June

01.06.25

 

Another play with this yarn - on a roll here, as I haven’t got a warp that I want to work with on my looms at the moment so I’m using a small frame loom. 

 

• Joining and separating - gaps and links. An idea for future work?

02.06.25

 

Really enjoying weaving with this yarn - this piece and yesterdays piece I have now wet finished and it has come out so much softer.

 

• I think it is too thick for a scarf - am I going to get back into weaving blankets?

• Just playing with multiple colours in the warp and weft - not something that I normally do but it is quite fun and I do like it.

03.06.25

 

Just playing with contrasts -the colours of this reminds me of one of the weave projects that I did at uni - not my favourite. 

 

• I like the turquoise on it’s own, but not in a solid block like this - it needs a different warp to soften it down and add some depth.

04.06.25

 

Again - not sure that I really like the solid block of colour, but the contrast here between the background and the thick warp is better.

05.06.25

 

Back to my lovely autumn colours - and playing with a contrast yarn in both thickness and colour. 

 

I don’t normally wind two yarns together to weave, but I do like the effect - who knows what might happen next?!

06.06.25

 

And another similar version - three different colour yarns woven together this time! Really breaking out of the rut!

07.06.25

 

Exploring the background for a piece of weave which will incorporate multiple layers and is for a conference about paper. 

 

• Not sure if this one will stand up to being regularly handled - the warp threads on the sides can easily slip out of the weave.

• But maybe the tight weave at the top and the bottom will anchor them. 

• I think I like how this looks - I think I want the ragged edges at either side. 

• The piece needs to be approx 60 x 80 cms - so will need a large piece of paper if I am going to do this.

08.06.25

 

2nd weave - this time I have a woven weft thread in between all the thicker paper weft pieces. 

 

• It certainly anchors the paper more helpfully - maybe I’ll do the anchor threads now and then rather than in between each paper weft - but why?

• This weave has a random shuttle lift which I like - it avoids the regularity of doing a repetitive weave structure. 

• It is going to be woven into a multiple layer piece - do I keep this on one layer, or am I going to weave in all the different layers. 

• And what kind of loom am I going to weave it on?

09.06.25

 

Playing with double cloth with a paper strip woven background rather than a paper weave.

 

• Not sure how much I like this - maybe that the strips are too similar in size?

• It would make a quick weave for my poster piece.

• But will I be pleased with it when it is done!

10.06.25

 

Will I ever get to enjoy this colour? Definitely not one that I would choose to use as the main bulk of a weave  in all it’s different shades. But I tried!

11.06.25

 

A bit of twill - effective with this thickness of yarn and in these colours. The pattern is really clearly defined in this one, and although the coral yarn is thinner it shows up really well as a contrast with the teal

12.06.25

 

Really enjoying these contrasts - but I don’t want to use too much of the yarn! I want to keep it to weave something special! But I don’t have enough of it to do that at the moment.

13.06.25

 

Odd that I find this plain grey yarn so boring - not a colour that I would choose to weave in, yet in the paper yarns these neutral colours are always what I would choose. 

 

• This piece reminds me of the basket of a flying balloon - I don’t often get that in my work - maybe it is a sign that I finally need to fulfill that dream of going up in a balloon!

14.06.25

 

An effort to make the grey less dull - by using a colour that I really don’t like! What am I thinking. 

 

• In reality this yellow is much more acid, a very lemon yellow which isn’t a pleasing colour to weave with. 

 

• Maybe I need to mix it up with other colours (the purple/lilac which I also hate?! At least they are complementary colours which should work?) For another weave!

15.06.25

 

A bit of fun to play with - but it has turned out to be a really messy weave. 

 

• The weft threads are much too loose and I didn’t get the tie up of the warp threads correct, so that when I swapped them over they needed to be cut and re-tied. The advantages of planning in advance what I want to do!

• Do it again - with a bit of planning and forethought!

16.06.25

 

A much neater weave with the finer yarns - and even the grey yarn works in this combination! 

 

• Interesting and fun to do - I am not sure how/if I would use this in a larger piece - am I going to get into tapestry weaving?

• Is this how Peter Collingwood started with his weaves? I am still not really sure how he wove his anglefell weaves.

17.06.25

 

Setting up for some double cloth weave samples on my 8 shaft table loom - A little bit of a play with this.

• Appalling selvedges. I am realising that on my louet loom I can get into a rhythm with my weaving, and this enables me to manage my selvedges much better.

• The table loom is slower, and harder to get into a rhythm - I get impatient, just want to see how the weave is evolving, and therefore don’t take the care that is needed.

18.06.25

 

I can’t get used to this very acid yellow - maybe I am just not finding the right colours to mix it with, but I find it really unpleasant in these weaves.

 

• It is interesting how the colour affects the weave - in this I can not focus on the weave, because the colour is so jarring. 

• I think the yarn is too thick to give me the effect that I am really looking for. I would like this in a much more delicate yarn.

19.06.25

 

I like this one - both the colours and the pattern - a simple pattern, but effective I think.

 

• Interesting doing the coloured strands - I had a plan in my head for how the colours would work, but it didn’t look good in the final piece and needed to be changed. 

• The yellow (a softer one, not the acid yellow) provided a good ‘pop’ which needed to be repeated, but I think would have been too much if I used it in all three of the strands. 

• I am starting to enjoy these weaves much more - maybe what I am doing is a bit more interesting?

20.06.25

 

I love the colour of the brown yarn on the ball - but not so much when mixed with the teal - which is also a colour that I love.

 

• Frustration at trying to get the knots in this weave even - the bottom is longer than the top even though the distance between the two is the same! Is it an optical illusion?

• I like the effects of these inlaid warps - with the raw edges next to the neater selvedges.

21.06.25

 

Finally managed to use the purple yarn in a way that I like - the contrast with the bright lime green is great and the gray warp yarn softens the purple. 

 

• The green yarn is ‘my’ colour - or one of them, so maybe that helps me own the purple.

22.06.25

 

Not a great success - the orange is too bright compared with the purple - I thought after the contrast with the bright green it might work but no.

 

• Maybe there is too much of it? If I had just done a couple of threads of it that might have worked better.

• I found it very hard to get the triangles even - no matter how much I counted and tried to balance them they have ended up lopsided. I suspect I would have needed to weave this much more tightly to get a good balance.

23.06.25

 

Don’t know what it is about weaving with yellow - this is a much softer shade than the previous one I was using, but I still don’t like it.

 

• But I am enjoying the little mirrix tapestry loom more - it is easier to work with than my homemade loom, no maybe it is easier to remove the weaves and they have a neater finish which I am enjoying - I don’t have to worry so much about the ends peeling off.

• I am also enjoying having so much coloured good wool yarn - so generously  given to me by @kelvin.martin3139.  It is allowing me to explore colours more effectively. A good contrast to the weaves that I am doing for the PhD projects.

24.06.25

 

This has been a bit of fun to do - playing with the various colours that I have been using over the last few days.

 

• Kind of felt like a bit of mark making, drawing - just going where ever I felt like. It was a good freedom, not really bound by the rules of weaving.

• Reminds me of the big one that we did on the dance residency - the spider’s web, the entangling of the dancers, the stories - myth and fable, real life and now. 

• Doing something like this invites reflection - making it up as I go along, no plan, just seeing where it takes me. A nice meditative space.

25.06.25

 

Gone back to some clasped weft work - in much thicker yarn

 

• I like the colour combination of this one - the jagged middle separates the two outer edges well. 

• Three yarns are more interesting than two I think - can I do this with several colours - not on my little loom - I can’t get enough warp threads - might try it on my floor loom which has a close sett warp on it at the moment.

26.06.25

 

A little orange pocket in the centre of the weave. Not sure if I want to put anything into it.  

 

• It could be just a square - you have to get up close and play with the weave to realise that it is a second layer.

• Nice colours - the contrast of the orange is pleasing.

27.06.25

 

A variation on a theme - my preference is often the slightly greyer or more earthy colours. This blue feels too ‘simple’, too obvious. It doesn’t have enough depth.

28.06.25

 

A bit of play and fun. I wonder if I will take any of these weaves and make them into bigger pieces, or whether they will just stay as small samples?

29.06.25

 

Combining the blue that I am not particularly fond of with the yellow that I don’t like either - but toning them both down with the orangey colour - now I like the combination.

30.06.25

 

The final weave of this half of the year. Is time passing quickly? Does doing a weave a day and recording the process make me realise how the year is progressing? Or is there so much on my plate at the moment that I am not really taking the time to reflect on this? An opportunity that I am missing? Or maybe it is something that I can only look back on at the end of the year.