A day of Beachcombing and Steaming

When Egyptian cotton has become even more impossible to stitch through because of rust...

A stitcher has to find other ways of adding texture.

Needle weaving and thread wrapping seemed like a good idea.

When I started I was thinking that starfish would surely bask 

on a sandbar amid the flotsam and jetsam.

But after Yvette mentioned "fairytale" in her comment yesterday...

I began to think there might be fairies on my sandbar.

Bundled wool wrapped around choke cherry bark steamed all day.

Doesn't look very exciting yet, but let's hope

patience prevails and I can leave them untouched for a couple of weeks.

Winter's Star

A star who lives in the frozen north

requires thick wintery snowpants

and a warm and fuzzy jacket.

If he didn't wear bright red earmuffs,

the tips of his ears might turn to frozen blue.

Despite all the layers required to keep him warm

he still wears his heart on the outside.

Heartfull Stars

Some stars live within hearts.

Their windmill shape allows them to twirl around and around

when a heart needs uplifting.

Smaller stars live among the woven

points of bigger stars.


All these stars have been gathering on this cloth started in March. 

Starstruck

This star was to be a star of simple means.

But he insisted that I weave him a coat of many colours.

And it seems he has a star-struck hanger on!

He wears one red shoe and one of purple.

Perhaps he is a star with ears or even horns.

Stars and Frozen Stardust

Sitting quietly in the company of my boro piece.....
A star tapped me on the shoulder and asked to be included.
So stitching started on a small star.
As I laid down row upon row of satin stitch....
with another tap on the shoulder the star said 'weave me'!
Why hadn't I thought of that earlier?

It was so obvious....
woven cloth had played an important role in the basic make-up of the piece.

I see the hint of a moon looking on.

We woke to find frozen stardust crystals had been sprinkled all over our world.
They sparkled in the morning sun.

Quite amazing, haven't seen anything like that before.

It was as if the gods had spent the night

standing over us scraping away at a block of ice.

Needle Weaving on a Frame

Basic requirements are a bunch of threads. Yours will probably be in a less tangled state. Mine have been wonderfully tangled by rusty pups who think messy is better. Have a variety of threads, mat and shiny, thin and slubby....anything that you can thread through your needles. You will need blunt tapestry needles or bodkins. The curved giant thing lying beside the bowl was my mother's. Have no idea what it's for, but the curving is quite handy for weaving. Last but not least you will need a small frame. Mine is about 6" square made from an old wire hanger; but a small picture frame would work too.

Wrap threads around the frame in one direction. Knot them to the frame when you run out and start a new thread. The grey thread here is in fact string that was wrapped around one of my dye bundles. It has a knot right in the middle and I've decided to leave it right where it is. Now the weaving starts. Thread a needle, tie one end of the thread to the frame and weave over and under all the way across.

When you get to the other side, wrap your thread around the frame and weave back from whence you came! Go over the warps that you previously went under and so on and so forth. Carry on until you have completed quite an open grid. Do not worry if you go over or under more than one thread at a time. This is going to look more like darning than weaving.

Now go back in and weave in any direction you wish to. I have used a lot of rusted string...don't recommend this..other threads don't glide smoothly past them! Do you see my piece of knotted string that I left dangling in the middle... I like it! Basically your weaving is finished whenever you want it to be. It could be left more open than mine in which case you would see the cloth that you place underneath it. Mine is quite dense; but even from here you could carry on adding layers as long as you can get your needle through.


To remove it from the frame you could tie knots with the weft and the warp on all four sides. You could darn those ends back in. You could carefully applique it by hand to a background around the edges or of course a machine zigzag stitch could be used (but I find that too obvious myself).

Hope that at least gets you started.

Oh, and by the way, the beaver is back!