Wednesday 28 September 2011

Sometimes inspiration is simple!

Sometimes the best inspiration is the desire to give something to someone you love.

In the building of our extension, oldest son (Michael) had his room re-arranged and updated. Much nicer with lovely windows over his desk, good blinds (?) and a wardrobe. Unfortunately, he is the only one with:
bare floorboards. Great for the rest of the house. The rest of us have cosy carpet to keep our toes warm on a cold Melbourne morning. So a rug is called for. Colours?
This is the lightshade in his room. If you look behind you can see the tasteful paint colours (my choice) don't necessarily go with the shade (father's choice and M's approval), but when outnumbered go with the flow.

The warp has actually been on my big loom for awhile, but I've finally got around to the weaving. Having worked out that I do have enough yarn to make the size we want (more luck than good management), I've been steadily working on:
It's a Krokbragd pattern which is a very simple 3 shaft technique, the main aim is to play with the colour patterns. I started with plain black and now have incorporated all three colours and will continue the current striping till the black runs out, then add extra cream till the orange runs out and then the middle will have the remaining cream and then reverse the lot!

I love weaving at the big loom, it's such a physical process. It's wide enough that you have to move from side to side as you throw the, quite heavy, shuttles. It is a rug, so they are quite heavy with thick yarn. Your feet are moving as you change pedals to change the shafts that are required. I love it!

The only downside to Krokbragd is that it is quite slow as you need three passes for one 'row'. I have extra warp on and hope to weave a couple small rugs. I'll probably do at least one more in Krokbragd, but in a thicker yarn and then see how long it takes.

Right now I'm just enjoying weaving for Michael!

Saturday 24 September 2011

It's what inspires you that counts!

Inspiration can come from all sorts of sources, yet for many of us it is 'the yarn'. The 'must have' that gorgeous texture, feel, colour or just it's plain craziness!

I am having that reaction with the wonderful silk and stainless steel yarn from Dairing. I managed to get to their Richmond shop in Lennox St. to find a beautiful store. Yarns and more colours and their wonderful designs. I was there to buy yarns, which I did....
but I also checked out an amazing range of yarns, from the stainless steel to linen to linen paper. So now I have something to play with...
Linen paper! I saw a jacket knitted with this and, I think, it was the silk and stainless steel and it was gorgeous. It keeps suggesting to me, for some unknown reason, crochet, so I might team it with some mercerised cotton and a crochet hook and see what I come up with.

What I'd like to have a look at is their amazing designs, clothing and jewellery. Again, beautiful design and maybe a gorgeous something to wear for Christmas!

I was so excited by my purchases, that I've done three scarves for the market. They're done on the knitting machine and I manipulate the fabric to try and create folds that force the fabric to behave interestingly. I think it works!

I do feel a bit of a fraud when I say that ALL the previous scarves have sold.....I bought the first cone at the Handknitters guild and despite it being the only one it went, so next, at the Sheep and Wool show I bought two and a play cone. The play cone is still being played with but the TWO have gone. I did make a mistake and only bought four, when I'd written in my diary, buy SIX....next time. It is surprising, as usually people need a choice of colour, but there seems to always be someone who just loves them.

So here are the next three:


Now I have to go and put tags on all  the finished pieces, in time for Rose St. Market tomorrow.