Dornik Twill Blanket

This work-in-progress is a Dornik twill blanket designed by Barbara Elkins of Webs.

It doesn't look like a blanket yet, does it?

I've had to overcome a number of challenges with this project. To start with I was unfamiliar with the term "Dornik twill". It wasn't hard to learn what it was, it just took some time--a short time to look it up, and a surprisingly long time to wrap my brain around the idea! ( It's a point twill with the point removed. ) Next, I had to add some threads to widen the piece. And then decide what colors I wanted for which stripes. Lastly, I had to check that a three yard warp was a good length for this blanket.

Whew! All these little steps. None of them were very difficult, but they each required physical and mental energy.

I look forward to getting this on (and off!) the loom!

Huck Lace Gift

A friend of mine is getting married soon. I made this bag as a bridal shower present. It's a straight piece of huck lace (based on Kristen Kelley's design in the Mar/April 2008 Handwoven) that has been sewn into a drawstring bag.

The weaving yarns (warp and weft) are a 6-ply rayon from Webs. The structure is sections of 5-thread Huck lace with plain weave separating them.

The bag is lined with a peachy/orange fabric--maybe a polyester or acetate from my stash.



Here is the gift all wrapped and ready for giving. Do you like my choice of ribbon? It's a skein of yarn that I made after taking a spinning class. There are at least four different colors and kinds of wool in the skein. It's colorful, and soft...and I figured it would get made into something useful!

It's a rug!

In the middle of some cleaning I came across two boxes of yarn. The boxes were labeled as yarn, clearly labeled. So why did I shake my head at the discovery that they were really yarn?

Well, I thought that I was finally getting my stash (with my grandmother's additions to it) under control. I thought that it was all in one room.

I was wrong.

But, after staring at the contents of the boxes for a day, I knew why I had saved these yarns. I liked the colors. The yarns weren't exciting (mostly acrylics), but the colors were ones I really like. Sigh.

Oh, well. The good news is that I have used some of the yarn. I warped with rug yarn (cotton/acrylic blend) to do a turned-rosepath rug based on a design from Handwoven.com. I used pindrafted roving as my weft.

I modified most of my plans as I wove, but I like the way the rug turned out. I think it's going to become part of my bedroom decor!

Progress is Nice

Saturday was one of those weekend work days where the "to do" list ran off the page and onto the floor! Included in the list (and checked off, right before bedtime! Woo-hoo!) were these three sewing projects: a new skirt for me, a t-shirt for the soon-to-be kindergartener, and a dress/nightgown for the 8 year old (we were hoping for a fun play dress...it will be a better nightgown!)



On the spinning front, I got my 8 oz. of pink Romney spun! The yarn is a thick/thin mostly worsted weight and will be used for new hats and mittens for the girls.

Now, it's back to work on the other 10 million projects I have!

Experiments with Brocade

I'm working on odds and ends these days. Quite some time ago I put this dark blue cotton warp on my small loom. It didn't work the way I had hoped, so I let it sit for a while. --Now it's being used for a bit of brocade.

Helene Bress' Inkle Weaving has a few pages on brocade. It's a pick-up technique that is weft dependent. Most inkle weaving pick-up patterns require the color to be threaded in the warp. With brocade it's only the weft that matters--perfect for my solid color warp!

These patterns are my very first ones....I think I'll need to do quite a few more to decide what patterns look good and what works best with this warp.

warp: dark blue, unmercerized cotton (4/2?)
weft: binder-dark blue sewing thread. pattern-3/2 variegated mercerized cotton.