Finishings

 With a Scarf Expo coming up in June I have tried to make a few 'different' scarves. The warp in this one was not going to make a nice fringe so I darned the warp ends back and gave it this button treatment. It's very light so the buttons add just a little bit of weight.

This alpaca/silk wrap has been off the loom for some time but I've only recently finished fringing it. I added tiny glass beads to the warp ends before twisting them and it took absolutely AGES! They are so small you can't see them so I'm not sure if it was worth the effort. Here is a see-through of the 3-end huck lace pattern.

This is very similar to one I made earlier and it sold before I was ready to part with it so I repeated it with a different lace pattern - not that you can notice - and added the beads to give it a variation from the original.

Silk Scarves Part Two

It seems a while since these came off the loom but I put them aside for when I go visiting and don't have access to my loom. I can then sit and drive everyone crazy with my little buzzy machine twisting the fringes. The yarns are the remains of the silk used in the previous scarves, just mixed up a bit differently. I really like 1/3, 3/1 twill blocks.

The last of this batch has two distinctly different ends. I might have done it on purpose if I had thought of it earlier because I quite like it. However there are a few unintended floats in this one and I may need to spend a bit of time mending.  I'm pleased with the finishing though, although I have just noticed I still need to trim the fringes.

I still have some poppy red silk waiting for me. I wonder what that will turn into?

Silk Scarves

I sent for some silks from The Georgia Yarn co in USA recently and was so excited to get them.  Here are the first three scarves, the top one in a fancy twill with 'Apricot' Blush' warp and 'Rio Red' weft. The other two are in less complicated twill variations and hve 'Fusion Coral' warp and weft.  Apart from the rather strange names I love working with the silk and look forward to getting more colours when Michael has his promised silk sale in May.  I still have 'Poppy Red' on hand to look forward to.

Here are some close-ups.

I was surprised by the amount of loose dye that washed out of these yarns but otherwise love them.

Warmest Chick in the World

Challenge time for Dunedin Creative Fibre Festival. I've been feeling guilty about not entering anything in the national exhibition so when I realised I still had time to put an entry in the challenge I thought I had better do so. I usually like the challenges - some better than others. This time it was something to be inspired by the flora and fauna of Otago.

I have had a basket of soft kid mohair sitting beside my loom for so long I had almost stopped seeing it, but recently two people (weavers of course) independently saw it and drew my attention back to it. 

How perfect is that to represent these fluffy yellow-eyed penguin chicks!

 

I had some silver-grey synthetic boucle to use for a warp at 10 epi so it was very quick to get started and also quick to weave - one shuttle, plain weave.

Here's a close up.

 

Next day - ta da - we have a shawl. 

I did my normal Philippine edges and twisted fringes and there it is.

I call it "Warmest Chick in the World"

 

Travel Time

The annual Professional Weavers' Network seminar was held this year at Coopers Beach in Northland. What a picturesque place!

Our friend Agnes had organised it as well as masterminding an exhibition that she and UK weaver Stacey Harvey-Brown have been working on for some time and now have ready to take to Europe. Stacey was our key speaker and she was to take a workshop after the seminar before travelling through NZ taking workshops and ending up at the CF festival in Dunedin. The highlight of our seminar was attending the opening of Agnes and Stacey's exhibition based on land forms, 'Nature in the Making' at The Earth House' at Peria, a great privilege for us as there is only one other showing of it in NZ, at Oxford North Canterbury 12 April - 7 May. Here are just a few of my favourite photos from the opening, starting with Agnes's stalactites hanging from a tree in the courtyard.

 And these indoors are Stacey's. She's a collapse weave expert and thinks on a grand scale!

Agnes excelled herself with her gorgeous silk network drafting and beautifully executed jacquard weaving. Below is part of a large tryptich of fossilised sand dunes in North America.

And here are the two of them who produced it all while half a world away from each other.

And just a few pics of the quirky venue.

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.