COLORS!

Before I start writing a new post, I like to look at the pictures and try and find a common thread. This time around, what I see is COLORS!

I really liked an advertisement for a very similar bracelet to this, in the colors of the rainbow! But after several recent, frustrating, online buying experiences with other companies, I decided not to chance it and made my own instead.

This year, I heard quite a bit about the "color of the year". This is not it. I chose two colors from my stash that were as close as I could find to the colors on the Pantone webpage, and I dressed Julia in a rayon-chenille, scarf warp. This checked design was what I'd planned on, but the color and weave design is almost lost. 

So, I unwove it and went for a simple, vertical stripe. It's achieved by changing weft picks (pink, beat, green, beat, repeat...).

I haven't been playing with my Suzie, spinning wheel lately. I finished this BFL(blue faced leicester) and silk blend, but can't decide if I want to leave it as is or ply it. So, she and the yarn sit...

...while I go back to knitting socks, again. We say that "socks are knit in the round". What that really means is that they're knit in a spiral. Once around and you find yourself just above your starting point. (Picture a spiral staircase.) That means that striped socks have a "jog" in them. In this picture, it only shows on the right toe and left ankle.  

But I made these socks to practice "jogless stripes"...

 

...and so I could make silly jokes about "pussyfooting around".

Sometimes (read "often"), I can't figure out what to do with my handspun. This project feels like an "undo"-ing. I had some bits of fiber that were too rough for much other than rugs and not enough for that even. I spun it up, made the yarn into balls, put the balls into an old pair of tights and ran them through the washer and dryer to felt the fiber so that they'd keep their shape.  

Now, I can use them to bounce around in the dryer instead of using fabric softener sheets!

I showed this blanket as finished in my last post, but I don't think it was complete until it was gifted with love to this little doll!

My LYS asked me to knit up the Brahmin Moth Scarf kit by Annie Modesitt before our yarn crawl.

I wasn't a fan of the colors until I saw them in the flowers and poppies in my backyard!

Look who my friend found hiding in the lilacs back there!

The front yard's got color, too. Check out the artichokes and wisteria!

And the Roses!!!

A Little of This and That

I've been busy with a little of this and that. I knitted hats and scarves to help during Boston's chill winter.

And I'm decluttering and reorganizing the house. What do you do with your old and well used and loved quilts?

I made these 15 or 20 years ago for my daughter. They're both eroding (the quilts, not my daughter). For now, I took these pictures. Maybe I'll  donate them (again, the quilts, not the pictures). I think. Maybe. Or not.

After finishing the tallis, I finally gave myself permission to open the boxes we brought home from Glimakra back in July. Here you can see the extension added to the back side of the loom. Luckily, it didn't need to stay this big. I think of it as 'Sophie's bustle'. You can see the drawloom on the chair in the foreground.

Everything had to come down. The countermarch (all the pulleys and string that make things go when I step on a treadle) needed to be taken off the top of the loom. The jacks (vertical slats) had to be flipped 180 degrees and all the strings needed to be moved to the alternate side of the jacks.

Once everything was back in place, I dressed Sophie for our next project. I put enough warp on her to make another sample before the real weaving begins. (And, yes, I'm being cryptic. I'll tell you later. It's a secret.) See the warping stick I "wove" into the cloth? Watch what happens after I cut the sample off:

 

Just by lacing the stick back onto the loom, Sophie's dressed and ready to go! Yay! It certainly beats having to re-tie all 1100+ ends back on by hand!

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...

Rebound

I'm feeling Great! after being sick for about six months and not getting much done. Talk about rebound! I think I've been on a knitting production frenzy.

I bought some Cricket (80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon) at an Anzula  trunk show to make this New Caesar shawl.

I liked the pattern so much that I wanted to make another where the pattern really popped! I made this one using Cricket, too.

And I've been eying my huge stash of handspun. What do you do with 4 oz of all these different yarns? Then I saw the pattern book, Curls. 

I bought this camel/silk as fiber from Anzula, as well. Are you starting to see a pattern?

And I made this up in a few days.

Time for a slight change. This silk will be next on my Suzie, with the stylus, I think.

On Sophie, I've been busily weaving a shawl. The only problem is that the 8/2 tencel is gray and black, which makes it hard for me to see the pattern while I'm weaving it. When I first saw the skips, I thought I could fix them after the cloth was off the loom. Then I realized how many there were. That's no Persian flaw. 

I didn't weave for two weeks while I pouted decided what I wanted to do. Today, I finally decided that the point is to make something I enjoy and of which I am proud. Wasting yarn should not be an issue (just look at my stash). So, my sweetie went out and bought me an Ott Lamp! Maybe I'll tell you later how many inches I had to chose to unweave.

Blue and white sages and bottle brush blooming in my back garden.

Stop and Go

It's been kind of stop and go around here. I've finished some things and struggled on others. I finished spinning and plying the fiber I bought at Imperial Yarn in Oregon.

It's three ply, done Navajo ply method.

And I've started spinning up this luscious 50/50 yak/silk blend from RedFish.

Another completed project is this lace scarf/shawl I've been knitting from my standby, Victorian Lace Today. It was supposed to be a stash buster. Sigh. There's probably enough yarn left to make a second one. Maybe I'll donate it.

 

 

 

And also, compliments of RedFish, I bought three sock yarns. They're 75% super wash merino wool and 25% silk. I've started on the green skein.

Interesting. I just noticed that the one in back is very similar in color to the fiber shown above. (And fyi, in the photo, the colors do not show as rich as they truly are.)

 Now, as to my weaving, it's been a struggle. As I've said before, I learn best by seeing and then doing. Book learning and no feedback is hard for me. So, I got stumped for a while on the 12 treadle/12 shaft tie up. I got it all done, but too many of the sheds were iffy. Thanks to some generous feedback from Karen at Warped for Good, I took all the ties off and started, again. I marked them as described by Becky at Vavstuga.

I did all 120 of them. And then, put them back on.

Most of the sheds were better, but the shafts still dropped. The shafts and lamms should be parallel to the ground. Because I kept stopping out of frustration, it took a while to get to the point where I could just weave. The sheds are not all good, but they're usable. I just have to push the shafts down, before stepping on some of the treadles. 

Luckily, this is yardage, so the selvedges (which are effected most) don't matter. This is another pattern I got from handweaving.net.

 

Keeping busy

Of course, I've been keeping busy before, during and after our trip.

I climbed inside Sophia (and doesn't that sound strange) to dress her for some baby blankets.

Knitting daily on t.v. and away I go!

For eight blankets, this is over 900 ends (threads) at 13 yards each.

I knitted up an infinity scarf for my niece. This is just a simple garter stitch with a reversible ribbed cable. And it's a de-stash project! This is every bit of what I had left after I made my Fuse Cardigan.

And what fun this sweater was to knit up! It's knit top down with not a single seam! The design is engineered by Vera Sanon.

It's called the Sara Lace Cardi.

"Must I have my picture taken?"

Dobby and Winky now have Weasley sweaters of their own! This is a free pattern from Ravelry.

And the baby blankets are coming along. They're a pattern from page 149 of A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns. Summer and winter is one of my favorite weaves. Look how the one side is a "negative" of the other!