Many balls in the air

I wonder why I feel I have too many balls in the air, even though Friday was a public holiday – for a football match that was played yesterday, not on the day of the holiday – and I thought I would catch up a little.

The Geelong Show is 2 weeks away, and as yet there are no actual finished articles, though one is close and I still think I have time

I have finished the bulk of the sewing, 2 small shirts and 2 small pairs of pyjamas, just want to turn the left over pieces into a back pack.

The Hawthorn Craft Market was on today, there was a new batch of tea towels finished,

also the chenille cowl which was woven in time for the last market but still too damp to sew. I’m very pleased with it, now it’s finished.  Spring seems to have come early here and even though my model looks pretty cool, it was too hot to model it in person, let alone entice someone to buy it. 

A couple of sales including a tea towel from the last batch but none of the new ones.  There were not huge numbers there, maybe it was the long weekend, maybe they were hungover after the football yesterday or out celebrating the victory – it is the Hawthorn Craft Market after all and Hawthorn won the game – or maybe it was that Daylight Saving started this morning so they missed an hour’s sleep.

I decided to take part in one of the Weavolution Halloweave teams.  For a long time I have admired woven tapestries but decided they were not for me and then I started to take more of an interest.  When Spotlight had small weaving frames on sale recently I bought one and thought I could give tapestry a try, I unearthed some photos from a visit to the Getty Villa in LA which I’d always thought had potential for weaving and when there  was a Tapestry House – Weaving Spells forHalloweave,  it just seemed like the right time. 

So far I’ve put a warp on the loom, unearthed some yarns that should work, found my single tapestry bobbin and a small comb but haven’t put weft to warp yet.

There was an interesting piece in the Halcyon Yarns newsletter this week about Ann Collier, who is an academic psychologist at the Northern Arizona State University in the US, who is also interested in textiles.  She’s been researching why working with textiles or even with hands in general is good for you.  I looked at her academic site and was even tempted to complete her survey but it had already closed.  Seemed like a lot more fun than the traipsing all over town interviewing people with macular degeneration I did years ago when I was studying psychology.

Off to make some more progress on the entries for the Geelong Show, it’s good for me

Helen