One of the great things about comics

I only wish I could draw a picture
that could describe the weight and texture 

of these two swaths of cloth
(each 104" x 8.25" after washing/light fulling)

The sett issue of last week
really did end up working in my favor
as, not only did I get another two days of blissed-out weaving,
(this kind of cloth-making is super fast compared with knitting),

but I also have nearly 70 inches of fabric left--
enough to make a second 
(if decidedly shorter) skirt.​

The extra yardage also meant
another expedition downtown
(all of five blocks away),
to buy some more yarn
​for the knitting parts of this project.
Fresh from weaving yummy yardage
I just happened to notice
that there are quite a few possibilities
for future Sarah-Dippity skirts
in that store.

While there, deep in a discussion
of how mill spun yarn is finished
​and why I find the knitting experience
so much more pleasurable
​if I wash such yarn before knitting
(if not for weaving),
we conjured an experiment,
​the results of which you can see above and below.
The yarn is not only fluffier and shorter,
it is also distinctly softer.
Why wait till after the knitting is done?

At any rate, after several swatches
I'm now deep in the knitting portion of this skirt show,
where, given the length of the woven panels I just cut,
​ I am likely to remain for a while.

But that is no hardship. 
I do love to knit.
And it'll provide balance to the other enticing
(but less pictorially sharable), thing I'm working on:
​an article for the autumn 2019 issue of Ply magazine!
​Wheeeeee!

Indeed, I seem to be having an extra delicious magazine moment,
as I drew a cartoon for the new issue of Spin Off
which should be showing up at any moment.
I haven't seen it 'in paper' yet,
but am most excited. 
Has anyone received their copy?

I sure do love to be part of this yarnish world
and treasure absolutely everyone in it. 

Nope -- not the burn carbon,
catch a cold on the airplane
on the way to someplace else
kind of holiday.

That sun is shining
​into my very own studio.

Though  I did go somewhere --
me and my big black rubber boots
strolled through the slush
to The Yarn Underground (my local yarn store),
where I was dazzled by the abundance 
and walked home with 
8 skeins of Harrisville flywheel yarn.

 So did you know about this?
That you can buy yarn that has
already been carded and spun?
It's a little weird.
But AMAZING. 

(One of the great things about spending most of my time in the studio
is that am a cheap date -- dazzled and overwhelmed by
the local downtown shops.
Of course I'm also dazzled by dead leaves 
which is slightly less helpful to the local economy....).

But no matter how you look at it,
this feels like a mighty quick turnaround--
from a mad desire
​ for a long, dark grey Sarah-Dippity skirt,
to yarn in hand.
(if not exactly fast fashion, at least less glacial than my usual approach).

Said mad desire was initially generated
by a vision of the thing I wanted to wear that day,
the realization that I had the knowledge and technology to make it,
and a teensy bit of project envy generated by
 slipping Backstrap Dialogues zines into envelopes 
and mailing them to Sweden and Germany, Califorina and Kentucky
as Sarah-Dippity instructions are downloaded
to computers around the world.

At any rate, it felt (and still feels), rather marvelous
to take a mid winter break from my cellulosic adventures,
and start winding a warp almost before 
shucking off the rubber boots.

Alas, my starry-eyed haste
also led to a teensy bit of
of a miscalculation --
this mill spun yarn is NOT
​ as much like mine as I thought.

I stormed about a bit and felt like an idiot
for making assumptions, 
and for not weaving a sample --
or at least doing a yarn wrap.
But drawing this comic gave me an idea
(you might note that the little "but maybe if..." thought bubble
was written in with a different pen),
so I clipped together a ten dent rigid heddle 
from four Schacht Variable Dent Rigid Heddle sections, 
scribbled a new sketch for the skirt
and away I went.
(10 epi vs 12 epi  meant weaving two narrower swaths of cloth since I did not want to buy more equipment, which leads to the skirt being made of  four or maybe five 8" wide panels instead of three 12" ones-- though I don't have to decide for sure till later since the design is flexible and the final
shaping and fitting is in the knitting).

The broken threader was another bummer,
but this paper clip worked just fine-- 
​indeed, maybe better than the diz threader
I've been using for the last couple of years.
​Golly, I love makeshift solutions.  
​And I really love this loom.

The last few inches of the first warp
turned into cloth
​ just before I started to write this morning.

And there's a good chance
I'll start winding the second warp 
shortly after I hit "post."

Perhaps  next week I'll be knitting the skirt wedges
and my holiday will be done.
zoom zoom zoom!
But so restful.

And then back to real life.
​
If that is what this is.

In October 2017,
I had an idea for a skirt.
My thought was to combine
shaped, hand knit panels
with my myriad backstrap experiments
to build a flexible and fitted garment. 

It was just an experiment.
​
Definitely a one-off.

Though not usually short ones--
or at least I haven't since the early 1970s
when my mother and grandmother tsk tsked 
over my desire to share more adolescent leg
than they thought fitting or attractive.

But attractive is as attractive does
(whatever that really means),
and anyway, the skirts are fun at any age--
to make and to wear.

The simple structure makes fitting a breeze--
the unbeatable texture of specially selected (or spun) yarn,
the underlying energy of hand woven cloth,
the built-in stretchiness of  hand knit panels
all work together to to make each skirt
as comfy as plain leggings--
and as long or short as I want
(​or fabric length will allow).

note: my skirts are mostly short because I made them 
using existing color and weave experiments
designed, warped and woven
with no thought to future leg coverage.

Anyway,
I've long wanted to share the idea
and fully intended to have these instructions done
shortly after the concept showed up.
Backstrap Dialogues,
(the instructional story zine that led to
the cloth that led to Sarah-Dippity),
was freshly out in the world
and somehow I imagined
that after a 56 page comic,
 a straightforward skirt guide
​ would take a mere few weeks!
​Sigh.

​But finally, after writing and re-writing,
drawing and re-drawing,
and overriding a firm decision
to shelve it permanently,
​(shows what I know),
I am beyond pleased
that Phineas reminded me
about the underlying joy
of the garments themselves--
(well, he bullied me just a bit,
​ as only a squirrel can do,
insisting that other weavers and knitters 
might well want
to cover their butts
​with their own magnificent cloth).

So HERE IT IS, 
freshly loaded into my web store:
a 16 page downloadable PDF guide
​ to using your cloth (hand woven or otherwise),
and your yarn (knit at a gauge that suits your hands and taste),
to make a garment that fits your body,
your life and your style. 

And to help celebrate the joy of hand woven cloth,
hard copies of Backstrap Dialogues
are now on sale for $13 
(I love prime numbers)
with free shipping.

Endless thanks to Phineas, for spurring me on,
and my ever patient reader/testers,
for all their support.

To blend, or not to blend -- that is the question.

At least it was the question a few weeks ago, 
when, all of a sudden (isn't always like that?)
this marvelous collection of 
Polworth, Cormo, Merino, Debouillet and, I think, Targhee.
from the Ortmann's  flock in Wolf Point, Montana,
​demanded attention. 

(These eastern Montana range sheep cope with extreme weather and wild winter winds, 
by growing amazingly soft, dense fleece--and the Ortmann's have bred for color.
 I'd put in a link if I could find a website...Nancy???)

But back to blending.
I didn't have a plan at first--
just a strong desire to work with the fleece--
and with only a few hand fulls of each value,
 teasing and carding each separately 
seemed a good starting point. 

While I was at it, 
(and since I didn't know how I wanted to proceed)
I also carded the few ounces of 
light brown something-or-other --
(not quite as fine but lovely and bouncy)
that a friend had given me a few weeks before.

Also, why not add to the pile
by turning some white fleece 
(Targhee/Debouillet also from the Ortmanns)
​a kind of periwinkle blue?
​I had an indigo pot going after all.

And as I dyed and carded
an idea began to  form --
a new kind of idea,
an idea that,​ once acted upon,
could not be undone.
Was it worth the risk?

Since Discretion is the better part of valor
and caution preferable to rash bravery (sometimes anyway),
I reserved a small selection of all the greys, 
blended one batt of the periwinkle with white
(to create another value range),
and set the whole works aside as a separate project
before doing anything drastic with the bulk of the batts.

But what did those batts want?
​Once upon a time,
I would have spun each 
into its own yarn
for weaving into tapestry.
This was, indeed, why I wanted
​the collection of fleece in the first place,
for value has always been elemental to my tapestry practice

But ideas change,
and between spring and fall
this new (or maybe very old) idea--
charming, complicated and irresistible--
had wormed its way in.
What I now wanted was: 
-fine, bouncy, heathery purple/grey yarn 
-to weave on my backstrap loom,
-into yards of warm, flexible fabric
-with an easy drape,
-that I could stitch into next winter's jacket.
Really? 
Well yeah -- really.

But clothing?  Sheesh.
I haven't woven cloth for clothing
since... well...
since  I wove my wedding dress fabric in 1989.

Well, maybe it's time.
And it's not like I'd have have to
buy, or even borrow,  a loom.

And thank goodness I wrote the comic!

Not only did I rely on it
​to make sure I wound my warp correctly,
but I also needed the tale
of  Luminist and Storymaker,
to remind me that trusting the yarn is a thing--
even if it is a messy thing,
with no clear outcome. 

Right now, 
the spindle awaits. 
​And oh golly, is this stuff nice to spin. 

I don’t know if it shows up on your screen,
but at the bottom of page, just under where I am typing,
is something I wrote when I first set up this site.
(otherwise it just says Weebly, and who wants that?).

In case you can't see it 
(since by now it is probably underneath about a dozen photos),
here it is.

things to make:
yarn . music . friends
whatever it is
you cannot
not
begin

This past week,
the thing I could not
NOT begin,
​was another pair of shoes.

Unlike the last ones,
I do not NEED another pair of shoes.
​
Indeed, considering  that both vamp and heel
are made with hand woven linen needlepoint canvas,
leftovers from a tangent of my
 backstrap loom sojourn two years ago,
these shoes are never going to prevent thorns,
​or anything else,
from biting into my ankles.

But not every pair of shoes has to be practical.
And I have a box full of these
beloved but unused linen/backstrap experiments
which have been whispering to me.
​"Choose us!  Choose us!"
ever since I turned onto a slightly different
path (see Backstrap Dialogues for details),

I could have put them to work
once the show was over,
but other ideas intervened and I didn't listen
until the shape and feel of that last pair of shoes
(too hot for this summer, esp after I waxed the canvas),
led me back to that box of miscellaneous rolls of cloth.

There isn't a lot of structural integrity to these shoes.
When the lace holes are nicely stretched out,
I'll probably have to stitch some solid eyelets.
(and weave some actual laces).

I'm also not completely happy with the way
​they tuck (or fail to tuck), around the bottom of my heel,
and wonder if I'm going to want to put a heel cover
on top of the X and bar stitches up the back. 
Heel covers are more traditional
and I had chosen a  narrow strip 
from the same box of experiments,
but found I so loved the look of the spindle spun linen 
stitches that I just couldn't hide them.

Overall the shoes feel great:
light and flexible,
open and airy,
just the thing
for my upcoming August holiday.

Just the thing, that is, 
but for one tiny detail.

Or maybe two.
​I do like to keep my work close by.

Not sure what the g is for --
other than that it is my favorite letter to weave.
  girl, perhaps?
Certainly I feel about 11 years old when I wear these.
which is a fine way 
for me, my shoes, 
and our four selvedge tapestries to feel
as we set forth to explore whatever paths may beckon
between now and when we return to the blog in September. 

While we're gone, if you have a yen to make shoes
check out Sharon Raymond's fabulous website
where you can find instructions, kits, materials, videos, tutorials and inspiration. 
She has a whole book just on sandals.

And if you have a yen to make four selvedge tapestries
as the finishing touch to your shoes (or whatever)
remember that early bird pricing for Fringeless
(the online four selvedge tapestry class with Rebecca Mezoff and me),
ends TONIGHT (31 July) at midnight Mountain Time.
Of course you can sign up and/or start at any time in the future,
but for those who register by tonight
will have your names entered in a drawing
for the tiny house tapestry pictured above--
a piece I wove on film  (or rather, video),
so that in the class you can listen to/watch me
weave and unweave and weave and unweave
and make all kinds of pick by pick decisions
in rather excruciating detail
for a LONG time.
(Some people seem to like it...:-)

Anyway, it could be that house wants to be on your shoe.

Tiny house...
movement...
no wheels...
​Just saying..
​
Have a lovely August and see you in September!

A couple of days ago in the Fringeless class
someone asked: 
​"How do you do that cool picking-up-the-sheds thing?"

The class includes a number of weaving videos
including a rather long one
in which I weave most of the piece in the photo below--
chatting all the while about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.
At least I talk about building shapes.

Apparently I don't talk much about 
what I'm actually doing to open the sheds
and pass the bobbins however,
so I thought I'd try to explain further here
in case those of you not taking the class might find it useful too.

As I may have mentioned before,
I adopted both techniques--
first  bobbins then finger picking--
after a decade or more of  butterflies, beater and treadles.
Once again, it was Archie Brennan who made it seem worth a try.
With a big pipe loom warped and ready
I committed to weaving the entire thing
 (Hang Up and Draw first tapestry on the linked page)
using only bobbins.
 I started with leashes as well
(long heddles you can grab and pull), 
but before long found myself finger picking both sheds
so haven't bothered with leashes or butterflies since. 

Anyway, yesterday I decided to try to film myself weaving.
Without Rebecca Mezoff and her
excellent eye and amazing camera
the following two videos are not the snazziest thing in the world,
but here they are nonethless:
1-over and back, over and back, at 'slowed down normal' speed
2-over and back in super slow motion
3- a rather wordy description of what I think I'm doing
(which may, or may not, be what I'm actually doing
but is the closest I can come)
4. Some assorted comic drawings which might help too

 EDIT!!!!!!!OH NO!  The videos vanished.  SOSOSOOS sorry 
I have no idea what happened but will try to figure out
or fine another video solution
They take HOURS to upload so it'll be a while I'm afraid.
After all my boasting and that marvelous feeling of doing something cool
Maybe words and comics are the best after all
​SIGH.
​

The Wordy Description
-Bobbin in right hand going both ways, always
-Shed picked with left hand going both ways

OPEN SHED
(in this case weft moving from left to right but not always)

LEFT HAND:
(always picking up the warps from left to right no matter which direction the weft is going)
-decides which warp to pick up first,
- slides up that warp towards the shed sticks where the opening is wider
-fingers slip behind three to five raised warps
-pull them open
RIGHT HAND:
-slips into shed just opened
-passes bobbin through the space behind the warp and back into the same hand
(bobbin now in front of the warp)
-pulls slightly on the weft while 
LEFT HAND:
-releases warp threads
-drops down to grab the end of the weft
-adjusts weft tension
(leaving enough weft in the shed to make a nice bubble)
-holds onto weft while
RIGHT HAND:
uses bobbin to tap weft into place.

PICK SHED
LEFT HAND:
(scooping up warps from left to right no matter which direction the weft is going)
-chooses  warp at the edge of section to be picked up,
-pushes back against the open warp to the left of that warp
-reaches back and grabs desired "back" warp between thumb and middle finger
- pulls that warp forward, holding it on forefinger 
-moves one warp to the right, over the next open warp 
-pushes back against that open warp as before to make space to grab next "back" warp
 continuing in this way until 3 - 5 warp threads (about one inch worth) have been grabbed.
-pull to open that section of the shed
RIGHT HAND 
​​-slips into space just opened
-passes bobbin through the space behind the warp and back into the same hand
(bobbin now in front of the warp)
-pulls slightly on the weft while...
LEFT HAND:
-releases warp threads
-drops down to grab the end of the weft
-adjusts weft tension 
( leaving enough weft in the shed to make a nice bubble, which is easier with pick shed as the released warp adds its own tension)
-holds onto weft while
RIGHT HAND:
uses bobbin to tap weft into place.

All of this takes a LOT Of words,
and I generally find Comics to be a more efficient medium
than plain text, but hopefully the videos make things somewhat clear.
And alas, if I had to draw an entire comic 
for every blog post, you'd get one a couple of times a year!

NOTE: Bobbins
Still REALLY happy with both sets of new bobbins I wrote about here
Both makers are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

NOTE: Sett
​ The warp on the loom in the videos above is sett at 10 epi,
8 epi is easier and smoother (more room to teach and grab)
but much of this depends on the size of your warp 
and the size of your fingers.
If your fingers are large and/or you like to work at closer setts
I  recommend some kind of shedding device for the pick shed --
Leashes and String heddles (very short leashes), are both excellent.
I describe the latter in Backstrap Dialogues,
and will put a detail below, which should help.

So that's it for now --
EXCEPT! that for those of you not on Instagram
I wanted to include a photo
of  the finished running shoes
I was working on last week!
SO happy.
(Shoe pattern from Simple Shoe Making)

This is not the project I thought I'd dive into when I returned from my travels.

It was not even on my radar.

But a few days ago,
 there I was,
 cutting up an early backstrap experiment,
knitting short rows panels with leftover bits of the same walnut dyed yarn
​(Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering used double),
and sewing them together.

I have long clung to a belief that I am an organized person 
(at least in the realm of my textile work),
a planner who spends months on tapestry cartoons,
and years bringing ideas to fruition.
But apparently, instead, I am a slave to the thrills and chills of
 making-it-up-as-I-go-and-using-what-is-at-hand-on-the-roller-coaster-ride-to-an-unknown-outcome.
​
Who knew?

Another early backstrap experiment  --
linen paper yarn from habu textiles that I'd had for years and years and years,
then wove and indigo dyed last summer--
turned out to be the perfect thing to fold over the top edges of the woven fabric
both protecting the cut edges of the woven cloth
​and giving the knitted sections sufficient structure to prevent the skirt from  falling down.

And when I ran out of the walnut dyed yarn a few inches shy of making it around my butt,
the idea of an indigo button band became a reality. 

The buttons themselves are a mixed bag,
though most are all that is left of a beloved dress I wore till it was compost.

Along with my sense of myself as an organized person,
I've also nurtured definite ideas about mixing woven and knitted structures --
NOT in favor. 
But changing my mind has not been as painful as I might have thought.

Just a couple of leg  lunges
 while taking unintentional and rather grim selfies when trying to show...

...how the woven panels over my butt will (hopefully) prevent that "cling and sag" effect of so many purely knitted  skirts,
made me reassess all my 'never mix never worry' prejudices about knitting and weaving. 

Which reminds me of yet another assumption with which this garment has forced me to contend: 

But just because I have not done such a thing in the past
does not mean that today,
a couple of months shy of my 57th birthday,
is not a fine time to start. 

I mean -- what the heck?

Three weeks ago,
in the midst of packing,
freaking out,
repacking,
​ and generally wallowing in pre-travel angst about the trip from which I have just returned,

I was seized with an unexpected and unstoppable urge
to stitch together a  random collection of backstrap experiments
​and leftovers from this project
into a blanket/ shawl/ scarf thing
​without which,

​or so it seemed,
I would be unable to set foot out the door.

Panic projects are not a new thing for me
(indeed, unpredictable as they are, I've come almost to take them for granted),
but rarely has my home-leaving-misery
been so thoroughly transformed  
into something as magically functional, as this.

Small enough to be shoved into a bag,
it yet unfolded (without a wrinkle)
to cover me from shoulder to knee.

It was a blanket on the red-eye from Seattle to Boston,
and a pillow while sleeping in a squeaky bunk bed at the YMCA camp where I  attended  the North East Squeeze in.

It served as a bathrobe at the myriad places I stayed
and  made my three items of clothing seem like six
 (traveling with a concertina in your bag means clothing gives way to the instrument).
​
It covered my back,
scrunched into a scarf,
​and

unfolded

​ featherlike,

into a pair of wings

that bore me safely home.

Not bad for some scraps of plain weave, eh?

​ps. photos by my wondrous sister Evelyn R. Swett

pps.   In case any of you are suddenly seized by a need to make some wings of your own, the  Etsy store is open once again, Backstrap Dialogues ready to fly to you .

Happy Fall!

or any checked pattern for that matter,
is that these squared off weave structures allow weird mixes of yarns
to become balanced lengths of cloth.

Sparked, perhaps, by slightly cooler temperatures,
I've been dreaming of thick tweedy fabric--
something spongy but light,
sturdy but... well, I'm not quite sure of all the characteristics I'm after,
but I'll know it when I see it. And feel it.
 Actually, I don't even know what I want to do with said cloth,
other than find out what I'm after.

But they only way to learn
is to start
because pictures on the internet just don't cut it,.

To that end, I've been grabbing dibs and dabs of leftover yarn from my stash,
filling  a couple of gaps with the odd skein from The Yarn Underground (four blocks from my  house),
spinning a bit,
and weaving them all together.

New things are so messy, so unpredictable, interesting and annoying-- and sometimes sometimes utterly useless.
But they  also spark my nerve endings to moments of design possibility,
and I think that is a good thing.
​We all need a few new ingredients, now and again,
at least I do:
​ideas, people, techniques, tomato varieties.

It keeps the path compelling.

Because you never know things are going to turn out.

And speaking of not knowing -- 
I'm in full on travel angst/freakout mode because I'm heading off next week and 
have no idea what I'm going to pack -- knitting and spinning and concertina and sketchbook and a change of undies?  Or skip the change of undies but add two or three of these houndstooth scarf-like sample thingies in case there is a blizzard...
​
I do, however, know that I will be closing my Etsy shop for about three weeks,
so if you planned to get Backstrap Dialogues or How to Weave a Bag on a Box  in that time, best to do it before Friday.
 No worries though -- I should be back up and running by the second week of  October! 
Not sure if I'll be able to blog or not --
Guess we'll have to wait and see...

Houndstooth is a bit of an obsession just now.
It might be that I love my shuttles so much that I want to use two at once.

Or it could just be that the possibilities of plain weave continue to unfurl before me like an endless enticing road,
be it balanced or weft faced. 

Or it could be that I am a cheap date.
(Four selvedge Warping Instructions here).

But whatever the reason, I'm having a swell time.
Naturally, my inner Storymaker is busy thinking up things to do with all these pieces of cloth, 
but for now I'm letting the Luminist have her way,
--at least, as much as I can.

Thanks so much to everyone who wrote in about their inner helpers last week-- goats and spinning wheels and as yet unnamed beings. Lovely.

ALSO --anyone who ordered a copy of The Backstrap Dialogues before the last few days, (digital or paper), please note that at the bottom of  page 29 I put the wrong web address for Laverne Waddington's wonderful blog about backstrap weaving. It is a fantastic resource and I want to make sure people know how to get there.  So here is a link.  And here is the correct address so you can write it in your zine for future reference: ​https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/

I contacted Laverne the moment I noticed the error and she has been most gracious!
Astonishingly, there really  isn't all that much specific information about backstrap weaving(and almost none that I could find about using it for tapestry or gauze -- thus my zine),
 so it is worth getting it right.

​