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the line between yarn and cloth

10/25/2016

 
Picture
Weavers call it the 'fell'.
Picture
hand spun Polypay singles, 12 epi
My dictionary (The Oxford American)  
 has five definitions of fell:
-- v. past tense of Fall
-- v. to cut down, knock down or stitch down (i.e. flat fell seam)
--n. a hill, stretch of hills or moorland
--adj. fierce; ruthless; terrible; destructive
--n. animal hide or skin with hair

It says nothing of weaving, so​ I would add:
--n. the place where the cloth that has been woven
meets the waiting warp.
Picture
linen - 15 epi
Like time, the fell is never static.
Each pick (or  half pass if you're a tapestry weaver), moves it along.
Picture
wool, 11 epi
This requires little more than a few taps with the point of a bobbin,
Picture
hand spun 2-ply Polypay; 10 epi
or a controlled press with reed or rigid heddle.
Picture
Hemp warp/ Linen weft - 10 epi
Sometimes, of course,
it takes a great WHACK.
Picture
Satisfying.
Picture
It all depends on the cloth you are after.
Picture
Hand Made Beaters: steel; wood; brass rivets
Picture
I like 'em all 
and hope I get to stay 
with the yarn and the cloth
at the fell,
​wherever it is,
for a long, long time.
Picture

no place like home

10/18/2016

 
Picture
I've been making yarn.
Picture
Clearwater River, ID
Nothing new in that., of course.
But this fiber is Polypay,
a breed developed at the USA  Experimentation Station in Dubois. Idaho.
Picture
Polypay Roving -- grown on the Palouse, processed in Post Falls, Idaho
A mix of Targhee, Dorset, Rambouillet and Finnsheep,
the breed, l
ike so many of us who live in the United States,
is an incomer
a hybrid,
an adaptor
bred to thrive in the west.
Picture
North Fork of the Payette River
Targhee itself,
 a combination of Rambouillet, Corriadale, and Lincoln/Rambouillet X
was also developed in Dubois, in 1926.
(Targhee appears in various well-known commercial yarn blends:
Brooklyn Tweed,www.brooklyntweed.com/yarn/ for instance,  and Cestari )
Picture
Suffolk/ Rambouillet-ish fleece from a 4H bottle lamb
As a spinner, I usually start with raw fleece
​ -- some weird regional combination--
as I like to get my hands into every step of yarn production,
Picture
South Fork of the Payette River
​but this Polypay from The Yarn Underground (my LYS)
is heavenly to spin and I couldn't resist diving into a couple of pounds.
Picture
Hepty Spindle by Henry C Edwards; 24 g
It's fluffy, fine and bouncy,
the kind of fiber that pours off  a wrist distaff 
and onto a spindle,
and an excellent companion for last week's tapestry retreat in Garden Valley, Idaho,
Picture
Camas Prairie
The title of the retreat was Tapestry as Cloth,
my goal to explore  the effect  that
sett, beat, and materials (weight and fiber content of warp and weft),
have on the physical objects that we make. 
You know how easy it is to get into habits
-- this warp, this sett, this weft, this loom--
and sometimes it is useful to ask why,
to shake ourselves up a little.,
to get messy. 
What if this tapestry doesn't want to be stitched into a frame?
What if it wants some linen in it?
What if it longs to sway in mid air?
What if it is more like a blanket?
Picture
Indigo, Walnut, Letheria Vulpina lichen
I'm not sure that any of these questions were answered,
but  four selvedge warps came on and off of looms,
 the company was fantastic,
we made glorious color,
ate delicious food
and soaked out any weaving aches
​ in the geothermal pool.
Picture
Hot Pools steam as the sun rises.
One of the myriad benefits for me was a reminder
of how little one actually needs to make fabric
and how much beauty (and really nice fiber)
can be found  out my back door.
Picture
Skeins of walnut-dyed yarn dry and pools steam on.
Garden Valley is actually about 270 miles from Moscow,
but Highway 95,  the only North-South highway in the state, 
passes two blocks from my back door.
It two lanes for most of the drive
and every wide spot in the road is worthy of a photo, or a quick tune,
 so it all feels pretty darned local. 
Picture
Along the way are a few mountains,
a couple million acres of wilderness,
Picture
Salmon River (sorry for the crooked camera)
the odd pristine river, 
and, after four hours of driving,
a coffee shop that serves
 Landgrove Coffee, roasted by the family of the kids with whom I sometimes play tunes.  
(The Foglifter Cafe is in McCall Idaho, and doesn't seem to have a website of its own)
Picture
It is all  kind of like the Polypay--
right here, and not too shabby.

This morning, back home, I made a warp 
Picture
I think it'll become some sort of a blanket
but I don't actually know yet.

Guess I'll have to  post this bundle of nonsense
(my little Idaho advertisement),

and get back to threading.

Today

10/4/2016

 
Picture
fancy lease sticks!
I seem to be out of words.
Picture
Here are a few pics though.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Polypay Roving from The Yarn Underground.
Picture
Ever wish you had eight arms?
Picture
A hole in my running shoes -- and must remember to order new soles as I'm nearly through --again. Still easier than making a new pair -- though I'd love to.
Freakin' ideas. 
    Picture

    ​Sarah C Swett 
    tells stories
    with
    ​ and about

     hand spun yarn. 


    Picture
    Click for info on
    my four selvedge
    warping class
    with
    ​ Rebecca Mezoff  
    fringeless


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