Two scarves

 One of the two scarves I have been furiously weaving on the  Voyager. You can see from the fringes how lurid the warp was before being toned down by the indigo dyed Cheviot singles.

And here is the red and grey scarf done in 3:1 twill squares - except at one end where I got bored and let the squares dribble away. I have got rid of vast amounts of wood and tools to a violin maker today. Mind you all this getting rid of things does not appear to provide any more space in the house.

I have been thinking of putting a curtain up at the back door. It faces North and a cold draught is obvious whenever I walk by. I had decided on a thick black and gold fabric (in the stash) but changed my mind because it will make that area look very dark. Today I was truly inspired. I have a roll of kimono fabric, pale blue with silver sprays of flowers, very delicate. I bought it on the web as a lining for a jacket but, when it arrived, it was no good. The material is very stiff and scratchy. However that will not matter for a curtain!!!

Bookbinding Projects

Some months ago my daughter, Anne, gave me a book on chutneys with a request to mend it. It is a glued paperback and was in three separate sections with one loose single sheet and the covers were in an awful state. So I considered for several months and, in the end, went to Angela Sutton, a local bookbinder, for a day's tuition, today, and repaired it under her supervision. It is now a hardback and is all quite sound. I cleaned up the covers, trimmed them and glued them on the outside. which is dark maroon library book cloth. I created the artwork for the spine label using Photoshop and printed it out on a postcard. It seems stout enough.

This is a photo of the end papers which are Lokta, Indian  and ornamental - and also dark maroon.

I have finished another coptic book, started at the bookbinding class last week. The cover is a cotton Japanese-y print. The paper inside is a mixture of cartridge paper and paper brought back from Japan. Each section has a guard paper which you can see on the spine under the stitching which is done with Oliver Twist space dyed silk. This yarn is a good weight and strength for book binding.

This photo shows two guard papers. The one on the left is a small remnant from a large sheet of Japanese paper. The one on the right is the entrance ticket to a Kyoto temple. I saved mine up and brought them all home. Also used as a guard paper is a fortune prediction!! All written in Japanese. What you do is take it home if you like it and tie it on in a special place in the temple if you don't like it.

Yesterday I assembled all my woven Christmas cards and addressed them. The foreign ones were posted this morning. I managed to complete the red  and grey space dyed scarf, finished and fringed it. The two space dyed scarves have been washed and hung up and will be ready by the weekend when I need them. What with managing to deal with all the paperwork on Monday morning, I fell quite virtuous.

The next job will be enjoyable as I must go upstairs to the paper stash to select paper for the inside and the covers of the next trial Coptic book. There is no doubt that this business of practising is paying, Each book is better stitched than the previous one.

Flower Trapping

 

At the Bournville class on Friday, we practiced a new technique, that of flower trapping. You put down a piece of fabric, then some stuff called FuseFX, then flower (petals) leaves, et cetera then more FuseFX, then silk chiffon. The sandwich is ironed at a high heat between sheets of parchment. The final piece has the silk chiffon partially fused as well. Sarah Cage, who taught us how to do this, has pieces done months ago which look the same as the day she created them. The piece cannot be washed so it would be used for a cushion or wall hanging. I have done three pieces and will have to think of something to do with them!!

My grand-daughter, Madi, came over yesterday and we had another a day of clearing out. I am slowly getting rid of stuff. We also turned out the garage. For all the throwing out that's going on, there does not seem much less stuff in the house! 

I have made an error in the red squares scarf and will have to unweave about an inch. I thought it was a little error which would not show up but not so.  Oh well.  This week I must finish that scarf and wash the last two. I need them for next Saturday and I must do the Christmas cards as well as framing threepieces of songket from Malaysia. So a busy week.

Another Space Dyed Scarf

I spaced dyed a lambs wool warp in red and dark grey ( see a photo here) knotting the warp tightly in 5 or 6 places, painting the knots dark grey and painting the bits in between red. When it came to weaving it up, I wanted to show off the colours and came up with this design which is just a twill.  20 threads on Shafts 1 to 4 and the next 20 on Shafts 5 to 8, then weave in 1:3 and 3:1 twill, swopping over every inch.  Quite pleasing although simple minded.

I am determined to go back to ikat and have been reading  my many books on ikat. I have decided what to do in the sense that I have decided to start on warp ikat and design it so that I could do the last half of it in weft ikat if I am getting on well The big problem is that I need to lay out the warp under full stretch and that limits the length to less than 2.5 yards in the garage. I will dye it in an indigo vat and might try a double dyeing. 

Tomorrow Madi is here to help clean up and out the garage. This will help towards the ikat plan.

A grandfather clock has been handed down the family. It was made by a 19th century clockmaker in Whitby, Yorkshire where Michael's family has lived since the 1820s.  It is currently owned by Ruth, my eldest daughter, but she decided that taking it to Malaysia was not feasible and it has been staying with us for 5 or so years. However it has not worked in that time and also was damaged in the move to Malvern. Recently I found a local clockmaker to take on refurbishing it. The clock shows the phases of the moon as well as time (the clockmaker says it is an incredibly accurate clock and got very excited about it) and the enameled dial for this has been very badly damaged for years. I remember it damaged at least 30 years ago. The clockmaker suggested that it be repainted and so it has been.  It went to a specialist painted who has made a fantastically good job of it. I should have taken a photo before repainting. The paint had entirely disappeared from the top third of the dial leaving bare metal and one of the two faces was very badly damaged. There was a lot of cracking elsewhere. No-one has any idea what was painted on the top section so a ruined castle will do as well as anything else. I am rather pleased about this. 

He has refurbished most of the clock but a new wheel has to be cut and we are aiming for an operational clock by Christmas when the KL bunch are descending en masse. The current plan is for everyone to have Christmas with Anne in Leamington Spa and then the KL bunch and me depart for New Year in Dundee with my sister, Dorothy. The younger members (everyone but Dorothy and myself) have tickets for the Hogmanay street party in Edinbuirgh and are looking forward to it immensely. 

Dorothy has invited all the other bits of the family for lunch. I reckon there will 25 people if they all turn up.

The Wonders of a Stash

You may recall this dyed warp  from a week ago  which I said was too bright. I warped up yesterday and yes it is too bright.

So I thought I would inspect my fine wool stash just in case. And I  found four large spools of fine Cheviot Handspun which I had dyed darkish blue with indigo. I have no memory of this but my records show that I got it from Rosie Price in 2008.

And this is what the fabric looks like woven up. Much darker, subdued even, but much better. IThe scarf will be more blue than brown but it is nice. There is plenty of the weft yarn. I wonder what project I had in mind for it. I put 250 gms in skeins, dyed them and wound them onto spools. 

Hand Painted Noren

This is a handpainted noren (door curtain) from a stall in Kyoto market . We were wandering through it looking at the fish, the mushrooms and the pickled vegetables when we came across a stall selling nothing but noren. We went in, not that there was much room and he more or less ignored us (European tourists after all) until Ruth took one out of the rack and got me to hold it up. At which point, he became very attentive and hung up masses for us. He even brought others out from his shelves. And we did buy one each. Ruth got hers installed as soon as she got home but mine had to wait till today.

It is hand painted and no two are alike. The fabric is natural hemp and the picture is of a persimmon tree bearing fruit - very autumnal. He had some very nice ones painted with maples.  And where you ask have I hung it? The door to my work room is just by the front door which means that the first thing anyone coming in sees  is a shambles first unless I have closed the door - which I don't. So a door curtain is perfect. It's in a very prominent position to be admired and you can't see the shambles through it. I even used a piece of bamboo to hold it which comes from my own bamboo plantation . It curls up at the bottom because it has been rolled up for the last five weeks and in a small box. I am hoping it will drop out. If it doesn't, I will have to iron it.

I have cleared up a bit more in the work room and am about to finish another project or two!!