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Baggy Linen Pants

6/29/2016

are cool, relaxed and forgiving.

But when a gal spends a lot of time sitting on her butt,

shifting from one comfy position to another,

there invariably comes a moment when the sound of ripping interrupts the quiet.

and decisions must be made.

Does the patch belong on the inside, or the outside?

Does it matter if it (the patch), shows through the tear?

What color thread would be best? What weight?

Is it worth reinforcing the other cheek?

And how much effort am I willing to put in
to secure the disintegrating waistband stitching?

The answers, at least today, are as follows

1. Inside
2. Nope
3. Brown
4. The thread I have:
Güttermann cotton thread and brown pearl cotton (leftovers from making the pants)
5. Yes
6. Restitch but don't bother removing the old green hand spun silk that clearly didn't hold up.

Gotta draw the line somewhere...

Self Portrait in Tiffin Tin Top.

Solstice Spinning

6/21/2016

Installing "Please, Can You Pass My Knitting". Hanging things from the ceiling requires quite a ladder. Background: Rough Copy #13

I hoped, this morning,
to write an elegantly illustrated post
about the wonder and delight
of my exhibition
which opened last Thursday.

"Against The Tide" hanging above the stairs

Alas, most of the photos were unsatisfactory for one reason or another.

Rough Copy #1: Blue Dog Motel

Rough Copy #2-5

Rough Copy #6-7

Rough Copy # 8-12 (from right to left). So great to have a wall tall enough for #12, which is 104" long.

In the upstairs gallery in particular
my phone camera refused to focus
so the pictures of all of my thrilling recent work
(embroideries, tiny tapestries and mobiles)
looked terrible

"Oddments, Fragments" (out of focus) and its shadow

"Rising circles", "Fill In The Blank" and their shadows

But oh well.

The exhibition is up until the end of July,
and all the work, (including the pieces already sold),
will remain until then.
Plenty of time to go back another day
with a different camera
and try again.

And THAT means
that today,
after posting this,
I can card a few more rolags,
go outside with my new spindle,
and
make yarn
and music
at the same time.

Jenkins Aegean Turkish Spindle. 17g. Fig Wood. Jacob Fleece, hand carded

Happy Solstice.

Sometimes

6/14/2016

Digital Drawing; Hand Woven Tapestry; wool; natural dyes; pixels; pixies;

you walk.

Hand Woven Tapestry; Digital Drawing

Sometimes you sit.

Morning Meander; Hand Woven Tapestry; 7 1/2" x 36"; wool, natural dye; Sarah C. Swett 2016

Sometimes you vanish.

Testing Time

6/7/2016

I slipped off to the canyon
and with me I brought:
books,
food,
yarn
a spindle,
a very old dog,
and a pocket knife.

Watson-Guptill Publications, New York 1975

In the decrepit orchard I found some straitish apple branches.

In a drawer I found some chute cord.

On the way to the outhouse I found a rattlesnake basking in the yarrow.
This last is neither unusual nor an essential part of this story,
but it did serve as a reminder to watch my step--
and to start weaving inside where I could keep my eyes on the task at hand,
rather than outside among the sun soaked grasses.

Warp:4 ply Debouillet hand spun knitting yarn (very bouncy) sett at approx 8 epi

I'd not woven on a backstrap loom before,
but since tapestry is what I know best,
II started with that.

Weft: 4 ply Debouillet hand spun knitting yarn (still very bouncy) and 3 ply spindle spun grey Cormo knitting yarn dyed purple with indigo and cochineal. Also bouncy.

The new position
(horizontal instead of vertical warp
and sitting on the floor leaning against the backstrap),
was astonishingly comfortable--
so pleasant that when the first warp was done,
I put on another.

warp: 3 ply Brown Sheep Naturespun Fingering dyed with indigo and walnut. sett: approx 9 epi

Finer yarn and a closer sett led to a tidy surface.
My ever-so-slightly increased proficiency led to straighter selvedges.

weft: assorted hand spun and commercial knitting yarns, 2 and 3 ply, somewhere between fingering and sport weight. In general not as bouncy as the first sample.

Soon, however, I wanted to see what else this amazing little loom could do.

I turned it around,
shoved the warp closer together,
and tried a balanced plain weave.

Adding string heddles was helpful

Turns out I'm better at keeping my beat even
and my selvedges straight
with a weft faced structure.

warp and weft-Brown Sheep Naturespun Fingering dyed with walnut and indigo. Approx 20 epi.

No surprise there -- I haven't woven a balanced plain weave in over 20 years.

A little more practice time is definitely in order.

warp and weft: singles merino, hand spun and bequeathed to me by my dear friend Nancie who left this world in March 2015.

A few days ago, Summer Larson just wrote a thought provoking blog post about time.
"How," she asks, "will you spend yours?"

Making cloth, methinks.

Making cloth.

Baggy Linen Pants

Solstice Spinning

Sometimes

Testing Time

Sarah C Swett
tells stories
with
and about
hand spun yarn.

Categories

Archives

Baggy Linen Pants

Solstice Spinning

Sometimes

Testing Time

​Sarah C Swett tells storieswith​ and about hand spun yarn.

Categories

Archives

Sarah C Swett
tells stories
with
and about
hand spun yarn.