Leigh's Fiber Journal

Saturday, January 31, 2009

New Year's Resolution: 2nd Thoughts (Already???)

By Leigh

My spring cleaning continues sporadically. As I've been sorting and reorganizing my stash, I've started to have second thoughts about my New Year's Resolution. And it's only the last day of January! Why is that? Because of this .....

All of these are various synthetic or synthetic blend yarns in my stash, not including the huge box of leftover Red Heart yarns. You may recall that my New Year's resolution was to weave only with natural fibers this year. But if I do that, what do I do about them? Throw them away? That's shameful stewardship. Knit with them? Possible, though not all are suitable for knitting. Give them away? Well, that's a possibility. Wait till 2010? Well....... Revise my resolution to, "I will not buy synthetic yarns in 2009", rather than "I will not weave with synthetic yarns in 2009 "? That's a possibility too.

Almost all of my yarns have come from mill ends and others' leftovers. While this is due to the economic feasibility of my being able to weave, it also suits my curious and exploratory creative style. I love designing from my stash, even though it sometimes requires a lot of deliberation to find colors and textures to suit the design I have in mind. I love that entire process.

But back to those particular yarns. The bottom line is that I can't bear to part with most of these, especially the novelty ones that I always hoped would provide a little visual zing to some of my weaving. Such as the outline weft in this honeycomb M's & O's sample. Or weaving blankets for Project Linus with the Red Heart because washability is a requirement to donate blankets. Then there are gifts for those who like my handweaving, but need something easy care.

*Big sigh*

I am now remembering why I don't make New Year's resolutions.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Spring Cleaning: Find #1

By Leigh

I realize that since it isn't spring yet, then technically I can't be spring cleaning. But with our daughter moving out, moving everything from our rented storage unit in, and rearranging boxes and furniture, it seemed as good a time as any to give the place a little more than it's usual lick and a promise. Besides, if I get started now, then surely I'll finish by spring. Especially since I'd much rather weave/spin/knit/dye/read/blog/anything rather than do housework. I do love a clean house however.

There are rewards. I've re-found some things that I knew I had somewhere , I just wasn't sure where exactly. Things like this....

Find #1:

I know this may look like a pile of old sticks, and you may be wondering, "what in the world is she toting that around for." I'll tell you why, it's madder root! It was given to me by a spinning friend awhile back. A way while back.

Madder is used as a natural red dye. My own previous experiment with madder produced more of a coral color (pic here, madder obviously on the right, indigo on the left). How to get red is something I'll have the opportunity to learn during the Online Guild's April workshop: "Roots, Woods and Bugs: Working with the Red Dyes." (For more information on that, click on over to their Programme Calendar and scroll down to April.)

One thing I'm curious about is the shelf life of natural dye stuffs. These roots are at least four or five years old. I figure that at the very least I will learn something in the process. Hopefully of course, I'll also end up with some good color.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Shetland Sampler Cardigan Ribbing Update

By Leigh

I have pulled out the corrugated ribbing I started on the bottom of my Shetland Sampler Cardigan. It just wasn't working for me: it competed too much with the body of the sweater, it was too bulky, and it wouldn't lie flat. I have started again in a single color.

If you were in on the planning stages of this project, then you may recall that originally, I planned to do the ribbing in black, as I had plenty of that color. In looking at the pieces now that they're knitted however, I wasn't so sure about black bands. In the comments of my last SSC post, Wool Enough and Cyndy suggested the gray might be a better choice. I welcomed this because I had been considering it but just wasn't sure. Here are the results...

You probably can't see in the photo, but this is a K2P2 rib. I'm much happier with it and knitting progress has picked up once again. Hopefully I'll get this finished before warm weather arrives!

Related Posts:
SSC: Starting the Bottom Ribbing - first attempt
A Shetland COWYAK - why I'm knitting the bottom ribbing last
Dissecting My Shetland Swatch - calculating yarn amounts
Shetland Sampler Cardigan Complete!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

More On Motifs

By Leigh

When I wrote my last post, "Snowball, Star, or Snowflake?," I was tossing around terms to describe the picture I was seeing in the motif I am weaving; something like a Rorschach ink blot test. But in the comments, Patrick and Jane are correct. "Star" and "rose" are specific weaving terms referring to treadling patterns, commonly found in overshot.

Both stars and roses are block designs and in fact, they are threaded the same. The difference is in the treadling.

I've not woven much overshot so I don't have any photos to show you, but I can graph examples ...

Star

Rose

Bother are threaded the same: A-B-A-B-A. The star is treadled as-drawn-in (i.e. in the same order as the threading): A-B-A-B-A. To convert it to a rose, the treadling is inverted: B-A-B-A-B.

In doing a little more reading about this, I learned that "star fashion" means to treadle as-drawn-in. "Rose fashion," on the other hand, means that the blocks are exchanged in the treadling order, B instead of A and A instead of B.

Now. Back to my own summer & winter table runner with the motif in question (which is technically neither one of the above). Jane, who has a beautiful antique coverlet with the same motif, did some research and found one resource which labeled it "birds nest." You can see a photo of it in this article.

What is interesting is that in all three examples: Jane's, mine, and the one in the article, the birds nest motifs are identical, but the pine trees are different. That's what makes designs like these so exciting. A lot can be done with treadling alone.

However, the question of the hour remains the same. Does this...

..... look like a bird's nest? I have to admit that I'm still leaning toward that snowflake, but I'll let you decide for yourself. ;)

Bibliography:

The Weaving Book: Patterns and Ideas, Helene Bress, Charles Scriber's Sons, New York, 1981
The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers, Madelyn v.d. Hoogt, Unicorn Books and Crafts, Inc., Petaluma, CA, 1993

Posted 22 Jan. 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
Snowball, Star, or Snowflake?
Summer & Winter Pine Tree Table Runner

Monday, January 19, 2009

Snowball, Star, or Snowflake?

By Leigh

This is the next section of the same draft as the pine trees.

It is the sort of motif that seems to be common with the pine tree draft. My question is,what is it? Different drafts of the same sort sometimes call them "snowballs" also "roses." I'm not sure what this one looks like. Certainly not a snowball, and doubtful it looks like a rose. Maybe more of a star or a snowflake (my terms), but not quite.

At any rate, they use the same threading draft as the pine trees; they are simply treadled differently. I like the way this version looks (from Carol Strickler's A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, #549 page 155), and if you're glancing at it from your galloping horse, you won't notice the treadling error. Nor the inconsistent beat.

My plan for this table runner is to weave three of these in between pine tree borders.

Posted 19 Jan. 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
Back to the Pine Trees
More On Motifs
Summer & Winter Pine Tree Table Runner

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