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I imagine most of you were looking at the shawl I’m waving about in these pictures yesterday, but today I’m going to talk about the belt I’m wearing too. I wove this belt back at the start of the year, when I’d really got into pick-up weaving In fact, it was one of the first…
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Good morning! I spent yesterday afternoon sat outside on the freshly painted decking, weaving in the sunshine. Which really felt like quite a treat. I’ve been wanting to weave with my own Milarrochy Tweed for a while, and yesterday I decided to finally take the plunge. I was a little nervous for two reasons: first,…
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Today I’m sharing the first of series of images and recollections from the Applied Arts Scotland residency I was part of last September – which seems, for so many reasons, like a very long time ago. This residency was part of the British Council’s Crafting Futures programme, bringing makers from Scotland and Mexico together, to…
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Yesterday I was weaving some buttons for a project I’m working on (similar to these) and began looking at small weaving projects online. I kept coming across beautiful images of wrapped stones (you know the kind of thing) and decided to have a go. There’s a large collection of pebbles on my desk and so…
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Just a bit of weaving to show you today. I find sitting to make a plain weave belt extremely relaxing – I put on the radio or a podcast (at the moment I’m enjoying the back catalogue of the Listening Service) and work away for a few hours. Often when I’m knitting, I’m thinking ahead…
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Good morning, all. If you’ve not read the comments on yesterday’s post, might I suggest you do so? From Parisian ducks and the red-legged partridges of Portpatrick, to the sometimes-silent parrots of Buenos Aires, Australian pelicans, the egrets of North California, and the hummingbirds of Tennesee, Arizona or Texas, it was wonderful to read your…
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This is a very cheerful sweater And to accompany it, I’m wearing the most cheering pair of shoes I own. . . Yes, even someone with a dropped foot and appalling balance can gad about in these ridiculous ruby slippers! Back to the sweater, whose name is Coofle: an old Scots word for a puzzle,…
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Good morning! Time for a weaving post! I’ve been enjoying making plain weave belts (like the one which accompanies my Land o’Cakes cardigan) and narrow pick-up bands (like my phone lanyard or mitten strap) and wondered if I might bring the two techniques together. It’s the difference in thread thickness that makes the motifs on…
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Morning, everyone. Hope you are all very well and looking after each other. The whole team here is fine, and we feel extremely grateful for our internet connections and well-established methods of remote working. Sam is at the warehouse, in happy solitude, and will continue shipping anything you order, both locally and internationally, as long…
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When you were a kid, did you wear your mittens and gloves on bands or strings threaded through your coat sleeves to keep them safe? I did, and have very vivid recollections of disliking the practice as I grew older, for seeming childish. My grandma knitted all my gloves and mittens, and if keeping them…
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I really enjoyed reading your comments on my last weaving post – especially hearing about the impressively wide range of new skills you are all currently picking up! I’m continuing to enjoy my weaving, and am finding it very inspiring. It really interests me that one of the first things many people think of when…
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A little over a month ago, I wrote this post about learning how to weave with Belinda Rose, and beginning to weave bands on my new inkle loom. Since then I’ve been really enjoying playing and experimenting with weaving narrow bands – particularly using pick up techniques. As is my usual tendency, I began by…
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Shetland abounds with wonderful creative spaces, but surely one of the most inspiring has to be the charity that Andy Ross has established, nurtured, and developed in Yell. From its beginnings as an organisation focused on music and music teaching, GlobalYell expanded its focus a decade ago to textiles, and to weaving in particular. Over…
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Good morning, everyone! It is Friday, which means its time for another pattern for Seven Skeins club members. This week I’ve created another wee project which is brilliant for using up scraps of yarn – its name is Cairngorm. Strictly speaking, a cairngorm is a piece of smoky quartz from the famous mountain region that…
Read MoreI am designing a few things at the moment with a yarn that is new to me. I really like this yarn – and surely the best way to find out some more about it was to visit the place where it is made? So, on Friday, Mel and I took a trip to Donegal.…
Read MoreQuite a few of you have been asking to see close-ups of the Boreal colourwork from the wrong side, so here we are: While the front of the sweater does not really give an indication of the effect of the colourwork on the thickness of the fabric, I think you can really get a sense…
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