Please excuse the colours..not taken in daylight..but I have tried to tweak the images to nearer the blue yellow and green that they are.
A carthen is a traditional Welsh 8 heddle double sided blanket made from wool.
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21 comments:
Oh, that is lovely.
...I love the design.
But what's a "heddle"?
Beautiful. I love these traditional designs.
Cat the warp threads are wound on a beam at the back then come forward through the heddles ...these lift up to create the shed, which the shuttle takes the weft thread through.
Very basic cloth has two heddles that in turn lift alternate threads, to give you that under and over weave...
With eight it means that you can have patterns on both sides and certain threads holding it together..making a double sided, almost double thickness cloth.
I'm sure that Joanne can describe it better being a weaver..I just learned from my grandmother...along with sewing and knitting and gardening..but ended up with clay from my teens onwards!!
So very talented and what a pattern.
Thanks for your explanation, Gwynneth. It is exactly correct. My four harness loom makes lovely patterns, but does not have the capability of two sided work. When you mentioned the carthen yesterday, I looked it up on the internet. The word is Welsh for the two sided coverlet weaving technique. It has been practiced by skilled weavers to keep their families warm for more than two hundred years.
That is a beauty, love the colour.
By the way, I am glad you ended up with clay. I still use and enjoy the bowls you made. Practical, intricate and very beautiful.
They are lovely. I am surprised that I had never heard of them.
That's just so beautiful, and I'm sure, being wool, very warm!
Your blanket is quite beautiful. Did your grandmother weave it?
It looks like it would be so warm It’s such a beautiful design
Susan , no, it came from a mill in Wales.
I am not sure which one..it was a present to me personally from my then husband's aunt...I think she knew his character better than I did then...but couldn't say.
My daughter loves her Welsh blanket. Funny thing. I have a plaid shirt in exactly the same colors!
What a treasure!
Wow, that's beautiful!
Welsh blankets are special. I have a Welsh blanket simply woven from several different colours of undyed Welsh wool which I bought from the weaver during a holiday in Wales about 30 years ago. I am wondering if you have seen on your travels John Craxton’s monumental tapestry which he designed for the University of Stirling in the mid-70s. It was woven by Dovecot Weavers of Edinburgh and I believe took eight weavers six years (or the other way round) to weave. It is currently on display in Chichester Cathedral as a complement to the “John Craxton - A Modern Odyssey” exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chi. Pictures are on the Chichester Cathedral website for anyone interested. The colours are glorious. Btw Pallant House, which is renowned for its 20th century British art has a good collection of ceramics and pots which are rotated in a display cabinet in a three sided glass atrium overlooking the gallery garden and the unspoilt 18th century Pallant streets. Sarah in Sussex
I hope the link to Trefriw Woollen Mill works so you can see the loom in action.
https://www.t-w-m.co.uk/
I like the smaller pattern and have some of their vintage tapestry waistcoats which are lovely and warm.
It's beautiful, what could be more special than something hand made with love, it must have taken ages!
That's a lovely pattern and restful colour too. Something to treasure. Tam has a gorgeous one that she treated herself to after a good sale on Ebay. Hers is in blues and purples.
Hello, Sarah from Sussex and Nellie Grace 🙂
Elderberry Robb it was made in a small factory, not sure which one, but could be Trefriw or Bryncir...we have visited those and others when we lived in Wales
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