tabby-tapestry

in which Sarah contemplates conundrums

Last night I went to bed feeling a little smug.

I’d finished a swath of cloth and started to write this edition of the Gusset.

How thrilling I thought, for future Sarah (that’s me, now), to have this newsletter ready to send before breakfast. (My breakfast that is; you may well be nibbling olives at midnight, sipping Ooling at eleven, or catching zzzs at three in the morning, dreaming of dates).

But what I had written didn’t work and this morning I began again (slurping coffee if not actively eating my porridge).

It’s not that what I did was was horrible. I’d just written myself into a mire of metaphor so thick and word-heavy I could hardly breathe for the qualifiers and asides and this morning it seemed too lugubrious for a syringa-perfumed¹ day in June with a dog licking lotion off my neck.

So, back to basics.

I made some cloth and I kinda like it.

It’s tabby and tapestry—

—warp face and houndstooth—

— functional and dreamy at the same time.

I wove it outside strapped into a loom made of sticks,² warped with unsuitable yarn.

Well — half unsuitable. It is perfect yarn for a blanket or garment—not so much for tapestry (too squishy as you can see in the video below).

It’s also the yarn I’ve been spinning³ so it’s the yarn I have and therefor the yarn I’m going to use.

And—it’s YuMMy.

The vides though— are they yummy?

They are certainly an experiment—and I’m on the fence.

I don’t know whether to applaud the fact that I can now demonstrate Tucking the Tails⁴ in real time (complete with background sounds of birds, the neighbor’s hammer, and my little water fountain)—

—or sigh with dismay at my susceptibility to a technological possibility that conveys some amazing specifics and also changes the feel of everything.

Until now I’ve put the moving pictures on Instagram and kept this a place of still images—in part because Substack did not yet have the capacity to embed video (at least without a Youtube account thing I don’t want to think about), and in part because while videos can give a sense of air and space and place they also change the vibe, throwing a person out of the flow of whatever is unfolding down the page.

Videos might make the entire Gusset unbearable (especially if they don’t work for lack of band width or whatever). They also might add to the ambiance. It’s hard to tell from this side and I’d truly love to hear your thoughts. Are they fun? Annoying? Helpful? All of the above at once? Did you just skip right over them? (This is what I do while I’m writing — then go back to check them later). I could put videos on instagram and links down in the footnotes so you can go look if you want to but won’t feel obliged (or whatever it is a person might feel when confronted with those images with arrows that imply a portal to another dimension).

Maybe having one moving picture is fine but three in a row is crazy-making —especially when you have to see the grubby band-aid on my thumb (there to protect a wee cut I gave myself while slicing an apple with a sharp knife).

Or perhaps I should just stick with comics, words and pics (already an abundance of media to be sure).

The videos do make it possible to hear what Beryl and I were listening to out on the deck. They don’t allow you to feel the tug of the strap against your back or experience the physical sensation of being a loom component.

But that would be impossible anyway. And even if it were possible we’d all experience both things differently —and for all I know the last thing you’re interested in is hearing the neighborhood starlings or having a strap around your hips and a shuttle in your hand.

Though that too is part of the point of all this, isn’t it—that I get to bliss out on houndstooth and checkerboards and needlepoint straps and the chance to slip away on a swath of airy cloth, and you get to float your boat in whatever medium holds it up—

—or should you prefer it, to race wildly around with a frisbee in your mouth while messily scattering bespoke watercolors⁵ all over the page. Because honestly, I’m beginning to believe we actually are allowed to have this much elemental fun in whatever way works.

And I suppose that is what I needed and wanted to say today— though it took me all this time to get here.

So till next week, I send love and wet fur and hope you are as well and content as can be, trust that you can immerse yourself in the real, the imaginary, the sublime and the ridiculous, and that you can relish unexpected incandescence should it show up.

Also, that if you happen to get mired in metaphor, you have a supportive sidekick (real or imaginary) to help you out.⁶

1. Syringa is the state flower of Idaho.

2. Backstrap Dialogues - a comic guide about my approach to backstrap weaving

3. The white is a 2 ply Targhee/Debouillet, the grey a 3 ply Cormo, both from Montana.

4. Tucking The Tails — a comic guide to just what these videos show only in WAY more detail. I linked this a couple of weeks ago too and apologize for repeating myself — it’s just that the context is a little different with tabby tapestry and possibly more appealing if you’re imagining including tapestry in a swath of cloth that might be a garment someday. I mean, who wants little ends to tickle you on the inside of your shirt? Just a thought. Also, btw and in case you care— I doubled the warp threads for the tapestry part as I hope you can see from the videos.

5. Jodi makes pigment by foraging and grinding Montana stones and precipitating local plant dyes. Her Instagram is a treasure trove of information. Her Youtube has more and longer videos. And on her website and blog you can see her incredible paintings. I can’t believe I get to color my comics with her paints every single day - and that Beryl now has her very own.

6. I’ve been meaning to share this link to a lovely article about my work by Cathy Koos in theCNCH Journal (Conference of Northern California Handweavers), and finally am actually doing it. Not only did I have a great time chatting with Cathy (and hearing about her rescue pup), but I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed reading the other articles in the Journal on all manner of yarn-centric topics. Enjoy.