Summer Weaving Summary

Weaving is one thing but the finishing work afterwards is another and quite often longer process. I have finally finished the second alpaca/silk mulberry wrap - a companion to the one I put in the Fibre Spectrum exhibition. (No sales from that by the way but I am pleased to have those pieces back as I don't have a lot of work on hand.)  This one has a different lace pattern in a block at each end with the centre in plain weave. You may or may not be able to see in the photo that there is a plain weave flower motif within lace squares.  Note the very long fringes. There are only two threads twisted together in each strand. By the end I was wishing I had twisted them in fours. However, it makes a dainty fringe

In January I decided to do a stash-busting exercise and use up some of my thicker yarns to make a couple of throws - a decision I have questioned many times during our hot dry summer when the temperatures often climbed over 30 degrees. Today I did the last of the trimming of the fringes and I can now put these away until the weather cools a bit. The first one has about four different yarns in it, each one a complex mix of fibres including wool, mohair, polyester and goodness knows what else. It seems big and bulky but is really a lot lighter than it looks.

The blue one also has a mix of fibres but not as complex with a greater wool content including some Touch "Mt Pisa" boucle yarn which gives it a nice handle.

On a different creative journey, at our next Marlborough Weavers' meeting we are going to be looking at bags of all shapes and sizes. I found one I thought would be a good inspiration for a handwoven bag so made one up in an odd hour during Waitangi weekend. It was so easy - one square, no cutting!  I can also see me using this model to make a textile book cover as well - even less sewing. I'm rapt!

Happy New 2015 !

The New Year is ushered in with a small exhibition at Fibre Spectrum in Nelson. A group of four of us, members of the Professional Weavers' Network of NZ, have set up a small exhibition as we did in January 2014. The other participants are my good friend Peg Moorhouse (still weaving at age 97), Sue Broad from Nelson and Jane Clark from Mapua. Here is a photo of "my corner" followed by individual pics of my work. The only ones not shown clearly are the two red lace weave scarves. Note one of Peg's hangings on the wall. Please ignore the green feathers! The exhibition space is in the centre of a shop and we never know what the neighbouring merchandise will be!

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.