Challenges

A fundraiser supplied $10 with a challenge to take it away and use it to increase its value.  For a warp I used some fine wool (no label) a friend found in a charity shop. I wove two scarves using silk weft for both but used a different twill variation for each. I finished them with my usual Philippine edges and twisted fringes.

That was the easy part. Now I have to sell them and try to make several 100% for the charity - that's the hard bit. TradeMe, here I come.

A challenge of a different kind is one I can't resist - "What can I make of the leftovers?"   A little bit of this and a little bit of that can, with a bit of juggling, be made into something with a bit more character than each yarn on its own.  These two "scraps" together were not quite enough for my scarf length so I unwound the warps, shortened the length and made a shorter scarf. That's two little oddments that I didn't have to add to the scrap bag. Weft is a very fine blue cotton stranded with mother-of-pearl.

Grocery Bags

As a result of a challenge in our Weavers' Group I used stash - in this case carpet wool - to weave half a dozen bags suitable for grocery shopping now that plastic bags are no longer acceptable.

Weaving is one thing - sewing up is another. This is one I finished before the last meeting of the year. The rest are in various states of manufacture

Oh well. another UF for the UFO pile.  I can see I will need a sewing bee soon.

More scarves - more "comfort weaving"

I have decided I really like alpaca for scarves. Here are three in slightly different weights, just finished. I have been casting around for just the right specs for a man's scarf. Any of these three would serve but I have chosen the dark navy one for a family member's special birthday.

Back to the Loom

Life has been getting in the way of my weaving lately so I have been making an effort to do what a friend calls "comfort weaving". Here are three scarves, all using the same multi-coloured yarn as the warp and three different wefts: blue wool at 10 epi, finer black alpaca and an even finer pinkish (puce?) alpaca both at 12 epi. Each has a different handle as you would expect but all three have finished well and I am pleased with them. 

It was interesting watching narrow stripes forming in a long (2 scarf) warp as I was winding it, so had to experiment to see if I got wider stripes in a shorter (1 scarf) warp.   It sort of worked.

And another thing . . . 

I discovered I can still knit!

I should go on holiday more often.

Nostalgia Time

This year is the 100th birthday of what is now called Blenheim Musical Theatre.  Back in the 1970s and 80s I was part of the wardrobe department, becoming involved because I offered to weave the fabric for the 1979 performance of "Joseph."  As a weaver this was a fun challenge and an opportunity to get into the technicolour scene which I did with great glee, adding lots of glitter along the way. Tricia Burtenshaw made up the Dreamcoat with my fabric and it looked stunning on the stage with a "cartwheel" of panels as the spokes were unrolled and taken in a circle around Joseph (Greg Christensen) in the finale. Unfortunately I don't have a picture .
The garment has since had a few display outings, in particular at the Creative Fibre National Festival in Blenheim in 2012. Now in 2018 it is the 100th birthday of the "Operatic Society" (as it was called) and there are displays being held in the foyer of Blenheim's grand new ASB Theatre, one decade at a time. Now is the time for the 1970s and here are some photos, and in particular Joseph's Technicolour Dreamcoat.

Stashbuster Bags (Maybe)

I know perfectly well that no "stashbuster" ever works. This time our weaving group pulled out all the accumulated yarn that had been donated or left over from something or was just in the "don't know" basket. We were challenged to take some home and make some re-useable grocery bags to replace the plastic ones that are getting a bad reputation these days. Thinking big, I took some home, augmented the pile with carpet wool from my garage and found some cotton from my earliest weaving days for a warp. Did I use it all up? Not likely! I wove six bags and all around my weaving room I have so many leftovers I don't know where to put them!!!  No, I am not going to weave more bags - not at the moment anyway.  Here are the motley results, and if it makes you think "70s" you would be right.

Just off the loom

Luckily, a sunny day for washing

After a press and a tidy up

Please note: I made no promises about if or when they would be made up!

Weaving to wear

Early this year I was given some beautiful soft grey yarn with instructions to make something for myself with it. It had no label so I'm not sure if it was all wool or whether it had some other fibre in it. I used it for a warp and chose a darker grey fine wool as a weft to weave an 8 shaft twill variation. Here is the finished fabric. Now I have to decide how to make it up into some sort of top, preferably with an element of drape. Thank you Barbara - I love it.

One possibility I am considering is to combine my woven fabric (left) with a commercially woven "pashmina" (right), lighter in colour and patterned. I'm still not sure how I would use these two fabrics together so I will put it in the "think about it" basket for now.