Well, Hellooooo! How are you? How have you been?

If I were to meet up with someone I hadn't seen for a long time, I might be a little embarrassed for not connecting with that someone for a while, but I'd be delighted to see them all the same.

So.... "Well, Helloooooo! How are you? How have you been?".

I'm doing well, thank you. A bit hot just now as Tucson is feeling more like Phoenix lately. Gah.
Monsoons have semi-started but they are absent this week and we're cooking. It's about 102 degrees in the shade (1:15 PM). The phone says it's 108 outside. Gah.

So.....I'm off school for the summer, back to working 6 days a week, doing a little knitting, working on the to-do piles around the house and considering what I want to do for my Weaving Independent Study in the Fall. The 3 options currently being considered are Ikat (primarily with Indigo), Summer and Winter Weave or Backstrap Weaving.

Backstrap weaving has been on the "list" for a while and I picked up a book on the topic at the last Tucson Handweaver's and Spinner's Guild stash sale. We shall see. I think I'd need to "build" a loom but I haven't read enough to see if I want to go there just yet.

I dabbled in Summer and Winter Weave last semester - seeing it as a type of DoubleWeave (i.e. weaving with multiple warps). I started with heaver yarns and was thinking rude comments like "ugly bedspread" as I started my test. I worked my way down to thinner weft threads and began to see the pattern improve from "ugly bedspread" to "Huh - kinda cool".
{?!? Seriously - I didn't take any pictures of the test on the loom at school?!? Sigh/Head-desk.}

I also read up a little on Ikat last semester and even setup a test during our Indigo dye session. As I understand it, there are three types of Ikat dyeing - Warp based (just the warp threads {which allows more control}), Weft based (less control), and Double Ikat where both warp and weft are dyed. With limited time amidst other class projects,  I decided to setup a card weaving warp with some Ikat resist. (Card Weaving is essentially all warp - you can only see the weft on the edges of the woven strip.) The dye/resist worked well but I have yet to weave it up.

Well, this post went pretty much as though I'd run into you somewhere and I started babbling about the current thing on my mind. Except I couldn't see when your eyes glazed over as I waxed rhapsodic about one of my favorite things. {wry grin}

I hope your favorite things are enhancing your summer and keeping you out of the Arizona heat.

I hope I run into you again soon!

No, really, I only did this for school...

Yep…that's what I keep telling myself. ;-)

I have many interests/diversions {that's an understatement} that go with the "Jack-of-all-Crafts, Master-of-none" in the blog header. However, I actually DO try to resist picking up every craft or new technique to which I am exposed. Sometimes I am even successful!

As part of the Spring semester's weaving class, a very talented and experienced spinner from the Tucson Handweaver's and Spinner's guild came by to demonstrate spinning on her spinning wheel and to support our instructor's guiding us on spinning yarn on drop-spindles. My spinning efforts on a very well-loved drop-spindle from the classroom cupboards produced, uh….more effort than yarn. {grin} You could say I epitomized the "drop" part of drop spindling.
However, I did dutifully take home some mystery fiber to try and spin it on the drop-spindle I have at home, obtained after a spinning lesson {mumble} years ago.

Said drop-spindle still had on it some of the "art" yarn (i.e. thick-n-thin) I'd spun in that first spinning lesson with a bit of un-spun roving hanging from it.

People pay big bucks for "art yarn", don't they?
(Ok, maybe not this art yarn. {grin})

So (since the cats were asleep), I roughly spun the pink/red roving into more "art" yarn, attached the new mystery fiber (later identified as bamboo), and did a little spinning - as homework . I was somewhat relieved that my less-well-loved drop spindle spent much less time on the floor than the classroom spindle (and I didn't wake up the cats) but I was still achieving "art" yarn.

A few days later, I was attempting to explain spinning to a classmate who had missed the spinning demonstration due to illness and something quietly clicked. No, not a big "ta-da" click, just a quiet "makes more sense" click and when I went to try to show her how spinning on a drop spindle was done - I was actually able to spin something a little more even than "art" yarn. She thought I was a prodigy and I was rather surprised to be, well, spinning.

Isn't this what real spinners do?
Take a picture with a dime to show the width of the yarn?
{A nickel might make mine look more impressive.} 

It was kind of fun. And I found myself spinning just a little more of the bamboo and thinking about picking up a bit more from the classroom to spin. And then I went to my stash and tracked down this ball of orange-y roving that had been sent to me in a yarn order of many years ago….

...and then… I got distracted with the next adventure in our Weaving class (Solar dying) and I didn't get back to spinning.
But I keep thinking about it. And I really enjoyed the spinning I did this semester.

But I already have soooo much yarn. The idea of spinning to create more yarn to add to the scary stash causes a question-my-sanity moment.

Though...I could…just spin up the mystery roving to see what happens. If all else fails, I could add it to a fulled kitty bed project….

We shall see. Besides, I've never considered myself to be perfectly sane. {wry grin}
Isn't it: "You have to be loopy to knit (crochet), warped to weave, and twisted to spin."?

Drawing Final Project - I Like It. Hate it! Kinda Pleased.

Continuing the (very) belated Spring 2013 Fiber Arts Degree posts with the last of the Spring 2013 Drawing Class Posts:

For our last Drawing class project we were required to create a large scale (4' x 4') layered piece with our choice of content. We were to consider combining 3 layers of the following: do a pattern with a stencil or something drawn/painted, something projected/traced onto the paper, and there should be a third layer, possibly a 3-dimensional element.

Hmmmm. I tossed around a variety of concepts and settled on using my ancestry as the subject matter.
Although I'm a good representation of the All-American "Mutt", the majority of my ancestors were Scott-Irish with a bit of Comanche Indian from my Grandfather.
I named it "Faded Heritage".

I decided I wanted to do a Tree of Life as the first "layer" so I plotted to find a basic drawing that I could project/trace onto the paper. I didn't have to look far and since my favorite was posted by the artist with supporting comments and had website print options, I presumed I wouldn't be infringing a copyright if I used it.
{My apologies…doing this post a year delayed, I can no longer find the design on the internet to give credit where it is definitely due. My profound compliments to the artist - you drew spiffiness.}

My fellow students and I took turns using the elderly {and near-burning hot} Artograph Tracer Projector in a darkened supply closet to trace our chosen pictures onto the 4' square of paper.
I then outlined the large pencil tracing in permanent ink marker and then overlaid it with indian ink (with which I was very enamored after the Landscape project). The instructor suggested I broaden the use of the ink and add shading to give the celtic over-under flow some dimension. I really liked the effect.

Somewhere along the lines (pun-intended!) I decided I wanted to flick indian ink speckles on the paper.

{Woo-hoo!} Stand back, I'm gonna splatter ink!

I also plotted the other layers:
I drew and cut out a celtic knot stencil and I tried to carve a stamp of the Comanche Nation seal from foam (sadly, it's more of an "ode" to the seal rather than something recognizable {sigh}):

And lastly I wanted to represent the Scottish Tartan of my family. I tried to mix the appropriate paint colors to emulate The Royal Stewart Tartan. I applied the paint onto drawing paper and, using my newly-learned Mixed Media Plaiting skills, cut it into strips and then wove it into paper-plaid squares.

I used the tartan-colored paint along with other paints leftover from the Color and Composition Final project to apply the celtic knot stencil onto the page…and I happily took the opportunity to flick more speckles of paint. {Color Speckles! Honestly, it was hard to stop…}

I got pretty colorful too. 

At this point, I rather liked the way the project was turning out.
CooPurr approved too.
{Ok, he would have approved more had I let him lay upon the crinkly, colorful paper…}

 

But I didn't much care for the idea of applying the plaid squares…they seemed to throw off the knots and speckles:

I did try to use the plaited squares as stamps on the project:

And I experimented with the best way to attach the woven paper pieces, but I still wasn't particularly pleased with the idea of that 3-D/third layer on top of the celtic stamps and tree.

Putting clear packing tape over the area that
I'd be sewing through seemed the best method. 

I could not seem to get past the tartan-layer so I actually attempted to turn in the project without the 3-D layer on the last day of class during the 15-minute review meeting with the instructor.
{Figuring I already had lots of layers of paint and ink…}

Allllllll my drawing work for the semester filled up all three
rows of desks in the class room.

However, the instructor convinced me that last layer was necessary and would improve the piece.
I agreed to do the deed, but the attitude when I got home was a bit grumpy. Here I'd thought I was alllll done, but now I needed to tack on woven bits of painted paper. {whiny sigh, grump, grrr}
{Although it was pretty darn nice of the instructor to let me have another day to tweak the project.}

I setup to work in the "outdoor studio"(back porch) because it's a cat-free zone but it was too windy so I even more grumpily moved inside.
I was well-into the "Hate it!" phase of this art piece. {sigh}

Shortly thereafter, I was gifted with the opportunity to save a life {"Drying feathers and a Loud Chirp"} and that stopped my whinging about re-finishing the drawing project.

After the attitude adjustment, I sewed on the woven tartan bits and turned in my final drawing project.

 

 

 

Although it didn't qualify for a place on the walls of the Pima College Library, it did hang in the Art Department "Gallery" all summer.

And….I'm kinda pleased with it. Kinda. The plaited tartan bits make the piece more interesting, but…

How My 1st Weaving II Project Went Successfully Awry

I know…I've essentially skipped blogging about the entire Fall Semester. I keep dashing from project to paper to the next project. I'll get back to the Fall Semester eventually. 

In the Spring 2014 semester, I'm enrolled in Weaving II and an Independent Study of Weaving. Neither class has a set structure beyond the techniques/projects I indicated I would pursue in the Independent Study contract. (i.e. the possibilities are endless and a little overwhelming. Well, only endless to the point approved by the instructor. {wry grin})

Not surprisingly, I had contracted to weave fabric to create a Fulled Woven Bag. {Yes, the bag-lady in me is alive and well!}

In support of this project, I investigated Double Weave - a method where one set of warp threads are used for two pieces of fabric - joined on one side. Double Weave has a whole range of nifty things that it can do and I'm hoping to explore several aspects of this technique.
This time I played with the Tube version of Double Weave where the two fabrics being woven are joined at both edges and open at the top and bottom.
(As always, please click on the photos to enlarge.)

Using this technique you can create multiple openings, pockets, puffs or mini-pillows as part of the woven fabric.

 

Yes, the warp is divided into 3 separate sections and I
stuffed them with leftover yarn before
weaving them closed. 

I planned to use the Tube Double Weave technique to weave a tube of felt-able wool, closing off the bottom and top and then full (felt) the hollow rectangle into a denser fabric. I would then cut the fulled (now non-ravelling) fabric to make the bag with a strap and extra fabric for a flap over the bag opening and a pocket for the inside.
Well, that was the plan.

I pulled wool from the stash - a lovely solid blue for the warp and Noro Kureyon for the weft.

I found that I needed a few more yards of warp, then found my stash wanting {shocking, I know!}, and broke down to shop for warp. I couldn't match the blue yarn so I settled on using black on the bag sides and put together my warp.

I was pointedly delighted with how the Noro colors laid out and reveled in how easy it was to maneuver around the knots in the yarn that interrupted the famous Noro Color progression.

And I decided it was fun to take pictures from inside my warp!

Ta-da! A picture of me I actually like!
{There's a pun here relating to the lines on my face
being more prominent.} {grin}

A view of the warp as it progressed - from the inside:

And the view of the warp as it progressed - from the outside:

The instructor had noted that the blue warp enhanced the colors whilst the black warp would be more noticeable/prominent. What do you think?
I think she was correct.

 

The weaving went quickly and I used up every possible inch of the warp - even lifting the loom harness by hand to allow for a few more weft throws.

I cut the closed tube off the loom and fulled it the following weekend.

Yep, I secured the ends before I tossed it into the wash.

Tossed it into the wash with a variety of things to
help the fulling process. 

{I'll try to do a blog post on how I full stuff in a front-loading washer, but for now I'd like to caution folks don't just toss items to be fulled/felted into the washer. I place them inside a zippered pillow case (or 2) to minimize the amount of fuzz transferred into my washing machine. Yep, think about it…pipes or an expensive machine coming to a screeching halt, clogged with wool fibre…shudder.}

And it fulled beautifully! I am particularly smitten with how the warp pops through to create a nubbly, textured effect on the fabric.

However…it was a bit small for the bag I had planned.

Yes, I had planned for shrinkage, but not that much shrinkage. I showed the fulled, hollow rectangle to the instructor and admitted it would be a smaller bag than I had planned. She suggested it become a pillow.

A pillow??
!!A Pillow!!
With the current group of knead-happy, goat-cats in my home I had despaired at ever being able to weave pillows for my home. But if I fulled the pillows…!! Woot! They wouldn't be kitty-proof, but they'd be kitty-resistant!

I had a new plan!
I carefully cut open the hollow rectangle,

stuffed it with recycled fiberfill,

and carefully sewed it back up.

I've got the next Fulled Pillow Warp measured and I'll be putting it on the loom tomorrow. I'm planning  at least 2 more pillows before I revisit the Fulled Woven Bag Project.
Oh yes, there will be a bag too.
Although, I have to wonder where else the Fulled Woven Bag Project might lead me...