DPS: Bridges

This week's Digital Photography School assignment is "Bridges".

While I was in Portsmouth, NH, USA, I took photos of two bridges from Prescott Park.








Funny how my enthusiasm (or lack thereof) for a subject somehow gets reflected in my photography.

Colors of September

Time for the colors of the month!!


Every month, I invite bloggers to post inspiring natural colors in their part of the world.



We link them together with a blog post here, and hopefully inspire one another to see things differently and create beauty of our own.




To join in, please post photos of the colors of September wherever you live or travel. In your post, link back to this blog post, and add a link to your blog post here!





Thanks for joining in! We'll be wrapping up in October, so if you've wanted to play and haven't yet, September and October are your last two chances!!!!

Sunrise Lace Scarf, While Hawk Watching

When I started this lace scarf, Theresa asked me what the yarn was like to work with.

Since I've been true to my promise to only knit this project in public when I need mindless knitting, I hadn't worked on it until this weekend.


We went hawk-watching. (Definitely an autumn birding addiction in these parts.) We were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time...we saw a record number of Broadwing hawks soaring over Pack Monadnock on their way to South America.

For more on this phenomenon, including an excellent video shot the day after we were there, check out the William Kramer Studio blog.

Between exciting parts where I was watching thousands of hawks, Bailey and I had plenty of time to hang out. And I had plenty of time to knit.

The yarn has been great to work with. Even though it's a single (not plied), I haven't had any problems with it splitting.

Last time I knit this project in alpaca. It was softer and more drapey, but I like the crunchiness and springiness of the wool. The stitch pattern shows up much more....which I haven't mentally adjusted to yet.


The color of this yarn is gorgeous. It got lots of compliments at the hawk watch! I think of it as "Sunrise", even though the Riverstone Yarn name for this color is "Tangerine."

So Theresa, my answer is "Buy this yarn." Are you surprised by that? "More yarn" is practically a philosophy at my house!

Related posts:
Casting on
The alpaca version of this scarf

Designing Double Weave Pickup

As part of my double weave sampler, I really wanted to try double weave pickup.

One of my local weaving friends has a reversible piece that her mother wove using this technique. I find it fascinating.

My first step was to design the chart that I'll use to create the reversible, decorative section of my sampler.

Since my yarn is red and white, the two ideas that pop into my head are the Japanese flag, or some hearts.

Since I have heart-shaped cookie cutters, the hearts win! (Plus, then I don't have to try to achieve a perfect circle!)



When it's time to turn the heart shapes into a grid, the book I'm following (Double Weave by Palmy Weigle) suggests graph paper.

At first I like that idea, but then I think about erasing, mistakes, wanting extra copies and my laptop beckons, as usual.

I remember that Deanna and I had a conversation in her blog about different ways to design grids on the computer. She had lots of great suggestions including:

Using Fiberworks PCW (Levels above bronze)
Drawing a grid with Adobe Photoshop
Creating a design grid in Microsoft Excel

After I poke around and these ideas, I make a mental note to look into upgrading to the Silver version of Fiberworks PCW after my deadline madness is over.

I'll give graph paper a shot.

Surprisingly, it isn't that bad. I just trace the cookie cutters onto the paper with yellow pencil. Then make my outlines more grid-like using a regular pencil.

I had imagined tons of erasing and messiness. But after the first heart was worked out, the others were smooth sailing.


In the end, I scanned my design into the computer. That way I can print it out and change it, or mark it up without losing my original.

Sometimes, graph paper isn't so bad!!

When you design double weave pickup, what method do you like the best?

Related posts:
Double Weave Question
Start of this sampler

HUGE thanks to all of the folks who responded so quickly to my plea for help!! Thanks to you I did complete the sampler in time for my deadline this week. Now I want to get my blog caught up too!

Glacier and Yellowstone in Ten Pictures

Jim and I just hiked, photographed, and watched wildlife in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks for two wonderful weeks.

For my local friends, I distilled the trip to 10 photos, which I printed and show to anyone who is willing to look (or who doesn't scurry away fast enough).

For my blog friends, here's the same set of photos:

Glacier

Yellowstone








I hope to say more, much more, about our wonderful trip in future blog posts.

Meanwhile, enjoy my uncharacteristic brevity!!

Double Weave Question (Please Help!!)

I know Friday afternoon, especially in the US before a holiday weekend, is not a great time to ask a question.

But, I'm hoping to finish my double weave sample tomorrow, since I'm in deadline mode.

So I'm going to ask and hope that one of you can help!!!

The Question

I want to use double weave to make a purse with a flap.

I'd like the purse to be a tube that's closed at the bottom and both sides. (I know how to do that with double weave).

At the top of the purse, I'd like to smoothly transition into weaving a flap.

The only thing I've been able to figure out is to start weaving two separate layers at the top of the purse. One layer can be the flap, and the other layer could be cut off and hemmed or made into a pocket for the bag or something.

Does anyone have other ideas? I keep wanting there to be a way for the flap to include both layers of fabric, but doing that seems like it will close the top of the purse. (And a purse with a closed top isn't very useful!)

Thank you in advance!!!!

Sorry for the lack of photos in this post. My mind is boggled because I've spent most of the day weaving double weave pickup. It's like magic, slow magic....but my brain is tired!!

(I will definitely have blog entries about pickup, if only to help myself remember how I did it!! I think I'll have questions for you about that too.....but those questions aren't stopping my progress luckily!)

Thank you for reading, and have a great weekend!

Related posts:
Starting my double weave sampler

Double Weave Sampler

Now that I'm back from vacation in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, I need to get serious in my studio. I have several fall weaving deadlines. (And both of my looms are dressed with warps that aren't even working toward those deadlines.)

I need to be very consistent and productive over the next two months!

I need my Baby Wolf for a project that's due in mid-September. Definitely time to free up that loom!

The project on my Baby Wolf is double weave that I started last winter, but never got around to blogging (or actually weaving for that matter).

Baby Wolf with Alternating Red and White Warp

At the beginning of a project, I like to record my inspiration and motivation for the project.

Weaving a top layer of white fabric

Motivation

• Who isn't inspired by some of the fabulous double weave projects that other weavers show us?
• Double weave is one of my weaving resolutions for 2010
• There's something fascinating about the way double weave can produce tubes, wide fabrics, double-sided designs, pouches, pillows and somehow still allow people to play with color and structure
  

Section with white weft is a double width fabric
Useful for making cloth wider than your loom

Inspiration

• Theresa's triple weave blanket
• Cally's samples
• Dawn's color windows
• Evelyn Oldroyd's Stitched Double Weave Kimono
• Tons of cool and interesting double weave projects that I've seen online or in person
  

Goals for this Project

• Complete the exercise on double weave in Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler
• Experiment with double weave pickup
• Try to figure out a way to weave a pouch (like for a purse) that smoothly transitions into a flap for the purse

I made a tube closed on both sides, stuffed it, and will weave the end shut.
Great for pillows or anything padded.

You can see that I've chosen a thick yarn for this sampler. It's what I had on hand (leftover from the much-loved Larry the Lobster knitted toy). Plus it's super thick, so I could sett at 20 epi, making threading and pickup easier.

The red and white stripes are tubes, open at each end.
These are skinny (knitting needle size), but you could make them any size.

I need to make steady progress on this sampler because by September 15 (less than 2 weeks away), I must share lace samples with a class at the NH Weavers Guild. I need the loom for those samples!

Good thing the yarn is fat and is weaving up quickly!!

Welcome September!

I can't believe it's already September!!

Jim and I are in transit home from two weeks in two famous national parks in the US. Hopefully from these pictures, you can guess which parks we visited!! (Yes, I hope to be blogging more about our trip very soon!)


Thanks so much for sharing your colors of August while I was away!! I look forward to enjoying all of your contributions, stretching out the beauty of summer just a little bit longer.


To see the Colors of August around the world, please visit:

North East Florida

Renee Weaves!

Colours of Southwestern Ontario

Colors of August from the High Desert

Colors of the Southeast USA

Colours of August from the Southern Interior of BC

Colors from the sea arrival to St. Thomas, USVI

De kleuren van augustus

A soggy month at the bottom of Australia (with a few more)

Quitecontrarys speedy post

Colours of August, British Columbia

southeast Michigan, colors of August

Wow! I almost missed it (from the Pacific NW!)

Colors of August in North Georgia

Thanks for sharing your colors! I love seeing the world through your blogs!


Related posts:
Colors of August
Colors of July
Colors of June
Colors of May
Colors of April
Colors of March
Colors of February
Colors of January
Colors of December
Colors of November
Colors of late October