Blocks and new looms

Another day out, helping a friend with their new loom. It was fun and all questions of 'how does this work?" were finally answered when the top was lifted and all was revealed!

I love traditional equipment, even by a relatively big company, like Leclerc. Each has a unique vision of how something should work, revealing something of the maker/user, though the idea is not always clear.

I did manage to finish, what must now be, a first coat on the blocks and I've started the production of their jackets! I'm very happy, but suddenly, very aware of the time deadline of next week!

Anyway, off to have my porridge!

Sculpture start

I haven't any pictures for today, I didn't think small blocks of stain wood (Rosewood stain on pine) was really interesting. But I've started 'Knitter's block'! Hooray, about time. Varnishing will start today.

I've also knitted my first 'necklet', I'll finish it off first before photographing it.

Slow day yesterday, might just be a slow week, after the effort of the last four weeks.

Beautiful Photos!

I did manage to ring Craft Victoria, only to discover that the relevant person is on leave till Thursday. They didn't sound too optimistic about prospects before Christmas, so I sent off an optimistic email saying to the best of my ability: 'but you'll love my stuff!' I did manage to take the photo, which is the best photo to date. I really love it!

I've also started my little one ball 'necklets', which have sold well on my stall and I haven't made any for quite some time.

Now, is the time, however, to get on with my 'Knitters' Block' sculpture for the Contemporary Sculpture Association's members exhibition, due in on the 20th November.

Have you noticed two names, I must be on a roll. All I need now is a really good name for the 'Woven Memory' offshoots....the beautiful photograph.....!

Disappointment and other stories

Disappointment ended my weekend with absolutely no sales from the 9"x5" market. I was really happy with the way the stall looked and the new items I had on, but, I guess a combination of a small crowd and ???? just meant no-one bought anything. I am at a bit of a loss to both explain and know what to do next. I have a few ideas about changing the display again....in particular, finding a way to display all the scarves without taking up table space???, but I just have to hope that after the election and just before Christmas people will spend in December.

The weekend actually started quite well with Saturday being the day that the Spinning Certificate students handed in all their work for assessment. Four of us spent a good, but not onerous part of the day doing this. It was just great and the work is fantastic and the exhibition of work in December will be stunning...and I haven't yet seen all the final pieces. It makes all the hard work worth while, and it is a real disappointment that it won't run next year.

I will show some of the new work that I managed to finish. I'm very happy with my new set of textile pictures. I did receive some very good responses to these and I think I'll just keep going with them, even though I haven't sold any yet.

My next mission is to try Craft Victoria! Wish me luck!

Judging at the Show

I spent yesterday morning judging the woolcraft for the Dandenong Show. I went out there last year and it was delightful and was so again. They managed to double the entries from the last show and the quality also improved with some really good entries, and a few really difficult sections.


The CWA put on morning tea and lunch. Homemade scones, fresh local asparagus, etc. etc. I also had a look around the main craft display, I always love the cake competitions.

It is really surprising that the show exists, being, as I see it, in suburbia. I am wrong, of course, it really borders the city, as do the Whittlesea and now Berwick shows. This years has been diminished a little, as there will be no horses because of the equine flu, but these are well worth go to see.


Judging is always a nerve-wrecking effort, as you really don't want to make a mistake or upset anyone. One of the ideas I've thought about is that I really want to give prizes. I think this encourages the people who have entered, and hopefully, encourages others to enter. So there always is a winner. I'd love to do Dandenong again.




Textile pictures


I am also trying to finish off as many articles for my stall on Sunday. As you can see the textile pictures are coming along. I'm quite happy with them, but they are quite different from the first trio.


I also managed to get my buttons from Buttonmania in the city. It's always a pleasure going in to her shop and browsing through buttons with their expert help. I paid too much for one button, but it is beautiful.


She's having a sale from 26/11/07 till 1/12/07. She sells her buttons on sale BY WEIGHT. Apparently the black go really quickly. If I can I'm going!


NOTES: Dandenong Show. 10th & 11th November, 2007. Showgrounds. Bennet St. Dandenong
http://www.dandyshow.com.au/
Buttonmania. 2/37 Swanston St. Melbourne Vic.

Melbourne Cup weekend at the beach

Images from Phillip Island

A lovely weekend was had by all. We travelled down in the rain, blessed rain! and then the rest of the weekend was fine. Phillip Island is like that, the only certainty is the wind.

We did finish the weekend by going to 'Chill Island', a concert on Churchill Island which headlined Clare Boeditch, Paul Kelly and Gotye. There were four support bands, we only missed one. There was Tin Pan Orange, who I liked, Tumburumba, who are a very energetic and fun drum band playing music such as the Samba, and a band called Hot Little Hands who hadn't got a CD yet and 16yr old boy thought that they were really good, which is actually a pretty good endorsement.

The concert didn't finish till after 9pm and it was FREEZING! Remember the wind I mentioned earlier. A very late drive back, but a lovely weekend.

Remember those moments when you go, 'is that where it is!". I had one of those, I thought I'd lost a bobbin, hardly surprising with the state of my workshop, but there it was, at the beach with some fabulous tops on it that I'd won at the Experimental Birthday party.

I've been wrapping it around a fine cotton core, after very, well nearly very carefully, splitting up the colours. I think it's a great success, though I did have problems deciding what to do when plying. I'm not, I think I'll just set it.

I also managed to finish all the wire work and clean up for the Woven Memories series. So a good weekend for textiles.

AND, we did have a flutter and a win on the Cup!

Experimental Spinning

Picker fluff!

Yesterday was my Experimental Spinning day which I was looking forward to. Being a very busy weekend for the guild, it was a very quiet meeting. We still had fun using the picker and I taught how to spin on a stick, which proved very popular. I have really come to appreciate the joys of spinning on a stick as it can produce a very softly spun, light and fluffy yarn. It is also very gentle and meditative.

I wanted to pick a dyed fleece that I've had for some time and am very happy with the result. The picker is turning out to be a very useful piece of equipment. Traditionally, a picker opens up fleece in preparation for carding. In particular, fleece that might not be in the best condition. However, we've discovered that it does open up fleece nicely, but also mixes up coloured fleece in a random, but still keeping staples discreet. I'm going to spin mine up as it comes and call it 'Picker yarn'. I don't know what I'm going to ply it with, but seeing as I have 200gms, by the time I get round to finishing it, I should have some idea.


Liquorice Allsorts scarf


AND, last night I finally managed to come up with an idea for my liquorice yarn. A combination of dropped stitches and yrn has created an open scarf, which should mean I have enough yarn, but it still relates back to liquorice allsorts, sort of!

We're off to the beach for the rest of the long weekend, finishing and spinning are the orders of the day.