FLASHBACK: Penland Weaving Concentration: Kudzu, indigo and all things Scottish!

Beth organized some wonderful visiting artists during our concentration at Penland last spring.

Junco Sato Pollack revealed to us the wonders of kudzu fiber. Her elegant manner is reflected in the restrained and beautiful table mats she weaves out of silk and kudzu. Junco will be teaching at Penland this summer. 

Lynn Pollard brought stories, video and fabrics from her textile travels in Asia. We also had a chance to admire her amazing handwoven garments and weaving art. Lynn also shared her latest creative experiment, indigo "paintings" on paper.

Marjorie Logie Warren shared her knowledge of Scottish history and traditons. Her discussion of tartans, Harris tweed and estate checks was timed perfectly since each of us in the class had just woven our own tartan blankets. 

My blanket warp color order on the chalkboard. Guide string is in green with warp threads ready to be wound.

For this project, I used llama yarn that I had brought from home with a brown heather and three different colors of wool that had been donated to the class. My blanket was woven in twill with an oversize plaid design. The taupe llama yarn alternated with the brown heather for the background.

Scottish-inspired blanket requires a Scottish warping technique....

I still marvel at the wonders of winding a warp this way...

...it looks like a lot, but it took me only minutes per inch of warp.

Nothing is prettier than a full warping board!

Blanket warp, sectioned and ready to wind on. Boo-yeah!

Virginia Rugfest 2013

The Shockoe Slip Rug Hookers of Richmond, Virginia, do an amazing job of hosting the Virginia Rugfest and Hook-In each spring. It is always a lively gathering where hookers catch up on each other's projects.

The marketplace included vendors like Notforgotten Farm, Mary's Wool Garden and Rebecca Erb's Wool Studio. There were great things to shop for and yards of wool to ogle. Since I don't have a current hooking project needing wool, I enjoyed hunting for wool for my friends' rugs. And, bonus, there are door prizes and raffles throughout the day!

I won this pretty bundle of wool from Mary's Wool Garden in the door prize raffle.

This year's featured speakers were Judy Carter and Leonard Feenan. They spoke about the "Eye See You" and "Eye See You II" projects. Leonard designed the first rug based on an idea by Judy. Judy hooked the rug. 

Eye See You, hooked by Judy Carter

Eventually, the idea came to turn each eye into its own rug and a team of rug hookers worked to create the huge "Eye See You II" installation. Both projects were on glorious display at the Rugfest, the last showing of the complete "Eye See You II" rugs. Read more about it at Eye See You  on Judy's website. Fantastic work that pictures just don't do justice to. It was such a treat to see the rugs in person, almost too much to take in.

Eye See You II, hooked by multiple artists

It's fun to figure out what animal the eyes belong to...

A rug hooker friend got the striking envelope below in the mail from the World Wildlife Fund. I thought it fitting for this post.

MUST READ: Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline

In light of the recent Bangladesh garment factory building collapse where the death toll is now over 600, this book, Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline, is an important read. In a world where we care and know more about where our food comes from versus where our clothing comes from, this book is an eye-opener. Cline does a great job of tracing the origins of this country's now-disposable clothing obsession. It doesn't take much more to link that to tragedies such as the one in Bangladesh. It will make you think twice about that next clothing purchase.

Necessary Indulgence: Handknit socks; cotton stretch shorties

I have been enjoying my handknitted wool socks during this winter that never seems to end. But, I am more than excited that it's almost getting to be warm enough to wear my recently-completed summer shortie socks. I started knitting these in January 2011 (no typo there) and the first sock was completed pretty quickly (pretty sure that two weeks is a record for me in the sock completion category). Sadly, the second sock faced the misplacement of the red ball of yarn for the heel and was in a holding pattern/hiatus for a year or so. Now, all done, only 2 years later!

Happy feet

Lace stitch pattern; easy to remember if you don't put your socks down for a year+ in the middle of knitting them.

The socks are knit in a stretchy cotton yarn, Cascade Fixation, in a pattern that I think is from the Cascade website. I changed the heel and toe to red since I only had one ball of the multicolored space-dyed yarn. And I added a single crochet edging in the red to the top of the cuffs to balance things out.

I knit these on US size 3 needles, so they were quick to knit, as long as I was knitting them, that is :). They were knitted with the neat square double pointed needles from Kollage.  I highly recommend the square dpns and circulars from Kollage for those with hand soreness issues. They actually do work to ease the pain.

MUST SEE: Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity

I was lucky enough to see this exhibit in Paris when it was at the D'Orsay Museum in December of last year. The exhibit does a lovely job of connecting art with fashion. Curiously, the French title left out the word "Modernity".

The exhibit opened in New York City in February "Impressionism Fashion and Modernity" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until May 27, 2013. It will continue to the Art Institute of Chicago on Wednesday, June 26, 2013, where it will be until Sunday, September 22, 2013.

There are wonderful examples of period dress along with the fantastic impressionist artwork. The final exhibit room in Paris re-created a park with a soundtrack of songbirds, grass-green carpeting and park benches interspersed with the paintings and fashion...such fun!

FLASHBACK: Penland Weaving Concentration: Napkin Bombing

The weaving for my "Pines" dining hall napkins took under a week and the finishing took a few more days. 

One napkin on the loom, alternating natural and hunter green wefts  for horizontal stripes.I also was playing with different treadling sequences.

As I progressed with the weaving, time became a factor and I started using a single weft color to speed things up and just turning my twills for variation in pattern.

The last four napkins woven on the warp were all woven using hunter green weft which gave the fabric a stiffer hand and a different look.

The best part about the weaving studio at Penland; lots of room to roll out your work!

Beth and Zee sorting napkins in preparation for lunchtime at the Pines dining hall.

Lunch service was about 135 people, so there were piles and piles of lovely different napkins for staff and students to choose from.

This was a very satisfying process. Beth wove a good number of these napkins from past workshops and they were great inspiration for us.

She shared her easy fringing technique for finishing the napkin edges. One of my best memories of Penland is fringing napkins with my roommates in Dorm 54.

Signage for the napkin bombing was designed...there was a kitten theme going that week. I wonder why....see Fashion Cats by Takako Iwasa. Thanks, Beth!

Lunch was Vietnamese sandwiches that day...absolutely delicious... and a perfect meal for cloth napkins. It was an all-around successful project for the weaving concentration!

Whipped!

Finished the rug just in time to bring to Virginia Rugfest on Saturday.

"Meshed Primitive" by Jane McGown Flynn.