The Raddler, the Waffler or Spore?
Yesterday I took a woods walk with the dogs and was astonished by the number and variety of fungi to behold. Sorry, but I had my phone and I had to document.
And here is one of dear Doolie in the forest primeval:
In weaving news, I got my DH to take some pics of me wearing my hand-woven ensemble. My first thought was – how do models do it? (other than being 38 years younger and generally gorgeous). How do they make clothes look natural and good – not dorky and stiff. My second thought after seeing the pictures was that a soft, black, cargo-y skirt – while being comfy and useful in my wardrobe – might not be the best choice for a pop garment. I can hear Michael Kors on Project Runway say “farty!”
I got some very nice comments on the pics though. . . have you seen this Amy Shumer comedy routine about how women can’t take compliments (caution about bad language):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzlvDV3mpZw
I put a long warp of 10/2 hemp on the loom yesterday with the intention of weaving two towels and then a collapse scarf. The first towel is the waffle draft with the double weave hems (came to me from Alice Schlein via Ute Bargmann).
The second will be either a crepe weave (again a la Alice Schlein) or a basket or a combo twill/basket. Then I will weave the collapse using a 40/2 linen weft and see how it comes out. These are all on an 8-shaft straight draw threading.
The other studio news is that after almost twenty years, I dredged up the old pins and changed my 1″ spaced raddle to 1/2″ spaces. And I am going to attribute the absolute dreamy beaming of this warp to the new raddle spacing.
Claire
The skirt looks great on you 😀 Do you have more garments in the pipeline?
I need to make a raddle – up to this point I’ve been warping front to back but would like to try back to front soon 😀 My weaving friends agree, 0.5″ spacing is good.
I read the blog of a lovely sewist who takes really great photos of herself http://handmadebycarolyn.blogspot.com.au/ I never got the hang of it myself so I tend not to blog about my sewing lol
Elisabeth Hill
Hey Claire,
Thanks and yes, hopefully. I am looking for patterns I like that inspire me – and thanks for the link btw. I have come across Carolyn in the past (from your blog maybe??) and find her so inspiring especially in the “find good patterns and then make them your own” category. I have quite a few of the Japanese pattern books, and love the style, but really need to learn how to drastically re-size a pattern for them to be useful to me:)) If you see anything send a link!
Raddle wise – I learned to warp B2F and do it to this day – except on my AVL or if I need to wind separate warps for two fibers, etc – then I use F2B. I really like B2F – but I think most people are most comfortable with the method they learned first. Changing my raddle to 1/2″ segments is one of those weird things – why didn’t I do it years ago?? No clue. It seems so much better, and I rarely weave on that loom with such heavy yarns that 1″ increments make sense. Doh!
In a non-weaving aside – do you the band They Might Be Giants? They just returned from touring and played in your (far away) neck of the woods. You didn’t see them did you?
Claire
I will definitely let you know if I come across some explanations of how to best alter Japanese Patterns… because I need to know this too being on the uber busty side of things and generally all round bigger than most Japanese women lol
I remember the band ‘They Might be Giants’ but I haven’t seen them. The last live band I went to see was Nick Cave’s group Grinderman – it was the day I found out I was pregnant with Ada and she is turning 2 this weekend. It was a very loud, raucous performance and I think that she must have absorbed some of it into her personality lol
Elisabeth Hill
Happy Birthday to Ada!! Hope it’s a loud and raucous one (sorry Mom)! I remember those days – total enjoyment and TOTAL exhaustion – definitely fewer live bands.