Shannon incorporates everything from bamboo and soy to the more obscure banana and pineapple fiber to hemp and seacell… and of course, everything is designed into a gorgeous knit piece. Shannon promises that photos will be up on Ravelry soon!

All the seams are done and I’ve tried it on… I love it already. I’m terrible at finishing projects since I kind of rush through the seaming process. It all ends up a bit messy, but this time I took my time, pin-basted the pieces together and seamed with a strong backstitch or fake grafting. Now I just have to finish picking up the front bands and making buttonholes. Then, I’ll have a thick wool cabled hoodie ready to wear, just in time for the hottest days of July.

Now, I have to decide on buttons or zipper for the closure… I’m leaning towards buttons.

I had brought the Central Park Hoodie to work on, but after finishing the sleeves, I was at a bit of a loss… my hands craved plain o’ mindless knitting. Knitting for the bus, knitting for the tube, knitting for the afternoon coffee at the cafe, knitting for the plane. So, here’s a whole lotta stockinette to knit up in fettucine-like bamboo yarn.

On the way, I get distracted by shiny, pretty things and some of the most vibrantly coloured, interesting and luxurious woven items I have found in London are designed by Wallace+Sewell, a pair of weavers who graduated from the Royal College of Art almost twenty years ago.

Located at the corner of Amwell and Lloyd Baker Streets just south of the Angel tube stop, the shop is seriously tiny, but stacked from floor to ceiling with silk, cashmere and wool blankets and scarves. Last time I visited, they had a “pillow” event, so the centre of the shop was piled high with pillows made from their woven designs in all different colours and textures. This time, I think the silk organza scarves were new… and these plasticized fabrics too. This was some of the most intriguing work I saw… very contemporary and very topical. Selvedges from handwoven fabric was compressed with vinyl plastic in order to create a new “fabric” which was then made into handbags.

I love love loved these. Scraps of woven silk fabric laid in quite a thick chunk of plastic making some really interesting bracelets, earrings and brooches. Just some very inventive ways of using up the little bits of extra fabric.

And of course, perfectly sheer and delicately coloured woven silk organza scarves. Not entirely innovative, but still beautiful to see and touch.

Where else in the world is really, truely new textile design and innovation happening? And I don’t mean textile art. I mean functional textile design for use in fashion or interiors. Emphasis on functional. Where do we stop just making pretty things and start making things that improve people’s lives in tangible ways? For a while now, I have been following the work and research being done at Central St. Martin’s in their MA Design for Textile Futures, mainly because I was interested in possibly studying there (but can you say “hello, life long student loan debt”?), but also because there is no program like it anywhere. Where else do students create interactive wallpaper, light-reactive window shades, and “architectural textiles for localised urban food production and environmental monitoring”. I don’t even know what that means. But when you pair creative and innovative textile designers with Nobel prize-winning scientists… well, we can just be optimistic that our future lives will be benefitted by their new discoveries.

I took pictures of the loom and warping mill. Just so you know, I will be asking $500 for the loom (including the bench, extra heddles, and a weaving book) and $200 for the warping mill (the mill would be about $400 new).

http://flickr.com/photos/-sarah-m/sets/72157605206896969/

My absolute, hands down, favourite breakfast place of all was The Breakfast Club in Angel. It was ridiculously good. I don’t know how many eggs were in that pile of scrambled eggs, but I ate every single last bit. It was so ridiculously good, I went back the next day and ordered the exact same thing.

Then there were the eggs and soldiers at a bakery near Kings Cross… I think it was called Le Pain. There looks to be an over abundance of bread in that photo.

The most hilarious plating was at some random cafe on Cross Street (I don’t remember the name). I forgot to ask for the eggs scrambled, as you can see.

Cheesy eggs on toast at a tiny outdoor cafe in Blackheath near Greenwich.

I realize breakfast menus in the UK quite commonly have things like baked beans, black or white pudding, chips, and so on… but I keep things quite simple. Two eggs, scrambled + two slices of toast = perfection.

I have finally decided to sell my yarn. What’s the best way to pass the message on? Do you know anyone who might be interested? It would be great to sell it as a lot, but if I have to, I could sell it in smaller amounts. I have estimated it to be worth approx $375 new, so hope to get around $200 for the lot.

Any feedback or leads you might have for me would be much appreciated.

There’s a nice selection of Louisa Harding, Debbie Bliss, Alchemy, Blue Sky Alpacas and Be Sweet yarns here. But my lovely score was a copy of Kim Hargreaves’ book, “Heartfelt: The Dark House Collection“. She’s published all her solo designs … for sale … without kits! It’s like I’ve been living in a hole or something. Anyhow, I like it.

Just across the street from Loop is Tribe… a gallery full of handwoven rugs from all over the world. They were closed today, so I could only paw at the window.

On this trip round, I’m mostly living off of a box of cereal, one gigantic cold pizza from La Forchetta, and a whole lot of fruit… but yesterday, I met up with a girlfriend who took me for afternoon tea near London Bridge. The shop was SO precious… painted a pale frosty pink with tea cups suspended from the ceiling with thumbtacks! Ingenious space saving idea. I sat directly underneath the tea cup constellation and enjoyed my earl grey and lemon cake. Thank you, Charlotte.

I warp from back to front, in this case, because I find there is less wear-and-tear on the somewhat delicate and fussy nature of the mixed warp.

I find myself tying loops at every stage so that I don’t accidentally lose my work. So, after threading the heddles, I tie a group of warp threads together. I undo the slip knots as I need to when I sley the reed… and then again, tie a group of warp threads after sleying the reed. It keeps things organized and… safe.

This is the 20/2 smooth silk I’m using for weft, all wound up on bobbins that fit in an end-feed shuttle. I’m hoping I’ll have enough to finish the whole scarf… fingers crossed.

There’s a header of about five shots of big, fat mop cotton woven at the beginning of the piece… and then a bit of proper weaving. I pause at the beginning so that I can hemstitch a bit…

Now we have fabric… and yes, it is yummy.

If you live in Vancouver and are free on Monday evening, you might want to check out the Memorial lecture hosted by the Greater Vancouver Weavers & Spinners Guild. The speaker is tapestry artist, James Koehler, who will discuss how colour, structure and form focus his approach to design and how the landscape and cultures of New Mexico have influenced his work. The lecture will be held on Monday, May 5 at 7:30 PM in the Floral Hall at Van Dusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street (at 37th Ave.) in Vancouver. Admission is free to anyone who is interested! Unfortunately, I’ll be at work late on Monday and will miss the lecture… but if you DO go, let me know what you thought!