November 2021
November 2021
Coasters, a cloudy tea cup, something to listen to
Hello!
In this month’s newsletter you’ll find:
X and O Coaster Pattern
More coasters…
Pots / Listening
X and O Coasters
Do you use coasters? To be honest, I barely do — just for the teak table in the living room that my boyfriend has from childhood and is unrealistically fussy about (he never reads this so HA HA). So that’s why I’ve… designed two coaster patterns this month? How did this happen??
The X and O Coasters are for four-shaft weavers and are a thick and wooly weft-faced project. The original set of coasters was made a few summers ago as small gifts, but I revisited the project this month to make a set at my friend M’s request.
This project uses a very simple twill draft and 4/8 cotton (less than 100 yards!) and Léttlopi wool in the warp and weft. There are only 43 ends! It is a fast project, which brings me to the other set of coasters….
Rigid Heddle Coasters
The whole reason I have coasters on my mind is because I’ve also designed a free coaster pattern for Gist Yarn. My last article for 2021 is on quick, stash-busting gifts from the loom, and I thought coasters would kill a few birds with one stone: they are finished on the loom, they are FAST to weave, they can be made on any size of loom, they are rigid heddle friendly, and they make easy and nice hostess gifts. Plus I could empty all the bobbins I have lying around the studio.
This project is rigid heddle friendly and even FASTER to make than the X and O Coasters. You’ll find it on the Gist Yarn website at the beginning of December. The article on stash busting projects is coming soon too!
Pots / To Listen
I really love ceramics and in my informal experience I feel that this is a sentiment shared by many weavers — perhaps there is some affinity between our disciplines?
I recently bought a beautiful tea cup from CAND Ceramic, a local(ish) potter — I used it as a prop in the X and O Coaster images. (It is a Frost Tea Cup and I am drinking Yuzu Sencha from Momo Tea.)
Somewhat related to pots is my love of tea drinking (no coffee, thanks). I have in queue the Tea History Podcast by Laszlo Montgomery, because the history of tea is fascinating. Time, culture, and geography has formed how and why we drink it in so many different ways. (The same host also does the China History Podcast, which I also have queued!)
If I could go anywhere to drink a cup of tea right this minute it would be a roadside stall in South India (there would be a handful of spicy vadai involved too).
The clocks fell behind a week (two?) ago and I am now biking home in the dark twice a week. Where I live I can see the escarpment from my studio window and it’s my favourite view — it captures all the weather and I can watch the clouds roll in and out.
Friends in other parts of Ontario have seen snow, and I am looking forward to the first day I can wear my felted mittens (the novelty only lasts about one day). I’ve been tired and under-motivated lately, so I’m planning to make a wooly blanket for myself and clear out some old yarn. Making space for creative non-work weaving is a very helpful tool for me to work past a lull in work-weaving. I have so many ideas that sometimes I don’t know which one to pick, so I get stuck not picking any of them — that is where I am at right now. :)
amanda