At Last

I have finally finished my mystery shawl. 

Once I’d started it again, I kept the stripes much the same until I ran out of the lighter colour and knitted off the stitches with the simple border from the Gracie shawl in Myrna Stahman’s book. 

I thought about making an emergency trip to Bunnings for essential goods – stainless steel rods for blocking – but remembered that I’d read somewhere that whipper snipper line worked as well.  There was some in the garage and it worked just fine. 

A few days after I finished it, someone posted a shawl they’d made from the Dragonfly Wings pattern on Ravelry and something clicked. I checked the original pattern and I think that is indeed where I started. The garter stitch tab rang a bell and I think I decided to put the garter stitch rows where the colour changed and then just broke off the yarn to keep the colour stripes even.  Mystery solved even if the finished shawl looks nothing like Dragonfly Wings!

At last there’s finally some action on the weaving front. I’ve been finding simple knitting very relaxing in these uncertain times and wondered if the same applied to weaving.  I’ve had no desire to work on the complicated tea towels on the big loom.  There was just enough of the plain colour of the shawl yarn left to make a warp and I found a skein of handspun that co-ordinated well

so I wound the warp this afternoon and will get it on the small loom for a simple plain weave shawl tomorrow.

That’s all of the yarn used and a knitted shawl and a hopefully a woven one to show for it with almost none left over

I’ve managed to walk most days making sure I check on the baby coots while I’m out.  They are growing.  Here they are 2 days ago

and again today.

It’s not easy taking photos when the sun is out so sorry the adult’s tail is missing,  but enjoy the ripples on the water.

I commented earlier that after heavy rain there were rapids on the creek but I had never seen people who thought it was suitable for white water rafting until yesterday when I was very surprised to see this. I'm sure it's not safe and while there are lots of signs forbidding various activities, I don't think that white water rafting is specifically forbidden

I was moved to make a loaf of bread this week. 

I haven’t made bread for many years so was pretty pleased with this result and it tastes great

I have finished shredding all the old meeting papers, found a few things there that were probably better shredded than sent to the tip whole.  All I have to do now is clean up

That's all for today

Helen

A more productive day

I might be getting used to not rushing off to work although today seemed like a waste of a good Saturday - all the things I feel that I miss out on by working til 2 on Saturday were closed, so I wasn't able to do them anyway.  It may only take a few more days before I give up even trying to work out what day it is.  Every day is feeling like a Sunday, it's the only day I'm home all day.

I managed to do my hip exercises and got a walk in, between showers.  With a lot of rain overnight, I wanted to see how much the creek had risen so I went downstream today. Yesterday was the upstream view. There are several bridges, possibly very loosely inspired by Monet,

but it’s very hard to get a good photo of them. 

If you look very carefully,

I live on the other side of the creek and across the field.

In the middle of summer this part is quite dry

but today it was almost ready for a little white water rafting and there were lots of people and their dogs checking it out.

I've made a little progress on the next tea towel, Nassau Blue this time.

I'm getting the hang of the treadling, not enough to do it without checking each few picks, but enough to know when I've made a mistake.

Way back in 1964 or 65, I bought new bathers that came with an excellent headband, just the thing to keep my hair out of the way when I wash my face,  The bathers are long gone, not surprisingly, but the head band, used every day, is beginning to wear out.  Things just don't last these days.  I saw a pattern for jersey headbands recently and decided, reluctantly, that it was probably time to pension off the 1964/5 model.  I now have 2 new headbands, took all of 15 minutes to make, I wonder what took me so long

The knitted cardigan is progressing well, have just started the last blue stripe, then another 6 cm and the band. That will just leave the sleeves, haven't checked for the right needles yet

That's it for today

Helen

Day 2

Here I am at the end of the second day of self isolation and not getting nearly as much weaving done as I would have expected.  The rose tea towel is finished and when the bobbin ran out on the hem of the next one, I decided that was enough for one day.

I did achieve one task - I washed all my work jackets and put them away in the cupboard, and put all the makeup away in the bathroom drawer.  The new normal doesn't include formal jackets or makeup every day.

I look out over a park and on the far side is a creek and a walking track.  As we're still allowed out to exercise and it was a beautiful autumn day, I went to check out the creek, here's what I saw while I was out.  I started on the bike path, 

With the creek on the other side

Further up it opens out to a very small lake.  There are usually lots of ducks and moorhens but not so many today.  When I got home I saw in the paper that they had found some dead fish there this morning but there was no sign of them when I was there, probably explains the lack of birds

One of my favourite parts is this small bridge, and the bike riders tend not to go along this track so it's much quieter

On the other side of the bridge there's a very nice patch of bull rushes - I could make some rustic baskets from them although I'm sure I'm not allowed to pick them

At the end of the track, there's another small lake with quite a few ducks, maybe they'd come here because it was cleaner

I managed to get more knitting done and realised that I'm already close to the end of the body.  I do hope that I've got the right size double pointed needles in the stash to finish the sleeves.

When people started stock piling a few weeks back, I decided to plant more lettuce seedlings.  I'm now congratulating myself for this and here's a small basket of fresh (organic) produce from the garden. 

Enough leaves for a salad, the last of the tomatoes and some figs, at least I won't get scurvy.  The fig crop is great this year and the rainbow lorikeets are having a wonderful fig party.  They're welcome to the ones on the top of the tree, just wish they'd leave the ones on the lower branches for me

That's it for today

Helen

Retirement - maybe

Well a lot has certainly happened since I wrote the last post. There I was just a month ago looking forward to another year of weaving and craft markets with just a passing aside as to whether I should order more yarn for the stash - I didn't - and here I am, at the end of my first day of self isolation/retirement/call it what you will.  They tell me that because of my age I should be at home, and as I've still got a lot of stash to use and want to use it, I knew that I actually should be at home as much as possible.  I guess I could look at it as a very sudden retirement or I could just treat it as an unexpected holiday.  To some extent, I am really working fromhome, helping patients who have an emergency with their eyes or glasses, still doing the paperwork and just trying to keep up with all the new information about the guidelines for seeing patients and accessing the various government support packages.

One of the things that I put on my 'To Do' list was to blog more often so here goes.

Did I take the opportunity on this first day of freedom to sit and weave all day? Not really.  The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer under pressure, especially with craft markets postponed, possibly for months, and rather than trying to squeeze everything into the weekend, I really didn't have to get everything done today, so I sat back and enjoyed the freedom.

I did get to the loom late in the day and wove one more repeat of the Stubenitsky Code tea towels, but before that, I decided to spend the morning doing some of the things that needed to be done and spend the rest of the day doing things that I just fancied doing.

I managed to get some exercise, listened to a couple of work related webinars, made a few work phone calls, and cleaned the bathroom

Then I called a couple of friends, did the small amount of weaving and did a little knitting

A few years ago, when the Guild was open one night a week, I started some knitting.  It was going quite well until one night as I got into the car, I dropped it in the gutter and it got wet.  I sort of lost interest at that point.  Last weekend, I decided it was time to get back to it - I figured that there were worse germs around at the moment than anything from the gutter from years ago.

I found a part knitted shawl, just where I expected it to be - but unfortunately there were no instructions.  As I looked for the instructions, I found a part knitted cardigan.  It had a faint stain which I'm sure will wash out, a mark on the instructions where it had been wet at some time and a faint lingering smell of gutter, I realised that this was indeed the knitting that had been in the gutter, goodness only knows what the part knitted shawl was all about or how I will track down the pattern.

I have started working on the cardigan and I'm finding it just the thing for troubled times.  It's a top down, one piece cardigan.  The pattern is 'Caramel' from Ravelry in Bendigo Luxury 8 ply and it's just stocking stitch.  There is enough to keep me alert with mock seams on the sides, an unusual rib on the bands and the sequence of stripes, but the familiar rhythm of the long rows of stocking stitch is very relaxing.  I've picked it up several times today and done a row or two each time.  It's not going to grow quickly because of the long rows, but I'm well advanced with the body and then just have to knit the sleeves on. It's just the project I need at the moment and I'm enjoying knitting again
That's it for today

Helen

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

A Day at the Market

Last Sunday was the first market for the year for the Hawthorn Craft Market.  I was better organised than usual – the tea towels were all labelled and dry rather than finished so late they were still slightly damp as things are sometimes when I run out of time.

They looked pretty good piled up

I made them using draft from Handwoven, September/October 2014, on an olive drab 8/2 warp. The colour was a bit out of my blue green comfort zone but I was pleased with the results.  I used linen in the warp for 2 of them and despite hearing horror stories about linen, kept the bobbins slightly damp and had no dramas.

I even ‘cold mangled’ them between the stone bench top and the rolling pin.  It certainly made a difference to the ones with linen or cotton-linen blend wefts as this picture shows where the line about a quarter of the way along on the left hand side, is the boundary between the right hand corner which has already been rolled and the unrolled part.  This yarn was a slubby cotton/linen blend.

A customer came past and asked where they were made, clearly thought they were from a sweat shop in a distant land.  ‘Glen iris’, I said naming the adjacent suburb where I live, and occasionally think I have my own personal sweat shop.  I was discussing this exchange with my neighbour on the next stall who was new to the market, it turned out I had been at university with her sister.  Sometimes I think Melbourne is a very small town.

I usually take some hand work for the quiet times, fringing, knitting, whatever needs to be done and is portable.  The only thing I had to take this time was my drop spindle and some very colourful roving.  I thought it would add a bit of colour and movement to the stall but the funny thing was that very few people commented on it at all, to the point where I began to feel it was a bit like an affliction that would be impolite to mention.  As we were packing up, the friends who sell hand spun yarn and knitted articles made from hand spun at the market remarked that I’d got quite a lot done.  I said how strange it was that very few people had mentioned it.  That’s when they said that a lot of people had gone to them to tell them that I was spinning.  Who knows what the passers-by thought but if they thought I was setting up in competition, they obviously hadn’t seen how slowly I spindle spin.  Any yarn made on the spindle will be precious indeed and certainly not for sale.

The unmentionable spindle and roving

It’s been a long weekend and while I had many plans on Friday, not much seems to have been done. I did find time to tidy the studio, remove all the mess from the tea towels and get the yarns back into the boxes where they belong, all ready to start a new warp, I feel something snake skin like happening.

I have finished spinning some yarn from 200 gm of First Editions merino and silk roving I won at the Geelong Show last year.   I thought it would be good if the 2 small bobbins

could be plied on to one of the large bobbins and while it did just fit,

it reminded me of one of those very woolly sheep who emerge from the bush from time to time having escaped from their flock and missed several visits from the shearer.

Helen