Sunday, January 22, 2006

This and that and t'other!

Isn't it amazing that time at weekends always goes much more quickly than time in the week. Here it is at Sunday tea-time and the weekend is nearly gone! The dyeing went well and I produced a goodly collection of red and blue fabrics with one green one for good measure. This was because I had a tad of green dye left from last week. I have put aside a few to discharge. I use discharge paste though I have been known to use vinegar but I don't like using vinigar on stuff I sell. And also I don't have any anti-chlor so discharge paste it will be. To answer Shirley's question I do all manner of things. I can use stamps or found objects or I can brush it on. It really depends on how I am feeling on the day. I have been known to spread it on a glass sheet and use it like mono-printing. This gives great results. So tomorrow morning I will probably do this first thing and then I have told myself I have to tidy out a kitchen drawer. It is on the list of things to do.
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I was interested to see on the Fibre and Thread blog run by Teri Springer an entry on weaving and pictures of her loom. It made me quite nostalgic as one of my degree subjects was woven textiles and I have done a lot of weaving in my life. Sadly I no longer have floor looms -this place is sooooo tiny - but I do have a four shaft 28" table loom. This used to be the width of lots of handwoven woollen fabric. I can remember making a tailored jacket for Martin in the early days of our marriage and the wool came from Scotland and was only 28" wide. It wasn't even hand woven! It was a devil to cut out the pattern pieces. However this poor creature has now been consigned to the top of my wardrobe as again space is at a premium and weaving isn't at the top of my list of things to do. When Martin and I were first married I had two floor loom and one of them took up half our bedroom floor. It was quite old and rickety and I had purloined the cord of Martin's bathrobe to tie it together to make it stronger. I made some great pieces on it. Weaving is so very therapeutic. The other loom was a prototype that I had been given by a weaver I knew when I was at college and it was a doddle to use. Again so big! And add to that a floor standing warping mill and you can imagine the space this all took up. I've also got an enormous tapestry frame for woven tapestry work but it isn't the same as using a loom.
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Well the socks may have taken a back seat but I have managed to make a scarf using some very fluffy multi-coloured wool. It is lovely and soft and so warm. It wasn't the easiest wool to work with but with big wooden needles it grew very quickly. Now having got my confidence back I may go back to the socks. I'm not sure that I'm happy with the pattern I have so will keep looking for a better one.
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I finished the book by Dan Brown - Angels and Demons - and it was riveting. I couldn't put it down so it was just as well I had to sit up late to wait for the last load of dyeing to wash out. Anyone who likes a good mystery would enjoy this. Now I'm off to make a fillet of pork casserole or something.

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