Time to plan and play

The Royal GeelongShow is over for another year and while there are still plenty of projects on foot, there are no pressing deadlines at the moment, so it’s a good time to stop, tidy the studio, take stock(of the stash and the ideas) and think about what might be next.

I finished 2 of the 4 entries I had planned for the Geelong Show, so feeling a recurring theme here.  One was my first attempt at weaving with handspun.  I had a braid of wool, silk and angora bunny from Charley, spun finely and plied with some very fine silk.  The contrast was an 85/15 Merino/silk blend, again plied with the fine silk.

The yarns behaved perfectly, better than some store bought ones I have used.  There were no broken ends, shredded warps or other problems.  I used an advancing twill and there was a bit of a conflict between the stripes in the warp and the advancing twill.  In some lights the twill is hardly visible but when there is less light it just pops out. I'm not sure whether I should have spun the weft thicker, used it double or chosen a braid with less contrast in it - maybe a bit of all three.

The handle is great and the judges gave it a second prize and the E Marion Long Memorial Award for the best exhibit using a variety of colours – thanks Charley!

The other entry was a narrow silk scarf in huck lace.  I had a nice hank of mulberry silk, planned the warp and weft using the measurements on the label but at the last moment, just before I wound the warp decided I should do a rough measure – length of hank x number of ends.  Imagine my surprise when instead of the 1200 metres I thought I had, there were only about 550 metres.  It was back to the calculator, fortunately as the yarn was thicker I didn’t need so many ends to the inch and I ended up with some left over as I had made the warp a little on the short side.  Fortunately with the Toika loom there is only about 12 inches of waste at the end, or 12 inches minus the fringe.  

The judges liked this one too and it was awarded to Marjorie Donnan award for the best article using any natural fibre.  So a successful event all round and nice to see the Geelong Guild celebrating their past members

I’ve been making slow progress on my Weavolution Halloweave tapestry but got the colours selected at the weekend in daylight and I’m now 2 rows into the coloured part, but not showing up very well in this picture

I’m in the process of putting a warp for a cotton scarf on to the Toika loom.  The warp has been maturing in the stash since at least 1999 and cross has been mislaid along the way.  Next after restoring the cross, will be a run of tea towels for the next market, the last for the year and for Christmas presents.

I’ve also finished the backpack from leftover fabric, and got it into the mail today, that’s a good feeling.  I was surprised how much work there was getting all the straps, tags and pockets made but once that was done it went together very quickly.

Here’s a picture of the clematis flowering profusely on the back deck

Helen

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

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

Oops!

Back in March I put a fine dark teal wool warp in an overshot pattern on the 4 shaft loom for 3 scarves.  The first one

went to the Geelong Scarf Festival, the second had a delicate overshot in matching Tencel

and I started the third in the waves pattern in 3 related shades of reeled silk.  Then I did most of the plain weave centre section and stopped so that I could work on the 8 shaft loom for the Sheep Show.

This week I came back to the dark teal warp, did a little more plain weave, and with the pattern section at the bottom

completely hidden, started work on the pattern section at the other end.  I was very careful to make sure that the waves had their peaks and troughs in the right place.  Imagine my surprise when I took it off the loom a couple of days ago and the second end looked like this.

While I had looked at the draft to get the peaks up the right way, and even undid the first few picks because they were the wrong way, I didn’t notice that I’d used more than one pick of each row at the other end.

I guess I could call it a design feature but it would just annoy me, knowing that it was not what I’d planned.  Of course if I can take digital photos to use here, I could also take photos to record work I've part finished, especially when I know that I won't be returning to it for a while.  Fortunately,this morning I had a flash of inspiration – for a nice dark teal bag with different feature silk overshot panels on each side, a frame of dark teal wool, probably quilted, and with a matching handle and a bit of bling somewhere – that should be a better use for the fabric than making it into a scarf I would never wear.  Just need to find the time to play with it.

And for something completely different, I decided to try weaving chenille for a cowl.  I got it threaded and tied on last night and have started weaving. 

So far so good or maybe it’s just that the furry surface feels warm in this cold weather.  With luck it will be finished in time for the Hawthorn Craft Market on Sunday

Helen

Sheep Show 2015

I spent last Sunday at the Sheep Show.  I left home very early on what turned out to be the coldest day in 18 years and here’s the frost and fog just over my back fence to prove it.

I had planned to meet a couple of weaving friends there which may explain why there was much talking but not much photography.  The only photos were the ones I took during the parade, so here are a few highlights.

A couple of felted garments, great garments but unfortunately I can't remember who made them

A lovely tabard from my fellow weavers - Members of Black Pearl

An entry from the students at Genazzano College who were inspired by the ANZAC Day centennial with poppies on a khaki background

And my jacket, looking good on someone who is tall and slim, unlike the intended wearer.

Though I probably won’t wear it with a very short skirt and bare legs

The jacket was woven in 6 shaft turned boulevard weave, with the last meter woven in plain weave for the facings, button, cuffs and pocket detail.  The yarns were 2/22 weight wool from my stash.  I was happy with the selection of colours I had.  Most were machine washable, a few were not so I dyed some machine washable yarn in the colours I wanted.  The fabric of course did not shrink or full at all so I backed it with the lightest iron on interfacing I could find and after that it behaved almost like store bought fabric.There were a few places where there were multiple thicknesses of fabric and it wasn't as smooth as I wanted. Then I remembered that I had a tailor's clapper in the cupboard.  

I don't think I had ever used it but with plenty of steam and vigorous clapping the lumpy areas flattened very nicely, just as they were meant to. 

We went to the showgrounds dining room for lunch.  The Sheep show is one of the few places where the lamb served at lunch is breed specific.   On the menu were not just any lamb pies but Dorper lamb pies.  They had obviously come from a local bakery and were just glowing in the food cabinet.  We couldn’t resist and not only that, they were served with 5 vegetables, nothing like a hearty country lunch. No pictures of the food either, too busy eating it!

And here’s the obligatory Bendigo stash picture, some bought, some won, some gifted, everything from knitting markers and snail biscuit cutters to wool detergent and everything in between.

A good day all round.

I’ve started spinning, not sure what moved me to do it though it might have been a perusal of the spinning fibre stash before I went to Bendigo.  I’ve finished a braid of Angel Bunny – angora bunny, cashmere, blue faced Leicester and Tencel -  from Charly, colours ranging from silver to indigo.  I’m very happy with the yarn, beautifully soft and after trying 2 knitting patterns, then 2 crochet ones, I finally think I’ve found the right one

It’s still winter here and while I realise that people who live in places where it snows regularly would consider it to be quite mild, it wasn’t mild enough when my heater failed during the week.  The control panel looked fine, the outdoor heating unit felt warm but I noticed that it had tilted a bit away from the house.  Fortunately I was able to get someone to look at it the next day and when it had tilted, the duct from the heating unit had parted company with the rest of the duct work.  Sure enough everything was working OK but the hot air was all under the house instead of inside it.  There was an emergency duct transplant, secured I was pleased to see by duct tape, the unit was returned to its usual, vertical position with the help of a couple of pavers and everything is back to normal and Winter is more than half over

Helen

One out of two is OK

It’s easy to have delusions about the time needed and available to complete projects.

I was sure that I had plenty of time to complete a ‘hand woven article’ – HWA - and a ‘hand woven garment’ – HWG - before the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show so entered both.

As usual, life intervened in the form of full time work to say nothing of the very early arrival of winter, making weaving at night in the garage particularly uninviting.

At the week end sanity prevailed. The HWG was well under way but the HWA was struggling – fine wool yarn, double weave, breaking ends, weird things happening in the layer I couldn’t see and unevenly hand dyed yarn producing a lot of unplanned stripes.  I realised that I had at least 16 hours of work to do but only 11 hours of spare time available so I made the sensible decision, took my time to finish the HWG properly and it was delivered with at least an hour to spare. 

About this time I read Tien’s blog and could really relate when she talked about ‘the gap between what your mind can envision and what your hands can create’

The HWA was nowhere near what I had envisaged.  I had made a sample scarf in the same design and yarn without any dramas but on the table loom.  I thought it would be easier to weave on the floor loom and it was as there were only 4 different picks.  Maybe the floor loom was the problem, putting more stress on the fine yarns.  I will sort out the HWA when the weather is a little warmer.  There are 2 scarves on the loom, the first one will be sample 2, I think the second one may work with a different weft yarn – or might turn out to be sample 3.

Other things have been more successful.  Before I could start weaving for Bendigo, I finished the rainbow painted Tencel which had been on the loom for far too long. 

I've ended up with a panel to put in a garment and 2 scarves, all in variations of plaited twill. Here it is in all its rainbow goodness and I've even managed to capture the sheen of the Tencel in some of the photos.

And I just looked at the Woolcraft catalogue – the HWG, now properly identified as a jacket, has been placed first in its section.  Here are a couple of progress shots, I always roll my hand woven fabrics on to a cardboard roll before I cut them out, that way I can almost convince myself that they are 'store bought' and that cutting into them will be easy.

More about that and the Sheep Show next time

Helen

Just because I can

Last year when I went to the Sheep Show, the heel kept falling off my boot and I had to stamp on it, very hard, to get it back in place so it didn’t slow down my looking and shopping.  I didn’t get round to replacing the boots last year but when they went on sale in the local shop recently, I just knew these would be a really good replacement.  And they are, comfortable, good fit, warm, non-slip soles, everything I wanted except they came with very thin and mean laces.  I knew I could fix the problem so here are my new boots with their kumihimo strawberry laces – just because I can. 

It's not easy to photograph shoe laces but they really do have strawberries on them.  See Alison Irwin’s article in Handwoven May/June 1999 if your boots too need more interesting laces.

I sent my scarves off to the Geelong Scarf Festival:

One in plain weave from a recycled silk shirt - 

One in huck lace in Cool wool

One in overshot from a hand dyed blank knitted on an Addi Knitting machine, looking something like waves as the theme was ‘Coastlines’

And one from the navy and silver herringbone unisex/mens series I did last year.  It received a Highly Commended in the Menswear category – I guess that goes some way to answering the ‘what is a man’s scarf’ question? 

It’s almost time for the Bendigo Sheep Show – that means the entries are in, the yarns are dyed, the warps are made - thank goodness last Monday was a public holiday - and now there’s just the weaving and sewing to do.  Probably time to start weaving rather than just writing about it

Helen