Ooops, I told a fib!

The weather and the Interislander decreed that I would not travel to Wellington at the weekend so I was, after all, able to attend the Weavers' meeting on Monday and here are some photos to prove it.  First instalment covers the show and tell.

A most un-Chris colour but her trade mark crackle block weave using soft brushed wool in the weft. It would make a great sit-up-in-bed-and-find-all-the-patterns entertainment for a sick patient as well as being cheerful and warm. 

 

The pattern of Win's baby blanket looks quite different in the samples from the same warp using different wefts.

Judy has not been spinning long but this ball of Gotland wool is smooth and beautiful.  Her first spinning is woven with singles yarn in warp and weft, fulled in the washing machine and is cosy and comfortable.

Jen is now confident to weave a wool scarf in 8 shaft twill at 20 epi.  Well done Jen.

Judy brought along this sample of defelected double weave which arrived via Cross Country Weavers.  Different from other samples of this technique we have seen, it shows many possibilities.

Nancy is helping along the Creative Fibre project to knit hundreds of baby singlets in honour of The Royal Baby which, at this stage, is yet to arrive.  CF members all over NZ will be donating these singlets to local hospitals and Plunket societies.  Of course, Nancy's are knitted in alpaca yarn.

Betsy's work in progress is a pair of fingerless gloves which she is adapting from a pattern for normal gloves.  The pattern is what I suppose we now call vintage . . . the price on it is sixpence!

More soon about the fascinating things June had us delving into.

 As I won't be at the July Weavers' Group meeting I am posting pics of my show and tell in the hope of earning a brownie point or two.  Two lightweight knee rugs from the same warp which is alternate machine washable and non-machine washable wool.  I wondered what would happen when I washed it but . . . nothing!  I hand washed it and spun it in the washing machine.

 This model is slightly larger than the top one. It confirms my belief that I don't like space-dyed yarns used in the weft.  Perhaps if I hadn't used a definite twill line it wouldn't look as though the weft streaks are fighting with it.  Or if the colour range had stayed in the mid-blue range without going so dark I would have been happier.  Lesson learned.

Of course it looks different in use.  The dark throw on the back of the couch is the one which gave me so much trouble on the dark overcase days when I couldn't see what I was weaving and resorted to a head lamp to get it finished. The result was quite OK in the end but I will think twice before weaving dark yarns in the winter from now on.

Have a great meeting.

Drowning in Scarves!

We had our June Weavers' meeting last week and I completely forgot to take any photos . . . sorry about that. Judy showed us lots of her lovely work and told us where all her drafts came from. She gave us ideas of how to get different results from the same warp.  There should be a heap of photos. All I can do is apologise and show you some more of the scarves from the expo. This time some close-ups. The first ones are felted.

And these are knitted.

I promise the next post will be about weaving.

Scarf Expo Wraps Up

The scarf expo finished today after a very successful week. Sales were good and those who still had scarves at home kept popping in with a few more to fill the spaces.  Here are more of the exhibits.

Creative Scarf Expo

It's World Wide Knitting Week and it is also the week our Guild has a Creative Scarf Expo set up in an empty office building in town.  Over 200 scarves are on display and many are for sale.  The weavers are well represented but almost overwhelmed by an explosion of colour and texture from the knitters and felters.  Here are a few of the exhibits.

First view inside the entrance

Chris sets up the weavers' display area with a demonstration loom and some of our work

Scarves in this group are all woven. Elsewhere the techniques are mixed together

The show could have been called 'All Things Bright and Beautiful'

Chris and Joan worked their display magic with bamboo rods and sky hooks

More photos in a few days.

More Show & Tell

 The first two items in this post came with our Richmond friends.

Note the fascinating braided twill. . .

and an interesting example of repp weave.

This is the detail of a wrap similar to the one Win had in the National Exhibition.  The side panels are alpaca.

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Among the 'tried and trusted' towels was this one from Joan. It would be such a pleasure to use.

Rose produced this lightweight wrap with bamboo warp separated by slub cotton panels of Bronson lace.  The weft is the same cotton.

Show and Tell at May Meeting

This is the first instalment. The items in this post are all from the Richmond members, beginning with 2 lovely bags.. Note the bead closures and the kumihimo braid trim.

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Ooops! I got that wrong.  The bags were made by Sue Baskett. I originally attributed them to the wrong person.  Sorry Sue.

 This silk wrap is Julia's. It can be worn as a fabulous fashion garment and then folded up into a neat flat package.

 And now for something different!  Esmae wove this bag out of plastic grocery bags. It is lined and has strong kumihimo handles. It will last for ages.

 Back to Julia again, this time with exquisite work in linen. What an inspiration!

This is one of several table runners made by Esmae (I'm pretty sure I have the names right. If not I hope someone will let me know.

A few more photos to come in a few days.