(non specific) Order Among Chaos

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! This is going to be my last FAF post for a while, next week I'm going to Beijing for three weeks to visit my family. Unfortunately blogger is blocked by the "Great Fire Wall" so I won't be able to post while I am there.

So there are four days left before my departure and I have not done any packing, and I am beginning to panic!!! Just to make things a little more complicated we are in the process of buying a house, the conveyancers are doing their work and the settlement date is set to be 16th October - precisely one week after my return. Good timing, what? We didn't plan it to happen this way, my trip was booked months ago and when we started looking for properties we didn't expect to find something so quickly, and naturally things just went from mad to being utterly chaotic.

Anyway, this post is about fibre arts so I should show you something made of fibre....

Elli asked me to make him some slipper socks a while back and he chose a pattern called Nola's Slippers - free from Ravelry. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, I used some sock yarn from my stash and held in doubled. I had to adjust the number of stitches to cast on as well as the decreasing stitches, luckily this pattern is very adaptable (read: easy to fudge) and I did as I went along.

I also finished a couple of woven scarves to add to my gift pile for China:

Oh yes, our Night's Watch SKAL kicked off this week. My plan is to spin the batt before my trip so I can bring the project with me. The Night's Watch shawl pattern is an easy one for the road, so I was assured by the designer Lara Smoot. Luckily Ravelry is not banned in China so I can still co-ordinate the SKAL.

I am sure there is order among all the chaos, I just need to find it.

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

Scarves-a-rama

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! This week I finally finished off two woven scarves, one had been on my loom since April and another one I had done weaving a few weeks ago but it was not finished until yesterday. I realised that I am not very good at finishing projects although I like starting them, which explains why I have so many UFOs. The lure of a new project is greater than completing one, perhaps I should only be allowed to start a new project in exchange for a finished one, I will need a stern enforcer.

This scarf was started back in April, with my hand-dyed warp and weft. For some reason the tension was all over the place and I was so disheartened with it that I didn't touch it for months, then one day I forced myself to forge ahead and finished it - because I wanted the loom for another project. I was very pleased to find that once washed and dried, all the imperfections with the tension was gone and the scarf looks rather nice ...

 

The second scarf was started at the beginning of this month, so it's not quite a marathon project as the first one. It only took 3 days to weave but again it took me weeks to finish it off. I'm calling this Blood Orange Tweedy Scarf :)

Now my loom is empty and I need another project!

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

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.

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. 

Weaving frenzy

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! I'm doing a show and tell for my weaving projects this week because I suddenly had an urge to weave lately.

I had some variegated pure wool yarn and I wanted to explore how they behaved in weaving, so I wove two scarves: the first one using the same yarn as both warp and weft, the second only using the variegated yarn as warp and a plain matching yarn for weft.

I think I prefer the one on the right, i.e. variegated yarn for warp only but not for both. 

But what I love the most is the third one I made, this time using a space dyed yarn for weft.

It turned out really well, the bamboo in the weft yarn gave it just the right amount of drape without being too heavy, there's also a soft sheen to it. 

When I first finished it I wasn't too happy with the overlaps where I joined the new balls of yarn, so I appealed for help on the Rigid Heddle group on Facebook, it is a fantastic group for weavers by the way. From the advice I received I decided to pull out the overlaps, split the yarn (a single) and weave in the split ends separately. The result was amazing, you can hardly tell where they are. 

That's me for the week, now it's your turn.

I'm linking this to Fibre Arts Friday at Andrea's place, you can find more fibre arts goodies over there. 

Fibre Arts Friday Special: Weaving and Beading Samples by Native Indians

I haven't been doing Fibre Arts Friday for a fews weeks while I'm on the road but there's something I'd like to share. I found some amazing weaving and beading samples by different Native American tribes when we visited the American Museum of Natural History, the intricate patterns and details left me in awe.

Shown here are some samples, consider these were made a couple of centuries ago you have to marvel at the crafters' skills. Top left and bottom right are wool weavings, top right and bottom left are beadings in tiny beads.

Thanks for stopping by, you can read about my travels here or click on the "Travelogue" at the top left of the page.

There is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

Building a loom

Last week I showed you the big loom I bought in all its bits and pieces, today I had the good fortune of two lovely friends come help me setting it up. I had managed to persuade (ahem) DH to move the bookcase from one end of the lounge so that I could bring the loom inside.

After unwrapping everything we found out the loom is actually a Finlandia 8 shaft by Finnish loom maker Varpapuu. I couldn't find much current information on the maker, they might have gone out of business, so if you happen to know anything about them please feel free to point me in the right direction.

Here are my friends helping me with the set up, the one on the right is Rachael the Sparrow :-)

Actually just after this photo was taken Pamela (above left), who is a weaving guru, realised that we'd set the frames the wrong way around, so we quickly rectified that!

 

Now that's better! Unfortunately we couldn't go much further as we found that there were some bits and bobs missing to complete the assembly. I called the seller who is going to have a look for me when she get home from work. So looks like I might need to wait until we come back from our trip to complete the set up and start weaving. But that's ok, there's plenty to keep me occupied in the meantime :-)

And I'm really beginning to panic, one more week to take off!!!

Oh yes, there's some new stock just been added to our Etsy shop, use code XMAS13 at checkout to receive 10% off storewide :D

Now what have you been up to this week? 

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

Checking on the Spindle Candy forum is a dangerous thing...

... because you can so easily get hoodwinked, and I can prove it! I was just having a look (no harm in looking surely?) on the spindle de-stash page, the next thing I know I was spinning on these two little cuties:

The one on the left is a trindle, I have wanted one ever since I saw the one appeared in Andrea's posts over a year ago, even though I hadn't started spinning back then. So when I saw someone was destashing theirs I decided to grab it. I LOVE how the trindle spins, albeit a little wobbly but it spins and spins and spins, and it's so easy to wind on. The right hand one is a Riley's Turkish spindle, it's a little slow than I thought but still spins beautifully, maybe once there's more fibre on it it will spin faster.

The rolags are made on my blending board, of various dyed merino, silk, mohair locks and some sparkle, they are pretty easy to draft and very addictive to spin!

Meanwhile my production line for Christmas presents kept running, and I finished my scarf #4 the Yorkshire Moors scarf that was on the loom last week. I love how the self striping yarn in the warp make the colours shift.

And here's scarf #5 an Alpaca blend in greys and naturals, same yarn for both warp and weft.

That's it for me this week, now show us yours!

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

Just keep weaving...

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! It's that time of the week again, this week it's all about handwoven scarves, well mostly :-)

Some of you may already know that we are going back to England for Christmas this year, then we're going to the U.S. for a "real" holiday, woohoo! I was making the list for family presents last weekend (it's a bit late I know), there were 19 names on the list not including children, eek! Then I thought: I can do this - I already collected a few items I made throughout the year and I need to practice my weaving, so I will make scarves! ... if you are one of my folks from the "old country" please look away now ;-)

Scarf #1: that was the Monet's Garden I showed you last week.

Scarf #2: Cherry Ripe Scarf for my FIL, so named after the chocolate of the same name :-)

It came off the loom a bit shorter than I intended, but he doesn't like long scarves anyway, or so I'm told.

Scarf #3: A study of pickup sticks - actually I might keep this one to my self, it's made of cotton and there were a few mistakes.

Scarf #4: Yorkshire Moors - the colours remind me of the heathers on the Yorkshire moors, and this is all my handspun. The Warp is a 2-ply yarn that I spun with one single from the Rolags made on the blending board, plied with another single of alpaca, the weft is a 2-ply that I spun in the TDF. It's still a WIP and it's looking great :-)

Last weekend I had a lot of fun dyeing silk hankies with Jelly, he's pretty good with colours!

These are in our Etsy shop now, and there's a 10% discount for October. If you're interested you can get the coupon code here :-)  

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

A hat, a scarf and a commission :-)

Welcome to my Fibre Arts Friday! I've got a few things to share this week, first up is a flat cap I knitted for Jelly who is playing Dickon from The Secret Garden in his school play. The rest of the costume was easy, or so we thought... as it turned out, the boy did not possess a single pair of trousers that are not jeans, trackies or combats. And he couldn't raid his brother's wardrobe because they are not the same shape. Luckily we found some in Savers, and we managed to find a nice waistcoat from another charity shop, so we are good.

Anyway, the flat cap. The pattern is Morgan from Knitty Fall 2008. It it a relatively simple pattern, you start from the centre and gradually increase out, the front of the cap is shaped via irregular increases. But once you are done with the main knitting the rest of the shaping is a bit fiddly but not difficult. The pattern called for two popper fastenings to hold down the top of the cap, but I didn't like the way it looked so I took those out and sewn the front edge to the peak instead. It's looks much better this way, I think.

The photo was taken in haste before school on the day the costumes were due in... the boy desperately needs a haircut!

I can definitely say I have caught the weaving bug! I finished my second scarf, this time using my handspun. You might remember sometime last year when I was exploring dyeing and carding, I made some hand carded batts called "I dream of Monet", I used the yarn spun from that for the weft and a commercial sock yarn for the warp.

Oh and I finished the spinning commission I took from the Gisborne market, I was quite nervous while spinning it, hoping that I wouldn't mess it up. I think it came out alright :-)

Before I sign off, Cat & Sparrow is running a promotion on Facebook for 10% off everything in our Etsy shop. Just click on the Facebook link to get the Coupon Code. For folks on the other side of the planet, the exchange rate with Aussie dollars will work in your favour at the moment ;-)

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

Drama About A Wheel

I didn't write a post last week because I didn't trust myself not to write anything I'd later regret, you see, I was very close to commit some murderous acts on my beloved 16 year old son. Let me tell you why.

Remember Little Grace Special? Yes, the handmade wheel that I waited 5 months for and finally came two weeks ago? Last week my son broke the flyer. Huh? What?! How?! Well, he was lying on the sofa like teenagers do, and had his lanky legs dangling over the side. My wheel was on the other side. As he was getting up he did this lifting up the legs and kicking out thing and WHAM! the wheel took a tumble but didn't fall (just as well!) but the poor flyer took the full force and fell, one of the flyer arms snapped - he is a blue belt in Martial Arts!

I was stunned, gobsmacked, stupefied, speechless, and sad...  Of course it was an accident, and he was very contrite - he even offered me all the cash he had, the cash he'd been saving up for something special. But that didn't help at the time, my brand new wheel!!

Luckily Mike, the wheel maker, said that if I sent the flyer back to him he would repair it for me. And the good news is as I write this post the flyer is on its way back, so all is good. And I still love my son, dearly ♥

While I was feeling sad last week I had something new to keep me occupied, my Cricket Loom had arrived. I know I know, I was going to get it when I visit the U.S. in January but I gave in to my impatience. Well, there is another story in there but I will tell you another time, one drama a post is quite enough!

Anyway, I used the yarns that came with the loom and made a practice piece:

and here it is tied off, washed and dried :-)

The edges are a bit wonky, especially on the side where I carried the yarns and it's only short, but I am very happy with how it turned. This is so much fun!

On the spinning front as I couldn't use my new wheel I got to play on the Jenkins Turkish spindle, I already had two singles spun up so I used my new Swan to do the plying which was perfect as I found it's a little too heave to spin singles for my liking. I was very impressed with how much the Swan can hold, a whopping 118g and 163 meters in this case, wow!

Well, that's all the drama and excitement for me this week. Now it's your turn :-)

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

Sticks and strings make beautiful things :)

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! As you may know that I was bitten by the weaving bug recently, not content with waiting until January to lay my hands on a Cricket Loom I started searching for things I could do right now and I found just the thing - backstrap weaving :)

Backstrap weaving is an ancient craft that is still practiced in many countries around the world today, especially in South America and Asia. I found a very good online resource for getting started on this ancient craft on WeaveZine - it's written by a wonderful lady called Laverne Waddington, otherwise known as warmi on Ravelry, who has been learning, documenting and teaching this technique for the last 20 years.

So, with the help of her article and Ravelry group I started making my own backstrap loom. The first step was to make a backstrap...

I found that the poles on my "fibre cave" was perfect for warping:

And if you have a son who does army cadet he can be very useful for securing poles to table legs :)

Here's my very first woven piece - a backstrap, and my backstrap loom is complete (I bought the different sized dowels from Bunnings and they cut them for me).

The backstrap is far from perfect, the two ends are not of the same width and the edges at the beginning look like they have been chewed by a dog, but nonetheless it's a functional piece, so I'm fairly happy with it.

Then I got a little adventurous and tried tablet weaving, where you use a pack of cards with holes to make patterns. An explanation of tablet weaving (or card weaving) can be found here.

I started with a thin band:

... then I got a bit more daring:

Tablet weaving is a lot of fun, even though it can be tricky to thread the cards correctly and keeping to the correct turning sequence, there is so much learn and I'm eager to explore more.

On the other hand I really should go back to my knitting and finish some WIPs so that they don't become UFOs... And that's me for the week, what have you been up to?

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!