Black and White

Can you believe that it has been 5 months since this warp has been sitting on my loom? Yep, since February! This year is flying by and I honestly am not sure where the time has gone.

This is a colour and weave (yes Kaz, it is black and white - they are colours!?) practice warp (and it has become a full scarf sample) and I had actually forgotten how long the warp was when I decided to stop weaving. I should have checked the blog post! If I did, I would not have gone into a panic and thought that I had not allowed enough for some other bits of sampling I really wanted to do! 

The woven length prior to finishing was approx 150cm. I was happy with that, but I had forgotten to allow for the shrinkage after wet finishing. It shortened to 140cm...... Well, it is still long enough to wear but not enough to loop around twice nor to double up and thread through.

It was great having this project on KaTe (the 8 shaft coutermarche floor loom). It gave me a chance to get to know the loom, to try out something that demanded a balance weave and to admire the overhead beater that almost does the work on its own. The beautiful solid piece of timber that carries its own momentum in its weight makes the beating a breeze.

The foot treadles also made this 50-pick repeat so easy compared to the table loom, and so much faster!

I love my fringe twister gadget from Leclerc. I would not have been able to bear doing all those twists without it. It helps with consistency and speed.  

Ruffling with the knitting machine

Yesterday I helped out Christine at the MAKV stand at the Craft and Quilt show, with some demostration of handmanipulation techniques.

Very simple one, just lifting some stitches from a few rows below to the current row and knitted them together.

I used a 'Brother' machine. A very simple machine that only did stocking stitch and any variations are by tension change or hand-manipulation.

The effect reminded me of the curly seaweed that you get at Japanese restaurants! well, especially in this colour.

This is made of 2 ply Bendigo Woollen Mill 'classic' wool and I dyed this colour with Barb. We used acid milling dye and the microwave.

It also satisfied my search for various methods of creating ruffle effect with machine knitting. More on this obsession in another post.

Pics to Picks

As per the previous post, I decided to use the cotton warp left over from the ikat workshop. I also found another black cotton warp from a previous project of the same yarn type. What luck!

Then I got thinking, what about a double weave. I delibrated between a double weave where I can form folds on the upper layer and possibly with a twill weave structure and a plain weave on the bottom layer or this interlocking  structure as per the diagram below. (from the book on Doubleweave by Ursina Ann-Grishott)

Since they were already 2 separate warps, I wound them onto 2 beams. This will also give me the flexibility of re-threading and trying out something else if I did not want to keep with this idea.

The book also has a very good explanation of how the threading and treadling works:

I had cut the ikat warp in half and used the 2 parts to create a contrast at the vertical intersection and to make it a wider piece.

The ikat warp is slightly wider and will slightly extend beyond the black layer. For both layers, the weft will be the same black cotton. This is reminiscent of the texture of the canvase in the image.

I would have liked to at least started weaving to see if what I envisaged would work, but this is as far as I got.......

How things can change......

I was having a discussion with Michelle about how many things I have on my plate when I decided to actually get all those things out so that I can see them: then it is not just a list in my head that has grown out of proportion. I started rumaging in my yarn boxes to see what i can use for the pics to picks project.

What a co-incidence or how lucky can I be? you may recall how I mentioned that colour is not my strong point but I am working on it.......

This is a painted warp left over from the ikat workshop with Kaz. In fact, I have a suspicious feeling that this is the demonstration warp she did!

The colours are perfect!

So now the ideas for this picture has evolved. It is no longer a clasp weft structure but some sort of twill/plain weave/repp weave type structure.

When I examine the picture closely, I can see the texture of the canvase amongst the colours. I think that it will have a black weft.

Time will tell what it will become.......

Pics to Picks

I got my pictures from Esmae a while ago but have not had the time to do a post on them until now.
Machine knitting class has been taking up all my 'down time'. I have been doing samples in the evening after work, on weekends, and any spare time in between other things. It is wearing me down and I keep thinking of all these other things that I have on the go as well. Last sunday, I had 'stitching' group and managed to finish the linen jacket. I was so happy!

On friday evening, I skyped with Kaz and had a brief chat about the images I had received:

 menorah

Painting

meadow

mountains

I thought there is only about 6 weeks to go and I need to come up with something soon!

My first impression was that they are not images that I would normally use to inspire a weave design, but then, that is the idea! to do something different.

I look at them and can see more literal translation into weave patterns or structures. Kaz looks at them and can see the meaning and other connections with the pictures. She sees historic and cultural connections. I think that even if everyone who signed up were given the same images, the end results will quite be varied.

Menorah: some sort of double deflected weave, block design, 2 colours, probably wool for the deflected weave to work properly

John Papas painting: some sort of clasp weft soari-style weaving with the colours from the painting. I don't work with a lot of colours so the choice of colours is a bit 'scary'.

Meadow and mountains: I have not read the poetry component of the images but have focused on the colours and the shapes. They are calling out for a shibori weave dyed in varying tones of blues. A bit like an indigo process. In fact, I think that all the colours in the 2 images can probably be achieved through indigo dyeing.

Kusha Kusha

I had bought the yarn from Avril and Colormart last year and have had this project queued in Ravelry. At last, I have resumed an interested in hand knitting and had started this scarf. The instructions are from Purl Bee and very easy to follow. The silk stainless steel yarn had no give, so it is not so easy to knit. I think it will take a while.

I have attempted to knit this on the knitting machine but the stitches are too even and loses the texture that I have seen of other people's images of the finished scarf.

I have also got the instruction of my mom's gathered stitch pattern! Both Deep End of the Loom and Kaz are interested:

I think that mom also varied the number of rows of stocking stitch to make it more interesting.

At last

I started this last year aiming to have it ready for spring/summer but at last, it is completed. Fortunately, the autumn weather is still warm enough to wear it.

The pattern was rated easy but it was not so easy and definitely for experienced sewer with time. There was a confusing section in the instruction on the collar stand and that made me put the project on hold for a bit, while I try to find out what I was supposed to do. Finally, a friend and I worked it out over some tea and cake one day!

It is made of an Italian linen I bought on sale for A$10/m, beautiful to work with and I had washed it before hand so that I won't have to get it dry cleaned.  I also found these painted buttons made of coconut shell that matched perfectly! They are 40mm dia so I decided to sew snaps/large press studs behind instead of making button holes.

One thnig leads to another and this side of the press-stud needed to be covered. I found the instructions to do them on the Threads website. Very easy to follow and am very pleased with the results. If I had a thinner material, it would have been better, but this works.