Autumn colours

What a lovely autumn we are having, helps make up for the wet summer! The weather is just lovely and the colours of the leaves surpass anything seen in previous years here, guess it must be all the dry weather.
Needless to say a few photos were necessary
On the weaving front things have been a bit slow. I am just warping the loom with 10/2 tencel and am going to use a 60/2 silk weft to make some upholstery fabric for a friend who is reupholstering a very old bedroom chair. It will be a while before I see if it all comes out as planned with all these 1800 ends to thread.




While taking the pics I noticed that at last my cobee has started to flower. I sowed the seeds back in the summer, hoping for lots of flowers in the autumn but, guess the weather was too bad, so now it is catching up. I just hope now it is a while before a heavy frost finishes it off too soon.

Vendange

Its that time of year again and the grape picking machines are going full pelt bringing the harvest in. Sadly it is not going to be very good this year as we have had such beastly weather. The weather is really autumnal and very chilly in the mornings but by midday it is nice in the sun.
At least the gardening should slow down a bit now and maybe I will have more time to catch up with the weaving.


Poor Connie has been in for an operation this week, as she had a lump in her neck that was just getting bigger and bigger. The vet thinks it is just a cyst so fingers crossed that the results will be good. She has made a great recovery and is as bright as a button so I took a pic of her this morning after changing her bandage.

Wet wet wet again,

so a day for weaving indoors.
The curtain fabric is going well and I remembered to take a couple of pics of work in progress.
The warp and weft are 20/2 silk and the pattern is a 24 shaft flowered satin pattern from the handweaving.net site.

Summer at last

August has at last seen some summery days, albeit not the sort of temperatures that we are used to. Life has been busy with visitors as Tamsin and Mike and his parents came here for a while, luckily whilst the weather was good.

All meals were eaten alfresco which was great , and makes life easy for the cook!



One evening we had a trip to St Emilion and a lovely meal there. It really is such a lovely place which I never tire of visiting.


And, at long last I have got the loom warped and have started weaving the fabric for my new dining room curtains. Will take a pic later to post to blog.


Off to make some chutney now, with surplas tomatoes from the veggie patch!

Time marches on

Goodness, towards the end of July already and we are not having much of a summer.
We did have a few nice days at the end of June when H's daughter and grandchildren came to visit, so that was really nice. They had a chance to rest and relax in the sun and even have a dip.

I took a few pics of our time together.




These first two are taken in a lovely little restaurant in La Sauve




The next are just a few relaxing in the garden at home.

A bit more weaving!

At long last I have got around to making the bedroom curtains I wanted from the last piece of fabric that I wove. It could really do with a much larger window to show off the lacy pattern, but this window needed curtains so Voila!








I have also done a few towel recently from weaving up some 8/2 stash cotton with a cotton chenille weft. It was a bit of an experiment, and the towels are fine and functional but not as thick as I had hoped and they were very boring to do. It will be a long time until I do plain weave again but we live and learn. I got so bored it quite put me off and hence took ages to complete. Still now I have a few projects to plan which are interesting. One is to make fabric for dining room curtains, then a throw for a friend and then some upholstery fabric for another friend. That should keep me busy in the heat of the summer, if of course the summer ever arrives!

A few more pics

We had a bit better day yesterday, at least it was dry and the sun came out for a bit in the evening so there was a buz of lawn mowers all around including here LOL. The gardens were starting to become a bit like a jungle! Today the rain is back ........dismal. Anyway I started to take a few pics of the zoo and then the light got a bit low so will have to do the rest later.Here they are.. Hope you are all having better weather than us.

Long time no post!

Well it seems time has flown by yet again and I have not found time to post here. We have had some lovely hot weather in April but now it is May and really quite chilly . Usually May here is one of the best of the year and really hot.

However, the flowers are liking it and the roses are flourishing with all the rain so that is great. I took a few pics this week but must take some more as I have not had any of the zoo lately. lol

Weaving, well it is very slow. I have been weaving some towels and what with it being plain weave have got a bit bored and found it hard going, really must make an effort to finish shortly and get onto something which is a little more inspiring.

Lots more curtain fabric needs to be made and other bits so must try harder to get at the loom and not spend ages in the garden. That is the trouble with this time of year the veggie patch and flower borders seem to always need weeding!!

Spring is here

Hi there, don't seem to have found the time to post much recently and here we are in March already. The weather is very wet here but mild so the spring flowers are starting to look lovely, so I took a couple of pics today.

I have just taken my latest piece of curtain fabric off of the loom and think it is going to look nice. So far I have just wet finished it and pressed it and hope to do the sewing shortly, so I took an interim photo. It was my first venture into network drafting and this time I used huck which I thought would give me just what I was looking for for the spare bedroom curtains. If it all turns out ok of course! I used a French Navy linen/cotton slub at 12 epi.

February already!

Well Feb is here and the snow is just all gone to be replaced with grey and fog. Hopefully the sun will eventually find its way through it all. Still only one month for us SAD's to go and we can think of Spring. LOL

The hand towels are finished and ready to put in the post and this time I rememberd to take a pic of the finished item. All were done on a cottolin warp but the ones using a cotton weft turned out nicer than the one with linen I thought. I expect the linen needs a lot more using and washing to soften up, but thats how it seems at the moment.

Now I am going to do some studying of my books etc with a view to having a go at network drafting which I have wanted to do for ages. I rather like the idea of using a network drafted pattern for the curtain material that I want to weave next.

Still got snow!

However, it is nice and warm indoors and just looking out at it. LOL
The horses cant even step outside their stables today as so much ice, and I have just taken the dogs for a walk and in the wind it is perishing cold and no thaw yet.
Back to make some soup and weave.

Here are a couple of pics of the hand towels I have been making for Jill. They are of cottolin and 8/2 cotton and using a 16 shaft pattern I found in Handwoven for linen towels , same threading and different treadlings for some nice patterns. These are blue and yellow as requested but think I may try some with white linen weft as well. Will see how they are when all finished and wet finished.

Close up of above pattern

What a surprise!

Well there was a surprise in store when we awoke this morning! I know snow had been forecast but we usually only get a sprinkling here, not today. LOL

Here are a few pics before I go off to my loom

First four chairs finished!

Fun was to be had recovering the chair seats, as the next ones needed all the webbing replacing, but, thanks to ebay I found some at a good price and now have managed to finish the job. Even though I say so myself, I think they look good and am pleased with the end product.

There are still 6 more chairs to do, which are slightly different but they need more repairs so will have to wait until the weather is better and they can be seen to outside.

A couple more pics

Well I dont seem to have had much to write about lately . I have loaded a pic of the two chenille scarves I have just finished. The red was done on a 20/2 tencel warp and the pink was on an 8/2 tencel warp. Both came out really soft and lovely after careful wet finishing and this time of course they dont have chenille fringes which I thought would make them wear better. We shall see.

Weather here damp and mild, not like January at all, but it does save on the oil for the central heating so that is good. The horses dont understand it and I have been clipping them again already as they were too hot. Seems odd being out in the garden in a t - shirt at this time of year, and there is so much gardening to do but at the moment all is a bit soggy so the loom is winning!

Happy New Year to All

Just got around to posting for the first time this year.

I have finished weaving a chenille and tencel scarf for DD to take skiing. Just got to do the fringe and wet finish it. Here is an interim pic.

I also have made a start on recovering the seats of my dining room chairs, which is a job I have been meaning to do for ages, since I finished weaving the fabric. The seats were very old so had to find new stuffing etc and then the fun of fixing it all on as tight as I could. It seems to be looking good so far. 1 done and 9 more to go. LOL!