Wildflower

A new tapestry falls from the loom

A new tapestry falls from the loom

It isn’t a common thing to say in the USA, that a tapestry falls from the loom. But that is the translation from other languages and I like it. One of you will remind me where I have heard this. I believe it is the French that say it, but please correct me if not!

I’ve started a new tapestry series and I am still so excited about weaving large tapestries again. I’m forging ahead with the second piece and hope to get it on the loom in the next couple weeks. Those of you who watched me weave wildflowers on Change the Shed know that I started the sampling in October of 2021 and the tapestry began on my rug loom in mid-November.

For me to have woven a piece like this in two and a half months is a bit astounding to me. You see, I work full time and tapestry is slow. It usually takes me a year to weave a larger piece. But I am determined to spend more time on the loom and so I have made choices this year to allow me to do that. To finish this piece in that time which included almost two weeks away from home visiting family, I just wove every day. Most days it was only an hour, but that adds up to 7 hours a week and that was enough. This piece was not complicated weaving and so I was able to roll right along fairly quickly. There were few decisions and it was a joy to see it grow so quickly.

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The wildflower tapestry: weaving on the big loom

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The wildflower tapestry: weaving on the big loom

I’m back to weaving on my favorite loom. I had a few ideas for tapestries while hiking the 500-mile Colorado Trail last summer and one of them is taking shape on the Harrisville Rug Loom.

In the spirit of curiosity and adventurousness that the Colorado Trail hike only strengthened, I am doing some experimenting with this tapestry. Perhaps not drastically so since the forms I like to weave are clearly present. I’m just using different materials than I usually do. It is the first time I’ve ever woven a large tapestry with yarn that I didn’t dye myself.*

For the last 15 years of my tapestry weaving career, on large tapestries I have used Harrisville Koehler Singles or Harrisville Highland dyed by me. That allows me to make the gradations I love and to make virtually any color I can think up. In this tapestry I’m using 100% commercially dyed yarns. I have found that a little shocking sometimes. For example, the photo below where I’m adding the Daffodil color on top of Indigo was one such moment. I would probably never dye this bright yellow color, but there is it. It is an experiment and I’m withholding judgement until it is all finished. If I don’t like it, the sheep are making more wool as we speak.