Do and Re-do

How many socks do you see? There are three.

 

The thing is, I always find some reason to rip out the first sock in a pair. Three socks here, too.

By the time I was done trying different patterns, I didn't have enough left of the braid to use for its original purpose. Back to the drawing board...the braiding loom.

I noticed something like black ash all over myself every time I wore this hat. After 14 years, the hat was still fine, but the band was eroding. Now, I have a one of a kind hatband that I made!

I showed this fiber in my last post.

As I started spinning it, I realized that if I wasn't careful, the bits of color got buried in the core of the yarn. Once I got the hang of it, it was an interesting and quick spin. 

There's no before picture, but how pretty is the after? It's a silk/yak blend I picked up at Weff this year.

I've never spun with this kind of preparation (how it was handled between cocoon and my getting it).

Now that it's spun, my standard question applies, what will it be? I guess it'll go into the drawer for now.

I had planned on turning the hems under for these rugs, but I didn't like the way they looked. So, I picked out all the machine sewing before I could tie knots with all the warp ends.

Finished rug of three.

Leftover yarn from another project became this knit, child's sweater. There was no specific pattern, so I started with a diagram of standard measurements. My design process is to knit up and rip out until I like what I see. It's lucky I enjoy knitting. The back took three tries, the collar about six.

Currently on my Suzie wheel. Usually, I spin just like you would braid, from one end of the fiber to the next. This time, I've been practicing spinning "from the fold". Just like it sounds, bend a piece in half and start twisting from the fold. It's supposed to make a shiny fiber shinier. And even though it's a fine yarn, instead of being dense, like thread, it should be a little squishier.

In process

While I was collecting all of these pictures, I was thinking how much I'd gotten done, until I realized it's been three months since my last post and only two of the photos show a completed project.

My son's hoodie is almost done. It just needs to be sewn together, the hood knitted and the zipper attached. But, it's 95 out. No hurry.

My sweater is also in the slow lane. This is the second sleeve. Then, there's the neck edge to knit and the buttons to sew on.

I'm guessing I knitted this sweater for my nephew about 18 years ago. He handed it down to another nephew. It'll move on to my grandchild now that I've changed the letter.

I've been wanting to weave some lightweight baby blankets. The design I chose is another Pinterest find, printed onto graph paper and transferred by hand to a different size/scale graph paper.

Each square on the grid has to be either a dot, or not. Filling the squares in now, with the entire pattern in front of me, let's me see how best to make what will be straight lines look curved.

The last step before weaving is to highlight and outline alternate columns. This makes it easier to know where I am on the pattern and on the loom.

Tada!

And here's my happy ending with me and my daughter in these simple and fun to crochet hats.

Months

Considering that, like most everyone else, I've been staying home, I'd think I would have gotten more done in the four months since I last posted.

  Many months ago, many moons ago <he he!>, a friend sent me a "how cute is this" with a link to this pattern.

This turtle doesn't have to stay home. His shell can be put on and off, like a sweater.

And for my home, I finished the towels I'd started months ago on Julia.

Years ago (that's a change), I made most of a sweater with this Cool Wool yarn. Then, I decided that I didn't like the look, and put it away in the naughty corner.

The new pattern is called, Cable Yoke Cardigan. I found the making of it fascinating! Most sweaters I knit are made in separate pieces and then, sewn together. This one started with a long strip of cable knitting, for the yoke. Then, I picked up some stitches along the edge for the right front. When that was done, I picked up stitches to make the right sleeve. And so, it went.

Unfortunately, I left it too long in the wash, and it felted some. Fortunately, I was able to re-home it with my niece!

Again, months ago, I was so pleased to have set up my Sophie to make some more baby blankets. Then, I got stuck. I just didn't want to weave. I never got beyond this point. I ended up deciding that I didn't like the look and unwove it all.

Then, Sophie sat for a couple more months until I pushed myself to find a pattern I liked. I also changed to a different weft. Now, I'm making progress.

I finally finished spinning up this silk/baby camel from RedFish. I don't know what I'm going to do with the finished yarn, so I've left it as singles.

I didn't realize how similar the colors of these fibers are. This cotton is my next project. Because I'm spinning it so fine, it'll take a while to finish...probably, you guessed it...months.

Puttering

It feels like I've just been puttering, doing small projects.

For starters, some years ago, I wove this yardage for curtains. I don't remember why I took them down, but our old front door curtains needed to be replaced and they did the trick!

I finished the last baby blanket on Sophie.

And I've been playing with more of the crocheted creatures from Edward's Animals. Here's a Lakeland Terrier,

 

a Cocker Spaniel,

and a gray cat.

 

My grandbaby needed a hat for Groundhog Day.

And he definitely needed a Dude sweater!

This may not look like puttering to you, but for whatever reason, this time around, each step to dress Julia has felt like a separate project. This Tencel basketweave will be yardage.

 

This is the first time I've ever knitted up a swatch and actually washed it. My usual is to knit it up, measure to make sure I'm getting the right number of stitches per inch and rip it back out.

I just finished spinning this fiber with Gingie and plying it with Suzie.

And next up is this cotton.

This "wool" was spun up, but not plied, because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. Typical. Anyway, when I realized I needed a hat, I went ahead and took the singles and Navajo plied it (finger crocheting the spun fiber while spinning it some more). 

Knitting it up took no time, so, here we are!

 

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.