Illuminations

 I have another spinning show and tell for you!   I bought some pretty roving from a UK company called Fellview Fibres.     They have consistently beautiful colorways and quality fibres to spin up. A real treat for the senses.

This roving colorway was inspired by the illuminated manuscripts from various ancient abbeys such as Lindisfarne and the Book of Kells.  Carol has three or four colour ways in this series but this one appealed to me for its softness of yarn and color.

The truth was it was a bit of a challenge to spin as the fine merino and silk liked to stay separate and it was a struggle at times to keep a flow moving. So it was a slow spin up and I would do a 50 gram amount and then do something else for a change and then go back and do another.  Eventually, when I dug for another bundle, it was all gone. 

So this was apparently the last 50 gram ball to be spun up.... and the balance shown were in various stages.   Such as 'on the rack' or noddy noddy.

All skeined up and ready for a soaking.

Washed and dried and behaving like it was never a 'problem child" 😁

I wound each skein into cakes and they store up nicely, ready for use.  (For sale in my Etsy store: Thrums Textiles)

My next new adventure?   Learning to use a Turkish drop spindle!

A friend convinced me to give them a try. They make a neat little centre pull ball called a 'turtle' and you can easily ply from two turtles.  The spindle parts all come apart for easy storage and for releasing the turtle from captivity!   🐢     Checking the mail box daily for it to come!   I hear they are addictive and you need more than one.... a whole herd perhaps?    😁

Autumn Pumpkin 🧶 🍂

 I thought I would share some of my hand spun efforts. It was all I could do for 7 months so there will be a few more posts to come as well.

A fine merino with a dash of silk.... from Aurelia Fibers, which I believe is now closed.

🎃

Total yardage is 399 meters or 439 yards.  Total weight is 192 grams or 6.7 ounces. It was a lovely spin up and I quite enjoyed it.

I wound them into cakes using my nifty new ball winder.... I love it! 

Today is the Fall Equinox and the official start of Autumn, pumpkin season and all things to do with spinning, weaving, knitting....     🧶

Golden Fairy Garden

Some time late last year I bought a painted silk warp from Carr Park Artisan's similar to this one. It was 200 ends and 6 1/2 yards long.   Not really wide enough and not really long enough but I loved the colours!    Also, it's *silk* , the princess of natural fibres!

I knew the 16 shaft draft I wanted to use as it has the beautiful effect of playing with colour and make them appear to flow and shift.  Draft #78116 at Handweaving.net /  designed by Ingrid Boesel in the Thrilling Twills Collection.

Picture 'borrowed' from Carr Park Artisans  

I dug deep in the stash and found a silk bronze gold and a rich silk purple and these gave me nice borders and a width for the scarves I could feel good about.    At 28 epi, the 200 ends would have looked like a neck tie! Here's a peek at the warp on the loom and you can see the flow of the colors.

 I got it all set up in late November 2023 and made a start.... and then I hurt my back in early December.   It would be 7 months before I healed enough to be relatively pain free to weave again.  I also took some time to be depressed and think over my options.

At first I thought I might never be able to weave again.  We use our backs so much in the motions of everything we do at a loom.    Then an MRI showed that I have several disc issues and stenosis, plus my spine moved forward by 9 mm at L3-4 with the disc shifting out the back by 6 mm. Bending forward is a risky thing for me.    I raise up my Spring onto crates to do the tie-up and sit on a low stool. This involves bending / leaning forward and I'd rather not do this.  I love this loom and bought it new 16 years ago and have kept it full and busy all that time.  But with the Megado, there's no tie up to deal with at all.

Besides, there isn't any weaving I can't do on the Megado loom from 2 shafts to 16, and as I always said "there is only one bum for a bench"   😁     I have also acquired a LOT of tools, equipment and books over the last 28-30 years and its time to downsize voluntarily and not end up as one of those "dead weaver estate sales".  I have to say the extra money, space and reduction of stuff is liberating!    Once the Spring loom has moved onto a new home, I'm even thinking of getting a nice comfy chair so I can sit in the empty alcove and read. 

But the Spring is still has a warp being woven (slowly) off and that is all down the road for now.....

Meet Fairy Garden.... woven with olive 8/2 tencel and measures 11" wide by 80 inches long.  Yup, I lost count from weaving one session 7 months ago to more recent.  My notes vanished in the meantime.

The colours flow as I had imagined....

Yes, it's the same scarf but the sun washed out the colours. The true colour is the other photos.

For the second scarf I had to think hard about a warp colour.... and the best option was a 10/2 tencel in a pale gold.  I bought a 3 pound cone of it off of Ebay years ago and it never disappoints. Its also not available anymore sadly.

This is Fairy Gold.... and it's a much softer blending of the colours and it's a quieter beauty.

It's 11" by 72".... so a good length.  Seems the 6.5 yard warp was enough after all as I took my fringe length from the loom waste at either end.   I also didn't get my customary sample for my notes.

So finally some show and tell at long last.... thanks for waiting. 💝

Leaning into Fall 🍁🍂

 Trees in our area are either showing signs of drought stress, or starting to turn early.   Since we had some generous rainfall, it must be the start of Fall. The sunlight comes in at an angle now and there's a golden glow, and the nights are cooler.  Having said all that, we are going into a few days of summer heat again. 

  Its all about change...

Speaking of which, there are a changing of seasons in my weaving room and I undertook the last tie up on my Spring.   I took my time and listened to my back and grateful it was only 8 shafts and 8 treadles ( and not the full 12!)

Then in keeping with the slower approach, I played with some Danish medallions.  Its been a while since I've done them so I'm slow, and the yarn is fine, and there 714 ends.... but the first two rows took me three hours! I told Hub that I wove an intense half inch today!  😳  Usually they are done in a heavier 'gimp' yarn but I wanted them to be more subtle and be an accent at the start of the shawl.   There may be seed beading added later.... I'm still deciding.  It will be a good test for my new glasses on order.

Finally, the main pattern is underway and what you see here is 3 repeats and this is where I stopped for the day yesterday.   Its rather pretty!

I'm also fringe twisting the two scarves that came off the Megado, and then washing and pressing. I hope to get some photos of them in that golden light outside this weekend.

I've done some spinning / plying so some skeins will be washed and hung outside to dry. 

Getting things done again and enjoying the process.    

Now..... Isn't that the whole  point?   Because......