I’ve done 18 drafts of the twill sampler. That’s approximately 2 metres woven out of 5. Some of the patterns were memorisable after a while, but some had long sequences that just didn’t break down into steps I could keep in my head. But today I thought of a new way to orient my memory, so I’ll try that on the next draft.

For a while the sampler was the only crafty thing I was working on. Then my focus suddenly scattered. First I needed a project I could do while chatting with friends, so I started handsewing a pear-shaped doorstop from this book, out of some printed denim scraps.

I’m not sure what I’m going to stuff it with. The other doorstops I have are filled with whole wheat or rice. But I had a heat pack I hadn’t used in a while erupt with mites a few months back, so I’m a bit reluctant to use something edible. It needs to be heavy enough to hold a door in place, but soft enough to mould to the shape. I was considering sand – sealed within a ziplock bag so it doesn’t leak out.

I made these raffia hats waaaaay back in my 20s. They were always a bit tight, but recently they seem to have grown tighter. Maybe the raffia has shrunk with time. So I’m unpicking the stitching holding the braided strip together with the intention of resewing them. It took a while to find small batches of raffia to stitch them with.

After not touching it for quite a few weeks, last night I wove some of my knitters loom project. It’s a double weave scarf that’ll eventually be braided.

And discussions on Facecrap about alternatives to throwaway plastic items finally gave me something to sew this long strip of curtain material into: produce bags. I’m using one I bought as a rough guide.

I’ve been meaning to put a twill sampler on my floor loom, but my head’s been a bit foggy lately. I think it’s allergies. One of the enormous eucalypts near us blossomed and covered everything in yellow dust, and at the same time the air in Melbourne has been hazy from backburning. Spending a couple of days outside gardening hasn’t helped.

Hopefully the air will clear soon and I’ll get my mojo back.