Twisp of Fate

A few days ago I finally unfolded my Baby Mac workshop loom, got out my notes from Kay Faulkner’s 3-day workshop on Warp-Faced Weaves at the ANWG Conference in June, and went back to figuring out what to do with my 4-yard warp.  I last blogged about it in this post after the conference.  I hadn’t made it much farther than getting the warp on the loom.

My warp is threaded for a combination of plain weave sections alternated with the Sotis cloth (patterns from West Timor).  Kay’s notes are based on a nomenclature she came up with that makes sense to her, but isn’t terribly clear until you figure it out.  I also had her article from Handwoven Mar/Apr 2013, and studying the weaving pattern from that was a great help.  I wound up making my own notes about how to weave the 6 basic patterns she gave us.

Basic Sotis patterns 1-4

Basic Sotis patterns 5-6

In the above photo, you can see where I was trying the “warp wrapping” with a banana yellow color, in one of the plain weave areas.  Not with a great deal of success.  However, I am not sure I want to use this technique in my project so may or may not follow up with more experimentation.

I was more interested in getting a pattern motif in the Sotis areas, which has to be done with manual pickup of threads for this simple threading.  After a first attempt, I was starting to understand how this works, and made a plan for a motif.

Sotis motif plan

and what do you know – it worked!

Basically, this is done within the context of Basic Pattern 4.  In my sampler, of the 60 heddles threaded for each side section, 30 are threaded with a single dark brown thread (can be thought of as “tabby a” for the section) and the other 30 alternate heddles are threaded with 3 cream threads run together (can be thought of as “tabby b” for the section).  The ones with 3 threads are referred to as “heavy”, to alternate with the dark brown “fine” threads.  But, those 30 heavy threads can also be lifted in alternating groups of 15.  This is how you get some of the patterns.  The pickup motif is done on a ground of basic pattern 4, where one bar uses just heavy “a” and the next bar uses heavy “b”.

I may try out the “exposed weft” technique next, then move on to weaving some placemats using combinations of the basic patterns, and incorporating my little pickup motif.

I also now know why Kay does some of her more elaborate Sotis pieces on a 24-harness computer loom, where she can treadle the Sotif motifs and not use pickup!  It works, but is slow and for now at least, requires vigilant attention to detail.

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I got home yesterday afternoon after a week in Bellingham at the NW Weavers’ Conference.  What a week!  Western Washington University was the venue, and the grounds and staff were wonderful.  We were in dorm rooms (I opted for a single) so the accommodations were rather spartan, but the bed was comfortable and my dorm was quiet.

Tuesday through Thursday I took a 3-day pre-conference workshop with Kay Faulkner from Australia.  The title was “East Meets West:  Warp Faced Weaves”.  She had an article in the March/April 2013 issue of Handwoven magazine on Textiles of West Timor, including a project with sotis cloth, which was one of the types of patterns we were going to do.  Here is the workshop description:

“Most weavers look towards European and American weave structures for inspiration. Some real gems can be found in Eastern textiles. Warp faced textiles in SE Asia are usually woven on back strap looms but they often can be modified to suit multishaft looms. Analysis of ethnic textiles will provide some interesting additions of technique for the hand weaver. They include warp manipulation, warp wrapping, weft patterning on warp faced cloth. These techniques can then be combined with Western structures to achieve interesting cloth. Consideration will also be given to maximizing the potential of your loom while combining structures.”

It turned out the main effort in the class was designing your warp and getting it on the loom.  I decided to make an 8-inch wide piece, 4 yards long, so I could sample the techniques to be shown in class, and have enough left for 1-2 scarves.  Well, it took me almost 2-1/2 days to get the warp on the loom.  It is sett very closely so only the warp will show.  I was using 8/2 cotton, which means something to a weaver, and my sett was 60 epi (ends per inch).   8″ x 60 = 480 ends right?  Wrong.  It wasn’t until I started actually sleying and threading that I realized my fundamental error, in not taking into account the fact that you thread in pairs of 4 into 2 heddles – 2/2 for stripes in plain weave, 1/3 for the “Sotis” patterns.  So my 480 ends that I had labored over, keeping color order and all, was making a 16″ wide piece, not an 8″ wide piece!  No wonder it took me so long.  By the middle of the last day I was only this far:

sleyed, threaded and tied on – finally!

This was despite the fact I had spent 12 hours in the workshop room the first 2 days.  I was very tired and getting a little frustrated!  It also turned out it would have been much easier to warp the loom from back to front, but by the time she explained that, it was too late for the way I had wound the warp in my usual way for front to back.

On the third day of the workshop, she was demonstrating various techniques, so I tried to take notes and some pictures while she was doing it.  The workshop handout was brief and somewhat cryptic.  Fortunately, there were some women from Seattle Weavers Guild in the class, who were farther along than I was, so I also have some folks to go to with questions.  I did get started on the first set of patterns before we had to pack up on the last day.  And I am excited about my warp, I really like the colors and if I can work my way through the techniques, I should be able to make the rest of it into placemats.  So stay tuned for progress and pictures in the coming month.

Here are some pictures of workshop projects under way:

Meanwhile, it was fun hanging out with my friends who had also come over for workshops, and meeting new people.  A number of people from the Methow Valley guild came over on Thursday for the actual conference, which includes 3 half-day seminars as part of the registration.  The fashion show on Thursday was fabulous, many wonderful garments, and beautifully presented with music.  These garments were moved to the Western Gallery in the Fine Arts building on campus, where the Instructor Show, Open Show, and Juried Show exhibits were also to be found.

So speaking of the Juried Show, I had two of my polychrome summer & winter scarves accepted for that show.  I had been pleased that the juror, Bhakti Ziek, had written some very nice comments on my entry forms when they came back to me.  Well, as it turns out, she also gave me an award!  Juror’s Choice 1st Place!

and here is a picture my friend Deb took with her iPhone:

I took all three half-day seminars from Kay Faulkner as well, as they had sounded the most interesting when I registered back in January.  There were no handouts and lots of information, but I think I got enough of it to feed my brain and creative side for the next year or two.  Tied weaves, double weave (way beyond the basics) and loom-controlled shibori.

There was also a market with vendors big and small.  I behaved myself pretty well, but did come home with a few tools (including a used LeClerc electric bobbin winder) and some lovely alpaca from Vancouver Island, for future spinning projects.  Morrison Creek Alpacas, highly recommended.

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A year ago I bought a 32″ Macomber loom from a woman in Kingston, WA and blogged about it here.  I named it “Kingston” because that is where it came from, and I liked the sound of it.  I have really been happy with Kingston, it is a great weaving width for doing scarves, towels, shawls etc. and then I can devote my wider 48″ Mac to rugs, blankets, and so forth.  But I have been a little frustrated with the fact that it only had 4 harnesses (4H), thus restricting the types of patterns I can weave on it.  In fact, I have had to use my “Baby Mac” model CP portable workshop loom, which is 20″ wide and has 8 harnesses, to do the polychrome summer & winter scarves, and the placemats I have been doing lately, for exactly this reason.  It is a lot smaller (not as comfortable to sit at for a long time) and just not as beefy as a full-size loom, so really wasn’t what I wanted for a long term solution.

Most B4/B5 model Macs can take up to 10 harnesses (10H), and I intended to add 6 more to Kingston “eventually”, but that is a big chunk of change and I just hadn’t taken the plunge.

Then about a month ago I got wind of someone in Seattle who had a 32″ Mac with 12 harnesses for sale.  In other words, exactly the same loom as Kingston, but with 12H instead of 4H.  I emailed her to explore the idea of buying hers, and selling mine, but I wasn’t sure if this made any kind of sense, or how hard it would be to sell Kingston.

It turns out she is getting a wider, multi-harness countermarch loom (new) but she really liked the 32″ Mac and she suggested we swap looms as she would be happy to have a simpler version (plus some money, of course).  So for a fair amount less money that it would cost to upgrade Kingston to 10H, I now have a “new” Kingston with 12H!  Also, it is newer – Kingston was built in 1961 and this one was built in 1995.  And, she didn’t care about having the sectional warp beam, so I was able to keep the one which came with Kingston!  Regarding the history of the new loom, she bought it from a young woman who graduated with an arts degree and an interest in textiles, who later moved on to other things – this loom had been a graduation gift.  So I am the third owner at this point.

So right after we got back from Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula, we made a one-night trip over to Seattle with the cargo trailer and made the exchange.  Both parties are quite happy!

I had a warp on the Baby Mac to finish off, but yesterday and today I put the first warp on the new loom.  It may be called “Madison” (it came from Madison Valley neighborhood in Seattle) – but I really like the name Kingston, and they look so much alike, it may just continue to be “Kingston”.

a “California Rags” placemats underway

from this fabric:

Here are the fabric and resulting “California Rags” placemats I finished up on the Baby Mac last week:

Wierd weather department:

After some lovely sunny days, bringing on lots of new green grass and shooting stars coming up in our yard, we awoke to this today:

April 7, 2013 spring snow!

It did all melt eventually….

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