Donna Johnson, Author at tamarackfiberarts

Looms in Storage

August 9, 2022 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

Several months have come and gone since I last posted. Rather than a very long story, I will be brief and break the tale of our adventure into two parts.

We left California on March 3. Our beloved home was empty, being cleaned, and about to be staged. Our possessions, other than what we took with us for our temporary stay, were now in storage. We were excited and scared at the same time. Exhausted, too. With two vehicles, a large puppy, and a rented trailer attached to Michael’s pick-up truck, we took three days to reach our destination of Whidbey Island, Washington. If you have questions about dog parks on the way, chances are Finn and I can answer them.

We arrived at our destination on March 5. We knew the island was the right place for us from the minute we arrived. All that remained was to navigate selling a house, finding the right house in the right place in an exceptionally tight market, and dealing with a cramped and crumbling AirBnB cabin that we came to call “The Hovel.”

Thank goodness for knitting, spinning, and band weaving. Thank goodness for such an amazing and beautiful environment to explore. And thanks to our pup, Finn, for making us get out and about, no matter the weather. We quickly found some beach front property in our price range but hoped for something better.

Less than a week after arriving, our California home was on the market and exceptional offers were coming in. We put an offer on a great home here that we realized we were unlikely to get, given the very tough market on the island. Uncertainty, unknowing, and major life decisions. Spiritual practice and mindfulness can only help, and they did. And, yes, knitting, spinning, and weaving are all part of that.

While waiting to hear about offers on our house for sale and our offer on the house we wanted, I took a walk on a beautiful stretch of beach on a blustery day.

The spirits of the island were palpable and four eagles circled overhead, calling like a choir in a church.

I made a conscious decision to TRUST. Not something that comes easily, but a clear choice. Trust that this will work out, one way or another. Let go of doubt. Be in the present moment.

Within ten days of arriving, two contracts had been signed. One for the sale of our house in California and one for the house we wanted here. Hallelujah! If I could carry a tune, I would sing it now.

Hallelujah Images – Browse 3,493 Stock Photos, Vectors, and Video | Adobe Stock

We would play the waiting game for a few months as the family we bought from couldn’t move until early May. We completed tons of paperwork; visited the wonderful off-leash, dog friendly areas on the island; and I continued knitting, spinning, and band weaving. I met new fiber friends, and I attended the Whidbey Weavers Guild Spin-In

Finn continued to grow and we discovered that groomers are very hard to come by here. We found a wonderful day care for him for an occasional adventure. Puppy training continued and Finn had us well trained by this point.

I participated in Ilga Jansons' Edgewood Garden Studio Spin-In on Ravelry, spinning a new-to-me fiber (Stricken Lonk) that Ilga dyed. This will become pattern weft for an overshot dresser scarf. And I spun some lovely BFL that became a sunflower hat. There were some other skeins spun as well and one is for a gift so I’m not posting pictures of that one.

After about six uncomfortable weeks in The Hovel, we spent two weeks on the southern part of the island in a nice house. I made adaptations to spinning technique to accommodate worsening arthritic thumb pain and I discovered ways to wind yarn that I had never considered.

The improved environment opened something inside of me and while walking on a beach one day I was flooded with weaving ideas for the first time in months. Amazing what a better environment and a walk on the beach will do for you.

Back to the Hovel we moved for another couple of weeks. Poor Finn! There literally wasn’t room for him to turn around in the bedroom.

While waiting to get into our new home we took care of the many details involved in moving from one state to another, ordered a few things for the new house, and continued to get exercise with Finn.

I completed a pair of leg warmers for my daughter. It was a pattern and yarn that she selected. The textured pattern and gusseted calves kept the knitting interesting.

A cabled sweater for Michael was started and stopped several times, and the lace knitting project I started in February was frogged.I decided that the Gotland, while beautiful, just wasn’t the right yarn and my brain was just not in the right place for lace knitting.

Between the cramped and oppressive environment of the Hovel, the stress involved with real estate transactions even when all is going well, and lack of anything resembling space to meditate … well, I’ll save that pattern for another time.

As May approached, we were very excited. In addition to getting keys to our new house, both of my kids were coming to visit. And the movers said they could get to us early – just three days after we closed on the house.

But … stay tuned and see how things turned out.

Looms On the Move

February 8, 2022 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

In my last post, written in the late fall, I noted that weaving was losing out to puppy training. That is still the case. However, Finn has us much better trained now. He is just about 6 months, 60 pounds, and he is becoming a very fine dog. Finn is well behaved, having never touched looms, spinning wheels, knitting, or any fiber equipment, even though it is everywhere throughout the house.

We had quite the dump of snow on December 26 and it turns out that Finn loves snow! He loves pets and cuddles and staying close to his humans, running and playing with other dogs, and he needs lots of exercise. This is actually a good thing, but it means I don’t get the sort of aerobic activity I need and I’m certainly without time to weave.

However, the biggest reason there is no weaving happening here is . . . we are moving.

It’s not that we were keeping it a secret. People who knew us very well were certainly aware. But no announcements were made until recently because of Michael’s work. As a psychotherapist, he had to first inform the clinic where he worked and, second, inform the many clients he worked with. That is a lengthy and painful process. As of a few days ago, I now welcome Michael to the ranks of retired folks! It is his third time but maybe this time it will stick.

So, it’s all official now. We are moving north to Washington. In fact, the moving company comes to pack us in just a matter of days. It is amazing how many little, and some very big, pieces must all fit together to make this work!

I will spare you all the boring details (there are a great deal of them), but the rapidly spinning wheels are in motion, and we will soon be leaving California. Michael is a California native, having lived here all his life. And I’ve been here just over 40 years. We love our house, so this is no small thing we undertake, especially at our ages.

We very much miss living by the ocean but, to be honest, our move is also about climate change, drought, excessive heat, and severe risk of wildfire. Yes, there is climate change where we are headed but not at the rates we see here, in the foothills of our beloved Sierra Nevada.

I have a large, framed poster that perfectly sums it up. It is a great leap of faith. If you know us, you know we have been doing our homework. For years, even. But still. It really is a leap of faith that we will find what we seek where we seek it.

We have been busy purging what we are willing to part with, carting off decades of old business documents for shredding (over 100 pounds so far), and sorting through the memorabilia of our lives. We've been passing things along to offspring, finding a new home for various pieces of furniture, and leaving books in the little neighborhood libraries that have popped up during the pandemic. I sorted through all my knitting and spinning stash and organized my weaving stash for packing.

Most of our possessions, including my looms, will be in storage until we find our new home. We are packing what we think we may need for a few months while staying in temporary lodging.

The very first thing I packed was, of course, knitting and spinning materials. But I packed them with purpose, sorting what projects I would knit, so only bringing those yarns and needles.

I will have my Hansen miniSpinner Pro with me and a selection of those eye candy, hand dyed braids to spin. I will also take my Gilmore Miniwave band loom so I can finish the handfasting band that has been on there since before my dear daughter postponed her 2020 wedding the first time due to covid. She’s trying for the third time to have the wedding this summer so that band will be the first thing I work on after arriving on Whidbey Island in less than a month.

I have joined the Whidbey Weavers Guild and I am looking forward to meeting my new guildmates. My guild here, the Foothill Fibers Guild, has been my anchor and will be sorely missed! I’m pleased to have been of a bit of service to my guild and I have found a member to take over my Web Manager duties.

When too exhausted by Finn or purging and other moving related details, I have been doing a bit of knitting and spinning.

I had a yearning to knit a sweater recently and before I started looking for a pattern, an ad at the bottom of a Ravelry page caught my eye. The pattern is the Safra Sweater.

After a quick search I found some great yarn and in very little time I had knitted the sweater. I would still like to weave a band for the button band but that will have to wait until I finish the handfasting band in a month or so. Buttons were easy to find on Etsy and I’m delighted with the sweater and how it fits. The yarn, unfortunately now discontinued, was a dream to knit. It is 85/15 merino and alpaca in a worsted weight.

A few months ago I was sorting through things in my fiber room and I determined to use some of those souvenir skeins that have been sitting in baskets for a few years. I selected some bulky single ply yarn from a fun little shop in Sigtuna, Sweden.

We visited Sigtuna, where some of our cousins live, in 2019. It is a lovely area and we had a wonderful day visiting the village. There is very rich history in this area. We visited several sites, including a museum that held some early spinning artifacts.

I decided to knit a hat using the white and the black yarn from Sigtuna. The pattern was easy stranded knitting, or so I thought. I should have known better.

My thumbs are too arthritic to knit bulky yarn on size six needles. It was a painful knit so I only did a little bit at time. The hat fits and will keep me warm on windy beach walks on the island. It would be much too warm for use here in California.

I’m also working on a project that I started knitting in 2012. I took it with me when I visited Scotland that spring. That is a very long time to be on the needles! It is a cowl in a stranded pattern knit with a solid purple fingering weight yarn and a variegated yarn. I will end the cowl by grafting in the round, a new knitting task for me.

The pattern was copied from a knitting magazine I long ago recycled and was terribly faded. Besides that, I only knit using KnitCompanion now. So, I recreated the chart in PatternGenius, transferred it to KC, and easily figured out where I was. It is nearly finished.

I think one of the reasons I let this project hibernate for so long is that the weather here is too warm for cowls. This is not the case in Washington! I'm glad I will get to use some of my woolens.

Just before Finn came to live with us in October, I started spinning one of Ilga Jansons hand painted braids. I enjoyed spinning on the Lendrum and Finn never tried to interfere with it.

The yarn is a Z-spun, S-plied two-ply fingering weight and I will save it for weaving a scarf.

With the move coming up quickly, my Lendrum is packed away so I started a new braid on my miniSpinner. This is also one of Ilga’s braids. This will be a slightly finer spin, again a two ply, and likely for weaving.

Continuing a tradition that I began last year, I started knitting a new lace shawl on Imbolc, or Brigid’s day. This ancient holiday marks the half-way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. It is a time of rebirth, the return of the light, and a time of rededication.

My intention to knit lace is, for me, about my commitment to mindfulness and the practice of mindfulness. Knitting lace involves being mindful. I wrote about that a few years ago in a post I titled A Meditation in Lace and Cables.

This year, the project features more souvenir skeins. It is a two-ply Gotland fingering weight yarn from a shop in Edinburgh. During a visit there in 2017, I ended up running DH through the hills of the city to get to the shop before it closed. He won’t let me forget that!

I just started the project so there isn’t much to see at this point. The shawl features lace and cables. I’m looking forward to knitting it, especially since I believe I am on my way to having set things up correctly.

Soon I will be putting a “Closed” sign on my online Shop and disabling the checkout cart. It’s only temporary but it will be a few months before I can access my inventory. In the meantime, I will be further dismantling the home Michael and I created together and have loved for 14 years. Shortly we will be setting off on our new adventure and hoping we can quickly find a new home to settle in. Of course, I am imagining a nice sized, light-filled weaving studio as part of our new home.

There will be lots of boxes, a very large puppy to tend to, a three-day drive to temporary lodgings (we will take it slowly with dog and small trailer to consider), and new faces and places to encounter. Drafts I intend to weave are stacking up and crowding my computer but first we must find a home for two humans, one large puppy, and three looms. Wish us luck in our adventure and our search!

Since we are not experiencing winter weather here, in Northern California, I will leave you with a photo of the Highlands I took while in Scotland in 2012.

May you have peace of mind and of heart. May you enjoy the blessings of the ordinary, everyday miracles that are right in front of us. And may there be peace and healing on our planet.

I’ll write again from our new location.

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 1 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.