Struggling

I've been adding sectional warping to my Magic Dobby. Louet does not offer this for a Magic Dobby.
After reading that Marg Coe had added sectional warping to her Magic Dobby, I wanted to give it a go too. But rather than making it myself like she had done, I took the short cut and ordered the set for the David loom that should work.
I've put it on with some hurdles. I had to turn the stabilizing plank on the stand around (from vertical to horizontal) to create space.
Now that it's all fitted there is a problem: there is not much space left between the sectional warp beam and the top cloth beam. I've decided to put on a plain 8/2 Tencel warp and see if it will work.
I'm now going through the learning process of using my AVL warping wheel that I was able to buy 2nd hand in 2010. It had been waiting patiently to be used one day. I'm not doing very well so far, so might change plans and just make a very narrow warp, just to see and feel how the warp behaves. My plan was to make a 36cm wide warp.
Before this sectional warping adventure, I had been planning to start weaving with the lovely coloured wool/silk yarns that I bought last autumn. Hopefully the Tencel warp will give me the confidence in using this new setup, so that I can start next time with the wool/silk yarns.

a good life ends

Today I've had to say goodbye to my dear cat Scruffy. I'm so glad I was able to make the decision for him, to let him sleep forever and not let him suffer. He would have been 16 this Summer, but he was rapidly going downhill. It was not easy, but the best for him. He'll be greatly missed. He was David's cat and he looked after me these last few years. Hope his sister Sunny will stay with me for a bit longer.

exhibition

Last Friday I went to the opening of the latest exhibition in the Texile Museum in Tilburg.
The exhibition consist of work from 5 designers / design bureau's. They designed work through inspiration from the Museum collection. It was all very well presented, showing the inspirational pieces (nice to have some on show) alongside their new designs.
The exhibition runs until May 25th, well worth seeing. There are video's showing what inspired them, you have to see it all.
There were fantastic silk panels dyed with madder (shame they do not name the German dyer in the exhibition and on the website, only in the video is he named but I forgot)
What was so nice to see were blankets made from cotton that had been brushed after weaving, just like wool blankets are done. You wanted to stroke them but not allowed.....
Fascinating round bench with beautiful cloth on
Table linen, with embroidery. Very unusual
Fashion "embellishment". Flowers and plant embroidered on soluble cloth, only leaving the embroidery as end-result.
My descriptions do not do this exhibition any justice and unfortunately the museum website has not translated the exhibition in English yet. The collaboration of the designers with the Textile Lab has made this exhibition possible. All in all it's very inspirational.

holiday

When you wake up to this

what better than having a day indoors and do some baking together

we used a Delia Smith recipe of spiced apple muffins

it won't be long before they are all eaten ;-)

time for some artwork

all the snow had gone but it's snowing again
lucky the temperature is not to low so it's melting very quickly too

This and that

After some "warmer" weather, the snow was back today. Come on Springtime, I'd like to have some warmer weather soon. I'm not very good with this all this Winter. Not much is getting done.

I did finish the last scarf (Tencel warp, wool/silk weft), it's now washed and pressed. It hardly shrunk in the width but the more in length. But it does feel very soft. Looks completely different from the all Tencel scarf.

In the photo above you can see the difference in both scarves. On the right is the all Tencel scarf where I changed the hight after every 6th throw. On the left is with the wool/silk weft and here I changed the hight of the ondulé reed after every 4th throw. You can see the sculpted edge on the left is more prominent as the curves are shorter.

I now have to finish some of the samples that I made last year in 2 workshops. They have to be ready before 23rd this month. It's the AGM of Weefnetwerk (Dutch weaving association) and there will be tables with results of various workshops on show.
I had hoped to have made a warp by now. It's half term next week, so I'm looking forward to having the grandchildren here one after the other. It would be nice to do some weaving in the evenings.

empty loom

My loom looks bare with the last warp woven. I now have a scarf to fringe twist so that it can be washed and 2 samples, one will stay unwashed.

I've taken the ondulé reed construction out and fixed the correct parts back so that the normal reed can be used again.

My next warp will be coloured. Not decided yet what yarns I'll use. May be a wool/silk yarn mixed with a silk yarn.