The curse of the too-fast time machine, bog cotton and lots of reeds

I’m sure that’s what the problem is!
One day it’s Friday the 13th of June, the next it’s July the 11th, my belly is getting big (I’m 24 weeks pregnant, so I think I’m allowed to have a relatively large belly…) and someone turned the heat up in Barcelona! Talk about time flying! I’ve still got a sample linen warp on the loom that is making me feel guilty..hohum…I’ll get something done next week (I hope!)

We have been back in Ireland for a week, (hurray!) but as I’ve not said much in a while I seem like a big slacker…so first thing on the list to talk about..Bog cotton.

At least, that’s what we’ve always called it. I’ve no idea if it is actually related to the cotton family (I can feel a wikipedia search coming on), it grows extensively around the marshy ground in the North East of Ireland, and (not surprisingly), I found it on boggy ground on the west coast too. This particular clump was right at the top of Knocknarea, beside Queen Maeve’s tomb. I picked some of it to see if I can incorporate it into a weave.

 The other thing I got up to was collecting reeds. These are even more prolific than bog cotton, and I usually collect these for making Saint Brigit’s Crosses. As I wasn’t going to be doing any loom weaving when I was home, I decided I could make some crosses. We collected a lot around the bottom of Knocknarea, Ben Bulben and Lisadell forrest.

and I got to making them on sunny afternoon in my parents’ garden.

To get started, you need a lot of reeds (or rushes), some strong thread (I have an old spool of waxed linen thread that could slice your finger off if you were silly enough to try and break it by hand), and my lovely little swiss army knife - for cutting reeds and thread.

Overall, I made 2 crosses (with lots of wastage!). The reeds were very long but not very thick, and thicker is better when it comes to making Saint Brigit’s Crosses. Anyway - I hope to be able to make some of these in January / February to put on Etsy.

Friday the 13th and a bit of brain fever

Anyone out there ever read any books (or listened to any radio) set in the Victorian / Edwardian era??? Anyone out there have any clue what the hell “Brain fever” actually is / was? Well, I kinda think I’ve got a bit of brain fever, as I’ve been itching to design some new things…This might sounds silly, or even simple, but I’m not very good at “down periods” so I try to keep something on my loom at all times.

A new warp for a table runner is about to go on, with a lovely new colour selection based on the southern Mediterranean…Think aqua blue sea and ceramic glazes; White villages (Santorini and Andalucia); terracota pots; green olives. But this is my “filler warp” while my brain gets into gear to come up with something else. Unfortunately for my husband this is always quite a messy process… you won’t be able to see the floor in the living room, and you can forget the idea of doing any housework this weekend!

OH, yes - and it’s been a pretty disastrous Friday the 13th…no chainsaw massacres but one of those days when just about everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

Actually that would be a baby or 4…and some more place mats

Lots of babies! Today I spoke to some friends in Malaysia, and discovered that they are also expecting a baby! What’s kind of interesting about all this is that we’re all somewhere between 16 - 20 weeks pregnant and we’ve all only just fessed up in the past couple of weeks.
As well as Nula’s baby bedroom kit I’ve also been thinking of weaving a ribbon cot quilt…my sister got me onto that idea again - I wove one several years ago for friends and am now wondering about the merits of making some more. Although there is plenty of time left, I recall it was quite an arduous task, so I might have to get my thinking cap on.
Ok, Over to this week’s labours - more place mats. I found another colour forecast for interiors summer 2008 - this time with very rich warm colours, vivid reds, cerises, blue, yellow and shades of green. “Sophisticated Lego” could be a tag for it (if such a colour scheme exists!) - I’ve put the placemats on Etsy and “My Etsy Weaves“

NOT anywhere!

Upph!

Well “Not on the High Street” is not for me! At least, not at the moment…definitely worth looking into further, as it’s good to have a backup place to try and sell things, but NOT NOT NOT right now! Nula is having great success there, and with her web site, but I guess it depends on the market you’re aiming at.
So, back to my sister’s favourite place for buying her earrings! ETSY! My Mohair shawl / wrap has just made it’s real debut there. Despite all the wrangling with this warp, I’m very pleased with the result…it’s beautifully soft and warm. (More images are on the “My Etsy Weaves” page)

More on the Mohair…and a baby or two…or 3!

Well what a few weeks!
More place mats woven (and awaiting hemming, washing - oh sorry, “Wet finishing”, photographing and posting on Etsy ). The mohair shawl was washed, finished, fluffed up and photographed. I had thought of putting it on Etsy, but ended up speaking to my friend Nula of Noolibird, and she persuaded me to try NOTHS, so that is where it has been listed, on “Not On The High Street” of the UK, just to see what the results are.
Anyway - to cut a long story short, it turns out Nula and I are both pregnant to more or less the same degree! I’d planned on telling her that I’d be wanting to buy some of her cot quilts, babygros and baby pjs…but being very Irish (and superstitious), there’s no naming or buying things until it’s out and healthy

and we can see it’s got all the fingers and toes etc it should have.

To make matters even more amusing, another friend in Germany (another weaver) is also pregnant…due 5 days before me - ha! Full moon’s have a lot to answer for!
My mum (who’s a retired midwife) says accidents happen in threes!!!

Table Mats…Can’t think of a catchy title!

Well, I’ve not been online for a while, which makes me look like a slacker…I’ve got a very good excuse, really I do!
My cotton warp is made and on the loom and have started weaving. The colours are based on colour forecasts for Summer 2008 for interiors, beautiful powder pinks, fleshy tones, pale green and blue. To be honest the colours make me think of buildings I’ve seen in pictures of Miami (never been so I can only say I’ve seen it in pictures!) and now every time I sit down to start weaving, I have U2’s song “Miami” in my head!

Dracula and a Mouthful of Mohair…the temporary insanity comes to an end

Woohoo, I’ve finished it! The Mohair has left the loom!
That didn’t take half as long as I thought it would, all my hair is still in my head (i.e., I didn’t tear it all out) and it’s all down to Dracula and Mort on BBC Radio7…Nothing like having something good to listen to, to keep you working.
Now comes the part I both love and dread - “The Finishing” (that could be a horror title in its own right). Fringes to twist, ends to sew in and washing and fluffing-up to be done (I can’t believe I’m saying I need to FLUFF this weave). 
Coming soon to this loom: It’s home dyed cotton  (a bit like going back to branflakes after you splurged on a week of full Irish breakfasts)

Temporary Insanity (at least I hope it’s temporary!)

So…I reacted to my wooly feelings and went a bit plain with my linen - great stuff, good results: Then, I seemed to hit some kind of Spagetti Junction loop and decided on Friday, (yes..that would be “Friday Weaving”), that I should use some of the lovely mohair I had, along with some of the even lovelier mohair / wool bouclé that I have, based on the colour forecasts I’d seen.
Well, may God help me (because no one else will), I must have gone completely INSANE! I should have given the mohair to my mum or sister, they knit!

Some photos of this mind-boggling fluffy warp

It’s threaded, reeded and weaving now, and it’s actually “felting” itself on the loom just by the weaving action. I have no one to blame but myself, I knew this would happen, it’s not like I haven’t woven with mohair before! But somehow the “Mohair Pixie” comes along, gives you amnesia regarding your experience with previous mohair warps and convinces you that a mohair warp would be a grand affair altogether…mmmm…plain weave linen sounds like heaven right now.

The (Linen) bit in the middle

Well, after what seems like “my year of wool” (in fact it was only 4 months!), I knew I’d be heading for a reaction, and it came in the form of linen last weekend. Out with the winter wool, and in with the spring linen.

I wanted to do something relatively quick and satisfying, so I put on a shortish warp of pure linen, and the results are now on Etsy - 3 pure linen and 5 cotton and linen wash mitts. They really feel beautiful, the mix of linen and honeycomb weave gives a lovely texture, while the cotton ones have a gorgeous warmth to them.
I’ve pointed out to my husband that there’s not a bit of “green” in sight!
The truth is, I used to hate weaving with linen, but I learnt by trial and error that so long as the linen warp has at least 2 ply and a good twist, it can be as fine as sewing thread and it will not break. A little patience with the tension and a big damp tea towel draped across the shed and you can handweave metres without one flaw. Nothing like learning the hard way to get the gist of something!

Colm and the dragon’s, (fluffy, tufty,) teeth

It’s Saturday again - it felt like it took a year to get to this Saturday, but I’m sure it will be Monday before I know it. Luckily, it only took me 15 minutes to put my latest scarf up on Etsy, and (so far) it hasn’t taken too long to get images up on wordpress today…mmm, something’s bound to go wrong somewhere!

“Colm” is the latest addition to Etsy - and while the real Colm is either recovering from a night out at Dundalk races or on his way to Shannon, his scarf name-sake is having it’s label sewn in and its washing instructions printed out. The sample version of this scarf was called “Colm’s dragon teeth” as the tufts were combed up to sit out more, but the full version recently off the loom hasn’t been given such pointy little “spud grinders” (as they would say in Hancock’s Half hour!).
More images on My Etsy Weaves page