Donna Johnson, Author at tamarackfiberarts

Under the Looms

November 19, 2021 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

So many changes in such a short time!

Gil, my eight shaft Gilmore loom, has a new home. He left in a pick-up truck in mid-September.

We seem to be past fire season for this year with at least two atmospheric rivers come and gone. However, it is mid-November and it is hot and dry again. The garden is finished for the season. The last Persian cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, basil, arugula, tomatoes, and tomatillos are put up or consumed. Our persimmon tree gave us the best harvest ever and we are enjoying delicious Fuyu persimmons. Salsa, jam, and chutney are on the horizon

The summer linen projects are finished, including two super light weight lace scarves of 40/2 linen, some bread bags in 16/2 linen with handwoven bands for ties, and some fine linen tea towels made with 35/2 linen. Well, the towels still need hand hemming, but they will be in the shop before long. I enjoy the lighter weight linen and will likely do more towels and table linens in the future.

The ability to access wonderful weaving workshops via Zoom is a real gift of this awful pandemic. In June, I completed an Echo & Jin workshop by Denise Kovnat as part of the MAFA conference. Denise was so generous with her time and resources. The learning will continue for years to come.

Much to my surprise, it is possible to get a lovely fabric at a denser sett. I used 8/2 Tencel at 36 ends per inch in this scarf, with a 20/2 mercerized cotton weft, and it is lovely.

More projects dance in my head but they will have to come later. I must be honest and say that as much as weaving means to me, not much weaving is happening right now.

Here’s why: Meet what's under the Looms - Finn!

This beautiful and sweet Bernedoodle was born August 13. He was raised by a local fiber friend and we’ve been visiting since he was about 2 weeks old. At eight weeks, on October 8, he came home with us, and nothing has been the same since!

I’ve recently been heard to say, “I used to be a weaver.” That’s how it feels right now. Finn’s idea of a good time is not to play with pretty string, so it has become very difficult to get anything accomplished other than potty trips outside, walks, cuddles, brushing, training, and playing with dog toys. We thought we were prepared for puppy parenthood but who knew? I could never do this without Michael (DH in Rav speak).

Already he is becoming more of a young dog than baby puppy, but he does demand much time and energy. Everything is broken into 30-to-60-minute intervals, if that long. So, thinking about weaving projects … well, thoughts are interrupted, puppies need attention and training, and there just are not enough quiet moments in the day. He doesn’t mind the sound of the looms and I’ve even been able to spin and knit, just a bit. Basically, he is a sweet, smart, loving dog who is very bonded with his two humans and who is learning and growing fast.

I was able to complete two special projects; one before Finn arrived and one during his early days with us. My friend who raised Finn lost her husband and one of her beloved canine companions less than three months later. I wove a shawl for her and used 18/2 merino in warp and weft. The yarn came from Lunatic Fringe.

I was particularly appreciative of the fact that they will wind off by the ounce for this and the 18/2 merino/silk that they carry. Customer service at Lunatic Fringe is great. I miscalculated weft and was able to get more, of the same dyelot, very quickly. The draft is from the awesome resource, Handweaving.net and with a sett of 24 ends per inch, it had a lovely hand and drape. Time was a bit crunched, and I did not get a photo after wet finishing, but the recipient was delighted.

The other project was a commission request from a friend in another state. It was great fun to meet on Zoom, introduce her to some aspects of weaving so that we could design together, and it was a fun weave. I sent her photos of the process and laughed when she told me I must be making up words!

Another draft from Handweaving.net was just the right pattern and 10/2 mercerized cotton from Lunatic Fringe came in just the right colors. The cloth was exactly what the recipient wanted, which is always a wonderful thing.

I will freely admit that getting ready for another weaving workshop in early November while tending to a young puppy just about pushed me over the edge!

Trying to learn how to use a second back beam, warp the ground and supplementary warps back to front (I am a dedicated front to back person!), and correct a big threading error right before the start of the workshop while also tending to a teething puppy did cause a bit of stress.

I took Karen Donde’s Turned Beiderwand workshop on Zoom. Karen was most generous with her resources and provided excellent video tutorials for getting a supplementary warp on a loom, with or without a second back beam.

Again, the learning will continue for a long time. The workshop was jam packed with content and resources and, once again, I found myself especially appreciative of my time with Madelyn van der Hoogt at The Weavers School. Weaving off the samples will take a long time, too, thanks to Finn. But puppyhood doesn’t last forever, and my looms, yarn, and ideas will still be there. I think!

Last post I wrote about the beautiful Shetland fleece I was gifted in June. I did finish the mitts I carded, spun, and knitted from that fleece. I wrote about the process and included some pictures, and the shepherdess was most appreciative. There is more fleece to play with - at some point in the future when Finn is a bit older.

With all the changes in our household, more on the horizon, and the holiday season upon us, I have put most of my weaving on hold for the moment.

I plan to keep my idea journal at the ready, filled with ideas for the time when Finn is more content to train, play, exercise, and nap at regular intervals instead of constantly wanting to chew everything in sight while teething.

Meanwhile, I’m working on another pair of Shetland mitts, a beautiful grey sweater, and – whenever possible – the BFL/silk I started spinning before Finn arrived. No telling how long that will take to finish but there is no reason to rush. I will just spin in the moment.

May we all enjoy our moments as best as possible.

The Weaving Doldrums

August 31, 2021 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

Doldrums:

A state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or depression.

An equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean with calms, sudden storms, and light unpredictable winds.

No matter which definition is used, I think the word doldrums applies in my life lately, even if I am far closer to the Pacific, rather than the Atlantic Ocean. I cannot say I have been inactive; just that the weaving part of my life has been inactive. That would be for several reasons but I’m not writing to list them as excuses. It is what it is.

And what it is … is fire season in parched wildlife-urban interface in Northern California, garden season, and summer activities, including some family visits.

Combine all of that with the sudden storm of getting DHs book completed and self-published The Heart of Understanding: Karate and Kokoro and his new websites developed and (at least one of them) up and running, Sierra Shotokan and there has definitely been stagnation on the looms. But for very good reasons.

I did manage to accomplish loom movement, just not in the way anticipated. Gil is still in need of a new home, but he has been relocated to a safe space in the office we built out in our garage a few years ago. He awaits the perfect home and comes at a great price! Click on the link to view details; be patient for the pdf to open. Gilmore For Sale

Wilhelmina, the Mighty Wolf, remains in her usual position in our family room. As I write this, doubleweave linen bread bags are underway. Fiona, the Baby Wolf, has been relocated to the breakfast nook formerly occupied by Gil. This is far better than being folded and stuffed into my closet during visits involving the fiber room that becomes a guest room. With vaccination in place for friends and family, there have been a few visitors for the first time in a very long time. Fiona has a linen warp for light and lacy linen scarves. It is difficult to gently place weft while fires rage nearby, so I had to stop weaving on Fiona the other day. Little Pup was sitting next to Fiona but even folded up it was difficult to open the kitchen cabinet. So, with visitors departed for a week, Little Pup is now in the fiber room. Such is life when house also serves as studio.

Meanwhile, to preserve a bit of sanity in the parched heat with fire planes frequently flying overhead, I’m slowly working on the Shetland fleece that came home with me from my trip to Washington in early June.

My youngest, Archie, now 30, lived in Olympia, Washington until mid-July. When DH and I visited in early June, we took a day trip to a lovely farm about 15-20 minutes outside of Olympia. Archie’s friend lives on the farm with her Shetland sheep. The activity for the day, other than spending time with my dear offspring, was to visit the farm and observe the sheep shearing that was scheduled for the day. Long story very short, the shepherdess pretty much begged me to take home a fleece.

With such beautiful fleece being offered, how could I refuse? So, I offered her my first attempt at a handspun, color blended Sheepheid hat which I happened to have with me as a comparison for the second one I was starting to knit. She was delighted and so was I.

I returned home with 4.7 pounds of white/grey fleece from a sheep named Riplet. I started with washing a sample of about half a pound of the fleece. After three washes, the lanolin and most of the dirt was gone but the tips looked like crap. And we are in a major drought with water restrictions. My process was rather inefficient. So, the rest of the fleece was shipped off to Morro Fleece Works and came back quickly.

It was nice and clean, except for the tips. Oh well, it was definitely worth saving water resources and my time and energy. Shari does a remarkable job, and she does it as quickly as possible. I have other things to say about the cost of shipping but that is not Shari’s fault, and it is not suitable content for a fiber blog.

Meanwhile, I have completed a second Sheepheid hat. This time I drum carded all the colors, including the four natural colors (black, natural, grey, and morrit) I started with and I ended up with more spinning consistency across all nine colors. I also steam blocked it after wet blocking and that really helped improve the knitted fabric.

Recently I've been flicking locks in preparation for drum carding a sample of the Shetland fleece with the intention of spinning and knitting fingerless mitts for the shepherdess. It is a fun project and helps keep me sane as California burns and we further refine our “Go Bags,” as inane as that process is.

One of the many things I’ve learned this summer is just how important weaving is to me. When I have projects on the loom, I can be mindful and enjoy what I am doing instead of fretting about the state of things. I have missed that over the past month. We have enjoyed visiting with vaccinated friends and family but preparation for three different visits in one month and putting things back where they usually go, as happens when house is studio, is time consuming and requires a different sort of concentration, timing, and energy expenditure than regular days and fiber play. And as we are withdrawing once again due to this most recent surge of Covid, I’m facing more isolation and need the creative interaction that comes with weaving.

So, I am to ready get these linen projects going! Right after garden duty.

If your air quality isn’t too bad, breathe deeply. Appreciate what we have in the moment and enjoy it. Practice gratitude and weave on. It can only make our world more peaceful.

Fiber Arts and Life: It’s A Process

June 5, 2021 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

Process. So it seems for weaving, knitting, spinning, and life. For most things, I enjoy the process.

At the beginning of February, in honor of Imbolc, also known as Brigid’s Feast, I decided to begin knitting a black lace shawl. I had been contemplating knitting such a thing for a good while and had the yarn in my stash. I wanted to incorporate knitting mindfully, beginning something new at this time of year, and at least in some small way, I wanted to celebrate Brigid and this cross-quarter time in the wheel of the year.

And so I began on February 1. It was a bit of a rough start, requiring a few attempts, but that is not unusual. Once the project had more stitches on the needles, it became easier. And then it became a relaxing evening knit, if I had a light, solid color cloth on my lap and good lighting.

In the meantime, with both of us fully vaccinated, we visited family and one of our favorite places on the coast of Northern California. It will be a process finding our way forward through the pandemic. I expect it will require even more mindfulness than my lace knitting project. It seemed like a brief get-a-way to the coast would help. It did.

Then there is the learning process, specifically with sewing machines. I have never gotten along particularly well with sewing machines. I’ve tried. And I’ve tried to forget about sewing through my finger many decades ago, using the machine I fought with as a kid. Now have a very good, basic machine; the best I’ve ever had. Usually we get along well enough.

But apparently this machine wanted a different needle for this project. I change them frequently and it was only because of great advice from my weaving group that I was prompted to switch needle types for hems on my Sky towels. No one could exactly say why, but it worked.

I continued slowly knitting my black lace shawl. It is, of course, difficult to photograph progress in a circular lace project. The lace simply clumps together. Then it became time for more mindfulness practice as the bind off, nearly 15,000 stitches of it, became a bit boring.

But, patience and perseverance paid off. Just in time for 90-degree heat, I have completed a 50/50 merino/silk shawl. It blocked very easily with the lace relaxing and blooming like magic. It is 48 inches in diameter.

Another process I very much enjoy is the process of project percolation. I was quite taken by a painting I saw in San Francisco in 2017 and I purchased a post card of the print. Not long after, I set aside tubes of Brassard 8/2 cotton in appropriate colors. The cotton and the print sat on my desk for nearly four years. Suddenly, the juices were percolating and this project came to life. That’s the fun part of project percolation.

Recently I found a draft I thought I could use for this (Strickler #732) and, after lots of playing around in Fiberworks, wound the warp in mid-April this year.

I expected to weave the five towels fairly quickly as it is a very pleasant weave and easy treadling, especially with TempoTreadle on the loom.

But, as life would have it, being the process that it is, the towels were put on hold to take a class with the Feralknitter, finish two other projects, and deal with projects that life presents.

Here is where process, rather than product, is everything. I wanted to take a class with Janine Bajus for a long time and, thanks to the pandemic and Zoom, the opportunity finally came in April. The class was about designing a Fair Isle vest with a focus on color. That really makes my heart sing!

I had no doubts about choosing my colorway from what Janine offered. It was based on a carpet. I spent a couple of weeks learning, swatching, and playing with color. I had been doing what I was told was Fair Isle knitting for a number of years but I learned so much in this one class! I will not knit Fair Isle the same going forward and I learned a great deal about designing with color in Fair Isle knitting.

After a number of swatches, I decided that I may not want a vest knit in these colors, or at least how I was putting them together. And how I was putting them together was nothing like the photo of the carpet Janine sent to me after the class!

Janine warns that designing from a photo of nature is much more difficult but that is what I would really like to wear. I have some photos of the Olympic Peninsula that I’ve been wanting to use so, when weaving needs are less demanding, that is the direction I hope to take my Fair Isle colorplay.

At the same time I wound the towel warp, I wound a final rug warp. As Gil (my Gilmore 8/12 loom) has not found a new home, I decided to weave one final rug. I used a Summer and Winter draft from an old Handwoven magazine (November 1982) with 8/5 linen for warp and Halcyon rug yarn for weft. I planned to slowly finish the rug, weaving it when I wanted a break from weaving towels, scarves, and other things that I find more fun to weave.

An email from someone on Ravelry prompted me to finish the rug as quickly as possible to secure a new home for Gil and more space for me. So, the rug was woven in two weeks. And then the potential buyer decided the cost to travel to pick up the loom was too much. Now I will have to decide on fringe or weaving in the warp threads and then try and sell Gil. I have gained a great deal of respect for this loom, built in 1973. But space is limited and my weaving is in a different direction. It's a process.

In the meantime, I was inspired to weave a scarf inspired by a flower I photographed somewhere in the Los Angeles area in 2015. Like I said, the project percolation process takes time.

I decided on a network draft based on something posted on Eva Stossel’s blog. I modified the draft and, because the colors I wanted can’t be found in Tencel, I used 8/2 cotton from stash. I would much prefer the hand of Tencel and did attempt to ease the sett, using 20 ends per inch, but between being overwhelmed by the red weft and being a cotton twill, well … let’s just say not every project that percolates is perfect. It is not what I envisioned. I’m considering another attempt using plain weave and a more open sett.

As Winter turned to Spring and Spring is moving into Summer, I have been spinning as much as I can. My goal, as it is with many spinners, is better consistency. I would like to use my handspun in weaving; I do have a great deal of it now. Another process.

Most recently I have been spinning fiber from Edgewood Garden Studio, Allonsy Fiber Arts, and Three Waters Farm.

We have been busy dealing with the process of purging “stuff” that isn’t being used (not fiber related!) and preparing for fire season here in very hot and dry Northern California. And we planted another garden, which is growing before our very eyes. There are some other life processes and fiber projects that I am engaged with, but I’ll save that for another post.

Recently, my dear enabling husband honored me with a beautiful gift. Using a piece of driftwood found on the Mendocino coast, he created a kanji that says Weaver Woman. I am humbled by how he honors and encourages my process on the way to becoming a weaver.

In the meantime, enjoy the end of Spring, the growth and promise it brings (even here in fire country), and be mindful.

Redwood Weaving

March 11, 2021 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

Growing up in the Midwest long before the age of the internet, I was stunned by the magnificent Sequoias I encountered on my first trip to California when I was in my very early 20s. I was completely gobsmacked! Not only was I in love with the Sierra Nevada, I was also in love with these awesome giants and completely enamored with the orchestra of pine and fir in the breeze. As a young woman traveling with dog, red VW bug, atlas of maps of the states, and a borrowed tent (thank you, Paula!), I was seeing some completely amazing sites for the first time. But the Sequoias and the Sierra Nevada had my heart.

My love of the Sequoias extended to their close relatives, the Redwoods, when I encountered them on my second solo cross-country camping trip the following year, in the late 1970s. I remember hiking through these amazing forests on the far north coast of California and emerging on a cliff over the sea. Wow! I was hooked and moved to San Francisco a few years later.

Being a resident of the Bay Area for two decades afforded me many opportunities to wander through Redwood forests and among the Sequoias of the mountains, but only once (BC, before children) did I make the trek all the way up the coast to the Redwood forests. Of course, I raised my kids with frequent trips to the big trees and the mountains and in more recent years, my grandson has joined us.

Late this past summer, living in the foothills, feeling very isolated because of the pandemic, and also very much missing the coast, my husband and I planned a socially distant and pandemic safe trip to see the Redwoods of the north coast. We rented a house on a cliff over the sea, took almost all of our own food, and planned to enjoy the ocean view and the nearby Redwood forests. Of course, the minispinner and lots of knitting went with us.

Almost as soon as I entered the Redwood forest, I met another weaver! This one was quite an expert.

The Redwoods still affect me the same way. They are majestic, peaceful, primal, and utterly amazing. Oh, how I would love to be able to sit in their canopy! What a view that must be. While sitting in the forest I decided to challenge myself to weave something inspired by the redwoods.

We had a few pleasant days on the coast and then headed home. It took me a while to come up with a plan to weave something inspired by the Redwoods. I knew that mixing brown and green would be difficult and might result in muck. I had to embrace the possibility of failure in order to simply experiment.

In earlier years I was inspired by the Mendocino coast redwoods and wanted to create something in knitting but was never able to accomplish that. The closest I had come was dying some fiber in 2014. And how that came to be is another interesting tale.

By chance, I met Ilga Jansons and her husband, Mike Dryfoos, while spinning at our regional Celtic Festival in 2013. Ilga came from Washington, had her wheel with her, and joined our local fiber guild in the spinning demonstration. Long story very short, she overheard conversation about desire to attend the Madrona Fiber Arts festival in Tacoma and right in the moment, Ilga invited us to stay at her nearby home .

What an amazing adventure! Her 3000 square foot dye studio, her warm hospitality, her amazing home and botanical garden, and Madrona were very special experiences. You can learn more about Ilga and Edgewood Garden Studios at her website Edgewood Garden Studio and her Etsy store Edgewood Garden Studio Etsy

How this relates is that while staying with Ilga, I dyed a braid of Blue Faced Leister and silk inspired by the Mendocino Redwoods. The yarn that I later spun has sat around waiting for its turn in my knitting queue, but it is now next up. I’ve been inspired by my recent visit to the Redwoods. Stay tuned to see what it becomes.

So, weave something inspired by the Redwoods. Mix green and brown and avoid muck. As the pandemic raged through the fall and we all dealt with election anxiety, I pondered and continued working on holiday gifts.

One day, while browsing through Weaving Innovations from the Bateman Collection, I found a draft that I thought would work well for my idea of weaving the Redwoods. I decided that a short warp of towels would be best as materials are not as expensive and mostly already in my stash. Even if I ended up with muck, the towels would still dry dishes. I played with Brassard 8/2 cotton colors, wound some color cards, and decided that less was more. Now this is not my usual perspective about color so already I felt I was learning things. I had long wanted to play with the Bateman drafts and this would be a fun jumping off point.

In the end I decided on two colors in the brown family for warp and three colors of green, using one for tabby and two in a double shuttle for pattern. Playing with the draft in Fiberworks yielded lots of information about my color and draft choices. Finally, with holiday gifting and my online store opening behind me, I was winding a warp and dressing the Mighty Wolf.

Weaving went well, up to a point. A broken warp thread was repaired but somehow the original thread became caught under a warp stick. That was a new weaving problem for me and resulted in some only somewhat successful problem solving. In any event, toward the end of the run of towels, my warp was a bit less than optimally tensioned on one end. So, I had to keep one towel for my own kitchen since it was not perfect. And instead of an extra towel, I had some extra fabric. All of this means that I have officially tested my towels and I can say they are very thirsty towels and have a great hand. And they work well in my red kitchen, too. Not only that, but I had enough fabric and enough handwoven tape left to make a lined pouch for the spinning wheel. That is, once I overcame my dread of cutting fabric and using the sewing machine.

I don’t envision another long drive to the far north coast any time soon, but I will be visiting the Redwoods in the Santa Cruz area in a few days when I visit my daughter for the first time since last February. Now that my husband and I are fully vaccinated, I cannot wait to throw my arms around my firstborn. And we will be embraced by Redwoods that surround her home. Blessed Be!

Photo taken with KaleidaCam app on my iPhone

Onward

December 21, 2020 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

Winter Solstice 2020

When I last wrote, in August, I mentioned Pandemic Permanence. Well, here we are. In more of a lockdown than before, now in a greater surge, and with continued resistance to simple measures, like masks and staying home, that can save lives. I have been fortunate to be working from home, creating beautiful things in fiber and creating an online store.

As the wheel of the year turned to Autumn, we lost our beloved RBG. It felt like an important and comforting point of connection to participate in some KALs that raised money for causes she believed in.

As Autumn began, I completed a color gamp based on Lunatic Fringe’s Tints and Tones. This was the next step in my series of Altar Cloths that I plan to finish in early 2021. A total of five different cloths are planned with two of them already completed. Colors and drafts are in planning for the remaining three.

As the pandemic wore on, I continued weaving, knitting, and spinning. Scarves and shawls came off looms and needles.

There were, of course, other knitting and weaving projects completed but as this is being written before holiday gift giving, no pictures are being shared.

It finally happened! I launched my online shop in December. It was more complicated and took much longer than anticipated. I found myself facing obstacles I couldn’t solve on my own and began the search for a consultant. A connection was made with a wonderful consultant who put me in touch with the Sierra Small Business Development Center and a grant. With grant and consultant, and lots more hard work (meaning no loom time), the shop opened in early December. Thanks to family, friends, and word of mouth, the opening was a success. Next steps will include creating more inventory and increasing my visibility. Perhaps someday I will be able to include other fiber artists.

Before turning so much of my attention to development of my online store, I was able to finish the Krokbragd rug on my Gilmore. Gil served me well and the rug graces the hallway. It is bigger than I needed next to my bed and because Gil did not sell yet, it is possible one more rug will be woven in the near future. After that, I really do need to find a good home for this loom as I will be focusing on cloth, rather than rugs and space here in my studio that is home is at a premium. It seems this autumn was not a good time to try and sell looms or fiber tools so I will try again in the beginning of the new year.

As the year, as difficult as this one has been, draws to a close, there is one other project to mention. After collecting fiber for about a year, I finally began my Blue Note Combo spin in March. Interestingly, I now listen to a good deal of jazz.

Spinning was completed in August and the sweater came off the needles a few days ago. I spun 1360 yards of a heavy worsted weight yarn and used 1076 yards in this sweater.

As can happen with wool and silk blends, wet blocking produced a rather larger than intended sweater. Thanks to recent conversation in my weaving group, I now have a solution for such a problem. This is a problem that plagued two earlier sweaters so they will be undergoing the same transformation. I placed a partially dry, damp sweater in a large lingerie bag, put the bag in the dryer on the delicate setting with the lowest temperature, and timed the drying for two to three minutes at a time, checking on the sweater after each brief period in the dryer. I’m happy to report that after about 12 minutes, my Blue Note sweater is much more to gauge specifications.

I am heartened as the Winter Solstice approaches. Certainly, we are not out of the woods yet. It is a very dark, mysterious forest with no clear exit and we do not know if we will find our way out. But light is returning. If we ask the right questions, perhaps we will find our way.

It will be very difficult to have my first ever holiday season without either of my two beloved kids. But I know I am among the very fortunate individuals who have not lost family members during this awful pandemic and during the horrid violence that has plagued our streets. I know how fortunate I am to enjoy the love and company of my best friend, husband, and partner. I didn’t think we could be even closer, but we are. And it seems important to just notice the small, ordinary, and wonderful moments.

The other day, as Michael and I headed to his dojo for our separate workouts (me on the elliptical with Bike the World videos on the iPad and loud, live Grateful Dead shows in my ears and Michael in graceful karate), I felt the warmth of our home, the sun in the room, and gave thanks. I hope you enjoy the poem below the photos.

The Shortest Day

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us—Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

Susan Cooper

From a Pause to a Transition

August 17, 2020 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

August 2020

When I last wrote we were just over a month into sheltering at home. Well, here we are, still sheltering at home four months later and no doubt the longer haul is yet to come. One transition I am experiencing relates to the kinesthetic knowing that we are in this for the very long haul. I’m not talking about the logical brain sort of knowing; I refer to the inner, cellular knowing. Of course, anything can happen at any moment. But it sure seems like we will be here like this next July, too. I suppose part of this transition is trying to settle into that understanding. Pandemic Permanence.

My dear daughter is very much hoping we are NOT like this next July. Shortly after I last wrote, she hit the "P" button. That would be POSTPONE as in the beautiful wedding she had planned for July 2020. It broke my heart but, of course, had to happen. She and my future son-in-law have been together for over 10 years, so they chose to postpone, hoping to celebrate the existing relationship with friends and family next year, assuming it is safe to do so. Such a beautiful bride she will make! Her setting is trees and while it will be warm, I did weave a shawl to go with my navy mother-of-the-bride dress.

It is 8/2 tencel set at 24 epi and the draft is Strickler 314.5. I have NEVER finished anything so early!

To keep this focused on fiber arts, I’ll write of that sort of transition. But first, remember my post about the textile adventure at the family farm in Sweden? Family Farm in Sweden I posted a picture of the blue shawl I wove for the family matriarch, Margaretha.

Well, it took about two months, but she finally received the shawl. Recently I received a lovely letter (translated by her daughter) and photo.

She was so delighted! And she was pleased to receive my letter and the photos I sent of our adventure at Bjälkerum. She sent a photo of Linnea, the tiny flower of Småland. I have left the letter and photos out in my “fiber room” and I smile each time I see them. No telling when any of us will be able to travel again.

As a weaver, I am experiencing a transition. I decided I am not a rug weaver. No surprise but I did have to test that out. My first rug feels great under my feet and is surprisingly supple, given the linen rug warp, the high tension under which I wove it, and the intensity of the beating I did with each pick.

It turned out alright even though the selvages could be better, and the edges could be more even. Currently, with a non-skid pad under it, rug #1 it is warming Michael’s feet when he gets out of bed.

Since we wanted the room to be balanced, and because I really wanted to weave this particular rug, I am weaving a Krokbragd rug. It was a bit of an event getting the box of yarn from Maine to California. UPS only lost it twice. But the colors are beautiful.

Weaving the rug, however, is an event. This 1973 8/12 Gilmore is a wonderful and very sturdy loom and I’ve outfitted the beater with an angle iron and two steel bars for extra weight.

But Gil likes to dance, and it takes me and Michael both some effort to get Gil back in place after a weaving session. The other day, with a cup of tea on my small table next to the loom, the loom danced enough that the cuppa went flying. Fortunately, my favorite cup did not break. So, the weaving goes on, bit by bit. When this rug is finished, I will list Gil for sale so he can move on to a home that will put him to good use and my Baby Wolf, currently hogging much space in my fiber room, will take Gil’s place in the kitchen nook. I’m not quite half-way finished so this particular loom transition will take a while.

Shortly before beginning to shelter in place (five months ago as I write this), a used Wolf Pup LT (four shafts and six treadles) came up for sale on Ravelry. The loom was located one state away and only a few hours from my youngest kiddo. It was reasonably priced and I had been looking for just this very loom. So, thinking I would make the drive in a month or so, I purchased the loom. The seller was kind enough to store it for me until I, or my youngest kiddo, Archie, could come and get it. Well, then came the lock down.

As a Mothers’ Day gift to me, Archie made the day long round trip to pick up the loom from the seller. Michael and I were both a bit restless but we also had to be very careful. We watched the case rates closely in California, Oregon, and Washington and decided to take a window of opportunity before what we expected would be a surge since so many people were refusing to wear masks and counties were opening up again. We packed plenty of gloves, masks, and disinfectant, all of our own food except dinners, plenty of water, and, of course, my knitting.

We have driven from our home in northern California to Washington many times. We usually give ourselves two days to get to the greater Puget Sound area, or Whidbey if that is where we are headed. This time it was a night in Ashland, Oregon as our first stop. All went well and we remained very careful.

I couldn’t pass through Eugene, Oregon without stopping at the Eugene Textile Center. It was my first time to see Suzie’s new store and it was wonderful! With masks on and no hugs, we saw Suzie and browsed her beautiful, spacious store full of natural light, delighting in seeing so much weaving and spinning equipment and materials. I purchased some hand dyed 20/2 tencel and some linen. A second EFD shuttle came my way as soon after Suzie received it from Schacht.

It was, of course, absolutely wonderful to get to Washington and to see my youngest kiddo! Archie had tested Covid-19 negative shortly before our arrival and we were careful to keep a window open when we gathered. A shared cocktail and dinner rounded out our first evening together. My little Pup was ready to travel and we whisked it off to our hotel room.

The next day, Michael and I enjoyed a trip to the coast while Archie worked. It was a splendid day at the beach!

One more dinner with Archie (all dinners were take-out) and then it was time for Michael and me to head home.

I have no idea when I will see my youngest kiddo again and that hurts my heart. After returning home, I was able to send off to Archie the knitted panel they had requested. Not even a Ravelry person, Archie came across the pattern and brought it to my attention. I chose to knit it in the round, using stranded knitting and steeks, instead of how the designer knit this, so I had two panels and mine is now backed in red fabric and hangs on my front door.

My wolf pack is now complete and my first project on the little Pup is a Baltic band using a Sunna heddle. I’m making a few bookmarks as a warm-up project.

My plan is to use the Pup for band weaving and, whenever we get past this pandemic, to use it to help people learn about weaving. Fortunately, the Pup is very easy to fold up and move around; a very good thing since at the moment there is no specific space for this loom.

Another transition is a shift in my thinking and planning for opening my little online shop. It is happening!! It has long been my intention but now my goal is by September. (Ok, it may be October!) To prepare, I have been attempting to create inventory and I now have some labels. Stay tuned as this develops.

I’ve had fun weaving scarves with Tencel recently and plan to weave many more. It is such fun to play with color and pattern. I'm happy to say that I have achieved a structurally sound piece of fabric that is also feather light.

I’ll be transitioning to a new knitting project next. I finished a sweater I had been wanting to knit for over 10 years. I was very fortunate to have enough yarn on hand for the sweater. I purchased 10 balls of this worsted weight wool from what used to be our LYS during an annual sale. The store has been closed about five years, so this has been in my stash a good while. Despite the yardage listed for the pattern and despite obtaining gauge on my swatch, I used far more yarn than predicted. Of course, cables eat yarn, and this is a very heavily cabled sweater, but I used a bit over 2000 yards!! It turns out that I’m pleased with how it fits and, assuming we will once again have cold weather (it is over 100 degrees F on my back deck in the afternoon lately!), this sweater will be just right.

Of course, this is the time of year for constant transitions in the garden. I’m not the best gardener and it does take time away from weaving, knitting, and spinning. But it is wonderful to watch it develop and it’s hard to beat sitting on the deck in the evening with my e-spinner, watching the hummingbirds, flowers, and trees. I can almost see the vegetable, herbs, and fruit grow right before my eyes! And what inspiration to take to the loom!

For now, as the country tears itself apart and the pandemic worsens, I will continue to use weaving, knitting, and spinning as a meditation.

May all beings be happy

May all beings be safe

May all beings everywhere be free

When a Pause is Progress

April 22, 2020 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

April 2020

This is how my three floor looms looked at the beginning of the year. Stark naked. After an intense flurry of holiday gift weaving, it was time for a bit of a break and my annual preventive maintenance on the looms. However, I can’t stand to be without weaving in my head so you can be sure my head was full of drafts, plans, and some actual progress with finishing my samples from my third visit to Madelyn van der Hoogt’s The Weavers’ School on Whidbey Island.

My head was also full of drafting samples to weave for my own further understanding of treadling and tie-up of profile drafts.

A couple of samples have been completed and the class samples are completed. So, it really wasn’t much of a pause. Fine with me!

Another benefit of working on the class samples was remembering my time at weaving school. Every time I go, I learn so much!

I realized my dream of getting experience on a drawloom and I’m hooked!

Too bad we do not have the real estate for such a loom. Not even a possibility. My next dream is to get a community drawloom. Wouldn’t it be great to have a studio space and a few other folks to share such an investment?! Well, I’m not holding my breath but it sure was meditative and so much fun.

I’m very grateful for my experiences at The Weavers’ School and all that I have learned from Madelyn and Suzie. They are weaving wizards, great teachers, and lots of fun. While I'm posting links, check out Suzie's Eugene Textile Center, too.

Madelyn van der Hoogt and Sade

Suzie Lyles and Buddy

Meanwhile, the beginning of the year found me spinning and knitting more. DH lovingly gifted me with a Hansen minispinner for the holidays and I made my way through a couple of skeins. I spun a few mini-skeins to get started, including some very fine merino (bottom) and Shetland (top) to sample with.

I also managed to finish some Polwarth from allonsyfiberarts.com

and some BFL from lisaknits.com

before embarking on another combospin project, this time in blues.

I’m calling it Blue Note and plan to listen to some jazz while spinning. I’m spinning Blue Note on my beloved Lendrum as I don’t yet have a Woolee Winder for the Hansen.

I finished knitting my first combospin sweater which I themed after the garden throughout the year. I’m pleased with how it turned out and how the sweater fits.

This is especially good news as I have not knit a sweater in a couple of years.

As soon as I finished my Garden Sweater of Many Colors, I cast on for a sweater I’ve been planning to knit for nearly a decade. My current knitting project is St. Brigid by Alice Starmore. The yarn has been in my stash since an annual sale at Meadowfarm Yarn Studio, which has been closed for more than five years, so you know this project has been sitting around for longer than that! I’m now close to completing the back panel of these amazing cables. True, I did not keep my promise of not casting on until other projects came out of hibernation, but at least I only started one project! Of course, with having visited the Stitches West marketplace, I have several skeins sitting out with one big project planned.

My dear daughter moved to brighter and bigger housing in January and said something about needing new towels for her kitchen. Music to the ears of a weaver! My initial visit before she moved clued me in to the theme of the towels: Sky. She has many windows and a great view of land, trees, and sky so I broke out the colors that had been sitting together on my shelf for two years.

After some sketching (I’m liking the app Paper) and moving tubes of cotton around, I settled on plain weave and stripes to complement her many windows with view of sky. It was fun, taught me a great deal, and I’m sure to repeat the experiment with better results next time. My daughter was pleased, so that’s all that counts for this run of sky towels.

As the world came to a crashing halt due to this horrible pandemic, I had more time on my hands at home and took to weaving scarves and some towels. I may be helpless in so many ways right now but I can weave and so that is what I have been doing. A bit compulsively, I suppose, but I also call it “creating inventory.” Three scarves and four towels came off the Baby Wolf and Mighty Wolf in the last week and two scarves came off the week before.

It has actually been fun working from stash. For the scarves I used some old knitting yarns that have been in stash for many years thanks to a friend’s major destash about 10 years ago. I also used some yarns that have been in my stash for about one year. I love A Hundred Ravens yarn! https://ahundredravens.com It is lusciously soft, and the colorways are beautiful.

The towels gave me an opportunity to use some partial tubes of cotton but, strangely, nothing was entirely used up. I will admit this has been a detour from my profile draft samples but I will get back to it. It just feels so darn good to sit at a loom and complete something. And the project planning involved takes me out of any fears or dark thoughts that loom on the edge.

So, now I am pausing again. Taking a deep breath, meditating, walking, knitting and spinning and I will pause a day or two before warping the loom again. I have two scarves planned (two very different warps, all stash yarns) and a shawl to make for my daughter’s wedding (which may or may not happen this July, depending on sheltering in place or not). All the necessary yarn is in the house. I have one more color card coming before I decide on the rug yarns for my first rug, to be woven on my 1973 Gilmore loom. The angle iron and weights are in place now and I have selected a draft. I’m not convinced rug weaving will be my “thing” but I’m certainly going to give it a try. I figure two rugs and then I will decide: be a rug weaver or move Gil along to a loving home. In any event, a slightly used Wolf Pup LT is coming my way from Oregon (via my youngest kiddo in Washington) once we can move about again. Dare I say “safely” move about?

At this moment, the sun is shining, I am most blessed, incredibly grateful, and can only hope a tiny bit of this positivity comes through to you, wherever you are. There is terrible suffering all over the globe and it may come right into this bright sunny room full of fiber and looms, to me, too. At any moment, the very fabric of our lives can be ripped and torn, leaving us nothing. That is something I learned at the tender age of 20, holding lives in my hands while working as an intensive care nurse. I’ve never forgotten the lessons and I also know the existence I so enjoy right now is tenuous on the best of days. But I will have had this moment, this love, this family, this passion, this life. I am grateful. May I knit, spin, and weave that into everything I make.

The Family Farm in Sweden – A Textile Adventure

January 28, 2020 by Donna Johnson 1 Comment

Late January 2020

I’ve said it before, and I will say it many times more. I am a very lucky person! There are many reasons for me to say that but since this is being written for my fiber arts website, I will stick to some of the fiber related reasons for my gratitude and appreciation of what is: I have been warmly welcomed and embraced by my husband’s Swedish relatives who maintain the family farm in Sweden, including textiles and fiber arts equipment, from the late 1800s.

My first trip to the farm was in 2017. My second trip was in August of 2019. In between, five of the cousins came and visited us in California. We are family in the best sense of the word, and it feels wonderful!

This farm has been in my husband Michael’s family since 1850, with the original house being completed in 1853 by Michael’s great-great grandfather.

Michael's great-great grandparents and a sister and brother-in-law of Michael's grandfather

Michael's great grandparents

It is located in Småland and was originally a dairy farm.

Currently, the farm, the house with newer additions (completed about 30 years ago), a cottage, and two barns are owned by seven cousins. The farm now produces pine and fir, which is well managed by the government. It is beautiful and well-loved land, forest, and creek, and it is a lovely part-time home to the family members and their guests, including those of us crossing large bodies of water to get there. To say it is a magical place is not an exaggeration.

When I first arrived at the farm in 2017, I immediately felt at home and was intrigued by the textiles and artifacts of fiber activity. Spinning wheels, a band loom, temples, and other items related to working with fiber can be found in several rooms.

Hand-crafted textiles grace tables, walls, benches, and more. When the family understood my excitement as a spinner and newer weaver, they also became enthusiastic. Soon Annica, who makes everything so beautiful and welcoming, and Margaretha, the elder of the family, took me to the cabinet in the dining room and we were exploring table cloths, hand towels, and wall hangings that ancestors created in years past.

They could identify some of the items and who made them, some they knew came from other locations, and some of the textiles were made by family members but no one knows exactly who made them. Recently, Annica found some hand-woven curtains that had been stored for a long time. They now hang in the kitchen windows.

Some of the items now grace my home. I have been gifted a crisp linen hand towel with embroidery that belonged to one of Michael’s grandfather’s sisters,

a fine linen finger towel woven by Annica’s mother, Ruth (niece to Michael’s grandfather),

and a rep-weave table runner woven by Annica’s mother. I also have a very fine linen table square that came from somewhere else as it would require more shafts than available on the loom at the farm.

Since currently no one in the family is weaving, I have gifted them with handwoven towels, table runners, and placemats.

It is an honor to know that items I have woven are now in the house at the farm. It was a great feeling to see my handwoven cottolin towels in service when I arrived this year.

During my first visit, in 2017, one of the relatives suggested we visit an art exhibit in the somewhat nearby town of Virserum.

The exhibit was on a renovated campus of buildings that formerly were used for making furniture. There were beautiful gardens and several buildings. I could hardly contain myself when we pulled into the parking lot. The first building I saw displayed a large sign that read “Vävstuga.”

That is one Swedish word I definitely know! As luck would have it, a woman was just about to leave and one of the relatives, speaking the Swedish I could not speak, engaged her.

Anne-Charlotte, the guild president at the time, was kind enough to stay and show us the weaving studio. How amazing to walk in and see over 30 looms!

They recently moved to this location and she showed us all the counterbalance, countermarche, and drawlooms.

The guild has two floors, plenty of reeds, yarns, and other materials, as well as a book of obviously

old drafts.

It was fun to learn to communicate. The cousins did a fantastic job of translating and then eventually Anne-Charlotte and I found some common language in weaving and medicine as she is also a recently retired nurse practitioner and psychotherapist. An amazing and synchronous connection across the globe!

During that first visit in 2017, Annica found skeined weaving threads in a trunk in the house. The best estimate is that they have been there at least 50 years. They had been wrapped in newspaper. She was going to discard them but instead I brought them home. Sadly, the black and the green threads were tangled and disintegrating. I have saved most of the white thread and washed it. I’ve managed to wind a small amount of it into a ball and, using a McMoran balance, it measures as sewing thread.

My plan is to ply two strands and weave a small table square of twill blocks. That is IF I can salvage enough to weave something. This will be a project requiring much patience, but I think I am ready for the challenge.

The barns at the farm contain many artifacts from the distant and the less distant past. Michael has spent many hours sorting through things, sometimes finding things from when his grandfather was a boy here. While the cousins have organized many work days that resulted in much cleaning and reorganizing, as well as retrieval and restoration,

there is still quite a bit of interesting material in the barns.

In 2017 we found parts of the four-shaft counterbalance loom that Michael’s great-great grandfather built in the late 1800s.

Not really knowing that we would be able to return to the farm, it was more of a fantasy than a plan, but Michael was imagining restoring the loom, assuming we could find all the pieces.

On our visit to the farm this year we had more time to walk the forests and search the barns. And, amazingly, Michael found all the parts to the loom. I am familiar with Swedish counterbalance looms, but we could not quite figure out how to assemble all the parts and pieces. It just wasn’t fitting together.

The warp beam didn’t fit where we thought it should go and neither did the treadles. A few days after putting the loom together as much as we could, Annica picked up Margaretha and brought her over. She came with an old text on weaving

and some photos of a workshop on working with flax that she took in the 1970s. She quickly identified our error in putting together the loom.

The treadles are hinged in front instead of in back and the warp beam fits in the front with the cloth beam in the back. After a brief group effort with hoisting and lifting, the loom

was essentially put together. And Margaretha was delighted to be sitting at it, once again. She is the last living person to have used this loom. Annica intends to learn to weave and use this loom, probably some 140 years after it was built.

As far as we can tell, the loom is made of Swedish Alder, with the exception of the cloth beam, which is a hand-hewn log of fir.

Given the lack of available sandpaper when it was built, a draw knife would have been used. It features hand forged metal in the hand cut brake and hand forged metal holding

the beater. It is amazing to see the hand cut brake and all the mortise and peg work on this work horse of a loom. The warp beam is of a hexagon shape, done with a draw knife, and the beam features a chiseled crevice. Initially we thought the bench to be broken, with only three legs remaining. However, as Margaretha quickly pointed out, it is a swing bench and is attached on the left side of the loom. Nothing broken about it!

Three generations studied the pencil marks on the loom, seemingly related to weaving drafts.Margaretha was so pleased that the grandson of her mother's brother was able to reassemble the loom.

In a trunk in the house we found reeds and more parts for the loom.

There is much work to be done to restore this loom. The cousins plan to repair a barn roof and remodel the kitchen and we live on the other side of the world. So, how and when loom restoration happens is anyone’s guess right now but in my mind’s eye, I can already see Annica weaving on the loom that her mother, her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother’s-mother once used.

In the meantime, I have woven a shawl for Margaretha. It is Swedish Lace in Swedish wool and I hope it warms her heart during Sweden’s winter this year.

Maybe my language skills will have progressed to the point I can converse, just a bit, with her on our next (hoped for) visit.

Getting the Most Out of Your Yarn

January 18, 2020 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

January 2020

I believe I have found a way to extract the most enjoyment out of a yarn purchase. Some years ago, probably at least five years ago, I was on a brief respite from the very hot and dry foothill summer. There is a place my fiber enabling husband and I like to visit on the Mendocino coast.

We always take the cottage with the view of the ocean and we usually manage to spend at least a few hours visiting the town of Mendocino. And, of course, like any good fiber fanatic with an enabling husband, we visited the Mendocino Yarn Shop that used to be in town. I say “used to be” because I just found out that it moved a few miles closer to the cottages where we stay. In fact, I can now walk there from the cottage. Yes, that does sound dangerous. At least until you realize that a sale purchase from at least five years ago is still providing lots of enjoyment. And the garment isn’t even finished yet!

When we first visited the shop, they had four skeins of Araucania Ñuble yarn on sale. It was the last four skeins and one of the tags says it sold for $12. This is a beautiful lace weight 75%/50% extra-fine merino/silk yarn in a tonal aqua color. It spoke to me of water, the ocean that I so miss living near, and it spoke to me of a circular lace shawl. Of course, I could not leave these last four skeins sitting there; they had to come home with me.

As knitters, we often like to start new projects. I am no different, but I am trying to limit how many projects I have going at any one time. I also spend a lot of time spinning and weaving. And there have been several dyeing projects between when I purchased the yarn and when it first went on the needles. So, I used the yarn for decoration in my fiber room. And it sat on the shelf for years while I looked for just the right pattern and started many other projects, finishing most of them.

Finally, the time came. I decided on and purchased the Guinevere Shawl by Anne Podlesak and set it up in KnitCompanion. It was light weight and compact and I took it on our August 2019 trip to Sweden. I even began the project before departure so that I was sure this would be a good travel knit. I used Emily Ocker’s cast-on method to begin the shawl, which is lace knitting in the round. The pattern has four charts and, like most lace knitting, is somewhat difficult to see the overall effect before it is blocked. So, with the beginning worked out prior to departure I was ready, and I knitted on. It was an enjoyable knit, with some tinking, to be sure, but it was pleasant yarn to work with.

Maybe I was too busy seeing other things because by the time I returned from Sweden and was onto the third skein of yarn,

I was starting to see that my lace patterns were not stacking up like they were supposed to. So, after about two months of knitting (I am not a fast knitter and always have multiple projects going), I was going to have to frog this project. All of it. Every last stitch. I had misinterpreted the charts in a pretty major way. Somehow, this one got right past me. But I enjoyed the yarn, knew I liked the pattern (especially when correctly executed) and really wanted to complete the project. So, another Emily Ocker cast on, better understanding of the pattern, and I was, once again, knitting with the yarn that had been decoration for so long.

Well, the project sat on the needles for another two months, at least, while holiday gifts were completed. Four woven scarves, a woven lace table runner, 10 woven mug rugs, a number of woven kitchen towels, two knitted hats, a knitted cowl, and a knitted Christmas stocking later, I was ready to get back to this lace project.

Now this project only competes with my combo-spin sweater (which has also languished on the needles for few months), my weaving and spinning, and other activities of daily living.

I’m on the last chart, all seems to be going well, and all I can say is that I have certainly enjoyed this yarn! For a long time, for many times!

It has been a good investment. I hope to soon be enjoying the finished object. I’ll end with the photo I sent my two adult kids on New Year’s Eve, which I spent quietly knitting at home. Cheers!

Tools

August 1, 2019 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

August 2019

Fiber enthusiasts often become tool enthusiasts. It doesn’t happen overnight, however. I had only one pair of knitting needles for decades. I still have them. Susan Bates straight needles in a US size 8. They are pink and were given to me by a neighbor who taught me to knit when I was in grade school. When I returned to knitting in the late 80s and early 90s, I complained about buying two sets of needles for one project. At that point I was buying the least expensive bamboo needles. Budget was always an issue in those days and the cost of needles was something to consider, especially given the cost of yarn, parking, housing, child care …

Fortunately, budgetary constraints are not what they once were, I now know much more about knitting needles, and I recognize the value of good tools. Unfortunately, the tendency to start new knitting projects before finishing old ones has prevailed and led to the acquisition of many knitting needles. Also unfortunately, the concept of a needle exchange program has never appealed to LYS owners. I really think this is something to explore! If there ever is a needle exchange, you will not find my Signature Needle Arts double pointed stiletto needles. The offspring once needing child care are now wonderful adults who gifted me with a range of these double point needles over a couple of years. I’ll not be parting with these fine tools, thank you very much!

I never had much of a relationship with household tools until I owned my own home and was a single parent. Then it became important to have basic tools like a hand-held drill, hammer, screw drivers, nuts and bolts, plyers, level, and measuring tape. I was a bit excited about a stud finder – the kind that finds studs in walls, not dating sites. But such tools were just part of the garage or basement, depending on where I lived, and came out to play only when needed. In the meantime, I acquired a number of fiber arts tools: spinning wheel and all that goes with that, hand cards, drum carder, wool combs, and materials for dyeing. That all seemed fairly manageable and did not require much in the way of fixing, trouble shooting, or any other DIY-type of efforts. The biggest problem with all these tools is the real estate to house them.

When my now husband moved in with me and my kids, he brought along his tools and when we bought a house together, my tools suddenly disappeared. The challenge of finding a screwdriver or plyers did not escape my notice, but he usually was able to offer what I needed. I didn’t think much about it until I had my first loom, a four-shaft counterbalance, and went looking for my level. I realized I had not seen any of my tools in several years and they were nowhere to be found. Not only that, but I couldn’t find any of his tools, either.

DH (Dear Husband in Ravelry speak) is a very busy man and has his own way of organizing his things. By this number of years in our shared home, his organization schema for things in the garage, where tools are kept, was approaching what I call chaos. So, I did what any independent and pragmatic fiber lover would do. I purchased a new set of tools and tool box and pronounced them OFF LIMITS. I keep them in my fiber closet. DH is required to sign a contract before he borrows anything. We joke about it, but he also knows I am dead serious about it. And he never goes to get a tool without asking.

As a weaver, tools took on a new importance to me. Looms sometimes need fixing and adjusting and some maintenance is required. I like to think I take care of my looms. They get preventive maintenance at least once a year and I regularly remove lint build up, check them over between projects, and adjust whatever needs adjusting. Ok, I talk to them, too. Nicely. I appreciate these fine tools.

Of course, along with weaving comes a need for ever more tools, such as bobbin winders, bobbins, shuttles, temples, warping boards and mills, cone holders, warping sticks or paper, reeds, reed holders, reed hooks . . . the list goes on. Recently, I had the opportunity to put my original knitting needles to work on a weaving project. I used them to make a spool rack for winding bobbins with linen. It actually did result in less twist going into the linen as I wound the bobbins.

As a knitter, I have been combining old and new technology for a number of years. Knitting is an ancient art and important means of making clothing. Today we have coated extra sharp circular needles made of materials never dreamed of by the hardworking islanders who knitted Aran sweaters to keep their fishermen warm. And while I’m knitting one of those sweaters today, I’m using technology in the shape of a digital database (Ravelry) and an ingenious app (KnitCompanion). As a beginning backstrap and Baltic band weaver, I’m using the ancient technique of backstrap weaving with my iPad and two apps: PatternGenius to create a chart and KnitCompanion to display that chart and track my progress with the pattern. I couldn’t be happier!

Loom weaving is an age-old art, too. And today weavers are combining new technology with the creation of cloth. One look at the plastic box on the castle of my Mighty Wolf loom and you know this is true because such materials are relatively recent. (Of course, a jack loom is also a recent invention!) This plastic box would be the brain for my Tempo Treadle (TT). I’m surprised more weavers don’t know about this amazing tool! Strong magnets are attached to the bottom of each treadle. Below the treadles is a sensor array that senses the proximity of the magnet when a treadle is pressed. By way of a ribbon of wires connecting the sensor array to the CPU or brain, this sends a signal. The draft, in the form of a Weaving Information File (wif), is copied from a computer with weaving software to a micro SD card that is inserted into the CPU. So, when an incorrect treadle is pressed, as happens often in my many treadling errors, a tone (I have it set to a loud bleep) is emitted, announcing that I’ve pressed the incorrect treadle. For someone who always moved left when the yoga teacher said right, this is a miracle! It is a gift to be immediately informed you are about to make an error that you otherwise may not see for a few inches. If only I could calculate the amount of time, energy, and materials this has saved I could say that TT has paid for itself! TT performs many other functions, but this describes why I most love this little tool.

At Convergence 2018 I had the good fortune to meet one of the makers of TT, Dawne Wimbrow. Barry Duncan is the other maker. Each device is built upon ordering and a 3-D printer is involved. There is definitely software and hardware development involved, each device is built to the specifications of the type of loom being used, and TT is not available for every type of loom. One thing I can say for certain is that Dawne and Barry offer the very best customer service. I can send a question or problem via email on a Sunday evening and have an answer from one or both within minutes. They are thoughtful and helpful, problem solving whatever issues or questions I have had and to date, the issues have always been operator error. Well, there is a learning curve.

It must be said, however, that to use TT, one needs weaving software. And to use weaving software, one needs a reliable computer. More tools. More to learn, more to do, and more assistance provided. I resisted weaving software for the first few years . . . and then I gave in. I am learning as I go but already, I see advantages over pencil and paper. As much as I loved studying Madelyn Van der Hoogt’s Complete Book of Drafting, and I truly did enjoy it, I disagree with those who say that weaving software takes away from learning weave structure. With software I’m not coloring in each square on graph paper, but I can learn plenty about a drawdown and I can also learn how to manipulate a draft and see the results fairly instantaneously. I have miles to go in this department and, in the meantime, I’m having an awfully good time of enjoying my tools.

While I have great appreciation for a number of these tools, there is one tool that is near and dear to my heart. This tool, the single tool that prompted me to write about tools, is likely nearing 100 years old. I use a cloth measuring tape that may have been my grandmother’s. It was definitely my mother’s and I believe it had been her mother’s before. I found it in the round thread and button tin with the darning thread and the sock darning egg that had been my grandmother’s. In fact, that round tin was my grandmother’s, too. Recently I developed a nostalgic appreciation for the tape measure that is so often pinned to the new cloth I am weaving.

The nostalgia is illogical. No family member I know of was a weaver or knitter and such handcrafts were not valued when I was growing up. In fact, I don’t know when my mother would have ever used the tape measure. But it represents a point of connection with a past that was lost.

No one in the family ever discussed all the emigration that took place and I have only recently pieced that together with current day research. My grandparents, all the first generation to be born in this country, died before I was born. My parents are now many decades deceased.

No doubt somewhere in my family tree, on a different continent, someone in my family created some type of cloth, either knitted or woven, and more certainly, someone took needle and thread to cloth. Now I am the individual spinning, knitting, and weaving and taking needle and thread to my woven cloth. Some of that cloth is given to my adult offspring and so it goes forward.

And so, when I look at the old cloth tape measure on my newly woven fabric, I am looking at much more than a simple tape measure. Even if cloth tape measures were more available today (and many of us do wish that), I am looking at so much more. It is something I feel in my heart and it fills me in a lovely way when I weave. I think I can best sum up that heart feeling as gratitude and appreciation. That would be for the past, distant and not so distant, and also very much for the present.

♣