Time

Shocking, I have been away from my blog for almost 3 years.
Things look different, I will have to find my way around again.

weaving

At long last sorted the problem I had with the Megado and there is a short warp on for a scarf. Getting ready for visitors so not sure when the scarf will be finished. The yarn is merino/silk, lovely and soft

I also had a problem with my Magic Dobby after it had been idle for a long time. The port was not the one that should be in use. It is also sorted now. Whilst sorting out the port problem I must have added a few points in the drawing, so when I started to weave, it did not look right. Pff, I did not spot that in first instance. But all is well now, to get on with that 8m warp :-) once visitors have gone home again in the new year.

6 months on

Problem with Facebook is that the blog gets little attention.
But as I have not been weaving at all, there was not much need in blogging anyway.
Still not weaving but hope to get back to it very soon!
Instead I have been travelling, something new to me.
I spent 7 lovely weeks in the Dordogne this summer and just back from 3 great weeks in New York state with 5 visits to NYC. My first long flight and big time difference.
What a great time I have had. So, I want more of this :)
Hoping to get my Megado to work at long last. Had a chat with Jan Louet & Paul yesterday and with their advice I will get back to the loom..... Still a bit jet-lagged though

this and that

So much happened since my last post
Spent a wonderful 8 days in the Dordogne for a workshop by Marian Stubenitsky with friends

Result of 3 days weaving, with 8 of the 9 weavings showing, mine is 2nd from the right
We worked hard but also had so much fun together. A great week thanks to great hosts.
We are planning a follow up workshop for next year :)

I now have my Interface installed at my Megado after some hiccups in the weekend, the wrong cable was in the box but Louet is going to send the correct one together with another thing missing. I used the cable from Magic Dobby and this is how I found that this was the problem why I could not get the Interface to talk with my computer. Great support received from Louet!

So, inspiring workshop and the Megado all set up ready for weaving. Now to plan a warp to bring the 2 together. But first a friend visiting from London, so the planning will just be in my head for the moment.

Last week was Textile Festival in Leiden, I went there for one day. But so much to see, impossible to see all in one day. I went to the Pieterskerk, the actual festival was there on show for 4 days, very well put together, with beautiful work on show. Other things will still be on view for longer. I went to Sieboldhuis to see this I might go back to see it again, magic. There are films to be found online. Here one of them but there are more to be found. Worth watching. What an artist he was.
I also went to see the interesting Geisha exhibition at Museum Volkenkunde, still to see until May 25th. What I missed was the exhibition there by the Ikat Kring, I think that is no longer there. There was much more to see in Leiden but there is a limit to what you can take in, in a day.

Yesterday I went to the opening of a textile exhibition in Kunsthuis Secretarie te Meppel. A great exhibition with many different artists but I was blow away by 4 large tapestries by Marianne Benkӧ. Also beautiful linen scarves by Helene Loermans. All other textiles beautiful too but not woven but well worth seeing all. Last day of the exhibition is July 12th.

And after I came home there was a draw for a yarn give away on one of the facebook groups. There would be 4 winners for 4kg of silk each!! And low and behold, I'm one of the 4 lucky winners. Looking forward to receiving a box of yarn this week from Belgium by generous gift from Filip Elgers. I will have to see it first, it is lightly coloured grey but I intend to dye some myself. Will see how tight the yarn is spun and if it will take the dye ok. So, a big project coming for the Megado :) I would like to weave some fabric for a jacket with this yarn.

sponsor walk

Very proud of my daughter Fiona Geerts who will walk Nijmegen 4-daagse for the 3rd year. http://www.devierdaagsesponsorloop.nl/
This time she will walk for Kika. First time she walked by being sponsored by her health insurance vgz when she herself had just come through non-Hodgkin treatment. It was a real challenge but she did it and the next year she did it again and made the finish despite troubled feet.
This year she'll walk it as a sponsor walker, how cool is that.
I really hope she'll manage to collect lots for her charity Kika (Children Cancer Free)

1st warp finished on Megado

Megado warp is finished

This is how it looked coming from the loom

And here they are all cut and hemmed, but I still have to wash them.

And a close up of all 7 when still on the loom:

They are all different with weft yarns and most patterns are different too.
Fun to do and very happy with the loom!
I will pick up the Interface this week, so another learning curve coming. I will find out if the laptop that I bought 2nd hand last year, will work ok with the Interface.
It's lovely weather this week, so will be more outside than in and no more weaving this week. Blisters are healing from garden work last week.

what was I thinking?

I'm happy weaving away on my Megado. I put on about 6m long warp of cottoline so that I can get to know the loom by weaving towels.
I want them all to be different so I choose a different pattern and weft yarn for each one.
So far I have woven 4 towels but with the start of number 4 it went wrong. I did not like what I was doing and after 15cm I unpicked all and started again. But I run out of weft yarn (I used the yarn that I cut away from the warp because it was the wrong colour in the warp but ok as weft), so it is smaller than the others. Width of the warp is 50cm and I make them about 70cm long.
For the 5th one I went back to a pattern I have woven already, but I liked it. This time with other weft yarn.
I thought I could use an old black yarn that I used for a warp several years ago, but had to abandon as it was breaking very badly. I thought it would be ok as weft. What a mistake. It was just integrating and for a towel you don't want yarn that is fluffing all the time.... it was so bad it even effected my breathing.

So, I unpicked about 38cm that I had woven already and tomorrow I will start with a different weft and this black will be thrown away, as it should have been done in the first place after I used it unsuccessfully as warp.

I love my loom though