Earlier this year I took a beginning drop spindle class. It was great fun! I’m still spinning, a little her and a little there. I have tried a couple different spindles, top whorl, bottom whorl, supported. So far I like the top whorl the best. My top whorl spindle is a beginner’s one and on the heavier side. I’d like to get a lighter one for spinning finer thread. I’d also like to try a Turkish spindle sometime.

I also made a pin loom earlier this year and had planned on weaving squares to assemble to make a rustic-like towel. Well, it turns out pin looms are no good for finer thread, they are intended for larger yarn so the whole squares-for-a-towel thing did not work out. All of my lumpy spinning yarn though, will probably work great on a pin loom, and I’m thinking of using my little spun balls to make squares to then turn into a blanket or maybe a house sweater or something. No definite plan on that yet, just thinking of what I might be able to do with my small bit of practice spinning.

All this has led up to taking a beginning weaving on a rigid heddle loom class this last week. Class was 4 hours a day on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I took the class at the Weaver’s Guild, the same place I took my spinning class. There were five of us in class, all women. The teacher learned how to weave ten years ago at the guild and brought some of her work in to show us what you can do on a rigid heddle loom. Turns out you can do quite a lot on a small loom.

The looms we used for class were 20-inch Schacht folding looms And what an amazing piece of workmanship this loom is! I took the loom home with me Tuesday to work on my project and it folds up even with a piece of fabric on it. I put it in its bag, attached the bag to my backpack and biked it home. I, and my classmates, were pretty impressed.

First day of class we picked our project. We had a choice of a scarf, a table runner, or placemats. I chose placemats so I could do one with fringe and learn that technique, and one with a folded hem to learn that technique. Plus I also got to learn how to do two pieces on one warp. The colors I chose were a dark orange, light orange, and dark purple.

After we picked our colors we learned how to warp our looms. Two people did table runners, one did a scarf, and the other started off as a scarf and turned into a wall hanging. Measuring my warp was pretty easy, just the length of the table. The people doing longer pieces got to practice an interesting trick for measuring a long warp and direct warping. There are things called warping boards for really long warps but our projects were not that expansive.

The second day of class we finished warping our looms and then got started weaving. I turned out to be the one who obligingly supplied learning opportunities for all. One of my warp threads broke and we learned what to do if that happens. After weaving a couple rows, I noticed I had missed a warp and had what is called a floater. We learned how to fix this too. And then it was time to pack up our looms and take them home and weave.

I got home around 3 in the afternoon, unfolded the loom and set to weaving. I finished my fringed placemat by 5 that afternoon. Then, James found some cardboard and cut a 2-inch long piece that I could put in the loom to make a space for the fringe before I began on the next placemat. I set up for the next placemat and didn’t get a chance to weave again until Thursday morning.

I got up early and got to work. By the time I arrived for class at 10, I only had 3 more inches to go. I was done in less than an hour.

Then it was time to cut it off the loom. That was a bit scary, but it all worked out. And everyone cheered. One of my classmates finished her table runner and we all cheered when she cut it off the loom. And not long after that the person doing a scarf finished and she got a cheer too. The other table runner person didn’t finish hers and got permission to take the loom home for a few more days. The person who had started to do a scarf and turned it into a wall hanging sort of finished. I’m not sure to be honest since she went totally off script for everything and the teacher just rolled with it (the teacher used to teach middle school, which probably explains why she was so unflappable).

While everyone was finishing their projects and cleaning up their workspaces, I chatted up the teacher to try and figure out what size loom I might want to get, a 20-inch like we used in class, or a slightly bigger 25-inch. She gave me weaving books and magazines to look at so I could see what could be made on what sized loom. She told me about double-weaving where you can effectively double the width of your cloth. We also talked about floor looms and why a person might want one of those (more intricate patterns and colorwork). There was someone there, not in our class, working on a pattern and color sampler on a big floor loom so I got to talk to her briefly and admire her work.

In the last 90 minutes of class, we gathered back together and learned how to measure and cut fringe. We also learned how to do twisted fringe. Then we learned about how to finish our projects. My placemats are pearl cotton so there was not much I needed to do. The scarf the person made was Shetland wool and that needed a bit more finishing. Then we talked about how to design our own projects, how to figure out how much yarn we need, and that sort of thing.

Yesterday I sewed the hems on my turned hem placemat. It came out great and I was so proud until I picked it up and realized I had turned the hem in opposite directions on each end. James laughed and said that no matter how you look at it the top will be up. Or the bottom, I said. If I were giving this as a gift I would have taken one side out and turned it the right way. But since this is my first project, I left it as is because every first project needs some charming mistakes, right? Today I washed and pressed them and now they are soft but firm, like you want a placemat to be.

So I think I’m going to get a 25-inch loom. That will allow me, once I get more advanced and learn how to double-weave, make cloth up to 50-inches wide. I’m thinking blankets, curtains, and actual clothing in the future. Dream big! But of course I keep hemming and hawing, about maybe I should get the 20-inch instead? So I’ve been looking at patterns to try and help me figure it out and I’m 90% sure about the 25-inch loom. I’ll give myself a few more days before taking the plunge and placing an order.

One of the reasons I have gotten so interested in spinning and weaving, besides loving fiber arts sorts of things to begin with, is a desire to make something from materials completely produced in my garden. To that end, I’ve been growing stinging nettles for 5 years and have a nice sized patch. I have been experimenting with when the best time to harvest them is and the best way to ret them. The conclusion I have come to on that is fall harvest, then lay them down on top of the garlic bed for the winter where they get buried in snow and come spring end up properly retted. I dry them out, bundle them up, and I have a couple bundles now awaiting processing into fiber.

That fiber making process is one I am still working on sorting out what works best for me. I’m getting there.

I’m also starting to think about what color dye I might want to use to dye some of thread when I get to that point. I need to begin growing the flowers or roots or whatever it is I decide on so I have enough collected when I need it.

My big inspiration with nettles is Allan Brown. He is a textile artist in the UK. He learned how to process, spin, and weave nettles into cloth and then made a gorgeous dress. A film was made as he went along called The Nettle Dress. Sadly, I have not gotten to see the film because it has no distributor, is not streaming, and is currently making the rounds of film festivals, none of which have been here. I hope to see it one day!

In the meantime, Brown wrote an article about the whole process for Dark Mountain Project. I’d love to be able to make a skirt or a tunic from my nettles. It took Brown eight years, so I’m not going to worry about how long it might take me.

The Garden

I am not going to get any zucchini again this year. The plants are flowering and getting plenty of female flowers, but the male and female flowers can’t seem to coordinate their flowering so I end up with only female flowers open one day and only male flowers the next. I have four plants, and you’d think that between all of them there would be at least one male flower open when the females are, but no. And I am long gone to work by the time the flowers open so I can’t even hand pollinate them. Stupid zucchini.

The same thing was happening with the dickinson pumpkin. But last weekend I was home when a female flower opened. There was a male flower closed up from the day before and I took off the petals and unceremoniously crammed it into the open female flower, rubbing pollen all over the pistil. I had no idea if it would work, but it did! And now I have a billiard ball-sized pumpkin that, of course, a squirrel has already gnawed on a little. Note to self: make some hot pepper spray.

What seemed like a change in weather pattern from drought to not, was only a flirtation. We are back to no rain, and the week ahead is going to be blazing hot, possibly records will fall. The sweet potatoes will be happy about it, but I sure won’t be. I’ll be covering up all my new radish, carrot, beet, and cabbage sprouts so they don’t get fried, watering daily, and hoping for the best.

Reading

• Book: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. A story of friendship, love, and video games. An enjoyable read, not wow, but and interesting look into the world of game design.
• Article: Biden Admin Tried to Block Landmark Climate Lawsuit as July Heat Scorched US. This is not the Montana lawsuit, this is Juliana v. United States. Filed in 2015 by 21 young people seeking to establish a constitutional guarantee to a livable climate. The case has been working its way through the courts and is going to eventually make it to the Supreme Court. In July Biden’s Department of Justice argued in a filing that the US Constitution does not guarantee the right to a livable planet, stating “there is no constitutional right to a stable climate system.” I just love how Biden says he cares about climate and is doing stuff to make a difference, and then turns around and hands out all kinds of oil and gas leases, and has the DOJ make a filing like this. Because, you know, if Juliana wins, the government will actually have to start doing real things to stop global warming.

Listening

• Podcast: Movement Memos: Rocket-Launching Billionaires Promise a New Pie in the Sky. Capitalism, space colonialism, the ecological disaster happening with all these rocket launches, and a new book for my TBR: Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race by Mary-Jane Rubenstein.

Watching

• The Master Gardener (2022). Joel Edgerton plays Narvel Roth, a reformed Neo-Nazi in the witness protection program who has become the head gardener on a beautiful estate owned by Norma Haverhill, played by Sigourney Weaver. A very good drama with gardening.

Quote

The way you treat yourself is one of the few things you control in life. There’s no reason to be anything but kind to yourself, in both your speech and your actions.

Toni Bernhard, “Self-Care in an Uncertain World”

James’s Kitchen Wizardy

Easy peanut tofu served on rice and kale