All the looms in my studio have been full of happy warps.
As well as working oh so hard on a couple of new books (one on potholder loom weaving and one on Lily Speed-O-Weave looms) as well as designing for magazines, I have been weaving up a storm.
Here’s a little of what’s going on:
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
I am working on a new freeform weaving jacket that is all in creams, whites and naturals. This is the first sleeve.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
There are several yards of the jacket fabric on ‘Patient Zillah’, my ‘paper doll’ manequin- the jacket fabric is the widest, plain cream, highly textured layer under amost a hundred yards of narrow strips of fabric. I wove the jacket fabric on a rigid heddle loom.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
I am also working on a tunic or shirt for me and am going to be piecing strips of narrow fabric together for it.
The narrower lengths of fabric were woven on my Structo loom.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
I am madly in love with small loom weaving, and dearly love my old vintage looms.
I have had to do some fixing up to make it work, but it’s been pure delight to get it fully functional again.
I put really really long warps on them and have had a delightful time playing with clasped wefts as well as different patterns.
I love the freeform philosophy of weaving- it’s all about feeling free to play and express your creativity in any way that ignites your imagination.
So, when I was learning the ins and outs and ups and downs of the Structo looms, I felt quite free to change my flight plan whenever I got bored with a pattern or became interested in a new one. It’s all about the learning process and I love that.
My shirt/tunic will be a record of some very playful weaving.
I am hoping that he will let me break loose and weave him a much ‘jazzier’ vest to go over the serene shirt!!!
I wanted to do a beautiful, artsy photo of the miles of fabric, draped over the branches of the apple tree that is right outside the studio window. It’s heavenly – stuffed full of glorious blossoms, and oh so beautiful!
BUT!
The mosquitoes are so vicious and the clouds of them are SO intense, that I am barely able to go outside, let alone be draping miles of fabric in the tree! so, you’ll have to use your imagination, and just envision all kinds of lovely fabric strips hanging in this tree:
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Would you like to see a little of what I have been up to with my potholder looms in the last year, as I work on the new book?
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This is the ‘Gossamer Wings Woven Butterfly Shawl’ to weave on the Potholder loom.
I love this shawl so much that I decided to release it as a stand alone pattern.
You can read all about it, and order the pattern, if you’d like, 🙂 at:
http://www.crone-findlay.com/Crone-FindlayCreationsPotholderLoomWeaving.html
I decided to take a little break and finish the book on weaving on the Lily Speed-O-Weave loom.
I’ve been working on this book, on and off for several years, and finally, after a whole bunch of people have sent me notes, asking for it, I decided: Okay… Just do it!
Of course, I totally under-estimated how long it would take to do it, as I have been re-writing, re-photographing, photo-shopping, then re-doing it all over and over… you know how it goes in the editing and polishing… and besides, I got all inspired and excited and came up with a whole bunch of new projects.
One of the things that struck me this week, is that I really needed to put in at least one project that shows a traditional pattern on the Lily Speed-O-Weave. I have been so busy with coming up with innovative ways of working with the looms, that I forgot that there will be people who want some of the ‘classic’ stuff, too.
So, here’s for the fans of the ‘classics’…. the standard flower pattern…. although, I present it in a way that is a heck of a lot easier to understand than some of the old old booklets.
copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay
So, there you have it! A little of what’s been going on in my studio!
Happy springtime and happy yarntime!
And, as always, big hugs all round 🙂
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