Catch Up

Its a while since last talking.  Spring is here with the spring bulbs almost finished flowering, the trees are leafing up in many shades of luscious green and most days there is some rain but its warm.

Recently we decided to make the most of a sunny day and took a thermos and picnic lunch and walked a track in the Karangahake Gorge starting at Dickey's Flat.  A lot of time was spent watching Pete watching the river through his camera - I said next time I'd pack my knitting.  Very peaceful and the birds (which aren't plentiful at all) were brilliant in their spring plummage.

Blankets galore.  Red Pohutukawa were on the loom in the last post.  One has gone to its new home and the other is to be shown in a joint exhibition called "Endangered" at Inspirit gallery in November.  The darker blue one in the foreground went to the gallery on Thursday and was sold by Monday (called Karapiro Lake).  These were all an exercise in emptying cones but as a gap appeared on the shelf it was filled with a cone of yarn from the floor.  These three all had angora (from rabbit) weft giving a slight haze and very soft.  The fourth lighter blue has a mohair (from angora goat) weft and has been put aside for another exhibition in November - Oarsome Waipa to be held in Te Awamutu.

After the Low Tide exhibition at Inspirit I was asked to be guest exhibitor at Creative Fibre Experience which has just taken place this last weekend in Hamilton in association with the Craft and Quilt Show.  Not so much craft on show, most stalls were geared towards quilting.  When I found out how much a stall cost my idea of taking one next year went out the window fast.  The whole show now travels to Christchurch.  The CFE exhibition was great to see and very well displayed by Shona Schofield.  Well worth a visit to see it.  I was proud of my little corner among some elite company.

Two scarves, one shibori, one echo weave and two works done in Theo Moorman and then machine embroidered over.  You can just see the edge of a monofilament hanging with angel wing shells.

Finally persuaded Pete to buy some new shirts.  I learnt that if we get three the same I can use one to add length to the sleeves and body.  You might see in the bottom left the two flat fell seams where about 4" have been added in.  This works well as he usually wears a jumper or rolls the sleeves up.
And thats about it.  I've done more samples for the Poutama Stairway to Heaven blankets and hopefully will get the next brief on colourways today.

More weaving

The red blanket mentioned at the end of the last post.  Hard to photograph I discovered and doesn't show the many tones and shades of red.  This was to be a stash buster, 1 kilo of wool per blanket in the warp and 350gm angora in the weft of each blanket.  Didn't make a dent on the shelf.  In fact, there is enough of this yarn for at least one more blanket.  Its all hand dyed.  These are now off the loom and waiting for ends to be tasselled.

And for a change of colour scheme, this olive cotton/linen warp was left over from another project threaded 1,2,3,4 so am trying this 1;3, 3;1 stripe with a teal cotton.  Have no idea how much warp is left maybe a metre maybe 2.  Aimee, if you read this, its the same warp you played on but whereas you had the shuttle go over 2 threads, under 2, I'm going over 3 under 1 for the teal stripe and over 1 under 3 for the olive stripe and its the reverse on the back.  Its quite neat to go back to basics as a change from the rather complicated projects I usually tackle. 

What's been happening in the last two weeks

Oh dear, I'm not very consistent with this blogging.  When exciting things happen and I get busy I miss posting about it.

The first thing is I've been asked to be Guest Exhibitor at Creative Fibre Experience at Claudelands show grounds in September.  A surprise invite but excited to be part of the exhibition.  Have included some pieces from Low Tide and a couple of new scarves, one shibori from the warp I quickly wove off recently.  Hope people enjoy viewing the work. 

Fire

                         When we went to collect my work from Low Tide a couple of weekends ago we made a day trip of it with friends and visited the Waitakaruru Arboretum and Sculpture Park for several hours.  This Park is built in an old quarry, has been landscaped wonderfully and the sculptures added a very interesting dimension to the garden wandering.  In summer there is an onsite cafe.  Some of my favourite sculptures.

Parlez lentement by Niko Thomsen

Ups in downs by Matt McLean

Stairway to Heaven (Poutama) finished and looking rather wonderful, I think.  Unfortunately I have to go back to the drawing board as the mohair weft is making the floats too long so now I have to use two shuttles with floating selvedges and two layers.  I've nearly got my chains sorted and the wool for the weft is in the dye pot so we'll see how it goes.       

I was so enthused after my daughter in law brought two lovely friends to see my looms (they are so keen, its wonderful) and Aimee brought her spinning to show me I got my wheel out, dust and all, and produced this.

It was the remains of some sliver from Little Wool Company which I plied with a fine black alpaca thread.  At some stage I had pinched some of the red from the sliver so the very beginning of the skein has a lot of green.  I have just under 500 metres of ?10 ply thickness - what to do with it?  I have to say I enjoyed spinning thick.  I've always spun as fine as I could so the thread would go through my knitting machine but this was very satisfying to have a product finished quickly.

There seems to be a lot of red on this page and there are two more red blankets on the Nitschke loom so I better go finish them while the dyed wool dries.

Poutama

Can you see it?  In the red stripe!  Horror of horrors, a mistake and it repeated with the repeat of the chain and every repeat of the 4 block pattern.  Just what you don't want to see when you cut a complete blanket off the loom and it really only showed on the inside of the fold so it wasn't seen till the end.  One pin was missing from the dobby chain, either I never put it in or it fell out before I got to hammer them in securely.  It was just on dusk as I was finishing off so either could have happened.

Its put me a day behind schedule but I cut each thread and needle wove them back correctly.  Fulled the blanket today and its looking great.  It'll be in Pauanesia before long.

This pattern is Poutama or Stairway to Heaven and, in Maori mythology, its symbolic of a climb made by a dude called Tawhaki to collect three baskets of knowledge from the Gods.

The indignity of it all!

Hi, I'm Ted and I've been woken from hibernation and its still winter.  Guess I've been asleep about 30 years give or take a few.  Been rather indignant at the things being done to me lately; cotton buds up my nose, a soak upside

down in warm water but the bubbles in my eyes were no fun and the worst of it - to be hung on a wire line by ... my ... ears - how undignified!
I must be getting on in bear years, not much substance in the limbs and cataracts on both eyes but I was well loved once and maybe Reggie would like me to keep him/her company in the nursery.

Really enjoyed knitting this garment, haven't done lace for forever.  Of course, I do have two operating knitting machines so don't hand knit a great deal.  The body is all in one piece to the armhole, including the front bands, which saved a lot of stitching up.  The shoulders I used three needles and knitted the stitches together and cast off (what's that called).  I did the same around the armhole which just left the sleeve seam which I used a flat seam.  Not perfect but at least something is finished.

What have I been doing?

What have I been doing?  Probably not what I should be.  Lets see, knitting.  I started knitting this jacket

(Vogue pattern) last winter but had to put it aside through the summer as it was just too hot to have so much fabric sitting in my lap.  Picked it up again in the autumn and finished the body but now I find the armhole slits are in the wrong place.  I could graft the slits shut and open for armhole in the middle of the garter stitch band but I just am not interested.  Have gone right off the garment!  Its in the frog pile.

So started knitting this jersy loosely based on a pattern from Rowan magazine.  What's with those plaits?  They'll have to be stitched at the least.  Gone off that too.

So now I'm knitting a jacket for baby Reggie, due in December from bamboo yarn, size 3-6 months with length for the next size up.  I'm enjoying this and it does seem to be proceeding OK.  What are the best seams to use on babywear, anyone?

Weavingwise, I've done about 200 samples [well 8] (a miracle for me) to work out a pattern in Summer and Winter in two layers, joined at one side, with the pattern following through correctly on the reverse side.  This is an order from Pauanesia and the colourways will be chosen by them.  I used scrap yarn for the samples.  Also the more astute will see its not true S & W as I have put alternate thick and thin wool threads in the warp to reduce bulk and the weft is all mohair as I didn't want to use two shuttles with two layers - that would have been too much.  This sample was made to get the fold correct so I threaded the least needed to test.  The bands will be wider and the vertical and horizontal areas equal in the project.  You'll have to put your head on the side, the fold is down the centre.

The shock of so much sampling, and the thought that my dobby loom will be tied up with the above project for some time I quickly designed and put on a warp for three shibori scarves and am weaving my way through them at present.  Will pull up and dye at a later date.

See the diamond and "X" shapes that will hopefully offset by the dye process.

While putting the photos on here I've taken a second look at the knitting and maybe it is worth persevering.  Rather than frog the jacket it could be a blanket!

Opotiki Fibre and Fleece

The Opotiki Fibre and Fleece show has been running alternate years for more than 20 years and I've never managed to get to see it until this year. On Saturday a friend and I drove to Opotiki (2 1/2 hours from my place), a pretty drive along the Bay of Plenty coast.

We did a little retail therapy.

 Merino sliver (100gm) from Awakeri Woolcraft.  It looks a bit washed out on this screen, the brown is a rich chocolate and the greens brighter.  Apparently it is becoming very difficult to get merino sliver here as manufacturing is being sent off shore to China.

The exhibition was amazingly well set out with lots of space for every creation.  Most 2 metre tables had just one or two pieces on them allowing you to really appreciate the work.

After lunch we set off for the Theatre where the fashion parade was being held.

I was really taken with the old buildings in this town (old by New Zealand standards), many of them dated 1912, 1914 and this 1926.  Many of our early buildings were built in timber, often kauri, and have not survived.

Images from previous years fashion parades taken through a window, we weren't allowed to take photos on the day.

Home about 7.00 to find DH cooking dinner.  The most fun day I've had in quite a while.