Things that aren't working out

I brought a quilt top out of timeout; it's been sidelined for 15-ish years, and it's time to do something with it. If I recall correctly, I was in a class or a club, and there was a monthly assignment that we were all supposed to do to make individual medallion style quilts. We started with a center block; one month had us add something with curves; another add triangles, another add fans. I took it as an opportunity to exercise my creativity and chose to interpret the directions in a quirky way. After a few month of this, I ended up with a quilt that I could no longer figure out how to add to.

It's important for me to look at my work, and frankly others work as well, and analyze what works and what doesn't; that's the only way I'll learn how to create an effective design. I spread this roughly 45" square piece on the floor and came up with the two following observations.

• There is no cohesion of design, the various elements don't make sense. The fans and the appliqued triangles are particular problematic.
• The yellow draws the eye in a haphazard way. If you're going to highlight something, it should become clear why you've highlighted it.

Is it salvageable? I suppose I could do one or all of these:

• Set it on point again and draw the green out to repeat that element.
• Add more fans or triangles in a way that didn't look like they were randomly tossed onto the quilt.
• Add an interlaced border similar to the center motif. 

I promise to update with a useful picture later, but meanwhile,
here's the cat being helpful as always

But I don't love it enough to spend the time to try to make it right, or I wold have done so already. So my current plan is to add a yellow and red border to finish it off, quilt it, then donate it to someone who will hopefully love it despite all it's flaws!

While I'm admitting to things not working out, I finished the Pebble Beach Shawl. I like the shawl pattern, and I like the yarn, but not the combo. I think I'm going to frog it and combine the yarn a solid; currently looking for a pattern.

I also dropped my Canada College class; I was too busy working through some family stuff and house stuff to give it the attention Tailoring requires. I'll be looking for a sewing tutor to get some individual help on specific projects going forward.

Power mitts and lots of projects in progress!

I've been busy with house and yard, so have been neglecting my fiber life and this blog...  I haven't been completely idle though. Some of the house tasks have taken place in my studio; I recently got an adjustable height work table which is wonderful and very motivating. It motivated me to start going through the shelves and drawers where I just put things last year when I moved in. My knitting yarn is now sorted by weight (gauge) except for where I have full sweater quantities of yarn. And I destashed some yarn that Mom had bought at a garage sale years ago to a charity that knits for the homeless. I freed up enough room to allocate a shelf to works in progress, so I can reduce the number of cluttery work bags here and there. So far it's been a satisfying endeavor.

C and I have also started the weaving class for her 4H group. She warped 6 inkle looms and I warped 5 rigid heddle looms for the class... Whew! What a lot of prep work. Half the class is working on straps, and half on bag fabric.  I think some of the kids will finish in the December meeting, so we'll have more to warp up for January.

Power Mitts!

These are the fingerless gloves I mentioned in a previous post... they're  from the Power issues of Ply magazine. The rectangle on the top is pin woven, then the sides of the rectangle are picked up and knitted.

I finished the mosaic design for my patio two tables, and bought the glass for it on a shopping trip with my sister.  I confess that I plagiarized the design from a photo I found on the Internet, but it's a good organic design and I think just the right thing for the deck. I'll start cutting and gluing when when it's dry outside!

I finished knitting the Modular Color vest, but it still needs buttons. It scratch but cute.

I'm nearly finished with  with 3 of the 4 towels on the loom; it's possible 5 1/2 yards of warp is still too much for me, as I am bored to tears. Also, the same darn warp thread keeps breaking and I think I've threaded it back in improperly. I'm starting to think of card woven hanging tabs for them, and will start those shortly; I want to get two in the mail before the middle of the month.

Mid Month Summary

I'll just post a summary of what I'm working on right now, no in process pictures today!

I attended Camp Stitches at the Coeur d'Alene Resort in Idaho.  What a lovely resort, right on the lake. My room faced south so I got to see lovely sunrises and sunsets, and the mist on the lake in the morning was amazing. Even more amazing was my teacher, Anna Zilboorg; I took Anna's Panels class, which covers her design as you go and knit in panels methodology. I've taken it before, years ago, the first time she taught it, and the class has gotten a lot better. She does teach the Austrian traveling twisted stitch, which takes a whole day to figure out, as far as I can tell.. but I think people get stuck on the idea that you have to do panels of that for a sweater, and it's not true. Anna had garments with regular cables, lace stitches, and textured knit/purl stitches. I started a couple of bands of Twisted Stitch, and looking forward to exploring this modular technique more!  And what a treat to be in a small class with Anna, equally lovely to share a sunset glass of wine with her after class.

Speaking of modular, I started a modular vest in garter stitch with some yarn from a friend's destash. I'm about 1/3 of the way done, so far not bored of garter stitch.

I combined some half width pin woven squares (so rectangles) and garter stitch into a cute pair of fingerless mitts to go with my pin woven shawl.

And I'm starting to work on my school projects; I'm about half done with a short sleeved yoked/princess seamed shirt in fabric I ordered from Spoonflower.com; it's my lab project.

I also warped up the loom at Deer Hollow Farm, which is a demonstration farm at Rancho San Antonio Park.  The room housing the loom is used to talk to children about how cloth is made; I've done spinning demos there.  Now instead of telling the kids they can make cloth on that loom, there's a warp and tshirt yarn weft on it. It didn't take long,  I really enjoyed it, and the docents are thrilled; so a triple win!  Weft is carpet weft from my rug, warp is cram dyed tshirts cut in 1/4 inch strips. The LeClerc loom is lovely to weave on.

The table top is done!

I grouted the poppy table top today!!!  DH put pieces of wood on the back to hold it in place on the wrought iron aquarium stand which we'll use as a side table next to the BBQ. It still needs sealer, but I'm much too excited not to declare it done. I learned a lot about color placement, and keeping pieces level. And what a difference the grout makes!

 I'm playing with choices for the two tables on the sky deck... Hoping to start those in a couple of weeks and complete them quickly.

I also made this cute little purse with a super short handle as a demo item for the 4H group I'll be helping teach to weave. The body uses T shirt yarn weft, and the handle is thrums from the rug I made. I have no idea what it'll be useful for, but it's darn cute.

I'm nearly done with the knitted shawl I was working on; I bound off early without the picot bindoff, but I think I'd like the picots better, so am debating ripping out the last two rows and redoing it.

I also started a baby sweater... I need it for a class I'm taking in October on how to make sleeves. I might as well finish it after the class is over, as it'll be roughly 1/2 done...

It's about 68"x24"

The pin woven shawl is complete as well!  Here it is blocking...  I thought perhaps that I didn't care for it but it's cute on and easy to wear. I'm knitting up a couple of fingerless mitts with the leftover yarn.

I'm stalled on my two school projects, and the loom is naked... On Tuesday, I'll be warping up a loom at a local demonstration farm with a colorful but basic plain weave, and Thursday I'm leaving for an Anna Zilboorg class in Idaho! So it's unlikely that I'll get anything else done for awhile.

Q3 '18 completed things! (10)

In mid-August, I started to feel like I was doing nothing. Going back to the purpose of this blog, to remind me of all the things I'm accomplishing, I updated the list and realized lots is getting done.

Here's the final list for the quarter!

Bamboo scarf

Tool bag for sewi

1. I wove a scarf for DH (here it is on the loom), in 1/3 3/1 twill blocks using hand dyed bamboo warp and tencel weft. I love the way the serendipitous stripes interact with the blocks. It's got a lovely drape and sheen, and he likes it.
2. I wove a boundweave sampler (not pictured) in a class that is about 7" square, with different finishing techniques on the ends. I'm confident that I could make a rug with this technique.
3. I wove part of an inkle band, and the rest was woven by a volunteer at a Guild demo booth.  I don't care for the band, and wasn't going to mention it, other than I'd been wanting to warp up the inkle loom and try it; from that point of view, it was a great success! Also not pictured.
4. The tiles for these two trivits were completed a very long time ago, but I just this quarter mounted them and readied them for use. Very exciting!

   

   Trivits from tiles I mosaiced
   a long time ago

5. I sewed the "Sew Together Bag" to carry my sewing supplies for school. It's got 3 zippered pockets, and is made entirely out of fabrics I dyed for the Textile Design class I took a couple of years ago. I forgot to interface the inside pockets, so they're a bit saggy, and I tried to sew down the binding instead of hand whipping it, which I've never been successful at. I'd like to make another for my mosaic tools; if so, I'll make the pockets a little deeper and make sure to interface it appropriately.
6. I spun more than 800 yards of yarn in the Tour de Fleece!

   

   Tour de Fleece

7. Scott's boot laces are complete and are deployed to his boots. I started them at the August weaving guild meeting, which was a handwork circle; the idea of shoelaces intrigued and delighted a number of members. I also worked on them at the Portola Valley knitting group, they were fascinated.
8. The rep rug is complete and in use in the studio.
9. I took a class in a new technique and made a small mosaic sculpture which I've named "A Seed Dreams of Spring".
10. I finished the pinwoven Ligeia shawl.

A seed dreams of spring...

A Seed Dreams of Spring

I took another mosaic class from Wilma Wyss this weekend, in mosaic on a 3D substrate. She offered a class last week in how to make the substrate, but sadly I was unable to attend... Each of us was supposed to write down the theme of what we were going to make. I chose a substrate that looks like an acorn, or a bullet, with an indentation in the top; it reminded me of a seed, and I wondered if seeds dream about growing before they sprout? So, A seed dreams of spring. This piece is about 5 inches high. Turn it over and you see the inside...

A surprise inside...

On the fiber front, I got angry the other night and ordered two yards of customer cotton fabric from Spoonflower. Shortly after, they emailed to note they were in the path of Hurricane Florence and unsure if they could meet their deadline... but I got notification it shipped today. Can't wait to see it!!! I'm going to sew my lab project for school with it.

I'm also working mostly on two projects; the pin woven shawl and the poppies mosaic. I will try to finish the mosaic in the next few days; I need to clear off my bench for the two table tops I need to go with the new deck furniture. I'm about 1/2 way through the border on the pinwoven shawl, and have set a deadline that I need to have it done by the spinning conference in October. This is aside from the school work I need to complete.

While I'm dreaming, I'd love to sew up the denim fabric I have into a Delavan jacket to go with my new shawl... I'd have to get the sleeves to fit correctly. Adding it to the list...

He likes his boot laces!!!

New laces on boots on rocks!

I finally finished the 2nd bootlace for DH's boots... They're adorable on the boots, and he loves them; they don't hurt his hands when he tightens them like the synthetic laces do.  I told him that if they get filthy dirty and wear out I'll be pleased to make him another pair. Plus they're washable.  I think they really dress up his crufty old boots.

I used 3mm shrink tubing for the aglets; it was a bit tight to get on; I passed a thread through the end of the lace with a sewing needle and used that thread to pull the lace into the aglet while trying to push the tubing onto the aglet. They're not as firm as regular shoelace aglets, but go easily through all the grommets and give a nice finish to the laces.

Awesome zipper pouch for sewing class!

I've made a bag for my school supplies out of fabric I hand dyed/printed in the textile design class I took a couple of years ago. It's got 3 zipper pouches on the inside and I think it's super cool.  I'll post the name of the pattern when I get around to walking downstairs to retrieve it. I put more details about in in my Q3 finished list which will be out later this month... but here's a photo of inside and out.

I started working on muslins for my tailoring class. I like the kimono type '50's style jacket muslin, but the shirt I'm working on is a little baggy through the back, and the sleeve may be a little tight; I certainly will lengthen the sleeve.  I'm getting fitting help on it on Monday.  I bought a yummy wool blend boucle from Hart's in Santa Cruz for the jacket; I ordered some silk charmeuse from Dharma Trading for the lining and the shirt. I'm planning on doing a low immersion dye party on the lining, a well planned shibori with a single color on the shirt.

First Rep Rug! 

I also finished my rep rug today, and hemmed it! I'm very pleased. Here it is deployed to the studio floor.

There's also been some progress in the two steps forward one step back format on my knitting.

Last but not least, K and her husband were here for dinner last weekend... Apparently they like basil, so I made the basil ice cream from  The Perfect Scoop, then made them try to guess the flavor.  I used my home grown basil which has a better flavor that the grocery store stuff;  I would make this again, it's really really good!

I'm starting to feel productive!

New this week, a short list.

Just a simple list of what's new.

Most recent photo, but I'm further along now.

I've got about 9 inches not including header done on the rep rug; here it is with a very small bit done. I had to order more rag cotton, since I misread the instructions.  It's fairly slow to weave per row but there are only 6 rows per inch so weaves up pretty quickly.

The Weaving Guild had a handwork social last week, so I threaded up some cards to make the second shoelace for DH. I've woven about a foot (the bootlace will be just over 5 feet long), and it's looking good.

I'm past the evil point on my knitted Pebble Beach shawl, so am progressing much quicker now. I think it'll be done before the end of September.

On the mosaic front, I added more glass and a border to the poppy table top; the glass is adhering well, so the earlier problem I had with the adhesive is solved for now by using a different bag. 

Why did I use pink mirror glass? I have no idea, but it seems
to complement the piece.

I also finally converted two 12" square test pieces into trivets; I bought a artists wood board, turned it upside down, stained and varnished it, then glued the tile into it with wood standoffs to make the tile flush with the wood frame. I put little rubber feet on them as well so they don't scratch the table. I've been trying to figure out a way to do this for years!!!  

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Tour de Fleece, 2018

Today is my father's birthday.  His favorite dessert was lemon merengue pie... Sadly won't have any of that today but it's nice to think of him!

My Tour de Fleece ended with just over 700yd spun and plied, and one big bobbin of wool/silk singles that I haven't done anything with yet...  It's about a pound spun. 

I brought that inkle band with me to the music festival for others to weave on, and as expected, it looks like many hands were on it. It was a great experience to learn to thread the inkle loom and I think I'll weave something else in the near future! The band will go into the Cords To Be Useful On the Loom pile.

Boundweave sampler!

I also took a class from Lou Grantham at SF Fiber in Boundweave. OMG I learned so much from her about warping and weaving, and came away with a tiny sampler; a rug will go faster, as I would be following a pattern, instead of experimenting.  I'll post some of the tricks I learned from Lou as I use them.

In fact, I used her fast reed sleying method today on a rep rug; I slew 720 ends in about 2 hours, holding groups of four in my left hand and pulling them through with the hook in my right. If you tension them in the left hand between the forefinger and thumb, you can use the forefinger to pull over the next thread (or group of threads) and do it without looking at both sides of the reed. This is awesome.  The lease sticks arrived the Monday after the festival; I took my time threading the loom, and now am in the middle of tieing on; will post a photo when the weaving starts.

This mosaic will be a table top next to the BBQ
when it's done.

I started working on the mosaic! First I applied little tiles to the edges of the piece, which was a good thing, since the adhesive started flaking and doing weird shit... Not sure what to do, other than throw it away and get fresh stuff.   So I peeled off all the little tiles and filed the edges of the board flat again. Then I started cutting tile for the top. I'm a little further than this, and having fun!

And my knitting no longer hates me.  I'm still working on the Pebble Beach shawl, and am just past the point with the evil deceptive knitting pattern that was super easy yet I had to keep pulling it out. The next pattern feels more straightforward.

It's a conspiracy...

It appears that all of my fiber is conspiring to keep me focused on spinning for the TdF, so I've been spinning and plying. So far, I've 

Blue/blue; blue/purple; purple/purple,
plus a lemon from the garden

• Finished spinning a 4 oz braid of a blue wool and silk (?) that I'd been taking with me to spinning demos 
• Finsihed spinning a 4 oz braid of a purplish wool and silk braid from Twisted Sunshine
• Plyed both of the above into 2 ply skeins. So I have one skein each plied with itself and one skein of them plied with each other. 
• Finished spinning and partly plied 5.8oz of BFL/silk from Wonderland Dyeworks in BFL/silk
• Started spinning some yummy Alfalfa green merino/silk from Abstract Fibers. 

Friday night and Saturday, I'm staffing our guild booth at a local music festival, so I'm guessing I'll get a lot of spinning done; if I finish the green, I'll move to something else. One of our volunteers doesn't have a portable project so I warped up the inkle loom for the first time with a pattern from this site; I need to work on my selvedges. Maybe it's the novelty, or maybe it's that I need to leave it mostly not woven for the festival, but I could just sit and weave on this...

First Inkle band! The selvedges will get better.

Conspiring against me are the rep rug; I have the warp wound and ready to go on the loom; I started to do that today but I have 27" lease sticks and it's a 30" rug. Drat! I've been meaning to order new lease sticks, so it's not like this is a surprise or anything. The other conspirator is my knitting. I'm so close to being done with the section on the Pebble Beach Shawl that I have ripped out repeatedly but yet I just looked at it again yesterday and I'll need to rip back 6 rows. 

On the food front, I'm going to do a deep dive into Mark Miller'cookbooks. I made the Grilled Salmon with a corn and chili salsa from the Indian Market Cookbook; served it with kale from the garden and a nice albarino. Then I made some plum ice cream (plums, cream, sugar) from The Perfect Scoop; a total treat and a happy vivid pink color. I'll be cooking from both cookbooks again when DH is home again.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Finally a project on the Gilmore

I
I feel like I'm having issues getting things going again after traveling... I feel like I'm not doing anything. Which is one of the points of this blog, to let me know exactly how much or how little I'm doing. Since I returned from Italy, here's what I've been working on.

Cooked dinner for two chefs (intimidating!!!). I spent a lot of time fussing about the menu. It was fine, but I've made better. I think the pickled onions, home made salsa, and hand crafted tortillas elevated it a bit.

I painted two closets! Not that this is a big thing but it's time consuming. So I'm including it.

I finally threaded the Gilmore! I got up at 5am the day I left for Florence and wound this warp; I wanted to be tired when I got on the plane. It's Chiku bamboo from The Fiber Lady, in a gold/tan to blue dipped skein colorway. I threaded 270 ends at 30 epi and wove alternating 1/3 and 3/1 twill blocks; it starts with about 8 inches of checkerboard, then the stripes get longer; at the center I wove a bit of checkerboard and reversed it. This pattern was the recommendation of the ladies I went to Italy with . The scarf is now in the collection of my darling husband.

I started the Tour de Fleece; I finished the singles on the wheel and started a new 4 oz braid. I'll document that at the end of the Tour in it's own blog entry, but here's a photo.

In other areas:

• The Pebble Beach Shawl is still in progress, I think I'm about 1/4 done.  I keep having to rip some out and redo it.
• The skirt is stalled until the shawl is done.
• I fished out the blocks I pin wove, and tried to line them up. Will try again tomorrow.
• I'm trying to work out the directions for the rug that wants to go on the loom next. I think I have it figured, so I should be ready to wind a warp.
• I put edging on the piece I want to mosaic... Will check it out tomorrow then decide if it's good enough or if I have to pull it off, it's not that even.

My final post on Italy, after the tour is over....

St. Francis wore this!!!

Tuesday, June 12 was the final day of the tour, and the five of us took the train back to Florence; Sarah barely made it off the train after she settled us in! In Florence we said goodbye and went our separate ways. I hadn't looked for a hotel until we were in Perugia, and a terrible time finding a hotel for less than $1000 a night in Florence at short notice!  I ended up staying at the Hotel Veneto Firenze, in a quieter neighborhood a little further from the city center.  It was not as nice as the other hotels on the trip; my favorite part was the tiny shower, so small that if you dropped your soap you had to turn off the shower and open the door to bend over to reach it... but the bed was comfortable and the air conditioning worked, so I was happy.

During my last day and a half, I visited the following, and photos from these days are here.

First, I visited the Leather School, where students from all over the world learn how the Italians work in leather. There's always students on duty working, so you can watch how it's done, and an amazing selection of leather purses at good prices. The school was founded by the friors at Santa Croce after WWII to teach orphans a trade, and is in a fabulous old building... I was tempted there to buy a purse there, and in some on the leather shops in the area, but managed to hold out for hours until I was compelled to buy one by a street vendor.  Italian leather is the best!

Angel wings!!!

I went from there into the museum at Santa Croce, but not the church; my eyes were tired of Renaissance ecclesiastic art, plus I was in a sleeveless shirt and forgot my shawl... but check out the belt and clothing fragments from St. Francis...

Closeup of tablecloth

The Church of San Marco was fabulous! Beautiful frescos, interesting tomb, and the organist was practicing... The museum behind it was outstanding.  The upstairs monk's cells all had frescoes in them with religious themes to encourage contemplation. Two particular things struck me here; first, the angels wings look a lot like marbled paper and I particularly enjoyed looking at them. Second was the aha gob-struck moment when I saw more than one painting the included a tablecloth woven  in patterns that Marta had said were Perugian, and that looked just like what she had woven! On some of the other photos, you can clearly see the eye pattern.

Angel wings, eternal...

I arrived at the Museum of Archeology at exactly the right time to view the normally closed 3rd floor... I'm not sure why it was closed, but it was just one woman, one guard, and me. Their collection of pre-Roman, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities was stellar; they have much of the archeological relics the Medici family collected over the centuries.  In the courtyard, which was sadly only open on weekends, are mock-Etruscan barrow-type graves. Check out this lion. And it seems like angel wings hadn't changed much since Roman times...

I wandered about, my brain full, and wandered into the beautiful Orsanmichele... No photos from there. Finally, pizza, Chianti and gelato at My Sugar for dinner, then I said goodbye to Florence.

These posts are late coming out, nearly a month; and I wonder what I missed by not posting as I went? In return, I certainly gained some perspective.  For the next trip, I'll come armed with a keyboard!

Italy Textile Tour, Anghieri and Perugia

The next morning, we left our temporary home in Florence, to visit Anghieri on the way to Perugia.  Photos for these three days are here.

View from the private living quarters upstairs from Busatti's.

Anghieri is a hilltop town that's listed as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.   Leonardo Da Vinci painted a commission here, to commemorate the Battle of Anghieri, but the fresco was lost; it's rumored to exist under another painting. We weren't able to get in to see the painting that may or may not be covering Da Vinci's work; they were closed while we were there, but we were able spend an amiable half an hour wandering through the small medieval streets before our appointment at Bussati.

Want...

Bussati's history is on their website and worth reading; it's interesting how they've adapted to their changing customer base over the last 8 generations, encompassing 2 world wars, and changing political and economic climates. Currently they have a lovely premium weaving operation, partly in the basement of the old Palazzo and partly at a nearby manufacturing facility. They make fabrics and housewares, primarily in cotton and linen, in historic, traditional, and modern patterns, some with exquisitely hand crocheted or pulled work borders. The showroom is astounding, and anything you see can be made to order in a large range of colors, and relatively any size. I was eyeing this historical textile, in a different color, for a table cloth...  We toured the basement weaving room, filled with assorted equipment including a wool picking machine, but mostly automated jacquard looms, controlled by the ever-present punched cards. Giovanni, the patriarch of the family fired up a selection of looms to show us; it was Saturday, so the plant was not in operation, but he wanted us to see the machines working. You could see his love for and pride in his family business shining in his eyes as he answered questions about the looms, the family, and the business.  After the tour, Giovanni and his son Livio showed us around the private living quarters of the old Palazzo, where generations of his family have lived, with a stunning view of the city walls and valley beyond; showed us ancient family business journals supporting their pedigree in the textile realm; and treated us to some homemade Vin Santo and biscotti. After the tour, we walked to an excellent eatery and shared salads, pastas, and pizza.  After eating too much at lunch, I was forced to choose between returning to Bussati's to procure some table runners, or poke around the beautiful town. In all fairness, the rest of the group was ready to leave, so it was just me itching to walk to the top of the hill, and ramble in search of arrow slits and city walls, so I reluctantly climbed on the bus and we left for Perugia, assuming I would find something as delightful and lovely there.

After we checked into the recently remodeled Locanda Della Posta hotel in the old town of Perugia, I immediately went outside to check out the street fair going on. There were booths selling all manners of arts and crafts, and people in medieval costumes demonstrating medieval crafts. Check out this wonderful woman spinning wool on her drop spindle! Then I heard drums...
Linn and Eleanor and I followed. After some time and a lot of yelling, posturing, and other shows of testosterone, heralds came out blowing horns, and official looking medieval guys came out followed by men with flags; the flag bearers then started waving the flags and throwing them high into the air, and catching them. It was just like the videos I've seen of the festival in Sienna that accompanies the horse race; or that scene in Under the Tuscan Sun. It was pure magic. 

In 2016, Perugia began a medieval festival to celebrate an event that happened in 1416. Considering they've only been doing it for three years, it's remarkably well organized and staffed with costumed volunteers. After a couple of glasses of Rosso di Montefalco at a local wine bar, I asked one of the minstrels if I could look at the fabric of his jacket; he told me his girlfriend's mother had made it for him out of fabric a friend of hers had woven; it was a beautiful textures fabric, exquisitely sewn with novel detail, like the split sleeves.  I imagine the seamstress hearing how foreign women had stopped to admire her handiwork, and being pleased with herself.

What a treat it was to see the festival! It continued on the following day, and some of us attended some of the events, but I'll go back to what was on the tour agenda.

Three brief words on my hotel: Fashion over Function. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, newly renovated, and in a great location. But in my ideal world, Function and Fashion are inseparable soulmates.

This attempt at restoration failed three times before
they had a priest come bless the process

The next morning, we met Giorgio of Studio Moretti Caselli at the Perugia Cathedral for a quick tour before mass; the Studio had restored several of the windows in the cathedral. After leaving the cathedral, we took a detour by Pasticceria Sandri on the way to meet Giorgio and his wife Anna at their studio; definitely worth a stop if you're in the area. I had one of those tasty little rice pudding like pastries that was a joy to eat in the morning, and a coffee. At Studio Moretti Caselli, we learned about the process of painting images on glass; the technique fell into disuse at one time and was re-discovered by the founders of the studio in the mid 1800's. Basically, they start with purified ground glass; mix in a pigment, then fire it just enough to melt the glass but not enough to alter the pigment; they paint and re-fire the glass many times (I think the number 50 was mentioned) until they get the effect they're looking for.  The lead grout is routed to add strength (obviously) and also to enhance the image. The building is a 15th century Baglioni family residence (the rest of the Baglioni family buildings were destroyed after an unsuccessful fight with the Pope and the Rocca Paolina, a massive fortress to force Perugia to behave itself was built in its place; you can still walk through the basements of the Rocca Paolina which stood for very few decades before destroyed by a rebellion). A couple of the rooms still have the original frescoes and period furnishings.  Aside from restorations, Studio Moretti Caselli does some stunning original works; they glow in a way that I can't describe, you really need to see them. After the Studio tour, we walked a short distance to the Basilica di San Domenico, and viewed more of their restoration work. 

Next up was lunch; because of the festival, several restaurants were serving medieval menus. Starting with cured meats, cheeses, and olives, the meal progressed to zuppa di fave e piselli  (fava and pea soup), then cinghiale alle olive (boar stew with olives) and fegatelli all'alloro (something made of pork liver, roasted, and put on a stick). (Thank you Sarah for the picture of the menu!) It was really tasty, and I've actively lost in recipe translations!

After lunch, some of us went to archeology museum, located in the old Convent of San Domenico. They have an amazing collection of Etruscan artifacts, especially from the old cemeteries of Perugia, and a stellar view of the Etruscan city walls; also some partial Roman era mosaic floors. After the afternoon gelato, we returned to the area around the hotel to observe more of the festival.

I can't resist a mosaic floor.. this fragment made me happy.

A question about Italian gelato: how do they get the fruit flavors to be so intense? One of the answers is that gelato is normally not as cold as American ice cream, so it's easier for your non-frozen taste buds to pick up on the flavor. But that's not the only thing. We spent a fair amount of time pondering this, without coming to any conclusions.

On our last day in Perugia, we visited Giuditta Brozetti, an old church now being used as a production hand weaving workshop. Marta, the owner and head weaver, told us the story of the building, Umbrian textiles, and the hand weaving company founded by her grandmother that Marta still runs.  Marta had just received a special award: Maestro d'Arte e Mestiere, which she explained as a big honor akin to being a white rhino...  She was referring to herself as being one of the last of her breed, but I didn't understand the implications of the award until I researched it later. This effectively designates her as a Living National Treasure, comparable to Japan's Preservers of Important Intangible Cultural Properties. It's a pure delight to find this type of designation in a country other than Japan (Italy also recognizes artisans in the areas of food and wine, which speaks to it's cultural importance), and a pure honor to have spent time with Marta. 

This old church feels like a sacred space honoring millennium of weaving and I was struck dumb with reverence watching Marta as she glowed with passion for her craft.

Marta showed us the traditional four shaft loom that women

worked on in their farmhouses, and some of the traditional local patterns,  then showed us the exact same patterns in paintings dating back to the Renaissance. She's woven textiles to reproduce some of the textiles depicted in those paintings. She described to us how the intricately patterned cloth was made in the Renaissance (too long to type here, ask me if you're interested) then how it's made on jacquard looms.  We then looked at the old jacquard looms, all hand operated (with two flying shuttles!); the hand operated card punches, the warping mill, the hand cranked bobbin winders... 

Marta, however, faces the same problem I've heard from artisans on three continents so far; how to keep the traditions alive while adapting to modern sensibilities and modern markets, while competing with inexpensive goods and dealing with shrinking sources of raw materials. I'm sensing this is a world wide trend.

After lunch, I wandered some of the back alleys of the city, looking for an Etruscan well (it was locked up on Monday afternoons); I walked to the top of the city walls, and looked out over the plains, trying to get my mind to settle, then went to see the Etruscan arch, one of the old city gates. I visited the Galleria Nazionalle of Umbria, which had a large collection of ecclesiastic art and a few very old textile fragments, similar to what Marta had woven. 

That night, we met up as a group for our final dinner, and made plans to return to Florence by train the next morning.

Kudos to Sarah and Simon for a phenomenal tour! I had frankly worried that nothing could live up to the tour I did of Kyoto last year, but honestly this did. I give it an A+, all thumbs up. The agenda was well thought out and we had access to an amazing and varied set of artisans of a caliber you don't often meet.  There was enough downtime to sit and mull over what we'd seen, or sight see and shop, if that's what we wanted. They gave us maps in each location, personalized for us, showing major sights, artisans, friendly restaurants, ATMs, and so on. My only complaint? TOO MUCH FOOD!!! But I can hardly blame the Tour Studio for that.  If you are reading this and thinking of booking a tour with them, and I can answer any questions, please comment on this blog and I'll be happy to respond.

And thanks to my new friends Gretchen, Eileen, Eleanor and Linn for being so kind to adopt me into their tribe. These are women I'd happily tour with again. Hoping it may happen someday!

Italy Textile Tour, weaving at Fondazione Lisio

Founded in 1906 to keep alive the art of hand weaving with fine silk and precious metals, Fondazione Lisio offers classes and courses of study, and also does commissions. We were here to learn about and weave on 100+ year jacquard looms.  I'll talk about two things here; one is what I saw at Lisio, the other what I did at Lisio.

Photos from these five days are here.

The jacquard loom revolutionized the manufacture of complicated woven materials in the first decade of the 1800s; it essentially allows individual threads on a loom to be controlled by holes punched in very large paper cards. Jacquard wasn't the first to think of using cards this way... several prior looms had used cards but failed to automated the process; Jacquard's mechanism allowed for very complex patterns to be woven relatively quickly, and by one person. For more information on the loom, what it did to the weaving industry, and how that led to modern day computers, I'd recommend Jacquard's Web.

???? Yeah, that's what I was thinking...

Our experience with jacquard looms started with a tour of the facility, followed by some textile analysis, discussion of the weave structures we'd be working with, some strategies to design thread tie downs to enhance the look of the fabric, and different ways to tile repeating designs; a lot to cover in less than a day!  Eva, our instructor, spoke near perfect English, and was clearly a master of her craft.  Wow.  I'll admit some of this went right over my head... Then we got to meet the looms, and try a few picks of damask and a few picks of velvet to get a feel for the weaving process and the huge looms.

There was a decision point here... did each of us want to weave the pattern that was already on the machine? Or design our own? I decided I wanted to learn more about the looms, and poke around the facility, and not design my own pattern. The rest of the group ended up designing their own patterns, and I eavesdropped and spied on what they were doing so I would understand the whole process.

Machine to lace the cards together

First they drew their patterns on paper, and input into a computer program. When the pattern was what they wanted, they punched the cards for those patterns, checked the cards, and sent them through a giant sewing machine to stitch them together. I don't have a photo of the card punch! But this is the big sewing machine...

The cards were then loaded on to the loom and tied into a loop, and the weaving commenced. Sounds easy, right? We were working in very fine silk; approximately 200 warp threads per inch; so even tiny designs took 50 or more cards for a two color design (one warp color and one weft color) and double that for one warp color and two weft colors. This process took the group about 3 days to accomplish, with many of them just getting weaving on the last day.

I loved this loom...

Meanwhile, my loom and I were getting to know each other...  I was weaving damask on this loom.  I could easily stand under the light bar on the front.  The two ropes advanced each of  two mechanisms on the top. The smaller back mechanism controlled the 8 shafts on the loom, and  the larger front mechanism read the pattern cards and controlled groups of threads. In this particular configuration the two ropes were attached to  one treadle. I'd treadle to advance the mechanisms, throw the background color, treadle to advance again and throw the pattern color; each row of the fabric was two weft threads.  Make sense?  I was happily weaving along...

Then weird shit happened!! The pattern stopped advancing and all I was getting was plain weave. I continued to weave for about an inch, then waited for Eva, who was helping another student...  While waiting, I closely examined my loom... and sure enough, found what was keeping the cards from advancing. On my loom, the cards cascading down would occasionally jump of the rail, and literally get it's knickers in a bunch, if a loom had knickers. After Eva fixed the problem and then had to resync the two card decks, I kept a careful watch on my machine behavior and either climbed up the ladder to fix the cards when they misbehaved, or stopped until Eva had time to look.

A largeish section of my silk fabric, 

which I am delighted to have woven. 

These machines are tetchy. First, they're old, and were not made to the more exact tolerances that modern machinery is; that and they've been in use for a long time, and their wear profile would understandably make them behave differently. Second, they're made for production use; experienced weavers take a few days to get to know the peculiarities of a machine they're never woven on. Don't treadle hard enough?  Maybe you don't advance to the next card. Let the pedal up too fast? Maybe the hooks that control the threads jump off their rails and you don't get the right pattern. There's a lot of moving parts, and a lot that can go wrong.  So many new things to remember, so much that can go wrong.  I was in heaven! Machines like me!!!

There's photos in my Photos album of what the others wove, including some absolutely grand elephants by Gretchen, and some cut velvet woven by Eileen.  Eva, Sarah, and my co-weavers were concerned that I would regret not designing my own piece, and there was a moment where I wished I'd gone through the entire process including design, and punch cards, and so on. It didn't take me long to realize that what I wanted was to get to know a loom, and that coming up with a design and working under pressure to get it up on the loom would have made me stressed and cranky. I'd love to come back for a week or two and go through the whole process... Maybe at a cooler time of year!

This weaving was hard work; they're standing looms, and require that you stand with one foot on the treadle and one foot not while leaning in to push the beater forward and throwing the shuttle. Oddly enough, it's the standing leg, not the treadling leg that got tired. So I spent some time walking around the rest of the studio.

Setting up a loom for velvet (not the red velvet)

There were machines to wind warps, a two step, two machine process. There were machines to wind pirns, and machines to wind warp bobbins for velvet. There were looms with velvet on them, looms with fancy brocades on them, and a computerized jacquard loom where a student was weaving a lovely picture of Mount Fuji; she's the person who designed the pattern I wove. One of the more interesting projects the Foundation was working on was a commission from a museum in Dresden; they were weaving 100ish metres of plain red velvet and plain cloth of gold for a restoration project; I found a video in German detailing the work. The velvet had to be made the same as the original; so it had a twill ground cloth (instead of plain weave) in a pinky color, instead of red like the warp that was cut. I watched the weaver on one of the velvet looms as she tied on new warp bobbins for the velvet... I think it took her 3 days.  The manual labor boggles the mind, even for someone used to making things that take a lot of labor.

I also wandered the halls looking at framed samples of some of the fabrics, some of which I photographed, others I did not. There's some amazing work there. And a amazing workshop, where one of the weavers gets drafted to fix things.

The rhythm of the day was breakfast, shuttle to Lisio, weave, break for pastry and coffee, weave, break for lunch, weave, break for chocolate and a coffee, weave, back to the hotel, drinks and gelato for dinner.   Add in periodic wanders around the building, and that was pretty much it. At the end of the day, my mind was completely blank, wiped, tired. I ate way too much of the pastries Simon got for us every morning, and the wonderful lunches catered by a small local restaurant. Does it get any better than this?

Towards the end of the week, after class, Eileen and I walked out to Bacci Tessuti to look at fabrics... I found a lovely denim blue wool linen blend... and bought 3 meters of it to make a jacket in my tailoring class this fall. When I showed it to DH, I commented that it would make a lovely summer weight sport coat for him, if he could find a tailor... So now we're looking for a tailor and I need more fabric. This is not a problem that worries me.

On our last night in Florence, after we'd said good-bye to Eva and to Fondazione Lisio, we had dinner at Il Santo Bevitore. I had a delightful fish dish with a fried squash blossom, but the real highlight of the dinner was some amazing hand cut pasta with a light amazing sauce over a wood pigeon ragout. There was just the right amount of sauce to highlight the pasta, cooked to perfection, and the ragu was so tasty...  It was lovely with this Chianti!
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