Granddaughter's Cape, by Rose

This is the cape I made for my granddaughter to help her through the Christchurch winter. It is woven in 2/2 twill in some sort of wool blend. The yarn is from my 'way-back' stash and had no label. It produced a very lightweight soft fabric that drapes well and is very warm.

by Rose Pelvin

June's House

When I was in Blenheim in April for the block weave workshop, I had the great pleasure of visiting June McKenzie at her home.  The house itself is a lovely old villa with a rambling garden, but what was so exciting was every room was full of June's woven work, not just scarves and fabrics, but garments and even upholstered pieces. 

So, may I suggest you make yourself a nice cup of something lovely, and "walk" with me?

 Possibly my most favorite piece of the day was this foot stool. 

Rain got heavier and the light very bad, so the colors in the photo above and below are not representative of these fabrics, but I knew you'd want to see the texture and the design.

Thank you for a lovely time, June.

You can see more of June's work here.


by Meg Nakagawa

Table Pieces, by Betsy

In April, I had an opportunity to shoot some of Betsy's table pieces in cotton, cottolin, and wool.


by Meg Nakagawa

Merino & Silk Scarf, by Judy Bool

Judy says. "This scarf has warp in silk, weft in merino with scale, the 8-shaft network draft by Ingrid Boesel in 20 EPI can be found on Page 33 of Weavers magazine, Issue 25."


by Meg Nakagawa

"Timeless Treasures", by Rose Pelvin

These are from my exhibition, "Timeless Treasures", at Fibre Spectrum, Trafalgar Street, Nelson, for the month of May.

by Rose Pelvin

April Block Weave Workshop, Part 2

Some of us were greatly helped by looking at her woven samples to understand the theory; all of us were in awe of her samples, each of us having different favorites.

 Joan could not believe she put on a brown warp for a sampler, but she did get lovely results.

 Chris's consultation with Maryann paid off; she got nice bright samples.

Judy was hard at work.

 Marjike experimented with polychrome Summer & Winter.

 Maryann demonstrated pick up.

Win was tentative at first, but became very brave.

Win's sample: reversed 3-end twill in the background.

This was woven with a textured weft yarn. Says Win, "It should be woven with the pattern on the reverse side to minimise lifting of sheds."

"In the pale weft section the part between the 2 motifs is done by 'pick up ' method," by Win, who previous thought "pick-up" was a dirty word! 

Joan, you're not still talking about the brown warp, are you??

by Rose Pelvin, Win Currie & Meg Nakagawa

April Block Weave Workshop, Part 1

On 14 & 15 April, we welcomed Maryann Stamford from Queensland, Australia, to teach us about weaving in blocks. At times some of us felt our brains were scrambled, but the many woven samples Maryann showed us helped, and in the end we came out excited about new possibilities.

 Let's see how how we can weave the word "GUEST" on a guest towel.

 Anne, Betsy and Judy filling in squares...

 Barbara and Joan creating separate blocks...

 Chris and Marjike figuring out the lifting order; do we see a smile on Chris?

 

 Chris gets her profile draft converted into a weaving draft by Maryanne.

"Oh, and we know how to weave this now!"

by Rose Pelvin & Meg Nakagawa

Sneak Preview, by Rose Pelvin

Advance notice that I have an exhibition at Fibre Spectrum in Nelson for May. I've called it Timeless Treasures as I'm bringing out some of my linen pieces that have been 'maturing' in a dark alcove for a while. I do have some new work in the form of braided cords for necklaces, and in between there are scarves - where would we be without them.

by Rose Pelvin