At the beginning of the school year I traced the word ‘Desire’ on my studio wall in red thread and pins. It felt important at the time. But now it’s time to take it off. As I pulled out the pins the thread made these wonderful crazy lines unravelling across the surface. I couldn’t resist…
Sheepskin Gloves
It’s taken a few days, but finally my new fingerless gloves are made. Many tweaks of the ‘pattern’ (I drew round my hand…) and adding in of gussets and, though they look as elegant as plaster casts, they are WARM. The wrap-around flap had to go. Just didn’t work. A wee note of caution –…
Beyond Repair
Worn to a Ravelling, I am undone….. My beloved fingerless gloves, a present from my dad, have had it. I haven’t got a fine enough yarn to mend them so it’s time to get inventive with what I do have in my fabric stash. I have a bit of a sheepskin coat that I picked…
Weaving a Web
But hopefully not a tangled one…. First three lines of weft going in! Many technical hitches are emerging and the usefulness of doing prior research into technique is made very very clear…. But I am still glad I chose to do little research into the practicalities of weaving, but rather to let the materials inform…
Red
The red shed strand has worked wonderfully in the visual sense. The contrast between wood, wool and cotton is visually poetic and satisfying. But – from a technical point of view it’s not doing its job. The shed doesn’t shift smoothly and it’s not possible to operate the loom as one person alone. Yet. I…
Time
Sometimes you have to I do enjoy yogi tea. Most times the tags have a gentle loving message on them, always an added bonus. Not this time! Face it: deadlines are rapidly approaching. Face it: you get out what you put in. Face it: do the hard things before they become impossible.
Red Thread
‘All we love deeply becomes part of us.’ This is one of my Red Threads: the interlacing and entwining of the fabric of my jeans with the fabric of my self. Every stitch taken in the darning of my jeans involves the fabric more deeply and irreversibly with the beingness of my self. I am…
Weighting a Warp
For several years I have habitually chucked my coppers into an old vase as I like to be able to close my purse easily and never can be doing with footering about with coppers in a queue at a till. I remembered that if one takes coins to the bank to exchange for notes then…
Fibre Alchemy 