Experiments!

I had a really fun opportunity to help out at one of our fabulous LYS's. The Eugene Textile Center caters more to spinners and weavers and dyers (but also has knitting supplies and books and classes). It is an amazing resource and also happens to be very convenient to my home. I end up there a lot.

While helping out, I carded up a batt as a demo and then spun it into this yarn:


And then I was left with figuring out what to do with it!

I wanted to keep it as an entire gradient. I thought a bag would be fun. So I grabbed up a skein of Lamb's Pride (a wool and mohair blend in a singles yarn) in lightly variegated yellow, and then eventually went back and got a second skein in red. I figured, let's try doubleweave! Let's make a bag.

Only I didn't bother to do the math very carefully.

The tube came out really interesting. The gradient is obvious. But the "bag" (if it gets that far) is long and skinny. I'd rather it be about half that and wider, but I got what I got.

I did have fun cutting it off the loom. I cut strands from each side of the warp and wove them into the remaining warp to get little triangles and then braided the last of it. It's a fun effect.

The whole thing is an amusing sample. I washed and dried it mechanically, so it's lightly felted, but if I want it to firm up more I'm going to have to beat it by hand.

It was a fun project, but I'd advise those wanting to "sample" that planning ahead a bit more than I did here might actually yield something usable, rather than something funky you have to scratch your head over to figure out how to use.

A "Thank You"

Box Huck Scarf, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

I had someone help me out this year with the kids that needed a special something extra. I also had some lovely, squishy yarn that I wanted to use with pattern published in a recent Handwoven magazine.

It wasn't a perfect fit, but really.. I see a pattern or draft as a stepping-off point. A loose theme around which I want to improvise. Some of my improvisation is yarn (the project called for organic cotton, I had superwash wool; it wanted a heavier weight, I had fingering). Some of it is sett. Some of it is pattern. You have to make all of these dance to your own tune to really make a project work.

But after adjusting for minor differences between what I was told to do and what I had available, I came up with this scarf.

And it's delightfully squishy.

I feel it is a perfect "thank you" for someone that helped me out of a real jam.

Taking my word for it

I know I often ask you to take my word for something as to how nice and lovely and wonderful it is.

But this time, I think it's pretty obvious. This was a great gift.

Tomorrow...

Photo 1 - 2012-06-15, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Black Sheep Gathering here in Eugene. I'll get up early. I'll drive down to the fairgrounds with a friend, and I'll set up my loom to get ready for the Sheep to Shawl competition.

I'll actually be weaving on this warp.

I spun it. Everything (except the two inches of red) is naturally colored wool. There's Shetland, Romney, Merino (moorit) and others in there. I think one might be Icelandic. We don't know what half the wool is, other than "nice". It came from the estate of Llyn Payne, who was an amazing artist and a collector of many rare and fascinating fleeces.

The red is commercial merino of several different shades of red and a tiny bit of red bamboo blended into a batt. It pops wonderfully against all the neutrals around it.

I love the draft at the top, but we won't be using it. I'll let you see what we decided to use.. .once it's woven, tomorrow!

Sample Shawl

Sample Shawl, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

This is the lovely draft that I originally planned to use tomorrow in our Sheep to Shawl. I had never woven it before, so I measured out some scraps of sock yarn I had on hand.

I really enjoyed weaving it, but after much review we decide that this draft doesn't show itself very well for judging. It is really hard to eyeball the fact that it is evenly beat (and I do beat it evenly and carefully and keep a 45-degree angle on hand to make sure I don't get off and measure every inch or so).

We'll be doing something different tomorrow, and I can't wait to post pictures when it's done.

Way Behind

Well, school has certainly thrown a wrench in my schedule. I'm happy to say that I earned an "A+" in Statistics this last term.
With more work, something has got to slide. Since I'm still knitting, spinning, weaving and taking care of the rest of my life it's pretty obvious that blogging went on the back burner (and is going to stay there, unfortunately).

But I don't want to leave you all completely in the dark! Here's a quick run-down of some of what I have finished for February (and March will follow in its own post).

What we have here is a spindle project I finally completed. It is Spunky Eclectic Merino spun up into a 3-ply yarn. I've been working on the single off-and-on for several months. I wound it all onto a bobbin and divided it by weight in order to make 3-ply yarn. It's very fast using an electric bobbin winder. The yarn came out lovely and squishy, plump and round from the 3-ply. I do love a 3-ply yarn.


I also finished this 2-ply yarn. It is the last shipment from the first year of the Pro-Verbial shawl club from A Verb for Keeping Warm. One ply is superfine alpaca and the other is 50/50 cashmere/silk. They are both luscious blends. I really want to be madly deeply in love with AVFKW fiber, but I find that the natural dying process is simply not very kind to unspun fiber. It is rarely in the shape that I expect from ultra-premium fibers. I enjoyed the club and the patterns, but I did not re-up this year for more.


Since I have a lovely friend with a new baby, baby knitting ensued. This is the ubiquitous Baby Surprise Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book, The Opinionated Knitter. I used a fibonacci sequence for the stripes, which always comes out looking fantastic. The yarn is a very nice cotton yarn I picked up as mill-ends. I bought a pound, so there was a significant amount left over and I thought.. why not a blanket?!


But I sure as heck wasn't going to knit a blanket! I dislike knitting scarves, and a blanket is a scarf x100. It was a great opportunity to play on the loom. I consulted local experts, did a lot of math, and came up with a great plaid blanket that I had difficulty giving away!


We also had a February birthday. We wanted to do a cooking party, so I put together these child-sized aprons out of towels from Target and some grosgrain ribbon. They're adorable and easy!


There is lots more for March, but I don't have photos of everything yet. I'll have to get them taken, soon... especially since there are April projects to share, too!

January

It seems the year is already flying by. Much of my time is taken in preparing for class or actually going to it, but there are still a few minutes from time to time where I am getting other work done. (I am actually doing quite well with Statistics for those that are curious. I find some of it very interesting and the rest obscure enough to be annoying, but I'm doing my best to learn it all anyway.)

I do have some lovely things from the end of December and January finished. This is another turned-point-twill scarf. It is exactly the same draft as the scarf for my dad last year, and the same base of yarn, but this is woven with a lovely blue-grey warp and aquamarine weft. I beaded the fringe, rather than cutting it short. What it yields is a lovely, feminine scarf, instead of the very manly version I gave for Christmas. This was made in trade for Laura of Textiles A Mano here in town. She's the dyer of this fantastic yarn and a wonderful resource here in town.

This is "Nebula", a Falkland batt from Into the Whirled. Cris is also a fantastic dyer and I worked with her in collaboration on the Solar Flare shawlette. This batt is one of her amazing offerings. With such lovely colors, I didn't want to loose them to too much blending of the fibers. I rolled this batt perpendicular to the lay of the fibers and then carefully pulled it into one long length of roving that changed from orange at one end into light blue at the other. It is spun up as a relatively low-twist single and should knit up into some amazing lace, once I figure out an appropriate pattern for it!

Here is some more amazing Textiles A Mano offerings. I received some lovely blended batts from my son for Christmas (Daddy outdid himself taking the kids shopping!). I plied it with two ounces of dyed tussah silk that I purchased from Laura earlier this year. The outcome is some gloriously subtle yarn that is going in to my "jacket weaving" bag for later use. I'm really excited about that project and need to figure out some weft year very soon.

This is two ounces if impulse purchase. It is probably Jacob wool. I spun it up lofty using long-draw. Since the wool was actually roving instead of top, this worked great! (Combed top is often called roving, since both come in the same long rope of fiber, but they are not the same beast. Combed top is very aligned fibers because they have been, well, combed. Roving may look very similar, but it's a long strip of carded fibers and far more suited to long-draw spinning. Combed top is better spun worsted and yields a smooth, strong yarn. Woolen spinning yields a fluffy, soft, hairy yarn that is less durable than worsted yarn, but much warmer.)

Last, but not least, are the Greta towels (another lovely Christmas gift, this one from my husband). These are made from cotton-linen blend yarn and feel wonderful! I already have them in my kitchen to be used. My daughter made the amusing comment that she didn't want to use them and get them dirty! I had to convince her they are made to be used. After all, I can always make more in the future! I'd hate to run out of reason to weave!

That sure seems like a lot of work! But really, each project went quite quickly. And since the house is clean, homework is done, tests are being passed in flying colors and kids are all up to date on their craft and homework, clearly we're doing something right around here!

Stashdown 2011

The goal: To spin 4oz of fiber, knit 4oz of handspun and work 4oz of millspun each month
Did I do it? Yes! On average I met each of my goals. Some months I did more, some less, but I worked through a lot of materials this year!

However, I didn't meet the spirit of the goal.. which was to use stash. Many of my projects required new fiber or new yarn to complete. Sometimes I bought new yarn/fiber just because I wanted to (and really, who doesn't?). So if this goal was "Production 2011" then I certainly produced. Did I reduce my stash? Not so much.

Next year, I want to work from my stash. In fact, I'd like to work entirely from my stash for both spinning and knitting materials. (I am leaving an exception for weaving, because I don't have much yarn suitable and may need to purchase particular yarn for projects I have in mind. Still, I'd like to keep weaving-purchasing limited to planned-projects only. No "just because it's on sale" buying!) I will not be making any pledges as to how much I get done each month, but I hope you'll join me for a "work from what you've got" year!

January:

   

February:

    

March:

   

April:

    

May:

   

June:

  

July:

   

August:

 

September:

    

October/November:

   

December: