CCCI - Geelong Textile Fibre Forum

Saturday found me joining Kathy and her friend Daniel at the Geelong Grammar Campus for the Fibre Forum open day. Of course - we bumped into many like minded pilgrims from our S'n'b, as well as a few ravellers and I was very happy to bump into Doris (Lisa G's mum) from my first ever pub-knitting group at Bar 2060 in North Sydney (I think the group has now moved to another location as the pub was renovated and switched to very low wattage bulbs...) anyway... I digress...

I think our little group managed to see just about anything (except for the fabled Habu textiles that apparently were on offer) and I managed to walk away with only one purchase - a pattern book: Norah Gaughin Vol1. I'd already been in touch with Gusseting to grab one, but hadn't a chance to catch up with her to collect it... so really I didn't give in to the impulse buy nerve at all.... (yeah, I know, pure sophistry...)

My absolute favourite part of the open day (apart from bumping into friends including my tapestry teacher, Joy, we spent the week as 'Artist in Residence') was the knitting instillation I have dubbed 'The Womb Room' (don't worry none of us felt the need to return to the foetal position due to stress)

Squishy, red, knitted walls that envelope you and make you feel safe - 'womb' was just the first word that jumped into my head. Kathy and I both knit a row for this project.

(photos kindly taken by Daniel as I forgot my Camera...)
There was another knitting instillation in the next room completed by some elderly knitters in SA. (photos top row below) You can't quite see it, but one of the walls was full of knitted tubes about the size of sleeves. I could imagine people hiding behind that wall and putting their arms into those "sleeves" so they could wave to the world :)


We also enjoyed the "hogwarts" like scenery of the Grammar Campus. Yes, we really are just big kids at heart...

A perfect day...

Yesterday The Man and I went to Melbourne to drop in to both the Handknitters Guild Expo and the Spinners and Weavers Guild open day - 

I have to say I was very restrained... this is all I cam home with:

I  x skein of Collinette Jitterbug in Slate (I'll be using that to seam up a jacket in Point 5... and then make some anklets)

I x second hand book (pocket sized) on woven tapestry. This book will live in my handbag to show everyone who thinks that tapestry can only exist in it's needlepoint form... (And I think it will get me some bonus points if I add it in to my Tapestry portfolio when I hand it in... extra research and the like!)

The Man was very well behaved - while I made a beeline for yarn in the Brunswick town hall, he went hunting coffee (I sent him down to Moka GiGi - best coffee within a 10min class break) and he brought me back a cappuccino. 

A mere block from the Spinners and Weavers Guild we found one of our favourite restaurants, The Calabrian, so we had a late lunch al fresco enjoying the last of the Autumn sunshine.

We rounded out the day with dinner at Big Mouth in St Kilda with Sis and her new hubby (they eloped in Los Vegas), did some late shopping down the street and picked up some sweets at a patisserie to take back to sis's and enjoyed them with some espresso before The Man drove us back to Geelong... all in all, a perfect day!

Textile Tuesday

This week brought to you by my current tapestry project - this is my final assessment piece, and I had to come up with the design for it...

Can you tell what it is? (I'll give you a clue: "it's sideways Miss Pat")
The tapestry I am studying is proper woven tapestry - not needlepoint tapestry. See - I am working with string and the colour actually makes the fabric....

This is opposed to needlework tapestry - in which usually colour is stitched onto an existing 'framework' fabric of squares.The big difference is that for this you use bobbins (not needles) and, as you are creating the fabric, you need to work from the bottom up.
I am really enjoying working on this - I have mixed neutral colours for the background, and chosen solid, bright colours for the subject. I hope to create a fun piece that explodes out of the tapestry!

Textile Tuesday

Another week of photography...

Tapestry with shuttles.

And this week I am sharing my first evah hand-woven tapestry... cut off last Tuesday afternoon.

Warp is mercerized cotton; weft is rug wool.

Still needs to have a few ends cleaned up, but don't you just adore the way the warp threads are so neatly plaited off?

Tapestry Workshop

Visit to the Victorian Tapestry Workshop 19th Feb 08.... as part of my elective class in tapestry weaving.

This workshop has produced many great tapestries hanging in public places- one of the better known ones being the Parliament House Tapestry in Canberra.

Somehow I can't see myself completing these huge communal pieces that take many much...

but I do love these - they are much more me :)