18 April 2014

Fibre-therapy

It has not been a good week for me, for most of the week I was sick with diarrhoea and severe migraine. Luckily things started to lighten up late yesterday and today I felt much better. Feeling sorry for myself I desperately needed some fibre-therapy to help me relax, so I warped up my Cricket Loom for a scarf.
It's not my handspun but I did dye the yarn, both the warp and weft were actually the same yarn in a colourway called Barley (a kind of yellow) but I wasn't so keen so I divided it up dyed half in green/blue and the other half in plum black. I'm calling this The Forbidden Forest Scarf.

I also washed some Cria Alpaca fleece in a beautiful honey colour, it's so so soft. This is going to be made into a batt for the shop but I really want to keep it. Maybe I'll keep the next batch for myself ;)
That's it from me, that's my therapy for the day. Have a lovely Easter weekend if you celebrate.

Thanks for dropping by, please hop over to Andrea's at Wisdom Begins in Wonder for more fibre fun.


04 April 2014

A piece of handwoven history

Happy Fibre Arts Friday!

A member of our spinning group, Liz, brought along two pieces of wall hanging to the Wednesday night meeting. They were woven by her mum's friend, Liz told us, and because the friend's husband didn't like them she wanted to give them away but preferably they went to people who really appreciated them.

Here are the two pieces:
I liked them both. One of the other ladies claimed the one on the right so I got the one on the left. It's actually a double weave, the back looks like this:
Isn't that gorgeous? There is a label on the back:
The artist's name is Lilija Duks, woven in March 1984, on a draw-loom with double harness set-up and 20 shafts (20!). The craftsmanship is incredible.

So I did a little research when I got home... guess what I found? Museum Victoria has a piece of Ms. Duks' wall hanging in their collection;

Craft Australia also has a piece among their collection.

And there's more... I found a record for the Education Committee of New Zealand Spinning, Weaving and Wool Craft Society.  Lilija Duks was listed as one of their overseas tutors, among the likes of Peter Collingwood, Kaffe Fassett, and Elizabeth Zimmermann. Well, how about that!

I feel so honoured to have this piece of handwoven history in my possession, it now hangs proudly next to my 8-shaft floor loom as inspiration... I will update you on the progress on the loom when I finally make some, erm, progress.

Thanks for dropping by, please hop over to Andrea's at Wisdom Begins in Wonder for more fibre fun.