November TIF

November ends today. Now can anyone tell me where the year has gone? The television weather reader tells me that today is the last day of spring. What kind of airconditioning has she been languishing in for the last month or so? We have had temperatures well above the mid20's most days and even some as high as 34!

My planned TIF embroidery based on jacaranda colours is still mainly a plan - definitely an idea I want to take further but not this year. Nonetheless I refuse to let the month go without something to show for the challenge. Does it matter that I wove this in 2006? I think not.

I wove some coffeecosies and decided that they mustbe lined with handwoven fabric.This particular draft was the result of many hours of sweat and tears. I had decided that the structure would be summer and winter - so easy to make images in that structure! Ha, ha! Yes the letter shapes were easy to put in the tieup but it took me forever to work out exactly which way to get them to sit so that the white lettering read on the green background (I used 2/20 mercerised cotton for warp and both wefts). It would look correct on PCW but then appear in a completely different orientation on the cloth as it came over the front beam.

Then I had to complicate the process further by deciding that I wanted them to read the other way up on the other side of the lining - more tears!

This was definitely an exercise in letter shapes rather than actual words - the words were easy, getting the shapes right was not so easy for the 'bear of little brain'! However I did get there and as well as a series of linings I made a mat with the leftover fabric - just in case noone recognised the puzzle on the cosy!

Time for some weaving

I am slowly stitching French knots with not much to show for my effort. However it has been a lovely time for thinking. These days I keep finding things to do that let my mind wander where it will - just one reason why I don't mind ironing. I definitely have no desire to take in ironing but the amount I have to do for two people who are retired is not enormous - despite the fact I am a fibre snob and won't wear anything that is not 100% natural fibre content and that usually means cotton for our climate. When I had 4 children at home, and before I decided they were old enough to do their own, I always seemed to have a basket full that needed ironing.

Yesterday I thought about weaving and how most things that I have produced have been "slow cloth" - not quite as slow as covering four square inches in knots - but nonetheless quite slow. I found a photograph of some coffee cosies that I wove in 2006.

As well as day dreaming I seem to spend hours playing Sudoku (isn't everyone addicted?)- then when I got totally hooked, can you believe they came up with Killer Sudoku and Kakuro? My excuse is that it is keeping my brain sharp (well, that is the story - sometimes I am not so sure that it happens as it should!) . However I do enjoy the exercise very much.

Returning to the coffee cosies - they are in double weave with cross stitch numbers different on both sides of the cosy (yes, the sudoku is solvable) . I embroidered the numbers before stuffing the small squares on the loom. Although the yarn was 10/2 cotton and twice as thick as I usually use it took quite some time to make these. I enjoyed the process. To cover the seams and hem I needed a lining and I didn't want a commercial fabric. The tray mat in this photo is the fabric I used - a summer and winter weave in 2/20 cotton that wove up fairly quickly once I had designed the draft. If you enlarge the photo the lettering is quite visible. It is all fairly simple weaving actually but lots of fun. Cosies made like this are extremely good insulators and will keep a pot warm for up to an hour or more.