Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Inch By Inch

and row by row, small things are happening.

Some silk yardage is on the loom:

silk shawl

30/2 silk sett at 48, 1100 ends, woven with 30/2. Just starting out: I had to stop and order more heddles, luckily I caught the shortage before I started sleying. I've had the loom for over 25 years, and apparently never needed more than 1000 heddles (until now). I now have 1500. It may be another 25 years before I need them all, but I'm prepared.

The silk fabric has a (very) subtle texture: there are 20/2 silk threads spaced randomly across the warp, which I think you can just barely see here:

silk shawl3

They will be more evident after finishing, as of now I live on hope.

Also inch-by-inching along on a cotton pickup band for the CNCH demo:

CNCH pick up band

A Latvian design, done in somewhat untraditional colors, the red is classic, but the remainder not so much.

In hunting for something else, I found a long lost, thought-never-to-be-found-again small silk band:

pickup band

This is a sample, I still have the larger band. I used to take this around in my class stuff, but it went missing about 3 years ago. As small and as light as it is (about 5 inches long), I just assumed it had gotten thrown away, or attached itself to someone's clothing and was never to be seen again.

I was happy to see it, and it inspired a desire to do more of the same, fine threads and all. So more silk spinning is the result:

inch by inch

inch by inch.

I've been distracted too:

mojo

Mojo. Who apparently likes to sing along with the blues. He is prowling and getting used to his new home, not quite sure yet. I haven't had a cat in the house for about 30 years: cats outside, and barn cats, and garage cats, but not house cats. The things I have to put away in a safe place are legion :-).

7 Comments:

Blogger Spindlers2 said...

Where did that handsome creature come from? You did know that cats like to use a warped loom as a hammock, didn't you?

9:11 AM  
Blogger Valerie said...

All that white silk?! I feel a dyeing post coming on....

9:38 AM  
Blogger Charleen said...

Mojo! Great name. So many possibilities!

1:58 PM  
Blogger Marie said...

The wedding fabric. What pattern? I am now nursing a headache I didn't have until I projected myself into your yurt threading and sleying your loom. Amazing eyes. Amazing woman.

Is this the same cat who found you? If it is, it seems you've tamed him enough to let you put a collar on him/her.

10:07 PM  
Blogger claudia said...

I need the Mojo story. In coloring, he/she looks positively Igor-esque.

8:48 AM  
Blogger Birdsong said...

You are very busy and I bet that suddenly will see completion on several fronts! Mojo is quite stunning, but I understand about house cats, having foregone them a long time around here as well.

10:31 AM  
Blogger Debbi said...

Welcome to the new member of your family! I'd love to see a post about his story. :) The silk fabric is gorgeous. What is the intended use? Thank you for being so generous with your talent - I get so inspired by your work. :)

5:03 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home