Tidying Up

The 12 shaft loom has gone on its rounds and the 4 shaft Dryad has found a loving home. The last I saw of it was Roy Young (the Guild's man about looms) and the new owner peering at it  in the boot of her car and discussing which of them should take it home. One shaft needs some repair.

I am in 'Finishing-Projects' mood at the moment. I finished off a batik shirt of Michael's which I remade for me. A problem about buttons. In the end I removed the originals, made button holes on the female side and added some Dixie Nichols buttons and put on ribbon as a collar. I have a 'Ribbon Stash' and I know that this length of ribbon with waterlilies was bought near Gawthorpe Hall in a Lancashire market 30 years ago. I knew it would come in handy one day. Michael knew it was useless trying to get me past a ribbon shop in Europe. There is a fabulous one in Strasbourg in Petit France and another in Amsterdam on the way to the RijksMuseum.

I am going to a natural dying day in Birmingham today and am taking the rest of the indigo vat from the Newbury Coat. I assembled everything yesterday and should just have to pack the car. I have wound a warp of 2/16 cotton and tied it up for Ikat. Some of it looks okay but some may have gone wrong. This piece is intended to get me back into weaving ikat and I have already remembered a lot. It is more than  five years since I last did any. Then I tried warp and weft ikat and it was all horribly wrong. I reckon I now know what went wrong and am starting up again. I deliberately chose 2/16 cotton. Last time I was working in 90/2 silk. and a width of 24 inches.  The current piece is 12 inches wide. Let me get the technique right first and and then I will try fine silk again. The current piece is intended to be for warp only and then warp plus weft. So I will have to dye some more yarn for the weft later.