Seasons Past – Botanical Weavings

One of my longtime pleasures is the creation of whimsical wall pieces woven from the dried remains of summer garden splendor.

It is such a change from my usual very colorful and functional weaving. Here are a few from this season. As the snow is falling and the year is drawing to close, I am taking this last look back before diving ahead into the unknown drifts.

   

Drunken Temari Balls

Historically, temari were constructed from the remnants of old kimonos. Pieces of silk fabric would be wadded up to form a ball, and then the wad would be wrapped with strips of fabric. As time passed, traditional temari became an art, with the functional stitching becoming more decorative and detailed, until the balls displayed intricate embroidery. Temari became an art and craft of the Japanese upper class and aristocracy, and noblewomen competed in creating increasingly beautiful and intricate objects. Rather than follow an intricate pattern, well, there is no pattern—hence the “drunken”.

In addition to the cavalcade of scarves, I created 150 ornaments for my holiday sale and beyond. These are just a few.

Each ornament is like a jewel

I never get tired of looking at them, however, my wrist gave out after 50 of them, and I had to enlist help from friends and from The Missoula Weavers Guild. Thanks to all!

Here are some great tutorials for making sober temari balls YouTube

It’s Ornamental

It is also ironic to be thinking about how commercial the holiday season is and then make lots of things to sell during the holidays. Does it matter that my ornaments are one of kind and that I developed a wicked case of tendonitis? These may well be the last of the red hot ornaments.

Although this collection of scarves is woven in luxurious cashmere, it is cashmere recycled/un-knitted cashmere sweaters. I just found out that the official word for un-knitting is “tinking” (knit spelled backwards, very clever) And most importantly I wove them on my Saori Loom—so much fun!

Here are all the scarves on display at China Woods. It was a totally lovely sale.

I set out to make a series of one of a kind scarves using weavers wool from Mountain Colors right here in Montana combined with the recycled cashmere. I wound each warp individually (3 yards sett at 12 epi).

I can’t help loving my thrums. (not good for the tendonitis) I can’t wait to show you the scarf I am going to weave on the Saori loom with these yummy colors.

I have sold 1/3 of the scarves so far. I was always told (in my craft fair days) that if you sell 1/3 of your inventory, you have had a good sale. Long range plan: to join the scarves together and create a blanket.

THE 12 DAYS OF WEAVING

Some things never get old---welcome to the holiday season!

SCARF #14

 I realize I haven't been keeping up, but it was either weave or blog. You know what won. Here is how I often wind an "Almost Ikat" warp. (lots of small bouts which I can arrange once I am at the loom)

It is most interesting to me to watch the design unfurl

And then when I wind back, I get my first look at my warp.

Well, then there is that magical weaving part (un-pictured) and at last cutting off the loom.

Finished scarves will be posing soon. I am aiming for 24

THE FESTIVAL OF SCARVES

I was going to call this--A SCARF A DAY-- but after 4 days, my back said to slow down. But let me tell you how difficult it is... The yarn is so beautiful! Thank you Mountain Colors!

And a weft of 3 shades of recycled cashmere (hereafter to be known as "Outstanding Moral Fiber")

 I am sorry I don't have pictures of the Missoula Weavers Guild visits Mountain Colors. But I do have some of the results. So I actually dyed this warp (although I dyed it in a 100 gram skein and wound the warp after).

Yes, you can make a 7" wide, 3 yard warp with one skein of Weavers Wool. Below are the 4 scarves I wove this week.

SALT LAKE SPLENDOR

 WHAT AN AMAZING WORKSHOP! 

I think it was my very best!



                                        
 Everyone arrived with their horoscope warps on the loom and ready to go.
There were 15 students (my maximum), and what a great group of ladies!
Sadly I didn't get good images of everyone at the loom ("good" is the operative word here)




Usually one student completes their weaving, but 4 weavers completed their pieces during the workshop. The reason why everyone does not finish in the 3 days is because we are learning about Almost Ikat, Turned Weft Ikat, and Woven Words (3 workshops all at once). I will make another blog post featuring these aspects of the workshop, but my experience has been problematic when I try and download too many images. Yes, I know it is supposed to work, but all too often everything gets erased and I have to begin again.

So I am smiling just looking at the Mary Meigs Atwater Weavers.

And, of course, the class is not complete for me until I make a VIRTUAL QUILT from a series of "warpies" (kind of like selfies)--- I am so grateful for opportunity to present this workshop.


                                              

AH, THE PALETTE IS CLEARED

 I have to say that after all these years, these moments remain some of my favorite.

 

 In case you haven't been following, this is my own horoscope woven in 8/2 Tencel. I love to experiment with weft colors and ended up using a variegated Tencel that gives and added dimension. I am wearing it as I write. I am loving that Tencel!

CLEARING THE PALLETTE

Yes, it's true! I can weave without color. I call it clearing the palette. It is quite refreshing, actually.


Many years ago, a lovey gentleman gave me 50 cashmere sweaters to recycle. In exchange I was to weave him scarves. I had woven him 3 scarves, but there was still one remaining. He wanted a gray and back herringbone. So FINALLY! I am on my way. It was pointed out to me that I was not actualy weaving herringbone, but rather zigzag. So long story---I looked up herringbone in "The Handweavers Pattern Book" (I've had this book since 1960!) It was actually rather dusty since I only do plain weave (grin). So below is the actual herringbone. Now I am waiting to hear from the client which he prefers.

Meanwhile on Grace I am finally weaving another rendition of my own horoscope, this time in tencel from WEBS (soon to be a new kit offering from Cotton Clouds)

And Weaving

 Sometimes I believe the warps are better before they are woven, but not in this case. This particular horoscope weaving incites my "aura envy" (grin). Webs Yarn makes several variegated tencel colorways. My client selected

This particular colorway is called Mountain Stream. 

Always my favorite moment---cutting off the loom.

This is as far as it goes today, But I will be sorry to send this one off into the world.

Yes, I am Still Alive

 After a rather long break, here is weaving going on the loom! And now I begin the season of  Tencel, hopefully a fiber for all seasons. I'll have to weave at least a dozen pieces before I know enough about Tencel. I remember that I turned my nose up when I first heard about this yarn many years ago, and I said "I would never use Tencel". I should know by now that when I never...... I also wrote in my college weaving journal "I HATE STRIPES"

This particular tencel comes from WEBS. Hopefully I will be able to talk Cotton Clouds (who also carries this yarn) to make up Color Horoscope Weaving Kits, like they offer in Bambu 7 & 12).

The way that bamboo yarn seems to be a bit "wooley", tencel is much more "silky". I had problems with tension on the first and second piece I did, but I take my time and think good thoughts. Now #4 and #5 (in picture) have been much better.   

I really like the colors in this horoscope. It makes me curious to see what my horoscope would look like in 8/2 tencel.

WEAVING IS...AT LIVING ART

I have had the recent pleasure of teaching beginning weaving to a wonderful group at Living Art of Montana. .
In a series of 4 classes, students created the pieces below. Upon completion, students were asked to write a paragraph starting with WEAVING IS.....
Each student put a few words from their writing on a slip of paper. All slips of paper were placed in a bowl. I randomly selected the slips of paper in turn to create the following:

WEAVING IS...
AN EXPRESSION OF SELF INTRICATELY TWINED, MOVING TO AND FRO, EMBRACING PATIENCE
      WEAVING CREATES TO LOVE AND DIE
TURNING LOOSE THREAD INTO FIRM FOUNDATIONS, BELIEVING THAT EFFORT AND DESIRE LEAD TO A CREATION OF USEFUL AND BEAUTIFUL UTILITY
     WEAVING IS ...WEIRD---THE NEW THINGS YOU INVENT TO MAKE IT WORK...
A PRAYER IN COLOR AND TEXTURE
     I SEE WOVEN THINGS EVERYWHERE!
RHYTHM, COLOR, BREATH, PRAYER, PATIENCE, PROCESS, CONNECTION, PATTERNS, TIME AND LOVE MADE MANIFEST
     A SINGLE STRAND PASSING THROUGH
ON A LARGE SCALE, IT WARPS AROUND ONE'S BODY FOR WARTMTH. ON A SMALL SCALE, WEAVING WARMS THE SOUL
     WHERE IS THE ME I WAS?

 

 

Front of Pouch

Back of pouch