More pictures of Kez

 

Next weave ideas

After spending a long time creating a random snowflake weave on the PC (above), a last minute change of mind and I've instead created a "moiré weave" on 8 shafts (below). This type of weave is effectively two twills which create interference patterns, its usually done on 16 or more shafts but I think my version will work and create wave like ripples of colour across the fabric. A fine 16/2 warp and a much thicker wool weft which will give the fabric some texture and hopefully fluff out the ripples into more distinct blocks of colour....we will see!
 

Kestrels

Seen a male and a female in the last few days checking out the field in front of the house....hopefully they'll pair up.

 

Sledging above the Col de Dret

Napkins finished just in time for the visit for from Jasper and Rosa. Susie's birthday was on the 21st but it was marked with sadness as our neighbour Michelle Cao was buried after she died suddenly from Covid last week.

On Tuesday the weather was good and Susie was feeling better, so we drove up to the end of the road close to the Etang de Lers, from where we walked up to the Col de Dret then on to the natural bowl below Courtal d'Arbiet....perfect for sledging.

 

We quickly realised that we didn't have time to inflate the innertubes that Susie had bought for sledging (they weren't fitted with a pump valve and blowing manually would have taken hours) so we sledged on them up inflated like a you would on a plastic fertiliser bag. An hour or so of sledging before it was time to head for home.

 6 napkins of the loom - washing and hemming next

Covid and plumbing

Susie started feeling unwell on last Tuesday morning, she took daily tests and at first they were negative but on Wednesday that changed. She's been pretty poorly but seems to be slowly improving. I've been isolating from her and sleeping in the spare bedroom and remain negative. We bought a new mattress last week which was delivered on Friday - alas I haven't got to sleep in it yet....Susie says it's fantastic!

Yesterday I was sorting out the connections to the water tank from the solar panels and installing the controller. I thought I could fill the system using the circulating pump, but apparently not. As I need to add 40% anti-freeze I can't use the mains either, so I had to buy a pump. Today was filling day, but a large number of leaks were discovered when I tried (repeatedly) to fill the system...really frustrating. Eventually on the third time of reassembling the system I inadvertently forgot a washer in one of the joints, the glycol went everywhere when I pumped it into the system and on opening the joint I realised I had overtightened it without the washer and damaged it! The joints for the flexible stainless steel tube are order only, so the job is now on hold for 3-4 days. I took out my anger on the workshop - which got a long overdue purge of junk and a tidy up!!

5 out of the 6 of the napkins are woven - they'll be off the loom soon.

Solar hot water

 After nearly three years of delay, finally the solar hot water project is go! Panels installed and pipework into the tank room. Just the usual couple of missing plumbing fittings to get from St Girons tomorrow....hopefully hot water by the weekend!

on the loom

Napkins on the loom. Another fine pattern but with just one colour weft if flies along. I only have one reed (the comb in the beater which keeps the warp threads apart) which is a bit coarse for such a fine fabric (8 dents to an inch, the fabric is 24 ends per inch) so it distorts the true pattern during weaving. The warp (and pattern) will find its correct place once it's washed.

 

End of napkin one, start of napkin two with hem allowance. A couple of errors in the section on the photo - very difficult to spot as work progresses with this pattern, especially with temple (a device which holds the weave at the correct width) covering the last completed section of the work.

Next weave

 

Cap de Bouirex

Weather too good to resist getting out and with a little fresh snow I was able to persuade Andy to get on the skis. We had to carry until out of the woods, but after it was a clear skin to the summit - nice snow on the descent, we just had 20 snowshoers to avoid on the summit slopes. 

A leisurely 3h40 including lunch and 740m ascent.

Our tracks just discernible on the left of the ridge

 

Tiny Tim

It's been a couple of years with lambs, but we ve decided to sell some sheep and try to develop our flock of ouessants to produce the best wool.  We found a young white ouessant ram in Cescau (about 35 minutes from Aleu) and after an initial viewing decided he was suitable. Yesterday I quickly transformed our trailer into a sheep transporter and today we picked him up.

There was a bit of stand off at first but once he smelled the ewes all hell broke loose. William our old ram who was castrated a couple of years ago wasn't too bothered but Oaty who was castrated as a lamb but has retained some hormones (he has big horns, mates with the ewes but has no nuts) wasn't so happy and there's been some head bashing! Tiny Tim has already mated with Chihero and seems intent to stand his ground. It's very late for mating so hopefully things will calm down soon.

 

More from "Laine de Quélébu"

Three out of four handwoven cushions complete...

 ...and some of Susie's homespun handknits.

Scarf complete

 Scarf complete and washed. A few interesting mistakes! I'll write an explanation in the next couple of days of the weave and a draft for any weavers who may stumble across this and be interested.  

Scarf underway

Taking the pattern from cushion 3 and some spare warp, I've embarked on a scarf. As the remnants of the old warp was still on the loom I tied the new warp to the old and wound it onto the back beam which saved threading the heddles. I re-sleyed the reed slightly denser - this time 24 epi (ends per inch) rather than 20 epi. So the fabric is a little bit stiffer.

Pic Estibat

On Tuesday the weather sunny and warm and strolled up Joubac in shirt-sleeves watching some planes land on the airstrip, then in the evening and yesterday the temperatures plummeted and we had snow flurries. 

Today we went up Pic Estibat to check it out. Wow was it cold! A glove off your hand for a couple of seconds and it was numb. On the summit the west wind was biting. We dropped along the ridge heading towards Pic de Journalade and took shelter behind the rock outcrop at 1593m for lunch, before dropping over the edge into the Goute de Roque and looping back to the col de Port.

Deep powder overlaying the iron hard old snow made for some interesting descents!

 

Fabric off the loom

The fabric for the four cushion covers is now off the loom, washed and pressed. The one above is my favourite and in fact it was the back of the last piece I wove and something of a surprise. As I have a narrow piece of identical warp, I think Ill repeat it to make a scarf for my neighbour Alain, who gave me the old loom from his attic for free!

Below are samples of the four weaves, all from an identical warp threaded on 5 shafts in "Bateman boulevard".

 

weave progresses

So having finished the first cushion cover, I decided to change the tie up on one of the treadles (change which threads are raised and lowered on one of the pedals) and then change the treadling (pedalling) sequence and add a new thread (red) into the mix. Voila, variation no. 2

With a much more intuitive treadling sequence, this weave is flying along. 

In case you're wondering, what look to be spacing faults, particularly in the "warp" (the threads running from front to back) are caused by the reed (a comb like device that keeps the warp threads in order as they pass through the beater). I only have one reed so when the density of the warp threads doesn't match your reed, you have to improvise. In this case sometimes two threads and sometimes three threads go between each tooth in the reed. This tends to alter the even spacing of the warps whilst they are under tension and weaving is taken place. Once off the loom and the fabric is washed the threads will find an even spacing. 

Transition between variations one and two

 

Christmas weaving project

Using the Christmas holidays to get the latest weaving project underway. I m finding the wool warp a bit "sticky" and the weave is complex. I'm interrupting the rhythm of the alternating fine-thread tabby shots (regular under/over weave between the Bateman boulevard weave) by occasionally introducing a wool (pattern) weft to complete the tabby, which reverses the direction of the tabby treadling....hard to explain unless you weave! End result is quite a few minor mistakes in the first two pattern repeats in the photo above.