Author Archives: Jen

Watery (sample)

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I have swept up all the tweed chaos from the last months and put away in baskets, recipes written, documented all the process, and now its time for a fresh start on something new, a weaving tangent revisiting the possibility of backstrap weaving (and remembering first project two years ago). First, I needed to do a sample so I can better plan a larger project, and managed to put together some loom pieces for a small weaving of 10/2 cotton. After winding five figure-eight bundles of 30 ends 22″ long onto warping pegs, two of them with ikat resist tape, and three of them solid, then dyed all of the bundles together. By the way, when weaving, the ends double as they are wound around in a hoop. Anyway, it ended up being a tangled mess, but after I managed to put them on two loom bars lashed to warping pegs to slowly organize and re-tension the warp threads one at a time, I discovered that is what was responsible for the watery effect. The ikat backstrap weaving sample I made was to test the waters for a larger piece, and I love this idea of lashing the loom bars on to warping pegs to prepare the warp before the weaving!

It ended up being an unexpected and random ikat patterning, the resist areas shifting as I adjusted tension; two ikat bundles, and three solid bundles, dyed in a light indigo blue. After woven the fabric weight is a thick canvas, the weight of blue jeans.

When I showed my best friend the photos, she said “I love that watery pattern you made on the blue” and then it occurred to me to name this ikat design series “Watery” (thank you Sorcha!)

woodshedding

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This summer I decided to wood-shed in the tiny (wool) house, which is a little walk into the woods (beyond Juno), and spend the days in the company of some primitive hand tools like drop spindle, hand carders, and a dye pot. I have been dyeing up a lot of wool in the tiny dye kitchen, experimenting with colors to call my own, re-inventing the wheel in so many ways. Most of all I think that I love this space for what I can achieve with short light photography.

At times I am exhausted of my obsessions, and I worry that I am just a dilettante. But heading into the dog days of summer I dive deeper into refining my creative pursuits, as I try to convince myself that textiles are not just a hobby, but a way of life. I am relishing the isolation, the hours of silence, the palpable feel of time, as I keep walking down to the tiny wool house, two or three times a day, sometimes just to think.

June is almost over and even if I haven’t made any significant finishes to show for the last couple of months, at least I’ve put together a hodgepodge post about some of the tweed tests I’ve been working on.

Tweed Test: Ajrakh

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Ajrakh cloth, a timeless textile art originating from the Sindh region, is one of those artful things that I love. I brought it down to make a beautiful & cozy space to spend a lot of time in, a place I am now calling The Tweed House ( previously known as the tiny house , repurposed for a place to dye and card wool ), but I wasn’t expecting it to be such a beautiful backdrop with the afternoon light streaming in, making short light for a photographic effect I love most. Just sitting on the Ajrakh covered futon, with drop spindle and carders in hand, listening to the dye pot rattle, and sipping a tasty cup of coffee, in the woods … well, it just doesn’t get any cozier than that!

This particular blend is inspired by the traditional madder red and blue of Ajrakh, but also rich browns and golds too, a blend of three colors in equal amounts, which when combined together create more beautiful depth of colors, attempting to blend together the colors of the block prints I love. The trick I am finding is not to blend too much, so that the individual colors are still present and not too fused into each other, so the little bumps of color show in the spinning. I kept track of the dye amounts to get the deep madder red wool, and surprised myself, and the deep gold color does just seem to belong, then finally the turquoise is the gem color that pops, tones it all down and brings all the colors together, and this one is so far my favorite. But there needs to be some refinements before I write the recipe, and you can see Tweed Notes below.

♣   Tweed Notes  ♣

  • Fiber: Dyed Merino wool (dye recipes are not yet decided).
  • Measured: 1g my own “Madder Red”, 1g my own “Ajrakh Gold” (in Sindh region is achieved from pomegranate peel and/or turmeric), 1g Turquoise Blue.
  • What I will do differently next time: I will experiment on achieving a truer yet still bright indigo blue mixing different powdered dyes, but the red and the gold are spot on, because although the individual colors are maybe too bright and not exactly the same as the natural dye used in block printing ajrakh , the combination creates a perfect mixture which, in my opinion, tones all the colors down and gives the feel of the ajrakh.

tweed tests

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Down at the tiny (tweed) house, I have been dyeing, carding, spinning, writing tweed recipes, and figuring amounts in micrograms for small tests. These micro batch tests are a perfect job for the hand carders, drop spindle, and mini niddy noddy, which photographs the test batches of handspun so well! I had some left over bits of carded fluff from several tests and decided to blend them all together for this small 10 yard mini skein. The great thing I’m finding, and now getting pretty good at it, is using the Turkish spindle, and once the spindle and cross pieces of the whorl are taken out, the ball is left as a perfect little center-pull package to bring each end together to ply back on to the spindle … I just love that about this spindle. I just love everything about the small tools, really, which seem to insist that I focus with diligence.

Unassailable Spring (Scarf No.12)

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Hi, its me Abelene.

It is finally warming up, and all the insects are on the wing, and while the meadow grass grows higher by the hour, the days are rolling on like an enchanted pastoral scene in the mountains. Jen is weaving pensively through the afternoons, and the crew of inanimate objects and I are having our usual philosophical debates in the closet. All is in an easy and unfettered mood, the mood of warmth and days growing longer at long last, a glorious and unassailable Spring!

As for the alpaca scarf, it appears to be a Freudian Slip of weaving, as these colors turned out completely Autumnal, being Jen’s absolute favorite season, none the less, it is exquisite, even to be woven in Springtime.

Abelene & The Crew

Note from Jen: A few months back I made a discovery that I really want to revisit, for it has developed and I want to make sure to bring it to the fore, so that others may benefit from it. The improvised wooden piece that I came up with in the post Ikat No.1 ; I have developed its use in every weaving since, essentially becoming a loom “breast beam” as well as a fine tensioning tool. I wrote —

“When I was more than halfway through the weaving, and the front cloth beam was getting pretty packed with woven fabric and cardboard I found the cloth beam to have a certain amount of “squish”, the selvedges conforming to the curve of the cloth winding on irregularly, and not really producing a perfectly flat weave. This I assume is one of the things about rigid heddle weaving, the cloth beam builds cloth and as it does the woven cloth distorts in shape, as well as effects the stability of the tension.“

I have found several reasons why this simple fine sanded wood slat board has made a difference:

  • It is a fine-tuning for tension I found in rigid heddle weaving very much needed, as the tension changes in the down and up shed of the reed. The board moved forward (toward the weaving) loosens the tension – and moved back (toward the weaver) tightens it. This fine tuning of the tension allows better weaving , but also so that I can position a temple, or add cardboard warp separators, and a pulling back of the board tightens the tension, which helps open the sheds significantly.
  • It offers the crisp edge of a proper breast beam, such that some rigid heddle looms do not have as part of their simplistic design, Ashford being one of them. This is especially necessary if using a temple to stretch the weave the full width of the rigid reed, also I have found is necessary for a well balance weave with neat and tidy selvedges. Without a temple I find the selvedge warp threads get frayed-to-breaking, as the cloth can narrow and the selvedge threads rub against the reed, and it is a disaster when a warp thread breaks, especially the selvedge warp threads.
  • My tensioning board is 1/4″ thick and 2″ wide, it should be as long as the weaving width of the loom, so that it easily can support a maximum width warp. I will be making one of these for all of the rigid heddle looms I have.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

  • Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight, in Dashwood (med brown), Zadie (deep gold), Molesley (beige), and Lydia (brick red). 440 y = 50g
  • Loom: Ashford 16″ rigid heddle loom
  • Warping method:  Easy direct warp method for rigid heddle, 1 end in hole and 1 end in slot.
  • Number of warp ends: 240
  • Reed: 15 dent rigid heddle reed.
  • Width in reed: 15″
  • Selvedges: I did not add extra ends to the selvedges, but did use a temple.
  • Sett after finishing: Warp 16 epi, and weft 16 ppi.
  • Color Pattern Warp: [30 ends Dashwood, 30 ends Zadie, 30 ends Molesley, 30 ends Lydia] x 2
  • Pattern Weft: Gold & Red dominant pattern: 2″ squares of [Zadie, Lydia, Dashwood, Zadie, Lydia, Molesley] rep length of warp.
  • Finished: 3″ hand-twisted fringe, then washed and air-dried hanging, and lightly steam pressed. Measures 72″ long and 14.5″ wide, and weighs 120g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 1056y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.

Inescapable Spring (Scarf No.11)

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Hi, its me Abelene.

The Inescapable Spring is upon us, and breaking through the rain clouds are streaming in colors of the most vibrantly rich tones imaginable, the colors of apricots ripening on the tree, the gold sun kissed fruits soon to ripen to perfection before being plucked and bitten into. Señor Mirando and I think the Inescapable Spring weaving is definitely speaking of apricots. March has come in like a lion, and with cool breezy days full of beautiful weather still blowing through, Jen says she is going to warp another in the alpaca scarf series, because the mood is still on!

Abelene & The Crew

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

Note from Jen: What I love most about this piece is that the colors melt into each other, with low contrast on the grey scale. I want to repeat this , the colors really surprised me in the end, I thought it was going to be too much color, but it all gets toned down in the intersection of the colors. This time I was careful to set the loom up correctly for direct warping, and it was easy, and it was the perfect length. The second alpaca lace-weight I have woven on the 16″ rigid heddle loom, and I just love the balanced plain weave, the sett, the drape, and the light buoyancy to the fabric, I still absolutely am loving weaving this series.

  • Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight, in Zadie (deep gold), Bernice (warm pink to apricot), and Amos (moss green), 440 y = 50g
  • Loom: Ashford 16″ rigid heddle loom
  • Warping method:  Easy direct warp method for rigid heddle, 1 end in hole and 1 end in slot.
  • Number of warp ends: 240
  • Reed: 15 dent rigid heddle reed.
  • Width in reed: 15.5″
  • Selvedges: I did not add extra ends to the selvedges, but did use a temple.
  • Sett after finishing: Warp 16 epi, and weft 16 ppi.
  • Color Pattern Warp: [40 ends Zadie, 40 ends Bernice, 40 ends Amos] x 2
  • Pattern Weft: [2.5″ Zadie, 2.5″ Bernice, 2.5″ Amos] repeated length in sequence.
  • Finished: 3″ hand-twisted fringe, then washed and air-dried hanging, and lightly steam pressed. Measures 76″ long (not including 3″ fringe) and 15″ wide, and weighs 121g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 1065y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.

Inevitable Spring

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The vernal equinox has arrived, and the days are now racing by. Over the long reluctant winter, I’ve been spinning quite a bit, and these finished skeins are my favorite of them all, a colorway I want to spin again and again, this apricot & gold wooly confection. The dominant color mood is like the inevitable spring, through the grey of vernal rain clouds, bursts of amber, gold, and pink, create a rich deep apricot color all mixed together, and seems to define my coloring. Photographing was, as usual, a disappointment, impossible to grasp all the colors uniquely. The skeins have a little bit of a story behind them, and to get the spinning notes right I had to do some guessing, but managed to write them out so I can repeat this in the future. The sky is greying again, we’re expecting rain again, I am so in the mood to knit another sweater, but there is likely not quite enough yardage from this experimental batch, so will do another Apricot Tweed soon.

♣     ♣     ♣

Techy stuff for Apricot Tweed

  • See Speed Tweed #2 recipe carded December of 2023. The mix of pinks and amber created a deep apricot or terracotta color.
  • After I spun two skeins from the batch, I thought it was too bright for my liking so I put the rest of the unspun wool in the closet for a few months.
  • Eventually I re-carded the remaining wool, cut in with Wool Of The Andes Mink Heather Roving– the color of sand, about 100g I think, as well as some other colors I did not keep track of, but definitely some topaz bamboo, which I will do more of next time, for it creates streaks of shimmering gold!
  • Yarn is 2ply bulky weight, 400g total.

Juno is four!

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Juno is four today. It seems like we’ve had her for much longer, that she is much older. But she is only four, and still our puppy! See all of the Juno posts (scroll down to see her first posts)

beret progress

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Slowly working on new prototype variations for the Chaltén Beret, and deciding perhaps just the beret overhaul, with redrawn charts, wider band, shown additionally not blocked as a tam with tassels, but possibly including socks, would be good enough for the pattern overhaul. Still thinking on it, just knitting (and weaving) and trying not to let anything bother me too much. These are totally addictive to knit and I particularly love how the faced band is the focus of artfulness, while the crown is instead plain. Casting on for another…

See all posts about Chaltén

vernal influences

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Number two in my alpaca scarf series, warped and started to weave the first few color changes, just enough that I could photograph the color sequence before March arrives, and obviously in a colorway that is very typical for springtime. The color choice was difficult for me; I was considering gold and green , gold and apricot (it looks pink, but it is more like apricot), or even green and apricot… but all three together? Possibly too frolicsome and feminine. I mean, where’s the calming and staid neutral in the mix? My reason is that I figured I would never improve as a weaver if I didn’t start getting outside my comfort zone and make bolder choices, and so I did. It is evident there is a vernal influence going on here, as I’ve noticed all the wild plum trees have exploded in blossoms, and the intense fragrance of it all is amazing. Weather is high drama this time of year; one day the bees come out and everything is all abuzz with temperature in the 70’s, and the next day it could snow and bring everything to a frigid halt. I absolutely love March, and the last stretch of winter.

Scarf No.10

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Hi, its me Abelene.

I’m wearing the first finished weave in Jen’s latest series of alpaca scarves; she apparently got a lot of lace-weight alpaca yarn to weave a pile of them, in various colors and patterns, so obviously she’s feeling optimistic for a new adventure. Believe me when I tell you that this weave is so sheer and light and lovely to wear, the alpaca creates a depth of richness that cotton, linen, or even wool, simply cannot, and Jen thinks this is because of the natural luster of the ‘hair’ structure of alpaca, and the color saturation of dyed protein fibers. Hopefully there are still a couple of weeks left of winter in Paris, because that is where this alpaca scarf is heading next, as Jen wants to rush this off to her sister-in-law as soon as she photographs it … on moi!

Ta ta, Abelene

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

Note from Jen: This time I tried placing pegs around the table, so I didn’t have the warp taking up the whole room, which turned the table into a warping board! I believe I could improvise this way for any amount of warp length within reason. As it was, without having the reference of warping this way before, I accidentally made the warp a little too long … oh well, I’ll do better next time. The very fine lace-weight knitting yarn weaves up into a beautiful light and buoyant draping fabric, I absolutely love it!

  • Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight, in Elizabeth (deep red) and Lydia (brick), 440 y = 50g
  • Loom: Ashford 16″ rigid heddle loom
  • Warping method:  Easy direct warp method for rigid heddle, back to front, double threading from back apron rod through reed, then around pegs on table (a warping board). Wound on to back beam and finally tied off on to front for weaving. Rethreaded to have 1 end in hole and 1 end in slot. I forgot to measure the warp…oops!
  • Number of warp ends: 240
  • Reed: 15 dent rigid heddle reed.
  • Width in reed: 15.5″
  • Selvedges: I did not add extra ends to the selvedges, but did use a temple.
  • Sett after finishing: Warp 16 epi, and weft 16 ppi.
  • Color Pattern Warp: [40 ends red , 40 ends brick] x 3
  • Pattern Weft: 5″ red, 2.5″ of brick, repeated length in sequence.
  • Finished: 3″ hand-twisted fringe, then washed and air dried hanging, and lightly steam pressed. Measures 98″ long and 15″ wide, and weighs 140g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 1232y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.

Things going on…

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Hi, its me Abelene.

There are things going on, and Jen has asked me to chat here a bit, about it being the time of year which demands a lot of work outside, and that Jen is tired, sore, and grumpy. But I am not! I am always cheerful and see the bright side of everything! For one, this lovely softer-than-a-cloud baby alpaca sweater I am wearing . . . it is a sample of more variations to come ( Jen hopes, with all good intention ) in a series of a redesign from an old pattern that was before my time, one of her first, back when her nieces were so young, it was the Chaltén Beret . It happened in the summer of 2014, and since only a few were ever made, she has decided to bring it to the fore and create a collection around it, which will include the pattern for this pullover that I am wearing, and who knows what else, but you can see all the posts past & present in the series Chaltén .

Recently I have been talking in the closet with Jen’s various unemployed looms, about matters of the heart; about cultivating and enriching the muse within, even when it feels barren, and dedication to a work ethic in all things artful, even when it seems futile or meaningless.

Hey, there is a rumor among the looms that one of them has been selected by Jen for another little series happening at the same time as everything else, also involving more alpaca, some gifts needing to be made, and Jen said to me that she thinks I should learn how to weave, to help her out with all the things going on.

Until the next …

Ta ta,

Abelene

good-bye twenty-twenty-four

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Thoroughly enjoying the new winter season, with plenty of rain and the company of a pair of woolen socks I am knitting from some yarn I “un-spun”… playing with color and motif. Inspired by the muse lately, and excited to know that for the remaining winter I will be settled into working a new design, augmenting from an early design from over ten years ago into a new collection of variations! The looms are happy in the closet chatting amongst themselves for a while, the storms softly kiss the landscape, and I must say, I have missed knitting!