Patchy Blog Forecast Next Few Weeks

Just to let you know, I am going to give the blog a rest for the next few weeks.

Deadlines are brilliant.  I find deadlines good motivation for getting my thoughts together and making things with yarn instead of sitting around mulling about what has been and what could be.

I have a deadline coming up, one I'm looking forward to because when the day arrives, I get to make a presentation to interested people about a particular fibre art dear to my heart.  It's also the season for festivals and spinning in public at events, and I'll be participating in those sorts of activities too.  Normally I like to blog as I spin yarn, do research, go places, and make things.  However, I need to focus and confine my writing to the presentation.  There may or may not be blog posts for the next while.  Will pick up again in May.

Some Things Get Made, Some Don't

I finished weaving the hem of my linen Ms and Os bath towel, cut it off the loom, and showed it to someone.  As yet unwashed and unhemmed, it looks like a big glossy sheet of white with a raised pattern all over and long thrums dangling at the ends.  "Will you hang it on the wall?"  Right on the towel rod, I said.

I selected my next project.  It is partly dictated by the yarn available and partly by my need to gain some experience with more kinds of weaving.  I'll be doing cotton sampler placemats in variations on rosepath twill.

I started and abandoned the brim of a knitted hat in sock yarn because I could not get a sufficiently tight gauge with the needles I have.

I tried to learn pure intertwined språng and could not even figure out how to start.  That's dispiriting, I was hoping to show a sample to someone at the end of the month.

Twill-like Språng

A wee bag and a how-to video for interlaced språng with threads running over two, under two threads to give horizontal ribs. 

http://youtu.be/O_ndunVfEmk

I quite like the result.

Trying to Suss Out Tegle

I tried to learn the Tegle pattern in språng, just the interlinking without the tablet-woven borders.  My bit of practice went smoothly at first.  There is a peculiar arrangement of the warp at every junction of S and Z twists and that means that the edges of the triangles present themselves in an obvious fashion and indicate what to do.

I got muddled where the upward-pointing triangle is as wide as its going to be and you need to reverse twist and start an up-side down triangle.

Moreover, I discovered that I was merely making something similar to Tegle.  I was following Collingwood's directions in The Techniques of Sprang for a triangle of S twist interlinking on a background of Z twist, modified to include more triangles.  I peered at the picture of the Tegle stocking in Hald's Old Danish Textiles (which is clearer than Hoffann's picture in The Warp-weighted Loom but still not easy to analyze) and realized that while Collingwood's direction are a good start, Tegle is actually is Z on S.  I used too few warp threads in each triangle and I started the points too far to the left.

Since the points are too far to the left, the working row's first few twists at the edge are slanting the wrong way, and therefore the strands are not regularly arranged in the shed one up and one down.  It's noticeable in the gap where the bone sword shows through.  (It's actually a nalbinding needle used for a sword.)  That's why I can't get started with upside-down triangles.  I'm sure there's a way out, probably involving a row of Z twist, but the arrangement isn't working for me and I'd rather start again.

At least the embossed look appeals to my taste, despite being done in cotton yarn which I dislike.

Image of Språng Cap on the Louvre's website

There is an image of a red wool Coptic språng cap, item E 29484 on the Louvre's website, www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/sprang-cap, along with information about språng.  The writer believes that the Copts were influenced by the ancient Greeks' språng head coverings.

I was on the Louvre's website trying, without success, to look up a piece of Greek pottery in their collection that shows a woman holding a trapezoidal språng frame.

Pyxis

There is a beautiful image of a pyxis, a piece of ancient Greek pottery, on the British Museum website.  I believe its name translates as compass box.  [Correction: its name is the same as a constellation whose name translates as compass box but a pyxis is a container with a lid.]  Its design shows a språng loom with a partially-completed piece of språng.  It is museum number 1907,0519.1.  The description notes that it's a "sprang frame, used for making hairnets."

You can get a sense of the loom's size by comparing it to the women shown.  The frame's ratio of width to height, excluding the bit at the top, is 1:1.5, very close to phi, the golden ratio.

Twine to the Left

I managed to learn how to twine a pair of threads to the left on a background of interlinked språng.  Here's a video I made, if you would like to do it too.

http://youtu.be/8vjCns6d4Yw

And I made a wee bag.  Here it is still at the flat stage, where I've just taken it off the frame.

The idea is to combine twining threads going to the right and threads going to the left to imitate certain Coptic textiles.  I doubt that I will do much in the way of reproductions or pieces inspired by Coptic interlinked pieces with intertwined patterns, but it's good to have at least done the technique.

"It is amazing to study any manual skill." – språng artist Chieko Aihara

Interview of Chieko Aihara about her research and språng artwork, and her artwear
www.yarntasting.com/2011/03/chieko-aihara-fiber-artist/

gallery on the artist's website
www.yupanqui.jp/j/sprang.html

Språng Images on the Kelsey Museum Website

There are many online entries for very old pieces of språng on the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology's website, and many of the images show the collections to be in fragments.

Here is a språng bag that is mostly intact, record number 0000.01.3532
quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kelsey2ic/x-0000.01.3532/13532P1
It is in three colours.  The pattern is described as having been "made using sprang and twining," or what Collingwood would call intertwined språng on a background of interlinking.

Be sure to increase the image size using the drop-down menu.  You'll want to use a computer monitor, not a mobile screen.  Also be sure to click the description tab in the left menu.  This museum offers the most comprehensive analysis I've seen for the structure of a språng piece and the yarn types in it.

Språng Images on the Smithsonian Website

19th century Swedish sampler in off-white silk with patterns of holes, accession number 1981-28-199
collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18616515/

20th century Tunisian headress, wool, tie-dyed, accession number 2007-8-2; also, an explanation of språng in general.

collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18705687/

I think it's worth repeating, this piece is tie-dyed.  It looks different from any picture of språng I've seen so far.

another Tunisian headress, accession number 2007-2-2

africa.si.edu/collections/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:17706

5th century Coptic bag or bonnet with patterns of both holes and stripes, accession number 1971-50-482

collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18474817/

Mexican fragment of knotless netting, accession number 374960

collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/anth/?irn=8554507

The Book Was There For Me

http://youtu.be/OWKT4svR-dY

Fortunately, the book was there for me and I was able to pick up the technique again in order to make a how-to video about the way threads (and colours) move diagonally in double-twist språng.

I made the video to be thorough and cover the possibilities.  I don't think this technique will find its way into projects, as I find the play of colour rather ugly.  (It's okay if you like it, people have different tastes.)

Also swotted in order to learn a different technique, one that I've never done.  So far, the words are not translating into the proper actions on my part.  I'll try again.

Books, Memory, and Making Stuff

I went to do some double-twist interlinked språng to get diagonal lines of colour and forgot how.  Had to re-read a small part of the book to pick it up again.  There's a little thing you have to do with the edges in the plait row.

språng name tag strap

I cut a commercial strap off a name tag and made a new strap in linen interlaced sprang.  I needed a new name tag to wear at guild meetings.

I have a "hello, my name is" Ravelry button with my user name and it pins easily on the strap, a nice feature.

The warp is circular and uncut.  I wove the last inch of warp in plain weave; that's the part in the lark's head where the strap is attached to the tag's finding.

Carol James video of a Språng Sash

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0GkJFsuEoY

"Une réplique inédite de la ceinture de George Washington par Carol James" by La Liberté of Manitoba, which roughly translates as "A replica unpublished [novel, original?] of the sash of George Washington by Carol James."

The short video begins with a demonstration of how språng works in general on a tabletop loom.  James shows the "two for one," the "deux morceaux de tissue" (two pieces of cloth) you get from manipulating a warp secured at both top and bottom of a frame.  The video also shows the frame and circular warp James is using for the reproduction sash, the way twists are pushed around a circular warp, the rods used to keep the shed open securely, the patterns of holes worked so far, and the elasticity of the fabric.

I caught most of the dialogue.  I am poor with numbers in French but if I understood correctly the number of threads in the warp of the sash, the length, and the number of hours worked, they are high.

James and the interviewer use the verb tresser, to braid, to describe the action of making språng, and the captioning refers to språng as la technique de tressage Sprang.  

The two books on the table are the 1999 edition of Collingwood's The Techniques of Sprang and Skowronski and Reddy's Sprang: Thread Twisting.

Applied TOC to Handspinning a Little

On someone's recommendation I read The Goal, a novel that discusses the theory of constraints (TOC) in business.  I like a good makeover story and the theory, applied, looks like a good way to tackle problems of production.  Part of it I've known all my life because whenever things stopped, my father would ask, "what's the holdup?"  That's the main thing you do with the theory of constraints, you ask what is constraining production.

I have a large quantity of Hampshire wool and Romney wool with more grease left on it than I like; therefore, I want to produce washed wool for handspinning.  I washed a few batches but it was patchy progress.  The basin went back in its place and I didn't bring it out again to resume the task.  The work in progress stalled.  My reason wanted clean wool, my will wanted clean wool, but the hands were not grabbing the wool and filling the basin.

The limiting factor turned out to be space to dry wet wool.  Specifically, when I dug deep and asked myself what was wrong, the answer was this: I wanted to wash a lot of wool at a time, more than can fit arranged in a thin layer on top of the washing machine and clothes dryer, the spot with the most warmth and air circulation.  The solution was to clear off wire shelves over the machines and dry wool there too.  I got a third of the Hampshire done.

Another TOC tactic in the book is to subordinate inventory and operations to throughput.  For example, if you cannot make anything good with a certain material, don't stockpile it.  If you have to use an inefficient machine to make a small batch so you can get on with production, do it.  If you need to outsource some tasks, do it.  If you test a finished object for quality and it fails, figure out a way to test earlier before you put in so much effort.  Pay attention to the stages where works-in-progress stop and pile up.  Prioritize work, do many small batches, limit the amount in progress, and focus on completing items people want.  It sounds more compelling when you read the novel.

Right after I read the book I looked at these considerations in regard to my handspinning and thought about making some changes.  I put the list aside at the time: I am cautious about overhauls and outlays and it was easier just to go on as usual.  However, my throughput is less than what I'd like to have and less than my capacity.  I do want to change somewhat.  Now I can't remember what some of the changes were supposed to be, which is annoying, but if I go back and look it over I'll probably recapture my thoughts.

Viking Lawn Chair

A lawn chair I restrung with rope in the York språng pattern.  As I expected, this pattern looks much better with a wide warp.

Was tricky getting the tension correct.  There are a couple of cross pieces in the frame so for comfort the mesh cannot sag too much.  You can see at the edges of the seat that the warp is bunched up there.  I had to lash that area more tightly.

Warp take up was maybe 18 inches.  I warped directly onto the frame, extending the warp from the top bar down past the bottom bar and up the back to a string stretched across the frame a foot or so above the bottom bar.

There are two types of rope in there because I underestimated requirements the first time and I had to go back to the hardware store to get another couple hundred feet.  By tracking the two different types, I discovered that the York pattern causes each warp thread to move diagonally as the rows progress.  The slightly thicker rope started out in the middle of the warp and here it is at the sides.

The interplay of S twist interlinking, Z twist interlinking, and interlacing is quite attractive.

White Knitted Dish Cloths

Completed a stack of white knitted dish cloths and sent them off in the mail as a gift.

Four Ways to Chart Språng

I've found four ways to chart språng hole patterns so far in four books.  This video is my attempt to make sense of the four methods.

There is more I still need to cover.  I plan at some point to reverse engineer a pattern from a picture of an actual språng item.

What you see isn't always what you get.  The cloth's appearance will not exactly match the chart's depiction, whichever method you choose.  There is also a difference between the way språng cloth looks stretched on the loom and what it looks like when finished.  I need to play with that and see if there are any principles that will let me chart original motifs without them coming out squashed or distorted.

In Clover

Sorry I didn't make the clover in green yarn.

The clover pattern is from Fenny Nijman's Sprang - Egyptisch Vlechten.  She calls it "klavertje" which is the Dutch word for clover.  Beside the pattern she gives a photograph of a plant, a four-leaved clover.

You can see an example of the clover pattern in an image showing silk mittens from the early 1800s on the Rijks museum website.  The Rijksmuseum is in the Netherlands.  They list språng under the name Egyptisch vlechtwerk.

Elisabeth Siewertsz van Reesema, whose språng work is in the same museum, shows a collar patterned with clovers in her book Egyptisch Vletchwerk.

Språng belt on National Gallery of Australia website

If you liked the red språng sash on the ROM website I pointed out the other day, have a look at Accession No: NGA 2009.187 on the National Gallery of Australia website.  Similar in colour, pattern,  and fibre type apart from the addition of metallic yarn.  Different in geographical origin (Pakistan) and time period (nineteenth century).

It is described as a belt or drawstring and it is narrow, 9 centimetres by 206 cm (about 3.5 inches by 81 inches).  By comparison the ROM's sash is 28 cm by 302 cm (about 11 inches by 119 inches).