"Alternative news" from Sweden

My very busy half-year is (hopefully) soon coming to an end: in October my mother (97) moved to a so called service apartment.

"Down-sizing", anyone?
I have been carting things here and there, to her new place and to me (and some to second-hand and the dump, too). But now I can see the end of all this – her old apartment is going on the market in a couple of weeks. (After I have taken one last load down here... - faamous lsat words?)

Last week I came home with a well-travelled suitcase, containing a jacket, an experimental moebius scarf (made by me) and some small yardage pieces (woven by her) – also some glass pieces for our growing museum, and some for re-homing.

(I really like how the back of the hood came out!)

Also, plans start to emerge for the Event of the Year: VÄV2017, this time at a place near me.

Oh yes – what happened in Bergdala, Sweden last Friday: grey/rainy weather with icy roads, the snowdrops got visible again after the rain, the assiettes got re-homed and the service workshop ordered a new part for my new computer. Even if the wind sometimes was hard, there were no earth-shaking events (but the aspen across the lane still looks like it will fall with the smallest gust of wind).

So there!

Bling that isn't (quite)

This is not really "bling", I suppose - but is sure makes me shine!

To tell the truth, I did start this while still on the train. Drafted a few figures, contemplated the possibilities of detail (and how much patience I had, on the swaying train...) Cut out a couple, started appliqué-ing.
After a while I decided I did not need to do them all on the train...

But now I have "blinged" two coats and two jackets for me, two coats for my mother and two jackets for DH. I even made a few of them in the shape of my logo.
A small test:

In the middle picture, I am about 20 metres away, in the right-hand picture I am nearly 50 metres away. And remember: this is just what can be seen with the flash of my cheap camera! (Click to biggify)

(Yes, I'm sure a solid band might be more visible, but this is more fun! For elegance, it beats the neon-coloured banded vests any day - AND: I don't have to put on anything "extra".)

Being both a pedestrian and a driver, living in the country where the nearest street light is about 7 kms away, I feel strongly about reflecting gear.
Even if you think you are visible and don't care if you get hit or not - spare a thought for the driver that easily can have a heart attack (or something) when s/he suddenly sees a person in front of the car! (And get something for the dog, for the pram... too!)

Matching stripes!

Laura's summer top mk 1:
(click for bigger and better view of the matches)

And the next one is cut (and serged):

Another trip

to another Big City (well – the biggest one we have, here, anyway): Stockholm.
The purpose for my trip was to discuss the changing of the by-laws for Riksföreningen för handvävning – and discuss we did! Among other things we discussed whether we (the assoc) should spread knowledge about the cultural history or just the history of weaving. Myself, I think that other aspects of the history of weaving are as important (the importance of weaving for economic purposes, for instance) as are the cultural aspects. (And I won! That is, I wasn’t alone in my opinion even from the beginning – so I’ve better write WE won.)

After the conference, we all went to see an exhibition: Royal Vintage at Livrustkammaren.
Lots of draped dresses:

The last one is not vintage - it is "inspired" by the exhibition.
(yes, it was ok to take photographs)

And... the waterspout:

There is another interesting exhibition in Stockholm now, but I missed that. (Hope to see it later.) It is at Hallwylska palatset – and here are more photos.
It would have been very interesting to see these clothes, especially as I have the rest of the (wool) yarns... my friend and I bought the left-over stock (close to 1500 kg, IIRC) many years ago, and I still have some of it. (I remember, when we came home, we counted to something like 120 different clours, or I should say nuances. Enough to sample “unlikely” colour combinations, anyway. And so many of the “unlikely” combos have turned out great!)
The yarn has figured on this blog from time to time – for instance here, but also here.
I think all of my vadmal was woven with this yarn (not all fabric in the pictures are mine – but both the brightest green and the red are), also the blankets here. And all the V-shawls, and... and, in fact, most of the wool fabric I have made since I bought the yarn!

Woollens

Always the sucker for nice woollen fabrics, I bought another (used) tweed jacket today.

Very ordinary cut, with some nice details. I can't decide if I like the buttons or not -

Approximately 7-8 ends and picks per cm; woollen singles.
Provenience unknown (no label).

Looking at industrial fabric

This jacket found me in a second-hand shop the other day:

It is (well, was) a good-quality garment which has seen some ... hard work. There is a spot I will have to do something about, and the lining needs replacing.

This is a fabric of a type I like: the nearer you get, the more details there are. This one has (probably) six different colours/shades. It is all wool, fairly soft woollen type singles sett at approximately 8 ends per cmentimeter.

I have another old jacket - this one I have had (and used a lot!) for more than 15 years:

This fabric is very diferent from the other - worsted, to begin with. 2-ply yarns, 4 colours in the warp, four in the weft, about 14 ends/cm. This, too, reveals more details when you look closely:

Aren't both these a proof of what I have always been saying: why use only one colour, when using a dozen or so gives so much more interesting results?!

And isn't it also interesting that the older one looks bluer than the new one, despite the yellow/ochre and green yarns? (No, it is not a camera problem - it really does look more blue.)  And isn't that proof that colour sampling (too) is A Good Thing?

Below the collar...

there had to be something - a jacket, perhaps?

Again I browsed my Arnold (Patterns of fashion, ISBN 0-333-38284-6), and found this interesting sleeve cut:


It comes from a Spanish book (Geometria y traca, by Francisco de la Rocha Burguen, 1618)

So I made a simple front, a Spanish sleeve and a pleated back.
After having made the pattern, I wove the approptiate amount of material, using the weave I showed here
I used the same warp yarn as in the collar, merc cotton 30/2, but in two shades. For weft I used a softer merc cotton, still 30/2.

... as one cannot use a jacket like this over jeans, I also had to make a dress to go with it :-)
I found some shot doupioni silk in a slightly darker shade - and this is the result:




Now I only have to wait for the perfect party to wear it...

Beach robe

This is a bathrobe which is inspired by sea surf - the foam that washes in and out with the waves.

As I did not have much of the sea-coloured yarns, I had to plan the sewing pattern for least possible waste. I tried several layouts, but decided this needed the least amount of cloth:


(not to scale!)

With this layout I have only one side seam (the other is just folded), and only one shoulder seam (the other is folded). One sleeve is inserted in a slit above the "side fold", the other is inserted in a more normal way.

I would have liked to make proper felled seams, to make the robe reversible, but the cloth had too much bulk for that. I could have trimmed the seams with some kind of band, but decided on a "false" felled seam: trim and serge one seam allowance narrower than the other. After serging the other, fold it over the short one. Press. Topstitch.
This means I sacrificed the reversability.

Seam from the inside:


Seam from the outside:


Details about the fabric:
The warp yarn is a “mystery yarn” I once bought at a flea market. I had always thought of it as being cotton, but when I started to handle it I decided it must be rayon. The thickness of the yarn is more or less like a cotton 16/2. I warped with two colours, and threaded them “random”. The set was 10 ends/cm.

Weft is a cotton bouclé, also of unknown number.The average thickness could be like a cotton 12/2, perhaps. For the tabby I used the two warp yarns, wound together. Pick count was approximately 8 pattern, 8 tabby per cm.

Here is the draft:


I added tabby, partly to lengthen the pattern, partly to reduce the bulk. Also I did not have to worry about the warp floats, which are on the long side for these yarns :-)

The fabric is slightly different on front and back:



This robe was made in 2007, when our guild celebrated its 10-year anniversary. It was shown in the july exhibition - click here for more pictures. (The umbrella is also of my creation)