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.

 

 

Blankets

As usual there has been a lot of metres of blanket weaving in the last few months.

Kotare/Kingfisher has a green-blue back, buff to yellow underside and a large black bill.

They are admired for the way they perch without moving while stalking their prey, then suddenly attacking in a blur.

Black and White

 

Pohutukawa, commonly known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, is a coastal evergreen tree that produces a brilliant display of red flowers, each consisting of a mass of stamens.

 

Pounamu is a term for several types of hard and durable stone found in southern New Zealand.

It is also called greenstone or New Zealand jade.

  It is often carved into a pendant which carries special meaning for its wearer.

Summer Blue blankets

What better way to celebrate summer than with some beautiful summer blue blankets?

Available from

 Pauanesia store in central Auckland.

 

Red blankets

So here we are into April with autumn knocking on the door and the first weaving story of the year.

This is not a warp under control but a lot of patience and stubbornness got the warp with about 50 and more different types of yarn and different red shades onto the loom.  I tie onto a dummy warp which allows me to spread each variety of yarn reasonably evenly across the loom thus avoiding the seersucker effect.  I say reasonably because I use the eyeball method.  One rule I follow is a smooth yarn always goes next to a fluffy mohair one.

Some of the threads are quite fluffy especially the mohair so I find it useful to raise every second thread opening a shed while winding on front to back.

A pleasure to weave once its ready to go.

Two very different blankets from the same warp and they have both found their forever homes.

 

Hapara - Dawn Blankets

Three beautiful blankets which went to Pauanesia shop.

Midnight Bush Walk blankets

How many ways to love these Midnight Bush Walk blankets.

In Pauanesia shop now.

Fabric

Enough of the dog already.
Next weekend is Professional Weavers Network annual seminar in Auckland and after seminar we're having a workshop on designing/styling fabric/garments from handwoven cloth with Sue Scarf so I thought it time I got out my fabric stash and fulled it, finished it and had a jolly good look.  Both pieces have been maturing in the fabric stash cupboard for some time.  Do you know they do improve with age!  I rather like them now, can see possibilities.

This is wool, teal and anenome stripes with a variegated stripe every so often.  For some reason I threaded it and wove it with a space every 2 inches of about half an inch and of course the threads moved to fill the gaps.  I can imagine it with a contrasting (maybe hot pink) lining peeping through the spaces.  There is at least 5 metres.  A jacket is the obvious style but maybe a long tunic top.

The second bolt I wove so long ago I couldn't remember which loom I used until I saw the network drafted pattern so it must have been on the dobby and that must be two or three years ago.  Yikes!
Its mostly cotton with one acrylic thread which didn't shrink and has made little loops at irregular intervals - I think that's why it was never made up.  Again there is about 5 metres and I had planned to use a Burda pattern for a shirt with a tie feature at the front.  Hmmm.  Apologies for the photos but if I went back to try again this would never be posted.  You can just see the networking on the blue bolt.