Weave Tease

Playing with my camera and the sampler from the Crackle class:

From the top:

•  Classic Crackle 1
• Classic Crackle 2
• Crackle woven as twill
• Crackle woven as overshot
• Crackle woven as summer and winter - single
• Crackle woven as summer and winter - double

 Classic Crackle straight block treadling.

2 tie down shuttles and one pattern shuttle.

Warp, tie downs, and pattern threads were all different making for interaction of 4 thread colors.

 Classic Crackle block design

2 tied down threads, one pattern thread.

Again, 4 thread colors were used.

 Crackle treadled as summer and winter singles

Tie down same as warp.  Contrast pattern thread for a total of two colors..

 Crackle woven as overshot.

Tabby same as warp with variegated pattern thread.

As you can see, this weave structure presents a lot of opportunities to play with color interaction in the threads.  I've used a heavier pattern thread in all of these samples.  But it's possible for warp, pattern, and tied-down threads to be the same weight which allows for rotating the colors to play with the design among the blocks.  I admit that weaving with three shuttles is a challenge, especially when rotating the two tie down wefts with one pattern weft.

I've retied and still have the rest of the samples to weave.  And I have pre-ordered Susan Wilson's book

Weave Classic Crackle and Beyond.

This was our Cross Border's exhibit at MLH.  The lighting was less than ideal for photography, especially the darker pieces.

Kind of a crazy week here.  Just finished up with a catch up on medical screenings and tests the past couple days.  Just the routine stuff, but I do not take well be being poked, prodded, squeezed, and looked at from the inside out.  Glad that's over and can now schedule my days with more pleasurable pursuits.

Am currently reading:

I have it out on inter-library loan.  Reviews are here.

Have a good weekend.  And sending good wishes to those who are being threatened by Hurricane Irene.

Poison Ivy as a tree?!

We live on a wooded lot. I spend a lot of my summer watching close to the ground and when I spot a patch of poison ivy, it gets a squirt of Round-Up. So imagine my surprise when I was walking up to get the mail and noticed these "leaves of three" at eye level.

At first I thought is was a vine that had traveled up a tree trunk.  Upon closer (hands free) inspection, it has a woody "trunk" all its own.

If this is what lies ahead the prospect of raking leaves in the fall is a bit scary...especially for those of us who are sensitive to this wicked plant.

What's a word worth?

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

William Wordsworth c.1802

Feeling a bit frazzled and overwhelmed these days. The world is too much with me and for everything I am out of tune.  Amazing how these words from two centuries ago speak to me.

As Wordsworth said. "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." 

In the getting and spending category, I got a new camera.  It does quite nicely with reds, don't you think?

 It also does a pretty good job of capturing "She who does not remain still."  My days are haunted by that look....it says, "Is it time to eat yet?"

And here's a promise:

A future post will contain weaving.  This is from the Crackle Workshop at MLH.  I'm going to cut off the sample and retie it (Notice how wonky it is on the cloth beam?)  We unwound our samples at the end of class so we could do a walk through critique.  Then I folded up the loom with the warp on it to transport home.  Now the tension is all wonky and I have about 5 more treadling sequences to finish the sample.

So sometime, I'm not promising when, you will see more weaving.  Till then, just enjoy the poem.

Pure Michigan....on the south shore of Superior

Munising Falls:  (don't bother to "biggen" the videos, they were taken w/ my cell phone.)

Lake Superior Shoreline:

Drove through Hiawatha National Forest on Saturday and had lunch at the West Bay Diner in Grand Marais, Mi.  (there's more than one Grand Marais on Lake Superior's shoreline.)  which is home to the author of South of Superior which I am currently reading.