Linen Sampler, by June McKenzie

Featuring NZ flax (phormium tenax), this fibre was obtained from the Marshlands flax mill (now closed) on the outskirts of Blenheim by Molly Duncan, renowned weaver and author, for over 50 years ago.

I used this fibre to weave mainly hand-manipulated lace weaves, including Danish Medallion, Brooks' Boquet, Spanish Lace and Leno, for the sampler. Twills are very effective woven with NZ flax as it has a great sheen.

by June McKenzie

Miniature Tapestry, by Win Currie

Recently I have been doing miniature tapestries using a small picture frame and embroidery silks. The design was developed from a small photograph of staircases in an European building. The result is a very effective brooch.

Photos by Rose Pelvin; text by Win Currie

A Man's Scarf, by Betzy Frizzell

Tomas, my grandson, chose the colours; he said mainly black with grey and a little red.The threads are all 2ply with the grey 50% merino/ 40% opossum /10% nylon. I am very pleased with the result as it looks a man's scarf.

Photo by Rose Pelvin, text by Betsy Frizzell

Baby Blanket, by Pat Holland

At the start of the winter, the local Wairau hospital were searching for donations of knit, crocheted and woven baby blankets. In response, Pat Holland made this baby blanket in yarns that are soft to handle as well as soft in colour.

by Rose Pelvin

Annual Rotoiti Retreat

The Nelson/Marlborough/Buller Area of Creative Fibre/New Zealand Spinning, Weaving and Woolcraft Society Inc (read: our chapter of the national guild) holds an annual weekend retreat at Nelson Lake's Lake Rotoiti Lodge. (There is another Lake Rotoiti on the North Island.) This year's Retreat took place last weekend, July 25/26.

There was not a lot of weaving going on, but our members were keen to try everything on the programme. Here the challenge was to produce felt flowers.

Joan concentrates on the task in hand

Denise (a felter) gives Noeline a few pointers on how to get started

Joan works away in the background while Christine (a felter) shows her flair. Note, through the window, how close the mountains are.

Judith, who moved to Hokitika, was so happy to see her old friends again. She has become very proficient in weaving twill shawls for a craft shop in Reefton.

This is Nancy multitasking; all ears listening to the speaker and knitting while also staffing her stall with the scrumptious alpaca yarn many of us are getting to know and love. Everyone attending for the weekend was expected to knit a pair of slippers for charity. By Saturday morning most were already finished.

Collage : Yes, it's fibre, and yes, it's creative. A guest speaker/demonstrator produced these spectacular examples of floral art just in case people were not already overflowing with mind-boggling ideas.

On Saturday at Lake Rotoiti Lodge was full to overflowing with people, spinning wheels, yarns, fibres, books, business and chatter for the annual Area Retreat. The sky really was this blue! There was scarcely a breeze and it was a glorious day for sitting outside in the sun. Tuis kept up their music in the bush all day, and a little bush robin came to visit when it was quiet. He really did have two legs but chose to stand on one most of the time, perhaps showing off the band on his leg. Following this fantastic day, the overnight temperature dropped to -6C/21F!

by Rose Pelvin

What Weavers Wear

And during our July meeting, some of the weavers wore their own creations. Here's Anne's scarf:


Jenny's scarf and knitted alpaca jacket.


And Win's hand-painted scarf.


by Rose Pelvin

July Meeting

A daytime meeting was a good idea for July. The sun shone and we enjoyed sitting outside for our lunch.


And just so you know a nice chat is not all we had, here's Noeline looking on as Anne-Marie shows Joan how she does leno on her rigid heddle loom.

by Rose Pelvin

Resuscitation, by Rose Pelvin

In a recent tidy up I unearthed this shawl which has been skulking in the back of the cupboard. When I first made it I thought I was clever picking out in mohair the colours of the flecks in the wool boucle to outline the darker grey stripes. It didn't do much for it; in fact looked a bit pathetic in my opinion. I decided to breathe a bit of new life into it and replaced the three colours with red (mohair again), then added bulk and texture by doing a whip stitch over each two rows of plain weave. It has perked up considerably and looks much healthier. The handle is soft and light - and so warm! If it doesn't sell this time I will be happy to use it myself.

by Rose Pelvin

Profile: Dot Fowke

This winter seems to be the season for looms to be brought out of storage and resurrected. Dot Fowke was valiantly trying to tie up a countermarch loom for a friend of a friend. As she hadn't met either the F of F or a countermarch loom before, Joan and I called for a visit to lend a hand. I let them do the crawling around the floor bit while I took photos. That's Dot's back view in the top photo, and Joan looking as though she really knows what she's doing. Between us we had some success and were rewarded with a cuppa, drinking in Dot's view at the same time (bottom photo), and admiring her working space and marvelling over her loom (centre right photo). It is a unique model, surely one of a kind, made by someone with serious engineering design skills. It can be easily "unlocked" and folded up to be moved. Having been bought at auction it has come without stories - what a shame - I'm sure it could tell a few.

Dot lives at Rarangi in a two-storey house with windows looking out over most of Marlborough. She has a sea view out over Cloudy Bay, the Vernon Bluffs and the Wairau Bar, and also looks south to where Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku can be seen peeking over the Wither Hills (centre
photo). A very quiet member of the group, Dot's weaving is restricted to the days she is unable to get out into her extensive garden. She has recently completed an Agribusiness course in commercial horticulture and has a certificate to show for it - and another on in plant propagation.
She has propagated about 90% of the plants in her garden - and it's Large! and it's Full! She weaves for family who appreciate her blankets and throws.

by Rose Pelvin

More Sauce for the Gander, by Rose Pelvin

While I was reasonably happy with my "Sauce for the Gander" scarf I didn't think it was special enough for an exhibition with a capital E run by the Alpaca Association. So I mucked around with it! I agonised for ages trying to decide what to do - even pestered my daughter for advice. Thank goodness I took it. As the scarf was quite wide I narrowed it down by embroidering a row of square stitch along each edge, placing a tiny pearl bead at each square. I then took a deep breath and cut off the edges which were not all that neat because I had woven with two shuttles. I fringed the long sides, but not the ends, having been told "No, Mum, it would look like a fluffy table runner."

I bundled it up, sent if off and heaved a great sigh. This is my one finished project in about six weeks. Selection time came and went and I had no confirmation that it had been accepted, someone else had, so I accepted the fact that it had not been selected. I wasn't too surprised. Imagine my delight then, when later I had a phone message to say I had won second prize! (All that worry wasted.) So you get to see the scarf again.

The 100% alpaca handspun yarn in the scarf was spun by Nancy Taylor from fibre from her alpaca named "Inca Sun" so I called my entry "Inca Sun's Hidden Pearls."

by Rose Pelvin