Quite a Day

A very satisfying day. Joan and I set up a display of weaving over the years as part of a plan by the Museum to enhance the Girling Building, one of the Heritage buildings in Brayshaw Park.  Here are some of my items and yes, some of them deserve the title of museum pieces.

This curtain is actually white and quite dainty but very hard to photograph against the bright Marlborough sunshine. From the other side I just got a reflection of myself. The tatted lace incorporates pearl drop beads.
Then it was back to the loom and half an hour's work saw me cutting bulk teatowels off the loom.  There's  quite a bit of hemming to do here so that will be a job for me next time I go to Wellington.

Then I was able to start winding a warp for a wrap with the beautiful red alpaca and silk yarn that I love.

All going well a navy one will follow . . . but I've also ordered some silk for scarves . . . .

Cross Country Samples I

On a somewhat smaller scale but almost as much fun I have been facing the challenge of my CCW group to provide samples in a honeycomb weave.  I have never been excited about honeycomb as it seemed to be very restricted in use being a one-sided fabric (I thought) only useful for upholstery or lined bags or cushions where the back was not seen. How wrong I was.  When other people's samples started arriving (while I was still thinking) it was apparent that it could be woven double faced and perfectly reversible. Why did I not know this?  I went to the book the draft had been taken from and did a 5 minute research.  As well as the double faced draft there was also one for a double layer honeycomb.  I still have no idea what I would use such a fabric for but the structure of it was a technical challenge and all of a sudden I was keen to try it.  Instead of warping up in stripes each the width of a cell, I warped  light and dark threads alternately across the width. This resulted in all the white warp on one surface and all the dark on the reverse. So white weft weaves with white on top, dark weft weaves with dark underneath but opposite cells are mixed dark and light so it appears as though there are stripes anyway. Here is my sample, back and front. 

Now I am keen to try a different type of honeycomb for my 'own choice' samples.