Winter 2016 report and HURT BOOK SALE

Hurt book sale - half price on Reflections from a Flaxen Past.

We’ve discovered some books with minor damage that we don’t want to offer at full price; so until they are in new homes, we are offering them at $24.00 each equaling half the pristine book price of $48.00. The ‘hurts’ are minor - scuffs or bent corners on the cover. So, here is a great bargain on a book that is still getting rave reviews. Click on the book button and you will find the hurt book option.

Happy 2016! Whoosh. How did we get here? Weaving and spinning and dyeing Oh My! Which is, of course, such fun.

My rocker finally got its new suit, a stripe-only version of the Michigan tartan. This is where I do most of my spinning, my little Hansen Mini-spinner on the keg in front of me. The throw on the arm of John’s Morris chair is one I wove of hand-twisted fleece with inlays of mohair and walnut-dyed fleece back in the 70's. We each have a throw since I long-ago separated the two halves of the ruana that it was originally.  What good memories of my artist-in-residence year in Gallipolis, Ohio.


 

Another project finally come to fruition was weaving up the flax I had spun when a spinning student gifted me with her stash of beautiful water-retted flax stricts. This lamp shade suits the diamond willow lamp by Tom Harmon. The inkle binding is linen, though not handspun. The remaining length of the thick & thin tabby linen will be a gift back to Karen Schnee as thanks for the fiber. You may recognize her name as the author of the picture-story "Cloth Aprons for the Loom" ppg 40-41 in Warp with a Trapeze and Dance with Your Loom.




Handspun singles linen shade for Tom Harmon's Diamond Willow lamp.
 

　

　

　

　

Lampshade cloth of handspun flax singles in plain-weave with every 4th warp and weft, the singles used four-fold
 a gift of Karen Schnee.
The binding is inkle-woven of commercial linen
 

Besides a marvelous trip to San Diego with our daughter to visit her brother/our son, his wife/our daughter-in-law, and her extended family in July, the studio was the focus of life --- until our daughter, two weeks before Christmas, encountered a falling martin-house pole resulting in a titanium rod in her tibia, a  fibula in shatters, and the gruesome (but leg and life-saving) surgery for ‘compartment syndrome’. I managed to get her out of the hospital and learned how to keep house for her and her cats - meal-planning - focused on protein and calcium, cooking, shopping, cat-box cleaning (all things my teenager does for me), nagging her to keep her leg elevated, rotating ice packs and praying for healing. We did have some fun too, watching ‘chick-flicks’ and, at the 6-week check-up, her surgeon was "amazed" at her healing speed. She only needed me about two and half weeks, but for an inexperienced care-giver, it was extremely intense.

In September, the day before the county mowed it all down, I had gathered a good bundle of the Big Blue Stem prairie grass that I was astounded to find growing north of the 45^th parallel when we first moved ‘out behind the cement plant’. Yes, I said a prayer of thanks for beating the bush-hog to the prize. Big Blue Stem was my father’s favorite. It grows over 5 feet tall and is identifiable by the glorious height, blue-purple stem, and a blossom that looks like a turkey foot. When a towel warp on the Lervad loom invited, I wove the beautiful grass (after it drank some glycerin-water solution) into a hanging - which sold within hours of displaying it at the Thunder Bay Arts Council Gallery. Gotta thank people with such discerning taste!


Big Bluestem

With a bit of warp remaining, the seed pods from "Olga's Mothers Poppies" got their own weave after a spray of gold paint.
　

　



Olga's Mother's Poppies

　
I have finished weaving the tags for the linen purificators and as of three weeks ago, they are all hemmed. It may be next report before I have pictures of the wet-finished pieces since are currently without water, thanks to a disintegrated well point. I might try washing them in snow-melt. In the meantime here is a tag on the inkle loom it is 70/2 warp, 35/2 pattern yarn. Also a picture of both sides of a completed tag. This is the technique I learned from the Lithuanians and detailed in Reflections. A similar technique fairly common throughout Scandinavia. This uses 7 pattern warps.



Tiny pick-up pattern linen labels for Purificators, on the inkle loom



Fiber, date and monogram on a tag, ready to apply to the Purificator. Back and front of the label shown.

After talking friends Julie Hurd and Linda VanAndel into applying to teach at CW Seminars, they talked me into applying, and all of us made the faculty! Along with a great gathering of great weavers, teaching assured our slots in the registration list. (So much for declaring a sabbatical.)

And now, I have been invited to offer a workshop to Central Ohio Weavers Guild, (my very first guild and a great introduction to the weaver’s guild system in the 1980's.) That guild membership came after years of weaving, exhibiting, a year as Artist-in-Residence, and teaching. The COWG is celebrating 80 years! - no, I am not a charter member, but most honored to contribute to their anniversary as the weavers and spinners that I met there provided an invaluable boost to my weaving skills and career. Colleagues there included Deb Menz and Marjie Thompson!

A sculptural inkle weave with wire called ‘Mild Fire’ and a quickie shibori warp dipped in an indigo vat at the Weaving Barn at Lynn Lake (Janney Simpson’s summer hangout) will close this posting. The scarf borders are Lithuanian stick-weave. See CW Journal February 2016 for details.





Mild Fire


　


Indigo Shibori on silk with stick-weave border

　

A Michigan tartan scarf ornamented with pine trees and 'beads-on-a-string motif, using that marvelous Lithuanian stick-weave technique presented in Reflections from A Flaxen Past.  See the Spring Complex Weavers Journal for details of both these double-harness weaves on simple 4-shaft counter balance looms.
 

Pray for Spring - and good water, Treadle with Joy, Kati

Spring is leafing out all over

Ode to Greyfur:
There was a young kitten quite frail
Who had a magnificent tail;
The cat grew into it...
But wouldn’t you knew it,
It grew once again that great tail!
                            JDM (aka teenager)





















Isn’t he cute? 9 pounds and growing.

Speaking of kittens, I spun up the last of the combings saved from my sweet Himalayan Mollis, plied it with some crimpy Cormo (for stretch and reduced warmth), then knit it into a ribbed collar so I can cuddle with her on cold days. I am not much of a knitter, so I was delighted that my first try fit. The blue-grey edge is tail fur.

The blue-grey edge is tail fur; the buttons are crocheted, Lithuanian
method i.e. all fiber.

In the early weeks of the year the humidity was near enough 60% in the studio that I finished Suzanne’s Lithuanian-style blouse on the 33 singles linen warp. She is pleased and I’m tickled to have been able to make my Bene Toika 24 behave sort of like a 20-shaft draw-loom.

 We walk often along the shore of Thunder Bay and one day in early April after we thought the ice was gone for good, I had to giggle when I saw ice-fleece washing up on the sand. What would you think seeing this?

 

 

 

Before Easter, a small portion of my bushel of onion skins went to make egg-dye and then my fiber-friends practiced some sgraffito, Lithuanian-style.

  

 

 

All this worked around a linen-teaching trip to the Weavers Guild of Rochester, NY (probably my last out-of-state, as the stress of travel seems to excite the shingles virus). Still have a short program planned for the Traverse City guild only 2.5 hours away across the state, with one overnight.

 

Now my focus is turned to upholstery for the Victorian Settee that has been in the family for around 150 years. I’ve settled on a repp at 48 epi with the 20/2 high-twist wool/mohair. Here are some pillows covered in the samples to date.

 

 

Though not as traditional as the Fibonacci-stripe at far right, the shadowed-rust stripes second from the left excites me most, and I may just have to do it. My head is swimming with dye formulas - fortunately I keep pretty good records of the tests, and I have a tipple-beam balance for measurements. Working on the 3 pounds to scour and dye for the settee....and flowers to smell, young leaves to admire, kayaks to paddle and bikes to ride to the ice-cream store 6-miles away....... KRM 5-10-15

 

 

 

Winter Special

Winter is here in all its beauty and chills, and to warm your Holidays, a special handwoven bookmark in the Lithuanian style will be included in your order for Reflections from a Flaxen Past: For Love of Lithuanian Weaving

In the Spring I was comissioned to weave a Lithuanian-style blouse in the mode of one I did on the draw-loom. I accepted, with the foolish confidence that I could get my 24-shaft Toika to reproduce the patterns of my sold-to-Kay Faulkner-in Australia Glimakra 12-shaft drawloom. After many hours with my Fiberworks PCW program zoomed-in to the max and playing in the liftplan we got what we wanted. Of course, I had to weave a sample to check that my 33/1 warp would weave up and second, that the scale of the patterns would be right. Jalapajano! Now that the cloth for the blouse is woven, I've decided that the samples would make lovely bookmarks. What better way to celebrate my success than to offer a Winter Special? So,from now until Roc Day - (January 12, 2015 when our group will celebrate back-to-spinning)we will include a handwoven Lithuanian-patterned bookmark with each copy of A Flaxen Past.

Handwoven linen bookmarks with Lithuanian-style pick-up patterning 1.5 x 9 inches

Summer's Gone

Summer was very short, but lovely, especially the visit to Scotland, our third trip but the first time with a tour and the 'shepherding', historic sites and great step-on guides made it well worth having to be part of a 'herd', and the fellow travelers were a great group.




Our first night in Edinburgh we were treated to  a festive dinner including the traditional haggis (best spiced with a wee dram of whisky) tatties & neeps, and concluding with shortbread and scones.  The entertainment included a rather good band, Highland dancing, and the Queen's own Piper who, after working well and long, socialized with this tourist - and her attire could not clash more with his tartans if she had tried!



Dolly, cloned from a mammary cell (thus her name) of a Finn Dorset sheep  is now on permanent view at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. She had a short life but a famous one, mothering 6 lambs before her passing at age 6



One of the looms on exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland boasts its own version of live-weight tensioning.  This is not the curling stone on a Paisley shawl loom that triggered my application of athletic weights, but it obviously is an  effective warp tensioner.



A visit to the Geoffrey Tailor of Edinburgh shop brought a  mind-bending look at some contemporary bespoke kilt outfits.  Goeffrey Tailor has made two of John's kilts, neither of which is pin-stripe!



The strongest impression was left from our visit to Orkney and the Scara Brae archeological site.  This ancient village, built about the time of the Great Pyrimid, was first revealed to modern humans from a severe storm in the 1800's. Covered passageways connect  the various family and work spaces.  They even seem to have had inside-houses (as opposed to out-houses).  It is said that if the wind ever stops blowing on Orkney, that everyone will fall down.  We too learned to lean into the wind and embrace the constant mist.



Back home I learned of a great secret at the Thunder Bay Arts Gallery.  My shawl/runner, "Thunder Bay Ice Scapes" was missing but I was not to know who bought it!  It wasn't long before John's (graduated) piping student and her husband invited us for dinner.  There on her magnificient table was my weaving.  The dinner and their compay was great, as is this photo by Deb Houk taken from the balcony over their dining room.



Two weaver friends from the Weavers Guild of Kalamazoo came to Alpena with the Model T touring club and Cindi and Judi came out for a studio visit.  Judi's photo caught my 'stash-reduction' kimono and Cindi too.

 In October a talented and energetic Lithuanian researcher came from New York City all the way to Alpena to  visit me.  Aldona Rygelis  is documenting weaving in the Lithuanian Diaspora and developing a web site so  that images of the unusuallly beautiful National Costumes will be available to the descendants of the emigrants as well to the rest of us admirers of fine weaving.  Aldona has 10 years juniority (her coinage) on me and I greatly champion her project.  I will post a link to this new web-site when it is available.

Alpena is having very Scottish weather just now, windy, misty and cool.  Perfect for staying inside and weaving.  I'm currently working on a Lithuanian National Costume blouse for a friend.  It is an interesting challenge to me as I am learning how to make my 24-shaft Toika weave like a draw-loom.  Maybe next post I'll have some pictures of this project to share.

 Keep warped and shuttle on, Kati  11-10-14

Too much weaving fun



When I needed to explore how to invisibly stitch a 2/2 twill layer to 2/2 basket weave (with "only" 24 shafts) and needing four blocks of double-weave, using panama (basket weave), was all I could do to keep the interlacement similar in the two layers.  This is a test I set up on six shafts of my Baby Mack. With suggestions from Brigitte Liebig, Bonnie Inouye, Pat Stewart, and references by Mary Black, Doramay Keasbey and Sharon Alderman I was eventually able to understand the stitching possible - (on only two of the eight sheds)and decide how best to do it.  Being a bear (er, weaver) of very little brain long with vision problems, this took me far longer than it would any of you reading this.  But I did it.  Then I figured out how to apply what I learned to the 24-shaft draft AND keep the tartan pattern aligned with the block pattern for the cruciforms. The stoles are now being finished with a few hours of hand-stitching.  More pictures later.

 Sure I would rather weave than blog, but I am certainly overdue. And since pictures are more interesting than words, here are some images of what's been happening in my studio and out.

We stayed in Alpena and enjoyed their Independence Day activities.  Here is a very impressive sand castle entry

Another impressive entry, a castle for sure.



After re-sleying closer for the new, finer warp, I was able to test that I had fixed the lift-plan for the basket-weave side. The beat is off of course on the 18/2, but the interlacement is correct. Hurrah!



It is time I gave full tribute to Ethel Alexander, who wove tweeds and had them custom tailored into sport jackets for her husband, a local bank VP.  Mrs Alexander knew I was winning 4-H prizes for my  tailoring projects and when I was only 17 she offered me a piece of handwoven that was too small for a jacket.  The first skirt I wore through high school and all through college.  I remodeled it into a mini-skirt later and still have it - and all the scraps.

Fireworks display across Thunder Bay - about 5 miles from our door.

For the WASOON program, I dug out the very first weaving that I did under Mary Black's New Key to Weaving tutelage using using what I could find - kite string warp, bindertwine and some scraps of knitting yarn.  It is not pretty, but it was mightly exciting to be making cloth! A dream was coming true

A few year back I wove some of his family tartan for our local priest, Greg McCallum.  He has since moved to Saint Patrick's and is taking his first trip ever to Scotland.  My Teenager and I are going too, leaving tomorrow.

While waiting for fireworks on July 4, we have a glass of red as the sun sets behind 'Cement Plant Henge'.  The sun has already moved and is setting way to the left (south) of this.  Summer is short and beautiful in Northern Michigan.

A great Independence Day parade.  I want a ride in this classy hearse - but not yet.





A Michigan tartan scarf to thank 85-year old kaleidoscope-maker Jim Halulaur for making a drive pulley for my Rognvaldson wheel.  All he wanted for payment was a hug. He got that, too.

 

With the stitched double-weave stoles off the loom, I dressed the loom with 33/1 linen when the humidity was near 80%.  Then I discovered two denting errors within a few inches of one another - AND they complimented one anothe. So by clipping only the right-most thread in each dent, I moved it over.  Repeating until the sparse dent was properly filled.  The proofing of the correction created a very interesting section.  Now when the humidity again is suitable, I'm ready to see if I can re-produce the Lithuanian-type draw-patterns I did on a similar warp



My historic Rognvaldson wheel spins flax with it new drive pulley.  What joy.

I was able to weave on the old warp, right up to the knots of the new warp.  What a boon for someone as 'Scottish' with resources as I am.

The test piece for the stitching above looked good - until I cut it down and turned it over.  Then the lift-plan error on the basket-weave was very obvious.  By this time I was getting confident about SEEing the stitching in the liftplan and was able to make the needed changes to fix it.

Knisley's Weaving Rag Rugs book

Since my last post, I've had a couple great teaching trips, one to Dayton, Ohio in early April for Weavers Guild of Miami Valley, where Spring was bustin' out all over, and the linen students were most receptive to my strange methods. Then in early May to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario where I 'edutained' the entire WASOON group with "How did we get HERE?" opening night, and then kept a smaller group awake for a whole day of tartan designing, weaving and wearing. I do love conferences for the great connections with folks from far and wide. I love teaching for guilds because I am so well cared-for and there is such energy within a guild. But I’m getting old and think I may give it all up. Then when I've recovered, I think maybe not yet. I also had a most enjoyable surprise invitation to be 'artist of the month' at the Thunder Bay Arts Council Gallery. That distracted me from blogging - or that is my excuse. However, this post is about a new book I've been asked to review: WEAVING RAG RUGS by Tom Knisley, manager/teacher at The Mannings Handweaving School and Supply Center. Stackpole Books, 2014, softbound. www.stackpolebpooks.com Weaving rag rugs is a most rewarding activity and Tom Knisley has given us a new book by the very title: Weaving Rag Rugs. Knisley is an experienced rug weaver and teacher. In Weaving Rag Rugs he details his front-to-back method of warping, with eleven profusely illustrated pages. (If he warped back to front it might only take four pages - but my prejudice is showing, isn’t it?) He shows and discusses a rug weaver's tools and materials including linen warp for which this linen aficionado is grateful. Good color photos show various methods of rag preparation and joining. There is an interesting spread on how much fabric is needed for a rug, by using a 12 inch warp with one yard of different weights of fabric. It would help to know the width of the fabrics used, or if one square yard was a constant. The results are illustrated with twelve color photos in a pleasant grid. Chapter 7 is my very favorite with 2-page spreads on most of the 32 beautiful rag rugs illustrated. For each rug, we are given the threading, tie-up and treadling draft, the warp material and colors, the width in the reed and epi, as well as the width of the strips, including a photo of the fabric. What I wish were included is the length and weight of the rug or even the number of yards of the fabric used, including the width of the fabric. It would not have taken much space to reveal the yards or weight of each warp color used. For this numbers-challenged weaver, I would rather compare the various rug’s specs to get a notion of how to plan a rug and what to expect, instead of doing the math based on his experiments on pages 12 and 13. The rug illustrations are beautiful and I want to weave at least half of them. Maybe if I block them, as he recommends, they will lie flat. To quote Knisley: Live free and weave happy! Kati Reeder Meek, May 15, 2014

Teaching Schedule update frustrations

I've tried multipel times over the past months to update my teaching Schedule, I and this editing system are not friends. I do have contracts for this year, 2014: Weavers Guild of Miami Valley, Ohio, Guild Program For Love of Lithuanian Linen April 11th, 2014, Beavercreek Fire Station, Lustrous Linens Workshop April 11,12, 13, same location. Wasoon 2014, Something Superior, May 2nd,3rd,4th, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Keynote Speaker Friday eve, Saturday all-day workshop on Tartans: Designing, Weaving & Wearing. 2015: Weavers Guild of Rochester, NY Ode to Linen guild program April 8, 2015, Lustrous Linens; Weaving Linen with Success, April 7,8,9,10. I hope that my ineptness at keeping this information updated has not hurt anyone's feelings. I wish I were more 'ept' at all this blogging stuff. I will attempt to add an illustration from the TBAC Gallery exhibit that I could not manage to make part of my posting this morning. NOPE! Off i go to the studio where I get along better with my toys. Kati