BB's News / Peaceful

A new year!

A new year!

 

Dear Weavers

I hope you all had a wonderful festive season and started the new year with good health & happiness. It is somehow hard to believe we now have the year 2025. Wasn't it only just 2000, 2010, 2015 and 2020? I actually remember writing 2015 for the date and now we simply have another 2 to add. Where does the time go? This sounds so cliché, but it is really like that.... where does the time go??? I really don't know.... there just doesn't seem to be enough of it.

It has been a while since I wrote the last blog post. Every year starts good and I manage to write regular posts. But once we get to the second half of the year, it seems to get busier and busier and my good intentions slip away. This makes me feel bad. Maybe yes I put too much pressure on myself thinking that this blog needs to have new posts all the time. I admire the blog post writers who manage to produce a post every single month, very prompt and regular. Then on the other side I look at this blog as my way to let my immediate thoughts go and maybe even collect new ones? It is a great way to sum up what happened over the last weeks or months. I like that. It is a way to see what has happened and at the same time look forward what is going to happen.

So let's see what has happened since my last post: 

September saw me housesitting for my "adopted mum" in Bundaberg and looking after her two Labradors. I arrived to an awful loud noise in the house and had to work out that the fan at the back of the fridge was in pieces. So no fridge! Thank goodness I had my little camping fridge in the car to plug in and use.... I then spent most of the week trying to fix this fridge. Which I managed! When the house owner came back the fridge was working again like normal. But what I remember most of this time were the many walks with the dogs and having them snoring at my feet while watching tv. 

End of September I was back in Maryborough at the Gatakers Artspace to give the second workshop in conjunction of the Hervey Bay Spinners, Weavers & Fibre artists exhibition. This time it was a more advanced workshop to create a weaving picture. I showed the participants how to have a silhouette picture on paper and turn it into weaving by using the double weave pick up method. It was quite challenging for many of them, but it was amazing to see the penny drop for one after the other. Weaving can have so many faces. One day it can be simple/fast and next day it is complicated/slow. Whatever we create it always opens new doors/ideas. It was fascinating to see what each participant created. Even months after I get messages from someone to show me what has been woven from my workshop. Very satisfying for me to see.

The beginning of November saw me travelling down south to Lismore to give a workshop for the weavers of this area. This time it was all about Shadow weave. The weavers came from all over the area. The workshop was taking place in Wollongbar, which is somewhere in between Lismore and Ballina. What a beautiful part of Australia, lush green and friendly people. The workshop I have prepared was all about on how to design your own shadow weave, how to create the pattern with the help of the many samples I presented. Each participant ended up with a hand towel with several shadow weave blocks designed by themselves. At the end of the two days everybody was happy to go home and finish the weaving. What a lovely group this is! I wish I had a group like this here. Thank you to the Lismore weavers for the hospitality and keep on weaving. 

After the workshop in Wollongbar I spent a couple of days in the area to chill out before the next event. I spent one day with Helen in Ballina, which was amazing. We went for a walk in the morning and I even saw dolphins swimming near the pier! Just magical.

I then moved on back to Brisbane to give another workshop. This time I was met by many known faces, old weaving friends and students. It was so good to see them all again! But thank goodness for the airconditioned room. Brisbane was hot and humid and the noise!!! When we lived there it was just normal to hear the constant noise of cars and trains. But now after living up here in the peaceful quietness for so long, it was really hard to cope with the city noise. Apart from that, I had a really good time there. Thank you Kumi for hosting me and for the lovely, lovely chats (we talked weaving and weaving and more weaving for hours....) and great food.

As soon as I was home we started to get visitors from near and far. At the end of November long time friends from Switzerland arrived to stay with us for a weekend. It made me aware that my swiss isn't as fluid as it used to be. (We've migrated to Australia over 25 years ago, so it makes sense.) But we had a wonderful time catching up on all Swiss, Australia, our families and work. Who knows when we are going to see each other again. Thanks Myriam and PA for dropping by.

Then came Christmas and the New Year. And here we are. So what is 2025 going to bring? I don't know, we'll see... I have some ideas and most of all my fingers are itching of all the things I have in mind to weave. Watch the space. Follow me on Instagram (bbyarnsupply) or Facebook (BB Yarn Supply) to see and hear it first.

Until the next time, happy weaving everyone!

Ursula

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Merino/Tencel

Merino/Tencel

Dear Weavers
It has been a while and a lot has happened. To be precise it is four months since I last wrote a blog post. That is terrible! I better get going then....
The biggest news is probably that I have finally, finally managed to put the Merino/Tencel yarn online. The whole yarn range with 21 colours is now available and ready to be purchased. I say finally because I promised many people that I would do this soon and then "life" came in between... It always takes quite a large junk of my time to put a new yarn range online with all its colours, photos, examples, prices, tags, description and shipping until everything is the way I want it. But anyway, I have managed and the Merino/Tencel is now there. The Merino/Tencel is quite a special type of yarn. It makes beautiful scarves or fabrics and is absolutely gorgeously soft!!! The yarn is half cellulose and half protein fibre. Which makes it a very interesting yarn to use. The cellulose, Tencel gives it the beautiful shine and the protein, wool makes it irresistibly soft. For weavers who like to dye their yarns, this one will give you a challenge. I used cellulose dyes for my test and of course then the wool didn't really take the dye very well. But instead of looking odd, it gives the yarn a really interesting uneven look, a certain shine comes through. See below
For some unexplained reasons the colours of the Merino/Tencel yarn change quite frequently. Some of the colours put online now (they have an asterisk next to the number) will only be available as long as stock lasts. But the good thing about this is that for every colour no longer available will be a new colour appearing. And I can tell you that I already have received some of the new colours!!! So watch this yarn line carefully, it will change there so often and reveal new amazing colours. But for now please feel free to have a look at the yarn, try it out and experiment. I used it at 16epi. What are you going to do? 
Go to www.bbyarn.com and look for the Merino/Tencel yarn or simply click on one of the above pictures.
Life has been rather busy lately: A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to give a beginner weaving workshop in Maryborough QLD. The workshop was held in the most extraordinary place I have ever given a workshop in. It was in a beautiful gallery room surrounded by amazing artwork. We even had Einstein at the back wall!! If you do not feel inspired to learn a craft in a space like that, then I don't know. I had 7 very enthusiastic new weavers, most of them have woven before just a little bit and wanted to know more. There was only one person which has never woven before and was very happily weaving at the end of the two days. I quite enjoy teaching beginner weaving workshops and showing these new weavers what this wonderful craftmanship is all about. It is not rocket science... only many, many steps to learn from warping to weaving! Here are some impressions:

In other exciting news: I've got myself another loom! Yes, you read right... This one was an offer I simply couldn't refuse. It is basically my dream loom and funny enough I received an email from another weaver asking me, if I know someone who would be interested in that loom!!! Yes, me! The loom is a computerised Toika Eeva loom with 24 shafts. No serious weaver can resist that. Because I didn't want my studio to be overfilled with large looms, I had to get rid of one of my trusty looms. The computerised Mecchia dobby loom 8 shafts is at the moment in pieces back in the little house. I will eventually look for a weaver who might be interested but I needed to see first if this Toika loom would suit me. Not that I really had any doubts, but you never know. I did have to make some adjustments to the new addition, but I have now already woven 3 projects on it and the loom is working beautifully! Extremely happy with it. I'm rather spoilt with shafts now. No more saving and turning patterns to match it with my 8 shafts. I can indulge in an abundance of shafts. It is actually quite a new experience for me. One project I recently did was trying out all 24 shafts using some colours of the UKI pearl cotton, see below.
Winter up here on our hill seems to have evaporated. We did have some cold days in June/July but in August we received an unexpected rain. We had 85mm! Even the creek getting into Michelles road was flooded and we were cut off for a day. From then on the temperatures started to raise and today we had 30 degrees. In August! Very strange. It makes you wonder what the coming summer is going to be like. But nature up here seems to dwell and all the bushes suddenly unpacked their flowers. It is just simply beautiful right now! Grevillea, bottle brushes and wattle flowers everywhere, gum trees are bursting with flowers, bees humming all day long and every single bird is chirping and singing. I couldn't live at a nicer place. Spring is here!
That is all from me. Stay safe everyone and until next time...
Happy weaving
Ursula
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My weaving shed

My weaving shed

Two looms

Dear Weavers

I hope you all had a wonderful festive season and started the new year relaxed with lots of creative ideas and amazing plans for 2024.

I have used the time between Christmas and New Year to make the move into my new weaving studio complete. We, my husband and I managed to finish two lots of steps/entrances to the doors. One entrance even received a proper porch, little roof and large steps. I already lost track on how many times I have walked up these steps by now. It's wonderful to have this grand entrance!

 Porch

My office is now also moved into the weaving shed and with it everything regarding BB Yarn Supply, including the correspondence course and 8+. The weaving shed now has everything in one place.

Yarn storage

All of BB Yarn Supply with all its yarns and accessories is now here, my three looms are finally all in one room and all the Glui7 materials are here too. By the way this is the first time all three looms are together in one room. I can now jump from one loom to the other quite easily. This is now truly a weaving place only (except for the orchids...). My happy place!

Warping mill & orchids

I like to have all the looms occupied with something. I am totally aware, that one can only weave on one loom at a time, but I don't like looking at a "naked" loom. So therefore this was the first thing I worked on, making a warp for each one of them. At the moment the small computerised Mecchia has the t-towels for the shadow weave workshop on it. The large computerised Mecchia has a white warp on it for a fabric to make caps. It is the same kind of fabric like the pullover scarves, but only one layered. The Glimakra is about to have a 10m warp for turned twill t-towels wound on. Whenever a visitor is stepping into the studio, there will be something to see and nobody has to imagined how these looms are suppose to work. I am more than happy to give a quick demo and show someone what these looms can do. Over the festive season I already had two interested visitors in my studio.

Jeff's warpSmall loom

My plans for the future, probably not quite this year maybe next, would be to open the studio for weavers to enjoy workshops right here. I have three looms to work on, so I'm thinking to give private workshops for one or two weavers at the time. Not just a day, probably from two day to a week long stay, to have time to concentrate on a topic in great length. A week of weaving in a relaxed and peaceful place for you to enjoy. Weaving from morning until night, no interruptions and chores to do. Only the accommodation has not been solved yet, but this can be sorted in the nearby town of Gin Gin. What do you think? Would you be willing to come here for a weaving retreat?

Magazine corner

So what is in my weaving studio apart from the three looms? There is a great large table for designing or cutting fabrics. My newest edition is a brand new vertical warping mill from Toika, 4m circumference for easy and quick warping. Cupboards and shelves full of yarns. Reading corner with lots of magazines. A mannequin for testing a new form of clothing or take perfect photos. A tv for presentations or watching inspiring videos. The studio is airconditioned for hot days. Beautiful view out the windows.

Stilleben

Enough writing, I better go and do some weaving.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Ursula

Sticks

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