Something New

I am trying something new. I am weaving a shawl out of my handspun yarns. If all goes well, I hope to send the finished shawl to Afghans for Afghanistan.

The challenges:
Yarn. This is a random collection of handspun. None of it was intended for weaving. The wide bright pink stripes are the best(slightly thicker, slightly more tightly spun). The lighter pink I had to add some twist to, and the brown has a lot of sproing! So, three different yarns.
Yarn. This is a random collection of handspun. None of it was made in large enough skeins to weave a shawl. (Ha! And you thought I was just repeating myself! :) By adding a second brown yarn for the warp, I may have enough to get the requisite 62+ inches!
And, lastly, Color in Weaving. Some of you may remember I'm afraid of color. Sometimes I think I'm afraid of my weaving experiments. --Ahh. I need to modify that. I have no fear of the things I weave, I have fear that others will not like them, or will criticize the this or the that. Let me hide my weaving in the box of my house and I will not fear! Hopefully, this will come off as a respectable project and I won't have need of fear!

More Lace Scarf

Here's another shot of my lace scarf. It went to it's new home on Sunday. After taking this photo, my children asked to model the scarf...I'll spare you the photos, but I thought that all three of them were as cute as buttons in this! And my friend loved her new scarf, too!

Ode to an old Friend

This is my old quilt. She's technically a douvet cover. I made her six years ago and she has lived on my bed year round since then. I have watched her age and fade and show signs of wear, and recently, watched her fall apart at the seams.

I finished taking my quilt apart today. The back and the lining will be reused in a new cover. The pieced top, while faded and falling apart on the boarders, I carefully folded and will save. Maybe one of the kids will need a patchwork skirt. Maybe we'll need a picnic tablecloth. Or maybe, I'm just not ready to part with this old friend.

A Few New Things

I started weaving a scarf today. My project on the 8H loom is progressing....slowly due to shoulder considerations, but progressing...but, of course, I have other projects dancing around in my head and there comes a time when I need to finish something.

The yarns: three different weight handspun yarns. I had hoped the three weights would be closer, but I'm ok using them. All three are more or less DK weight.

The Sett: 10 epi.

The warp is threaded in straight twill...four threads of dark blue alternating with four threads of light blue. The weave structure is supposed to make cool, curly edged checks. If you squint at the photo and focus on the light blue sections you can almost see the curls.

So, now, the "new" stuff. The weaving pattern is a new one for me. Using handspun yarn successfully as a warp and weft is still new to me (and probably will be for some time!).

In warping the loom, front to back (my usual), I tried a new method of tying on to the front apron. The idea is to avoid having to adjust the tension of individual warp thread groups by tying them on in pairs of groups, and advancing the warp. So, I tied on the outermost bundles of threads first, in a square knot. Then, I advanced the warp one click. Then I tied on the next set of bundles, and advanced the warp. As I tied on the bundles, I made sure that each pair of bundles was as evenly tensioned as possible. And, it worked!

Lastly, I actually took a sample off the loom, cut it in half and washed one of the halves! I must be growing up or something! Sampling? Me? (I even wound extra warp so I could do this! Go figure!)

So far, I like my blue creation. I have no idea how it will end up, but it's good to have new projects and new techniques to try!

Time for Fiber?

I enjoy reading Abby Franquemont's comments on life and fiber. She was raised both in Peru, where her parents did all sorts of research, and in the US. She recently posted this breakdown of her typical work week:

"For a typical work week, I generally try to stick to a breakdown of “Production: 12-24 hours; Operations: 10-12 hours; Development: 12-20 hours.” Total work hours in a typical week: 32 - 56.

Production is things like dyeing silk, or producing yarn and fiber for sale.

Operations is stuff like packing, shipping, inventory, accounting, routine correspondence.

Development is writing, patterns, product testing, market research, and some correspondence."

I wonder what my typical work week breakdown would look like?

Survival of the Fittest

Remember theses? My just finished (ok, finished last month!) handspun, handknit cabled socks?

Well they went on an adventure this week! With the pain in my shoulder, my husband did the laundry this week. He's pretty good at stuff like that. But guess what fell out of the dryer as I was getting things out to fold...

Gulp! My socks. I almost cried. Not my brand new handknit socks. They looked a little crumpled. I had visions of them being felted beyond repair.

But, guess what! They still fit...in fact, they fit better now than before their adventure in the washer and dryer! Who would have guessed? I'm attributing their successful navigation of my laundry system to the fact that they were spun from Cotswold wool, a longer wool that doesn't felt well. Whew! I'm so glad they still fit!

Here are the amazing socks--a little wrinkled, but still the right size!

A Little Something Extra

The Macomber 8H loom has some pre-drilled holes on the back beam supports. With a long dowel, some metal brackets, and some bolts we created a holder for the roll of brown paper that I put between layers of warp threads. Now the paper is up off the floor--hooray!

My weaving progress ground to a crawl this week due to a shoulder injury. I am getting better, but will be weaving very slowly for a while.