Fire in the Sky

Oh my.  It has been nearly a year since I wove this warp, and now over a year since I designed it and I've yet to hit publish on its blog post!  This was my first go-round playing with the idea of the aurora borealis as inspiration.  I have another aurora warp coming up on the loom, so it seemed an auspicious time to finally get this one published.  

This warp is a dark navy blue with splashed streaks of color across it.  So many times when I see the aurora used as inspiration, the warp is a riot of (beautiful) colors.  But in the snow quiet wintertime when I step outside in the middle of the night and look up, I see the vast expanse of the dark sky held up by points of starlight and a swath of swirling curtains of ethereal color.  I wanted to mirror that relationship of vast dark sky to ribbon of color in this warp.  

The first wrap piece was woven with a black tencel weft.  The weave is a faux crackle algorithmically designed by Ralph Griswold.  The pattern of the weave reminds me of the stands of black spruce growing stunted and beautiful in the muskeg, and of the spiky patches of fireweed cropping up in meadows and roadsides.   It is visually camoflauged in this piece because the navy warp against black weft doesn't give the sort of high contrast that allows for a weave pattern to shine.  I do love the way that the interval of the pattern repeat and the random intervals of the pinstriped colors interact creating a visual effect of the ribbons of colors seeming to dance and move.

The second wrap piece had the added inspiration of a particular visionary dreamscape auroral display.  It was a really special piece to weave and it went home to the person to whom that visionary dreamscape was speaking when I witnessed it.  Such a magical experience to be able to pull that vision into cloth! 

I used cotton for the weft on this piece, in (mostly) the same colors as are in the warp and in a variety of techniques.  This piece was a total playground for me.  It was so much fun to do.  While it looks as though the weft may be hand painted, it isn't.  It is all commercial colors with the visual effect due to hand manipulated weaving techniques.  Clasped weft and alternating wefts, and alternating clasped wefts.  For most of this piece I had between two and eight shuttles going carrying different colors.  It was a totally improvisatory process, going through themes of color and technique, checking back in with the memory of that visionary dreamscape and moving into a new theme of color or technique.  

One of the things I most adore about weaving is the way that once you know what you're doing, once you know the container you're working in, you can change things up and play to your heart's content.  This was the same weave structure I had used for the prior warp, Field of Dreams, so I'd woven probably over 20 meters of this weave and had learned the structure inside and out to the point where I understood how it worked when I played with it.  In the photo below, you can see how I played with treadling to change up the visuals of the weave pattern.  This was another improvisation, like a harmony to the melody of the colorwork. 

I love including cowls and fabric for making other things on my baby wrap warps.  Not everyone who follows my work is a babywearer, and the children of  even the most avid babywearer do eventually grow up and grow out of 'uppies', so I love being able to have items that can serve a purpose in the lives of those who don't wear their young children on the daily.  I wove a set of cowls on this warp featuring weft by a local dye artist Bad Sheep Yarn. 

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 Draft Credit :  Handweaving.net CW108265, Crackle Design Project, Ralph Griswold, United States, 2004, #13482

Snowbirding

Snowbirding was initially part of a weaver challenge wherein two weavers go head-to-head designing off of the same inspiration.  My dear friend Brianna over at Moth and Moon Fibreworks and I were paired with an image of a tropical beach at sunset.  

Neither of us met the deadline and both ended up producing distinctly autumnal warps.  After dyeing the yarn, I became inspired by the birch leaves just starting to go yellow in lace patterns in the forest canopy, the crampbark hinting at crimson, and the delightful earthy smell of boreal autumn taking over the woods in September.  The geese and cranes both gather for their annual migration away from the cold and the snow that will settle over this land I call home.  
It is a common thing in Alaska to flee the winters:  Retirees, those with the abundance of luxurious means, those with light pockets and lighter bags who want the freedom of wandering.  They seek the sun.  We call them Snowbirds.  They snowbird (it is a verb as well as a noun).  They return for the glory that is an Alaskan summer, called by the majesty of this land and the magic it conjures in even the most mundane soul.  And in the winter they go south.  
My inlaws are both retired now and in the sunset of their lives, and the last few winters they have made their home in Hawaii.  Their apartment opens onto a lanaii with a shared pool and a garden in which my father in law tends coconuts, mangoes, papaya, loofah (like the sponges!), hibiscus, angel trumpets and more.  The view is clear to the ocean and the horizon beyond.  As I contemplated the inspiration picture my mind kept circling back to sitting on the garden steps next to their lanaii, to watching the sun slip gloriously over the horizon, to the warmth of the night air and the smell of tropical flowers that met us in December when we visited last.  

The first baby wrap piece off of this warp featured a butter soft buttery yellow merino weft.  Three of the four wrap pieces of this design found homes in Alaska, which absolutely warms my heart.

My jewel-tone loving heart simply adored working with the deep purple eggplant weft on this piece.  This piece was a semi-custom; the mama with whom it eventually found a home was able to choose weft color, weave pattern, and length.  She was inspired by the monarch butterfly symbolizing new beginnings and its annual migration.  She chose to add random weft stripe accents in orange to add to the visual interest and really highlight this homage.

This shorty is the only wrap piece that lives "Outside" (as we Alaskans call the Lower 49 contiguous states of the USA).  The delicate pink of the skinny bamboo viscose weft brings out the tones of the horizon at dawn.  I'm continually entranced by the way that the weft shifts the overall feel of the piece.

This ring sling piece ended up staying local to me, going to live with a mama just one town over.  It was woven with a natty Egyptian cotton weft.  This slightly thicker weft lent a smooshy floppy thickness that is ideal for cush and support in a one shouldered ring sling.

I was able to really play around with wefts, weaving off a number of cowls and circle scarves as well as this baby blanket, backed with quilting fabric with a tropical motif.  Below, you see a skinny blue mercerized cotton weft, a hand dyed mercerized cotton weft in pinks and golds, and a cream/natural wool knitting yarn.  

(P.S. They are currently listed for sale in the shop! )

Unconditional : Great Competition of Weavers IBC Atlanta

Unconditional is woven as a networked twill on a parallel threading.  This means that two colors, here a wine red and a variegated greens and blues, alternate (abababab) across the entirety of the warp.  The wine red symbolizes a mother’s love: its constancy through the changes which life brings, its unconditional nature.  It is hand dyed in tones of the same color, bringing in a monochrome element to the design and speaking to the way that a mother’s love is enacted differently for an infant, a toddler, a child, a teen, an adult as her child grows and yet the essence of it remains the same. The variegated warp contains four shades of blue and four shades of green.  It moves in an ombre from mostly blues on one selvedge to mostly greens on the other selvedge.  This symbolizes the way that our children change and grow, perhaps multiplying in number, while rooted in the constancy of a mother’s love.  The draft itself resembles leaves, evoking the tree in the competition image itself a symbol of Mother Earth and the essence of abundant fertility that mothers embody.  

This year, for the first time ever, Loom to Wrap  hosted the Great Competition of Weavers live in person at IBC Atlanta.  There were three components to the judging: online voting, in-person voting, and live judging!  The panel of three judges was comprised of a well-respected baby wrap weaver, a long time experienced babywearer and handwovens enthusiast, and a Master weaver from the Atlanta guild.  They judged the pieces based on an impartial rubric.  

The above image was the official inspiration image for the competition.  I drew thematic inspiration from the sweet line drawing and pulled a few colors from the logo image.  Additionally, we had to include either a monochromatic and/or an ombre element in the design.

It was amazing - and slightly nerve wracking - to have my work seen and touched (and wrapped with!) by so many people!  And so cool to see the diversity and craftsmanship of handwovens having a moment in the spotlight at IBC!  The feedback overall from the guild's Master weaver was that she was really impressed with the artistry and craftsmanship that our little corner of the world has to offer.  

Two pieces, one of which went to the competition and one which I am keeping were woven in a black lyocell weft with the full leaves pattern.  The black weft really brings out the jewel tones I was going for with the dye job. The treadling sequence was a 204 repeat, which means that my feet made 204 different steps before the pattern of leaves repeated itself.  

On one piece there are four visible disruptions in the pattern, left unmended in honor of the way that moments of great happiness or great tragedy, whether personal or national or global, leave an indelible mark in our lives yet do not change our lives’ dynamics of growth and love.

One sister piece was woven with a smoke grey mulberry silk weft that made for one of the most luxurious feeling piece of fabric I think I've ever touched.  I love the way the light grey makes it appear almost pastel, yet still vibrant, from a distance.

The final sister piece was woven with a hand dyed long staple Egyptian Cotton weft.  I pulled out one of the greens and one of the blues from the warp along with the wine red and added in an eggplant purple.  For this final piece I changed up the treadling and found a fancy diamonds weave where the colors seem to nest inside one another: blue green diamonds inside wine red diamonds and wine red diamonds inside blue green diamonds. 

This all EC piece is so soft, stretchy, cushy, and an absolute delight to wrap with.  I think it was my personal favorite of them all, which is funny since I was not at all sure that the bright colors in the weft would work! 

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Draft credit to Eva Stoessl (https://evasweaving.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/8-shaft-woven-scarves-parallel-threading-networked-treadling/)