Lichen - a tri-loom scarf

Woven on one of my Hazel Rose triangle looms, which are lovely & pleasing tools. Seven triangles, the 12" loom.

Noro Taiyo Sock yarn.

I came across the stack of finished triangles a couple of days ago and had no idea what I had planned to do with them. I just decided to quickly put them together, wanting them to look quickly put together, the look of something called up from scraps. Perhaps something that put itself together however it could. Finished with an edge of sc, ch1, B hook.

I experimented with the joins. First, a kind of mattress stitch, which resulted in a raised seam on one side.

Then, I did a stitch which was more like weaving the edges together and results in a flat seam on both sides.  I left long ends of yarn at the beginning and ends of each triangle to use for the joins, so the yarns were in the same color area of the tri.

Spiritweaving; Sun Riff

New spiritweaving completed.
Same warp as Midnight Riff.
This is Sun Riff.

Weaving #20150807

New piece completed this morning.
Untitled as yet.  It gets a number based on the date.
Cricket loom. Same warp as Midnight Riff in my last post.

This piece was full of new ideas and techniques I've never done before. I hem-stitched it on the loom at both ends, I turned the weaving 90 degrees, sewed a backing to it and figured out a way to secure the fringe neatly.  I always have problems with the finish work on pieces and the logistics of hanging fiber art. I'm pleased with the things I figured out to hang this one.

I backed this piece with a lovely commercial cotton quilt backing from Inda that is dyed a lovely and uneven saffron color. I love this material so much I've gone back twice to buy additional yards.
I stitched it on the machine on three sides and hand-stitched the 4th side by the fringe.

I am especially pleased with how I was able to secure the fringe, so it hangs down in a very free, flowing way, but is completely secured in place. 
I am not sure if my pictures and explanation will be able to convey what I did, but I'll give it a try.

First, remember this edge is hem-stitched, so the threads are secured pretty well, in twos. Starting at the top, I tucked the first two threads under the next two, and put them to the side. The next two threads were tucked under the third set of two, the third set under the fourth and so on, all the way down the edge.

I then wanted to make sure the pairs of threads would stay tucked under, so I used regular sewing thread and needle and, starting at the top, I made two half-hitches around each place where the threads crossed, coming up through the fabric underneath the next hem-stitch, between the two warp threads in that hem-stitch group, then around them with the half-hitches and on to the next.  

I chose to hang it on a piece of branch I gathered when I was down in Bloomington at the IU Writers Conference. Sanded and beeswaxed mindfully.

I like the look of a crocheted hanging cord and the way I can make the loops around the branch without knots.
This piece was very firm because it is backed and I was able to hang it by connecting it at only two points to the hanging cords. Without the backing, most weaving is too drapey not to support it all along the top edge.  I really like the way the stick looks without a lot of hanging cord wrapped around it. 
I firmed that top edge further by running long ends of the cord through it.

Finally, I crocheted a little round to cover the nail head or hanging fixture.

Now back to the loom!

Midnight riff

Warped my 10" Cricket, too. Another direct warp done on my laundry room table. About 4 yards. Thought I would just do some quick small pieces.
This one, to start.
Calling it Midnight Riff.

Direct Warp Using Warp Board

Yesterday I tried something I've been thnking about since I put 18 feet of warp on my 10" Cricket rigid heddle a month ago.

 I love direct warping, but it has always been difficult for me due to the space needed. I've had to take over my dining table and the length of my living room, creating a blockade for however long it took me to walk threads 80-100 times from loom to the warping peg. Limbo skills were required to get to the bathroom.

I realized that I should be able to set up the warping board (mine is good for up to 10 yards) so that the footprint required would be much smaller for direct warping of a very long warp.

The experiment was a success! I can now warp using only the table in my basement laundry room right next to my studio space. No more trudging upstairs, shlepping an extra table, loom, cones of yarn. No more blocking living space and feeling I had to hurry to wind that warp. I can now pause when I need a break.   Behold:

Saori weavers call these 'fingers' or tabs. It's a little fiddly and slow, but I love beginning a weaving this way and I love that it makes use of what is often waste yarn.

Kite Weaving

Imagine...getting the wind to help you weave....

Video first discovered here.



)O(

National Spinning + Weaving Week

What a glorious autumn day here in Indiana! It's all the cliched wonder of a cloudless blue sky and russet leaves.  AND I just discovered it's National Spinning and Weaving Week.

On some level, I must have known it was coming - why else would I have spent some time last week turning this noisy hooligan of a space:

into this serenely waiting space:

And fitting, too, that I will be teaching a new Riverwools  weaving workshop at week's end, Adventurous Weaving / Freestyle Techniques for the Rigid Heddle Loom, a Saori inspired workshop. So many people have gotten rigid heddle looms here, I thought it would be a wonderful way of passing along the Saori joy. We'll be having creative fun doing a sampler with inlay experiments and and clasped weft work.  Here are some pictures from the sampler I made as I thought about doing this workshop.

I believe I will bring my rigid heddle loom up from my basement studio and weave outside today!

Where will you be spinning and weaving* this week??

Namaste!

*if  reports on such activity involve strong drink, must also include a spinning wheel, drop spindle or loom.

Birdwoman's Council Cloak

Weelllll, not quite a cloak, but I love the alliteration.
I worked on this piece in the late fall. I began with a woven triangle, picked up stitches around it and then knitted it the rest of the way.  I used 8 different yarns (my working title for it was Eight), changed colors whenever I felt like it. It's mostly stockinette, with a band of seed stitch and occasional garter.

I want to put some kind of magickal medallion at the point of the triangle and maybe dangling from the ends, as I did in the Serendipitous Soul Shawl.   (See, I love alliteration!) In fact, this shawl was inspired by that one. See that post for more construction details.
I pulled it out to wear at the opening of the fiber art show I was part of last October and loved wearing it so much I couldn't believe I hadn't made others like it. And immediately began this one.

And why Birdwoman?  Well, sometimes things just come to me as I'm working, bits of stories, characters.  As I was finishing this piece, wondering what elements I'd use for the medallions or charms, I just saw/felt a being called Birdwoman, and she was attending a great meeting for which she wore special garments. It seems like I might do a series of these cloaks for others attending that meeting.  I will have to see what unfolds...

Solmate Socks

For two years now, I've run a special fundraiser for the memorial fund in my son Patrick's name. The fund is at a local nonprofit, The Maple Center for Integrative Health, and the money is to go to workshops and programs which promote the use of expressive art as a healing tool.  For four years, we've presented a major workshop focusing on meeting the challenges of loss through creative work.

In addition to grant money from ArtsIlliana, ArtReach and private donors, this workshop has also been supported by more than $1,000  raised for the programs through the Rock Your Socks fundraiser.  The more I find out about Solmate Socks the more proud I am of being able to run this FUNdraiser (and it has been fun!)

I knew at the beginning that Solmate uses yarn made from recycled cotton and that the socks are made in the USA and that they are committed to fair practices in labor and in environmental responsiblity. Then last year I found out that the remnants, seconds, etc. are used by a wonderful rag rug weaver, Hilary, who has created an amazing studio and life in an old  house in New York state. She calls her studio Crazy as a Loom Weaving Studio. When I wrote to her last year to say how delighted I was to discover the further green practices of Solmate, she very generously donated one of the Solmate Sock Rugs to be sold for the fund! (Yup, I bought it. It's my prayer rug now.)

And now I discover yet another Solmate Sock-related item (scroll down just a bit on her studio page). Hilary has created a potholder or looper loom (from recycled wood!)  and sells it along with a huge bag of Solmate Sock loops (enough for 8 squares.) I love this loom - it's 9" square, larger than the ubiquitous red metal looms usually found for potholder weaving.  And I love the loopers in those great Solmate Sock colors. 

I'm looking forward to making squares with Sophia, we've already started one. But I'm also looking forward to use this in some of Noreen Crone-Findlay's projects for potholder and small square looms.
Her book, The Woven Bag, is chockful of them!

Namaste!
Zann

....a fiber art note

I promised a fiber art thought or two amid all the poetry of this month.

Rest assured, while I’ve only posted poetry so far, my days are abundant with fiber work and thoughts.  I can hardly imagine more perfect days. I begin with writing and then move on to working on my 2010 Freeform Challenge piece, then for a break, work on some knitting designs.  And to sustain me during all this bliss,  there are blackberries with honey, CaraCara oranges, pomegranate tea...

I have had some wonderful tool acquisitions this month - thanks mostly to the $200 gift certificate at Halcyon Yarn that was my prize in the Handwoven Not Just for Socks contest.

One thing I got was a Journey Loom, a loom that you can break down (with weaving-in-process), stow in a special shoulder bag, and take to special places for weaving in woods or park or by the sea...

 Journey Loom, before assembling for the first time

 Journey Loom hardware

All the hardware stays together inside a little organza bag in a stiff paper cup along with a weaving needle (the needle card is also a shuttle!) all stashed in a slightly larger organza bag.   A cup, a bag inside a bag, elements that make the assembly of the loom a ritual.

Journey Loom, assembled, with shed stick and carrying bag

Now go take a look at the site for Journey Looms, called Weaving a Life. You’ll see why I’m enchanted with its possibilities.
Namaste!

Handwoven's Not Just For Socks Challenge

Since my word for the year is "Focus" I am very proud that I managed to do that and complete my entry for this contest.  I went right up to the midnight deadline wire on February 28, getting my pictures in about two hours before.

And right now, I'm not only proud of that, I'm excited to the max because my piece was chosen as a finalist!!

Although I didn't see any proviso in the contest rules about publishing photos or descriptions of the work prior to the final decisions, I'm not going to do so except in the most vague manner.

So here is a detail of the piece and I shall say little else but that it's wearable.


Being a finalist meant I had to send this recently birthed work off to the Interweave offices in Colorado.

That was hard to do.  I overnighted it because I didn't want it to spend a minute more in transit than it had to.
Whatever happens (and winners will be notified on March 22) working on and completing this piece, focusing, making it be THE thing I worked on for weeks was an amazing process for me. 
I'm so glad I did it.
Wish me luck!!

Weaving - Shaman's Stone

My second Saori-inspired weaving adventure.


I wanted to choose a more neutral palette and remembered a whole bin of yarn I'd gathered to do some free-range knitting in the manner of Jane Thornley.
And, as these things happen, I realized these colors connect with the series of pieces in my head called Shaman's Stone, one of which I've already done. It's the second scarf in this post.

An interesting thing happened in the finishing process.
The warp is Fox Fibre 3/2 organic cotton, color Oatmeal.  I'd completely forgotten that much Fox Fibre does a color transformation when exposed to hot water - it darkens. Dramatically, if boiled.
In this case, it was just hot tap water, and I was amazed and delighted to see a piece that seemed very pale, too pale, darken almost the minute it got into the water. The warp became a very deep tan color.
And it changed the whole piece entirely, both in a physical sense, and in its spirit. That serendipitous
transformation was magical to me.

As it dried again, the warp lightened considerably, but still remained darker than before.  I don't know if the effect is so apparent from these pictures, but I'll have a go at trying to demonstrate it with them.

Here is the piece in process, when I photographed one of those beetles that looks like a ladybug. There are a few buzzing around the basement, and one suddenly dropped in on the weaving.

Here is a detail picture after washing:

and another detail:

Above is where I got literal with the vision of Shaman's Stones.

There's definitely a story to go with these pieces.

I just haven't heard it yet.

I didn't give Saori links before, but here are a couple:
Saori SaltSpring
Saori Worcester - page on Way of Saori

And Saori Worcester's huge page of Saori links.

Lest you think I've abandoned knitting, here's what's on the needles (besides the 30 UFO's previously mentioned a few posts back) and being actively, regularly attended to:

This will be the Aestlight Shawl designed by Gudrun Johnston.

Yes, will be. I will finish it.

Not only because I love the design, but because I am knitting it of yarn spun from a star-bedazzled sky.

(Yes, it's Dream in Color "Starry" in colorway Night Watch. Real silver fibers. More magick!)