Seminar at Coopers Beach

Well I have to say Seminar at Coopers Beach was a really really fun few days.  So wonderful to be with a group of fibre junkies who just want to talk weaving.  It was amazing to attend the opening of Agnes and Stacey's awesome exhibition "Nature in the Making" and I do hope anyone who has the opportunity to see it does.  Lots more photos on their facebook page (but so much better to see it in reality).

Entrance to Nature in the Making, Earth House, Peria

We had an excellent presentation and discussion about our next exhibition and though I'd seen most of the presentation about 6 months ago I'm still excited by the concept and looking forward to some design work.  Stacey gave two talks and Ian Spalding and Yvonne Sloan entertained us one evening with their journey from learning to weave to making a full time living from it.

Food was pretty good but some of my friends will understand the irony of my husband waiting at my pick up stop with a vegetarian CURRY pie.  I smiled and ate up not mentioning that it was my fifth curry meal in three days!!

I came home to two blankets ready for labelling, two ready for tasselling and two ready to go on the loom so guess what I'm working on? 

Weaving, spinning, dyeing

Yet another quick post as I get ready for another weekend away, and, of course, its always a 3 day weekend and 2 more days getting over the fun.  Its not so long ago I'd have come home and got straight to the loom or wheel or sewing machine but not now.  Must be called age!

 Tui

 Above are the two tui blankets with 25 colours in the warp with a multi dyed weft.  The near one shows the darker edge which moves through to teals and turquoise as seen in the second one.  I've used a mohair boucle weft which reflects the light beautifully.  (Very hard to catch a moment without breeze to click the shutter.)

Then I was off to Majacraft Camp for a very fun weekend with lots of woolaholics.  I did two workshops with Pat Old extracting muka from flax, preparing it and then spinning it.  Its not so easy and quite time consuming.  I have to say that while I admire the end product of Pat's work I think I love wool and merino more.

 I did 2 workshops with Esther Rodgers, the first learning about and using Majacraft accessories and, yes I do covet a blending board and maybe combs.  And then we did wild spinning to weave with tails and beehives and all manor of things.  Esther is a wonderful tutor and she's working on a book so keep an eye out for it, it'll be worth having.

 Tired as I was on Monday, ie nearly falling asleep at the loom, I had blanket orders to work on.  Below is a double layer warp with the fold on the right hand side.

 And these multi coloured "toupes" are the weft.  I figured if I stood them up in the dye pot and the liquid came halfway up the ball it would work.  With a bit of squishing with tongs the dye went to the centre though a little paler then flip them over for the second colour and, of course, there is a third where the dyes meet.  Blankets are off the loom and the warps and wefts dyed ready for the next lot.

 The silk in this silk/merino skein came from Beautiful Silks in Melbourne and was spun a month or two ago but I didn't know what to ply it with or should it be Navajo plied.  I needed the bobbin last weekend so plied it with black merino TEX 74/2.  I had thought to use it for weft for a scarf or wrap (depending on metreage) but its so gorgeous maybe it should be a knitted lace wrap. 

That's all this week.  Tomorrow morning at 5am I'll be on the road for Coopers Beach up north for Professional Weavers Seminar and the opening of Agnes and Stacey's exhibition "Nature in the Making" www.facebook.com/natureinthemaking

A day in the life of a weaver ...

This morning I had breakfast with a friend whose lady friend has split from him.  We had actually had friends for tea last night but as he still seemed rather upset I suggested he stay over.

While talking after eating I sorted the banking for a weaving group of which I'm treasurer and filed an awful lot of papers.  Wrote out cheques to be used at a Seminar next weekend.  Also had a quick read of what workshops I'm doing this weekend and what I need to take with me.  After friend was on his way I put a load of washing in the machine and put a shibori scarf in to soak ready for dyeing.  While waiting for them to do their thing I tried to tidy the length of tassels on the end of a scarf  hoping to get them nearer one length.  I think there was a phone call in here with reference to next weeks Seminar.

Painted the dye on the scarf and while eating a quick sandwich for lunch it steamed.  Whipped it out of the pot and left it to cool while I drove to Waihi for banking and then on to Whiritoa (about 45 minutes from home) to say goodbye to a dear weaving friend who has sold her house and is moving to Feilding (about 5 hours drive).  I will miss our show and tells greatly but it'll still cost exactly the same for a phone call.  When I got home I rinsed scarf and its now drying on top of the hot water cylinder.  While rinsing I'm on the phone to friend who is not at all well (notice a certain amount of multitasking going on through the day).  Finished washing the car about 6.30 and thought I better cook tea.

Am now sorting and packing stuff for a weekend with the Majacraft folks at a weekend get together on the shores of Lake Rotorua.  Can't wait.  I'm going to chill ... zzzz

25 colours

Are 25 colour changes enough in one blanket, especially when woven in two layers in this order!

Concentration is the key.

Woven textile exhibition

A friend has asked me to direct you to a facebook page about their upcoming exhibition.
www.facebook.com/natureinthemaking
Nature in the Making - Geology interpreted through woven textiles - A joint exhibition by weavers Stacey Harvey-Brown and Agnes Hauptli

The exhibition will be shown in a couple of places in New Zealand before heading to the United States where it will show in Tacoma before heading elsewhere and then Europe.

I'm a dinosaur when it comes to social media but this is well worth following and can't wait to see the exhibition.  Thank you for taking a look and clicking "like".

Merino spinning

When I'm on duty at the Cargo Shed I have to have something to do so am taking the opportunity to break into some of my sliver stash.  This is

merino sliver from Treetops of  Perth, Western Australia.  

I split the sliver lengthwise then loosened the fibres by pulling lengthwise.  They were too sticky to start with to use a diz. Spinning was a joy.  I was hoping I could get matching areas of colour.  It isn't too bad, just small areas of bean poling.

The yarn is not the best spinning by a long shot but oh so squishy and soft.  (Click to enlarge.)

I got home from the Shed in time to see a cruise ship passing Tuhua.  I couldn't help yelling out to the passengers - water choppy is it, breeze a bit chilly is it, feeling the chill are you, should have bought a shawl when you had the chance.  (I know, I'm mad.)

Shibori play

Its been a while and I'm not going to look back to see how long ago I last posted.

I have been weaving; two more runners to match the summer and winter grey/white ones and another red narrow one to match the placemats I gave my daughter at Christmas time and a wee square with the leftover warp.

 None of these have been wet finished or hemmed for which I need to set up the sewing machine on the dining room table - hence the hesitation.

Before I take the summer and winter off the loom (forever) I wanted to try some shibori using the S & W threading.

 This is a small sample showing both sides but the interesting thing is it uses a regular S & W threading of 1323, 1424 etc.  Most of the books (and my workshop notes) state that you need to extend the number of threads between the tie down threads i.e. 13432343, 15652565 to get texture.

The reason I wanted to try the shibori was to try some beautiful fine merino thread which a group I belong to, Professional Weavers Network, had made specially for us.  It has a little bit of overtwist and I wondered how this would react in holding the texture.  The above samples have been soaked and rinsed in warm water after the resist threads were removed - success.  More later when the scarves are finished.

I'm working hard to get these off the loom so I can thread for blankets.  I convinced a friend she really didn't need wool/mohair blankets in the middle of January but her patience may be wearing thin.