When I was
working on the tapestry project and looking for my one and only tapestry
bobbin, which surprisingly, was where I expected it to be, I found a warp. This was not just any warp but a painted warp from a Guild workshop, possibly a Summer School and I’m fairly sure it was when
the Guild was at the Meat Market as I can remember working in an area used for
screen printing which had large tables at a very comfortable working height.
In the 1980s the Government set up the old city meat market as a craft centre. It was a
great venue and I felt a special bond when I discovered that my great grandparents
had lived a couple of doors away. My
great grandfather made sausages and where better to do it than close to the
back door of the meat market. The Guild was there from 1985 until 1999 when, with very little warning, funding stopped and
the place was shut down. The Guild has
had 2 moves since and despite all this, the warp appeared to be fine and the
cone with the rest of the yarn was with it.
It was a white mercerised cotton warp with what I thought were blue splodges on it
and I’d seen a scarf on Pinterest recently with a similar warp, woven in twill
with the twill lines appearing and disappearing across the dyed parts of the
warp. My warp was very narrow so I added
a bit extra on each side.
But what
twill pattern to use? About a month into
my weaving certificate, when 4 shaft drafts were still largely a mystery, I had
one of the Guild’s 8 shaft looms at home over the Easter break. What do you do when you’ve got an 8 shaft
loom in the house and a few days free, but weave an 8 shaft project, even if
it’s way outside your competence level.
I had a look in Carol Strickler’s book and thought that 323-2 on p88
would give me lots of pattern for not too much complexity. I was too green to realise that there was too
much complexity in the illustration for what was involved. I did what the book said - and got something
completely different.
When I
first put the warp on the loom I thought the blue areas were just random
splodges but as it went over the back beam I realised that they were actually
stylised flowers.
there’s a lot to be said for letting things mature in the cupboard.
Next after
the scarf was a run of tea towels for the next market, the last for the year
and for Christmas presents. One of the
yarns I used was a fantastic hot magenta of unknown provenance but possibly
from a guild sale. Something, probably Di’s problems, made me test it before I washed it. I was so glad I did because the dye just ran
out of it. I gave it a couple of hot
rinses to get rid of the worst of it and then machine washed them all with a
couple of colour catcher sheets.
Fortunately there were no disasters although I won’t be washing it with
anything white for a while.
I have also
been playing with solar dyeing and thick and thin spinning, so I put a black
warp on to the 4 shaft loom to use up these yarns and some others I had
bought. I’ve produced some nice warm
scarves, just the thing for a hot Australian Summer. One of the yarns was a nice heavy alpaca
yarn, various shades of red plyed with black.
As I wove it the scarf looked longer on one side than the other although
both sides measured the same.
I received
my schedule for the 2016 Sheep Show Woolcraft competition today, I suppose it’s
not too early to start planning. I
thought the jacket on the back cover looked familiar and then I realised it was
my entry from last year. I guess that’s
fame in the Woolcraft world.