A New Kind of Fiber Blog

Woven Shibori

As many of you know, marine painting has taken over my life. There is still room for fiber but not as a focus as it was in the past. I have a new blog that all things fiber will be posted on. That will be spinning, weaving, dyeing, sewing, etc.
You can find this blog at The Artful Stitch. I hope you all join me there as I start on a project to create a much needed and long overdue wardrobe for myself.
I am also starting an Etsy store which will be announced formally when I get a recent glitch fixed. The store will have a lot of supplies for a while as I am cleaning out and refocusing. There are also a few handwoven and handspun items such as the woven shibori above that will be for sale. I am even going to post a painting or two. Most of my marine paintings for sale can be found on my website R.L. Delight Fine Art.
The big AVL loom is still intact and still for sale. I will occasionally post announcements here but not much else. Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this blog. I am leaving it up as there is a lot of weaving and dyeing information. Please come visit The Artful Stitch blog!
Yours in Creativity,
Renee

Radical Creative Surgery

Free clip art from: http://vintagefeedsacks.blogspot.com

Sometimes a road block can be a handy device, even when it is annoying. It slows you down and makes you think. My tie up cords came and I can proceed but I have done some serious thinking. Let me back up a bit and explain. One of the joys of being a fiber person is collecting fiber stuff. There are plenty of opportunities to do so, usually presented by our fellow fiber persons. I must admit I have been guilty of presenting these opportunities myself and will probably do it again in the future! You all know what I am taking about, someone decides to sell of part of her stash or, sadly, a weaver or knitter has passed on and their family enlists the help of a guild or group to sell off the piles of yarn. I am no different from any other fiber collector. I have yarn that I have gleefully scored for an insanely low price of fill-in-the blank dollars. Then once it is home and resting proudly on its shelf or in its bin, you start to think. You realize that you have just purchase 10,000 yards of a yarn in a size, color, or fiber that you don't use! "But, it was such a good deal!", you think. Of course, not all the yarn is like that but, well, you all know how it goes. It all secretly multiplies when the lights are off until you suddenly find yourself under a pile of cascading cones of yarn when you open the cupboard door.
So what does this have to do with the cheerful lady with the big scissors? You probably guessed. I have this giant cone of cotton yarn, good stuff too, only I have always preferred to weave with fine yarns. In the giddiness of resurrecting my loom I have fallen pray to the "got to use it up, after all it was such a good deal" mentality.  Time for some radical creative surgery.
In the few years that my loom was dismantled and quietly sleeping, my life shifted, rather dramatically. My priorities shifted as well. My focus, which was temporarily softened by the excitement of getting my loom back up, has snapped sharply back, whacking me along side the head in the process. I can't do it. I can't weave 10 yards of something I really don't want to weave and therefore really don't have the time to. So, after making sure the loom is indeed running well, off it comes. In addition, I am going to go through my greatly diminished stash and purge anything left that does not fit in with my life. More on that later.
What do I want to weave? Well I mentioned it before, linen canvas for painting. My intent is to weave enough to sell to a rather exclusive market so that I can supply myself as well. It will be a large learning curve but I have been riding that curve for the past three years now and I am rather getting to like it!
Here is the final element of that sharp focus. This really is the final chance for such a huge loom to fit into my life. If it doesn't fall into place, with the proper application of elbow grease of course, I WILL sell the loom. I will miss Phoenix of course but I will still have Jane.
Hope this doesn't sound too gloomy or dramatic. This is just what happens when your life takes a sharp turn round a corner.
I do enjoy reading the weaving blogs!
-Renee

Road Block

Nope, not a flashy image, nor an image of lovely textiles in progress. The image above is a temporary weaving road block. Actually it is a texsolv tie-up cord for my loom. As you can see, they are wearing out and actually have been for some time. I do not have enough good tie-up cords to weave my current warp so, I put in an order for more texsolv cords and will have to wait until they arrive to continue.
When I got the loom warped and ready to throw the shuttle, I hadn't done the tie-up as it usually takes a few minutes and off I go. Looks like I posted a bit too soon on the actual shuttle launch time. : )
On a rather more interesting note, I recently read and article that showed a very interesting linen fabric used for painting canvas. It was woven in an undulating twill. Guess what my next warp will be?! I will see if I can find a picture of it and a reference link for the article for the next post.
Hopefully the tie-up cord will arrive fast so I can get on with the weaving. I am anxious to get this warp off the loom and try out the linen.
Until next post, -Renee

"And Warp Well the Long Threads"

"And warp well the long threads,
The bright threads, the strong threads;
Woof well the cross threads,
      To make the colours shine." 

-from The Weaving of the Tartan by Alice Macdonell of Keppoch

This is just a snippet from a very serious poem published in 1894 by the above Scottish poet, but I really liked these particular lines. My current warp is all cream colored and certainly not a Tartan but the threading is done! I just have to wind some bobbins, take a deep breath and throw the first shuttle I have thrown in about 4 years. 

It felt good to thread the loom. My hands haven't forgotten a thing and my brain remembered how to double check and balance out the pattern. I am pleased. We shall see how things proceed. I have been very busy setting a lot of things up so that I can start selling my artwork as soon as I am ready, which will be very soon. I worked a little bit each day getting the loom threaded and am quite pleased I selected a fairly easy warp to put on. 

I didn't think a current picture would be too exciting so I will wait to post a picture of the weaving in progress until next week. Instead, I leave you with my sweet canine companion, Twill, who found a patch of winter sun to enjoy.  

Until next week, -Renee

She's Warped and Ready to Thread!

Well, with a little nudge from Cindie I decided what to put on Phoenix for my welcome-back-to weaving warp. If you recall from the previous post that giant cone of cotton that gave me a bit of a pause when I unpacked it. I was trying to figure out the best project to use it up. Cindie mentioned placemats and runners. Hello! Of course! Well, it has been a while. So, I got out my Best of Weaver's: Guide to Huck Lace, love to weave huck lace, and started browsing. In the past I have also enjoyed making my own drafts and experimenting but at this place and time in my life I decided to use ready-made drafts to start with. I put on 10 yards of the cotton (sadly, there was no noticeable difference in the amount on the cone afterwards) so that I can start out with several samples. Yes, I use the "s" word quite frequently so you have been warned!. From there I will decide which pattern I want to use for placemats and runners. I WILL use up that cone. I am going to leave the yarn natural for now. I will be able to thread during breaks from my painting, which is how I plan to weave too.
So thank you Cindie! Click on her name to go to her blog. She is getting an even more serious loom than mine up and running at the moment which always make for interesting reading.
Until next week.
-Renee