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!
