Happy Halloween

It is Halloween but not observed today in Utah because it falls on a Sunday.  Children and their parents were encouraged to trick or treat last night.  There have been no visitors this evening so I will have quite a lot to leave at my voting place on Tuesday.  It's really handy that election day falls so close on the heels of Halloween.  The people who are there all day enjoy the candy and I get it out of the house.  Good for everyone.

I have made progress on the warp today and have photos to post here.  There are none of the warping mill which began life as a Glimakra vertical warping mill and has been customized a bit.  It is permanently installed in the shed.  It is four meters in circumference so it is as big as a revolving door.  There is a heck block, a device that allows me to make a thread-by-thread cross at one end of the warp while I make a cross at the other end that I use in the little raddle to spread the warp out between the pegs in the sectionl beam.

This photo shows the drum wound with the ribbon of warp.  If you look carefully to the right of the Baltic plywood flange you can just see the galvanized pipe that serves as the axle to allow the drum to turn.  The white cords to the left of the warp connect to the castle at one end (via an S-hook on the end of the cord and another on a short cord tied to the castle) and to the sandbag weight at the other.

The ribbon of warp is passing through the raddle you can see here.  The base turns so that the warp can be spread precisely between the pegs on the sectional warp beam.  Once the warp is spread properly, then I turn the sectional beam to wind on the warp.

Here is a closer looki at the warp going through the little raddle.

This picture from the front of the loom shows the sections of the beam filled with 46 yards of warp.I have more than half left to do.   I hope it goes smoothly.  The cords to the right with S-hooks at the end are waiting attachment to the warp ribbons I will install tomorrow.  These extender cords allow me to weave clear to the end of the warp.  The thrums are just as long as the castle is deep.  Once all of it has been beamed then I can stay inside and thread it.


My NPR station is running locally produced Halloween stories acted out as radio dramas.  I recall radio  dramas from my childhood (The Green Hornet, Inner Sanctum, Sky King, etc.) and like them very much.  The pictures are so good!

Happy Halloween.

Yes, I know.......

Yes, I know I said I would post photos of the sectional warping process here but that was before I ran into a serious snag from which I am (slowly) extricating myself.  I have lost almost an entire day in working on the warp I am making and that is very disappointing.

What an understatement!

The better news was that there was a concert tonight by the Utah Symphony with our new conductor Thierry Fischer in charge.  It was an interesting program with pieces drawn from a broad time line.  There was a short and sweet Hayden symphony (No. 1) played cleanly and with nice transparency.  The second piece was Beethoven's First Piano Concerto played by Ingrid Fliter.  I love the good cheer in this piece and Ms. Fliter's nimble fingers made it seem effortless.  It was so cheerful and quite lovely.  The orchestra was pared down for the Hayden, somewhat bigger with the Beethoven but for the third piece, Shastakovich's Sumphony No. 6--which I had never heard before--filled the stage entirely.   The cellos and violas started the piece setting a somber and almost eerie mood.  The first (of three) movement is long and moody while the second and third are faster and faster still and much shorter.  I had read the the second movement was about Stalin.  From what the composer had to say in that movement, they didn't see eye-to-eye to say the least.  The final movement is fast and requires a good orchestra to pull it off and I'd say and we have one.

All in all, it was a better evening than day.  There is tomorrow, though, and I look forward to that!

The web design class is over

The web design class is over and I am sorry about that.  I met some very interesting people there, including the instructor, Jon Howe, who, in season, is Santa Claus. (You can see him in the Followers list).  I learned a lot and have a distance to go.  I am very close to being able to upload a revised version of my web site and when I do, I will let you know.

I am measuring out the warp (42 meters which is ~46 yards) for the radio grill cloth.  It will take a while and because I do it in an unheated shed, it tends to be a numbing experience these days.  The weather man says it will be warmer, a relative term, so I am hoping I can get that part of it all done during the "warmer" time.

First I measure out a warp "ribbon" two inches wide and 42 meters long on a vertical warping mill.  When I have tied the threading and raddling crosses at each end plus a tie through the loops at each end, I attach a stout cord to a spring connected to the wall so that it takes effort to reel the warp ribbon onto a wooden drum (looks like a spool that is a foot across at the flanges at the ends and 10" in diameter for the body of the drum.)  The point is that the warp, measured out under tension is wound onto the drum under tension. 

Then I carry the drum inside (ahhh!) and mount it on top of my loom by means of a galvanized pipe that serves as an axle by going through the center of the drum.  I wrap another stout cord around the drum twice.  One end is attached via an S-hook to a cord around the castle and a bag full of sand hangs from the other end via another S-hook.  (If I am not the queen of S-hooks, I'll bet I come close.  One day I cleaned the Home Depot out of the size I use the most.  Don't worry, it was years back.)

I do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing while warping the sectional beam going to and from the shed with drums.  I have more than one and generally wind two or three while I am suited up for cold and then divest myself of cold gear to beam the "ribbons" onto the beam using a raddle.

This is an amazing method that I learned from Jim Ahrens.  The warp fills the space between the pegs on the sectional beam exaclty, flat and firm.  I can knock on the warp and of course it weaves off like a dream....although methinks this dream at 42 meters will go on rather too long!

When it is light enough to show a bit of what I have described I will see whether I can get photos to post here.  Stand by.

Re-entry

The in-house workshop, one of my Four for Four workshops (although there were just three participants this time) ended yesterday afternoon and the house is back in its usual configuration once more.  I really enjoyed having these ladies here and showing them how to think of weave structures, invent new ones and how to use colors so that the cloth is far more beautiful than if it had been woven white-on-white, for example.  As is often the case, I find I am missing the Hall sisters (not their last names these days) but I have more than enough to do in re-entry...

The technician from Same Day Heating  and Air came today to inspect and service my furnace.  I had to replace the old one last October so this one is working very nicely.  To my surprise, we got into a discussion about Hindu dieties--who would have guessed that a serviceman would know or even care?  Neither of us are Hindu but both of us have wide-ranging interests.  At one point he had said that it would be handy to have an extra hand and that brought Shiva to my mind whom, as a weaver, I have often thought of.  Wouldn't it be handy to have six arms?!  At least until it was time to buy a new tee shirt or even find a comfortable position in bed.

The people I meet often surprise and delight me.

Today I have to put the fabrics I used to illustrate my class--several hundred in all--back in their proper places so that I can find them next time and then I can begin the radio grill cloth.  I expect delivery of the black and gold cotton yarn today.  When I wove it before it made me think of the wasps that had attacked me as I shoveled out compost from the bottom of the container unaware they they regarded it as their home.  It isn't surprising that they didn't appreciate my poking around and causing general collapse.  I was astonished by how quickly they appeared and stung me and was glad for the Benadryl that stopped the swelling--and me because it makes me very sleepy.

Our weather has turned very chilly and the snow line is quite low on the hills around the city.  I live in a low part of town so we get snow last and often less than people up on the benches.  I shovel it by hand--I seem to do everything that way!--so having 12" when friends up there have 18" works for me!

The court jester

The workshop is now half over.  After all the anticipation that seems surprising to me but things are going swimmingly.  These ladies a bright and catch on fast, even to totally new information.  Being a teacher is such a joy under these circumstances.

The court jester is Bob, my young cat.  Even as a tiny kitten he displayed a sense of humor.  He would wait around a corner when he heard me coming and then jump out, standing on his back feet with his front paws up over his head as if to say "Suprise!"  Then he would scamper away chuckling as he went,  "Got her again!  She's so easy!"  He made me smile and laugh and still does.

In a quiet moment--there are a few here and there--he looks like this:

His eyes are copper colored like most of his coat.  His belly is all white and he loves having it stroked.  I love his round eyes and cheerful demeanor. He is a small cat and very sweet.  His tail is quite long and he often sits with the tip of it curled to make a circle; he is the first feline companion I have had who did that although my daughter reports that her cat does it, too.

Fortunately for both of us he leaves my yarns and loom alone.  A stern "No" was all it took to let him know.  It should be noted that I do not let anything dangle or swing--even a well-behaved cat has his limits!

When this class ends the yarns to make grill cloth for antique radios will be here so I can go to work on that.  I posted a photo of it under construction on Weavolution the last time I made it but will post one here when it is under way.  I have to weave a lot of it.  I welcome the work!

Now to bed so I will be ready for class tomorrow. I have some nifty things to show them and can hardly wait!

the first day of the workshop

Before I write about the workshop I want to mention that the Utah Opera Company's La Boheme was wonderful.  It was set in Paris--as usual!--before WWII a time when times were tough and the sets really conveyed the poverty of the bohemians, enough so that one of my companions found them dreary.  Being poor IS dreary.

Our Mimi, Laquita Mitchell, has a gorgeous voice, true and rich and almost lustrous.  Gerald Powers, as Rudolfo, was also very good although when Ms. Mitchell was singing my eyes were glued to her.  The melodies, familiar as they are, sounded fresh and were very affecting.  The evening flew by.

The workshop began this morning with the arrival of three sisters who are weavers.  One lives north of Salt Lake City in Bountiful, one lives in Idaho and the third lives in Arizona.  They are clearly very good friends as well as sisters and eager to learn.  I am always eager to share what I know and when those two eagernesses meet, it is wonderful.

We started with three kinds of drafting (from structural drafts to profile drafting) and then turned a draft and by the end of class had covered the delights of plain weave, including how to make a structural seersucker and were very deep into twills when the class ended for the day.   While we dealt a lot with structure, color was never very far from my thoughts as I explained in the examples I had pulled to illustrate our work together why I had chosen the colors I did and how they worked with the weave structures chosen to enhance each other.

With their premission I took a photo I will include here.  Left to right they are Dahrl, Terry and Merrily (doesn't her name fit the big smile on her face?).  In the back ground you will notice a doll made by Jennifer Gould and a rug by Michael Rohde.

We are having a good time!

After they left I got my hair cut--I wonder if they will notice?--and then I came home to prepare our lunch for tomorrow.

As it turned out I missed both my exercise time and my web design class last night.  There was simply too much to do and then I was almost too excited to sleep!  Tonight I will do better.

What have I been doing?

What haven't I been doing!  After I finished the second scarf (using a light peach colored silk weft which made it look very different from the first one) and the piece that will become a little evening bag, I dived into getting ready for a class that starts here, in my studio, on Friday morning.

I needed to make and install the warp the class will use and then wove a couple of inches in plain weave so I could double check that all was as it ought to be.  Check.

I had cleaning to do, too.  I have had my head down working and working and needed to tidy up.  I am not entirely finished with that but have a little time left.  I had to plan lunches that would be worth looking forward to and be easy to pre-prepare so that getting them on the table--Iam a one woman band, here, doing all of it--wouldn't be difficult.  The ladies who are coming (three sisters, a first) have no food allergies or strong prejudices that I have to work around which has made it easier.  I still need to make a grocery run for the last things and that will happen Thursday.

Today is Tuesday and tomorrow the vet comes to give vaccinations--don't tell Bob and Lola!--and I need to mow the lawns and still get cleaned up to go to the first opera of the season.  It is La Boheme so it will be a heady night of melody; Salt Lake's Utah Symphony and Opera is a great organization and never fails to please me.  I go expecting to love what I hear and see, open to new experiences and new music.  This opera doesn't fall into the "new" category and is the one I think of first (or second) to recommend to friends who have never been to an opera. 

On Thursday besides a grocery run I have my exercise time (two hours usually) and then go directly to my Web Design class.  this will be the next to last meeting of that class so I am hoping that my web site, newly revised, will be up and running soon.  I will let you know!

If the participants are willing, I will post a photo of them here once class has begun.  This is one of my Four for Four workshops:  a maximum of four people for four days.  This time there are only three so they will have a little extra time weaving, each of them.

It is still pretty early but as my English friends might say, I am well and truly knackered and will head for bed soon.

So that is what I have been doing!