Forest for the Trees

Our Long & Skinny study group (the study all things woven that are long and skinny!) in the Weavers' Guild of St. Louis has been working on converting boundweave patterns from a beautiful tapestry into tablet weaving designs.

In the past there was a practice of converting tablet woven designs into boundweave patterns, so fair is fair.

I got Evergreens and Orange Groves.

Here is my interpretation of the Orange Grove:

You can download the draft OrangeGrove.pdf

I also did Evergreens.

That draft is available as well.  EvergreenForest.pdf

Keep those cards turning!

The Crimson Kimono

Getting ready for exhibits has been the next great challenge.

This kimono was a community project.  It started with the band.  My friend Amy Norris said it looked like a gold ribbon flowing in and out of the band.  We decided it needed a garment, so she volunteered to weave fabric for it.

The band is a simple repeating double-faced design.  The background was Bambu 7, and the pattern was 2000ypp rayon chenille.  It was one continuous band woven on a floor inkle loom.

Amy wove the fabric with Bambu in a 16-shaft twill.  The warp was red, and the weft was actually the same blue as in the band.

Then Carolyn Hart volunteered (was coerced?) to put it all together.  I know she is still cussing me.  She did an incredible job however.  The left overs were two strips of fabric about 4" by 10" and about 10" of band.  That's talent!

Hopefully this will be accepted into the Convergence fashion show.  If you are going, maybe you'll see it there!

Diving anyone?

Another passion of mine (other than card weaving that is) is SCUBA Diving.  My brother and I just got back from Key West FL for a quick weekend of diving.  I'm still working on combining the two passions.  Anyone for underwater card weaving classes?

We saw a shark, yikes!

Lots of fish (and one brother)...

And we dove the Vandenberg wreck. It was intentionally sunk 2 1/2 years ago for artificial reef growth.  The deck was at about 90ft.  Very fun, and a little creepy!

Three foot barracuda!

Lots of places to swim through.

And really fun structures!

New Card Weavers in Woodstock!

Thank you very much Woodstock Weavers' Guild!  And this is not the New York Woodstock, but the Woodstock outside of Chicago.

Last week I spent three wonderful workshop days teaching them how to tablet weave.  We covered the basics up through 3/1 twill, diagonals, and double faced weaves.

Beth - you were a wonderful host!  Hope you'll come down to STL so I can return the favor.

And true to any class, they taught me much as well.  There were some questions about brocade that came up, and since I haven't really woven brocade, the minute I got home I started investigating.  Now I can't wait to try it myself.  There really is a lifetime of learning with just this one weaving style!

Bloomington for the weekend.

If you happen to be near Bloomington Indiana this weekend, why not sign up with their guild to learn tablet weaving?  I'll be there on Saturday teaching the Bloomington Spinners & Weavers the basics.  Should be a lot of fun.  There are still some spaces left!

Ice and more Ice

Two days of ice mixed with snow.  I know much of the rest of the country got hit with heavy winter weather, but St. Louis seems to rival other cities for ICE.

The nice thing is that the city shut down, so I had plenty of time to weave.

A friend challenged me to produce a tablet woven band that would iridesce.  I told her it couldn't be done.  She begged me just to try, so I did.  You know what?  I couldn't do it.  Card weaving is a warped face weave for goodness sake!!  Iridescence happens at the intersection of warp and weft.  No weft showing, no color changing cloth.  I did give it a try however.  Brocade, diagonals, highly contrasting colors, nothing seemed to work.  I think the only way this would work would be to have a warp spreader, and have the weft visible between the cards.

This is an older project from the fall.  My grand niece was baptized, and  my partner and I were very honored to be selected as her sponsors.  As a dutiful sponsor, I felt it my obligation to make her something nice for the christening.  Here Savannah is sporting her handwoven name sash.  It is white 10/2 tencel and an off-white 8/2 unmercerized cotton.  I was going for the shiny/not shiny look.  The lettering is from Linda Hendrickson's "Please Weave A Message."  It ended up being longer than I expected, but that's what happens when you have a name like Savannah instead of Ann.

New Year, New Challenges

The new year is here!  I started the new year doing one of the things I love, spinning with friends.  We do this every year.  What you do on the first you'll do all year, yes?  So it better be something you enjoy doing!

One of the new challenges I'm going to be tackling is living life more for each day.  Stop looking at life so hugely which can be very scarey.  As I was weaving on some yardage and a band for a vest I'm making, I was thinking about how I should look at life more like I look at my weaving.  During the planning phases, a project can look huge and insurmountable, life is daunting when looked at as one huge project as well.  But if I start to look at it as I do my weaving, step by step, and inch by inch, it will become much easier.  Inch by inch.  After lots of inches you have yards and yards, and after yards, you have unlimited options for that material.  That sounds like a good way to live life.

I have to share two wonderful gifts I received from my loving partner for Christmas.

The first is wonderful in its creativity.  It is a light box to photograph my weaving, and it fits in that small round black pouch you see in the middle of the box.  Just fold twist and sproing - a small circle about a foot in diameter.

The other is wonderful for its irreverence.  A St. Sebastion pin cushion!  Everything about it screams "WRONG" which is probably why I love it so much.

Have a great 2011 everyone!  Keep those cards turning!