CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA DAY WITH NEW KANGAROOS CROSSING BAGS
Australia DayKangaroos Crossing

On Nov 8th a happy group of ladies joined me for a Tapestry Crochet workshop.
A very successful day with everyone well on their way to finishing a bag.
More busy ladies: All eyes down busy on their bags.Barbara: Base of bagGitta: Brighty coloured bag from Gitta

Recently I held a very successful Tapestry Crochet Bag Workshop at Yarroweyah near Cobram. Here are a few pictures of work in progress.Letty
Rhonda
MaureenYou can join a group
There are places still available for the workshop on 22nd October Saturday 10.30am-3pm at Kyabram

Home from a busy time at the Sheep and Wool Show great to see so many people there.
Here is the rug that gave me First Prize. (back and front view)

FORMULA FOUR

Friday, Saturday and Sunday I attended a workshop run by Jason Collingwood at the Melbourne Handweavers and Spinner Guild. The guild was in the process of moving but the workshop took place in the old building. It was fantastic. Great to meet Jason and gleam information about making rugs. Also great to meet all the others attending the workshop. Everyone brought along their own small loom warped up ready to learn 3 end block weave. I was soon on my loom weaving another rug it is called Soft Touch.

[img_assist|nid=300|title=Soft Touch|desc=|link=node|align=center|width=400|height=533]

NEW SHAFT SWITCHING LEVER SYSTEM


Back in 2008 I fitted to my Glimakra a Shaft Switching Lever System. It was designed to make rugs with 4 end block weave. Recently I decided I wanted to also convert another loom to a 3 end block weave Shaft Switching system.
All went well and the first rug is now off the loom.
The warp I used was 8/5 wetspun Linen set at 4 Epi doubled in every second dent. (my 4 end system is set at 5EPI )
It was very time consuming getting everything set up. I have 55 units the rug off the loom measured 38" wide. Here are some photos of the new Levers and the texsolv in place. If you are interested in building a system email me.

test2
Levers being threaded
In operation

Finally I have information and pictures of my new lever system on the Glimakra.
I am very pleased with the results. The system was built by a friend to fit my 52 inch Countermarche Glimakra. Width of the lever frame was 6 inches and length 50 inches. I followed the directions in Peter's book with a few modifications as I wanted a 4 end block weave at 5 EPI . This meant the levers were very narrow 3/8" by 6/8" by 5 1/8". The hole drilled in the end was a bit over 1/8" and the texsolv fits snugly through it. I used fuse wire to pull the second texsolv through the hole when assembling.
My loom has two sets of horizontal jacks (figure 97 page 115 in Peter Collingwood's Rug Weaving Techniques). However I didn't need to omit the central lever. I also have the side cords passing through the system. There seem enough space to allow the cords to hang.
Another concern I had was that my shafts would not be wide enough to hold the eyelets to guide the cord. This has not been a problem I staggered the eyes as you can see in my pictures.
If you wish more information please contact me

Levers1
Work Begins
Cords

This is the first rug using my new shaft switching lever system.
It is working very well and is so much quicker than the old hook and washer device.

The rug is a for a five year old gilrl's bedroom. I was told it must have purple and pink for the butteflies so here it is.

Jorja's Butterfly Rug