Wrapping Up 2014

These wraps seem to have been a long time coming but finally both are finished at the same time.  This silver-grey one has the same specifications as the one I  sent to the Dunedin Challenge which got chosen for the travelling suitcase. As it will be away at least a couple of years I decided to make another.  The warp is a synthetic boucle of some slippery kind. I really like it.  The weft is predominantly kid mohair with a little nylon to bind it. Another gorgeous yarn.

This time I had trouble with static electricity which I didn't get the first time. The weft just flew underneath the web and wanted to cling on. I had to really watch it and even so ended up with quite a few loops that I had missed, so there was a bit of mending to do.  The boucle does not make a nice fringe and I wasn't satisfied with the twisted one on the previous wrap. This time I threaded on some little square wooden beads which were just the right colour (Yay for the Hospice Shop and its pre-loved jewellery). I knotted the groups close to the beads and again at the bottom of the fringe. It's still a bit untidy in my view but I still have the option of trimming the fringe off after the first knots.

The other wrap is in the 70/30 alpaca/silk that I love. This colour is called mulberry. I've woven this one in a 3-end huck lace pattern that I have been using a bit lately. Another one, still to be finished, is in a different huck pattern with a large block at each end and a plain weave centre.

These are my focal pieces for an exhibition at Fibre Spectrum in Nelson for the whole of January 2015. Other exhibitors will be Peg Moorhouse, Sue Broad and Jane Clark. We are the "Top of the South" members of the Professional Weavers' Network of NZ.

Red Alpaca/silk scarves

Further to my last post but one, I have now finished the red alpaca silk scarves using the same weight and blend of yarn as the white ones but using a smaller area of lace and a three end huck instead of five end.  I like this much better; it seems to be more in proportion and has the plain weave to set off the lace.

The handle is quite different from the white, so much so that I went back to the cone of white to check that it was the same 70/30 mix of alpaca and silk. The two yarns seem to have the same amount of twist but the coloured ones have more sheen and the white (or cream really) is slightly more fluffy. I love them both. Some of these yarns are spun in New Zealand and some in Peru so it would be interesting to know if that is where the difference occurs.

I have another colour on the loom now so hope to have a couple of mulberry wraps soon.

The Year of the Pincushion

OK, I'm ready. The Creative Fibre Guild President's Challenge for this year is a pincushion. I thought about this off and on all year and knew exactly what I wanted to do. . . I haven't done it! However I have come up with not one but three pincushions that just sort of happened. Well, the first one took a bit of thinking about but then hung around for weeks waiting for me to do a bit of painting. (I am not a painter - I'm a weaver.)  Here it is. The actual pincushion is handwoven fabric I made for a cape for my granddaughter some years ago when she was at Uni. The rest is tatting on a used moisturiser pot.

For no reason, except that I wasn't too happy with the quality of my painting, I bought a pincushion, complete with pins, from the Warehouse for $4. In a jiffy I removed the embellishment, found a tatted medallion which fitted nicely on it and stitched it on while watching TV. I was quite happy with it but it felt a bit like cheating.

No sooner finished that than I saw what I thought was a brilliant idea on Pintrest. I found a silver photo frame, still in its packet, which has been 'on hold' for several years, and picked up a piece of weaving I had cut off the end of a scarf (for reasons best not talked about) and lo and behold - pincushion number three. Here it is.

Our weaving group is to have a pincushion exchange at our last meeting for the year so whoever draws my number will have to choose one out of the three. I can't believe I have done it with days to spare.

Alpaca/Silk Scarves

The scarves mentioned in the last post have now been properly finished. One has huck lace diamonds in an allover pattern (top and left) and the other has a design with small flowers on a very open lace background (right). It's the first time I have used this draft and I'm not too keen on it.

Following this exercise I warped up for two more scarves, this time in the red alpaca/silk. Instead of an allover pattern I made them each with three narrow panels of lace, just one repeat of the draft, on a plain ground. One scarf has the same diamond pattern and the other has a design I worked out myself. Time will tell how it turns out.

Small Stuff

September seems to have been full of non-weaving commitments but I have managed to do a couple of scarves and also my Cross Country samples for this year. They are not due till February but I am trying to get back to my habit of doing them early as I have been late for the last few years and I can do without the last minute rush.

The Topic for the group I am in this year is huck lace and as I had been doing samples for the linen workshop it seemed sensible to use the last warp for my CCW samples. This is in 16/2 linen and shows a motif in huck lace.

 On the end of the warp I made a couple of small earring hangers.

For my "own choice" samples I wanted to do a different style of huck lace, very fine with an allover pattern.  The finest thread I had was sewing cotton so used that at 40epi and used a three-thread huck instead of the usual 5 thread. Here is the result, showing the cotton warp and a polyester machine embroidery thread weft.

Threading took a while and sleying was hard to see, so a couple of ooops, but weaving was quite quick. I am pleased with the finished piece. I made a greeting card using some as an insert in a window and it was perfect.

Scarf photos are to come. I think they need an iron first.

Finally!

It has taken a while but finally I have some work finished. Between trips away to visit family I managed to weave some linen runners. I took them with me and enjoyed sitting in the sun at Wanaka hemstitching the ends. Here are some photos.

 

These are 1/3 3/1 twill blocks in 20/2 linen and I decided I liked the ones with the coloured weft best. Now I need to do some in lace weaves. However, I did visit the Alpaca shop in Geraldine both going and coming on my trip and there was some of my favourite 70/30 alpaca/silk in the bargain basket. Watch this space.

Linen Workshop

Well, July  has been and gone with nothing for me to 'show and tell' which is somewhat unusual for me. However I do have a book of woven linen samples and workshop notes prepared for a workshop I took for the Wellington Creative Fibre Area. It was just a one day workshop but took me weeks to prepare!  It was a good day with nine weavers and ten looms in action from 9am till 5pm. Everyone seemed to be happy at the end, including me. Here are some pics.

Note all the neat hemstitching! Ten out of ten everyone!

Scarf Expo June 2014

OK, I got the message. Scarf Expo II is on in June. I did make an effort to contribute. Here are three silk scarves and three on a kid mohair/nylon warp, each with a different weft and a different finish on the ends. Only three scarves can be shown at the Expo but if there are sales it pays to have replacements on hand. In one week this event will be opening and a week later we will know how successful it has been.

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.