Wreath #2

101 inches

Here it is, 101 inches of 30" wide cotton plaid.


It's 101" instead of my intended 112" because at around 1am, my bobbin winder decided that it didn't want to move. Apparently turning is the last thing it ever wants to do again, which is highly unfortunate, as turning is its main purpose. Since winding bobbins by hand is a rather dreary task, I reevaluated the requirements of my intentions and decided that 101" was just fine.

Things I watched while working on this yardage: Dollhouse, Spongebob Squarepants, Rocko's Modern Life, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and My Name is Earl.

Next up, a bit of patterning for the dress I will make out of it.

1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2.

I've been a bit distracted from the studio lately, with grad school coming up soon. (I begin in only a few weeks!) As such, I've given myself a break from ideas that require a whole lot of my brain, and focused on ones that involve mostly rhythm and counting.


This is the plaid I mentioned a few weeks back, finally on the loom. I think 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2, and repeat while watching cartoons. It's a good time.
I've been toying with different pattern ideas for a dress I would like to make with this cloth when it comes off the loom. Something with simple construction- a couple darts in a bodice with straps, a subtly gathered skirt, a couple patch pockets. I'm going to be careful with my patterning, because when the dress is done, I would like to have enough remnant for a self portrait of me in the dress made of the cloth on the cloth. That sort of echoing will make me smile.

In other news!

• I am looking into various types of power saws. I have decided on a way to present my work that I think I will be most pleased by, that will be clean and portable. The one hang up is my current inability to slice through plywood as easily as I can tear cloth. So, for the first time in my life, a power tool seems to be a necessity. Looking into it!
• Images of shears are still filling my walls. The more I use them, the more they seem to become a part of me. I will get back to this another day.
• Any moment now, Inside 12 opens. While I do wish I could be there, I am excited for everyone who is, and hoping it all goes well.

1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2.

A Lesson

If ever you think there is a chance that you will want to recreate an element of something you make- heck, even if you don't think you will, just on the off chance that you will change your mind- save your notes. Save your original measurements. Write them down in your sketch book, not on disposable pattern scraps. Or if you do write them on scraps, transfer them over. Preserve these things.

Learn from my mistakes. Careful documentation is how you can avoid such activities as digging through your studio trash (full of identical paper scraps, tea labels, and tape bits) at 4am for those tiny notes you're sure you must have written somewhere, or looking up forgotten lessons of how to discern a diameter from a circumference to figure out what on earth your original preshrunk measurements were. For the love of 4am inspiration- write down that original diameter.


In other news- look! I have a show coming up!


Soon my work will be better traveled that I am! I wish I could go see the show myself, but since hopping over to South Korea for a few days is rather implausible right now, I'm taking satisfaction in knowing that friends will be there, with their own work, able to see the whole show for me. I'm sure it'll all be marvelous. I'm also fairly certain that my next show (when it comes about) will be much easier to get to, so I'll just be patient and keep making work.

Yarn Yardage

At this precise moment, I have one thousand, eight hundred and seventy two yards of cotton yarn dying in a tea bath.
One thousand, eight hundred, and seventy two yards. 1,872.
It's a bit incredible that that is only half of what I expect to use in this project.
When I am done I shall have over 3 yards of 30" wide plaid cloth. Of course, that's quite a few steps away, but still.
When you break it into actual yards like that, I am always astounded by how much I use for just one piece of cloth. It doesn't seem like nearly that much in person, at any stage of the process.

Keeping Count

In the last few weeks, I have embroidered 21 pairs of shears.

Tonight, I begin working on a tri-shear hybrid.

When that is done, I have 9 more planned.

Shears, shears, shears. There is so much I want to work on, but first I have to get these shears out of my mind for a while. So, shears, shears, shears.

Weaving woes

I don't weave as often as I used to. One reason for this is simply that I am not under the same pressure to produce that I felt while in school. Another big reason is that I have developed a tendency to weave a large amount of cloth for multiple pieces at once, as opposed to weaving the cloth for each piece individually. Because of this, my familiarity with the routine has lessened.

Recently, I have noticed a change in my cloth. I am not sure when it came about- when I began working exclusively on my smaller loom, when I took a break to move my studio across the country, when I switched yarn brands- who knows. What I do know is that my cloth is not as dense as it used to be.

I used to produce a very tight, dense weave which was most pleasant to work with. At some point, my standard cloth became looser. Flimsier. The weft no longer squeezes in securely to the warp. This cloth is not so pleasant to work with.

My problem is that, not knowing why this change has occurred, I don't know how to fix it. I use the same EPI, same reed, same yarn size as I did when I was making the tighter cloth. I am hoping that the reason for this looser cloth is not the loom itself, for that's a pretty difficult element to change. My fingers are crossed that there is an easy-to-fix reason, like tension, or the way I have been tying up the treadles. I rather wish I could pop back to school, ask a couple questions, get some advice. Since I can't, I'll just have to keep trying to figure it out, and hope I don't end up with too much of this looser, less-satisfying stuff.