One out of two is OK

It’s easy to have delusions about the time needed and available to complete projects.

I was sure that I had plenty of time to complete a ‘hand woven article’ – HWA - and a ‘hand woven garment’ – HWG - before the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show so entered both.

As usual, life intervened in the form of full time work to say nothing of the very early arrival of winter, making weaving at night in the garage particularly uninviting.

At the week end sanity prevailed. The HWG was well under way but the HWA was struggling – fine wool yarn, double weave, breaking ends, weird things happening in the layer I couldn’t see and unevenly hand dyed yarn producing a lot of unplanned stripes.  I realised that I had at least 16 hours of work to do but only 11 hours of spare time available so I made the sensible decision, took my time to finish the HWG properly and it was delivered with at least an hour to spare. 

About this time I read Tien’s blog and could really relate when she talked about ‘the gap between what your mind can envision and what your hands can create’

The HWA was nowhere near what I had envisaged.  I had made a sample scarf in the same design and yarn without any dramas but on the table loom.  I thought it would be easier to weave on the floor loom and it was as there were only 4 different picks.  Maybe the floor loom was the problem, putting more stress on the fine yarns.  I will sort out the HWA when the weather is a little warmer.  There are 2 scarves on the loom, the first one will be sample 2, I think the second one may work with a different weft yarn – or might turn out to be sample 3.

Other things have been more successful.  Before I could start weaving for Bendigo, I finished the rainbow painted Tencel which had been on the loom for far too long. 

I've ended up with a panel to put in a garment and 2 scarves, all in variations of plaited twill. Here it is in all its rainbow goodness and I've even managed to capture the sheen of the Tencel in some of the photos.

And I just looked at the Woolcraft catalogue – the HWG, now properly identified as a jacket, has been placed first in its section.  Here are a couple of progress shots, I always roll my hand woven fabrics on to a cardboard roll before I cut them out, that way I can almost convince myself that they are 'store bought' and that cutting into them will be easy.

More about that and the Sheep Show next time

Helen