Top of the pots

My new treasure is a stoneware coiled pinch pot which I bought at one of the Oxfordshire art week open studios this Sunday. I'm afraid my amateur photography doesn't quite capture its simple joy. It is very pleasant and interesting to meet the people who make all the wonderful things on display. Sunday was warm and sunny and we took the train to Oxford and then walked along the canal.

Triumph

Here is the baby blanket, currently being woven very slowly, but as carefully as I can. I have to admit I was surprised to find that I had all four plain coloured squares on one side. I had imagined I would get a combination of plain solid colours and a mix of colours. I haven't got the right sort of brain to work it out theoretically, and have to actually do the weaving to find out the outcome. Anyhow, I'm very pleased. The cloth is woven as two layers, simultaneously, and each time there is a colour change the section is separated from its neighbour. I could put some filling in each of these pockets and it would be like a duvet. I have seen pictures of weaving with this structure which have objects enclosed within the pockets.

The fabric is soft and thick, and presumably the two layers will trap air and be lovely and cosy. The edges of the squares look like they are stitched, a bit like a quilt, which effect I like.

I made three threading errors, including putting one thread through two heddles and threading a heddle but missing the "eye" so that the shaft could not lift it. All mistakes recoverable, and not a bad error rate, I think.

The picture on the right shows the heddles and you can see the colour threading order.

Covered

In case you were wondering if I did in fact ever complete my upholstery project - here are the chairs proudly sporting my weaving. They are less proud of my sewing skill but it's hard to be perfect. By the by, you can just see doggy in her little pink sleeping bag. Fast asleep, the lovie-do.

Spanish visitors

I have had these Spanish bluebells put into a jug. They smell very nice but they're just not English.

Someone planted them in the garden (not us) years ago and they keep spreading. My friend Janice says that maybe if you pick them they will die.

The English bluebells in the woods are especially lovely at the moment. They smell wonderful and are a more beautiful blue, but apparently they are dominated by the Spanish if a bee muddles the pollen.

Hamble the reed sleyer

Here is my loom's reed, suspended horizontally, for "ease" of sleying. I'm only six inches short of the finishing line. Out of thirty-eight inches.

All the warp threads have to be individually threaded through the reed, which is like a big comb - this one is set at sixteen spaces per inch.

I'm preparing for a baby blanket, boucle wool, in double weave, two fabrics woven simultaneously, each at eight ends per inch. I hope it will end up as a chequerboard pattern - but who knows? I have already got confused about the colours. There are two blues and two purples, threaded in two inch blocks but I think that only every other square will be completely dark blue or completely light blue, and the others will be a mix. And ditto for the purple. But I could be wrong there. It is not really the sort of thing my brain copes with easily so I shall call it an experiment.