Quilting in Hawaii

 
Quilting has developed in Hawaii in a way that is particularly Hawaiian. Introduced in the 1820’s by missionaries, the women adapted this new craft to reflect the symbols of their past. I saw the relationship of the designs with those that were tattooed on many people in Hawaii, but they apparently hark back to tapa cloth, and the quilts use only a couple of colours and it is the motifs that form the impact.

I managed to pick up a book, ‘The Hawaiian Quilt: the Tradition Continues’ in Hanapepe, a lovely town on the island of Kauai in ‘ Talk Story’ the ‘western-most bookstore in  the United States’.www.talkstorybookstore.com Who could argue with that! Imagine reading in Hawaii, sheer luxury! Lazy days, warm weather, long sunny days, too hot to do anything else.

Of course I couldn’t pick up a quilt, like quilts all over the world, they’re made for love not money!

Amongst the treasures I picked up in Hawaii, is a little book on basketweaving. I didn’t find much evidence of traditional work, there must have been some. However, our friends from the US introduced us to the most amazing Hawaiian basket weaver, Mika McCann. She is of renown and we were lucky enough to meet her at the market under the Banyan tree in Lahaina. She’s self taught and creative and quirky and I should have bought one of her baskets.

A few regrets at the end of the trip. Not buying a Mika McCann basket, snorkelling at Mohaina reef and doing a proper canyon walk in Waimea canyon, and, should have had our own snorkelling gear, which would have taken care of a few other moments missed!

Textiles in Hawaii

Hawaii is fascinating as culturally it perches somewhere between Hawaiian/Polynesian culture and the United States of America. There are, of course, all sorts of influences, from the British to the Japanese with South America and the various Polynesian cultures, including, Tahitian, Samoan and New Zealand Maori, also playing a part. Part of my interest in Hawaii was to search out the original Hawaiian culture that preceded Captain Cook landing in 1778, not that long after landing in Australia.

I was also interested as I have been reading that intrepid adventurer, Isabella L. Bird, who travelled for six months in 1875. Her book ‘The Hawaiian Archipelago’ (available online from the Gutenberg Project),is an account of ‘Six months among the Palm Groves, coral reefs, and the volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands’ and describes her time in a series of letters home to her sister in England. They are evocative and descriptive of the land, its people and while firmly grounded in the late 1870’s intrigued me.

On the whole Hawaii is pretty much a state of the USA, however, as we ventured to Hilo on the big island and to island of Kauai, you could get a sense of that older culture. There is a revival in pride of that heritage, and you could hear Hawaiian spoken, and a more in-depth interest in those crafts that are particularly Hawaiian, such as the making of leis, wood carving and tattooing.

Of course, my particular interest was in the textiles of Hawaii and I knew that it would be difficult to find.

Can I say, there’s not a lot of textiles of Hawaiian origin to be found. Even modern clothing is, at best, made in the US and lots is made is asia and south America. There is some and I managed to find a store that had Hawaiian made traditional dresses. Quilting plays a part and Hawaii has its own particular style.

I also managed to find some hand-dyed yarn by Hanalei Strings, again in Kauai, in the lovely town of Hanalei and included some buttons made of seeds. This, hopefully, will be transformed into a pair of mittens in a new design that might eventually be intended for TSB textile.

Another jumper finally completed!

Remember way back when....when I knit a jumper for my oldest son, Michael, I blogged about it as I was so pleased to be able to make something for my family. It doesn't happen very often and I'm so happy when it does.

Remember the jumper:

It was way back in 2011. He requested a new one, same shape, but could he have three coloured stripes down the back and twisted at the front! This is why you sample!

I first thought of cables, but that proved very complicated and would bunch up the fabric in a way I didn't want. It was all about the colour. That proved difficult and I ended up using colours from the range. It's a wool/angora mix and I've lost the labels!

Here it is:

I was meant to finish it before we went to Hawaii, but I set the sleeves and they turned out a little puffy at the top...not quite what a young man wants! So when I got back, pulled out the sewing and reset them. Happily.

The Front:

The Back:

Now, it seems, my husband wants a new jumper.....will take a little while before I tackle that, might have to wait for next Winter!

PS Can't tell if he's grown up much?

Holiday inspiration

We were priviliged to encounter some amazing wildlife in Hawaii, the most amazing, green turtles, blue nose and spinner dolphins, all sorts of coral reef fish, have to reside in our memories alone, no photos were taken. There were, however, these wonderful cardinals, gorgeous and cheeky birds that were everywhere we went.

I discovered these were the northern cardinal and the other, equally cheeky birds we saw were Brazilian cardinals. Both are introduced to Hawaii, but they brightened up our days. I managed to find a couple of pictures of both birds on the net.

As nests are still a source of inspiration, I went looking for these birds nests and found reasonably traditiional looking nests. Full of all sorts of chunky materials and beautiful blue eggs.

 I've been trying to figure out another wall hanging and have wanted to use this yarn that I picked up a little while ago at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild textile bazaar. The red is amazing and now I have something red to work from. I think this is going to be suitable to weave in as short lengths with fuzzy ends.

I've done a bit of a yarn wrap to try and get an idea for the warp, and, I think this is just about right. Random warping with one side with a bit more red than the other with a strong bit of black.

These are the other colours I've used.

Tomorrow, I'll make a short 2m warp and do some sampling.

Lace at Experimental

I always love the challenges that each session of Experimental Spinning brings, this time lace was on the agenda, courtesy of an article in the latest edition of Ashford's magazine, 'The Wheel'. It described a method of add those odd bits of lace to your spinning in quite a wild way. Not being a lace girl, cutting up lace seemed like an appropriate thing to do!

We had plenty of lace with a donation from our craft outlet volunteer, and lots from all our stashes.

The first part involved cutting up lace, taking lengths of wool top and threading the top through the lace.

You end up with a pile of lace and tops, like this!

Spinning isn't difficult, or slow, though having my lovely poly wheel with  big hooks certainly helps and even with that, there is some lace that is stiffer than others and does get caught. As I was going to ply this with a fine single, I hoped I could smooth those pieces of lace that had moved or were scrunched up too much, as I plyed.

That proved the case and the plying was done quite nicely and I ended up with yarn that is really quite sweet!

The lessons learnt....

I think that because the pieces of lace were quite short, when I plied they tended to keep sticking out rather than get wrapped. I think that the longer pieces would have been more twisted from the spinning, making the plying easier.
 

For further experimentation:

Trying to get the pieces of lace closer together, for that full-on lace look!

Dyeing would be interesting! All those different fibres!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yarn, but it was fun! For such an over the top look, it's not difficult or particularly slow.

Lessons learnt at Harrietville

No, this is not a tale of woe, but a celebration of the weekend away at Harrietville, in the Victorian Alps, organised by the Handweavers & Spinners Guild of Victoria (thanks Marilla, Diane! and Dorothy for bringing the shop).

 You book in before Christmas, never seems to come, and then it's over in a flash!

This year I attended two classes, properly, and watched in another. Unusual, as I just like to sit around, drink coffee and knit or spin. Some of that did get done, as well as the catching up with friends and making new ones!

The first class I attended was the Moebius cast-on with Nicole. This is the Cat Bordhi method of cast on and what fun it was. Spun your head around a little, but once past that it's just knit.

This is my first one, in progress. I decided to go big, I mean BIG! With 8mm needles, a fine kid mohair, I cast on 150 sts and then proceeded to use ALL the yarn. Usually, I can get two decent sized cowls with this, but decided to be extravagant.

This is the result and it's gorgeous. You can see how it twists quite nicely, and there's lots of it.

I have immediately begun another. This time, same needles, same yarn, but now only fifty stitches. You can see how the needle is a double loop, as with the cast on, you cast on down the middle and work outwards on both sides. It means, somewhere in the middle the twist means that you effectively change sides. This is a little mind blowing, as you can just knit and end up with half purl and half knit ??? I think a mathematician would have a field day with that description, but, hey, I'm not a mathematician!

I'm trying for a five rows of knit and five rows of purl to give it bounce.

After this, I'm going to try another little one, but a more conventional use of yarn. An 8 ply and try and find a reversible stitch pattern.

Love Harrietville!

Ideas that rattle

I've had this idea for a woven wall hanging rattling around in my head for ages, ever since I've been looking at birds nests, which must be nearly TWO years now. FINALLY, I managed to do a sample on my lovely 16-shaft loom.

It's perhaps not the best looking sample. I've never been very good at the good looking sample. I just need to see what happens when I try a few things and get sorted in my mind. Once I've done that I get bored pretty quickly with the sample.

However, they are worthwhile as the weaving in its' proper form in coming along nicely.

The weave is a honeycomb, which should collapse into nice little 'nests' when finished. I have no pattern and am just changing the elements as I go. I have two blocks of honeycomb and a block of tabby at each end. This allows me for all sorts of combinations of pattern.

I know the colour isn't quite right, but I hope you can see the subtle colour variations. There's going to be alot more happening, and I still haven't decided if it will need embellishing after I've finished weaving. Probably won't be able to until it's off the loom.

Isn't it wonderful having a studio that you have to work at. I'm hoping to finish it this week, in time for the opening!