Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Gallows Court, Tuesday knitting group, Textiles and Tea

 Latest reading


New to me, this writer, whom I heard and liked on the Shedunnit podcast talking about clues. This thriller has a woman main character, the wealthy daughter of a deceased and feared judge, who has an interest in crime detection. I'll let you know how it goes.

Then the Tuesday knitting group met, the core four today, now that school's in session and people's summer free time is done.

One member took pictures of the stick weaving pages from Weaving without a Loom, and may get her husband to make weaving sticks for her. Meanwhile she took some straws to try that method, too.



Mainly knitting today though, headband, shawlette, sweater, socks.  Convo ranged over houseplants including a lemon tree, bringing plants indoors, travel, music sing-alongs, cremation, body donation, trees and plants as memorials, teaching, tests, jobs, the arts as problem solving skills, chess, marriage, weddings, and more.

Home to a pot of tea and honey toast, to accompany Textiles and Tea with Kyle McKeown Mansfield, jewelry maker and tapestry weaver. 

Her tapestries are small, a few inches each way, but the  designs are powerful enough to make them seem large. You see her here holding one.










left is silk hand dyed fabric with metal design


Here's a tapestry and a detail


She keeps notebooks of ideas some of which later become tapestries. You see earlier the finished tapestry from this idea.


The last is a screenshot of a link, so you will need to cut and paste to get to her website.

She loves color and is from a family of artists, so even though she has a degree in business, she gravitated to a life in art, and has sold her jewelry and accessories as well as exhibiting her tapestries. Up to now she's worked on a small scale, but is planning to weave bigger.

Happy day, everyone, dream big, weave big, be big!

Wednesday is the scheduled visit from the heat pump people, who will definitely make big inroads on my budget.

Resistance: this latest Banksy work, anonymous street artist in the UK, on the side of  courthouse has been ordered scrubbed. But the internet is forever, and art that upsets powerful people is powerful.  Let's make it go viral.

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35 comments:

  1. I really believe that art should make people uncomfortable. Because that means they recognise the truth of it while trying to deny all of it
    Some of those little weavings are extraordinary. I bet it’s a fiddly job being on a small scale. Or is it easier? I don’t know.

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    1. I've done much smaller work than that when I designed miniature needleworks. It's a matter of getting your eye in. I'm not sure what fiddly means.
      Yes, art is not meant to confirm what you already knew and approved.

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  2. Now there is a dilemma for the government of England. Defend the judiciary or protect a Banksy.

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  3. To add, it is quite a powerful work of art.

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  4. Kyle McKeown Mansfield proves that size does not matter. I can understand the Banksy being removed. But I sure do love it and the statement it makes.

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    1. They're in a cleft stick of their own making. We can keep the Banksy alive online. I'd like pictures of the removal in progress. Also projections of the image large scale on the front of the building.
      I think the early masters drawings show power in small size. I love the potential of small artworks, and I agree she taps into it.

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  5. Working in miniature is a wonderful skill - taxing for eyes and fingers, no doubt.

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    1. I've done one twelfth scale work of all kinds. It's not much different from the requirements of big works, except lighter to handle. It's very satisfying to do.

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  6. The green of what I suppose is the shawlette is gorgeous.

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    1. It's a bit more intense in rl, but I agree, a lovely shade of spring green.

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    1. It's definitely getting my attention at the moment.

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  8. I like Bansky But find this very disturbing, because I’m counting on our legal system to be the stop of some of the dictatorial actions of the administration!

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    1. Banksy is a British artist, protesting recent British legal moves to limit protest. They are caught in a trap of their own making.

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  9. One of the things I miss about my mum is the sound of her knitting needles. She always had something on her needles, right up until her death. She was starting to go blind and as I sat with her while she died, I pulled apart a toque she was making (so many mistakes that she couldn't see) and reknit the toque. Twelve years later, I still miss her.
    Oh dear, sorry.
    That weaving is beautiful, even more so because of the size, to me anyway.

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    1. That's a lovely memory of your mom. And you reknitted the hat, that's a great thing to do.

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  10. I love hearing the range of topics covered by your knitting group!
    The mini-tapestries are just gorgeous!
    Unpopular ruling across the pond, too, I see. What is the world coming to?

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    1. That's only a sampling of the convo, leaving out all the laughing! The tapestries are jewel like, small and beautiful. And the world hasn't changed, we just know more about it. In the nineteenth century English armed cavalry, sabers drawn, charged unarmed peaceful protesters, seeking parliamentary reform and the vote, killing many. See Peterloo Massacre for more.

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  11. Oh, Lord, bringing plants inside. I don't want to think about that yet!

    Banksy really poked the power structure in the eye with that one.

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    1. Nights are getting cool now. And I bet the ptb thought Banksy was cute, good for tourists, up to now. Ow!

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  12. That was quite the range of convo topics! The mural speaks to those of us in the US, as well.

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  13. Yes, things are tough in many countries. We seem to be in a wave of repression.

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  14. Your knitting group sound very interesting. Lovely pieces.

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  15. I like Mansfield's work, which I'm seeing for the first time. As for Banksy, I see plenty of this work and like it, too.

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  16. I like learning from your blog! I'd have thought the small weavings were more difficult, but I see you saying they aren't. I'm a quilter, and working with small pieces is definitely more difficult because of the bulk of the fabric itself. I can work just fine with pieces down to 1". When a piece of fabric is cut at 0.75", however, those 1/4" seams are right on top of each other underneath and it becomes a fiddly process. The denotation of fiddly is something like "requiring extra attention to the dexterity involved", but the connotation (in quilting anyway!) is more like, "Gosh, I sure have to touch/fiddle with this a lot to keep it in the right position, and I might need to rip stitches and re-do it a few times to get it right." Anyway, terrific art by Mansfield, and I appreciate the Banksy too!

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  17. That's a great quilter's eye view, thank you. In miniaturizing there are ways of reducing bulk, when the seams are not going to be under pressure, unlike full size quilting.

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    1. Oh yes, true! Good point about reducing bulk! I've only made one miniature quilt for display, and the other minis that I've made were for use (by my kids or as placemats). Minis not made for use can have narrower seams, and people can use finer threads for piecing too. Those are the only bulk-saving techniques that I know, but it sounds like you know others!

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  18. I always love Edwards' introductions to the British Library Crime Classics series books. It doesn't surprise me he's written one of his own. I must check it out!

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    1. This one's very good. The only one in my library, too bad.

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  19. I would think that Banksy image would be fitting throughout much of the world these days. As for the tapestries I have to admire the intricate nature of the size she works in. It appeals to my love of miniatures.

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    1. Yes, miniature makers would find these tapes tried quite large enough. They're certainly powerful.

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    2. The original Banksy image is gone. But the Internet is forever.

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    3. Text bully changed tapestries to something else.

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