I started a weaving class at
Barnsdall Art Park earlier this summer and after much time setting up the warp, have finally started weaving!!
The white yarns are just filler for those gaps in at the beginning of the
warp. Setting up the warp took about 3 classes which involved winding the warp yarn onto a warp frame, tying it onto the
loom, then the tedious task of separating the yarns into the
heddles and the
reed.
This is the
plain weave. You can really see the teal colored warp through the brown colored
weft. The warp yarn I used, is a varigated, meaning it's not perfectly even yarn, but thinner and thicker in some places.
I decided to use the free to use yarns Barnsdall has and not to plan so much. I love all these unwanted muted, colors probably from the 70's. I am practicing creating organically. There is so much control designing on the computer, that you forget how nice it can sometimes be to have parameters.
This is how far I got in about 3 hours, not quite a foot. It is about 12" wide. Starting from the bottom, you can see the alternating plain weave and basket weave, which the yellow/green solid area creates a twill effect. Also played around with vertical stripes, horizontal stripes and checkerboard when I added the cram color. You can see how some areas are more
packed than others. Packing is pounding the weave down, a little bit violent, but will often hide the warp with thinner yarns and techniques like the basket weave.
The reality is that weaving is a third world skill that you will make no money at because machines can seriously do this thing in a second. So, our wonderful instructor Carolyn encourages us to do something you couldn't buy in stores, experiment and be creative.
Next week, I will continue this sampler with a big zig zag!!
Furaibo is a Japanese restaurant we use to frequent 2-3 times a week back in the day. You can see we've already started eating, but I have never documented, so better late than never. It's on Sawtelle in the Westside, it's a little bit far now, but when we're on this side of town, we always try to get our fix. Here we've ordered our usual - (left to right) karei karage which is fired halibut, sauteed spinach with bacon, age nasu which is grilled eggplant in a broth, tore karage which is Japanese style fried chicken (they are famous for this), and tofu with a miso paste.
This is a closeup of the halibut. After filleting the fish, the bones with head and tail are also deep fried to form the serving container and also making them edible. YUM!
