Wednesday, December 14, 2011

December - Day 14


The sun rose at 1059am and set at 1325pm. The length of the day was 2 hours and 25 minutes. Mild temperature, new snow.

I have rarely written about weaving and that is because I have done so very little with my loom. It is lovely Toika Liisa and I have had it already many years.

I am not a skilled weaver, but I know the basics of making a warp and warping a loom. This technical side of building a fabric is really fascinating. I would love to try my hands at fabrics for clothing but I am not quite there yet. Hopefully in time...


Weaving can be so many things and there really are many possibilities and routes to take. One of my daughters loves all things old, she is into recycling and into good quality and handcrafts and she has been wanting to learn to weave. She is learning but at this point I get to do the warping, which I enjoy. 



 She is making small ryijy-rugs - here is the beginning. White linen and white wool, like snow, very appropriate for the season. I enjoy listening to the soft beating of the big loom.


All you weavers out there probably know this Swedish weaving magazine "Vävmagasinet", I love it and subscribe to it, mine are in Swedish, but it is published in English as well. It is beautiful.

In recent years three books of Finnish ryijy's have been published:




I could go on about ryijy's a lot more, their feel and use of wool appeals to me very much. There are many sites where you can look at ryijy's but here is quite a good collection in these pages, there are various types.
You can click on the links on the right and then click the individual pieces to see them bigger. (This is a site that sells patterns and yarns.)

There are more here and here.

I hope these links work.

Wool till tomorrow,
Lene



12 comments:

  1. Hi, Lene. I enjoy your posts a great deal; your creativity and the glimpses into an Arctic lifestyle inspire me.

    Did you know that many times in your posts two words are run together? For example from this post: She is makingsmall ryijy-rugs - here is the beginning. White linen and white wool, likesnow, very appropriate for the season. I enjoy listening to the soft beating ofthe big loom. Details are clearly important to you in your needlework and art, so these small errors are like tiny pebbles in a shoe.

    Hope your holidays are warm and happy.

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  2. Madeline01:57

    Does it really matter that there are blips in the typing? I'm so grateful Lene writes in English since I definitely don't know Finnish, and I would hate to miss reading Dances With Wool. (BTW, proofreading is part of my job, and that's where it stays.)

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  3. I would love to learn to weave but knitting and spinning keep getting in the way......................ah well,
    maybeinanotherlife !

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  4. Suzy02:36

    Gosh, that is a beautiful loom and rug. I just started weaving over a year ago and it is fascinating. The first comment is not written in fluent Finnish so she has little to contribute. I applaud your learning English and wish we all had to learn a second language. The words for "bad manners" exists in all languages!

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  5. I wish I could also hear the soft beating of the loom, but I very much enjoy your writing and photos. I just discovered your blog yesterday and have spent some lovely time reading your past posts. I'm truly looking forward to your future writing and pictures; thank you very much!

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  6. Suzy03:31

    Thank you for the links to the beautiful rugs. I find them inspiring, I love the simplicity of the styles and the use of color.

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  7. Carmen03:41

    I love
    ove love your recent postings, these count downs to Christmas. I went on the map to see where the airport is, I will make the little Christmas people. My first language is french and I love the rythm of your English. I was so very taken aback by the post finding errors. Heavens, even in one's mother tongue there are glitches.
    I rush home to read your blog and see how long the days are. Thank you so much for taking the time to post!!!

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  8. Anonymous12:56

    Thank you for all the rya references. This is something I want to try one day, but with weaving there is so much to discover! I too love Vav magazine and look forward to every delivery.
    Your blog is a joy to so many, so I hope the first commenter doesn't get to you. Don't change a thing! We appreciate it just how it is.

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  9. Brigid17:26

    The words only run together when you read via Bloglines (or perhaps another similar service). On your website itself the spacing is perfect! I enjoy your blog a lot. Thank you.

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  10. My great grandparents were both Finnish and my grandfather was the first of their children to be born in Canada. He died when my mother was 4 so I never met him. I have this gap in my history that your blog helps to fill. He was an interesting man who could knit and bake bread. I also have a loom, a small Canadian built one. Your daughter's rug is an inspiration!

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  11. I believe the first commenter meant only to be helpful, and thought Lene would want to know. Sometimes the words run together for me, too, especially if I am reading the blog on my phone, so I've just assumed it's some kind of computer error.

    How I love this blog!

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  12. Who knew I could stir things up so horribly by trying to be helpful! Lene (and visitors), I didn't mean to complain about your English; I think you're very proficient and applaud you for making your blog accessible to so many of us. My concern was a technical one; it looked to me as if your text editor or some other process was dropping spaces for some odd reason. Now that I look in Blogger, those spaces are in their proper places. I usually read your posts in Google Reader, and now I know that if I trip over the "missing spaces" to go to the blog itself. Thank you, ladies, for revealing that the spaces disappear in other readers, too. And Lene, please do not let this fuss I accidentally caused bother you any more. Sorry, everyone!

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