Stella's (Worldwide) Adentures - Part II of II

This post may be a little cryptic as I decipher scribbles or try to remember what I didn't scribble. If you're a weaver or are familiar with weaving jargon, I hope you get the gist; otherwise, you can laugh and think, "Oh, what a load miscalculations!" 

2026/1/21
I started working on these premises and made the warp and wound it on the back beam:
Warp: 30/2 100% merino, 60ends, (14ends per repeat*4 reps+4fl,) * 2.2m; folded in half to weave two strips side by side.

Threading: same on both, 5678765-1234321.
Sett: 48EPI on the right set, 42EPI on the left. 
Weft: sample 30/2 single, doubled, and tripled. 

2026/1/22
I threaded, sleyed and started sampling. Very quickly I discovered one 30/2 threaded in each heddle was too fragile as ends were breaking left and right and I could not sample properly. Times I used 30/2 in the warp, I doubled and used two ends as one. Neither am I dexterous enough to weave two strips side by side.

I made a second warp, with 74 ends, (14*2ends per repeat*2.5reps+4fl), 2.2m; threaded in the same way but only 2.5 repeats wide, and sleyed at 48EPI, 4pairs/8ends per dent in a 6-dent reed; I'm weaving only one strip. 

2026/1/23

Sampled. 

Far right: It was obvious even 30/2 tripled, (in 3 similar, not identical, colors,) made the design fussy and the motif squashed. But I noticed leftover merino used to spread the warp ends at the start looked good. (I also noticed a threading mistake so fixed that.) 

Second right: I had three similar 100% knitting merino leftovers and auditioned them. I liked the orange best as I felt it matched the (faded) Bayeux mood best, but it was too airy and squashed the motif, and the value was too close to the warp the motif did not show up well. The dark purple showed the motif best and was the thickest weft but there were no similar colors used in others' contributions as yet. Teal, on the other hand, showed off the motif well enough, but also several blues already used made it fit in the group best. 

The question was, whether to try sampling 30/2 quadrupled with one color and sample, (to show off fussy weaving for my aesthetic satisfaction, taking extra hours to weave,) or to go bold and sensible with the leftover merino. We actually took a quick trip into town to photograph Stella with a couple of iconic Nelson locations while I decided I'm going with the sensible direction. 

Second left: I reduced the width to two threading reps wide; 2.5 reps had a nice with symmetry and the stripe was wide enough not impossibly difficult to weave; 1.5 reps would have suited the project better but would have been close to impossibly slow to weave. I also thought the directional movement in the draft when positioned sideways would allow the asymmetry. I wove 40cm, expecting it to shrink to perhaps 38cm-ish. (I made no measurement nor checked shrinkage.) Tar left experiment with pale yellow 100% linen just for fun. 

With the weaving finished, and the teal strip inspected, I foolishly took the rest of warp off, put away the tools and vacuumed before wet-finishing, a bad order but I do it all the time. Of course I found a lifting mistake and the wefts were banged into position too firmly I couldn't mend it, so wet-finishing I did, briefly considered using the strip as is, then went back to the warping board. I also thought 40cm on the loom was too short. 

Rather than rescuing the discarded warp, I made another 2.2m, threaded with two threading repeats, and sleyed at 48EPI.

2026/1/24
I wove again, this time 42cm-ish, checked very carefully for mistakes, with the warp and tools untouched. There were no mistakes, but I had the presence of mind to notice the erratic beating. My beating is inconsistent at the best of time on better looms, but I was weaving on Klik, standing up, (because if I sat I can't see the shaft numbers,) and my back was hurting. If need be, I had another warp ready to weave. 

2024/1/25
I have never manipulated a piece in the wet-finishing this much, trying to disguise the different beating. Even though I had enough time to weave another, with the bad weather I was not sure if it would dry in time for me to attach it to the linen cloth, (itself a time consuming task, I expected,) package it up to communicate tracking numbers, etc, and for Ben to drop it off first thing Monday morning. For the first time, I even took out a hair dryer to coax the strip to dry faster.

The next conundrum was the position on the linen. Earlier I decided I'd love the top right, opposite Mia's text, but the just above it, the hemming of the linen is a little curvy and I wasn't sure how to deal with that. Also, with a strong teal color, the longer length, and the height, my strip overpowered Mia's text. (I did considering cutting the mistake off the first piece and using that.) We looked at bottom left, which might have been OK after 30 others contributed; bottom centre, which was interesting but in the present stage looked crammed; or bottom right, the color, height and length dominating the least there. 

As well, the weather improved, the temperature shot up, with high humidity after all the rain, I hemmed it at the coolest spot in the house, the top of the stairs, where the light wasn't great. That task took about an hour and a half, redoing some stitches so they remain as invisible as I can manage. But I was done at a reasonable hour of... can't remember... something like 8PM. 

Q. E. D. As Mom used to say: "Quite easily done." I don't know about easily; Klik is not an easy loom to weave pieces, (though great for studying new structures or sample while editing threading/sett rapidly,) I did so enjoy being a weaver and thinking and talking about it. It was a great reminder. 

2026/1/26
The box was sent off to the next contributor, Helen in Canterbury, first thing in the morning, and she received it at lunch time the following day. We already miss the noisy girls. And I have plenty of warp still left on the loom. 

Stella's (Worldwide) Adentures - Part I of II

I joined Mia Hansson's Stella's (worldwide) Adventures, which turned into my first weaving project of 2026. Here's a good intro to what the tour is. (Stella's Adventures group page covers or will cover her entire trip.) Now let me tell you my part.  

2025
I came across Mia's Bayeux Tapestry Story group page on FB early in the year. Mia is a Swedish Brit single-handedly trying to recreate the Bayeux Tapestry over a decade. Her group page is crazy informative on the techniques, process, and decisions she's had to make to carry out the project, while we fans often interject wild or informed speculation, all in buzzing joviality. There, Stella the Persistent Assistant appears from time to time to make mischief. 

Mia decided Stella should travel to get out of Mia's hair, so she solicited hosts to welcome her worldwide, and by the way, hosts should add some embroidery to the linen Stella will be traveling with. I didn't rush in, but when Mia announced the countries she's had volunteers from, I flippantly wrote, "New Zealand?" I didn't hear from Mia for months and gave no further thought, until in December, she requested my address, informing me Stella was about to leave Australia! I was working nightly on my needlepoint at that stage, so no worries, I can wing it. 

2026/1/15~18
On 1/15, I received an unsmall box containing Stella and her (new) little friend Arlette; a pink notebook in which hosts wrote background of themselves, local info, or their contribution, (some riveting reading itself;) and a piece of linen 82cm high and 135cm wide, neatly hemmed just the way Mia showed us she does on her project.

(The linen is not crocked but not pressed; it's my fault for not tugging from all sides.) This is 100% unbleached linen in plain weave, with quite a hefty weight to it, giving it that lovely large-dog-leaning hand. The recreation project is done on linen, (though now Mia suspects it could be linen/cotton,) 70cm high and gazillion meters wide before hemming, in a twill from memory. Both this cloth and the almost stiff embroidery gave me the impression the original Tapestry was probably far from delicate or fragile but hefty and more "down to earth", which is probably how it lasted this long. 

What astounded me in the first instance was the high level of embroidery skill of the previous hosts. Mia's star in the center, (Stella,) and the Bayeux-style tree in lower left, (see little Stella hanging on?) by Brigitte were done in wool in the traditional stitches used by Bayeux seamstresses. I realized it's been decades since I did cross stitch, maybe over 50 years since "freehand". I have bitten far more than I could chew! Reluctantly only at this point I joined the Stella's Adventures FZB group, and flipped through the pink notebook. I discovered the length to which everybody went in researching their subject, or took Stella around their homes/regions to introduce to the rest of the group. There was even a visit to Bayeux Museum and the cathedral where the tapestry used to be hung!! To say this was going to be a two-pronged project was an understatement. 

With bad weather coming, I started with Stella-around-my house, planning to move on to around Nelson on the group page front. In there I snuck in my trepidation about the lack of embroidery skills, to which Queensland weaver Lyn commented I should attach a piece of my weaving. Oh, I never thought about that! By Sunday morning, I knew what I was going to do.

2026/1/19
What: If you look at the pictures, considering I'm the 20th of 50 to contribute, though there is still plenty of space, placement is a consideration. Also, I wanted to use New Zealand Merino, somewhat fragile against friction, so I didn't want it to go where the cloth was likely to be folded. I decided a short narrow strip, or two, wouldn't be too obtrusive but also wouldn't disappear in the busyness.   

A long strip along one side was immediately voted out for not being harmonious with the other contributions. 

On the other hand, a strip the width of the text at top left (2cm*23cm), or the text+small Stella (2cm*30cm) would create a balanced look, but to make the weaving a little easier, I might make the width-on-loom between an inch and 3cm. I could put it at top right, or bottom right; it could even work bottom right and left, though top will probably be rubbed less often.

Warp: 

The linen cloth has a tinge of yellow, while in the 30/2 merino I plan to use, I only have pinkish "naturals." Of the two the darker taupe appears less jarring. Elsewhere I have undyed merino, but they are far whiter than the cloth, so that's out of contention. 

Weft: 
(This was part of the group page entertainment; I let the girls have some say.) 

Mia uses something like five or seven colors, in darker values than what I have, and quite a lot of yellow in them. There is a Burgundy, (I have brick orange in its place, which Mia says is closer to the original,) a dull yellow, (mine, a brighter version,) and indigo, (mine, second row far right.) Then I may pick maybe two others between green and blue. Mind you, the big difference is she makes pictures with these colors, while mine are weft colors, in clear horizontal squares. (I'm judging everything by looking at photos on her Tapestry page.)

And then I found Brigitte took Stella to Bayeux Museum, and there they had a display of the wool colors. 

I'm doing the usual. I'm not sure if I want to use many colors or just one or just a few.  

Sett: 
The merino I plan to use is 30/2 100% in the warp and the weft. Previously I used this in the warp at 36EPI to go with 26/2 and 20/2 cashmere wefts. At that time I experimented with 36EPI and 48EPI, (but apparently not 42,) and mentioned 48EPI was too tight as if the yarns had no room to expand. I think for the purposes of this project that sounds about right, as the embroidered part in wool is stiff. I'll sample 42 and 48EPI.

Draft: 
I had a quick look at Mia's finished length for a possible Bayeux-based abstract border motif, (over 55m so far,) but nothing jumped out. She being Swedish, I thought of one 8-shaft pattern I really like but only used once.     

Ooops, this is Stella; I think she's a Viking girl, as Mia used to make Viking reenactment costumes, and Normans were Viking descendants. The draft in question is to the left of her head. It can go the way it's drawn, or turned. I'll be weaving a long, narrow strip, while it will be attached sideways on the cloth, so wide and short.  

I usually prefer the bottom look, but in this case I like the directionality of the top two. I must consider what's the easiest to lift. Either works well in terms of warp repeat numbers to make an inch- or 3cm-wide strip. 

Decisions: 
With the easy stuff done, I have to decide on the following before putting a warp on and sampling: 
1) Weft colors. In fact, am I also happy with the neutral weft warp color?
2) One idea is to put on a wide multi-colored warp and weave a short, wide strip for the Stella project, and then to resley and weave a scarf  from the same warp. In this case, however, there will be gazillion warp ends to tidy before I can attach the strip/s to the linen, so in the first instance this sounds like a terrible idea. But a colorful scarf?  
3) The threading/orientation.
4) In case I need two strips, I should put on two warps side by side with a wide gap in between and weave the two at once.  

2026/1/20
No work done but went over notes. Making up my mind is sometimes the hardest thing to do. But I am enjoying the process as I have not had a "thinking" project since the elephant blanket of 2019.  

More to come.

That's Our Summer Done, More or Less

Ben and colleagues had a lot of leave accumulated, so it appears half the team had a nearly-month-long (or longer,) summer holidays; Ben had exactly four weeks off, which ended on the weekend. We, I, prepared a very long house project To Do list beforehand, some items long standing, but most tied to the building work we had done last winter/spring. 

We worked often but in short spurts, sometime taking turns going outside depending on the task, while the other cooled down inside or cooked; very different from our usual pattern. One big reason was we did a lot of scrubbing/sanding and oiling/staining/painting outdoors, so there was a lot of waiting for things to dry. The weather was largely cooperative, except a very wet Week 3. (Around then, Ben hurt his back again - he just gotten over his November incident, and the homeopathic remedies I've been taking for arthritis abruptly stopped working.) But it felt as if we fell into a new old-people working pattern. With a couple of holiday left,  we had not even finished a third of the list. 

Another reason we worked in such a (re)lax(ed) way was probably because we had "four weeks" in mind; somehow it felt so much longer than three weeks, Ben's usual summer break. We kept doing a little here and a little there, that on Sunday when we debriefed, we actually finished a little under half the jobs!! 

Our place looks chaotic inside and out, because we're not finished with projects and sometimes stuff is left out; flower pots and dead weeds are left all over the patio that's not what we're focusing on at that moment, but we'll get around to them eventually. Even the garden, overgrown even more than usual, had bits done, and I can tell which trees Ben pruned and look more polite better than before he pruned them. 

Plus, it's January/February when we get the really high temperatures, so some of the paint jobs, (I'm dying to paint the inside of three most frequently used closets,) can be done before the summer is well and truly finished. It's also up to Ben to build two small outside "tables", one for weeding/tidying/repotting flower pots, (so I don't have to kneel or bend often,) but more importantly a skinny side table on the front door step so folks don't walk too near the kitchen window and hit their head against the sharp corners. If he does, it's my job to clean up the wood we'll recycle.  

Our To Do list and the house remains in jumble, which kept me awake some nights, but importantly we feel rested, that we didn't spend the entire summer break doing chores. We're relieved because by last October/November, we were utterly exhausted from what felt like a hectic year but really wasn't. 

Old people ways of life, eh.  

* * * * * 

No weaving took place during the break, but suddenly it popped up. I'll talk about it really soon; it's an exciting, in a way complex project, but won't take long to finish, either. 

On paper, I only finished the smallest of the unfinished collage/drawing books, though I made progress on four other. I attended three zoom art session and rediscovered the joy of face drawing, even though the faces are through a tiny screen. Without intending, I found myself drawing larger and gestural. It's been great to suddenly find myself back in familiar territories. 

Mary Ann Moss has a new Substack, and in one of the vids she recommended face drawing zoom sessions by Brit Chloe Briggs, so I "went". Funny how one thing leads to another, giving me courage to try new things, or old things in new places with new people. I'm having fun, even though there are great sessions, good sessions, and downright sucky ones.  

When I'm not doing it alone, I'm pretty good at not looking while drawing blind contours, although mine are never strictly contours. There is magic in them, where we inadvertently get things surprisingly and pleasingly accurate.

This one was not blind, and I messed up the first version, but I was desperate to capture a unique pose. 

I love colors, and I love drawing big. I'm now routinely filling A2 pages in 3 to 5 minutes. The bottom one, though, was a fluke; it looks nice and immediately identifiable, but it looks too tidy for something I did. 

My favourite of the season so far. I'm trying to look more carefully, for longer, so I spot the most attractive shapes and lines. It's often the hair, but with her, the more I looked, the more attractive the hands became. Unfortunately I'm not composed and find myself drawing before I start to take a proper look look, so I have to revise my lines many times. That is why I love this one so much, that I managed to look carefully. 

I continue to be involved with the Letter Journal group, part of Admin for a second year. The group itself will be ten years old in March, though I didn't join until some months later. The "bigness" of each challenge seem to get bigger; I need even more time to do each spread, sometimes spending weeks practicing. But it's lovely to be exposed to others' creativeness, exhilarating just to try to keep up, even if my outcome is crappy. Collaborative works is like problem-solving for the most part, but I get a real sense of accomplishment when I finish a spread. I need to remember to photograph more results.

I've also made steady progress on the needlepoint project; I'm still not using colors as attractively as I used to, but the shapes are more interesting and I don't have to think too hard now. 

* * * * * 

And lastly but not the least, we cooked some delicious meals, nothing exotic or challenging, but ordinary meals that tasted great. Among other things, I'm into making pizza with a tortilla shell as a base. Because there is substantially less carbo, I can taste the toppings better, but the shell holds better than the cauliflower base we tried some time ago. 

I/we have plenty of projects leftover, but I'm making 2026 a(nother) year of finishing projects. It won't stop me from starting new ones, but things will get done, fingers crossed. And if we can use up old material, all the better. 

Onwards!   

New Year's UnResolution

Hi, everybody. Have we all safely made the crossing and landed on 2026? My Day 1 is nearly over. And I've had some thoughts. (EDIT: I wrote this last night, but didn't have any idea for photos, so I'm posting on Day 2, and I'll get into the paint after I post this.)  

I quit "Resolutions" a few years ago, if you remember, but I still have some... guidelines? for the year, something to keep in mind before rushing into,out of action; not very different from the last few years', but then there have been very little changes in my life, so that's the way it goes. 

The two main guidelines are: finish projects I've started, and continue "decluttering". I've put in some effort in both areas in recent years, although intermittently and at a blind arthritic snail's pace. I get great satisfaction from finishing projects, (being a great starter but poor finisher, finishing comes far less often,) and anything I'm not too keen on, I have culled them over the years. So what's still left is worth pursuing. 

Decluttering; I don't like this word, because to me it's like tidying, while what I need to do is to get rid of stuff; shedding; discarding. In this day and age where everybody seems to have too much stuff, it's hard to give away old stuff some old lady saved for many years, unless they are rare/vintage/antiques. But I hate the idea of increasing rubbish, (around here they get buried in the ground,) so they sit in our house until we have a better plan. 

I started selling books online last year, and I've had a modest success selling some old weaving books, but I have many more, not to mention mountains of non-weaving books, so I have a long way to go. It's still nice to send them to folks who want them. In Nelson I have the option to donate them to Founders Book Fair and over the years we have donated boxes and boxes, with a few more boxes to go in the next couple of weeks, but if I could get some money to go towards last year's roof repair or dental implant, all the better. 

Other guidelines are familiar ones; exercise; eat healthier and in reasonable proportions; read more books; and a new one: write (more). I've gotten out of the habit of organize my thoughts and editing/revising them. Many times, even in replying to emails or to blog here, I find the task overwhelming and can't be bothered, mainly because I haven't been living an interesting life worth recording/reporting. Sometimes it's far easier to pick up a knife and make a jar of pickles, or get my sewing box to mend items that's sat in the ironing basket for months. 

20 or 25 years ago, I made a decision to simplify my life, to make it smaller and not busy so I could devote myself to learning to weave. Growing older, having less disposable income, and the Plague all helped, to the point I'm now living a teeny tiny life. I like it, I'm quietly satisfied with this simple, plain life of an oldie, concerning myself with littlest things immediately surrounding me. At the same time, I'm reading much too much about politics on screen and not enough books with good content; I don't socialize in person much, so don't have many real conversations; and I don't write, so I never organize my thoughts, so I don't have interesting/funny things to say. I've become a boring person. 

I ran into someone in the supermarket, and later went to a small gathering, on New Years Eve. I repeated myself and brought up matters like digging out oxalis bulbs from a patch we hadn't used to grow veg in a decade; and sorting paints, stains, and oils to prepare for household projects we hope to tackle this summer. And I didn't tell them in a funny way! 

So there you have it; that's another guideline for the year: don't be boring!