Taking some time

 Some projects take some time.

Last year in April, the arch was barely covered. What a difference that year has made!

I'm still spinning my huge supply of home grown cotton. It's taking some time, but I'm enjoying it.

I've taken this knitting project out of time-out. Following a chart, each square in the grid has a bead threaded onto the silk. I'd gotten frustrated with some errors that were showing up and set it aside. With enough time apart, years, I made some repairs. Now, I'm back at it. Each and every stitch on the needle, when knitted, has a glass bead slipped through.   

I've been weaving some baby blankets. Weaving projects don't always go smoothly either. Do you see the error in the pattern? It's at the bottom of the last flower repeat. It was too obvious to me. At the top of the picture, you can see where I started cutting out the weft.

  By the time I'd stopped, about four inches and two hours later, it was error free and I had this pile of yarn to toss. 

I found a pattern on Pinterest (no designer named, I searched). On the original, the lower left quadrant of the picture didn't feel balanced to me.  The redesign took me three days.

Look what happens when I take my time! Here are four new baby blankets woven with my drawloom.

A flower in the flower garden.

This design was drawn by the dog's owner, who's also the baby daddy. 

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.

Clean House

This is how I clean my house. If I finish something, a project or a puzzle or a magazine, I can get rid of it. Then, there's one less thing in the "to do" pile!

Years ago, I bought 2 oz of this Friesan Lamb wool in Oregon. I spun it up in just a few hours. I'll probably use it for a dryer ball.

Just last year, I did a spinning and weaving demo for my friend's school. She gifted me with a bag of cotton that they'd grown there. I spent several days picking out all of the plant matter. Doesn't it look squeeze-ably soft?

A five years ago, I cut a warp for a rug, but my math was off. I had twice as many ends as I needed. That warp has been sitting in the "to do" pile. Now, not only have I used up that warp, but two bins of cloth have now been consolidated into one! This pattern is from Handwoven, Summer 1985.

Because I was using up, and actually running out of fabric, you can see where I added some green strips to the blue and light blue to the dark blue. Shocking, I know! By allowing it not to be perfect, I actually learned something! And I'm happy with the results!

With the last of the warp, here's the last of the fabric strips...except the red. There's always more red.

Learning

There's been a lot of learning happening.

Last month, I went to WEFF. One of the vendors taught me how to use this tool for Andean plying. It allows one to ply from both ends of a piece of yarn at the same time, without a tangled mess. 

Maybe I should learn some self control. Here is only some of the fiber I bought there.

I'm getting better at making diaper covers.

I don't know if this counts as fiber art for Spinzen, but here's my grandbaby using my inkle loom to learn to walk.

My friend works at an elementary school that has a massive garden. They grew the cotton you see here in the basket. She invited me to their school fair to demo the processing of it.

I spun this small bit from their homegrown cotton.

My nephew came for a visit and sat down to learn to spin.

 And my sister-in-law couldn't put the Inkle loom down.

I had nothing to do, so...

I had nothing to do, so...

I bought some yarn I didn't need from Anzula's trunk show. The pattern's called a shrug, and hat (from Knitter's magazine, Summer 2009). To me, it seems like a tea cozy for people!

Then, I had nothing to do so I bought some yarn for a shawl. I didn't realize that I'd made this pattern before, from Victorian Lace Today. It's beautiful, but the corners make me crazy.

My classic "nothing to do" project is always socks (cotton this time). And I learned to do a new kind of heel shaping. With this easy heel, I can start knitting at the toe and work my way up (instead of top down). That way, I can keep knitting until there's no yarn left!

The last time I posted, I had just finished spinning up the BFL on the left of this picture. I plied it with the fiber I got from Redfish for that purpose.

And here, it's finished up. Now, what to do with it?

A sweater's always better than a swatch (a small sample) for selling yarn. My LYS needed a sweater to show off some Debbie Bliss, Falkland Aran (that's this yarn), so they gave it to me! And since I still had nothing to do, I gave them my time (one month) and labor and made this sweater. It'll be mine at the end of the season. But now that it's finished, I have nothing to do.! 

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.