left to right:
Origami Lamp made from a map of Paris!
Eve Sand Midcentury Modern Art
Lucy Poskitt's tapestry weaving
This Quilt by Pasha Textiles using 30s repro fabric

As I return to blogging here I've been thinking about what I'd like to write about and what kinds of posts people might like to see.  I used to do roundups here and someone recently said that people like lists of links, and I think they are right (at least I do). So, I'm going to see if at the very least I can commit to a bi-weekly local roundup with extra links about upcoming local events and other fun things from around the web.  Would you want see more of this here on VY?  

Janna

To help make your venture into tapestry weaving a simple one I've begun a series of helpful blog posts and videos.  They make the bulk of our Tapestry Weaving Resource page and are accompanied by some key videos that the ladies at Mirrix made, too.  My videos are not as professional as I'd like, and yes I was wearing the camera around my neck for a portion of the "finishing woven tapestries" video, but they do the trick.  Enjoy them, and be sure to let me know of any other videos or blog posts you're interested in seeing here.

Janna

I'm laying in bed post foot surgery, am all caught up on Big Brother, have watched all Vogue's 73 Questions and just filled up on the best gimbop in New York City that my hubs brought back after picking up our son from preschool. Now said kid is napping beside me and I think I can say that I'm officially awake enough and over the anxiety of having surgery to hunker down and write a wee post. 

Any day now you'll be able to buy some of my handwoven tapestries here on VY. Yesterday I picked up four of my tapestries from the Bronx Tale curator who had had them for the past three months.  As amazing as it feels to have them in my possession again I am excited to be offering them for sale here soon.  As soon as my foot is up and running I'll do a better photo shoot and post them in the shop.  In the meantime if you see one you'd like to snap up before they are officially listed let me know.  On instagram and such I've been tagging my tapestries with EPI tags. EPI stands for ends-per-inch which refers to the number of warps per inch the tapestry is woven with, warps being the yarn that one dresses the loom with.  The more warps per inch the finer the details and denser the weave.  For me it is one of the main things I take into consideration when pricing a tapestry.  The above tapestry is 12 ends per inch and its retail value is $415.  So, since it measures 12" X 11.5" is it easy to calculate that at this moment in time I sell the tapestries which are 12EPI for $3/square inch.

Today for some reason I was more nervous about standard day surgery than I was the spinal surgery I had over thirteen years ago. Albeit, the back surgery was preceded by my spending an agonizing 11 months in a wheelchair, so the prospect of walking again trumped any fears I may have had. I think this time 'round I was most nervous about having surgery in a country that is not my own, and then I have to admit, as paranoid as it may sound, my surgeon insisting that I go under anesthesia despite the fact that all the research that I had done suggested that this particular procedure is special because it doesn't require any, made me uneasy.  Two nights ago I laid awake in bed wondering if my doctor could be one of those perverts who happens to be a doctor (I won't valorize any of them by linking to a related story).  He is not.  But my anxiety about having surgery away from home took me there.  It's not that I think that the medical professionals here are less equip than those in Canada, it's just that when we first moved here I would use the same system that I would use in Vancouver when I needed medical attention - find the nearest clinic or hospital.  It is not that simple here.  With the multitude of private practices that exist here one really needs to do their research, especially when it comes to hygiene, I've found.  The first pediatrician that I brought my son to ended up being in a musty old house used as a clinic. The furniture was old and dirty, and the place smelled bad.  I was shocked.  I even took pictures because I knew my husband wouldn't register the severity of it without them.  Needless to say research must be done before attending a medical facility, and even though I had done some leading up to today's surgery the medical center is quite a commute from my home so I didn't have a chance to actually visit it before today.  It ended up being new and clean and I felt good about it - so I didn't have to walk out, which is something I was totally prepared to do.

I'll be resting up for the next few days so I'm looking forward to making some progress on my #SSKAL15 cardigan.  If only I could find my interchangeable needles!  Before our vacation I reorganized our apartment and I cannot remember where I put them.  Arg!

Janna

When weaving weft-faced circles I, like Claudia over at Mirrix Looms, always draw my circle right on the warp and follow it precisely. This means covering up the drawing completely.  I’m not super picky about my circles being exactly symmetrical so my stepping will not be the exact same on all sides, but I do want to point out a couple of things about stepping (decreasing/increasing) on a circle that might not seem obvious to a beginner tapestry weaver, as well as some other maybe not so obvious tips.

1) Unless you are making tiny circles you do not need to decrease until you run out of warp threads.  If you operate under this assumption you may end up with points.  This entirely depends on your ends-per-inch (epi) and the size of your circle, but if you’re weaving three-inch circles over 6 ends-per-inch the top and bottom of your circle might be something like eight ends each.

2) Similarly my circles above have sides which have no stepping at all – they go straight up for 11 wefts (or picks), mirroring the top and bottom.

3) For weft-faced weaving consistent beating and tension are key!  If you have even and tight tension you will be more successful at beating well and evenly and therefore your shapes will be keep their shape and stay proportional to each other.  If you're weave two circles with different beating habits they will not have the same amount of picks and therefore may change shape as the tapestry progresses and/or after it comes off the loom.  Remember that you should not be able to see your warp through the weft (This rule applies to every pick below the last one you wove; the last weft that was passed will sometimes show warp even though it has been beat hard enough.)  In general you want to make sure you are beating hard enough to cover your warp, and then be consistent.  But, you never want to be beating so hard that it becomes a workout.  If If you are not able to cover your warp easily it's likely that you are using weft that is too thick, or conversely have your EPI set too close together for the weft you are wanting to use.

4) If you're like me and you enjoy the kilim-esque look of stepping and slits you needn’t read on, but if you require a nicely rounded circle you could try outlining your circle using the sumac stitch.  I recently asked Kathe Todd Hooker (who writes these tapestry weaving books) and she put it like this