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.

Time flies

I have not meant to be away for so long. In fact, I have actually been composing posts in my head and have been continually taking photos. I just have not physically put them into the computer...... I cannot believe that 3 months had past. There is a bit of catching up to do.

However, if you are reading this and are in Melbourne, Australia, there is an interesting exhibition to see. It finishes next weekend on 3 May.

In the meantime, there was another exhibition in which I participated earlier in the year. It was called 'in bloom' and was organised by the RMIT union arts.

This was a small piece of silk painted sample, set in microwave and then quilted over.

The cushion finally completed - a sample of 8-shaft honey comb combined with commercial denim to form a 'box-style' cushion.

Finally, a bit of beading using polystyrene beads......they do look very pearl-like.

They following 2 pieces are by Michelle:

'Barely there': natural dyeing with flowers and kimono silk.

'Native flowers': discharge with bleach on cotton.

Shopping

There are some things of which you can never have enough. For a while, it had been fabric. I once saw a sign in a fabric shop that said "She who dies with the most fabric wins." Since I took up weaving, it has been weaving equipment and yarn.

We went to Nagoya, Japan for a family holiday. My mum and I caught the Shinkensan from Nagoya to Kyoto for the day to visit Avril and this other shop. Now who can go to Japan and not make the effort to get there especially when they have this!

We went to the main office/shop in Kyoto and just like the middle picture. There were just shelves of yarn. It was like a supermarket of yarn - room after room piled high. I also met the lady who looks after all the email orders. It is nice to have a real-life connection.

I didn't really go crazy but you do have to make the most of the opportunity. As the website suggested, I did the research beforehand and got an order together with some of my friends. Yes, there is more than 3 kg of yarn in this photo and we spent 4 hours there.

From left to right: silk/stainless steel core, cotton paper, washi linen with cotton cores, fine linen (grey) and bamboo.

From left to right: natural dyed cashmere (mum is a knitter and the cashmere belongs in her stash), wool/silk mix (white)

Close up of the cotton paper yarn. Yarn from Pine fibre (white cone).

From top to bottom: merino wool/stainless steel core, silk/stainless steel core (black and pale grey)

I don't think there is a name in English for the weaving supply shop. It was in an older area of Kyoto and the shop owner spoke limited English. I got by with pointing (politely of course), very limited amount of japanese and the ability to read kanji from the price list. We were there for more than an hour, looking at different types of boat shuttles: apparently, there are different shapes for use with cotton, silk, wool, etc.

From top to bottom (in pairs): all purpose boat shuttles (with rollers and these beautiful copper tips. The tips are not weighted as fly shuttles. I think that they are there to protect the ends.), medium size shuttle suitable for pick up, small size shuttle for pick up. Note that there is a small hole on one side and a slot on the other of each shuttle. The small round hole is for fine silk and the slot is for thicker yarn.

I think that I will not have to buy yarn for a while now. (You have yet to see what I got when Edith (from Cloth Haven) took me to the wholesale places in Hong Kong! ) It will take me a long time to use up all this yarn. I am hoping that my yarn will not go the same 'obese' way as my fabric stash. My output needs to catch up with the input, and I am a slow weaver......