Purple Warp/Clasped Weft Planning and Weaving Part V

Progress is slow and when I make a treadling mistake, even slower. 6cm is the best I've managed in a couple of hours, (I can't weave longer than that,) but 4.5cm in the same time after backtracking only a few picks. Thank goodness, mistakes are easy to see in this pattern. I have to remind myself I brought this upon myself, :-D but also that it will be an interesting piece to look at when finished.

The right clasp, purple and dark orange, has become somewhat semi-automatic, so I now have headspace to think about the line it creates. The line between two oranges, still not easy.

However, I made a startling discovery. It was a sunny late morning, and I could see/feel the two oranges from the sides of the loom, so I casually took out my phonecam to record progress to that point. Seen through the phonecam, the contrast between the oranges were much easier to see, standing anywhere. So now I can weave, stop and look at through the phonecam to see the line/curve, and keep weaving. It's not improved the line between the oranges yet, but it might happen soon-ish. 

The hues and values are untrue, but the contrast between the two oranges is approximately how I see it through my phonecam standing where I usually stand while weaving.

Purple Warp/Clasped Weft Planning and Weaving Part IV

Working on paper, I realized I needed to clasp both the left and right sides of the darker orange. I consulted Kaz Madigan, who happened to have visited my house soon after I posted the pretty but eventually-abandoned clasped weft project in 2018. She confirmed that is the case. 

On Tuesday last week, I started weaving in the bottom scheme in the previous post, i.e. darker orange sandwiched between paler orange and purple. After an hour and a bit, the clasping didn't become "automatic," but I grasped the process. I wove each shed in two main steps: open shed - clasp purple/dark orange - beat lightly - close shed; rest; open the same shed - clasp two oranges - beat properly. I had to make sure I opened the same shed twice; luckily with this pattern it's easy to see treadling mistakes. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself.)

Except... the two oranges are indistinguishable under artificial light, and barely so from where I stand while I weave. But I can "feel" the difference more than see it if I step to either side of the loom. Sometimes. It's winter now and my workshop is in the basement although this loom is next to a window, so the hours I can weave is limited, and the weather also influences; we had several grey rainy days, the reason it took me a week to get back to it. 

This photo was taken today, but before I wove, so it shows part of the first 12cm with two colors, and the next <6cm with three; I wove another <6cm today, so it's going to be a really slow one, but hopefully the clasping will become a little more automatic and I can start thinking about the line. I left the head/tail of the dark orange so I/you can see where it came in.

I noticed a few other issues:
1) I'm clasping not inside a plain weave, but a four-shaft zigzag twill that is not threaded regularly, i.e. where the twill direction change are completely random. So I must be mindful of checking each clasp so they don't disrupt the twill pattern. 
2) I always, always use floating selvedges regardless of loom, structure, etc. I had a brief nanosecond thinking I could do away with them on this warp, but out of habit, I didn't. It wasn't a problem while clasping two colors, but with three, I have dropped the FL a few times on the left/orange side. I might thread the selvedges instead on the second piece if weaving with three colors.

While speaking with Kaz, we discussed the merits of the two schemes of positioning the oranges I discussed in the previous post. I honestly could have gone either way, maybe even challenging myself with a new aesthetic, but in the end I went with what felt visually more comfortable, or familiar. I'm not sure if it was the right choice, if I'll be happy at the end. Too late to change my mind for this piece, (although I could still incorporate different aspect, in a hybrid design; in fact I almost did today,) but I could try the other style in another piece if I'm patient enough to weave another three-color piece.

Purple Warp/Clasped Weft Planning and Weaving Part III

I like the mid-orange and pale purple combination so much I couldn't help myself. I started weaving soon after the last post, but stopped after using a little more than half of the orange bobbin; I got about 14cm.

I have three bobbins of the paler orange, two of the darker orange, and in comparison unlimited amount of the purple, (an untouched cone besides all this,) so simple math says I'll get 150cm at this rate, more if I make purple more prominent.

The colors are more saturated than in the pic, but this is a good representation of the relative characteristics of the three yarns; both the purple and the paler orange has white flecks, while the middle orange is more saturated. Though I just wanted to keep weaving, I needed a plan, or a scheme on how to mix the two oranges. So over the next few nights, I drew/painted "thumbnail" versions of how the two oranges can be positioned.

By pages 5 and 6, I knew I had two viable options: to use the orange wefts more or less in turn, as in the top six examples, or insert the darker orange in the center, sandwiched between the pale orange and purple, as in the bottom six examples. The top option is easier to weave, starker in look, while the bottom option is more delicate and prettier. I painted a few more examples of the top option, and though not all that different as plans, the two looks give very different impressions. I like the bottom look better for now.

These "thumbnail" sketches are grossly out of proportion, but the paint colors are accurate (by accident). I'm not sure whether to take the plunge with whichever option I choose, or think/paint a little more.

We are expecting a few heavy-rain days later in the week, and it would be a good time to be weaving something fussy, if I can make up my mind by then.  

Purple Warp/Clasped Weft Planning Part II

I am a weaver who loves to plan and sample, and find the actual weaving part, at times, boring. Clasping the weft is good in sustaining my interest. But my body and mind must find clasping exhausting also, as it took me four sittings in three days just for the first sample. In the last sitting, the draw-in was becoming so big was pulling at the selvedges all the time. I shall stop whenever my attention starts to wane when I move onto the scarves. 

In narrower pieces in the past, I used wound bobbins not in shuttles for clasping, but this warp being wider, I put them in shuttles for the first time. Overall it worked well, but I noticed one thing; that slight differences in bobbin lengths makes a huge difference. I make bobbins by recycling card stock to fit the longer shuttle right away, and cut to size when they go into the shorter. As you can see the two shuttles are only slightly different in length, and often the bobbins are cut short enough to fit in the shorter shuttle, but just. Whereas they tend to have more room in the longer. 

While sampling, quite a lot of weft unwound from the longer shuttle as the bobbins moved more freely. I've had to manually rewind several times, in addition to pressing the bobbin ever so slightly with my forefinger when I remembered. This is not a problem per se, but an unwanted nuisance.

Because the wefts travel twice in a shed, after weft-finishing they bunch up nicely, looking in places like tiny beads, and adding meatiness to the cloth.

I am satisfied with the treading, particularly because it works better if I don't change the direction of treadling too often. But with lighter-value wefts the pattern is too visible, taking the eye away from the clasping. 

And finally the colors. I had in mind darker, saturated purples, greens, maybe blues, and perhaps reds to complement, but also used up a lot of thrums to sample the threading, and practice clasping with shuttles. I wished I had a more cheerful true green, but otherwise, I see a few workable combinations.

A few surprises:
* A is a pale lavender a little too light for my liking on its own, but it worked well here, and I have a lot of it.
* B is a salmon-based mix with dark purple, orange, and a few other things from Mom's stash. She had a whole cone, and though I sampled it in different warps it never looked good anywhere, so if memory servers, I used it in a multi-colored warp. I have very little of it now, but this is the first time it looks attractive, and darn it, I wished I had saved it. 
* C is the only cashmere/silk I auditioned; it fulled nicely, almost as much as the 100%, and does stand out with its sheen. I'm hesitant to use it in combination with 100% as it may distort the shape over the planned 180cm length, which is my plan for these pieces, but may weave a piece with two cashmere/silk wefts.

B is at the top. I have three possible pairs, but two with potential problems. 

A, the pale lavender and a rusty orange, (the middle orange,) look great together but I have only three bobbins of the orange, and from memory I need four to five if I were to use two colors in roughly equal amounts. I'm not sure if I like the idea of lopsided distribution. 

And then the medium purple with the medium green; this is the closest to my original color idea, but I have even less of this green, and I really don't want to weave with even more lopsided distribution. Other greens I have are much lighter-value ones, and I'm not keen on the idea of mixing them with this one. 

C, the middle green is the silk mix. Although I did not sample the salmon-colored silk mix, which is somewhere between the two sampled pinks but a slightly different hue, I'm pretty confident this combination will look nice.

Another thought is to use the two purples in the first and second pictures. And I have plenty of them.

I have been staring at the samples for a few days; if I were to start weaving, the last silk-mix combo is probably the best place to start as I have enough of both. Alternatively, I might sample navies and yellows to help me make up my mind. Oh, but this thinking and not knowing but having all the options is a most delicious moment.

Purple Warp/Clasped Weft Planning Part I

First the colors and proportions. We are now standing in front of the loom; I still think wider borders might have been more attractive, but I ran out of the navy, so never mind,

Next I considered whether to undulate or not, in the threading, treading, or both, and decided not to in the threading. (I can still undulate in the treadling.) Keeping in mind this is the widest warp in which I am going to clasp wefts so far, with only two weft colors, so I could expect larger areas where nothing will happen re. weft colors compared to past clasped projects.

I considered where to place smaller/fussier shapes and where the bigger shapes, in relation to the main event, the interaction of two weft colors. At this point I still saw the clasping as the focus, superimposed on the patterned background. My main concern was not to distract from the clasping by making the sides too fussy, but providing enough visual interest. I was also mindful that from afar the clasping is visible, while the patterns would need closer inspection. (I consider a kind of a gift for the wearers/owners; I chuckle imagining them noticing something new after wearing the piece awhile.)

I saw both option workable on the computer with only one weft color, but wanted to see in real life before I decided. I was keen to get sampling, and with somewhere around 190 ends, I could easily rethread, so I threaded randomly but somewhat like the left view.

In the sampling, I would be auditioning 1) weft hues/values; 2) attractive weft pairings; and 3) optimal harmony superimposing clasping over patterned background.

What Warped Minds We Have!

I can talk about warps until your ears fall off, and yet I'm having a hard time clarifying, in words, what place warps have in my weaving.

The way I design has changed somewhat over the years, but on the whole I leave it to the warp to make the designs/shapes. Twill was my starting point when I started weaving without recipes, so even with other structures, I more or less think the same way. 

Designing starts with a particular warp yarn, (and sett, and hand,) in mind, and I work on the threading; I sometimes make curves in the treadling and turn the draft, but that's only because it's physically easier to input curvy lines in the treadling area on the computer. As I start to play with tie-ups and the real treadling, I start to think about fibers/yarns that would suit this particular "warp environment". With wefts, I think about colors and texture in the main. This is probably why I sample a lot of wefts to see what creates the greatest harmony with the warp, the loveliest hand, but also which weft makes the best use of the warp the way I set it up, which weft best realizes what I intend with this warp. Of course there are lots of leeway and surprises, but on the whole, the method has served me well in weaving merchandises and commission pieces.

This method limits random creativity, however, resulting in the lack of variety of aesthetics, which is why I mixed it up with random threading/treadling, clasped weft, other structures, or even unattractive-to-me warps. It's a real triumph when I make such a warp look good, but a complete defeat when I end up with ick pieces made from a lovely warp. For a long time I avoided ugly-to-me warps, but this is the benefit of growing old, I think; it doesn't matter because it's the trying-and-seeing that counts, and if I triumph, all the better. And it's a good way to use some of someone else's stash. (Hello, Mom!) It's all been and continues to be a wild ride.

* * * * *

This is my original warp tree, a spare warping board. There are more warps in bags at the bottom, possibly in my cashmere drawer, and at least one upstairs. It sits behind me as I weave on the Jack loom, in the path of direct sunlight, the warps are usually covered with corrugated cardboard. 

These are the immediate next candidates you saw in a previous post while I auditioned border colors. I can see these while I weave on the Jack.

Underneath the immediate nexts are the regular nexts that may go on any loom. I wanted to contemplate while I weave on the Jack. I honestly never thought of simply moving the original warp tree until this week. I "temporarily" hung a few warps on top of the warping mill some time ago, and often done this from time to time, but now this seems semi-permanent.

Under that layer is the mill which has held Syrie warp forever. I haven't done anything because I don't know how to proceed with the project, but I used already ancient silk among the dozen or more yarns, and they are now really crumbling. This being a "show" piece, not utilitarian, I'm not against having knots in the warp, but we shall see what I do when I finally decide to go ahead with the project.

At one point, I started a notebook listing all unwoven warps, and every couple of years I took inventory and rewrote the list. I still counted/recorded numbers while making the warp on backs of envelopes, but if they had anything tricky/sexy like different numbers of ends for different colors, I cut out the information and taped/stapled it on to the notebook. A few years ago I got smart and started recording the information on the same notebook and now just cross out warps I've woven.

I've just come upstairs after winding the next warp on the Jack loom; this is a view from the back. I will probably get three clasped weft piece in a randomly threaded twill, but I can't decide whether I want undulation. At 12 inches, it's the widest clasped weft warp so far, but I'm still going to use only two colors.

I wanted slightly wider borders but had only a small amount of the navy, so I measured that first, and made the green slightly narrower. Don't worry about the green on the far left; When I ran out of the navy, I tied on the green for the loom waste and the sampling portion. By the time I can start the proper piece, it'll automagically turn navy.

Reboot

I've become energized about coming out of semi-retirement and weaving other than self-indulgence projects. It took a month to determine what I want to focus on in the near future, after months of not knowing what I want to weave for the Suter Store. (Interesting how retail outlets are called "shops" in New Zealand, while "stores" may refer to storage facilities, yet websites often have "store finders", and the Suter calls its own a "Store". It's a conspiracy to trip up implants like me, I tell ya.) 

I categorized the kind of weaving I've engaged in, and ordered them on a scale of difficulty/ease or time spent making a piece. In doing so, I realized I love designing, planning, and sampling, and don't mind loom-dressing, so I was comparing only the actual weaving part. 

The easiest/quickest is on the four-shaft Jack, with easy treadling. This can be a twill, basket weave, (two shuttles, but easy once you get used to it,) or something like this:  

Then the option slits three ways. One is clasped-wefts on the four-shaft with easy treadling, which can be time-consuming but not difficult; I just have to pay attention to the line two wefts create. And the good news is, a young jewelry maker called my attention to the fact two weft colors look more effective than three or more. Who doesn't love it when the simpler option works better.

The second option is to weave a slightly more complicated pattern on the Ashford eight-shaft table loom, (which I'm not using at the moment as I find it hard to monitor the pick since the breast-beam-to-heddle is too short for the purpose,) or even Klik, (super easy to dress, cumbersome to lift/drop shafts, which is why I tend to save this for learning new structures or abbreviated sampling.) But cashmere survives the shed in both looms.

The third option is fussy twills on the 16-shaft computer dobby. I usually use one shuttle at a time, but the shafts are lifted with an air-compressor-solenoid combo, so the rhythm of weaving is left to the mechanism rather than my body, and it's a bother weaving backwards when I make mistakes. But I like the look and hand of these. 

Cashmere, though, can't withstand the large shed of the 16-shaft, so in future, I'll be using more 30/2 merino in the warp and cashmere in the weft as I did in the piece below. Although I learned to weave on 16/2 merino and I miss them dearly, these thinner merino will allow even skinny silk in the weft, so I'm looking forward trying that.  

At the most time-consuming end is the tied-unit weave I indulge in. I'm also looking at different ways of including random shapes onto the woven cloth, but I haven't focused on a particular method yet, and I must do a lot of sampling to figure out whether it's worth the time required to weave a piece this way vs. the visual impact of the clasped wefts, for example, not to mention the hand of pieces with uneven wefts.

I guess categorizing isn't going to determine what I'll weave when; I'm going to keep weaving what I want to. But I hope thinking about this will help me use my time more efficiently so I don't get bogged down on only the pleasure projects.

There is a lot to look forward to. I'm currently weaving the last piece on the gray-ish cashmere warp on the Jack; I was so looking forward to weaving more in a similar pattern on a two-grays warp for a while, but now I can't stop thinking about clasped weft in saturated pules, greens, teal if I have some. (The burgundy warp is half-length, so two scarves, which makes it even more tempting.) I'll keep you posted.

Moving On

On Monday, I thought I'd be productive and augment/widen this warp, wind it, and even thread it for another clasped weft. Except I'd forgotten I had the dark colors in the center of the warp, not on one side, and that felt like a game-changer for the purpose.

Because I missed the big birthday anyway, (not only the giving-of-the-pressie, but we both had reaction to our third Covid Booster,) there is no reason I need to rush this one. I started thinking: "What is it I want to make?" OK, before that, what do I think when planning/weaving a clasped weft piece? 

1) First and foremost, I notice hues and their interplay in most textiles, but with clasped weft, weft colors, (why monochromatic felt so new to me;) hues, values, their relationships, balance/proportion.  

 

2) Second, obviously the shapes of/lines dividing the two/different weft areas, (which monochromatic wefts bring to the fore;) included are balance/proportion, balance/contrast, repetition, even moods like pointy, rounded, elongated, etc., should I/viewer look for any. 

3) Then there is the underlying weave structure, which appear at times vividly, and other times not so well behind the "busyness" of the above two elements. But I'm always terribly into interesting structures/patterns, avoiding plain weave where I can, even if this hampers the precision of shapes/lines possible with clasped weft on plain weave. 

 

One thing I noticed on the Navy/Orange piece, is where threading moves quickly, e.g. 1-2-3-4, there are vertical stripes in the finished piece which weren't evident while weaving; where there were some floats, e.g. 1-1-2-2-3-3-3-4-4, the warps are covered better and no stripes appeared. This also relates to 4). This piece was woven 20EPI for cushynesss; I may revert to 18EPI but I'm not sure that will solve the problem. All three pieces have left home now and in the samples, these strips are not obvious to invisible. 

 

These were woven on four shafts, so the complexity of background pattern is limited.

4) And lastly, (that I can think of at this moment,) there is the warp hues/values. They are not as obvious or as consequential as I think I would like them to be, but if they are too manifest, they will distract from the main event, the 1) and 2) above. Hues/values obviously influence the finished look, i.e making the dark end darker and the light end lighter in the first two pieces of the previous monochromatic warp; actually, the navy in the third piece looked very nice against black, too. But it can make the overall picture murkier, even messy. Have a look at pieces I wove on a warp I made at the same time as the one I'm about to. See the dark bits in the middle? I'm not crazy about that. And the more I think about it, the closer the warp hues/values should be linked to background pattern. 

 

For now my gut feeling is, because I think this warp is pretty, but perhaps not as clasped weft background, perhaps I shouldn't make a clasped-weft-specific warp, and use this to have a pattern-focus towards the center as well. OR, is this a more challenging challenge?

Duty to my swap mates notwithstanding, this week I thought a bit of color play might yield fresh insight, so I'm doing small mixed media. Of course there is the fact I like mulling over weavy-thinky things. But then I can't get away from my Senior Brain worries my skills and abilities are only going further downhill, and the only way I can think of to combat that is more weaving. (Note to self: this did not happen to Mom until she was well into her 80s!) I'm not pessimistic. I'll go downstairs and continue to thread tied-weave; I can't wait to start sampling that one. I'll keep thinking about this warp as well as clasped weft, and try to transfer my head-picture onto something on the looms. 

 

I must also start the cool season weeding. I had a 2-week reprieve from that weird hey-fever/face/eye thing in February; it came back in March with the autumn wind; but we've had rain in April, and the wind isn't as fierce, so it's not as bad. Autumn came suddenly this year. Liquid maple turned from green to dark purple overnight, skipping all the lovely colors in between, I might have already told you, but still holding tight to the branches. It's actually been a pretty autumn, pleasant, and not cold like some years after the initial chill. There is oh-so-much to clean at our place, inside and out; annual doc appt at the end of the month; so many interesting books to read; I've no time for sulking!

Monochromatic Cashmere Warp Pieces Three and Four

In short, this piece was a (giant) flop, because of the erratic beating. What's worse, I was unaware of it while weaving, and only saw how bad it was when the remainder of the warp came off the loom. And it took me over a week to come to terms with it. But more on that later.

I had another intended giftee for the third piece. This person, with a big birthday coming up, often surprises with bold colors and patterns in their leisure wear. I wanted to weave in that spirit. First I re-rethreaded to bring in more movement, (middle sample,) but I wasn't successful, so I re-rethreaded, (right sample,) which I liked better. 

 

I struggled with the colors, too, but finding a recent photo of the giftee's new-to-me pants, I tried navy and oranges, seen at the top of the far right sample. The very top combination would have been nearest to the photograph, but they are 26/2, which would have taken longer to weave but also change the lines I've gotten used to weaving with 20/2. I could have gone either way, with the orange, (second from top), or a somewhat toned-down but closer-to-the-photo burnt orange, (third), but Ben and I thought bolder would be better. The 20/2 navy is my absolute favorite, a color I thought I might use for myself one day, but much better to weave a special pressie for a special person!

Introducing hues to this warp at first disappointed me when the delicate interplay of the achromatic yarns was taken over by the colors demanding my attention. But gradually their boldness allowed me to get a little adventurous with shapes.This portion felt particularly fresh in spite of the treadling mistake. (This photo shows the colors pretty accurately.) 

However, I must beat harder when I'm excited about what I see on the loom; this very section caused the biggest disappointment in the beat department. Witness how relaxed I felt after the "combs" and went back to the gappy beating I aimed for to produce an airier final texture. 

Clasped-weft, particularly in twill, presents a unique problem in how much give to allow where the two wefts clasp. The loops full enough in the washing to not present a problem, but in succession, sometimes the shapes can look stitched together. (Again, accurate colors.)

In rethreading, I brought back longer floats; this allows "islands" of colors depending on the clasp position. This bothered me while weaving, but in a finished piece, it's not all bad. Longer floats, though, change how precisely lines/shapes can be controlled, which is why tapestry is (usually?) woven in plain weave. I'm not sure if this is important for my purposes, or if I prefer the weave pattern to be interesting as well. (Well, of course, the latter!!)

The fourth, warp-end swatch, was woven with Mom's oddball leftover; super fat and glossy. I can't even guess the size of the yarn but something I consider a knitting yarn, with plenty of silk, not as airy as 100% cashmere after finished. Throughout, I was struggling with the white warps' tension - here I was just in a rush to finish the warp.

The next warp on the four-shaft will be the left one, although as with this monochrome warp, I will have to add a couple of inches, probably on the dark end, to weave wider pieces than I planned when I made the warp. Most colors in it are not bold, but I'll leave that to the wefts, with warp colors adding interest rather than clashing. 

 

Now to the real issue with the third piece. I am sick of each and every project being a gamble on how alert I can stay to all aspects of weaving as I work. It's hardly as if I'm slacking off and dismissing problems while I work, but I've always had a one-track mind; I have problems paying attention to multiple things simultaneously; treadling, beating, selvedge, draw-in...

I've observed some older weavers' skills or tenacity deteriorate, although many just stay the course and keep weaving beautifully and skillfully. (How dare they!) I've said many times I've always been technically weak, but I'm having to face the "is my best days over" too often. It's bad for my self-esteem, even with my usual compartmentalizing and seeing objectively matters relating to weaving. 

 

At the not-so-back of my mind is when, a few years ago, a bad cashmere warp made me suddenly stop weaving altogether, not even consciously, for maybe a year and a half. I didn't know if I would ever get back to it, I didn't care, I just walked away for a time, and I didn't feel guilty about it. Long-time readers would know how absolutely unusual that is.

I want to avoid that; the not weaving. I can only hope the best remedy is to keep weaving. At least if I keep weaving, there is a higher probability I'll make something nice, in comparison to not weaving. Had I had the presence of mind, I might have put on another warp and worked right through in time to finish another scarf. This warp came off the loom nine days ago, so it's not as if it was completely impossible.

 

In retrospect, I knew this was a no-goer the moment I laid the remainder of the warp on the floor that evening. Because I didn't have a genuine debate as to the worth of this piece; it was more a brain-freeze, a weaver-in-the-headlights week. I couldn't, or didn't, gauge how bad this was, nor think of a remedy. Instead, I ignored it, then finally wet-finished it, dried it, then moved it around the living room without really looking at it or touching it.

If there was anything good about this piece and the last week, I'm thankful it was only a nine-day brain-freeze, that since last night I see my next steps clearly. And in view of my Senior Brain, at least the steps of setting up the loom is among the tasks that can keep me focused and I enjoy. 

 

So, dear friends, onwards! (And Happy Birthday to Mr Fancypants!)

A Little More on Stephen's Farewell Scarf

This is the second, longer, piece on this monochromatic warp.  

I had never "seen" the thickness of anything I wove in cashmere until earlier this week when it hung on the back of a chair, and I glanced at it from the other end of the hallway while hunting for a suitable box. I should have taken a picture of it instead of just sighing loudly, but it was a sight to behold. In the end it went inside a beat up computer part (?) box Ben had, suitable to house a piece for his restructured-out, (don't get me started on this,) boss. I now realize how yarn-hungry the current projects are; on the third piece I chose a big ball and a particularly heavy cone, and still I'm going to be able to manage just about 170-180cm, using up both. This will be a big issue if I ever decide to weave to sell clasped weft pieces.

After I washed it and it finished up much nicer than I anticipated, (because that's usually my primary and only concern,) I started to worry if I chose this look/technique for my own creative ego rather than suitability/taste of the intended. Ben had said he wore conservative colors and always had a suit jacket. I wanted to make something special. So though the colors were conservative, but the overall look? Hardly.  

 

Ben brought it to work yesterday and gave it to the boss during morning tea, and texted me that it was well-received. There was some mention of the piece's versatility in casual and formal/work situations, for which I was glad because it wasn't just in my imagination it could go "outdoorsy or opera," the two ends of the spectrum of fanciness in my mind. OK, opera in NZ, where women don't wear lovely silk gowns. I've no doubt it also helped yesterday was the first cold day of the season. 

 

I'm having similar doubts about the current, third piece's colors, too. This is unusual as I was always pretty confident my giftees would like my pieces as long as I "got it right."I know. It's me, me, me. I'm not sure if this emerging doubt relates to my decreasing confidence in technique, aging, or something else.  

 

Clasped weft as a technique has pitfalls, and at least one of the biggie I know is built into the fact I use twill. I'm trying to make notes on all of them before I can decide how to improve/eradicate, or ignore; I'll write about them in future. For now I'm trying to concentrate on the third piece, and possibly another, short piece after that. 

The box was snug, and trying to fold the scarf as few times as possible, it turned out looking wrinkly all over, but it's a solid piece; I can be happy about that.

EDIT: the box actually contained car parts, says Ben. Even better, Stephen loves cars so much, he even brought his father's MGB GT from England. But I must add, it was a clean one, no oil stains or the like, just badly bashed in three corners.

Monochromatic Cashmere Warp Piece Two

Ben chose the second set of wefts, a blue-white and the same dark gray. I decided not to rethread because of time constraints; also because I wasn't confident if rethreading will necessarily result in better design/texture, and I didn't want to kick myself thinking I ruined it again. 

 

I didn't know this at the start, but apparently I wanted to create bigger shapes. It's much easier to do fussy zig-zag lines, while patience, dexterity and the ability to predict shapes/lines, are needed to make bigger shapes. Restricting myself to weaving 20-30cm a day, (which felt like a terribly bad use of time,) was a big factor in giving me headspace and practice smoother lines/bigger shapes.  

So I don't jinx myself, I started treadling 2-3-4-5, then changed direction twice, so a great majority of the piece was woven with this treadling. (And I'm still not sure why this is easier after all the years of preferring 5-4-3-2, but never mind, it works, I'll stick with it.)

I still don't have the ability to foresee where the line between the dark and light wefts go, and many, many times, I moved them, opening the same shed twice, thrice, or more adjusting. I never understood how changes in angle, (how far left/right the intersection of the two wefts are in relation to the previous pick,) will reflect in the longer curve of the line, so sometimes the move was too acute where I wanted more gentler curves, while other times the angle was too obtuse, or even not moving at all. I tried drawing lines on paper to see if I could understand better, but it didn't help much. I'm going to do some more drawing on graph paper, but also, I might start drawing cartoons, not for whole scarves but in sections where I want to reuse the shapes. For e.g. I liked this section, which looks like Casper and his unfriendly cohorts, or sharks' fins.

For variety, I did include some zigzags.

Towards the end, however, I was adamant I was going to tame the smooth lines, making the last quarter (bottom) boring in my eyes. Except... I got a cute hippo as a result. I know, now you can't unsee him, either, can you? Anyhoo...

First piece, right, washed/agitated again. Second piece, left, washed/agitated vigorously. Color sample, also washed/agitated a second time. Though both still wet, the texture is fluffier than the first piece after one wash, although still nowhere near the initial sample. White weft of the second piece is striking, but the light mid-gray of the first is nuanced and attractive. 

 

There is one problem, also, of weaving with clasped wefts in twills, which I learned when I wove in this style a few years back, but I haven't considered it in any depth. I'll show you in the post discussing the next piece. 

 

I got 213cm on the loom this time; 205cm in above pic, 204.5cm at completion. Just in time for Farewell Do on Wednesday.

Monochromatic Cashmere Warp Preamble and Piece One

Early this year I discovered I might need a farewell gift in march, and the potential giftee being a conservative/casual English dresser, I thought monochromatic cashmere scarf would be nice. To make it a little special, I had clasped weft in mind. And to make the fabric thicker and the weaving faster, I planned to weave in the "return trip" clasping, (I just made that up - is there a proper name for it?) i.e. two wefts come in from respective selvedges, are clasped somewhere in the shed, and return to their selvedges of origin, and beaten; i.e. two-weft thickness in each pick. 

I put on a monochrome warp I made a while back. It was too narrow so I added more black at the right; in my mind this ruined the delicate original intent, a mostly white and two pale grays with just enough black to keep the piece from floating away. Never mind, the purpose is a man's not-short (180-210cm) piece, and upon consulting some of Ben's scarves and the man himself, Ben and not the intended, 18-20cm-ish width was more desirable than 15cm-ish that was the original plan for the warp.

I threaded in a make-it-up-as-I-go undulating twill and sampled, but did not like the parts where two and three ends were threaded in the same shaft in succession, e.g. 1-2-2-3-3-4-4-4-3-3, so I rethreaded, varying these to, for e.g. 1-2-2-3-4-4 or 1-2-3-3-4-1-2-2-3-4, etc. I also left only one set of three ends in one shaft. In retrospect I'm not sure if this mattered; long floats fluff up wonderfully, and it might have been nicer to leave them, so there remains a possibility of rerethreading. 

For Piece One I used my favorite weft combination in the sample; the pale gray is so pale I had a hard time distinguishing it from white while in a ball or weaving. Soon realized I may not have enough of it to weave 180-210cm, and I tried to make it go the distance, using very little in some parts. I was ready to make this a short, 150cm piece, but in the end it grew to just 179cm off the loom. (I'm amazed how much darker the pale weft looks in the finished piece.)

 

I found the weaving labour-intensive, and on Day One, managed only 18cm. Days Two and Three I wove twice that much, which gave me all kinds of muscle aches, but worse, mental fatigue. On Day 3 I kept making treadling mistakes, (it's only 5-4-3-2; how could I go wrong?,) some of which I didn't see right away. In once instance I even liked the mistake and decided to leave it in, but now I'm not sure. I wove in that weird autodrive I mentioned in the last post. Around the middle of the piece, I changed the treadling to 2-3-4-5, creating a diamond shape; I was going to do this a few times, but since I made so few mistakes treadling in this order, I didn't dare change it back. This is peculiar, considering I've always woven one-directional twills 5-4-3-2 as long as I had this loom.

 

Days 4 and 5, it was better as I wove about 20cm each day. With both the body and mind in better condition, I felt nimble and wove more precisely. On Day 4, my design brain was working well, so I was making more interesting patterns. I also caught nearly half a dozen treadling mistakes, but I saw them and was able to fix them straight away. On Day 5, the mind-body synchronization was good again, but not so much the design brain, so I felt less exuberant, but thankfully not stressed. So the lesson here was, she shouldn't persevere. Which doesn't really go well with my temperament, but I'm sticking to it for the time being because it's a lot better than mending afterwards.

 

I dwell on mind-body synchronization, because I know this relates to aging, especially re. my mind, although I really prefer the word "senility" because that rings truer to me. Muscle fatigue from weaving, I have experienced for some years, (though hardly every time I weave,) and to some degree weaving consistently improves the situation, especially when weaving similar techniques on the same loom. It's purely a muscle/fitness thing. But the mental fatigue is new; it's not just being tired or bored and not wanting to think/write about it, but more like weaving and other thoughts wiped out cleanly on a chalk or white board! With my mother's lucidity fluctuating, (it's definitely weird more often, but she hides them so well, Sister and I can't quite pin down where she is at any given time, but only in comparison to other recent occasion.) I observe myself in the same psedo-objective eye, and can spot lucidity varying, the most annoying when having to think of how to do things I usually do automatically.

Lordy, I feel old.

This piece also became an experiment in the shapes/lines/motif, and instead of going for one or another kind of a look, I went for maximum variety. This "research" is on-going, so I'll write about it when I finish the warp, with better pics of the pieces.
 
Note to self: 179cm off the loom, 172cm after resting, and 166.5cm washed. Weaving width is 20cm; washed, 18.5cm. Shrinkage 93% and 92% respectively.

Clarity/Obscurity

Obscurity: After the natural 26/4 weft piece early last week, after sampling more tweedy looks, I wove one with two minty green 26/2 combined to make 26/4 as weft for quick weaving. I prefer yellow but I've been told too often, "I would never wear yellow," so... (This combo, though, has a slightly car-sick complexion.) With still some more warp left, I used achromatic thrums and left-on-bobbin bits to weave a randomly-treadled piece for me or family. I expected to get a short fabric or enough for a cowl at best, but I got a short scarf; had I known, I would have woven a proper scarf with pale blue wefts. I rushed to get this warp finished, and regret wasting a really lovely warp. Still, another old warp off the loom.   

Clarity: Abandoning the clasped wefts was the right decision. After washing the wee piece, I remembered the last time I tried, pointed threading/treadling pose problems. Weaving with clasped wefts, sometimes I had to choose between showing clearly the weave pattern or the shapes/lines created by the different colors. 

 

I wonder if the same problem exists with what I call the lazy clasped weft, where one weft enters the shed from the right selvedge, another from the left, they clasp somewhere in the shed and return to their original selvedges. Each weft travels round trip, two picks in a shed, so the lines/shapes won't be as sharp, but it's worth considering/experimenting in combination with point threading/treadling. 

 

Obscurity: The last remaining of the three unfinished warp is the brittle purple variegated mohair/merino warp. Intellectually it is a no brainer to take it off the loom. The more I wove on the delicate warp, the more erratic my beat became and as you can see top right I packed it in so much in comparison to the samples on the left or the start of the piece on bottom right. It's unattractively weft-dominant. But I got some nice samples from this warp and every other day I feel I must persist. The other every other day, I get giddy thinking about a number of warps that can go on the big loom if only I abandon this one.

Clarity: I had a ten-week gap in my joy-knitting. I wasn't sure why I was still doing this, because it's ugly and stiff in parts, but it's good as a sampler, so I'm sticking with it. I'm leaving ends sticking out, etc, so when it's done its work, I'll unravel and knit something else with the yarn. 

Clarity: I'm learning more about arthritis. Holding tightly/pulling/exertion aggravates it. After taking turmeric capsules and drinking turmeric and cinnamon concoctions for a fortnight, I was still afraid of weeding, but felt most chores around the house would be OK. Weaving was fine, as was cooking, ironing, cleaning, until I made the mistake of squeezing tiny limes from the garden by hand; my right hand lit up like Christmas tree and throbbed for a day and a half. I have been having increased difficulty opening glass jars, though, even when the hands aren't hurting.

 

Good/bad food for arthritis overlap with those for diabetes, so there hasn't been a big change in our diet in theory; in practice we're cutting out a whole lot of carbo/sugar that crept back in the last couple of years. Unlike weight-control or diabetes, though, arthritis hurts, so it's easy to skip naughty foods. And with so much weird "teas" every day, I even got used to turmeric; it no longer suck my will to live. :-D

A week to go with this most "memorable" year, folks. I wonder what else I can finish.

Wrong Job

My ears are still weird, but I had a lot of energy yesterday so I wove the achromatic warp. Standing up straight and looking at the whole width of the piece one second, leaning down to clasp the wefts the next; LOL, it was so the wrong job! If I didn't have vertigo before in the morning, I sure felt woozy after a few repeats. But I enjoyed the task; extremely slow, perhaps I managed 10cm in all, but I like the look of clasp-weft pieces, and I love it achromatic.

But I also miss the swish-swish weaving, (or in my case it's more su-wooooooo-sh-su-wooooooo-sh,) so I put the pale gray merino on the big loom. 28/2, I think I'm weaving with it for the first time, so I put it in the raddle at 32EPI, but I have to sample. Perhaps 36EPI for fluffy cashmere weft/s, and 40 to 42EPI for skinny silk weft/s. I don't have a draft yet; I'm thinking of a tied weave, but I have to relearn them first, and then make some up. I can probably get three pieces after sampling and I'd like to have at least two drafts with the same threading.

I wove again this morning, but it was even slower. I manage roughly 7-9cm per "sitting", or an hour and a big, although some days I can do one and a half sitting; the second is always shorter. Hum...

Roughly 42cm done; I hope I can manage a second sitting this afternoon.

Fidgeting

Some birds around here are like me; they are chirpier on cooler days. Fantails are going crazy although on their best behavior they're still crazy. A wax-eye came though a narrow crack in the living room window, panicked, and pooed all over the window sill. I couldn't catch it in Ben's big, soft leather gardening gloves, so "cornered" it in a cardboard box, and slowly moved the box towards the window's opening. Don't come back; you pooed too close to the cashmere stack.

* * * * *

I enjoy knitting in the evenings so much I've been going to bed an hour later every night but don't feel tired in the morning. If I wake up during the night, I can go back to sleep. I'm following what Oliver Sacks recommended: if I wake up, start doing something, (he meant reading,) I stop the moment I feel drowsy, because he wrote we have a 2-3 second window after which, (as in by the time I finish the sentence,) it's gone.

I happen to think my tubular scarves are pretty wonderful, if I may say so myself, and I know Mom is going to love it in spite of her protestations. I don't want to stop after Mom's, (even though by 60cm, I'm going to be sick of this particular one,) although these are too warm for Nelson. And my family is completely sick of Mom and me forcing scarves upon them. Then I thought, I have many friends in Minnesota! A mate in Maine who posts a bunch of shivery pictures! Surely there are a few more. And it doesn't get cold over yonder for another, oh, four months? Evil smile! Targets!! I'm scheming.

* * * * *

I fidgeted all morning, not tired, just restless, after having finished the work on May Sale. Funny how I had tons of great ideas of what to do next while working on it. It felt like a mini mental whiplash. While there are tons of little things that need doing/finishing ASAP, I kept refreshing my Facebook page and checking Emails every 15 seconds. Silly, I know. I was really looking forward to some culling and cleaning.

I kept eyeing the knitting right next to me, but it was cold and I knew downstairs would be easier to heap up. So I wove. Usual selvedge-to-selvedge weaving is a good workout, I don't need heating but clasped wefts are different.

Clasped weft is time-consuming, especially with three colors at once. For a while I thought I got a hang of it, knowing how to pay attention to the two boarders simultaneously; then I forgot where I was with the treadling. And this one is a no brainer: 4-3-2-1-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-1-2-3.) The technique requires my complete attention. I was about to quit a few times, but I grew interested in the way lines/shapes grew, and I kept going. After two, (three?) hours, I got about 20cm woven and I was quite done.

But here's my next problem. You know I'm not "small", but I'm very short. So with the piece advanced and the start of it over the breast beam, my middle keeps rubbing against it, sometimes distorting the shapes. And this is going to continue because I have my face just above the cloth when I do clasp the wefts.

Yikes.

* * * * *

"Solvitur ambulando," a phrase I learned today, but hardly a new concept. Is this why we go on, or how we go on???

To Boldly Go Where Many Weavers have Gone Before!

I abandoned the stretchy cotton cowl project for now, and started the other idea I had while making Ben's scarf: I'm knitting Mom a short tubular scarf; she won't have to fold it in a certain way to achieve maximum warmth and it'll be short and tiny so she can put another decorative scarf on top and then put on a jacket/coat if she likes. The width is similar to a sleeve. And because it's tubular, i.e. less purling, it's going quicker.

The problem is, though, and I see this not as a problematic problem but one that requires thought/direction, is I find this more boring than Ben's. I'm using three strands rather than four I did with Ben's because it needed to be fluffier and lighter for Mom. Ben's had two strands of 100% in one color, one strand of a second color in 100%, and a fourth in the second color in silk/cashmere, which gave a comparative solid color plus light bits and sparkly bits. In comparison, Mom's has one strand of the first and the two others, so the overall color is lighter, but the cloth looks more mottled; funny that's the first word that came to mind while I used to see it more complex and interesting.

I don't know if my taste is changing, if I want to make/include bold into my visual vocabulary; I don't know if bold necessarily means flat, or if something can bold and complex/layered. I hope it can, i.e. a scarf can look bold from a distance, but delicate/complex/layered close up? See how many adjectives I can come up in defense of not-flat??

This is what I started on Esther's warp. The warp is far less complex than the previous clasped weft warp, only a gradation of five achromatics. I've put my cousin's husband's piece on the back burner because I haven't come up with (a) good weft color/s.

I wanted to use only black and white in the weft but don't have enough white, so I'm using a mid-gray as well. This white isn't even white but a very pale gray, and I wanted to use another pale gray, (second stripe from the right,) as the middle weft, but had none in 20/2. So the one in use is the same as the middle stripe, which makes logical sense.

It's FAR more time-consuming clasping at two places per pick, not just twice as. I want the lines to be more or less parallel, but that's not as easy as I thought. With three colors, the middle color determines the size and the shape of the two stripes on the sides, so every pick I should weave the mid-gray first, but I find that unnatural and want to start from the side. What's weirder is the lines are so different from each other. I don't know why they're turning out this way, except that it's raining and the light in the basement is different, not necessarily darker, but with the new position for the loom, unfamiliar. I also envisioned the mid-gray being much skinnier, sandwiched between black and white, but that's not working, yet, either.

Some weeks ago I took gazillion pics of leaves from one tree. I had clasped-weft composition in mind, but also, you know what they say about mixing red and green in textiles? The more they say "don't", the more I see possibilities. Hee hee. Also rare for me to look to nature for inspiration, but then I had an hour to kill before Ben was ready to go home, and saw the tree in the parking lot.

Which reminds me of something I read a few nights ago: "If I had been a real writer I might have found post-modern beauty or at least a few lines that pretended I did. But I was an islander from an island at the world's end where the measures of all things that mattered was not man-made, and such sights that moved modern literature did not move me." Richard, Flanagan, "First Person"

I look to stories, fiction or non-fiction, history, art, architecture and literature/lyrics for inspiration. I grew up near Tokyo, and then spent a few years in Minneapolis pre-Internet. After 23.5 years in NZ and most of it in little ol' Nelson, and in the era of ever plentiful Internet, I find myself split in two: a keen awareness of not knowing what's going on elsewhere, or not being able to see it/them in person, of my own FOMO, (that's "fear of missing out", Mom,) on the one hand; and the relief from and appreciation for living far, far away from the trends/fashion/news/noise. That's something I've had to learn how to do, but I prefer living in the basement inside my head. 

Pat came over yesterday to have a look at my clasped weft pieces, my stash, and my basement, to strategize. Online sale is still front and center on that list; I'm moving at a fast snail's pace in the culling department, but I do see bright lights at the end of a long and curvy tunnel now. Pat clarified for me rules for keeping/culling yarns and art supplies:

1) Nelson and New Zealand are hard places to get interesting/good yarns or art supplies, and postage and exchange rates are crazy even with Internet shopping,  and now we're going to be taxed 15% sales tax on all overseas purchases. Experimenting is good, keeping yarns “just in case” is not a sin, and I have some interesting stuff, so keep what I’ll have a hard time replacing unless it violates 3);
2) Tapestry loom may take me into different direction/s so I may want to hold on to certain yarns with which I may not want to weave scarves but want to use as wefts. We see lots and lots of bag fabric;
3) Clarify experimentation and non-product material from nice-garment material. And for goodness sales, Do not waste time weaving "not me" pieces I’ll then have to make excuses for in making them sound attractive. Nice. OK.

I spent last night rewriting my new rules into actionable culling checklist, and I'm ready for another go. There is always FOMO about yarns that survived years of culling, but I do have oh, so much nice thin merinos, cottons and silks that I want to weave with! But then what if I want to change directions completely and work with fat yarns for bold expressions?

And we haven't even touched the subject of books.

Woe/Wow

Hello, again. It's been a week.

Ben's cable-knit scarf has reached a meter, 103cm to be exact. Best evenings I managed 7cm-ish, so I'll be happy if I'm done this week because I have three/four smaller knitting projects in mind already.

Here are the two from black merino/mohair warp in the same hellebore draft. The piece on the left has scalloped selvedge on both sides in places, but not enough to "disqualify", and has a super duper pleasing hand. The silk piece on the right has uneven beating and in this draft, it's like very obvious. But the big-dog-leaning silk weight is luxurious. Not sure how to deal with this.

The sent-to-me-by-mistake weft is a warp yarn, probably merino. I didn't believe my eyes nor all the reading because even back then it was impossible to source them that I knew of. (Which is probably why this was not on their website; I'm thinking a secret/special order?) It doesn't full, but sits/floats on top of the cloth. In this context, with the piece looking like a whole bunch of similar faces, I like the uncommitted/uncertain appearance.

This weft is skinny and compared to what I normally use, wiry, almost like  thicker mercerized cotton. Yet with the merino/mohair warp, fulled, the resultant cloth doesn't feel like a mixture of two distinct materials, not like wire and fluff I've also woven in the past. The piece has a hard-to-describe texture; it's super drapey, not cushy/clingy; has a sophisticated grown-up feel, definitely a special outing piece and not for "sick day in bed" comfort, (I tell this to all my cashmere customers, and some wear them as prescribed!) and it has been a most surprising outcome. 

Now for the fun part; the first clasped weft warp, almost a year in the making. The picture shows what I was seeing as I wove, i.e. starting from the near side finishing at the far side.

A was the fist and the only piece from the first threading, after simplifying the treadling. I had no other plan than to not change the colors too often and not to use three at once, so each color section is long. The sizes of the sections and color combination is most pleasing to me. Even that the palest lime patch is not exactly in the middle lengthwise is a nice touch.

You can see I started B out more ambitious. but got a little tired and the sections grew longer. As I wove I wasn't sure about the twill design; I thought a regular pattern/draft showed the irregular color changes better. And the lime green looks out of place.

C and D, I chose the weft colors first; in fact, while weaving B, I thought the saturated crayon colors very attractive and wound and lined up the bobbins for C, but as a whole piece, I'm not sure. I know it'd look good on black/charcoal/navy. I also started to think changing the direction of the twill so often wasn't making the piece necessarily more interesting. I tried to recreate the balance I liked in A.

Then came D. I'm sure I've seen a few like this in the past, though possibly done by dyeing. I chose the dark yellow first, and wanted another color that didn't compete and chose the lime, though now I'm not sure about the selection. I prefer the loud, impactful combination like A, at least similar intensity in the two colors. I also simplified the treadling a whole lot more.

The blue/purple part of the warp has three colors, which came through beautifully while weaving, especially with the lime weft part, but after fulling, that's looking ho hum; it looks much better with the navy weft in B and C.

Next warp is Esther's in black/white gradation. After I weave hers, I'm thinking of weaving another in the style of D with black and white wefts, a night time city skyline.

At the moment I'm more interested in the color interactions in the clasped weft pieces than the shapes.

I've been looking at the brown piece, and I like the draft better ever day. I am contemplating using the gray warp to weave better-planned pieces, (i.e. threaded symmetrically,) but I'm not sure. The original squares idea is just as appealing.

* * * * *

I've had the biggest carbohydrate blowout in the last year and a half, a week of munching on crackers, chocolate, ice cream and frozen berries; I even ate a bowl of cereal! Though we've never been completely off carbohydrate, I've never blown so completely and consciously so far. I've been despondent and disgruntled by our meals for a while, (so boring!!) without trying; if you do carbo-free seriously, meals aren't as boring as you'd expect, and the body becomes so sensitive to all kinds of flavors and smells, every meal is sensational. That hadn't be the case for a while chez B&M; I still make sauerkrauts and other bottled stuff; we still have protein sitting on top of a big salad, but when Ben's not home, I'll even fetch a step ladder to dig into our "special/sometime" treats.

Yikes.