New recruits......

We had a wonderfully productive sunday afternoon of maching knitting by 10-year old 'A' who came over with her dad. Both of them have never done it before but at the end of 4 hours, they each had finished pieces!

'A's' younger sister also helped to push the carriage but she was a bit young to do a piece on her own. She knitted a scarf 40 stitches wide by 1000 rows, based on card #8, tuck stitch.
Her dad knitted 2 panels of 50cm by 120cm to be linked partially together to form a wrap. That was on card #3, tuck stitch.
I am off to Christine's this evening to do the linking and hopefully, she will show me how to block the pieces as well!

Under cover

I have been meaning to do this for a while.
The skein winder comes in this beautiful unpolished timber and it has been sitting on top of the book shelf, gathering dust. I use it but not often enough that it stays dust-free.

During the break between Christmas and New Year, I made some carry bags from Ikea fabric, which I use for groceries. I love their bold prints as I am not mad keen on those green 'environment' bags. From the bags, I seem to have these strips of fabric left over. I have been thinking of ways to use up fabric scraps, so I took the skein winder out and did a bit of wrapping with the fabric and it fits perfectly! Bonus points for using zippers from my stash as well.
They were so easy I managed to whip up three of them, one for myself and the other two are on their way to new homes.  

Queensland Flood Relief Appeal Auctions

We have had so such rain and there is flooding not only in Queensland but also in NSW and Victoria. Some of them have experienced it more than once in recent months.

Toni from Make it Perfect has organised the QLD Flood Appeal Auctions.
To help out, I am including two hand woven scarves.

Scarf A:
Colour and weave pure wool scarf
Colour: black and white
size: approx. 13 in (33cm) wide, 52 in (132 cm) long with 6 in (15cm) fringes

Scarf B:

Collapse weave pure wool scarf
Colour: black and white
Size: approx. 3.5 in (9cm) wide, 62 in (160 cm) long with 5 in (12cm) fringes

This is how it works:

1. Bidding starts at $80 (Australian) for each scarf.

2. You can place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder.
3. Please nominate which scarf you are bidding for.
4. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.
5. This auction is open to everyone. Postage is FREE worldwide.
6. The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011.
7. At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (please make sure your bid comment includes your email address). The winner will pay the winning amount directly into the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and send proof of payment via email. Once proof of payment has been received, I will post the scarf to you.
8. Thank you for participating and happy bidding!
 
Don't forget that as you are paying directly into the appeal fund, you can also ask for a receipt for tax purposes!
 
Also check out Make it Perfect for other auctions. 
 

Woven shibori II

Our little Shibori group get-together has been cancelled. I think that this time of the year can be overwhelming and I certainly feel that. I need to feel calm and collected before going back to work on Monday! 

In the meantime, I can prepare more samples till we do meet.

At the base of the photo, you can see the 2/2 twill woven in a contrasting waste yarn, so that I can check the pattern. That is the background cloth structure. This sample has a regular pattern for the tie threads and hopefully, the result will be a more stripe-like pattern.
The shuttle is one that I bought in Japan. It is made of oak and has a very wide opening for the yarn to come through. I think that it is designed for thicker yarn so that it does not get snagged or caught as the bobbin unwinds.

Woven shibori

The sample piece is off the loom and tied up, ready to be dyed.

When I bought the yarn for this, I was thinking white cotton. Suddenly at the check out counter, I realised that the pattern weft will be better as a contrast colour so that I can see it! I bought a pale yellow so that when it is over-dyed, I may be able to keep it if I can undo it in one continuous length. I have been saving the yarn from other shibori pieces for a future project.

This is very exciting and I am looking forward to the next shibori group get together!

Weaving in the new year......II

We had a lovely new year's eve. We ate and talked about our aspirations and plans for 2011, our goals and how we may work towards them, our dreams and long-term plans. All in all, it was a very calm and relaxing way to bring in the new year.

We also did some weaving after dinner.........

Alternative Thoughts started on Chibi, the Saori loom and had fun with the various coloured and textured yarns that she brought with her.

Shipbuilding started on the double weave and did a sample size. It was hard going on the table loom as she has a floor loom at home and had not used a table loom for a few years. I understand what she meant as I struggled a bit with the P2P piece on the table loom. It takes a lot longer to weave. Fortunately, I think that the Ashford loom has become the sampling loom so I won't have any negative thoughts about it!

I had a go at the woven shibori on KaTe. It took me ages to do the tie-up so I will investigate ways to improve that. It should not be too difficult. I think that will need a blogpost of its own.

The weaving itself was a dream. It did not take long to do a small sample so it gave me an immense sense of achievement. A good feeling on new year's eve.