Steeking Success!

This is a close up of the sewing job I did on my daughter's sweater. If you remember, I chose to knit it in the round to avoid color/dye lot issues. I knit 4 stitches in the armhole space, then did two rows of straight stitching with the sewing machine on each side of the 4 stitches, and then (gasp) cut my knitting!

After the sleeves were knit (I picked up stitches around the armhole and knit the sleeve onto the body) I trimmed the yarn around the machine stitching.


Then I picked up more knitting stitches and created a little cover for the "fringe". This photo has about two rows of knitting on the needle. (I forgot to take a photo as I picked up the stitches!)









And this is what it looks like after I knit 4 rows, cast off, and sewed the cover down. No more fringes on this sleeve!


All that's left now are buttons and the afterthought button holes. I have no idea what kind of buttons to use! Any suggestions?

Thankful Fiber Day

I just wanted to show off one of my new towels in use. Check it out--behind the pie, hanging on the stove is Ryoko's towel. And just so you know, Phyllis' towel is in use right now too. It's the perfect size for my guest bathroom! Thank you both for your wonderful towels!














Instead of shopping today, I'm home feasting in fibery goodness! These are three rovings I dyed recently. The aqua-blues are probably going to find their way to my etsy shop, but the sunshine orange and yellow may just be mine!

Happy Holidays, everyone! Thank you for all the day to day good things you do!

Yetsy Treasury

There is a new "Street Team" on Etsy (a great place to buy and sell handmade items). We are "Yetsy" and we are fiber fanatics!

Searching for wool to spin? Yarn to knit? Type in "yetsy" in the search bar at etsy.

And, to top it all off, that's my ball of purple roving in the treasury! Woo-hoo! I am so amazed and excited! Come and see:

www.etsy.com/ treasury_list.php?room_id=16020

My etsy shop (also in the side bar) is fibertwist.etsy.com

Thanks to northstaralpacas.etsy.com for choosing one of my rovings for the treasury!

Towel Exchange Results!

Oh, I was a happy camper on Friday! Not only did I get to attend the guild meeting, but my children were wonderfully well behaved, and I got two beautiful new towels!

The solid blue one was woven by Phyllis Ferrero. The pattern is overall diamonds with a center decoration in each diamond. The picture doesn't to the towel justice!

The blue and natural towel (dish size) was woven by Ryoko Marti and is the structure known as M's and O's. I love it!




Both of these towels are going to be used this weekend--the diamond towel in the guest bathroom and the M's&O's in the kitchen! I can't wait to show off the work of my friends!



This little red and white piece is a bit of tape that I am weaving from sewing thread. I have never woven with threads so fine. It was a challenge to thread the heddles in my little loom because the thread was so fine I had a hard time seeing it to keep track of my position! If all goes well this pretty little tape may get used for holiday creations. If not, I still like it. Perhaps it could be hair ribbons or shoe laces!

Beginning, Middle, & End (in one post!)

My weaving guild (Wabash Weavers) is having a towel exchange on Friday. I got them on and off the loom this week --and they are marvelous! But it was an interesting challenge to limit my project to a manageable size.

The yarn is 10/2 cotton (unmercerized) in a white and a two-tone blue. Most of the threading is a point twill, with a section near each edge of straight twill threading. The threads are sett at 30 ends per inch, or three per dent in a 10 dent reed.



I had a hard time making decisions about these towels. The only thing I knew I wanted was "decent sized towels". I ran my calculations to give my 20"x 30" towels, and I was really pleased to see how close they ended up to those dimensions!

Towel #1 is plainweave with two colors to make a checkered pattern. The weft didn't pack as tightly as I expected, but it still looks nice. Towel #2 is waffle weave with a single color (white) weft. I loved running my fingers over the towel as I wove! I could feel where the waffle edges were going to be!

Here's a photo of the two towels. They have been wet finished and ironed (don't tell anyone that I ironed!). I had enough warp left to make two sample pieces--one in plain weave and one in waffle weave. The waffle weave piece is now a washcloth and the plain weave is an eyeglass case. :)

I love the feel of these fabrics! I can't wait to make more with the 10/2 cotton I have!

Cat Bed

Our poor kitty needed his own bed. He's been kicked off the woodstove (his favorite summer hangout) and we didn't have another spot just for him.

My oldest (age7) sewed the center circle and stuffed it with half-felted wool for me. The outer ring is just a gathered rectangle--stuffed with old knitting swatches that I'll never use otherwise!

I don't know if the cat has used this yet, but at least it's his!

Tension Issues

I enjoy reading the weaving blog of Bonnie Tarses (weavingspirit.blogspot.com). One of the things she comments on is the fact that weaving is a process of making mistakes and learning from them.

This is my latest warping mistake. (My last one was not blogged--I let extra dummy warp threads wrap around the back apron bar and the bar couldn't advance more than an inch off the beam.) This time, I tucked the extra dummy warp threads under the back apron. Voila! Now they can't wrap around the beam!

Do you see the problem here? The warp threads under the back apron created a "bubble" on one side of the back beam. I saw the bubble, but thought that since the warp wound on smoothly that all would weave well. Ha! The bubble made one side of the warp longer than the other and as I wove, the tension on my fabric loosened--but only on the left, the side where the bubble was on the warp beam.



I came up with a "non-elegant" solution. I inserted pencils and other smooth objects into the fabric wrapping on the front apron. This helped take care of some of the tensioning difference across the piece.

The final fabric still has some horizontal tracking (even after washing), but it will work ok for it's intended purpose.

Lace & Slippers

This is my first attempt at weaving Huck Lace. The sampler pictured here is from "The best of Weaver's Huck Lace". I'm using that book along with Handwoven Laces by Donna Muller as my references. With things like this, I wish I could weave faster! I really want to see what these weaves will look like off the loom!







I made a pair of slippers for my four year old. The red/blue fabric is a handspun wool that I wove into a sample. The blue/grey striped fabric is another sample piece. Now instead of little bits of fabric I have a finished object! Hooray for finished objects! (FYI, the heel is a piece of suede. I'm not sure why the pattern suggests just that small piece of suede. It was hard to sew the binding on it!)

Odds and Ends

My four year old pulled this book off the library shelf and said we needed to take it home. Who was I to argue--it looked interesting! The polymer clay caricatures in the book are amazing--so detailed, so life-like.
















"Gollum" here is made with yellow & white Sculpey III polymer clay. It was the end of an old stash of polymer clay. I spent a pleasant hour at the kitchen table playing with him while the kids played and did homework. An extra half hour or so, and he was as done as he was going to get!

I learned lots of things about the human head by working on this guy--for instance, did you know how deep the eyes are set in the head? (I obviously didn't!)

After making this head, I had to purchase more clay--And it's a good thing I did too! My mother was visiting over the weekend and read the book and made her own head to take home with her! Her head even has a beret! Too Cool!





Curtains are almost finished! Do you recognize this fabric? I finally dug out my sewing machine and got these up on rods. All three sets need hemming, but I wanted to get them up before I tried to hem them!
















And here is the "next" project (at least the next one I've photographed!) This is a wool quilt batt in muslin. I am tying the layers together with cotton yarn and will make a duvet cover for my four year old's bed.

Doll Trio

Fiber art happens here in odd ways. When my four year old says, "Mom, I'd like to make something. How about these yarn dolls?" what can I do, but say "Yes."?

The narrow side of a DVD case was the right size to wind these dolls. An inch of windings made the bodies and a quarter inch for the arms.

Aren't they great?!

Pictureless Posts

This is yet another pictureless post! I hosted a fiber party on Friday and didn't even think to bring out the camera! Ann and Melanie came down from Lafayette. Brenda drove in from Darlington. And Goldie came with her beautiful wheel.

Most hands held knitting (but not me. I was finishing the second bobbin of burgandy for the sweater of previous posts). Brenda, Ann, & Melanie tied in the "Guess the fiber game" and we had to drawn a name out of a hat to see who got to take the hand-dyed roving home! Brenda won!

Thank you to all my fiber friends who help make this wonderful addiction so much fun!

Embarrased

No picture to go with this post! The guild loom that I warped for use at an upcoming festival has already been delivered. And guess what? It turns out I warped it incorrectly! I didn't go over the back beam.

Argh!

Card Weaving Help

I used the leftover warp from the failed hot-pad project and warped a new card weaving belt. The threads got a bit tangled, but eventually everything was all set and I started winding the warp onto the back beam of my new rigid heddle loom.

The warping didn't get too far before a helper appeared! Isn't she cute? The loom is big enough that she can sit inside it! So, the warping slowed down for a bit.

Eventually, the warping could progress, and the weaving went quickly. Now I have about two yards belt fabric!

This is a 4-hole card weaving pattern. The two cards at each end have the same color yarn in each hole. The center cards have two grey and two blue threads in varying positions. The front and back of the belt fabric is shown.

:)

The Right Tool

I once had a co-worker tell me the importance of using the right tool. Even if you knew how to use a hammer really well, it just wasn't the best tool for cutting, say...window glass.

Well, I have a new tool. My little rigid heddle loom is awesome! It's like the first loom Martin made for me, with all the bells and whistles added! The heddle is only semi-rigid, though. It's made with texsolv heddles that can be shifted from side to side. That becomes important later on!

I got the loom two weeks ago. I used the leftover warp that was on it to get the feel for the loom, then warped to make a bag handle. I am really pleased with how it turned out! And the loom, while it is bulky, was portable and I took it outside and wove while the kids played.


Last night I warped and wove project #2 on the new loom. I had made some knitted I-cord with some handspun yarn and wanted something ala potholders to show off the color variations.









(I'm only mildly crazy. The 16 yard skein of I-cord was knit with a mechanical cord knitter.
I couldn't do that much I-cord with double points!) I was hesitant to try this. Using a warp this thick would be like rag weaving which requires lots of beating. But, what could I do? I'm using the floor loom to hold 15 yards of muslin fabric for a few days, so it was unavailable!

Well, the project produced one potholder. I had warped enough for 8, but it was a painful process. The texsolv heddles moved just enough that the warp threads would bunch together. The comb that I was using to pack the weft in worked, but I couldn't pack it tight enough. And on and on!

I will try my potholders again in a week or so on the floor loom. In the mean time, I wonder what pattern I should make for my next belt?

Knitting Lessons

I am knitting a sweater for my oldest. It was originally planned for a birthday present, but is now online for Christmas (I hope!).

It's a cardigan from a 1999 Knitters Magazine. I really like the style of the pattern. See all the neat little stitch patterns? They are easy to do and look so nice in the picture!

Do you see any such stitch patterns in my work? Hmm. That's why this post is titled "Knitting Lessons". I'm learning a lot about knitting. Lesson #1 is stitch definition. There is no stitch definition in the biggest piece in the picture--it is knit on US7 needles. The middle piece, on US5's is better, but it's not until I used the US2's that the piece started looking, and surprisingly, feeling, like a sweater. (My photography skills leave a lot to be desired here. There really is stitch definition in the small swatch!)

One of the reasons why this sweater wasn't finished in time for the birthday was a concern about sizing. The big piece of knitting on the right is not a swatch. I was knitting the sweater and the body is halfway done. I got to looking at it and realized that it might be too small.

Lesson #2. Body measurements are not always the same as finished sweater measurements. Knitting Daily (www.knittingdaily.com) had some great comments about ease--positive and negative ease--in sweaters. I had inadvertently forgotten to allow for ease in this sweater! The big piece is headed to the frog pond.

Since I was going to redo the knitting anyway, I decided it worth my while to do a better job at swatching. I did swatch before...but I think I knit a sample on the US7's and said,"Oh. That will work!" and started knitting. This time, I want stitch definition. I want this sweater to feel comfortable cozy! I want the finished project to be worth the amount of time I'm about to invest in it! I think I've set myself up to do a cardigan on size 2 needles!

Tiny Shed Trouble (and resolution!)

I was having a "wee little bit o' trouble" with my handspun warp. The fibers were just hairy enough that they stuck together! So, I changed from a 20 ends per inch threading through the reed to 10. That put one end through each slot in the reed. But I was still having trouble. When I lifted each shaft by itself I got a decent shed. When I lifted two together I got 1" tops and the resting threads went slack. Ick.

My weaving group at yahoo came up with some good suggestions on how to improve the shed. But the real solution came from another pair of eyes.

I had called my husband over so he could have a good laugh with me. I had made some adjustments to the warp, forgot to put the front palls back on the ratchet and tried to weave. The warp threads went into a wild dance of semi-organized chaos! While we laughed together, he peeked at the back of the loom and said, "Why did you take the back beam out?"

???! This was one of those wonderful moments where you realize you didn't plug the dumb appliance in! I hadn't warped the loom correctly! The warp was going directly from the back apron to the heddles.

In retrospect, I know how this happened. This is the first time I used a dummy warp. When I tied my handspun warp to the dummy warp, I forgot to put the dummy over the back beam.

Now I know.

I was so happy to discover (1) that my loom worked just fine and (2) real 4" sheds that I sang my way to the end of the warp. The scarf/shawl is soaking now as I type.


Here's a shot of the weaving in progress.

Frogs and Finished Items

I needed a "quick" project. No particular reason, except that I needed to feel like I had accomplished something and actually finished a project!

This is a worsted weight superwash merino yarn that I spun from one of Amy King's (aka. Boogie) rovings.

The first photo is a set of mittens that got frogged. The one on the left was a wee bit to small for the baby, and the one on the left had an odd thumb--too balloony!


I frogged back to the the ribbing. It's a k2,p2 rib with a cross over in the middle (see the darker photo. It was hard to catch the pattern with the flash.) The final mittens had decent looking thumbs and I think they will fit the now sleeping babe.

There's a little hat to go with the mittens. I think it may get a pompom tomorrow.

Yarns

These are the yarns I took with me to the Monrovia Fall Festival. I was invited to demonstrate spinning for the Indiana Traditional Arts Center. The yarns are just extras from my own collection that don't currently have projects. I had hoped to sell a few skeins. None sold.

A couple of people did stop by to talk and learn more about spinning. At least two of these people then took tours of the Arts Center! Hooray! The demo was successful!

And, at the end of the day, I had two sales. Two young girls (maybe 12 years old) to see what I was doing and fell in love with the color of some of my rovings. So they each bought a little ball. I don't think they know what they bought, but they sure thought they were pretty!

Bag, Baby!

This is my last minute bag creation. It's 6 1/2 inches tall and about 5 inches across. The fabric is handwoven (it's a piece from a sampler I made last year!) with a small piece of purchased fabric for the base of the lining.

The warp is a cotton (perhaps 5/2). The weft has a gold boucle mystery yarn, a tan chenille mystery yarn, and a red mercerized cotton (perhaps 20/2).

The warp threading is a combination of tabby and basket weave.












Here's the bag with it's lining showing.













This is the fabric still attached to the sampler.

Card or Tablet Weaving

Oh, dear! I've done it again! I've found something else that is absolutely fascinating to do! Cardweaving is a mindboggling way of making cords and belts with punched cards holding the threads and keeping them in order. See the huge pack of cards on the cover of the book? Each of those cards has 4 threads that it controls. Each turn of cards (1/4 turn actually) brings a different thread to the surface of the work.


I wasn't very brave and made my first project very simple! I used only three cards and each card had 4 threads of the same color. My first piece is in the picture with the book. The center white line has a zig-zag effect because of the way I turned the cards 4-1/4 turns forward, followed by 4-1/4 turns backwards. My second piece has the white line without zigs or zags, but the entire piece twists. I turned the cards one direction for the entire piece.

See the twists?
I changed tensioning devices in the middle of the second piece and the change in my tension is obvious in person. The twisting of the piece at the beginning is less than at the end. Good to know--tension matters!


The book is "Card Weaving" by Candace Crockett. It belongs to my library...and it came complete with a set of cards! Now it's time to make myself a set!

From the Same Cloth

I really wanted to title this post "Sisters" because these two bags are like sisters. They are made from the same fabric, but the personalities are significantly altered by the edge treatments.











Bag #1 seemed to take forever! The sides of the bag are knit together in a modified I-cord treatment. It was a bear to knit, but the edge seems to let the background color of the weaving continue into the edging. The top edge is a simple overcast stitch to keep the loose warp threads under control (there is a line of backstitching underneath it).






Bag #2 was a speed demon! Even with all that fringe, it was finished in one evening! The warp threads on the front edge were braided. Every few wraps of the braid, I would pick up a new bundle of warp threads and let an old set hang down for fringe. The sides of the bag are sewn, and a braided cord sewn on for trim and a handle.

Hodge-Podge

I purchased some buffalo fiber at the Michigan Fiber Festival last weekend. The woman who sold it suggested blending it with some wool because it is apparently very warm by itself (not to mention expensive & I bought less than an ounce!). Here are my buffalo "sandwiches". There are at least three batts stacked together in the photo. I'm not sure yet how I want this to be spun. It may need to sit and wait for a day or two!






This is an edge treatment that we didn't cover in my workshop last weekend! This is a thick, twill fabric intended to become a shoulder bag. To finish the edges at the top of the bag I backstitched a line across the piece about3/8" from the edge. Then I stitched around the raw edge with the yellow yarn, taking care to place the loops right next to each other. The rounded edge looks good from both sides and covers all the loose warp threads.




And, just because it's canning season, here's a photo of my stewed tomatoes in process. I started with a bushel of tomatoes--big slicers--got almost half of them canned, did some salsa, and gave the rest away. Boy how I admire those who do big time canning! It is a lot of work! (But the end result is very satisfying!)

"There and Back Again"

I spent the last few days at the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, Michigan. My "excuse" for going was a finishing techniques class taught by Joan Sheridan Hoover titled "Take it All Off". My sampler is the lovely green thing in the photo. It is decorated with no less than 10 finishing techniques! My favorite technique is the one that doesn't show well in the photograph--it's on the top edge, second in from the right. It is a netting made by tying overhand knots at the edge of the weaving, followed by a second or third row of overhand knots lower down the fringe to create a simple netting.

Some of the best parts of taking a workshop class include:
-interacting with other weavers--we are an amazingly diverse group of people!
-interacting with instructors--these are people who in some way, shape or form, "do" weaving for a living (or some portion thereof). I like seeing who these people are...learning skills and techniques. Technically, Joan was teaching a finishing class. However, she was also teaching teaching skills. I learned lots listening to her.
-working on samplers! Samplers are cool! I want to have an excuse to do more samplers! Silly, I know, but look at all the information I have in that one piece of weaving! 10 edge treatments!