April Spool's Day

Meg has suggested an April Spool's day post of bobbins and pirns. Here are some of mine:

From left to right:
Le Clerc's plastic ones, the Swedish cardboard ones, Saori clear plastic ones, timber ones in various sizes and bamboo ones. The last 2 types are for my Japanese boat shuttles.
However, being April Fool's day, the joke is on me as I don't actually have a bobbin winder that the timber and bamboo ones will fit so they have not really been used yet......

New........

My Japanese friend says that March is the season of parting and April is encounter and starting new life season.

Since the last post, I have had a lot of new encounters..........

New life: 

I have had this miniature water lily for about 2 years now and this is the first time it has bloomed! In the last few days of summer, I watched it come to life over a couple of days and disappeared just as fast.

New weave experiment: 
I bought this beautiful yarn from Avril when I was last in Japan. I originally bought it for my mother but she was not keen on the colour. So I kept it for myself and had been waiting for the right project /idea to come along.
The skeins have a very defined band of colour and I wanted to see if I could weave or knit it with the colour band expressed. I experimented on the knitting machine but the tension was hard to control. I did not want to start with the original yarn on the loom straight off as it is a lot harder to un-weave than to frog knitting!

Frisbiee Tegasuri (32B gray)

I dyed some cotton with the same concept, calculated the width of the warp required, and started weaving. It seemed to go according to plan and I was quite happy with the results.

That is until here:

and I understand why! As I wind the weft on the skein winder, the circumference of the skein increases as it then becomes wider than the warp. The ikat effect then changes as the colour sections shifts slightly off course for each pick, forming the criss-cross effect. I know all of these theories in my head but sometimes, I just have to do it to believe it.
So maybe when I finally use the yarn from Avril, it does not matter how the pattern emerges. I think I will still like it.

New weave project:
This is a glimpse of some weaving for an exhibition submission. I have not really done a lot of 'arty' weaving before, usually they are scarves or wraps. So it is a totally new experience....... 

New technique:
I started my first top down, seamless cardigan last week and have learnt a new knitting technique, the magic loop. Thanks to Sooz and Woollenflower for starting me off on the right track, helping me with working out the right size and how to keep track of the instructions. It made me feel more confident with knitting a garment. Again, I have normally stuck to knitting accessories with minimal shaping......

New knit:

and here is another one of those accessories in the most gorgeous red colour just in time for Autumn.

On the loom......

Blink and it has been a month.......

I have not been idle but have been in a making mode rather than a recording one. I felt like I had to keep making and let out the ideas in my head, otherwise it would explode.

Here is a preview of what is on Chibi, the Saori loom. It is a 30cm wide black cotton pre-wound warp with a variegated colour wool weft from Lara Downs.

I am off to craft camp tomorrow and hopefully will have lots to show next week!

Happy New Year

Happy new year!

This is detail from an embroidered mandarin square, 15-16th century, China,

taken from a very old Unicef greeting card that I have found in my collection.

Slow

One of the pre-conference talks was on the Slow Fiber studio, by Yoshiko Wada, and this was on the road when I came out of that talk.
Slow does not just mean slow in time, but a considered and 'thoughtful approach to the making of things'.
Some of the examples she gave were:
Jurgen Lehl and Babaghuri, Sou Sou, Issey Miyake, and Christina Kim, etc.
I am going to be 'slow' this year, not only with making but with other aspects of life. I have not quite figured out how to verbalise this but I think I know what to do...........
For me, the time between the 1st January new year and Chinese new year is often a time for reflection. It feels like time in suspension. It is new and old year co-existing. It gives me more time to catch up, more time to get my thoughts together about the year ahead.........
Happy new year to you!

8ISS: Yoshiko Jinzenji

I thoroughly enjoyed my first time at this event. The program was full of variety: contemporary, tradition, technology, processes, sustainability, and so much more. It was inspiring, intense and exhausting - both physically and mentally. I wanted to attend ALL the talks and demonstrations, but that was not possible.
Needless to say there will be a slow drip feed of information as I process things in my brain and gradually sort out my photos and papers.......
One of the speakers was Yoshiko Jinzenji.
I am not a quilter but had fallen in love with her book published by Interweave.

I did not know much of her other work outside of this book. When she gave her talk, I thought that there was a sense of deja vu and quickly realised who she was. What a revelation! As I had also bought some fabric designed by her just before I left for Hong Kong. (from Patchwork on Central Park, her designs do not show up in the online store but is available in store) 

One of her pieces at the exhibition was shibori dyed with bamboo! It gave this very subtle white on white pattern.

Who knows, quilting may be soon be on my list of things to do........

Invisible

This is the last of the warp has been on the loom since 31 Dec 2010. 
It is a scarf length based on the samples that I have dyed. 

There is still about half a meter of warp left and will weave them up as test pieces for different dyes.

It is strange to be weaving white on white and I won't really know the final outcome until the piece has been dyed, and untied to reveal the patterning. It is a bit like writing with invisible ink....

PS These images are taken with small file sizes directly from my camera, I have not figured out how to reduce file size on iphoto yet.....so apologies if they are crappy.