Warping and Wolfing

I warped on Saturday! 


I'd been feeling so funked out about my numb arm, but it's somewhat better, and I need to weave!


I started warping the parallel-threaded twill sash late on Saturday.  It's wonderful to be in the garage now that it's been cleaned up some, and there's plenty of room for my AVL Warping Wheel now.  This is the finest silk warp I've wound on the WW; it was a bit of an adjustment.  It's not like 60/2 is all that gossamer-fine, but there's a learning curve with the WW.  I'm about halfway done with the warping/winding on.  Hopefully I'll feel energetic enough this evening, though it was a busy weekend.  (fun busy, not annoying busy...)


A weaving friend got me a bunch of copies of Weaver's magazine, which I started poring over last night sitting up in bed.  Too bad it's no longer in publication.  My friend had told me that they were great magazines, and they are...!  While I subscribe to several weaving periodicals, I have recently noticed that one of them - which used to be pretty good - has been 'dumbed down' and is no longer even a good or interesting read; most of the projects are simple and rudimentary - many of them with colorways I would not go near.  Mostly, though, I dislike it that so many of the projects they feature involve buying a pre-made kit.  Some people like the kits, and it's not like kits are morally wrong or anything like that, but there's something about kits that bugs me.  I did once successfully assemble a clavichord kit, which was fun, but the second time I built an instrument I wanted to make it from scratch, and I enjoyed the process so much more. 

Something for everyone, I guess.  But Weaver's magazine was pretty awesome. 


Wolf Hall (the Masterpiece Theatre series based on the book of that name) has come available on Amazon Prime, which we have.  Previously it was quite expensive to view after the initial screening on Masterpiece Theatre.  Seeing it the second time has been delightful.  David Starkey, whom I nevertheless esteem greatly, may take umbrage at Hillary Mantel's departures from the historical record, but it's nothing like the parti-fiction of The Tudors (again, which I adore).  What Mantel does do, which David Starkey cannot seem to be able to do, is to somehow recreate the creepy sense of being proximate to royalty and being subject to its whims; there is a real kernel of fear in that world, underlying everything.  We have the luxury of being able to pore over the tale of Henry VIII and his distinctive period from the relative safety of the modern world, far removed from his influence; but back in the day, it must have been at least slightly frightening on the best of days.  Imagine living in a country ruled by a wealthy, willful egotist who had monstrous mood swings, and whose whim and word could mean death!  Mantel brings us back to that world.

Nextile.

So yesterday we finally had some free time to stay at home and putter.


Although I did find some time to sit stupefied in front of the Entertainment Box (watched some Netflix, and later Masterpiece Theatre), I spent about six hours winding (and winding and winding) silk thread from skeins onto kiwaku bobbins.  Lots and lots of indigo-dyed 60/2 spun silk (warp for the next textile "nextile") as well as an equal amount of creamy undyed 60/2 silk (parallel threading on this project).  I also devoted several hours to winding off some of the very precious hand-reeled, naturally-dyed Lao tram that friend Tien gave me.  That last item is a very precious thing; nothing is tanglier than silk tram after it's been dyed.  That said, this tram is slightly thicker, so it stands up a bit better to handling than other trams I've used.  That, plus a great deal of patience, resulted in an all-time record of 0% loss of the tram skein (outstandingly good!).  How I hate to waste thread; but doubly so if it is hand-made, and infinitely so since this is handmade, naturally-dyed, and was brought from a faraway place by a friend. 


The colors for the new project are the rich medium indigo color below; also the same silk only in its creamy undyed color, and the rich golden brown also below.  I've always wanted to use these three colors together in a textile.
The draft is an advancing twill, on eight shafts.  I will also be experimenting with wefts for the first several inches, of course, in case there are even better colors to introduce.  Also, since the thread is 60/2, finer by twice than any of the yarn I've yet used on my AVL, it's to be somewhat finer than the other things I've done on this loom.  This means that I can also use some of the finer-grist gold thread from John Marshall I got last year, since it is roughly the same size as the 60/2. 

The Warrantee has Expired.

The warrantee has expired.  On me!


Still working out details of the compu-dobby to come.  In the meantime, I have been wanting to weave, but not able to, and as always when I need to making things but can't, I start feeling squirmy.


Recently, I'm squirming because of a pinched ulnar nerve in my right arm.  It's been that way for several weeks, but one day last week I woke up and my entire arm was numb, as if it was asleep; however it didn't wake up.  It's better this week, as in most of my arm is working again, though the pinky, the side of the ring finger that abuts the pinky, and the line up my arm that follows the ulnar nerve, are all still numb. 


I have also been waiting to weave because I had removed the mechanical dobby from my AVL; I was anticipating a functioning compu-dobby much sooner, so I had bundled the mechanical dobby parts up carefully and put them into a storage box.  But it's now going to be a while before there's a compu-dobby again, so while I'm waiting, there's no reason to not temporarily re-mount the mechanical dobby.  I've had an idea for a silk obi (sash) using creamy tasar organzine as warp, and some of the spectacularly beautiful Lao tram that a weaving friend gave me.   In preparation for this, I managed to wind off two whole skeins of the Lao tram, and with very little tangling loss.  The Lao skeins do not have an obvious place for the beginning of the skein (I always attach the end of the skein to one of the ties, so I can always find it again) which was at first alarming, but after an hour or so (!!) I managed to find *an* end, and wound from there.  Many tangles, but all disaster averted, and by dint of this, I now have two kiwaku bobbins wound with a wonderful grey-blue and a lac red silk tram.  The blue is especially beautiful - it looks a lot like 'gorge de pigéon' silk used for the taffetas caméléon from the old Lyons weavers.  Iridescent!  And the obi will not be very wide, which means there'll be less stress on my shoulders and ulnar nerve if I'm not hyperextending.  Hopefully.


I've also been continuing to spin the combed bombyx mori silk that friend Sylvia gave me.  It's moving right along!


This weekend my goal will be to clean the cardboard box heap near the loom, refix the mechanical dobby, and warp the obi.