April Spool's Day

I have been hanging out here of late so this blog is a bit neglected.

These are the bobbins and thrums left over from my last 2 pieces of weaving for Meg's April Spool's day. Join us and show what is on your spools/bobbins/quills/pirns.

I will try to come back and let you know what has been happening at this weaving place soon.

A good start........

Such a lot can change in a week. 

A bit of sunshine midweek, a bit/lots of chocolate (cupcakes, pearls, wafers), a bit of encouragement from friends, a bit of perseverance, and ignoring dishes, laundry and housework in general, I got the warp onto the loom.

There is something calming and beautiful about a warp on the loom, even when it not quite ready. This morning, I was quite determined to get some weaving started, but I did not have a long enough rod for the front beam. This is the widest I have woven on the table loom, almost the full width. None of the hardware stores nearby were open on a Sunday. Luckily, a good friend has some spare timber dowels and he helped me cut one to length with a barter of some chocolate/plum jam cupcakes from the freezer. It was a good trade. 

I got started. The spacing of the weft pattern and the balance of the cloth is working well in the first 5cm of the piece, at least to how I had envisage the piece. It is a good sign.

Out of the dark

If the 'dementors' were to visit me on friday, they could have sucked the soul out of me easily. It had been one of those weeks, months.
I threw out 2 desserts and barely rescued the third. I cast on 2 items but frogged them as I could not get them to work. Things that usually make me feel better don't seem to have the same effect.

I know that it is up to me to change that feeling from dark to light. I know that it is a matter of time. It is winter. I feel cold and pain. I feel tired and can't concentrate. We are past the shortest day. There are 4 weeks till craft camp.

I need to make something, to weave something. I have been thinking about this piece for a while. I had to ask myself though whether I was just asking for trouble.
I wound a warp with this yarn: 24 epi, 21 inches wide, 504 ends, 3.4m long. I don't know if I have calculated the sett correctly. It will be a light fabric, I think.

It looks beautiful. Like bundles of noodles.

And then I started to prepare to thread the heddles. I don't have enough heddles on some of the harnesses. I forgot to count them before I started...... I am out of practice.

It took me a couple of hours to fix this. I could have threaded the warp differently but I wanted the option to do plain weave or twill. There is enough length in the warp to do some experimentation. In fact, I think that this whole piece will be an experiment. I am halfway through threading. I think that I may be ready to start weaving next weekend......

And the weft yarn - a special hand-dyed yarn ( フリスビー手絣) bought from Avril. I think that this colour way has been discontinued.

Things can only get better. Right?

Small Piece exhibition

Last year, 2 pieces of my weaving were accepted into the 'Petite' exhibition.
Meg has organised a virtual 'Small Piece' exhibition based on that idea, small pieces of textile work woven on a loom.

I repeated the 2 pieces that were acquired by Wangaratta Art Gallery, and added another 2 pieces into the series. This series of work was inspired by a lecture at the International Shibori Symposium in 2011.

'Yoshiko Wada explained at a lecture on ‘Slow Fibre’ that we must understand our materials in order to create something special.

My work explores the notion that in understanding how these fibres, made of different materials behave on their own and their interaction with each other.

It is then possible to manipulate them with calculated expectations.'

All the pieces were woven on a 2 shaft loom in plain weave with various yarn bases made from plant, animal and mineral fibres. All the pieces are approx. 23cm x 16cm.

From Left: Plant Mineral i, Plant Mineral ii. Plant Mineral Animal i

Plant Mineral Animal ii

Plant Mineral i - detail

Plant Mineral ii - detail

Plant Mineral Animal i - detail

Plant Mineral Animal ii - detail

This last piece is also new and is inspired by the Tour de France; the category climbs that the cyclists have to endure and conquer.

Col de Noir ii

Coinciding with this virtual exhibition, I have actually entered these pieces in the Brunswick Street Gallery 'Small Works' exhibition. If you are in Melbourne, you can see these pieces in real life and they are for sale.

April Spools Day 2013

Happy weaving!

Still experimenting with more of the same.........

I have been experimenting more with the combination of silk stainless steel, felting wool and non-felting alpaca and alpaca/silk yarns. I am getting to understand their behaviour more and so can control the outcome better. 
Here are 2 scarves that I have submitted to the Scarf Festival at the Wool Museum in Geelong.

Scarf 1

Scarf 2

 .........and some more sampling/experimentation for a submission to another exhibition.

on loom

after washing

A flying visit: Wien

Literally, to the other side of the world, 
24 hours away,
to visit my best friend,
for 7 days ( 3 in Wien and 3 in Praha with a train trip in between),
bone tired and did not do my share of reading up on the guide books..........
I think that in the end, all is forgiven as she actually likes being in charge of the map and had booked a hotel that is just round the corner from one of the top yarn shops in Vienna!
Zwei Glatt Zwei Verkhert (Knit 2 Purl 2), Josefstaedterstrasse 14, 8th district 

It had a wonderful display in the shop windows, and yes, I bought yarn. Some beautiful Danish linen/cotton and silk/cotton yarns by Karen Noe. 

We walked and walked. It turned out to be a bit of a tour of the work of Vienna Secession architects: Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffman, Josef Maria Olbrich.

I went to the 'Vienna: art and design' exhibition at the NGVI, in Melbourne. So to see all these buildings, decorative arts and fabrics in real life was amazing.

The post office by Hoffman is totally a double weave inspiration waiting to happen. I can visualise it in linen and even see the folds and block pattern emerging on my loom. Well, maybe next year the rate I seem to produce anything..... I think that my imagination runs far, far ahead of reality.
With our good fortune, we found a brochure in the hotel lobby of the 'Wiener Werkstätte' museum. It is in the basement of the Backhausen fabric company showroom.

There are displays of fabric samples, original design work, and in the showroom upstairs, you can buy fabric that are still in production. Of course, I bought fabric....... This, I think if you are interested in textile, is well worth a visit.

In vain, I have struggled.....

Thank you Meg and Neki for your encouragement but I failed dismally and it became a total implosion of yarn consumption.

I had a need for retail therapy, so I bought yarn.
I was not tempted by chocolate nor hot cross buns over Easter, but I bought yarn.
I needed to get mother's day present, so I bought yarn.
I was on Ravelry and discovered this thing called destashing, and I bought yarn.
The Australian dollar has been strong, so I bought yarn.
I discovered Madeline Tosh yarns, so I bought yarn.

However, I am happy to say that production rate was up and I have results to show for them.

From stash, I finally made/finished these:


Twisted Rib Cowl, hand knitted - a belated birthday present.
Used up 2.4 balls of yarn, Morris and Sons Quartet 8ply.

  

The Irish Scarf, handwoven - a birthday present received on time.
Used up 1.5 balls of each colour, Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed.

  

The Noro Stripey scarf, handwoven - an early birthday present.
Used up 2 balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite and
some odds and ends of 2/28 cashmere yarn.

Rooftop Cowl, hand knitted - onto my 6th one!
To be gifted and I think that this one will stay in Melbourne.
This will finally use up all the alpaca.

From new purchases, I made these:

Another Twisted Rib Cowl, hand knitted.
Madeline Tosh pashmina - an one skein project.
Gorgeous feel and drape. For myself.

The part circular shawl, machine knitting. Mother's day present.
3 Skeins of Madeline Tosh Light from detash on Ravelry.

A crochet edge to the shawl.
I think that this took longer to do than all of the machine knitting!

I love the detail when all the eyelets converging at the top.

Trying......not to buy more yarn

I have been slowly working at using up my yarn stash. It has worked to a point: 3 empty cones this year, but that was only 750g of yarn.

No where near the amount that I have bought last year. The rate of acquisition is much, much, much greater than the rate of consumption. In human terms - this is obesity.

However, yarn diet is hard.

Soozs showed me her 'not-quite-circluar-shawl' for machine knitting class homework. It was beautiful and she knitted it out of 'Madeline Tosh' yarn. So naturally, I have been finding out about them and I want some to try.
Niki showed me her 'stripey-cashmere-blanket' and I am love that as well.
I normally only try to only have fine yarns in stash so that I can both weave and knit (hand and machine) with them. Or so I tell myself.
In researching for the Madeline Tosh yarns, I saw this today and thought maybe I should expand my reportoire and start hand knitting with thicker yarns. It will be quicker!? 
I have subjected myself to great temptation and my will power is weakening by the hour, and I only have myself to blame.

I am trying very hard today to focus on the 'work in progress'. I am onto my 4th rooftop cowl. I am not sure whether this will also be a gift or for myself, but I still have yarn and am determined to use them up. I have been spreading these cowls around the world: Hong Kong, Japan, Prague. There are a couple more birthdays coming up this year where this may be an appropriate gift.

Help Japan

A lot has happened in the last month and at times, I find it hard to comprehend. I am glad to hear that my friends in affected places are safe and ok, both in flood and earthquake areas.

I can no longer just sit there and watch the news. I need to do something and would really like to be able to donate LOTS of money but that is a bit beyond my means at present.

However, I have yarn.
I have decided to put up 2 cones of wool/stainless steel yarn for giveaway. They were bought from Avril when I was visiting Japan.

Cone 1:
Avril M3500 wool/stainless steel, colour #75 purple, approx 60g (2 oz)

Cone 2:
Avril M3500 wool/stainless steel, colour #2997 kogecha (dark brown), approx 60g (2 oz)

This is the same as:
Habu wool/stainless steel yarn item #: A-148 1/17.6 wool stainless steel
Content: 75% wool, 25% stainless stteel
Yardage: approx. 547 yds. (492 mts.)/oz. (28 gm.)
Retail price: US$19.80/oz.
Weight: lace/weaving
Suggested epi for weaving: 20-30
Suggested needle size for knitting: US no. 2-3 for single strand, no. 10 & up for 2 strands

How to enter the giveaway:
•Each entry is for one cone. So there will be 2 winners.
•This is open to everyone worldwide.
•I will cover postage cost to you.
•To enter you must donate A$5 directly to the Red Cross Japan and Pacific Disaster Appeal 2011.
•You may enter as many times as you like but each entry/donation must have a new separate receipt number. (eg: donate A$5 ten times if you want to donate A$50- then comment ten times with your receipt numbers.)
After you have done this, return here, leave your comment with your receipt number and whether you prefer Cone 1 or 2. And make sure you include your email address so that I can contact you if you are the lucky recipient.
•This will start immediately and closes 6pm AEST, 26th March 2011.
•The giveaway is being held on this blog, in cooperation with a Bit of This and a Bit of That. A masterlist of other participants is there and will be updated.
•Winner will be drawn by random. If you are the winner, I will email you for proof of donation and then send you the cone of yarn.

Confessions of a yarnaholic

Is it possible to save the world economy one ball/skein of yarn at a time? I wonder if each knitter, weaver, crafter, etc went out and bought some yarn, what difference would it make.

It sure does feel like that at times. Stocktake sales, art and craft expos and shows, online shops, the temptation is all around and I have had a few moments of weakness lately. In addition, there are all these ideas floating around. New things I want to try but I don't seem to have the right yarn in my stash........
Or should I design my projects around yarns that I have in my stash?

Do you buy yarn with a project in mind or do you buy it just because you like the feel/look of it?

I had a conversation with a friend from Japan recently and she imagines that there are a lot of sheep in Australia and therefore we should have an abundance of choices with woollen yarn. Sadly, I told her that most of the wool/fleece are exported and processed and milled abroad, and that I have to buy 'Australian' yarn from the US or other countries.

So when I went to Avril, I totally lost control. I visited the retail stores, the one in Shinsaibashi, Osaka (level 2 in Daimaru) and the one in Sanjo St, Kyoto. Look at those beautiful cones on the wall. The colours, the textures. I was like a kid in a lolly shop.

At each store, they have displays of Setsuko Torii's designs. You can feel them and try them on. They are beautiful. There are people doing hand knitting workshops, and learning how to weave on knitter's looms.

However, my favourite one is the head office. I roamed along the corridor, shopping for yarn like I am at the supermarket shopping for grocery. Each type of yarn, in various colours neatly stacked on shelves. Large cones and skeins. At the end, the quantity I wanted is wound off onto cones. Usually when I have too much choice, I can't make a decision and I don't buy anything. For some reason, it was the opposite at Avril. I can look at each cone and think of a project for it. My imagination goes wild. I am inspired, I am giddy with excitement. I was there for hours.

I bought a bit of everything: linen, silk, wool and cotton. I bought for weaving on the Saori loom. I bought for a few projects I have seen in the Vav magazine.
Thank you Masumi for your patience with me. Avril truly is my favourite yarn store in the world!
Now I just have to weave, knit and make some beautiful things with my stash!