Harmonies in Yellow and Green

Time to try out a striped warp for the first time! I decided on a wool warp in a fine 3 colour stripe, which included selecting the correct yarns for the warp. This was tricky as I found several of the colours I wanted to use broke much too easily. I eventually settled on a bottle green (ex Wangaratta Woollen Mills - doubling it up for strength), a pale avocado (Bendigo Woollen Mills 2 ply current colour) and two single ply soft yellow/pale gold (origin unknown, also doubled up for strength,).

An 8-shaft pointed twill threading, making sure to calculate the colours of the stripe to sit exactly into the threading repeat. I've now learnt to make sure there are enough heddles on each shaft before I start. Still managed to make the warp wider than I intended though - simple basic arithmetic gone awry once again!


Threaded, beamed and ready to start

This project was an adaptation from Margo Selby's book "Colour and Texture in Weaving" but with completely different colourways and yarns.  After getting the hang of the patterns Goji and Grape, in between bands of tabby, I decided to be brave (or misguided) and design a pattern repeat of my own! Looking carefully at the effects of lifting different shafts in different combinations - and writing it down - I came up with my own pattern which I incorporated into the project.

Bands of Goji & Grape on tabby

Section of plain weave with the beginning of my design

Currently called Pattern "H" (until I think of a better name), it gives an interesting texture and intersects with the warp stripe in quite a different way to the bands of pattern previously woven in the same piece. Staying with this pattern now for the main body of the piece, I then finished off with variations of the highly textured bands of Goji and Grape once again.

Here it is, fringes finished, washed and steam pressed. A lovely drape and soft feel with balanced scale of the stripe within the width of the piece (27cm wide x 180cm length).

Purple Peacocks Plus

I have always been drawn to peacocks - well, specifically their colours. In my studio (on which I hand-painted a peacock on the outside wall), hangs a single peacock feather that has been in my life since I was a teenager. The iridescence of its colours never fails to enchant me and has been the inspiration for quite a few creative pieces over the years. 

With plenty of the deep olive warp still on my loom (see previous post), I set out to select an array of colours which would drift across the surface of a plain weave, constantly change their relationships to each other and be a woven reminder of my favourite peacock feather.

Selecting yarns from my stash is always for me like mixing paints, so I pulled out an array of silvery-sea greens, golden oranges and coppery bronze yarns to add to the purple I was already using in the weft.

Twisted fringes finished it off, and after a gentle wash and steam, it's already had its first autumn outing in early April. I know there's not really any purple peacocks, but .......... wouldn't they be fabulous!

BAREFOOT weaving

With my looms currently empty and awaiting a new warp, I had planned to get onto a new weaving before the end of 2012. However, currently laid low with a severe throat infection since Boxing Day, means it will be 2013 before I trust both my brain and body to go through the complexity that is the warping process again!

Portion of woven tapestry by Marie Gnarajah

However, weaving and woven textiles are still close at hand, with my son's gift of a wonderful new woven tapestry from weaver Marie Gnarajah of the BAREFOOT weaving studion in Sri Lanka. This weaving is 1700cm x 900cm and will be hung in my family room (opposite my floor loom), the colours perfectly complimenting the decor. 

A few months ago he also brought back from his visit to their studio in Colombo, two lengths of fabulous warp faced heavy cloth. One has already been in use as a perfectly sized tablecloth for my rather large family table and the other (pictured below) currently draped across the back of a sofa as I cannot bear to cut it. Simply constructed in plain weave, but the use of colour is superb, with each piece of cloth imbued with an energy that only handweaving brings to cloth making.

 

BAREFOOT began over 40 years ago when Barbara Sansoni was invited to design cloth for women learning to weave in a convent workshop North of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Today the company she founded has a small team of dedicated designers who work with our own dyers, weavers and skilled needle women. Take a look at http://barefootceylon.com/ to see something of the beauty that is BAREFOOT.