Profile: Peg Moorhouse

Peg Moorhouse is as sprightly as ever, still weaving and still having bright ideas of what to weave next. She loves colours and textures - and she loves life! No wonder with the stunning view she has to inspire her.

Peg is a week away from her 92nd birthday but undaunted by new technology has just bought herself a digital camera, so look for photos from her soon.

Peg's work on this blog can been seen here; her website is here.

by Rose Pelvin

Profile: Win Currie

Win is one of the founder members of the Marlborough Guild and Marlborough Tapestry Weavers.

Though active in the Tapestry group, Win is best known for her apparently open-weave scarves in fine merino, alpaca and silk. Featherlight, soft and tearfully elegant, her pieces appear loosely woven, but they are designed intelligently and finished heartily. She also weaves smaller casual, unisex scarves.

Some of Win's work can be seen here and here.

by Meg Nakagawa

Jacket, by Rose Pelvin

This is my grand-daughter Natasha wearing a jacket I wove for myself away back in the early 1990s. My records don't go back far enough to date it accurately. When Tas comes to visit during Uni holidays she loves to fossick through my "stuff" and usually goes away with some garment or other she didn't have before.

by Rose Pelvin

Profile: Rose Pelvin

Rose Pelvin is one of the founding members of Marlborough Weavers; she is an enthusiastic and tireless mentor to many and a prolific weaver herself. Rose is a Kiwi, but she didn't grow up on a sheep farm, and having tried lots of other crafts, she thought she would try weaving in the late 1960's; Rose completed the then-Nelson Polytechnic Weaving School program in 1976 and has never looked back.

Rose likes to let yarns speak for themselves; she says often they tell her what they want to become and she is the agent to make it possible. Rose loves linen, and if she could, she would weave only table linens and fine fabrics.

Rose's work can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

by Meg Nakagawa

A Paris Inspiration

Last year at the end of a European holiday I spent three days in Paris. And the last hour of that was in the Accessory Department of Galleries Lafayette. It was like an Aladdin’s cave. I bought 2 scarves and one of them became the inspiration for a series of scarves I have worked on this year . Two are in silk, Alpaca and merino and the third has the silk replaced with Tencel.

These scarves were in our recent Funky Fibre exhibition.

by Win Currie

Bag, by Rose Pelvin

This bag is made from a piece of woven fabric, three times as long as it is wide, with a textured cotton weft on a smooth mercerised cotton warp.

I love the way it is made in the style of a Japanese furoshiki - first folded into three squares, two seams are sewn (top and middle at one edge, bottom and middle on the other) and instead of tying the two free corners together a handle is attached to these points. This one has a small loop in the braid to thread a scarf through.

by Rose Pelvin

Ripley Sings the Blues, by Lesley Nicholls

Approx 18cm x 12cm. This work was part of a New Zealand/Australia tapestry exchange where the theme was "something blue".

By Lesley Nicholls

June Meeting was a Lace Weave Workshop

Instead of our regular third-Monday meeting, we held our June meeting in Bobbin Cottage yesterday, setting up looms and holding a casual lace weave workshop. Pictures paint a thousand words, so have a look at how much fun we had!
(From top left)
1. Chris and Anne-Marie welcome new member Sue and feel the lovely handle of her rigid heddle woven fabric of soft wool and llama fibre.
2. Christine gets started on the 8-shaft huck sample under the watchful eye of Joan.
3. Hand manipulated lace weaves fascinate June and here she passes on her knowledge of Brooks Boquet to Judy and Pat.
4. Christine and Pat concentrate while helping each other out with Bronson Lace.
5. Joan and Chris tackle the immense "Show and Tell" display. Obviously some members have been doing lace weaves for a while - but there is always more to learn.
6. Tricia and Nancy really are listening and watching the show and tell, but also doing their "knit in public" thing at the same time. Weavers are great multi-taskers.

(From top left)
1. Judy is careful with beating the delicate lace.
2. Anne-Marie usually weaves on a rigid heddle loom so is trying out some shaft weaving for a change.
3. Nancy is enjoying getting that shuttle going.
4. Dot enjoys weaving in winter. The rest of the time she is a gardener.
5. It doesn't take Christine long to sort out the huck blocks.
6. Betsy is always keen to participate.

Christine
Judy learns the magic of working Danish medallion.
June
Bronson Lace - Before
Bronson Lace - After
Joan raided her wardrobe to find this special occasion top she once wove in bead leno.

Our most successful participant was also our youngest, Rebecca.
(Clockwise from top left.)
1. So cute!
2. Sometimes a little help is needed! Thanks Chris, your feet are bigger than Rebecca's!
3. Yes, really, Rebecca, this is what it will look like after it is washed.
4. Look Mum, both feet!
5. Proud Mum Anne-Marie looks on - but is that a tinge of envy? Mum weaves on a rigid heddle loom and hasn't got to use treadles yet!

By Rose Pelvin

Lesley Designs a Postcard

The Tapestry Group decided to make a small Postcard display as a contribution to the Marlborough Guild 40th Birthday Exhibition, Funky Fibres. We asked Lesley Nicholls, a founding member, if she would like to contribute. She arrived at Easter with a newspaper cutting of a planned real estate subdivision and a small bag of wool. She outlined various shapes on the paper cutting, made a cartoon of the plan and wove it all in bright colours . There it was .... a Post card!!! Try it ....any interesting collection of shapes will do.

Seen in the picture, from right, are the Tapestry Group members, Jan Hannay, Dawn Glen, Lesley and Jenny Murray.

by Win Currie

Marlborough Weavers Join Weavolution

Not being ones to shy away from any weaverly activities, we, too, joined Weavolution, and started a group called Downunder Weavers, open to all. (That means, please join us!)

Like many others, we're still studying how this new gathering place can enhance our weaving and camaraderie, but for now, if you see our username "MarlboroughWeavers", please send warm and fuzzy vibes our way.

Nutcracker Collection in Timaru, by Rose Pelvin

My "Nutcracker Collection", along with Peg's "Silver Lining" and "Some Cloud", were exhibited in style at the "A Common Thread" Professional Weavers Network Exhibition in Timaru at the 150 year old Landing Services Building.

Though not part of the annual Festival proper, PWN cannily arranged to have the exhibition on in Timaru at the same time, and one PWN member from Timaru (who was helping to organise the Festival) cannily arranged to have the shuttle buses tour around by the Information Centre which happened to be in the same building as our Exhibition. So we had lots of people through, the Exhibition was well received, we had lovely comments, and really good sales to boot!

by Rose Pelvin

Frou Frou, by Meg Nakagawa

I make no secret of being hue-challenged, and have been coaxed by two younger weavers in particular, one in Colorado, USA, and one in Gosford, NSW, Australia, to break my barriers and weave totally uncharacteristic scarves. Well, there you have it. Not only did I use/mix colors I would never have before, but also used synthetic (rayon) accent yarns in this piece.

And now that I've got this out of my system, I look forward to working within a very narrow sliver on the color wheel again.

The main body of this scarf is in 2/20 mercerized cotton.

This scarf was exhibited in a Small Scarf Exhibition on the Internet.

by Meg Nakagawa

Sauce for The Gander, by Rose Pelvin

This is one of my favourite texture weaves using thick and thin yarns. The thicker yarn in this piece is100% alpaca, handspun by Nancy Taylor, and the fine is 70% alpaca and 30% silk. When I weighed the scarf before washing, including the waste, it was 100grams exactly. It is a generous 10 x 71 inches finished size plus the fringes which I will probably shorten considerably.

It was not my intention to do this for the Small Scarf Exhibition. But coincidentally I have been working in parallel with Meg (the organizer of the Exhibition) to finish a scarf - right down to the problem of photographing at night (note the Give Way sign outside my window) I looked at your late entry and thought "that's sauce for the goose." So here is "sauce for the gander".

This scarf was exhibited in a Small Scarf Exhibition on the Internet.

by Rose Pelvin

Marshmallow Topping, by Rose Pelvin

As well as the colour, I loved watching the pink and white puffs popping up as I wove this. The main yarn is a mix of fluffy cotton and acrylic with a binder of lustrous viscose rayon. For the fine white stripes and also for the weft, I used doubled 10/2 bamboo, also a lustrous yarn, and one I have not used before. Each scarf end is gathered into a tassel and finished with a small crochet "collar" of the bamboo yarn. A curious praying mantis joined in the photo shoot on a glorious autumn afternoon in Marlborough, New Zealand.

This scarf was exhibited in a Small Scarf Exhibition on the Internet.

by Rose Pelvin

Muilticoloured Scarf in Plaited Twill, by Judy Bool

A Plaited Twill draft woven on 4 shafts at epi 24. The warp is an extremely soft merino/mohair mix. Colours in a purple/mauve/pink/gray mix. Weft is two strands of fine alpaca/silk in a peacock colour.

The multicolours have shown as subtle stripes with flecks of the peacock blue weft sparkling through.

This scarf is very soft and light.I wove it to be a detachable collar cum scarf for a yet to be completed cape. Just the thing for a cold winters day. The "Twills" are my second favourite drafts. Especially the undulating twills.

This scarf was exhibited in a Small Scarf Exhibition on the Internet.

by Judy Bool