For the past year, a friend and I started “Nauti(cal) Girl” column and activities at the yacht club. This past week, I became a Knotty Girl as well. (Gee, I wonder what these words will bring via the search engines!)
I took the 3 day Contemporary Cut Pile workshop with Sara Lamb. Whew! First, we spun the silk. Then we proceeded to cut the silk we spun up into less than 1″ pieces. I didn’t do a pattern like most of the other people in the class. There were some truly beautiful pieces. I just wanted to understand the technique, color blending, and explore how the knots of color behaved within the pile. My piece looks mottled for all that, but I was able to finish it during the retreat! The piece is sized for a small 4″x4″ purse with pile in the front and weft faced weave on the back. I finished the pile during the class and the back over the weekend.
More pictures…(click for details)
Front
Side
Back (No, that distortion isn’t an artifact of aspect, it’s draw in. I obviously have a lot of practicing to do.)
SOAR was incredible. This was my third SOAR, 2nd time that I attended both the workshop and the retreat portions. Each time is better than the last. It’s like a summer camp for spinners. Even down to the camp counselors who catch you drinking and having too much fun, and tell you to keep it down and put the booze away. (Okay, this last bit wasn’t like camp. It didn’t get confiscated.) We had to resort to drinking in the classrooms so that we wouldn’t have open containers in the common areas. It was great to see old friend and make new ones. The talent and energy swirling around me were just simply amazing.
Between the workshop and the retreat, Interweave arranged a little field trip to the Home Textile Tools Museum.
I love that bird nest above the sign!
What a wonderful little museum. They opened up just for our group (season ended in September) and set up small workshops for all of us. I took a natural dye workshop.
Look at that! Right over an open fire. Even I wouldn’t go quite that far. Maybe. (I can imagine Martin shaking his head and saying, “yeah you would.”)
I saw my first Pendulum Wheel. Isn’t that just plain cool?
Aquilina was on hand to show us back strap loom weaving. The yellow/green/red piece on the floor is a scaffolding piece that has been warped but not yet woven. The piece immediately next to her is the pack that she used to carry her weaving on her back, like a backpack. She’s also wearing a shawl that she has woven.
Close up of the piece that Aquilina is weaving. She’s picking up the warp for the pattern. Nilda says that they memorize the picture that needs to be woven, and everything is by memory. They don’t work from charts. Each village has their own distinctive weave pattern. All threads are spindle spun and dyed with natural dyes.