New York Skyline Update

I have been quite busy recently and have not had much time to post on this blog, but one of the things I have been working on was some swatches for the Computer Design Study Group design exercise I posted about earlier this year.

The studies I did on the computer were bases on a section of the New York Skyline, as seen on the right.

I particularly liked the small grey block effects of the window in the top to middle section. I also liked the relationship of the colours, the greys and browns with a little of the blue and turquoise (copper roof!). Another thing that struck me were the vertical oblongs.

With the computer I used a number of effects:- mosaic, wave, stained glass and combinations of these.

The mosaic effect gave me more of the block and vertical block feeling and concentrated the colours, which really brought home the colour proportion exercise we did earlier. I decided to "lump" some of the colours together, so that I ended with just 4 main colours:- sky blue, turquoise, a marl grey and a marl brown.

Lumping the colours together gave me proportions of 48% "Rustica" (marled brown with has the red browns, in as well as the dark and lighter browns), 24% "Silver" (marled grey), 13% "Fauna" (turquoise) and 5% "Sapphire" (sky blue). These yarns were purchased from J C Rennie (Smiths of Peterhead). They are a machine knitting yarn, but weave beautifully.

I warped my rigid heddle loom at 14 epi in a log cabin effect of blocks of 1 Rustica and 1 Sapphire x 4, 1 Fauna and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4, (I Silver and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4) x 2.

My first swatch (on the right) was woven as threaded.

Swatch 2 (above) was woven with 1 Rustica and 1 Sapphire x 4, 1 Fauna and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4 and 1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 20. I wanted to try to capture the larger vertical blocks with this swatch.Swatch 3 (above) was woven with 1 Rustica and 1 Sapphire x 4, 1 Fauna and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4 and (1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 4 and 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 2) x 3. I wanted to try to capture the small blocks (the windows in the original) with this swatch.



Swatch 4 (above) was woven with 1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 4 and 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 2 repeated the length of the swatch. I felt that the small repeat of 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 2 was too small.


Swatch 5 (above) was woven with 1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 8 and 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 4 repeated the length of the swatch and I feel this gives a much better representation of the square blocks and vertical blocks.

I have begun to develop this, using the waves and mosaic and wave computer manipulations. More to come!

Drop Spindles

Yesterday I was at the Derbyshire Guild Open Day, in Derby, UK.

Although I am a member of the Guild, I had been invited to sell my natural dye extracts. Also at the event was Michael Williams, a wood turner and fine woodworker from Sheffield. He was selling his drop spindles, niddy noddies, nostepinnes, diz, lucets, tapestry frames, amongst a lot of other lovely items.

I love spinning with a drop spindle and purchased a 25g spindle. Well, it is the best drop spindle I have ever used! I have been using my Bosworth for the last 5 years which, up until I tried this spindle, I loved.

This top whorl spindle spins like a dream, and goes on and on for ever. Before I knew it, I had spun quite a bit. It would be the perfect spindle for a beginner, they would not have to worry about it spinning back on it's self! In fact while I was trying it out and waxing lyrical about it, a lady who was a beginner purchased one, too. A little while later, I was watching her across the room and she was spinning beautifully. I just had to go over and congratulate her!

I also purchased a nostepinne and a diz. I ply with an Andean plying bracelet and thought the nostepinne would be a useful tool to make my yarn into balls. The diz, is something I haven't used before, but the Online Guild held a workshop last month on spinning the Bowmont Fleece and we were given the instructions for using one, so now I have a chance to try it out.