Challenge the Mind... learn to weave
Holly and Leo Dumont, San Martin, California
Holly and Leo Dumont have been emailing with me to keep me updated on their progress of learning to weave.
Part of their goal?
Don’t neglect your brain health while worrying about this virus.
The Internet provides all sorts of tools for challenging your mind. Holly shared one that I found particularly interesting, as it also serves to spark creativity. Amongst the many exercises they have, making lists of 100 things… looked like a lot of fun. https://litemind.com/tackle-any-issue-with-a-list-of-100/
The Weaving Challenge
Holly and Leo have decided to live in the present, and their focus is to learn how to weave. They had purchased a floor loom... and then...
See what Holly says about their process of learning to weave…
The big loom is scary. It uses a lot of yarn. What if I make a mistake? What if I can't figure it out? All this drama. So my husband went out and bought this table-top loom. Aim small, miss small, small mistakes, small risk were all some of Leo's thoughts. And it made it less scary for me. For our anniversary we were going to take a class. But that's out, so we turned to books, on line learning and magazines.
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| Ashford Table loom |
The big loom came with 6 years of old Handwoven, and Weaver's Craft magazines. So every evening I read a couple. Some of them I don't understand at all.
From the Handwoven Magazine I learned about Long Thread Media.
For $100 you get workshops, magazines etc. (We were going to take a course with Tom Knisley, and they have an online class with him).
We got some books, recommended by Handwoven subscribers (Issue 144 & 145).
- Alderman, Sharon. Mastering Weave Structures. Interweave
- Osterkamp, Peggy. Weaving for Beginners.
After doing some reading, we decided to hit YouTube and watched the dressing of the loom for the Ashford Table Loom about 5 times. We'd put it on, run to the kitchen, try the process, wait, what? run back watch it again, and try again. The great thing is with the books and video, we were able to get through the warping and we're partially through the dressing. Two minds are better than one. Four hands are better than two. Mistakes were made. Laughter was more contagious than the virus that's on everyone's mind. For several hours, it left our minds completely.
I want to make cloth and Leo wants to make rugs. We both have an interest in recycling. Our first project is going to be piece of cloth from which we'll make project/travel bags. We will do one plain bag, and one using the technique of Zanshi. I have lots of leftover embroidery thread that we are tying together to make the warp thread.
To learn more about Zanshi, go to this site
My goal is to make yardage and I like the following Indigobird pattern partially because you can use it to make items to sell. Not that I'll get around to that, but I don't have to worry if I make the pattern a dozen times and give them to friends.
Below is the lining for the brown and white bag. Leo and I dyed these during the summer. These are leaves from our trees. The fabric was mordanted with alum. We rolled the leaves in copper pipes, spritzed them in vinegar (nails were soaked in the vinegar - so technically this is home made iron water) and then steamed them in a vintage vegetable steamer. We left them for 24 hours before unwrapping.
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| Eco-dyed fabric |
Now… on to the weaving
Day 1
Here you can see the header (the fat red yarn) and the beginning of the weaving.
The warp yarn is 8/2 unmercerized cotton, and the weft is a thick and thin brown cotton. This should full nicely after washing. I put on enough yarn for 2 bags plus. There's three yards on the warp. Each bag uses about 1/2 yard. So, after we get the 2 bags on this warp, I should have enough for a small mystery project at the end.
We aren't going to worry too much about our selvedge edges on this go, since it's fabric and not a finished object. We figure we got enough to learn just making a piece of cloth.
We had a hoot deciding how to beat. Leave the shed open and beat? Close the shed and beat? Switch to the next shed and beat. Since this is a table loom, so one hand is occupied moving the leavers while the other beats and catches. After some bantering about and a bit of let's try all of them, we went with the close the shed and beat twice. Now, if we could just agree on the music to listen to while weaving. Leo's holding out for something with a lively beat....
Day 2
All good things must pass. Here's the end of the nubby brown yardage.
Winding on the "remainder threads".
Last year I did a lot of embroidery and have lots of leftover green. Zanshi is a Japanese weaving tradition that saves all those remainder threads and reuses them. I tied the warp yarn, an 8/2 cotton to 6 strand cotton floss. I did this in ratios of 3. The first color run was 1 yard weft to 12" of floss. Then Leo said it needs more green. So I went to 18" of floss and 18" of weft. By the way, this tying of threads took more time than anything. Do NOT do this with cats present. Let's just say that part of the time was spent chasing the varmint who ran off with the nudibranch green. She's a very knotty cat.
After a plain header, Leo began the Zanshi. I know that cotton doesn't "full" but it does shrink, so it will be interesting to see what happens when you mix unmercerized with mercerized cotton. It sure is fun. When I was a kid, back when dinos roamed, we spent a lot of time in Baja California. This pattern reminds me of a hoodie that was as popular as puka shell necklaces (sans the knots), baby oil at the beach.
Now I gotta prep the mystery project. It's a mystery to me what we will fill the rest of this warp with.
It is not a mystery why there is no header yarn between the next project. I "found" it later. Katia is taking the 5th.
An update to this project will come in a future blog...
Thank you Holly and Leo! It has been a pleasure to watch your process.
A little about Holly and Leo
Holly and Leo live in the Central Coast California. Both are long time farmers. Their love of fiber goes back to when the raised angora rabbits and Merino/Cotswold sheep. Holly still keeps a market garden, but Leo has turned his love of plants to waterside restoration with native plants to prevent flooding. The pair of them love plants. Holly always wants to know, if you can't eat it, can you dye with it? Can you spin with it? Can you weave with it? Leo loves dyeing but only with natural dyes. Although Leo's hand sewing is not the fastest, it didn't stop him from taking an indigo class last summer with John Marshall (highly recommend!). Holly has been sewing since Jr. HIgh School, when they taught Home Ec. but she didn't learn to embroider till taking classes at the SF School of Needlework and Design. Both Holly and Leo hope that weaving will take them into the next two decades. They recommend that if you and your kids are hanging around the house, now is the perfect time to start seeds for a summer garden. Seeds of Italy has a great selection, all of which do great in California. If you want a summer garden, start now! (See my woad in the back row!)
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