Weaving Archives - Page 3 of 11 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Category Archives: Weaving

Look what the rain brought

“Rain” flowers

A delightful surprise!

Flowers popped up overnight among all the weeds and grass. I have no idea what they are. At first I thought they might be wild onion, but there’s no onion-y smell. They have no leaves, just the stem rising up with a flower atop. Several clusters of them pushed their way into the area; however, this is the most populated group. All the rain we’ve had this week brought them to brighten my day. Three inches! Yes, three inches in August! But better than that is the cooler weather. Of course, rain automatically means humidity, so there is that.

Tah dah! Warping is done. There may be weaving in my future.

Just thinking

Warping

Yes! Finally warping! You would think that after so many years of putting on warps, that I’d have this down. Nope. However, I think maybe it’s happening now. I am putting on 33 yards at 6 epi, using the warping wheel set for 3 yards per revolution. Since I have plenty of warp spools, I’m warping six ends at a time, 11 revolutions, placing ends in the reed, and repeating to get a two-inch section. Gee, I hope my math is correct!

A friend posted the picture below of Brownies lined up for summer camp. Dresses? Really? I know we each didn’t a uniform for each day of camp, but what did we wear otherwise? Even the counselor is in a dress. Geez! I asked my mother, but she said we didn’t wear pants, so I guess shorts were out also. I know, growing up in Texas, fashion trends took a couple of years to reach us. Of course, this was before instant communication. I don’t think I wore pants to school until I was in college. Mother said she was fourteen when pants “came in.” The main thing I remember about this camping experience was riding the very early school bus to “town” and having swimming lessons there in the public pool. I remember this whole camping experience with great fondness. We were in second or third grade and spent the night at camp for a week.

Brownie camp

Yesterday I took my mother on an errand, and couldn’t resist this building. Even though I grew up in this town, I don’t remember noticing the knight in shining armor or the crenellations at the top.

Crenellated roof

The Churro Club

Churro club Love these colors!

If you don’t know about the Churro Club from Weaving Southwest, let me explain. Every month you receive a box of yarns with colors that are not available in the usual product line. If you want more of the colors, you have to order them before the month ends. I have no idea what I will do with these yarns, but I love getting the new colors each month. It’s like a surprise gift for adults! Aren’t the colors that arrived today wonderful? Teresa and Joe are doing some really innovative things with their business, including the Churro Club and Yarn Bales. Check ’em out.

And then there’s the weather

So, okay, talking about the weather is boring, but … Friday it was 107, the hottest it’s been in ages, maybe years. Then a front came in, bringing a bit of rain, lots of clouds, and temperatures in the 80s. Glorious! Energizing! Maybe I’ll even finish that warp!

Dyeing next

Ikat cartoon

This is the very last section of the cartoon for the current ikat piece. Yes, I cut the cartoon into pieces, probably a sacrilege, but it makes it easier for me to handle. You can barely see where I label the section in the bottom right. This happens to say #5 bottom right. Each section is numbered and labeled in this way. A lesson learned the hard way, as all good lessons are. When I taped this section down, I discovered a mistake. Can you see it?* So I untaped it, fixed the mistake, realizing at the same time that section #4 has the same mistake. I measured and wrapped this section, then put #4 back on the board and fixed it. Now I get to do the dyeing. I think I will do that tomorrow. And I really should clean/organize the studio. I always leave a mess of cut off bits of ikat tape during this process. Those bits stick to my bare feet and get tracked all over the house. I still haven’t done the finish work on the pieces pictured last week, and I’m about to run out of time. I will have two house guests for ten days, so my time will be limited. Not sure how much blogging will get done during that time.

Cartoon mistakes

*Notice the right and left angles and the space between the angled line and the sides. There’s more space on the right than on the left. This won’t be able to be fixed after the dyeing is done. The design is set with ikat.

Weave, repeat, repeat, repeat

Almost done!

Weaving for four hours per day does not leave me with very much to say, as I repeat myself. I did dye one more color to add to the others. The piece on the loom will be finished in about 10 inches. Then I get to do it again to make the second piece. Before starting on the second piece, I am going to weigh all the different colors, so that I can have an idea of how much I’ve used and know if any more dyeing needs to be done. I did dye one more color to add to the others. However, the pace will have to suffer a bit this week, as real life has a way of interfering. It’s spring and the ~~grass~~ weeds need mowing already and I want to plant a few things.

At least I listened to another interesting book.

Memory Man

The main character in Memory Man has two brain conditions, disadvantages of advantages, depending on one’s opinion. Actually, they might be called neurological phenomena. He has hyperthymesia and synesthesia. I’ve written about synesthesia before. It’s the phenomenon of seeing colors and letters in color, perhaps the number 3 is always blue, or vowels are green. Hyperthymesia is a new on for me. It is the condition of possessing an extremely detailed autobiographical memory. The character in the book, Amos, refers to it as the DVD in his head. He also said it’s a movie that he can’t get up and leave. Both of these conditions happened to him after an extremely hard hit while playing football. Amos is not a very likable character in the beginning of the book, but becomes more likable and interesting as the book continues. Maybe better with a suspension of belief. As it turns out, this is the first book in a series. The next one will be published in a few months. Obviously both of these conditions were interesting enough to me that I looked them up.

Rainbow Happy Trails™ Groundcover Rose

After finishing the first parament and mow the weeds, there’s planting to do. The roses above arrived during all the rains we’ve had lately, and they’ve got to be planted. They’re bare root, something I’ve never handled before. I got them from Breck’s. Aren’t they pretty? I read about them in Fine Gardening magazine. By the way, does your library have periodicals? Mine now has a huge selection of magazines, which probably means that I won’t be buying/subscribing as many. Not a bad deal.

Weaving and not much else

Bluebonnet

The latest project is now halfway complete on piece one. Since that’s pretty much all I have been doing, there’s really nothing to write about, unless you count the itty bitty bluebonnet plant I discovered while weeding. A couple of years ago, I threw out some wildflower seed balls that the boys and I made. Nothing happened the first year. Nothing happened the second year. But this year there is a bluebonnet plant, a lonely solitary plant. Making seed balls info can be found here and here.

Besides listening to books, the idiosyncrasies in the color of the hand-dyed yarn keeps my attention while weaving. I noticed yesterday how different the colors looked between the singles and the plied yarns. These photos don’t really show the differences as distinct as they really are, but here they are anyway. The plied yarns are very tightly twisted and have a great sheen to them, so the differences might be because of light reflection, but I think it’s based on how they take up the color. Even if you cant tell from the yarns hanging out before being needle woven in, you can see in the woven portion that there are varying shades.

Singles vs plied

About the book—I am listening to I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. At first I thought this book is not going to do. It’s slow to really get started, but as I listened, the action got faster and faster, and I wove faster and faster. Funny how that works. It’s a spy thriller, and it’s very long. The audio is divided into three parts. Most of the books I listen to are divided into two parts.

What I’m listening to

By the way, I’m trying very hard to update the blog at least once per week, most likely on Wednesdays. That doesn’t mean I won’t have a brainstorm or just be brimming with all kinds of weaverly or personal stuff on other days. Some days/weeks there’s lots to say, but when I am at the loom all day for days, well, there’s only so much to say about that.

It’s a green day

27 skeins of balled up green

Have you ever spent a day balling up skeins of yarn? Except for the tangles in the new yarn I’m trying, a pretty boring experience. I tried doing it while listening to a book. Works most of the time, but then the squirrel cage gets to going so fast that it rattles noisily and I can’t hear the audio. And about those tangles…all that glorious kinkle that I wrote about earlier, just doesn’t seem to want to disappear, no matter how many times I pop those skeins. I start winding and all of a sudden, my winding yarn is under another strand and just won’t release. So, I cut and tie and move on. Until the next time, which means that balling up 27 skeins of yarn took a looooong time. Now, those skeins that I wound myself? Perfect. Even though they are with a singles wool, perfect. Love my skein winder.

More yarns, more kinkiness

Here’s the weaving so far. Sorry about the head shadow, but at least I caught that I took a picture of my thumb! You can barely see the new color I just started on the right. Now my fear is that all these greens, although they look so distinct in balls, won’t look that way in the final weaving. Gotta have something to worry about, right?

So far

I’m curious — How many of you belong to a guild of artists/artisans? Weavers, potters, painters, quilters, etc? Do you belong to a group that meets and has programs? Do you have a guild sale? My guild, Fort Worth Weavers Guild, has finally obtained non-profit status and we are now allowed to have a sale again. We used to have a sale along with our biennial show, but the lack of non-profit status and the state sales process caused us to stop. We’re back! We will have our first-sale-in-a-long time April 27. But for now, I’d like to know about public events your guild/group has. Shows? Sales? How do you plan it? Carry it out? Share and maybe inspire and/or help all of us.

Random thoughts

Wildflowers (detail)

I have a full week of dyeing ahead of me. My spreadsheet is ready, skeins are labeled, dyes are on hand…time to get started. The mornings are a bit cold for it, but oh well, the colors need to be dyed.

Greens spreadsheet

I have finally decided it’s time to make that appointment to visit the doctor. I am just not feeling very energetic, and that bugs me. Now which came first, not energy or no healthy diet, but that has to be addressed too. So, healthy menus have been planned with the hope of freezing extras. I’ll let you know how that goes. I plan, but then don’t want to cook or eat what I’ve planned. I think rigorous discipline is needed. Wonder how long it will take to develop and if I have enough time left to actually do that? Anybody have any hints?

a picture of the reed

A couple of weeks ago, the program at Fort Worth Weavers Guild was on the ondule reed. I only knew vaguely what it was, so this was an interesting program. One of our members, Margaret A, has begun what seems to me as an in depth study of fan reeds, experimenting with different reed configurations, setts, weave structures, the depth that the reed is held as it beats, etc. She has compiled a very nice notebook with samples of all her efforts, some more successful than others, as would happen naturally with experiments. I always admire the many different and talented weavers out there and the kinds of weaving they do, even though I don’t want to do it. A couple of sites that may be interesting are: http://byrios.blogspot.com/2010/04/weaving-with-fan-reed.html and http://peggyosterkamp.com/2011/01/fan-reeds-fascinate-me/. A more informative site is here===>http://www.woolgatherers.com/FanReed.htm.

An example of the weaving from the above reed

I was looking at some handmade weavers tools by Alexandra Iosub on Etsy and saw some nostepinne. Now I’ve seen the word before and knew it had something to do with preparing yarn, but not what exactly. So naturally, I looked it up. The low tech way of winding a center pull yarn ball. Hmmm And just in case you wondered, here’s how to pronounce it. Isn’t the internet a wondrous thing?

As I write this

As I write this, key wat is simmering on the stove, part of the spice-of the-month-dinner for this month. Yes, it was really for November, but we’re behind. I’ve written about these dinners before. I’m also attempting to make injera, not with great success though. It fermented well, but the cooking is a problem. I can’t seem to do what the recipe said. Update: We ate the injera, which is not much in itself, but really fermented. It really went well with the spicy beef stew I made (key wat) and the spicy lentils and rice dish my sister made.

Greens in an order of some sort

I’ve also been organizing (kind of) the greens I may use for a commission. I labeled each sample with the dye formula, hoping to simplify the process a bit when it’s time to weave. I will be using different yarns for this projects, as it needs to be thinner and more flexible. Since I had these yarns all laid out, I decided to change the picture to black and white, just to see the values. It’s interesting to see those sometimes–there’s nearly always a surprise. From looking at this grouping, which do you think will be the darkest? The lightest?

Greens, same order in gray values

Combination of both greens and grays from Instagram

Here the two pictures are combined. I’ve written and drawn on the picture to show which ones surprised me a bit. It’s also interesting that several of the colors are so close in value, although very distinctive in their color form. The same is true for this piece. Some of the grays are so close together that they are hard to distinguish, especially in the lower right section, yet they work. If I had been working with gray scale, I might have woven something completely different–or not.

Deep, Cool Water–gray scale on right

I haven’t decide which greens will be used yet, so the color order is also not decided. After the colors have been decided, I will dye all the yarns, then lay them on the floor and make decisions. Of course, there will also be colors in between the skein colors, as some of the colors will be combined to make new colors. That’s the beauty of weaving, right?

Do you pay attention to gray scale? How do you use it?

Going all out-kind of

Sarah Diamantopoulos

Isn’t it wonderful? I just have to show this! It’s woven on an inkle loom by one of our guild members, Sarah Diamantopoulos. Sarah said she went through a lot of graph paper during the weaving process and may have broken her loom. She used a book by Linda Hendrickson called Please Weave a Message. I’ve attempted text once and will probably never try it again. Not sure I can stand the headache or the discouragement! I’m already bludgeoning myself by trying wedge weave again!

Diangonals

I’ve really been working this week for a reset of my days. Seems that I have gotten out of the habit of doing much studio time and other basic stuff. I really wish I could be one of those people who follows a schedule of some sort–you know, laundry on Monday, whatever on Tuesday, etc–but the past week has been good. I’ve been doing my leg/knee exercises and bicycling daily. The loom bench has been warm again. Newsletter has been written (sign up here). Other nagging tasks have been completed. Of course, there are many others on the list just waiting.

The saga of cartoon-making

Drawing for cartoon

Sometimes the weaving needs a cartoon, sometimes not. On strictly geometric pieces, I usually draw to scale on graph paper and just weave away based on my drawing. With ikat I always need a cartoon to put under the measured yarn as a guide for the ties. This upcoming tapestry needs a cartoon, which leads me to this saga of getting enlargements. The closest place for me to get these made is a FedEx store. When I first started getting these enlargements done, they had a young woman who was very talented in this area, and they came out exactly right every time. I really hated it if I went in there and my favorite person wasn’t. Sometimes, I’ve actually gotten home and found that the enlargement was as much as 6 inches off! Now I carry a tape measure and they probably hate for me to come in.

Friday I went to a different store. After waiting through several unsuccessful attempts, during which the employees spent their time laughing and telling jokes, perhaps flirting, I said thank you for your time, but I’m leaving.

cartoon on the floor

So on Saturday, I tried my usual store. The young lady had the correct measurements in the computer, and it seemed that it should come out correctly, but it didn’t. One of the other employees suggested putting the file on a flash drive and taking that directly to the printer. Glory hallelujah! It worked. Even better, this means I can put my drawing on a flash drive, take it directly to the printer myself and print it out. I don’t have to take in a small drawing that they scan and enlarge manually. The file that I put on the flash drive can be the actual dimensions that I want the final cartoon to be! I can’t tell you how excited this makes me! Trying to not think about the fact that I haven’t actually tried this yet.