the evolution of a work ethic

I have been trying to build up my portfolio ever since coming to New York as a way to get myself out of my day job (which has thus far proven unsuccessful, but fingers crossed!) and now, as a way to get myself into grad school and on a new path in the working to live/living to work battle. Each year has become more and more productive and in the past month, it's reached a fever pitch.

My first year here, I snagged an industrial sewing machine from the Upper West Side on Freecycle and started sewing a carpet bag project I had started in undergrad in my tiny living room. But I was traveling across Brooklyn multiple times a week, and I could never get into a rhythm. The next year, I had a railroad apartment and turned the windowless hybrid room/hallway into a studio to better results, although it was hard trying to work in the apartment when there was a couch to sit on instead of the floor of the studio hallway and this couch faced the television. Blaming my living room layout is the easy way out. I had trouble separating life and work and it affected my focus and work ethic. The next year, I moved into a two room apartment and rented a studio about 10 minutes away by walking, 5 by bike. I also became the proud owner of my very own loom which has made me the happiest kid in Brooklyn.

This separation of life and work has been the best solution for me. Almost every evening after the day job, I get on the subway to studio and put in an hour or three. Then I walk or ride home and do a bit of apartment related activities and a bit of computer work. Then tea, and bed. The weekends are up early, off to studio for 10-12 hours, home, eating and bed. The past week has been the most hectic of all and it won't be over until the new year. This is all in preparation for the grad portfolio. It's exhausting. But this is my escape plan, and going at it halfheartedly is just not an option.

Above is a project I've been working on since the hallway/room studio days, and I've finally been able to make decent progress on it. I can't wait to post the finished piece! Patience, patience, and motivation will get me there.

cerulean & grey double weave blanket

As the weekend of October 23rd wrapped up the last of the two big weddings I attended this month, I can finally show what I have been working on lately. This is one of two blankets I made as gifts for each of the couples. They were woven folded in half on my Baby Wolf, much as you see above. I used the full 24" of my loom to make these 48x72" blankets. The warp is cerulean and charcoal mercerized cotton with an 80% cotton 20% wool fleece from Brown Sheep as weft in charcoal and black.

It had been a long time since I had woven any variety of double cloth, so I did a bit of research about 8-shaft double weave at the library and online. It was incredible how many resources I found for cloth with blocks of separate top and bottom warps interacting. I also found many resources on folded double cloth that used only 4-shafts with a plainweave structure, although often using color and weave theory to create pattern. I was very interested in creating my own pattern on a folded double cloth that would best exercise my 8 shafts. The best resource I found for understanding folded double cloth pattern structure was Rosemarie Dion's writing on Double Width Double Weave. Using her methods for translating 4 shaft drafts into combined top and bottom reversed drafts, I used a pointed twill draft.

The cotton/wool fleece was lovely to work with, and gave the blankets such a heavy, plush hand, but its thickness kept me from being able to wind bobbins with a lot of yarn, so I had many ends that needed sewing in afterward. It was slow going, as the Baby Wolf doesn't have the largest shed, but completely worth it to finally take the blankets off and see them as pure yardage! I would love to make blankets again, but I think I will wait until I have a wider loom, as the sheer hours it took to weave these made them luxury items!