Winter Activities for the Artisan

It will be several months before the weather matches that illustrated in the photo.  Oh, a beach walk is still possible but the sky will have more shades of grey.  There will be more white caps in the water and the walker will be wearing his dark coloured rain gear.  The setting may be the same but the colour palette will certainly be darker.

You could pack your bags and head to somewhere that looks more like the photograph or you could take advantage of the current weather.  It is perfect for staying inside and working on projects.  A number of our members did just that according to the show and tell portion of our monthly guild meeting.

Karen treated us to a glimpse of what her new 16 harness loom is capable of producing.  She has been busy learning how to design and weave using a computerized loom.  She brought some lovely scarves.

Her designs are not limited by the number of treadles available and the harnesses are much easier to lift  It takes considerable physical effort to lift a group of harnesses fully loaded with yarn.  I often think weaving is equivalent to time in the gym.  You get an upper body work out as well from pulling the beater, especially if you happen to weave rugs.



Karen's restrained use of colour is in contrast to the corduroy seat cover pictured below.  The colours were the result of the weaver trying to use up odds and sods from her stash.  Although it was woven for a practical purpose we thought it was worthy of a space on a wall.  All it needs is an evocative title.

The show and tell portion of our guild meetings illustrates the diversity among our members.  We have very different approaches to design, colour and materials.  We also have different tools and different skills sets that we can use to add to our creations.

The simple design of this throw allows the beauty of the fibres used to stand out.  The darker bands have a small amount of glitter that elevates the piece.  It was done on a four harness loom using simple weave structure.

The final photos show more from the two different study groups.  The colour gamp illustrates how the neutral colours in the warp alter the weft colour as it crosses them.

The yellow striped scarf is the result of a collapse weave experiment using a highly twisted single cotton thread as the weft.  The cotton weft pulls in causing the warp threads to pleat and buckle.