28 Jun 2013

colour alchemy

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I’m now weaving on a red/pink warp — I have no objection to pink when I get to choose it of my own free will! — and my weft is this mix of shades of olive green.

olive weft

In the cloth, however, it seems to be quite a bit less green and more like an old gold.

face of cloth olive

The part I really like, however, is tricky to see and even more tricky to photograph. The back of the cloth is more warp-faced and the little hints of the green weft really do glow golden.

back of cloth olive

But I think you will have to take my word for it, at least until it is off the loom.

“colour alchemy” was posted by Cally on 28 June 2013 at http://callybooker.co.uk

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6 May 2013

scour, agitate, compress

11

If you keep an eye on such things, you”ll probably notice that weaving blogs (and Facebook pages) all over the east of Scotland are suddenly posting pictures of Laura Fry doing this…

Laura Fry in action

…and this…

Laura with the iron

…and, very likely, of Kerstin Fröberg doing this:

Kerstin and the cold mangle

We have been very lucky that Laura — who is over from Canada to visit Kerstin in Sweden — was willing to come all the way to Belinda’s Aberdeenshire studio to teach a workshop on the ‘Magic in the Water’ which is wet finishing. My note taking skills were tested to their limits with the sheer volume of expert information which Laura shared with us, and my brain is still recovering from the assault! I am now looking over my samples with a more critical eye than ever, and will be subjecting them to some ruthless treatment shortly. Laura summarised the three steps of wet finishing as: scour, agitate, compress. On the whole I reckon my scouring processes are pretty good and that I am not bad at finding methods of agitation suitable for my work, but that I can do a lot more on the compression.

Having known both Laura and Kerstin online for some time, it was fabulous — and slightly surreal — to meet them in person. The internet is a bit funny that way! And the workshop also enabled a group of more-or-less local weavers — based within a hundred miles of each other, that is — to meet face to face, many for the first time, so thanks are due to Belinda for making that happen.

It has been a bank holiday here today, and for once we have both had the day off. No work of any kind has been done! We went out for a walk and then to a teashop for tea and scones. Amazing how nice that is.

“scour, agitate, compress” was posted by Cally on 6 May 2013 at http://callybooker.co.uk

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31 Dec 2012

more weaver to weaver

1

No sooner had I opened the first envelope than the second arrived, this time from Noor in Alberta, Canada. I’m not sure how many countries are represented altogether, but it is feeling very international to me!

It seems that Canada has the same sticker-based system as the UK, so no exciting stamps on the envelope…

Noor envelope

…but what have we here?

Noor cuttings

Noor enclosed the most wonderful selection of cuttings, including text as well as images, which intrigues me. I hadn’t thought of that… But at the bottom of the picture, right in the middle is a Canadian stamp featuring a large cone of red yarn and weaver’s hands holding a shuttle.

There were lots of other goodies in the envelope as well. I’m especially taken with the rubber stamp Noor has made — by ‘upcycling’ an eraser — which prints a pattern of intersecting threads. That is going into use straight away.

Noor stamp and yarns

And finally, Noor mentioned in her letter that she reads my blog, which I know must be true because she enclosed teabags and a cake recipe!

Noor tea and cake

Alas the cake will have to wait — I haven’t enough eggs in the house and Scotland shuts down completely at new year — but a nice cup of tea will be just the thing tomorrow, once Stuart and I have moved the last of the table looms down to the studio.

So a big thank you to Noor for this lovely portfolio of treats. I wish I had taken pictures of the things I sent before I sent them, because I am suddenly struggling to remember: did I include that yarn in the end, or did I decide against it? But Kaz has received her envelope and blogged about it here, so that’s a good clue.

I have posted three times in three days, which is pretty unusual for me, but it is pretty unlikely that I’ll do so again before 2013 (less than two hours to go)… so a Happy New Year to you all. May it be filled with weaverly goodness.

“more weaver to weaver” was posted by Cally on 31 Dec 2012 at http://callybooker.co.uk

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29 Dec 2012

Holiday play

3

What to do at home over the holiday now that all the looms are down the hill? I decided to have another go at an Online Guild workshop from a couple of years ago. Sue Foulkes has written several articles and a couple of books on band weaving with a backstrap and rigid heddle, and her workshop notes are excellent and easy to follow. I had bought a small, lightweight rigid heddle when I was at Braids in August and was able to improvise the rest out of bits and pieces.

rigid heddle and backstrap

My recent study of bag straps turned out to be particularly pertinent. Not only was the hall table littered with assorted straps detached from holdalls — so that they were in a position to reveal their alter egos as perfect backstraps — but one of the three bar slidey pieces (technical term) I bought when I was constructing the recent messenger bag also makes a great warp tensioner. So laid out on the table from left to right we have:

  • clamp attached to the table with the warp attached to the clamp
  • one of several choke ties helping to keep the warp in order
  • ‘lease sticks’ made from empty bobbins with a string running through to tie them together
  • rigid heddle
  • ‘warp tensioner’ or three bar slidey thing — the woven band runs under-over-under the three bars and then…
  • … round the plastic bobbin and back under-over the first two of the bars. The rest of the woven band is simply draped over the weaver’s leg and pools on the floor (eventually).
  • cord threaded through the bobbin has a loop tied in each end
  • ‘backstrap’, aka holdall shoulder strap, is clipped to the loops

In action, of course, the warp is stretched out in the opposite direction away from the table and, in theory, the weaver gets to look out of the window when she is not painstakingly picking out the right pattern threads. More often she is looking through the warp at the floor and wishing she had picked out colours which contrasted more strongly with the floorboards!

band in progress 1

I reckon I have made pretty good progress, although my selvedges are still atrocious. One modification can be seen below: I added a clip between the bobbin and the three bar slider for extra security. On its own I find the clip tends to pop open, but it’s a useful addition in this configuration. The trickiest part is keeping the tension even when advancing the warp. Because the warp is much more spread out in the heddle than it is in the warp-faced band, the outside ends are following a noticeably longer path than the inside ends. Once it’s set up it is fine, but I have to slacken the warp to advance it and then it is quite hard to get it all re-aligned. Practice, practice.

backstrap with added clip thing

I’ve also done a bit of holiday knitting-in-front-of-the-telly. I have knitted half a dozen woolly hats to the same basic pattern, but haven’t felt the need to move on because there are so many variations to be tried with colours and yarns. The yarns I had to hand this time were rather fine so I doubled them. The charcoal is simply knitted from both ends of the same ball, but the red is actually a combination of two different colourways — one is more red and the other more orange/brown. They are both singles and give a nice diagonal finish to the sides of the hat. And I love the shading!

Of course, taking a picture of it on my own head proved to be a bit challenging… even with that swivelly option on the iPhone camera…

red woolly hat

“holiday play” was posted by Cally on 29 Dec 2012 at http://callybooker.co.uk

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29 Dec 2012

weaver to weaver

2

I received my first weaver to weaver envelope just before Christmas. It is from Elżbieta and came beautifully adorned with Polish stamps…

Polish stamps

…which made me feel quite sad about the Royal Mail’s print-out-a-sticker approach. I’m sure it is much more efficient but it is also a lot less fun than making up the right amount out of assorted denomination stamps. Sigh. Anyway, I decided to enjoy the stamps for a bit rather than open it straight away, as I wanted to wait until Christmas was over and the house was our own again.

The contents were well worth waiting for. Look at this gorgeous hand-painted card.

Ela card front

Ela has added another little sprig of tansy on the back too.

Ela card back

In her message Ela says that she is interested in natural dyeing using local plants and wool from Pomorska sheep, which are native to her region.

Ela Pomorska sheep

Here’s a lock of dyed wool she included. I love how curly it is!

Ela lock of dyed wool

All around her message she has taped samples of handpsun and hand-dyed yarn.

Ela dyed wool samples

It is such a beautiful collection, I am thrilled to receive something so lovely. And I am very glad that I waited to open it. For more lovely colours of yarn, do go and have a look at Elżbieta’s wool photos.

“weaver to weaver” was posted by Cally on 29 Dec 2012 at http://callybooker.co.uk

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