Sunday

The morning after a concert is always a delight.

I can sleep late and then have a lazy lie in with a cuppa and a good book ( or browsing the blogs, of course ).

This morning I did just that, and then wandered into my workshop and saw my loom and thought...I have time, I could finish that blanket today.

So I did.

I have woven a twill using a blend of possum/merino and alpaca/merino. The little orange stripe that you see is tussah silk.

It is very soft and light and is destined to become a warm cot blanket, I think, or perhaps a lap rug for my Mum when she is out and about in her wheelchair in the winter.

I am thinking I might do a similar one using all the odd balls of handspun that have grown into quite a large stash. I was saving them for knitting projects , but I think another blanket might be a good idea, while I have the loom set up.

Tomorrow I am off to Wellington. I am setting my alarm clock to 5.00am and meeting my daughter in Wellington for breakfast.!

1/4 done

I have just spent a very pleasant hour or two, sitting in the spring sunshine and sewing together the first six panels of the Heirloom Cabled Afghan. Hurray, I am a quarter through this lovely blanket, and so far have enjoyed the process very much. I am spinning the wool as I go, and there is lots happening in each panel with the cables to make it interesting to work on.

I carefully blocked each of the six pieces as I finished knitting, and today I was so pleased that I had. It was very easy to sew together, each piece fitted perfectly to it's neighbour and I used mattress stitch to avoid seams.

I think I am about a 1/4 through this throw as well on the loom. I have used a chocolate brown 4 ply warp, and am using two different merino/alpaca blends in oatmeal and a grey/brown, both DK weight, and every now and then I am throwing in a shuttle or two of bright orange tussah silk. The weave is a twill, and its shaping up to be very tweedy looking....uummm I think I rather like it.

Heddles

I have prepared a new warp under the tuition of my wonderful friend.
It is very fine crochet cotton and K spent the morning with me showing how to put the warp on the loom without getting into a tangled mess. It was marvellously straightforward and now I just have to finish threading these heddles.

At this stage I am feeling very excited !! A new woven "something" will be emerging very soon.

The last couple of weeks I have been ironing fabrics and tidying them into neat stacks on the shelves.

They used to look in a mess like this:

I used to have a patchwork and quilting shop and so I have a LOT of fabric, enough for several housefuls of quilts and a couple more decades of sewing ........I hope.

A woven blanket

I invested some time this week in finishing my blanket on the loom, and realised that I had started warping up for this almost a year ago...thinking that I would have it finished and on the sofa a few weeks later, hah, little did I know it would take me twelve months.

I am a beginner weaver and I came across lots of little problems with this one. It is the largest blanket I have made and is another double weave, ( the same colours and wool as the one I made last year for Alexander). All the problems and the many metres of wool that it took in the making, has put me off making another one like it for a while.

For now though I am pretty thrilled to have it finished. It is drying doubled over on the washing line. I washed it very carefully in "softly"and it has "fulled nicely.

The yarns I used were again from Touch yarns...soft merino/mohair boucle.

Packaged and Posted

It feels very good to send these away.This month of March I had redoubled my hours of working on Alexander's blanket and Melissa's Arisaig and I was in a fever to finish!

Something that I have discovered this month about myself, is that as soon as I set myself a time limit to finish a project, then the actual process becomes devoid of the same enjoyment that I was experiencing before the self imposed time limit. Interesting, I am thinking. There have been quilts and shawls and jackets (big projects) that I have made over the years, and without a time limit, I work on them when I feel like it, sometimes, as was the case with my anniversary quilt , I feel a little bereft when the work finally comes to a completion.

However in this case, I am very happy to be finished and sending them off and hope that the recipients will be happy!

I am having a great day today thinking about all the other things I have queued up and before I tackle something big, I might just have a little break and knit something for fun , like this,

a little brown monkey from the book "Toys to Knit" by Tracey Chapman.

Endings and Beginnings

This is definitely a week for for the start and finish line.

I have finished Alexander's woven blanket and I like it so much that I am going to make another one just the same.....grhhh. I don't REALLY want to because this one was a bit of a mission to make and was a teeny wee bit boring in the end to do, BUT having said that, it does look absolutely perfect on my sofa. Of course it goes so well with the one I wove on the other sofa!

I washed Alexander's blanket in a special merino woolwash and hung it out on this gorgeous Autumn morning

It is now incredibly soft . I wish you could all have a feel of how soft it is, perfect to wrap yourself into on a cold winter's night!.The yarns I always use for these blankets are Touch Yarns and they are truly luxurious yarns. It is Alexander's birthday on April 1st, and I have toyed with the idea of sending something else in it's place and writing a birthday message of "Ha April Fool!!"
No, I couldn't be that mean, :)
So, I am about to visit the shop where I buy these yarns and ( sigh) start the process all over again.

Blanket love

I have been thinking about blankets, quilts, afghans, throws, shawls, pashminas,wraps, in fact anything that can be wrapped around a loved one, or to cover them in bed, or to wrap them up in warmth and comfort whilst having a sickie on the couch.

For me personally, I find this to be an ultimate expression of love for that other person. To make them them a shawl , afghan, wrap (any of the above) and to see it giving warmth and comfort brings such delight and satisfaction. Nurturing !

Talking about nurturing make me think about Joan ( Ian's Mum)

My mother-in-law didn't sew, knit, crochet, spin or do any of those handcrafts that other rural women , raising a family in the fifties, and sixties did.

She grew up being fostered by a relative who didn't make time to show her those skills. Instead she showed her love by enveloping everyone that came to her door with wonderful hospitality, and marvellous meals, and a sweet graciousness.

She was a wonderful teacher to me in the early days of my marriage. This cake was a firm favorite of ours when our men were out in the paddocks haymaking.

Pineapple Christmas Cake

1.5 kg mixed fruit

450g crushed pineapple

3 cups flour

1tsp.cinnamon and mixed spice

225g butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp.each of vanilla, almond and lemon essence

6 large eggs

Place mixed fruit and pinapple in a large bowl and leave overnight in a warm place.

Mix spices with flour. Cream butter sugar and essences then beat in eggs one at a time, adding about two tbsps of spiced flour with each egg.Toss tog. the prepared fruit and the remaining spiced flour in a large bowl. Stir in creamed mixture. Put mixture into a paper lined 23 cm cake tin and bake at 150c for 1 1/2 hours then 130c for approx.2 hrs.

I am loving every minute spent making the ripple afghan and am already thinking about the next crocheted project..uuum yes another blanket. I might have a go at this one, the Babette Blanket in the Interweave Crochet mag 2006

Of course I should finish this woven blanket for Alexander , although as it is his birthday on 1st April, I still have plenty of time. It has been a little too hot to sit at my loom for very long.

Christmas Eve

The build up to Christmas day is always busy and can be stressful.

But when the supermarket shopping is all done, presents wrapped, mince pies made, all the lists of "things to do" ticked off, house vacuumed and tidied then..

a contented bliss could descend on one, and Christmas anticipation really begin.

Some knitted items got finished in a hurry, this is a little vest handspun and knitted for our Creative Fibre stall that our group has on a Friday night in town. I plan on making a few more of these. They are knitted in one piece, so not much sewing up!

Alexander is home for a few days so I showed him the progress made on his blanket and I plan to do some more when I feel like closeting myself away with my loom.

But for the next few days it is going to be family, food and fun.

A very Merry Christmas to you all and see you in 2008!

what a tangled web we weave

I was reminded of a quotation that my Mother once wrote down in my little blue autograph book that I had in the sixties. Why she chose this particular quote I have no idea, but it certainly came to mind this weekend.

"What a tangled web we weave, when we learn how to to deceive".

Now I wasn't planning on any great deception this weekend, but I certainly got myself in a big tangled web!

It took many hours of untangling this mess, but got there in the end.

So I now have the fun part of weaving it into a blanket.I have my measurements right this time and it will be 58'' wide when off the loom. The wool colours are rather Christmassy don't you think?

I had a dramatic flowering happening in my kitchen yesterday, so had to post a picture of this beautiful amaryliss

This is bringing a lot of delight and pleasure...I wonder how long the flower will last?

A New Blankie

Today was a very good day.

Mum had her plaster removed and her elbow is looking pretty good.

We took her to a posh restaurant for lunch then the supermarket (her favorite place) and then the hairdresser's (next favorite) for a new hairdo. She was very happy and I was relieved that all was well with her arm.

Last night after Eve had gone home to her own little bed, I wove the last few inches on this and with a flourish snipped it off the loom, because I was too impatient to untie it carefully. Here it is....drum rolls please......

My first attempt at Double Weave...you can just make out the fold in the middle of the fabric, hopefully after the fibres have settled this line won't be noticeable.

This blanket / throw is for my youngest daughter Sarah, to keep her warm and cosy and "close to home" when she is living in another city and far from home comforts.

When I finished this for her I was reminded of her first "blankie". Here he is Sarah, I haven't washed him so he still has the unique blankie smell..

The next "blankie" will be for No 2 son Alexander. He graduates from uni this year and has work lined up straight away...yay Zander!

This is almost finished, just another ten inches or so to go and it will be done!

Some Dyeing and Digging

Spent the morning with our Creative Fibre Group and brought home some perendale/angora, which I immediately put in a cold water dye bath on the bathroom floor, where it is nice and warm.

So hope that turns out OK. Then I went outside and planted some vege seedlings before the rain came down

Did a few inches of Sarah's throw

See where it opens for Double Weave ? Cool eh!

Then I did something that I haven't been able to do for several months now

"Hello old friend, welcome me home again, I've been away but that's all over now"

Sorry to break into a bit of James Taylor (I am a big JT fan from way back!!) Oh now I can see my kid's faces and hear their groans..whoops

My violin and I have been parted for way too long. I have had RSI in my right elbow joint and fiddling really aggravates it, but I have been working very hard with the physio and doing some Alexander Technique and now maybe we can get back together again.

Double Weave Delight

I bet you all thought this entry would be "Double Weave Disaster", or DW Dilemma or other such titles, and you know it very nearly was.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and the whole warp was unwound from the back beam twice before I was happy to proceed.

Then when it came time to actually start weaving the four different layers of warp, I somehow managed to get myself in quite a muddle. I just couldn't work out the combination I needed to separate the fabric on one side and keep it closed on the other.

Yesterday I went to a local weaving group meeting with a notebook and a mouth full of questions. There was one lady there who gave me confident concise answers to my questions and I asked her if she would mind if I took her phone number.

Guess who I was phoning at 9.30am. Caroline said "tell me your address and I can be with you in ten minutes ".......imagine that !!! What a guardian angel she was today.

She had me weaving DW in ten minutes flat. I was estatic !

Look at my two little helpers.

Melissa, A and K came for dinner tonight, so I had to take them out to my workroom to show off my new skill.

I did discover quite a huge mistake this afternoon though. I totally miscalculated the width measurement with the warp ends, so the finished measurement isn't going to be as wide as I wanted. I rang Sarah ( youngest daughter and the recipient ) and told her it was going to be the size of a wrap / throw instead of a bed covering !!!!! She replied that she didn't mind at all and would LOVE it no matter what the size...see haven't I got gorgeous daughters ?

So I am feeling very happy tonight.

Yesterday afternoon I went to visit Tamsin (2nd daughter ) and her family.She wanted to learn how to spin, so I went armed with my spinning wheel and lots of carded fleece and we had a great afternoon. She was getting into the rhythm of it when I left, I think it must be in the genes .

I couldn't resist posting this picture of a beautiful giraffe that her daughter gave me. Esmae is five and has just started school. She is the eldest of our grandies and loves painting and drawing.

Isn't it cute ?

A Precious Palette

I must have known something very special was going to happen today, because I woke early and decided to go to the gym , so I could spend the rest of the day tackling this:

Yesterday I finished warping up and put the warp on the back beam all ready for threading the heddles today.I am using a different method this time...putting the warp on from back to front instead of front to back which is how I've done it before. So it is all a little bit scary and I feel somewhat unsure and slightly anxious about the whole procedure.I wish there was a visual tutorial somewhere, or even better someone standing alongside of me telling me the way to go. Instead I am relying on a couple of books written by seasoned weavers. We will see, I am sure it will all be OK.

Anyway , my mind was full of this when I arrived home from the gym and collected the post .

A parcel from Caireen from The Patchwork Dress was there in the mailbox waiting for me and imagine my excitement when I opened it to find all this treasure.!

My heart was racing, and I am sorry to say Caireen, that I mindlessly ate the fudge whilst unwrapping all these jewels.

While I had my shower ( a great place to think and decide momentous matters ) I thought I would like to do a series of pictures . Scottish landscapes and some of the Marlborough Sounds(which is so similar to Scotland and her lochs). Little scenic pictures in wool,with the colours of the hills and the water, and of course the beautiful heather and wildflowers. Caireen wrote a card with this wonderful gift and the dear little bird, and she talked about Willow. It reminded me of this little arbour made of Willow

I mght have to embroider one of these in the landscape too. I have done very little freehand embroidery, but I am sure once I start I will be totally hooked. My Aunt has always embroidered beautiful pictures from photos and paintings that she has admired. Joyce did this embroidery of our youngest daughter Sarah , jumping on the trampoline when she was six.

Yes, this beautiful palette of colour that Caireen has so generously given, gives me endless possibilities.

Thank you so much Caireen, you marvellous girl !