Woven Creations

Finally getting around to posting images of the woven creations of other students. These items were exhibited at the Hamilton Sheepvention Show early this month and will also be shown at The Royal Melbourne Show. The majority of fibre used was alpaca, being part of a deal done with the Alpaca Association and SouthWest TAFE here in Warrnambool.

First off the ranks are three scarves woven by Jeanette Tollerbond.

And two wraps also woven by Jeanette.

The next four items are by Georgie Crow. As a matter of interest the bottom wrap in the second image as well as the wraps in the final two images were all woven on the same warp.

The next four are a variety of knits by Jill Hunter.

And last but definitely not least are items by Rocky Blair. Rocky has used alpaca fibre from her own alpacas and felted it to produce these hats with the final image being a skirt and wrap woven on the same warp.

And to conclude, I must thank our stunning model who suffered all types of indignities without complaint for this photo shoot.

The display at Hamilton.

All set for the Hamilton Sheepvention Show

All the designing and making for the Alpaca Association has been completed. It has been packed and shipped off to the Hamilton Sheepvention Show for display. A description of the project can be found here.

Last week was somewhat frantic finalising my required three pieces but I did it!

A very soft and thick wrap from 3 ply commercially spun alpaca.

I’m really happy with this skirt. I initially got the idea from a picture in an old ‘Handwoven’ magazine. It began as 2 ply white alpaca yarn for the weft and 100% wool for the warp (to add strength to the cloth for wear). I dyed both the warp and weft after lots of experimentation with colours.  I blogged about a bit of the process here. So the yarn was dyed, woven and sewn into this skirt.

And this vest completed my contribution. The warp is 100% black wool and the weft is handspun alpaca of a natural mahogany colour. And I really like the results with this one too.

Thanks Kirsty for the pin fastener. I love it. It is made from the wood of dead bull oak trees.

In the next post I’ll show images of the work of other students in the class.

Alpaca project – a skirt in the making

Wound onto the bobbin and ready to go. The story of this yarn can be found here. It is the weft yarn, 100% alpaca and hand dyed, while the warp is 100% tough wool and also hand dyed to one of my favourite green shades.

The reason for the tough warp is WEAR. The cloth is going to be used to make a skirt and a cute one at that I hope!

It is more warp faced than I expected but I like it. The skirt will have two tiers, the next cloth to be woven being a darker shade.

Alpaca project

This wrap has been made by Georgie. It’s extremely soft, thick and luscious. The warp is wool whereas the weft is handspun alpaca.

Experimenting by Jill with alpaca roving. This was intended as a scarf but became too thick with the felting. It morphed into a sash for the waist line.

100% alpaca yarn beautifully knitted by Jill (of course). These beanies are incredibly comfortable to wear – soft, light weight and cozy.

More experimenting by Jill, this time of the weaving type. The yarn used here was alpaca plied with hand spun silk. It is a twill weave with lots of body.

I generally lust over all the goodies that keep being produced and this is no exception. Dyed and woven by Jeanette Tollerbond. Jeanette used Landscape dyes and commercially spun alpaca yarn. This wrap drapes beautifully.

And this is similar but different colours – differing shades of red ochre from the Landscape dyes.

Lots of yarn

While waiting patiently for our commercially spun alpaca yarn to arrive we have easily kept busy on other projects.

Here is Georgie weaving a beret on cardboard. In the background you can view our revamped room. Much more civilised now. Oh and BTW, Georgie has a sore knee. She isn’t really that lay back.

And Jill and Rocky hand spinning alpaca fibre.

Jill is the most productive, spinning and knitting beautifully. Below is a wee bit of her hand spun alpaca yarn.

And Georgie was unable to wait. She warped up with an unknown from the store room and used hand spun alpaca by Rocky for her weft. Georgie is experimenting with lace weaves for her alpaca project.

And I stole some fibre that had been dyed for another class. I walked past it, saw the colours and couldn’t help but take just a small bit to spin up. I love it. On the bottom left is the single thread and on the right is the plied result. Should have pinched the whole lot.

Jill again. More hand spun alpaca yarn. Beautiful stuff.

And another ebay mistake! I bought quite a large amount of tussah silk from some guy who was destashing his weaving studio. It looked luscious so I bought a kilogram of the stuff. This is the photo supplied on ebay.

Here is what I got. Very beige with no sheen and it sheds. I hate shedding. When will I learn? I’ve washed it and whacked it but it still sheds, otherwise it could still have been used in some project .

Weaving and Roses

The seashell themed honeycomb weaving, blogged about here, here and here,framed with watercolour paper.

 

And a perfect rose photographed in my mother’s garden.

I’ve won something else!

All my luck seems to have come at once. I have just found out that I won two hand woven towels from Sue at Life Looms Large.

Beautiful. Can’t wait till they arrive. And being a novice weaver myself, they will truly be appreciated.

Truly amazing…

I went to a clearance sale today – something I’ve never really done before. I certainly haven’t ever bid at an auction before, other than ebay. The sale was at Glenormiston and I went because I knew there were a few looms on offer. I would like an 8 shaft table loom. However, there weren’t any of these on offer.

Glenormiston is primarily an agricultural college managed by South West TAFE.

Anyway, on with the story. Georgie, a student in my weaving class, happened to turn up. We had a quick chat, and soon after the auction began. Things happened very quickly. The weaving equipment was the very first to go under the hammer so to speak. I was hoping to get an old drum carder and a raddle, but wasn’t too worried if I didn’t.

Shock no. 1 – they offered it all as one lot.

Shock no. 2 – Georgie and I had a bid and got the lot for $30. We’re talking about 2 x huge floor looms, 6 x four shaft table looms ( on a recount there are seven of the table looms), and a huge assortment of accessories like raddles, reeds, a warping mill and much more. We literally need a truck to cart it all a way. Luckily, Georgie does have a truck and an unused shearing shed to house it all. We are returning Monday to pick it all up.

I bought one of the smaller looms home and Murray got to work on it. It has cleaned up beautifully.

As I said, truly amazing.

Part 2 of today’s story – Also at the auction was Karen, our weaving teacher, who also happens to do machine embroidery art work. We now have to bow down to her as she recently won the PFAFF International Embroidery as Art Excellence Award for her piece Ruined Forest, which can be viewed at:

http://karenrichards.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=26#

As part of her prize, she got to fly and stay in London to accept her award as well as receiving a whoopee do sewing machine. Truly amazing… More details here .

And so I don’t have a post without an image, here is the feted artist herself.

Weaving – Interior Project Part 3

Following on with the SEASHELL theme I decided to make use of the 8 shaft loom at TAFE and experiment with HONEYCOMB weave. For the last honeycomb weave I did, I used my 4 shaft loom.

With an 8 shaft loom I had more options. This was the sample piece.

And this is the where I went freeform – varying the size of the honeycomb cells in width and height, and varying the colour.

Now I’d like to start over again and perfect it as this piece has a few imperfections.

To be continued…

Interior Project part 2

The SEASHELL theme suggests to me lightness, airy, breezy, delicate, fragile…so I’m going with open sett weaves and natural or muted colours.

Winding the warp – I’m getting better at this.

And beaming the warp – this was the first time ever that I didn’t have any dilemmas, which I put down to good quality yarn. It didn’t catch or shred or anything, just did what it was meant to do. Truly amazing.

I began with plain open sett which I am quite partial to.

I noticed as I wound it over the front beam that it has gone out of whack. It’s not a bad look. I will photograph it when it is off the loom.

I experimented with the leno weave structure – reminiscent of seashells. This image is confusing as the woven cloth can also be seen winding on below.

I also tried Brook's Bouquet weave structure.

And the Danish Medallion weave.

Looking forward to seeing what happens with the weaves once off the loom but I still have more experimenting to go.

To be continued…

Interior Project – Weaving

As a part of the WEAVING MINOR unit that I am studying at TAFE  I have to undertake a project that involves producing woven fabrics for interiors.

Firstly, I had to select a theme. I selected SEASHELL after coming across this image.

The muted colours and delicacy of the shells appealed to me.

The aim is to weave a range of six coordinating samples related to the theme, using more than one warp. Following this a final piece has to be woven.

To be continued…