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Backstrap Lessons

7/27/2016

 
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Backstrap July has been filled with high hopes.
I've even made a couple of things I quite like. 
 Certainly every warp has taught me something new
--even if I'm not always thrilled about it.

This one, for instance, was supposed to be an experiment in word direction.
Upside down, right side up, sideways--which would I like best?
Could I compose at an angle?

To make it easy on myself I used familiar wool warp and weft.
To make room for horizontal words I made it seven inches wide.
To ensure I could really get into it and write something fabulous, I made it long. 
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Initially,  all went as planned,
The warp was more forgiving than the linen I'd just been using
and I started the first letters with satisfaction -----

only to find that I just couldn't get the the tension tight enough for finger picking.

I moved the backstrap down and and I moved it up. 
I added string heddles
I changed the angle of the loom.
I leaned and I sat and I pushed --
​but the strong, highly twisted springy wool just kept stretching.

The letters wouldn't grow under my fingers as I have grown to expect.
The brilliant thing I was going to write vanished from my head.
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 Finally it occurred to me to attach the loom to a door on the other side of the futon frame, brace my feet against the side of said frame, and push.

It worked -- quite well in fact.
Until my legs started to go to sleep.
and my feet to hurt.

Turns out I don't really like weaving letters upside down either.
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Eventually I rolled it up, set it aside, made a different warp (linen)
and comforted myself with a long narrow band and sideways woolen words.

 This time I had both easy tension and a satisfying way to compose.
Granted, the warp didn't feel as good on my hands, 
but I decided to try line linen next time (instead of tow) 
and who cares about finger comfort when the words show up of their own accord?

But when I finished, the wool warp was still sitting there.
I didn't want to unroll it.
 Should I ditch it? 
Call it a failed experiment?
Make it an endurance test?
Or, duh, build a pipe loom and strap it on.
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Much better.  
​The tension is excellent and the process comfortably familiar.
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Short string heddles make pretty good leashes.
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And now that I've ditched the phrase idea and am simply working my way through a section of the dictionary, there's only word direction to worry about.
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And look --I'm done with the words worry and worse
so there is only the next backstrap lesson to wonder about. 
​ 


If you'll excuse an expression I use...

7/19/2016

 
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in love with fabric.
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Made or modified,
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knit or woven
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hand spun --or not, 
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opaque or translucent,
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all fill me with joy.  
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Cloth in the raw
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can be as compelling as fragments that have done their time
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Once, I think, I assumed a hierarchy--
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accepting this object to be more valuable/ compelling/ worthy  than that.
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These days
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not so much.
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​

Multi-tasking!

7/12/2016

 
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Well, sort of.

I'll probably have to put down the Hepty when the berries start ripening fast.

weaving before breakfast

7/5/2016

 
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Linen/ Silk purchased from Habu Textiles more years ago than I can remember
Last night I wound a warp.
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Capturing the Cross
This morning I added weft. 
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I normally finger pick my sheds
so string heddles feel unexpectedly welcoming.
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This yarn it was flat when I bought it,
the linen a paper tape and ​the silk an almost invisible strand at its side -- scarcely twisted.
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Ball winding, however,  and failed attempts to knit with it (which resulted in more ball winding), added twist which made it difficult to decide on a sett.
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Measuring the warp twisted it even more
and for the first few inches I couldn't get comfortable.
​

As I wove however, the warp untwisted, relaxed, flattened,
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and by the end
​the warp/ weft relationship made more sense,
​at least to me. 
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Weaver Sarah deplores my casual beat and uneven selvedges.

Artist Sarah finds it beautiful. 
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Wonder what it'll do when I wash it?
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    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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