Fiber arts Archives - tamarackfiberarts

A New Loom Joins the Herd

March 20, 2023 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

After some time of consideration and budget planning, I decided on a new table loom. The order was placed with the Eugene Textile Center in August. At the end of September 2022, “Louie,” a 16 shaft LeClerc Voyageur table loom arrived at my door.

Getting the packaging open presented more of a challenge than did assembly of the loom. Finn was eager to help with packaging but not so much with assembly. Louie is a very well-made piece of equipment.

My goal in obtaining this loom is to play with more complex twills and, more importantly to me, to learn more about woven structures. Given the slowness of weaving on a table loom, this will undoubtedly take a good deal of time.

I am imagining a series of different structures utilizing the same profile draft and then an exploration of a variety of tied weaves.

While waiting for Louie to arrive I had decided to weave a 12 shaft draft from Handwoven. This was an “extra” for subscribers and is a Summer & Winter draft of cats for dish towels. Working primarily from stash and from pictures of my two grandkitties, I planned to make two towels as a holiday gift for dearest Kiddo.

I used KnitCompanion to track the lift plan. It turns out there is a fair amount to learn about weaving on a table loom after being focused on floor loom weaving. The first towel, a rather ridiculously long towel with several mistakes, now graces my kitchen. I tied on more warp and had another go, including adjusting colors to better depict the cats. Meanwhile, I was getting a better feel for Louie’s brake, weaving sweet spot, and other adjustments. We are getting along pretty well now, despite the slow going.

Of course, time is one thing I usually feel rather short on, especially as holidays approach. While learning Louie’s intricacies, I was also working on landscaping the front yard, dealing with several veterinary encounters, and making plans for the holidays that happen in November and December.

If you have read my previous posts, you know gardening is important to me. I took several months of leave taking from my yard in California where Michael and I grew fruits and a variety of herbs and vegetables. We both knew we wanted to simplify and have much easier maintenance in our new yard. By the time I found Pam, the perfect person to help us design and plant our front yard, the yard was looking pretty ugly. The backyard will be Finn’s with the exception of some planned raised beds and we have left dealing with that until spring.

In a nutshell, with great help and guidance, we got rid of a good deal of lawn and other unwanted vegetation. We planted a lavender hedge, two good sized birch trees and a scarlet hawthorn, and lots of perennials and bulbs. We now have a front yard that I am excited to watch develop. The 20-year-old rosemary bush we brought with us is planted there, too. Our faery altar is graced with a large piece of granite from the Sierras. As things start blooming this spring, I will start taking photos.

So landscaping was a major development during the autumn and consumed a good deal of time. Finn continued to take up a good deal of time and energy with daily exercise and training as well as some unanticipated veterinary needs. In the end, Finn was fine and fit as a fiddle, but we nicknamed him “CreditCard.”

One of his veterinary excursions nearly derailed my long planned trip to a weaving workshop. Fortunately, he recovered, and, at the end of October, I headed to the Eugene Textile Center for a workshop on Transparency weaving with Suzie Liles.

It was wonderful to be at an in-person workshop (my first since COVID) and to be learning. Suzie is a great teacher and the topic strikes me as a possible way for me to work with some ideas in my head.

Once again, the issue of time creeps in and I’m sad to say that I have not done anything with the warp since returning. My Wolf Pup has been rather neglected since traveling with me to Eugene.

Early November brought more veterinary encounters and nursing of Finn who, once again, thankfully, is quite fine.

About this time another new piece of equipment arrived. In the summer I placed an order for a motor for my fabulous Clemes and Clemes Elite drum carder. Again, lots of thought and budget planning went into the decision and I know the workmanship of Henry and Roy Clemes is fantastic.

I have plenty of fleece, lots of ideas, and not enough time, so the motor seemed like a good investment. It is a beauty and exponentially shortens the amount of time it takes to process fiber.

I’ve been blending some of my wool and alpaca with a project in mind that involves lots of spinning and then weaving. This is, of course, a very long-term project but I have completed spinning samples and made some decisions regarding the blends I will be using and a herringbone draft. Stay tuned for more information as this project slowly unfolds.

In late November we celebrated a day of gratitude with friends, including my decades old tradition of making pie from real pumpkins. Training and beach walks with Finn continued and I worked on knitting and spinning when I couldn’t get up to the Loom Room.

Then, of course, there was all the holiday planning. Finn needed a Christmas stocking and dear kiddo was bringing a friend, so they needed one as well. I was not undertaking any major holiday crafting, but it was still very busy.

Finn loved the snow we had in December. Fortunately, both my beloved kids arrived after that storm and left before then next big rain, ice, and wind event. We had a great holiday visit with plenty of good food to share.

In the end, in addition to the cat towels, I made two stockings, a sheep ornament, and some gnomes. The sheep ornament included some of the Shetland fleece from Riplet that I needle felted onto the fleece woven base.

My dear friend, Mary, got me going on knitting gnomes. This seems like a great way to use up all the many bits and bobs of left over fingering weight yarn in my stash. Alas, the arthritis in my hands will definitely limit my gnome knitting but if I plan well and do a little bit at a time ... maybe there will be more gnomes under our tree next year.

Winter was here and we had passed the longest night. A new project was on the Mighty Wolf and on the table loom.

The towels that took months to weave were ready for inventory and Michael’s sweater that I had been knitting for most of a year was ready for seaming. And sometimes we even enjoyed sunshine.

Knowing Imbolc was just around the corner, I was planning my annual meditative lace knitting project. The wheel of the year was turning, and I was encouraged by the additional minutes and then hour of daylight.

And ever grateful as we carry on in our new homeland.

Dirt, Rock, Iris, and Friends

January 7, 2023 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

There will always be stunning inspiration from nature. Take dirt, for example. More precisely, take soil. Clearly the folks at Three Waters Farm are inspired by soil. At the time their newsletter came across my inbox I was sure the last thing I needed was more fiber to spin. We were still in temporary quarters and I had packed more spinning fiber than three people could spin in three months. But I could not resist their beautiful colorway “Good Brown Dirt” on Targhee.

Aside from being a beautiful colorway and that I enjoy spinning Targhee, my oldest friend, Paula, is an Agronomist. A doctor of soil. Now retired, Paula spent a very productive career teaching college students about Agronomy and research. Paula is passionate about good brown dirt and has always been as passionate about her family, her students, and her work.

A year and a half earlier I knitted a wrap/blanket for Paula after her daughter contacted me to request a special blanket for her mom who was having great difficult with cancer treatment. Paula had been living with cancer for ten years by then. It was fun putting together the project with Paula’s daughter. Of course, soil was important. Prairie and ocean were Paula’s other inspirations.

Using Malabrigo Rios and a pattern that I modified, a big, soft, cuddly wrap was completed faster than anything I had ever knit. About the time Paula received the blanket, I received the painful news that all treatment was being stopped. The great news is that, although she has challenges, Paula has been living and enjoying friends and family and she continues to do so today. When working out on my elliptical I think of all the challenges Paula has overcome and I keep on track, listening to the Grateful Dead music we shared throughout the years.

Starting in late April I began spinning Good Brown Dirt with the intention of creating something for Paula’s birthday in early October. It was a fun spin, and I produced a two-ply fingering weight yarn. Paula is not a fancy person, so I chose to knit a scarf in the well-known Old Shale pattern. What better pattern to use for Good Brown Dirt?

About the time I finished spinning the Good Brown Dirt, I walked on the beach near my new home with a friend from my old home who now lives one mile from me. How great is that? We did not plan that one but as fate or luck or whatever would have it, we both left California about the same time and ended up with new homes a mile apart.

On that beach walk with my friend, I found an amazing rock. I guess I was rather taken with the rock because I found two weaving drafts and planned some projects. Of course, everything was taking way more time than usual because we were still unpacking and setting up our home. Using stash for two colors of green warp in 8/2 Tencel sett at 36 ends per inch, and weft of 20/2 cotton in black, I selected an echo threading from Marian Stubinitsky on Handweaving.net and started weaving a small scarf.

The rock was captured well enough, but for a variety of reasons, my selvedges were terrible. I used two strands of 8/2 black Tencel for floating selvedges, which I think was too thick for the weft, and the scarf was too narrow for my shortest temple. Close attention to the selvedges was paid while weaving but I decided to consider it a sample and it lives in my drawer full of samples. I will return to the rock and next will try a network twill from Handweaving.net. Meanwhile, a new opportunity was being presented and I decided to leap into a new project.

At the start of the pandemic when I was power walking my old neighborhood instead of going to the gym, I came across an iris of what struck me as exquisite color. As happens, I took photos and figured someday I would use this inspiration in my fiber work. This past summer, thanks to my friend from the beach walk, I finally had the opportunity to play with hand painting (some would say hand dyeing) Tencel warps.

Jan has done quite a bit of dyeing and we planned some projects. One was to dye warp for the iris photo. Thanks to Jan, we had fun and I learned a great deal. It took me two attempts, but I like what we came up with.

In late 2020 I had stored a network till draft on my laptop but, unfortunately, I did not store information on where I found the draft. My bad; I really wish I had.

I used some stash Tencel for accent warp and for weft and I enjoyed weaving this scarf. Thanks to TempoTreadle, keeping track of treadling is a breeze. I used a sett of 24 ends per inch. And, unlike the rock scarf, my selvedges are decent. The hand is nice, too.

Have I mentioned how much I value all my fiber friends and guild mates, both here in Washington and in California? To say nothing of the few non-fiber friends who have blessed my life for decades, such as Paula.

I have been enjoying meeting members of the Whidbey Weavers Guild and having fun with another fiber friend here, also named Donna. Like Jan and I, Donna moved here recently and we share a dear mutual fiber friend from California. Sharing knitting, spinning, and weaving with other equally passionate fiber folks enriches my life and my journey into the fiber arts in so many ways.

I have hand painted warps for two other nature inspired projects and I have been working on several other knitting, spinning, and weaving projects.

Throughout the autumn I kept taking pictures of a certain seaweed I would see on the beach here. Someday that will become something, too.

But Finn is ready for his afternoon constitutional and I’ll save those projects for another post.

Until then, sing praises, enjoy your friends, let them know that you appreciate them, and walk in balance.

Looms Come Home

September 24, 2022 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

At last, the day had come. May 3, 2022. The house was ours and we had the keys. Only discouraging news from the moving company could put a damper on our happiness. Broken truck, lack of parts, unknown delivery date, weeks away. Very anxious to exit the Hovel, we had already given notice so we could move as soon as we took possession of the house. To make it more interesting, my daughter was arriving from California that evening and my youngest kiddo was arriving from Indiana in three days. But now there was no telling when the looms, or the rest of our belongings, would come home.

The kids arrived and we all had a wonderful visit and fun camping out in the new house. Visits to thrift stores and the big box store on the island provided the basics to get us through. We could do basic cooking, had clean towels and bedding (if you count an air mattress and cheap sleeping bag as bedding), and we had the new counter stools and a couple of camp chairs, as well as the new washer/dryer and guest bed. I also had the two potholders a dear fiber friend in California dropped off the day before we left town.

Best of all was sharing our new home, the very first home without my kids in over 30 years, with my two awesome adult offspring. Finn was pretty happy to stretch out in the new house as well. It was a busy couple of days but a wonderful time to be together. Geography and busy lives have kept us apart more than this mother would like.

I could still spin and knit and daydream about weaving. And we had plenty to keep us busy as we attempted to have the interior painted before the furniture arrived. That didn’t turn out so well and it certainly complicated attempts to unpack once things did arrive but, in the end and long after we had hoped, the dull and depressing grey walls are now different colors. I chose a basic white for the loom room and my fiber/office room.

Being very moved by world events and a film I saw of a weaving family in Ukraine (Ukrainian Wool Blanket), I purchased a handwoven blanket from them via their Etsy store. We tracked the progress of the package across the world.

It took one month and the blanket arrived about a week after we started camping out in the new house. It is an amazing hand woven, hand washed (in a river), and hand brushed wool blanket and will certainly keep us warm during PNW winters.

Two weeks after the initial promised delivery, our goods were delivered. I was so happy to see my looms and to see that they were in fine shape. I found that it was a challenge to fit all things fiber into two rooms, especially coming from house as studio that had evolved organically over many years.

Things were not set up to function yet in my “studio” and we had company coming. So, Michael, Finn, and I spent our days making the kitchen functional, clearing living space of boxes, and getting ready for visits from friends from California. As always, puppy training and exercise and knitting and spinning continued. We had a wonderful time visiting with dear friends from California throughout June.

In between visitors, Michael and I arranged for Finn to have an overnight at a very nice resort for pups here on the island. We were lucky to get him a spot and it really is a deluxe resort with no crates or cages and lots of space to run and play. It is great to know that he did well and has a place to go, if needed. Meanwhile, the paw parents had our own night at a nice AirBnB in Seattle. Our intention was to visit the Nordic Museum and have a night on our own. We enjoyed a great meal and the museum

A highlight of the museum was the Margaret Bergman display. It was part of the display of individuals from Sweden having made an impact after arrival. She was the only woman mentioned and she was described as “A Weaving Innovator and Entrepreneur.”

The loom could have been much better displayed but what a joy to see the loom I had heard so much about. I intend to learn more about her three-tie unit weave.

I was finally able to start weaving in July. I used some of the handspun wool from our months in transition as pattern weft for an overshot dresser scarf. This was the Stricken Lonk from Edgewood Garden Studio that I wrote about in my last blog.

I had 16/2 linen in my stash and used that for warp and tabby. I decided to start with the Baby Wolf, otherwise known as Fiona. It was so wonderful to be weaving again! The scarf works well on an antique dresser that Michael had in his mountain home.

The loom room is a bright and beautiful place to weave. However, by the time I finished that project and was trying to warp towels on the Mighty Wolf, otherwise known as Wilhelmina, it was clear that the loom room could not accommodate everything that was in there. The Wolf PupLt, as yet unnamed, was already stationed in the family room. But there was just no way to be functional in such tight space that was the loom room at that point.

So, DH volunteered for duty and had some suggestions. We moved a cabinet with thread into the guest room (which already housed my knitting library, tabletop warping mill, mannequin, baskets of yarn as décor, and a closet full of sheep and an alpaca) and found a spot in the guest closet for my rack of reeds, temples, and warping sticks. It is still a very nice guest room with just a bit of fiber art spill over.

At last I had a fiber room/office with a work table and a loom room. Of course, we had not yet unpacked all the photos, wall art, and tchotchkes but now I could function and get a warp on both looms!

Meanwhile, Finn continues to grow and require lots of exercise, there are still many things to unpack in the garage, and we are still exploring our new island home

I am working on learning to be patient with myself. My solo days of being productively lost in fiber arts all day are long gone. Michael is home full time and I have a very large puppy who needs training and exercise. It will take me much longer to plan and warp a project than ever before. And there is nothing more important than being present in this moment with loved ones. So, I aim for balance as I move forward in our new home.

May all beings find balance. May it be so.

Looms in Storage

August 9, 2022 by Donna Johnson 1 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 2 Comments

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