Skip to main content

Leaves

I've been trying to think of my next project and what theme I would like to go with. Since I'm most inspired by the things I see in nature I figured that the theme should be 'organics'. Not only does that sound 'cool' (lol....it's the 'in' thing.) but, it would be nice and easy to just hop on outside and get some leaves, right? No. Not for me. It seems each time I think of it, instead of getting up, going outside, and picking up a couple of leaves, I either forget or am too comfortable sitting in front of the wood stove playing Thomas the Tank Engine (better known as playing tracks) with my son. Besides, it's cold out there!!! This has been a battle going on in my mind for almost a week! Well, today there was victory!!! I found the perfect time to get some leaves. A quiet house and the daunting project of altering a shirt (football jersey no less) for a brother of a friend staring me in the face. I thought, "I really should go get some leaves right now!" and that's just what I did. I walked into the upstairs playroom, opened the window, leaned out and sorted through some of the leaves that blew up against the house. First, it's a good thing my house has two stories both on ground level, they are sort of next to each other (both levels) and the house was built into the side of a hill. Second, it's a good thing no one saw me because I teetered there and couldn't stop laughing. Third, I could have simply used the convenience of the door. *sigh* Well, here are the leaves and a rough draft of the network draft.
By tracing one side of two of the leaves, I came up with the rough draft on the graph paper above it. Since some of the lines back track, I will have to edit and modify the lines so that I can create a pattern that can be woven. I'm thinking that I may do several of either one or both to see which works better.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Damask....Ah Ha Moment....Now Taquete?

Ok . So since the weather has been changing, I now have some more obvious time to 'play' with some designs that I have stored in my head:) Damask, in particular, has been a favorite of mine to look at and I really feel the urge to use my loom to create tapestry like scarves and shawls. I don't want anything too heavy as I really like the feel of tencel , bamboo, and I would eventually like to switch to silk for my finer works. I am still in the learning stage though and I hope to always remain in the learning stage. The damask pattern that I have been toying with, I like but, I lose a lot of detail the more I stretched it out. I was a little frustrated but, certain that there was something that I could do. The picture above is a little small but, the piece all the way to the right is a 4 point twill threading, the middle is a 5 point twill threading, and the one on the far left is a 6 point twill threading. To get a true satin/sateen I would have to use the one on the far

A New Loom!

       I’ve been weaving on a Glimakra 8 harness countermarche loom for almost 10 years now.  I love it!  It weaves like a dream, it’s super heavy, I get an excellent shed when all is going well, and I have a bit of an emotional attachment to it.  The only thing that I don’t love about this loom is that I have to climb on the floor to tie up the treadles.  Depending on the pattern, I could be under there for quite some time.  I’m pretty limber and in pretty good shape but climbing under the loom is back breaking work.  So much so that I’m sometimes out of commission for the remainder of the day after.  Look how pretty this loom is though!       I cleaned out the area that this loom has been designating as it’s home and prepped for the replacement.  I got an amazing deal on a Louet Spring and couldn’t pass it up!        I’ve been doing a lot of research on looms (well, really when am I not looking at looms!) and know that I love Louet.  My Megado has served me well for many years and th
        You know when you make something and the entire process just seems seamless?  Well, that’s how this project played out.  I have some 10/2 tencel that is natural and I dyed a bunch of it over the summer.  I wound off bouts of around 1700 yards each and now know that I would like to make larger skeins so that I can get a couple of scarves using this pattern again...just a bit longer.       This picture was taken in natural sunlight of the braid after counting the ends on the warping board.  Let’s get this thing on the loom!                  I learned a new trick for spreading the warp in the raddle.  Since this is an A B color pattern, it’s important to not separate the colors in the raddle.  To never “separate the twins” makes beaming the warp a piece of cake!   Another cool trick I learned was to put the warp under tension while beaming.  With a stack of my son’s graphic novels, I had the full six yards beamed in seven minutes!  SEVEN!!! My absolute favorite part, threading