A busy time

So to back up a bit I sacrificed a long weekend in Auckland with family and grand kids to finish exhibition work on time.  I am delighted with the end result but was it worth what I gave up.  I doubt it, I miss the kids hugs and kisses, but I kept my promise.  Exhibition opens in Pataka Gallery, Porirua in June, pictures then.

The following weekend (long again), Thursday through Sunday, we were off to Napier, the New Zealand Art Deco city, to attend a wedding.  On the way down we stayed a night in Taupo and walked around the edge of the lake.  No, not all the way around, just a couple of kilometres and back again, very picturesque.

 Barely got my suitcase unpacked and the laundry done and I was off again to the annual Professional Weavers Network Seminar at the Rob Waddell Lodge, Lake Karapiro.  Bay of Plenty members had had a little input in the organising early in the piece but in the end we were asked to bring the essentials.  This is about half of refreshments.

 Going through the tiny country town of Hinuera, population about 5, we came to a police check point.  At least the bottles had stopped rattling by the time we stopped.  May I see your license please Madam.  Sure I said its in the back and started to open my door.  He took a look in the back, said, sure you have one.  Oh yes, its in the back.  We got waved on with smiles and thank you's.  Actually population of Hinuera is 891.

We had a wonderful weekend with more talking than you could believe.  We spent a morning at the Fashion Department of the Unitech seeing what the students do in the degree program.  There was a forum discussing where craft fits versus art.  We discussed a future exhibition.  There was a pop up workshop on network drafting using graph paper with Agnes followed by Rene showing us how to adjust patterns for different fits and looks.  Monday morning it was my turn to share some of the knowledge I have re shibori both hand stitched and loom controlled.  Have to say it was disappointing the number who stayed for the workshop considering the weeks I had spent preparing new ideas to show.

The commitments weren't over yet as Rene and I had the delightful job of looking through the portfolios of 5 new weavers for the New Weavers Award to be announced at the Creative Fibre Festival at the end of April.  Isn't it wonderful, 5 new weavers to support and encourage.

And, of course, I still have my business to keep ticking over.  This poncho is made of fabric woven on the knitting machine.  I couldn't face the thought of stitching in all the ends so made a feature of them.

 My first day back on duty at the Cargo Shed in Tauranga I discovered a note in the day book that said I had been appointed the display person even though I had said I was hopeless at it!!  So I took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and took the opportunity to have a major shift around.  Its a work in progress and I'm thinking each time I go in there will be more things to change.

Before leaving for Lake Karapiro I had put a warp on the loom for 5 metres of fabric, tied onto the previous warp but a change of tieup and treadling, this time 4 colour double weave.  This first pic of fabric still on the loom is the nearest to true shades.  It looks like old tapestry fabric to me.  I'm thinking a jacket.

 But was it a pig to weave, very sticky yarns, the weft wouldn't beat in properly and I'd have to stop and ease out the humps and if I missed one I'd have a loop sticking up out of the fabric.  Had to unweave back to the loop or use a needle and ease it out to the selvedge.  One warp thread is called aubergine the other was hand dyed in several shades of red including burgundy (a long time ago) and the weft of mid grey and red, Tex 110/2 wool.

Now I have a few tea towels to make to fill an order then its on to a big scarf order, to say nothing of blankets being asked for.

This one is for Jack.  Look who comes for breakfast and dinner on my back lawn.

Exhibition work

For the last month or so I've been busy working on exhibition pieces.  I can't show them until the exhibition opens but a sneak peek at some beading on one of the garments won't let too much out of the bag.

 I had some warp left over on the loom so wove off 2.5 metres of fabric.  This hasn't been fulled yet but you can just see an echo, particularly at the bottom of the pic.  Once its been wet finished I'll put it in the stash till it tells me what it wants to be.

I'm still here!

Just to touch base and say I'm still here and working away with my vast fibre stash.

There are many projects started, half finished or almost done.  A jumper for myself just needs stitching up, a jumper for daughter has the back done but need to download the bulky knitting machine to do the stocking stitch front and sleeves.  Another jumper done but for the cap sleeves.  Some machine knitting that didn't work and needs to be re-styled!

I've been weaving away on shibori samples for an overview of shibori I'm presenting at the Professional Weavers Network Seminar early in March. 

And now I'm about to thread up for an exhibition piece to be finished to deliver to said PWN seminar and won't be able to talk about that until later in the year when the exhibition is hung.

I did facebook this scarf but omitted to blog about it.  Again the Swedish block threading 2:1, 1:2 twill.  Alternate blocks use a variegated yarn of unknown source, possibly Anna Gratton Ltd, which I manipulated while winding the warp so the colours stacked on each other, hence a purple end and a green end.  Other blocks are green and teal with a black merino, possum, silk weft.

Tekapo blankets

Lake Tekapo lies in the heart of the Mackenzie Country, in New Zealand's central South Island.  Lake Tekapo is the second largest of three roughly parallel lakes running north-south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin.

When I dyed the yarn for these blankets I tried to capture the sun reflecting off the water of the lake giving it a glacial feel.

Blue Poncho

My looms are all threaded with other projects and I needed more stock at the Cargo Shed as some large pieces had sold recently.  So I dusted off the knitting machine, studied the instruction book re weaving on the machine and away I went.  Really quite pleased with the result.  

As you can see I still had a mass of textured threads and art yarns, some hand spun.  There is a big choice of different colours as well.  More to come.

2015: an exciting colourful year

What an exciting colourful year 2015 has been.  It was full on busy from beginning to end and I enjoyed every minute.

It seems I wove 76 pieces, including 45 scarves, 17 blankets, a couple of wraps, a variety of tea towels and a banner.

 Crammed and spaced hand dyed merino scarves.

Professional Weavers Seminar was held at Tea Pot Valley Retreat near Nelson so Peter and I took the opportunity to spend an extra week in the area touring around and catching up with friends both going and coming.

Much of the early part of 2015 was spent preparing for the Creative Fibre Festival in Rotorua where I was tutoring knitting - inspiration on using unique designer yarns.  I ended up taking 3 half day classes which was pretty exhausting for an old duck person like myself.  I used many shades of green to knit a poncho with a slip stitch slouch collar as my tutor's display garment.  (I never did get a decent photo as it needed the right body in it.)

In the National Exhibition I was thrilled to be awarded the Alpaca award for this alpaca/silk wrap.

Another entry I had in the exhibition was this cotton scarf "Cloud", 4 colour double weave (2 colours in warp, 2 in weft). 

 What was I thinking to make a 3 metre long banner in 4 colour double weave, pretty striking though.

   The highlight of the Festival was the Annual Dinner combined with the Runway Show on Saturday night at the Blue Baths, an amazing venue.  I had two entries in the show and I can't explain what a thrill it was to see my garments being modeled on the catwalk.  

Black and white cotton sheath "Contrast".

 "Sapphire" won the Auckland Area Award for an entry using mill spun yarns with an emphasis on artistic content and design.

 There was a little knitting for family, both grand children receiving vests.

While entertaining myself with the above I still had a business to run so blankets were still being woven for Pauanesia and for Inspirit Gallery.

Hand dyed handwoven wool mohair blanket reflecting the mood of Anawhata Beach on the west coast of Auckland.

Again I was asked to make a range of scarves suitable (but not only) for men in time for the agricultural show, Field Days, in May.  As I did last year I chose shadow weave  and would like to explore this further.

 I also wove a small range of scarves for my friends shop, Ava Lee, at Waihi Beach.

 Pauanesia celebrated its 20th birthday this year and, to mark the occasion, several artists were asked to create 20 items.  My collaboration with Heather was 20 scarves depicting 7 of our native birds.  I know the stack is only 18 high.  Kokako had already flown to Auckland so there were 21 in all. 

 A little spinning happened.  I'm still waiting for this selection to tell me what it wants to become.

Inspirit Gallery also celebrated a birthday this year and Jenny invited artists to contribute to an exhibition.  My piece was "Kotare", a hanging of hand dyed acrylic with wool fringe.  

I don't think I ever blogged about this because by the time the exhibition started Peter and I were away for a wonderful two months in Tuscany with a few side adventures to Venice and Cinque Terre on the opposite coast of Italy.  I got to talk to many weavers in their studios as well as seeing many many historical sites and wonderful scenery.

Came home to many orders and some fast work as the Christmas shopping season was fast approaching.

And more blankets, this time Kereru or New Zealand pigeon.

 I new I had quite a lot of cotton thread but it wasn't until I had a wee tidy up and put it all in one place I found out how many boxes there were so to use it up (ha, hasn't even made a dent) and to have a different product at the Fibre Gallery at The Cargo Shed I made a few tea towels to see how they sold. 

Before taking the block threading off the Mecchia I tied a warp on for a couple of scarves, quite successful I think.

A wonderful year indeed

and looking forward to the challenges 2016 brings.

Indigo blue scarves

Sneaking these in before the year ends.

I realised my stock at The Cargo Shed was sadly lacking in variety of colour, particularly blues, so quickly tied a warp onto the 2:1 1:2 block warp and here we are ....

 Woven in blocks

 and stripes (below)

 The warp is merino 110/2 and the weft hand dyed silk.  Below the scarf on top is showing the silk dominant side and the darker one underneath shows the wool dominant side.

 The silk glows beautifully (below).

Devine to wear and non-gender specific.