Makeup Bag

I whipped up a makeup bag on Sunday.

Designed to be just a bit longer than my eyebrow pencil

It barely took 15 minutes to throw together and the hardest part was locating a zipper foot for my sewing machine. The accessories for my machine are currently AWOL and will probably turn up at the bottom of a stash box one day. The benefit of having a spare sewing machine (or two) is having additional accessories. The drawback of owning more than one sewing machine is sounding like a person who can’t control her impulses but I figure they don’t make ’em like they used to. Besides both of us use them.

Though only only of us sews makeup bags.

How many sewing machines do you own?

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Thrum Scarf

I had a lot of warp yarn left on the loom after my friend finished her wrap, but not enough to make another scarf without making some adjustments.

I decided to take the remaining warp off the loom and add more colours to it. I used fisherman’s knots to add in three new warp colours (navy, pink and cerise) from my stash to make a new warp. I put the coloured yarn in randomly thought I did check for patterns that might inadvertently creep in. Sett was 15epi.

I chose a Lincraft yarn 100g, 100% wool $1 from the op shop for weft. It’s a pale green shade to calm the vivid warp colours. I like the colours of the warp in the fabric, but felt they were too riotous for a fringe. Instead I went for a hemmed finish using the Java tone of Bendigo three ply that is also in the warp.

The finshed scarf will be a gift for an overseas friend.

There is a slight iridescence here that I really like

M’s and O’s

The Simple Weaves book has a pattern for guest towels in M’s and O’s that I thought would be perfect for the Cottolin yarn I bought in Sweden a few years ago. It was perfect.

Wool Wrap as a Teaching Project

A friend in my neighborhood was keen to try her hand at weaving and I was keen to try my hand at teaching. Perfect!

The picture above shows the loom set up for her to start her project, a wrap or scarf.

It was made with a lovely soft mohair wool blend doubled as weft and Bendigo three ply as warp. As I like to do for low stress weaving, I threaded dark grey on shafts 1 and 3 and java on shafts 2 and 4. The sett was 10 dpi.

We only had two 50g balls of weft yarn and when it ran out, that was the end of the project.

My friend is thrilled with what she achieved, as she should be.

My friend almost always wears black

Not bad, is it?

Doubleweave Class with Kay Faulkner

This year I again took a week out to focus on a new structure under the expert tuition of Kay Faulkner. This time the structure was doubleweave, something I had long wanted to try, entranced as I was by the marvelous deflected doubleweave items I had seen online.

Accommodation in the Birkdale area is a mild problem in that almost all options require you to have a car to get to class. This year I shared accommodation with Barbara, a fellow linen and lace graduate who lives in Queensland. We were able to spend time discussing all elements of weaving, day and night and enjoyed sampling the many restaurants in the area, with Barbara very capably driving us everywhere we needed to go. I know she reads this blog so thanks Barb!

I enjoy the intensity of a week long class structure and the ability to move from loom to loom to try different applications. This time was easier for me as I had with some familiarity with both Kay’s looms and her teaching style. The winner project was window panes, which still seem like complete magic, even now I know how they come together.

The editor of the Victorian Handweavers and Spinners Guild newsletter declined my offer to write an article about my experience of the linen and lace class I attended at Kay’s studio last year, on the grounds that it might be seen as promoting a competitive source of weaving education. Dear readers, may I say that I thoroughly recommend that you attend one of Kay’s classes if you are able to get to Birkdale (in the Brisbane area) and can afford the time and the (very reasonable) class fees. I do not feel at all disloyal to the Guild in making this recommendation.

Avocado Dyeing Fail

All I can report on this experiment is that the avocado skins and stones failed to colour my clean, undyed wool.

We had fun, had a good chat and had lunch.

We tried reheating and adding vinegar.

We giggled over whether we should pee in a pot and add that. (We didn’t)

Total fail.

Good thing my friend had brought her commercial dyes from Ashford.

The shrinkage was massive after all those interventions.

Two Rag Rugs in Rosepath

The two rag rugs I completed this week were closer to the kind of result I have been aiming for but had not quite achieved. The rugs used a double thickness of weft, made up of old business shirts and old sheets cut into 1 inch (2.5  cm strips) sewn together. The two weft strips were of different fabrics in the yellow toned rug and I am very pleased with the variation in tone that this achieved.

Folded hems extend the life of the rug

Use of a temple keeps the edges even and prevents draw in

Close up of the rug and the rose path border

I chose to make folded hems as it’s likely they’ll end up as bath mats and experience has taught me that a fringed finish is like a magnet for fluff. Also I expect a folded hem to wear very well.

The new pro-tip from this project was serging (overlocking) the ends of the rug when they came off the loom. This gave me a tidy finish and secure ends.

Sett was 10 dpi in a 10 dent reed, threading was rosepath over 8. Warp 8/4 cotton in blue.