Big Commission--Chapter 4

My basket of un-knitted cashmere sweaters has grown to two baskets (15 sweaters). The basket of colored cashmere will come into play in later panels. I just received 6 more sweaters yet to be un-knitted. I see more cashmere weaving in my future.

I just figured out why these back and white ikats delight me so much. It's like clearing my visual palette between color courses in my weaving banquet.

As I may have already mentioned, I had launched into the Big Commission with just a single idea: to use all ikat dyed bamboo for the warp and un-knitted cashmere sweaters for the weft. The finished blanket will be 90" x 100".

A sub-theme: to juxtapose random ikat dyed sections and intentional sections.

My current "plan" is to alternate four 8" panels with the three 20" panels.

The 8" panels will feature the colored cashmere.

Another sub-theme: to design the blanket without pen and paper, guided by intuition alone.

Oops: A Cautionary Tale

So I was weaving this most lovely warp in Woven Words and Ikat Dyed Bamboo. My client wanted me to weave space-dyed chenille for weft. She loved the feel and drape of the bamboo/chenille.
Here is a picture of an earlier piece woven with bamboo and space dyed chenille. Although you can still see the warp, it is down-played and the weft really shows. Notice the bright horizontal turquoise stripe near the top of the picture. This is the new warp. You also notice you don't really see the weft.
Try as I might, I just couldn't bring myself to beat the weft as tightly as I should. All the time I was weaving I kept telling myself I was beating correctly. Denial!

I know many people shy away from chenille for this very reason: the dreaded WORM! Here it is in all of its glory.

THE FUDGE FACTOR: Let me say a word or two about the fudge factor. It is a principle I adhere to with great devotion. It goes like this, "If it works, it's OK."

When I pulled the shawl out of the dryer and discovered I had pushed the fudge factor over the edge, several thoughts raced through my mind. The first thought was, "OH NO! What will I write in my blog!" My second thought was, "What will I tell my client!" My third thought was, "Maybe I made this mistake because I wanted to keep the weaving for myself, hmmm".

I draped the shawl over a chair and walked away. Here is an opportunity for me to learn a new weaving lesson. The biggest lesson I have to share with you is, "No matter how long you weave, you still have lessons to learn." It has taken me a few days to get over myself enough to show the world my latest creation, but here is the good news.

When I walked away from the weaving, I didn't walk out of my studio. I immediately put warps on BOTH looms, started weaving on both looms, and wound a another warp. (pictures to follow soon) So if I haven't learned much in the past 47 years, I have learned to keep moving forward.

Once the "wormed weaving" has had a chance to consider its future, I will visit it again, see what I can salvage and let you know its final fate.

Experiment with Bambu 7 Complete

I have so much information about Bambu 7!
I couldn't decide which color to use as my weft. I couldn't decide whether to use Bambu 7 for the weft, Bambu 12 for the weft, or Bambu 12 doubled for the weft. In the end, I decided to use them all and weave a "gamp". (I was going to impress you with the definition of the word "gamp", but the only definition I could find in the dictionary was "a large baggy umbrella") I even looked up the word in all of my textile reference books and couldn't find anything.

But I digress: First I wove 2" of red in Bambu 7, then 2" of red in Bambu 12, and then 2" of Bambu 12 doubled. I continued alternating throughout the 12 colors. The whiteish line is a few picks of cashmere. I thought at first I would use that as a cut line and run a couple of inches of black in Bambu 12 (singles and then doubles). I don't have any black in Bambu 7.

I had put on a 3 yd warp and wove pretty much as far as I could go. The dimensions when I first cut it off the loom were 17" x 78". I washed it in warm water, gentle cycle, with Cot'n Wash I got from Cotton Clouds. When I took it from the washing machine, the dimensions were 17" x 74". I popped it into the dryer on low and came out with the dimensions 15 1/2"x 68".


Surprises:
1. Although I sett both the 5/2 cotton and the Bambu 7 at 20 epi, the cotton seems to bloom and the bambu seems to compress.
2. I thought varying the weft would give me a scalloped edge, but it really didn't.
3. I thought the Bambu 7 weft would not work very well, but it isn't bad at all.
4. I thought I would have to press the piece after it came out of the dryer, but not so.
5. The feel and drape are amazing.
6. My favorite weft is the black Bambu 12 doubled (the very last one I wove!)
7. The 2 1/2" fringe didn't tangle at all.
8. 10" shrinkage in length

I wish you could feel this!
Bambu 7 poses with 5/2 cotton.

I have more to say, but I have to meet someone for dinner. I will add and edit later.

Saori Conference

Saori Weaving is an amazing and wonderful weaving philosophy. The following paragraph is copied from their lovely website.

Saori is an art of weaving by hand that is dedicated to free expression and self-development for everyone, regardless of physical or mental ability, age, or artistic aptitude. Saori weaving is pure improvisation from the heart, with no premeditated pattern in mind. Colors unfold, designs emerge, and beauty blooms directly from the genius of each unique individual working in harmony with loom, thread, and the spark of the moment. Saori is a profound inner journey, yet we can enjoy it socially, working alongside others. We can also create clothing, bags, tapestries, and many useful items that can be appreciated by all. Saori is fun, and anyone can do it!

Q: Is all improvisational, freestyle weaving SAORI?

A: Good question! On the one hand, if you choose to call your improvisational weaving "SAORI", nobody will complain. On the other hand, SAORI is more than just a technique; it is ALSO:

• A philosophy that all people are artists, that each of us has a latent intuitive power that SAORI can awaken
• An aesthetic that embraces the natural beauty of unintended "mistakes" and encourages exploring the unknown.
• A social movement towards bringing diverse people together to learn from one another. It is especially a movement to include within a larger community people who may be isolated or marginalized because of disability, age, income, overwork, care giving, ethnicity, or other reasons.
• A unique way of meditation, therapy, rehabilitation, trauma recovery, stress reduction, identity-building, community-building, and holistic human development

AND I am going to the Conference in July on my way to NEWS! This will be my first trip to NYC since 1966. Yikes!

Here's a PDF of the registration flier in case you'll happen to be in New York in the middle of July.
http://www.saoriworcester.com/documents/flyerfinal.pdf

When I Make a Mistake

What did I do when I walked away from the threading error?

I went out on the patio and photographed the end of the bloom of Japanese Tree Peony.

This part of the bloom cycle is totally amazing.

Then I check in at the warping board and wind a little Turned Weft Ikat for the third panel of the Big Commission.

Then I finish off the Woven Words "Peace in the Middle East" scarf and get it ready to mail off to its owner. This picture shows the sample at the bottom and the new weaving at the top. The bottom piece was (apparently) sett at 14 epi and the top piece at 16 epi. The width is just about the only difference. Well, the 16 is a little more dense, but it really is hard to tell the difference. The chenille is the 1300.

Basically, having another project or two in the wings makes it easier to temporarily walk away from a project without losing the "thread". I keep 4 work stations going at all times (5 if I count the computer). I have the 2 looms, the warping board, and a finishing table for knotting, fringing, and labeling.

Experiment with Bambu 7 Continues

I went back and re threaded the heddles. Of course, it didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would. It takes much longer building up the courage to go back and face the error.

You can see the one little errant yellow green end just waiting to be reclaimed.

So here is my Color Horoscope Warp all ready to go.


A question often asked: What should I use as my weft? Color? Fiber? I started weaving with Bambu 7 in red. After a couple of inches I wondered what it would look like using Bambu 12 as my weft (also is red). Then I wondered what it would be like to double the Bambu 12.

Stay tuned for the answer to this and EVERY other weft question.

Experiment with Bambu 7

This 3 yard warp contains 360 ends wound off in 3 chains.

The sett is 20 epi. The raddle has 1/2" spaces.

Winding onto the back beam.
I have often thought there were an infinite number of errors a person could make during the weaving process. I am not overjoyed to point out a brand new error. Notice to the right of the space in the middle is a single dark blue end followed by 5 dark blue ends. Well, all 6 should be in the same heddle. I didn't notice this error until I finished putting all the threads through the heddles and came up with an extra thread.

What to do? Get up and walk away. Do something else. Wait a day. Come back and find the mistake and fix it.

Tooling Up:

For the past couple of years, I have been experimenting with the finer weight bamboo yarn. Finally I decided to weave a horoscope weaving in Bambu 7 because the color choices were three times the number of colors than in the finer yarn. Sometimes having more choice is not an asset. Selecting the 12 colors that best represent the color wheel can be daunting. Every yarn company's color palette reflects the taste and discernment of that individual company.