2014 Off to a good Start

2014 has begun well for the group with a meeting at Chris Beech's inspirational house, weavery and garden. Thank you Chris for your hospitality.

Win brought along an overshot sample for a baby blanket and it was used to demonstrate a crochet/looping technique for tidying up a loose selvedge which had been a topic of conversation at an earlier meeting.  Here it is in mid demo . . .























On this occasion Dot was present and brought one of her many joyfully coloured blankets. How many is that you have made now Dot?  I do hope her family realise how lucky they are to have this contast supply of colour and warmth.

More photos soon . . . there's a lot happening.

Exhibition at Fibre Spectrum, Nelson

For the month of January four Top of the South members of the Professional Weavers' Network are  having a small exhibition called Simply Weaving in Fibre Spectrum, Trafalgar Street, Nelson. Rose and Peg are joining with Sue Broad from Nelson and Jane Clark from Mapua  to show our work and do a little bit to raise awareness of PWN.

 This is Rose's corner

 And this is Jane's.

 Here are two of Peg's damask pieces

 and two which include Japanese paper, alongside  a hanging of Sue's woven with reflective threads.

And the wrap and scarf are Sue's also.  Obscured above is a stunning deflected double weave scarf of Sue's.

Although the exhibition is listed for the whole of January, as items are sold they may be taken away so if you want to see it I suggest you do so sooner rather than later.

More photos on pegsweavingblog.blogspot.co.nz and Rose's warpedtoweave.blogspot.co.nz

A visit, a Book and an Exhibition

Although meetings are finished for the year some of us get to visit each other and check on latest projects, seek advice and indulge in weave-talk.  Judy and Rose visited Peg recently.

Peg and Judy scrutinise Judy's latest piece woven in mercerised cottons.  We loved the zing! of the colours. As you will see on the loom, Peg had some pretty 'zingy' colours going as well.

 You may have seen a copy of this book in the town library.  Thanks to Trade Me we now have a copy in our Guild library as well. First person to ring Rose can claim it first for the holiday period.

On the subject of books, here are a couple more hand made ones with woven fabric covers, made by Rose.

The close-up shows the two different sides of the braid used for embellishment. It is a 'walking' braid, sometimes called a slentre braid, where the fingers hold loops of yarn and draw them through each other. Note the uncut loops on one of the braids above. One side of the braid is flat and looks plaited and the other side is rounded and looks more like knitting.

An Exhibition  Anyone visiting Nelson during January may like to visit Fibre Spectrum in Trafalgar Street. The 'Top of the South' members of the Professional Weavers' Network are having a small group exhibition there. Pop in and have a look.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

These are hand-made cards which were exchanged by members at our last meeting for 2013.

Best wishes to one and all for the holiday season.

We will be back next year.

Wrapping up the November Meeting

Not everyone was caught by the camera but you can see that we were all working.  There will be one more post before Christmas and then a break till we meet again in January.

More from the November Meeting

Following the book-making Rose displayed a number of hand-made books, many of them from simple designs.  Comments ranged from 'How did you do that?' to 'Why would you do that?' 

A fabric book with a collection of mementos and an invented binding aroused a lot of interest.

Chris brought along some textile items she had brought back from a holiday in Vietman.

The packaging this silk wrap came in is just as beautiful as the fabric itself.

November Show and Tell

 Hand towels or teatowels . . . call them what you wish, they are lovely to handle 

and would be a delight to hang in anybody's home.  

These were made by Noelene - above a huck weave in cottolin, below, Bronson lace in cotton. 

Note the subtle squares surrounding the squares of lace.

This throw has been on Betsy's loom for some time and at last she has had time to finish it.  

It is very large and feels lovely although Betsy says she prefers Touch yarns.  

Note the red overshot square in the background.  This is a purpose-made stool top for Win's kitchen. 

She has had it professionally upholstered and it looks great.

Chris and Joan debate the merits of adding purple into Chris's crackle throw. 

Most people agreed 'it needs it.'

This garment marks the end of Rose's turquoise mohair stash (at last!)  

The warp is a textured light weight knot yarn and the belt was a lucky find.

 It is worn under the back panel and over the fronts.

Here are our books

Quick to make, useful to have on hand and an ideal small gift.  These little books were fun to make. Here are a few of them.

November Meeting

We began our last meeting for the year with a glass of wine or juice and Christmas cake and mince pies.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the festive table.
With recent book-making enthusiasm in mind Joan had brought along all the materials and tools required for each person to make a small handbag-friendly pad and pencil book. Members were asked to bring along scraps of fabric, handwoven or otherwise, for decoration.  Here are some general views . . . you will see the finished books in the next post.