snowdrop

just seen my first snowdrop of this winter in the garden today

festive season

best wishes to all for the festive season

having grandson Syb staying with me at the moment

 he has been creative on the computer

tomorrow a day with the family and we'll do a switch and granddaughter Sytske will come next

just tried to start up my laptop that I use with the loom and it will not start up :-( 

I had problems updating windows xp last time

this will be something to sort out in the new year, no time just now in getting all worked up about it

magic

Check this out, it's magic!

my project - finished

Finished my project!

I've been translating this beautiful book from Dutch into English!

I'm not a translator, so this was outside of my comfort zone but pleased that I succeeded in doing this job. Thanks to help from my dear friend Gillie this was possible. Thank you Gillie!!
My goal of finishing before the end of the year was met. :-)
Marg and Ruth will now go over it to make sure that all I have translated is making sense.
Publishing date will be April 2014.
In this book Marian Stubenitsky has written about various structures that can be woven with parallel threading, starting from a design line. The weavings are for 4, 8, 12, 16, 24 and 32 shafts. Shadow, moiré, rep, iridescence, four and more color double, taqueté and samitum. A unique project, not published before in one book. 240 pages in full color, sewn and bound in hardback, laminated cover, richly illustrated and professionally designed.
As this is self published by Marian, let her know that you are interested.
There will be a pre-publishing price €39,50 from €44,50 (+pp).

Wishing Marian success with the forthcoming English publication of her book.

School holidays at the end of the week, and looking forward to having the grandchildren coming to stay with me. Back to weaving after this is all behind me. :-)

wooll-e

Today my wooll-e lights arrived!
One is up on the wall :-)






I need to get 2 more bulbs for the other two. Also choose spaces where to hang them.

But as they come with an extra disc that you stick on the wall, I can choose different places and switch from time to time where I want them. What fun!

They are beautifully made, very pleased with them!

book // wooll-e

Leigh's book arrived in the post today from Amazon.
Looking good. The photos inside are all black and white, that was a disappointment. On the other hand, it makes the publication affordable this way. Looking forward to reading this.

My project moves along at the right pace, so my intention to finish by the end of this month will surely be made. More later.

Tomorrow my wooll-e lamps will arrive!!  :-)

fascinating art

here a link to some fascinating art
more info here

project

Halfway through my project.
Very happy to have come so far. Now I have to try and get the other half done before the end of this year. Not impossible.
But, for above reason still no weaving at the moment!

I enrolled for a basic photo course earlier this year. It seemed to be a good idea at the time but with my project and  not feeling on top of it all, I did not get out of it that I should have done. The course is now finished. However, I did learn a lot and I will feel more at ease in using David's camera in future. As I did enjoy the course, I might take another course in future. Amazing how you can change your pictures by just amending minor things. Going through the knees is one of them. Perspective changes when you are lower down, like heads sticking out of other persons. The photo below: had I gone through my knees, the person above my grandson would not have shown in the photo.

Saw the grandchildren yesterday. Had not seen granddaughter for over a month, wow, had she grown.

decorating

It's that time of year again....
Storm outside so it's a good time to get everything out of store and start decorating.
Strange doing this on my own when this was always a family event.
Enjoyment for the rest of the month now.

virtual community

I've been a member of Online Guild from almost the beginning in 2002 and that way I have "met" quite a lot of people. One is Leigh Tate. She no longer is an Online Member but I like to read her blog.
She has now surprised us all by publishing a book about her homesteading life. Do go and have a look. Well done Leigh!

The Chanel Legend

There is a beautiful Chanel exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum until February 2nd 2014.
I went there yesterday with some friends and also to a Vrije Academie lecture about her and the exhibition. Wonderful to hear the lecture and see the exhibition.
I could not resist buying this museum publication

This exhibition Chanel The Legend will travel to 

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg 

later in 2014.

this and that

Slowly feeling better again.
Hoping to get back to my intensive project. My intention is to have it finished by the end of the year. After this forced break I still hope to reach that goal.
So, there will not be much time for weaving, but I will try and set up a short warp on my new Jane loom so that I can play with the moiré weaving. Had to miss the guild meeting last Friday.
It's getting colder here now, with forecast for some frost and light snow. Good weather to be happy indoors.

Bonnie Inouye teaching days

Just back from a week London where I had some great teaching by Bonnie Inouye. First was a half day on The Flowing Line and another half day on Point variations at Handweavers Studio. She showed us lots of samples and so much that is possible.

Next was a Complex Weavers Study Day on Four-Colour Double Weave, working on the computer with Fiberworks and another Complex Weavers Study Day on Turn the Tied.An overload of information that wants to be put into practise.
I was to late for the actual workshop she was giving Opposites Attract. That was fully booked up almost directly after it was announced. Will have to wait for that another time.
Lovely to meet up with old friends and meet new weavers.
I took the train again but both ways was not without it's hiccups between home and Brussels. Roll on Eurostar to Amsterdam! I think we have to wait until 2016 for that to happen.
Have to get over my cold now, not much doing until I feel a bit better.

new book, new loom

Just back from our yearly National Weaving Day. Always nice to meet up with friends and like minded people. It was a well organised day.
The talk by Loan Oei was so interesting, as I expected it to be.
Of course I picked up my copy (plus 2 for friends) of Marian Stubenitsky's book (240 pages and over 1200 photos and illustrations), it is a beautiful publication.

and a new loom :-)
I did not really have a loom to take with me to workshops, so I invested in a Louet Jane. As we will be weaving Moiré with our guild this winter, I thought this was the right time to get one.

storm

Less than a week ago I was able to lunch in the garden, today a storm was blowing over. What a difference one week can bring. Lucky not much damage, that could not be put right:

 

new book

One more week before the publishing date of a Dutch weaving book by Marian Stubenitsky. It will be launched at the National Weaving Day on November 2nd.
A beautiful informative publication including many illustrations / photos. Marian is an expert in colour weaving.
An English version will come out next year!



Looking forward to the weaving day next week as there will be a talk by Loan Oei on textiles from prehistory to the future. Years ago I attended a memorable talk that she gave, together with Cecile de Kegel, about their publication The Elements of Design. There were 2 screens and lots of pictures coming on the screens left and right. It was so energizing and stimulating. So, expecting great things from her talk next week: From spinning web to World Wide Web, textile, the red thread in history.
Another talk that day will be by Andreas Möller. As I went to his master-class earlier this year, this talk will be no surprise to me, but nice to revisit his ideas and meet up again with him.

iridescent

Two days ago I noted that a spider web on my window was iridescent.
I made a photo from the inside and the iridescence is just visible.

indian summer

October 22nd and I had lunch outside in my garden!!  :-)
Unheard of here
My thermometer reads 28°C , always higher as it is in a sunny spot ;-)

Vlisco

Good to see Vlisco on the news here today.
For the first time they are part of the DDW in Eindhoven.
I love their designs.

wooll-e

I've seen the wooll-e today for real.
What a fun Dutch Design product!
I went to see them at the home exhibition in Utrecht today.
My challenge now will be to weave a sleeve so that I will be able change the wooll-e and make it my own.
This will have to wait until my current project is finished and that will take the remainder of this year.
But the felt sleeves are already beautiful.
My order is now placed and the colours are chosen.
So, looking forward to the wooll-e sometime next month :-)

flowers again

So enjoying the flowers, they are opening up beautifully.

flowers + project

I was given this lovely bunch of flowers this weekend, 

1 meter high they are! They are opening up nicely.

For the moment not much time for weaving as I'm busy with an intensive project, though related to weaving, it is completely out of my comfort zone, but I'm enjoying it.
I will talk about it when it's finished.

Our guild meeting last Friday was so much fun. We are going to weave moire this winter and are having Ineke Elsinga from Tissien as our tutor. What a humour she has. Already looking forward to next month meeting.

textile symposium

I've just come back from a 2-day Textile Symposium at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. What an interesting 2 days this was. Many different speakers, so now I look at several exhibits in a different way, after hearing the story behind the objects. We were also taken on a tour to the ateliers where restoration takes place,  where costumes are stored and also the teaching unit for textile conservation of University of Amsterdam. They are all located in the same building near the Rijksmuseum. We were also treated to a guided tour through Stedelijk Museum. I had not been there after it's re-opening last year.
An interesting development that we were told about is that costume curators from 7 Dutch Museums are now collaborating together under the name ModeMuze and will be setting up a website so that their collections will be a valuable online resource for students. Brilliant initiative.
For now there is a link at facebook and Pinterest.

wooll-e

I like to introduce you to a new fun product, the wooll-e

It was launched here yesterday. Watch the video there!

I want to support the team behind it and that's why I'm drawing your attention to this fun product, made from felt in The Netherlands

finished

The warp I started in April !!! is finished at last....
I managed to weave to the very end

2,75 meters of cloth before washing

There will be some nice cushion covers made after my sewing machine has been looked at :-)

more lavender

Cutting the lavender and making bunches

It smells lovely in the house :-)

showing scarves

Today I received the frames that I was able to order for displaying scarves

draping them like this.

We had them made for our Guild exhibition and I really liked them, so, I'm very happy that we could order for ourselves. They are handmade.

cutting back lavender

It started to rain when I was cutting the lavender so had to stop but I could return to doing some more later in the afternoon. It's a lot of work as I'm cutting each flower stem individually. I could cut more quickly by cutting a bunch of stems at a time but then I would loose the possibility of a 2nd flowering.
So far I've only been able to trim a few plants

in the post today

It started raining so only managed to cut back one lavender plant.
But the post came just as I was going indoors and brought these:

My gift from Selvedge for extending my subscription with them. Lovely! I'll have pretty warm feet this winter ;-)

A moving small photo book, more about it here
A son who recorded his fathers final years in pictures.
I read about it first at neki's blog.

lavender

My favourite Nursery with a huge lavender collection is featured in this months Gardens Illustrated. Not sure if it's out already, they should be on the cover.
My lavender will need pruning, may be they'll flower a second time. Job for today ;-)

exhibition

Today we went to see the Pixar story.

Very interesting to see and read it all. We spent 4 hours there!
Tomorrow is going home time and Monday they will be back at school already, after 6 weeks Summer Holiday.

holiday fun

sewing

It's been very warm but now it's a more comfortable temperature.
Today I made a pen case for my granddaughter. I promised to make her one before she starts school again next week.
I had some material left over from making the small cushions.
As there are still plenty cushions available I decided to use the left over material for her pen case

and I lined it with material left over from the dress I made her.

I hope she'll be happy using it.

the good life

Lovely day yesterday, so, the outside almost became inside

I had a little watcher next to me when weaving

The warp is nearing its end

more thoughts on tie on

I realised this morning that my warp is 40cm wide and not 30! I should have made 5 bundles and not 4. That way I would not have the wide division between the bundles.
Had I made 5 bundles I probably needed fewer weft threads to spread out all the warp threads.
I blame the heat ;-)
Will make not for next warp, not to make the same mistake again.

tie on warp

Something I learned at the Andreas masterclass was to tie on an easy way. My loom has been standing idle for the last 2 months or so. High time to get behind it again. His idea is to do things as easy as possible. So to tie on, just divide the warp into large bundles. Say 4 for 30cm wide warp and make the ties like this.

What I found was that is took very little effort to tie on with just the 4 knots, re tying them only once meaning in total 8x knotting.
Theory is, that this way, the warp is spread out so that you need little weaving before your warp is ready to start weaving.Not sure if that really was the case but having just the 4 knots worked very well. Definitely will use this method again.

I've decided to weave a few more cushion covers to brighten up the settee. After that, I'll still have more warp left. Will see what to do with that.

Far to warm outside (32C officially today but my thermometer was reading 39C!! this afternoon).
I had to much sun last Wednesday and have suffered the days after. I was unable to see my daughter arrive at the finish on Friday. That hurt. I'm a lot better now compared to last week but keeping out of the sun as much as possible.

finished

Daughter finished her 4 day walk today. She came in 17th from her starter group of around 700+ in the 40km group. She has my full respect doing this and I'm very proud of her. So different from 2 years ago when she had chemo every other week.

weavers market Hoorn

Today I went to the Weavers Market in Hoorn. You can get an impression here from last year. This year there were about 150+ stalls and the weather could not have been more perfect.
Nice to bump into so many people, some only seen recently, others not for a while. So it was nice to have a chat.
I could not resist this

It's made by a Dutch woman named Maja, who has been doing this for quite some time now but it was the first time I saw such a large piece made by her. She uses the batik technique. Unfortunately she does not have a website.
It's all cotton and it will be nice and warm this winter.
The only other purchase was this baby alpaca yarn

Lovely soft yarn and I just liked the colours. 300 grams should be enough for a project sometime in the future. For the moment I'll just enjoy looking at the colours.
Having walked around all afternoon it was time to go and have a look at the harbour and have a drink there before returning home.

Daughter is halfway with her 4 day walk. Some blisters but she is doing well.