Tag: A. Catherine Noon

  • Final Day of First Session, June 24th

    My final day of class, and I\’m hooked.  I will definitely sign up for the four-harness class, and even have purchased my first instructional book:  Learning to Weave, by Deborah Chandler.  It only just arrived today, so I don\’t have an update, but I\’m excited to feel like a \’real\’ student.

    So, on to the last day of my first set of class:
    These images show the fabric all the way up to near completion; I also have some images of the fabric off the loom but I\’ll save those for another post.

    This shows the rest of the greens and the aquas that I used.  At this point, I\’m starting to actually run out of warp, which I didn\’t think would happen.  I\’m disappointed to not have more to test the colors on, actually.

    Here is a close-up of the light green.  The little string sticking up is actually woven into the fabric at the sides when you change colors, then clipped at the end of the process.  I started clipping once they wove in, so I didn\’t have as much to do when I pulled the fabric off the loom, which is something I\’ll continue to do.

    Here is the finished product, with the exception of actually coming off the loom.  It shows all the way through the indigo; I didn\’t have enough room to work through the purple/violet tones of the spectrum.  You can see how different each of the stripes looks as it progresses through the spectrum on the warp; this is a good exercise in seeing how colors interact in fabric.  They do so quite differently than when knitting.

    Here is another view of the same segment of fabric.  In this view, it seems much more plaid-like.  There are some interactions that I didn\’t expect to like but really do, including the red and green and the center sections.

    You can see a couple things in this image.  One is how many threads there are when you don\’t clip as you go – which is why I decided to do so.  The other is how really bright that one band of orange is.  Part of that is because the acrylic fiber is much brighter in tone than the wool, and the strand was a lot looser so when I packed it, it packed very tightly and ended up letting the weft dominate in that segment.

    This is the final piece, all wound back on, ready to go back to class to take the fabric off the loom.  I ended with a clear royal blue, since I couldn\’t get all the way into the violets.  Not a bad day\’s work – well, really, four days\’ work!

  • Weaving, June 17th

    Back to the workshop!  June 17th was my third session at the Chicago Weaving School.  I made some good headway with my weaving, though I had some trouble getting the beating consistent.  Stress really made a difference in how I interacted with the fabric, which I found interesting.

    In this view, you can see in the bottom left corner of the image how the same color in the weft as in the warp comes out in the fabric.  Remember that the warp are the threads that are tied onto the loom, and the warp are the threads the weaver passes back and forth.  (Warp = vertical, weft = horizontal.) 

    For the detail-oriented, there is a stripe in the bottom third where I forgot to more the heddle and there are two weft rows right next to each other, making a wider stripe of color than usual.

    Here is a close-up of the heddle with the warp passing through.  The purple paper wrapping around the back beam keeps the threads from tangling up with each other.  As you can see, the last red thread is falling off the edge of it; we found that with this loom, it\’s better to not go all the way to the horizontal edge when weaving because that seems to happen.

    Here is a front view of the loom with the fabric; there\’s quite a bit finished already.  The two clamps hold the loom to the table – which, having forgotten them the next lesson, I have decided are very necessary.  It keeps the loom from jumping back and forth.

    Here is the weaving with thread already on the spool for the weft; we\’ve progressed up to green tones at this point.

    Same view, but from the back of the loom instead.  There is a cone of thread in the extreme left of the image, along with my notebook tracking which colors I used in the piece.

    More of the green, this time with the heddle in neutral position for traveling.  When the heddle is in the neutral position, it lays the threads on top of each other.  If you set the spool inside the shed before you do that, then it closes over it to allow it to stay in place.

    Another shot, this time horizontally across the top of the warp, showing the heddle in neutral position.  You can see the unevenness I mentioned in the yellow section right in front of the camera; it\’s rather wavy here.  The edges also waver in and out from this day\’s weaving.

  • Weaving Update

    As I\’ve discussed in prior posts on weaving, I\’ve been working on learning the Cricket loom, a rigid heddle loom.  I have successfully taken the fabric off the loom and it is now a table runner in my dining room!  It\’s exciting.  It turns out that weaving is only part of the tale…
    Once one is finished weaving, the finishing process is critical to the success of the fabric.  My instructor says that an unfinished weaving is like an unbaked cake.  You can finish by pressing or washing (or both); we finished mine by steaming it with an iron but not pressing it flat (in order to not crush the weave).

    This is a picture of the front of the loom, with the breast beam.  The threads are tied on now, and are prepared for weaving the \’header.\’  This is a part of the weaving that will not be used in the final fabric, and will pull the warp threads into alignment.

    The flat plastic grid that the threads are pulled through is called the heddle.  In this loom, which is a rigid heddle loom, the heddle is moved by hand up and down.  In a four-harness loom, the heddles are controlled by levers and springs (which will make more sense when I get some pictures up on that topic, later).

    This view shows the header, which is woven in white, and the beginning of the weaving.  If you recall, I wove a color \’gamp,\’ which is a sampler piece that shows the properties of the weaving.  A color gamp is to show how the colors interact; a texture gamp shows the various types of stitches.  I decided to do this one in the colors of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), as well as brown, black and white.  This would let me see how each of those colors interact with each other.

    My instructor suggested I use shades of each of those tones, which is what I did.  It made an interesting effect in the weave.

    Here is a top view of the warp with the threads coming through the heddle.  You can see that there is a hole in the center of the heddle, as well as gaps in between, and one thread comes through each.

    These are the red tones as they\’re woven on.  I like the plaid effect as they get woven.

    This shows the cones of yarn waiting to be used.  My gamp is made with wool that\’s spun especially for weaving.  The weight is a good deal lighter than knitting yarn (about a lace weight), and a lot stronger to withstand the repeated beatings it takes when in the warp.

    Another view of the red tones, with the warp extending off to the upper left of the photograph.

    Closeup of starting the orange segment.  This is what\’s called a \’plain weave,\’ which is where every other thread of the warp is lifted and the weft is passed through.  Other patterns can be made by moving the warp differently, but those patterns are easier on a harness loom because the heddles can be controlled more precisely.

    This is another view of the weaving, where the heddle is brought toward the weaver to \’beat\’ the threads into the warp.  It\’s a meditative, repetitive action:  pass, beat, pass, beat.  Depending on how hard the weaver beats the fabric, it will change the density of the weaving (which we\’ll see later on when I switched to a different fiber and  ended up with a weft-dominated band).

    A close-up of the selvege.  The goal in weaving is to get a very neat edge, which I found is a lot harder than it sounds.  It\’s composed of how you beat the fibers in, which can vary based on the mood of the weaver (and it\’s interesting to see the differences from class session to session).

    As you can see from the very bright orange band, above, the switch in fiber meant that when I beat it into the weaving, it REALLY packed down.  That stripe is VERY orange. 

    Now we are moving into the yellows.  I like the rust tones in this section.

    Interesting how the whole tone of the piece is changed in just a few stripes.  This section is much cooler and softer, because of the change in the color.  Again, you can see how much closer the current segment beats into the fabric, resulting in a more weft-dominated band.

  • Motif Loff!

    Sorry, couldn\’t help the alliteration.  šŸ™‚  But I took a basic crochet class and learned how to make Granny Squares and basic motifs.  My motif is sort of the large, Frankenstein type of motif where you use huge yard to crochet something that really should be done on a tiny hook with thread.

    But it\’s my art, I\’ll make it big if I want to!

    Came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

    This particular motif has, if I recall correctly, seven levels.  You start at the bottom and rotate back and forth up to the picots at the top.  It was actually much less difficult because I used such large yarn; it would be a lot more fussy with small yarn (though pretty).

  • Box Loff – The Extended Cut

    I found some more pictures.  (Can you tell I\’m finally cleaning out my photo folders?)

    I finished the stitching on the pieces, and have actually sewn the bottom of the box.  I need to get going on finishing it so I can move on to the next project, but here\’s some more pictures of the process:


    Here are the four pieces for the sides.

    I varied the green, rather than the blue or the brown, in order to get the width I wanted.  I\’m using the green to sew up the box, in order to provide contrast and give the design \’pop.\’

    Detail of one of the side pieces.  I doubled up on the brown yarn, since it was more of a DK weight than the other two, which were worsted weight (the green, even, seemed a little on the bulky side).

    Here are all ten pieces.  The set on the left is for the top, and the right is for the bottom.  The box top will sit down over the entire part of the bottom.

    I\’m making the box to hold my essential oils from Jeanne Rose, because my cat, Boria, likes to toss them all over the table when I have them all nice and organized.  (Necessity is the mother of invention?  Whoever said that never had a cat!  Defense of one\’s things is the mother of invention!)

    Here is a close-up of the top of the box:

    It\’s got quite a bit of loft from the yarn.  Since I\’m doing a standard needlepoint stitch, it\’s as thick on the bottom as it is on the top.  It gives it a lot of padding.  The plastic mesh, though, isn\’t very strong, so it wouldn\’t be a good candidate for a box to be carried in a purse.  I\’d like to see if there are materials (metal screen, maybe?) that would be good for that.

    This is the bottom of the box.  You can clearly see the extra row around the edge where the top of the box, once it\’s sewn, will sit down over the bottom.  The outer edge of the bottom will just have a satin stitch around the edge.

    Here are both pieces side-by-side; they are 3\” square.

    This is the in-process view of the sides for the top of the box.  I did the brown design first because I wanted to see how it would look in the finished product; the reason we used brown was to match the table that it will be sitting on and I wanted to see if that worked.  It does.  I don\’t yet have a picture of the box on that table, but will get one once the box is completed.

    It\’s a little out of focus, but here is a detail of the brown yarn.  It\’s held double, whereas the green and blue are just single.

    Here is a little better shot of the same detail where you can get a good look at the plastic mesh. 

    Here is a detail of all three colors interacting together.  It\’s not an arrangement I would have thought of just off the cuff, but I\’m glad we decided to put them all together.  I think the finished design is pleasing and it matches the table, so it\’s a success all around.

  • Box Loff Revisited

    As you know, last year I experimented with needlepoint boxes.  When Rachel visited in July, I showed her the box in my office. Later on, we got to talking and came up with a design for another one.

    I have several images that I\’m tardy in posting, but here are a few.

    This first one actually has nothing to do with the box itself, exactly; it\’s one of two shots from the impromptu artist date I took the morning I had my perio cleaning.  I was very upset about having to do it, scared and sad, and I decided to go to the park to sit and try to relax and ground.  This was one of the views from my chair:

    This is part of the Forest Preserve of Cook County, a huge green space that rings the city of Chicago.  It\’s quite beautiful.  We\’re lucky to be surrounded by such green; and in fact, the motto of the city is Urbs in Horto, or City in a Garden.

    The camera on my telephone doesn\’t do a very good color balance with the sun, but the view this direction went into a little shaded grotto-like space I could imagine all sorts of little fairy-like creatures inhabiting.

    My chair and the calligraphy set that I bought myself as a present.  It\’s not actually a very good set of pens, but I did at least support my art.

    Inside the famous knitting bag.  It\’s getting very ratty now, and is going to need some surgery on the handle, but I still like it.  (My mother, who died in July of 2000, made it.)

    This is the top and bottom of the box, and the side I\’m holding is the back-side of the bottom to show the stitches.  The brown matches the brown on my table at home, and the blue is a Brede\’s Knot, a symbol of the Goddess, Brede.

    Here are the two pieces side by side, to get an idea of the pattern.  We drew it out on paper first, coloring in the boxes, and had a couple different drafts before settling on this one.

  • Mochi Update – Tunisian Redux

    I decided to change the project I used the Mochi Mini yarn for.  Originally, I wanted to do a Tunisian scarf, but it kept not working out the way I wanted.  I blogged about it here.

    Using a design by Cheryl Oberle as a starting point, I am doing a triangular shawl.  I\’m using a stitch from Barbara Walker\’s stitch dictionary, the second volume, for the middle panel.  In the original pattern, it\’s a 35 row repeat of garter; instead, I\’m doing a 36 row repeat of the texture stitch.

    The funny part is that when I started it, I thought the top was where the triangle was supposed to form.  There is a four-stitch increase every other row, two of which are in the center; which means it\’s a mitered corner.

    Uh, duh.

    You can see I sort of pulled the center out of shape and will have to block aggressively when I finish it.  I think I\’ll also add a picot row along that top since in the center there\’s only the two yarn-overs to hold the edge, which will be subjected to quite a bit of stress.

    This next image shows the mitering and the center yarn-over increases.  I like the striping effect of this yarn.  One thing I don\’t care for, though, is the way it knots with itself.  The filament has quite a bit of fuzz that develops pills, and then the yarn knots on itself.  I\’ve already had several severe tangles in just this first yarn ball and, despite the appearance, won\’t work with this yarn again because of that.  It\’s just not worth the time to untangle everything.

    This shot shows the four row texture repeat from Barbara Walker\’s guide.  I like this stitch a lot and think I might make a regular scarf in a rectangle to show it off.  It\’s got an interesting slip stitch pass over that makes the horizontal bars; it reminds me a little of Tunisian because of the square shape.  In a worsted weight yarn, I think the texture would show up even more.

  • Thursday 13 ā€“ 13 Reasons to Go On Retreat

    I havenā€™t been doing as much promo as usual for my Evanston Writers Workshop Retreat, but not from lack of interest. Itā€™s just been a hellishly crazy couple of weeks! (Which is also why Iā€™ve been so resoundingly silent on my blog dutiesā€¦ o.Oā€¦)

    So. Other than the urge to HIDE FROM THE WHOLE WORLDā€¦ ~blinks~ sorry, was that my outside keyboard? ā€¦ Here are 13 Reasons to Go On Retreat!

    1. TO HIDE FROM THE WORLD! (Duh. I mean, d00d, you didnā€™t see that one cominā€™?)

    2. Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and other books, suggests that we need to renew ourselves on a regular basis. He calls this process ā€œSharpen the Saw.ā€ After all, if you continue to saw away with it and never sharpen it, what happens to the blade? People are the same way. Renewal can take many forms ā€“ education, recreation, restā€¦ but it must take some form, regularly, in order for us to maintain our effectiveness.

    3. The Evanston Writers Workshop First Annual Retreat is this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, August 14 and 15, at the Fox River Bed and Breakfast outside of beautiful Starved Rock State Park, Illinois.

    4. Our theme is EWW Unplugged: Rest, Rejuvenate, and Write!

    5. When we retreat, not just EWW but in general, itā€™s useful to step out of our daily round and go somewhere. (Iā€™ll address how to do a staycation retreat below.) Sometimes, the simple act of changing oneā€™s surroundings can help shift personal reality into a new perspective, which makes it easier to feel as though one is actually retreating.

    6. Another reason to retreat is that it provides perspective. Itā€™s easy to let the self get swept up in the flurry of day-to-day activities and not take a step back to see the forest. But the forest is an important thing to see. Just because youā€™re toodling along on the path, efficiently and quickly, doesnā€™t mean youā€™re in the right forest! Uhps!

    7. If you canā€™t afford to take a weekend elsewhere, you can do a Staytreat. These are related to Staycations, in that you donā€™t physically go anywhere. But like the Staycation, the Staytreat must be out of the ordinary flow of events. Plan special meals, baths, relaxing events, writing events, or time with special books and people to make your Staytreat a Retreat and not a Retread of the Same Old Weekend.

    8. Thatā€™s another reason to retreat, actually: the dreaded malady, The Same Old Same Old. Highly contagious, this malady afflicts four out of five people and leads to boredom, mindless surfing of the addictive interwebs, addiction to television and silly reading material, and carboloaded eating habits.

    9. Retreat is an excellent remedy for ā€œI havenā€™t been writing lately.ā€ Retreat Unplugged is even better, though difficult for modern Interwebwarriors. One of the key tools for this is the Almighty Prompt. There are many, many opportunities for prompts all over the interwebs (caution ā€“ may lead to mindless surfing, so maybe give the task of finding the prompts to an enterprising family member ā€“ but watch them for signs of this malady!!).

    10. Get compatriots! Gather your friends, in the webs and in the flesh, to retreat with you! Communication software (and the old-fashioned telephone) work wonders to connect people across distances. Read to each other, share prompts, share writing timeā€¦ but share the retreat! Itā€™s a lot easier to retreat when you have help!

    11. Unplug. Turn everything off (except maybe the air conditionerā€¦). Turn off the computer, the cell phone, the television, the radio, the iPod, the CD Player, the 8-Trackā€¦ (sorry, belay that last), you know what I mean ā€“ TURN THAT ā€¦ OFF!!!

    12. STAY unplugged for a whole weekend. Light your home with candles, stumble around with a flashlight, write outside by the light of the street lights ā€“ use bug spray as needed! ā€“ but practice being off the grid.

    13. If those STILL donā€™t help you, then come join us! Weā€™ll help you retreat good and proper! Saturday and Sunday, August 14th and 15th, at the Fox River Bed and Breakfast in Illinois. See you there!

    ~Happy TT!~

  • Initial Public Offering – Chapter Two

    The next chapter of Initial Public Offering is up. Enjoy!

  • New World Order, Chapter 14: No More Games, Mr. Balistreri (Belinda)

    Chapter 14 is posted today. I\’m about a week late, since we want to post every other Monday and that would have been last Monday. But Rachel and I noticed some continuity problems in the chapter, and things just got busy this week.

    It\’s interesting working on a serial novel. While this chapter was already done, not all of them are, so it\’s still fluid until it posts. It\’s been fun to work on. As some of you know, we\’ve submitted our novel to a publisher, and it takes place in the same universe as New World Order but with different characters. Continuing to work on New World Order, which to us is now the \’older\’ project, keeps us grounded in world building because we have a much clearer idea of where we\’re trying to get with it.

    We met while Rachel was here earlier this month and discussed the timeline of the different books in this universe. That\’s very helpful as well, because we know where we have to get story-wise in order for all the parts to fit together.

    In any event, I hope you enjoy!

  • Gom gom gom…

    I\’m blogging about Ornes Candy Store\’s Dark Chocolate today on Eclectica. Stop by!

  • How To See the Forest If Youā€™re a Tree Person

    I am blogging today at the Writer\’s Retreat Blog about \”How to See the Forest If You\’re a Tree Person.\” Stop on by!