Monthly Archives: March 2010

Making Things, Doing Stuff

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Sleeves

Sleeves, I almost has them.  I think it’s a little easier to see how the top of the Wave and Dimple Kimono works now.  This piece will be folded in half, long side together to make a tube with a hole in the middle.  The hole is, obviously, the neck, and the sleeve part wraps around the side of the body and then down the arms.  It sounds more complicated than it is.

Warping

Wednesday I spent a little time warping the loom to make a small cotton plain weave bag.  I was sick yesterday so I never got around to weaving but I wove up the fabric today (but didn’t get a picture) and warped for the strap.  I’m using the instructions from Woven Treasures and the bag came out kind of small, but now that I look at the dimensions in the book, it’s close to what’s there.  I’m using various worsted weight cottons, there’s some Sugar and Cream, some KnitPicks Simply Cotton, some other KnitPicks cotton, I think it’s Comfy but I’m not totally sure.  I used the second color from the edge (it’s KP Simply Cotton in Ginger, I know that) for the weft and I’m following the instructions from the book for a pick up patterned strap.  The bag is really going to be too small to use, I think.  Once I get it washed and sewn together it might be ok.  I’d like to make a nice, big tote bag but I need to get some more cotton yarn first.

Chippy

I’m still not feeling 100% today, I’m tired and my head hurts, but it is really beautiful outside, it’s warm in the sun (only 57 outside) and the dogs have been out most of the day.  I went and chased them around the yarn this afternoon and it was so nice be outside and not freeze.  I couldn’t get a decent shot of Sally, so here’s my cousin’s dog Chippy, we’re dog sitting this week while they’re out of town.  I’ll think I’ll suck down some coffee and weave for a little bit now.  Have a great weekend.

Weaving Lace & Some Knitting

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Bronson Lace Scarf

Lots of pictures today.  I bought a few new weaving books so I’ve been bitten by the weaving bug again.  I got Woven Treasures by Sara Lamb, Textures and Patterns for the Rigid Heddle Loom by Betty Lynn Davenport, Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler and Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan (which isn’t a weaving book, but I bought it and haven’t mentioned it).  I really love Woven Treasures which is all about making little bags using different folk weaving techniques like Soumak and knotted pile.  I need to get some yarn and start playing.  And Textures and Patterns is just direction on how to do different texture and color patterns with a pick up stick or two heddles on the rigid heddle loom.  It’s a great book, the directions are very clear, the different patterns are well organized and it is packed full of easy to understand information.  It’s also spiral bound which makes it very easy to sit next to you while you weave, a very nice touch.

That brings me to this scarf.  I had this ugly green, orange, blue and purple handspun self striping yarn that I spun a couple years ago and looked like dog ass knitted so I thought I try weaving with it.  It actually looks pretty decent woven.  The pattern is Bronson or 5/1 lace and is from Textures and Patterns (page 13 if you have the book).  The top picture is before I washed it, you can see that the pattern is just a basic woven fabric (tabby) with weft floats on the front and warp floats on the back.

Bronson Lace Scarf

Here you can see after I washed it, the floats have bunch up, I guess you could say, or pulled together and formed a lacy fabric.  You can also see where I started, above on the left side, I started out beating the weft pretty firm and it didn’t open up like the rest of the scarf did where I used a lighter beat.

Bronson Lace Scarf

This, again, just shows the fabric.  The left side is the front with the weft floats running from side to side and the right shows the back with the warp floats running up and down.

Bronson Lace Scarf

And this shows just how much the fabric opened up.  Before I washed the scarf, it was fairly solid and now it has a window pane kind of pattern to it.  I’m pretty happy with the finished product, I really like how the lace came out, and I like how the colors shift along the length of the fabric.  I don’t know how much use I would get out of it, the scarf is short, less than four feet long and only about four inches wide.  But at least I now know how the pattern looks in person if I ever want to make something with it again.

Sleeve

I’ve been knitting, too.  I mailed off my last KnitPicks project and immediately started my Wave and Dimple Kimono.  The pattern is from the Winter 2009 Interweave Knits and I’m using KnitPicks Merino Style in Kenai and size 8US/5mm needles.  The knit fabric is cabled and has this bumpy texture but since you use such big needles (the yarn is DK weight) it is very soft and drapey and not stiff.  The pattern is knit in two pieces, you start with the cuff of the right sleeve, knit up to the shoulder and shape the neck and then knit down the left arm.  Then you knit the bottom of the sweater in one piece and sew them together.  This is the entire right sleeve, I’m shaping the neck opening right now.  I love the simple shape of this, it’s basically two big rectangles, and I would really like to try weaving some fabric and sewing something similar.

I’m feeling very inspired right now and just want to make stuff.  I need curtains for my room and I keep thinking I could weave a some, do the bulk of the fabric in plain weave with a band of color patterns at the bottom.  I would like a small rug next to my bed and I could weave that, too.  I want to make everything in Woven Treasures, weave some yardage for skirts and jackets and shirts and scarves and shawls.  Maybe a blanket.  I need some yarn!

Finishing Day

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Bitterrot

Today was a day for finishing.  I decided this morning that I was going to bite the bullet and finish up all of my almost finished projects.  To start, I bound off Bitterroot, which I finished last night.  The bind off itself took about an hour and half, there were over 300 stitches and the instructions had you work two stitches in pattern then put them back on the left needle and knitting the two stitches together through the back loop.  It made a nice, stretchy bind off edge and it should work out great when I go to block the shawl.  As for the blocking, I’ll do it sometime next week, probably Monday or Tuesday.

Calluna Cardigan

After the shawl was done, I decided to go ahead and sew the buttons on Calluna and give it a nice steam block.  Of course my camera batteries died after I took this picture so I couldn’t get a better shot, I’ll get some next week.  But this is all done and only a month after I had planned on finishing it.  This gave me so much trouble while I was knitting, I had pain in my shoulders after knitting a couple rows, I almost ran out of yarn (I have a tiny little ball of maybe 25yds left) and the button bands would not stop rolling, I think they’ll be ok after I being steamed, though.  Despite all the little problems I had, I still really like this sweater and I think my mom will, too.  The yarn is amazing, so soft, the buttons are perfect with the sweater (I used the KnitPicks Harmony wood buttons, I really like them), and even though it wasn’t hard to knit, all the texture and different stitch patterns and the cables make it look more difficult.  The pattern is really well written, there were a couple parts I had problems on but it was just because I wasn’t paying attention, and the cable charts are very clear.  Plus the end result is pretty and that makes all the work worth it.

The Details:

  • Pattern:  Calluna Sweater by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence
  • Yarn:  KnitPicks City Tweed HW in Jacquard
  • Needles:  US9/5.25mm
  • Modifications:  none that I can think of
  • See it on Ravelry. 

Sally

Blending Fiber

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Blending fiber

I’ve been saying for a few weeks that I have some fiber that I wanted to blend on my hackle but I just never took the time to actually do it until today.  I thought I’d take some pictures and share my process with you!  So, here’s what I started with.  The stringy looking stuff on the bottom left is natural colored Soy Silk, the blobs of purple on the bottom right and the pink and orange at the top left are some sparkle fiber, I think it’s angelina, and the big ball of roving is superwash wool that I dyed last summer, I believe.  To start I split my big ball of roving in half since I want a two ply yarn and I want about the same amount of fiber in each half.

Hackle Mosaic

To save space I made a mosaic of these pictures.  Starting at the top left, I first lashed on a fairly thin layer of the superwash wool roving and then on top of that I added a little sparkle and some Soy Silk.  I actually added more of the sparkle and Soy Silk in this section of roving, just so you can see it better in the pictures.  Then I added a final layer of wool.  The fiber gets pretty hard to handle on the hackle if you pile it up too high so I try not to go any further than about half way up the tines.  Once my fiber is all lashed on I remove it with a diz.  My diz came with the hackle and it’s a little square of metal (probably steel, it’s pretty heavy) with four different sized holes at each corner.  Here I’m using the second largest hole.  The last picture shows the hackle after all the fiber has been pulled off.  What’s left is tiny short ends of roving and some matted pieces of wool.  I’ll put that waste in a separate bag and card it with my hand cards to spin later.

After I was done pulling the first half of my roving I repeated the entire process again to blend the roving even further, it makes the final roving more consistent and the fiber is more blendy then stripey.  After the second pass through the hackle, I did the same thing on the second half of my roving.

I got my hackle on Etsy, from Catskill Mountain Fibers but they don’t have anything in their shop right now.  I paid right at $30, including shipping, and I got the hackle, two clamps and the diz.  The tines on the hackle are very sharp so when I’m not using it I keep them covered.  I haven’t had a tetanus shot since I was 15, so I do get a little paranoid around it, the last thing I want is to stab myself with it.

Blending fiber

And here is half of the roving, but I think I took this picture before I took it through the hackle a second time, I don’t remember.  Now I have these little “nests” of roving that are all ready to spin, all I have to do is unroll them and get started.  I’ll probably do that tomorrow because right now I want some coffee and to just knit for a little bit.

A Few More Rows

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Bitteroot

Daylight Savings Time has me all messed up, I haven’t been able to sleep good since Friday night and I haven’t been falling asleep until around 5am.  But, Sally keeps getting up at 9am so I have to, too, she won’t let me sleep if she’s awake.  Needless to say, I’ve had quite a bit of knitting time at night and I’ve been using it on Bitterroot.  I’m just a few, maybe 10, rows from starting the first border section and I don’t think I’ve used nearly half of my yarn yet.

I have not started sewing the sleeves into my mom’s sweater yet.  It doesn’t need to be done for another week so I’m ok on the deadline, but I think I’ll finish it tomorrow, I just don’t feel like messing with it today.

Have you guys been watching the Hummingbird webcam on UStream?  I’ve been watching since early-ish yesterday morning when someone posted a link to it on a political forum that I’m on.  It’s mainly just watching this tiny hummingbird sit on its tiny nest while waiting for its tiny little eggs to hatch and it is utterly fascinating.  And the Yarn Harlot tweeted it last night so the chat room has been taken over by knitters.  There are over 3900 people watching this bird right now and earlier there were well over 5000.  I love the internet.