More echoes

Been to Auckland (again) to see the kids and look what we found when we returned.  

 Banksias cut down.  They were on Council reserve land, we new it would happen some time and they are to be replaced with natives.  They were on the wrong side of the track to provide shade and they will provide us with firewood for a couple of years.

 But, look at the view, extensive to say the least.

After I cut the previous wine scarf off (which was woven turned taquete by the way) I tied on another warp in beautiful fine merino specially spun for Professional Weavers Network.  Hand dyed red, blue, green and yellow.  I'm finding choosing colour the hardest thing with Marian Stubenitsky"s way of weaving 4 colour echo.  100 threads of blue clumped together were quite strong, as was the green, but spread them out between other colours and they lost intensity.  Also I like clear colour and here one always has two colours together - red and blue, blue and green, green and yellow and yellow and red - which in this case produces secondary colours - purple, orange, lime.

 Turned taquete weft, one thread red the other very fine cashmere navy.

 Below, woven double weave, one weft purple, one bottle green.  These were not good choices as they didn't show up as different.  (Look at those selvedges, Agnes!)

 And just to show off the view again ...

 There was just enough warp left to try a regular twill tie up and treadling.

 Front

Back

Now, should I put another warp on to weave this or leave it as I've already been told Tangerine Dream looks like upholstery fabric!!

4 echoes

I'm still playing with ideas from the "Echo and Iris" book.  As you can see I pushed my luck (there wasn't much intelligence in this selection) to the limit with this selection of 4 threads for the warp, all variegated but I thought there was enough difference in value for them to work.  Warp - 4 echoes double weave, 12 shaft networked twill with another 4 shafts for basket weave selvedges.  Weft was a pale pink alternating with a deep wine.  Edit:  woven turned taquete.

 The scarf is hanging down the stairwell and the camera is pointing upwards and the pattern shows but not much echo.

 But its a very wearable scarf in a subtle way.

Hot pink Zoe jumper

On our way to Australia we had an appointment with our grandies, just half an hour between getting home from creche and bed time.

I delivered the latest jumper to Zoe.  An old Burda pattern, like 33 years old, which I simplified as I went along.  Omitted the lace from the back but really like the cables anyway.  Also omitted lace and cables from sleeves and after it was all stitched up I noticed I had attached the sleeves stocking stitch side out instead of the intended reverse stocking stitch.

Way too big for Zoe so rolled the sleeves up but the weight of the roll up pulled the sleeve further down so Zoe flapped her arm to find her hand and the sleeve came further down.  Cute to watch but frustrating for her!  Guess it can go away until she's about 3.

Karangahake Gorge

A couple of days ago the sun came out so we went walking in the Karangahake Gorge.  I don't know if it was the beginning of spring, all the rain we'd had or the contrast with Australia but I couldn't get over the vibrant greens.

 

 I think there is a project waiting to be released from all these yarns.

It was pouring with rain again on the drive home!

Radio silence

Sorry about the radio silence;  we've been away, supposedly to find warmth and sunshine but we were up to our usual tricks and broke the Queensland drought, on the coast anyway.

 

 The Glass House Mountains as seen from Bribie Island, so named as they reminded Captain Cook of glass furnaces as used in Britain at the time.  Note the stormy sky!

 Pelican on Noosa river.  There were very few pelicans around as they had all gone to Lake Eyre in South Australia to make babies.  Lake Eyre is usually a dry lake that fills at 3 to 10 year intervals so my question is how does a pelican from 2,000 kms away know there is water in the lake?

 Noosa River

 Lace backed monitor lizard seen when we took a boat trip up the Noosa river to the Everglades.

A rather wet kookaburra trying to dry on the wet fence.

 

No fibre to show, what with damaged leg (still healing) and a cold which has left me with what folks are calling the 48 day cough and the rain I didn't even get near the shops but it was a good break and now looking forward to sitting at the looms.

 

Of course, it seems we missed some super sunny days at home and its now cold and stormy as seen from my kitchen window, the surf is really wild.