Not my best work!

I tried really hard to help someone out by reproducing their family tartan. It needed seven colours and I only managed to find them by sourcing bits and pieces including some from a friend.  It looked pretty good when I took it from the loom but a wash reminded me of the pitfalls of differential shrinkage.  My perfect selvedges waved and wriggled and the fabric just didn't want to sit flat for more than half a minute after it was pressed. Afterwards my sister reminded me that years ago when I had made tartan scarves for our family that I had said, "Never again!"  Now she tells me!  In fact I would do it again if I could be sure that all the yarns were the same to start with.

This is my 1996 model, still going strong.

An Exciting Commission

They may look like "just scarves" but these are special. Normally I make scarves one at a time and go to great lengths to make them all a little bit different. This time I had a commission for TEN scarves, all made to the same specifications though in five different colours.

They are now finished and are winging their way to Qatar!  I still find it hard to believe but my bank balance is the proof of this puddling.  I was a little bit afraid I might get bored by the end but that didn't happen, mainly because of the softest, lightest fibre I have ever worked with I think. It is so luxurious. What is it?  Believe it or not, it is MINK.

A ferret by any other name . . .

I try not to think too much about the ferret likeness!  Apart from that cringe factor, the whole exercise has been a challenge, fun, and very satisfying.

Summer is long gone

Oops, where did March and April go?  Part of March went into the PWN Seminar which my colleagues from Nelson and I hosted at Teapot Valley.  This annual seminar is always a highlight and this time there was a bit of added responsibility to make sure it was a great weekend and ran smoothly. Twenty-two members attended and a few husbands were in residence as well.  I think everyone had a good time.  Much of April disappeared into family occasions including a trip to Central Otago for a family wedding. It felt good to take a handwoven throw for a wedding present and also a couple of teatowels and coasters as a gift for a recent engagement.

But I have been weaving. . . scarves, scarves and more scarves. Here is a series I wove in lovely alpaca yarn.

 Just a little bit of bling to add interest.

I am also working on a commission for overseas that I am a bit excited about but I'll keep that under wraps for now.

I should probably keep this project under wraps also but will document it in instalments as it happens. It is to be a minstrel's cloak and is planned to be part of the PWN exhibition due to open in June 2016.  I am calling it "A Thing of Shreds and Patches" so am weaving it in odd size and shaped blocks with a merry mix up of yarns. There will be four separate warps for the free-floating panels, two of each colour blend.  More about it as it happens but in the meantime here is the first piece which will become two of the panels.

 Just off the loom. You can see a mix of weave structures as well as
a conglomeration of different yarns.

 A quick wash and drip dry.

 A press and a trim, and it's almost respectable.

Now it has to wait for its companion pieces,
but in the meantime I have scarves to weave.

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.