weave4fun

That's it. I got an unconditional offer today. hooray! [ trumpets, sirens sound, crowds cheer with wild abandon ] well, that's me all cheered up, despite my sprained neck which has had me in a bad mood all morning. so now i've got 5 months of college left to find something to do with. I could just go and sign on the dole, but that would inevitably lead to waking up in the evening and not getting any weaving done. it's funny isn't it, that when you have all the time in the world it's impossible to get anything done. I guess if the vehicles already moving it doesn't cost much to do an extra 20 miles at the end of the day, or something. I have a table frame in the class room that i can use as a frame loom if i want, so i can either make a tapestry, a knotted pile rug or just work on tablet-woven brocade and double-face effects. If i wanted to be really ambitious i could buy the late Mr Collingwood's Ply-Split book, or the one on Sprang (whatever that is) an...

So, I said i was going to try out sectional warping didn't i? Well, we'll get to that. First though, I'd like to show off my pretty new things i made over the new year break. First off is the 6'x3' rug i made for my mother, which she has put on the back of the sofa, this is it sitting in front of a dead fire not being singed by flying cinders. Right, now i'm actually almost furious. That's the third time i've attempted to transfer that rug picture to my mp3 player for upload to blog at college, and the third time i've plugged the thing in to find it mysteriously missing, despite the fact all the other pictures i need are there. It's very aggravating, are the gods of the internet, in their infinite wisdom, preventing me from showing off what is possibly my finest work to date, in case pride comes before a fall? I will prevail, next time, i swear, next time. Never mind, i have also made two pieces on the big loom, warping problems of which have alr...

As i haven't remembered to take the pictures of my new rug what i made for in front of my folks's fireplace, and it's new year, and i haven't posted since christmas, and this whole internet thing is rather addictive when you get into it, here are some pictures of cute dogs. i think to myself, in the following manner: "if i know my readership, i'm sure they'll like pictures of cute dogs" well, you didn't ask, but you got anyway on we go. This is Blot, the elegant and handsome prince of Doggy-Kind, he is a gentle, acrobatic and not even remotely clumsy animal without even the slightest hint of youthful enthusiasm. He wants a biscuit, and is probably going to get one This is my little Eris, who i have had for 2 years since she was an ickle-wickle puppy. this is her when she was an ickle puppy, all wrapped up in a shawl on the living room sofa. she's still the only dog in the house that can get away with crawling into bed with my mum. She thinks s...

Christmas, and all that. Season's greetings, and so on That's that out of the way. Now, here's my prospectus. At the risk of sounding cocky, i should say that they sent me a letter saying they're giving me an offer. but it hasn't turned up in UCAS yet, and till it's there it's not official. So here's hoping for the efficient functioning of the higher education application process in the new year. The back is made of rag rug, the pages are made of a plainweave check. i had to work very hard to get it full up in time and i was sitting in my room on the night before the interview sewing. but i got it done, and they seemed to like it. so here you go, i apologise for my poor photography. I am to the digital camera what Al Quaeda is to the middle-east peace process

is what i've been doing for the last two weeks. that's just a wee preview, cos they're sitting in my bag waiting to get cut up and sewn into my fat-ass fabric book. i've taken the next two days off college, cos i'm not getting much done there, and i need to fill up the book, which means weaving between 6 and 10 samples in about two days. quite impossible if i'm just working at night, but perfectly achievable now i think. the deadline is friday, as i'm travelling down on saturday. i could probably do a bit of sewing and cataloguing in aberdeen on sunday, but i'd rather not. as the little people say hiho, hiho, it's off to work we go after a cup of tea, of course -hb

trapunto suggested i join in the photo meme thing. 6th photo of 6th folder. so i had to create 6 randomly named folders and randomly shovel all the pictures in my college drive into them. it's funny, when i used the photo uploader on blogger, i get ghandi, but when i use windows explorer, i get this charming fellow: arbritary things these computers, aren't they? i surmise from this brief exercise that blogger is a force for good in the world, whereas windows explorer, and the system it's based on is Pure Evil. maybe blogger.com's servers run on linux. must be Anyhow, i'm well knackered the now, i've been weaving one sample and warping another most nights for the last week, in a mad rush to fill up the rest of my portfolio fabric book. i have about 8 sheets to fill, maybe 7. i'm not sure. and i now have 4 days left. i was up till 2 last night weaving, which was kinda aggravating because i sat through a dreadful American-Men-With-Guns-And-A-Strong-Love-Of-Free...

I put a rug warp on the frontroomloom the other week. but i didn't get round to doing anything with it for ages cause the wool took ages to arrive. Then the wool arrived and i wove an inch or so, before getting called down to edinburgh and dundee to go on a massively expensive and altogether regrettable orgy of drinking and, believe it or not, mediation and conflict resolution (that's NewSpeak for "keeping my mates from getting kicked out of pubs"). Now i'm back, sober and feeling reasonably optimistic. So i'm getting back to work It's a relief. Anyhows, i think it'll end up about 5 or 6ft long. the loose weft ends are getting darned into the body of the fabric btw, in case you're wondering. it's nice to get a good rythm going, and i'm learning to really fling that shuttle with some force, because i still haven't managed to get a really decent shed. Before i put the next warp on, i'm going to have to have some serious time readjusti...