The Eastside Gallery coordinator sent me forms to register for the upcoming group exhibitions. I decided to approach these in the order in which they open. The first runs from 30 Jan -25 Feb 2023; the theme is “It’s not about you”.
I wrote “When I hear the statement “It’s not about you”, I immediately think “No it’s not about me – it’s about the next generation, it’s about the world around us, about the air that we breathe and the other life forms that we share our planet with”.  In this context, “It” to me is “Life”.
The piece that I will create for this exhibition ties in with this on every level:
1) Function – it’s a baby blanket and so represents the next generation
2) Colours – It’s sky blue and a deeper blue – these represent the air and the water that all life on the surface of the planet needs
3) Weave structure – Huck lace – the use of this structure was inspired by my recent observations of spiders spinning their webs.  This represents some of the other animal life forms that we share the planet with.
4) Fibre – Cotton – this also represents some of the other life forms (this time plant ones) that we share the planet with”

I decided to try weaving huck lace using all 8 shafts as opposed to the 4-shaft variety I have done in the past. To help me work out how to do this, I looked at the Jane Stafford episode on Huck Lace (S05E03) and looked on handwaving.net for an example draft (#74197). I based my pattern on the information from these and created a diamond pattern.

I will have a large plainweave border on all 4 sides. The vertical sides will be scuba blue, the horizontal sides dazzling blue – here are the borders shown on a single pattern repeat.

The warp will be 5/2 mercerised & unmercerised cotton – main colour = dazzling blue with forest green
zingers and scuba blue borders.
The weft will be 5/2 mercerised & unmercerised cotton – main colour = scuba blue with honeysuckle
zingers and dazzling blue borders.
3.5m warp – 2 blankets of ~90cm length on loom + samples
501 ends (no floating selvedges as I have large plainweave borders) – 440 ends for the pattern
(5 repeats of 1 green & 87 dazzling blue) + 61 ends in borders (30 scuba blue plainweave and
1 green on one side – the other side has a green in the pattern repeat)
12.5epi, ~12.5ppi
Width on loom 101.5cm (40 inches)
Spread 2.6/slot in the raddle
10dpi reed
Reed sleying 1,1,1,2/dent.