Finished Placemats

Day 146: Quite a few people have asked me what I do with all the bands I weave. Admittedly, I have dozens of them rolled up and tucked away, but here is one way I put them to use. I wove the placemats as an afterthought when I had wound more warp than I needed for the primary project, but to me, they looked unfinished. I decided to weave a band in matching colours to apply as a border around the edges. I turned the raw ends to lie beneath the band, stitched down the outer edges, then mitred the corners and stitched along the inner margin of the band. I'm not a fan of machine sewing (although I like to sew by hand), so it took me a while to get around to applying the edgings. I like they way they turned out enough that I might make more with the same variegated weft. I accidentally doubled the length of the band when I put it on the loom, so I have enough left over to make another pair.

Usnea Pacificana

Day 145: Far be it from me to miss an opportunity which literally falls from above, so when the combination of wind and snow dropped a long, heavy fir branch in my yard, I simply had to check it for lichens. I was hoping for Kidneys, but no such luck. I settled instead for a chance to improve my skills at identifying Usneas. I made a little checklist, and if you flinch at my flood of weaving terminology, you should probably quit right here, because we're diving into a whole 'nother language which includes isidia, soralia, medulla, cortex, axis, fibrils, papillae, foveation, annular rings and stereomes. With a hand lens trained on a rather dry specimen, I marked off presence/absence, colour, shape and UV reaction until I had narrowed the field down to two: pacificana and subfloridana. Although I would have preferred to have a fully hydrated subject in hand, the ratio of thickness between cortex, medulla and axis suggested Usnea pacificana. As always, I reserve the right to be wrong, because both species are common in western Washington at this elevation.

Engineering The Walls Of Troy - Gradient

Day 144: Behind any engineering project, there are plans and blueprints, and in this instance, a full two miles of 8/2 cotton have been laid out on an 8-fold gradient to be employed in construction of the Walls of Troy. That's the name of the draft I'll be using for this piece. It will be Max's next job, building a 24-foot Wall with a mortar (weft) of natural, weaving a tortuous path through the coloured warp. It's a simple repeat and doesn't require the strict attention to measurement like the designs with distinct motifs I've been working lately. It'll be a nice break from that keen focus on detail which has governed my most recent weavings. There are 482 threads in the pattern, 60 of each colour plus a natural floating selvedge thread on each side and, in the name of science, I'll be using a closer sett this time around at 20 ends per inch to see if that's Max's "sweet spot" for a balanced weave with this particular fiber. I have one towel left to go, but I always like to have a "warp in waiting."

Hexed

Day 143: I'm going to put a hex on tablet weaving! After a less than successful attempt to make my own hexagonal cards (or rather, to put holes in the corners), I decided I was going to have to buy them. The problem was that the only ones I could find were either wooden (too thick), expensive or would ship from Lithuania. I was complaining about the situation to Ed, my weaving friend, and he responded almost immediately. "What about these?" Well, what do you know? An Etsy seller had restocked the ones I'd seen another weaver using, and was offering two different designs. As much as I liked the brighter geometrics, the Victorian flower designs on these convinced me to go with the pastels. There aren't many patterns out there for six-sided card weaving, but I have one of bees which is very cute. As if I wasn't already up to my eyeballs in weaving projects! But it's something new to learn, and that's always exciting.

Adventurous Eating

Day 142: One of the tenets I hold is that life is too short not to try new foods. I have eaten some very strange things over the years, including deep-fried caterpillar larvae, chocolate covered ants, properly prepared snails and (when I was very young and didn't know any better) fresh angleworms. I'm still alive to tell the tale, and in fact, I found the caterpillar larvae quite good. Other items have gone on my "Never Again" list: brains, tripe, Rocky Mountain Oysters, to name a few. Most of you know that I like haggis, that traditional Scottish dish comprised largely of sheep organ meats, and also lutefisk. I figured it was time to try Mexican-style chorizo. I suspect most of you will stop reading the ingredients after the first entry and may even be racing for the porcelain throne, but it's actually rather tasty. I've mixed mine with refried beans to make burritos which I'll top with guacamole. I may decide not to repeat the experiment, but other things have taken me multiple tries before my taste buds were completely educated to the flavour, so I'm not ruling it out just yet.

Comparative Working Distance

Day 141: Someone asked how Max's effective working distance compared to my old loom, so this morning, I did a test. I knew Max gave me more space, but I wasn't sure how much, although I did feel that it was a little bit more than my repaired shoulder could handle easily. Still, in the name of science, I thought (with a snicker) that I could "take it to the max" just this once. Normally, I wouldn't have pushed quite so far. As you can see, Max could feasibly give me ten inches before I had to advance the warp as compared to six inches on the old loom, but I am more comfortable with nine inches. Even at that, it represents substantially fewer times that I have to get up from the bench. And yes, I have to get up. My arms aren't long enough to control the brake and the roller at the same time.

Higher Mathematics

Day 140: Some technical explanations are in order here, but I will spare you the higher mathematics which woke me at 3 AM and kept me occupied until I finally relented and got out of bed. First, looms like my old one form sheds in one of two ways: they are either rising-shed, in which one layer of threads is raised as the other remains horizonal, or sinking-shed, in which one layer remains horizontal as the other is lowered. On the other hand, with a countermarch loom like Max, the shed opens in the middle, one layer rising as the other sinks simultaneously. Why does this matter? In both rising-shed and sinking-shed operation, there is a certain amount of friction and resistance on the weft as it is beaten into place. On a countermarch loom, it has a clear path and requires very little force by comparison. I simply bring the beater back, and the shed accepts the weft with no particular energy expenditure on my part. Owing to this bit of mechanics, the weft beats tighter, requiring more throws to achieve an inch of cloth. For Max's first piece, I warped for my default sett of 15-16 ends per inch (i.e., across the width of the fabric). However, 16 throws yields only 5/8" of cloth, as opposed to being balanced (16 epi:16 throws) on my old loom when using this fiber. In order to achieve a balanced weave with the same number of ends and throws per inch on Max, I need to make some adjustments. I promised to spare you the math, so just suffice to say that I think warping at 20 epi will bring the weave into balance, or as they say, "close enough for gov'mint work." This is particularly important when square motifs are desirable as they are in most overshot. As for Max's operation, he is an absolute dream! I knew that a countermarch loom would be quieter, but I had not expected the actual weaving to go any faster or to require less effort. In fact, I find myself referring to Max as "gentle" as our relationship develops. I needed that.