 in love with fabric.  Made or modified,  knit or woven  hand spun --or not,  opaque or translucent,  all fill me with joy.  Cloth in the raw  can be as compelling as fragments that have done their time  Once, I think, I assumed a hierarchy--  accepting this object to be more valuable/ compelling/ worthy than that.  These days  not so much.   Linen/ Silk purchased from Habu Textiles more years ago than I can remember Last night I wound a warp.  Capturing the Cross This morning I added weft.   I normally finger pick my sheds so string heddles feel unexpectedly welcoming.   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.  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.  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,  and by the end the warp/ weft relationship made more sense, at least to me.  Weaver Sarah deplores my casual beat and uneven selvedges. Artist Sarah finds it beautiful.  Wonder what it'll do when I wash it?   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.  The day before yesterday I planted lettuce. Today I hope the drippy weather will encourage the seeds to sprout.  Planting seeds and believing they'll become food is amazing.  "The Raft That Rolled Into The Pond" practiced outside yesterday. So too, is learning a tune in the hope of playing it with others,  Work in Progress; Wheatstone English Concertina (circa 1907); knitting; flash cards; Alas, I can't knit or draw while playing. or buying a fleece and imagining a garment.  Dirt and Sky -- my new shirt! Spindle spun wool (cormo and polworth); indigo and walnut dye. It's even amazing when I am doing the work.  Perhaps I am easily amazed.  Juggling; mobile; hand woven tapestry; embroidery; wool; pebbles; wire; fishing swivels. (Hard to photograph something that keeps moving) I'm certainly easily amused.       Some yeas I sort by color -- so orderly!  Willowikins in the studio, getting ready for a sweater exhibition  A good time was had by all at the show  The colors just slay me
 Old Time Trio. Or is it Bluegrass? No -- didn't make a mandolin. Pardon the poor photo -- digital photography has improved a touch since I made these musicians. These photos show a few of the willow people I've made in the last decade or two. Some have gone to to fund-raising auctions. Others I've given away. And a few have ended up outside my house serenading passers-by until the time came to retire to the woods to hang out with birds and coyotes and other shrubby things like themselves.  This year, the brown willow outside my house was really tall so I decided to make something I could go inside.  Is this actually going to turn into something? Yanking grape vines out of our lilac bushes nearly tore my arms out of their sockets-- each was so long I could spiral it around the entire structure and pin it into place with lengths of red osier dogwood.  I don't quite know what to say about this little time machine-- or staycation hut, or bird watching blind, or whatever it is-- except that I wish all of you could hang out in it for a little while too.  Next week it'll go off to a fund raising auction at the Pritchard Gallery in Moscow leaving a big hole (or free space) in my studio.  Can't get enough of these shadows. Till then, I'll hang out in it as much as I can.  I do love Winter Willow.  It changes the way I see everything.  PS: The ATA Blog Tour continues:
Tomorrow (Wednesday 13 January 2016) = Mirrix! |
Sarah C Swett
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