I would apologise for the lapse since my last post, but I firmly maintain that it is Not My Fault. ‘Tis rather the fault of the WordPress App. Having painstakingly picked out a whole post by means of one-finger typing, I was very upset when it all disappeared during (what should have been) the publication upload.  So here I am trying again.

The day out in question was last Thursday, when my mother and I stopped in Harrogate en route for London and spent an afternoon here at the Knitting and Stitching Show.

Wowee.

There were four large halls of exhibits and retailers and we couldn’t possibly do justice to it all in one afternoon. This may be a Good Thing for the health of the bank balance, but tantalising all the same.  I will just give you a couple of highlights.

First place in the exhibition category goes to the knitted boat, or rather the knitted coat-for-a-boat project led by Ingrid Wagner. I particularly like the ship’s cat, who bears a strong resemblance to a certain little Clio.

I could go on at some length about the shopping opportunities: aktraditions with their Aussie/Kyrgyz (yes, really!) knitting and felting designs – just look at that gorgeous camel; Habu were there, yum yum; and the delightful Toft Alpaca with their yarns, their patterns and some huge wooden buttons. I bought three of the mid-size buttons (3″ diameter): two in willow and one in iroko. Toft have lovely patterns for hats and bags which sport said buttons, but mine are for woven rather than knitted things. Don’t know what things yet, but it will be fun finding out.

“grand day out” was posted by Cally on 25 Nov 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

I’ve just been catching up on a minuscule amount of my blog-reading backlog and got as far as this post of Alice Schlein’s when her lovely photo of the sunlight coming in through a studio window reminded me of this….

…which shows one of the windows in the Chapel at Stirling, opposite the wall where the tapestries are hanging. I meant to include it in my previous post but, you know, I forget things sometimes. I love the shapes of the shadows on the wall. I also loved seeing the tapestries in such a light and airy space: no doubt the Queen’s apartments will be charming too, but I am inclined to imagine them dark and wood-panelled, not like this at all.  Only four more years to wait, or thereabouts.

“sunlight” was posted by Cally on 8 Nov 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

This week it suddenly became winter here and most of us have been feeling the cold. Polly has discovered the benefits of chairs near radiators and has hardly stirred out of doors. On the other hand, Phoebus is seldom deterred from patrolling his territory no matter what the weather. Even in pouring rain he heads outdoors — sticking close to the wall of the house where there is a narrow dry strip — then he settles himself on a windowsill, huddled up against the glass, and surveys his demesne from there. Of course it makes us feel terribly guilty, and we imagine all the people walking by thinking that this poor cat has such heartless owners who leave him out in the rain all day….

Anyway, that is just preamble to the fact that today has been a beautiful autumn/winter day with glorious blue skies and wispy clouds.  The perfect weather for setting off your crow-stepping and your turrets.

We headed to Stirling Castle because I was determined not to miss this exhibition of the British Tapestry Group and today was the last day.  I have missed a lot of exhibitions this year through letting work overwhelm me, but not this time! Half the exhibition was on display at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and half at the Castle. It was rather nice that several artists had two tapestries on display (the maximum permitted) and any “pairs” were split between the two sites.  If you were only able to visit one place then you would see a good representation of the exhibition overall but if, like us, you had time to enjoy both, then the second site gives you a feeling of recognising old friends: Oh look, that’s the one who….! Unfortunately, photography was not permitted so I can’t show you the work or even refer you to the exhibition (which has been over since 5 pm), but if you were to look at the Tapestry 08 website or get hold of the catalogue then you would see a lot of the same artists.  Not, however, my former Bradford classmate, Heather Seddon, who was exhibiting for the first time this year. Her work was beautiful and I felt very proud to know such a talented weaver.

Fortunately, there were no injunctions against photographing the Stirling tapestries, of which four have now been completed. As most weavers will probably know by now, work is underway at Stirling Castle to restore the Palace of James V and Mary of Guise to the way it looked in the 1550s. One of the most ambitious parts of the project is the weaving of a set of seven unicorn tapestries to hang in the Queen’s chambers. They are being woven two at a time — one in Stirling and one at the West Dean Tapestry Studio — and are due to be finished in 2013. We had a quick peek at the work in progress in the Castle studio before the weaver went to have her well-earned lunch, and then went to see the finished tapestries, which are hanging in the Chapel for the time being.

Wow. Last time we went only “The Unicorn in Captivity” had been completed. Now he is joined by “The Start of the Hunt”, “The Unicorn is Found” and (sadly) “The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle”. Thank goodness for resurrection imagery!! The following are all quite big pics, so do click on them.

And here’s a bit of detail – I particularly like the velvety jacket on the chap leading the horse.

“tapestry treats” was posted by Cally on 8 Nov 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

Last weekend we took an autumn walk up through the Birks of Aberfeldy to the Falls of Moness. It is a beautiful walk at any time of year, not very long but fairly steep — which is a good thing because when you’re done you know you’ve earned a slice of cake at the Watermill — and with spectacular views.  It had been raining a lot the previous week, and the day was still overcast, but the golds and oranges of the leaves were glowing through the grey. And the lichens were in fine form!  Lichens are something that Scotland really excels in: according to the RBGE, Scotland has about 1500 species of lichens, amounting to 37% of all European lichen species (in less than 1% of the area of Europe).  As textile enthusiasts you’ll know that they were traditionally used as dyes, famously to dye Harris Tweed, but they are slow-growing and so sensitive to air pollution that they have become seriously endangered.  Because they are hardly seen now in towns and cities, I always get a kick out of seeing them in the woods. And leaving them there, as I ought.

It would have been smart of me to take my camera, but had to make do with my phone — hence the blurriness when I tried to get up close!

“worra lorra lichen” was posted by Cally on 1 Nov 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

Not cloth, but I am still quite pleased with them. 

First, an omelette.

Why a picture of an omelette?  Well, this isn’t just any old omelette: this omelette was made with the eggs from my mother’s newly-laying hens.  The hens are Light Sussex and their eggs are delicious.  And I was so pleased with how neatly this omelette came out of the pan, that I thought it deserved a picture.  Probably would have looked better if I had used a blue plate, but I wasn’t actually planning a photograph, just a lunch.

Second, my masters dissertation.

All 28,625 words of it* were marked and passed over the summer, so here it is in final format on its way to the library.  It has now disappeared into the dissertation vortex under the Curran building and will never be seen again, but it has served its purpose and got me started on my doctorate.  I graduate on Monday, and have even bought myself a white shirt for the occasion.  I have bought white shirts before but only when I couldn’t get the colour I wanted: white shirt + washing-machine dye = shirt I actually want to wear.  This one was quite expensive, however, so I think I’ll keep it until I’ve graduated with the PhD!

*Yes, it is on the long side for a masters but this particular degree programme has more research and fewer taught classes than most so that’s what they want.

“two things I made” was posted by Cally on 29 Oct 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

Not a new weaver by any means, but a new blog Purple Donsu.  I must declare a vested interest, since the blogger is my Auntie Pat – the same aunt who made this indigo vat which I played in over the summer!  Do pay a visit: it will be well worth it.

I am struggling to blog about my weaving at the moment, but that is not because there is no weaving going on.  The problem is that I have a project on the go which I can’t share with you yet.  In the past – for instance, when I have been working on something for a WeaveZine article – I have had enough energy for a public project as well as the private one.  Just now, however, my management science research is taking up so much of my brainpower that I can only cope with one weaving project at a time!  I will try and visit a few more exhibitions so that my poor blog doesn’t languish here alone and unloved.

“new weaving blog” was posted by Cally on 18 Oct 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

“What is a namad?” I hear you ask.  Well, it just so happens that I know the answer and can tell you that a namad is a thick felt tunic worn by an Iranian shepherd.  I daresay that these days the shepherds of Iran, like shepherds elsewhere, are more likely to be wearing jeans, but my young Iranian colleague tells me that her grandfather had such a tunic and she is quite accustomed to the sight of them.

I was very fortunate to have her as my guide round this exhibition which is currently on in Glasgow, because these are not working namads but decorative pieces which are embroidered in coloured silks and each one includes an embroidered phrase from Persian literature which my colleague read aloud and translated for me.  They are absolutely gorgeous garments.  They are almost all the same basic T-shape, but each one is made of a slightly different natural shade of wool, from a light beige to a very dark brown.  There are two main embroidery colour schemes: red (which includes orange, yellow, pink and gold) and turquoise (including every kind of blue and green).  The richness of these glowing colours against the plain wool fabric is really magical.

My only disappointment with the exhibition was a personal foible: Bita Ghezelayagh, the woman credited in the title and in all the blurb as the creator of these garments, is in fact an architect and designer and has not felted or embroidered anything on display.  The felted namads are made by professional namad-makers in north-west Iran; the embroidery is done by an unnamed “Afghani woman and her daughter” who now live in Tehran.  Of course it is perfectly fine to be a designer and not a maker, but when crafts are on display I do feel that the craftspeople should be more conspicuously celebrated.  It is not everyone who can master traditional techniques involving a great deal of skill and many years of practice, especially when — as one of the felters explains in a little DVD on show in the corner of the gallery — the skills are not only in decline but ridiculed by most of their compatriots.

OK, grumble over, and I do recommend the show.  If you happen to be in Glasgow before mid-November (or later on in York or Hawick), do treat yourself to a stunning splash of colour.  Then we can compare favourites!

“namads” was posted by Cally on 11 Oct 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

When I first mentioned my plans to try out echo weave, I noted that my attempts to design curves were somewhat unsuccessful so I had decided to do something simpler.  At the time Bonnie Inouye was kind enough to get in touch with me to offer encouragement and support, and she has also directed me to a fantastic article she has written for WeaveZine on designing curves.  If you want to know a really simple rule that will set you free to play with curves at the loom then you should definitely read this.  Go on… I know you want to!  I was able to try it out on the end of my last warp, and now have a new sample warp set up specifically to have a play combining this and my Adinkra ideas.  No pictures at this time because I am keeping this one under wraps for now.  Red, white and black feature strongly and this is v popular with Stuart: hey, Cally’s weaving in Bristol City colours.

“network drafting tips” was posted by Cally on 12 Sept 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

I promised something more positive, and here it is.  My mother reads the Surface Design Journal, which means I get to read the Surface Deisgn Journal too.  The latest issue I have borrowed is full of knitters and weavers, a couple of whom stood out for me as particularly exciting.

The first is Catherine Billingsley of the Billingsley Atelier.  She appears in the Journal in a review of this exhibition at the Payne Gallery in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  Her large rainbow-coloured pieces remind me of Ann Sutton’s work which I saw at the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries a few years ago.  Think: colour gamp goes sculptural.

But of more interest to me at the moment is the work she has done arising from a visit to Ghana.  Go to this page and scroll down for pictures of her trip and of her textiles.  I am particularly taken with “An American in Ghana“, which is an installation inspired by Kente cloth.

The second is Sylvia Heyden, who also had an exhibition reviewed.  She is a tapestry weaver who has studied with Johannes Itten of colour theory fame, and her work seems to me the most glorious meld of colour and shape.  She is also a violinist and is deeply inspired by music, so the similarities I see with Paul Klee’s paintings may not be merely the product of my own aesthetic prejudice.

“inspiring artists” was posted by Cally on 5 Sept 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com

I have more positive things to say than this, but first I have to get something off my chest.  Pink accessories.  What on earth is it all about?

In Halfords, the place where you go for car bits and bobs (in our case, warning triangles and headlamp bulbs and other unglamorous objects, although there are snazzier options like CD players and sat-nav), there is now a whole section filled with pink fluffy stuff.  Pink fluffy steering wheel cover, for example.  You can trick out your car’s interior entirely in pink.

This was a bit of a shock to yours truly (in pursuit of a replacement wiper blade) but it was even worse when I went into the art shop for my pieces of foam.  There is, it seems, a whole range of pink art acceessories too: pink palette, pink paintbrushes and so on.

Aside from finding them personally rather nauseating, although I appreciate that not everyone feels the same way about that particular shade of pink (you know the one I mean!), what really troubles me is that there is only the one additional option.  You can buy the usual plain stuff or you can buy it in pink.  Of course, if you are an artist then you can create your own environment using any colour you choose, but in that case the pink option is as redundant as the non-existent blue, yellow, green or claret.

Is the purpose to attract into artistic pursuits a cohort of young females who won’t do anything unless they have a pink accessory to do it with?  Or is it just to sell them more pink stuff they don’t need and will probably never have a use for?  What happens if they use paint that is another colour than pink and their palette starts to get a bit stained? Do they go out and buy a fresh one?

In my research diary I have a category for entries like this (they happen rather more often in my research life than my weaving life).  I label them “grumpy old witch” and in my mind they are coloured a wicked-witch-of-the-west green, so there.

“the tyranny of pink” was posted by Cally on 5 Sept 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com