Soar 2006 Lake Tahoe California

Soar 2006 ~ What a Great Week!

Here is a view of Lake Tahoe Saturday morning. The lake was crystal clear as you can see. We drove the 72 mile trip around the lake to see all the wonderful mountain vistas. The snow capped mountains, little villages and hiking trails made exploring a delight.



Registration at Grandlibakken - Thanks for all the hard work the staff and Interweave Press provides to make this great event possible!

Breakfast at Grandlibakken Resort. Instructors and students ready to start their workshops.

A trip to To Old Scatness, a collaboration between Shetland Amenity Trust and Bradford University giving insight into life in Britain's most northerly island group.

The archeology dig is at the very southerly tip of the Shetland Islands. Old Scatness Broch is situated beside the airport and on the North Sea. The sight has revealed part of a 19th century crofting settlement, 17th century midden deposits, a Pictish building with rooms formed by stone piers surrounding a central space, much like spokes of a wheel. The Broch, an imposing Iron Age round tower found only in Scotland and the Northern and Western
Isles, was built as defense and a status symbol for the elite.

Our introduction to the sight was a demonstration of life in a Bronze Age home. Here you see drop spindles made of soap stone and wool dyed with plants indigenous to the Shetlands and a frame with card weaving.

The warp weighted loom with its pickup sticks to create the sheds. Both the warp and weft are singles created on the drop spindle.
Skeins of singles are used as shuttles to lay in the weft.

Round rocks (I am assuming soap stone) are used as weights for the warp. I found it very interesting the resemblance to the Navajo looms of our Southwest.

Note the pickup sticks for the warp and the wooden bars that hold the pickup sticks in place. The weaving is done from top to bottom. A shed stick is hanging on the loom. The weaver is seated on a sheep skin as she weaves her cloth.

Card weaving was also shown with leather cards and rock weights to keep the warp under tension.

Square Loom goes Rectangle!

Early morning at Hillcreek Fiber Studio's tent at Maryland Sheep and Wool Show.
Here is the square loom in a rectangular configuration. A teal and cranberry diagonal plaid was being woven. Notice that you work from both sides of the rectangle when weaving in this format. It makes for fast completion of a project. Many design possiblities; plain weave, twill, lace....mmm
There are many great uses for this shape; shawls, sleeves in a coat, front panels in a jacket etc. Carol Leigh has a new fact sheet on how to work in the rectangle configuration

What an exciting weekend. I taught an energized warp class at J Wray & Co's Little Yarn Barn. We used over-twisted singles in alpaca, wool, cotton and silk to create sample scarves. The picture shows one of the scarves in a soapy bath. You can see the warp and weft starting to move. There are more shots of the class on my website: http://bartlettfarm.com/weavingclass.htm

I enjoyed working with this technique. The only problem is keeping the warp under tension while putting it on the loom. We used short warps for the class, I think that this made it easier to thread the loom. Also using the kite stick method of winding the warp off of the warp board helped keep everything under tension.

I had several enlightening moments of clarity after we finished workshop. Types of fiber to use and set of the warp to create the energized movement in the work made for unlimited choices. I think I will try these scarves again with a wider set and some synthetic fibers. Also maybe some copper wire... hmmmmmm.

Starting a New Project

Starting a new project, color is the focus. Where will it lead? I begin with squares of fabric, woven with hand spun yarn. The colors come from deep below the surface of the ocean, dark green blue rose all mix to make a hallow of color. The shape of the garment is yet to be defined. All the fabric is yet to be woven. Where will it lead?