Autumnal styles in procrastination.

I got caught up in a novel bit of weaving yesterday, while I'm sure I could have been doing something more productive. This leaf was done on a simple cardboard loom with an upholstery needle, some carpet warp and dyed wool. Oh, and one stick from the yard.

However, in the spirit of multi-tasking my distractions, I also watched a great Bette Davis movie called "Deception" while I wove. I recommend it highly -- she's so fabulous!

Spinning lesson #1.

So, (no surprise) spinning is pretty hard and totally amazing -- this is my very first skein! I'm sure it looks frightful to someone who knows, but I love how it turned out (it's quite small and took ages, of course). I used the fleece that I dyed this weekend, some natural and a bit of this great purple that just happened to be around. Apparently, I did okay for my first time, but it felt like kind of like a vaudeville routine, with everything spinning and pulling and curling up out of control. Sarah (Noggle, my fabulous teacher) told me that it gets harder to achieve that random look when you get good, so I am embracing it. Now I just need to get a spinning wheel, so I can obsess at my leisure....

Walnut husks.

And, of course, walnut husks -- sweet memories of childhood messes (a much stronger association than doll hair).

Marigold.

The marigold was the subtlest, obviously, but I'm fond of it. It reminds me of a color I exclusively associate with doll hair.

Pokeberry.

This one was the most impressive -- the pokeberry:

Indigo.

I got a chance to get do some more experimenting this weekend, this time, with plant dyes. I'm set for a spinning lesson this week, so I dyed fleece to use for yarn. Here's the indigo:

This picture to kind of dark, but I dyed a bunch of other stuff indigo and got a great variety of blues. Perhaps, I'll get some better pictures of those. I dyed a warp and weft for some really simple ikat weaving, which I'm looking forward to trying.

More dyed wool...mmm, autumn.

I'll post an actual, complete project again soon, but here's more for the list of "things I'm excited to start messing around with when I get done with...".

I spent quite a lot of time thinking about sheep yesterday and turning my hands kind of grey. Enjoyably.

Dyed warp experiment #3.

Dyed warp experiment #2.

Dyed warp experiment #1.

So, I took that dyed warp off my loom a couple of weeks ago, but only just got around to washing the pieces yesterday. The whole thing was a big experiment, the pattern is a variation on "Simplified Damask" out of Marguerite Porter Davison's green book and I used several different yarns in the weft -- I will reveal them in order of appearance (when they're all up #1 will be at the top, #7 at the bottom, hopefully it will be obvious)....

1. 100% cotton, recycled from a sweater -- beige

2. cotton chenille -- grey

3. rainbow-dyed wool

4. wool -- turquoise and black

5. recycled cotton (navy), linen (turquoise), bamboo (grey)

6. 100% acrylic -- beige and black

7. cotton carpet warp (plain weave) -- blue

In the end, I think I liked the plain weave best. I felt like the pattern detracted from the warp and vice versa. Now, what am I going to do with all these pieces?

Dyeing Experiments #1 cont.

Here are some shots of the warp....

Dyeing Experiments #1

Yesterday afternoon I got to do some experiments in dyeing at a great studio in Nashville (Indiana). I will give some more info on the studio (and the super helpful/knowledgable woman who runs it) as I get more pictures together, but for now, I just really wanted to throw some pictures of my new yarn up!

It's a two-ply wool that is fairly coarse. I thought it looked kind of like a huge mess while I was painting the dye on the skein, but spun up in a ball it looks edible! I also dyed a warp, that is on my loom now, with a lot of the same colors, so we'll see what the look like when they intersect.

At this point in my weaving education everything is still a huge surprise -- a lovely feeling.