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.

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.