Now, if you have been following my blog posts from late this past summer, you might have noticed that I have recently been bitten by the weaving bug again. My mind has been churning with so many ideas about things I want to put on the loom and weave. I just want to weave all the things. So when I was thinking of guests for the show, I knew I wanted to connect with Denise Renee Grace. If you are a knitter who is thinking about dipping your toe into the world of weaving, Denise has some great suggestions on how to get started. And if you are already a weaver and considering doing some more production-type weaving, Denise also has time-saving techniques that she will share with us. If you are at all interested in weaving and weaving with knitting yarn, I encourage you to join us for this conversation today.
Denise is enthusiastic about everything fiber, especially equipment. She works at Schacht Spindle Company as a product specialist helping people troubleshoot their looms and spinning wheels. When she is not assisting others, there is usually a flurry of fiber around her as she finished project after project. Denise focuses on production weaving, spinning, and machine knitting as well as her art. She reserves hand knitting as her luxury and only makes pieces for herself or those who will appreciate the effort and gesture of love. Color and texture are near and dear to her heart and she is just beginning to share her passion with the world.
[smart_track_player url=”https://traffic.libsyn.com/sweetgeorgia/034_The_Path_to_Production_Weaving_with_Denise_Renee_Grace.mp3″ title=”034: The Path to Production Weaving with Denise Renee Grace” artist=”The SweetGeorgia Show // Felicia Lo” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_gplus=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]
Links and Things
You can find Denise and Filament Fiber Art at:
Thanks for Listening!
Thank you so much for joining me again for the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode or the podcast, I would love for you to share it with your friends. You can also subscribe to us on iTunes so you don’t miss any new episodes and we welcome your comments and reviews too!
Let me know what you are knitting these days on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
Music Credits:
The Young and Beautiful – by Ivory Hours
The Beat – Ben Rector (on NoiseTrade)
[su_button url=”https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=70164&refid=stpr” target=”blank” style=”soft” background=”#CB0079″]Subscribe on Stitcher Radio[/su_button]
Hello, and thanks for a great podcast series! I need to take issue with this week’s guest regarding natural dyeing, though. It’s not only my passion, but my side business, and I’ve been at it for about ten years. She mentions that natural dyes reeeeaalllly depend on heavy metal mordants for their success. Well, no, unless you count alum, cream of tartar, tartaric acid, washing soda, copper (as is my plumbing, so…), ammonia, chalk, and thiox (for indigo) as heavy metals. It is true that some heavy metals were once considered necessary. One of my teachers specializes in historically accurate dyeing and weaving (reproducing fabric for Colonial Williamsburg, for instance), and that’s the only place I’ve ever experienced chrome-and in a minute amount, and only on cotton, which is kind of a pain to dye anyway.
There are certainly many natural dye sources that need no mordanting at all, and that lends itself to a lot of creativity. But *dependent* on heavy metals? Not in the least.
Thank you so much for your comment, Barbara! Absolutely, much natural dyeing can be done with alum alone as a mordant… and some natural dyes don’t require any mordanting at all! I appreciate you contributing your experience too. I know that fear of using certain mordants can make people hesitant to try natural dyeing, but as you mentioned, there are many different ways of doing it.