I didn’t mean to be so long in posting another entry to my blog, but would you believe I couldn’t remember my sign in name grrrrrrr I had it written on a piece of paper and couldn’t find it anywhere!!!!! It took me about a week to realize I couldn’t find it and then several days trying to remember it. It also meant I couldn’t get on my UK Guild Computer design blog. Needless to say I have now emailed it to myself and I have it in several word docs that I keep email addresses and such in.

Of course the month has gone fast. Thank you to the people who have taken the time to leave comments. This is a way new learning curve for me. As is using a MP3 player. Derek has just bought me one a Sandisk Sansa, I have managed to down load Syne Mitchell’s Weave Cast, which I am enjoying very much. I am also down loading Fibre Cast and Pixie Purls, they sound interesting.

I have set up my dye table (an old door on trestle legs) again to do some dyeing I wanted to try out. I spent last Monday dyeing. I bought a lovely fine Merino fleece a few weeks ago from one of our ladies at guild. I have been combing (using dog combs – 3 held in a small vice) this fleece lock by lock over the last week or two, I really don’t like carding unless I want to blend colours or fibre. And then I do it under sufferance ggggg. The first lot I set out and random dyed like I would roving. Rolled it up in cling wrap and microwaved for about 6 mins. The next two lots I did a cram method into old canning jars. I put a layer of damp fleece in the bottom of the jar spritzed it with water heavily laced with white vinegar and with a face mask on (hate those things, but they are important to ware) sprinkled “Landscape” dye powder on, then another layer of fleece and did it all over again with another colour. Once I had crammed all I could I covered the top of the jar with cling film and microwaved it for about 5 or 6 mins. Microwave dyeing is wonderful. I ended up with about 80gms/2.8oz of fleece crammed into the jar which is about 17.7cm/7” high by about 10cm/4” dia. I did 2 colourways, one in various blues and the other in what I call Royal Autumn, it turned out quite stunning I think, it was exciting and quite unexpected – moss greens, deep rose, touches of pale sandstone, and more.

The first photo is my random dyeing – set up ready to dye.















The dyed fibre.
















The same dyed fibre re-combed
















My crammed fibre after cooking














and again ready to be washed











dried, waiting to be re-combed

















My Royal Autumn little puffs dried and ready to be combed again













Here they are re-combed
















A new bead shop has opened up near by and I went for a visit on my way home from work on Friday and bought some more beads. These included 3 glass starfish in blues, some matching glass beads, a string of small freshwater pearls in a smoky blue and another in blue. I have put them all together, plus 2 strands of very tiny white pearls, all the strands are wrapped together. I am really very pleased with it.
Here are some photos of it, please note my antique linen cloth under it. gggg




I have been asked to stand as president of our Spinners and Weavers Guild again. I was president the one before our current one. I think it is too quick, although a couple of other girls suggested I should stand last year. I took over as secretary in December and our last one had to step down suddenly due to the fires and drought situation here, as they live quite a distance away and have a large farm. So that is something I am thinking about at the moment, our AGM is at the end of April.


Spread your Wings and Soar



Judy

Thankyou for everyone’s kind words both here and privately.

I have fallen in Love – head over heels – in love!!!! And what is the object of my affection? Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. It is lovely, it is well photographed, well written. It is full of inspiration for any textile artist or anyone who delights in a little luxury. Although not a frequent knitter of lace, (heck I keep away from knitting lace as much as possible, I do plain knitting, aran knitting, some colour work – but not lace ggg) out of the 36 patterns in the book there are only 2 that are not screaming for me to knit. I also found the information that Jane Sowerby presented on the history of lace very interesting and also very readable, making this book not just a pattern book but a reference one as well, and a great addition to the coffee table. It is a delight just to browse through the on location photos, the details of the scarves and stoles are detailed enough to see the actual knitted pattern. Then there is a section on how to understand lace and lace design, and charts, how to block, knit on a border design your own shawl/scarf. All in all this is a very inspiring book and not just another lace knitting book. It is a book I will treasure for many, many years to come.

Just to show that I have knitted at least one lace item, here is a photo of a stole I knitted last year from the XRX book on scarves, another great book.

















And this photo is one of free knitting, not quite traditional lace, but ……













This is my sample of weaving crocheting from my UKOnline guild crochet workshop.









Another of my babies














Spread your wings and SOAR



Judy

I have probably spent too much time at the computer these last couple of weeks playing with paint programs, for the UK Online Guild workshop for January on Computer designing. It has been a lot of fun to take a photo and play in these programs, even switching from one program to another, to use the different effects each has. There are several web based programs, some that you can download free and of course we have Paint shop Pro, and Photoshop. These are just a couple of effects with the one photo. This is the oriainal photo I started with.



Then I:
liquefied it in Adobe Photoshop

After a few more effects I then used the mosaic antique effect









and then the weave effect

and then I liquified it again









This has been so much fun, I'm not sure what or how I am going to use these in my designing. I can see end products in patchwork, tapestry weaving, dyeing, maybe even some batik or gutta resist on silk. And even just printing up the photos. The change of colours after the first liquify came about when I used the foil effect.

My weaving is going slowly, my knitted neck warmer is also going slowly, this is my second one. I am now doing some crochet weaving as this months’ UK Online guild workshop is on Crochet, including – this week – weaving, then Tunisian, I decided to order myself a loom for this:
http://www.stitchdiva.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=EDJE06 (I hope this will hotshoe) broomstick and Hairpin lace. I have done a little bit of this before, so this should be an interesting workshop. Other workshops for the year include Summer and Winter weaving, fleece challenge – Bowmont, may not be able to take part as there may not be enough fleece, spindle spinning, I think this would be a challenge over the internet! Hedgerow dyeing, spinning yarn for embroidery, nalbinding, advanced twill weaving, and a stash exchange at Christmas time. This is a very informative guild to belong to, and you also receive their Journal monthly.

It is going to be in the mid to high 30sC/80s-90sF over the next couple of days. I HATE the heat! I may quietly melt. We are in the middle of a very severe drought, the worst in all our history! We are not allowed to water our garden with fresh water, so we are recycling all our used water. All our laundry and downstairs bathroom is going into an old bath under our back decking and we pump that out on to the garden using our normal hoses. It takes a bit of running around and slows down our washing somewhat. Derek has put soaker hoses on the kitchen outlet and the downstairs shower. Unfortunately we can’t do much with our upstairs bathroom as it runs in the wall and floor/ceiling cavities. But Derek is looking to see what he can do. Anyway I try and do our laundry when it is going to be very hot. (I do do it regulary at other times gggg)

Here are my babies

Koko

and Samson











Spread your wings and SOAR

The opening Post of On Gossamer Wings

Wow I did it!

I have finally organized a blog for myself ggg This is going to be real fun keeping this up dated. I hope you will all bear with me, as I travel along this road. Where is this blog heading? where am I heading? Let's travel that road together.

I'd better tell you a little more about myself from what is in my profile. Besides my two Siamese "babies" have two dogs - a Pomeranian and a Kelpie - Kim and Sox, they all run our home. I have an aviary with some native birds; we have chooks and two of our daughters' horses - a Shetland pony and a palomino with whom she used to do show jumping.

In 1991 I began an advanced certificate in studio textiles, this is where I learnt to weave. When Moira was about 6 she wanted to learn to spin, so that is when I first learnt to spin as well. Until I went to college, I ran a bridal and special occasion millinery business from home, I also made silk flower bouquets and arrangements. I had to close the business while I was at college as I didn't have time for it, and I've never reopened it.

My crafts, my spinning, weaving, knitting take up a lot of my time, they are what I 'do'. But the question "who am I" is more important. Being wife and mother is a nurturing role and that is a role I extend to all of our earth and the people whom I meet on this road. I am also a spiritual person, I believe we are called to do ordinary things extraordinarily well. I know I very often fail at this, but it is something I strive to do.

Spread your Wings and SOAR