Tag Archives: tencel

February 21, 2018 · 7:57 pm

Bags 2

Did you really think I could stop at… oh… ten or twelve bags (especially as I was on holiday)?  Naturally, I could not.  I went to the Guild and there was a pile of denim offcuts.  You know how it is.

They all turned out to be different denims, each one reasonably narrow but the width of the bolt.  No concern to me.  I paired some with a yellow open weave linen (I think) I have inherited.  I made several of these and they look quite elegant.

This patch was found on the footpath in Melbourne in December. It seemed wrong to leave it there to the wind, rain, mud and passing shoes and dogs, until it found its way into the stormwater drain.

And this bag is made from a piece of fabric my mother-out-law passed on to me in the last year.

On the inside, all manner of scraps and bits and pieces, and of course–more pockets!

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February 19, 2018 · 7:43 pm

Bags 1

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One day at Guild, one of my friends gifted me two pairs of worn out cargo pants, in case I’d like to find a way to reuse them. Some people really know you!  They were made of tencel or some similar wood pulp based fibre.  They had been much worn, like a favourite garment.  And they had so many pockets!  Ones with zips, some that were more of a welt pocket… some that were stitched shut and had never been ripped open for use–lots to play with.  So I cut them up, extracted the cotton drawstring cords for later use, and began piecing the intact fabric into bag linings and likewise, the pockets.

There was an entire series of bark cloth curtain fabric bags.  I used up the boomerang bags patches I was given by one of the Adelaide organisers a while back pretty quickly.  Then I did a series with the remaining secondhand IKEA fabric my daughter gave me a while back (the orange and white stripes).  They match my ironing board cover and they are extra large.

Finally, I converted some fabric I remember buying at Paddy’s market in Melbourne at least 20 years ago (cough, maybe it was 30 years ago) into about 4 more bags.  I must have been reliving my childhood as an admirer of ancient Egypt when I bought this, I think.  I vaguely remember feeling obliged to buy something even though I couldn’t spare the cash at that time (it must have been the nature of the interaction with the stallholder).  The print gestures in that direction, but I really can’t see it as a garment.  Some of these bags have already gone to friends, and others await their ultimate destination.

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June 6, 2013 · 4:49 pm

More socks!

More socks off the needles after a long period of being unfinished…

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Long ago I had the opportunity to buy part of a raw Suffolk fleece that had been discarded by another spinner.  I had been steadily reading my way through the Guild’s library, so I recognised this as a breed that was eminently suitable for sock spinning.  At the time, I only knit socks.  They were the whole reason I had learned to knit, and then to spin.

As it turned out, the Suffolk was a very short staple and none too clean fleece.  Never mind.  I gleefully acquired it and proceeded to use my beginning dyeing skills on it.  Four pairs of socks came of it.  One, pink dyed with hibiscus flowers, went to my Mum.  Another was dyed in eucalyptus leaves as fleece and spun up afterward.  I can’t remember who I gave that pair to.  I think they might have gone to tree lovers in the Blue Mountains.  I made my father a glorious pair that were purple and blue, blended rather beautifully after dyeing (and at that stage, their loveliness was an accident!)

These were made from Suffolk blended with tencel, which may have been ill advised–time and wear will tell.  The colour could have been better and the blend is uneven, but a three ply handspun yarn is a work of dedication and there was enough even for a pair of large feet, so I knit these.  They are going to a dear friend who lives nearby, who does indeed have large feet.  Last night he spoke about a pair I made him years back that he is still wearing hiking.  This pair may not last as long but I hope they will keep his toes warm at the very least!

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