late summer fiber activities

part of the endless cotton warp in process

I have been hibernating from the heat and humidity or in the case of last week, rain and heat and humidity For at least six weeks my primary activities have alternated between spending several hours in the morning at the gym and afternoon weaving and other fiber activites.

My main focus has been tyring to finish weaving off the endless cotton warp. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I warped up 15 yards of multi colored warp except to say that it is an indication of how much I truly hate warping, and an indication that I still don't really understand enough of what colored warps do or the limits of my own weaving ability- which is stuck in a twill phase because I do not know how to read drafts and am enjoying just playing with the twill- to really realize how long 15 yards is.

Somewhere in my planning I recall thinking that at least 15 yards would give me enough warp to do the few Navajo Coal Mine samples and then some extra to play with. Well 5 sample placemats, 2 3 foot long potential kitchen rugs or bathmats, 4 potential dishtowels and about half a dozen miscellaneous I don't know whats, later, there is still warp left. So I continue playing, but with only four colors, I am running out of novel and new variations although the current phase of doing stripes in various Navajo band techniques following a Fibonacchi numer series is at least making me stay alert and count.

I will be glad when the warp runs out, but then there starts the whole process of learning how to finish off, hem etc. Lots of potential for practice, although I think that next time I will warp up a shorter length, maybe only 5 yards, and I will do it all in white and maybe invest in some new colors of thread. I hope to learn how to read drafts so that maybe I can play with something other than twill.

Rain Maiden tapestry sample

In between stints on the cotton warp, I am working on a contemporary type tapestry piece using mostly traditional Navajo techniques. This is part of a study project that West Side Weavers, a guild I belong to, is pursuing this year. Since I normally do traditional Navajo patterns which have no curves, I designed this with several curved sections.

My original plan was to do this sample, using up a warp already set up on a tapestry loom with a continuous warp. The problem there is that because I have used most of the rest of the work for other tapesty samples, I am essentially working blind on this part of the warp. I am far enough in that I can see the end in sight, which means that I am far enough in that I don't want to start the new piece until I have worked out all of the curved sections on this sample and then when I have the bugs worked out, to work the final piece on a fresh non continuous warp which I already have ready to go.

Cactus Flower Navajo Loom warped, corded and ready to go

At the beginning of the summer as I went into my fiber closet to find yarn for the Rain Maiden, spring cleaning happened and in the process my big personal totem weaving emerged. I have rolled it, sewn it back on itself and worked it to the last final grim section where soon I will be down to the final two inches where I will have to pack in additional design elements, single thread by single thread. It remains out of the closet but I haven't worked much on it beyond getting it to the point it is now. It's taken me two years to get this far, and the last 2 inches supposedly take as long as it tooke me to get this far. That means a theoretical completion of 2010 or whenever I get tired of looking at it or stubbing my toe on it.

Totem weaving waiting to be completed

My final summer project is adding to a blue and white cross stitch sampler. I am using all things bike related as a theme and sort of making it up as I go. My inspiration for this comes from my friend Heidi in the Netherlands, who sometimes posts pictures of bits and pieces of a red and white sampler she is working on. Since part of my plan is to add the names of different states as I ride through them, this will obviously be a long term project. In the meantime, I am happily working on the alphabet and filling in the names of the states I have already have ridden through. I will need to spend a lot of time with graph paper to work out a pattern for a bike and rider, a wheel, and several other bike related items.

blue and white sampler in progress

So that's the late summer progress report. Now it remains to be seen if I will finish the endless warp before the heat ends.