Up and Down the List

Investigating the Magic Formula aside, I finished the Fancy Pants shopping bag fabrics yesterday. After a detour designing a few Bag II drafts on Monday, and weaving the best (on the computer) which turned out to be excruciatingly boring,

I went back to the first draft. Which was also excruciatingly boring because I wove two scarves and one bag material in a row. Enough said; I'm learning to cut the loss and move on quickly.

The next task was going to be making drafts for two unintendedly similar warps; one I called scallops, (which, in case you did not know, is one of the delicacies from Nelson,) and another last October. They are both eight meters; one cashmere/silk/merino and the other a mix of 100% cashmere and cashmere/silk; to be woven at around 21EPI and 18EPI respectively, 336 and 289 ends respectively; and roughly in the orange/yellow range. And both have colors placed symmetrically. So close enough.

And because of the color symmetry, I've been thinking of asymmetrical and probably not a very systematic, (as in V-shapes moving up by one shaft, for example) threading.

There is a wee problem with the right warp; it was around 7PM, Ben had come home; I hadn't even thought of dinner; it was starting to get a little dark in the house; and I ran out of pale yellow-orange. I rushed to my stash and found a color that looked similar enough, so I used it for six ends and rushed through the rest of the warp. I woke up the next morning and the substitute was screaming, "I'm pink, not orange." It'll happen. Just not today.

Thinking it's going to take a while to concoct the above project plan, I was ever so tempted to put on the gray warp, but put this instead. The gray yarn is new to me and there is much sampling and thinking required; this is familiar Japanese cashmere.

I made this warp sometime in 2012, or 2011. I was mixing complementaries in many warps then, and had an "aha!" moment. Instead of mixing complementaries right in the warp, if I had a warp with colors from one area on the color wheel, I could select one color for the weft from the complementary range and still create a piece that is complementary all over. That is, instead of mixing complementaries both ways, and/or requiring more than one weft.

This warp looked unattractive as a chain, but I went ahead because I like the individual colors, and it turns out it's not a bad warp; in fact, it's rather saturated and vibrant for the most part. But I have to make a draft to this also.

I have been telling myself I need to work on Chapter 3 of the design book. The four pieces from Doni's red warp is waiting for me to mend and finish. Garden beckons. And it's mid-March!

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Mom had her first family do in her apartment last weekend, celebrating my brother's 43rd birthday and Nephew #1's high school graduation and university acceptance. She now has the Internet, and can open her emails. (Thank you, Sainted Brother-in-Law.) She's also finally sorted out her new weaving space, though students have been coming regardless. And she started to complain about the smallness of the apartment. Hee hee. All is well.

Dad appeared in my brother's dream a week ago Monday and in my sister's Tuesday, but more than 10 days on, he hasn't come to see me. Young Kiwis call this situation, "stink". It's strange to think that while our family continues to grow (old), there will never be any more new photos of him, either.

* * * * *

New Zealand is expecting Cyclone Luci this weekend. I get the feeling it's not going to hit Nelson too badly; these things really seldom do too much damage to Nelson compared to other regions of New Zealand. But we shall see. 

My Formula for 42

As in, "The Hitchhiker's Guide". Sandra says, "Rule of thumb: number of shafts, squared, less 2 = number of possible combinations of shafts that can be lifted." You don't want to know how many times I tried to figure this out.

EDIT: I made a flippant remark here and in the comment and now I have to dig up some old notebooks in the margins of which I may have made comments/observations, since I used to think about this a lot. Although there is also the possibility I got rid of those notebooks; we'll see.

Meanwhile, I tended to see shaft lifting combinations as combination with no repetitions. Today, Thursday, while rechecking the formula, (one of very few I remember from junior high,) I found a website that included information on Pascal's Triangle Cally mentioned. So I add the link for your reading pleasure.

I'm relieved Sandra has given us the formula, but I would like to try and recall if I was so off track or pretty much on course. Not that that's gonna make much difference to how or what I want to weave.

Yikes. 

Interim/Origin

I finished Purple on Friday and tied another suspended Friendship warp to work on my different idea; this has scratchy wool warp in four reds, gazillion-ply orange Japanese silk in the weft, woven in a now-familiar recycled draft, I'm weaving Fancy Pants shopping bag fabric. I hope I can get two bags' worth in two different drafts.

If I were serious about bag production, I would of course first decide on a pattern, and plan where the center of design will be placed, etc, etc. I contemplated narrowing the bits in the middle rather than the side so the baubles will be closer together, but for this project I decided it was more complication than I wanted to contemplate. I don't know how well this fabric will deal with cutting and sewing, (not sure how I will finish it at this point,) so I thinking stickiest fusible interface, good lining, and simplest construction, but I love the working nickname of Fancy Pants shopping bag.

While weaving these drafts, I've also been thinking about shaft/technology-envy. I've been admonished by weaving teachers for my lust/greed often, sometimes by weavers who have the very big bad setup themselves; one who knew we had an identical 16 setup told me eight is about all I'll ever need. I don't disagree with being able to do much with fewer; when I moved from RH to four, I thought I could live the rest of my life on four, and why else would I still play on my RH?

But I grew up in a house where Chinese-inspired brocade and jacquard were treated as semi-precious objects, by which I mean they deserved to be placed under the very best vases, jade, polished rocks and wood in my grandfather's house, and guests' bottoms. (The pic is from a gallery, not Grandpa's.) Mom and her sisters wore monotone jacquard "weave design" silk suits, skirts and dresses to weddings, school entrance/graduation ceremonies, and other special occasions. Female relatives still sigh at the sight of the smallest Tatsumura fragments. So there, that's my heritage, my textile 0,0. Yours may have been differen, but it doesn't mean wanting more is a bad thing, or that you can shame me.

That very evening I got these from Mom. Mom, Sister and I don't wear kimono, so instead of handing down her obis as they were, Mom had three bags made from each of her two favs so we three can share them. To boot, Mom and I have very similar tastes in colors. Enough said.

Well, almost. Wanting a bigger badder weaving machine is one thing; the practicality is another. Cost notwithstanding, I feel I want to delve into more depth with my weaving, whatever that means. I find sacrificing a lot of time, energy and money on a "better" setup a distraction, time and energy becoming as scarce as money as I age. So, at least for the time being, I'm very happy to sit on the same loom benches I've been on for the last decade.

Still on the subject of looms, sometimes I'm asked what looms to buy; my stock answer has been to go to guild groups, try as many types of looms as they are allowed, borrow looms if possible, and ask around if they know of looms in need of a weaver. I've even heard of weavers in New Zealand threatened if they don't come pick up looms, it's firewood! (The looms, not the weavers.)

That's what I told Annie, and before she got to any groups, before she even moved to Wellington, she was offered an AVL. I don't know what kind it is but she was told it sat in a Nelson garage for ages, and Annie's only concern was the rusty reed/s. So, good for the previous owner and good for Annie. I so look forward to catching up with her in future, perhaps in Welly by her new loom!

Purple

The last of the lot must have purple wefts, right? After all, this is my blog. The weft is the skinny Japanese cashmere silk, the same as "mine".

I whipped up this draft using something like 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-4-1-3 twill, and was surprised how much it looks like my pillars. While the first two drafts/three pieces had treadling that mirrored, (like 1-2-3-2-1 but fussier,) this one goes in one direction only, but because the threading mirrors, you see the two directions.

When I do big twills, I like to have as few plain weave areas as possible, so I usually use something like 1-1-2-1-5-6 and then edit the draft pick by pick to reconcile the long floats; I aim to contrast big warp areas vs weft areas. In this, though, there are more than usual of the plain weave areas, creating three varieties of lines/shapes. This is handy to remember.

I don't know if there is a fundamental shift taking place, or if I really like weaving these twills, or if I'm on the upward swing of my mood swings, but I've noticed I actually like what I've been making of late. There are problems and I'm in no way blind to them, (goodness knows, nooooooooooo,) but on the whole I like what I make. This is a paradigm shift for Unravelling and I don't know how to... frame this change? I don't know why this is nor how to understand this change? But I'm not worried and I'm not sitting arund thinking about it.

I'm weaving, man!!

And a Good Day to You

Half a scarf done in less than two hours; a record for me since I hurt my left hand shifting firewood a while back. I wanted to finish the piece but started to sense the usual precursor to pins and needles, so I resisted the urge.

I really liked the complementary colors creating sheen in the previous piece, but I didn't think I had quite enough of that weft yarn. (And I'm bad at estimating the length of yarn using the balance widget.) So I'd been staring at the sample morning, day and night, front and back, until at 1.55PM today, I realized I sampled two teal yarns right next to each other. And I had enough of the other teal.

The last weft was a darker greener teal, cashmere-silk, 2/26; the new weft is bluer, truer (?) teal, 100% cashmere, 2/20. It's less "complementary" and doesn't have the sheen of the cashmere-silk, so the effect isn't as stark, but it does look silvery in different lights. Since I reduced the EPI from 24 to 21, the weft is going in snugly against the previous, so as not to flatten the design.

I still wanted to weave, though, so I made two more tiny bag material. That project is great because I don't have to worry much about the selvedge and each piece is only 38cm so I by the time I get tired of weaving one pattern, I can move on to the next. And the best part is if I don't like the way a weft went in, I step on the right treadle once again and adjust. Lovely.

* * * * *

Vävlust. You know it. Meta coined it.

Oh, the Fashion Jargon...

A little while ago I started following a Japanese textile trend/forecast blog; it targets the fashion industry, doesn't have nice pics, and most of it is gibberish to the untrained so I don't pay much attention, but once in a while I find a gem.

The Feb 28 post was one such; the writer selected three key words, in English, from the various industry shows she visited, to signify this year's trends: air, touch, and volume, to which she attaches conceptual meanings/translations, and then subcategorizes these three and attach conceptual/textile meanings to these.

In the first instance, I cringe at the collective Japanese cringe/inferiority complex towards anything Western, when it only exposes the writer's/speaker's incompetence in their mother tongue, but at the same time this follows a good understanding of the way we use our language, an emotional/nuanced/subjective one rather than that of precise definitions. Across most age groups, Japanese have always embraced/enjoyed language changes and there is comparatively little sociolinguistic generation gap in perhaps the last decade and a bit.

Sometimes we use real words for new or Japanese concepts, and the general population does not the original meaning. I got penalized in Fifth Grade in a Japanese language test for defining "personality" as, well, personality, individual characteristics, etc; in Japanese in the 60's/70's, it specifically meant "(mostly all night) radio show hosts", but I was a good girl and didn't listen to them. Likewise, "arbeit" means parttime/student/low-paid jobs, not generic work. Sometimes we use what we call Janglish, 和製英語: e.g. salaryman, (white collar working of a major company on salary, traditionally for long hours) though Janglish includes words in origins other than English as well.


Enough of this and back to the post. Bearing in mind she is not translating but labeling concepts, (and you can imagine the fashion industry being one of the worst to invent/attach new meanings,) and I'm translating with no knowledge of Japanese fashion/textile industry, here are a few clues to textile trends for 2014 in Japan. I'm relying on half a dozen online sources, so all mistakes are mine:

Under main category "Air":

* energetically きっちゅ　トルコ風プリント　二重織り　ニットデニム二重織り　繻子織りの大きなチェック kitch, (of German origin, expressed in Hiragana alphabet, not the standard Katakana, which probably includes a "cute" feeling; Google search yields a lot of kitten pics, and it is used as a Japanised adverb by young girls suggesting if it could be a new version of "cutesy"); prints suggesting Turkish motifs; double weave; large checks in Satin weave

* charming simplicity 和風柄　ジャカード　刺子　ウラケ Japanese motifs, Jacquard, Sashiko, soft-backed (as in loopy terry texture of brushed) textile

* evidently vegetal 葉柄 leaf motifs.

Main category "Touch" becomes "In touch" 自然と人工のハイブリッド　新しい触感　風船ガムのようなふくらみ　肌のようなタッチ Hybrid of natural and manmade; new touch/hand; bumps that feel like bubble gum; hand like human skin. (Also see bottom.)

* following the body ダンボール　ハリ Corrugated cardboard; tension/stiffness (my guess, as she uses Katakana alphabet for a Japanese word which traditionally would be in Hiragana & Kanji)

Main category "Volume" becomes "Gently provocative" 穏やかに刺激していく　デリケートなスケッチからラフなドラフトまで。未加工　未仕上げ　ウォッシュ　プリーツなど Gently provocative; from delicate sketches to rough drafts; untreated; unfinished; washed, (as in jeans, I presume); pleats

* derailed 楊柳　リップル　コードレーン　先染め Yo-ryuh cloths, (Chinese, finely crinkled fabric due to different shrinkage, traditionally in vertical stripes, originally woven in linen - that's my best summary from several sources); ripple; cordlane; yarn-dyed

* spicy sweetness 中国風ブロケード　花弁付き　レース風　ジャカード　透しプリント Chinese Brocade; attached petals; lace-like; Jacquard; translucent/transparent prints

And she has some photos from participating manufacturers' publicity stock.

* * * * *

We don't have a Japanese word for "texture". We have words for touch-on-mouth (food/drink texture), hand/touch, lumpiness, bumpiness, roughness, but not an all-encompassing word that Mom and I could think of, nor one for visual textures.

Room with a View

Jacquard, 40-shafts, automatic advance, rotary temple, fly shuttles... I get a bit overwhelmed with the advances in hand/home weaving technology, distraught at the cost, and plenty envious. I have never seen any of these in action, though there is a chance I was once in the same room as a weaver weaving with a fly shuttle. I tell myself if I had all these, I could weave the kind of cloth I can be proud of, cloths which are technically well-crafted. Even tough there is no guarantee it will happen; these are mechanical enhancements; my body size and dexterity will remain the same.

While some of you may be too polite to say, "What's she on about, with 16 shafts, a computer-controlled, and a husband that let's her run around wild," and yes, I take your point!  

The Kiwi way is to make do, to not rely on what's readily available for purchase, but improve our skills and if need be make our own widgets. And you wouldn't believe how many weavers and weavers' husbands do just that. (Or, not worry about it;I think that's an option.) So I, too, feel I must better myself and achieve the results I fantasize the enhancements would for me. 

Blah blah blah, self-talk, blah blah.

And then I sit behind bars, and think...

I don't want to thread a draft with more than 16 shafts, 24 tops; there is no way I could fix a threading mistake as it's hard enough already on 8, 9, and 10. I am so terribly near-sided, have bad astigmatism on the left eye, and now presbyopia. And I have short arms and fingers.

And all looks good. (Until I hear about the latest biggest and baddest.) This is my parameter. This is my life.

Paperwork

This trip to Australia I keep mentioning goes like this.

Shortly before or after I came back from Japan, I discussed with Kaz my possibility of vising her, and I decided to go to one of her workshops. Though I'm still not convinced by the merit of the aesthetics of the prototypical Saori weaving, (which is subjective,) I want to understand the creative philosophy she keeps talking about, first by sitting in her class, and later by discussing it with her. Sampling and I have been discussing timing our visit to Japan in 2015 so we can meet, but she's arranged to come up to Kaz's this year around then. 

Then, before my glasses broke, my friend Carol said she's going to these mixed media workshops, and among the tutors I found Seth Apter, whom I have been following for a couple of years. Seth told us he's coming to Australia in 2014 but there he was so serendipitously. 

I've always loved paper and stationary and other people's visual diaries.I've been talking about the therapeutic effects of my mental-health collage. I've also always loved bookbinding but thought I'm not suited to it. Lately I've been looking at smaller, more personal "books" people make as art/personal journals, and how I could potentially use these tools to help me come to terms with Dad's passing and that I couldn't make peace with him before he went. I also thought I am allowed something like this after the year I had, so I signed up for this and this.

The next day, my glasses broke, and the day after, I got a brand new pair I didn't need had I been careful. So you see, it's not just about the waste of money which could have been put to funner use, my carelessness that bothers me. But Dad lead an ascetic life, to Mom's eternal annoyance, except for travels and travel he did, so I'm giving this trip to me. I only need to weave like hell between now and August.

Taueret lives in northern New South Wells along the coast; my friend Nancy, (who used to live in Nelson,) further inland in Tamworth. And the latest AWAL Claudia is in Sydney. Why not contqct them, too? Then I found out a friend's daughter is sicker than I thought, and they are clustered around Brisbane somewhere; why not see them! So I am hoping to see upwards of six real and four hither-to-virtual friends in one fell swoop over two weeks in August, besides the three workshops. (Earlier I asked Ben if he wanted to holiday in Oz, spending time in a lakeside resort, but he doesn't like to tag along when I have to be in workshops at least part of the time, so no pity needed there.)

So there it is, my Australia trip. I have to collect themed material to take to Seth's workshops; I have to choose my themes. I don't know if I want to work on Dad stuff there, or learn techniques using softer themes like Ben, textile pattern/motifs, ideal gardens/houses, or something else.

Anybody else available to meet between Brisbane and Sydney, somewhere on the coast? (Bear in mind, I don't drive so I'm training/bussing.) Do you know any textile or art places of spectacular interest en route? Do please leave a comment.

Rotating Temples, Anyone?

Early this morning on FB, I heard of Fireside rotating temples for the first time. They are a bit pricey, especially if I consider the postage to the bottom of the planet, but it may help me. I'm wondering if it would get in my way more than help me if I throw my own shuttles; I don't have a fly shuttle. 

I'm short but I have my big loom set up to the best of our ability without tampering with the loom itself. I can't raise my bench without raising the pedal, but if I raised the pedal, my knees would dig into the cloth while moving from the breast beam to the cloth beam, and the pedal would decrease the maximum allowable buildup on the cloth beam, which is not much already because how how much I've already raised the pedal. 

I may tape a couple of boxes where these might be and try it out; I night give them a friendly inquiry.

This Saturday

This Saturday started with thoughts of gardening. Because today is March 1 and I promised myself I'll start gardening in March. Today is a cool sunny day, I could garden, but thus far I've spent almost two hours on the computer, with the telly on. But part of the time was spent looking at a seed company, a bulb company and a plant company websites.

In those two hours, I also obsessed about houses once again. I would like to live in a house with character. Our house was built around 1961, so in New Zealand, these are often too new to have character, (charm,) and too old to be convenient or easy to clean. (Kiwis, think yellow glass and pelmets in every room!) I know if we lived in an older house, if we had money, (and a lot of it, but not unlimited,) it would help, but I also know it's my imagination that is sorely lacking in the first place, and I feel impotent. I know for this very reason, I stopped buying home magazines and watching makeover telly, which were my favorites genres. So I watched an American program following people who converted public/commercial buildings to live in. Except all of them had invested gazillions in them. Good grief.

I'm cross at Dad for appearing only in my brother's dream; baby bother seems to have really good moments in his sleep, probably because he's worked hard especially in selling the house and moving Mom. But so did Sister in one of her busiest times. (Every time a son of hers faces an entrance exam year, one or more of the grandparents need her badly, and she runs, or drives, around Yokohama like a mad woman.) I still regret not being more empathetic to him a year ago, because I was the one who should have, because I am the one that thinks like him the most. Or that's how I see it.

I try not to think about my eye glass situation, that had I looked more carefully, I would not have wasted an equivalent of a nice trip to Australia on a new pair. or an airfare to Japan. Though I don't regret buying the new pair; these are so light and comfortable, even though I may have to get Jim to readjust it just one more time.

And how can I may my Weavers and Designers activities more robust? 

That is not to say I started the Saturday grumpy or down. Among other things, while threading yesterday, I wondered if I wanted to simplify the lifting as in yesterday's post. At first I wanted to get rid of the fuzzy parts to make a cleaner design, but now I like the fuzzy parts. So to recap here they are, in monochrome, and the fuzzy bits highlighted.

Although having realized this warp is a bit short, I may try weaving the other draft first. I started to edit that, reducing the plain weave areas to decrease the number of times the warp rubs against each other; the top half is the edited version. But with the sparer sett, I'm not even sure if this is necessary.

Right, enough time on the screen. I'm doing something else; anything.

* * * * *

Cally got her PhD. Go congratulate her!! Now she can concentrate on her weaving and a few other bits in her life. Like work, cats, Dr Husband, mum, brother... what else??? Congrats!