Tuesday 28 February 2012

Gruffalo

On Saturday, I had an urgent call from my daughter, Anne. Alex had to go to school on March 1st dressed as his favourite character from a book and it was the Gruffalo. What could I do? So this took up all of Sunday and is definitely recycled. 2 old bath towels, some purple sheet foam (what on earth did I think I was going to do with that?), some gold ribbon stamped Hotel Chocolate all over and some black ribbon from net-a-porter. The only thing I had to buy was some elastic for the neck. The tail is not very clear in the photo but is  made of brown wool and mohair from the yarn stash plaited and with a huge knot at the end. Amazing what a granny will do!!!

My sister, Dorothy, is staying with me for two weeks and has brought a lot of textile work with her. She is having an open studio in September and has decided to finish off a few projects. She believes in working on textiles first thing in the morning so by elevenses we have a lot to show!!  It is having a good effect on my pile of projects.


I finished off the cover for Omar Khayyam, using the Thermofaxes and then JetFx to get the title et cetera on. Yesterday I pasted a lot of pieces of fabric to bank paper ready for use on book covers. I have done several for Dorothy who intends to make books when she is here. They were all dry this afternoon and we removed them from their boards and scrubbed the boards ready for the next bout which will be  at the weekend. Dorothy has more pieces of fabric and I have some upstairs which I would like to do. 

I have had several big jobs hanging over my head and this morning I got them done!! This weekend is Kennet Valley Guild meeting and it is the annual session on 'teach the weaving beginners  about drafting.' But as I teach them by making them weave paper, I have to prepare all the paper warps and cut the weft strips. It is all done, in a tidy pile of handouts and necessary example books with Post-it notes all at the ready. 

I also revised the notes I had written for the Complex Weavers Tied Weave Group and added a section on the work on the 12 shaft loom. That took a bit of time and has been distributed.

And if that was not enough, we took Jake, Dorothy's black collie cross, for a long walk on Castlemorton Common and paid our respects to pollarded trees. I noted that someone is actually pollarding some of the trees which is great.

I just might start winding the next warp now!!!

1 comment:

  1. Perfect! Wish I could wear stuff like that.. and yes, grandma's are the best.

    ReplyDelete

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About Me

I am weaver and - -. I dye my yarns with acid dyes, I paint my warps, put fabric collages and stencils on my weaving. I have three looms, a 12 inch wide, 12 shaft Meyer for demos and courses, a 30 inch Louet Kombo which is nominally portable but has a stand, two extra beams and a home-made device containing a fan reed. And last a 32 shaft Louet Megado which is computer controlled, has a sectional warp and a second warp beam and I am the proud owner of an AVL warping wheel which I love to bits and started by drilling holes in. I inserted a device for putting a cross in. I have just acquired an inkle loom and had a lesson from an expert so I can watch TV and weave at the same time. I am interested in weaving with silk mostly 60/2 although I do quite a bit with 90/2 silk. I also count myself as a bookbinder with a special interest in Coptic binding.