Long Time, No... Anything!

Howdy Gang!

I thought I would tell you what I have been up to. 

I am doing a towel exchange with a small group of weavers I call "The Outlanders." It has sparked a wave of creativity in me beyond anything I could have imagined! That said, I am not close to having towels to share... yet.

Meanwhile, this towel project has sparked several ideas for kits for Cotton Clouds. I call this one "Bon Appetit."

Cotton Clouds is currently photographing this batch. Not sure when she will launch that kit. (But although I used variegated yarn, I didn't use Almost Ikat as it would require more instruction) 

 

So then I thought I would try these towels in another color palette !

I wanted to do a rendition of Bon Appetit in Desert Dreams palette and use Almost Ikat, but the problem was that I couldn't find a variegated cotton that looked good with those colors. The one I had to use was the best option, but I didn't want to have 8" of it in the towel, so I decided to double all the BON APPETIT threads and just have an inch of ikat between the words bon AND appetit. The problem here is it was 24" wide on the loom (even knocking off an inch on the second T), but it is so smashing, instead of a towel, I am calling it a bread cloth or giant napkin.

I just cut this off yesterday. It does satisfy the almost ikat part. But I am going to give some more thought to how to redesign this a bit. 

Meanwhile, on the Almost Ikat front, you may have already seen this on social media.

I truly think this is the best thing I have ever woven. It is very encouraging after coming through a fallow period, proving once again WHEN YOU'RE HOT, YOU'RE HOT, AND WHEN YOU'RE NOT, YOU'RE NOT. So take heart if you are in a fallow period!!!

So I have another weaving commission to combine horoscope and almost ikat. The recipient wanted me to put almost ikat into HER weaving. I had just little bits of yarn left 

many small warp chains using up those last bits

I wasn't sure how those colors were going to combine with this much brighter horoscope!

all wound back and ready to go through the heddles. It is a very different look, but you never can tell until you weave it.

Well, that's my story, and I'm stickin to it!

A Warp Inspired Collaboration

Sara Lamb and I decided to collaborate. We’d each weave a scarf using re-purposed cashmere yarn that my mother and I un-knitted from over 200 cashmere sweaters.

During the last 5 years of my mother’s life, she was unable to knit. Seeking an engaging yarn project for her, I hit upon the idea of un-knitting old cashmere sweaters. Over a 5 year period of time, we un-knitted over 200 cashmere sweaters (I just found out the term “tinking” is knit spelled backwards). I have used this reclaimed yarn as weft to create sumptuous scarves, shawls and blankets. Many of the sweaters are white, and the white yarn has rested in a basket waiting patiently for Sara Lamb, master dyer! Many of you know the current popularity of painted warps and skeins, but you may not know that Sara was painting yarn 25 years ago and is surely in the inspiration of the current trend.

Sara dyed yarn from the white sweaters using reds, golds and blues of a sunset as inspiration.

I sent 16 skeins to Sara, and she divided the yarn in half. She wound her portion of the yarn to use as warp and left mine in skeins to use as weft. Dye, Dye, Dye…And then the exciting part for me, Weaving, Weaving, Weaving! I wove my scarf on my Saori loom using the clasped weft technique. I don’t have a picture of Sara’s finished scarf to show you.

Before–above and After–below

This magnificent scarf is destined for the 2016 fund raising auction to generate support of WARP (Weave a Real Peace} networked projects and, perhaps, inspire other weavers to join in next year.

Where’s Bonnie?

Lost among the flowers, but soon to find my way out!

Upcoming Show Promo Image Quandary

As I prepare for a couple of shows in April, I am working on some promotional images. The first show is a group show at Hangin Art Gallery and Cafe and opens on April 4. I will have 4 pieces–scarves/shawls and am trying out 1 image to show off all 4. So Here they are:

1. Two hands and looking down

2. One hand and looking down

3. No hands and looking away

4. No hands and looking in the other direction.

The scarves are woven of cotton (center), tencel (to the right), and cashmere (to the left). Chenille scarf is not pictured. I will send images once they are displayed.

Three Shawls, One Color Horoscope Weaving Draft

I recently had the pleasure of visiting 3 Color Horoscope Weavings that live in Arizona. The first is a Color Horoscope Weaving is from 80’s

It was a 60” square that Carol, the owner, folded diagonally and wore as a triangular shawl until it got retired to live as a wall piece. I had forgotten that I had to add those edges to make it come out square. And I love that Carol painted the wall just to match the weaving.

Then in the late 90’s, Carol commissioned a replacement 60″ square shawl, this time in 30/2 silk (sett 30 epi) from Treenway Silks.

I used the same horoscope draft, but this time I repeat the horoscope 3 times and added Turned Weft Ikat bands to increase the width to 60″. This was woven in 5 panels and invisibly joined.

I am sure you will be able to see the join in this detail.

And then in 2011, Carol asked for yet another horoscope shawl. This time she requested bamboo, plus she wanted her horoscope in a neutral palette.

This was really fun AND challenging! I rounded up the most neutral colors I had in Bambu 12 from Cotton Clouds  and put them in a pleasing sequence—with the most “flow”. I also added an “Almost Ikat” striped border for each of the planets. I doubled the warp ends and sett at 24 epi.

It is hard to believe I used the same winding draft for all 3 weavings!

I was so inspired that I must now weave my own horoscope in neutral bamboo! And I suspect a neutral bamboo kit is on the way. Stay tuned!

Saori Weaving Down Memory Lane

2015 is the year I have taken on the ZYG challenge (Zero Yarn Growth). First I weave something from my stash, and then I buy some new yarn for my next project, then use yarn from my stash….etc. You get the picture. I recently saw an inspiring picture on the FB Saori Weaving page, a mouth-watering silk weft/cotton warp poncho. I had a just enough cotton warp left on my Saori loom to weave a scarf. It had never occurred  to me to weave with silk on the Saori loom. In fact, I hadn’t woven with silk in this century!

Into the deepest reaches of my closet I delved, and out came the silk stash. At the bottom of the basket, I discovered a bag of silk bits, slightly longer than thrums, but an extra warp end here and a leftover ping-pong ball size snippet there. Some of this yarn  dates back to the mid seventies!   Most of it is custom ikat-dyed by at least a dozen different dyers, Cheryl Kolander of Aurora Silks  and Michele Wipplinger of Earthues to name a few.

A Look at Woven Paper Collage

Way back in the 20th century when I was living in Seattle and at the height of my teaching “career”, I was searching for a hands-on activity  for weavers that could be accomplished in 3 hours.(the smallest block of time used by most weaving conferences). I wanted something that would also appeal to spinners, knitters, basket-makers, anyone really. I came up with a workshop I called “Finding the Color Within”.

Since my focus is color, I wanted to create a workshop that would strengthen creativity and to free up color experimentation. Here are some examples of those first woven collages.

I taught a bunch of workshops– even one at Convergence in Vancouver.
After I moved back to Montana, I taught, what I now call Woven Paper Collage, at Living Art and several other places around Missoula.

Over the years, what began as a color exercise continues to evolve. Stay tuned for the next chapter….

Another New Weaver on the Saori Loom

Just a short little post to show off a beautiful new weaving by a beautiful new weaver, Ruth.

Ruth tied together some of my thrums to create the weft for her first (and hopefully not the last) weaving.

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.