A few days at Mum's

Last week I spent a few days relaxing at Mum and Dad's place. Along with a lot of sleep ins and naps, we also did a spot of weaving.


Mum finished the cloth for her dressing gown - it has devine colours - pinks and purples - the warp is 60% wool, 40% mohair and the weft is possum. Then we put it in the washing machine for 15 minutes then the tumble drier for 30. So warm and fluffy!


Then we put on a narrow rug warp on her other loom.


And then we put back together am old friend of mine! Lovely old loom I bought when I was a student. I had to take it apart with a warp still on it - a velvet rug warp! So guess what I'll be doing at Christmas time?
And tomorrow I'll post what Belly and I did today!
--melly

My new discovery of an ancient art.

I stumbled upon a weaving technique called Saganishiki and I am totally smittened. I would love to try it and am thinking of going to Convergence in Long Beach next year to do a workshop. The warp is paper and coated with metal in some cases 24ct gold! with silk weft,  so not a cheap technique to learn but I would still like to give it ago. There is not a lot of information about Saganishiki out there and if any one knows where I can get a loom please leave a comment. The image is from a blog I found and the weaving is by  blogger Michael Cook ( I think )  at wormspit

Another site I have found and its very interesting but I don't read Japanese. I take it this weaver is a master of the craft.

Dreaded pink and citrus warp

Sometimes I wonder about my colour chooses. Citrus and pink silk, and wool mixed in the top warp and wool ( to felt) in the bottom warp. Of cause the wool and pink thread I the top warp tension differently so it is a problem before I even start to sample. I have put on a simple threading sequence of:
1,2,5,3,4,6 . 5 and 6 being the bottom warp of Lauren ( felting) wool. You can just see the colour samples of forest green, i only had an old reel of Mederia metal bit wanted to see what the colour looked like. Also a dull orange colour that I think works well.

So now what will I weave?

Sorry images need rotating, its an Iphone thing as saved on the computer they look fine so have to figure that one out Melly.

Its been a while

Mel with company:

Mel came to visit this weekend and we got my little loom back out and Mel just had to finish it for me. I think it was driving her crazy that I had not done this yet. so now to weave this off in a week.

Year 10 Felt Shoe Making

These are some photos from a 2 day workshop I gave last week.




















--mel

Countermarch Woes

Just a quite suggested reading post -
http://www.weaversschool.com/resources.htm and download the article called 'Countermarch Looms - Everything you've ever wanted to know'. After you've done that, print it out and GLUE IT TO YOUR COUNTERMARCH LOOM.
Ok so it's mainly written for Glimakra looms but if you read it very carefully, as well as look at the pictures, and make a few educated guesses, you'll end up with a lovely shed.
I have recently spent hours and hours getting a really fussy countermarche loom working - and I finally did! I was so stunned I needed a Campari! But I felt so good for actually conquering it - I haven't felt like that for ages!
I hope  it still works tomorrow and I didn't dream it..
--mel

Velvet weaving and feathers

I've finally finished warping up and am weaving that warp we wound so long ago!
I've done a little bit of velvet and then started putting in cut up ostrich feathers - am loving the feathers!


I also came across a cute quote Something cute I came across in the Sturt archives - from 1958 local paper.
"Weaving is something that 'gets you in'" said Mrs Chaserly, who has been an instructoress for five years. "Some of the housewives who join our classes become so engrossed that I'm afraid they forget their housework for a while."
Indeed
-- Mel

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