Margot the German Shepherd and I are today both eagerly anticipating the arrival of the postman. For Margot this is a daily ritual because she doesn’t like him much and thinks that she’s made him retreat back to his little red van because she told him to.
As an aside, she once nipped him on the back of leg and we received a very stern letter from Royal Mail telling us they will not deliver our post if she does it again.
So normally I don’t get very excited when I hear his van park up outside because if he wants to deliver a parcel I have to contain the dog in the study in order to open the front door, which is usually only achieved with ease if she’s too slow off the mark and I march her in without her realising why…and German Shepherds aren’t exactly known for being slow.
However today is different because I think he will deliver lots of lovely new wool for my wall hanging. I’m so excited that when it arrives I know I’ll want to drop everything and start work on it.
So, like Margot I have my ears pricked in anticipation. In fact Margot is currently flaked out on the hall floor so maybe I have half a chance of getting in there first.
The picture is Postman Pat – what nicer postman exists than Pat?
Last night I finished my spring scarf. Weaving can be such a roller coaster!
The scarf turned out completely different to how I planned – but for good reason!
Originally this project was intended as a quick scarf to make using some lovely French-grey and white alpaca that I have left over. I am waiting for new wool to arrive for a wall hanging I’m getting very excited about – more on that later – so I just wanted to fill in some time.
I decided on a narrow 84 end warp with white stripes which you can see in the previous post. I threaded it onto the loom using a straight 2/2 twill draft on just 4 shafts and then planned the rest on my new weaving software, to try it out.
All good so far except when I started weaving I realised how many weft colours there were – it was going to take a lot longer than I anticipated not to mention all those ends!
I wove three samples:
(You can see larger pics by clicking on them.)
The pattern that stood out for me as the strongest was the plain one where the weft is the same colour as the warp – it just looks very classic and it maintains the lovely stripes.
So I decided to weave the scarf with that. All was going well until my nemesis, the free-styling gremlin, popped out from under my loom and told me to go off course!
I started adding a few colours – a salmon pink, a dusty pink, a pale lime green and a pale rose pink.
I got to the point that I really disliked it but I’d gone too far to turn back, I had to commit. I resigned myself to the scarf being a sample instead and all that lovely wool wasted.
So I got a bit bolder with it all and when I cut it off the loom, I surprised myself because I actually really like it!
Benita and Theresa commented that the alpaca would make very soft cloth – but in fact it’s quite stiff! I wouldn’t say it’s coarse but it’s much stiffer than the alpaca scarf I made before with the same yarn. The weave is much tighter this time but it feels nice nonetheless.
That’s a bit of a tongue twister!
This scarf is only a tiddler – 84 ends so should be a quick project, more progress over the weekend – can’t wait!
Today I received some wool in the post – this means I can continue the warp I started but had to stop because I hadn’t calculated it properly. I was one ball short!
It turns out that the darkest shade of wool (Zinc) had been discontinued – shock horror! However I managed to track down one lonesome ball of it on the internet and snapped it up. Hurrah!
Also I’m terribly excited because I downloaded some weaving software yesterday.
I haven’t thought about using any before now but having had a play around with it, I can plan projects and alter them before even thinking about getting the warping board out. Of course I do this on paper beforehand, but the software makes the whole trial and error process so fast. I’ve found I’ve learnt things already from it. I’m converted!
The only time there has ever, to my knowledge, been a whole program on TV about weaving – and I missed it!!
There is a series currently on BBC2 called ‘Mastercrafts’ hosted by Monty Don. Each week Monty has been focussing on a different ‘dying craft’ – their words not mine - and on Friday they featured weaving. Fantastic, except that because I was out in London that night, I recorded it on Sky but I selected the wrong program by mistake and it duly recorded some drivel instead.
Anyway, being the 21st Century, the BBC has posted it onto their iPlayer site so I’m sharing it with you now. I haven’t actually watched it all yet but I shall later this evening. Here’s the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qvrcj
Hello again, by the way, I realise I’ve been absent for a while. I’ve decided to put the tapestry down for a bit and do some weaving – hope I can remember how to use it. I might be back to square one like Monty’s students!
Having just realised that it has been a week since I last posted, I thought I’d share my latest update on the tapestry.
I’m getting a bit bored of it now, to be honest! I’ve got to keep going with it but it’s just SO slow.
Last night I was prompted to remember that it’s a friend’s birthday on Thursday and I launched into a whirl of activity thinking that I would weave her a nice spring scarf.
However I miscalculated the warp and realised that I didn’t have enough alpaca to finish the warp, and to be honest it was cutting it all a bit fine anyway. So I’ll think of something else instead – maybe a necklace.
This sudden adventure into weaving again has made me think I’ve neglected it for too long. I get much more of a thrill out of weaving than I do from the tapestry. Uh-oh that doesn’t sound promising!!
On another note we had really lovely weather here yesterday so I thought I’d share this photo with you all. This is Margot the German Shepherd and I while out for a walk yesterday – there was sun and blue sky!!
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