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Eclipse |
Marcy Petrini
July, 2024
I am fascinated by eclipses of the sun. I can imagine how frightening it must have been in ancient times when people didn’t know what was suddenly causing the covering of the sun during the daytime.
I remember as a child in Rome, Italy, an eclipse was occurring early in the morning. School postponed opening till the peak was over so that everyone could experience the eclipse at home. We lived in an apartment building with a rooftop terrace, and everyone gathered there to watch it. I also remember walking to school partly in the shade as the sun was slowly returning,
In 2017, the eclipse was going to be partial where we live in Jackson, MS, so we traveled to Kentucky for the August 21 totality. We were parked in a field provided by a distillery. For a small fee, and first come, first serve, we found the perfect spot, with lots of kindred spirits watching, cheering and clapping. We brought special glasses that allowed us to look at the eclipse as it evolved. We were lucky, an incredibly clear and blue sky – while the sun was uncovered. Terry had a filter for his camera; he took periodic pictures and then put them together for a short slide show (< 30 sec.). Here it is:
https://terrydwyer.net/images/video/adapting to the dusk of totality.mp4
Back at home, I was inspired to weave this scarf:
I chose M’s & O’s as the structure for my scarf, I don’t remember why; perhaps the O’s reminded me of the sun. I used 10/2 mercerized cotton in a gold color for the warp; the black weft was 20/2 silk, the bright yellow weft was a silk from my stash, close to an 8/2, but the two wefts worked well together despite the difference in size. I divided the 65” length of the scarf in 5” segments, starting with 5” of yellow, introducing ¼” of an inch for the following 5” segment, and then progressing by changing ½ an inch with each 5” segment, until the end, where the last yellow was ¼” and the scarf ended with 5” of block.
I really like the scarf; whenever I need an example of M’s & O’s, I use one of the segments, like the one below.
This year, we travelled to Arkansas for the April 8, 2024, eclipse. Terry chose Lyon College for our site; the college was very welcoming, providing all sorts of programs related to the eclipse, plus food, vendors, and a great spot for us to set up and watch with some faculty and staff. Once again, we were lucky because we had a clear sky. This one was nearly double the totality from the 2017 one, so we were able to take our glasses off and admire for several minutes the sun with its prominences, visible in the photograph that Terry’s took:
Time for a scarf to commemorate this eclipse. This time I decided to make the gradation in the warp. I used 20/2 silk for both the black and the gold with a set of 30 epi. I adjusted the width to 9”, so I could use 9 segments. I started with 30 threads of gold, and ended with 30 threads of black, increasing the black by 3 threads every inch.
Recently I had used the drawdown of the plain back cord from Davison’s book for one of my “Right from the Start” articles in Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot. This seemed a good opportunity to weave the Plain Back Cord Joseph France #23, threading #25; I used the suggestion of cramming in the reed 4 threads out of the 6 of the repeat. Here is the drawdown:
I wove the weft-dominant side on top on the loom. I rearranged Davison’s treadling so I could treadle across the six treadles by repeating the tie-up.
I changed my mind about the weft several times. Ultimately, I decided that a textured weft would capture the idea of the prominences. I also decided that doing a gradation in the weft could be better than a solid color. I chose a rayon boucle from my stash for the gold. I didn’t have enough of a single textured black, rather several ones that I liked, so I decided that I could change the black every so often.
For the gradation I divided the length of the scarf into 9 segments, in parallel with the threading; each was approximately 7.1”. I started with the gold, and increased the amount of black by 10%, except for the first and last segment where the increase was 20%.
I was busy weaving samples on my 8-shaft loom for my Convergence® seminars, so the scarf set unattended for a while. Finally, it’s done! I machine washed it and machine dried it on low to encourage the cord to be more visible.
Here is the scarf, showing the weft dominant side:
The close up below is the warp dominant, showing the cords. The texture from the black yarn is also visible in the close-up.
The next eclipse in the US will be August 23, 2044………. We may have to go elsewhere before then… Spain, August 12, 2026?
Happy Weaving!
Marcy