Not quite stasis

The predicted summer slow-down eventuated! Between long days at work, fine weather making it desirable to be ourside, being a bit poorly and other distractions, the opportunity to get to the loom for a decent period of time isn't always available.

As I thought, I've not had as much time to work on fibrey things over the last several months, although I have been working on things in dribs and drabs. I've finished spinning the blended merino yarn for the colour-blending-spinning-challenge thingy, and it's now in the weaving queue to be turned into a bag. I've woven off another two scarves from the black-and-beige warp to extend the pleated scarf series (with further experiments, which will be documented in due course, once they're wet finished). I sold a scarf and was contacted by someone who liked it very much, who ended up buying two scarves from me and commissioning a third, so that's next in the weaving queue. The silk cap on the bobbin in the picture above is the dyed and now partially-spun silk cap for the commission, and I have to say that the gloriously soft colours are making me very happy. I've also pulled out all of my existing stock, not all of which are finished, so that I can make sure they're finished, as I'm running a spinning and weaving demonstration at our local Feast in October, and want to be able to show people what's possible - and I may as well have some things up for sale as well. So there'll be a lot of things in the posting queue once all this is achieved.

In the meantime, we're heading off to Wales to spend an extended weekend cycling, and just to add to the mix and slow things down, there's a new distraction as well! We're very much into self-reliance, and we've just been given the chance to set up an allotment/smallholding by proxy on our landlady's agricultural land in return for helping with maintaining the place, and we plan to get very stuck into that. I've been talking more about that here.

Even with all the other distractions I really do want to get back to weaving more. The ideas in my head are translating to the weaving queue far, far faster than the queue is diminishing.

Bradford no more!

I received a letter from Bradford College last night, in response to my rapid on-line application. The application has been referred to the international office, and they were requesting further information in order to assess my fees status.

Oops. It's all too easy to forget that I'm not a native here. I do not wish to go through the process and expense of international studentship. So colleges and formal education - whatever my incination may be - are out the window for a few years yet.

As I mulled this over in my head, I realised that formal education may not be the most appropriate thing for me anyway. I already have an inordinate amount of degrees, and what I really want to do is think more about design, rather than be trained to fit an industry I don't particularly want to work in anyway. Which takes me back to options like workshops with the like of Janet Phillips, or the Master Weaver's qualification through the Ontario Spinners and Weavers Guild.

Still thinking...

More crinkles

The pleating goes on. This is one I finished between the blue pleated scarf and the black-and-beige series currently on the loom, but I've struggled to get a decent photo.

This scarf is another expedition in warping with handspun. I spun this yarn years ago, from Henna-dyed tussah silk roving. Then, because I'd just moved to the UK and had no way to weave, I used it to try my hand at lace knitting. This is one of the few things I've knit, because I'm not really a knitter. I discovered, however, that lace knitting really needs a slightly firm yarn. This was a lovely scarf, but completely floppy because the yarn was so soft. The lace was completely lost. And as I wear a lot of red, I've always wanted my own handwoven red scarf. So I frogged it out and resolved to turn it into a woven piece. But there wasn't quite enough of the yarn to make a full warp. Which is what led me to the whole 'reversible pleat' idea.

What to put with it? 60/2 silk, doubled on each warp thread, to make stripes set slightly less thickly than the handspun silk, and to give a difference in drape between the stripes. And the weft? Well, I have some yellow and variegated red-orange-yellow silk cap (visible here): the next logical step was to dye and spin some in bright tangerine orange, to match the warp. Yellow at each end, a bit of orange, red in the centre.

The end result was this:

Which I'm pleased with. This isn't as soft and floppy as the rayon and silk scarves, but it has a lovely firm hand and a decent cling to the neck. I can choose whether it sits to be mainly orange or mainly red. I think it's pretty, and it will go with a very wide swathe of my wardrobe!

But most importantly, this scarf is highly personal to me. There's a bit of silk in there that I haven't dyed and spun: but not much.

Carding a rainbow

I've been so busy I've not had a chance to go near the weaving loom for at least a week. I think it's starting to sulk, and do feel guilty for neglecting it.

I did, at the expense of weaving time, spend a good bit of my weekend carding, and also cheating slightly. The point of this is a challenge to blend primary colours into colours for a project, but the colours supplied were the bright sherbet colours in my previous post, with white roving to make them paler, but nothing to make them darker. I don't really do sherbet pastels, so the application of a little dark garnet, dark blue and black dye to strategic pieces of the roving made me much happier. I have dark red, red/pink/orange, red/orange, yellow, green, mid blue, dark blue and purple.

Now for the next bit: to spin it all up.

Carding a rainbow

With a few spare hours to myself last night, I busied myself with this:

These aren't complete, but they're the beginnings of some colour experiments. I'd done the initial trials with hand carders and wasn't happy with the result. Having only used the drum carder to process raw fleeces rather than blending before, I've concluded that the drum carder really does make blending easier, faster and more effective.

I won't be continuing with this tonight, as I'll spend the evening travelling up to a hotel in preparation for a seminar up north tomorrow. So instead, I'll take my trusty Little Gem wheel, and this:

It looks grey in the photo, but this is coal black-dyed silk cap.

What else do you do with an evening alone in a hotel, other than spin?

No decisions on the further training ideas as yet. The ideas are still spinning in my head. I want to do something because I'm always keen to have a qualification in my interests, but I've not yet fopund something that's a firm fit.

The Bradford HNC

So for several years now, I've been prevaricating about maybe possibly applying for the Bradford HNC in weaving. It's seemed a sensible way to go about making myself think more about design in what I do. But the nature of my job, and (as always) the thought of spending all that money have prevented me from doing so.

But this post from Jane has convinced me that maybe I need to apply and commence this year, before it disappears completely from its present format. So, despite the fact that I'll be overseas for three months over the winter, I've just made an on-the-spot 'panic' application.

Can anyone give me any reasons why this would be a bad idea?

EDIT: talking further with Jane informs me that the current crop of students are the last to attend the course in the existing format anyway. But the idea is in the head...

Reversible pleated scarves

When not on holiday (or wishing my holidays hadn't come to an end), I've still been having fun with pleats. After the last round, I decided to see whether I could make areversible pleated scarf, in two colours.



By making each 3/1, 1/3 twill block an alternating shade of light and dark blue, I created a scarf that is dominated by the light blue warp and the weft on one side, and the dak blue warp and the weft on the other side. Of course there's nothing new under the sun - I wove this a while ago now, and was sure I'd come up with something unusual and interesting, only to have the latest issue of Handwoven arrive the next day with an article about two-tone pleated scarves!

This scarf was made using rayon for the warp and various bits of blue silks (some commercial, some variegated hand-dyed and spun silk cap). I wasn't sure the rayon would pleat up as well as wool because it's so slippery, but it rolled up a treat when washed.

I did this to test the idea, before committing my precious handspun silk to the same treatment. I did, and am really pleased with the result, of which more later. In the meantime, the drape on the rayon is so lovely and I'm enjoying this exploration so much, this weekend I've warped up a long warp of black and beige rayon, to make a more scarves: