Loch Inver/West Coast of Scotland

At the start of August I went up to Scotland with my parents to visit my sister Rosa, who is living in Edinburgh. We then travelled onwards through the highlands over to the west coast to stay in a small town called Loch Inver for a week. Best known for it's fishing port and pies.

We walked through some ancient woodlands and the trees were covered in these beautiful lichens. The textures are just incredible. 

Rosa taking a photo of the white sandy beach we visited. 

Some very inedible but amazing looking mushrooms I came across in one of the forests.

Mossy.

The view over to the Highlands.

Whilst we were in Edinburgh my sister introduced me to a new local yarn shop called Be Inspired Fibres in the Marchmont area of the city. They sold a lovely collection of yarns for knitting and weaving as well as a few unusual cones of yarn combining stainless steel with linen and other ones using cotton and linen with paper. Next time I am there I will definitely be paying another visit! 

Here is a link to their website: http://beinspiredfibres.wordpress.com/

thistle and kite

 

As well as working on my weaving I also have a small business set up by myself and my sister Rosa. We sell hand made ties and bow ties using vintage and up-cycled fabric. Please have a peruse at our online shop: http://folksy.com/shops/thistleandkite

I am hoping to incorporate my own woven cloth into our products sometime in the future. 

Thanks!

Winding

I am spending a little time experimenting at the moment. Today I began the slow winding process using my home made warp board (this is when I really miss the lovely warping mills I used at uni!) and I wound on a simple un-dyed woolen warp. 

(Side note: I really love it when lots of threads together make that graphical striped effect. And black and white photographs always make things look so much cooler.)

I am going to make a concerted effort to keep this blog up to date with all my weave endeavours! Stay tuned. 

Recent Weaving

I have been back on my table loom the last couple of weeks weaving a scarf as a commission for a client. For the warp I used a wool I bought from a small shop on the Isle of Skye called Shilasdair. This yarn was naturally dyed on the island in their dye house and is a beautiful greeny blue colour. The colour was achieved by over dyeing an initial colour with another which produces a final shade that has loads of variation within it. I also added some accents of colour into the warp with some lines of brighter blue woolen yarn. For the weft I used a black linen for the bulk of the cloth and introduced threads of thicker wool for the tufts. The structure provides a reversible quality and gives added texture. I washed it for quite a long time to bring out the wool's softness and to loosen the linen's crispness. It is a good lightweight cloth which drapes very nicely, and the client was very happy!