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