Shawls

So this post takes us to this time last year, just one year behind.

 

The Guild I belong to, Kaimai Coast Creative Fibre, planned an exhibition for late March so I set to to weave a piece that was exhibition worthy.  I say planned as the dastardly covid had postponed two previous attempts to hold the exhibition.  The exhibition was hung at Carlton Art Gallery, Art Centre, Katikati.

I had been looking at photos from years past and thought I would revisit Twill.  This is 16 shaft advancing twill, 24 epi, Nm2/16 50%merino 50%camel yarn plus a little bling.

 

Of course, once I have a threading I make the most of it and tie on more warps.  This was a warp which I had wound many years ago and it was time to use it, mainly because I wanted to access the left over yarn on cones.

The colours are unusual for me to choose and I believe they were inspired by something I saw whilst on a trip in India.

Unfortunately, as I wove the first wrap the threads in part of the purple section kept breaking after I had woven a metre.  I decided I had gone too far to stop so persevered and can't recall the many many broken threads there were to get to 2.2 metres.  The group of threads which broke was a rayon-like thread.  At this stage I cut the first wrap off, wound some purple merino warps, tied them onto the troublesome blighters and pulled them through to the back of the loom.  After tying the warp to the front rod I weighted the new threads at the back and hey presto, could weave the second wrap.  And I got to keep the faulty product after spending hours fixing threads.

 

While this weaving was happening I looked over at the yarn shelf and spied this combination of  colours and couldn't resist another warp.

 

At about the same time a friend posted a photo of a bunch of dahlia flowers she had been gifted  and so these wraps was named Dahlia.  One has a black weft, the other red.

more blankets

For many many years I colaborated with Pauanesia shop in Auckland to weave blankets.  Heather gave me a brief and I was free to interpret it and most times we were on the same page.  Unfortunately Pauanesia closed last year and I was left floundering a bit trying to find my own voice.  

 

I rethreaded Maude, the Oxabach loom, to a twill pattern of my design on 16 shafts but could not get the selvedges to play ball.  It was fine treadling shafts 1 to 16 but coming back 15 to 1 if didn't work.  I put a call out for help and it was suggested I try satin but no luck.

 

The mohair I was using for the weft was very old but wove up beautifully and the colour was perfect for my bed so wonky selvedges and all I decided to keep it for myself.  When it came off the loom I pulled out the outside thread on each side and needle threaded it back into every mohair fold on the edge and, after fulling, it didn't look too bad.

 

 But I couldn't sell blankets like that so back to the design software and rethreaded Maude with a 12 shaft twill and 2 extra shafts for a tabby selvedge.  Of course I wove a complete blanket, 2.20metres long before noticing a threading mistake.  Six missing threads!

 

 

 

Some extra heddles to the rescue and we were finally weaving luxurious mohair blankets.

 

 

 

These represent the Kotare or Kingfisher with its bright blue and turquoise back and yellow breast.

 

 

Touch of Tui

I was asked by a lovely lady from Tauranga if I could weave her several shawls.

Actually the conversation started something like "Are you still weaving?  I want to catch you before you retire!"  One request was for a black and white shawl, maybe with a touch of the iridescence of the tui.  The tui is a native NZ bird which generally appears black with a white wattle under its beak but in the sun it sparkles blue and green iridescence.

 My loom was threaded in an extended advancing twill which gave the ideal platform for big, bold pattern. I tied on a warp of New Zealand merino.   I chose a plait tie up from my archives and wove with an extended advancing twill weft.

The iridescence is portrayed with several shiny lurex threads in the warp borders and at the beginning and end.

 

And, of course, I never dress the loom with a short warp so chose this wonderful tie up for echoing triangles from Weaver's magazine, Issue 21, an article by Ingrid Boesel for a second shawl, again using an advancing extended twill weft.

Both are versatile garments with the fabric drapey enough to wear many ways.

This triangle wrap is available from the Waihi Beach Gallery.

Pounamu Wrap

It must have been in July a fellow fibre artist kept putting posts on faceboook for folks to enter the Franklin Arts Exhibition and as I had woven this rather special wrap I thought I'd support the exhibition by entering.  The parcel was left with my son to get in the post on the designated dates and Peter and I went off the Australia for a much needed break.  (We flew in to Brisbane and out of Sydney and explored the coast in between.)  We had only been home a day and I got a call to say I'd been award a prize and could I come to the opening so we repacked our suitcases and headed back to Auckland.  I received second prize in the Functional Textile section.  A thrill to be called up on stage and shake the presenters hand.

 The warp is 28/2Nm silk and the two wefts  are a devine merino I brought home from Rome last year.  I'll just say the draft is original, probably part of the twill family.  All yarns hand dyed.

Baubles and Beads

Every three or four years the Professional Weavers Network of New Zealand hold an exhibition.  These take a lot of planning and discussion and sometimes the best laid plans change as with the current exhibition.  The title and theme changed and I just could not get with the plan so decided not to participate.

Scroll back to our annual Seminar earlier this year and our long suffering Convenor put the hard word on us.  Not enough entries to make an exhibition.

 

Suddenly a light bulb lit up so I asked if I could enter even though the date for submissions had closed and she not only agreed, she liked my idea.

And so a couple of months of creation began.

I have to admit that if I wrote down records I have lost them but I'm pretty sure it was 48 thread per inch of Schappe-Seide silk which is beautiful to work with.  Two inches in the reed and floating selvedges for twill.  I wove one 6 inch length and stitched it to the cardboard hexatron and realised it was slightly loose.  Dropped two threads and that was enough.

Each piece of silk was dyed a primary or secondary colour to fit with the group instructions.

 

A friend had some black textured velour yarn I could "borrow" for the neck piece.

 

 

This piece I call a wall necklace and I loved working with the primary colours.  The small 1 inch hexatrons were a bit fiddly but fun when finished.   I found a necklace to repurpose with the perfect blue beads.

Ear rings and brooch complete the ensemble.

As they were displayed at the Percy Thomas Gallery in Stratford.

My regret is that I was working so hard to meet the deadline and didn't have time to remake the necklace in primary colours.  That would have held it all together much better.

A very fun project once I got my head around what to make for Angles.