Show and Tell

A well attended meeting today and our monthly Exchange Day created a really good feeling. We had some lovely colours to look at and plenty of ideas for projects . Very productive day.

Show and tell

Cathy: Ball of wool and silk in green with splashes of other colours.

Maxine: Four skeins of wool dyed with Tasmanian blue gum leaves and a fifth skein in blues, pinks and yellows where she added commercial dyes to the mix.

Karin: Woven scarf made from her handspun wool in greens and pinks.

Margaret: Skein of finely spun,. fawn wool dyed with Tasmanian blue gum leaves courtesy of Alexis.

Deb: Knitted beanie from the green wool she had cold dyed at the dyeing workshop.

Anthea: Two skeins of hand dyed , handspun wool and alpaca from Equipment Day.

Sue: Hand dyed silk from dyeing day. One large purple skein and other smaller bobbins in assorted colours.

John is in the process of weaving a jacket on his heddle loom and Sue is into some serious purple felting. Looking forward to seeing the finished items.

Weaving wonders

John is one of our weavers and he is constantly giving himself challenges. He enjoys it, knows a lot about it and has the skills to repair looms so they work well. He encourages others and helps them to improve. Today we are showing you a sample of the sorts of weaving he does. He is always keen to try our new patterns. He likes the brain workout it gives him. Top right, the green and fawn fabric is thick and solid enough to be a mat. Second from left he has woven some fabric which he wants to turn into some sort of garment. His other fabrics make nice bags, scarves, shawls , runners. He uses different fibres to see what effects he can get. Once you know how to set up a heddle loom, then you just need to give yourself some challenges. Tess Earle explains things clearly. If you can do basic weaving you can progress to her houndstooth pattern because she makes it accessible.

Weaving wonders

Marina’s bag

Peter’s wall hanging

John’s scarves

Our weavers keep us interested and amazed. All those threads turn into something really wonderful and sometimes something very cool like Christine’s sprang woven bag we featured. John and Peter use heddle looms and Marina has learned how to use one so she can help her husband Peter set the loom up when he needs it. John just amazes us with his skills and patterns and inordinate patience.

Top left is Marina’s bag and it looks really great. Peter wove the fabric and Marina sewed the bag and added the handles. The lining makes it, doesn’t it? She was using it to store her grey mohair while she was spinning it but we are sure that bag will be a great fashion accessory with the right outfit.

Top right is Peter’s T Shirt  strip woven wall hanging which looks a bit like colourful bubble wrap. It really does have a 3D effect the way it has been woven and the lime green and lavender are popular cool colours at the moment.

John’s scarves were shared on our trading table at the Port Noarlunga Beanies to Berets Exhibition and drew a lot of interest. John picks good colours and then weaves them to good effect. Yesterday’s post featured his oddments weaving and that is looking striking as well.

Some people in the club have used heddle looms and now no longer do but their experience contributes to the pool of knowledge weavers in our club can access. There is no doubt weaving builds memory , mental discipline and neural pathways. Neural pathways become stronger when you repeat things and learning is more effective when there is mental and physical activity together …as in weaving!

Weaving wonders

Peter and John really keep us interested and delighted with all their different weaving patterns and projects. Their work just gets better and better and more and more intricate. This week they brought along different things to share. Using a heddle loom is very good brain and memory training and ultimately it is a rigorous discipline and then a creative joy because there is lots of puzzling involved. The bottom two pictures are what they are currently working on. John’s on the left has variegated colours and is very interesting visually. Peter has variegated colours too and his work is looking good. He has picked up his weaving skills quickly. Top left is John’s blanket and we all loved that. It was the colours and then how soft and blankety it was! The scarves are Peter’s. His wife , Marina, has learned how to make the twisted tassles on the middle one and she knitted pockets to match on the one on the left. We enjoy looking at their work and projects and cannot believe what they can produce by way of fabric.