PROGRESS REPORT 29

J E N N E

A reknitted/revision. I had this little vest along with me while traveling all of last month and realized my daughter is just growing too fast for my knitting, that I need to add another 3 inches at least to make it a "dressvest" as requested. But it "has to end with the pink and then the blue" so I found another ball of Noro Kureyon and unknit it and am now adding length with the green yarn. Its nice to have a constant companion of a project like this one while contemplating the new possibilities of moving north - new energy, new directions. How to incorporate the forest into craft? How to marry the same divine presence felt in a redwood circle to the effortless energy of weaving weft into warp?  How to keep learning, keeping your mind and your hands happy. Planning, reknitting, revisioning.  

A L I S A

I have been working on homework for my spinning class a lot lately - it's just that time of year. Anyway, it's not very exciting to photograph or talk about. It's very methodical and specific… I'm taking a little break with some more freeform stuff. Finishing making some dolls that I've had kicking around for awhile. I'm very excited about the combination of techniques and materials I'm able to use - paper, weaving, crochet and, likely, some fabric too. Here's a little peek of a siamese cat I'm making.

PROGRESS REPORT 23

J E N N E

Playing with color - its way too fun.  Whats not so fun is warp threads snapping which is what you see there on the left.   I cut this piece off the loom and am going to explore sewing with it. Felt it slightly to lock in that warp snag and tranformation into... pillows, hood to a jacket?  Yokes of dresses, pockets?  And then back to the loom, to weave more yardage.

A L I S A

"When in doubt, start a Wingfeathers Shawl", that is what Cal told me and I agreed! Cal is, among other things, a crochet goddess and this is her pattern. I had this beautiful yarn laying around that my mom gave to me and I needed a "mindless" project to work on while I concentrate on bigger things (like a large tapestry weaving I'm doing that is really hard to photograph at this stage). I have to say that the yarn and pattern work really well together and I know I'm going to love this shawl! It's also one of those situations where you want to keep going to see what the next colour looks like - total motivation to get it done!

PROGRESS REPORT 22

J E N N E

I love weaving.  The rhythm and the wordless consideration of what color change to do or how far to pull the clasped weft is meditation for me.  I love weaving at night it is the perfect way to end the day and I love waking up in the morning and peeking in my studio to see the colors in the sunlight.  The warp is still crazy, and last night two warp threads broke so I was up super late getting through the rough parts.  No big deal,  tie on a connector through the heddle and move on.  In my mind I was hoping to get to this technicolor place, the warp creating a background of light and dark (there is some brown in the honeycomb color yarn)  and this is exactly it.  

A L I S A

I finally finished my Pop Spots Siamese Cat shawl and I love it! I decided to put a crocheted edging on it instead of the knitted one called for in the pattern, mostly because I love crochet and love adding it to knitting. I was chose a clover pattern which goes with the personal theme of this scarf (I even added a four leaf clover as a surprise). I was getting a little worried towards the end that it wasn't going to be very big as the pattern structure is quite collapsable, but it blocked out quite a lot. I just love how big and cozy this shawl is and how my nearest and dearest had a huge hand in the making of it. It's going to be my fall go to.

PROGRESS REPORT 21

A L I S A

I have completed two circular weavings during our experiments. It's not nearly as many as I would have liked to. The good thing is that I have come up with a good routine to fit this exercise into my daily studio time. So, maybe this exercise ended up not being about weaving within a circle, but establishing dedicated time for a desired project. We're going to be moving on to new project experimentations soon, but I'm going to keep up with my "small weaving" routine.  I really like how I finished the larger piece. I used yarns to wrap around the interior wood of the circle to create a nice frame and hide some warping threads that were bugging me. It was fun adding warp as I went to create shapes and weaving within weaving. Branching off into other segments. I also used all hand-spun. 

J E N N E

I put a particularly gnarly pair of yarns on my loom as warp this week.  Knowing that one yarn was way springier than the other (3ply wool vs 2ply mohair and silk) but color wise and just need to go together wise are PERFECT for one another so I went for it.  What is not pictured is the crazy differential tension set up I made by putting a long shed stick from my bigger loom across the backbeam and under the springier yarn to take up some of that sproing so that it can become more reasonably even to weave.  It works, its not totally convenient and I continue to work in my jerry rigged, make it work sort of way. Its challenging but if it all works out like I have it in my head, its going to be crazy great.

PROGRESS REPORT 20

A L I S A

I often get bogged down by what I "should" be doing during my studio time. This is very anti-Craftophilia and I'm glad when I can be reminded of the mandate that rules my creative life - Commit to Process. Sometimes, it does take a little push though. This one came from the necessity to create some "samples" for a class I'm going to be teaching in October on doll making. I'm no stranger to doll making as an art form - in fact it's something that I have thoroughly enjoyed in the past. I was a bit scared to do these samples because my doll making skills are rusty and I felt I no longer possessed the ability to get lost in the process. I over thought it. Then, I did it. I sat down and got lost in the process and it was great! And, I produced something that I love. So, please meet the Birds that Hang Around my Feeder - The Grackle, M. Cardinale, Woodpecker and Mama Jay.

J E N N E

Today is the Fall Equinox and I feel an itch to get back to working with wool, back to spinning, weaving and knitting and working with felt.  There seems to be a seasonality to what materials I tend to want to work with - this summer I have been on a major sewing and sashiko stitching jam (with some weaving and knitting) but now on this very overcast first day of Autumn I just want to cuddle up with some sheepy yarn.  In  the "inspiration comes from pretty much anywhere" department, I was stuck on what to do for my next weaving.  At first I wanted to try something monochromatic but as I was winding that warp I was not feeling it.  Then I thought maybe I will try to play with color in the weft but use a black and/or white warp.  Also did not feel it.  Not enough COLORS.  My jam is a kaleidoscope of colors.  Mixing it up, matching, contrasting, making crazy rainbows.  In the "this is not a tangent" department,  my jam for the month of September is the song "September" by Earth Wind and Fire.  Some people get into their pumpkin spice lattes or candles or whatever (sorry, not me) this time of year I have "September" on REPEAT at FULL VOLUME starting September 1st.  The video for "September" was posted to Sarah's Facebook wall this weekend which I was stoked to watch, singing along, digging in yarn bins in my studio and yes.  Inspiration can be totally like this.  Go watch it.   I am totally using gold metallic thread and this assortment of yarn and am so PSYCHED to make this weaving now.  

PROCESS NOTES - On Circular Weaving

I N T R O D U C T I O N

"When craft is in dialogue with its audience, it does not and cannot stagnate.  The fresh flowing water of our field turns fetid when we as makers and audience assume, shut down, impose strict limitations, or end every thought or art work with a period rather than a question mark.  The common denominator among experts, innovators and outliers is curiosity.  Experts with years of embodied knowledge intertwine curiosity with persistence.  Sometimes, there are small shifts in the studio; other times, seismic shifts.  A level for inquiry is a constant force. Innovators dissect a precept and build from their discoveries, while outliers use curiosity to build bridges between their primary interests and others. The majority of artists I know combine aspects of these qualities."

-Sonya Clark "In the hands of the Curious,"  from Crafting a Continuum, The University of North Carolina Press 2013.  (Thank you Betsy Greer for bringing our attention to this quote and book.)

Craftophilia is a dialogue about process.  The projects Alisa and I are compelled to do, trying to see how the way we each work is motivated or inhibited by the weekly demand of having something "made" (or in the process of being made.) By posting (almost!) every week what we have been able to make with our hands we are learning about exactly why and how we do and make things.  

Craftophilia is totally transparent, laying bare the processes we go through, open with our personal experiences of making.  What works, what happens when you have no time at all to make anything, when it totally fails, at the pace of how it actually happens in our daily lives.  It is our biggest hope that it inspires you to pick up the material that sings to you and make, without fear of any of these outcomes or circumstances that may stand in your way of making something as there is no fail there is just DO.

PROCESS NOTES is an open ended list of ideas, questions and further explorations from what we found useful while making a circular weaving: from wrapping the first warp around the hoop to almost (finally) finishing one hoop.   Hoping that this inspires you to take material that is vernacular to your life (yarn leftovers, pine needles from the yard, darning needles, kitchen twine etc.) and experiment with it to make something new.

P R O C E S S   N O T E S   O N  C I R C U L A R   W E A V I N G

S U P P L I E S :

Hoop.  Embroidery hoops, wooden, metal, various sizes,  weird brass hoops from craft store, hula hoop, old bike wheel...

Embroidery needles - straight, bent tip, plastic, brass, bamboo.  Try a few to find the one that works for you.  Some work better in smaller hoops, others in larger hoops.

Warp thread - carpet warp, kitchen twine, thick embroidery thread from the japanese dollar store, yarn...

Weft thread - ANYTHING.  Experiment with single ply and double ply yarns, thick yarns, thin yarns.  Mohair and Angora will make a lovely halo that you can brush up after to great effect.

Is it malleable? Use it.

Scotch tape and masking tape.

W A R P I N G :

Experimenting is extremely important.  Sitting down with your hoop and warp thread and playing with the warp is almost better than following directions. Creating a visual, tactile memory and a rhythm. Does warping in a figure-eight work better for a "diameter warp" than over one side of your hoop and under coming back? How about tying each thread individually to create an off centre "spoke warp"? Remember, using an embroidery hoop is beneficial as once you attach the outer hoop, it will hide any peculiar knotting. You can also secure your warp threads by using tape on the side of your hoop - once you have woven, it will be secure enough to remove the tape.

v. 1 - spoke warp (above)

v. 2 - diameter warp (above, warp anchored directly across the circle)

T E C H N I Q U E :

Over and under one warp thread at a time? Several at a time? Change it up?

What happens when you use thin thread and heavy yarn in the same piece?

What happens when you coil your yarn around a warp thread?  Around 2?  Around 5?

Does warp have to go in one direction?  Where are all the places you can anchor warp?

Again - observe! Books, pictures, online - analyze what you see. Ask yourself questions.

O T H E R  W O N D E R S :

How will you finish the piece? Does it stay on the hoop or is it removed? 

What about wrapping the hoop in fabric or yarn?

Is fringe your thing, or not?

Try adding non-traditional items like pine needles, strips of fabric, feathers or pieces of spinning fibre. If you can trap it in the warp, you can put it in!

PLAY!  Make mistakes!  ENJOY!!!

PROGRESS REPORT 18

J E N N E

The sashiko stitching continues.  I keep most all scraps from other sewing projects and last week went through them and cut many into the same size to do some stitching experiments with.  I am really interested in playing with the colors of the threads vs the stitching and the combinations and possibly layers that will come.  This is another big experiment with a vague idea of what I am aiming for but letting the material dictate what will be done with it.  Yesterday Alisa sent me a picture of a poster on the wall at her school that says "Detach from outcome, commit to process."  I am really feeling that right now, freely experimenting with the materials I have and letting the process dictate where I go with it and what to try next.  

A L I S A

This is what my puppet looks like assembled. All the pieces that were in the last Progress Report all went into making Rocky the Goat Puppet. This is a final project for year three of my formal spinning education. I really loved how it turned out and loved the process of making it. The story of Rocky goes like this… When I moved back to Canada from the USA about 6 years ago, I was working at a yarn mill and totally getting into spinning and knowing how the textile and fibre arts work from the basics up. The mill was on a working farm that raised Angora goats for Mohair. Rocky was the first animal I ever saw being born and I really took a shine to him. I spent a lot of time with him over the next few years and the owners of the mill/farm gifted me all his fleeces. I have wanted to make this totem since then. The puppet is made out of his fleece that I was present for the shearing of and processed myself. Rocky started this amazing change in me to stay curious about materials and where things come from and to know about fibre animals and what goes into making yarn. 

PROJECT REPORT 6 - Circular Weaving

A L I S A

I'm really loving working on this piece. I've been adding warp in different directions as I go. I am trying to now weave under and over some of the finished areas. I've found that the warp threads tend to slip as I'm weaving (since it's in a round hoop), so, I've used masking tape to start to hold the more awkward threads in place while I weave. It seems to be working quite nicely...

J E N N E

This little morsel is an experiment in weaving with art yarn.  I have many many skeins of art yarn that I spun over the years, never really intending to use it for a specific project, spinning sequins, feathers, big clomps of wool, thread, fabric, lace all together in more of a process meditative way, having fun with the materials as a counterpoint to the fine worsted spinning I tend to like to do.  (Fine worsted spinning is making very controlled fine yarn with high twist that takes a lot of focus!)  This yarn is from a class I took with Lexi Boeger, years and years ago at Urban Fauna in SF. (2005?)  Long ago enough that one person in the class recognized me from my serial knitsterism on Knitty Gritty (I am knitting on the couch 4 seconds before the end, Alisa is knitting behind Erika's Head) (Random the things you remember) We made crazy batts in Lexi's class and spun them, crazy batts with every sort of thing in them.  I very much like how the art yarn looks woven, but I think it needs a larger space to breathe and really show all the weird shit that is in it.  Also I sort of want to cut apart the yarns to make some color sense out of them.  A good experiment in my book is when you do something that may not be completely successful but you find at least one new path to try out. I now have quite a few to try.

PROJECT REPORT 5 - Circular Weaving

A L I S A

I've started a new circular weaving… well, it's in a circle. I've created a base that I'll add on to with additional warp and be able to weave into. I'm experimenting with layering warp with this piece. So far, it's a lot of fun and I really like it. I'm using all hand-spun and I'm also mixing yarns to create gradients. 

J E N N E

Weaving in a circular frame means you can branch out and add a warp here, wrap a weft there, till you are suddenly weaving in all directions at once.  Working on this at the beach today, I was thinking about how serendipitous and wild this little piece is becoming - I had a plan and now its telling me to do something completely different.  Experiment with filling the space.  I am not sure how much more I am going to work on this one (mainly because my tapestry needle is not fitting in the spaces of the hoop anymore - there is not a lot of room to work in a hoop this size that I've been just winding the yarn with my fingers in some parts) but I do know its come along a lot crazier than I thought it would be, and all the better.  

PROGRESS REPORT 14

J E N N E

The last week has been a bit of an ebb in the actual working on projects.   Weaving was still on the mind as over the weekend I amassed this stack of gems from the library.  I discovered a ridiculous number of weaving books in the San Jose Public Library collection - so many that I now need to go visit the stacks downtown to browse and take a look at them in person. I requested a few and when I picked up the books at our local branch I noticed they all said San Jose State Library on them.  I just wonder how long they are going to keep all these amazing books in their collection, since the textile program at SJSU was sadly discontinued a couple years ago.  Also - omg.  These books are crazy inspiration.  I find it so weird and sad that so many art programs are dropping textiles out of their schools - which is even more impetus to learn and find and document and make as much textile work as possible.  Keep it alive and moving into the future.

A L I S A

This is my Pop Spots Siamese Cat Shawl… It's coming along nicely. I'm almost done with the main part of the shawl. It's at this weird point where it seems like I'm knitting and knitting and it's not getting any bigger - nothing a good blocking won't sort out! I wanted the whole thing to be made out of the two special skeins of yarn, but decided that the lace boarder should be different. I purchased a beautiful skein of yarn by nbk called "Macha". I'm thinking of doing a crocheted boarder instead of the knit one that is in the pattern, just because I like to mix things up...

PROJECT REPORT 3 - Circular Weaving

J E N N E

I am still working on the other embroidery frame hoop weaving but I like to use - tiny yarn and thread.  Like most of it in knitting parlance is sock/laceweight.  It will take a bit of time to cover the ground of the the larger hoop so I started something smaller in a different shape.

A L I S A

Despite the fact that this is a very small weaving, I haven't gotten far along on it (I've been busy working on my tapestry techniques). However, once I started with the white mohair, I sort of got mesmerized by going round and round. I'll have to take another picture to show the depth of the "nest" I'm building around the centre. I think I'm going to keep going with only mohair, I have a few more colours too. Then, I'll move on to a bigger circle. 

PROGRESS REPORT 12

J E N N E

Very little happened on the progress front last week as we were travelling and I was ill halfway through our trip.  Awesome!!  So what I have to show is my second Modicum Mitt - done and undone. I actually knitted most of the second one save the thumb but did not like the way the tones worked against one another.   I ripped it out and restarted from the cuff and this is how far I got.  While I love the neutral tones I am thinking after they are done  might have to do something crazy to it. Neon pony fringe on one side.  Overlaid hearts or something equally insane.

A L I S A

The fun is really beginning in my Tapestry Weaving adventure. I'm learning how to do gradients now. This is my first test going from one colour to the next horizontally. The next one will be blending vertically. I really love the gradients because it's like blending paint and colour is just something I'm very interested in. 

PROJECT REPORT 2 - Circular Weaving

A L I S A

My mom had all these antique embroidery hoops, so I decided to use them because they make such a nice little frame. The only problem is that they are very small. That's ok for my first one, but I may want to find some bigger ones as this project goes on. I wanted the centre of my warp to be off set, which was way easier to do on the hoop than with a cardboard circle. I tried with the cardboard first and just couldn't get it right. With the hoop it made more sense to me, except, that in order for there to the right amount of warp threads to weave in a spiral it has to be an odd number. So, I did a tricky warp from the centre point out, not the whole way around the hoop as the others (it would be the one to the left of my thumb). So far, I'm doing just a spiral. It's very meditative. I want to add some mohair yarns for texture. I really don't have any plans for this first one except to play round. 

J E N N E

What I did get done on our vacation last week - weaving.  Somehow this little portable loom was easier to use and carry around than my knitting project so I spent a lot of time at my friend Connie's kitchen table weaving while she worked on a hand sewn cathedral quilt (more on that later.)  Last time I didn't know what to do in the middle where the warp was a little dense and Brooke suggested the bunching them together uniting a couple at a time to combat that unruliness.  Its working great and I am experimenting with different ways to do that.

PROGRESS REPORT 9

A L I S A

My tubular weaving continues. I haven't painted the puppet heads yet, but I've finished making their bodies! I'm kind of obsessed with just making woven tubes. In fact, I've made so many of them they are starting to look "too nice"! You know, when you do something new, it might be a little weird or "off"? I like that - once you get good at something, it's starts to get nicer and more even and I always long for the "off" look of learning...

J E N N E

Drawing and cutting and sewing and redrawing and cutting and sewing and ripping out and repeat.  I hurt my arm this week in a fall, not too bad but enough to feel too nerve tingly-bruised to knit weave or hand sew so I dove deep back into patternmaking again.  Finished a redraft of the Endless Summer Tunic to reshape over my shoulders and lengthen into an Endless Summer Dress.  Cut out of muslin fabric and sewn and yes.  Ready to roll.  Finished my basic dress from Cal's Pattern Drafting course, this is the sleeve, last component, sewn together, fit, yes.  Two, no three patterns now to start sewing iterations of - the tunic and the two dresses.  

PROGRESS REPORT 8

J E N N E

Weaving is both a meditation and pure play for me - the warp as the path and anything goes in between. This piece is off the loom and is about 3 yards long, with lots of experiments within.  It will now rest until its next transformation with thread, sewn into another form.   I am warping for another project now, with a plain white warp and the intention to play with purely texture next.  

A L I S A

I love to crochet and I love different crochet techniques. I started this awhile ago and I'm really trying to get it done. It's a tapestry crochet cowl by Danielle Kassner. I absolutely love tapestry crochet and I've been having a load of fun with this pattern and feel very inspired to make some of my own patterns. Once I'm done with this (hopefully by the end of this week, but we'll see), I'm going to start a tunisian crochet shawl!

PROGRESS REPORT 7

J E N N E

Getting back to my handmade wardrobe.  I have several muslins going right now, testing different dress patterns to find a uniform in which to make a million iterations for every occasion.  None of them have been satisfying enough in fit to make "the one" so two weeks ago I started Cal Patch's Patternmaking Class on Creativebug to make a pattern to just fit me already.  I am halfway through that process (and it is MAGIC.  I have a bodice that actually FITS!)   I took a break from patternmaking this weekend to break out a new pattern to try and wow.  This is the Endless Summer Tunic, the first pattern from A Verb for Keeping Warm. I made one first too big then took a chance and made the smallest size and it fits perfect. Fabric is insane, something that has been in my stash forever, asymmetrical batik/shibori/bleach don't even know (lots going on) and silver dots printed over it.   So now I have a dress to wear while I finish my tunic from Cal's class.  So much closer to that handmade wardrobe.  

A L I S A

These are some doll/puppets that I'm working on - a Rabbit, a Goat and a Cat. I finished building the heads over the weekend and so now I have to paint them. I have to make a woven body for the Goat too. I'm totally into making these and am not quite sure how I'm going to display them. I kind of want to make shadow boxes for them and crochet and weave other stuff to jam in the boxes with them - not sure yet, we'll see. 

PROGRESS REPORT 6

J E N N E

This week's moment in the weaving sampler - what happens when you take half finished handspun art yarn and let it do its thing in the weft?  Undulations, some predictable, some not, all dependent on the long ago rhythm of my spinning the yarn five years ago.  I have about 6 inches to go on this weaving and am excited and ready to warp something new and try one of these experimental moments in a full piece of cloth.

A L I S A

This is my Babette Blanket in progress. Ever since I saw the pattern in about 2006, I have dreamed of making it and now it's happening. I'm making it out of various stash bits that I have of so many different yarns. Some that I have dyed, some that are leftover bits. All the yarn is roughly in the worsted/aran category. I'm loving how it is turning out. I keep this project at my mom's house, she's making one too using very different yarn and I love watching our blankets grow. It's constructed in a log-cabin style so I'm sewing it all together as I go - when it's done it will be done!

PROGRESS REPORT 5

J E N N E

Hand sewing buttonholes.  This dress is entirely sewn by hand and this weekend I almost broke out the sewing machine to make the buttonholes as its been finished save for that last step for over a week now.  I started this dress over a year ago, what felt like over many lifetimes ago in our tiny apartment in the city with a view of streetcars and buildings.  Today I am sitting on our couch looking out at tall  trees and listening to the birds with the window open, stitching.   Its spring again.

A L I S A

Oops! So, I have this wonderful sort of tapestry loom. I say sort of because it's made very much like an artists easel and you place a branch or dowel in a groove on the top and bottom and then tension your warp using the branches or dowel or whatever you decided as the "frame" for the weaving. It's made by my favourite tool makers, the Willette's. Anyway, I started this weaving, which I really didn't like too much but was continuing to work on anyway. I folded up the loom to bring it to a class I was teaching to show the students and as I was putting it in my car and boink - the whole thing popped off the frame and now I'm left with sort of a mess. I don't know if I should reattach and continue or, take it as a sign that since I didn't like it in the first place, start over...

PROGRESS REPORT 3

A L I S A

This is a picture from a Blending Party my Weaving and Spinning Guild had. We used blending boards. I have had a Fancy Kitty blending board for a while now and have never used it. The great thing about them is that you can use all your leftover fibre and make really cool colour repeats. It's kind of like a flat drum carder. You lay the fibre out and roll it off using dowel. You're left with some pretty neat rolags!

J E N N E

Whats life without taking risks?  Warping the rigid heddle loom with a couple Noro yarns in magical colorways to start a Saori inspired weaving.   The weft will be the same yarns.  This is going to be awesome and a little like living on the edge.  Warp be strong!

PROGRESS REPORT 1

A L I S A

This picture is of some dimensional weavings I'm experimenting with. They were created on pressing hams using t-pins as anchors for the warp. The intention is to create seamless woven structures to be used sculpturally or as bodies for puppets.

J E N N E

Loving Saori. I cant stop looking at this and thinking of ways to do intuitive weaving on my rigid heddle loom.  Made this at Saori Santa Cruz with Alisa a couple weeks ago, the squiggly parts on the right are her work and improvisation.  Love.