plodding on

well, I haven’t been gone that long

but I learned a few lessons

when your computer screen does something you’ve never seen before and it looks like the aurora borealis

don’t panic!

 James and granddaughter came to visit today and he diagnosed it as a malfunctioning monitor/screen

 I thought I’d lost all my pictures, email addresses, on-line billing – EVERYTHING

a trip to London Drugs – my favorite place to buy electronics  (I don’t do drugs!)

a new screen and all is well again

whew!

so, how did it get to be August?

49 days without rain

it’s amazing how much work gets done when there isn’t a computer to distract me

I chose to weave this pattern – classic polychrome crackle because it is perfect for blending many colours

 all natural dyes from my dyeing challenge in 2020

as I used the cotton and wool yarns in a single project I wanted to do the same with the silk

the pattern requires 3 shuttles, a pattern colour, background x and background y

at the completion of each block 1 colour is dropped, a new one added and the colour sequence is changed

I stick masking tape labels on the shuttles and change them with each block to keep everything in order

if that sounds confusing – it is

I can’t weave for hours, my brain gets fried – so the weaving is going slowly

my colour challenge book page for this month is blue

my favorite colour – dyed with natural indigo of course

the pale blue is a scrap of stencil dyeing from a workshop in Japan

the white pattern in the warp/weft kasuri (ikat) is actually pale blue which adds a second dye process to both warp and weft yarns

in 1987 I spent 6 months at Kawashima Textile School in Kyoto, Japan studying kasuri weaving

I have a huge respect for this technique, it takes tremendous skill in design, dyeing and weaving

the shibori is from scraps the Hittys generously shared – as is the kasuri

and finally the odd little scraps top and bottom are my old yukata (cotton, summer kimono)

the reverse side is my shibori

each white square is gathered tightly and then wrapped in plastic before dyeing

you really can’t have blue without white

 the setting sun last night

the smoke from the 240+ forest fires burning in the province is slowly drifting south

praying for rain