This was my mother's proudest piece of weaving, done sometime in the 00s. It's based on a photo she took in Queenstown. She (natural?) dyed all her yarns, and spun most. It took her agonizing months of do-overs, making her doubt if she could ever weave something she saw in her mind, with exasperated Dad shouting from the living room to get a "more pleasant" hobby! This is a photo of the original photo on film. It's hard to tell because I took this under harsh hotel room lights, while the top pic of the piece, in a more subtle living room, but the light and saturation are very close in real l ..read more

Not counting my first Pebbles project, my sixth tied unit weave piece came off the loom last night. (The fifth remains on the sample table loom.) It was a triumph of... something, many things. Recent posts sounding like a litany of loom problems, I was looking forward to a 100% upbeat post, but foolishly declared on FB, "Goddess of Weaving willing, the first piece should come off the loom today. But did I just jinx it? Because this has been a real Murphy's project." Well, yes, indeed, I did. * * * * * (Ignore this part; it's for my record. I may have posted this recently, but too lazy to loo ..read more

I really wanted to keep weaving with two pattern wefts, but a few days and half a dozen drafts later, nothing flowed from the one I used. I wanted to keep weaving, so I went back to one pattern shaft. Never mind. It's not as if I don't have interesting drafts; I like the two at far left. The one I wove is center bottom, but just one repeat which ends at the horizontal line. You see my dilemma; that one doesn't look like the others. I might weave it again, although I'm going try making another that has the similar bold look.  I've been using these four drafts for the single pattern weft ..read more

I'm typing this on Saturday evening. I had a kiddie-size roller-coaster of a week, and I want to tell you about it. There is a weaving bit towards the end; scroll down to the pictures.  * * * * * Last week I wove on Thursday and Friday, about which I wrote in the previous post. I didn't weave on the weekend as we were busy doing stuff around the house, but I briefly saw Stella. She guessed I had been weaving, from my posture/attitude/what-not, which was nice. Conversation touched on our aging parents; we've long thought many folks see a marked transformation somewhere around age 80; I ..read more

Purple cauliflower seedlings that survived my less-than-elegant transplant, from one packet of seeds purchased a few years ago. Sum total of white cauliflowers from a packet purchased at the same time. :-D This spring I spent more hours outside than I expected, thanks in part to the cooler temps and periodic rain which kept hay fever down. It's November and this spring I used my meds maybe half a dozen times, which is super extraordinarily amazingly few, in spite of winds upwards of 68km/h in the last week, making 40kms "normal" these days. We also had the fire going three nights in the la ..read more

I'm glad I did more sampling, ostensibly to test different washing cycles, but in trying out different styles of lift plans, too. In the course, I made a big discovery, or should I say, had a monumental "Doh!" moment: whatever anomalies I include, I am weaving a tied unit weave, yielding its characteristic A- vs B-side "opposite" looks. I apologize the colors in these photos aren't accurate, (and rather dull,) as they were taken over multiple days in different lights. But I did pull out my trusted camera so at least the focus is better. I've always woven 20/2 cotton, regardless of the structu ..read more

I like the mid-orange and pale purple combination so much I couldn't help myself. I started weaving soon after the last post, but stopped after using a little more than half of the orange bobbin; I got about 14cm. I have three bobbins of the paler orange, two of the darker orange, and in comparison unlimited amount of the purple, (an untouched cone besides all this,) so simple math says I'll get 150cm at this rate, more if I make purple more prominent. The colors are more saturated than in the pic, but this is a good representation of the relative characteristics of the three yarns; both th ..read more

Wednesday last week, I got a big sample off the big loom. There are numerous factors/issues/points of interest in this piece I don't know where to focus, but I should start somewhere. Some contents in this post also repeat what I wrote here, but I'd like to include all pertinent information here. This is going to be a haphazard post, because I haven't finished observing, but bear with me. * After the trouble and repairs of a year ago, the loom works, but shaft lifting feels slower, dropping even more so and erratic. I press the foot pedal to lift the shafts, and take my foot off it for the p ..read more

Gov Walz's face reminded me I was thinking about pretty notebooks/sketchbook/visual diaries in July, and weather to start a new project as means to make such a book. It went nowhere as I was outside weeding as much as possible back then. * * * * * Often I wish I were a type of maker who kept pretty sketchbook and visual-diaries. I'm not. I write on backs of receipts and envelopes, and occasionally scribble in notebooks, while saving a bunch of nicer ones for "later". My books are usually filled with words, rough sketches, thumbnails of different sizes and complexities, chronologies, and list ..read more

I have been sitting on a few drafts this winter. This one originally came about a couple of months after the previous post. * * * * * Folks and teams I support usually don't come out on top in reality TV shows, sports championships, and the like. I didn't hold too much hopes for my fav US VP candidate, the current Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, so I was doubly thrilled when he was chosen. And even though he looks and sounds to be a thoroughly normal, nice guy, he is a seasoned politician, bound to disappoint purists like me at some point. Still, I'm still a fan of sorts, and I started doodling ..read more