Another all-in-one-piece jacket is now in the formative stage. Since finishing the jacket last year and enjoying wearing it, I have had the fun of making lots of other woven projects, mostly small purses. I have also been learning how to spin both on a wheel and with a drop spindle. A friend got two fleeces for me and suddenly I fell in love with the colour and feel of some lovely tawny grey wool from a ryeland sheep. Wouldn't that make a lovely jacket ... I have spun and woven some samples. Now the clean carded wool is waiting in its bags while I spin the other fleece for a friend to knit herself a project. This achieves three aims: I will get hours of experience spinning a quantity of yarn to order; I will no longer have the other fleece taking up space in my house; and I'll have time to make my plans and do the experimentation needed for the new jacket.
I'm determined that making this new jacket will be a very different process from last time. I want to try a new approach in which I weave some parts temporarily and finish them at a later stage in the project. Hopefully this will make it possible to keep the body of the jacket on the weaving form for the whole time instead of progressing from one form to another. I've discovered some re-usable plastic clips called Makedo and am experimenting with them for building the weaving form. Have a look at the possibilities here!
