Friday, December 26, 2008

Some of the things I made in 2008

Below are some of the bits and pieces I have made during the past year. There were actually quite a few more, but I keep forgetting to photograph them before I give them away. And I have a pile of wool I have spun, waiting to be knitted, crocheted, woven or whatever

This large wall hanging measures about 1.4m by 0.8m. It is woven from a mixture of yarns (mostly wool) and also various grasses, reeds and sticks. I now have it hanging in my bedroom.














I covered this shopping bag for my stepmother - one side is scrumbled and the other has crocheted flowers.
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A set of 6 place-mats, woven with a novelty cotton on a silver/grey polished cotton warp. There are 3 different patterns.













My daughter-in-law put in a request for a tea cosy for Christmas.
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I based this wall hanging design on a photo I took of a moonrise across the ocean, while we were up in the Kimberley. I spun the wool first - two different shades of very dark blue and two shades of yellow. The moon itself is crocheted and placed over the attempt I made at trying to weave a circle! The hanging measures about 160cm by 40 cm.
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I made this ruana for myself, using wool in the weft that I had handspun - a blend of blues and greens. The warp was commercial two ply, alternating blue and green. The close-up shows the pattern in the weave.


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This vest I actually made last year. I have worn it a lot and get lots of comments. It uses scrumbling - lots of different shapes and yarns, knitted and crocheted, gradually built up into the shape you want for the garment. I used a lot of handspun, but also mixed in a lot of novelty yarns to give the garment the texture which makes it so interesting.

At the time I made this vest, my hands and shoulders were giving me a lot of trouble, so I could only knit or crochet for a short while. But I found that I could alternate knitting and crochet, as they each use different muscle groups, and rested one lot of muscles while I used the other. I can't bear to sit and do nothing with my hands!
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The wool I used to crochet this jacket was handspun an hand-dyed by one of the women in our weaving group. The dyeing was using a crampot technique, which resulted in the colours being stronger in some places than others. So I used the stronger colur as accents on the sleeves - it looks better in real life than in this photo.

The wool was donated as part of a raffle prize at an exhibition our group held in June at Dobell House. Mum won the raffle (which also included a beautiful handwoven wrap). But since she can no longer knit or crochet, she gave the prize to me.
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novelty scarves


These scarves are made using various techniques and some novelty yarns. The one on the left was made using a butterfly loom
The second one is knitted on very large needles. and the blue one is made by machine stitching back and forth across a lot of different textured yarns placed parallel to each other.
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handwoven squares for friendship quilt

As a group project, my weaving group undertook to make a friendship quilt. Each weaver wove 12 squares using the same warp on their loom, but using different yarns for the weft - each person gave everyone else some of their own yarn. Some people used cotton, other used wool, or blends. I used handspun wool, in a mixture of blues and jacaranda/purples. You then give each person the piece you wove with their weft yarn. I am still waiting for a couple of people to complete their squares, and then I will create an interesting quilt or some such item with the squares. Since everyone wove a different pattern, the squares will all be similar but different.

One of the girls who participated is totally blind. She wove her squares all by feel. Amazing woman.
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This shawl I made for my daughter for Christmas is from a blend of silk, mohair and merino, which I handspun. Some is plied with itself, and some is plied with mauve or blue handspun merino.
This scarf was made using some novelty yarns, and bead leno weaving technique
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handspun, handwoven scarf
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cuddlies

some soft toys I made for the grandchildren for christmas


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