Away Weekend

I have been away for the weekend - but it has all been textiles.

I had a good day on Friday in that I finished a project on the Megado - see above and stripped down the Megado and cleaned it up. Kennet Valley Guild has an  ongoing project for the weavers which is to weave an item inspired by a painting by Richter. I used the triple cloth warp which I had   on the Megado for Michael's enamels. I rewrote the draft and added a lot of green - not sure that there was green in the original but it showed up as green on printer when I printed out a blown up version.

Having cleaned up the Megado, I turned to Linda Scurr's handspun yarn and all the skeins became balls (see above). It was clear when I handled the yarn that it was too thick to make a fitted waistcoat from. On Saturday, Rosie Price and I persuaded Linda that what she really wanted was a winter cape - for which  the material will be ideal. So it is a dogstooth pattern which is 2 and 2 twill with stripes in warp and weft. I looked up yardage required for a short cape last night and decided that 6 yards of 30+ inches would be okay. The reason for 30+ is that I am not sure how much it will shrink so I am putting on 38 inches which should be plenty for draw-in and shrinkage. I will be using a temple.

On Saturday I was at the Guild weaving class. Some of the class have their projects warped up and are weaving away - all very special.  The rest of the class was heads down, threading up.  They are all being very ambitious - and it is all working out well. After the class I stayed with Rosie Price overnight and, apart from Guild gossiping, we examined some of her stash. She has some hemp yarn she intends to be a jacket. And she has spun lots of skeins of multicoloured toning silk. Just one or two skeins of each. She can't use it all in that project - it would look too bitty. But it's all lovely yarn.

 

Sunday I went to Aldbourne to a meeting of the Braid Society and did finger weaving. When I got home, I wound the cotton ghost warp for the Megado and then installed it. It is all ready to thread up and I want to finish that today. If I get on with it, I might get some of the handspun wound into warps as well. Some of the handspun is springier than the rest and I am worried about tension so Linda will come and help wind the warp on later this week.

 

So back to the Megado.