It's about time.....

It is out of the box!

I bought this piece of equipment after first year machine knitting at school - with the full intention of keeping up so that when I start back with the subject, I would not have lost all the skills. Needless to say, it had been in the box for a couple of years now. The only time I had it out was to learn how to give it a mini-service! (it was a very useful thing)

Well, I can't even remember how to start......

The yarn broke multiple times when I tried to cast on and knit the first row. I am not sure what I have done wrong. I checked the instruction book again - suddenly the light bulb comes on!

The russell levers. Then it worked.

There is this technique called platting that I learnt at the machine knitting club and I really want to experiment with it. It allows control of which side the yarn sits when I use more than one type.

The grey colour yarn is the platting yarn (appears on purl side) and sits behind the yarn feeder hole while the main yarn is in the yarn feeder (appears on knit side) and in this case, is not continuous.

The winter of discontent

It had been weeks,

of having the flu,

of coughing,

of exhaustion and lack of concentration,

of postponed visits with friends,

of cancelled excursions to exhibitions/craft show that has since finished,

of broken warp threads,

of missed opportunities,

of stagnation ........

Somehow, the simplest things do not go according to plan.

Surely, it is time for change. The sun was out today. There is less than a month to Spring.

It is time:

for renewed energy,

for new projects to take shape,

for a new warp on the loom,

for new book to read,

for better health,

for connections with friends and family,

for looking forward,

for better things to come........

Postscript: In this period of discontent, there was a very contented pushy cat.......

Noro Silk Garden

Thanks to Dorothy's inspired idea of using the Noro sock yarns, I finally found a use for the two balls of Noro 'silk garden' yarn in my stash. I had tried to knit something with them but found them a bit 'scratchy' to feel. Then seeing Dorothy's success, I thought that if the weft yarn is soft, it may improve the overall feel.

I used the Ashford table loom on 4-shafts. The draft was the 'Hair line effect' twill from the 'Marguerite Porter Davison' book. Weaving 4 shaft on the table loom is reasonably quick.

This yarn is thicker than the sock yarn and was woven at 10epi.

I love the way the colours arranged themselves. The 2 balls of yarn had the same colour code and dyelot. However, when the warp is wound, it is clear that the colour sequence is different. I liked it. It enabled me to create colour without really working hard at it!

I used a subdue colour as the weft so that the colours of the warp took centre stage.

The suprise bonus - there was only about 4 inches of loom waste and this is without using a dummy warp! I used a shorter rod at the back beam so that the warp can come right up close to the heddles.

Overall, I am really happy with the result and I did see some 'Silk Garden lite' the other day at the yarn shop, on discount.......

More collapse

After the success of the collapse weave scarf for the virtual scarf exhibition, I wanted to try more. I am intrigued by this. I don't fully understand how it works. I know that it has something to do with the thickness of the warp and weft yarns and that it is not a balanced weave. I got this book but have not read through all of it yet. I just wanted to weave first.

I wondered about the colours of the pleats/folds on either side of the piece and decided on more experimenting. 'Collapse' was threaded with alternating colours. I wanted to create a piece with separate colours on either side, so the colour combination will have to follow the weave structure:

It looks like a 'zebra crossing'! The warp is a 5 ply pure wool. I used a black and white twist fine merino as the weft. For some reason, the purity of colours or the lack of it was important and strangely appealing.

The sample worked well and it is only 20cm long. The 'collapse' happened as soon as the tension was released. In tension, you can feel a slight bump between the 1/3 and 3/1 twills. I will now weave a full length scarf of this and then I would like to try some different width pleats......

Small Scarf Exhibition 2009

Come here to have a look at the gallery!

Knitted up

Mum had knitted up the cashmere yarn we bought from Avril.


I just wish that it was possible to convey the softness and the drape through the computer.

Belated New Year

I was late with my Christmas post, and now Chinese new year. I am seriously catching up.

Happy year of the Ox. This was a postcard I picked up in Japan, by unicef. I love the stylised image. When enlarged, you can actually see what looks like weave structure. A collage of different fabrics to form the image.

To add to the occaision, this weave sample that I did a year ago seems appropriate. I was trying to create the imagery of firecrackers into a weave.....

It is a double weave based on the same technique for the cotton piece from my first post. This was the precursor to that piece of weaving.