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In March and April we enjoyed many good times with friends and colleagues.  Brenda and Bill Leppo came for lunch and Bill was “hooked” on the ‘you bake it’ baguette that went with our current standard menu of chicken & vegetable soup, pear & walnut salad, and bread.  Jon and Barbara Schleuning [Jon is one of the founders of SRG partnership, where John worked for over 20 years] also came to visit.  Barbara is involved in learning about watercolor painting, and has joined several international travel groups in pursuit of this new passion.  It was great to see them.  Sharon and Roger Bolmeier wanted to see the photos from our most recent trip to Australia, so we spent a fun afternoon sharing the adventures from Sydney and beyond.

Meanwhile, we spend our evenings in the studio and things get woven.  Sharon put in a request for a table runner, and it occurred to Mar that table runners would afford a great opportunity to experiment with the hook joint learned  from Saori websites.  It was fairly quick to wind a three-color warp that only required 80 threads, and easy to make it long enough to weave two runners.   There was lots of blue-green yarn dyed with Landscapes dyes in the color “ice,” which paired well with a deep maroon.  The borders and center sections incorporated some of the yarns we dyed together back in January.

John has completed more than half of his latest weaving, which was inspired by a pattern called “butterfly”.  However, Tracy [aka TJ] thought it looked like a beautiful seed pod pattern.  See for yourself.

At this moment, John and TJ and friend Jessie are on native land in northern California for the Buckeye gathering.  This annual event brings together people who share interest in the ancient arts such as basketry, hide tanning, and fire building.  There are many classes to take and communal meals and evening campfires.  More about that after they get back next week.

The rains returned in force, and the valleys have flooded again.  Spring break was a washout in the northwest.

The sheep are reasonably comfortable in the barn, and we don’t prevent them from going out regardless of the weather.  They seem to enjoy watching the ducks paddle around in what should be the pasture.  This morning I saw a bald eagle at the water’s edge, with a bright white head and intensely yellow beak.

Speaking of eagles, John’s eagle weaving is off the loom and he has completed his plan for his next piece, which will be 20 wide by 10 high [landscape rather than portrait].  He will use some Peruvian highlands single ply yarn found in the shop at Cannon Beach.  After a few false starts we determined the best source of the edge cord he needs would be to use some of the weft yarn after it has been plied.  So Marilyn got busy at the spinning wheel to ply the needed fiber, then washed by dipping alternately in hot and cold water to cause it to pull together, then hung it to dry with a little weight to set the twist.  The warp has been wound and today John began to add the twining with the edge cord.  After that, it will be time to transfer the warp to his loom.

Meanwhile, I finished the two Saori-inspired pieces I had been working on.  It was a very nice warp, easy to weave because of the wide sett, meaning the warp yarns were set about 1/4 inch apart by skipping every other slot in the reed.  The hook joint, allowing you to change color within a single pass of the shuttle, was a lot of fun to try.  I have much to learn about the possibilities of this technique.  I also tried a section of free color, using unspun dyed fiber alternating with gray weft yarn to stablilize it. The size of the finished weaving after washing is about 80% of its size on the loom.  That is a good thing to know!

 

A crisp, mostly sunny day after a week of heavy rain and hail that left the entire valley flooded and even water over the road in a couple of places.  It’s strange weather for March, more like February.  Still, the daffodils bravely send out a few blooms with many more on the way.

We went to a birthday party for John [Drut] Olson at the Bolmeier’s.  Excellent food, toasty woodstove, lots of folks to visit with.  All of Drut’s old college buddies were there.  Here’s hoping all that positive energy helps him with his fight for health.  Talking with Mike and Kim we learned they have built a functioning greenhouse that extends their growing season and houses some exotic flowers.  We hope to go see it to gather ideas for the one we want to build.

Today John completed the last few rows of his Eagle weaving.  It will come off the loom now.  Much was learned through this project, and the colors are wonderful.

This week I discovered Saori weaving.  It is a Japanese approach that has a strong spiritual component, and is designed to be free-form and experimental, using lots of color and texture.  This is right down my alley!  So without knowing a thing about the actual Saori method, I just looked at the pictures, got inspired, and spent the week preparing a warp so I could jump right in and try it.  I have a three yard warp, hopefully enough for me to use up a lot of colorful scraps and try a few techniques.  The first technique of interest was one where you weave with two yarns and hook them around each other somewhere in the middle.  So that’s what you’ll see in the picture of my early efforts.  –Marilyn

It was a lovely weekend at Wetland Wool.  No rain, several hours of sun, “warm” temperatures [relatively].  We spent time in the garden. John was digging beds [nice loose soil, not sticky–so exciting], we trimmed fruit trees and raspberries, and Marilyn started some seeds indoors.

On Saturday evening we had dinner with Gin and John de Camp of Forest Grove.  Gin is a felt-maker and John loves his model railroad.  Good food and good company!  Gin is known for her amazing felt hats, but if you let your eyes wander around her studio, you discover that she uses felt to create everything from winged dragons to beads.  Beautiful and inspiring.

This evening we are in the studio with a warm fire going in the wood stove, beautiful music playing, and wool in our hands. I am spinning Roberta’s light gray wool, which is part of the fleece I washed in the bathtub.  Washing wool remains a mystery to me.  Sometimes it clumps together, clinging to the other fibers as if it wants to felt.  But Roberta’s has no neps, no noils, no tangles.  It is smooth and slips through my fingers easily.  The whirr of the spinning wheel made me think of my grandmother, my dad’s mother–we called her Nanny.  Her name was Florence. She was always busy with her hands.  She found furniture in abandoned houses and covered it with gym floor finish because “I like shiny things.”  She designed the quilted bedspread that covers our bed to this day.  At 82, she told me it was to be her last quilt.  “People say red and purple don’t go together, but I like it,” she said.  I told her I did too and would she please put my name on it for later?  Next time I saw her, she gave it to me.  “Use it!” she insisted.  “Don’t fold it up somewhere.  Throw it in the washer when it gets dirty.”  I did, many times, and it is wearing through in places.  Which is partly why I am weaving:  to replace that bedspread. — Mar

 

 

A cold and wet weekend:  perfect for fiber arts.

After discovering half of Roberta’s 2010 fleece upstairs with all the 2011 fleeces and trying out washing it in the bathtub, Mar was excited to feel how soft it was and began immediately to test it out.  First she sorted it into light and dark, to see if the difference is evident in finished yarn.  Then she began carding and spinning some samples.  This led to creating baskets with samples of the washed fleece, carded fleece, spun singles and spun plied yarn.

Here are two samples.  Doesn’t it just look delicious?  All you need is a spoon!

John has removed his second project from his loom at home.  Each one is a learning experience, that’s for sure.  He already has the design for the next project an eagle motif.

All the weft yarns are from our sheep.

As usual, there is lots of news from Wetland Wool.

On Saturday the 11th, the local spinner’s group met for our quarterly spin-in at the house of Kim, one of our members.  She and her husband raise Jacob Sheep south of McMinnville.  I really enjoyed spinning some lovely dark brown wool  that Kim contributed to one of our fiber exchanges so I was excited to see her sheep.  They are spotty, and they have horns!

 

Nine spinners enjoyed  lovely day at Kim’s.  Her husband provided a tasty kettle of soup and fresh hot homemade bread, and we supplemented with delicious potluck treats.

In other developments, John is about to remove both his projects from their respective looms:  his second project woven at home and his first project out at the Damascus fiber arts school.  It is amazing how much is learned with each project.  He’s busy planning his next endeavor, the Eagle pattern.

We have been running low on gray/brown wool from Roberta and Ruth.  Upon studying the fleece inventory the reason became evident:  most of Roberta’s 2010 fleece was upstairs, never having been washed.  Mar tried a new technique, using the bathtub instead of buckets to rinse, wash, and rinse the large quantity of wool.  The key is having a very good little thing in the drain to keep wool out of it.  Used Orvus paste for the washing, and also tried adding a little conditioner in one of the rinses to see if it will add softness and slip when spinning.  It is now drying atop the fridge where there is plenty of warm air movement.

Photos of John’s projects and Roberta’s wool will be added when available.

We had a call from Ringo’s breeder, wanting to know how it’s going.  So we told Sue that our sheep didn’t seem pregnant.  Turns out she put her Romney ram in with her ewes for three cycles last fall [17 days each cycle] with no result!    Usually when a Ram is unsuccessful you blame the weather, but none of us recall any major heat or other troublesome weather last fall.  Now we know Ringo is not alone, his brothers or cousins are also unproductive.  But in our case, he is still running with the ewes and there is always hope for late lambs.