Off Loom Woven Scarf

Here's the stash I bought. See the fat yarn called Sumptuous? I'm weaving a scarf with it. Since it's too fat to fit any of my rigid heddle looms, I'm going to weave it off loom or free hand.



Here I am warping it about 7 foot long of the brown and tan yarns around a couple of chairs. Winding with continous warp will create finished edges on both ends, no fringe to be worked.





Hanging it from a wire cut from a wire coat hanger, I started weaving it, using my fingers to pick the warps and pushing the weft through. The weave is warp faced weaving to get the horizontal bars to show. This is not a tight warp project. Firm but not tight. Just finger tight.





Here is about half way done. It has a good simple look to it and it's going fairly quickly with the fat yarn. I'll start and end with that coat hanger wire and will have finished edges on both ends, so no fringe on this. The ends sticking out are at the spot where I added weft (yarn) and I'll trim those off after the wet finish of the scarf.

This is wonderfully low tech.

Have a good day!

Vertical Twined Bags - Twining On A Train

First let me share this link to the post of a virtual version of a recent Textile Museum "Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning" program by David W. Fraser on "Vertically Twined Plateau Bags," an American Indian format. The pictures and text are wonderful and a beautiful example of using the internet to share knowledge and art. Check it out.

http://rjohnhowe.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/david-w-fraser-on-vertically-twined-plateau-bags/

Next, my humble twined bag adventure continues:
(click on pictures for larger image)



Twining on a train. Here is the current bag in progress. I wanted to see what a lot of stripes would look. Here it is. The warps are tied over a double strand of yarn. I wanted to get a fatter edge to the top and it worked well, showing off the different color warp yarns. The stripes are tedious with changes every two rows.


Here is how I wind my butterflies for twining. Upper left of the picture is the train seat in front of me. The right side of the picutre is the floor of the train. Sacramento has a light rail system that I use to commute to work and the light is good enough for pictures without using flash. I can work on small projects if I can get a seat. I should probably keep a drop spindle handy for days when I have to stand.



Here I am starting a new color. I start the twine around the last pair from the back side (orange) of the cardboard so I get a secure change on the side of the bag. Then twine the first pair from the front side (yellow). Of course the front and back sides change every time I flip the cardboard.



I am ending the rows on the sides of the bags with a square knot. Because it ends on the side I can cover the knots with the strap for the bag later. Even so, I try to hide the knots. The white plastic bag is for transporting the work. I stuff the cardboard with twined bag into the white plastic bag and slide it into my red bag that I use to carry my books and lunch to work. I try to pre-cut my yarn so I can pull the next color out of the bag to keep twining. So I leave the big skeins of yarn at home, I carry only enough yarns for a days' work.


Here is the square knot at the end of the color change (circle). I start the color on the side opposite the knot from the end of the last color. This way I can trap the loose ends from the knot. Here you see I am twining around three strands of orange, one of which is a strand from the knot. I'll trap the other strand from the knot on the other side of the cardboard in the next pair.


When I finish the next row (yellow) I'll tie it off then go to the side where the orange strands from the square knot are. The strands (marked with X) from the square knot (arrow) travel under the yellow rows and are hidden. I'll cut off the orange strands and start another color.


After my train ride I transfer to a bus for the second half of the ride to work over the Sacramento River into West Sacramento, the light is not as good on the bus so no pictures of working on the bus. But here is a picture looking out the bus window at the flag at 500 Capitol Mall Tower, where strong winds are making the large flag stand straight out.

Have a good day!

Tinkuy Peru 2010

The above picture is from Laverne Waddington's blog "Backstrap Weaving"

Can't let this month go by without mention these beautiful articles posted on the web regarding Tinkuy de Tejedores 2010 which is a conference celebrating traditional weaving and textiles. It's four days of weaving, spinning, knitting, singing, dancing, storytelling, and conferencing. Not just weavers from Peru, there are weavers from Guatemala, Bolivia, and all over the world.

Laverne posted a couple of articles on her blog.

You can read the articles at the following link. There's lots of pictures and there are two articles because of all the pictures.
http://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/backstrap-weaving-tinkuy-de-tejedores-2010/

http://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/backstrap-weaving-more-tinkuy-and-experiments-with-new-techniques/


Blogger/weaver Beth Smith and her daughter Maggie also attended the Tinkuy and posted an article on her blog "Three Sheeps to the Wind"

You can see the article at:
http://threesheeps.blogspot.com/2010/11/peru.html

The event was organized by Centro de Textiles Tradicionales de Cusco (CTTC) or Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco, dedicated to the preservation of local traditional fiber arts.

You can visit their website;
Spanish: http://www.textilescusco.org/index.html
English: http://www.textilescusco.org/eng/index.html

What a wonderful gathering it was. It's wonderful that these ladies took the time to share their trip with us so we can travel with them through their pictures and words.

Have a good day!

Roses

don't tell the roses the winter is coming
see how they raise their flowers to the heavens
smell the air rich with fragrance that is pleasing

don't tell the roses the winter is coming
with rain that batters the petal and leaf
with ice that coats the stem and thorn

don't tell the roses the winter is coming
they cannot hide or raise a cover
they can be roses and nothing else

don't tell the roses the winter is coming
they already know the seasons
because they are roses


Have a good day!
My corner of the world
Capitol Park, Sacramento, Calif.

Twined Bag 2

(click picture for larger image)
Here is a closeup of the latest twined bag. The basic weave is twine around two warps. The middle detail is two rows of three strand twine around warp pairs. The last row is twined around single warp to make a tighter bottom for the bag.



The bag is twined around cardboard frame and goes around both sides. The warp will be knotted at the bottom to close the bottom of the bag. Next I have to make a strap for it.

Have a good day!