I have been listening to Cast On, a  knitting podcast by Brenda Dayne who is a knitter and an amazing pod caster & knitter living in Wales. I have been inspired to pick up some pointy sticks after 20 years of absence (since I discovered weaving). All I want to do is knit a pair of socks! I don’t care how hard or soft the yarn or how big or small the size, so far they are looking good for my DH or a local small giant!  I am just enjoying the challenge of turning a heel, having never worked on more than 2 needles. I have, however completed about 6 knitted sweaters in my life time, most quite complex, one sky blue sweater was completely composed of complex cables, which I recall came very easily to my nimble fingers. All these projects were created before the age of 13! Yep, textiles was always going to be huge in my life… so here is what I have made in the past couple of days on 5 DPN. 

Having a bad warp day? ……and who do you turn to?

Are your yarns getting you down? Is there a yarn god/goddess you call on when all your fibres fail?

I was ‘brung up a Catholic’, till I could speak (and ask questions for myself).

I have always loved the image and power of Buddha, so when things go to pot….. I tie a string/piece of the warp thread around one of my Buddha’s hands.

 If it works…….GREAT!     If not……. I need to re-warp and start again! So far …… Buddha  3  / Re-Warping  1

I was able to salvage some images from my broken memory stick. These are more photos of my men’s scarves I have on the loom at the moment.

Drawdown of this pattern using two colours in the warp and a single coloured weft. This will be my next warp. I got heaps of new colours in 100% Australian cotton and I’m enjoying designing my new projects combining a variety of these. Here are 2 more drawdowns with the same colour warp but a contrasting weft.

All the girls are going great with all our new techniques, we have more laughs than finished products & this is what keeps us coming back for more!

This is my twisted fibres yarn that I have been spinning for the past 3 weeks. The tips of my fingers are numb like frost bite so I can do all sorts of amazing things this week…. I want to make some type of vessel, if not a worm holder will do!

Flour & water resist technique. This was good fun.

Irene Dwyer’s beautiful ‘neat’ worm holder. (I’m so glad we have lots of worms to hold)

Jenny, Sara, Tamara, Irene & June. So who has done their homework this week?

The Gingin Art Class.

Leeann twisting her rag fibre yarn.Jenny Madden’s project already on the go……

More flour & water technique being painted with dyes. Leeann used gluten free flour which gave a different thickness & texture, I’m looking forward to seeing all the finished products.

I have been knitting slippers, they turned out so big only my DH the foot model could wear them.

 Thanks Shireen for putting up with all of us, as we are! See you all on Thursday.

I still have this warp on, which I will be weaving wider cotton stoles for my next warp, same pattern but  in 100% Australian cotton. My camera broke down so this is the best image of the pattern I have got. These are 100% pure wool in 2 colours light & dark green. This pattern will look amazing with a 3 colour range. (my next project!)

I finished 2.3 meters of the wedding fabric on the loom today. I wet finished the woven bamboo fabric and pressed it with a hot iron. It looks amazing and the glitz shines and glitters wonderfully in the photos which will add a bit of sparkle to my clients wedding outfit and will be sensational in the wedding photography.

This is a nice detail close up of the fabric after finishing and pressing.

All finished and ready for delivery.

(As I have blogged before) I love weaving crisp white but unfortunately my outlets do not like white garments due to the touch-ability factor.  Another white project is in the design stage, watch this space…

It seems like I haven’t blogged about my own weaving in awhile, but I have been working on some exhibition pieces and I don’t want to post photos of the finished pieces until the exhibitions are held or at least until I get past the selection committee.

The wedding fabric is nearly complete and I just love the way it is weaving up. The bamboo yarn has a soft feel, a beautiful sheen and is really nice to weave. I am only using the bamboo for the warp and the weft is a cream boucle plied with a silver glitz.

I found a little loom in a second-hand shop for $3.75!! It came with everything to start weaving & had never been used. So, I started Seán off (5 years old) & he is a natural. He was very proud of his weaving & I am so proud of him.

Seán was so happy with his work he did his own photography.

Well weavers, here it is, my first anniversary of ‘Shirley Treasure’ the blog. I am so glad to have had so many hits and people interested in my weaving, thanks to all for making my first year such a positive experience.

As I get more experienced with links etc. I hope to have many more years of blogging my work.

Cheers, Shirley.