Area 07

I worked on the Nelson/Marlborough/Buller Area (of the New Zealand Spinning, Weaving and Woolcrafts Society) Exhibit submission all week. As my Cross Country Weavers Group Mate Viv named them, I used my "un-Corkscrew weaves" to create two scarves from the same warp. It was wonderful to try not to think about marketing and selling, and to concentrate on what I like to do best.

I finished them on Thursday, and on Friday morning, in a miserably cold and gray morning, I had 15 minutes to photograph, pack, and deliver the scarves to the selection committee office, which is Margaret's house 10 minutes down the road. Poor excuse for a dull, flat-textile photo, but the light was horrible.

These are mid-size scarves, about 30cm wide, and 180cm long, with wool warp and possum/merino/silk weft. The dark green piece, Ben named "Peacock", and has five points where nine gold glass beads accentuate the center of each design repeat; the yellow-green piece I called "Nightingale" because that's what the color is called in Japanese. Both have very fine fringes. The texture is coarser than what I'm used to, because of the type of warp yarn I used, and because there are big areas in plain weave, rather than the twill I like to use lots of.

Area exhibits are important to me because this is the smallest exhibit in the national guild structure (the Society); I'm lucky to be a member of the Marlborough Weavers (the Guild), and I hope to represent my group well, and support the Area activities. I know I sound like a girl scout or some such, but I believe in the grassroots activities of the guilds, and besides, I was terribly relieved to have finished these in time. After we dropped these off at Margaret's, we packed and took off to a weekend Writer's Retreat.

This week, I weave a most luxurious baby blanket for Georgina.