Missing Skein

I believe I have looked everywhere for the missing skein but no joy. So I re-did the sums and yes I was right. There was no margin at all so I have ordered 4 more skeins. Well I am not going to risk not having enough weft. 

Today I started threading up the double weave Tencel and later decided that I would make a haori at the Bournville class. So I have worked out the dimensions and that's all. Tomorrow at the class I will start designing where the decoration will go. I have started on the Morning Glory book but have not got far.


The most important thing I have done today is to watch 'The Trouble with Harry'. I always forget how funny it is. I have a weakness for Shirley McLean.

First Batch of Dyeing

I did the first batch of dyeing today. Made soda solution, replacement acid dye solution. Used Procion MX dye rust-orange, on a big piece of calico for a gilet. It intend to put on an Art Deco design based on the previous one but printed (mostly).  And dyed three skeins of wool and silk violet. 

I dyed 3 similar skeins a few weeks ago. One skein came out a slightly different colour and felt differen and  I decided that it could be turned into warp and tie-dyed. Can I find it? No. I have the other two skeins but where the third is I have no idea. But there was a piece of serendipity. I decided to look in all the plastic crates of yarn and found 200 gms of Leicester Longwool space dyed with strawberry pink. It was bought at Sheep 2010 held at the local Three Counties Showground. It is just perfect for the multicoloured warp so I turned the whole lot into warp.

And I wound more skeins for the indigo day next Monday. I have decided that I will wind the warp I want and dye that directly. So that has to be done before Monday.

But I would like to find my missing skein. I don't think I have enough yarn otherwise.

Michael has finished all his work on the Morning Glories but I am waiting for him to sign them all. Then I will start on the book processing.

And there were also visits today from the GP, the district nurse, two pharmacists' deliveries and the hairdresser to cut Michael's hair.

IN THE EVENT

I wrote a few days about making a concertina book, 'In The Event'. A mock-up is shown above. It clearly needs some tidying up, but nothing drastic except that I need to think of a better way of doing the ribbon ties. Buttons? Buckles? All the artwork was done on Photoshop. The final version will be printed on Bockingford Inkjet Paper but this mock-up  was printed on the colour laser printer using normal photocopy paper. All the white slivers that can be seen must go and that was not too difficult. It's done already. But I will change one of the pages quite a bit, although only the layout of the words.

On the left is the back cover. This topic has been rankling since February 22nd 2010 when Michael came home after 7 weeks in hospital and he had a letter with him from the NHS. The letter was printed on A4 paper and had a wide red border. It was signed by a doctor. The implications were horrific and this is my way of working through those horrors. Just pray you never see a letter like that.

That is quite enough for one day.

New Day Book

I am slowly progressing with my new Day Book. Today I sewed all the sections together and it is in the press. I had intended to cover it in some fabric showing beach huts but came across this while looking for a piece of fabric with stars on it to send to my sister, Dorothy.  The piece on the left was designed and sized for an A4 book so I will use it. The leaves go up the spine. It is a very substantial book and I am wondering if 2mm greyboard will be stout enough.

I have been experimenting with over dyeing. I took the piece of calico which I had printed with a paisley pattern wood block and tore it in half. Then one half was dyed with rust-orange Procion MX and the other half had transfer dyes ironed on. No real surprises. Both worked and you can still see the original printed patterns.  I suspect it work as well if I reversed the order. I quite like the transfer dyes although it takes a long time to iron. I have ruined the cover on my ironing board by not being careful enough - it has become quite multi-coloured.

I prepared a small lino cut yesterday  (3 inches square) and printed it this morning. I do not get on so well with such a small piece. Does not seem to print so well. I did try it on paper with printing ink and on fabric with acrylic paint textile medium. The fabric works okay but I was using heavily textured fabric  and the red looks quite pale pink because the paint only sits on the highest threads. Interesting though. I must try on a smoother fabric like calico. The next lesson has come and I must read it this evening.

Lino Prints

Here are some lino prints, about six inches square. I am quite pleased with them. They are printed on Chinese paper I brought back for Michael from Kuala Lumpur some years ago. I prefer the one on the left as I could get quite fine lines for the veins in the leaf. It is quite odd. I feel quite at home with this technique. I can see me doing a lot of it. The tutor assumes that the students will be printing on fabric. So far I have only printed on paper but tomorrow I will try on fabric.

Michael is making great progress with his painting for the Morning Glory book and, driving home from Newbury yesterday, I worked out how to do a book. This particular book has been bothering me for nearly a year. As I was proposing to put it in this summer's exhibition, it is about time I found a solution!  I must go and write it up. Do I need to make a mockup?

I have owned a copy of Carol Strickler's book on 8-shaft weaving for a long time but it is not exactly bedtime reading and so I can't say I know it well. However the Guild weaving class has been quarrying in it for lace patterns and I realised what a wealth of drafts are in it. One very attractive feature is that you often get one threading which can be used with wildly different treadlings to get very different patterns.  I am thinking of using this feature when I weave the cushions for the October Exhibition. This idea has proved very popular and we are promised 30 cushions which will all be woven with natural dyed yarn. I need to get on and indigo dye the first lot of warp yarn. We need a definitive weight for each cushion so we know how much our natural dye expert has to treat. The original idea was to pile up the cushions in a heap. That was when we were expecting 8 or 10. If we pile up all 30 in a heap, every under-five in the district will be burrowing through it and treating it as a trampoline!

The rainbow of scarves is coming  along. Weavers are acquiring yarn and selecting patterns. This was definitely a good idea. Originally we thought the rainbow of scarves would have 7 or 8 colours. I think we are at around 18 or 20 now and are at the stage of having a light purple and a dark purple, black, white, shades of grey and brown.

I need a day in the garage dyeing. It is quite difficult to disappear in there for several hours  and look after Michael at the same time. So I am thinking of getting a carer in for Michael for an afternoon so I don't have to attend to him. I have these strange tokens for a carer so that I can get out of the house. The garage is definitely out of the house. I really don't see why not although it does sound a bit odd.

Bournville Course Today

I had this idea of doing a waistcoat with an Art Deco feel to it and decided to try out the design on a calico shopper first. Here it is. I unstitched the sides and laid it out flat, then applied the brown velvet shapes and the gold cord. The problem is the concentric circles and how to attach them. I am not keen on Bondaweb as a permanent attachment method in clothes. It is okay as a method of holding pieces together while machining is happening. But I find it difficult to control the sewing machine on such tiny circles. I want a 'clean' appearance and don't really want any stitching to show. These circles are all held on with hand stitches but they are not invisible. 

Options for the waistcoat are
1) to use a wool fabric as a basis and needle felt circles on. Hairy felt does not seem Art Deco-ish to me.
2) to print circles on and over print if necessary.  This strikes me as possible and within my capabilities

3) Abandon the idea altogether.

I  will consider this over next week.

I need to spend a halfday dyeing next week. Indigo bath for Guild Exhibition cushions, dyeing the last of the wool/silk yarn violet and seeing whether a wood block print using acrylic paint can be overdyed with Procion. The last is easy and I might do it on Sunday.

Have I said we (Michael and myself) are doing a linocut course through the web? I did some when I did City and Guilds in Creative Sketchbook but it was very cursory and I only spent a day on it. This is a good course and we are very pleased with the prints. I have cut out a caladium leaf (what else!!) and will print it soon. The tutor is really into printing on fabric but so far we have only printed on paper

Connected Again

We have been without telephones since Sunday. Some one tried to steal the telephone cables, failed but managed to cut through the cables so they have had to be replaced. Much use of mobiles - except that neither of ours had much money on them and I was driving round yesterday evening trying to find a machine to sell me a top-up. Ended up in Waitrose.

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This is the final version, all assembled See previous photo here.. I have thrown out two of the separate motifs. I have done as required by the tutor - that is, develop one of the sample pieces. But nothing further is going to happen to it.

I have decorated another calico bag using a design which I am considering for a waistcoat. Not quite sure of it yet.

I printed this off using an Indian woodblock bought from Rayna Gillman. I like it but am not sure what to do with it - probably a sample. I need to think about this carefully.

And the cover for A Christmas Carol is at long last done. This is front. back and spine. The colour and ghost shape were done using transfer dyes and then the text screen printed on.  I must finish off this book. It has been around for too long.

This is the lamb's wool scarf in lace, all fringed and washed. There was not much shrinkage, because I had dyed it. This is part of my on-going attempt to take better photos by doing photography just outside the front door. The colour has come out well. This is directly opposite the front door so I can retire down the corridor  and get some distance away.

The double weave Tencel  warp is wound on to the Kombo and ready to be threaded. This is going to be a concertina book. Originally I was going to put the text on using Thermofax screens but I am not sure of that now. The cover for Christmas Carol worked because the lettering is quite large but I don't want the text on this new book to be that large and I don't think it will print clearly if I make the font much smaller.  My sister Dorothy says embroider it!!! Hmmpphh! Can I manage that?