Need More Yarn

Small FO

I finally got around to working on my project with This Sweater. The friend who gave me this sweater turns 40 tomorrow and this is her gift.

After weeks of hemming and hawing, I bet the bullet and started straight in with the scissors! The lining fabric is leftover from a skirt I made for myself this past spring and the trim  in vintage that I dug up in the cutest little antique/junk store. A close up of the materials will be in the first picture and then the bag and it's interior.

Oh yeah! They always say that natural colored wool will not felt. I want to let everyone know that KnitPicks Wool of the Andes DOES felt. I didn't have enough sweater material to make the handle so I made some i cord from the knit picks yarn, crossed my fingers and tossed it in the washer. I figured if it didn't felt, I was out my time, but not much more than that. So if you need some natural wool, this one might be a good one to try.

Sheer madness

Or, Yes, I have Project Runway Fever.

So I went to JoAnn Fabric's yesterday. (Momma needs some new clothes!) I picked up a couple kinda sheer fabrics to make tunics out of to finish the summer and go straight into fall.

I don't have a good place to cut patterns out. So I spread it all out on the floor of my craft room. And crawling around on my knees without resting back on my heels has my, well, gluteous maximus complaining quite loudly. How DID a strain that muscle and it looks horrible to walk around with my hands clamped over m buns! But that wasn't what I was going to say.

I was going to say

WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!!

I know that sheer isn't easy to sew. But I feel in the love with the fabric. All rosey and lavender and periwinkle goodness.

But since it's just a bit sheer I'm doing all these d*mn french seams. AND I am sewing on top of tissue paper to keep my sewing machine to keep from pulling the delicate fabric down into the feeddogs. It is sew tedious! I sewed for about an hour and a half or two hours and I got done were these 4 little teeny seams for the shoulders and side on the top part of the bodice. That's it. How discouraging is that?

So I'm taking a break and editing pictures of a senior picture photo shoot I did last week. I don't know if I can stand to work on this for more than small incriments of time. But I really want to wear it on a weekend out shortly. Sigh... It's always something isn't it?

Nothing going on

We are in community theater. (Have I said that before?) This is performance week. Since tryouts, I've completed 2 scarves and 2 pairs of socks. (Hmmmm. Must photograph the scarves. Just simple garter stitch for gift giving.) And I cast on a 3rd pair of socks last week. But practice and rehersals have gotten so hectic and run so late in the evenings I have been too tired to even knit brainless objects! Can you believe that?

And I have the first 100 ends sleyed in the reed for my towels and the rest just sits. But that is only half exhaustion. I think the other half is being overwhelmed at 650 ends. How do people weave such fine fabrics? I don't mind warping particularly. Or rather dressing the loom as people on my weaving list are reminding us. Whatever. Yes I believe in accuracy in communication. But weaving and knitting and other fiber arts have a vocabularly all their own. I think in order to welcome "new members" to the community, we have to cut them, and each other a little slack. Frankly, I really enjoy weaving. But I would be intimidated to take a class or participate in a guild if I had to fear getting called out for using the wrong word. KWIM? But I'm getting off the subject. That's been getting my goat for about a week now. We all need to lighten up sometimes!

Anyway. The production is over on Saturday night. Next week I am going to get my PJs on at 6pm every night and sit in bed a knit! True luxury.

Why do I feel like I should hang my head--

in shame?

I have a confession to make.

A dark confession.

I want....

I want....

I want an afgan of granny squares.

It all started with one of bright reds and yellows and blues and greens with a black border that I saw in a Mary Engelbreit book. It was in this gloriously vibrant (loud) bedroom of her typical red and yellow. And I wanted one.

Then we rented Nanny McPhee last weekend while I was sick to watch with the kids. I have to tell you, from the standpoint of an artist/fiber person, the use of color in this movie was really exciting. Color is what gets me going. Color in paper, color in yarn, color in fabric, color in photography. I love it.

One part that I really really liked was the children's bedrooms. They each had a different bedcovering, but they all coordinated. An assortment of quilts and one was a crocheted covering of granny squares.

I need one.

I NEED to make one. I used to know how to do a granny square like 30 years ago. And I've looked around on line and found a pattern to make them.

But I feel like even THINKING about crochet is sort of "cheating." Why is crochet the red headed stepchild of the craft world? I think I better practice and make a square or two before our vaction in a month or so. Perfect RV project.

Working away on the curvalicious cardigan from big girl knits. I am discovering I love cotton yarn. Well, I love Rowan calmer. Expensive as all crap, but it feels SOOOOOO good. I'd knit underwear from this stuff! I also am discovering that I hate intarsia. I have 5 (count 'em FIVE) balls of yarn that want to tangle every time I switch directions. But I love the pattern, love the color, love the yarn. So I am going to force myself to continue to work on this sweater if it kills me. But it's not exactly a pick up and knit for 5 minutes kind of project. I will take pictures of the whole mess in the next day or two.

FO

I actually finished my socks yesterday or the day before. YAY! These are packed up and ready to mail off to a friend in Ohio. The cuff is from blueberry waffle sock. I would have continued the waffle down the top of the foot, but during the set up, due to the number of stitches I was using, it would have taken a lot of shifting to make it come out even. And I was hopped up on cough syrup and couldn't think it through! LOL!

OTN now? I'm making all the i-cord for the cast on for the curvalicious cardigan in big girl knits. I am ending up using the colors shown in the book. I'm big on brown and pink! But this i cord is driving me a bit nuts and I'm only half through.

Just a check in

I figured I better check in. I've been in bed sick all weekend long. I've done very little except for a few rounds on a sock. I'm past the gusset on the second sock so I'm in the home stretch. A good movie on TV and this pair will be off to a friend. I gave my first socks away to a friend over the weekend and that is addictive! LOL!

I have finally figured out what I will weave next. (Drum roll please!) Towels for the master bathroom. I have this wild hair for making cotton chenille towels. In the M. Davison book, I'm making a twill that ends up with what she describes as "double faced effect, double thickness." I want a secure weave--I had temporarily considered a summer winter thing or overshot but want something very secure that won't get snagged. But I think this will do great. It's rather plain. But I'm more concerned with absorbancy that looking fancy because I want to USE these towels.

I'm using some 1450 cotton chenille. I'll need 650 ends. I'm measuring into groups of 100 chains. I've measured 2 groups so far. I'm only going to warp the loom to do 2 towels until I decide if I'm really happy with these full size. But it feels good to be starting my next project.

Finished Scarf!

I did finish my scarf yesterday. I'm so pleased with it. Like I mentioned previously--the weave structure was just tabby so it was quick. But I love all the color and texture in it.

The scarf is much heavier than I thought. It's mostly rayon. But the hand is VERY NICE. I'm very pleased with it.

But now I am in a cunundrum. What do I do next? I want to do some towels. Like big bath towels. Is that crazy? I got a boat load of very nice cotton chenille on ebay just for this project.

I also have some manos that I love and some ribbon novelty yarn that matches perfectly. I want to weave fabric that I will make into a bag. It will be perfect for fall.

And I have recently purchased "Mastering Weave Structures" and there are about 100 things in there that I want to try. (Such an inspiring book! Makes my fingers itch to work!)

So what do I do next? How can I chose? Smallest projects so I can "knock them out" quickly? Big satisfying projects first? Put everything in a hat and pull out the first name and see what I pick? Throw all the different yarn at the loom and see what sticks?

I don't want the loom to sit empty for too long--especially for the stupid reason of indecision!

New on the Loom

This is the latest project. It's all about color! Color and the texture in the yarn.

The warp is Fiesta La Boheme yarn and the color is Rain Forest. This is a 2 stranded yarn. One strand is brushed kid mohair. The other is a rayon boucle with is shiney. Gorgeous!

The weft is Monet from Berroco, mostly Rayon with lots of wormy "boucles."

I'm noticing, the fuzz from the warp isn't showing up a lot. Which is normal to a certain extent. I can't brush it up because it will damage the weft. So I don't know how long it will take to "lift."

Oh, this is going to be a scarf. I would finish it this weekend if I didn't have to go to the in laws. (Blech.)

FO two days in a row!

I thought I'd finish this yesterday. But was under the weather a went to bed. So 30 minutes of weaving today and it's done. And I've fulled it lightly.

This first picture is right off the loom. I didn't measure it. But I started this before I even heard of double weaving. And I still don't understand it. So I probably ought to try a small project to try to figure it out.

Here is a close up of it before wet finishing.

And this is the throw after finishing. It's all wrinkly looking here. I was tilting the rack to aim it toward the window--ergo the crappy picture.

All in all, I'm pleased with how it looks.

FO and inspiring thought

Yesterday I finished my plain jane socks from my hand dyed yarn. I'm so pleased with the dye job! But this angle makes my legs look FAT. That's my story. I'm sticking to it.

Cast on some Regia for a friend with circulation problems who asked for wool socks. (Last year. I'm a very bad friend.) But I've only knit from my own dyed yarn lately and Regia, that I used to think felt nice feels rough on my fingers. But she isn't used to hand washing so I wanted to give her superwash. I'm makeing the blueberry waffle socks that were all the thing a few years back.

I am SO close to finishing my weaving. SO close. I thought I'd finish it today--the weaving I mean. I can't wait to see it wet finished!

I'm watching Swing Kids tonight with one of my sons and enjoying the knits and vintage fashions. And it's a great movie, so sad, and so good.