It's That Time of Year

Finishing the work for my weaving folio feels a bit like coming up for air after a dive that was just a bit too long. I'm trying to clear my vision and breathe deeply. One thing I've noticed so far is that it's almost Christmas already. This window display greeted me on Rathdown St on the weekend:

The creator is from Gollings Florist. They do things I would never have imagined possible with flowers--botanical sculpture really.

Christmas of course means gifts, so I'd better put my thinking cap on and decided what I need to buy and what I'd like to make for the people in my life. Yesterday I got as far as nearly clearing my big table. That might not sound like much, but it's like a physical way of clearing my head. Alright, I admit, there's still a small pile of bits and pieces in one corner--I guess it's rather tidier than my head, OK!

Endings and Beginnings

Here's the scene I found at the Guild when I dropped in my work yesterday morning: Gerlinde and Robyn had already been at work for a couple of hours, since several of the students had dropped in their folios during the week. The rest of us were meeting for brunch at 10.00 am, so there was a steady trickle of folios coming in. Since it was taking them an hour or two to get through each folio, they were in for a long and hard day's work.

Over brunch we talked about keeping contact next year. We're going to meet up every month or so. We all figure we've got a lot to learn, and meeting up, encouraging and challenging each other should help. There wasn't really an air of parting around the table at all. We'll be catching up in a few weeks time when we have our certificate day.

I'm already thinking about what I'd like to weave next! Will I start on another version of the double weave bag, just to prove to myself that I can get it right, or make myself a nice woollen shawl like the one that inspired me to join the Guild in the first place? Then there's the Le Clerc loom to sort out, not to speak of the house to tidy so I don't get too overwhelmed by all my textile projects mixed with dust and dog hair.

Today I'm supposed to be at the last class for my Spinning Certificate. I'm going to stay home. It's a revision class and I can't really take advantage of it without first sorting out the work I've done and have yet to do. That's a priority. Besides, I just don't have another day at the Guild in me after the last week. A day off is in order.

Ready or Not

This is the last piece I had to weave to complete the practical component of my Weaving Class requirements: It looks rather silly to me, but sometimes you just have to do as you're told. We had to design a human figure by combining blocks from our Summer and Winter threading. The complication being that the blocks were already in place from threading the first design. So it was a case of making do. Now I know why the samplers I saw from the other students resembled a variety of robot or computer game figures. I figure this is a robotised frog-man of some sort:) rather appropriate given the craziness in Canberra at the moment. Maybe if sea levels rise as predicted, we'll all need a frog-man robot to go about our business . . .

Anyway, now I have a couple of hours to tidy up all my bits and pieces before I go in to the Guild to hand in my work and meet up with my fellow students for brunch.

Fastening

Here's a close-up of the fastening I put together for the second bag: Believe it or not, I just happened to have that bead lying around. Actually it was part of a bookmark I'd made for myself which was on my bed-side table. The colours are a perfect match and the weight of the bead is enough to help the flap to stay down. The little loop adds an extra bit of security.

I did get to the Guild yesterday and I have one more exercise done on my Summer and Winter sampler and one to go. My day was sabotaged by a nasty tummy bug which kept me up all night. I never thought eating a slice of toast would feel like such an achievement! I've eaten the toast and had a rest and I'm starting to feel human again, if still rather wobbly. I've discovered that there is no option of handing work in late for this course--marking will be done tomorrow or not at all. That certainly simplifies my decision making, and I just don't have the energy to fuss, so I'll do what I can and hand it in.

Twisted Fringe Action

I decided to finish off the other bag I made on my double-weave warp. I didn't weave a lining for this one, so I've made a silk dupion lining and slip stitched it in place. Next step is to finish the bottom hem. I'm using my fringe twister. Perfect activity to undertake while sharing coffee with a friend. It's nearly done. Here's an action shot: Next I need to work out some sort of fastening. I only wove a couple of inches for the flap, so it doesn't want to stay in place without some help. I'm thinking a big bead with a corresponding loop on the body of the bag.

Now, today I need to be at the Guild to learn how to do the rest of my Summer and Winter sampler. Then tomorrow I'll just have to do as much as I can to tidy things up ready to hand in. I'm tempted to ask for more time and try to do better . . . I'll see how I feel about that later today.

Summer and Winter

It seems the key to completing my long delayed Summer and Winter sampler was there all along . . . I just had to get started! Once I'd begun the threading it was easy enough to finish it. Once I'd dressed the loom it was easy enough to start weaving. And once I'd started weaving it was easy enough to complete the first exercise. Here it is on the loom:
There's at least one more exercise to do on this warp. That's the lesson I missed, so I've arranged to meet our tutor tomorrow morning at the Guild. I'll have Friday to get it done. I think I can manage that, now that I've started.

Warning

I just went to extract my new tools from their packaging--a significant task in its own right--and found this warning on the screwdriver: Next they're going to have to start issuing warnings about the potential hazards of ridiculous warnings!

Home Improvement Improvements

I fulfilled a promise to myself yesterday afternoon. I stopped at the hardware store and bought these: They are tools to make the installation of the next timber blind less of a stressful marathon--oh, and replacements for the bits and pieces I ruined in my determination to complete the job on Sunday. I can't think of a single textile application for any of them at this stage. On the other hand the less time and emotional energy I have to spend on home improvements, the more I have for textile adventures.

Home Improvement

Wow, look at me now!My friend A helped me to install this blind in my front window yesterday. I've been planning on timber venetians since I had the floor done. I've been paying off one for each of my windows and now I have them. Installation is the next challenge, and I decided it was a two-woman job. Just as well! I thought that lifting the blind into the brackets would require two pairs of hands. It did, but that was minor. Dealing with all the frustrations and complications of getting the brackets to go where they needed to be and stay there took all I had. I'm pretty sure I would have thrown something or burst into tears if I'd been on my own. As it was we took turns and tried to problem solve and eventually they were up.

I'm looking forward to having these blinds to cope with this summer's heat. Where I grew up, a hot day means opening the windows and trying to catch a nice breeze. Here in Melbourne the wind is hot. Shutting up the house is the way to go, but I don't like the feeling of being locked up. So I'm hoping the blinds will let me regulate just a bit of natural light in the room, while keeping out the worst of the heat. That's the plan. Meanwhile I'm off to the hardware store to see if I can get any attachments for me beloved cordless drill to make installing the next three blinds any easier.

Now What?

Here's my next task: I need to tidy my notes for the Weaving Certificate Course and somehow transform them into a comprehensive--comprehensible--folio of the year's work. At least this year I bought a lecture pad at the start of the year. So I know that my hand-written notes are in the same order as our classes. The handouts are mainly shoved in with the corresponding class. I only missed one class and I've emailed our tutor about that one. It's the corresponding class for the Summer and Winter sampler that I still need to sort out.

Yesterday I bought a new insert binder. I'm trying to convince myself that this isn't going to be too bad . . . Probably I'll only be convinced once I get on and do it!

Better

I spent most of the day yesterday working on my double weave bag project. Here it is, just about finished: I've made a twisted cord for the strap. I still need to attach that. I've also got the bag I made at the beginning of this warp to finish off. I didn't weave a lining for that one. It was when I was having troubles with the tension at the beginning of the warp. I think I'll line it with silk, with an iron-on interfacing for reinforcement. The tension doesn't look too bad now that it's off the loom . . . whatever!

Now for a reality check:

• this bag is just about done;
• I've been building up the folio for the bag as I go, so there's not much more needed for that, though I could fiddle with presentation for ever--note to self, "you don't have forever"!
• The notes for the rest of the year's work are in a lecture pad and just need a bit of a tidy up. That's another task that could gobble up more time than it's really worth.
• I've got all of the weaving for the Round Robin exercise done. I need to sort out the corresponding notes.
• Then there's an unfinished project . . . well actually it's hardly started. That's the Summer and Winter sampler from the weeks around when my floor chaos was happening. Can I get it done in a week and still keep my sanity?

Learning

I finished weaving my double weave bag project yesterday. I still have all the finishing to do. First step is hemming the raw edges and I prefer to do that while it's still on the loom. Here's how it looks now that I've cut it off. At the moment I'm trying to get my head around all the things I'm disappointed about.--at the same time, trying to be nice to myself and remind myself how inexperienced I really am as a weaver, and how nice the bag will be despite the things I don't like about how I've made it.

My major learning is about beat--the tabby layer which will form the lining is not beaten firmly enough, so it's weak. I can solve that problem with some iron-on stabiliser. The tabby layer was the underside while I was weaving it. Using a mirror would have let me check on how it was going. I didn't use a mirror!

My frustration is also about tension. The tension was very uneven at the beginning and the end of my warp. I don't know why and so I don't know how to avoid the problem next time. I didn't have trouble with tension on either of my samples. I'll have to consult about that one. The process of weaving the two layers for the lining and flap of the bag: one in twill, the other in tabby made the tension troubles worse, especially because I didn't pack the tabby down firmly enough. The result was that the bottom layer kept getting looser relative to the top layer.

OK, writing that down helped. I'm not kicking myself as hard as I was when I sat down at the computer. Now, to tackle the challenges and make the bag look good. I think I'll make a page of learnings and questions to include with my folio.

The Real Thing

The warp was on, the bobbins wound, and it was time to weave: But I found myself pacing around the loom with butterflies fluttering in my belly and I smile on my face. I couldn't believe what an occasion it felt to be finally weaving the bag after planning and sampling and calculating and planning and sampling and . . .

I did get down to it after a bit. I had some wierd tension troubles when I got started. So much so that I called the first six inches another sample and started again. Thankfully I'd allowed myself a bit of extra warp for sampling. Ah, sampling!

The body of the bag is woven. It was surprisingly quick once I got started. After breakfast I'm going to start on the next section which is the flap and lining. Since it's double weave, these will weave up at the same time. Then it will be time to finish it off and put the folio together. Hopefully that will be done by Friday.

Words of Wisdom

"Fibre Facts for Spinners and Weavers" is one of the little treasures I picked up at the Textile Bazaar on Saturday. I've just been browsing it while enjoying my morning coffee. It's full of hints and tips contributed by members of the Wellington NZ Guild of Weavers and Spinners in the early eighties. Each hint is acknowledged with a name and the local group--that personal touch is a significant part of the appeal for me. The other major appeal is that so many of the hints are relevant and useful.

There are a few patterns in the back of the book: Believe it or not, the pattern on the right hand page is for slippers. I'm planning to explore that one. My experience of slipper patterns is that simple looking ones rarely fit well and more complex shapes are hard to understand without a diagram. So here's one for me to play with, diagram and all.

Now, I have been working on my weaving project. All the threading is done, checked and double checked and I'm ready to weave the heading. That will let me know if I've made any errors. Then the bag will start to take shape. I'm looking forward to that.

Threading

Here's where I'm up to in my double-weave bag project:I've threaded about a third of the warp ends. It's fairly focussed work because of the pattern, so when I get tired and start to lose concentration, I just have to stop. There's no point pushing on only to have to go back and fix mistakes later.

I took this shot with my macro lens just before calling it a day yesterday. You can see the wire heddles. Each heddle has an eye through which I thread one warp end. When I've finished a repeat of 24 ends, I tie it off in a bundle. That keeps the threads safe until I need them for the next step and also helps me to keep track of where I'm up to.

Now, time for a coffee and then back to the threading. I hope to have it done today. Then I can start weaving.

Dip Dyed

My kitchen is still struggling with its identity crisis: dye workshop or food preparation area. Not surprisingly, the dye workshop is winning--I've been eating variations on a theme of toast. Oh well!The colours I've been cooking up are a pretty good compensation: This skein of bamboo-cotton yarn is dip dyed. It's been sitting with one end in the dye and one end hanging over the edge of the tub all night. You can see the colour creeping up towards the far end of the skein. Before I finish my breakfast, I'll have to decide whether I'm going to leave the white tip or let the dye travel all the way. What you can't see is that the other end of the skein is much greener than this end. I started with a green dye bath, then I trickled some of the teal colour over the middle of the skein before letting the colours continue to travel of their own accord. I can certainly vouch for the wicking properties of bamboo--it's really sucked up the colour.

Meanwhile in the lounge area, I've made the warp for my double weave bag project. Dyeing the cotton for that was the beginning of this burst of dyeing frenzy. The warp is ready to go on--all 456 ends of it! I spent a frustrating hour or two yesterday morning calculating the yarn requirements using the unfamiliar units we've been told to include in this write up. I was ready to put a hex on Tex (g per 1000m) until I finally found my mistake. We'd been told to weigh 10m of fibre and that's the figure I'd written down. Once I multiplied it by 100 to get the 1000 m measure it all worked out. Normally I do like maths, but yesterday morning I just wanted to get back to the fibre. My task for today is to put the warp on the loom and start threading. If I can manage a bit of multi-tracking, it would be nice to get some of the newly dyeing yarns rinsed and reclaim a bit of my kitchen, but that might not happen today.

Textile Treasures

I enjoyed a happy hour at the Guild's Textle Bazaar yesterday morning.

• Happy because it's always a trash or treasure type experience with the hall full of books, yarns and equipment for sale.
• Happy because several of my Weaving classmates were there, preparing to take the next step in our textile adventures
• Happy because I had lunch with a friend to look forward to and an exciting array of creative tasks waiting for me at home.

Here's my loot:

• a cone of lovely mercerised cotton--can you see the sheen? I've been using mercerised cotton for my double-weave bag and I'm really enjoying it.
• Several books ranging in price from 50c all the way up to $2! The one on the right is by Mary Atwater--a classic. The one on the left promises to bring together my dressmaking skills with my hand-weaving--just what I need.
• A couple of sweet little stick shuttles: lovely timbers and light and smooth in my hand.

I didn't make a lot of progress on my weaving when I got home. Somehow my happy morning took up all my available energy. I curled up for a nap in front of the fan. Then I wound off the cotton for my warp into balls, while chatting with my friend D on the phone. I did manage to skein up some other fibres and get them ready to dye up overnight, so I have those to rinse this morning. Now I need to do some maths before I make the warp for my double weave bag project. Maybe another coffee first, since I've already been awake far too long.

Testing, Testing

I took the double weave samples off the loom yesterday. Then I spent the morning trying out a couple of different ways of managing the seams needed to close off the bag.

Here are my results:
The sample on the left is a mini version of the whole bag. I've stitched the sides of the lining and bottom of the bag itself by machine. I hand stitched the edges of the flap together with an overhand stitch.

The top right sample shows the main seam which will attach the lining to the bag flap.

The bottom right sample is another way of finishing the bottom of the bag. The hem stitching isn't as neat as I would like because of the way I tackled it. I can do better hem stitching than that.

I found that hand-stitching with the same yarn I'd used for weaving gave me a better result than using the sewing machine.

I realised that beading the fringe would be tricky because there are going to be nearly 500 warp ends there! And even though the yarn is reasonably fine for weaving, it's definitely not what I would consider fine for beading. So either there would need to be an awful lot of nice little seed beads, or I'd need to use beads big enough to take several thicknesses of my warp yarn. Either way, it would be bottom-heavy, both visually and physically. I could still use some beads just decoratively. I won't make that decision until I've got the whole thing together.

So, my task for today is to make the warp for the real thing and start threading those 500 ends. I'm going to give myself a little more room to sample. I want to test the handle of the cloth if I use the silk yarn I've dyed up. I'd like to make the front of the flap with the silk weft.

I'm going to drop in to the Textile Bazaar at the Guild this morning. Hopefully I'll come home with just a little more fibre for weaving.

Bountiful Beauty

The highlight of yesterday morning was a visit to Beautiful Silks with friends from the Experimental Spinning group. What can I say . . . rooms full of beautiful silks: yarns, embroidery fibres, fabrics, dyed and undyed. What's more the people there seemed to be both knowledgeable and passionate about their products. I came home with a tiny taste of stranded embroidery silk and ribbon; a catalogue of yarns and a lust for more.

From there we went just around the corner in Bruswick St Fitzroy to another treasure house. This time Jasper Coffee:
You can just imagine the smells that greeted us as we walked in. The front of the shop is full of coffees, teas, coffee pots, tea pots, cups of all shapes and sizes. And then there's a cafe and courtyard. We sat in the shade, sipped and munched and talked. The talk got quite heated a couple of times when we discussed the pros and cons of protecting Australia's local publishing industry. It was great to be in the sort of company where silk and the value of Australian writing were the topics of conversation.

Warm Weather Work

My task for yesterday was to dye up the mercerised cotton weft for my double-weave bag. What better task for another hot, hot day!

I wound off 840 metres of perle cotton on my niddy noddy before it got too hot. That was six 20g balls from my crochet cotton stash. A few years ago, I went through a phase of doing very fine cotton crochet. These balls were leftover. Now they'll get a new life in my weaving. Winding yarn on the niddy noddy is surprisingly physical work when there's that much of it to do.

My next step was to soak the cotton in warm soapy water to get rid of any sizing or other additives. Meanwhile I mixed up the soda ash and dye stock solutions for my dyeing.

Here's the yarn with the dye added: I used my two primary blues and just a touch of lemon yellow mixed with the turquoise. There's a bit of dishwashing detergent in the dye solutions to help me paste them up, so the whole batch was a bit soapy--especially because I used as little water as I could get away with.

The beauty of dyeing cotton on a hot day! I just left the batch in the sink while I went out and about for the afternoon. Then it was time to rinse. By that time splashing around in a sink full of cold water was a welcome relief.

I left the yarn to soak in the sink overnight, just to be sure it was fully rinsed. Now it's ready to dry. Tomorrow I should be able to weave with it.

Double Weave Bag Progress

I've finished weaving the second sample for the Double Weave bag project. This is really a small version of the real thing. The assignment is not just to make the bag, but to demonstrate the steps in the process, so I've also made a mock up in calico of the bag's structure. Here it is, along with the silk I dyed up on the weekend: You can see it needs a good press, but I've labelled all the parts, so once I drag out the iron it will be ready to include in my folio.

Ironically, the calico version was harder to put together than the real thing will be. The beauty of the double weave structure for this design is that it eliminates all but two seams. I had to fiddle with the calico and my overlocker to make those non-existent seam sit as unobtrusively as possible.

My plan for today is to do as much as I can before it gets overwhelmingly hot again. I'd like to dye the mercerised cotton I'm going to be using as the warp for the real thing. There's enough warp left on the sample loom to try a couple of different approaches to closing off the bottom of the bag as well.

Thrice Sweet

Yesterday was a hot, tiring and challenging day. I had dinner with a friend at the end as a welcome reward. Golden pumpkin soup was on the menu. The colour does seem to glow:

It was thrice sweet:

• because it was real, made from scratch pumpkin soup
• because it was made for me by my friend
• because the pumpkin was home grown--I'd seen the vine sprout and flower and bear fruit.

Now I'd like to be able to reproduce that glowing golden colour in my dyepot.

A Rock with a View

It was hot yesterday--up in the mid-thirties and there's a month to go until it's officially summer.

Problem: what to do on a lazy, hot Sunday afternoon. Solution: sit on a riverbank with a cold drink, a good friend and a drop spindle. We spent the afternoon at Warrandyte, on the upper reaches of the Yarra River. It was still hot, but much more pleasant than sitting at home. There was a nice flat rock to sit on and a bit of a breeze off the water. I rounded off the day by sharing fish and chips with the ducks.

It's going to be hot again today, but I can't escape to Warrandyte, I have a couple of appointments to keep. In between I might take my knitting to the library--it's air conditioned at least.

Things that go Bump in the Night

Filous Patisserie is a regular and much loved part of my days at the Guild. Here's what I found when I arrived for class yesterday: Apparently a driver lost control on Lygon St and slammed into the wall of the bakery at 3.00 am one morning this week. There were no major injuries, as far as I know, but the wall is going to take some serious work. At that hour of the morning, only the baker was in the building. He must have got quite a jolt!

Yesterday there was a steady trickle of people, peering at the damage and longing for their cake and coffee fix. My friend Teresa was one of them. I'm not the only one who loves the personality of this place. I hope they had good insurance--and that they know how much they're missed.

It's a Boat Shuttle

This nifty bit of equipment is a boat shuttle: I'm going to shout myself a new one today, since I need two shuttles to complete the double weave bag.

The shuttle carries the weft yarn through the warp threads to form the weaving. The clever thing about a boat shuttle is that the bobbin in the middle carries more yarn than an ordinary stick shuttle and the yarn feeds continuously as it rolls off the bobbin. The result is quicker, smoother weaving. And yes, it is a beautiful thing.

Looking at the pic--apart from noticing that I'm still having trouble with the orientation of my photos-- you can see that I've re-threaded my warp for a second sample. I've got an hour or so before I need to leave for class, so I'm going to work at it, as soon as I've had another coffee.

Double Weave Samples

The threading is finished and the sampling has begun for my double weave bag project:
Apologies for the orientation of the photo--that's the front of the loom at the top of the pic. There is something wierd about the technology of blogger that doesn't let me rotate the photo the way I'd like to. Maybe it's something wierd about me! In any case, that's the way it's going to stay.

I've woven a tube. That will be the body of the bag in the finished project. I found I'd made an error in working out the threading, since the underside of the lower layer weaves up as a mirror image of what I'd expected. I've got plenty of warp left, so I should probably re-thread it and try again.

I've also woven a sample of the two layers which will form the lining and flap of the bag. The challenge there is that the layers don't weave at the same rate. The top layer is a twill, while the bottom layer is a tabby or plain weave. The twill weave is just a bit more compact, so I need to put some extra picks into the top layer every now and again.

Overall, though, it's working and I'm looking forward to the next step.

Tuesday Cafe

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day. For my international readers: believe it or not, the whole State gets a public holiday for a horse race! Then again, no self-respecting Australian is going to knock back an excuse for a day off. Thankfully, the city's cafes take advantage of the opportunity and stay open. I ended up in this little place in Victoria St, Brunswick at the end of the afternoon. The styling of their crockery caught my eye:
Notice that "Emma 3" is written on the base of the cup. The cafe owner had commissioned the local kindergarten to paint his cups for him. The effect is quirky and heart-warming.

. . . and Metal

My friend Teresa's exhibition , "Fibre and Clay",at Bolin Bolin Gallery finished yesterday. I'd been meaning to go, but life has been crazy. I took my last chance and got there in the afternoon. This is my favourite piece: "Metal" by Teresa Bennett: handwoven nylon and copper wire.

These nylon-wire pieces of weaving are almost lighter than air! I was only sorry that they were confined to the walls of the gallery space and not free to fly.

Purples

Here are five of the little skeins I dyed on Saturday: These are the clearest purples in the set. They were made by mixing marine blue with magenta in increasing proportions. For the other three colour runs I used turquoise and/or scarlet as the primary colours.

Yesterday I mixed up some earthy oranges and yellows in the dye pot. Those skeins are on the line drying. Today, I need to do some tidying up--never as much fun as creating, but essential.

Shadow Colours

Saturday's dyeing day at the Guild was a good mixture of colour theory and practical exercises. The last exercise of the day involved mixing a secondary colour with it's complement. These are colours which are opposite each other on the colour wheel. I chose marine blue and citrus orange. Here are my samples: You can see how the blue gets duller as more orange is added. The second bag from the right contains 4 parts of orange to 1 part of blue. The wool is dark-grey, almost black. The other two gray-blue samples are colours I might use, even though my personal preference is for bright, clear colours.

We did the dyeing in the snap-lock bags. It's a great way to manage lots of small samples at the same time. They can all go in the pot and the colours stay separate, unless one of the bags bursts--that happened a couple of times. I have yet to rinse these samples. My little skeins are hanging out to dry. I'll post photos of them soon.

Rainbow Dyeing

A whole day of dyeing at the Guild yesterday. I came home with sore feet and lots of samples. I need to finish rinsing them--the samples that is. I also made this lovely big skein in primary colours. This is a "cram pot" dyed skein. The idea is to use as little water as possible, so the colours don't bleed into each other. Of course, if there's not enough water, the colours won't be distributed through the skein. So it's a bit of a balancing act. I wouldn't normally use all three primaries in the one skein. I've commented before that red + blue + yellow = muddy brown. But This was a challenge, and it's turned out ok, I think. There are a few light patches and a couple of muddy spots, but lots of contrast. One thing that surprised me is that there are hardly any areas of secondary colour, so mostly the dye stayed where it was put.

I now have a new tool on my wish list. We did the cram pot dyeing in an old electric frypan. It was ideal for sprinkling the colours and keeping the water as shallow as possible. On the other hand, I'd better not acquire any more space occupying objects before I've tidied up a bit more.