Sometime last Fall I was contacted by one of the editors at HGTV Magazine about using some of my towels for sale on Etsy in an upcoming issue for their Food + Stuff page. Naturally, I was intrigued. Not promising that I would be chosen, they nevertheless asked me to send some towels to be considered for a photo shoot. And so I did. Having my work on Etsy noticed by magazine editors was totally unexpected, but kind of a fun adrenalin rush.
I sent three towels off to the photo shoot site. It didn’t take long for them to get back to me that one had been chosen for the magazine, and they were all mailed back to me pretty promptly. I was impressed. But. They wouldn’t tell me which one was chosen, keeping it a surprise. I did know that it would appear in the January/February 2021 issue.
Then I got busy weaving a few more in the same basic design and colorway, thinking that when the magazine came out, some people might read the teeny tiny print at the bottom of the page and actually look on Etsy to see if they could buy one or two. You never know 😉
Since I no longer go the grocery store, I have no idea if the magazine is actually on the stands, but I did purchase a e-magazine on Zinio, so I know it’s out there somewhere.
This is a 10 block profile draft. It was previously unusable for me when I only had 8 harnesses to work with. But, now, with 16 harnesses at my disposal, I can use up to 14 blocks. I started doing block substitution in Fiberworks and came up with this:
This is a draft for 12-harness Summer and Winter. Looks good, right? Look carefully, and you will see that there are tabby treadles provided, but no tabby inserted into the treadling. I find it odd that the block substitution function in Fiberworks doesn’t automatically insert the tabby, because, the structure is useless without it. But there you are.
So, if you tell the program to insert the tabby please, this is what you get:
Suddenly, the lovely circles were transformed into ovals. I struggled with this result for a while. You can try to adjust for thread thickness in both threading and treadling, which I did, but this is time consuming, and really not very productive. You really have to weave the design to get a sense of how the proportions will play out.
I planned on using 12/2 tencel at 5040 yards per pound for warp that I had dyed a nice Pewter Gray. It’s been so long since I wove S&W that I had to check what the correct sett would be. My sources recommended a tabby sett for Summer and Winter. Tabby for 12/2 tencel is 24 epi. Which I went with. I recently bought some 2/10 Merino/Tencel Colrain lace weight, which at 2800 yards per pound is roughly the right weight for a pattern weft.
Once I got weaving, I soon realized (like, immediately) that the circles I had planned were definitely working out to be ovals. Yet, if you’ve ever woven on a table loom, you know that unweaving is to be avoided at all costs.
So, notice the bottom of this photo. Ovals. I quickly decided to incorporate the ovals into the overall design, and weave a less elongated oval next.
And then an even less elongated oval next, which now looks like ovals just turned sideways:
Now I was finally getting the circles I envisioned. See the middle part of the scarf photos.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the process, and I think I will be tying to on the this warp and weaving at least one more scarf like it. But after that? Turned Summer and Winter!
Here’s something different, a really interesting little gem of a book for textile geeks like me. I found this book in an Instagram post by Wallace Sewell. Wallace Sewell (or Emma Sewell and Harriet Wallace-Jones) is a British textile design firm specializing in Bauhaus-inspired weaving for the home and for people. I have been inspired by their work for some time. Turns out they are part of a long line of textile designers who have contributed their eye-popping designs to London Transport.
But I digress.
Moquette is French for carpet, woven of wool with cotton backing and tufted, with either loops or cut pile or a combination. Moquette is used on London’s transport (tubes, buses, trams) seats. LT requires that moquette be patterned, partly for decorative effect, but also because the patterns hide dirt. Four colors are used, but the effects of cut and uncut pile make it feel like more. The pile is warm and comfortable in winter, cool in summer, and makes for an inviting tube or bus ride where one would otherwise feel bored, crowded, and miserable.
The tradition of using moquette for LT seating is a century old, and many big names in industrial design have contributed to the history of these textiles including Paul Nash, Enid Marx, Marion Dorn, and Marianne Straub, as well as today’s Wallace Sewell. Styles evolved from Art Deco to Streamlined Machine Age, to Wartime Austerity to Sixties Op.
The moquettes themselves have names, some whimsical: Colindale, Bushey, Ladder, Double Diamond, Trilobite or Fossil, Blue Blaze, and Barman, to name a few.
Alperton by Paul NashGrid by Enid Marx“Straub” by Marianne Straub
The book itself is a history of London’s tube lines and buses, as well as the fabrics that were used in them. Each two-page spread is a mini chapter about the evolution of public transport along with the fabrics used. The majority of photos are in color. If, like me, you are feeling very inspired, The London Transport Museum shop offers moquette designs in a furniture line, as well as socks and face masks. Check it out: https://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/
This is a true romp through 20th century textile history. Enjoy!
About 12 weeks ago I posted on Facebook about what life chez iowaweaver would look like during the coming quarantine. I commented that at least we wouldn’t be bored because we have all the movies, all the books and all the yarn. DH and I are of an age where we really don’t want to be exposed unnecessarily to the Covid, and he has health concerns that mean we have to be strict. We have desperately missed our daughter and her family, who only live 30 minutes away, but it might as well be 30 hours. It’s a good thing we get along so well 😉 .
So, yeah, lots of television, lots of movies, lots of knitting, and lots of weaving. We have gotten really good at online grocery orders, and even managed to score some toilet paper a couple of weeks back. I made a point of making vegan dinners at least once a week, and with leftovers, we were eating vegan even more often.
Check it out: meringues made with aquafaba (the magic liquid found in cans of chickpeas). They were quite tasty.
And this is my no-knead french bread of which I am inordinately proud:
Louisville has a fabulous restaurant scene and we have several great places right in our neighborhood. So takeout once a week has been quite a treat. We only had one clunker in all this time, and that one is definitely off the list forever.
I wove four scarves on the 16 harness Ashford. This is the first warp. The threading was a straight draw, just changing the liftplan. On the left, we have an undulating twill, and on the right we have tumbling boxes.
The second warp was threading to a point twill. On the left, scallop shells or fish scales or fans (or whatever). On the right, we have another undulating twill. I used the liftplan for the first scarf above, and got an entirely different look.
I closed my Etsy shop fairly early in the quarantine. I decided multiple trips to the post office each week was not in my best interest. The shop (with the above items among many others) is now open again with some different rules. I will be mailing once a week at most, and since Etsy is touting home pickup by the postal service, I will give that a try.
My last blog post (eons ago) ended with my starting to read A Place ofGreater Safety by Hilary Mantel. Our libraries are still closed, so we are relying on books on hand, our trusty book store (Carmichael’s), and Kindle. I cruised through the Mantel, and went on to finish several more: UniformJustice by Donna Leon, Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik, As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson, The Cat Who Smelled a Rat by Lilian Jackson Braun, TheMagician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett (stunning!), Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (about a global pandemic!), About Face by Donna Leon, I AmHalf-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Wife by Meg Wolitzer (in progress), and S is for Silence by Sue Grafton (in progress). Whew! And I am not an especially fast reader.
Currently working on another Circles draft with a slightly differnt look. Stay tuned!
This is a bit of a departure for me. Proving that perhaps people really are reading my blog, a few weeks ago a representative of Pen and Sword Books, a British publisher, contacted me and offered to send a copy of a book in their new series on Heritage Crafts and Skills. They asked that I talk about it on my blog, and I said, Yes. And here you have it:
Beginning with a rather heartfelt appeal for support for Heritage Crafts in Great Britain, this book is organized quite differently that any of the usual weaving/spinning books I’ve owned/perused/used in the course of my fiber life. The first ten chapters are a whirlwind tour of the history of weaving and spinning from ancient times to modern times. (I quite felt like I was back in my History of Textiles course as a grad student.) The author outlines the evolution of both spinning yarn and weaving cloth from home-based activities of necessity to fully mechanized industries.
The history chapters are short, easily digestible and perfect for the fledgling craftsperson, aged 12 to adult, who is interested in the evolution of the crafts, but doesn’t want to get too wildly technical. The author writes at length on the social as well as environmental effects of mechanization. I felt the history chapters would have been more complete had there been one or two illustrations per chapter.
The second half of the book is devoted to interviews with contemporary fiber artisans in Great Britain, Canada and Australia. The intent here is to further encourage and inspire the reader to dive in and try these heritage crafts. The artisans profiled vary in experience and interests. Some are newly introduced to spinning and weaving. Some are artists who have been doing one or the other or both for a long time. I found that most of the weaving tended to be on rigid-heddle, inkle, or less complex looms with a focus on color and texture, not so much on structure or original drafts. I found the yarn dyers very inspiring. There is a section of color plates showing examples of many of these artisans’ work. Also included are their presences on social media, or online marketing. I did look up quite a few, and may shop their Etsy stores in the future!
Also helpful for the beginning spinner/weaver: lists of Suppliers, Wool and Fiber Festivals, Courses and Guilds, and Books and Websites.
It should be noted that Lynn Huggins-Cooper, a former teacher, is widely published with over 200 books (!). See this blog post in which she describes her publishing career to date: http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-creative-life-lynn-huggins-cooper.html . She is also a textile artist specializing in felting and other techniques. This is the second book in Pen and Sword Books’ new series on Heritage Crafts and Skills. This series includes Leatherwork and Tanning, also by Huggins-Cooper.
Huggins-Cooper, Lynn. Spinning and Weaving. Yorkshire and Philadelphia, Pen and Sword Books Ltd. 2019. ISBN 9781526724526
So I had a rug in my studio space, but it was a well-worn hand-me-down from my daughter. It had been through two babies worth of everything. And then it became known as barf alley, a favorite site of my two cats. Basically a toxic waste dump.
As it happens, I like to buy wool rugs. Less flammable than nylon, polyester, olefin, etc. Target is a good place to find wool and this rug is a fabulous example of what you can find online from them.
Handwoven in India, a tapestry technique called kilim. Hand dyed wools in good colors, and cotton warp.
Recently I was researching the weaving pamphlets published by Robin & Russ Handweavers titled “Warp and Weft”. I have three issues and I wanted to find out if they existed online anywhere. As luck would have it, I found a blog that had links to that very series. (The blog belongs to Robyn Spady and it is chock full of lots of good information.)
The link she provided belongs to the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics. If you haven’t been to this site, you really should. There is a plethora of weaving information, including PDF’s of long out of print documents. Â All for you.
So then, I thought, what if this site has Practical Weaving Suggestions too? And yes, kids, it does. It has PDF’s of many issues (not all), and it also has a chart of issues and years. Â I cross-checked the chart with my spread sheet and found two of my missing issues. So what did I do?
I downloaded them! I got “Imprisoned Sequins” by Mary M. Atwater:
And, I got Vol. XXII (c. 1952) “Planned Weaving for the Handweaver’s Wardrobe” by Marta Page, which, on the surface sounds kind of ho-hum.
But when you look further, you find the Fledermaus Shortie:
which has an oddly modern flair:
Unfortunately, actual instructions for weaving and sewing the Shortie are not in the issue, but instructions for ordering them (sans internet) are provided :-).
I wrote about the “Practical Weaving Suggestions” pamphlets published by Lily Mills in my last blog post. These pamphlets ceased publication in 1971 and they were followed in 1976 by a new series, also published by Lily Mills, called “Lily Weaving Suggestions”. Â These pamphlets started out, at least, in a more magazine–like format. They were in color and longer, most were 6 pages, Â with stapled binding.
The projects were more modern, some with a counter-culture vibe, some with a more fashion-forward bent. To wit: the issue with a cover model rocking a pair of handwoven denim “jeans” 😉 .
The designers changed with each issue, and many names are unfamiliar, although some are: Persis Grayson, Elmer Hickman, Mary E. Black, Sadye Tune Wilson, Sallie T. Guy, and Clotilde Barrett.
The Lily Weaving Suggestions series ran from 1976 through 1981, with an issue coming out quarterly. The long format eventually dwindled to the folded pamphlet style, and then stopped altogether (at least, that is as far as my collection goes).
I made a second spreadsheet listing all the issues and their contents for this Lily Weaving Suggestions series, and you can see it and/or download it here on ScribD. In addition, The spreadsheet list for “Practical Weaving Suggestions” is also on ScribD here.
In other news, we are closing out week 1 without a kitchen, and we are on the camping-out-in-your-own-house-and-no-way-to-cook diet.
I’ve been a collector of the “Practical Weaving Suggestions” pamphlets published by Lily Mills for a long time. These pamphlets go way back to the mid-20th century when weaving was often a cottage industry for homemakers. They provided all kinds projects and ideas, while at the same time marketing Lily’s weaving yarns. Sound familiar? 😉
Many very well-known authors of handweaving books wrote for Lily Mills, such as Mary Atwater, Harriet Tidball, Osma Gallinger, and Berta Frey. One pamphlet titled “The Profile System of Writing Drafts: How to Adapt the Same Design to Several Techniques” by Helen L. Allen and Osma Gallinger, a seemingly revolutionary concept at the time, was a very detailed transcript of a presentation made at a national conference.
The publishing dates for the early issues are unknown to me. They are labeled by Volume and Number, starting with Vol. I, No. 1, and continuing through Vol. XXVIII. Then a different number system begins with Vol. I-55. My guess? Volume I, 1955. Â The last issue in this system that I have is Vol. I-71 (i. e., 1971). Â I started a spreadsheet for this collection as a way of keeping track of what’s missing and what I have duplicates of.
I don’t remember the first time I found one of these pamphlets, maybe at a library book sale, but when eBay took off, I bought a lot of them. Then recently I bought another big batch (thank you, Facebook buying and selling groups!!!). Â They may be old-fashioned, but they are packed with weaving history and information, and even some very precious woven samples. Many are in very fragile condition depending on how they were treated for the last, oh, 50 or so years. Some have 3-hole punches for a binder. Some have name stickers. Some are just ragged around the edges, but aren’t we all?
Anyway, recently Interweave Press put out a call for submissions on the topic of multiple projects on a long warp. Well, I have to say that Lily Mills had that one covered more than a half century ago. And when I say long warp, we’re talking 40 yards (!). However, the projects are probably not to the taste of today’s weaver. Aprons, anyone?
In other news, I have a dishtowel warp on the loom, and looming (hahaha) plans for a full kitchen renovation. Luckily, I can weave upstairs, the cats will be boarded at the kitty hotel, and I can weave while pandemonium reigns.
iowaweaver 