Storm prep. Spinning to supply the yarn

 

Left to right, the two back pieces, two pockets, front piece complete except for top shaping, next frontispiece in progress.

This has almost exhausted my supply of yarn.  In fact the last two stripes on the rightmost piece I spun yesterday and immediately knitted up.  So I need to spin seriously. This is good because we are about to have a nor'easter and snow, up to 18" of same and high winds.  This means I'll be home.  I did get my new supply of roving, so all's well there.  And there's food in the house.

Friday was an online knitting group meeting, which was very nice, except for one member whom I've met a number of times in person back in the days when our groups met that way.  She suddenly asked if I would accept spinning commissions!  As if.  I politely said, no, I really don't, which is britspeak for "in your dreams, Bunty!"  and she persisted, well, then will you teach me to spin?  And I continued with noooooo, wondering where she was brought up.  And how much she imagined it would cost to pay a person to spindle spin enough for a garment, she clearly not grasping the number of hours it entails.

But I did direct her to a couple of wonderful teachers on YouTube, Abby Franquemont and Spinning Sarah.  She made no notes about it.  But said maybe she could get her friend who spins to come and do a spinning retreat with her.  To which I said, that sounds lovely, feeling very sorry for the friend who is about to be imposed on. And seeing that here again is a person who thinks it's too hard to actually learn stuff, would rather someone inserted it into her abilities.

Why was this so ill-timed, you ask, puzzled.  Well, for one thing, a knitting group where people come to work and chat, is not a business opportunity.  For another, it's rude to even ask about commissions in that context, much less about teaching. That's not why I'm there.  And considering my age, even less appropriate, given that I am at the stage in life where my remaining energy and creative juices are better used in my own work. 

I've never accepted commissions. Not that kind of artist.  I used to explain that I didn't get into art in order to take orders from other people.  I work on what I need to until I don't need to any more, then I move to the next art form I need to work in.  It's inner directed, about making a life not a living.  No disrespect, in fact, great respect, to people who do make a living by making, but it's not my path. And a lot of people have bought my work, nice, but not essential.

I've always supported my art with a day job. I like to remind people that Borodin had a fulltime job in a chemistry lab.  Philip Glass was still installing appliances well after he was famous for his compositions. Leonard and Virginia Woolf had to run the Hogarth Press to support themselves. I'm not putting myself in their class, but in their frame of mind. 

I don't expect someone who only knows me slightly to grasp all this, but having been gently dissuaded and still persisting, that's a bit over and above.  So after I simmered down a bit, I decided it was a Father, forgive them, kind of moment. 

Pro tip: please don't assume other people are there to serve you, when they're in a group that's strictly about playing.  End of pro tip.

Back to spinning and getting this lovely jacket going again. It amuses me that, having spent years in my first serious art pursuits working in grayscale, largely black on white or white on black monotypes, which constituted a couple of my first exhibits, and all of my early invitations to gallery shows, with little interest in color, I'm in a different mode now.  I used to be much more interested in shapes and relationships, accepting that color has meaning but not wanting to pursue it. Now it appears to have invaded my life, too funny.  Ignore us, would you?  Take that, missy!

Spinning update

 I need more yarn, so spinning has been happening.

You'll notice the high end bobbins I use.

Next comes plying, and here are the high end tools for that process.

The idea is that one bobbin goes in each box, the end of the yarn fed out and attached to the plying spindle. 

This keeps the bobbins from dancing all over the room, and separates the two yarns until they're plied, otherwise they would get into all kinds of tangles.

There are posh versions of all this, but these work a treat.

More wonders of Peru, and Goats Magosh rules!

Another wonderful presentation by the Fowler Institute of UCLA.  About four selvedge weaving, which if you have followed this blog a while, you'll know I experimented with very happily a while back.  Won an award for a piece, too, always nice to note. 

What I didn't know was the Peruvian Indian weavers were doing this wayyyyy back in about 600 AD.  I learned the method from watching Sarah Swett, inspired artist, cartoonist, spinner, weaver and Nice Person.

Here's a simple example of it, done by a modern weaver just to show the technique

Four selvedges means all four edges finished, no cutting off the loom.

Two selvedges is what we are used to seeing in other cultures, where lengths of fabric are woven, then cut to purpose.  The Peruvian weaving was done to purpose, already the correct size and shape for the garment when it came off the loom.

Here are some beautiful examples of four selvedge netting, amazing works.This presentation will be available for you to watch on the Fowler Institute website, as soon as they load it, and I really recommend you take a look, if you are interested in the history and art of textiles.  It's only about half an hour long.

And near the beginning they reference Ed Franquemont.  I promptly asked if he was connected with Abby Franquemont, whose book Respect the Spindle,

I've talked about in here, just a brilliant account of spindle spinning and its history.  Turns out he was an anthropologist and was her dad!

My Covid brain, which already let me down in the context of pumpkin bread, for which see https://fieldfen.blogspot.com, let me down here again.  

I completely forgot that the Fowler Institute is based at UCLA, and when they said noon, I was all ready, ate lunch early so as not to have to wrangle food and laptop.  Checked in, and it said wait till they start, 3 p.m. est....aaaaahh. Noon pacific time.  Fine. Came back then, and it was wonderful.

Then in today's mail, reinforcements arrived on the roving front, to continue my work on the jacket.  Look at this array of color and texture!  all this came out of three little lunchbags, I think they must have a packing machine..such pleasure in my future.  Goats Magosh comes through for me again.

Happy spinner here!

Color and relationships

 One of the great side effects of a long project involving fiber in various different stages of its existence is the consideration of color and its relation to other colors.  This combed top is in a color I truly don't like at all.  It's flattered by the camera, but in real life it's a lot deader and gloomier than here.

However, as you know, color is not an absolute.  It creates quite different perception in the viewer according to what's next to it.  There's a music in colors, where they change one another.  That's why that paint sample in the store looks really different on your own wall at home, in relation to your other colors and furniture.

If you ever get the chance to see this book, here's a pic of the front cover of a cheap paperback version of Josef Albers classic Interaction of Color, you'll really get a lot out of it.  If you're a stitcher or a knitter or a spinner or a weaver or a painter, you'll get such depth of knowledge from studying it even briefly.  You might be able to find it cheaply second hand.

His point is that colors appear to change depending on their nearest neighbors.  See those two little squares, how different they look?  next to different colors. They're exactly the same colors if you observe them by coordinates, hue, luminosity, and so on, never mind the technicalities. But you see how they change to the eye? Even in this inaccurate medium with a mediocre camera and a mediocre paperback image, you can clearly see it.

You can take advantage of this fact by putting a color you don't like along with a different one and observing the resulting effect.  Here I plied the color I don't like with a warm dark reddish brown yarn single, and it made a lovely warm inviting tweedy effect, just by twining alongside a different color.

 

Transformed.  And ready to work nicely with other colors as we proceed.  Here's the left front up to now, and the two woven pockets ready to take their places eventually, wherever they work best.  See how that new yarnball is warming up the whole area around it?

 

One of the best art teachers I ever had used to set the task of choosing a color you don't like then incorporating it into a painting in such a way that you could enjoy seeing it.

Sometimes it's not about what the artist wants.  It's about what the artwork wants.  That's always a surprising statement when you make it to a young artist, as I have, when he said well I would always avoid colors I don't like anyway.  He agreed to think about it, anyway, after he got over his surprise at learning that the artist is only the conduit, not the boss, of the art!

And in winter we all experience the sight of snowflakes looking dark grey as they fall down against the sky, then suddenly white when they pass the dark colors of the buildings on the way to the ground.  Same phenomenon at work.

All that said, I expect you realize at this point just how much thinking and considering is going into this jacket I'm making.  Nothing is random, or guesswork.  Many, many decision points, all very satisfying and joyful. No hurry. What the work needs, it will get.

 

This is one reason we should fight to keep art in our schools as a regular offering.  It's about learning to see and decide and weigh options, and go for it. Always a good set of skills for anyone, at any age!  Now I'll get off my hobbyhorse and go back to knitting..

 

Jacket left front in progress

Here we are with the jacket, the left front. Or maybe the right, I'll decide soon before I start shaping.

The first section is my last couple of days of spinning and plying. It takes about four times as long to spin as to knit. 

The first section is better spun than the next, which is pretty chunky. Moving along.

The back progresses

Here's the back, two pieces, steamed, not yet joined together, until I'm sure I like the way they are together.  There are other options, but for now I'm liking this one.

 

And, since my stock of roving is running lower now, I've ordered three more little bags of it.  I get this direct from Goats Magosh Etsy shop, and it's fun to look there and see the familiar colors and kinds displayed.  I'm getting the ends of them, the only way this project will be in my budget.  And it's even more fun to have all the different types of roving to work on.

It occurs to me now that I can identify them from the Etsy shop, since they're labeled by type and name there. Must do that. 

And I have to get spinning now, since I've knitted up most of the yarn I've made up to now.  I did say this was a big project, didn't?

Pre ceramic textiles of Peru, 7000 BC and later

I just watched a wonderful Zoom presentation of the Hajji Baba Club, about early textiles using indigo, in ancient Peru.

I wondered what ceramics had to do with textiles, and eventually learned that, because there were no ceramics at that period, dyeing with ochers and indigo was most common, since without solid containers which could stand up to heat, to use as vats, it was not possible to do the natural dyeing which came in after the ceramic container was introduced.  Interestingly, it would have been much easier than indigo dyeing, which needed several processes, and for which the chemistry is more complex.

This is one plant source of indigo, which also happens to be an edible potato plant, an all purpose item of vegetation. I recognize the blossom shape from my own potato growing experiments in containers.

Because indigo dyed yarn or fabric changes color after it's lifted from the dye, seemingly magical as the colors change and end up blue, it was considered sacred, and was restricted in its use.

These experiments in using ocher dye were done by the presenter, and are remarkably similar to my own kitchen dyeing, except that I use natural plant material and flowers. He used potash as a mordant, as I do nowadays.

They also used milkweed bast for fiber production, and anyone who has watched Sarah Swett's adventures in milkweed where she's done exactly that, then spun and wove it, will be as riveted as I was by this historical confirmation.

  

The fragments of  textiles have been recovered from a sacred site, about which I have some feelings, even if history is being served, and involved burials, also possible propitiatory offerings. There were some objects, probably funerary, which involved wrappings, and look startlingly like modern avant garde fiber craft work.

The twining and weaving in general was highly skilled, and mindblowingly complex, multiple warps, using a frame loom, handbuilt, the toba loom.  I'm looking to see if it's a backstrap affair.  I asked questions about this, and about what we know of the spinners, but lost my signal before they were into the q and a, so I'll have to pursue that myself. 

They were recording the presentation, which is this one, above,  Dr, Jeffrey C. Splitstoser, so it may be possible to find it again.  I think I'll give it a try.  They had viewers from all over the world, every continent, very exciting stuff.

If you are interested in history of textiles, natural dyeing, weaving, spinning (the presenter knew all about z and s spinning and pointed it out in the twine they used) you will really like this.  If I can find a link, I'll let you know about it.

I missed some bits, because friend next door was coming and going, doing work on my tire pressures and is also trying to improve his wifi signal which he shares with me, so there were interruptions which I had to attend to, he's doing me favors!  So maybe I can fill in the missing bits if I can find the recording on line and if it's available.

Second half of the back in progress

 And now you can see better what I'm doing.  This is the second part of the back.  Yet to come are two fronts and two sleeves and a load of spinning and plying before I can get to knitting

 

 Since I'm still waiting on news of the car, I've been busy at home trying not to think about it. A bit more knitting today. Here's how the two sides will make chevrons. I think I like the upward points rather than the other way up, more cheerful.  The way they seem to link evenly is a bonus, not planned, but a function of the size of yarn ball I've been making.

Anniversary of the Great Winnowing, suggestions for dog hair

 This is the full extent of my art materials now, since the Great Winnowing of January 2020, those innocent days before lockdown.

And here's the now empty and echoing art studio on the top floor.

I have not missed a single item from the Winnowing, which benefited a lot of artists and students and the recycle, and some neighbors.  Only one tiny bag needed to be tossed in the garbage.

And. different subject,  here's the pin I made last Spring from cashmere goat fiber given by Quinn.  I ended up spinning, crocheting and felting to make this nest with eggs.  At the time I asked for and got a lot of interesting ideas from blogistas, which went into my finally deciding to make this.

Today I was offered a bag of hair from a beloved Belgian Malinois who died in early 2020.  Probably different texture, and I think may be mixed with another fiber in order to spin.  I will get maybe a couple of yards of yarn from it.  What I'm asking for is ideas on what to create from it as a possible gift to the owner.  She might like a small memento of her much missed companion.  I can spin, weave, crochet, knit, felt, whatever works. 

So would you come through again?  If you also read Field and Fen, you'll see this in there.  But since some people read only one of my two blogs, I thought I'd for once repeat myself, unusual for me, in order to catch as much input as I can.  Thank you!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch..

 Back to the knitted and woven and spun and plied jacket.  I made a second pocket here

Using earlier yarn than I did for the other pocket. 

I like very much the way the changing colors create a design

And here's the second pocket

Remember I said that my spinning has improved, the yarn finer and more consistent, and it might show up a bit as I progress with producing yarn for the jacket?  Here's a case in point. The two pockets.  On the left earlier, chunkier, yarn, and on the right later, finer, more consistent yarn, the first pocket I made.  I may add a row of crochet to the right hand pocket if the difference in size bothers me enough. Right now it's just a useful observation.

This is all very well, you say, yes, pockets, but where's the jacket you're going to attach them to, huh, huh?  Well, here's one half of the back, completed, steamed and looking pretty happy.

Well, yes, half of the back, big deal.  Where's the rest of the jacket, then?

Well, some of it's here

And some of it's here

 And I may have to order more fiber.  Fortunately there's no deadline on this, unless you count wanting to wear it before the weather gets hot again.

This is like showing the window frames for the house that's still a heap of timber next to a hole in the ground, but that's fiiiiine.

I can't tell you how happy I am making this endless project.  When I get tired of rolagging, I spin, and when I get tired of spinning, I ply.  Then knit. By then I'm ready to make rolags again. I've learned so much about the yarn and the skills and myself in this process.

And there's always that stitched Robe waiting in the wings for her chance to work again.

Weavers, embroiderers, beaders of Mindanao

 This was the presentation I mentioned to you a few days ago.  I put up the link to it and another on rug medallion design last week, not knowing then that it was going to be a great antidote, peace, art, people living together and making beauty, to the ugliness we witnessed a few days ago, and are still dealing with.

The rug presentation was okay, very dry, terms not explained to the uninitiated, and largely a sales promotion for the presenter's book, which is no doubt very good.  However, the real treat was the other one, about the groups of people in the Philippines, on Mindanao, in the mountains.

If you didn't remember to get there, they did record it and it might be possible to catch up on it, anyway, here's the introductory screen to help you do that.  The introducers were a bit taken aback at the sheer size of the audience, saying that it was huge, from every continent. And I'd say it lived up to the audience.

It was respectful, helpful, and very understanding of the sophistication of the work produced by the women of this area, all making and wearing their own one of a kind clothing, and selling amazing artworks produced from simple looms. You'll see backstrap looms in action, creating complex and wonderful designs, enormous pieces of fabric.  Some of the early fabric was abaca, the same fiber I use in handmade paper, from the banana-adjacent plant.

 Men process the fiber, a lengthy hand done task, and produce filament that can be warped on a loom and dyed with the black dye used for their designs.  They still have to observe the condition of the filament as they work, though, since a long dry spell means a pause in weaving, since the abaca can break if stressed when dried out. They also use cotton fabric for embroidering and beading.

I took just a few shots, not very good image on my screen, but they did their best.  Where you see beading, it's often hand carved mother of pearl, individually created, and many of them crowded into the  tops, where the shape is simple and the beauty is in the weaving and stitching, including embroidery and applique, and the beading. Men's clothing is also colorful, embroidered and beaded.

Where you see a name and an old person with the presenter, she's the weaver, great artists, some of whom have died in the last couple of years, very aged and still working in the traditional designs of millennia. The designs feature people as well as natural objects, trees, stars, mountains, eagles, all with meaning and worked and worn with respect and a spiritual connection to the tradition. 

The family groups are dressed in their best for the occasion, women wearing the garments they made and designed, within the traditional motifs but with their own interpretation.

In the pictures of work on the loom, you can see the sheer size of the pieces they make, with the backstrap loom, showing it's the weaver, not the complications of the loom, that make the work.

 It was an hour of restoration for this viewer, and I'm very glad I remembered and watched it.  I hope some of you blogistas did, too. I know some people were planning on it and I hope the events of the week in the US didn't drive it out of your memory bank.