eklectikfish by kateepie

Monday 1 November 2010

weaving workshop

This weekend I took the plunge and did something I have been wanting to do for ages and went on a weaving course with the lovely Margo Selby in her very posh studios in Bloomsbury, London.  I really enjoyed the course and learnt an awful lot about weaving and what works well together in terms of colour and texture.  It was also really nice to see what everyone else was creating - no two were alike :-)

The first day we experimented with different weave structures, on point threaded (wool) and straight threaded (bi-colour cotton) warps.


I started off on the wool warp and had a great time trying out different patterns and types of yarn for the weft


Here you can see lots of different structures - extra weft circles, a chequerboard formed by using a satin next to a twill, goose eye, rib, etc.  I fell in love with the colours!

In the afternoon it was time to switch to the much brighter cotton warp, in my case a yellow and red mix.  I found this really challenging as the first few stripes blended in too much with the warp colours.


You can just about see that the blue strip is a herringbone design... so, in theory are the two below it!

But I persevered and managed to weave a sample which I'm relatively happy with.  I much prefer the wool colour palette though.  In real life this is much more garish!



Day 2 was our chance to weave an item, and I decided to try and weave enough for a cushion, using the structures I had best liked from Day 1.  I chose a palette of blues, greens, reds, oranges and pinks in a mixture of wool, feltable wool and silk.

This is part way through

I didn't get much chance to take photos on day 2 as I was frantically trying to get my 14 inches woven by 4pm ;-) but here is my piece coming off the loom


And here is the finished piece!

The next part of the process was the scary bit - I needed to wet finish it and felt the long woollen floats of the circles so that they don't catch.  I made the cushion cover first to help stabilise the shape, then washed it with mild detergent in hot water, rubbing the woolly bits to help them felt.

And this is the finished result, which I am very happy with... now to get my own loom(s) set up... gulp!


Katie xx

Thursday 28 October 2010

folksy friday - weaving

It's been a while since I've done a Folksy Friday post, and as I'm set to do a weaving workshop this weekend I thought I might take weaving as a theme.

My own item is a herringbone tweed woven sleep pillow


Here are some treasures I found on Folksy









Wonder what I will come home with this weekend???



Wednesday 6 October 2010

October Folk Fest

This month's folksy listing club is the October Folk Fest - I haven't managed to list everyday so far, but have finished off a few knitted items: my cowl of course, some fairisle style leg warmers and some fun boho fingerless mitts


Here is a selection of nice things from the folk festers today:













Enjoy!

Katie x

Autumn Basketweave Cowl

My most recent knitting project has been to design a cosy cowl for those cool autumn days.  I chose autumnal coloured yarn and included a stripe across the centre.  I decided to go for shingle stitch to create the texture, which makes for a nice basket weave effect.

Here is the finished result: the buttons are vintage bone buttons with a lovely patina



Hope you like it!  I'm offering it for sale on folksy, but if you fancy having a go at knitting it yourself, you can download the pattern for FREE :-) on Ravelry

Keep toasty...
Katie x

Friday 17 September 2010

folksy friday - hens

My first folksy friday is going to feature hens!  Now my three are up and listed I thought it would be appropriate:



 


Now for the fellow folksters!





Hope you like them!

Katie x

Tuesday 14 September 2010

September Stars

Over at my folksy shop I have been joining in the September Stars listing club.  The aim is to list something every day and I have been busy doing just that - often a couple of things each day, hooray!

Here are some of the items:






But I'm not the only one who's been busy!  Here are some of my favourite items from the group from today:








Katie x

Monday 23 August 2010

knitting on the beach...

Well I'm back home now, with just the memories of sunny Cornwall (which rapidly turned into rainy Cornwall, but never mind).

We had a lovely time, lots of pretty coastal walks to do around the western side of the county.



Watched some birds of prey circling on the thermals - this one is a sparrowhawk I think:



And did some swimming in the beautiful blue-green sea:



I even managed to find some time to do some outdoor knitting :-) whilst camping... and on the beach.  If you were wondering what the creation is, its a sock!




Well it beats reading...

Friday 30 July 2010

quick post - kind words

Just a very quick update (I promise I will catch up with blogging next week as I've been a busy bee lately and got lots of sewing done)... but I wanted to share with you some kind words said about my work by Snapdragon Jane today :-)

http://snapdragongarden.typepad.com/snapdragons_garden/2010/07/a-lesson.html

I'm really glad I posted that plea for advice on twitter a couple of days ago!  Thanks Jane :-) x

Tuesday 29 June 2010

new photography website

I'm a bit disillusioned with folksy at the moment - lots of hits but no sales, and I don't like that you have to announce to the world that you haven't sold anything yet... which I'm sure must put people off, so I have set up a website to showcase my photography.  Any feedback would be gratefully received - I'm sure there will be some tweaking needed, and a whole of lot of tagging to get it compatible with Google.

Anyway, here it is: www.flemyngdesign.co.uk.  I went for a site hosted by Clikpic, which is designed with photographers in mind, and so far I am pleased with the result.


So, please come and visit, and if you like what you see, tell all your friends!

Friday 18 June 2010

busy bee

Don't you just love it when you can get up early on a day off work and get cracking with your own creations?  Today has been such a day.

Two hen doorstops:


Two standard sized hens:




I'm really loving the new colourways!

Last, and least... I needed to make a little bag for my soapods (soap nuts) for washing:


Here is the 'flock' as it stands (or rather sits) so far:



Aren't they a colourful bunch?  Terrible photo, but its pouring down outside so the light is frankly pants today.

Now, what to do this afternoon...

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails