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.