Navy teal possum wrap

The wheels of weaving wind slowly.  (And blogging even slower!)

I posted this picture on facebook weeks ago and got great reaction but have been very slow to tell you about it.

Slow partly because I couldn't figure out how to finish the ends.  The warp is alternating threads of navy and taupe and the weft a teal.  The tassels just didn't look right.  Took me ages to figure out I could add a thread or two of teal to the fringe and that pulled the wrap together.  The tassels now look like they belong.  I can tell you it took ages to undo the navy taupe tassels.

The fibre is possum merino silk and look at the twist in the untasseled threads; makes me want to try some shibori as it would hold the texture.

Wrap woven as an echo weave.

Silver fern shibori scarf

Having woven a scarf length, pulled the resist threads for shibori, soaked and painted the dye on the "snake" and steamed it then waited overnight for it to dry on top of the hot water cylinder its time to see if my idea actually worked.

I tentatively cut the knots and pull a few of the threads out.  Silver side showing, looks ok.

Flip it over to see the chatreuse side, oh yes, I'm happy.

Close up of grey side.

And ready to go.

Merino yarn with some "cornsilk" in the weft which will hold the texture when washed.

This week

The secret project was progressing well until I ran out of yarn.

Will pick more up on Thursday when I go to the Cambridge Exhibition and trade day.

 In the meantime I am still playing on the table loom.  This shibori sample uses the same threading as was used for these scarves.  The bottom part of the sample uses one thread for weft and where the end sticks out the left side I changed to a double thread giving wider stripes.  I tried and tested various yarns I have to hand by draping bits around my neck, smooching under chin etc and thought this merino/mohair blend would be OK but N O.  Once woven in the sample it was obvious it couldn't be worn as a scarf so off the loom it came.

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 Warps have been wound in lovely fine yarn from Anna Gratton but thought I'd weave a few more striped scarves before closing up the sett.

I took this image for colour inspiration, its a flower from a bromeliad but if you enlarge it you'll see a sharp barb on each of the florets - nasty thing, it got me several times!

Shibori scarf

I've been a member of the Fibre Artists group with a stand at the historic Cargo Shed on Tauranga waterfront for over a year now.  There are quite a few of us sharing the fibre stand so I only have to work three days a month.  Even with the hour long drive its a fun day out with lots of people to meet and talk to.  My stock was getting low so I wondered what I could do with this purple and gold shibori scarf to make it more attractive to a wider audience.  

 After a good soaking it went into the dye pot with half a teaspoon of royal blue acid dye and I was very pleased with the result, especially as it held its texture.  This is woven in slightly overtwisted merino which, when first wetted out, it would have released its twist at the peek of the pleats thus making them permanent.

I was wondering why I didn't have more weaving to talk about but its been so frantic here at Hotel Pio that I forgot to take photos of the last blankets, a lovely mix of light taupe which reminded me of driftwood.

Have also finished 5 metres of fabric for speaker cabinets - photos to follow after it has been gifted.

On the house keeping side, remember back at the beginning of August, I ripped my leg open and got seven stitches.  I can now report I took the last dressing off this morning.  It is healed at last.   Yippee!

Jack was delighted with his Tardis socks (last post) - made great skid-mobiles on the varnished floor.

And just a reminder that if you want an easy notification that there is a new post there is an Email button at the top right of this page.  It would be nice if you also joined the list of Followers so I know some folks are interested in my ramblings.

Shibori scarf

This shibori scarf was woven on the same threading as the summer and winter diamond place mats and runners talked about earlier this year except I eliminated the tie down thread giving me large areas with no resist.

Painting the worm

Intense colours

Its been steamed

So hard waiting for it to dry

Very exciting removing the resist threads.

Shibori play

Its been a while and I'm not going to look back to see how long ago I last posted.

I have been weaving; two more runners to match the summer and winter grey/white ones and another red narrow one to match the placemats I gave my daughter at Christmas time and a wee square with the leftover warp.

 None of these have been wet finished or hemmed for which I need to set up the sewing machine on the dining room table - hence the hesitation.

Before I take the summer and winter off the loom (forever) I wanted to try some shibori using the S & W threading.

 This is a small sample showing both sides but the interesting thing is it uses a regular S & W threading of 1323, 1424 etc.  Most of the books (and my workshop notes) state that you need to extend the number of threads between the tie down threads i.e. 13432343, 15652565 to get texture.

The reason I wanted to try the shibori was to try some beautiful fine merino thread which a group I belong to, Professional Weavers Network, had made specially for us.  It has a little bit of overtwist and I wondered how this would react in holding the texture.  The above samples have been soaked and rinsed in warm water after the resist threads were removed - success.  More later when the scarves are finished.

I'm working hard to get these off the loom so I can thread for blankets.  I convinced a friend she really didn't need wool/mohair blankets in the middle of January but her patience may be wearing thin.