Using weft tension to make those warps behave...

If you asked me what the number one problem students have with tapestry weaving is, I would have to say weft tension. Warp tension is often fingered as the bad guy in tapestry weaving. We mostly want a very even bed of warps to weave our weft into. Most of us like the warp tension to also be tight. But an even enough warp tension isn't that hard to achieve. It is getting the appropriate amount of weft into that nice even warp that is the hard thing.

It is harder when you're new to tapestry weaving. But believe me, it is a gremlin that will always follow you. When you have more experience weaving, you just don't notice the gremlin any more. Experience means you adjust for changing conditions constantly without thinking about it.

I wrote a blog post about this with some photo examples last year. You can see that post here:

Weft tension: how to control the amount of weft used in tapestry weaving

Remember this example? The weaver called it her latest catastrophe.

I am happy to report that though this looks bad, it is one corner of a large piece and she fixed it. The finished piece is lovely and proves that you can recover from something like this.

Here is a video about weft tension. I made it for some students in my online classes, but thought the blog readership might also like to see it. As always, you can see the video in larger format on my YouTube channel (just click the YouTube icon in the bottom right corner of the video).

I got a little much-needed help with photographing a new sample for the next online class this week.

A world of possibilities in a dye pot and a spinning wheel...

I made it to six beginning spinning classes without the weather fouling it up... skidding home on the last day literally in a blazing snowstorm, gunning the Volks up the driveway into the garage (why didn't I just get out and shovel those 5 inches?). Whew! I was pretty glad my most excellent mechanic just replaced a bunch of rubbery gaskety parts in my engine.*

Round two starts March 12. What are the chances I can make it to Boulder and back 4 more times at night in the winter? It is worth a shot anyway.

Yesterday we dyed some handspun. Being something of a veteran synthetic dyer, a natural dye class is always fun. It seems so unscientific and just like playing with plants. We did use mordants and we didn't have a lot of time. So mostly we got a spectacular selection of beige with a little purple thrown in thanks to cochineal.

We used ebony, onion skins, cochineal and walnut hulls. We pre-mordanted the yarn in copper, iron, and alum so each dye bath yielded three different colors.

We also rainbow dyed part of a fleece using synthetic dyes.

And here are the resulting yarns and fleece. The fiber is polworth combed top (which moves so fast!).

What could be more fun than playing with fiber and color?
The next questions seem to be, can I learn to spin well enough to spin tapestry yarn, would I want to, and how can I put the incredible possibilities of dyeing and spinning my own yarn to the best use in making art?

If you missed my prior posts on this subject, here they are:
I couldn't put it off any longer: a date with Maggie Casey and company...
Beginner's mind... or daring to try something new

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*King's Auto Center in Fort Collins is really outstanding. I have never had such good service anywhere and basically I'm driving a heap held together with bumper stickers and duct tape. I'm pretty sure with this shop standing behind me I might make it to 300,000 miles. Just don't look too closely at the "paint".

Once a year, ewe take it all off...

I had the distinct honor of being invited to shearing day at Sheep Feathers Farm last weekend. With my new spinning obsession, I was excited to see these fleeces come off the animals. Robin raises these sheep for spinning fleeces and has won many awards at fiber shows including a Grand Champion award last year at Estes Wool Market. (Admittedly Agatha is a beauty!)

 

 

 

Mr. Horns

The ladies all shorn with their new smaller coats on

Fleeces all tied up and ready for skirting

The rams were shorn first as they were the rowdiest. It was magic from the very first fleece to see what was underneath. Robin coats her sheep so the fleeces stay quite clean, but the cut side of the fleece might be completely different from what you see on the outside. She raises a mix of CVM, Corriedale, and Wensleydale X Lincoln. The fleeces were everything from buttery white to pure black. Many of the prize fleeces were black, white, and brown spots. There were creamy chocolates and beautiful grays. I wanted to try spinning every single one I saw.

I enjoyed the jovial atmosphere of the small barn and loved watching the sheep after they had their fleece shorn. Cory, Robin and Mark's daughter, gave them each a nice back scratch before she fitted them with a new smaller coat. Many of the ewes will be lambing in the next few weeks and we were able to see which ones were the closest once all that fleece came off. There were some big bellies under that wool!

Bob the shearer worked like a fiend. He never stopped except when everyone else said they were breaking for lunch and there was no one to feed him sheep--and he went back to the barn as soon as he finished his sandwich. Many of those sheep outweighed him by at least a hundred pounds and he managed every one like they were big teddy bears.

It amazes me that I have worked with wool intensely for over a decade now and I have not until last month, tried working with it in its raw form. Fleece is lustrous, sticky with lanolin, sweet-smelling and so mysterious. It was like opening a much-anticipated present to see each fleece open up when it came off the sheep. I can't wait until skirting day when I might be able to bring one home.

Here is a little video of Myrtle's turn.

With a huge thank you to Robin and Mark for welcoming me into their barn and home,
Baaaaa!!!!!

Why I can't quit Facebook (and believe me, I've tried)

We used to go to libraries, take classes, read periodicals... Now we scroll through the Facebook feed clicking on pretty pictures. Baby elephants playing in wading pools and the like. Okay, I do that. I scroll through MY Facebook feed clicking on baby elephants. I admit it right now. Life is breathtakingly short and I do spend a bit of time here and there sinking into meaningless streams of platitudes, sunsets, and photos of everyone I've ever known's dinner (not the location, the actual food--why do people take pictures of food?).

But here is why I stay. Many, probably most, of my Facebook friends are tapestry weavers or other artists. They post things that are interesting to them which often are about tapestry and thus interesting to me. I have enjoyed the recent flurry of postings of artwork, rather like a chain letter with people nominating others to post photos of their work and the whole thing getting exponentially bigger. I've had to watch far fewer baby goat videos since I can scroll this artwork. I have found websites and new blogs this way. I have met (virtually) tapestry artists I hadn't known of before.

Here are a few things I learned just this week:

Woolful. Ashley Yousling has recently started doing a weekly podcast about wool and other fiber things. So far I have only listened to the latest episode, but I think her blog and conversations are worth keeping an eye on.

Absolute Tapestry. This is a website of Norwegian tapestry artists over the last 100 years. Each artist has work posted with photos and some text and there are some other articles, news, and history. Look for the "English" button at the top right for translation... unless you speak Norwegian that is.

Operation Common Good. My cousin's child made this video with the help of her class and father to raise money for homeless kids in Detroit. I think it is amazingly creative. Did you get that thing in the beginning where she "froze" the motion of a classroom of forty-five 6th graders with her super powers? Go Ella!

American Tapestry Alliance. I did already know about them of course. But their annual Valentine's Day appeal starts Feb 14th and I am happy to help with it. (You could win one of my classes! But you could also win a tapestry by one of 4 amazing artists--I'm hoping for that.)

Dyed in the Wool. Uh huh. People are sending me links of where to get combed top and fleece. I am in deep danger of needing more storage space spinning time. Dyed in the Wool has a brilliant product where they sell little amounts of different fleeces with information cards and enough fiber to process some and test it out. What a good way to get to know different sheep breeds.

Stonehaven Farm. And then my Mom sent me this link because the sheep farmer is a of her friend. I ended up watching the videos of the farm processes on their website. Engrossing... and makes me think about where my wool comes from for sure! (And also that I don't think I want to be feeding animals in several feet of snow. Good to know.)

As you know, it goes on and on. You start by innocently clicking on a picture of a tapestry loom and before you know it three hours have passed looking at the work of Norwegian tapestry artists.

And of course there are the moments that lead you to all the super bowl commercials in one place, the dogs who have stolen their owners sandwich and blamed it on the cat, or when you learn about an Australian named Tim Minchin. I stumbled across a commencement address he was giving and unwittingly pushed the play button. I ended up watching all 11 minutes which is FOREVER in Facebook time. Of course more research was needed. Matilda? A nine-and-a-half minute beat poem about a dinner party? (I watched that one three times.) Tim Minchin is my new Tina Fey. Sorry Tina.

And that is why I can't quit Facebook. Seriously. Woody Allen Jesus. It sure sticks in your head.

... and of course the tapestry (and sheep)

These are Navajo-churro I met at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

And lest you think I've been spending all my days surfing the net, the new tapestry is coming along famously as is the new online class... [coming soon to a computer near you]

I know it looks like a mess, but I weave from the back on a low-warp loom. It ensures the unveiling is a mystery even to me.

Beginners mind... or daring to try something new

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

--Shunryu Suzuki

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

There is something important about doing things we've never tried before. That beginner's mind state is a place where new possibilities suddenly appear. Have you ever watched a child learn a new skill? If they are young enough, they are able to whole-heartedly give everything to something they may well "fail" at. But mostly they don't. Through trial and error, they learn how to do something they didn't know before. And often there is a lot of laughter and joy involved. As adults we are seldom willing to take these kinds of risks. We don't want to be wrong. We don't want to fail. We don't want to act like a child.

I maintain we all need more of this in our lives. I started taking a spinning class a few weeks ago (the kind where you make yarn, not ride a bike). While it is true that I do have some experience with yarn, I had never touched a fleece straight from the sheep and I had little idea how to turn that fiber into yarn I could use. Three weeks in, I'm a little farther than I was and I'm having such a great time, mostly because I allowed myself to fail. 

One of the other students in the class voiced what we were all feeling when Maggie Casey started talking about the beautiful corriedale fleece she was giving us to spin. We were all afraid of messing up this lovely fiber. Maggie simply said that the sheep was growing another one right this minute and we had to start somewhere.

There are always new chances until the day we die. We could die tomorrow (or even today). So why not make the most of this moment?

I happened to own a spinning wheel which I bought several years ago to ply my tapestry singles on when I want a very smooth gradation. So though my feet knew how to treadle the thing, my knowledge of the wheel and how to make yarn from fiber ended there.

I have had so much fun. I've already bought my own hand cards and found the extra bobbins (we are learning to ply this week). I also brought home these books which I have been reading in between searching for a local shepherdess to supply me with some fleece and spinning what I have left of the corriedale.

Those are Maggie Casey's book Start Spinning and The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook also by local authors, Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius.

As I teach students tapestry weaving, I often find that they are every bit as perfectionistic as I can be. But perfectionism doesn't serve us well when we're learning something new. I think it is important to screw it all up here and there. I'm certainly doing my best to make as many mistakes as possible with my spinning. When you start something like tapestry weaving, an art/craft which involves not only intellectual understanding, but a learned motor skill component, you can't be perfect right away. It takes many hours of practice both for your brain to understand how it works and for your body to learn the motor skills.

So.

Cut yourself a break.

Allow yourself to screw up royally! (It is much more fun that way.)

I have a large plastic bin full of bits of tapestry weaving that I have produced over the last decade. Pieces that I cut off partway through. Pieces I never want to show anyone, ever. Pieces that were test samples for a bigger tapestry. Things I made in workshops.

 

And you know what? The really bad ones are the most informative. I learned from them because they were so bad. I even labeled some of them with what the mistake was once I figured it out when it was pointed out to me. 

Relish the mistakes. Try something new. It takes some courage, but what is life for if not to learn new things? Beginner's mind.

Just remember....

(And it is just a sampler!)