Weaving with Plastic

 So... I'm supposed to start my residency at the Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub in October. Even though vaccinations are progressing, our 'road map' doesn't seem to provide for enough opening for me to be able to do that. It's still not confirmed in any way and I don't expect it to for a little while. However, I need to do a little weaving 'just in case'. It also means that I get the current warp off my loom and I can think of a new project for October.

So I've started weaving my little plastic rugs. These are to form an installation that, basically, echoes the rugs used in a yurt and I hoped to figure out a way to hang them in a circle. I was to do two off the current nylon warp and then collect materials from the shops in Ivanhoe for the remaining completed during my residency.

So I started on the first one, which is a simple tabby weave with whatever plastic I have to hand.

And, I've finished...

Plastic is difficult to handle and the finished piece was cut-off before starting the next. This was mostly because of the bulk, but I wanted to reset the warp so that it wove easily.

The second 'rug' is using rya knots to create a rug with more texture. It's slower, but is interesting to weave. You certainly work out why, down the centuries, young small fingers have been exploited to weave these type of rugs.

Each one is only a metre long, so hopefully I can finish this, this week. 

Using up leftovers

This month (September) we experimented with 4ply cable yarns for our online Experimental Spinning session. Four ply cable yarns are basically two singles overplyed together,  twice, then the two resulting overplyed yarns are plyed together in the opposite direction.

A video that was recommended on the day is Wool n' Spinning presents Cabled Yarn by Rachel Smith. Lots of good information and hints.

I decided to use up some leftovers and came up with these yarns.

I was quite happy, so did a bit of a deep dive into my leftovers and came up with these:

And I finished with these yarns:

I made mostly 4ply cable yarns, but I did have a S spun single that I added to the end bits of my plying creating a few 3ply yarns. All sorts of matching yarns. They do need washing as the singles I've used are quite old.

I'm very happy with all of these and they'll end up being used in the mitred square rug that I've been working on. I've stopped that for the moment as I've run out of little bits of handspun yarn and I really should be moving on to other projects. It has been a bit of a distraction, however pleasant, and I should get on with Stuart's jumper and weaving the plastic rugs for my residency in Ivanhoe.

 

Side-tracked by leftover handspun

 I don't really know why, but whilst working on Stuart's jumper, I decided to stop and wait until I can measure it against him. I think it's way too big, but he is big and I might be underestimating his size. It's been awhile since I knit the last jumper.

Anyway, I decided I would do some more stash busting, this time with all those leftover bits of handspun that I can't bear to throw away.

I decided to do mitred squares as they're easy to do, can take small amounts of yarn and look pretty effective. My squares are 20 sts sides (work on 40sts) on 4mm needles and measure 9.5cm square.

There are all sorts of different yarns and even though some are a bit fine and a bit thick, it seems to be working ok.

I did sort them into colours: broadly blue, purple, red, orange, yellow and green. I think if I did it again, I would be much more random. The effect gets better as it gets larger. I'm aiming for a Queen size blanket for the spare bedroom. Just right for our Western Australian guests who feel the cold!

I've still got the green to go, then I've got all the natural coloured yarn and then I'll probably have to wait for more yarn. I'm thinking of edging it in cream with half size mitres.