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Some arty things…and a little grammar

It’s a Crockpot kind of day around here. Have you ever seen the blog A Year of Slow Cooking? It’s a blog about using the slow cooker everyday for a year. It eventually became a book. Anyway, I am doing lamb in the slow cooker today. Not long ago I bought some lamb shanks at the grocery store which were really not very flavorful. I have heard that lamb from New Zealand is more flavorful, so yesterday, while at Sam’s Club, I bought some lamb.

Grammar Department—Here’s an article from a small business forum about grammar. It includes many references to other sites for grammar-type sources. One of my favorites is this one: (Mignon Fogarty (aka “Grammar Girl”) gives an excellent explanation of how to keep the two straight: “Here’s something I call the him-lich maneuver,” she writes in The Grammar Devotional (HB Fenn, 2009), along with a quote from this source:

“Ask if you could hypothetically answer the question with him. If you can, use whom. Him and whom both end with the letter m.” For example: “Who/Whom should we invite?” (You could answer “We should invite him.” So the right choice is whom.)

Now, am I the only one that has to think about who and whom?

Mirrix Department—I’m all heddled-up and ready to weave! Still experimenting with metallic threads. What I’ve learned so far? Don’t use metallics at the selvedges! They pack in differently, which changes the draw-in as compared with the wools. However, I like the contrast of shiny against the wool weft, so will go back to a more centralized motif. I’ll post more pictures of the loom on its new easel (found while cleaning out carport). This easel is a lightweight aluminum sold for use with portable whiteboards. Whether it will hold up for the long haul, only time will tell. But for now, I can more readily move the loom around for weaving in any location now—like in front of the TV for an evening of mind-numbing viewing. Yesterday I watched the movie A Serious Man from the Coen brothers. As are many of their movies, it is unusual.

Arty things—Check out Amie Adelman’s art work. I love the string pieces, but also the collage, and well, everything else. The collage pieces are stickers on paper that look like weave structures. Amie is Associate Professor in the University of North Texas Fiber Department.

And then there’s Hand/Eye Magazine

The ottoman below caught my eye. If you go to the website, check out some of the furniture makers. Below is the quote that is below it.image

Mielie Studio’s Fluffball Ottoman (Photo by Edward Addeo for HAND/EYE)

To purchase the Fluffball, contact Amaridian Gallery at www.amaridianusa.com.
For more information about Mielie Studios, visit www.mielie.com

There are some sites that I look at every couple of weeks, just to see what’s new. Design Sponge is one of those. Take a look at this picture.

image [image above: i think just about every icff visitor took a picture in valentina gonzalez wohlers‘ prickly pair chair. and why not? it’s adorable]

Read more at Design*Sponge http://www.designspongeonline.com/#ixzz0p2cotXTP

Check out the bicycle with the horn handlebars on the Design Sponge page.

A walk on the gaudy side

Even though I’m definitely not a shiny-type person, I decided to experiment with metallic yarn, since I’ve never used them before.Metallic I only have this one little square, because I have to warp my loom yet again. Even though I thought I was following directions, I can’t seem to move the woven portion of the warp down so that I can weave more above it. Maybe if I warp this loom enough times, I’ll get the hang of it! I was thinking that I would use metallics on this pulled-warp cube, along with some silks and other shiny yarns. Cube_net I’m sure this will come as no surprise to most of you, but metallic yarn is stiff. And, since I mixed it with the single strand of wool that I was using, some build-up issues happened. But I will forge ahead with shiny things—after I get a warp that works!

This is a video that Christina Neit of Good Quill Hunting made of warping her Mirrix. Below the video are written instructions from the Mirrix website. I was having a hard time reconciling to two. In the video, Christina makes a complete circle around the warp bar and goes back to the top where the coil is. I asked the Mirrix guru, Claudia Chase, about the differences in the two warping methods. What she tells me is that the method shown in the video is not as stable for tapestry as are the written instructions.

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Below are the instructions from the Mirrix website:

Do a U-turn around the front of the warping bar thereby reversing direction and heading back down to the bottom beam. Take the warp up the back of the loom to the top beam, down the front of the top beam and into the next dent in the spring. Bring the warp to the warping bar, make a U-turn around the warping bar and head back up to the top beam of your loom and through the warp coil and then head down the back of the loom to the bottom beam.

Here are the paper instructions that came with the loom:

Make a U-turn around the warping bar and head back down the back of the loom, around the bottom beam, up the front of the loom and through the coil on the top beam, down the back of the loom to the warping bare where you will again make a U-turn and head back to where you came from.

I have realized after comparing the written instructions that I received with the loom and the above instructions from the website, that there are some discrepancies. That one word, front, is very helpful and is missing from the paper instructions.

Claudia also suggested that I must be crossing my warp threads to cause the problem of the warp bar not moving. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what I’m doing! Here is a picture of my warp ends. I’ve labeled the first picture. At the top is the warp bar, at the bottom is the bottom bar of the loom.Not-this2

This is the way it SHOULD be done. I know you can’t tell much, so let me just say that the warp bar has been pushed down to the bottom of the loom. That means it works! Yippee! The warp is wide and it was difficult to get a location to take a picture. Plus, the light had totally changed from early afternoon to night by the time I got here.ThisI now have a warp on the loom, and even though it has several knots, it moves. I don’t remember where I read it, but I think you can tie new warp onto the warp bar when necessary. But I’ve been having so much trouble, that I just knotted my warp ends together. I’ve been desperate to get a warp on. Below is what I’m using as a spool for my warp thread. It’s an old, empty Gutterman spool that has just enough of an edge at each end to hold the warp.Gutterman-spool

Inspiration and A Warning: Rant Ahead

wineBox

This is the opened up Cooralook wine box that I saw in Central Market one day. After talking to the wine manager (he DID ask why I wanted it), I wrote my name and phone number on the box, requesting that it be saved for me. Believe it or not, I received no phone calls except from Miles, the wine guy, who told me my box was ready to be picked up. I am fascinated with the color blocks decorating the box’s sides. Actually this is a design idea that I have been thinking about for quite some time, but I’m not sure about the best way to execute the design—blend yarns or dye yarns to make the blended colors? All of you more knowledgeable weavers out there—have any suggestions?

This is the second wine box that I have picked up. The other one has a kind of pre-Columbian looking lizard on it. They are now hanging out on the wall of my studio. Inspiration is wherever you can get it!

I was going to add to this post something I never do—a political rant. I have deleted everything I wrote so that I can think about it some more, but I am very upset about what I have been reading concerning the new social studies curriculum standards here in Texas. Does the phrase Atlantic triangular trade make any sense to you? If what I am hearing and reading is correct, that is the new PC term for slave trade. That one item is enough to absolutely infuriate me!

So far, I can only find a copy of the SS standards before the finalized version was passed. Therefore the only reading I have done is from other sources. Primary sources are always best, so I will try to calm myself until I can read the actual final version. Telling myself to take a deep breath …

This was an interesting op-ed piece in our local newspaper, written by a Pakistani American from Houston. It has nothing to do with social studies curriculum, just perceptions that all of us have about other groups. It hit home with me because I am aware of the stereotype that Texans have and that Southerners have. I have never considered myself a Southerner, but I am a Texan. We all must try to not paint everyone that belongs to a particular group with the same brush.

Tasks and the dye studio

image Correction for yesterday’s post. Thanks to Camille for pointing out (on FB) that I calculated the warp width incorrectly. I was thinking in terms of the width necessary for two 4-inch squares, without taking into account that the two squares are joined in different sections. Therefore, I need a warp width for three 4-inch squares. That’s why I talk about these things out loud!

Have you noticed that sometimes before you can do one task, that three more tasks need to be completed? Since I have been talking about having a real dye studio, I did the first task on Wednesday—clean and reorganized the carport. Being a carport, lots of leaves had blown in, so those are now bagged and ready for the compost. I’ve always been able to park my car, but lately winding my way into the house had become more wind than a straight line. Now I am ready to start on the room that will become a better organized dye studio, with the dyes on open shelves, a utility sink, and stoves that are not in the middle of the space. There will even be a table for painting either warps or fabric. Now that the carport is cleaned, I can begin emptying the dye space, reorganizing, and getting rid of the trash.

One of the benefits of cleaning the carport was that I found my aluminum easel, which I am hoping I can use with the Mirrix. Not sure it’s sturdy enough, but keeping my fingers crossed.

Another task was organizing a visit for my grandchildren to visit here this summer. They are too young to fly alone (in my humble opinion and that of their parents), so this involves my flying to them, spending one night, and then flying back here. Lots of coordination involved in getting dates, flight times, etc. Every time I thought something was nailed down, I was timed out on the reservation. Or if I changed one date, the price increased so much that it was no longer an option. All of this took three hours on the internet, and believe me, I was tense at the end of the process! We’re using two different airlines to make this work. Whew! But it’s worth it to be able to spend time with them this summer.

If you don’t have anything else to do and want to start a new kind of garden…

This from NPR

And this from NY Times

And another from the Times. The picture below actually seems very practical. The buckets are on pulleys so that the plants can be protected from deer.

Look, Ma! No masking tape! or Warped again

Warped the Mirrix today and it went soooo much better than the last time. That could be attributed to the fact that I actually put the warp bar where it’s supposed to be. Warp-bar No masking tape today! And it didn’t fall out. I decided to warp at 6 epi this time instead of the 8 epi that I used last time. You can see that I used the 12 epi spring, warping every other one.6-epiHere’s my pile of heddles. I’m hoping that I tied them better this time and don’t have knots coming loose.

HeddlesOne thing that was holding me back was the decision of what to weave next, but today the decision has been made. I am going to attempt a pulled warp tapestry. I can’t remember for sure where I first heard about doing this type of weaving, but it may have been from an ATA newsletter. After a little research, I found a blog post about using pulled warp to form a dodecahedron. I will not attempt anything that advanced my first time out. I plan to weave a simple cube first and see how that goes. There are several patterns for polyhedra here, including that famous dodecahedron. Here’s what the net of a cube looks like: image

I will just weave the squares without the tabs that one would need if making this of paper. Now, if my calculations are correct, for a 4-inch cube, I will need an 8-inch wide warp. I guess I could weave a 6-inch cube—just decided to keep it simple. I don’t know how to do any bead weaving, but I do know how to stitch beads on to fabric. So that may be an option for this cube, before it gets its warp pulled.

If anyone is interested, Kathe Todd-Hooker has designed a couple of bumper stickers that might be of interest to weavers. Check them out here and contact her about them here.

Twisted is off and I’ve got issues…

…besides the psychological ones.

Monday-I finished the twisted warp section. I had twisted it two more time, but then decided that was too much, so I unwove the top section and redid it with less twist. After cutting it off, I think that at least one more twist would have been better. What do you think? It’s an interesting idea, though, and I’m glad I did it. Twisted

The good news is that I had nice straight selvedges! I was expecting more draw-in, but it didn’t happen. Some of the issues that came up while weaving:

  1. Some of the heddles came undone, which means my knots weren’t sufficient. Maybe a drop of glue on the knot? Or maybe I just need to learn how to do knots.
  2. Unknotting and putting the warp back into heddles is difficult to do with this loom, but I’m not sure it would be any easier with a different type of loom. The hard part is the heddles, but, since it was a narrow section of warp, I didn’t put those warp threads into the heddles again, especially since I was having trouble with the heddles—see #1.
  3. Weaving on the dining room table may not be the best location. The loom needs to be higher and
  4. The lighting needs to be improved.

Taking those things into consideration, maybe the next project will be more pictorial, although I have other ideas for some shaped tapestry pieces.

Next up—warping again. Maybe I’ll do it right this time! I’ve scanned a couple of drawings and experimented with color. That means using a cartoon, another something new for me on this loom.

Later Monday—Just tied more heddles. Going to try for the entire width of the loom (12 inch weaving width) at 6 epi this time. It’s really nice to be able to experiment like this. And I did put a drop of glue on the heddle knots. Now if I can just figure out a better way to keep up with the warp thread as I warp.

Oh, and by the way, I’ve decided that I really don’t want to do a three hour seminar about tapestry with no looms.

Photographs made

©Sherri Coffey-Wandering Night

Wandering Night, Weft-faced ikat, 28 x 65 inches

©Sherri Coffey-Elemental

Elemental, Weft-faced ikat, 34 x 64 in

©Sherri Coffey-Path to the Sun

Path to the Sun,Tapestry, 38.5 x 42 inches

Don’t know what it is about going to the photographer’s, but I drove there in a blinding rain this afternoon. The last time I was there was the day of the record snowfall in our area—the day that I got stuck in my own neighborhood.

 

 

Inside Mirrix

Elena just added me as a guest blogger on Inside Mirrix, so I have done a little cutting and pasting of what’s been going on with my Mirrix adventures. Unfortunately, in the middle of my adventures, I have had to put things on “pause” so that I could do the finish work on three pieces, sew up the covers for five pieces, and prepare them for shipping. Today I am making a trip to the photographer, so I will post pictures of those later.

Currently I am working on doing a warp-manipulated section, which will let me twist a section in kind of an elongated three-dimensional spiral. Kathe very kindly contacted me via Facebook, wondering if I had seen the directions in her book, Shaped Tapestry, and offering her help, if needed.

I also plan to weave a drawing by my four year old grandson of some sort of creature, so I thought I would use some metallic threads for that. Kids love all that gaudy stuff, and it would give me an opportunity to experiment, right? A little trip to Joann’s to look at metallics–boy, those threads are very fine! We’ll see about that idea.

Twisting

I found my three tapestry books by Kathe Todd-Hooker. Whew! As I have been weaving this small piece with the slit section, I have been wondering how to twist that black section for a three-dimensional effect. Well, it’s in Kathe’s book Shaped Tapestry. That brings me to another issue. The method used in the book is to unknot the affected warp threads, twist them, and retie them before starting the weaving again. Guess that will require preplanning, huh?

SlitProbably the quality of this slit has something to do with my warp sett (8 epi vs. 4 epi). If all the slits looked like this, well … There is a light blue piece of cardstock between the warp layers.

I’ll know more about how much warp I will be able to use after I weave this small piece on the loom now, but it might be possible to tie on to the warping rod as one would do with a “regular” loom, and weave whatever that fixed length would be. More to learn. The Grand Experiment continues! It’s nice to have this small project, since I am having to spend so much of my day on finish work, muslin wrappers, steaming, cloth labels, etc. By the way, Kathe’s blog is here and her American Tapestry Alliance page is here.

Yesterday-I cut the warp ends of the black section, added more to the warp ends, and tied that section onto the warp bar separately. I quickly realized that in order to twist this section, I will also have to do the heddles again. I’m going to weave several more inches (perhaps in a different, more showy color), then untie the section, twist, re-heddle, and tie on again before weaving again. Thank goodness there are only 8 warp ends in this section! A suggestion was made by Merna that a second warp bar might be useful for a section which will be manipulated.

Addendum to warping: I just realized last night after looking at the written directions again, that I had the warp bar in the wrong location. No wonder it kept falling out! Will try the correct way next time. My only defense is that I put the warp bar in based on what I thought I saw on the DVD. How embarrassing!

I’ve finished listening to Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell. Very interesting take on China, especially in light of an article in today’s paper. Here’s one version of it from NY Times. I’m listening to Shanghai Girls by Lisa See now. Really did not intend the Chinese connection–it just happened.

Shipping

My goal is to ship five pieces on the 17th for arrival by the 24 of June. In order to do that, two pieces still have needle weaving to be done and then steamed, ironed, etc. Each piece will need to have whatever hanging mechanism necessary completed, be rolled around tubes, and wrapped in a muslin cloth which has it’s own cloth label. But, before the wrapping, they will need to be photographed, so the pieces and I have an appointment with the photographer next Friday afternoon.

image I have found a quicker solution to the cloth label part. I’m still printing them on the computer, using Word on cloth prepared for the printer called Printed Treasures. After cutting the labels apart, I am using something like Wonder Under, which is an iron on sticky stuff on both sides. I iron it on one side of the label, the peel off the remaining paper, and iron it onto the muslin wrapper. Cloth_Label Some pieces don’t have titles yet, so those will get written in with a fabric pen. By the way, this stuff is NOT inexpensive, so use with care.

I’ve been procrastinating about this for two years, but I finally ordered three items from Uline: white mailing tubes, boxes, and poly bags. The bags are really just long tubes themselves which can be of any length; that means that I will have to seal each end. Took me no time at all to spend over $300! They have been delivered, and are now taking up residence in my living room—big boxes! I will have to find a place to store them. Yuck! Choosing sizes to order was a problem and may be adjusted, in the unlikely event that I need to order again in the future. Like I said, big boxes!

So far I’m a little ahead of schedule with the tasks to be completed this week, so I’m hoping to get more done on the slit piece on the Mirrix—besides it’s relaxing after all the “have-tos.”  After the slit gets to be about 4 inches, I am going to try twisting it and then to start weaving again. I suspect that I will have to cut the warp in that section, though, before I can twist it. If anyone has any suggestions about how to handle warp manipulation on the Mirrix or any continuous warp loom, please send them my way.