Something new

Here it is almost March and time for the Hawthorn Makers Market to start for the year.  For the past few years the March market has been part of the Glenferrie Festival and we had 2 good years in our tent on the street, followed by a not so good time last year when it was exceptionally hot and we almost had trams in our tent.  Fortunately this year we will be back in our usual venue at the Hawthorn Arts Centre, just a couple of minutes’ walk from the main part of the festival.  The weather this year is forecast to be much kinder than last year but I still think I’d rather be indoors.

I’ve been working on something new – some waffle weave face washers. 

I’d done some waffle weave as part of my weaving certificate years ago.  Perhaps it was the yarn I’d chosen but it certainly wasn’t one of my favourite weaves.  I saw some waffle weave bath mitts in a recent Handwoven and knew I had some of the same 6/2 cotton in the stash. 

I thought face washers might be good and had the warp on and off the loom in almost no time.  I realised that waffle weave was much better than I thought.  It was rewarding to weave and any mistakes were obvious and easy to correct.  I’ve made 9 for the first batch,

I wonder if they will sell?

I haven’t been doing a lot of weaving as I’ve had a sore hip and shoulder.  I convinced myself that it was either weaver’s bottom or some other strain from too much weaving but when it didn’t improve after a break from weaving, I eventually sought some professional help.  I don’t have weaver’s bottom, I do have some exercises which I’m doing diligently.  I can see some improvement already and have been told that as long as weaving doesn’t cause an increase in discomfort, it’s better to keep moving.  There was another bonus – the kilo weights I needed for the exercises were just right to weight the face washer warp, it was one of the straightest and best warps I’ve had for a long time

I treated myself to a copy of Marian Stubenitsky’s book, The Stubeninsky Code and have been making some teatowels.  I finished the first one and wet finished it because I knew that the cotton shrank quite a lot and I wanted the motifs to be round not oval.  They were close to round, pity about the error, just left of centre, which showed up more in a photo that on the loom. 

I found that I had missed one thread, so I fixed it and tied the warp back on.  They are now threading error free, can’t guarantee that there will be none in the treadling and I will have to keep the first for me, its drying qualities will be unaffected by the threading error

A few weeks ago a friend and I went for a drive towards the area where the bush fires had been.  While we were out a fierce hailstorm came through my neighbourhood.  It broke both my skylights, narrowly missing my sewing cabinet

and somewhat surprisingly, they were sealed with what looked like sticky tape – very good quality sticky tape – and they have not given me any problems while I wait for the replacements. 

The one over the carpet is sealed and the one in the bathroom leaks just a little on to the tiled floor. 

My friend was not so fortunate, her car had so much hail damage it was a write off.  All we were trying to do was celebrate her birthday

While I was having a break from weaving, I decided to do some sewing as I needed a few new things for the Summer.  Vogue patterns were on sale at a very good price and I went shopping for fabric in my own stash. 

I ended up making two tops,

and two jackets each with a co-ordinating top, one in a jacquard weave

and the other in a Japanese linen with little birds on it

and 2 pairs of exercise pants.  The patterns, trim and some interfacing cost about $30, so a very economical new wardrobe.

I was reading an article this morning by a writer from the UK confessing, with a little embarrassment, that she had started to stockpile food in case COVID -19 starts to affect supplies.  Then it struck me – what if I ended up in quarantine at home, well enough to weave but not well enough to go to work and there wasn’t enough yarn and fabric in my stash?  For a moment I even contemplated sending off a yarn order, but then I relaxed, I know there’s plenty of yarn and fabric for a couple of weeks.  There’s probably enough for several months, although by that time, I might have to work with some interesting colour combinations.  Hopefully it won’t come to that.

Helen

Back to work - there's a market on Sunday!

The summer holidays in Australia – also known as the ‘silly season’ - are over with schools back already.  Unfortunately, it’s still hot, pity those kids going back to school in heavy new lace up school shoes to go with their school uniforms. 

I heard that I had a place the outdoor market that’s part of the Glenferrie Road Festival, the one I’ve attended the past couple of years, so I needed to get back to work too.

The last of the broken twill blocks tea towels are done, 2 pink, 2 lake combo and another in aqua.

I often struggle with variegated yarns.  They look great on the cone but never work so well when knitted or woven, to the point where I keep saying 'no more variegated yarns' to myself when I'm buying yarn.  However the lake combo one worked so well I may need to reconsider.

The Bumberet tea towels were finished last night, soaked overnight to remove any excess dye and had a hot wash this morning.  They should be dry by the time I get home and hopefully I can find the strength go upstairs to the very hot part of the house to hem them. 

I have a new warp for Tencel scarves on the 8 shaft loom.  I’m using the spot twill draft I used late last year but with a silver grey warp.  There’s enough for 3 scarves and I think almond and shale will work.  I have plenty of Tencel and should be able to find another colour that will work with the silver grey.  I thought that I would have at least one finished for the market but a run of very hot days meant that I could only finish the tea towels.

The white runner looked as though it was becoming a ‘dog on the loom’ but I needed the loom for the next set of tea towels.  I worked at it steadily, managed to get the length I needed, identified where the mistakes were occurring – Shaft 2 kept wanting to join in with 1 and 3 when I did the tabby picks - and used what was left for some overshot motifs which made good card inserts.

There’s a new member of the team – meet Polly.  A couple of years ago I was given an old, adjustable, dressmakers model.  I’d used it a couple of times adjusted to a smaller size and realised how useful it would be to have it closer to my size.  Over the break I managed to adjust it more or less to my size – she turned out a bit bigger than I expected - and made a black cover for her.  It’s already been good for the top I just made.  The knit dress I made last year also used the draped top in non-knit fabric as a summer top. I wasn’t sure it would work but I found some lightweight cotton on the ‘throw out’ table. it must have been very old as it was only 36 inches/90 cm wide and I can’t remember when we changed to 45 inch/115 cm for cotton fabric but it’s a long time ago.  Here’s Polly in my $10 top

– 2 meters of fabric at $5/meter, pattern, thread and buttons from the stash – just waiting for the next hot day to wear it.

It will be good to have a more solid model for photographing scarves

I enrolled for a class in iridescent weaving at my guild's Summer school.  I had a great couple of days and went in at the weekends to warp the loom and do the homework rather than taking the loom home.  The Sunday class memebrs came to see what I was doing and when one of them said 'it looks like oil on a wet road' I knew that it was working.  A lot of weaves look better when viewed from the side but the effect was even more marked with iridescence.  As I wove my sample, nothing seemed to be happening

but the people looking over my shoulder could see the iridescence.  I stood up and looked at it from different angles and realised that the effect is greatest as you move around and look at it.

Definitely want to try it again with another warp when I've got more time.

I'm working through the list of things to do before the Market tomorrow.  It could be an interesting day as the forecast is for mid thirties/nineties with a thunderstorm late in the day, possibly around the time we will be packing up. It should be an interesting day

Helen

Glenferrie Festival 2018

The Festival on Sunday was a great success.  It was a beautiful day.  The small chance of rain turned out to be a few tiny drops on the windscreen as I drove there, not even enough to wet the road, and the temperature was a balmy 20˚C/70˚F with just enough cool breeze to move the scarves near the front of the tent.

I teamed up with another stall holder and we organised adjoining tents so that we could watch each other’s belongings while we moved cars to and from the car park, about 10 minutes away.

I was all set up by starting time

and I was just admiring the way the sheer scarf looked against the white tent wall and moved gently with the breeze when someone walked up and bought it.  

A great start to the day, and later in the day the one in a similar position on the other side of the tent sold, as well as 3 other scarves, including one of the chenille ones I’d just finished.

I wrote in the last post about making tea towels in 17 different colours and how they fitted into every colour scheme I could devise.  Clearly I must have missed a few colour schemes as I took all 17 with me and brought all 17 home again.  

That’s the amazing thing about selling at markets, some days it’s all about scarves, some days it’s all about tea towels – and some days the customers seem to have left their purses at home.  Not that I really have any concerns about last Sunday, 5 scarves is a very good day and it was great to be able to talk to people about what was involved in weaving scarves and tea towels, and about the Makers Market and its imminent move to its new (but actually back to its old) home.

There was a lot happening at the Festival, plenty of people,

lots of kids,

and lots of dogs. Directly opposite my tent was someone selling organic dog treats.  She also had the good sense to provide large bowls of water. 

The dogs were queuing up for a drink and then, if they sat nicely, got some organic dog treats as well.

We had a Chinese dragon,

but it seemed a bit smaller than last year and I was quite taken by the three small daughters from one Chinese family who were all dressed up for the day in their tiaras and eating blue fairy/candy floss.

We had the mascot from the local football club

and lots of small boys, and a few small girls as well, dressed in their club jumpers and clutching helium balloons.  I saw one small boy lose his grip and the balloon floated away.  He was last seen eyeing off his even smaller sister’s balloon.

We had the local Scottish pipe band which has been going for over 100 years, helped no doubt by a regular supply of new recruits from the nearby Presbyterian boys’ school where one of the music options has always been bagpipes.  I tried hard to include a couple of snippets for those like me with Scottish blood but unfortunately Blogger had other ideas.  I could upload the videos but they wouldn't open so just imagine the skirl of the pipes!

There were Thai, dancers, Spanish dancers and Colonial dancers.  There was food of every description and camel rides again although I didn’t have much opportunity to explore anything except our immediate neighbours where I found good coffee, a tasty lunch and a very welcome mid afternoon ice cream

A good time was had by all although I was very tired at the end of the day and was fast asleep by 9 pm, which is several hours earlier than my usual bed time

Helen

A rainbow of tea towels

The tea towels are finished, even hemmed and wet finished.  In the end there were 17 exactly with nothing left over for a bread cloth, all different colours which probably says something about my stash.

I think that as I chose the colours, at the back of my mind was the market customer who claims that ‘they wouldn’t match my kitchen’.  I’ve covered a lot of bases this time.  The only towel which wasn’t really great was the yellow one, simply because there wasn’t enough contrast between the yellow and the natural.  On the other hand, it would have been perfect in my 1970s kitchen, the very first room I decorated in my first house.

I had already woven the light orange and the lime towels, the other colours in the wallpaper and knew I had to do the yellow one just in case anyone is still in their 1970s kitchen or maybe it’s come back into fashion again.

I can do modern classics – black and greys

I can do naturals

I can be patriotic – red, white and navy

I’m ready for Christmas

I’ve also got:

Cool colours

Warm colours

High contrast

Low contrast

Primaries

Secondaries

A rainbow

The purple one which works well by itself

and the terra cotta one which is another loner

And here’s the complete collection

I’ve had fun with these and even if the colour isn’t an exact match, well it can always contrast and show that ‘tea towels are the cushions of the kitchen’ 

I’ve still got a few days before the Glenferrie Festival, the forecast is a coolish day with 30% chance of 1 mm of rain so all things considered, not too bad.  I’ve still got scarves and glasses cases to finish, so enough playing around with colour schemes, there’s work to be done

Helen