sweetgeorgia

Weave me.

For some time now, I’ve been planning on weaving this mixed warp silk scarf for a friend of mine. The warp that I wound ages ago has been sitting in the living room whispering “weave me… weave me… I’m yummy.” The warp is all bubbly turquoise silk bouclé and aqua silk singles with a few skinny strands of 30/2 silk and tsumugi silk thrown in. Finally, this morning, I took advantage of the gorgeous warm sunlight to dress the loom and start weaving.

I warp from back to front, in this case, because I find there is less wear-and-tear on the somewhat delicate and fussy nature of the mixed warp.

I find myself tying loops at every stage so that I don’t accidentally lose my work. So, after threading the heddles, I tie a group of warp threads together. I undo the slip knots as I need to when I sley the reed… and then again, tie a group of warp threads after sleying the reed. It keeps things organized and… safe.

This is the 20/2 smooth silk I’m using for weft, all wound up on bobbins that fit in an end-feed shuttle. I’m hoping I’ll have enough to finish the whole scarf… fingers crossed.

There’s a header of about five shots of big, fat mop cotton woven at the beginning of the piece… and then a bit of proper weaving. I pause at the beginning so that I can hemstitch a bit…

Now we have fabric… and yes, it is yummy.

If you live in Vancouver and are free on Monday evening, you might want to check out the Memorial lecture hosted by the Greater Vancouver Weavers & Spinners Guild. The speaker is tapestry artist, James Koehler, who will discuss how colour, structure and form focus his approach to design and how the landscape and cultures of New Mexico have influenced his work. The lecture will be held on Monday, May 5 at 7:30 PM in the Floral Hall at Van Dusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street (at 37th Ave.) in Vancouver. Admission is free to anyone who is interested! Unfortunately, I’ll be at work late on Monday and will miss the lecture… but if you DO go, let me know what you thought!

Attraversiamo

Attraversiamo. So, apparently this means literally “to cross over”, as in “hey, let’s cross the street”-type usage. I learned this lovely new bit of Italian last night from the book by Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love, where she simply gushes about how much she loves this word. How beautiful it sounds. How delightful and Italian it is. It is her most favourite word in Italian.

This morning, I pass by the silk scarf currently on my loom. It is bathed in light. It actually seems like it’s emitting light… even in this soaking wet grey Vancouver weather. And I notice the beauty and profound effect of “crossing over”.

The yarn used here for the “crossing over” or the weft is bamboo yarn with several dips of indigo. It took me several attempts at first to find the best yarn to cross with this warp. The warp is varied and mixed up, with one side heavy with fat and chewy turquoise silk singles to the other side where several slim strands of osage and iron dyed silk peek out. Sprinkled throughout are the bumpy bits of silk boucle, bursting from the surface of the fresh woven fabric.

Initially for wefts, I had tried an ethereal, kid mohair laceweight yarn dyed in pale turquoise, but the core yarn disappeared into the warp stripes and all that was left was residual haze. Crossing it with something stronger like 20/2 silk only made it look and feel weft-heavy.

But this bamboo seems to fit perfectly. The warp is turquoise, warm blues, aqua greens, and even maize yellows. The indigo-dyed bamboo is still a warm blue, but less so than the warp. A cool blue, even. And so the colour shift that happens when you cross the two is the most appealing thing about weaving. It is the relationship between the two — seemingly disparate — colours that is magical. The best fitting weft will merge with the warp… not disappearing into it and not overwhelming it. But it will colour and shade the warp and produce something that makes the warp even more beautiful. The weft is subtle, complementary and supportive.

I’m pretty sure Gilbert didn’t have anything about fabric on her mind when she wrote about this. But the analogy seems so obvious to me: that the person you choose to cross over with should be, in overwhelmingly simply terms, a good weft. That this person should merge and blend with you in such a way as to create a more beautiful life.

Attraversiamo. Let’s cross over. There’s something better on the other side of the street.

Swimming in colour.

Dyeing small skeins of silk in natural or chemical dyes over the past few months has resulted in an incredible assortment of colours and textures that seem to complement each other. Leaving them on their own seems unnecessarily limiting, so the mixed warp is the way to go.

This past year at the Maiwa workshops, I took year 2 of Michele Wipplinger’s Colour Institute. The three-day workshop covered how to incorporate “light” into your work. Contrasting textures, lustruous textures, luminous effects, iridescent effects, or even the combination of colours in a certain way. These mixed warps are overall one colour, but have tiny proportions of (relatively) complementary colours to spark the mix. I’m trying to get away from the all monochromatic colour palettes and explore something just a bit more complex. But complex or not, I just like how these look.

Simple.

I lurve Friday weaving. The six-yard 18/2 silk and wool warp is on the loom and I’m weaving the first half in Dornick twill with a darker purple weft. The second half will be “crystal” twill (just a different treadling) and a magenta weft. Say “yay” for daylight in Vancouver.

We’ve only gone a few steps… but I think I’m in love.

Mixed up.

Destash. I’ve set myself a bit of a laughable goal in wanting to use up pretty much every last drop of my yarn stash. The aim is to not acquire any new yarn until I’m done with the current stash. Jen, this does not include the lovely yarns I picked from your stash… you are going to London and it’s just not practical for you to take all your yarns.*

I’m attempting to destash by breaking up bags of yarns that were originally destined for full-on sweaters, because, really… when will I have time to sit and knit two sleeves, two front pieces and a back? Instead, I wanted this big, chunky scarf … I didn’t realize, however, that it was going to weigh about 200 lbs.

Ingredients for the knit scarf:

• 2 x 50g of dark eggplant alpaca from La Droguerie, purchased in Tokyo
• 2 x 50g of Rowanspun 4-ply in Rumtoft
• 2 x 25g of Rowan Lurex Shimmer in Bronze
• 1 x 25g of Rowan Kid Silk Haze in Splendour
• 3 skeins of Habu Tsumugi Silk, purchased in Kichijoji
• 1 x 100g of 5/2 bombyx silk, handdyed in cochineal

I’m looking to make this scarf about 10 feet long if I can manage it…

And this is destashing by handweaving with mixed warps… I used up the Saje and Golden Siam silk yarns that I purchased in San Francisco about two years ago. Plus, I added two strands of 5/2 bombyx silk… one pale lavendar (from cochineal with no mordant) and one pale cool green (from osage overdyed lightly with natural indigo). The dark green warp thread is cashmere and nylon. The weft is 100% silk… slubby and raw… and completely purple. I feel like this scarf might have been fulled a bit too much (my washer and I are still getting acquainted) but it is now wonderfully soft and warm.

Today, the 6-yard silk/wool warp is going on the loom.

*Aww yes, my friend Jen (of South African yarn tourism fame) is moving to London TOMORROW and has started writing about her adventures already … here …