for planting garlic, harvesting root vegetables, and brewing up the dyes from summer harvests. I harvested my weld in June and again in July when we were home briefly, then left it to dry in Bob’s workshop. This weekend I made the dye solution at a friend’s house. She mixed up more colors of ProChem acid dyes than I could count! Three of us had a great time painting skeins of handspun and commercial wool yarns and sock blanks!

Between gathering in the herbs from the season and making dye, I feel a bit of bewitching power! Look out!

My skeins drying in the garden

The acid dyed skeins and one sock blank skeined double. Colors used in these skeins are “bright red,” “cranberry,” “maple sugar,”
“mustard,”
“saffron,” “moss green.” These are unknown skeins from KnitPicks, possibly “Palette,” and a Knit Picks sock blank of superwash wool/nylon.

Both skeins dyed with weld, with one skein handpainted with “saffron” and “mustard.” Sadly, you cannot see what a lovely pear green the weld made. I love it! Both skeins are “Texas” by Henry’s Attic (50% wool, 50% mohair)

Last (and least in my mind), blues, violets and charcoal. This is another unknown Knit Picks skein with a lovely twist. Merino? It’s fingering weight, about 400 yds per 100 grams.

Hiatus

2010-10-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

I certainly didn't mean to take a two-month hiatus from blogging, but that's what happened. My ancient desktop computer has given up its spirit, and I've been using a couple of hand-me-down laptops with software that was not compatible or conducive to posting here. I've missed posting...

Work on the Archie Brennan Project has continued even though I have not been able to post updates over at that website either. Things are going well, but I've had no way to share info!

It's glorious autumn here in NJ, and I've got a busy schedule of weaving. It's been great to reconnect with my community of weaving friends after being away so long this summer… seeing the Wednesday Group again, seeing Susan and Archie's tremendous body of work on display at GAGA in Garnerville, starting a couple of new classes, and reconnecting with my weaving guild and knitting group! I am taking a bobbin lace class each week, and once a month I travel up to Carmel to learn the techniques of making a Nantucket lightship basket. All good!

These are tapestry bobbins I ordered from John Moss last June that were shipped to Archie and Susan in NY, so I couldn’t get them until returning from sailing! Aren’t they beautiful? John does wonderful work. The two outside bobbins are figured maple. Can you see the iridescence in the grain? The second on the left is Osage Orange and the third is Jatoba, also called Brazilian Cherry. It’s wonderful to use beautiful, well made tools!

Rob and Lauren’s placemats. This is a monk’s belt design from Jean Scorgie’s magazine “Weaver’s Craft” which was a proejct for a small woven handbag. I did these in 16/2 black cotton with wetspun 8/1 linen for the pattern weft. The colors are all beachy blues and greens, and there are two of each colorway for a total of eight. They celebrated their 2nd anniversary in August, which is the traditional ‘cotton’ anniversary. The warp and tabby weft are cotton, but I couldn’t resist using the lustrous wetspun linen for the pattern!

Scrapbook of Maine

2010-08-25T06:50:00.001-07:00

The weeks are passing, in some ways quickly, in others rather slowly, and I’ve now been on board our boat Pandora for a full month as of yesterday! This is the longest I’ve ever been on a boat. Here are some images from my month in Maine.

Day schooner that sails out of Camden

Along the Fox Island Thoroughfare, between North Haven and Vinalhaven.

Herreschoff 12 1/2 (means the water line is 12.5 feet), well known wooden gaff rigged sloop from the early 20th c. designed by Nathaniel Herreshoff, “the wizard of Bristol” (RI).

Bass Island lighthouse, southern most tip of Mt. Desert Island. This is the most photographed lighthouse in Maine!

Our boat, Pandora, is in the center of this photo, taken from the lookout on the way up to Thuya Gardens in Northeast Harbor, on Mt. Desert Island.

Thuya Gardens, designed by Charles K. Savage.

Thuya Gardens

The reflecting pond at Thuya Gardens

Bee house at Thuya Gardens. Bob took this photo for me so I could remind him to make one for our garden!

The fog bank rolling into Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert Island.

The fog bank coming into the harbor and boats rapidly disappearing!

The rapidly ebbing tide near Blue Hill. This type of rushing tidal current is called a reversing waterfall. This is supposedly the biggest reversing falls in Maine.

Reversing falls near Blue Hill.

Morning mist on our friend’s 100 yr. old lobster boat in Oven’s Mouth on the Sheepscot River.

Osprey nest.

Maine Fiber Arts Studios Day 2

2010-08-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

My second day of studio/farm visits was just as fun as the first! Maine seems to be a great place for inspiration and creativity. I’m so impressed with the places I’ve visited the past two years. If I lived here I really enjoy having more exposure to these creative people!

Hope Spinnery: How lucky for me to finally visit this mill that I’ve heard about for years! It’s in a secluded spot just inland from Lincolnville, nestled in the woods with a rambling garden surrounding the mill. The upper floor is a wonderful showroom, while the mill equipment is on the lower floor. I did not get to meet Bill Huntington who runs the mill since he was off-site teaching a workshop. His mother was on hand to welcome visitors and answer questions.

In the showroom I enjoyed looking at the rovings and yarns, all colored with natural dyes. Stunning!

Weaving a Life: Susan Barrett Merrill Another gem of a studio, hidden in a lovely secluded spot! Susan is an artist worth knowing! I must find a way to bring her to NY/NJ so others can experience her charisma and her artistic ideas about weaving and community!

She does amazing things will pulled warp tapestry, creating these marvelous masks.

Some of the masks have an entire community of figures surrounding the mask, and are fascinating creations in themselves! Susan’s ideas and her active involvement in bringing weaving into everyone’s life and managing community weaving projects is very exciting! She generously gave me a copy of her book, Zati: the Art of Weaving a Life, and I am so touched by it.

Susan has accomplished quite a lot toward her goal of bringing weaving into communities through making Journey looms we’ve all seen in recent issues of weaving magazines as well as writing this book and making several DVDs. Somehow she still finds time for doing her own weaving and creating these incredible masks.
Her method of weaving ancient pictographs or keyforms is the core to her philosophy about understanding our own journey and inter-connectedness.

I hope I can bring her to NJ to share her knowledge and creativity with weavers from my own community!

Maine Fiber Artists’ Open Studios

2010-08-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s another beautiful summer in Maine, and I’m so lucky to visit other amazing fiber farmers and fiber artists’ studios!

This year’s plan was a bit more involved than previous years, and it was a fun adventure! My husband wanted to attend a rendevous for the Seven Seas Cruising Association on Islesboro so we worked out a plan to take the ferry to Lincolnville on two of the weekend mornings. The first morning we hitchhiked partway and got a cab partway to get back to our car in Rockland. Then, at the end of the day, I left the car at the ferry terminal so it would be handy for our second day of sightseeing.

This is the eating area of the snack bar at the ferry terminal on Islesboro. It’s about 7am, and the fog bank is rolling away to reveal the Camden Hills and the beautiful day ahead! It took two hours from the time the ferry left ‘til we had our car, although the ferry ride was only 20 minutes! We also got picked up hitchhiking a lot faster than when we waited for the cab in downtown Camden!

Day one of fiber sightseeing included Eolian Farm where no one was home, too bad for me!

These photos were taken outside Swans Island Blankets on Rte. 1, just outside of Lincolnville. What a stunning 18th century farmhouse they use for their showroom! We saw the looms as well as the dyeing room.

Two Sons Alpaca Farm in Damariscotta was the farm highlight of the weekend for me! Owner Ricki Waltz was very happy to talk about her animals to us, a fascinating blend of alpaca husbandry and tales of the various personalities in her herd. The babies were adorable and had quite distinct personalities right from the start!

Timberdoodle 2 (alas! no website!) is a lovely studio overlooking the water near Cushing. It’s a tiny, perfectly appointed showcase of Kathryn Woodstock-Lynn’s lace spinning and knitting! Using traditional Shetland techniques, learned from such venerated knitters as Gladys Almedro, Sharon Miller and others, she knits lace shawls and wraps of her own design. Her spinning is exquisite and so is her dyeing! There were two large hatboxes of yarns for sale, each with enough to make either a shawl or a scarf. One box held natural colored yarn, the other was full of her hand dyed creations. She blends acid dyes into a stunning array of colors. I dearly wanted a ‘red’ but did not have the pocketbook for it this summer. I did buy a Shetland/Oxford mix dyed an indescribable mix of pink/lavender/tan ….just a small ball that will make a lovely scarf.

Katharine Cobey. When I entered this studio I instinctively knew that I was in the presence of an artist, and that her studio was probably going to be the highlight of all our travels this summer! Her studio and its setting along the water is as artistic as Katharine herself. The wall of glass that faces the water must provide an ever changing inspiration to her spinning and knitting. When I entered Katharine was reclining in an overstuffed chair with ottoman, knitting away on a current project. Her large Rio Grande ‘sitting great wheel’ was nearby, and one of the first things she did was give me a demonstration on how it works! I’ve always wondered how one could sit and spin at a great wheel, and after seeing Rachel Brown’s simple technique which Katherine does so well, I am awestruck by what a simple feat it is to change from spinning off the spindle to winding on without stopping the wheel. Thank heaven for Rachel Brown! Katharine made it look utterly simple, but when she encouraged me to try it I quickly learned that I’d need several hours (or days!) to get the hang of it!

Part of Katharine’s studio is a showcase for some of her work. There was a display of knitted mantles arranged in a circle and exquisitely lighted called Ritual against Homelessness. They were beautifully moving. There was also a wire-knitted form on the wall that was wonderful. The form itself was interesting and was greatly enhanced by its shadow. The combination of real form and shadow were terrific together.

On leaving, Katharine handed me one of her postcards which is when I realized I knew of her! I had seen Boat with Four Figures at the Portland Museum a few years back, but didn’t realize she was the artist! I’m thrilled to have met her!

The Price of Eggs in China, aka Talking Pears

2010-07-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

I did finally take an afternoon to weave while we were anchored in Hadley Harbor, on the Island of Naushon just across from Wood’s Hole.

I’m working on a small tapestry that was an assignment from a workshop that Archie and Susan gave to the Wednesday Group several months ago. They called the workshop “Talking Pears.” For the workshop we were to bring two Bosc pears, our sketchbooks and pencils, and a variety of colored papers.

For the morning, we arranged and drew our two pears several times. After our lunch break, we took the sketches we liked best and used them as ideas for making several paper collage designs. The nature of the paper collage designs being so graphic led to other ideas.

At the end of class we lined up our paper collages and discussed shapes, arrangements, and color choices.

This may be more than you want to know about the “price of eggs in China,” but I’m certain that Archie and Susan carefully chose this workshop as a clever way to make us start thinking in the language of tapestry rather than in the language of pure image. Many of us are often intrigued by an image first and foremost, and we attempt to make a cartoon that will be weaverly.

Here, the relationship of our pears as two shapes coming together, along with the relationship of the surrounding area, and the colors we chose to use took precedence over the image itself. The simple paper collages we made prevented us from creating shading and contours.

This simple exercise has allowed each of us to focus on how to create the shapes of the pears and the surrounding areas. I’ve never paid so much attention to my curves and slopes! I’m usually too busy also trying to create light and shadow. I had a lot of fun choosing the colors for this little project, and with only six colors I really concentrated on the relationship between them.

Here you can see the frame that Bob made for me to hold my copper pipe looms. This frame allows me to adjust the loom up and down so I’ll always be weaving at a comfortable height.

One Wednesday Grouper has already woven eight small tapestries! Several others have already woven two. This is my first one, and I do hope to weave another. I’m so slow that two will probably be my limit!

Where I am Weaving (NOT)

2010-07-08T06:03:00.001-07:00

I've been in some lovely places lately, not weaving! I missed opportunities to weave in the Mystic River, on Cuttyhunk in the chain of Elisabeth Islands, and in Tashmoo Lake on Martha's Vineyard. I can't explain why I haven't been weaving as the days pass. Hopefully I'll remedy that tomorrow while we sit in Vineyard Haven.

View from the high point on Cuttyhunk. The church steeple is a United Methodist church, but the list of multi-demoninational services available only mention RC and Episcopal!.. not even a Methodist service!

The 4th of July parade in which everyone decorates their golf carts (the main vehicle on the island) and drives through the island throwing candy at spectators!

In the interim I have been spending some frustrating time fiddling with wifi on our boat with a cell booster a the top of the mast for connection. Nothing is ever as simple as advertised, and as I write I am not connected. I am just making a word document!

And I am attempting to learn to crochet. Actually, I know several crochet stitches and have managed to make trim for my knitted items over the past few decades, but I have never made a crocheted piece. When I visited WEBS in May, I was smitten with the crocheted market bag (made from 8/2 linen), which is finished with a lovely leather handle from Homestead Heirlooms (also now available at WEBS). I chose a dark aubergine leather handle. I am determined to learn this! Thank heaven for the internet because during the brief moments when I had access to it I managed to watch a video on how to do a “Half Double Crochet” as well as how to do a “Back Post Half Double Crochet.” It sure is hard to recognize when I've come to the end of a round (would new knitters say this too?), so I'm trying to use a marker to keep me on track. I'm forging ahead….but slowly. I’m not sure that crochet will ever feel natural…

Happy Solstice!

2010-06-25T06:07:00.001-07:00

The glorious days of summer are here! I’m spending a quiet week at home enjoying the things I cannot do on a boat!

The gardens are looking great this year, with little input from me. It’s been perfect weather to sit outside until the past couple of days when the heat drove me indoors and made me turn on the AC.

Our sailing grounds have moved to Eastern Long Island Sound now, but I did not weave on our last trip. We had guests on board so there was little room for my loom. Instead I did some crocheting and drop spindling. We visited the newly built Ocean House in Watch Hill, RI, which is certainly as spectacular as the original structure must have been 100 years ago.

Now I am home alone for a few days, finally using the Toika that I bought from my friend about two years ago! This project will be a set of placemats for my older son and his wife. The loom needed a lot of tweaking, at least for this old girl who is only familiar with jack looms! I might be a bit old for learning new tricks, but with Sr. Bianca’s help, I think I’ve got the loom in great working condition now! I’m a convert to countermarche!

5/2 merc. cotton warp with 8/1 linen tow weft in lots of beachy blue/green colors. Each set of two will be slightly different, for a total of 8 placemats. The reverse side is quite nice too. This pattern is from Jean Scorgie’s “Weaver’s Craft” issue 16, Monk’s Belt.

I’m working on the Archie project too and hope to have a new blog post there soon!

Weaving Destinations

2010-06-17T07:27:00.001-07:00

The first dot on the map may be the most interesting!

Bonnie Tarses will be weaving in western Montana, at Flathead Reservation, in a bucolic spot called “The Garden of 1000 Buddhas.” Through the internet I found this description from a Montana newspaper:

“Visualize a 10-acre garden with a thousand Buddhas to inspire visitors of all faiths to reflect on peace and find compassion and happiness within themselves.”

And now visualize Big Sky country, a peaceful garden for contemplation, and your loom at your side! Does it get any better than this? The Dalai Lama plans to visit the completed garden in 2011.

Where will you weave this summer?

2010-06-14T14:50:00.001-07:00

Yikes!….I wrote this two weeks ago and somehow didn’t post it….

A successful few days of weaving while on board our sailboat, Pandora, has me thinking about where other weavers work during their travels. What comes to mind first is a wonderful travelogue tapestry by Susan Martin Maffei that chronicles a train trip she took from New York westward across the country. It’s a multi-panel work with 2” x 2” tiny tapestries mounted on the panels, depicting the landmarks and landscapes of her trip. Susan has also brought small copper pipe looms on airplanes and woven while in flight!

I imagine many weavers must bring looms on vacation (floor and table looms as well as frame looms for tapestry), and I’d like to know where you will be weaving this summer! If you read this, please consider leaving a comment of where you plan to weave while you are away from home! I’d like to picture all the wonderful places where weavers will be working on their projects. I might make a map (if I can figure out how!) showing all the vacation weaving places I hear about. Or if you plan to blog about your summer weaving, send me a link!

I have just returned home this morning from a trip along the Chesapeake. It started in Williamsburg (by car!) with a visit to my parents and some friends, and ended with a week of sailing in the Chesapeake. For my part in this summer weaving list, I can say that I worked on my current tapestry in St. Michael’s harbor, Maryland, and at a lovely anchorage off Gibson Island in the Magothy River, also Maryland.

St. Michaels harbor on the eastern shore of Maryland.

Second Weaving Trip!

2010-05-19T09:36:00.001-07:00

Late last week I visited Shelburne Falls, Mass, with a couple of weaving friends. It was open studio week at Vav Stuga. We had made our plans too late to participate in weaving on the looms, but we were happy to make the trip to visit the town and check out this weaving studio!

Shelburne Falls is known for its “Bridge of Flowers,” and we learned that the bridge has been turned into a small botanic garden, planted with trees, vines, shrubs and many perennials. In May there is a lot in bloom! Azaleas, wisteria vines, iris, Solomon’s seal, columbine, poppies….well, I just cannot name them all! There were plenty of summer blooming perennials starting to bud!

The Bridge of Flowers was started in the 1940s by a group of volunteers on an old trolley bridge . For many years it was known as the “Bridge of Weeds.” It is now supervised by a professional gardener, but still requires the hard work of many volunteers. While my friends and I walked across, we saw one volunteer hauling numerous wheel barrow loads of black dirt onto the bridge.

We stopped at WEBS on the way up and had a fun shopping spree! Their spring sale was in progress, and we each got some wonderful things! My most exciting purchase was two cones of tencel in complimentary colors to recreate the two-block twill fabric that was on Bonney’s loom when I got it. That’s the fabric I wrote about earlier this month! It will be wonderful to have my own version!

On our first evening in Shelburne Falls, we met the business manager of Vav Stuga who happens to be living at the Dancing Bear, where we stayed. She mentioned that there was one cancelation for Friday, and after a little discussion, my friends agreed that I could take the spot! Lucky me! So while my friends toured the town on Friday morning, I wove at one of the looms! It was a rep weave project in colors that were just perfect for both my kitchen and my family room! I loved the studio (sorry, no photos…but you can check out the website! I was too busy at the loom!), and I enjoyed weaving in this setting! Now I hope to visit again for one of the week long classes. Becky (owner), Susan (business manager) and Celeste (apprentice) do a wonderful job of creating a calm setting with lots of good weaving energy. The studio and living spaces make you feel like you’ve just entered a Karl Larsson painting! It’s lovely.

Here’s my runner!

Weaving trips!

2010-05-19T09:15:00.001-07:00

It’s full spring now, and I have just treated myself to two weaving trips! I feel decadent, and it is wonderful!

First was a two day workshop and evening lecture at Jockey Hollow Weaving Guild, which is in a beautiful part of New Jersey, just west of Morristown. This is horse country with lots of historical, colonial sites…not that I visited any of them since I was busy weaving!

The workshop instructor was Ruby Leslie from New Hampshire, and her class was titled “50 Ways to Weave Your Color.” Seventeen students each got a warp from Ruby in the same colors but different color sequences with different weave structures. We then had a very organized round robin of weaving over the two days. It was great!

Huck Weave with dark weft on a shaded warp

Advancing twill on a different shaded warp with dark bars between the color changes. Woven with a dark weft

Bumberet. Lots of variation here. Warp stripes in bright colors on muted background and weft, or more subtle colors when the bright colors sections are not raised.

Color and Weave Pinwheels, using multi-colored warp instead of just light/dark. Weft also shades through the various pinks/terracottas and the various greens.

Asymmetric plaid, woven either in straight twill or plain weave.

Double weave, with color striping and dark weft. There were two versions: one in cotton and one in tencel.

There were 17 looms, with six weave structures to try, so there were three each of 5 structures (bumberet, huck, adv. twill, plaid, color & weave) and two looms with double weave. Everyone went home with six samples and some of us went home with 7 or 8 eight samples. It was extremely well organized! Ruby will be teaching at Convergence this summer, and I’m sure her students will be happy they chose her class!

While Ruby has lived in New Hampshire for many years now, she is originally from Queens. She made a comment that she likes to receive tiaras from her students as a light hearted reference to her ‘royal’ roots. One of the students really outdid herself by making Ruby a felted tiara late at night after the first day of class had ended!

Ruby in her felted tiara!

News of my second weaving trip to follow!

A Weaver’s Legacy

2010-05-11T14:56:00.001-07:00

An amazing turn of events last week brought three weavers together after three years…

About three years ago, a good friend of mine died from complications related to breast cancer. She was a very artistic woman, someone I admired. She wore her handwoven clothes with enviable flair, and she knew how to accessorize. When she could no longer sit at the loom she continued to knit accessories that were as striking as her woven items.

(Well, this is not the best photo to demonstrate Bonney’s fashion flair, but do notice the t-shirt on the sheep commemorates National Spinners and Weavers week!)

Her daughters held a sale before selling her house, and I got some precious items which always make me think fondly of Bonney’s friendship. I have two shirts, commerically made, that look deceptively handwoven, a sterling jewelry pin of a castle-style spinning wheel, and Bonney’s 8S Baby Wolf.

When I got the loom it had samples on it, lovely samples of what looked to me like a ‘Sharon Alderman’ fabric. There were several small samples, separated by unwoven warp. The warp looked like 20/2 mercerized cotton in a medium grey. The weft was the same size cotton in ‘rust’ or ‘burnt sienna.’ The color difference between the warp and weft made a lovely iridescence in the fabric, giving the finished cloth the look of silk.

I thought of weaving off the rest of the warp, but when I went searching for what the treadling might be I did not find this pattern. Also, I did not have the weft. Eventually I cut the fabric off the loom so that I could warp it for a weaving workshop. I thought I might serge the fabric samples and give one to each of Bonney’s good friends in my guild, keeping one for myself.

But I never did it. The fabric has lain on top of my serger now for three years….

During these three years my path has occasionally crossed the path of another New Jersey weaver from the Jockey Hollow Guild. I heard her name numerous times through mutual acquaintances, and I finally met her during her guild’s holiday sale last December.

Last week when I had again warped this loom in readiness for a weaving workshop from the Jockey Hollow Guild, Sally was the organizer, so our paths crossed again.

At one point during the workshop Sally offered to tweak my loom into better working condition. I mentioned that this loom had belonged to a good friend who had left this life. I asked if she had ever known Bonney, who had on occasion attended meetings at Jockey Hollow.

Well, Sally did know Bonney. In fact, some time before Bonney’s final days, Sally had visited her to weave off some samples that were part of an exchange (indeed, a Sharon Alderman design). Shortly after that visit Bonney died, and Sally did not know what became of the samples or of Bonney’s loom. The participants in that exchange never got the samples.

Isn’t it interesting that I had wanted to give those samples to some of Bonney’s friends, but I just never could bring myself to cut them apart and serge the ends?…. and equally interesting that I kept hearing about Sally from a couple of friends. I, too, had visited some meetings of Sally’s guild, but I did not met her until recently…. And it is interesting that we did not get to the subject of Bonney and her loom on our first meeting, but obviously it was meant to come about at some point.

I think Bonney knew it would happen, all in good time, and I think she smiled when it finally did. I will miss seeing the yardage in my studio, but I’m immensely happy that it will go to the recipients who were always meant to have it. It’s a lovely length of finely woven cloth. Good weaving endures, friendship endures. It’s all good.

Weaving Mix and Match

2010-04-27T15:12:00.001-07:00

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,

The Archie Brennan Project Blog

2010-04-26T07:00:00.001-07:00

Almost two years ago, I began transcribing Archie Brennan’s life story which I asked him to write, as well as his many essays and articles written over the course of his 60+ years of weaving tapestries. He is an excellent record keeper, and going through his files is an exciting adventure!

Several years ago I edited and published a book which took a couple of years to assemble. The “Archie Project” is considerably larger and is progressing nicely, with about 75 pages of text so far! I am committed to putting together a book about Archie that covers his life story, shares his probing, often humorous, thoughts on many aspects of tapestry weaving in various cultures, and showcases as many of his 450 woven tapestries as space will allow.

The blog is here!

Two other Wednesday Groupers are helping with this project! Barbara Burns is working on creating a retrospective exhibition of Archie’s work, and she and Sarah Doyle and I are also cataloging all of Archie’s photographed works into a catalog raisonne which will be an appendix to the book. Hopefully, we can also create a DVD of works to be included in the book. It’s a big project, and we are all volunteers!

I’m seeking input, in the form of contributions of photos or stories, or advice or connections. Anything at all that you think pertinent to this project will be enthusiastically accepted. Check out the blog and contact me!

Guest House

2010-04-15T06:18:00.001-07:00

At the Soul Collage meeting last night, my good friend who leads us read a poem by Rumi. It was a breath of fresh air! I haven’t had enough poetry lately, and actually hadn’t even thought of this poet in a year or so.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-- Jelaluddin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks

Well, today my lodgers are all very boisterous, happy guests. They are the spring dwellers. My son’s photos of his Manhattan neighborhood capture them very well! …even in New York!

Let the Rivers Clap Their Hands!

2010-04-12T09:47:00.001-07:00

This is the cover of the program used for the Diamond Jubilee for Sister Bianca Haglich, who has served in the order of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary for 60 years.

Sr. Bianca is the driving force of a number of weaving groups, and, for me, most notably, the Wacky Weavers which started about 36 years ago. We are a group of 10 women, many of whom (but not me!) began weaving as students of Sr. Bianca, during her tenure at Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY. Our Wacky Weavers’ group gets together once a month, except in summer, to teach each other fiber-related techniques. Over the years the group has witnessed the births, childhood accomplishments, graduations and marriages of our children; the deaths of loved ones; the births of grandchildren. In recent years some of our monthly meetings have become celebrations of landmark birthdays since we are all advancing in age!

Sr. Bianca created this image for her diamond jubilee since water has played such an important role in the journey of her life. She was born on the island of Lussin in the Adriatic (now part of Croatia), sailed across the oceans to arrive in New York as an adolescent, and has lived on the shores of the Hudson River for many years now.

In this photo Sr. Bianca is standing before her newly installed, large kuultokudos (transparency weave) for the “Mother House” in Bezier, France.

Bianca is an amazing weaver! As a young woman with many artistic talents, she studied weaving in Finland, and now she is fluent in so many facets of weaving I couldn’t possibly list them all. She has taught many, many people to weave and has a beautiful studio in Tarrytown that includes about 20 Toika looms.

Bianca’s studio used to be on the campus of Marymount College and was called “The Center for Fiber Arts.” Along with college art students she had a diverse following of adults who came to study. With the closing of Marymount College (bought by Fordham Univ.) she moved her studio to a large, light-filled space on the grounds of her convent, and the studio is now called “The Weaving Center.”

Sr. Bianca in the library of her studio where the Wacky Weavers helped her celebrate her 82nd birthday in February!

A large segment of Sr. Bianca’s students are Jewish women who come to learn weaving in order to make tallithim(sp?) for their loved ones. Truly, an ecumenical “Weavers without Borders!”

So Many Amazing Tapestries!

2010-04-10T06:56:00.001-07:00

I was thrilled to learn that the upcoming ATB8 (American Tapestry Biennial 8) will have three venues throughout the US. I don’t know what they are, but I heard from a good source that one will likely be Lowell, Massachusetts which will mean I can see all these amazing tapestries for real!

I have just finished proofreading the catalog for ATB8 and am astounded by the works! Four members of the Wednesday Group are in this exhibition, as well as other artists whose works I love! Then there are works from artists I don’t yet know! The catalog is a glorious feast for the eyes, and I’m so glad to have worked on it in the tiniest way. I cannot imagine what it will be like to see all these pieces hanging together in one gallery space.

Sixty-four pieces, in fact. Sorry to write about this without being able to show photos….

forsythia taken by my son Chris.

The Elixir of Praise

2010-03-25T10:17:00.001-07:00

Time flies by so fast on these glorious spring days, when there are more chores than daylight! The garden is calling, our boat needs attention before it splashes into the Chesapeake for another sailing season, and like the maple trees, my sap is rising so that I’m drawn to work longer during the longer hours of light!

I finished the loose-fitting, comfy sweater in time to wear it on several occasions before it gets too unseasonal. Soon I will put it away until fall….or perhaps bring it along to Maine for the chilly nights when I want to sit on deck looking at the stars. (Turns out is it a Martin Storey design from Classic Knits for Real Women)

Here is the medieval spinner. I’m really on the home stretch now. A little praise goes a long way, doesn’t it? Yesterday I got some wonderful praise from Archie. I wonder if teachers ever truly realize how much their comments mean to us students. His comments thrilled me so much that hours later, at midnight, I found I could not get to sleep due to the warm glow I still felt. There’s a famous quote I used to know about how our words to others carry far more weight than we realize. Archie can’t possibly know how much I will cherish his input from yesterday!

I’m also carrying wonderful images in my head from yesterday’s gathering of the Wednesday Group. We were quite a large group, crowded in spite of Susan’s generous studio space. The diversity of the work was incredible! Everything from a young beginner’s strikingly good re-interpretation of some Coptic designs, to a moving piece of autumn leaves floating behind the Robert Frost quote, “Nothing gold can stay.” There was a vibrantly happy scene of frogs on lily pads, a very graphic interpretation of a bridge deck from an engineer’s drawing, a delicate (although large!) interpretation of a pencil drawing of a loved one’s head.

There was such a wide range of emotional content, creative vision, and wealth of weaving techniques to convey these images, that I left feeling powerfully stimulated! That’s the real strength of weaving in community. Most of us weave in solitude, and I relish these moments with others!

Unfortunately I have no photos to share of these amazing works in progress. So, instead, a shot of new growth in the greenhouse and the endless parade of amaryllii!

Albutilon (flowering maple) in the greenhouse. This is our most prolific amaryllis with four flower stalks! To springify the house I’ve brought in cut branches of forsythia, quince and pussy willow. Outside the first daffodils have opened, surrounded by their earlier pals, the crocus and winter aconite. Hoping for new growth and full blossoms myself this spring!

The Energy of Our Best Days

2010-03-06T09:45:00.001-08:00

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the energy of our best days everyday! I can’t seem to manage that.

I’ve made good progress on my current sweater, a design that I cannot give proper credit since I’m working from a photo-copy given to me by a friend. It’s a cute design that has been fairly boring to knit. Lots of stockinette that luckily I churn out quickly, but also lots of fiddly small items that had to be knitted separately and sewn to the sweater. I’m almost there!

The button bands are knitted separately and sewn to the body (a task I detest). After I sewed on the first band, I sewed on the buttons. Then I made button holes in the 2nd band by

buttoning on to the first band as I knit in order to get the spacing just right.

Also, I’m up into the headdress of my medieval spinner. I’ve been looking forward to weaving the intricate shapes of her headdress!

My friend Willa had an art opening this week, and her energy inspired me! She is part of a group of women exploring their cultural heritage through their line of female relatives, all of whom immigrated here from other parts of the world. The exhibit is called “Ah, Motherland!”

Willa’s heritage is Japanese, and she found inspiration from the many noren (entrance curtains) on display at the Serizawa exhibition that we visited together back in early February. She made her own set of noren and painted images significant to her grandmother in her unique, painterly style.

My own head is full of ideas I’d like to pursue that were generated by seeing the Serizawa exhibit. I wish I could work as quickly as Willa does!

March

2010-03-04T08:25:00.001-08:00

The second amaryllis to bloom this year is ‘Apple Blossom.’ It’s almost my favorite! I cannot remember the name of the one that opened first this year. It was a variety that I had to search out at the Philly Flower Show a couple of years ago, and now I’ve forgotten it’s name (no label in the pot either!)…

A few signs of spring in the greenhouse!

More amaryllis in bud

Color in the greenhouse:
peach dragon wing begonia in foreground with peach blooming albutilon (flowering maple) just behind it. A few magenta geranium flowers in background, and a purple flowering bromeliad in the upper left.

March!

2010-03-01T08:17:00.001-08:00

It’s St. David’s Day, soon to be followed by St. Patrick’s Day! My English friend sent me photos of yellow aconite blooming in a church yard near her village in Cambridgeshire.

We are currently buried in snow with damaged trees all over our yard, but the house is unscathed. Right now I’d relish the chore of cleaning up all our broken trees just to get outside, but that chore will have to wait until the snow melts. Our new view of the neighbors:

I saw my first robin this morning, in spite of the fact there is no ground showing for him to find food! He was hopping about on the snow!

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your window pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

Minnesota? No, New Jersey!

2010-02-26T06:54:00.001-08:00

I have to interrupt my weaving and knitting updates to comment on the weather. What a lot of snow we have gotten this month! Supposedly it is going to snow here for three days straight. I’m not sure that has happened in my lifetime! It snowed heavily all day yesterday, and is snowing lightly this morning. Will it really continue through tomorrow?

When my husband uses the snow blower, he loves to make a wall of snow. Can you tell he is quite proud of his creation?

I’m looking forward to staying home today, nestled in to weave! Meanwhile, spring arrives in the house with the first of the amaryllis in bloom!

Tapestry Weaving

2010-02-25T15:56:00.001-08:00

I cannot count the times I’ve heard or read a reference to tapestry that has annoyed me because it is obvious that the author of the statement has no idea what tapestry is. Ugh.

But now I think I need to put pettiness aside and relish every reference to this ancient technique because it is not a given that it will stay in our vocabulary, which might mean the real activity might also, someday, disappear.

A couple of years ago on public radio I was listening to the program that Patricia O’Connor hosts about language. Someone called in to ask her what ‘tow head’ means. They had been called this as a child, and the caller had always presumed it to be an insult. He wondered if it had something to do with tow trucks.

Ms. O’Connor actually didn’t know what the term meant. I remember I was driving in my car and had to find a place to pull over so I could call in to set the record straight. My call was taken, unfortunately after the show had ended, so the man never heard from me what the term meant. I hope he knows by now. Ms. O’Connor and I had a lovely conversation about phrases that go out of use. Interestingly, she noted that if an idiom is based on political or social situations it stays in use longer than if the phrase is domestic or agricultural. Our domestic situation has changed so drastically in the last hundred years, and here in the US, very few of us have any notion of farm terms. Idioms from these areas have passed into the forgotten. Personally, I didn’t know that ‘tow head’ was out of use. I don’t hear it often, but I still do sometimes, as well as corn silk, to describe blonde hair. My husband is a tow head, and I briefly had corn silk hair when I was young…

So, while the word tapestry is being misused a lot in recent times, at least it is a word that continues to pop up in descriptions and conversations. I am thankful for that!

Here is what’s happening on the tapestry front in my studio this week:

Yesterday I had my monthly visit to Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei. That always gets my creative juices flowing, and here is the result of my work today:

Slow, but steady, work on Rob:

Weaving, ancient archaeology, puppy rescue and American Idol

2010-02-11T06:03:00.001-08:00

Crazy mix of stuff, but that’s the week I’m having. I’m stuck on my medieval spinner’s face and have walked away from it for a couple of days. Actually, I had something I had to knit. That happens to me every now and then. Like a good book I just have to read cover to cover, skipping meals and sleep, sometimes I just have to knit. I’ve churned out a lot of knitted fabric over the past week. The second ‘Shadow Baby’ sweater has been mailed and received. I have knitted the entire back and half of one front on the ‘Scallop Trim Jacket’ from Classic Knits for Real Women. (it’s the first of the thumb nails)

And in the midst of all this knitting and thinking about tapestry, I have been listening to the BBC’s production of “A History of the World in 100 Objects from the British Museum.” It’s a wonderful podcast! I’ve always felt a kinship to the ancient world through my weaving. I can’t say why. Maybe because I learned to weave just when I decided that I would pursue a degree in Latin (which I’d studied every year since 7th grade) along with a degree in Greek which I was just learning as I learned to weave. Maybe it’s that language and weaving are literally connected, coming from the same IE root, text.

For whatever reason, I find listening to this podcast about wondrous artifacts, that not only come from the ancient world but from the dawn of human history, to be rather an act of reverence while I am knitting or weaving. I am participating in what human hands have been doing for countless millennia, and I am experiencing how connected we all are.

Here is the carved
mammoth tusk depicting swimming reindeer, from 10,000 BCE, that I learned about today. A beautifully delicate carving, found in France. Curiously, the narrator mentions another carved piece from another part of Europe, same time period, that depicts a mammoth and is carved on deer antler. He also mentions that from this time period objects convey realism, abstraction, perspective, ie, many different ways of expressing oneself. The same area might yield finds of realism and abstraction, so it is believed that each artist was expressing his sense of his surroundings, incorporating his emotions into this expression. Every episode of this series has been mesmerizing. I will be sad when it ends.

And in other news this week, our new daughter in law was featured in local news and newspapers in southern Connecticut for her work rescuing dogs. She and my son have a houseful of pitbull mix dogs that all live happily together, some available for adoption….but not Chili who is shown here! The next photo is Lauren with Chili and Rupert.

Lastly, when I’m not listening to the podcast from the British Museum, I’ve been watching and following online my first season of American Idol! Talk about extremes! The son of some good friends was picked up at the Boston audition and made it through the first cut in Hollywood. He was eliminated tonight during the group singing. I thought he had wonderful stage presence, but the group as a whole did not perform well. They picked a song with really challenging lyrics! The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani.

Bryce is second from the right. He is already making quite a name for himself in the NY metro area as a solo artist and with his band “Stealing Jane,” so the Idol experience should only help!

Studying the Ancients to learn how to weave a face!

2010-02-01T07:37:00.001-08:00

Look at this wonderfully woven face! These lips would make any weaver proud, and I hope to benefit from studying them. This tapestry fragment was found in a burial site in the Tarim Basin, and fascinatingly, they had been fashioned into a pair of trousers and found on the body of warrior in a mass grave.

An excerpt from Kris Hirst’s archaeology blog: “The tapestry trousers of Sampul are a pair of decorated woolen trousers, likely dated to the first or second century BC. They were found on the legs of a person buried in a mass grave at the Silk Road oasis of Sampul in the Tarim Basin of far western China north of Tibet. The trousers had been fashioned from a tapestry which, scholars believe, once hung on the walls of a palace or elite residence in one of the cities in west central Asia which fell under the influence of Alexander the Great.

How this tapestry became trousers and ended up on the legs of a person who died by violence in Sampul far from the tapestry's origins, is an entertaining, if somewhat scholarly, puzzle. But it also sheds a glimmer of light into the life of nomads and the interactions of the cultures that were affected by the opening of the Silk Road. The origins of the tapestry trousers were discussed in late 2009 in a scholarly article in the journal Antiquity, by a team led by Mayke Wagner of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI).“

The warp sett on this tapestry is considerably finer than my sett for the Medieval Spinner, but my attempts at her mouth still seem quite pathetic to me. I’m embarrassed to share photos of what I’ve done, but I shall swallow my pride and do it, mostly as a learning vehicle for myself in future tapestries. The following shows what NOT to do!

Version 1: I was in NY with the Wed. Group when I wove this, and I did not bring a wide enough variety of skin tone colors. She’s horribly pink. I thought her mouth was not good enough, although it was better than my next two attempts! Archie’s sage advice was to make sure that the two points of her upper lip were woven on a ‘high’ warp with a low warp in between for the dip between the points.

Version 2 got unwoven immediately. I felt the lips were too pale and did not show up from a distance. This is version 3 where I continued with the pale lip color and used a grey outline. I think it’s only getting worse! The outline is too ‘cartoony’ for me. However, one thing I did learn is that the upper lip point that is closer to the viewer (the right side as we face her) is slighter higher than the lip point that is away from the viewer. This involves putting both upper lip points on a high warp with one low warp in between, but also doing an extra wrap on the closer lip point to raise it slightly.

I feel strongly that her mouth is too low and too far away from the end of her nose, but it does match the original painting so I hesitate to change that.

Today I will unweave again and do something closer to version 1. At least I’ve given her a much better skin tone now! The face from the Tarim Basin tapestry has a wonderful highlight on the upper lip. Also the break between his lower and upper lip is the darkest color, and that is true of my spinner’s lips so I need to go darker! …and make her upper lip redder! I hope I get closer today!

Inspiration from Serizawa

2010-01-30T09:15:00.001-08:00

It’s not fair to talk about an exhibit after it’s closed, so I will apologize right up front! I got so much inspiration from this exhibit that I have to mention it, and I will at least share images of the pieces that moved me! The exhibit was “Serizawa: Master of Japanese Textile Design” at the Japan Society in New York. (The book, which I bought, is available at the link above.)

These are all dyed works on silk, hemp and cotton cloth (I believe handwoven cloth). This is a traditional technique known as katazome, which involves stenciling with natural dyes and natural resists. Serizawa was a master of this technique and is a National Treasure in his country.

I am particularly interested in his use of lines and brush strokes. Many of these images are so similar to ideas I’ve imagined weaving in tapestry. It was a thrill for me to see what he did with dyes! I have a small folder of Arabic and Hebrew script which I’d like to weave, and this image of Japanese characters is going in the same folder!

Awesome, Awesome!

More Exquisite Corpse

2010-01-29T09:30:00.001-08:00

Some intriguing examples of exquisite corpse. This first image has a strong sense of collaboration, but the next two have a cohesiveness that gives a sense of ‘whole’ to the works.

There are many images here

JD Salinger died a couple of days ago. I realize that is quite a non-sequitur to exquisite corpse (well, in a very morbid sense, perhaps not), but he’s been on my mind. Catcher in the Rye made quite an impression on me in my teens. It was my first exposure to story telling through what is not said, not written. My younger son loves the story “For Esme with Love and Squalor” so it’s time to read it! I’ve just learned that “JD” stood for Jerome David.

Group Tapestry and a Game of “Exquisite Corpse”

2010-01-26T06:20:00.001-08:00

I had not heard of ‘exquisite corpse’ when one of the Wednesday Group members suggested we do a collaborative tapestry in this technique. But I have played games of “Consequence” at many parties from childhood through adulthood. It continues to be a very popular game at bridal showers.

Here is a somewhat edited excerpt from the online art dictionary artlex.com:

exquisite corpse or cadavre exquis – use of various artistic techniques for producing either visual or literary art devised by surrealists in which several people collaborate in creating a text or an image. This activity is often called a game, and the product of this activity is called an exquisite corpse or, in the original French, cadavre exquis. This game is based upon an old parlor game in which players take turns writing on a sheet of paper folded it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for another contribution.

The surrealists' version of the game acquired its name from the earliest known version which began with this entence in French: "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau," meaning "the exquisite corpse will drink the young wine." The first works were sentences, and were first produced in the mid-1920s. Later literary works were typically poetry. These bizarre compositions were explained by Nicolas Calas as revealing the "unconscious reality in the personality of the group."

Surrealism was embraced by practitioners of many arts, and so it was inevitable that visual artists would take it up, first to produce drawings and collages. The first such efforts involved assigning a section of a body to each player, sometimes with the previous work concealed. Most resulted in images that only vaguely resembled the human form. Some of the participants in early exquisite corpses were Yves Tanguy (French, 1900-1955), Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983), and Man Ray (American, 1890-1977). Later adaptations have involved using other means of passing the work around, such as sending it through the mail; or using other media, resulting in sculpture, film, digital, etc.

(pr. cadavre exquis as kə-DAH-vrə əks-KEE)

The Wednesday Group members are weaving two small tapestries of a human figure, one viewed mostly from the front and one viewed from the back. We are passing around the copper frame loom in no particular order. We have 14 members so we have divided both body views in seven sections:

1. feet and legs up to the knees.

2. upper legs and lower body to the waist

3. upper torso from waist to underarms

4. arms

5. shoulders and neck

6. face/head

7. hair

I received the Exquisite Corpse ready for number 4, the arms. In tapestry once the background has been woven there is extreme limitation with how you can proceed! The background had already been woven to about half way on the upper torso. That left no place for me to put the arms except extended upward.

The most obvious point of an exercise like this is how each person will interpret the work done previously in order to add their bit. The person who wove the feet and legs may have had in mind something elegant, while the next person may perceive the piece to be depicting a person in bedroom slippers and old pajamas. It can get quite absurd!

Here is what I received (minus the inked on bit of arms which I added before taking the photo. Ignore what I drew as I did not end up weaving that bit of shoulder on the left.)

The striped stockings said to me ‘jester’ or athletic team such as women’s field hockey. The skirt said ‘dancer,’ something like salsa because of the fun colors, or possibly a tutu. The torso is either leaning extremely, or more interestingly, has changed to a profile view. I decided to go with the idea of a dancer and with the torso turned to a profile view. As a ‘torso in profile’ this meant that the arms would be coming out of the middle of the torso shape, and the arm further away would be partially concealed behind the torso.

The skirt made me want to continue the dancer costume. I had a lot of fun playing with yarns for sparkle. I wanted to put both a ruffle at the end of the sleeves as well as a bracelet hanging from one of her wrists (she doesn’t have to be female, but that crazy skirt with bow makes me think of female, not male!).

For the ruffle I used a sheer ribbon with a gold edge. I simply pulled up weft between the warp threads to create loops, and I used very fine wool to weave a row or soumak between each row of ruffles (only two rows of ruffles). I ‘pigtailed’ the ends of the ribbon and then used a needle to run them down into rows of weft along one warp thread hoping for more stability. I don’t want the ruffles to shift while the next person is weaving! The ruffles will be stabilized once the piece is mounted, but there are three more weavers between now and then! Though it made me a little sad not to do it, I nixed the bracelet, which was gold thread twisted with a dangling charm. I think it may have said too much about my propensity for garishness!

I tried to leave as much room as possible for the two people who will tackle the head and hair. Still, she will not have have long tresses falling down her back!…because I had to weave that background to support the arm.

This is a long post, but I wanted to record what I learned about this game and what I perceived on the figure when it came to me! I will not see it again until it is finished, as that is the rule of the game. We cannot communicate with each other about this until it is finished. I will get a photo of the finished piece, but who knows when! There are 14 of us who live quite scattered over the Mid-Atlantic area! It will be given as a gift when completed.

Knitting, Weaving…as the years tick by

2010-01-20T13:21:00.001-08:00

Friday was my birthday, and as a little treat I ordered a kit for the cute lace beret from Sunday Knits. It arrived just in time for a weekend of knitting!

I used one skein of Carol Sunday’s yarn called ‘Angelic,’ a blend of merino and angora (80/20). It has turned out somewhat large, as you might guess from the tam on the right. The Fair Isle tam on the right is somewhat small, but at least wearable! The lace beret really is not wearable. I’m considering shrinking it…which probably means I’ll be giving it to some little girl for her dollie. Sigh….

The beginnings of the medieval spinner. You can see at the bottom that I practiced making eyes and lips. I figured I’d do this small sample of her face before tackling the entire piece. It seemed to me that her face and hands require the most detail, so if I worked out the sett needed for those I’d be ready to decide on the size for the whole work. At this sett of 10 epi the entire piece will be 24” x 24”.

I also thought I’d submit this small exercise to the ATA small format exhibit, but I think I missed the deadline for the paper work! I guess I was distracted by my birthday, which was lovely!

The Toika is (mostly) tied up! I need a second spool of Texsolv for the rest of the treadles, and I need a boatload more stoppers for the cords to the treadles. The hardest part is done, and I feel like I’ve conquered a huge feat! I’ve been looking at weave structures for a table cloth.

Alas, no taka dai, but with the loss of my husband’s job, he is way too busy concentrating on what he’ll do next to tackle a woodworking project.

New Beginnings

2010-01-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

“A day late and a dollar short”…. okay, maybe two weeks late… an old phrase that always pops into mind when I fall behind on things.

I’ve had computer problems for several weeks now and have finally gotten a temporary solution. I know I need a new computer, but that is not at the top of my list right now!

Like many I know, I wrote a post about my new year’s resolutions (two of them), and it went out into the ether somewhere. I picture it as a small piece of cyber trash floating in black space. Shame on me for polluting the ether!

Do I want to name all the things that have prevented me from being my usual self these past few months? Maybe. While I think of this blog as a place where I can write openly about my creative life, lately every time I began a post the worries of my personal life felt like a gag in my mouth and bindings around my wrists.

After six months of uncertainty, worry and stress, my husband lost his job on Jan. 4th. I can say that the stress of worrying was considerably greater than the reality of being jobless! He’s been home for two weeks now, and we are doing well!

We have two new babies in our family, and both were high risk pregnancies. I’m thrilled that all has ended well with healthy baby girls in both cases. Now I can knit without praying so hard for their safe arrival. Now begins the typical worry that all parents, relatives and friends feel for their precious young ones, and that is a happy relief from worrying about their arrival!

Back in the studio, I am working on my medieval woman, drawing for exercise and for design possibilities, knitting some fun, frivolous things. Now that we’ve used my video camera successfully once (the embarrassing sabering moment), I hope to make some knitting videos!

I will post photos shortly!

Making a list…

2009-12-29T08:21:00.000-08:00

The winter holidays always bring out the list-making, goal -oriented part of my personality. Here is this year’s list of goals, all unrealistically slated to be accomplished during the week between Christmas and New Year!

1. Texsolv tie-ups to be applied to my 60” Toika loom

2. Choose pattern for napkins which will be woven as test samples for future tablecloth project on the Toika . Warp the loom!

2. Taka dai to be made by Bob according to Rodrick’s plans. Naturally I will be turning out my first braid within hours of the taka dai’s completion.

3. Dyeing with my avocado pit brew which has been steeping for almost 3 months now. This means spinning some white wool to dye.

4. Weave the small test tapestry for the medieval spinner with the wonderful wools that have arrived from Renaissance Dyeing in France.

Won’t I have a busy week! And somehow I imagine myself sharing delicious meals with my visiting family, lounging on the sofa reading all the fiber magazines that never got opened during the course of this year, continuing to knit my handspun Fair Isle sweater project, and starting a new baby sweater for the upcoming Feb. birth.

I need a dose of reality!…but then dreaming is so much more fun!

Christmas Cheer to all

2009-12-26T07:47:00.001-08:00

…or what happens when the 20-somethings outnumber the 50-somethings at the family Christmas celebration.

Buy Handmade

2009-12-20T12:45:00.001-08:00

Goodbye funk….

I regret that I am posting this so late in advent. It’s dangerous to look at too many of these at once because your laughing fit may cause accelerated heart rate, inability to breathe, and severe stomach ache. You’ve been warned!

www.regretsy.com

This is as good as You Knit What? that I’ve sorely missed!
Thank you, Helen Killer!

Ah, December…

2009-12-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

It seems every holiday is balanced with a share of grief. Perhaps winter celebrations were established to balance our sufferings through these dark months.

This is a study for a larger tapestry I still haven’t made. The bigger idea is not ready yet, but at the time of the study I made a list of mothers I know who had lost their children. I just added one more name to that list.

And yesterday I found this poem mixed in with my cache of knitting patterns:

What the Living Do

Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up

waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It's winter again: the sky's a deep headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours though

the open living room windows because the heat's on too high in here, and I can't turn it off.
For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking,

I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those
wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve,

I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it.
Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning.

What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss -- we want more and more and then more of it.

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless:
I am living. I remember you.

--Marie Howe

I promise to be more upbeat for the rest of the month…

Late, as usual!

2009-11-25T17:10:00.000-08:00

This Saturday will be the closing reception of The Wednesday Group’s exhibition “Henry’s Hudson” at ASK! (Artists’ Society of Kingston). I guess I’d better post some photos from the opening reception!

Archie, standing next to his tapestry, which is already sold.

Susan standing with Betty Vera, and hey!..that’s my little Hudson River piece right between them.

One of my favorite pieces from the show, by Annelisa DeCoursin.

Several pieces in this show are real knockouts, but my camera battery was dying so I missed getting some of them. The opening was well attended, probably our biggest crowd yet! And ASK! is definitely the best venue we’ve had. The space is perfect!

Eleven of the fourteen Wednesday Group members standing in front of Susan’s powerful work “Taxi!” (All those yellow spots are taxis!) Archie and Susan are back row, left side. Helen and Alta, who master minded this exhibit, are front row left. I am in the center. It was a fun evening!

Soul Collage

2009-11-16T15:28:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine invited me to join her at a one-day workshop on Soul Collage which I had not heard of. I thought that learning some collage techniques might help my tapestry design, so I was looking forward to the workshop.

The collage class ended up being much more than I expected! It’s a way to get in touch with many of our deepest, strongest, sometimes unrealized feelings…and how great is that for creating art? The collage techniques were nothing compared to tapping into such deep seated emotions and powerful core beliefs. I’m so glad I participated in this!…although by the time left I had a massive headache! (I still seem to wilt every afternoon with aches, headache, nausea and exhaustion…what a flu!)

This is an image of someone else’s collage posted on the website. Many of them are quite powerful. I wanted to post one of mine, but my scanner refuses to scan right now. It’s making a lot of noise and giving me error messages! Hmmph!

Weavezine

2009-11-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

What a happy surprise arrived in my inbox! I got a message from Tien Chiu (co-founder of Weavolution) that her article on plain weave went online today at Weavezine. The article ends with photos of two of my tapestires: “NY 30’ Sailing by the Palisades” (misnamed in the article) in progress, which shows that sometimes tapestries are worked sideways, and “Stone Buddha.” I was particularly thrilled that Chien ended her article with an ‘inspirational photo’... my Buddha! Woohoo!

Meanwhile…. progress on Rob:

Falling Behind

2009-11-13T19:40:00.001-08:00

Since July the Wednesday Group has had a heavy schedule of exhibitions. It’s been very exciting for us!

I missed all the opening receptions except our most recent one, last Saturday. But in late September we had a lovely reception at the Clifton Arts Center, and the exhibition closed on Halloween with a visit from art students at Skidmore College.

Here are a few photos from our Sept. 26 opening reception at the Clifton Arts Center in NJ.

My November Guest

2009-11-12T19:41:00.001-08:00

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted gray
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.

Robert Frost

Spinning Dreams…

2009-11-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Several years ago at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival I got to sit at a dream spinning wheel, the Wyatt ‘Norwegian.’ I’d never had such a perfect spinning experience, and I realized right then what some of my friends must feel when they get on a five year waiting list for a Norm Hall wheel. This was my spinning dream…

That one brief encounter with Bill Wyatt has stayed in my thoughts ever since. I can’t say for sure when it was…four years ago, maybe? I run the conversation through my mind sometimes….when Bill learned my origins are in Texas he caught me up on the incredible changes along the Gulf Coast over the past several decades. He talked of his career flying with commercial airlines, and his innovations in spinning wheel design. He was noticeably a better spinner than I was at the time! In fact, his spinning made me vow to work on my own spinning improvement, and I have. His ‘Pegasus’ wheel was actually too fast for me, but he could spin on it effortlessly.

I’ve kept the Wyatt Wheel brochure on the book shelf with my spinning books, and I have the website bookmarked in my spinning folder. I was so sad when I learned he was sick, not only because of his wheels, but mainly because interesting people like him are so rare. We all need people of his creative caliber to stay with us and influence us for ages, not fleeting moments… but I only got that brief encounter with him, so I replayed it often.

This week I’ve encountered another interesting spinning wheel maker, Myles Jakubowski, who was Bill’s apprentice. He is an ‘automation engineer’ who loves woodworking and will be continuing to make Wyatt Wheels to Bill’s specifications. Not surprisingly, Myles also has some ideas of his own and is planning to make the first wheel of his own design this winter. I can’t wait to see it!

So now I’m on one of those long waiting lists! I’m in spinning nirvana thinking about the finite time before I have my dream wheel. And although it was the Norwegian I fell for a few years back, I have decided to get either the ‘Pegasus,’ since my spinning prowess has greatly improved over these few years, or I will seriously consider the new wheel that Myles is designing: a castle version of the Pegasus.

It’s wonderful to have a dream, and I’m so glad that Myles has brought my dream back to reality!

H1N1

2009-11-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

In the last 10 days of October I was on quite a roll, getting a lot of things done…weaving off a 16S network twill scarf, making progress on my current tapestry, knitting various things, and even spinning. I felt unstoppable!….

“Shadow Baby” by Joan Somerville, using 2 shades of Tofutsies yarn. Check out the cute Gita Maria buttons! This sweater is for my new niece who will arrive in Dec!

My biggest accomplishment this month was tackling the details on Rob’s face! I’m at the halfway point of the cartoon, but have completed more than 50% of the difficult areas now. (Lots of ‘hand-holding’ from Soyoo Park to choose skin colors and to work three interlocking sections on five warps for Rob’s mouth!)

A few other things with no photos: a pair of jaywalker socks where I tried to get the pattern part out of one ball of Regia Color Effekt, by using a solid color yarn for the cuff, heel, and toe. Didn’t work! I ran out of the Regia before I got to the toe, so part of the foot is done in solid color. Bummer. At least that won’t show when I have shoes on!

I’m also brewing another avocado pit dye. This time I’m attempting patience, how novel! Each time we eat an avocado I finely chop the pit and add it to the brew. Every second or third day I heat the dyepot to a simmer for 30 minutes as per Carol Lee’s instructions. She says this goes on for months before actually dyeing. It’s a luscious red!

Then, on the penultimate day of the month I began to malfunction…and by the end of the day I was in bed with the flu! Seven days later I can barely get out of my own way. I’ve lost momentum…. and I”m in a funk….

The last time I had the flu (12 years ago), I ran to my LYS and bought some lace weight merino (Grignasco?) and got in bed with a Eugene Buehler pattern from Knitter’s Magazine. This time I’d been eyeing the recently arrived box of Icelandic unspun yarn in six colors from Schoolhouse Press. So I went to bed with my little laptop tuned in on Schoolhouse Press’s current shawl KAL by Maria Von Keppel.

Sleep, knit, drink tea…..sleep, knit, drink tea…. 4 days later:

I was able to get out of bed on the day I did the crochet loops. I graduated to sitting in a chair!

Safflower and Cochineal Shibori

2009-10-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

I may not get things done in a timely fashion, but it seems to me that I’m always juggling too many diverse things. In the midst of my shibori ideas, I went sailing with my husband for five days over the Columbus holiday down in the Chesapeake. I also got quite a bad cold which slowed me down…

So…back to shibori!

My safflower dyed sock blank pleated and bound with four rubber bands, ready for the cochineal bath!

The safflower dyed silk scarf ‘scrunched and wrapped around a soda bottle, ready for the cochineal bath…

sock blank and wool/mohair skein after the cochineal bath.

The finished items. The silk scarf did not take the cochineal well. It was not mordanted, which did not matter for the safflower, but certain must have for the cochineal.

Sock blank wound onto niddy-noddy, with silk scarf in background.

skein of doubled sock blank yarn! I can’t wait to knit with this, but it might have to wait ‘til the near year, after all the holiday knitting is done!

Next step (someday!) will be to mordant the scarf, then stitch some designs, and re-dye it! I don’t think I’ll hold my breath waiting to get it done!

Awed

2009-10-15T09:32:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I went to see the woven cloth made from spider silk at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Emails about this amazing cloth have been flying around the internet for about a month, and the descriptions at the museum website are quite intriguing, including a wonderful video which I will post here.

The cloth is under plexiglas in the grand gallery. When my friend Susan and I entered the gallery we had a hard time finding the exhibit! The plexiglas case is tucked against the wall at one side of the gallery, with very little signage to attract attention to it. There is one small display of photos and a brief description at the front of the case. Clearly, if you want to know as much as possible about the whole process-- the spiders, collecting the silk, making the thread and weaving-- you have to go to the website, which seems odd to me.

Yet there is no substitute for seeing this amazing woven cloth in person. In the late morning October light it glowed brilliantly, like a saffron dyed robe, and yet its glowing golden color is the natural color of the spider silk! Breath-taking!

My son visited during the last hour of the museum’s day, just after 5pm, and he said the piece is not well lighted. To him, it was a dull gold, not glowing the way I’d seen it.

This is not my first experience at learning a little about spider silk. During my younger son’s last year at the University of Rochester, he had a job working in the laser lab, and he arranged for me and his dad to get a tour. It happens to be the largest laser lab in the world, which must be the best kept secret! Professor Bigelow described to me that spider silk (purchased from spider nurseries) is used to hold a single atom in place in the chamber where it will be ‘shot’ with the laser. I don’t know anything about the spider nurseries, but I found it amazing that in Madagascar, the golden orb spiders were collected from the wild, ‘milked’ for their silk, and then returned to the wild. Amazing!

I can’t go to the Museum of Natural History without visiting all the wonderful textiles in the Central and South American exhibit! I can’t imagine a time when these textiles won’t thrill and inspire me!

After lunch, my friend and I went to Loop of the Loom, previously in Englewood, now on 87th and 3rd Ave. What a lovely spot this is! I wish I’d taken photos to share. It is a basement shop, yet so filled with light! The shop is dedicated to Saori weaving, which is not my style, but I’m always so intrigued with how personal the finished items are. I’m always drawn to the work people do on these simple looms. Actually, I have to say that I’m really quite moved by the strong evidence of the ‘maker’s hand,’ so prevalent in Saori weaving. I highly recommend stopping by if you are in Manhattan!

Safflower Update

2009-10-02T11:13:00.001-07:00

I finished the yellow dyeing of wool in the safflower bath. Here is the sock blank and another small skein (50 gr) that I added later to hopefully use up the yellow pigment in this bath.

Kathy asked me if, after dyeing, I would knit directly from the unraveled, ‘kinky’ yarn, or if I would re-wet the yarn to make it smooth again. I have to admit that I hadn’t thought about this! Now, since she’s brought it up, I believe I will try steaming the yarn after it has been skeined. Before I get to knitting, this sock blank will get folded and clamped and over-dyed for a shibori effect.

Unfortunately this photo does not do justice to the colors! The sock blank is truly a complex blend of colors ranging from a creamy golden color, to soft oranges. I love it! The skein is a pale, creamy yellow, a delicate, soft color.

Today I have the silk scarf and a small piece of muslin in the bath which I’ve shifted to alkaline with the addition of soda ash.

A Lesson in Viniculture

2009-10-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

What a lucky day! Over the weekend, at my in-laws double 80th birthday party, one of my husband’s cousins brought his homemade grenache wine share. It was a sensational hit; everyone loved it! He told me he would be pressing this year’s grenache grapes sometime this week, and I asked if I could watch.

He called this morning to tell me that this evening he would be pressing. I arrived to find the crushed grapes fermenting in a real oak barrel. They’d been fermenting for 8 days. I learned from our cousin Paul that the first fermentation (the crushed grapes in the barrel) takes between six and ten days. After the bubbling and rising (somewhat like bread) begins to subside, it’s time to ladle out the crushed grapes and their juices into the press, where the juices are drained off into glass carboys, where the fermentation continues without the solids of the grapes. Paul was doing a half batch (about 15-16 gallons) of wine which took six crates of grapes which he ordered from California.

The grapes in the barrel.You can see how the level of grapes has subsided.

The barrel with press and glass carboys in the background.

The barrel and the press are impressive equipment, and understandably expensive! Just like weaving, spinning and knitting, wine making is an expensive endeavor. He spends about $10 a bottle just on materials. The equipment was a considerable expense above and beyond materials, so I doubt there is ever any point at which this is an economical endeavor! (Reminds me of when people ask if I knit my own sweaters to save money!…not!)

Putting the grapes through the press. In the beginning the juices run through easily, as here. Later it is necessary to use the threaded rod with crank to press out the last of the juices.

The juice drains from the press into stainless steel pots which Paul pours into the glass carboys as the pots get full. Tonight he got a total of 16 gallons of juice from this pressing, which was a 1/2 barrel of grapes.

Father and daughter beginning to press. This was actually quite labor intensive. The press is wrapped in plastic film to prevent the juices from coming out the sides. In the background you can see a full carboy with air lock stopper. This allows fermenting gases to escape without letting any impurities get in.

Hard cranking at this point. Paul is adding some wooden blocks in order to add more pressure.

It was a beautiful evening, crisp and clear, with a 3/4 waxing gibbous moon and bright stars against the cloudless sky. Paul always presses in the evening because at this time of year the bees would be swarming if he pressed during daylight. The garage which serves as his barrel fermentation and pressing room smelled deliciously like wine. It seemed like we could get drunk on the scent alone. It was hard to imagine that this wine needed any further aging since it smelled so good, yet it will not be ready until at least spring. Again, there is a range of time needed to complete the wine, some years taking longer than others.

Paul sent me home with a bottle of his 2007 Grenache, which he said was a very good year for him. Decisions, decisions! Do I save it or drink it now?

Spinning and Dyeing

2009-09-30T09:22:00.001-07:00

In the midst of chores today, I am making a safflower dyebath in which I hope to dye a knitted sock blank yellow and then a silk scarf blank coral! Both of these projects have further work after the safflower dye. I want to do some shibori on both. For the sock blank I will do some binding (haven’t decided what yet) and dip in indigo. For the silk scarf, I want to do a lot of stitching, which will probably take me some time, before overdyeing with madder.

I understand that safflower is not terrible fast, so in the case of the scarf, as the safflower fades the madder will remain the dominant color of the scarf. I am counting on some safflower color remaining. I just don’t care for the look of shibori when the bound areas are white.

The first safflower soak is taking place here. Great golden color, isn’t it? The safflower is wrapped in an old handkerchief. After I get all the yellow out of this soak I will use this bath for my sock blank and start a new bath for the pink/coral I want for the silk scarf blank. I’m following Jenny Dean’s recipe which recommends making the second bath alkaline with soda ash. I may also follow her further directions to bring the bath back to acid to get a pinker coral on silk. More photos will follow!

I just joined GoddessKnits’ upcoming fall mystery sock KAL (starts early Nov.) and have decided to spin my own yarn for it, based on techniques I learned from Judith McKenzie quite a few years ago at a workshop during the NY State Sheep and Wool Festival. I’m using three colors of merino top and creating my own color sequence. I plan to make a cabled 4-ply yarn for my sock project.

Bob is leaving today to sail our boat to Annapolis with a crew. I will pick up everyone (including Bob! …since he’s working in his Manhattan office and will take a train to CT, where the boat is waiting) at various train stations on my way to the boat with provisions later today.

I will then have four days on my own in which I hope to get a good amount of spinning done, spin and weave with a couple of friends, finish weaving a scarf that’s been on my AVL for a year, and make plans for my next tapestry. As long and slow as tapestry weaving is, I think deciding what to weave is the slowest part of the process!

The Pickwickian Quibbler

2009-09-28T14:13:00.001-07:00

I have just learned that William Safire has passed away.

Today’s Telegraph describes him:
”Applauded by his peers as ‘a Pickwickian quibbler,’ he ran a gimlet eye down the solecisms, gaffes, weaselly euphemisms, jargon and sonorous drivel of political discourse and pounced with the restrained relish of a talented linguist.”

Since I am passionate about linguistics, I was a long time fan of his column ‘On Language’ in the NYTimes Magazine. Who will now fill his shoes?

Do you remember his phrase, “the nattering nabobs of negavitism?” Such creativity!

I never followed his politics, but his use and abuse of language was priceless….

This morning I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I hope there are many others reading this at the moment, so I won’t say anything except that The Chicago Sun-Times’ review was spot-on for me: “This story, like all great tales, will break your heart, but it will also make you realize—or remember—that sometimes the pain is worth it.”

The garden is calling for attention, but I do not think I will get there today….

September

2009-09-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

This month is always an emotional roller coaster for me. On the one hand, the weather is magnificent! I have so many new plans and projects in the works that it makes my New Year’s resolutions look amateur! We celebrate several wonderful family events, including birthdays and anniversaries.

Last week one of my husband’s uncles turned 90, and he is as spry as the most youthful 70 year old! Both my husband’s parents will turn 80 at the end of the month, as well as celebrate their 54th wedding anniversary. My father turns 75 today. It’s a month with a lot of parties and large family gatherings. There is so much to celebrate…

And here’s the balance. I miss the quickly fading light as we hurtle toward winter. I’m often overwhelmed by the demands of all the things I’ve promised to people, deadlines rushing toward me, obligations I wish I’d never made!

My younger son, who lives in Manhattan, went to the site of the World Trade Center on Friday, late in the day, after the services were done. He took several moving photos there, but the one that haunts him, and now haunts me, was never taken.

I’ll preface it with these photos from the New York Times.

The image he did not take is of a crew of men shoveling thousands of flowers into a dump truck. The inevitable clean-up from such moving ceremonies….

Here is one of Chris’s photos from that afternoon.

Such is September, a mix of celebration, reflection, sadness. Over the weekend I learned that Chris has been friends with Annie Le and her fiance Jonathon throughout their four years at Univ. of Rochester. Jonathon is at Columbia with Chris now. Such an unspeakable tragedy.

More Thrills

2009-09-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

This one is a bit embarrassing to tell. I was zipping along knitting one day near the end of our sailing trip, and I accidentally stabbed myself with my Signature stilletto-pointed needle. You’d think I’d never held a needle before! It was a fluke! As I finished a row, the empty left hand needle slipped out of my grip. For some irrational reason, I did not want to drop the needle…. it would only hit the cockpit sole, but I think subconsciously I must have thought I would lose it overboard! I grabbed for it as quickly as I could. The needle managed to hit the cockpit bench on end with its tip standing straight up. My hand came straight down, and that stilletto tip went into my palm, dead center. It actually hung there for a second or so before falling out, so I was impaled on my knitting needle! It hurt, but my laughter definitely took the edge off! I thought about taking a photo of my bleeding palm, but then thought better of it!

After 45 years of knitting I’ve had my first knitting accident. Beware….

Some thrills

2009-09-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

There are many people who find knitters and knitting so boring they cannot possibly imagine what thrills we have. I spent a lot of time knitting my kimono cardigan on our recent sailing trip, and it seemed a good time to analyze my technique and see what I might do if I wanted to knit faster!

I am a picker (meaning I knit by holding the working yarn in my left hand and making the right hand needle do the work of catching it to create the new loop). I am left handed but knit in the right handed direction since I’m pretty fast at it. I knit about 60 stitches per minute, which would be a poor showing for knitting speed competitions, but seems faster than most knitters I have spent time with..

To be fair, I should say that I have tried many ways of knitting and still use them all on occasion. I was taught to knit ‘throwing’ (the traditional English way which involves having the working yarn in your right hand and using your right hand to ‘throw’ the yarn around the left needle), and over the years I’ve tired both ‘picking’ and ‘throwing’ in the opposite direction (with the knitted work on the right needle moving to the left needle) just because I’m left handed and felt I should give it a whirl! It comes in handy when I don’t want to keep turning my work around, but I am still faster at right handed picking than other methods. Other methods will get mentioned later…maybe!

So, faster… knowing that efficiency of motion is a vital key to speed I have also made efforts to keep my knitting right at the tips of my needles, and now, for years now actually, I’ve managed no movement at all in my left hand…my right needle does a little flick to get that needle to pick up a loop from the yarn in my left hand. When I switch from knit to purl, involving moving that working yarn from the back of the needle to the front, I barely move my finger, making ribbing quite fast to work.

What else could I do to get faster?? I realized that while my knitting stays right at the tips of the needles, my right needle which gets inserted into the loop on the left needle was going into the loop a bit further than just the tip before catching the working yarn. Could this be minimized?? A little practice showed me it could! Since I was knitting my kimono cardi on brand new Signature needles (another thrill!) I could keep track of how much I was inserting that right needle by keeping the movement completely on the silver tips. Those silver tips sure come in handy for checking movement! Although I love my Addi Turbos and my wooden Knit Picks, and in general prefer circular needles to straight, these Signature needles gave me a visual marker to how little movement I needed to make with the right needle. Almost immediately I noticed that the tiniest change with the inserting needle made a noticeable difference in speed! In a couple of hours I was knitting faster than ever before!

What is fast now? I think I’m knitting in the range of 75 stitches per minute now, and it happened with only about an hour of practice. Pretty exciting for me! Here’s my plan for checking my accuracy. I tried knitting to my metronome, but I got so uptight I became completely clumsy! Since I have a natural memory for 60 beats per minute (try it, many people do!) I will listen to my metronome at other speeds until I feel that rhythm is well established in my head, then I will try knitting at that speed!

I have some piano works that I’ve played at certain speeds for so many years that they come naturally to me now (like Bach inventions that I had to practice ad nauseam to work up to speed). I will hum those pieces at speed and see if I can knit to them! 75 stitches per inch is pretty satisfying, but if I can get closer to 100 I’m going to go for it! I’ll let you know how I get on! Wish me luck!

Homecoming

2009-09-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

It’s always wonderful to return home, but returning home after some hard sailing makes the pleasure even sweeter. I may be a seasoned sailor after 35 years (well, maybe not) but I will never be a a hardened sailor. Late summer often offers some big challenges. My husband doesn’t feel this way at all! You can check out a particularly hard day for me here by clicking on the video.

While sailing, I finished knitting (and partially sewing!) my kimono cardigan from Dovetail designs. I just tried it on and I love it! (I don’t say that often.) I might not add the shawl collar since I like it so much as is!

(After wearing this sweater on two chilly days last week I have decided to knit the shawl collar, which you can see in progress)

While knitting I listened to my audible copy of The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, read by John Lee. I’ve wanted to read this book for years and never got around to it. To listen while knitting was a delightfully guilty pleasure! It’s hard to imagine wanting to actually read anything ever again when I can listen to someone who was chosen to read for their lyrical voice while I continue to knit!

Although I listened to four books on audible this summer, I did manage to actually read two books: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows, and The Elegance of Hedgehogs by Muriel Barbery (translated from French by Alison Anderson). Both were delightful for the same reason! …a quirky look at a particular time period in a particular niche of society. Both were so well done that I regret finishing them! I particularly regret that Ms. Shaffer’s voice is gone from us now after such a lovely book.

I’ve just bought my ticket for the “Wild Fibers” annual dinner at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, which means I will definitely go the festival!…in spite of never needing another ounce of spinnable fiber! The weekend is October 17 and 18, and the dinner is Saturday evening. If you will be there please let me know! I want to meet you!

Goethe said, "One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." I’m off to do a little of that right now….

Vacation Interrupted

2009-08-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

All packed and nowhere to go! It’s raining buckets here, and we thought we’d be ahead of it in Maine, but even so, arriving before the rain hits Maine doesn’t really sound appealing when we are traveling with our dog. When we are on Pandora in rain we snuggle up down below and turn on the heat, bake some bread, or biscuits, or pie, and spend the day reading and knitting or spinning. Having a wet dog down below, who needs to go ashore three times a day, is much less appealing….

So today I’m using my newly found time to dye a second small skein (only 1 oz., 70 yds) in the Brazilwood pot. Yesterday’s 2 oz. skein is a wonderful color that I cannot describe well. It’s a medium/dark shade of something between rose and terracotta. Yes, it’s both a cool and warm shade of a complex reddish color! That’s what I love about natural dyes! The colors are so complex I can’t find the words to properly describe them! And monitors being what they are, I can’t even show you an accurate photo! Today’s skein will be lighter. I could keep going with this dye bath, but I think I will discard it after this second batch. Pack rat that I am, I have saved the sawdust…

I’m scouring my two large hanks of grey corriedale which seem to have a lot of lanolin in them. I washed that fleece before sending it off to be processed into bumps, but oh my! There is a lot of lanolin still in it! I may take a skein with me to Maine to sample some lace patterns…. I’m now imagining this yarn as a lace cardigan.

This little swatch of the corrie is 6 st/in…just what I wanted! (I love using my Signature needles! I now have size 1 through 6!)

And since it’s a dark, dreary day, I will take some time today to spin the Shetland which is now my first choice for the stranded, round yoke sweater I want to make with the handpainted yarn I spun earlier this summer (the Gale Evans “grapevine”).

Our ETD is now Sunday, very early. That means I can go to the local farmers’ market tomorrow morning. And perhaps this evening we’ll go to a movie….

Finishing Projects

2009-08-27T11:07:00.001-07:00

I have been home for a little over a week, in which I’ve spent a few days with my younger son (attending the all-John Adams concert at Alice Tully Hall, seeing the Julia movie and basically relaxing!), a little time catching up with friends, and perhaps even less time attempting to finish some projects before we head back up to Maine for another couple of weeks of sailing.

BRAZILWOOD DYE EXPERIMENT
Today I’m finally dyeing with the Brazilwood sawdust that I began soaking in February. I was advised to let the sawdust soak for 6 months so this is the right time to revisit my dyepot. I had the dye liquor covered with plastic film to prevent molding, and it seems to have worked!

My instructions (from Deb Bamford) called for heating the sawdust and soaking water together for about 30 minutes at 80C. Alas, I inadvertently let the mixture boil, which means the color will shift to into the brown range of reds. Frankly, the dye liquor already looked quite brown before I began heating it! After that initial boil, I turned the heat down to a simmer and let the dye continue simmering for about 30 minutes, after which I turned off the heat. When the dye liquor had cooled a bit I strained off the liquid into another dye pot and have saved the solids for a possible future dye. I then put in 2 oz. of my pre-mordanted yarn (Henry’s Attic ‘’Texas,’ wool/mohair blend previously mordanted with alum and cot) which had already been wetted. It immediately turned a medium value of dull orange. I have been reheating the mixture more carefully now, trying not to exceed 80C, and it is now simmering at about 75C for 1/2 hour. The color on the yarn has become a deep red/brown…more red than brown! I like it very much!

The flash washed out the color quite a bit….it’s a much deeper red. Who knows, it might be this color when rinsed, but I’m hoping for darker!

KNITTING
While dyeing I have also been finishing up a simple vest project that I’d like to wear in Maine on cool evenings. It’s a vest knit entirely in stockinette from yarn that I got from DBNY (Discontinued Brand Name Yarns). I have sewn on the zipper now and am now sewing a decorative ribbon (from LFN designs) over the zipper to add some visual interest when the vest is open.

SPINNING
My dark brown/grey corriedale which I washed and sent out to be processed into bumps, and which I was spinning during out last sailing trip, is not the right color for the stranded knit sweater I have in mind for the multi-colored roving, in a colorway called “Grapevine” which I got at MDS&W from Gale Evans. Earlier this morning I sat down to spin a little of the dark charcoal Shetland roving that I recently got from Hatchtown Farm, and it appears to be just right for the Grapevine. I am considering doing this sweater from the Twist Collective.

I think I will use the grey/brown Corrie to make a lace cardigan sometime in the future. It’s a dream to spin, but I will put that project aside in order to spin the Shetland for the the stranded sweater. Well, now! Aren’t I being mature?

And there was a very happy occurance in my inbox! Linda Lee has written to tell me that she will soon be dyeing my cotton sliver in her colorway “Phoenix Garden.” I can’t wait to get back to that project! Maybe the package will be waiting for me when I return home!

WEAVING

I’ve been thinking a lot about weaving, but not actually doing any since I returned from the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Conference in Gettysburgh, where I took a 3-day class with Jason Collingwood on 3-end block weave and shaft switching. While I am thinking about what sampling I’d like to do on the rest of the warp from that class, I have also been thinking about future tapestries. I have some ideas brewing….

I need to leave some time today for packing since we are leaving tomorrow morning! I hope this weekend’s storm is the only difficult weather we experience during this sailing trip!

Clifton Arts Center

2009-08-21T08:30:00.001-07:00

Well, I guess these aren’t the clearest photos. I have not got these postcards in hand yet, just the digital file with poorer resolution than hoped!

The Details: Tapestry: Ancient Art for Modern Times
                   Clifton Arts Center Gallery
                   900 Clifton Avenue
                   Clifton, NJ 07013
                   973.472.5499

September 23 – October 31
Gallery hours: 1pm – 4pm, Wed. thru Sat.

Okay, I posted this because I’m tooting my own horn. How shameless! Out of the 16 images on this card, four of them are mine! This has never happened to me before so I’m reveling a bit!

Here are the image credits:
Top row: Helen Gold, Alta Turner, Helen Gold, Don Burns (all works from ‘Not Gone for Baroque’ collaborative piece)
2nd row: Alta Turner, AnnaByrd Mays, Don Burns, Brenda Osborn (moi!) (again, these works are from ‘Not Gone for Baroque’ collaborative piece)
3rd row: AnnaByrd Mays, Brenda Osborn, Susan Martin Maffei, and Barbara Burns (all individual works)
Title row: Brenda Osborn (my Stone Buddha!)
Bottom row: Carol Bitner, Annelise DeCoursin, Brenda Osborn

Now…back to my regular life of chores…..

Maine Fiberarts Open Studios Tour 2009

2009-08-11T15:06:00.001-07:00

Visit the website and their real home, with gallery, in Topsham, Maine, if you possible can!

BEAU-CHEMIN PRESERVATION FARM, Waldoboro, ME.
JoAnn and Wayne Myers.

Left: field of heirloom plants, where JoAnn gave me copious woad seeds! Right: three Leicester Longwool ewes stampeding to greet us!

Beau-Chemin Farm, Leicester Longwool ewe with nursing lamb and Leicester Longwool ewe in the pasture.

Left: Soay ewe at Beau-Chemin Farm. Right: owner JoAnn Myers telling me about her work in preserving heirloom livestock breeds and heirloom flowers and vegetables.

SPRINGTIDE FARM, Bremen, ME.
Wendy Pieh

Male kids rushing to greet us!

Tyler, the male kid, with his adorable bangs and goatee!

Left:Owner Wendy talking about her goats. Right: Donkey guarding the rams.

Rams.

Ewes, who are guarded by a Great White Pyrenees whom I did not photograph!

I also visited two fiber artists, but did not get photos. In Rockland I stopped by Maine Island Rag Rugs, where weaver Mary Ann Small has a wonderful fairytale studio with her loom and a display of colorful rag rugs sits in a beautiful shed built by her husband and surrounded by lovely gardens.

Last stop of the day was Botanical Shades, where Jodie McKenzie dyes some wonderful hues on beautiful wool and wool/mohair blend yarns that are stunning! She is in between homes right now so I cannot give her address! Hopefully she’ll be settled soon!

Something to Say

2009-08-10T08:18:00.001-07:00

I’ve been away from blog writing for some time now….too long! And almost everyday I’m writing blog entries in my head, but not at the computer.

But hasn’t it been a glorious summer! Since I’m not a fan of hot weather, I have loved the lush, cool days with or without rain.

I am spending most of the August on board Pandora (where you can see our sailing adventures in Maine), with lots of knitting and spinning projects. Yesterday was a glorious day, part of an exciting weekend of open studios of members of the Maine Fiber Arts Association! I only managed to visit four of the 80+ listings for this event, but I made really good choices! I must make this annual event a priority in future! I will post photos of that next!

Before arriving in Maine on Aug. 3rd, I spent a long weekend in Gettysburg, attending the biennial Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association Conference which was held at Gettysburg College. It was an awesome weekend! Attendees took one 2 1/2 day class from a stellar line up of choices: Sharon Alderman, Inge Dam, Su Butler, Jason Collingwood (to name only a few). I was so engrossed in my class that I neglected to take the photos I should have! It was a terrific event, with late night shopping at The Mannings nearby and Just Our Yarn, Serendipity Farm and Lunatic Fringe in the vendor hall (again, I’ve only named a few!). There was a Saturday evening impromptu fashion show, the second annual one, where you just show up in your creation and walk the runway. This unplanned, un-rehearsed event has worked very well and is a highlight of the weekend! I wish I’d taken a photo of Karen Donde’s wonderful ruana. It defies words, so hopefully I’ll get a photo from a friend shortly and post it.

Left: Students admiring Inge Dam’s work. Right: Susan Wilson displaying her crackle samples.

I took a class with Jason Collingwood on 3-end block weave and shaft switching which was completely enthralling to me! I’m inspired by the freedom of design, the simplicity of the shaft switching technique, and Jason’s affable teaching style! I hope to christen my Toika loom this fall with a rug!

One of Peter’s design samples and one of Jason’s.

Jason demonstrating weft clasping.

The photos I didn’t take: The vendor hall where several bags of corriedale fleece from Ruppert’s Farm sang enticingly to me (I brought that on board to spin!), the three friends of mine who shared my dorm suite and kept me up ‘til 2 am three nights in a row!…the open studio evening where we visited other classes and saw their work. And I wish I had more photos of Jason teaching us, but I was busy writing notes and weaving samples! Hopefully something very fruitful will come of that!

Summer Scenes

2009-07-16T10:28:00.001-07:00

Gardening, sailing, knitting, weaving, beautiful weather! I’ve even managed to spin a little. It is a lovely summer!

Sailing on the Mystic River during the Wooden Boat Show.

Alpaca and fiber at the Casey Farm market in Kingston, RI

July 4th on board a friend’s boat for the fireworks. We had our own bagpiper! Next morning this little sparrow sang to use from our stern lifeline.

The Spring ‘09 GoddessKnits Mystery shawl blocked and finished! I’m taking it to the MAFA (Mid-Atlantic Fiber Assoc) Conference later this month.

A window box at Mystic Seapot and my dream house and garden in Watch Hill, RI

My next lace project from Renaissance Dyes. A farm in RI where llamas are used as guard dogs for the flock.

Nappatree Beach in Watch Hill, RI

Fringed poppy in my garden at home…. a braid made for a friend…..and lastly, the slow but steady progress on my latest tapestry….

I’m off for another long weekend sailing in Rhode Island. I hope to visit the alpaca farm I mentioned at the beginning and also, hopefully, a couple of RI weavers!

Idyllic Idle Sunday

2009-06-15T08:12:00.001-07:00

A soft Sunday morning in June with a cup of capuccino, my Goddessknits mystery shawl in progress, and lots of blooming shrubs, vines and trees in view from the porch! Does it get any better than this?

I was trying to capture how dramatic the light was. There were ominous dark clouds, left over from yesterday’s deluge, and the first brilliant rays on sun hitting the clematis and andromeda while the maple tree nearby was still in deep shade!

A short while later there were blue skies and bright sun! It’s been a glorious day, and I spent it all outside knitting and weaving!

My lace shawl is not worth photographing yet…it just grows into a larger spongy amoeba until I can block it…

(I tried, unsuccessfully, to include the word “idol’ as well. I’m sort of a language nut…can’t help myself)

Tapestry: Ancient Art for Modern Times. The Wednesday Group in Medford, NJ

2009-06-13T18:05:00.001-07:00

I haven’t been here for almost two weeks. That sailing trip already seems like a distant memory (good thing!)….

Today the Wednesday Group had an opening reception for our current exhibition called “Tapestry: Ancient Art for Modern Times” at a gallery in Medford Leas, Medford, NJ.

It was virtually a perfect event! The gallery was a lovely venue for our work, the lecture hall was modern and comfortable, the crowd was positively large…how exciting for a tapestry exhibit! Archie and Susan each gave a thoroughly compelling lecture, one on the history of tapestry worldwide and one on tapestry’s value today.

Final Sail

2009-05-30T17:53:00.001-07:00

Today started as lovely as any day you can imagine. The sun rose in a clear sky, there was only a gentle breeze, and we left the river on an ebbing tide to sail to Mystic, where we will leave the boat for the next two weeks.

This odd combination of attached cottages was Katherine Hepburn’s summer place. It sits at the mouth of the Connecticut River.

Our sails were set ‘wing and wing’ for the trip east. Unlike last Friday, when there was not a single other boat on the water with us, today there were plenty of sail boats and power boats out to enjoy a beautiful weekend. There was a flotilla of fluffy cumulus cloud vessels in the blue sky, and the water beneath us was almost the color of the Caribbean.

House on “Little Dumpling” Island in Fisher Island Sound.

Entering the Mystic River.

Bob’s big chore on arriving in the Mystic River was to find the sunken lines on a friend’s mooring which we could then use until our return. Bob got in the dinghy with his grappling hook and began dragging the mooring field near our friend’s usual spot.

Hours went by….Bob made a few phone calls to our friend in Florida who owns this mooring. More hours went by.

Just before the sun sank behind the trees on shore, Bob finally had the mooring up in the dinghy….probably the worst mess I’ve ever seen. There was still work to be done adding lines and a float, more work to be done cleaning the dinghy and Bob. We may have to throw away his clothes! It’s 8pm and we’ve had nothing to eat all day. Neither of us feels like going ashore for our last dinner as planned, and cooking at this hour will be Spartan at best.

Tomorrow will bring its own challenges as we struggle home with large duffle bags in a variety of transportation modes which will include a dinghy, two trains, and two cabs before we reach our car. Is this the fun part?

The Connecticut River

2009-05-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Some sights along the Connecticut River, where we’ve sailed for over 30 years. It’s a bucolic area, so lush after the sandy, somewhat barren look of the outer end of Long Island. There is an osprey on the nest in the second photo. I might crop it when I get home so you can see her better.

Gillette Castle with ferry

Approaching the Goodspeed Opera House

The swing bridge at Haddam, next to the Opera House.

Photos I missed: lots of ospreys, lots of swans, a duck taking flight right next to our boat, and a bald eagle in a tree. Oh well.

Greenport, NY

2009-05-28T14:45:00.001-07:00

We are sort of stuck in Greenport, which is a lovely place to be so I’m not really complaining. I am complaining about the wicked East winds and nasty chop. It’s too rough for either reading or knitting at this point, and it’s very risky business for me to get on and off the boat in these rough conditions!

Greenport, which looks like a ghost town on this last week in May. Merchants have told us that Memorial weekend was ‘hopping’ but you wouldn’t know it now!

Bob and I did the self-guided walking tour of Greenport today. I want a house like this when we retire!

The deserted marina. We are the only visiting boat here.

The gardens here are so ahead of what’s in bloom at home! The roses are full of flowers, the iris are at their height, and as you can see there are cranesbill and daisies blooming. This must be a luscious climate for gardening!

Now and Zen is here! It’s always nice to come ashore and find a yarn shop! I bought two skein of Blue Sky alpaca/silk and a coordinating Koigu to make a scarf.

Projects On Board

2009-05-27T07:15:00.001-07:00

These are the things I’ve brought with me to work on this week. When the weather is fine I get a lot of work done, and when it’s not I get cranky. I don’t know how my husband stands me!

This is a KAL (knit-a-long) from Goddessknits. She’s giving one clue every Sat. for a total of five clues. In this photo I’m probably midway through clue 1. Now I’m a couple rows into Clue 2. It’s fun!

This organic, ruffly bit of nonsense is a pattern from Brenda Papita (hmmm..couldn’t find a website for her) which I bought at Just Our Yarn at MDS&W earlier this month. The concept is short rows which only work half the row at a time with a bit of lace right at the edge. A 10-row repeat gives one section of ruffle and lace on one side of the scarf. It’s easy to memorize and easy to do….but….I’ve now completed 50 repeats of the pattern which is only 25 repeats on each side and the scarf is less than 12” long. I bet I have to do 500 repeats to get enough length to actually wear this thing. Not sure I have the stamina!

And here is my soft corrie, combed and dyed by Misty Mountain. Each time my little Golding spindle gets full I wind onto a bobbin. I’ve divided my 4 oz. of top in half and plan to fill two bobbins so I can ply one long length of lace weight yarn for a shawl. As I spin I dream about what type of shawl I want to knit with this!

When I bring projects on board I have agendas and goals for finishing whatever I’ve brought with me. When the weather is fair I probably knit for about 6 hours a day. I spin in the evenings while Bob reads aloud, or in the mornings while having coffee. This week Bob is reading to me Treasured Islands, a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, that covers the period of his life when he sailed to Samoa on a 90 ft. schooner with his wife and her two children from a previous marriage, and his mother, as well as the boat’s crew.

On my own I am reading Catch-22 and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, both of which I’m reading sections aloud to Bob and enjoying immensely!

The weather these past two days has not been good for much beyond reading, and I can barely do that. I am not of strong enough constitution to do much when the winds are howling and the boat is heeling, even at anchor! Looks like we are in for this dramatic weather through tomorrow, which will be Thurs. I will not meet any of my goals for finishing projects at this rate…

Cedar Point Lighthouse off Shelter Island.

Travelogue

2009-05-24T13:14:00.001-07:00

It’s open season for sail now, and we are initiating the summer with a sail to Eastern Long Island Sound. Our next stage of summer sailing will be Narragansett Bay and the Cape, and our final sailing grounds will be Penobscot Bay area of Maine. I always provision the boat with lots of projects, so I will continue to post about weaving, knitting, and spinning.

Middle Ground: literally halfway in the sound,both East/West and North/South. We are headed for Mattituck Inlet, near the Hamptons on LI

We were virtually alone on the water Friday! We saw one tug pulling a barge, but we did see lots and lots of helicopters heading out to the Island. Some people still have enough money to travel in style!

Entering Mattituck Inlet, a long narrow inlet with lots of interesting bird life.

After anchoring and preparing dinner during sunset, we spent the next day ashore, taking a 2-mile walk to a local winery which took us through a neighborhood of modest, lovingly maintained houses and gardens (rhodies and lilacs in bloom). We bought cheese at a local shop and had it for lunch with wine on the deck of the tasting room, amidst a Mediterranean style garden (pinks and nepeta in bloom and buds on the lavendar) overlooking the vineyard.

Goats at a small residence on our way to Shinn Vineyard.

Sod farm barn across the street from the entrance to Shinn Vineyard

Shinn Vineyard, the only bio-dynamic vineyard on the Island at present

Water front activities
We’ve seen lots of ospreys and babies in the nest (is there a name for a juvenile osprey?). One interesting sight was a particularly aggressive osprey who chased an egret in flight all around the harbor. The next day that same osprey chased a little plover all over the sky. I’ve never seen an osprey do that. Motoring back out of the inlet we saw a bald eagle sitting in a tree, and an osprey sitting on her nest with two swans in the water right below her. Such bucolic sights!

V-22 Osprey flyover

2009-05-21T12:18:00.001-07:00

From my son Chris, who was on the roof of a building at school. The tower is Riverside Church. Click to enlarge, and you’ll get a good view of those interesting planes!

Confluence

2009-05-21T07:03:00.001-07:00

What a confluence of astounding events occurred as I delivered my little tapestry. My drive into NY was full of portent if I believed in that sort of thing!

Driving down the Palisades Parkway right along the western edge of the Hudson River, the two large V-22 Ospreys came into view! They were flying up the Hudson in what seemed like slow motion! I’ve never seen them before, and they certainly look like a strange mix-up of helicopter and plane! Those rotors were so gigantic! The traffic on the Palisades almost stopped as all eyes were focused upwards on those amazing planes!

I’ve never been tempted to take photos while driving until that moment! Why didn’t I open the sun roof and stand up and get that shot? I didn’t do it (damn!), and now I can’t find any photos on the internet (really, how can you have news coverage without photos??). So I’m posting this because it was such an awesome experience for me….even without pictures! (Though you can always count on YouTube!)

It was a brilliantly clear day so the view of the Hudson was magnificent, and I’d forgotten that Fleet Week was starting. People were lining the walkway on the bridge to photograph both the F-18 Hornet fighters and the Ospreys as well as all the ships coming up the Hudson. It was quite a celebration! I drove into Manhattan down the West Side Highway, which is right at the eastern edge of the Hudson (just the opposite river bank from the Palisades Pkwy), so I had great views of the ships for the entire ride. The park at 125th was also filled with people, all excited to be watching these events! Such a different mood than the last, unnanounced, flyover!

My son and a few friends knew how to get on the roof of their building at Columbia Univ. (which I will not name since it’s supposed to be inaccessible!), and Chris got photos of the flyover, as well as some great shots of the city skyline on a perfect spring day! He hasn’t sent them to me yet!

I then spent then next hour and 15 minutes looking for a parking place! It was also graduation for Columbia College students, and it was an incredible log jam! Roads were closed, out-of-towners were everywhere, and even the parking garages were full! I won’t say I wasn’t in a high state of frustration, but I did enjoy seeing all the young faces in their blue mortar boards! I finally settled for a spot with 1-hour metered parking, and Chris ran back to feed the meter at the end of the first hour!

After a lovely lunch with Chris, celebrating the completion of his first year of physics doctorate, I headed uptown to deliver that tapestry along with our funky group piece called “Not Gone for Baroque.”

Finis!

2009-05-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

Booyah! I’m finished! Hemmed and mounted before 11 pm today!

Well, there is a flaw I must fix, but that must wait ‘til tomorrow. It would have been better to fix it before mounting, but I was too tired to see it. On the left side, in the first long branch of leaves behind the boat, the sky dips down too low into where the water should be. (Don’t tell anyone, but I’m going to needle weave it to fix it.)

Must sleep now…

zzzzzz……

11th and 1/2 Hour

2009-05-18T08:02:00.001-07:00

Time flies. My historic tapestry reinterpretation should be delivered next Wednesday, officially five days from now. I’m not done weaving, but I’m close. Unfortunately, weaving is not the only thing left to do. It has to be hemmed and mounted. Mounting involves stretching heavy linen on stretcher frames that I have not yet bought. Meanwhile, I am hosting an instructor at my house for a guild workshop. Do you think she’ll mind if I just weave? No chance of that!

There is progress on the Hudson River piece also, which is not ‘due’ until July 1. I will take it on board next week for a little weaving on the water….. a little plein aire weaving.

This week Jennifer introduced me to TED (Technology Entertainment Design) which has free videos of lectures on many subjects. Being a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat, Pray, Love, I particularly enjoyed this lecture she gave on creativity. And as an aging classics student who never gets to talk about the ancient world, I was thrilled to hear Ms. Gilbert talk about creative genius!

I never posted this last week. Now I am just about finished with the historic piece! I think there is about 2 more hours of weaving, then I hope it will be hemmed and mounted in another 24 hours!

Who Does She Think She Is?

2009-05-12T13:57:00.001-07:00

Doesn’t that sound like a loaded question? And I guess it is. If there weren’t so much on my to-do list I’d be driving to Connecticut this afternoon to see this documentary on women in the arts.

With regret, I have decided my time is better spent staying home to work on my tapestries and some other unfinished business. Ah, well…. I have left my name on the website on a list for future DVD sales. Hope it won’t be too long! My interest is piqued!

If you want to check out if you can see this film locally or get on the list for possible DVD go here! Aha! Planned DVD release for November, 2009!

To-Do List

2009-05-12T13:36:00.001-07:00

What better way to spend Mother’s Day than visiting a garden? Actually we visited a garden on Saturday as part of the Garden Conservancy’s list for Open Days. It gave me just the inspiration I needed to get down to work in my own garden. There will be another Open Day in June at a different house. I hope to visit then as well! This garden was in deep shade until two years ago when a large tree fell and destroyed almost everything. Now the gardener has completely redone the garden with more sun loving plants. It’s a beautiful oasis in an otherwise pleasant, but unmemorable suburban neighborhood!

My own gardens are giving me a lot of pleasure this year, the second year in a row when I feel there is not much work to do. There is an old saying that if you are happy with your gardens, it’s probably time to move! In my case, I hope to enjoy this satisfied feeling for a few more years before having to start over!

My work for this week includes finishing the historic reinterpretation tapestry (you can bet I’ll take photos when I celebrate the cutting off!), attempting madder dyeing again with my next batch of roots (from Hillcreek Fiber Studio), and spinning more corrie on my little Golding spindle. A great way to spend a week, right?

Devotion

2009-05-04T12:45:00.001-07:00

Every year the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival shows me a different aspect of all the people who contribute to my obsession with fiber, spinning, dyeing, weaving and knitting. One year I only took photos of crowds. I was completely appalled that the festival was so crowded that you couldn’t easily walk through the pathways between the barns, much less get into the barns and booths….

This year the word ‘devoted’ kept running through my mind. We the spectators were willing to schlep through mud and muck (of course the shepherds are always willing to do that!), willing to be patient in the face of huge crowds, willing to be inspired by the devotion of our heroes who raise the animals, clean and process the fibers, dye the amazing colorways, and create such finished works of beauty that we’ll spend the last of our savings on handwoven, hand felted, hand knitted and hand spun items. The whole festival was a feast of inspiration that stemmed from devotion to a calling.

I am in awe of the shepherds, processors, dyers, designers, and artists who laid their wares before us. I spent a lot of money that I can’t really afford, but if it helps the economy of fiber farmers and fiber artists to continue their devotion then it’s entirely worthwhile!

Here’s a taste:
Sheep

Husband and wife busily grooming their Border Leicester before going into the ring.

First place Corriedale with proud teenage owner sitting nearby. The mother told me that her two teenage sons are entirely responsible for the care of this champion sheep!

My new Golding spindle lying cozily on a pillow of hand-painted Corriedale top from Misty Mountain.

Distractions

2009-04-30T08:39:00.001-07:00

Thirty days hath April: seize the day!
Don't trust to luck for darling buds in May.

A little quote from Philip Appleman’s “That Time of Year,” which I found on Kathy Spoering’s blog. And so passes April…

Tomorrow begins the first weekend in May, and the annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! I actually thought I might have to skip it this year, but have managed a compromise where will I go down on Friday evening with a friend, and spend all day on Sat. I have big hopes for meeting with Jody McKenzie to arrange some time to dye with her this summer when I’m in Maine! Big hopes to find some madder plants (I so do not want to start from seed again!)! Big hopes to be inspired by fiber, yarn, drop spindles!

I’m blocking my “Clapotis” today and might take it with me since it’s supposed to be a little chilly and wet in the evenings. (It’s not really mine to keep. It will go to someone at some point, but I like ‘christening’ these knitted items by wrapping myself in them once!)
Last night I was in quite funk, doing chores and having a frustrating evening at home while my husband Bob was attending a second invitation to the TriBeca Film Festival. This time spouses were not included. This time there was a fancier reception beforehand, and a reception afterward. There were gifts. I was sulking…. then Bob returned home and gave me his bag of gifts:

Do you see that iPod shuffle lower center? Can you imagine how amazed I was to find that??? Not sure I can fathom any company having the money to take a large group to the film festival, buy them dinner and dessert, and then give away all these great gifts: the tote bag is terrific on its own, so what a surprise to also find a picnic blanket (rolled up on the right), a bag of cosmetics, and a calendar commemorating the festival to go with the iPod!

Another lovely gift this morning! A rose-breasted grosbeak! Now I understand why I have such trouble getting things done! I am always distracted!

Parting with Poetry (for the moment…)

2009-04-28T05:08:00.001-07:00

In Neglect
They left us so to the way we took
As two in whom they were proved mistaken
That we sit sometimes in the wayside nook
with mischievous, vagrant, seraphic look
and smile if we cannot feel forsaken.

I love this Robert Frost poem that my younger son and I decided to memorize together. “Together” is a relative thing…he was at school and I was here, at home. It will surprise no one that he memorized it long before I did and had to help spoon-feed it to me.

Painting of Robert Frost
by Huang Xiang

I want to memorize another short poem, just to see if I can. Here are two I’m considering:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost

******

Parting
My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell
Emily Dickinson

I supposed I’ll try not to write about poetry again too soon. I was happy to find two blogs and a website and to share them!
Poetry 180
Red Ravine
Poetry for Children (a happy discovery that this is the blog of one of my childhood friends! She gets the Proximity award from me!)

Ink, charcoal, colored pencil on paper Edna St. Vincent Millay drawn by
William Zorach

My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light.
Edna St. Vincent Millay

That poem reminds me of all of you who inspire me, who keep me searching for art and meaning…I see by the light of your candles! Life is short, but so full of passion!

For as Cleanthes said:

2009-04-27T13:29:00.001-07:00

I found it. It’s from one of Montaigne’s essays on the education of children, and here is some context:

“History is more my quarry, or poetry, which I love with particular affection. For as Cleanthes said, just as sound, when pent up in the narrow channel of a trumpet, comes out sharper or stronger, so it seems to me that a thought, when compressed into the numbered feet of poetry, springs forth much more violently and strikes me a much stiffer jolt.”

Still, in the little note I found, this quote is handwritten and signed ‘MWC.’ I still think it’s Billy Collins’s handwriting. Well, why not? Anything else is less interesting!

And I’m still hunting for my tapestry notes!

Technorati Tags: poetry

Poetry Month

2009-04-27T11:46:00.001-07:00

She, who cannot find her notes on looped hachure, and she who realized that Poetry month is almost over before she has posted any of her favorites, would like to offer this:

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Painting of Billy Collins
by Didi Menendez.

When I went looking for my two books of Billy Collins’s poetry, which should have been on a shelf devoted entirely to books of poetry, I couldn’t find any poetry books…. I don’t remember rearranging the shelves, but now all the poetry books are jumbled in various places. When I found Questions about Angels (which is not the book that has the poem copied above in it) I found a handwritten poem tucked inside the cover and signed, with flourish, “MWC.”

I swear I’ve never seen this note before. I would also swear I bought the book new. How could I have forgotten about this interesting poem, written out long hand, tucked inside?… because frankly I think those initials might be Billy Collins’s. I don’t know what the ‘M’ is, but the ‘WC’ could certainly stand for William Collins. What do you think? The handwriting is fascinating…quite artistic to my eye….

Here is the poem:

For as Cleanthes said:

Just as sound
   pent up in the narrow
   channel of a trumpet
   comes out sharper and stronger….

So it seems to me
   that thought
   compressed into the numbered fact of poetry,
   springs forth much more violently
   and strikes me a much stiffer jolt.

And last, another favorite of mine, “Forgetfulness,” read by Billy Collins and animated by Julian Grey.

Technorati Tags: poetry

Signs of Spring

2009-04-25T12:53:00.001-07:00

I am in the middle of another post that just doesn’t want close, or be completed. So I’ll move on and hope to come back to it this week.

Here are photos of the lovely garden just outside Archie and Susan’s apartment building in Inwood. I took this while walking toward my car on 4.08.

A little bit of wonder in the middle of a busy city…called “Alexander’s Garden.”

And in my travels this week:

Woohoo! A pink stretch Mini!

I’ve been catering to a painful back all week, getting better but still unable to do anything too demanding. But I did go into the city last night with my husband, where we met our younger son to see one of the TriBeca film festival movies, “Eclipse.” It was terrific! The music was especially wonderful, and I’m bummed today that I cannot find anyplace to buy Fionnuala Ni Chiosain’s music. Worse, I’ve been reading about both Conor McPherson and Fionnuala Ni Chiosain, who are married, and both are so multi-talented that I just want to go crawl in a dark hole and lick my sorry, untalented wounds. He is a playwright, director, songwriter, and she is a painter (with work in the Irish Museum of Modern Art), violinist, and composer. The music in this movie is just wonderful, especially the choral works that evoke a requiem mass.

Our seats were two rows directly behind the actors (Ciaran Hinds and Aidan Quinn), the director Conor McPherson, and Liam Neesam who must’ve joined them as a supportive Irish friend. It was pretty awesome to be so near them and to realize that we were the first audience to see this film!

And last of all, a visitor to my garden this week: