Category — Weaving

my second handwoven scarf

On Saturday our boys went to visit their grandmother for the day and my husband and I took advantage of the free time to pursue some of our individual hobbies.

I warped my loom for my second project (with some help from the aforementioned husband)- a scarf made from some louet gems fingering weight yarn that I had dyed several months back.

I am so much happier with this project than the first. My selvedges are quite even and there was only one skipped thread, which I was easily able to fix with some guidance from my book- Weaving Made Easy by Liz Gipson. I will wear this beautiful new creation with pride- but I wish I had some yarn left for a matching pair of mittens!

one bobbin of singles completed

In other crafting news, I spent some time over the weekend spinning up some more falkland fiber that I dyed. I’m really happy with the singles and I’m planning to ply them tonight. If all goes as planned, I’ll have some strong, lustrous sock yarn for my next sock project.

Speaking of my next sock project, I still haven’t made a decision, but I’m leaning toward a plain vanilla pattern for use with my handspun sock yarn.

I managed to get some decent photos today. Presenting my 9-5 socks:

getting in shape on the sock blockers

Whew am I glad to have those babies off the needles! Actually, they’re currently on my feet. They’re soft and squooshy and I love them. Now to decide which socks to cast on next. I’m thinking that I want to do two-at-a-time magic loop, and I want to do them toe-up. Nothing terribly complex, just simple, easy TV knitting.

my first weaving project is finished!

I also got a photo of my finished scarf, though it’s not a terribly flattering one. It shows my wonky selvedges but that’s ok- that’s what a first project is about.

In other news, there is a nasty stomach bug going through our house and I’m beginning to feel like I’m going to be its next victim. If you don’t see me here for a few days, that would be why!

Actually, I managed not only to complete my first weaving project today, but also to FINALLY finish my 9-5 socks! The slacking comes in the photography department. No photos! It was getting dark by the time I finished and I didn’t have the heart to take photos of my beautiful finished objects in bad light. Tomorrow, I promise.

my new loom and some hand-dyed yarns

My loom came today! My boys were both home sick from school, but they were well enough to help me figure out the warping process, and actually helped me quite a lot! One managed the yarn ball to be sure that there were no tangles, and the other used the hook to thread the heddle. I haven’t had much luck getting the older boy interested in any of my crafty pursuits, but he showed a genuine interest in weaving. I cannot express how happy that makes me!

My first project is well under way. It is definitely a first project. There are skipped threads and uneven selvedges, but that’s ok. This is how we learn- and honestly, I think it’s the wonder of discovering and pride of learning a new skill that motivates me more than anything in my crafty pursuits.

the beginning of my first handwoven cloth

It was a lot of money to invest in something that I had never done before, but somehow I just knew that I would love it. And I do. I’m so glad that I found this hardly-used loom!

I’m hoping that by the end of this project, I will have mastered some basic skills. I’m looking forward to taking this project off the loom, finishing it, and then being able to observe the progression of my abilities from beginning to end. I’ll wear it with pride; skipped threads, loose selvedges and all, because it represents the time I spent learning this new, wonderful craft.

On another note- my boys and I watched the inaguaration today. I was overcome with a wonderful sense of pride of my country and hope for our future. Good on us, America!

It’s cold. Really cold. Unbelievably cold. I’m a Vermonter, I know all about cold. But this is beyond what we’re used to. This is positively frigid.

What can we do when it’s this cold? Not much, really. We can thaw and repair frozen water pipes (that’s what my poor husband was doing at 6:30 this morning) pray that our cars will start, and that our furnaces won’t quit. Luckily for us, we have a woodstove that we heat with, so no danger of that quitting on us. However, when you heat your house with a single central source, the rest of the house stays pretty cold.

We’ll be doing a lot of huddling and snuggling today, I think.

my handspun thorpe

It will come as no surprise, given the weather, that I have been focused on hats. Warm hats that cover delicate ears and the backs of necks. I, my friends, have been on a hat knitting frenzy! It all started (as things often do with me) with a photo in my flickr contacts. One of them was working on a thorpe. Now, as I mentioned in my last post, this particular hat has been in my plans but seeing hers looking so lovely and warm made me want to cast one on immediately. Which I did. That evening, I had a beautiful, warm new hat!

This hat was made with some of my very first handspun. I honestly wasn’t crazy about the colors in the yarn but I think they’re lovely in the finished hat. That little coil beside it is all of the yarn that was left after the project- about a yard. That’s my idea of a well- planned project! (Coming clean here- I didn’t plan at all. I just figured if I ran out I’d pick up with some natural bulky I had in my stash!)

So when my boys (all three including my husband) saw my finished hat, they all wanted one too! That evening I cast on for the littlest one (who turns 6 tomorrow!) an orange and brown one that followed the colorwork pattern. It is so adorable. And of course the best part is that he loves it too! He insisted on wearing it to school and didn’t want to take it off when we got there. How that warms a mother’s heart. I haven’t had time to get a good photo, but I will absolutely try to get one this weekend. It’s too darn cute not to share!

I’ve got a green and blue on the needles for oldest boy, then a black and blue in plans for my husband. This really is a terrific pattern- functional, nice-looking and super-quick to knit!

In other news, I have a Schacht Flip 20″ rigid heddle loom on its way to me as I type. With any luck, it will be here tomorrow and I’ll have the weekend to get acquainted with it.

Stay warm, everyone!

I found the most inspiring flickr group ever today: http://flickr.com/groups/837990@N20/

I don’t want to step on anybody’s copyright toes, so I won’t post a picture here, but it is a group that shows photo mosaics of fiber, spun singles and then the finished yarn (and sometimes knitted objects). It is incredible eye candy!

So inspiring, in fact, that I had to take a little trip to etsy to take an innocent look around the spinning category (because life has made it impossible for me to dye anything for myself lately).

And then I innocently put a couple braids of roving into my cart.

And now these lovelies are on their way to me (since I bought them, I hope cloudlover won’t mind me using the photos on my blog:

Speaking of obsessions… Something you should know about me- When I get interested in something, I get REALLY interested. I buy multiple books, heavily research and buy the equipment and then commence to learn like there’s no tomorrow. That’s how it happened with photography, jewelry making, sewing, knitting, dyeing and spinning. I have one of those super compulsive muses that will literally grab me by the wrist and drag me on her latest whim with no warning whatsoever.

Now, I sense, it’s happening with something else. It all began with another totally innocent perusal. This time it was through Amazon.com’s recommendations for me. Amazon, it seems, knows just how to get me to spend money.

As I was looking through knitting and spinning book recommendations, another caught my eye: Weaving Made Easy by Liz Gipson. In that moment, I entered the world of rigid heddle looms.

Before that moment, I thought that “real” weaving had to be done on giant looms that took up huge amounts of space. My mother in law has one that takes up half of her basement, and one of my dearest friends has one that takes up half of her studio floor space. I can weave on something in my lap or on the kitchen table? Where do I get one of these things?

The research phase had begun. I spent hours reading up on rigid heddle weaving on ravelry, reading book and loom reviews and trying to determine the best beginner loom that would allow me to expand a bit with my skills before having to purchase another model. At this point, I’m quite sure that the Schacht Flip will be the way to go, but I’m also interested in the Kromski Harp. I have read very good reviews for both.

The real deal sealer? While checking out my flickr contacts’ recent uploads, I discovered that another dyer, also named Georgia, just happened to get a rigid heddle loom for Christmas and her first projects are so amazingly beautiful I can’t stand it! That’s it. I’m hooked.

I’m so excited at having another method for creating beautiful and useful objects from my handspun and hand-dyed yarns!

It’s probably a good thing that the 25″ Flip is backordered at Webs…