Still Weaving Every Day

Today someone asked me if I wove every day. I gave this long convoluted answer, when in reality, the answer is a simple "yes". I don't keep track of the inches I weave, but ever since I came home from the Saori Conference, I have made "weave every day" a part of my "practice".

I settled on triple strands of medium grays of my unknitted cashmere sweaters for my weft. The picture doesn't do justice to how mellow and rich the gray gives to the vivid warp. And I am really loving the commercial space-dyed bamboo combined with the ikat dyed bamboo.

Towel Experiment

The skeins of 8/2 cotton are from Dye Day #5. The cones of colored yarn are also 8/2 cotton although it looks and feels quite different. Just for the hell of it, I decided I would try combining the two in a short towel warp to see if the two yarns will combine without turning into seersucker.
But first there is the little matter of winding the skeins into balls. I have actually come to enjoy this process. I don't know why I selected the orange, tan and gold as my 3 solids except for the autumn season that is upon us. I also wanted to use colors I don't usually choose.

I may call this my Halloween Towel. Aside from the colors, the warp may turn into a trick or a treat once it goes into the washing machine. I have run into problems before mixing the same weight cotton from different yarn companies.

For some reason, writing this blog has made making mistakes quite acceptable. I take more risks. I am entertained by my "duh" moments. This is the first time, however, I put on a warp that I was fairly certain would be a problem. It is only a 3 yard warp, and it is all ready to go. Why am I doing this if I think it won't work? Because someone told me it would, and I want to see who is right.

Integrating Panel #5 of The Big Commission

Panel #5 is the horizontal purpley one closest to you. These pictures are just my beginning to experiment with the placement of the panels.

It’s quite exciting to see this puzzle start to take shape. Since I haven’t written anything down or taken any notes (except for the dimensions of the panels), it is thrilling to see for the first time a broad hint of the finished piece.

When patterns repeat, it is easy for the eye and brain to take it in. When there is constant variation and no repeat, it is much more challenging for the eye/brain. I wonder if that is a positive or negative feature for a bed covering?

I much prefer the center panel in this picture. I am going to have to find a place where I can lay this whole thing out so I can really see it. There will be 2 more horizontal purpley panels that will go along the outside edge. The bed it is being made for is a king I believe, but it is at least a queen. It’s interesting to note how well this blanket (actually it is more of a sleeping mantle) looks with my purple wall.The bed is a standard double, and I am as far away from it as I can get..

Oh another little feature: I photoshopped the dresser and window out of the picture and inadvertently took out a little of the blanket. I have just an Elements 2 that someone gave me. I haven’t figured out much, but some.

Warp On, Warp Off

sThe Woven Word piece is threaded and ready to go. I plan to use my recycled cashmere for the weft. I am enjoying the cashmere so much.


And then I cut panel #5 of The Big Commission off the loom. This is the piece I was using to practice "Weave Every Day". I'll be curious to see how this panel will look next to the others. That will have to wait until another day.

The Big Commission is taking a long time to complete. It is partly because I am working without a plan, so I have to look at the panels for a while before I know how to proceed. I hope that after I have completed the blanket and trace it back through the blog to the beginning, I will be able to see the pattern in my thought process as I went along.

Overcoming Errors

As I was winding back this lovely warp, I noticed that I had left out 3 colored stripes (between the purple and orange stripes in the center of the picture) and the orange, olive and brown stripes should be to the right of the ikat stripe rather than the left. The error appears in the word "optimism" (begins with the very bright orange stripe "o", the red is "p", the dubonnet is "t", the blue is "i", and the purple is "m". I completely left out "ism" and put the word "new" there instead of putting "new" next to the word "beginning".


So I fixed it because I could and because I should have double checked my Woven Words before I started winding back. Of course, I am the only one who would ever know an error had been made.


Whew, that's a relief! Now I am back where I started, ready to move forward tomorrow.

I used to resist fixing my mistakes. I used to get angry at myself for making mistakes. I used to think that once I had been weaving for more than 20 years I would stop making mistakes (or I would have made all the mistakes there were to make).

I make as many (if not more) mistakes as I ever have, except now I see them as a humbling device. My mistakes have become more sophisticated over time, and I now believe there are an infinite number of errors to be made. I always learn something from my errors, and one of my great joys in weaving is knowing I CAN fix most every one. Though once in a while, I do have to cut my losses, and it is good to know when to just cut a warp off the loom and move on.

Designing in the Raddle

Here I am at the place in the process of dressing the loom that most excites me. I arrange the warp chains in an order that seems pleasing. When I stepped back and looked at it, I thought there was too much black in the center.

Sadly this picture is out of focus, but I think you will be able to see how I am able to alter the design. I lift out the chains I want to move, and then reposition the ends in the raddle.

The ikat stripe to the left of the turquoise stripe (and the matching stripe the second ikat from the right) is the place where I dropped in the black I removed from the center. The black ikat stripes frame the commercial space-dyed stripes shown on the warping board in the last post.

The What and Why of Turned Weft Ikat

Combining commercial space-dyed yarn with my ikat dyed yarn.

Every time someone asks me why I don't just wind warps and ikat dye them instead of ikat dyeing lots of skeins and winding the warp after the yarn is dyed, I have to stop and ask myself the same question. Why don't I?

I found when I tried winding the warp first and planning my design in great detail, I had a hard time achieving the results I imagined. It was hard and frustrating. Although my method is not particularly fast (It takes me about 20 minutes to wind an inch of warp), it seems so easy and so full of surprises. It's as if the threads themselves have created the patterns for me. When I am weaving an ikat piece, it's like watching a beautiful painting happen before my eyes.

I have hundreds of balls of natural dyed ikat silk I've collected and been using since the 70's. They were dyed by many different dyers over the years. I can still add them to a warp, use them for embellishment, or use them in my wrapped wall pieces. They are like tubes of paint that never dry out.

I enjoy the spontaneity of designing a warp directly on the warping board. When I design in this manner, all "figuring out" thinking happens before I warp the loom. Dressing the loom and weaving the piece become more of a relaxing meditative process.