Workshop at Canta Cruz Handweavers

I had a wonderful time with the Santa Cruz Handweavers last week.  To start with, my gracious host lives in a beautiful wooded area up in the hills.  This is a view from their deck - isn't that fantastic?

Here is my class, busily weaving away.  This was the first time I've taught this workshop "The Unwoven Warp: Layering Sprang on Woven Cloth".  Everybody in the class was a trooper; they all were intrepid in trying this unusual technique.

Don't they have a nice meeting place?  It's a community building in a pleasant park.

Everyone was able to get in at least a  few sprang motifs by the end of the workshop.

More student work.  I like how she's found a place to store her tools while she's away from the loom.

Some students got creative with their sprang, and got new ideas to try.

Interlaced sprang, and one worked with weft.






Thank you Santa Cruz weavers for your hospitality and enthusiasm!

Loom Christening - First Warp

Something spicy to try out this loom.

New (to me) loom.

That pile of loom parts is now a loom.  It's a 1987 AVL 60" 16H Production Dobby.  What a great birthday.

There were just a few small parts, nuts & bolts missing that we were able to find or fabricate.  Dobby and all seem to be functioning correctly though I haven't put a warp on it yet.  It has a double-box flyshuttle but I haven't mounted that.

Most importantly, it's kitty-approved.

Happy Towels

That first set of towels, hemmed and laundered.

The before- and after-wet-finishing is pretty dramatic with this structure.

Morning After

Oh, my.  What have I got myself into?










And I would have to pick one of the hotter days of the year to bring it home.

Another Old Friend

Ha, ha - I just realized this is my first-ever post about spinning.  Oh, have I missed spinning - and I didn't even realize it.  I dusted off my spinning wheel the other day.  Literally dusted it off.  The poor thing was pretty filthy.

I had this "art batt" in a pretty green-based palette of mixed fibers (wool, bits of silk and viscose) that spins up into a textured yarn.  I'd spun a bit of it some years back.  I oiled up the wheel and finished up the batt.

I noticed that the batt had become matted in places.  Not too badly; I was able to coax it by opening it up sideways and then predrafting it lengthwise before spinning.  But that matting that occurred just from it being in the plastic bag and moved from one basket or box to another over the years gave me the idea it might felt well also.  So with some of it I made a piece of matching felt.

Long Warp Continued

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions of uses for a really long narrow warp.  Many people said ribbons and trims, and I had the same idea, so I did try weaving a bit of various narrow warp-faced trims.  But that got old after about six yards.  Plus I kept thinking, the shipment of yarn for sampling for the Very Large Project is on its way; I have to get this off the loom.

So the answer was to pull it off the beam a few yards at a time and make it into cords.  Lots and lots of cords, for hours of ply-splitting fun.