July 06, 2014

This is how the coastal cloth came to be

szmuda presents: hand weaver's update

I started this newsletter to inform sophisticated individuals of what I am up to when I weave.  I'm going to try and focus on one project at a time, over time. Weaving is boring, I'll try to make it interesting.
---

At the home of an old friend, his roommate said, "you're a weaver? do you know who Else Regensteiner is?" 
I said "yes, of course, The Art of Weaving."
"this is her house."

They showed me her loom room in the basement. I stood where her loom once stood. I may have sat down. I don't remember. Unable to respond in a coherent way to this coincidence I have decided to weave them a wall hanging. Since it will hang in the (former) home of one of the great American weavers, it has to be good.

This is a challenge.
With directions about color, and suggestions about pattern, I sketched the above design. The director of the project, chosen for having at least some enthusiasm about the idea, noted: "makes me feel like california, or maybe florida." It is the coastal cloth, it will be woven in two sets of three panels, each panel (one for each roommate) comprising three cloths interlaced on one loom. It will be woven in cotton, as below:

After taking my time (I insisted on moving, finishing three other projects, and fixing my equipment first) I have finally begun:

This horizontal warping reel setup measures eight yards of yarn. The threads are thin and I need thousands to make this cloth, all the same length. The cage rotates when I push down on the slat in front of me so I can stand in place with my cone of yarn and guide it into a bundle. I made this reel from scrap woods from the lumber store and the assistance of Ben at the Portage Park wood shop. One of my finer wood working achievements (which are few, I usually measure once,) finishing the reel before my classes ran out required taking the bus with an armful of wood in one of the coldest winters in Chicago history while balancing in walking boot designed to protect my broken foot. 

The base is oak, the cage is poplar. A lot had to come together to make the coastal cloth possible. And we've just begun.
July 09, 2014

Continuing to Wind a Warp + Ethel Stein, Master Weaver

Today: Coastal Cloth Update; Ethel Stein, Master Weaver


Creating the cross is one of the most important steps in weaving. Each thread is laid down on the reel so that they alternate in the cross. This keeps the threads in order when they are transferred onto the loom. I do not exaggerate to say that to "lose the cross," that is, to allow the threads to move out of order, would doom this project beyond recourse. Before the warping is done, I will have twelve chances to lose the cross. The genre of this newsletter is "suspense."

Trivia: The total number of threads in the two warps required for this project is 2880. At eight yards each, this comes to a bit more than 23,000 yards of yarn in the warp. The coastal cloth itself doesn't require eight yards, but setting up the loom is the long part so I always set up for a couple of extra cloths. Am I daunted? No, I am in denial.

Ethel Stein, Master Weaver

Currently at the Art Institute of Chicago: Downstairs, an exhibit on Ethel Stein, master weaver. Upstairs, the showcase, Magritte.

To explain by way of Magritte:

Not To Be Reproduced, 1937

The surrealist movement here works because we expect to see the front and back of the man in the portrait in the same moment of viewing. But we don't. Ethel Stein makes the same movement with her cloth.
Cloth has a front and a back. As you weave, you can only see the side facing you. For us inexperienced weavers the back side is an easy place to make mistakes. We take the cloth off the loom and say prayers before turning it over. For many weaves, the two faces of the cloth are inverses of each other. The light portions on one side are dark on the back, and vice-versa.

For Ethel Stein, master weaver, the front of the cloth is the back of the cloth too. Her trick is to put the front and the back in the same view, either figuratively as above, or more figuratively. In Black and White 6...

...you see both sides of the cloth at once, it seems, even though a weaver would expect one. Magritte does this with mirrors, but the other way around.

Ethel Stein uses a drawloom - a serious loom. At the Artic exhibit, all of the pieces had been woven in the late 80's or after. She started weaving in the 60's. Note the twenty year gap, she was weaving the whole time. I am grateful I have the opportunity to start weaving now. I have many years before I can make a good cloth, but by the time I am able, my body should still be strong enough to finish. (Weaving -- surprisingly hard on the limbs and back.)

Ethel Stein, master weaver, is over 90 and still weaving. But, I don't want to bank on being like Ethel Stein.

I don't know how to phrase this exactly: looking at Moon Wall, I became overwhelmed. I spent the day close to tears. It was a moment of recognition, looking into a mirror instead of a moon. Reflected was comprehension that such a thing as a truly good cloth is possible. Here I was almost able reach out and touch the correct threads that I try to coax out of my own hands.

Another way that Ethel Stein is like Magritte: She helped me enter the world of my dreams.
July 15, 2014

Design Progress, Winding Progress, and a Woman of Opinion

Confession: Only now do I actually have a plan

I had always intended on piecing (like a quilt) at least two separate woven cloths together to make the coastal cloth. The diagonal lines required this if I were to maintain any quality. I have been struggling with the triple weave required to achieve my design -- my worry was that since the threads would have to be crowded (90 threads per inch of cloth) they would break too much. I've used this yarn before and I know how it feels about being crowded.

Settling down in a calm bath, I immediately realized that to do some piecing is the same as to do more piecing. There had been significant gaps in my plan for getting from drawing to hanging. Now the plan is complete. I scribbled some notes on the bus later:

I need to work on my documentation system.

Reducing the structural complexity of the cloths by weaving them separately opens up many options. I will lose a certain density and weight but now I can add pattern or re-use the extra portions of the warp in more creative ways. I will weave a twill pattern into the blue sections of the cloth to subtly suggest waves. I will use the extra yards of blue warp to weave waffle towels. 

The horizontally striped portion will be double instead of triple weave. This is a relief. Anni Albers destroyed with triple weave but I've never actually tried it myself. I will wind a much shorter warp for this portion. I will still tack on some length for samples. The vertical striping on the bottom will now also have room for towels. The coastal cloth is going to have a lot of kin created along the way.

Material progress: I have finished the first (waves) warp. Bundles of yarn, many threads the same length! That means forward movement. You guys are like "this is taking forever" but wait until you see how long threading the heddles will go on.

Sneak Peak: Cloth From the Future

I am often thinking of new cloths to weave. Most of them don't get woven but I like to have several in the hopper to contemplate.

Mary Meigs Atwater; Woman of Opinion

// And now, a taste of the great that is M.M. Atwater, author of The Shuttle- Craft Book on American Hand Weaving //
// One of my weaving heroes, I'll have more to say about her another time //

"A good deal of nonsense is talked and unfortunately taken seriously by many people on the subject of originality. The traditional weaves and designs that have come down to us through the ages are apt to have a fundamental rightness that is unlikely to appear in something that you or I dream up overnight...It would no doubt be original to interweave sand-burs in the fabric of a pillow-top, or to make a window curtain of old love-letters cut into strips, but what of it? Originality may safely be permitted to take care of itself."
///
"Many people appear to be afraid of pattern, as others are afraid of color, and it is entirely true that when used badly both pattern and color may be acutely distressing, so there are grounds for fear."
///
"And avoid like the plague the impulse to make everything match. We know these things instinctively, but we do not always have the courage to follow our instincts."
///

Let us all develop the courage to follow our instincts.
July 22, 2014

On The Loom Now + Cold Truth

The Warp Is Technically On the Loom


The warp will not be "on the loom" until about five more steps are completed.

I have finished measuring out the threads and now they are on the loom. I tied the bundles up carefully in a number of crucial places and put leash sticks through the cross to hold it while I "wind on" to the back beam. The goal of this process is to store the extra warp that I am not weaving very neatly until I need to weave it. Maintaining thread tension and "the cross" are important here. More on that below.

The back of the loom with the warp winding on.

The piece of wood with nails that I've clamped on to the back breast beam is a raddle. The raddle contributes to thread order. Read what Peggy Ostercamp has to say about my particular situation. Mayhaps I didn't see this advice before I tied on.

Now, some opinions. I will confess that these are dark days on the south end of my apartment:

Two Important Skills: Forgetting and Authority


Also see: Remembering, repeating and working-through; Beyond the Pleasure Principle
And: Berlin on Machiavelli

Forgetting:

I have worked with this yarn before. I have worked with this yarn before. Last time was no different, and yet.

The threads want to stick together. They do not want to flow freely onto the back beam. This yarn is not an easy warp. Not before, not now. How had I forgotten? I forgot on purpose.

The only way to persevere is to forget.

I read that Freud said (sometimes criticism is more fun than primary sources I'll admit it) that a return to the old traumas is needed to master them. We forget, then repeat, in the hope of becoming an active not passive force against the same experience. Maybe not so useful for general life function but I like to adapt this psychological habit to weaving as a way to keep weaving.If I had remembered the yarn as it is, (unbalanced, sticky) I would have not used it. I would not be getting the cloth I want. When it is all over I'll be glad I did it. Too late now anyway. Builds character.

Fun fact: sometimes we never work through it.

Authority:

Previously, I spoke of doom and gloom with respect to "losing the cross." Why obsess over maintaining thread order? My weaving teacher used to put it like this, perhaps for the benefit of the many teachers in her classes:

"Threads are like a room full of kids. If you let one misbehave, soon they all are." Personally, I would go further.

To weave successfully, you must be a dictator of threads. Every thread is a tiny rebel. It doesn't want to be cloth. It has no concept of cloth. It is wound up in one direction, and all it wants to do is unwind in the other.  Yarn does not care if the entire edifice comes crashing down along the way.

Really, just one thread out of place? Yes, your possible ruin. It starts colluding with a few threads. Then all the threads in the inch around it. As we wind along eight yards of warp, this one thread has formed a knot around yard three. Attempt to undo the knot and you will miss an problem a few inches to the left, now at yard four the first thread is still leading charges with the remainder of its insurrectionist force from its hilltop encampments while the second group of threads has just begun a new set of skirmishes. Meanwhile a third sleeper cell is taking advantage of your growing distraction and despair to burn your capital around yard six.

One thread out of place: every future boulevard, park and monument you had planned in your name disappears like tears into the snarled, matted warp in front of you.

Snarl
On the left: this sinful copulation will destroy the moral fabric of this fabric. One the right: good citizens.

Take any action you need to solve a problem with a thread the moment you detect it. This includes surgical scissors (I have five pairs.) Surveil your warp at all times. You cannot predict where the next step out of line will occur. Some threads can be rehabilitated. Others are best snipped away and replaced. When in doubt, snip. You cannot afford mercy.

So that you may understand, I have made a video of the process of winding on. If you turn on sound, you will hear the world-weary sigh of the tyrant whose security forces have just informed her of protesters in the main square. 

I feel strongly because I have seen many kingdoms fall.

August 06, 2014

Warping Complete; Color Records from Life; Mailbag

Dear Friends and Doppelgängers,

After acting all Cassandra about it apparently this is not a tragedy because I was wrong:

Ye olde warp on ye olde loom
THAT IS A WARP READY TO BE WOVEN

It is pretty fuzzy looking; that is not normal or desired. I have a can of spray starch to quell major disturbances and I am ready to battle.

As you are discovering I have no understanding of time and what I perceive to move quickly takes a while and what I think will take ages happens in a weekend, a weekend where I also did other things. Forgetfulness at its finest: to notice a pattern in forgetfulness would ruin its efficacy. Time to start weaving this warp and winding the next one.

Wait, "the next warp?" Everyone breaks into a cold sweat; "I'm going to keep getting these letters?" Yes. Recall, the blue cloth is but one of three. Imagine how the projected recipients of the coastal cloth must feel; they expect their cloth to be made and yet they still have nothing. I keep all my promises, but sometimes slowly.

Where Do Colors Come From?


Last week I was in Quebec. An excellent short vacation but this is not a travelogue. I have as a result of the travel been contemplating copper and its patinas.

Copper Roof with Warp Cards
on the left, a copper roof, after oxidation. on the right, warp stripes.

One common way to daydream about yarn is to make warp designs on cardboard. These cards allow a sense of yarns next to each other, and show how the colors may interact once placed side by side. Color theory becomes important here to understand why some yarns might become brighter or duller once placed on the card next to others. If you were to place the same yarns from the warp in the weft you can imagine from these cards how the whole set of colors will look in the cloth. I love making warp cards. I make them all the time and put them in a box, to maybe look at again but usually not.

Challenge


I planned to discuss "threading" and "drafts" but I will save that discussion for the next warp.

ThreaddlingHeddling
Short story long this warp has been beamed, threaddled through the heddles, and sleyed through the reed. Guess which verb I made up, first correct response gets a TBA prize.

Speaking of correspondence, let's review a question...

From the Mailbag
 
Q: Hey Gwen, do you ever daydream about the end of civilization as we know it and how you would be a valuable asset in that barren hellscape because of your ability to combine sticks and fiber into textiles that will ward off bitter cold? -- YR FAVE FAN

A: Yes. Most mornings between 7-9AM except on Sundays.
August 18, 2014

once you start down that path you can't turn back

After the lowest of lows, the highest of highs

I did not write last week because I was too busy weaving. The waves of the coastal cloth are off the loom. I can only think of a few experiences more satisfying than realizing the cloth I've just made is exactly the cloth I held in my mind before I even put a pen to paper to draft it.

Another satisfying experience

Near my work an iron-fenced plot of land has been seeded with wildflowers. Queen Anne's lace grows plentifully. Every day or so the flowers seem to disappear, but the next day they are back. Maybe the buds are opening and closing, or the flowers are constantly dying out then blooming anew. On the days when I only see green, hope bubbles in my throat. I wildly believe that they will be back. When the next morning there are white stars bursting across that weird patch of lawn among skyscrapers, the hope explodes: closing my throat, swelling the area below my lowest ribs, and elating me with gratitude for this life and the Queen Anne's lace that has graced us once more.

In the winter I will still glow with one of these extremes every time I take finished cloth off the loom. Unrelatedly an important part of my life practice is "enjoying the small things."
 

Interactive

Here's an animated gif of the warping reel in action:



That's warp three, warp two is on the loom. That's real time speed. I wouldn't brag about it to a carpenter but.
 

Results

The winner of last week's contest was Hannah. The invented verb was "threddled," the real word is "threaded." I think "threddle the heddles" sounds better.

"Threddle the heddles and pedal the treadles. Heddle the treadles and pedal the threddles. Meddle with heddles after settled on pedals."
August 27, 2014

gearing up for the next good moment + we have another complete cloth

Dear Friends and Destroyers,

The coastal cloth is getting close to the earthquake that will revision the barrier between land and sea; the plates are going to grind into each other, crust will crumble, and a new seashore will emerge (which means that the coastal cloth will be finished.) This news letter will continue (I hope you keep reading I've enjoyed all the input!) and I'll continue to keep the focus on one project.

A quick poll: would you rather hear about receding glaciers, ice sheets scraping away to reveal an old history made anew, or see how I might design a blanket that tries to be the most successful blanket yet?

This Last Week In Weaving:

The second cloth at eighteen inches didn't take long. I mostly struggled with a conflict between the duty to "stick to the plan" and "whatever, let's go to the circus." *Whatever* won this time and fortunately my wanton structural shifts from double weave to random stripes of sateen and twill without really meditating on it turned out to be good instinct. 

One might say, circus instincts. Or perhaps inevitable plate tectonics. I had room to sample. 

Brand Identity

Occasionally I hear, "you could sell this," and I know 100% that it is a compliment and I very much appreciate it. Yet, here I am I spending untold hours making a coastal cloth I plan to give away. (Actually "indefinite loan" actually "whoever casually claims some time from now will be its default custodian.")  Rhetorically, why do I haul blankets around in my car trunk that I hand out at the slightest provocation? (Answers: "I think you're nifty; you are my aunt; I just learned you are going to grad school in a cold state.")
Ridiculous but true: it is my protest against corporate takeover of social mores, which maintains that corporations are people and that people should be corporations, brand and all, selling themselves at all times to survive. 

I don't mind being bourgeoisie. It's quite comfortable actually! I do treasure(?) my chaotic inner life tho, which is sloppy and impulsive, much like my weaving. Circus colors hide a lot of threading mistakes. I do fear that to "brand" myself (are we that far away from livestock to not feel twitchy saying that?), to spend time actively cultivating an image that is just a bit artsy while preserving that down-to-earth glow endlessly and relentlessly on the internet while networking potential vendors, customers, and anyone I meet in the street would make the inside of my brainbox slow down and stop laughing at clowns. I'd rather leave the circus for a 9-5 then a nine-to-always. 
Anyway, the recipients of my car trunk cloth always seem to appreciate that cloth more than I do. As far as I am concerned this multiplies its value tenfold. Thanks to all of you who have accepted my weaving! That one action on your part made the whole thing have a point. It's good to know that at least a small market segment responds well to "total chaos."

Related, "I Have a Closet"

My friend at work and I talk about our hobbies during coffee breaks. He gave mug, but played it down, explaining that "he has a closet full of these things and he thought I would like it." I gave him a scarf for his wife because "I have a closet too." 

A professional organizer found my wallet in the street (because I put it on the ground and forgot about it) and Google helpfully provided her with my website. She emailed me to set up a return, and when we met at the library I gave her a scarf from the closet. She was all "I was going to say no to anything you offered me but I'm really cold right now."  

I mailed a rag rug to a friend in Portland after I found out he did not know what rag rugs were. Years ago, when he lived in Chicago, I made him one of my first designed cloths in the form of a scarf with University of Oregon colors. (Shouting at him in my kitchen, holding cones of yarn: IF I MADE YOU A SCARF FROM THESE COLORS WOULD YOU WEAR IT.)  He's not really a "clothes" person but wore that scarf all the time and got on the "I got a closet" list for life because of his early support and open appreciation. 

I have cloth in Colorado, Oregon,  and Northern California. I have cloth in New York City, New York State,  San Francisco. Of course Chicago. I want cloth everywhere. Blanket the world in blankets. Could I have this happiness if I valued my cloth in terms of dollars? Also rhetorical, you know the answer.

Mary Meigs Atwater: Trend Forecaster

"Cotton has been a much misunderstood and underrated material among us, and has only of late begun to come into its own."
September 03, 2014

Home Stretch or Just Home

by gwensmu
Can this be the golden age?  Maybe there is such a thing as order for a brief and shining instant. Witness a cloth I've tried to weave for a long time (At least, as long as I've been weaving):
Double weave. Cotton threads interlace into cloth at the same moment the cloths interlace with one another, permitting bold blocks of color and giving a quilted effect. I like to weave double because you can read and write the cloth as you weave it. "DC" and I, we get each other.
 
Here, these were all woven as double cloth, although none of them were quite it:
This time I GOT IT RIGHT. Nothing to fudge. Every end in its right place.
 
I have nothing else to say I'm too happily weaving.
September 17, 2014

Surprised but pleased: It turned out

by gwensmu

"I will show you fear in a handful of lint"

I picked up a rotary cutter and made the irreversible slice. Cutting cloth is entirely different than snipping threads; I may not have breathed for three hours. The fear that I would make a wrong turn at this last moment on the cloth that took all summer to create was nearly paralyzing. Had to take a break my heart was beating so fast my hands were trembling don't imagine I would exaggerate.

In the end the threads will always find a way to have a say, at least when I'm the one weaving. The waves cloth, that July bane, had the final word when I discovered I was about twelve inches short of it. Somehow I had talked myself into believing it was done before it was done. A fairly massive mistake, but I rallied. The final result does not quite match the original plan but we knew it would be that way a while ago. There are extra lines and extra irregularity where I had to scramble to make up for the entire southern province that seceded. You can choose if that references the dictator analogy or the earthquake one.
 

Everything said is almost said

So, friends, this is the last newsletter for at least a while. (By friends I mean: cheerleaders, collaborators, confederates, mentors, muses, kindreds and kin. I'm glad to know you / have met you / have connected anew.)  Thank you for accompanying me into a territory I've avoided for so long: one where I openly try, where I risk telling others that I am doing something creative, hey, look at it, before I know exactly how it will work out. You're the best! I I only pushed myself because I wanted to be able to tell you afterwards.

 But yes, earthquakes and  it all fell apart:



and then it all moved back together, along new seams: