from the 70s

This is what the new palette was about -a recent thrift find. I really like the shape of this chair, and even if I am not particularly fond of the colour, I thought I would keep it like this anyway.
I wanted the seat cover to have a geometric pattern, but not too evident, to suit the colour of the frame and obviously to resist normal wear and tear. The choice was a diamond twill, and as weft I used a skein of wool unevenly dyed with cochineal, so that subtle stripes would show. I slightly fulled it after weaving, so as to make it firmer, and suitable for upholstery.

Once finished comes the best part - the photo session! I realized how difficult it is to take decent pictures of handwoven fabrics, how the real colours are difficult to capture, even in natural light, and I am slowly learning - trial and error - what looks good and what doesn't. And never ever without a trypod!

New Palette

Would you believe it? Spring at last!

And some new projects as well. The turquoise-green fabrics were the first attempt for a chair that needs a new seat, but I wasn't quite happy with them. Today I found a colour card by Farrow&Ball: the colour names are really entertaining! ...colours like elephant's breath, or dead salmon...
so now I know that my chair is painted skimming stone, and the next fabric will have the warp in babouche and the weft in radicchio, I am curious to see the effect!

Will this rain ever stop?

On Sunday we immersed ourselves in the fog, on the way to the new house of a couple of friends, where we enjoyed a lovely lunch and afternoon together - and their kid - who speaks a funny mixture of Italian and English!
Back home while "hiding" some clutter, I found a paper bag with the above contents.
It was in a box together with all the stuff a lovely lady, Anne, gave me when I bought her floor loom, and it belonged to her husband.
I thought it was a nice collection and I put it in a little box, to be stored as a little treasure.
This reminded me of Antonio Marras, the fashion designer - who bought a small suitcase full of embroidery yarn, cotton, buttons and so on when he was in London. He kept the case intact with all its contents - and eventually it became a source of inspiration for his work. Another treasure!

I finished another cushion - this was a sampler from a weaving demonstration, but the stripes with different patterns were appealing... I like the result when you put on a warp and just go as you feel, with no particular treadling!

Lamps!

Yesterday I went out with a friend and on the way home we stopped in the most fantastic charity shop we've ever seen! We restrained ourselves, thinking of our husbands... she collected some stuff to use for her fantastic lamps - you can see them here - they are made with all types of recycled materials; mother of pearl buttons, baking cases, anything she finds around. Thank you Nadia, I really enjoyed our afternoon together!

embroidery?

We're back from the UK where we had all possible weather - rain, wind, fog, sunshine, snow, ice, blue sky...all in 4 days! I got this fantastic book from a second hand shop - more photos here - some of the stitches could be reproduced on a woven fabric. The samples are really inspiring!

...and some finished one-stripe bags!

A little tutorial

The good season is approaching - or at least I hope it is! - so it'd be good to have a nice bag ready.
This shape requires little cutting and sewing, because it's a long narrow stripe. It's fun and quick to plan and weave, but any other long stripe of fabric will do.
This is how the stripe is folded to obtain the bag - the proportion between handle and bag can be varied, depending on how you are used to carrying it.
The finished stripe is about 17cm wide and the total length is about 230cm, not including the inside pocket.
If you want a pocket, you have to plan a little more warp length, in order to have an extra fold that you can keep to the inside (or even the outside!) of the bag.
If you like, you can round the corners at the bottom and add a nice lining - this one is made of cotton and goes in the washing machine with no problem.
Happy weaving!

Moo!

I received a sample pack of 10 moo mini cards - they're so cute and tiny! Maybe a little bit too small...I reckon the best format is 55x84 mm, business card. Still, I like them - and I've got an uncanny feeling that they might become highly addictive...

Then, while making some order I bumped into my first 5m of weaving - a lenght of log cabin - in dark and light blue wool, which I noticed is full of mistakes. That was the first time on a floor loom - pedals and two shuttles! - I wasn't exactly what you could call "coordinate"! It took a long time to weave, mistakes and all, but I am fond of this piece of fabric and I wanted to put it to good use, so I was considering using it to cover the cushions of a Danish chair.