Weft Magic

The 8 of Cups, my first Tarot-inspired warp - is more than half threaded, which means we're getting so close to weaving I can almost taste it! These skeins of Seacell (and mini skein of handspun Sea Island Cotton) are the first weft; it will be a (deeply meaningful) personal piece for me.

You may notice that these skeins are not quite uniformly dyed.  This is intentional. I've been experimenting with a dye technique that leads to this sort of beautiful inconsistency. Usually when I dye weft for a wrap, I want all the skeins to be as similar as possible so that there are no noticeable differences through the length of the piece. I figured a personal piece then was the best place to experiment with this technique on a weft, though I plan to use it more in the future on warps! I'm excited to see just how it weaves up.

When I lay out the yarn to be dyed, I lay the skeins out next to each other so that they create a sort of canvas. Then I use the dye to paint symbols, or words, or images onto that canvas. Then I fill in the blank space with the (other) colors for the yarn. This imbeds the meaning into the threads in a far-below-the-surface kind of way. In this instance I painted triskeles and moon sigils into the yarn. The images themselves will never be visible in the final piece of cloth, but the meaning is deep in every thread.

With the impending federal regulations governing baby wraps effective early next year, I'll be launching a new babywrap brand with a couple of dear colleagues.  Our tagline for Cauldron & Cloth - chatter launching soon, keep an eye out! - is "woven with love and magic" and this is one of the ways I weave with magic. <3

Lemon Pot tea towels

These tea towels began as a custom wedding gift order for a bride who dreams of a kitchen with a lemon tree growing in a blue ceramic pot.  They are woven in a variety of advancing twill variations that are intended to evoke the various glaze finishes or fine china patterns found on household ceramics.

I truly adore handwoven towels in the kitchen.  They are long lasting, hard wearing, super absorbent, and bring a spark of beauty and joy to my day every time I see or touch one.  I weave these with 100% unmercerized cotton for maximum absorbency and fluffy softness.  This has the added benefit that you can toss them in with a regular load of laundry, set the water to hot, and then toss them in the dryer when they're clean!

I warped enough on this project for a few towels for the shop as well as the wedding collection.  They absolutely flew out the door as fast as I could list them!  I'm going to have to do a longer warp the next time!  Tea towels are really fun and satisfying to weave.  The rhythm is a welcome change from baby wraps: with a weft change after one yard instead of 5, they're quick and fun.  I'd like to get a batch up in the shop in time for holiday shopping, tea towels are always a great gift!  

What colors or inspirations would you most like to see hanging on the bar of your oven door or use to wipe up spills in your kitchen?  Does your kitchen have a consistent color theme?  Tell me all about it! 

The Queen of Pentacles in the Dye Garden

The Queen of Pentacles has always been the card I choose to represent myself, whether for a tarot spread, a spell, or just for fun.  Specifically THIS Queen of Pentacles, from this deck (the Morgan-Greer, if you're curious).  I'm a little bit blown away by just how perfectly these colors work for the card.  

I went into the Dye Garden dye day with my local Guild thinking that I would use the wool I played with as a weft for a personal piece, and when these colors came out of the dye pot I knew just what the piece was going to be about.

I still have a bit of experimenting to do: these skeins were mordanted with a combination of alum and cream of tartar.  Other traditional mordants include copper and iron, both of which are useful as post-dye mordants to shift the colors.  So I made sure to dye 3 mini skeins of almost every plant color here and once the woodstove is going for the winter, I'll simmer a skein of each color in a copper cauldron I happen to have and a skein of each in a cast iron dutch oven.  I'm excited to see how much more variety that might give my colors!  

Represented here are colors from tansy, marigold, indigo, a relative of the borage plant known as bug-loss, coreopsis, black eyed susan, and a pot of gleanings from my yard and woods including birch and alder and aspen and yarrow and rhubarb leaves.

This wool will go on the upcoming Minor Arcana warp to represent the Queen of Pentacles.  Every piece on the warp will be unique, representing a different card, with most woven in all undyed yarns and then whole-cloth dyed after weaving in a variety of techniques.