Weaving Wednesday

LOLOLOLOLOL

What a silly notion. :o)

My weaving has been ignored even though I have had a warped loom sitting around just waiting for a row or two to be worked in stolen moments. In my last post about weaving you can see the loom warped and ready for stolen moments in the background of the pic. Only 8 rows more have been done....sigh.

On Wednesday this pass week I did have a few stolen moments from the dance with Mr. migraine but not the strength needed for rug square weaving, and I wanted something else to do other than Big Red. For a while now I've been trying to figure out what the colorplay would be in two color squares with the color changes at different intervals in the process. I used a 2 inch weave-it and floss for my experiment, after six two inch squares I had sufficiently used up the stolen moments and was back to Big Red and dancing, but I digress. Here are the six tiny squares.

To those of you who are real weavers please forgive my lame explanations and misuse of terms here, and bear in mind I'm only trying to describe the process I used on a tiny weave-it.

Lets boil down the weave-it how-to in it's simplest, when using a weave-it there are 3 warp threads and one weft. These are a few of the results when changing the color of the warps and weft:
Square 1: obviously all the warps and the weft were purple.
Square 2: all 3 warps were purple and the weft was yellow.
Square 3: warps 1 and 2 were purple, warp 3 was yellow and the weft was yellow
Square 4: warp 1 was purple, warps 2 and 3 were yellow and the weft was yellow
Square 5: all warps and the weft were yellow
Square 6: warps 1 and 3 were purple, warp 2 and the weft were yellow

Here's a closer shot for comparison.....um.....minus the 6th square....no clue where it went...oops!
But it was, as you can see in the other pic, what you'd typically expect colorplay-wise from a simple tabby weave with the warp in one color and the weft in another.


Rug Square update:
If I ever get the square that has been sitting in the loom done I guesstimate I have enough fiber for two more green squares and then onward to the reds and pinks!

ADD much?

Oy! The pilot that navigates my flights of fancy has been putting in overtime.

Have I finished any of the vowed completion knitting since the last post? NO.

Have I made any of my dresses? NO.

Have I patched any more of Bart's pants? NO.

Have I worked one tiny bit on my planned freeform foundation piece? NO.

Have I begun a new sweater? Why yes, yes, I have.

I really need someone to be my personal task master cuz just a tiny glimpse into my workroom will confirm beyond any doubt I can NOT manage my own urges.

I started this sweater the night before last. It is my second Petal Sweater, a pattern from the early 60's.


I made this sweater a while back in wool, this one is in reclaimed cotton. If you recall, or followed the link, you'll know I had some size issues with the first rendition of this sweater. It's one of those sweaters that has multiple sizes to it (in two different booklets) but the sizing is merely changes in gauge and the pattern is a tad skimpy with finished measurements (they don't exist). The first time I made the adult size touted to fit sizes 10-18. (the first clue I ignored) This time I'm making it in a gauge that is ever so slightly larger than the child's size 8/10! I love the big sloppiness of the wool one I made, it is the perfect wintertime, slob around the house sweater, but I think I'm going love this fitted summertime cotton version just as much.

Oh, btw I made the exact same error on this one as I did on the first. I put the first buttonhole in the wrong place....sigh I assumed the first time around I misread the pattern, this time, either I misread the pattern in exactly the same manner or, the pattern/designer really does think the top buttonhole should be that close to the edge! I don't agree, I've made HUGE notes-to-self on the pattern now.

I've been holding on to this cotton since last summer with plans for something else I've been working on for quite some time. I completely forgot about those plans when I grabbed the yarn and cast on the night before last. In fact, I just remembered about that previously planned project as I began writing this post. Oh well, there's plenty of other stuff where this came from!

This week was Joe's "long weekend" which translates from his work-speak as the entire week off, so we've been hanging out together. :o) In addition to Joe-time, the weather has been great, lots of time spent outside, lots of grilling, and a few trips into town, makes a week of few fibery pursuits. Although I did manage to get a couple more rug squares done.

I also followed through on my thoughts of the other day regarding keeping the loom warped on the chance of a stolen moment row woven from time to time. It's been working out fairly well.

Today I'll work on the body of the new Petal, and think about what other summer tops to make with the remainder of this cotton. Oh brother, I really do need personal task master to keep me focused.

Another week has flown

This week has been hit and miss as far as getting things done.

I did get two more squares for the patio rug made, one yesterday the second finished this morning. None last week, and I obviously missed my Weaving Wednesday thing but....oh well. I'm really going to have to step it up though. I've only got 15 squares done, I'm shooting for 35. YIKES! Right now I have enough for a rug approximately 5 x 8 depending how I choose to put them together. I'm waffling on that...go figure. I'm going to make a concerted effort to have the loom always warped, doing a row or two during stolen moments I think will help.


As for the vow regarding completion of UFO's before I can begin sewing.......I haven't broken it yet, but I think I prob'ly will.....sigh. Last week I did get the grey sloper sweater and the Zetor done. Here's Zetor unblocked.

No pic of the sweater cuz I haven't quiet decided if I'm going to put clasps on it or a zipper, but hey the knitting is done so that's close enough vow-wise considering it is winter wooly type sweater and Spring is finally here. I'll decide what closure I want when I want to wear it so into the box for next winter it will go. Maybe a shot of Vivian wearing it as is when I go upstairs, but if I go up stairs I'm sooooo close to my sewing machine.....sigh.

The Scribble Lace cardigan hit a snag. I thought I was done. I put it on and I didn't like the way the solid plain knitting at the body/sleeve transition on this raglan cardi behaved. I slashed and ripped and now have to graft the sleeves back on. I'm not looking forward to that. Ugh. That's the kind of thing that just might dump it into the frog pond.

I haven't touched the spiral bag. The Taos bi-directional has only seaming to go. I'm really doubtful about the fit, but we'll see.

The search for the perfect sun hat has ceased, at least for little while. I found this at the Mouse on Wednesday.
Liz Claibourne, has an elastic band inside the crown so I fits me perfectly, stays on in a breeze, looks like it was never worn and it was 50 cents. Um yeah, I could go for that. I generally find the thought of buying a hat a thrift store repugnant but I'm ok with this one.

Bart's b-day was Sunday and he brought a present for me. Have I told you lately how wonderful my son is???? Yup, he brought me 6 pairs of pants repair/patch! LOL I had planned on going into town on Wednesday so I went through the pile on Tuesday and stacked them in order of fewest repairs/patches needed. I wanted to get as many done before Wednesday as I could so I could give them back. It sounded like a good plan, too bad it didn't work out that way. I patched the first pair that I had deemed the quickest fix. Ooops, as I folded them up I notice a spot at the pocket that could use some reinforcement. I fixed it. Looked for more thin spots and ended up fixing 8 different ouchies (thin spots, rips, and holes) on that one pair of pants!!! I'm kind of afraid to look too closely at the other pairs in the stack!
And can I tell you how much this little bit of hand sewing has done to my screaming desire to make a few dresses!!!!! It almost hurts I want to start them so much.

I'm also pinning to begin the new sewing project born of my lunch date with my Aunt on Wednesday. I've had my eye on a couple thing recently. The 8x8 blog March projects (make sure you look at both Blair's and Daria's squares two different methods) just blew me away, plus another strip pieced quilt I saw on Whipup eons ago (freeformish strip piecing with texture). I want to give these techniques a go, and I intend on using the neck ties my Aunt gave me to do it. Well over a year ago she gave 100 or so ties that had been my Uncles (he passed a few years back) she wanted some sort of keepsake made out of them. I worked on it off and on for months planning more traditional type things but I wasn't ever pleased with it. Another stumbling block was the condition of some of the ties, thus available material. When I put the thought of these techniques at 8x8 and Whipup, together with the ties, plus the fact that my Aunt has some extremely modern artwork in her new home it just all came together. She's excited and so am I. I'm not sure what the end product will be, a pillow, wall hanging, whatever, but I know these are examples of how I want to do it (sort of) and I can't wait to get started!

Weaving and Dyeing

OK first things first, pic of the impetus for my posting today.


Yes, I'm into the blues and greens. Yea!

Next up, yarn barf.a.k.a knitted lace.

It's going pretty well. Yes I've had a few oops. Primarily forgotten YO's, but I caught them soon enough. 6 more rows of the edge chart and I'm done. Wonder how many oops there will be that I didn't notice! :o) Oh, and can I tell ya how much I despise working on these pole vault worthy length needles?!? UGH! I went merrily along on my convert vintage dpn needles clear up to the middle of the last repeat of the chart for the body. Then I couldn't cram anymore stitches on the needle....sigh Couldn't find my vintage circs in this size and didn't dare switch to use metal ones. My gauge is out the window when I use metal needles, so out came the needles whose length is akin to the proverbial 10 ft. pole. Again I say UGH, but I must give them their due, cuz if I didn't have them the yarn barf would stagnate until who knows when.

I loath metal needles. We just can't see eye to eye. Pity that, I have 100's of them. :-/ If anyone out there is looking for some metal needles any length or type, circs, straights, dpns, any size email me. I'd love to see them go to an appreciative home. Conversely so I'd be thrilled to give a warm and loving abode to any of those vintage needles that were made of nylon, casein, (sp?), or that plastic like stuff from way back when. Any length and type would be loved and cherished, even those of the pole vaulting variety. Anyone? Anyone? BTW if you have any made from Bakelite do yourself a favor and sell them on ebay they get a pretty penny.

Let's see what else is there today, oh yeah, I tried a new-to-me KA dye technique. (I've never seen anyone else talk about this, but I'm positive someone out there has done it before) IMHO I think this has great potential.


Yes these are the same skein. I'm thrilled that I can now take pix in a decent size and they aren't bleary, correct coloration will have to wait. The true color is somewhere between the two of these. A new friend of mine, who seems to be a long lost sister, posed the question about how to get a pink/orange mottled/heather/tweedy yarn with KA. This skein is the result of experiment #1.

I used my standard sure fire mottling method with pink lemonade first. Big pot on the stove, 6 pkg of pink lemonade KA, with a dash of vinegar (I don't like to wait) and quickly throw in a hank of DRY yarn. I let the air bubbles in the fiber itself do the work for me. The only cautionary tales regarding this method is that you must act quickly to get all the yarn submerged or run the risk of a graduated skein or large splotches. I've never had any problem with felting the yarn as I manipulate it in the pot to make sure it stays submerged, the water isn't that hot yet, and I don't really agitate it, I just keep pushing it below water level so it's not floating. With particularly lofty yarns this can take a while. To remedy that problem, (I do things quickly, and I don't like to babysit yarn) I purchased a round cooling rack. You know the kind of wire racks you'd cool a cake or cookies on after baking. I snipped one outer ring of the rack which gives me enough play in the ring to be able to wedge the rack into my pot below water level, thus holding the more lofty fiber submerged.

After the dye was exhausted I removed my nicely mottled pink skein and let it cool enough to handle easily. I'm using "pink" here rather flippantly, I would have called the color pink salmon or perhaps peachy melon, not really a true pink. I know/have heard to add a bit of grape or some other blue based KA to make it more pink, but I wanted to see exactly what color I'd get with just the pink lemonade.

Now comes the new part. I took a small 2 oz fine spray mist bottle, put about two tablespoons of vinegar in it, with 2 pkg of orange KA and then filled the bottle with water. I laid the skein out in the bottom of my sink spread out as much as the ties would allow and spritzed the orange on it. I continually turned , twisted and fluffy the skein, sometimes even shaking and fluffing it in the air while spritzing. (No, I did not wear gloves, and yes my hand was completely orange.) After the entire contents of the bottle was used, I placed the skein in a steam bath over my big pot and let the color set. As for the orange hand? No problem, a sprinkle of baking soda and all was well,

All in all I'm pleased with the outcome, there is great potential here. I would rather have had a truer pink, but up against the orange it did "pinken" up a bit. Experiment #2 will use the same procedure but with colors not so similar. I'm thinking yellow and green, maybe blue and yellow that could produce some nice greens within the skein too. hmmmm.....

I remembered!

Tap, tap, tap. (my baton now poised as a conductor at the symphony)

All together now......

ICK




It is supposed to be this:




I guess it's not too far off but.......

Just another in my quest for a decent hat to wear this summer. Obviously aside from the brim that is waaaay out of proportion, it is ginormous, but the hat did in fact work up pretty close to the original. Notice I didn't bother with the button at the crown, making the brim double thick as called for (why bother) nor did I sewing in the elastic. Apparently the designer/tech editor knew it would be huge and rather than sizing it or shaping it they thought it would be just fine to insert 3/4 inch elastic within the doubled k1p1 ribbing! Does that sound as strange to any of you as it does me??? I mean really, this is a hat, not the waistband of a skirt!!

I'm never going to wear this even if it did fit and the brim wasn't so dorky. I'm not really drawn to this type of hat, but it was something different and it has some really interesting shaping. I have never seen this much shaping in a hat of this type in anything other than sewing patterns. It really is well designed (notwithstanding the size issue) but I think a different gauge would lends itself to a much better hand than this heavy thick cotton. Actually I think a very small tight gauge cotton would work beautifully, but I'm not loving this hat that much to do the work both in the knitting itself plus the reconfiguring of instruction to deal with the gauge difference! I'm talking 12 st/inch, at the very least, very tightly worked...a really finger fatigue project....no thanx. I'd rather start from scratch and match a sewing pattern....or find another hat I like better. :o)

Oh btw, the pattern is from a Mon Tricot magazine from the 70's (?) 80's (?)

Oy this is all the weaving I've done and I didn't even do it today, but I did know today was Wednesday!! Dang, if this keeps up, pretty soon I'll be able to keep track of Holidays and maybe even the date. Egads.




Yep, you're seeing that correctly, it's still on the loom and I ran out of weft with only two passes to go. No big deal, I'll fill it in with something similar. No one will ever know given the hodge-podge of all the random squares anyway.

It might seem as though I haven't been too knitterly lately and if the truth be known I haven't. I am working on another swirl bag, but that's just been late night right before bed knitting everything else is on hold. It's not due to an errant mojo, I've just been focusing on other non-fiber things. Unless you want to consider paper fiber. I've returned to one of my very first loves. Drawing. I use to draw/sketch/illustrate like a madman. I bet I hadn't picked up a pencil other than to sketch a clothing design for 25 years. It took a couple of days to get back into the groove, but my skill level (if you could call it that) is begin to surface again and I'm enjoying myself and that's what counts.

Not all my paper pursuits have been enjoyable though. I was working on the taxes again this morning. I did the federal taxes oh about 2 months ago. I just couldn't bring myself to do them again. Does anyone else do that?? I do the taxes, let them sit for a week or two and then do them again, just to make sure I haven't missed anything or made a mistake. LOL that was prob'ly a stupid question, why would anyone in their right mind do their taxes twice, but then you all know I'm a tad bit touched anyway. ;-) They really are a PITA, what with both houses, the farm, etc. We had the taxes done a few years ago but a CPA.......um yeah......it cost us over $700!!!! And he is a friend!!!!! I think I can stand the headache myself for $700+.

Weaving Wednesdays (?)

What can I say, I'm not a slave to the clock. While it is now, technically Thursday, eh, I did do most of the actual weaving on Wednesday, and considering I'm posting pix within 6 hours of completion according to my internal clock, it's still Wednesday. (Of course I still think I'm 30-something too so my clock might be a bit whacked) To be perfectly frank, I'm breaking my arm patting myself on the back cuz I even knew it was Wednesday yesterday!!! :-P

Two more squares done.



Aside from the cones and skeins this is all I have left that is already made up of this "colorway". Best guess is that I will get 4 more full squares and a striped one.



The blue/green colorway will be next. Good thing too, I'm getting pretty sick of this yellow/gold stuff. I know, I'm not too sure they will go together either, but the main focus here is stash reduction, I can always make them into separate rugs. I have GOT to "get rid of" some of these boxes that are crowding me.

I'm glad I started this "little" project in earnest. It was nice to have something to do when brain function was at a low. The only knitting I have any interest in right now is a lace shawl, and a couple of cable-ly sweaters, not really mindless stuff huh, and aside from the two squares, the only other fiber that has passed through my fingers this week was a thrifted man's sweater from which I harvested the wool. It was a nice find, a soft spun two-ply, DK wt., handknitted in Ireland that was still rich in lanolin. Ahhhhh, such sheepy goodness wafting from a bath of warm water.

Think I'll go warp up another square, ya never know at what moment all cognitive skills will disappear. Case in point, did I mention that it took me 4 tries to warp the loom for the second square last night? sigh.

Weaving Wednesday!

Ha ha ha, bet you thought I'd forget. I know I would have placed that bet. :o)

All warped up:


Done:



The next pic shows today's square (bottom right of photo) and a square I did a few days ago. Below that are a couple other squares I've done. (ouch a sunlight photo, oh well)


For right now I'm working up all the yellows/golds/oranges/reds that were already plied when I purchased the fibers. I "stole" these plied yarns from the "project bundles" which were part of the motherload. I've got a total of 6 or 7 squares done, (only about 28 more to go!) all different but somewhat similar. There is prob'ly enough of these pre-plied fibers to make another 6 or 7, and I do have many cones of the individual yarns to ply more if I need to. I think I'll weave all the pre-plied yarns including the boxes of blue/green fibers, blue/purple/pink fibers, and the browns/rusts just to see what I've got and what I'll need. Perhaps they will all go into the same rug or maybe they won't. :o)

Each of these are 18 inches square, made on my homemade 18 inch weave-it loom. Eventually they will be a rug(s) for the patio. I'm thinking/hoping for an 8x10 and then of course there is the hemp rope rug that will be 5x7. Joe is questioning the sizes I'm planning saying the patio isn't that big. LOL it's 30 x 22 I think it's big enough for two rugs! :o) There are plenty of places I could use a throw rug in the house considering the house has hardwood flooring throughout and not a single carpet anywhere. Ooops that's a lie, there is a vintage handwoven rug in one of my workrooms up stairs. I think I've mentioned it before.....a $65-ish estate sale find. 12x14 handmade of cloth (wool) strips, and judging by the materials used, I'd guess it was made in the early 40's. I LOVE that rug.

I do have some knitting news, but I'll leave that for tomorrow cuz today is Weaving Wednesday!

Weave-It

Silver? eh, ok.......Gold? ho hum......Copper?.......WOW!

Yeah, I've got a thing for copper. My shower/jacuzzi area in the bath has walls of copper. My cook top is surrounded in copper. Light fixtures, lamps, outlets, switch plates, heating vents, nick knacks and doodads adorn the Hermitage in all their coppery goodness. I've been knitting, wrapping, winding and crocheting copper for as long as I can remember. This summer I began weaving it.

Ahhhhh the intercourse of Copper and a tiny Weave-It loom.

What can I say? This little box tickles me to no end.

Weave-It Looms are fab. You can readily find them at estate sales, and you can now buy them again online. A few years back some chick bought the rights and is selling them again. I believe hers are made of wood. From what I can tell, the vintage ones only came in two sizes 4 inch and 2 inch, she sells them in several sizes and rectangular ones as well.

The little box above was made with 5 squares from a 2 inch loom. Just in case you don't know what a Weave-It looks like here's a pic of a 4 inch one. The pieces beneath the loom were made with embroidery floss.




And what could be better than a 4 inch Weave-It? How about a 18 inch loom?



I made this loom a couple weeks ago. Aside from the stick woven rugs that will be spewing forth this winter, I'm thinking a few Weave-It rugs will being spewing too.



These squares were made with Mother Load stash.

And just because I could, I did this to one of the patio tables.



We spend a lot of time outside. We often eat outside, and nothing bothers me more......ok there are some things that bother me more, but work with me here.....nothing bothers me more than the clanging of a glasses on a metal table. And you know how impossible it is to have a table cloth on a table outside without using those dorky clips, so I took some gimp (the stuff you use to make lanyards and key chains out of at camp) and wove the table top. The gimp has just enough thickness to it to keep the glass bottoms from touching the metal, but is thin enough so the surface is flat and your glass won't tip or "catch" on the edge of the gimp. Three other bonus features, it's washable, can be dried after the rain, and while everyone else on earth has a mesh, black metal table top, no one has one like mine! :-)

I haven't decided about finishing the ends yet, the jury is still out. Some people like the "fringe", some don't. If I decide to keep the fringe obviously I'll cut it all even, if not, I'll make it disappear underneath the lip. What do you think? Fringe? No fringe?

Plans for the larger round table are on the list of things to do. I'm thinking of some wild more colorful zigzags radiating from the center umbrella hole. I'll prob'ly do the chairs that match the round table too, but that is waaaaay down on the list, prob'ly next summer.