Holiday Greetings and 2017 in Review

Well I had the best of intentions to send holiday greetings to all my friends, followers and email recipients but we spent several days in Auckland and though I'd loaded pictures before leaving home the reception was so slow I gave up.  Hope you all had a great celebration.

The last 4 days before departing home were spent birthing creating "Flower".  This is an old Simplicity pattern that I had when my daughter was little so not new.  I'm still amazed that I had all the bits bar stuffing to make her, even the hat wire for the wings and the bells for the shoes.  The only change I made was to attach the wings by domes so she can hang them up when she goes to bed.

And so to the year 2017 in review.  January started with some spinning, unusual for me.  I plied this with a 60/2 bottle green mercerised cotton but it still hasn't told me what it wants to be.

February was mostly spent on a commission for a wall hanging "Wave".

All up I wove 32 blankets this year.  First up Kereru.

In March I got back on the dobby loom and wove this gorgeous cotton wrap titled "Spoon Drift" which is the description of the bubbles left when a wave breaks.

"Kakabeak" came off the same warp

and then "Kowhai" which I'm proud to say won the Complex Weavers' Award at Creative Fibre Festival.  This time I used changes in the tie up to change the amount of weft showing on one face of the wrap blending from navy to yellow in a 4 colour double weave.

Also this month I put my dress maker hat on and sewed "Dragon's Breath" from fabric handwoven the previous year.  This was shown in the Fashion Parade at the same Festival.  Later in the year (September) the same outfit was entered in the Bay of Plenty Area Exhibition and I'm very proud to have received Best in Show award.

Throughout the year my Nitschke 8 shaft loom is constantly producing blankets, this time Moerangi - Sleepy Skies.

In May we had a wonderful time on holiday to Melbourne, Australia and areas around.

June was time to work on a series of scarves for Pauanesia reflecting New Zealand native birds.  In this pile from the top Kokako, Tui, Kakapo, Kiwi.  Also did Kotuku. Black Robin, Pukeko.

In July, while taking a break from blankets, I had a play with deflected double weave.  Would like to have time to go back to play with this structure more.

Also used some stash velour and wove a tabby scarf, first time successfully using this fibre.

In August I had a play with shibori scarves

and Paua blankets.

As I mentioned above September was exhibition time and I thought this 4 colour double weave runner a worthy candidate and was delighted to receive the Barbara Wilson Trophy for best woven article.

I called this piece Ravenna as I had just threaded the loom and Peter called me to his computer and said what do you think shall we visit - it was mosaic tiles in a building in Ravenna and reminded me so much of what was on the loom.  (Many hours of planning but trip booked for later this year.)

Also finished this commission for daughter in law and grand daughter just as the weather warmed up.

October was blanket month, this one Kaimai

and Kotare.

November I tied more warps on to the Ravenna one and worked on runners and placemats.

We finish the year with Pohutukawa blankets

and luxurious possum, merino, silk and cashmere loop scarves.

And so the year ended with what seemed like three Christmas events and my son's 40th birthday (how did that sneak up on me) in the middle of them and now my two delightful grand children are staying for 5 nights.  I'm typing this while I listen to them going to sleep.  This will be the second night and I'm exhausted already.  Doesn't happen often so I better get my own shuteye so I can keep up tomorrow.

Wishing everyone wonderful adventures in 2018.

Mosaics of Ravenna

A while back Peter called me to his computer and asked what do you think of this, want to go visit.  It was a whole page of pictures of Ravenna, a city in Northern Italy and steeped in history and art.  You bet I want to visit.

At the same time I was gob-smacked.  It was just what was on my computer screen (sort of) in Fiberworks (for the uninitiated  fiberworks is weaving software) and I was threading the loom with a navy and turquoise cotton warp sett at 40 epi.  The pattern is a 4 colour double weave with blue and an apricot in the weft.  Treadled as the warp threading with weft threads pretty much the same thickness as the warp to square the pattern.  I thought I was pretty clever with that allowing for shrinkage at different rates in warp and weft.  Don't fall off your chairs, for once I did sample.

I'm really smitten with this pattern, there is so much going on.  Are they square tiles or diamond shaped?  The patterns within the tiles are fun and where the diamond tiles meet there is another circle event happening.  The straight draw border brings it all together.

And here is the reverse side with a whole lot of more fun.

The ghastly labels are not mine but this has been entered in the Bay of Plenty Area Exhibition and one must follow the rules.  Selection was last weekend so think I'm safe publishing this.

Its a bit odd photographing a table runner on the deck but someone was filling ink cartridges for a photographic printer and had an ooopsy!  Our table is not the best now.

The second runner on the same warp with the same weft colours is designed using an altered tie up similar to what Marian Stubenitsky shows in her wonderful book "Weaving with Echo and Iris".  Its still four colour double weave but I've altered one half of the tie up.

Have now tied another warp on, this time orange and white.  I just love it when the knots all line up nicely.

These are still on the loom and again, lots of little pattern areas to make me excited.  Again woven with an altered tie up on 16 shafts in 5 end advancing twill.  This time the weft threads are slightly thinner than the warp giving the warp more emphasis.

Love these echoing hearts.

Can't wait to get these mats off the loom.

Secret sewing

There has been some secret creating going on.  Later this month work has to be ready for two exhibitions and a fashion parade (its not called that now, its a runway event or something like that).

Anyway I got out the plastic fantastic and have been sewing for the "runway".

I decided if us weavers don't make an effort and enter garments we will be swamped out of the consciousness of the organisers by the multitude of felted and knitted garments.  And the consequence will be no weaving tutors.  So I'm putting my money where my mouth is and (at least) trying.

It was pretty nerve wracking cutting into the fabric I can tell you.

More on this garment later.

A busy time

So to back up a bit I sacrificed a long weekend in Auckland with family and grand kids to finish exhibition work on time.  I am delighted with the end result but was it worth what I gave up.  I doubt it, I miss the kids hugs and kisses, but I kept my promise.  Exhibition opens in Pataka Gallery, Porirua in June, pictures then.

The following weekend (long again), Thursday through Sunday, we were off to Napier, the New Zealand Art Deco city, to attend a wedding.  On the way down we stayed a night in Taupo and walked around the edge of the lake.  No, not all the way around, just a couple of kilometres and back again, very picturesque.

 Barely got my suitcase unpacked and the laundry done and I was off again to the annual Professional Weavers Network Seminar at the Rob Waddell Lodge, Lake Karapiro.  Bay of Plenty members had had a little input in the organising early in the piece but in the end we were asked to bring the essentials.  This is about half of refreshments.

 Going through the tiny country town of Hinuera, population about 5, we came to a police check point.  At least the bottles had stopped rattling by the time we stopped.  May I see your license please Madam.  Sure I said its in the back and started to open my door.  He took a look in the back, said, sure you have one.  Oh yes, its in the back.  We got waved on with smiles and thank you's.  Actually population of Hinuera is 891.

We had a wonderful weekend with more talking than you could believe.  We spent a morning at the Fashion Department of the Unitech seeing what the students do in the degree program.  There was a forum discussing where craft fits versus art.  We discussed a future exhibition.  There was a pop up workshop on network drafting using graph paper with Agnes followed by Rene showing us how to adjust patterns for different fits and looks.  Monday morning it was my turn to share some of the knowledge I have re shibori both hand stitched and loom controlled.  Have to say it was disappointing the number who stayed for the workshop considering the weeks I had spent preparing new ideas to show.

The commitments weren't over yet as Rene and I had the delightful job of looking through the portfolios of 5 new weavers for the New Weavers Award to be announced at the Creative Fibre Festival at the end of April.  Isn't it wonderful, 5 new weavers to support and encourage.

And, of course, I still have my business to keep ticking over.  This poncho is made of fabric woven on the knitting machine.  I couldn't face the thought of stitching in all the ends so made a feature of them.

 My first day back on duty at the Cargo Shed in Tauranga I discovered a note in the day book that said I had been appointed the display person even though I had said I was hopeless at it!!  So I took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and took the opportunity to have a major shift around.  Its a work in progress and I'm thinking each time I go in there will be more things to change.

Before leaving for Lake Karapiro I had put a warp on the loom for 5 metres of fabric, tied onto the previous warp but a change of tieup and treadling, this time 4 colour double weave.  This first pic of fabric still on the loom is the nearest to true shades.  It looks like old tapestry fabric to me.  I'm thinking a jacket.

 But was it a pig to weave, very sticky yarns, the weft wouldn't beat in properly and I'd have to stop and ease out the humps and if I missed one I'd have a loop sticking up out of the fabric.  Had to unweave back to the loop or use a needle and ease it out to the selvedge.  One warp thread is called aubergine the other was hand dyed in several shades of red including burgundy (a long time ago) and the weft of mid grey and red, Tex 110/2 wool.

Now I have a few tea towels to make to fill an order then its on to a big scarf order, to say nothing of blankets being asked for.

This one is for Jack.  Look who comes for breakfast and dinner on my back lawn.

Creative Fibre versus commercial enterprise

I've been a member of Creative Fibre for nearly 30 years and this Society has a tradition of sharing information, helping and encouraging.  I know when I first joined Whangamata club way back 'whenever' I received heaps of help and encouragement.  Because I live in a reasonably isolated area I tend to not go to club meetings as it takes so much time travelling which is time away from my production so I like to help whenever I can.  But, at what point does Creative Fibre "help" become releasing sensitive commercial information?  Where do you draw the line in the overlap?

I wrote the above sometime ago with reference to another incident but then realised I'd done much the same.  The line does become very blurred.

A while ago the lovely Jessicah showed some gorgeous yarn she had spun and it seemed to be just the spinning method I needed for a project I had in mind.  I wrote to her inquiring but also said I understood if she felt this was commercially sensitive as she teaches spinning.  She kindly gave me the method (rather more organised than what we had learnt at Majacraft camp) and I adapted it to suit my project.

I was combining two variegated slivers of merino, one from Awakeri Woolcraft and one from Tracey White (Inspired Fibres) and a variegated sliver of silk dyed by Jessicah.  Having put all three through the drum carder with the silk sandwiched in the middle I took each batt off and split it vertically down the middle and put each of them back through the carder so I now had two matching batts partly mixed which I kept in order in seperate boxes.  I had parted the dominant sliver at colour breaks as much as possible.  It spun beautifully and pretty much kept to tone on tone with a little overlap when plied; just what I wanted.

Now to find time to knit it!