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!

The roving came home

 The second I'd published my last post, I got an alert saying my order had arrived.

So here's what was in the mailbox

That's a Post-It, to give you an idea of the small size.

And inside, three little lunch bags. Doesn't look like much? Wait..

There. Wonderful colors and textures, all sprang out at me. 

I plan to just play with it a bit now.

Downsizing and discoveries

One of the pitfalls of organizing art materials is that you suddenly want to work with them, right now.

It's different when you organize a kitchen. I don't feel a great urge to wash floors and scour sinks when I'm sorting there.

But, going through yarns and other fibers,  I just  realized I still had quite a bit of my lovely Goats Magosh roving, set aside when allergies struck last summer.

And oh well, there's a spindle started, and I'm just sayin'.

 I've knitted up quite a bit of my handspun making Izzy dolls. So clearly I need to keep up the supply. Don't I? Don't I?

Goats Magosh Redux

In today's mail, two innocent little Ziploc bags of roving ends, lovely cheap way to experiment with fiber.

So you think ooh, a couple of nice chunks of roving. So you pop them open.

And there's an explosion of color and texture and scent of clean happy fleece animals.

And you play with it all, and separate bits to see how it spins, since you need all the help you can get if you're me, still working toward consistency.

And you make sure your readers know about Goats Magosh.

Nice people, handwritten message on the cover invoice.

Goats Magosh comes through again

I've been thinking about small weaving again, and spinning the fiber for it. Still working on that undyed merino I got years ago, and have spun and dyed.

But ready made colors, in ends of roving and top, from Goats Magosh, no big investment, is a good addition. Here's what arrived today, packed into a tiny bag, which exploded into a lot of fiber. Lovely clear colors.

Also, since these are really scraps, good quality but small amounts, there's  a variety of different fibers, interesting experience to work with them.

Some practically spin themselves, unlike the merino which I think is good fiber, but a bit resistant for beginner drafting. That's where you draw out the fiber from the supply in your hand, ready to spin it.

I love GoatsMagosh.com, because she responds fast with lovely clean product, very reasonable price, and she rescues goats. Also she's a small business owner in Puerto Rico, still recovering from Maria.  I will buy directly from her in future when I need serious fiber.

I found her through Amazon, but no need for a middleman. She has no idea I'm saying this, no business arrangement, I just like how she works.

And this weekend may be a spinageddon.