i won three skeins of beautiful roving - 70/30 merino/cashmere, 50/50 cashmere/silk and 50/50 alpaca/silk - via magic at a raffle for an excellent yarn store's opening in oakland. i will link to it elsewhere, and not here where they might think i used black magic to win the raffle, which of course i did not. it even might have been luck...but it was magic. steve won, too. it was great.
the roving has brought me to spinning, which i am going to learn to do toot sweet (tout suite?) so many weavers will tell you you just HAVE to know how to spin if youre gonna be a weaver...and theyre right, because it gives you the most autonomy in creating yarn. CREATING YARN! holy moly, that's the ticket right there.
it looks as though, down the line, in the nearish future, i will go to the southwest and learn weaving, from probably, the dine people. nothing actually points to this - i dont have a brochure or anything, nor have i started researching the actuals of it - but i have a feeling. and my feelings are usually right. feeling + visions = path to manifestation.
since i last updated i have made several scarves/samples. theyre samples because none of them are, in my opinion, sellable. im sure they are all actually sellable to somebody...but they were created to learn and to be given away. i dont know when i will be able to make art, in a production mode, with the purpose of...selling? blech, that's not right. an artist makes because she has to or else she will die. and im an artist.
First i wound a warp with this beautiful peruvian cotton that ive used before. it's super soft and i was practicing how to make a cloth with good drape that still has integrity. my work has been either sleazy or stiff, like tying a winter scarf into a bow, and i just want to be able to make something someone would want to wear. this has been hard for me because, to be honest, the way something fits, feels, or looks is a lot less important to me than the ashe it has. a big part of me just wants to make fetishes and another part of me wants to physically go through repetitive motions while counting and producing tangible patterns. doesnt hurt to look at color... i guess i have to give myself more into creating some luxury experience for the wearer. more pleasing? i want these wearable pieces to be pleasurable as well as protective. an idea i have to inspire myself to produce more for sale items are to think about a person and try to invoke their essence in a piece...i will probably just want to give them the scarf then... i'll have to do it with people's whose whearabouts are unknown to me. whereabouts wearabouts. the whereabout? wearabout collection by victoire swanson. gotta dream big, y'all, keep crackin yourself up!
so big. BIGGER. MORE FABULOUS. MORE ASHE!
i am desperate for this book:
http://www.viccisperry.com/index.php?id=6
DESPERATE!
anyway, the first scarf i made on set at 10 epi ended up looking a little punk. it wasnt sleazy except in a few isolated rows, and the variation in the way the threads came together looks neat. The pattern didnt show up how i expected at all (it was a huck lace, but i ended up weaving tabby for most of it) and overall it's too bare and light. set at 15 was much better. i only got a little out of it because the punk scarf is about 6 feet long. i gave the piece to my friend alex as a wrapping up somethin special cloth. it was soft, felt good.
i used some of the rest of that yarn to wind a (kinda ugly) warp with whitish/gray sides fading to a whitish/tan center scarf with a spot bronson pattern. this time i learned how to thread just for certain areas and tabby for the center, so the scarf would result in having two blocks of spot bronson on the edges. it was easy once i made a draw down. im really loving learning about drafting. i used this very soft chocolate alpaca that ive had for three years and would like to move on from.
here is a picture of my roommate wearing it. he loves a brown fit so i gave it to him.

then i made a scarf from this purple cotton flake (but they call it something fancier) from habu. i gave it to my sweetheart. i will get a pic to post.

i made a small rug for my friend's wedding...

and now im making a crazy wall hanging for thanksgiving called "coalminer's daughter" about navigating being white and female and conscious in this fucked up society in which i receive institutionalized privilege based on my race and rooted in the oppression of human beings. happy thanksgiving e'erbody! i have one day to make it. i did the rug in one, and i think i can work better now...i was really sick when i made that one...plus this is narrower.

falling asleep...GOODNIGHT!