Samosa Dyeing

I caught up with a couple of the students from my "Any Colour You Like" workshop on the weekend. They brought along the results of their dyeing efforts. Here's K's tablecloth: It's a triangle fold technique that I love: the fabric is first fan folded into a narrow strip. That strip is then fan-folded again, but at a 45 degree angle on every second fold. The result is a solid triangle of fabric. I first used this technique at the end of a workshop--in my characteristic waste-not-and-enjoy-a-surprise fashion. So I rested each side of the triangle in turn on a small amount of dye in each of the three primary colours: red on one side, blue on the second side and yellow on the third. The results are dramatic.

K liked my sample and wanted to dye a large linen-cotton blend tablecloth. It was a lot of work for her to fold it, but you can see the result. She also came up with the name, "samosa" for the technique. That's what I love about teaching. There's always a new idea and the students' enthusiasm is so infectious.

The Next Generation

R made this soft toy in Textile class. She's 14 years old. I'm delighted and impressed by her work. So here it is for you to enjoy: In case you can't quite read the tag: Penguin Pals: "a loving Penguin with large caring eyes and floppy paws and wings"

Mission Accomplished

I managed to get the dog's bean-bag covers done this morning. And here's a photo to prove that it was a successful mission:
I'll have to find some material for another set of covers, though, as the dogs are already fighting over who gets the most comfortable spot.

While You Were Out

I missed our last weaving class. It was in the middle of my flooring-house-chaos. Yesterday when we got together there were several samples of the Summer and Winter block weave on display:I've started threading my warp for this project. I left the loom at the Guild rooms, though. I'm still unpacking and sorting my stuff and I couldn't face the challenge of accommodating two table looms in my living space. My plan is to drop in at the Guild a couple of mornings next week and do some work on it there. Meanwhile yesterday we wound the warps for our Double Cloth exercise. I'm really looking forward to that one. The thought of two layers of weaving interacting with gradations of colour is pretty exciting. I've got 288 warp threads to deal with, so it will be a little while before I post pictures of that one.

Light Table

My friend V came over yesterday afternoon to use my light table. She had to trace a rather complicated block for a quilt she's working on. The block is a reproduction of a radio circuit diagram--that's what I call complicated!

On the other hand my light table is so simple that it's almost laughable.

• One bookshelf light
• One piece of safety glass
• One lump of timber--4b2

I've had the components for ages and have been meaning to formalise them into some sort of permanent arrangement. It hasn't happened. But if you rest the lump of wood on the table, lean the glass on it and slip the light underneath, it works. V traced her diagram and I was glad I'd hung on to those bits. I'm not making any promises about sorting them out anytime soon.

Puppy Love

OK, so they're way past being puppies--they are definitely middle aged dogs. But I found this fabric irresistable:

My task for this morning is to turn it into doggy bean bag covers. It will be just right for their favourite spot in the sun. I'm planning to make two--one in the wash, one in use--and hopefully I'll be able to keep them looking somewhat civilised--the bean bag covers, that is.

This One Can Really Fly

Here's another drop spindle from Rob. I think I've started something!He took my suggestion of using a chopstick as a spindle and he's turned the whorl out of some plastic. The exciting thing is that he's shaped a beautiful little hook out of the bamboo itself, so it should be airline friendly. He brought it along for refinement. We moved the position of the whorl down a little, opened up the hook a little more and added a groove on the whorl to hold the yarn in position. It's a surprisingly sweet little spindle to use: very light and it does want to keep spinning--which after all is the essential thing. It's a much truer spindle than my original "flying spindle" made from a button. Watch this space for more exciting instalments.