The tui is an iconic native bird of New Zealand and Wikipedia has an excellent page
here. The last month or so I've enjoyed watching the tuis swooping and diving from tree to tree and calling to each other: "Here I am, aren't I handsome". The boys are dressed in their breeding plumage and look magnificent when the sun catches them in flight.
Do you remember back
here I said I had a plan for the gap in the warp?
And the next post I said there were two mistakes? Oh yes, I treadled 1,2 1,2 instead of 1,2,3,4. Well I went where no weaver would dare go and pulled out two rows then with the help of a tapestry needle manipulated the threads and now I defy anyone to find the error. I can't.
Now do you see what I did with the weft threads? Yep, combined knitting and felting with weaving. I have actually felted the knit stitches so they won't pull or catch.
Black weft and white wattle. Tears were shed over this one. When I read
Susan's post showing her beautiful Navajo shawl and she said she had picked out 43 inches I thought OMG, surely another solution. I was weaving away and bent down to measure for the 1.5 metre mark and right at the 1 metre marker was 2.5cm, a whole inch, of floats right across the fabric. Obviously more than one treadling error. It was the weekend and the factory the merino came from was either sold or in receivership so I had no idea if I could get more yarn. I new I had enough black merino to finish the wrap but if I cut out 21 inches I wasn't sure so nothing for it but to unweave all 21 inches. Every 4 rows I had to wind the yarn back on the pirn. Just as well I did as I needed all I had. Worth it don't you think?
Oh, very nice, Dianne.
ReplyDeleteYour shawl is simply lovely! ... and worth the sacrifice. You have my sympathies on the unpicking. Trust me, if I could have needle woven in a repair, I would have done it! With a complex 12 shaft pattern, it was a nightmare to consider. So I took the best option and I felt better for it.
ReplyDeleteI sure wish you were closer.... but in the mean time I have just posted a picture of me and the siblings on St Kilda / St Clair beach in Dunedin, circa 1972 on my current post.
I sure wish I could come back for a visit!
Susan
Thank you Meg and Susan.
ReplyDeleteGoodness I just worked it out that I would have last visited Dunedin in 1963. We towed a caravan all around the south island. My father wanted to get as far away from his twin brothers wife as he could so we went to Bluff!!
I really like the combinations of blues and especially the knit component! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI'm laughing here! Yup, Bluff would do it! :)
ReplyDeleteSo why do you think we live on Vancouver island? Most of my rellies are too cheap to pay for the ferry to come across... so we have peace and quiet at last!
Back to my Navajo shawl... the skips went on for inches and hind sight now tells me my only two choices was to either unweave or cut out the warp. I had more weft on cones so out came the snips!
Your shawl shows what happens when you have an idea and you work it through regardless of the obstacles along the way. I would wear that proudly! Its gorgeous...
Susan
So sorry to hear of your woes, but the result is sooo lovely and the knitted detail is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteJust for those who don't know Bluff (if you don't stop at Stewart Island) is the last stop at the bottom of the South Island before Antarctica.
ReplyDelete