"Echo and Jin": A Zoom workshop with Denise Kovnat

 In March, COVID closed the door. Not just for Reno Fiber Guild, but for most guilds in this country.  The unthinkable became a reality.  We would no longer be able to meet in person.  We couldn’t hold our monthly meetings with guest speakers.  Our pending workshops had to be cancelled. Our regional conference and Convergence were both cancelled.  But, we are a resilient group and soon Zoom meetings started popping up and discussions about virtual workshops gave us hope that we could continue meeting, sharing and learning in new ways.

In late July and early August, Denise Kovnat held a “virtual” workshop for our guild.  Several other guilds had members who also wanted to join in and so two separate sessions were held over a period of a few weeks.  This coming together with members of other guilds is something that usually only happens at conferences, so we were excited to be meeting old and new friends online.

What follows is the remarkable collection of samples woven using the technique of “echo” threadings and treadlings and also jin (aka turned taqueté) in our workshop with Denise.  In many ways, this was a challenging workshop. Participants chose patterns based on the loom they wanted to use and patterns ranged between 4 and 16 shafts.  Some chose a four color warp and some a two color warp.  The threadings were difficult and without a dobby loom, treadling sequences hundreds of picks long were hard to follow. But, the woven results are fantastic and I think the comments that accompany the samples will give you a good idea about the success of this workshop.

 Here is our show and tell.  Each participant took their own photo. ___________________________________________________________________________________

I had a great time! Learned a lot, have so many resources from the class to continue my learning! This is the Fun House, two color (purple and gold-Lunatic Fringe 10/2); 8 shaft, 2nd treadling with a dusty red (Lily 20/2) weft. I am weaving this as a scarf, hoping I have enough weft! I do have some other red that is very, very close so I think I will be fine. Excited to try the Double weave in Echo.
So glad I did this class!
Shelley N.

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 I absolutely loved this workshop.  I have been reading Denise's blog for some time now and was thrilled to discover I could take a class from her.  Due to the pandemic and the stay at home order, I am very grateful for the opportunity to partake in distance learning via Zoom.  Thanks to
the Reno folks who made this possible!  Sue V.

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This was my sample of 6 patterns(2 colors on each) of 4 shaft blooming leaf.  I have enough warp left for 2 scarves Still deciding on color for weft.  Thanks Denise.   Sue M. 

 

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This is Fish Tank Double Weave.  I sent front and back pictures.  It had large pockets and with one of the wefts cotton 20/2 and the other Jaggerspun Superfine Merino I got some lovely texture!  It was a fabulous workshop!
Mollie F.

 

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Eight shaft samples from Kathy R. after wet finishing.

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 I had a terrific time weaving these samples and trying out all sorts of different color wefts.  Being able to weave at home, made it possible for me to weave with 16 shaft patterns.  I learned lots and have lots more ideas for the future.  Thanks for the workshop, Denise.  Beryl M.

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Thanks to the Reno guild for the opportunity to attend the Echo and Jin weaving workshop. Denise Kovnat is a knowledgeable and patient instructor. Her ability to pivot and teach via Zoom is outstanding. I am thrilled that I was able to complete and document all the samples for the class. As a slow weaver, that rarely happens. I am inspired to deepen my understanding and have started planning a project based on my new skills.  Mary P.

 

 

Results of the 3 Shaft Study Group Part II

When it comes to study groups, participation is really the key to success.  For the past couple of study groups, we have been trying something new.  We are experimenting with  a group that is a combination of online and in person communications. Everyone in the group has access to an online mail group in which they can respond to questions, post photos and share results.  Our membership comes from anyone who has interest and is also a member of a CNCH guild.

 

How are we doing?  Well, we do have a pretty active participation in the Reno Fiber Guild, but not so much from members of other guilds. This is probably because guild members outside the Reno area aren't able to show up to meetings with their projects in hand.  The lack of personal interactions doesn't help some folks feel like they are a real part of the group.  Since weaving is already a rather isolated endeavor, not knowing group members has its limitations.  We have more work to do to make this experiment a success.

 

Now to the second part of the projects that were woven for this study.

 

Shelley N. wove this lovely, colorful scarf using the draft in the Weaving on 3 Shafts, page 37. Shelley used a 5/2 hand dyed Tencel and 8/2 cotton in navy.  The directions called for a black or dark thread on shaft 1 and pattern colors on shafts 2 and 3.  Shelley chose not to do that because the hand dyed yarn had so many colors.  It was sett at 24epi and Shelley finds it a bit stiff for a scarf.  Her suggestion is to use finer yarn or a less dense sett for a scarf.  For a table runner, the sett would be fine as is.  Shelley supplied samples of this cloth for everyone in the sample exchange.

Shelley also wove the samples in the photo above.  She got the yarns and pattern from Halcyon Yarns.  The original pattern was configured as a four shaft weave, but was actually only using three shafts.  Shelley found the exact same pattern in Erica's book on page 32.  The samples were woven with Block Island Blend yarn - (cotton, rayon & hemp).  She made a series of placements in addition to the samples using this draft.

Igor wove a gamp on page 9 in Erica's book.  There are nine different threadings, all tromp as writ to give 81 different designs and the sample shown above is just a small part of the total.  He had to make a few alterations in the threading so that he can weave off the rest as dishtowels without floats being too long.  The warp is 10/2 cotton sett at 24 epi.  He tried several different colored wefts to get one in which the pattern showed.  Some of the designs are quite tiny.

 

This is Nancy S. shawl that she wove with directions she downloaded from Webs.  The  pattern was called Chiyo Mobius Shawl and it turned out to be on three shafts.  You can see the open patterning stripes in the version that Nancy wove.  She also added a supplementary warp in gold as an accent.  Nancy then sewed the two ends of the shawl together to form a Mobius which allows it to be worn "hands free"  She said she loved that it was so quick and easy to weave.

There are a few more projects to show and more are still on the loom.  There will be another blog post in a few days.

 

A Visit with Jochen Ditterich at Sage Weavers

 

 Sage Weavers was a week later than usual this month so that we could spend  time with Jochen Ditterich who was in town visiting his son.  Jochen has been teaching weaving for many years and was recognized this year by Handwoven as one of their two handweaving teachers of the year.



 Jochen showed us a rug he wove for his son when he received his PhD.  The technique he used is called shaft switching and it allowed him to get the involved pictorial image of his son bicycling.  Unfortunately, the dog made his mark on the rug - but otherwise it has stood the test of time well.

Jochen tells us he has many hundreds of pounds of wool in his studio and from the video show we watched, he wasn't exaggerating.  In order to weave the basketweave rug shown above, he combined several ends of slightly different colored yarn.  This gives the rug a much more interesting color effect than using just one color.



Here is an airy scarf woven in silk using bead leno as the weaving technique.  Note the nice little picot edging along the scarf.

 

Another sumptuous piece - this time a shawl woven in cashmere.

 

And, then on to Jochen's standby scarves - rayon chenille warp and weft.  No two are the same and there are usually many different warp colors in each scarf

A friend made this jacket using 8 of Jochen's chenille scarves.  A real luxury piece.

We enjoyed the afternoon talking and sharing with Jochen and hope that he will let us know when he is in Reno again so that we can get together again.  We had hoped he would be moving to Reno, but he tells us not now.  He has too many looms and too much yarn to move.   I guess most of us can identify with his dilemma.

 

Read more about Jochen here at his website and take a look at this video made by a friend of him in his home studio in Grand Rapids, MI.  https://youtu.be/lsVmPkKN1vQ