Weaving and Railways

Last weekend saw me, Molly and Mr S in Bedfordshire - me for a weaving workshop and Mr S was exhibiting his model railway - the new larger and improved layout that is.

 

The enlarged version takes up more room in the car and requires two large coffin shaped boxes to safely transport.

 

The enlarging of the layout required additional trees and the revamp of the existing which were looking the worse for wear, my job and I am pretty pleased with the new ones!  I discovered that with the camera on my phone that I could take photos from different angles - here is one looking down through the fields....... 

Must have be worth the effort, because he got an invite exhibit next year in Oxford...

And while all this was going on I was completely out of my depth on a Creative Weaving Workshop.  In the week leading up to the workshop I had attempted to warp my loom four times - complete disaster.  I now have a large bag of thrums - that is what the bits from the ends of the warps are called, I just had more than you would expect...............

I did finally manage to get something on the loom, but it was a poor attempt when I looked at the other looms .........

This is only photo of my pathetic efforts

And here are some of the beautiful fabrics being woven by the more experienced weavers..

Think you can see from this, just how much!

This stunning weave is in a variety of yarns, including cotton, silk and sock yarn - I just love the way the rust really pops out!

The inspiration for this piece was the foliage along side the canal near to where the weaver lives - she had dyed the yarn to reflect the colours in her photos.

An just to show that you don't need to have a complicated warp - this was done with just five colours.........

But one good thing came out of being the newbie - I got an individual lesson on warping - and the best bit was that everything didn't go right, a thread broke and in the end the tutor cut the warp, saying that it wasn't something she would recommend..........  Nice to know that even the experts get it wrong sometimes.

The outcome of this weekend is that I am today warping my loom, on my own and so far everything is fine - I have a two coloured warp ready to thread, pics will follow if it works..................

Machines take over....

It seems that lately I have done more using machines than my hands! Particularly as sewing seems to have taken precedence over knitting and spinning in the last few weeks....

Blame Wonderwool....  Yes I did go to Wonderwool and unlike previous years bought very little.  I had a Purlescence voucher, so I got some Jamieson and Smith yarns to go with the bargain cone I bought at Unravel.  These will be part of my first proper machine knit project - for this I will knit the stocking stitch body on the machine and the interesting fair-isle bit by hand.  I have swatched and was already to go when I chanced upon a bargain - a Knitmaster 360 with lace carriage, couldn't resist so I currently have three machines, two under the sofa (they really don't take up much room when packed up) and the latest purchase...

My only other Wonderwool purchases, were two pots of dyes and some prins for my shuttles.... How restrained was that?  But just as we were leaving, my attention was drawn to some simple bags (£25) and the questioned was posed as to whether I could make one!

This was number one and was quickly followed by

I still have a couple to finish off! But they are really simple and very practical for knitting on the go! Plus I had an order for my smaller project bag and a clutch, so the sewing machine has been in constant use over the last two weeks! 

Then I have made Mr S three pairs of shorts, these are the final pair for now, rather pleased as from one metre of denim material I will have made one pair of shorts and three bags, not bad for £9.99!

The Shorts

The first Bag

This was made entirely from odd bits of fabric I had left over from other projects - and talking of being thrifty here are three cushions I made from a Charity Shop sweater

It was a size 20, so plenty of knitted fabric - one cushion from the front and one front the back and one using both sleeves - total cost £6.00

And here they are brighting up the caravan