Summer's here!!!

"It was drowsily warm,
with dozens of bees
lazily buzzing
through flowers and trees.
Hairy Maclary decided to choose
a space in the shade
for his afternoon snooze."
(from Hairy maclary and Zachary quack by Lynley Dodd)

If ever there was a photo which summed up todays beautiful weather then this is it.
Paul (DH) and Leia (DD) were glued to the cricket on the telly. Maisy(other DD) said that cricket was boring grabbed a book and a cool drink and found a shady spot in the garden. I had to agree with Maisy, it was too nice to be stuck indoors!!!

I cannot believe that it has been 2 months since I last blogged !! I have so busy with making stuff that I haven't had a chance to show it.

Briefly I have been trying out new weaving techniques, especially ones which distort the surface structure.
First I started with woven pleats. On the loom it looks quite unremarkable, but when it has been taken off and washed, creates ridges and furrows in the fabric. It is quite a hit or miss technique, and depends on alot of things being just right. The sett ( closeness of the warp threads) has to be quite tight. The warp is best if it is a lofty yarn and the weft needs to be fine. The texture is created by the way the warp is threaded, with stripes of alternating twills. After all of this I couldn't be sure that the pleats had worked until it was compleatly finished and washed!!

My latest project has been Collapse weave, creates a distorted fabic by using over twisted yarns.
On the loom the fabric looks increadably basic, the woven structure is just plain weave, but when it is off the loom and immersed in water, the over twisted yarn tries to un twist and distorts the surface of the fabric.
For this one I used hand spun singles of gotland sheep fibres, with some cotton yarn. It takes a while to over spin the yarn, but it is so effective when it is finished.