Loose Ends

I've been cleaning up loose ends.

I made a Chanukah hat with pom poms (as requested) for my grandbaby.

While his Mama read a page in her book, he decided to check out his new hat.

I took care of that "loose end" by making tassels. They should be harder to pull apart.

Footnote. I finally got the numbers right for a basic sock pattern that fits.

I wove this color and weave (the weaving is simple "over/under", the design appears in the cloth, because of the color order or the threads), chenille scarf with Julia. It's been sitting unfinished for a while. After a few washings, chenille fringe tends to lose its fluff and look like a rat's tail. So, I decided to go ahead and just hem it.

One of my spare time, knitting projects has been this shawl.

With the left-over yarn, I'm weaving a scarf on Julia.

I didn't realize how long ago I dressed Sophie for these blankets on her drawloom. It was back in December of 2017! Here they are, finally off, December 2018!

When I take cloth off my looms, I almost always use my serger to protect the raw edges before putting the cloth in the washing machine. This is the first time I've ever had that stitching fail to hold. 

But I was able to get them all hemmed and laid out to photograph:

At which point, my daughter's cat promptly walked across them all and sat on...

You guessed it!

I found a lot of the designs I used on Pinterest. I'd post them with links, but unfortunately many of them don't have active links for me to cite where they originated.

the cats

an optical illusion

  transportation

the bees (Craftsy.com)

stars

 and the roses.

The others are just standard designs I've seen or drawn.

zig zag

plaid ish

and shapes.

This one's already found a new home.

More loose ends:

After cutting the blankets off of Sophie and taking down the drawloom pattern heddles (that gave me about 12 inches more of usable warp), I had something like 36-42 inches (I should have measured) of yarn per end left on the loom. I didn't want to just toss it, so by using a weaver's knot, I'm hoping that I'll have extended each warp end enough to squeeze out one more baby blanket.

Let's see how far I get with it.

Since Last We Spoke

I don't think you can quite call it a spinning frenzy, but since last we spoke

I made up a two ply of superwash BFL (blue faced leicester) in blood orange.

And, I spun up this bright, superwash merino/nylon from Wooly Lizard.

It is also two ply.

I've finished spinning up this BFL fiber, again by Sweet Georgia, called Smitten. I tried to make it two ply, as well. Sadly, all the pretty colors disappeared. The not so technical term for that is "muddy".  So, I'm waiting for a pretty something from Elff and Sandy at Redfish to spin up and complement these bright colors.

At the same time, I've been struggling with this summer purchase. I'd never tried spinning flax. Part of what's different is that I have to sit with a bowl of water to keep my fingers damp. It's starting to get easier, but I've given myself permission to give up if it stops being fun. To be announced.

Usually, I'm fairly successful with the basic, technical aspects of weaving and spinning. With untold masses of handspun piling up, I've decided to challenge myself and try to do something with it and at the same time, to learn something more complex. I thought that twill would show off the pretty handspun yarn I'd made. In this picture, at the bottom of the sample, the cloth was too dense. At the top, I tried spreading it out, but it still wasn't right. So, I did some unweaving (I hate wasting yarn) and just made some plain weave (also called, tabby). 

Not bad for a first attempt. The colors are so pretty., but the cloth doesn't hang (it's called the hand) the way I'd like. Hmmm. What to do next time? Maybe my new DVD by Sara Lamb on Spinning to Weave will help. Stay tuned.

On the knitting front, I decided to make up a black something for work that I could throw on instead of a smock. It looks dowdy to me, but it's the black background I needed.

Please forgive the over-bright exposure it was the only way to show the cloth. This pattern (from Vogue Knitting, fall 2015, p.63) is actually knitted up in three rectangles! Fun!

On Sophie, I used a pastel, variegated and a natural colored cotton for the warp and an aqua for the weft of this baby blanket (pattern from Book of 8 Shaft Patterns, p.107. Stashbuster!

Mama's happy!

Ummmm. What?! Really? Really! It's Very Soft and on its way to becoming

my current project, another baby blanket on Sophie. This pattern is from Handwoven, May/June '96. I changed the treadling, so that I wouldn't have to press two or more treadles at the same time. Note to self: next time, stop at the hand (on the girl/boy), instead of going part way up the arm of the next pattern repeat.

Pre-travels

"Let's go on a road trip", he said. So, of course, I had to destash, pre-travels.

I made more curls. I hate to block this one. It looks like dragon scales.

Now, instead of yarn in boxes, I have lots of shawls in my cabinet.

And, scarves. This was a leftover from a sweater I knit, years ago. And unlike the last time I wove mohair, it worked up like a dream!

Then, there was this. Fail. The plan was napkins with 10/2 cotton. I didn't like it on or off Julia. After sitting untouched for well over a year, Julia (my red Glimakra loom) and I agreed to cut off this mess and call it a learning experience. It's Just string! Since there was plenty of un-used warp left, I re-threaded, sleyed and tied it up. We're both much happier now. 

Now, what will I do in the car? This Habu kit is linen paper yarn and silk. It will just be a simple bag.

And this beauty is another curl from left over lace weight wool from another sweater. This is my carry everywhere project. For that reason, I've been working on it for Months. I do a few stitches here, a row there. Because the pattern is so complex and gauge is pointless, I decided this would be a good time to practice doing  something new. Knitting goes from right to left, right? Well, every wrong side row, I now knit left to right! And I taught myself to knit that way both in continental (grabbing the yarn with the needle) and English (throwing the yarn over the needle)! 

 Am I ready to go,yet? Hmmm...

Weaver's Weekend

My husband said he wanted to skip his bike ride to take me down to Vista, California, in northern San Diego county. If the traffic's light, it's a two hour drive. He wanted to take me to the Antique Gas and Steam Museum. The idea of any kind of engines is not very motivating for me. I would say that trying to get me out of the house resembled fighting the inertia you push against in prying a rock from it's bed. But he had seen an ad in one of my magazines for the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta. Luckily, my hubby was willing to push. It was WONDERFUL!!! This one building held about 50 looms!  

Look at the works on top of this loom!

It fascinated me!

Punch cards.

Each of the individual heddles hanging behind the shafts had it's own weight hanging from it.

And the yellow strings went one to each of those heddles.

I wanted to have a visual record of the way this Glimakra countermarch was tied up. It's upside down from the way I learned.

Such pretty colors and work on this dobby loom. But I wanted to take note of the temple. She used bent j-hooks from knitting...

then added a pulley and a bottle of sand.

I know I don't have room for a great wheel, but...                                                      Then, on the way home, we stopped in San Pedro at Crafted. My eyes, followed by my feet, went straight to the giant countermarch loom. It's 10 feet in the reed.  

Dana, it's owner, is a textile artist. We spent a delightful hour visiting both under and in front of the loom. I look forward to seeing what she produces on it.                                   The day after all this fun, I had a visitor, Robin, who's contemplating purchasing a Glimakra loom. She wanted to have the opportunity for a little hands on before she made her decision. It was perfect timing. I have a sample on Sophia (the countermarch Standard) and napkins on Julia (counterbalance), so I didn't mind someone else weaving on them. Besides, I was so full of excitement about the previous day's and week's activities, I wanted to share!                                                                      The week before all of this, I spent watching and learning from the dvd, Dress Your Loom the Swedish Way. I hope both ladies will forgive me for babbling on about everything I learned from the dvd. Because I learned to weave on a jack loom, tie up and set-up on my countermarch has been a struggle. And I don't learn by reading. So, to finally get Sophia dressed with ease was a pleasure. And now she's weaving as comfortably and smoothly as I knew she could. I can't stop grinning!