And the weave goes on...

Lets just get this out of the way first:



Those are the finished pillows, all sewn up and in their rightful place on the couch. They look nice and I'm very happy with them. If I had it to do over, I'd be much more cautious of how many rows were thrown in each color, so both sides would turn out exactly even. But what can I say, it was a first project and a learning experience.

Project two has begun. Here is the cast of characters:



From left to right, we have very fine two-ply Shetland wool (bought this when I first started knitting to make a sweater for the man. It was on a cone), Madil KidSeta in variegated orange (so beautiful, so soft!), and the warp which is a super ridiculously strong linen I got on a cone from School Products.

When you knit, its easy to pick up yarn and needles and knit a few rows into a little swatch and see if you are happy with the results. While you can swatch in weaving by making a small warp, warping is still enough work that if you know how wide you want a project its best just to add extra length and experiment for a few inches before deciding how to make your cloth. So thats what we did. I pulled out every brown yarn from my stash and we played around before deciding we really liked the fabric that the Shetland made with tiny bits of the orange here and there. Here is the fabric so far:



and here's another view:



This project is intended for covers for cushions for the rocking chair we found, and I had it all planned out so that all the pieces we'd need could be cut from the one cloth. But this linen (paired with the Shetland) takes in way more than the wool did for the pillows, so I think I will have to repeat this again, although much smaller, to make the side panels for the cushions.

The weaving is going well so far, although I have to confess I haven't done too much of it since Sunday. Monday and Tuesday I was sort of bogged down with knitting, between projects and trying to keep something going to work on the train. The man has been doing a bit though, and I don't think we have much left. That said, I wove nearly all Sunday afternoon.

When this cloth comes off the loom, I am going to zigzag around a small piece and soak it in the bathtub. I am hoping that the Shetland will bloom and fill in the spaces better. I washed two strands of the Shetland and it was so much softer and fluffier. The question is, what might soaking do to the linen? Someone on Ravelry said that linen often "falls out of line" and gets squiggly. She said this is usually the desired effect, but I'm not sure its my desired effect! I am really eager to finish the cloth and see what happens with the washing experiment. In the meantime, the man struggles over whether or not he wants to do a light refinishing on the chair.

Of course, knitting has been happening too - its just been sorta boring. I finished the monkeys a few days after Christmas and gave them to my friend for her January birthday. Then I started a hat for the man, finished it. Ripped it. Started socks for the man in On Your Toes boot sock yarn. Finished them super quickly and he loves them and never takes them off and now they're in a dreadful state and not even photographable until they go through the washer. Then I started the man's hat again and finished it yesterday. Nothing too interesting, just a sort of improvised plain winter stocking cap. Then I tried to make something for myself out of this beautiful orange loop mohair I bought at Rhinebeck, but I didn't like my swatch. So I settled on another pair of socks for the man, these in Austermann Step, but I'm not loving it. He complains about hand knit socks being "quitters", and the Step is so soft and silky, there is very little body there to make them stand up on their own. I barely have a reason to finish them when I know he'll complain about them not staying up like store boughts. But, hey, the yarn was right there and I didn't have to open the stash trunk to get it. Which is why I'm working on them.

After looking at the very few loop mohair projects on Ravelry, I'm thinking of a Moebius scarf out of it. On big needles in a simple garter stitch. Its actually fairly difficult to find something that shows off loop mohair as much as it deserves.

And to all the knitters who hated knitting with loop mohair, go on and send it to me. I love it!

Weaving FO!

Ta-da!



Yep, that is my first handwoven project. I warped it on New Years Day and finished it on Saturday, January 5. Those four yards worth of weaving took me probably, in total, a mere 8 hours!

This is actually three pillow covers that need to be cut apart and sewn together. Basically, whereever there are two white squares, that is two sides of one pillow.

Here is a picture of it on the loom that I was going to post, but then I got sick and didn't come to work and ended up finishing it:



I totally love weaving!

Of course, I still l love knitting just as much as ever. I'm currently working on a delightful pair of boot socks for the man (turns out, I didn't get too sick of knitting socks) that is fast and fun and easy. Next up is Dickey von Beethoven (from Knitting Around) for the man's impending trip to the far north of Michigan. A girl has to keep her man warm, even when she isn't with him...

The spinning is going great too. I bought a CD spindle "blank" at Heritage Spinning and Weaving and it's about a thousand times better than my original fancy spindle and I'm enjoying it so much. I also bought a couple ounces of some unlabelled natural wool there that I am spinning to use as weft in my next weaving project, which is covers for the rocking chair we found. Found - as in, sitting in the trash. But it was clean! And nice! And also, not the first thing we've trash-picked. Don't look so smug, people throw out all sorts of wonderful things here. Besides, it doesn't have any upholstery, its just a quality wood frame with really handsome lines and it is old, not some cheap piece of junk. Anyway, the fab thing about spinning for weaving is that I WANT it to be slubby and uneven. So I'm having lots of fun making an uneven, unpredictable yarn.

Now, crafting is like circuit training - an hour of weaving, half an hour of spinning, half an hour of knitting. Wish I had that much enthusiasm for the gym!

Happy new year!

It looks like a fiber-filled one looms ahead for me - and I couldn't be happier about it!

Two days before Christmas, my brother in law and his fiancee brought all their gifts to the parent's house so they wouldn't have to deal with them on Christmas day. When I saw an oblong box, about 32" long, leaning against the wall behind the tree, I checked the tag - it was for me! Could it be? Could it really be? Well, regardless, from then on, every time I passed the tree I whispered, "hello, loom" because I was pretty sure.

On Christmas night, after dinner was consumed and the children had torn through their gifts, all the adults sat their with their respective piles and someone said, "who wants to go first?" Well, by this point, I couldn't stand it anymore and I said:

"I can't stand it anymore! I have to open this one!" So off the paper came.

And even though I had a pretty darn good idea of what the gift was, as soon as I saw the Kromski label on the front, I LOST IT. I mean, really, really lost it. I was screaming and literally jumping up and down hugging the box. The whole party didn't even know what hit them! Most of them didn't even know what it was. Here are some pictures so you can see for yourself just how truly elated I was:





Yeow. And that is basically the aftermath, because not even my husband could have predicted that reaction, so he wasn't ready with the camera.

But I got lots of other delightful fibery gifts too. From my mom, I got two super fabulous buttons that she managed to sneakily buy while we were at a yarn shop together, a subscription to Spin Off, and Spinning In The Old Way (the book). My brother, prompted my mother, got me sweater blocking wires which I am eager to use.

More importantly still, everyone who received a knitted gift loved it. Mom's sweater looks gorgeous on her and she loves it. Claudia was so totally surprised by her tote bag and loved it right away. My husband's aunt from Israel received the Jaywalkers and loved them way more than I would have predicted, and the monkeys went to my good friend Linda for her upcoming birthday.

And now, I am a weaver. Ahhhhhh. I didn't put the loom together til we got back to NY. I warped it New Years Day. The warping went well. It is definitely a long process (my first project is about 19" wide and the warp is 4 yards long so I can do multiple pillows) but not an unpleasant one and once you start to weave, it goes so fast that it more than makes up for the time you invest in warping.

My first project is throw pillows for our couch. I am using Jason Collingwood rug wool in brick, olive, and oatmeal for both warp and weft. Its not actually ideally suited to warp on a 10 dent heddle, but its not too bad once you get used to it. And so far, my weaving looks not too far from fabulous (if I do say so myself! Okay, the selvedges aren't perfect. But I love the colors and the look so, fabulous it is). I'll post a photo soon, but its not easy to get because there actually isn't all that much room to weave before you have to wind the finished work on, and then you don't get a good idea of my design and color changes. Excuses, excuses. Photo coming soon. I promise.

FOs - in a big way!

Yesterday I finished two projects. I think thats some kind of personal record!

Here is mom's sweater:


And a detail:


I'm really happy with how it turned out. When it comes to knitting sweaters, even if you are using an established pattern, you sometimes have doubts. It can be extremely hard to visualize the whole thing coming together, even as you're knitting it. I had those moments - it helped when I showed her the yarn and she loved it - but I didn't really know if it would turn out feminine enough. But I think it looks great. The garter stitch collar and button bands (thanks, EZ!) are perfect. I was worried that adding another stitch would confuse things, but actually I knit a little ribbed edging sample, layed it down, and it made it more confusing. I think the garter stitch adds a nice sort of nature-y quality to it. I can't wait to give it to her!

Oh, and don't you love the buttons? Again, I had some doubts, but I think they look nice. They're not the perfect buttons, but they look pretty darn good, if you ask me.

And here are the Jaywalkers:



This is a horrible photo and frankly, I think that yarn is UG-LEE. It looks better knitted up than it did in the skein. I think the red and brown are my problem, and they are the main colors by far. Anyway, who knows who this will be for...just taking some emergency extra gifts and I'll see if I'm moved to give them to someone on Christmas Eve, my traditional wrapping day.

So, this will probably be it for me for a while. We're off to Michigan for a few days and I'm unlikely to do any posting since I don't have to work.

Lets hope that my next post will be as a weaver...

Happy Holidays!

Quick lil' update

Finished the sleeves for mom's sweater on Monday night (after not getting a seat on the train neither to nor from work!) and blocked them yesterday. Hooray! Now this weekend, we're supposed to get a big ol' storm and I hope to be on my couch with a glass of wine, seaming the pieces and knitting on the collar and button bands.

Yesterday, after blocking, I finished my jaywalkers. I still have to graft the toes, but they're done.

Then I started Monkey with ShibuiKnits Sock in a lovely blue. I am going to be SO SICK of knitting socks after Christmas...I hope I get some sock enthusiasm back for the big first shipment of the rockin' sock club!

Sorry blog, I've been busy on ravelry...

Yep, thats my one and only explanation for not being here. I've been spending all my time on ravelry. If you knit or crochet, you should too! Its the best - still a waiting list, but sign up now and you'll be on within weeks. And trust me, its even better than you can imagine!

But enough about that (although you can now see my projects there...). Yesterday, I finished, as in totally finished, the tote bag for my aunt. It had been knitted and felted, and now its decorated and I could give it to her now if she was here! The proof:

Thats the front. And the back:

Adorable, right? This was my first experience needle felting and it was so much fun! I really had no idea it would be so easy and fast and fun. I bought the Clover needle felting tool and mat:

(photo from Betz White, whose blog will make you want to start felting NOW)
And I bought some black roving from new fave Paradise Fibers. Since this was my first time needle felting, I bought stuff that was sold in that section of the online shop; I didn't know you could use any ol' roving. So I bought 8 freaking ounces of this stuff, and didn't even use 1 whole ounce in felting! More like 1/16 of an ounce. I tried to spin it, but it did not go well. Ugh, it looked awful. Don't know if thats me, the roving or my spindle (which I'm beginning to suspect wasn't the best choice for a beginner...).

Anyway, the score is the first three bars of "Simple Gifts' since my aunt sang that at my wedding. I drew the notes and things on with a black sharpie (since it would blend into the notes anyway) and then just pulled off bits of roving, twisted it a bit, and then punched away. The whole thing took me maybe half an hour and it was really great fun. And it looks so cute!

To spin that black roving, I took off the undyed white I had on my spindle. I had used all that fiber up anyway and had to wind it. So I skeined it (sort of) and was surprised at how much yarn I had made! I do wonder if it has too much twist in it; going to have to get a shot of it and ask one of the spindling groups on ravelry. In the meantime, though, when I go back to MI for the holidays, my mom and I are going to Heritage Spinning and I intend to buy a basic, lighter drop spindle and see if I don't improve. I'm still very much in the slubby stage.

Mom's sweater is close to being done. I'm shaping the sleeve cap so I should be blocking the sleeves before the week is over. It would be so great to get the whole thing seamed this weekend. It didn't help that I had to come into work early this morning and the train was so crowded and I just had the worst luck in not getting a seat. So I knit only one lousy row. The nice thing about shaping the sleeve cap is its getting smaller and smaller - unlike the main part of the sleeve that gets bigger and bigger!

We're blocking!

So, the wedding was great fun, though not the most relaxing couple of days off I've ever taken. My knitting did suffer a bit for it (I went the entire wedding day without knitting a stitch!), but I managed to cast off for the first sleeve Saturday. That really makes me feel like the end is in sight and I'm starting to contemplate neckline options. But for now, the fronts and back have been blocked and I can prove it!

You will perchance to notice my oh-so-professional blocking set up. One dollar store plastic tablecloth with fabric back (the kind that makes a good design board for quilting) placed to protect my dining table covered by one woven hippie blanket that I've had since college to pin into. If anyone wants to buy me a blocking board and wires for Christmas, it will be most welcome. (Hey, it worked for the swift and ballwinder for my birthday!)
I soaked the pieces in the bathtub with some shampoo (I don't even know where to buy Eucalan in this city) and was shocked at how much dye came out (the yarn, you may recall, is Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool). The water was like ocean blue. But the pieces don't seem to have suffered for it. Then I pinned them out and much to my surprise, they were pretty much dry this morning.
Now I'm on fire to finish the other sleeve and start seaming. I don't hate seaming (don't hate me, fellow knitters) and I'm especially pleased with the results since I bought Knit Klips. If you don't have them, get them - they make an enormous difference.
Being antsy to finish the second sleeve, I was not thrilled to walk to the train this morning and discover it was having problems. This, of course, means that the trains will be packed - when they do actually show up - and that I won't get any knitting done. I wedged myself on to the second train that came and got a seat in a few stops. Due to the problems, the train was running really slow - I was 45 minutes later to work than usual - but got lots of knitting done. I kept thinking, imagine how pissed I'd be if I hadn't gotten this seat and was wasting all this time not knitting. Pretty lucky for a monday.