Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Weaving Rosanne's Brown Black Fleece

Started weaving Rosanne's Brown Blck fleece on the rigid heddle.
Using Kathleens's rug wool for the warp and between-locks wefts. Started with eight rows of warp then a row of locks, wrapped around four warps on a closed shed then six rows of weft between each row of locks. It seems a bit long and I'm not sure if I should have wrapped over six or eight warps, giving a shorter shag length but then it would not be so lush so I'll plough ahead with it. I aim to make it about 20" wide and 60" long but it may turn out smaller.

Locks wrapped in plastic garden netting before being plunged in hot water with washing up liquid for cleaning.

First three rows of locks woven. Well this is more about feel than looks :).


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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Peppers, tomatoes and courgettes in the porch

These did quite well in the porch in their pots unlike much of the seeds planted outdoors this year



The plants I got from Fernhill Garden center did pretty well despite my fairly hit-and-miss care. Tumbler has produced a lot of little tomatoes and I pull them off when they turn orange then let them ripen on the garden table in the porch.

The lads visit and Tessie's hair

The "lads" visited here last week, bringing with them the recent shearings from their cute little dog Tessie  who got a haircut.
Tessie link.

Well, we all had some fun with that - and it kept us busy while it rained and we had to come in from the field.




It was all a "bit" matted but I managed to get about 100 yards of thick and thin yarn (99 white 16 pink dyed with cochineal) and felted some of it with some dyed wool.



Now I need to get Tessie's measurements to try to make a little coat for her.

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Kathleen's yarn

Kathleen McCormack, excellent basket and carpet weaver, gave me several spools of lovely colored wool carpet yarn which she gets from Cushiondale mill.
It's quite luxurious to have so much material for weaving - not wondering how much more I have to spin to do a project!
Having said that, I started using it for just a little project, a lavender wall hanging: