On the move again ...

Yes, sneaking away for a five day weekend to the Professional Weavers Network annual get together, this year its near Timaru in the South Island.  You'll hear about it next week.

I have been busy getting a wardrobe ready for a wee granddaughter due to arrive late April (last I heard).  It doesn't look like many garments but every stitch worked with love from GranD.  I did make the stockings on the knitting machine and other garments will knit up in no time on the machine.

My mother left a bag of bits of baby yarn so I've made up a pattern to use them in the yoke of the jackets.

The buttons for this wee cardi have been around since my daughter was a baby.  Everything gets used eventually.

The wee singlet I got for half the half price because of a few holes near the neck.  Don't you just love the little woven patch and lazy daisy I fixed it with.

Don't look too closely at this cotton blanket.  I couldn't count so the horizontal patterns don't match in all areas but I figured baby would puke and poo on them anyway.  I thought I was making receiving blankets (yes there is another one) but they're too big and the cotton isn't soft.  After I joined the strips down the centre I brought them to the boil in a soda ash and teepol solution to remove the dressing but still not soft enough.  Where do you weavers get your soft cotton?  Table cloth maybe.  I could do that some time as the pattern takes 8 shafts and I have 16 I could make a double layer table cloth with floating selvedge.  Hmm ... sometime.

Starburst snowflake scarves

Late in January I caught the sun awakening on the horizon, interesting because of the smoke haze from the fires in Australia, the other side of the Tasman Ocean.  I can't imagine the horror of being near one of those big blazes.

And now the big reveal of the snowflake twill scarves/ wraps/ table runners.

 Table runner you ask!  I called to see a weaving friend and after our show and tell she insisted on having the black and white piece as a runner for her rather large antique dresser.  Her comment was "Its the most beautiful piece of weaving I've seen".  I have to say it is very striking.

 And the green one.

 Can you tell I'm trying different ways of wearing a scarf?

Last post I showed a piece of shibori when I had just removed the resist threads and said I couldn't show you cause it was put aside for an exhibition in April.  Well a lovely Scot lass saw it and it now has a new home.  I quickly grabbed a photo before it went out the door so excuse the draping.

Note to family:  I need a laptop with a decent photoshop program on it.

Some old, some new projects

There is nothing like a market to get one motivated to finish off some projects.  The Starburst mats are off the loom but difficult to get a decent picture.

 And ... look at all the different sizes.  Oh woh is me!  The three bigger ones were woven before Christmas with about a two week break before continuing.  What a difference the shoulder exercises are making (and no pain now).  The last (shortest) mat I tried using a heavy Mecchia end delivery shuttle as I had been having trouble getting tidy selvedges with a light weight side delivery shuttle even though a friend had put me on the correct track with the basket weave edge.  I'm blaming the extra weight of the shuttle for the firmer beat.  The mats are pinned ready to hem.

 Yesterday I cut off two scarves, again in the Starburst pattern (below).  This is black Ramie (extruded from the nettle plant) and white cotton and it is stunning.  The second is a very wearable green cotton over the black ramie.  Both area drying over the deck railing at present - pictures later.

When I started playing with this pattern on my computer software I must have spent half a day adding this, deleting that but when I look at the drawdown from Weavers magazine Issue 13 1991 it looks so very similar I can't claim this as my own pattern.  Having said that, the background fabric in the magazine looks very twilly.

 Another project in the finishing pile.  A shibori wrap with resist threads removed.  Yep it took a triple shot espresso to do the job.  It looks vastly different now but I've put it away for an exhibition so this is all you can see at the moment.

 Remember way way back when I was playing with interleaved drafts looking for a bloppy image.  That's when this scarf was woven, blogged about July 5, 2011 and I see it was sett at 60 tpi with 20/2 cotton.  It does take me a while sometimes.  Now with the tassels twiddled it looks rather smashing I think.  I keep seeing poppies.

Envelop from Poland

Late last year Meg organised Weaver 2 Weaver whereby she connected us with a partner somewhere in the world to whom we sent an envelop of inspiration.  A couple of days ago I received these goodies from Alicje from Poland who is a fairly new weaver, the sample under the Monet postcard is from one of her first weavings done in Autumn 2011.  Its beautifully done with perfect selvedge. 

Included are two swatches of handspun yarn from Polish breeds; mountain sheep (white) and heath sheep (black).  As Alicje says they are very harsh and I wonder what they would be used for.

I was fascinated by the colours of natural dyed yarns; yellow from tansy, green from goldenrod, orange from madder and light violet from elderberry.  A beautiful variety of shades.

The photo of the Benedictine Monastery in Germany couldn't be more inspiring with its lines, repeating arches and shapes.  Thank you Alicje and if you read this could you leave a comment as unfortunately I can't read your email address.

 My partner to send an envelop was Janet Stollnitz.  The pictures were put together before I had seen Janet's work and it turns out to be quite on the mark.  She loves ikat and bright colours.  The words in red say:  Strong tones speak of design confidence - and even more so when they come in chunky weaves or multicolours.  Funny what you find in magazines.

The second page is a colour cutting from a magazine which inspired the dye work of the 74/2 NZ merino thread.

I also included a colour brochure from Pauanesia.  Go to the bottom of Pauanesia's page and click on Brochure.

Janet mentioned the lack of my work in the brochure and this is one of the first in the last ten years that my blankets haven't been featured, mainly because I was so busy with other projects during the year that stocks had become quite low.

Thank you for organising this Meg and to my partners for their inspiration and comments.

Green blanket

finished.

What's on the looms January 1, 2013

 Above warp chains, all 27 of them, ready to be tied on.  All sorts of yarns, possom merino, ringspun mohair, loop mohair, wool, textured wools.  Every bit left over from projects and yes, I frogged some knitted things that were never going to be used for what I started.  It will be woven double layer for a blanket to be gifted so I had to ascertain the centre threads as I was starting on the fold side.

 All tied on and ready to wind on the back beam.  Well, a bit of pulling got them all sorted and straight.

 Ready to start weaving, top the dark layer and bottom the light layer.  Photo taken about 9 pm so light awful but I had to get it posted before midnight.

 And just to really get you going, this is what the back of the loom looks like.  Do you recognise the warps from the four sets of blankets I've woven in the last 6 weeks?

 Below is the snowflake twill on the compu dobby.  This was not the best project to thread the loom with as the beating is not being kind to my shoulder.  Can only do little bits each day.  I am enjoying the pattern though.

 Now take a big breath, under all that ... stuff ... there is an 8 shaft table loom.  Why that lace draw down ended up on top of the pile I don't know but it does look interesting.

Phew made the posting before midnight.

Baby knitting

Just to include the knitting in this year's finished projects.  Set for Grand Bubby due end of April.