Weaving again

I love to weave. Just as well, as I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon on the (cold, concrete) floor setting up the loom to take advantage of all 8 shafts and to get it just right. I did make a mistake with the tie-up and had to re-tie most of it. The pedals are currently a bit high, I'll correct this when I do the tie-up for the next scarf.

I've decided to just wind a 10metre warp with some fine wool, it's sett quite wide (15epi), and weave as many scarves and samples as I can.

The sett is a bit too open, though I will perservere with it. This first scarf is plain tabby, which I will dye randomly. The next will have double-cloth pockets, stuffed with coloured wool tops, which I'm thinking of dyeing with tumeric! The next, I think, will have textured yarn to fill the very open weave and lastly, I'll do a weft faced twill of some sort.

I have threaded the warp so that I can do this, with areas that are threaded 1,2,3,4 and others 5,6,7,8. Not a straight threading. It will be interesting to see what I can achieve.

Chinese masks

Yesterday afternoon was spent exploring the world of masks. It was alot of fun.

I do seem to have a fascination with eyes at the moment. The world is watching! Or, perhaps more importantly, I want the world to watch......

Generosity and kindness

It always makes me feel happy when people respond to the different activities that I participate in. In response to the upcoming newspaper and wire Experimental Spinning day in May, I've been sent two references to the most amazing people who spin newspaper and then weave and knit it. ( www.dezeen.com/2007/10/21/yarn-from-old-newspapers-by-greetje-van-tiem/ http://www.artnest.it/ )


A lovely gentleman came all the way from Traralgon to the Guild meeting on Saturday to give me a bundle of telephone wire he had collected many years ago when hiking! We're going to call any resulting yarn 'Telecom yarn'.

And at the guild meeting, I was given an old catalogue from Coogi. They were an amazing knitwear company and the catalogue is just incredible. There are articles, like socks and ties, I didn't know they made, and the most wonderful designs. Unfortunately, in part because of the cheap copies that came out, they no longer exist. I guess we all have to remember our purchase choices do make a difference.

It was good going to the meeting. We taught an actor to drop spin for a play! Showed off the bridge cosy, which got good responses. And, of course, friends and fun.

Exploring and experimenting

Tuesday was spent exploring my design capabilities when it comes to Web page design. I was pretty happy with it. So with some trepidition I went to my classes, and asked Elias' (esteemed teacher) opinion. He liked it, offered a couple of small hints, and I went home happy.

I now have a whole lot more to learn and make the actual buttons, links, etc. work.

Lots of experimenting with my knitting machine. I've made several layers and stitched them together.

I've then burnt holes in the fabric. After this, you would never clothe your special bundles in anything but wool. It was very difficult to burn and keep it burning. I actually had to work very hard to burn in one spot, and one of my fabrics had some linen in it. I was very happy with the final result as there was charing left.

I then tied it up, wet it and left it to dry to see what I might achieve if shibori were applied to the final fabric to give it an added three dimensional look.

I've also been creating miles of icord, well not yet. Will finish off this lot and create some in wool boucle. These are all for our special project for the Australian Sheep and Wool Show.

Machine knitting layers

I guess I need to report on the weekend. Lots of tennis for the boys, and watching by me. The Sunday market was busy with one of our best crowds. However, the general, but not all, consensus was that we were bit of a gallery....they weren't spending money. Thankyou to all who did. I sold a scarf and have a commission for another. This is lovely as both these mean that I can make some interesting scarves as one was a silk scarf and the other my sayings scarf, which really did need to be translated into something a bit more practical.

I've started playing with the idea of creating a texture by layering machine knit fabric that is loose with holes, maybe even creating more holes by burning! I will be careful and will purchase a fire blanket for my studio before proceeding.

I am very happy with the first sample, however, the second is too neat, though there are some interesting holes around the edges.

I need to use some different tones and see what I get.

Cuffs for me

It's a weird week. I do seem to be pre-occupied by the idea that I might not sell anything on Sunday. This is stifling what should be a week of excited and productive frenzy!

Anyway, in such a state, I thought I'd make something for myself. So I made these cuffs, which are a bit cute and I edged my unfeltable scarf with some crochet, just to straighten it a bit, and I'm going to wear them Sunday.

This is the problem with having only one market, if you don't have much success, it's a whole month till the next one.....wish me luck!

Printing at its best

A glorious day. I did a complete change of my cube. Still working out how to keep it fresh and encourage sales. Hopefully optimistic is probably how you would describe my frame of mind. Roll on the cold weather.

As I've decided to use this day to see galleries, I thought I would go the the exhibition at the State Library called 'the Medieval Imagination'. Illuminated manuscripts, including some from Cambridge. They were an absolute delight ranging from the Divine, contemplative to the Secular. I must admit I particularly like the decoration around the pages. The pictures are, of course, important, however, to add this extra beautiful detail just astonishes me.

It made me think of how to do things that are slow. Slow in the creation, as if each part is important for itself. To do something for its own sake, that takes time and effort. I love the idea of the Book of Hours, where for important times, there is something to contemplate.

I wondered in and out of this exhibition, there is a lot to see, purchased the fabulous catalogue and vowed to come again. It is on till the 15th June. Well worth a visit, especially if you like books.

On arrival home, my mail order copy of Selvedge was waiting for me. I love this. In particular an emphasis on paper. As we're going to attempt to combine newspaper and wire at the next Experimental Spinning this is definitely coming along.

I love beautiful things to look at.