Last night I had one of those bouts of insomnia that hit me every once in a while, so I stayed up until 3am and…finally finished winding up the last of the blanket yarn!  Huzzah!

I put all the warp chains together and they completely filled a laundry hamper.

It’s fun to see all the colors together.  Because it took me a while to finish winding all the warp chains, all the donated yarns made it in.  (Even the stragglers that I haven’t gotten into the photo gallery yet.)

There’s some pretty cool yarn in there: Zabet’s (of The AntiCraft) first spindle-spun yarn; my first handspun on a wheel; Brenda Dayne’s (of Cast-On) spindle-spun yarn; recycled yarn from Sage of Quirky Nomads; handspun from Amelia of The Bellwether (on a spindle, no doubt); yarn from Greece, Australia, New Zealand, England, the Netherlands, Canada, and the US; yarn from weavers, non-weavers, and aspiring weavers; yarn from old projects; yarn from people’s flock and fiber animals…too many stories to mention (though I’ve saved them all in a big green notebook.)

After I’d wound the warp chains, there were scraps of yarn left over.  I’d chosen to wind 13-yard bouts, so many of the scraps were 9-12 yards, and were way too special to throw away.  So I tied the cut ends together and wound them into balls.

I’m not completely sure what to do with these.  Auction or sell them off for Doctors Without Borders?  Would anyone (but me) be interested in something as wild as this? (Personally, I think they’d knit up into a wonderful crazy-quilt shawl.)

On Wednesday, I did a videoshoot at TCTV.  I’d played around a bit with video, using home video cameras to tape techniques for WeaveZine, and having Kate come to my house to interview me.

Being at a television station, on a set with lights, multiple cameras, and a control booth, was a whole nother thing.

The day started early, with hair and makeup by Fierce Locks, a business run by my friend, Dreadful Jonquil.  She specializes in funky hair styles and dread extensions, but was also up to the challenge of helping bring out my “inner Rachel Ray.”

When you put on makeup for the stage or television, you have to put it on heavy and dark in order to counteract the washing-out effect of stage lights.  So at the end—especially considering that I rarely wear makeup—I felt very “Kabuki Syne.”

The first time I heard the words, “Going black.  Cue talent, going live in 5…4…3…2…1” and saw three cameras looking at me like this:

I swear, everything I ever knew fell right out of my head.  You could have asked me my name, and I’d have been hard pressed to answer: “I’m not sure, starts with an ‘S’ I think…”

I actually got fussed at by a director.  Which at the time was disheartening, but now makes me laugh.  It’s so far out of what I’d considered possible for my life.

What made things challenging, and the reason for the fussing, no doubt, was that I’d imagined that the shoot would be done in segments, with plenty of time to breath between, and easy, short re-does if needed.  The director had other plans, though, and  wanted a seamless narrative.  So instead of showing one step of warping, and then having a break, I had to demonstrate the whole thing in one go, with no breathers and no re-does.

Yoikes!

But there was no other option, so I soldiered through.  And really, once I got to playing with the weaving toys, I settled down quite a bit, and forgot the cameras.

After it was “in the can”, the director and camera guys said nice things about my performance, and were gobsmacked when I confessed I’d never done anything like this before.  (Maybe they’d have fussed less if they’d known I was such a noob?)

Even better, they came and had a look at the looms, telling stories about weaving and learning knots in boy scouts.  (Weavers, I tell ya, we’re everywhere.)
Between sets, Kate took a picture of me.  Even after a stressful day of traveling and shooting, the hair and makeup had held up pretty well.

We had a bit of time left at the end, so Kate had me run through warping a rigid-heddle loom, which—since I now knew what to expect—went much more smoothly.

The plan is for these warping videos to run on TCTV as a Talking Threads Media production and to be embedded as snippets in some how-to content for WeaveZine I’m working on.

So stay tuned!

At the launch party, we started the process of winding warp bouts for the 40th blanket project.  To make sure that all the warps would end up the same length—since we were using a variety of warping boards at Weaving Works—I first wound a set of “measuring strings” in a non-stretchy yarn on the warping board I’d brought from home and then handed them off to folks.

It was sometimes a challenge to find a path that would fit the string on the warping board’s path.  I love the solution that Marilyn came up with, very creative!One of the fun thing about having multiple warp-winders winding warps from the same pile of yarn was that each warp subtly showed the personality of the winder.  One was more jewel-toned, another more fiesta, another pastel, but because we were all drawing from the same pile of yarn, they coordinated.

The end results are something that will either strike you as richly colored, with lots of intriguing surprises (my reaction) or will make you advocate for selling two blankets as a fundraiser for MSF/DWB (Eric’s reaction.)

Put in a pile, the warp chains are pretty wild.  But I think the right weft will help draw all these colors together (another bit of the magic of weaving.)

When I got home, there was a lot of yarn left to warp.  Which suited me just fine.  I love winding warp bouts.  (I used to hate it, because asking me to count up to ten without losing my place well…let’s just say it’s not the best plan for accuracy.  So I developed techniques so the warp would keep track of the counting, and I could just wind.)

I kept finding myself staying up late at night, winding warp, saying to myself, “Just one more bout…”  What made it so compelling is that I had a pile of yarn, in colors picked by people from all over the globe (US, Canada, Greece Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, etc.) and many of them picked colors that aren’t in my standard color palette.  And because I was trying to balance the warp in many ways (thick vs. thin, smooth vs. bumpy, elastic vs. inelastic) color was often secondary to why I would pick up a given yarn.

So I found myself making all kinds of color discoveries that I would normally never come across in a warp chain.  For example:

• I love putting purple next to red.  Somewhere in my youth I was warned against this; told this color combination was very “bordello” and that the colors would clash.  But I can’t help it, I love the way they look together.

• You can have value accents as well as color accents.  I’ve known for a while (and you can hear Kaffe Fasset talk about it) that putting one incongruous color or “zinger” into a warp (such as lime green in a red/orange warp) can really make it come alive.  I’d never thought of white as a zinger color.  But if you drop it into the middle of a dark, jewel-toned, section of warp, its value contrast makes it act as a zinger, despite the lack of hue.

• Blue and beige look rather good together.  (I know, there are entire sectors of fashion based on this principal, but somehow it’d escaped me.)

• Blending multiple shades of the same color (eg: red) made a much richer look than one single shade.  (I already knew this one, still it was fun to play with and re-confirm, over and over.)

As I warped, I kept finding yarns to add to the pile: my very first handspun, surely that had a place in this blanket, and the handspun given to me by people I’d taught to spin, yarn I’d spun out of wolf fiber donated by a wolf I’d known and liked, and yarn gifted to me by my first weaving teacher, etc. So I am almost done winding warp for the blanket, and I confess that I’ll be a bit sad when this part of the task is over.

P.S. As I was writing this, I was delighted to find someone winding a warp even wilder than mine.  Check out this picture from Lynne Bruning’s photostream.

The party started, as many parties do, the night before with the baking and toasting of a boatload of biscotti.  The flavors pictured here are (from left to right): Decadance (hazelnuts, dark chocolate, Grand Marnier), Lemon, Mocha (coffee and dark chocolate), and Ginger-Lime.

We packed up the car with yarn, and a warping board and trekked down to Weaving Works.  (A big thanks to the folks at Weaving Works for playing host.  Having a central location, with many warping boards to hand, was a huge help.)

We poured out all the yarn that had come in, and made a big pile on the table. (Note the note book in the upper left.  I’ve kept a snippet of each yarn that came in, as well as any cards or ephemera.)

Marilyn was the first to arrive.  She brought yarn spun from the fluff of Tupungato (her llama) and Kitsap (her Angora rabbit.)

I hadn’t had time to wind all the skeins into balls before the party, so the first things folks did was wind balls.  (And with so many wee little skeins, I was glad of the help!)

Marilyn got Kai involved with ball winding.

Judith taught Eric (my husband) how to use a ball winder.

	He got pretty good! (If the fans of his HALO books ever find this post, his macho image will be totally busted.)
More folks showed up, and brought yarn…the pile grew.
	We had an abundance of adorable children on the scene.  This is Marielle, the daughter of my friends Elizabeth and Steve.
These adorable little girls sang me “Happy Birthday” and melted my heart.
	Here’s Elizabeth, Mari’s mom.  I know her from the writing world, and thought she was pretty game to come to a weaving party.  But turns out, she had a backstrap loom when she was 15.  Weavers, we’re everywhere, who knew?

Julie and Selah got comfortable.  Everyone was having a great time, sharing stories.

Laura Fry showed up in the middle of the party, via fax!  (She faxed a fun poem that we read out loud at the event.  Betcha didn’t know she was a poet, too!)

Bonnie showed us an elegant low-tech way to wind balls.

Actually, a lot of tips and tricks were shared throughout the day.  Weavers, because of the bulkiness of our gear, rarely get together and weave.  Which is a darn shame, because everyone’s got little refinements they’ve come up with and there’s so much we could learn from each other!

We did get all the yarn wound up, and then started to warp.  The more experienced weavers in the room had some serious reservations about mixing so many fibers together (including cotton and wool, with their different stretchiness.)  And they are entirely correct.  This project is varsity-level weaving, and may require much in the way of MacGyverisms.  So, like turning 40, this warp will be an adventure.  And I’ve got some ideas/strategies that I hope will help.

And of course, before the party ends, there must be cake!

Next post, pictures of some richly varied and colorful warp chains, and a discussion about what makes a good warp yarn.

Madrona; let me explain.
No.
There is too much; let me sum up….
(with apologies to William Goldman.)

Madrona is a vibrant jewel of a fiber event.  It’s held every year in Tacoma.  It’s not a large event (which adds to its charm) and yet draws some of the most amazing instructors in from around the world.

And they let me in the door, too.

I’ve been to Madrona several times over the years, and this was the best one yet.  Each year, the students get smarter and more talented, the vendors bring in more irresistible fiber tools and supplies, the talks get better, heck, even just hanging out on the atrium and chatting with folks gets better.  I don’t know how Suzanne does it.  It’s simply magic.

The first day of Madrona, I taught an all-day class on beginning rigid-heddle weaving.  I love this class: people come in knowing nothing about weaving, and then their eyes light up when they pull that first scarf off the loom—completed in a single day.  This class got warped up a whole hour ahead of schedule, and I practically had to beat them away from the looms to go to lunch.

In this class, I have students warp with a skein of painted warp, and then weave it off with a solid-colored weft to avoid streaking and plaids.  But I also love it when people ignore my advice and get great results.  Here, the short color repeats in the yarn kept the design from being streaky.

Note also, that the warp yarn coordinates with what the weaver is wearing.  That happens all the time in weaving classes.  It happened to a spooky degree in this one.  It was as if I’d dyed the yarn to match the student’s wardrobes.

A bunch of happy new weavers!

Another fun thing about this class is that I paint the warp yarns in pairs, so when students pick different weft yarns (and we make choosing the weft a color-exploration exercise) you can see how the interplay of colors between warp and weft has a dramatic effect on the finished cloth.  It’s part of the magic of weaving.

That night was the instructor’s dinner.  I ended up sitting at a table with Stephanie Bryant (of Handknit Heroes), Nicolette (the owner of StitchCraft), Anita Luvera Mayer (who turned our table into the lemon-creme-brulee table—always sit with Anita if you have the option), Charlene Schurch (who wrote the epic reference, Sensational Knitted Socks ), and another woman who’s name I am totally blanking on (I am about to turn 40, can I start claiming “middle-aged moments”?)

I’d never met Stephanie or Nicolette before, and usually that’s a recipe for awkward (I’m shy with new people), but they were both so interesting and lively, that we got on like a house on fire and managed to hang out a bit at the rest of the convention despite our various busy schedules.

There was also a substantially pregnant Jacey Boggs, who was extremely photogenic, but I didn’t get a picture of because I was too much in awe of her fabulousness that I forgot I had a camera.  (I also resisted the urge to rub her belly and talk in a high-sing-song voice to the wee one inside.  I’m pretty darn proud of my restraint.)

The second day was woven shibori using a the rigid-heddle loom.  In this class, you weave in a supplemental weft, use it to cinch up the fabric, dye the fabric, and then open it up to reveal lovely areas of resist.  Shibori is a rather nerve-wracking class to teach, as

1. The dye pot gods have a sense of humor, and you never know what you’ll get.  There is always the chance that students will spend all day meticulously weaving in patterns, and hurting their hands pulling knots tight only to end up with…a solid black scarf.  (I had visions of being pilloried and pelted with balls of yarn in the atrium by outraged students.)
2. Suzanne (the event coordinator) was a bit concerned (and rightly so) when I told her that I’d be dying with supersaturated black in the hotel’s conference room: the newly renovated, brand-new paint and carpeting, conference room.  Since dyeing outside wasn’t possible, I did my best to approximate clean-room procedures using plastic drop cloths, 5-gallon buckets, and paper towels.

Happily, all my paranoia (and much plastic) paid off and the dye remained contained.  (Despite the fact that one of the buckets had a crack in the bottom.  We will not speak of the paper towels that gave their lives so that Madrona might return to the Murano hotel once again.)

And the results were stunning, totally worth all the paranoia and plastic.

Ideally, you should wait until the shibori is completely dry before cutting out the supplemental weft.  It’s gentler on the yarn.  Most students, like Lauri, couldn’t wait (I wouldn’t have been able to, either.)

Nancy, the weaver below, was in my Beginning Weaving class on Thursday and asked what she should warp the loom with for the Shibori class.  I recommended handpainted sock yarn in bright colors, so we could have a contrast to the more traditional dark-light patterning.  Didn’t it turn out stunning?  When she showed the final result to me, I was literally speechless for a few seconds.

(Note: When Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts stops to admire your work, you know you’ve done well.)

Benita (below) is a surgeon, and as such had no problem tying the weaver’s knots (aka: surgeon’s knots) to cinch up the shibori.  The diamond patterning was free-form pickup and is just lovely.  Below that are variations on the basic checkerboard patterning.

That evening, I ran away from the dye pot long enough to set up my samples for the instructor’s gallery.  This is the first year I actually remembered to bring stuff for the gallery, hence the huge smile on my face.  (Yes, my hair and clothes look like I’d been hovering over a hot dye-pot for hours, because, well, I had.)

From left to right: dishtowel fabrics; shibori samples; the blue/purple is an 8-shaft advancing twill woven by Madrona attendees at last year’s demo, the purple/green is a fabric designed by Bonnie Inouye, I wove 5-1/2 yards of it for shirt fabric; the maroon on the far right is a silk boucle I wove at Laura Fry’s studio last summer.

Other highlights: Emma wove Jana Trent’s Triangle or Rectangle shawl. I don’t often see WeaveZine projects “in the wild” so it was a thrill.  And the shawl was so soft and luscious that I started mentally rummaging through my stash for Silky Wool and pondering  where my frame loom might be…

(Note the judicious use of plastic protecting the dyepot in the background…)

All day Saturday I ran a weaving demo in the atrium.  I set things up so people could weave 4-shaft twill coasters and then take them home to hem.  There were so many people who sat down, wove their coaster and then declared: “OMG!  I want—need to get a loom!”  It was a huge contrast to last year when I had to beg people to try out weaving.  This year there was a constant waiting list for the loom.

I ran the demo non-stop from 9:30am-5:00pm at which point my brain had melted, so I went…shopping!

The Madrona vendor hall is a dangerous place.  A truly smart person will give their credit cards to their friends to hold before venturing inside.

I entered, fully intending not to purchase anything, but a few things did call out to me.

This is a tussah-cashmere blend in my new favorite color.  This purchase isn’t my fault.  I was tempted into this by Lauri.  She bought it, and began spinning it at my table during the demo.  My favorite spinning fiber, in my new favorite color…right there…taunting me.  She even offered to watch my loom while I shopped…  I was a goner.

	This is a lazy Kate that I just fell in love with.  I love that it folds up, has tensioning and best of all… the rods that hold the bobbins screw into place so they don’t fall out during plying!  It’s also cedar and smells great.  But the real reason I had to have it?  The gorgeous burling in the lower right corner.  I’m a sucker for pretty wood.
Goodies from Harmony Skin Care!  Lew, the chemist/owner is the grandson of the guy who invented Vitalis Hair Creme, and is a heckuva a fun guy to hang out with.  His hand lotion soaks right in, so it doesn’t get on your yarn while knitting or weaving, and his lip balms are the best I’ve found (my Irish skin cracks if you look at it funny.) My very first Madrona I bought his lotion in the Plumeria scent, and every time I smell that scent, it takes my right back there in my memory, and that’s a very happy thing.  Good guy, good products.
	Habu got me.  They sell exquisite yarns (like the reeled Thai silk below) in teensy packages (so you can afford it.)  I have no idea what kind of project this yarn will be used in, but it told me to take it home and find out.
Highlighter tape.  Much stickier and better than post-it notes for marking your place when threading or treadling a loom.

And there you have it, a summary view of a wild and wonderful weekend of weaving!

There was more, so much more to tell! (Like the fact that the Today Show was wandering around filming.)  But this post has already become epic long.  A fun, fun time.

A big thanks to folks who’ve sent in yarn for the Birthday Blanket Project.  The yarns are as interesting and diverse as the people who provided them, and I’m enjoying imagining how the finished blanket will turn out.

I had so much fun looking at all the different yarns that I created an online photo gallery.  So if you’re curious about what’s going into this project, you can browse through the yarns as well.  If you click on the thumbnail images, you’ll get a bigger view of the yarn with more information about it and the story behind it.

I’ll keep updating this as new yarn comes in, so that it can serve as a record of all the yarn that went into the blanket.

Setting up the yarn gallery was fun.  I imagine this must be how the folks at Spin-Off feel each issue when readers send in their sample skeins.

A lot of yarn has come in, but there’s still plenty of room on the warp.  So if you’ve been thinking about sending in the 40 yards of yarn that represents you, it’d still be very welcome.

The launch party is Sunday, Feb 21st, at Weaving Works in Seattle.  I’ll provide cake and refreshments and we’ll be winding warps for the blanket.  (Though if you just want to drop in and say hey, that’s fine, too.  I won’t put you to work unless you want to.)

The day I turned 30, I had the great good fortune to do so surrounded by the SWG spinner’s group.  I had been a bit melancholy about leaving my 20s behind me, but spending the day with an amazing group of women, spinning fiber into yarn, telling tales, laughing and generally celebrating life, convinced me that the best was yet to come.

They didn’t know it was my birthday, and yet they gave me one of the best birthday parties I’ve ever had.

So, I’m about to turn 40… and I’ve been wondering how I could recreate a bit of that special day to get the next decade launched right.

Here were my thoughts:

• Weave a communal project, something special and meaningful.
• Raise money for a charitable organization that helps people in dire need.
• Make it something anyone could participate in, no matter where they lived.
• Have a launch party in Seattle, where folks could gather to start the project off with laugher and sharing.

I mulled all this over, and then picked up the phone and called Carol, the manager of Weaving Works, and said: “I’ve got this crazy little idea, want to hear it?”  Carol replied something to the effect of “I love crazy ideas, lay it on me.”  And to my utter delight, after listening to it all, agreed to help me make this happen.

Pitch: I want to weave two blankets, out of threads that represent the weaving community.  One blanket will become my 40th birthday present, the other will be raffled off to raise money for Doctors Without Borders.  One blanket to stay with me and remind me of all the wonderful folks (near and far) who are a part of my life, the other to take that out into the world and make it a better place.

Details: I throw a warping/40th-birthday(1)/launch party at Weaving Works, on Sunday, February 21st, 11am-2pm.  In lieu of gifts, I’m asking folks to bring (or send) 40 yards of a yarn (sport-to-worsted weight, wool or similar natural fiber) that represents them in some way(2),(3).  At the party, I’ll provide a cake, homemade biscotti(4), beverages, and free warp-winding lessons to anyone who wants one.  The party game?  Randomly picking from the pile of yarns, and winding 13-yard bouts of the warp that will become the two blankets.  (Weaving Works has generously offered to let us use their plethora of warping boards(5).)

After the party, I take the bouts home and blog the warping, weaving, and finishing process on my big loom.  (I’ll be weaving it off with a weft yarn that represents me in some way.)

When the blankets are done, I raffle off the second one.  All proceeds from raffle ticket sales will go to the emergency fund at Doctors Without Borders(6).

(Note: If you’re not in the Seattle area, you can participate by mailing in your 40 yards of yarn to WeaveZine; P.O. Box 860; North Bend, WA 98045; U.S.A.  I plan to take pictures of all the contributed yarn and put it in a notebook I’ll keep to record the project.)

I get: The biggest and most meaningful weaving project-kit ever, a fun party, and a warm blanket.

You get: Free food and biscotti, some entertaining blog posts, and a chance to win a really cool handwoven blanket.

DWB gets: Funds to support their life-saving work in the places in the world that need it the most.

RSVP: To help me plan the provisions, please RSVP to let me know if you’re coming.

Happy Weaving!

—Syne

P.S. You can now see an online gallery of all the yarns that have been sent in for this project.  I’ll keep updating it as more stuff comes in.

Footnotes:

1. A panel display with embarrassing pictures of my childhood is a distinct possibility.
2. Handspun yarn would be especially treasured, just saying.
3. (Watching my non-weaving friends and family try to wrap their head around this has been interesting.  Dad’s comment: “I’ll have to give it some thought.  I’ve never thought of myself as…wooly.”
4. My friends will tell you that, this alone, makes it worth the trek to Seattle.
5. Another benefit of having it at Weaving Works; yarn is right down stairs.  So if you forget to bring some, there’s a quick solution.
6. I looked at a lot of charities before choosing DWB.  Heifer International was a close contender.  I decided to go with DWB because: I like the fact that most of the donation will go to actual work, not glossy fund-raising mailers; winning a Nobel peace prize is a strong recommendation; and they help the folks who need it most.

Once upon a time in McMinnville Oregon, there was a wondrous weaving store: Robin and Russ Handweaving.  It was a treasure trove of weaving yarns at reasonable prices, books (many of them published by the store itself), equipment, and at the center of it all: Russell E. Groff, avid handweaver, author, generous dispenser of weaving knowledge, and the store’s owner.
When I visited the store in the early 00s, it was late at night, about a half-hour before closing, I’d been driving for hours to get there and just barely squeaked in the door.  Russ was working at his loom in the center of the store.  He was weaving dishtowels in fine cotton.  At that point, his health wasn’t good, he was on oxygen, but still weaving away, the tank hovering at his side like a faithful dog.  And I thought to myself, “That’s a real weaver.”

We talked about his project, and he got me browsing cones of 16/2 cotton.  I apologized for coming in at the last minute, and he told me not to worry about it.  I browsed for a bit,  made my purchases, and left, looking forward to my next trip down to Oregon.

Before I could return, however, circumstances forced Russ to close his store.  I still saw him at conferences, selling his yarns and books.  At ANWG in Tacoma, I bought some 140/2  silk from him, and was amazed to see him adding every order up without a calculator, quickly and accurately.  I thought to myself, “That’s a realsalesman.”

When he was selling at Black Sheep Gathering in 2006, I was a very new podcaster.  I screwed up my courage and asked if he’d give me an interview.  The only time he had free was a few minutes before the booth opened.  With his usual generosity, he agreed to share those with me.  My gear was not the best, and a large fan started up in the room during our conversation, but hearing him tell stories about his life was a treat.  You can hear them on WeaveCast 5.5 BSG Confidential.

So it is with sadness that I opened my email this morning to read that Russell E. Groff had passed away on January 3rd, 2010.  He went peacefully in his sleep, ending a long struggle against the fibroid tumors in his lungs.  It is a loss for the weaving world.

As fate would have it, yarn I bought from Russ is on my loom now.  I look at the handwritten details on the cone’s label and feel a connection to a weaver who—for decades—shared his passion for handweaving with the world.  I’ll be sad when this yarn is used up, but that’s part of weaving.  Eventually the yarn runs out.

When the cloth is done, I’ll save a swatch along with the cone’s label and a bit of the yarn.  It will go into my weaving notebook, which will be part of my legacy someday.  And so it goes, the weaving passes down from hand to hand, as it has for at least 30,000 years.

I’m not sure about an afterlife.  But if there is one, I imagine Russ—with all his determination and gumption—has found a way to weave.

It’s almost midnight, a few minutes away from a shiny new decade.  I’m excited.  I recall when I was a kid, 2010 seemed impossibly far away.  The year where I’d turn *gasp* 40.  I imagined that there would be flying cars and cloning, and all of humanity’s ills would be solved.

That didn’t happen.  But there have been wonderful surprises along the way.  Like the Internet.  I didn’t see that one coming in my childhood musings.  And my how that has changed the way people interact.  I regularly exchange emails with people all over the globe; it’s amazing!

This just-past decade has been hard, bringing us 9/11, and not one but two major economic crises.  But it’s also the decade I learned to weave, and had my son Kai, and started WeaveCast/WeaveZine, and met a whole bunch of wonderful weavers along the way.

I can’t wait to see what the new year and decade will bring!

And since this is a time of year to reflect on where we are and where we’re going, and for summoning up resolve to fix the errors of the past, I’m going to take a tour of projects currently stalled on my looms, how they got that way, and how to move forward.

Exhibit One: The Big Tea-Towel Warp

This humble project started off life with gusto and purpose.  I pulled 8/2 and 10/2 cotton from my stash and roughly planned a set of tea-towels that would (a) use up odds and ends of yarn left over from a previous project, and (b) provide me with holiday and hostess gifts for the upcoming season.  From this virtuous start, things quickly went horribly awry:

1. I decided to use a trick I’d learned from Judith MacKenzie McCuin (and others) and wind a warp twice as long and half as wide and then fold it in half, thus magically enabling me to wind off all my odds and ends colors into random free-form stripes during warp-winding, and yet end up with two identical stripes in the finished cloth.  And yet, I did not put a second thread-by-thread on the far end of the warp, alas.
2. I had this vague idea of either using waffle weave or some twill points, or both in the stripes.  I still haven’t decided which to do, creating design vapor lock.
3. It’s sett at 30 epi, 21″ wide in the loom.  That’s 630 threads, which is a lot of threads to be indecisive about.

New Year’s Resolution: Warp the brown sections in wafffle weave (4 shafts), the stripes in point twill (the other 4 shafts) changing the direction of the twill at the stripe color changes.  Weave this soon, or it’ll be next year’s holiday gifts.

Exhibit Two: Tapestry Sampler Stall-Out

This past summer, at ANWG, I took a class from James Koehler, a wonderfully talented tapestry artist.  When I got home, I wove on it for about three hours the first day, one hour the second, and then stalled out on it altogether.

1. It is very easy to stay focused and on task when someone is walking around and stopping by to check on your progress from time-to-time.  At home, with lots of other things calling my attention, it’s easy to put the tapestry loom in the corner and forget about it.
2. Tapestry is slow.  To steal a quote from Talladega Nights, “I wanna go fast.”
3. The abstract design of the sampler is, while technically challenging, bores me silly.  I want to weave a design that means something.

New Year’s Resolution: Set aside one hour every Tuesday after dinner to weave tapestry at the kitchen table.  (Tapestry Tuesdays!)  Embrace the slow.  Give myself permission to call the sampler “done” and weave a design that makes me excited on the remaining warp.

Exhibit Three: Spaced Invaders and the Temple of Doom

This project started out as a sample-exchange for the Complex Weavers Fine Threads Study Group.  I was tickled pink by the design process, in which I created my first taquete design (Lillian Whipple’s article inspired me) and found the perfect match of colors and yarns to make the design really glow.

1. Because I so loved the project, I put 9 yards of warp on the loom, thinking I’d weave off the samples for the study group, and then weave myself a scarf.
2. I did not realize that taquete was essentially a double-weave structure, and that in 140/2 silk, it would take 112 picks per inch to weave.
3. I put an 8″ warp on a loom with a 48″ weaving width and a big heavy fly shuttle.
4. I used a temple during weaving, and didn’t have one with fine teeth.  Thinking that wouldn’t be a problem, that the reed marks would come out in the wash, I used a coarse temple.  About 8″ into the cloth, I heard a huge riiiippp! sound and about 48 threads on the left side of the cloth broke and fell out of the reed and heddles.  I don’t think I actually fainted, but I did have to go lie down on the floor for a bit.

New Year’s Resolution: Repair and re-warp those 48 threads.  Build and use an alligator clip temple instead of a coarse traditional temple. (Dream about one day having a rotary temple.)  Add bungie cords to the beater to make it easier to weave with.  Weave on this project for hour each Wednesday evening (Weaving Wednesday!) until either (a) the warp is woven off or (b) I get so sick of this project that I cut off the warp and use it to weave kumihimo instead.

Exhibit Four: Cut-Pile Conundrum

This project was what I worked on at a weaving retreat with Judith MacKenzie McCuin (I get a lot of inspiration out of spending 5 days with Judith, let me tell you!) I wanted to learn cut-pile weaving and wanted to weave silk, since I had a whole pile of teensy skeins of silk from some natural-dyeing experiments.  Judith showed me the basics, and I found that I really like the process of tying the knots.  It reminds me a lot of the needlepoint my grandmother does, and makes me feel a connection to her.  However…

1. This project was trouble from the get-go.  Don’t talk to me about string heddles, nylon, or 20/2 rayon that breaks.
2. Again, slow.  But this time I had drawn a design that I liked, tailored to the colors and to symbols that I’m drawn to (ala Mary Zicafoose.)  Having a design you’re excited about really helps you get over the slow.
3. I chose green spirals on a blue background for the background of the image.  And the blue and green that I used (from my stash) were the same value.  In the cut pile, this meant that you couldn’t see any difference between them.  All that work putting in design with hundreds of teensy knots…that you couldn’t see.  (Note: the camera’s flash actually brought out the colors a bit, under normal lighting you can’t see any difference between them.)

New Year’s Resolution: Purchase lighter-colored green silk that should show up better.  Pull out the current green knots (trying not to weep too much over the lost silk, save for spinning noil?) and re-tie with the new color.  The cool thing about knotted cut pile is that I should be able to do this without having to take out the blue knots or the plain-weave tie-down shots…I hope!  This is a relaxing weave, so I’m going to do it on Sundays, in the evening for an hour.  (Slow-weaving Sundays!)

So there you have it.  My weaving resolutions for the coming year.  Are you making any?  If so, please leave a comment and let me know what they are.

And of course, if you have a magic-bullet fix for any of the above (or a source for fine-teeth temples) please do let me know!

Back in October, I blogged about my trip to the TCTV television station to see independent producer Kathleen Jantz-Koprivnik at work on her show, Talking Threads.  Since then, her weaving-related specials have aired on TCTV, and now, several episodes are available on Blip.tv

Kate’s a one-woman show.  She started with no video experience—just a passion for weaving and a dream of creating a television show for weavers. I’m impressed at how fast she’s learned video production and how far she’s come.

I was honored to be the second guest on what I hope will be a long-running series.  With Kate’s permission, here’s an embed of Talking Threads, Episode 2: Meet Syne Mitchell (30 minutes.)

Other Talking Threads episodes include a behind-the-scenes of the Western Washington State Fair and an interview with Madelyn van der Hoogt, the editor of Handwoven magazine.

I’ve worked with Kate on a couple of video projects (the episode above and the Wash Cloth demo for YouTube) and learned tons.  In a phone conversation last week, we talked about working together on future video projects. I’m looking forward to it.  (Though next time—I swear—I’m gonna brush my hair!)

Today was a warm and cozy family day.  We stayed home, watched Incredibles on DVD and made gifts.  Kai and I worked on beaded snowflake ornaments, and Eric worked on a super-secret project for his dad’s upcoming birthday.

The idea for beaded snowflake ornaments came when my mother was in town.  Mom reads my blog, and had seen the post about my pilgrimage to Shipwreck Beads.  Mom loves beads, especially round stone beads that I hand-knot into necklaces for her, so a special side-trip was in order.

I saw a packet of these wire things on the wall.

You turn them into snowflakes by sliding beads on the wires and creating loops on the end.  I thought this would be simple and easy enough that Kai and I could make them together and end up with something pretty.

I sprung for nice beads.  I had toyed with the idea of using cheap plastic rainbow beads because this was a kid’s project, but (a) beads are inexpensive at Shipwreck and (b) I wanted the end results to be classy, not cheesy.

I limited the palette to two colors to keep the ornaments classy and traditional, and because I know from several WeaveCast interviews that imposing design limits on a project forces you to be more creative.  I chose a rich dark blue and a clear crystal.

I didn’t have any idea how many beads would fit on a snowflake, so I bought 400 of each color, and two packets of the wires.  I figured that if I ran out, I could use beads from around the house, and if I had too many beads…well, extra beads!

The project was a lot of fun.  Kai did the stringing and I did the wire loops at the end.  I used my favorite tool for making the loops.  It’s not round-nose pliers, it’s this thing.

I’ve forgotten the technical term.  (It’s been many years since my 20’s slacker job working the retail counter in a bead store.) Whatever its name, it makes creating pretty end loops easy.

Kai and I had fun making up new patterns for the snowflakes.  Having only two colors let us focus on the pattern, not color choices, and thus spurred innovation.  We came up with several variations, and could have come up with a whole lot more…but we ran out of wires.  These are a few of our designs. (Click the thumbnails to enlarge.)

The limited color pallete also meant that they all look good together.

The only snowflake I wasn’t thrilled with was the one where I tried interleaving two different patterns.  I think I like the hexagonal symmetry of using the same pattern on each wire better.  It’s more like a real snowflake.  This one just looks…wrong, somehow.

Overall, a fun day and a sucessful project, 16 snowflakes made for gifts and to decorate our tree!

And to make the day even more perfect…mother nature made  snowflakes too!  The first snow of the season happened while we were working!

After the project was done, the whole family went outside for a walk and to inaugurate winter with a snowball fight.

Project Details (So I won’t have to guess next year)

Beads: 5×7 mm czech glass oval with facets and an irridescent coating in dark blue and clear (item #s 34FC576 & 34FC512 at Shipwreck)

Beads per Snowflake: 30 of the 5x7mm oval beads fit perfectly on a snowflake

Snowflake Wire: 3.75″ wide Snowflake Ornament Wire Form from BeadSmith. (item # MS515), 8 wires per pack.

Once upon a time, I was a science geek.  I earned a graduate degree in physics, and spent my youth colliding neutrons, cooking high-temperature superconductors, and other geekery.

Now that I’ve move on to the world of fiber, my adventures are softer and more colorful, but traces of the geek still remain.

Such as my absolute fascination with Habu’s stainless steel/wool yarn. (1/17.6: 75% wool, 25% stainless) This stuff has a bit of shine, holds its shape when you bend it, and dudes: stainless steel!

I’ve seen knitting kits for this stuff, where you strand it along with another yarn and knit on big needles to create an openwork fabric.  And I had to wonder: Could the same thing be done with weaving?

There hasn’t been a lot published on this yarn in the weaving world.  So I couldn’t look up the recommended sett.  So what do do?  Start playing…

I knew I wanted an open fabric, but also one that wasn’t sleazy.  Based on my experiences with linen (another stiff fiber), and a tip from Judith MacKenzie McCuin, I decided to experiment with sleying the stainless/wool much looser than the thread size would normally warrant.

I took an entire cone (273 yards) and wound a warp of 144 ends, 2 yards long (apparently there was actually 288 yards on the cone, I just kept winding until I ran out of yarn.)

The weft I chose was also from Habu, a 1/14 spiral slub that is 51% wool, 20% polyester, and 29% nylon.  The skinny part was about the same thickness as the stainless/wool, and I thought the slub would add interest.

The first sett I tried was 10, sleyed 1/dent in a 10-dent reed.  I beat to square, which meant that I was gently squeezing the weft into place.  The stopping place for the beater had no resistance, so I really had to pay attention to the spacing.

On the loom, the cloth was really sleazy.  You could easily slide the weft out of place with your fingernail.

Off the loom. it created a truly gauzy fabric.  The sleaziness was not as bad once the fabric was off tension, but it still was too fragile to wear.  It might be nice as a curtain fabric or as a panel in a room divider.

So the next sett I tried was 15 epi.(*)  I was still having to press the weft into place, but this time I felt a little “snap” of resistance when I pressed the weft into square in the fell line.  It felt like the cloth was telling me: “This is the right sett, see, I’ll help you place the weft.”

I had planned to also try 12 epi, but had so much fun with the 15 epi, and liked the cloth so much, I wove off the rest of the warp in 15 epi.

The 15-dent just felt like real fabric, in a way that the 10-dent didn’t.  Here’s a close-up of the two fabrics that really shows off the difference.

I am loving this fabric!  The metal gives it body that a fabric this gossamer normally wouldn’t have.  Plus the metal in the fabric makes it cool to touch.  You can see sparkles of the stainless against the matte color of the wool.

And you can “mold” the fabric a bit.  The following photo shows the ripples I created by scrunching the fabric.  It’s really fun stuff!

I’m definitely going to play with this fiber some more!

I had dedicated this cone to sampling, learning about the fiber, without any thought of getting something usable out of the yarn.  But in a happy happenstance, the 15-dent sample was just long enough, with a little pleating, to make a funky hair band.  A special little holiday treat for all my hard investigative work!

P.S. Rigid-heddle weavers, you could weave this warp if you used two 8-dent or two 7.5-dent heddles.  See Jane Patrick’s Summer Breeze Scarf project for how to warp two heddles.

(*) How do you try multiple setts on one warp?  You cut the warp behind the reed, switch out reeds and re-sley the warp in the new reed.  As long as the change in sett isn’t too great (and thus the width in the reed change isn’t too great) you shouldn’t have to re-beam.  Ideally the width in the reed should be the same as the width of the warp on the back beam, but in weaving you can often fudge this a little.  For this project I changed the width from 14.4″ in the reed to 9.6″ and was just fine.