Wedding problems

Having completed the third block of feathers I have just thought of a solution to a problem I can see which I should have done before I started feathers.

Taniko often ends up wider than the body of the korowai. Mostly I do the taniko at the top where I can drop whenu (warp strings) and pick them up for turning. They are hidden by the mawhitiwhiti pattern on the back. However with the taniko on the bottom I hadn't given much thought to this problem. And to make matters worse I chose to do mawhitiwhiti in the body as well drawing in the sides even more. I can see now if I had added some whenu on the first row after the taniko hiding the addition under the feathers there wouldn't have been such a problem. Must remember this for next time I do a wide taniko on the bottom of a korowai. 

As it is I may be able to tighten up the cast on row a bit by running a 'gathering' thread along. It's not too bad but I notice it and it annoys me when I could have fixed it earlier. 

White wedding korowai

The sideways korowai is finished. 

It's not really yellow but the only light was from the electric light. 

And now for the white one. I bought the silver thread on Wednesday and yesterday I finished the taniko. Today I have completed the first block. The feathers had been done a few months back. 

The pattern I decided on is to have blocks of feathers and mawhitiwhiti alternating. I hope it will look good. Blocks seem to be popular with our group at the moment. 

We are all looking forward to our exhibition near the end of June. 

Tuesday 20th May

Judy is nearly finished her cloak. She is such a perfectionist she had undone quite a bit no one side to fix a slight flaw. Now she is on the last row or two or three, because its Judy.  The turn at the top has been done as a plait and is so neat. 

Elaine has dressed her doll beautifully with a mawhitiwhiti dress and cloak. The taniko patterns are reversed on the korowai and the dress. 

I have nearly finished my sideways korowai and have finally got some more silver string to carry on my white cloak. Now I just need to decide on a pattern as I don't think I will do feathers all over. 

Sideways cloak

Hmm this seemed a good idea at the time but I'm tired of it already. However I'm pressing on. I have run out of some black cotton for the tags do can legitimately put it aside till I go into town next. 

So meanwhile I am casting on another korowai. It will be a short Arapaki with feathers. Here are the first two rows done. 

What next

I am trying to finish off projects that have been started for a while. This bag is one. It was started with fluffy peacock feathers but I ran out after last seasons moult. It has been too wet here to pickup some more so I used some other feathers I had prepared. Still not sure what I'll do about handles. I have some somewhere in my room if only I could remember where. 

I have a box full of small pieces I must finish for our exhibition at the end of June. 

Then I've started a new idea I saw a friend up in Papakura thinking about. It is a sideways way of making a cloak. I am trying a short elbow length one first. 

It just has tags - no feathers. It is made as usual but with long strings. I have a long plait on the left and just a twist on the left although thinking about it now I could have done a short plait there too. But the whole piece is to be turned 90 degrees so that the plait is the top and tie, the taniko will be down the front and the rows will be vertical. 

We will see how it turns out. 

Tuesday Weaving again

Today I showed the girls my finished korowai. 

It's done. And in only 70 hours or nearly three weeks. I am quite pleased with it and certainly like the tags as they made it quite fast compared to feathers.  It can go in our exhibition at the end of June. I will charge $2250.  Even though I am quite quick at weaving there is still a lot of work and pain involved, and I spend concentrated time on it like a job. 

Lyann had almost completed her taniko in two days. 

She also brought some rooster and hen pelts she had done. She is selling them for $25 each. 

Saturday weaving

A whole day of weaving, talk, laughter and food. This is our Saturday weaving group once a month. All are doing well with their work. 

Lunch time!

Judy is nearly at the top of her korowai. 

She has lots of interesting ideas and designs. 

Lyann has starting the taniko on hers. 

All her taniko threads are wool she has spun and dyed herself, from silver dollar gum (brick red) and dahlia seed heads (yellow) and black alpaca yarn. 

Elaine has started a small korowai with a lovely fawny brown duck feather.

And I have nearly got to the top of mine. 

Ploughing on

I seem to be averaging four and a half hours a day before I have to stop.  And the korowai is growing slowly. I am pleased with it as an exercise in making a korowai without feathers. It is very tempting to put at least a collar of feathers on it but that would defeat the purpose. Some people are allergic to feathers, or don't like the idea of birds dying for their cloak or maybe they want to take it overseas and don't want to lose it at customs anyway I want to make something beautiful for them. 

Taniko finished

Another four hours as seen the finish of the taniko at last. 

However there was a few mistakes that needed attention. 

Here you can see a white dot out of place and a blue space where a white should be. I noticed it on the following row so decided to continue and fix it later. I do this by running the right colour along the back with a big eyed needle, bringing it to the front and working over the 'stitch' like you would tapestry i.e.  on the diagonal. 

You can hardly notice at all when it is done. 

So now it's on to the body. 

Nearly there

5 hours work today. 13 rows and sore shoulders and I've had enough today. 

I'm starting to think about the next part. I am thinking about a very plain korowai with just tags of blue wool all over it. We'll see what seems right. 

Another day another few rows

I have done half the pattern now. I had to undo one row as I had not done the pattern correctly. But that wasn't too bad. 3 hours today. 

On the way again

2 rows back and 7 forward. The pattern is looking much better now.  I forgot to time today but say 1 hour to fix the pattern, 1 to remove rows, and 3 to weave the 7 rows and that makes 5 hours today. 

Correction

Yesterday I had a sinking feeling as I realised my star was going to look flattened and decided that I had to fix it. Near enough is not good enough at this stage. So this morning I went to work on the computer again. Firstly I measured how many stitches and rows I was doing per cm. I counted these over 20 cm widthways and I only had 3 cm height ways. (This should have been done on a trial bit like a tension square in knitting as I was using different yarn and string from the last time I used this pattern.)  Then I calculated how many cm per stitch. This worked out at 0.25 cm per row height and 0.51cm per column width. Now I could enter these into the row height and column width of my spreadsheet. And this is what my star would have looked like if I had carried on. 

So now I added rows and adjusted the star so it looked better. 

I only have to undo two rows of work to fix the problem. I am glad to have fixed this and at the same time I have fixed the end where I had to adjust the pattern on my spreadsheet from a 260 string pattern to the 250 strings I actually had. I had already adjusted for this on my paper pattern by cutting and sellotaping. 

Now I am ready to take out the last two rows. And try to do this without cutting yarn in other rows. Then I am back on track. The taniko will be a bit deeper than it was but that is good as I wanted a deep taniko at the bottom. 

Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter to everyone. May the blessings of the season be with you. 

Three quarters of an hour of work today and two rows finished. 

I think it might be a bit of a squashed star but I'm committed now. 

Tuesday weaving group

It was great to get back to the weaving group. Such a lot of work done while I was away. 

Elaine had finished her child's cloak made of goose feathers and eyelash yarn.  We had a new weaver join our group. Don't think he'll make much. 

Day three Matariki korowai

4 and 1/2 hours and my shoulders hurt. But 9 rows down today. I can start to see the pattern coming. 

Time to do something else for the rest of the day. 

Day two of the Matariki korowai

It took two hours on the computer to get my pattern right. And that was based on one I had already done, and still I did it wrongly doing it for 260 strings instead of 250. So a bit of cutting and sellotaping later and I am happy with it. This afternoon I managed two more hours and got 4 rows done on my taniko. Now it's Easter. 

Starting again

I still have not been able to get the silver yarn for my taniko so I'm putting that one aside for now. I made a little one to get my hand back in but I am not very happy with it. 

Anyway I have started another big korowai which I am thinking to do with just a big taniko on the bottom, tags in the body and a small taniko at the top. We will see how that pans out. It will be different without feathers but some people can't cope with feathers do someone might be interested in it. 

This picture shows my messy work room with the set aside bundle behind my newly cast on whenu. It will be 260 whenu wide of a thin string used double. 

I have also started a Facebook page for korowai weaving. I hope it works too. 

Monday at Whiri Aroha

Today I am in Auckland. We have had two weeks in Sydney visiting family and now have one week in Auckland. So today I visited my weaving home - Whiri Aroha - at the Papakura marae. It was lovely to see the old faces and meet new ones. And I always learn new things.

Lesson 1: always listen to your elders. I have been weaving the new string double as it is a lot quicker but when I saw Ma's work using it as a single whenu I was very impressed by the delicacy of it. 

I am keen to get home and do the next korowai singly too. I will try a big one and see if it is stable enough. 

Lesson 2: Don't be afraid of different colours. I really liked the blue colours Ma was doing in her taniko. Also we have always steered clear of using coloured feathers as the dye can run when moistened.  But when you dye fabric you use salt to set the dye. So when you wash the coloured feathers try using lots of salt in the water. I must give this a go as I was gifted some dyed red feathers. 

Lesson 3:

Try new things in weaving, try to improve,and meet with other weavers if you can. It was so lovely and inspiring to see what everyone was doing. 

Betty showed me how to make earrings with 7 whenu. As soon as I am home I must have a go.

 It was sad, though, to hear of ones who had passed away since I was there last. 

I really want to thank this group for their love, acceptance, teaching and inspiration. 

March 4th

Our usual Tuesday morning group today.     I cut some string for a new large korowai. I'm thinking of a white one. I managed to cut and start a cast on row before it was time to pack up. On Wednesday I got the pattern set and a few rows of taniko which I am doing at the bottom. 

It only took me three goes to get the first pattern row of the taniko done.  It is always tricky but...   Perhaps because I am listening to Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' read by Phil Dragash on YouTube. 

I am using gold and silver threads and a heart design I have used before for a wedding korowai. However being on the bottom I have doubled the design.