The Durham Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers meets every month. Our February meeting was a real treat.  I am not a spinner but the talk and demonstration was about  flax spinning.  Cath Snape  Our talk was from Cath Snape from the York Guild who became fascinated by flax spinning. She showed us some of her woven materials and different types of carded flax. She demonstrated how to wind carded flax onto a distaff. The traditional distaff was harder to fill, but the distaff made of a bound tree branch made winding on  the carded flax seem easy ..read more

 I was given a wonderful Christmas present from a friend in the USA. It is a ch'uspa made by a Bolivian weaver, Alicia Solis in Huancarani, Bolivia. It was purchased from Dorinda Dutcher who was a Peace Corps worker in Bolivia.  She worked to assist spinners and weavers to support them towards becoming independent by arranging classes in spinning and dyeing. Dorinda has wound down her work and helped the weavers towards organising themselves to have full responsibility to determine what comes next.  Here is a link to the work that the project accomplished.  https://paza ..read more

As you will know from my blog I am fascinated by patterned weaving, particularly belts and bands. I have been researching these items for a number of years. My main focus is on northern Europe but I also have examples form other countries as well.  Whenever I travel I always look out for woven bands. I have been fortunate in that a few people have donated their belts to me.  All my purchases are carefully wrapped in archival quality tissue paper and kept in sealed boxes.  I bring them out for talks and for research. I have already donated a few to a museum, but I thought that I ..read more

I made this book some time ago but it is very useful at this season.  It is available from Blurb as a paperback book or an instant downloadable PDF file. https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4649792-christmas-hearts All profits from the sale of this book go to a charity - the British Heart Foundation. Hans Christian Anderson, the famous Danish storyteller and author, loved to make paper cut outs to illustrate his stories whilst talking to children.  They must have been fascinated to see his large hands wield a pair of scissors to produce a cut out which illustrated his story. He is given the ..read more

A new design which is to be dyed. Weave structure: Plain weave Warp and weft: 2/20 silk and an overtwisted wool yarn. Overtwisted yarn can be tricky to put onto a loom.  Once the ends are cut, the overtwist can start to run out of the yarn. At each stage I tie the groups of threads together. This keeps the overtwist in the yarn. Winding on  Threading through the reed Once I have threaded the ends through the reed I  tie them loosely onto the front beam. A close up of the weaving. This weave is loosely woven.  The weft alternates - two p ..read more

Recently I visited my favourite town, Melrose in the Borders region of Scotland. We enjoyed several days walking in the beautiful countryside.  In Galashiels, a new visitors centre and Gallery has opened. It was built to house the Great Tapestry of Scotland. It is an 'artwork for the nation by the nation.'   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Tapestry_of_Scotland The Gallery  in Galashiels The author, Alexander McCall Smith had the idea and he gathered a team to bring his vision to reality. One thousand volunteer stitchers from around Scotland were engaged by this ..read more

 Satin weave I have just finished two handtowels in 10 shaft satin.   Warp for both towels. Warp: 16/2 unbleached cotton Weft: 16/1 linen Sett:19.5 ends per cm approx 48 ends per inch I used a 16 reed with 3 ends per dent. Total number of warp ends = 864 Width in reed =  approx 18 inches Border: block 1 = 82, block 2 = 35, block 1 = 50 then block 2 = 35 ends.   Border total = 202 at each side.  Centre of towel has 460 ends. block 1. Pattern one Weft = red 16/1 linen For this towel, I increased length of the of coloured stripe ..read more

Weaving a filled tubular cord with a weaving disc.   This blog accompanies two articles in the Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.   https://journalwsd.org.uk/ Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, 285 Spring 2023  A Weaving Disc - an exploration of history and uses. Part 1,  and 285 2023, Summer, A Weaving Disc - part 2.  What is disc weaving? I have been exploring a little known weaving implement: a weaving disc. The disc seems to have originated in Indonesia but also appears in Lithuania and Russia.   These weaving dis ..read more

Course Work; a valuable resource.   I was fascinated by the buildings by Gaudi, in particular the Casa Batlló in Barcelona. The outside of the building is wonderful but the staircase inside is a lovely exercise in  the use of shading.  Robert Hughes says that 'Under the skylight where they take the most light, the skin of the internal walls is flat, a cobalt blue. The walls get lighter in colour and develop a ripple of texture (to catch the light falling from above) as they descend from floor to floor. They pass from cobalt to sky blue, and thence to pearly grey ..read more

 Course Work - a valuable resource. In 2000 - 2001, I studied at Bradford for my HNC in Handwoven Textile Design.  One of the assignments was to explore architecture as a source for inspiration and produce a range of items. The key words were colour and texture. Having recently visited Barcelona, I was fascinated by the buildings by Gaudi, in particular the Casa Batlló in Barcelona.I chose these buildings for my assignments.  Robert Hughes in his book 'Barcelona' describes the house thus: Gaudi ... wanted the Casa Batlló to be read as a symbolic paean to the legend of Sain ..read more