This and That

I’ve been busy working for the Geelong Show so most of the current work has to stay under wraps for a while but here’s a selection of some of the smaller things happening in my world.

I almost had another oops – I was tidying up the ‘studio’ when I found this shuttle.

It's a spring loaded one and I wasn’t sure how I’d got the bobbin in there and was even less sure about how to remove it.  The good news is that the fine tipped pliers did the job first time so yet another tool to be added to the weaving kit.

The GeelongScarf Festival is over for another year.  This was the first year I entered and while I joked that I was hoping for a small parcel and a large cheque rather than a large parcel and no cheque when it finished, I was pleasantly surprised to find that 3 of the 4 scarves had sold and the one that was returned was the one I liked best, made from a re-purposed silk blouse.  I’m not sure whether it will go into the market collection or my scarf collection.  Last year the theme wasn’t announced until later in the year but this time the 2016 theme - Myths and Legends- was announced as the 2015 Festival closed so I guess that gives me almost 12 months to be inspired and make something.

I made a trip to my local IKEA store last week to check out their new collection.  I found some inexpensive small glass bottles with sealing lids to replace those I’ve been using for dyeing, same shape, slightly bigger, also inexpensive but where the threads on the lids bear only a passing resemblance to the threads on the necks of the bottles. I also found some excellent LED strip lighting and had it attached to the castle of the loom with a few sticky dots in no time.  It does need to be plugged in so I will have to be careful on that side of the loom but there’s enough stuff stored there that it’s no longer a passageway. 

Before:

And after:

It makes quite a difference and the little red lady – she’s one of a pair of felted dolls someone gave me.  They make excellent pincushions, one for each floor loom and on the smaller loom the feet are at much the same height as the beater so she dances as I weave.

I’d been thinking for a while that a notice board would be useful near the loom but all the walls are taken up with shelving for yarn storage.  Then I had a bright idea – I only need to access the boxes every few weeks and there was no reason why a notice board couldn’t hang over them for the rest of the time.  I went to the local office supplies looking for something the right size, half cork, half magnetic and when that didn’t exist bought one the right size, half cork, half aluminium and a small magnetic tile.  It’s probably a bit lighter than the one I had in mind and as I’ll need to take it down from time to time, that’s not a bad thing.

I guess I’m lucky to have a garage sized space to use as a studio but space is limited so the notice board is a good use of the available space, it also just covers the temples but I don’t need to get at them all the time either.

Now when I see something in a magazine or elsewhere that’s worth keeping, I’ve got somewhere to put it, and ideas and colour schemes are piling up faster than I can use them.

I’ve also been working on some glasses cases,

weaving bands but not sewing together and some tea towels for the next market on the first Sunday in October.

I received a nice parcel of yarn from California, there was also some 12/6 Seine cord and a Majacraft Turkish spindle which seem to have missed the photoshoot.  The black cotton on the left came from the local yarn shop, not California, very good price and a bonus crochet hook

and I’ve been sewing for a small boy of my acquaintance – piped edges on pyjamas for a 4, almost 5 year old might be a bit over the top

but I’m hoping they will look just like the ones his grandfather wears.

I’ve also been minding some plants for Gayle, amazing what benign neglect, well I did tie up the flower spike on the orchid because I couldn’t bear to see it on the ground, can achieve.

Tomorrow I’ve got an unexpected day off, hoping to make real progress with the sewing and weaving

Helen