Bright scarves

I gave myself a little treat and as sort of "time out" I wove a couple of one off unique scarves in bright colours.  The first one is yellow through reds to a deep wine, woven in crammed and spaced in a 2:1 twill.

This one is available at Waihi Beach Gallery.

A friend popped around to natter and asked to see through my suitcase of work I have here.  She ws very taken with a red scarf but when we went upstairs for coffee she saw this Kotukutuku (Tree Fushia) wrap and her eyes lit up.  That was the one for her.

Its a fun accessory to have as there are several ways to wear this wabi sabi wrap.

Harakeke flower blankets

We decided the Harakeke scarves were such a hit we'd do a run of blankets as well.

And here they are in the window of Pauanesia shop 

along with baskets and baskets of scarves

and many other goodies.

July Catchup

The month started out with me selecting the Tauranga Creative Fibre exhibition.  Everyone had had two years to work on creations and there were a lot - must have been close to 200 in all mediums.  I think approximately 185 were fabulously displayed.  I was exhausted at the end of the selection day and not happy to be held up in traffic for one hour - not knowing that a power pole had chosen to fall across the road.  No one was hurt but live wires had landed on two cars.

The following week Pahoia Creative Fibre group arranged a day of all things spinning; try new equipment, try new spinning techniques.

 I took my blending board and gave it a workout with some sliver that I've had since Darren was  boy.  Haven't spun it up yet but I will.

Jenny from Inspirit Gallery commissioned me to weave a blanket for one of her customers who related to forest, land and sea.  We agreed on a colour scheme and I dyed the warp threads and the mohair weft and

"Driftwood" was woven.

Mostly I weave three blankets at a time as I do them double layer and due to the thickness of the fabric there is some movement of one layer to the other.  Jenny took a second one for Inspirit Gallery and the third is at Waihi Beach Gallery.

Then I thought it would be a good idea to use up some of the stash and a bag of angora (from the rabbit) seemed like a good bet.  After much winding and dyeing

I was ready to weave on this lovely wine, plum, pink warp

Where the colours change shows the top layer as opposed to the bottom layer.  (Try getting that on the loom in correct order!)

A mohair weft (from the angora goat) gives a particularly soft blanket.  Again one is waiting for its forever home at Inspirit Gallery, the other at Waihi Beach Gallery.

Unfortunately one can hardly see where the warp threads were taken from the bag.  This is what's left.

There has been some knitting when darling daughter asked me to knit this jacket.  The pattern is available on the internet but I wouldn't recommend it.  The fabulous bobbles make the sleeves very heavy and as you can see pull the body sideways thereby shortening the garment.  Fine for someone vertically challenged like me but not my tall daughter.
Didn't realise I had coordinated it with the picture on the wall - Theo Moorman weaving then machine stitched to enhance the shells.

We had occasion to go to Rotorua for a day so took the opportunity for a walk in the Otanewainuku Forest Reserve.  We chose the Summit Track (640 metres above sea level), 1.8km up and 1.6km down on the circular track.  A tower at the top allowed me to look down on the punga trees and way in the distance is Mt Ruapehu.

Winter days.

A bleak day doesn't worry the gulls when there are fish heads around.

This one is for Lynette because she thinks life at the beach is all blue skies and sunshine. xx  It had been raining just prior to this.
More soon.