New project - silk cushion

The current Piecework magazine has an article which includes a picture of a knit Spanish cushion from around 1275 which has an alternating pattern of eagles and fleur-de-lys. It's about 36 cm/14 in square. I haven't been able to find any mention of what it's made of, but since it was found in a prince's tomb, silk seems reasonable. Mistress Leyla was kind enough to point out that it's charted in Rutt's History of Hand Knitting. So I pulled the book off my shelf, and indeed it was, and it includes not just the picture I was originally considering charting, but also the reverse side, which has a completely different and to my mind more interesting pattern of castles and flowers. (And also swastikas, which meant something rather different before the Third Reich.)

Rutt says that the cushion is currently dark brown and straw yellow, but speculates that it was originally crimson and golden-yellow. I happen to have cones of bright red and burgundy 20/2 silk on hand. I also have 60/2 in bright red.

Unfortunately, the yellow I have is tencel. But I have 20/2 white silk. Ilya points out that if I dyed the white with onion skins I would a) use onion skins, which he has been saving for me for ages and b) have yellow silk in the right size and not have to order it. Heh. So I'm considering that, possibly as a plan for tomorrow. And when I think about it, I think the bright red is a better cochineal red, so I'm inclined to go with that rather than the duller red.

I did a small sample in the burgundy/yellow combination and I'm pretty pleased with it.



In the meantime, I swatched the 60/2 silk and have determined that knitting with it makes me cross eyed, the needles are too big and it's so small I make errors in just straight stockinette, in the round, no less. Besides all of which, the original knitting is reportedly "dense", and this very much isn't. (That's probably one of the causes of the errors anyway.) So unless I get an Ott light with magnifier, that is Not Happening.

The plan that's taking shape in my head is that I'm going to do a smaller trial version that has all the motifs - border, front and back in the red silk/yellow tencel to get a feel for the project, and then decide if I'm going to do a replica with the understanding that it will be scaled up or if I'm going to do one that's the specified size, but with fewer repeats. I'm of course leaning towards the former. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to replace the swastikas with something less controversial. I have difficulty believing that any A&S judge wouldn't respect my reason for doing something else, especially if I replaced it with something with some logical connection to the time/place/work. Crosses are obvious, and since it was found in a monastery, may be the best approach. In my head, the goal is to have this ready for the A&S competition at Gulf Wars next year.

That's the plan, so we'll see how it works out in practice...

In which Saraidh gets a teensy bit distracted

I will say this for demo-ing... I would not have been motivated to spend 6 solid hours spinning if it hadn't been for the Caponi Demo last Sunday. My hands didn't entirely forgive me for several days, and I'm pretty sure that the results on the spool are rather desperately overtwisted, but hey, I have a full bobbin of lace-weight Icelandic singles to show for it, and proof that I can in fact demonstrate effectively even when the wheel is set up for lace.

I've also picked up a bit of mojo on the knitting front and am in mid-insect on a lovely preying mantis, and I must say that even though she is currently just a thorax, abdomen and three legs, I am charmed. The only reason I'm not done yet is that I haven't yet laid hands on the "chenille stems" so she can have properly posable legs.

But in the meantime, I've drifted slightly off my usual fiber track and am taking a class at the MN Center for Book Arts. It's a 6 week intro to a whole range of skills. Thus far we've made paper and tried marbling. The next couple of weeks will be devoted to bookbinding, and after that we try out the letterpress. I'm having lots of fun. I wasn't originally a fan of marbling, but the process is a blast and having my own personalized results is growing on me. However, I don't know that I'm ever going to love the results on white or the acid green paper. But since we've made this stuff, I'm going to take at least a few pieces with me next week and try making it into a single project. Might as well, since I have no idea what I'd do with all these papers otherwise. Maybe I will make sure all my Christmas presents are on the small side and wrap packages in it.

Onwards!

Having finished the beading project and sent it off, I have been having the slow realization that I do actually want to get back to knitting after a fallow period in that arena. I discovered that I had a Blackberry Ridge sock kit in the stash. (I could've sworn it was leftovers from Mom, but she says she's never seen it before in her life.)

I made it through the first six inches, aka the pattern at the top of the sock, and then realized that the yarn is going to produce a really warm sock which isn't washable, and maybe I really wanted to make mitts instead.

So I decided to take the stripe sequence from the foot, and made mitts instead. It didn't go completely smoothly - I learned that I don't especially enjoy dealing with stripes and after a few attempts, it's still a bit baggy around the thumb, but it fits well, and I really like how it looks.

But I've got a lot of mitts because I like making them and can only use so many, so there's a limit to how likely I am to use them extensively. I'm toying with the idea of putting it in the Weaver's Guild Fiber Fair. However, there's always the question of copyright when selling one's work. I absolutely admit that my mitt is based heavily on the original kit. The first six inches are made exactly according to the pattern. On the other hand, I ended up with an entirely different category of finished object. So now I'm curious as to exactly how much deviation from the original there needs to be before it's reasonable to consider it something else. I don't know that I care enough to look into it especially, but I find the question kind of interesting.

And once I'm done with the other mitt - I really must finish both before I allow myself to start something else - I have finally given in and bought yarn for the Hwaet! socks that I've been eyeing for months, so I finally bought the pattern, along with the pattern for Lalique.

Side note, not related to fiber: I've also dabbled in calligraphy lately, and completed my first scroll text for Thalhurst so that we could get his scroll to him before he left on 8/4. It's becoming pretty clear that this is a skill that it's worthwhile for me to cultivate, so I would guess this won't be the last time. hard to believe that was two weeks ago already. Funny how time flies when you're on vacation...

Corrections

...and of course for my second post, I feel the need to amend the first one. While browsing pattern books I was reminded that shadow weaving was invented in the 1940s by Mary Miegs Atwater. So that's going to be an exception to the broad statement that anything that we do with the same equipment, they probably did, at least until I find examples to the contrary.

My current fiber projects are mostly modern. I'm working on the Atlantis socks from The Enchanted Sole book, and spinning 4 oz or so of purple/blue/yellow wool that I got at the Midwest Sheep and Wool Festival back in June. I'm still undecided whether I want to try go with 2 ply, 3 ply or cabled 4 ply. I'm interested in the other options, but 2 ply seems least likely to produce muddy colors. Time to sample, I guess!

And here's a factoid that I just sent off to our local newsletter.

"Saraidh offers this bit of medieval mythbusting – many people assume that asbestos isn’t period. It is. The name comes from the Greek word for “unquenchable” due to its flameproof nature. Obviously, I don’t recommend using it as a textile, but asbestos IS a naturally occurring mineral that can be spun and woven into clothing that was known as early as the 5th century in Persia and Arabia. There are records in Chinese annals of a 20 ft long piece being used as a mantle for a statue of Buddha, and I’ve heard reports that it was sometimes used as slave clothing due to its extremely durable nature."

Other than that, I'm still trying to decide what to do with the silk trim plan. I've found an 8 shaft pattern I'm really pleased with, which is a really complex 8 shaft twill. At first, I was thinking that I could salvage the blue tencel that's currently on the big loom, but that I realized that that entire book of patterns assumes light warp/dark weft, and besides which, rethreading is the thing that's most impeding the progress of George II (the huck lace linen towels currently on the table loom). So I continue to ponder. But it's been months since I touched either of the looms, so I need to either get back in and get moving or pull the whole lot off and put something new on. I love the theory of long warps, but my magpie nature means I'm not necessarily getting a whole lot of really long weaving actually done.