SSVE weaving, magazine reed basketry and so on.

1) I love weaving baskets, but I am averse to buying stuff to do same.  When I lived in Townsville, I used to cut  strangler fig vines and make crazy, misshapen, moss encrusted baskets.  Down here, I would like to attack a weeping willow for canes, but haven't done so, as I've been busy doing OTHER STUFF these many a year.  For a while now I have been background-processing a way to recycle paper into baskets.  I tried spinning newspaper yarn, which worked okay... but it wasn't quite right.  When I saw Sister Diane's tute on making magazine reeds, on Craftstylish I knew that would work.  Then I had to wait until a pile of colour glossy mags crossed my path on the way to the recycling (I have a no-junk-mail sign, so I miss out).  As soon as they did I had a fun few hours remembering how to do something that I think I last practiced back in about 1990- basketweaving!

The magazine reeds I made are really a bit too heavy a gauge for a project this small, but the concept works and it makes a really cool, sturdy basket.  I will be doing this more, even though my itch to make a basket again has been scratched for the moment. 

Also, I got a new chair.  Found it beside the road!  (People put household stuff outat the kerb  for rubbish collection, and good things are usually placed prominently so other ppl can harvest them).

Isn't it awesome??  It was sitting there beside the road for about a week, I think because its a hard spot to pull over, but eventually I managed and I am sooo glad I did.  That Kermit green vinyl makes me smile every time I look at it.

Finally, I got off my butt and am weaving for the SSVE.  I am glad I did, thanks for nagging me Meg. I fell back to my good old rigid heddle loom, because I could warp it fast and can carry it around the house with me (I have like 3 days til the deadline).  I really think my other looms are wasted on me, I might sell them.

While I was weaving away this morning, baby L was dressing and looking after her shuttle  baby. here it is.  That is a singlet and nappy it's wearing, I'll have you know, not the ball band from some yarn and a post-it note.
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She became very irritated with me each time I tore another strip off of her baby's blanket.  My kids have a LOT of toys and a LOT+1 of dolls... so this is even funnier to me than it probably looks to you.

Comments

[Meg in Nelson]

Boy, I do envy all the space you've got there to spread around!

[Meg in Nelson]

Me, nag? Moi???

[Pam Harris]

So great you are posting again! I have missed you!
Am trying to catch up - got a bit behind and so happy to see three posts! Did I see something about wire wrapping???? I bet yours are as "free form" as mine are!

Happy Fall by the way!

[Meg in Nelson]

And you're in, my dear. Thanks!!

[Cynthia]

The shuttle baby story had me falling off my chair. Life at your house sounds a lot like life at mine. You are so meanhearted, stealing a baby's blanket!

[amanda]

Thanks Tauret for commenting on my entries to the SSVE. The collapse weave is actually quite stiff, i think with the cotton bunched up together. However, I am experimenting with a wool warp this time and hopefully it will be softer.

[Carol]

Don't you love the imagination that makes a shuttle more real than a doll?