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Jan 23

fleece on a sheep
3 Comments

Sheep Show 2012

fleece on a sheep

Image courtesy of Australian Sheep and Wool Show Bendigo

I am so excited about confirming that I’m attending the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo – July 20 -22.  I’ll be demonstrating weave and other magical fibery creations on the lovely Saori looms and hopefully meeting lots of fellow sheep interested people – knitters, spinners, crocheters, dyers, weavers and colour lovers.  And of course anyone interested in coffee. See the Woolcraft blog for the show here.

I know I’ll come home with bags of dyed sliver and hope I get an opportunity to see all the other demonstrators and exhibitors. It seems to me that the majority of fibre passionate crafters and artists come from Victoria. Even when I published the Curiousweaver journal, subscriptions from Victoria far surpassed all other states. It must have been an accident that I was born in NSW!

Jan 9

cut off waste
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Almost zero waste design

This constitutes the total waste from the garment I just designed. Almost zero waste! Some other shapes that I could have cut off to seam became a re-enforcement for the garment. This type of weave is very forgiving with the machine stitching and either straight or zig zag could be used. This is the weave that got me thinking about what I could stitch up.

I basically cut out shapes and pinned them to myself. I made sure the squares which formed the front were on the bias to give a better drape. The pattern, surprisingly, became one that you can wear two ways.
Here is an image of the front and back of Designway One. Notice the knot like formations at the shoulder. I was trying to create a summer weight sleeveless design and this works well. Linen yarn may also work well as it is crisper for the summer look.
This is designway two which is equally as nice but more conventional in feel.

The warp was only 45 cms wide and the finished cloth 1.8 metres long.

Jan 6

DSC_0754 (Small)

The limits of reading the news on an IPAD for weavers

IPADS and other news reading apps and devices aren’t for weavers. A screen can never really double as a weft, or add to our stashes. (well maybe it could if I smashed it up and took out the microchips but at the cost of an IPAD that’s not going to happen any time soon) Read more

Jan 5

WX60

Summer Saori Loom Offer

Saori has just released a new folding loom!

This upgraded loom is just like the SX60 but with additional features and improvements in an all wood frame.  It will retail for $1640.00. The WX60 shares all accessories with the SX60. Find out more details here.

As a unique and unusual introductory offer this loom is being offered to Australian customers for $1560.00 including delivery anywhere in Australia.  Offer ends 22 January. See here to order or inquire.

I’m pretty excited about this new loom and have some ordered for the studio as well. I dream about it being the catalyst for getting Australians to weave textiles…or even, more modestly,  knowing what a textile is beyond a tea towel. :)

Jan 3

yellow warp
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Breaking out with YELLOW!

This week I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone to yellow! It’s so not purple.

I was struck by the beauty and colours in our frangipanis and thought this could be captured in a scarf with a yellow and grey random warp. I used a mix of tussah silk, spun silk, wool and cotton. As the warp was only 7 metres long I didn’t have any problems with tension at all, although I did cut off the first scarf and re connect for the second. This always helps with any lurking tension problems.

I wound a selection of colour mixes for the warp and interspersed a lovely Dairing yarn from Avril. I got this when I was in Melbourne in November. Unfortunately I was sick when I was there so couldn’t absorb the wonderful Dairing shop as much as I could have. For the neck wrapping segment of the scarf I used a wool/lycra singles which shrank up softly and differently from the rest of the scarf.

 

I’m really happy with the scarf and especially the tussah silk which has a crisp edge to it. More photos when both scarves from the warp are finished.

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