The other half

This is the other piece of cloth to go with my first post.
Both pieces were woven with 2/20 mercerised cotton from DEA yarns.

There is 5 meters of this piece, and it is 19.5 inches/49.5cm wide off the loom.
There are some mistakes in the piece - some warp floats that is not suppose to be there and I didn't catch the mistakes until too late. Too late as in I didn't want to un-weave.
This will also be the first time I will cut into a hand woven piece of cloth, I wanted to make sure that I have enough in case I make a mistake in the cutting! (and it has happened before) A sort of insurance policy.....

It is an 8-shaft twill. The warp is 2 strands per end of the black and the weft is one of black and one of the taupe/bronze colour per pick.

It creates an interesting effect - like a quilted fabric.

This will be the effect of the sewn piece with the combination of the two. The final project is still in the contemplation stage. I am actually quite scared of cutting into the cloth. The worst that can happen: need some more fabric and I do have enough yarn left to weave some more.......

This year has been one of learning new things - using a floor loom, a boat shuttle, a temple, weaving something more than 12 inches wide and using mercerised cotton. So I guess, what's one more thing?

Bendigo

We went to the Bendigo Wool and Sheep show last Saturday.

It was my first time but I was guided by 3 veterans who knew the place inside out and I had the best time.

First, we saw the animals.

I touched one of these (with the owner of the animal holding on, of course) and they are so soft.

My favourite kind of sheep.

Then, we went shopping at the stalls:

Some drop dead gorgeous vintage Irish linen to weave with.

And the most important of all, the craft section with all the entries.

Carole's felt bag with resin handle.

And Michelle's red woven scarf at the rear with the very interesting fringe.

fragrance of winter

I wish that it is possible to smell through the computer.

These are my favourite smells of winter:

The intensity of citrus blossoms.

450g of nagami cumquats. Freshly picked. Spiced? Marmalade? Brandied? Candied?

The smell as they were being sliced: absolutely refreshing and uplifting.

The smell of boiling marmalade throughout the house on a sunday afternoon.

The result: 5 jars of beautiful amber colour jel to last through the season.

colouring in

This is based on a chart from here http://www.heartlandhouse.com/docs/fllw11.htm .
It is my first needlepoint and very easy compared to setting up a weave project as all I have to do is count the squares!!
It is like colouring in with yarn instead of colouring pencil - very mesmerising and satisfying in its own way.

I like the colour combination and (when finished as a box cushion) it will go very well with my couch.

There is one question though. Does anyone know how to work out how much yarn I would need? It didn't say on the chart and I am just getting a few skeins as I go. Initially, I bought 2 skeins of each colour but the large square of dark red took the whole skein!

The recommended stitch is basketweave. I think it uses up lots more yarn that the half-cross/tent stitch but should keep the warping to a minimum.

First of all, thank you for those who have encouraged me to create this blog, and please be patient with me while I get the hang of this.

I have wanted to do this weave since last year. It is based on an article in the Handwoven magazine, issue 132. After various samples. This is the result.

There were some technical difficulties that were not anticipated, and did not become apparent during sampling. The different take up due to the thickness of the double weave section made the plain weave sides wobbly. Wads of calico were stuffed into the space to try to 'balance' the thickness. It worked! and sustained the tension till the end....

This felt like a 2 step forward, 1 step back sort of weave as the top layer is pushed back to form the folds/scrunched up bits.

The bulldog clips were very helpful in holding the tension of the folds. I have also tried hair pins, paper clips etc, but in this case, these were perfect.

I have woven 2 pieces of cloth to be joined together to form a jacket/garment. That step is in the contemplation stage at the moment.

I will have to take some pictures of the other piece for the next post.