Slow

I'm still here, just not with much to show for my efforts lately. The adirondack socks have stalled. I finished one and started the second only to discover that they are not comfortable underfoot. The stitch used is elongated single crochet worked in the round and in a more springy yarn it might be fine, but the bamboo yarn I used is more firm and not squishy at all. So, I'll probably rip and use the yarn for something else.



The woven scarves are taking forever, although the end is in sight now which is just as well, since one of them is earmarked for a gift.

I started a sweater in green with a lacy pattern copied from one I knitted years ago from a Sandra magazine. The back is done, but the front is waiting for me to work out the neck shaping before I continue.

I started a Topsy Turvy Moebius scarf in a fluffy grey yarn (Stylecraft Pavlova) and I'm just about ready to start the second ball now.

I'm a good bit further on that this picture shows, but it shows the twist quite well.

Apart from a simple plain pair of socks which match colourwise within a few stitches, I think that's about it. Ooh, I forgot the hat I just cast on for my son, this is in very chunky yarn on 7mm needles, and I hope I've got the size right.

The most exciting news is that I'm getting a table loom for Christmas, well I actually have it now, but we are building a new castle for it with 8 shafts to replace the 4 it came with. Hopefully, I'll be up and running before long.

Finished objects

I finally got some pictures taken of two projects just completed. The Balletneck sweater from the book 'Crochet that fits' by Mary Jane Hall has turned out well, although I should probably have made the body a bit smaller and the sleeves a bit wider. Still, it fits pretty well overall, and I'm pleased with it.

This is the yoke which I altered from the pattern. As written, it was far too large and wouldn't stay on my shoulders, so I went down a hook size and decreased more drastically. I also worked more rounds to give more depth.

The other fo is a top down raglan cardigan. This is plain stocking stitch (5mm needles) and 2x2 ribbing (4.5mm needles for all ribbing except the sleeve cuffs which used 4mm). The yarn, Jojoland Rhythm, is made up of 4 plies, each one changing colour gradually along the length, so the permutations are nearly endless. I used nearly all of the 10 balls of yarn. Before I began, I wound all the balls on the wool winder just so I could see the colour variations along the length of each one. I spent ages trying to work out the sequence which would produce the least sudden change in colours when changing balls.

I still have to sew on the buttons, but it's blocked and dry, so I'll get them done later.

Busy

I've been quiet for a while because we've been doing some work around the house which needed doing. Home improvements and yarn don't really mix very well.

I wove a couple more teatowels using no.10 crochet cotton, one peach end in each hole and two white ends in each slot with the 12.5 dpi heddle. The left most one is plain weave with differing numbers of picks of the two colours. The one on the right is my favourite waffle type weave in broad stripes. They are a bit floppy, but will be useable I think.


Today I warped up with some acrylic 4 ply (Denis Brunton Magicolor) for a couple of scarves, maybe for gifts if they turn out okay. This is a colour changing yarn, with one ply being black the other more colourful. I'm using black for the weft. I'm using the 12.5dpi heddle and beating very gently for a balanced weave. A side effect of this warp is the faux twill effect of the spots of colour which appear to shift and move on the diagonal. It doesn't show up much in the picture, but is quite striking in reality.

I have finished the crocheted Balletneck sweater, but have no pictures yet. However, I do have one of my attempt at an Adirondack sock from the current Interweave Crochet mag (Fall '09).
The yarn is Wendy Happy, a bamboo yarn, and I'm using a 3.25mm hook.

My top down raglan cardigan is almost done, I've just started knitting the band and then I have to find buttons.

I finished the Baktus - just

Yes, the Baktus scarf is done. I ran out of yarn with about three inches still to go, even though I started the decreases with more than half the weight of yarn remaining. I was considering ripping back to before halfway and reknitting, when I remembered that I had a few metres of 2 ply made from the leftover singles when I 3 plyed the original yarn. Undaunted and with reassurance from members of a Yahoo group I'm in, I unplied and then navajo plied these singles, giving plenty of yarn to finish with.

The remains of the spa washcloth warp were woven with a variety of chunky knitting yarns, one section with assorted brown and rust yarns, and one with some blue with flecks. The latter I made into a small bag with a crocheted handle. I knotted the warp ends and folded the knotted edge to the outside.


The side seams were achieved with a length of warp threaded through the selvedge loops which worked well.


The other piece had each warp end threaded up the adjacent warp. This took ages, but if you don't want fringe or hems, it's a useful way to finish a piece. This was a total freestyle effort, using odds and ends of chunky yarn. It turned out a bit weft faced. I might make another bag from this sometime.


Last week, DH and I set about renewing the webbing on my armchair. To start with it involved removing a lot of staples and tacks before stapling new webbing in place. Initially we just had four webs in each direction in a tidy plain weave. This seemed a bit soft, so DH suggested adding more webs. What weave structure to use? Well, I don't know what it's called, but I like it.

Knitting has been going on. I began a top down raglan cardigan using Jojoland Rhythm yarn in a blue/beige colourway on 5mm needles.

I'm a bit further along than this picture shows but so far it's all stocking stitch and the colours are shading nicely.

This is a crocheted doily in progress, which I recently dug out of hibernation and have been pressing on with. There's still quite a bit to do on it.

I'm working on the first sleeve of the crocheted balletneck sweater, but it still looks like a brown blob, so no picture.


Since I like to have a sock on the go, I started a plain top down one in Online sock yarn, 2.75mm needle and 64 sts.

More updates

First off, I blocked my Equinox shawl yesterday. It turned out to have a radius of 32", and I'm happy with it. I nearly used up my entire tub of pins on the zillions of crocheted cast off loops.


I also finished the batch of three tea towels which I'd been weaving for a while. They turned out better than I thought they would, and I've been using them for actual drying up. This was a wrench to start with, but what is the point of making functional type textiles if you aren't going to use them?

I warped with two strands in each slot and one in each hole for 15 epi. The middle picture shows the waffle type weave which I used for the second towel. The weft was the same - 1 pick in one shed and 2 picks in the other. The other two used different pick up stick patterns, the third one pictured above is all over waffle type weave and it is really squishy.

Next up is the Spa cloth project from Weavezine . The loom was empty when this project was published, and I have quite a bit of thick cotton, so I thought I'd have a go. My first attempt was okay, but I was concerned that the pile loops wouldn't be very secure, so I started again, beating harder for a weft dominant fabric. I'm worried that if a loop gets pulled, it will end up a long loop too easily.

Still not convinced it would hold together, I cut this off the loom to finish it before continuing with more of them.

Above is the reverse side and below is the top before I put it in the washing machine (in a mesh bag).
Currently it is drying, and the loops are still there! How it will stand up to use remains to be seen. Warp is Twilleys Handicraft cotton and weft is Rowan Handknit cotton using a 7.5 dpi heddle.

This is about 40g of merino, so there is still 160g to go, before I get to plying. It is going to take a while I think.

Here is the front in progress of the Balletneck sweater from the book Crochet that Fits, by Mary Jane Hall. I'm using Sirdar Countrystyle double crepe DK which has been in the stash for a long time. The hook size is 4.5mm and gauge is different from the pattern, so I'm having to recalculate as usual. So far so good.

Knitting backlog

I've known for some time that the reason for my sporadic posting is that I prefer to include photos of current wips. Since my picture taking tends to happen only occasionally, infrequent updates are the result.

Anyhow, here goes:
I have two pairs of socks finished. The first are knitted with Wendy Happy which is a bamboo yarn. The pattern is a variation of Wendyknits Seaweed socks. They turned out quite well, but the colour does run in the wash unfortunately.



Just finished are the Wendyknits Sunrise socks. These I like a lot. Merino wool on 3mm needles.
The purple stripes line up on the heels and I had nothing to do with it.

The orange triangle is my Baktus scarf just past the halfway point. The yarn is 250m of hand dyed, hand spun 3 ply superwash BFL. I was getting impatient to use some of my handspun, because, hidden away in the stash I wasn't getting the pleasure of seeing and handling it. It was a bit thick for socks and short on yardage probably, so the idea of using it this way was great. I started decreasing when 51g of the 100g was left, so I should be okay. I bet I'll still be knitting faster just to make sure I have enough!

Other knitting has been going on too. I started a Lotus Blossom tank, using Sirdar Denim dk. Sadly not all the balls were the same dyelot, ( I know I was being optimistic and to be fair the balls did look the same everytime I scrutinised them) but there is an obvious difference when knitted and I will be ripping this one unless I try striping two balls together. No decision yet.

The next FO I haven't mentioned before. It's the Vernal Equinox Surprise shawl. This is available as a free download on Ravelry. I cast on on a whim and somehow I kept going. It isn't blocked yet, but hopefully it will be soon. It took just over 800m of sock weight yarn on 4.5mm needles. I omitted one pattern repeat on I think clue 5, and finished with just 4 feet of yarn left.

I have some weaving, spinning and crochet to document too, but that will be for another time. I have to go and make lunch.

Dyeing and knitting

Weaving has been slow lately, the third towel is in progress and I can't wait for it to be done, because I really want to be weaving something else. For a change I had a go at dyeing some merino tops. I took 2 lots of 100g and dyed one in a semisolid purple and the other piece I splodged with several pinky purpley shades. The plan is to spin each one into fine singles and then ply them together.

I've made a start on one half and it's going quite well. Previously I finished spinning some alpaca fleece that I bought soon after I got my wheel. The drum carder really speeded up the preparation.

This is heavy DK weight 2 ply. The paler skein is some of the lighter parts of the fleece which I separated from the rest. I've put it in the handspun stash to mature. I have some more of this which I spun ages ago. I don't think there's enough for a sweater without adding some of another colour.

Here we have one and a bit Sunrise socks. This is such a simple stitch pattern and it really adds texture and changes the look of the yarn patterning nicely. The yarn is merino from YarnAddict Anni, and it is very nice to work with.

Unobservant weaver

I don't know how I missed it, but when I used the pick up stick on this towel, I managed to catch one thread wrongly. To be fair it isn't at all obvious on the right side. This warp has given me a lot of tension troubles. I think my warping technique will have to improve. I'm using crochet cotton with two ends in each slot and one in each hole. I warped front to back and when I wound on, there were tangles. Apart from that, even though I tied on at the front with the heddle raised, after a few inches of weaving the slot threads became loose compared with the hole threads. I cut this towel off and tied on again, and the same thing is happening with the second towel. Frankly, I'm puzzled. In an effort to keep the edges neat and reduce draw in, I tried a makeshift temple consisting of some kumihimo weights, nuts, and some hooks intended for hanging ribber weights when machine knitting.


I decided to just go for it and gently pulled out the offending warp thread and rewove it. It was only about 2 feet long and took 10 minutes. You'd never know.

Plaid

I seem to be a bit behind with blogging again ( I love how Bloggers' spellcheck doesn't recognise 'blogging' ) Anyway, I nearly have a finished pair of socks, once I can decide what kind of cast off to use. I normally knit top down socks and don't have this problem. My Cabled Spiral 2 sweater was finished ages ago, and I forgot to mention it. I haven't managed to get any good pictures of it yet anyway, I'll have to try again. The crocheted top (Forest Flower top) is also nearly done. I just have to finish the edges and work in the ends.



These are a couple of the mats I made, using patterns made using the pickup stick. The yarn is a 4 ply cotton (8/4) sett at 12.5 dpi. I could have done with weaving the hems with a thinner yarn, but I didn't have anything that matched, so the hem on the top one is a bit bulky. The lower one I hem stitched, but I don't think it will be very durable. These are really only samples, which may come in useful as mats.


The plaid is done. I ended up with about 39" length,11.25" wide. The cotton is 4 ply and I used the 12.5 dpi heddle. This may be the raw material for a small zippered bag. I kept all the colour changes on one side and once it was off the loom I machine zigzagged along that edge before washing it.

Weaving

Here we have a selection of pick up stick patterns. What a great way to get some texture! I'll be dividing this length up into assorted mats and hemming them. My favourite so far is waffle weave and I want to try that with some warp stripes some time. Some of the warp threads get deflected and if they were in another colour, I think it would look way more complicated than it is.

I just got started on some plaid. Initially I warped with two heddles to try some double weave, which I managed okay, but the cotton was sticking in the slots and getting a clean shed was annoyingly difficult. I wove a few inches and abandoned the project. I then removed half of the warp and retied to try a few twill patterns, but the sett was wrong for that, so I abandoned that too. I removed the warp and measured some more to go with it, and threaded the 12.5dpi heddle for plain weave. I have had this 4 ply cotton for a while and it suggested a plaid pattern, so here it is. I'm aiming for a balanced weave, and so far the squares aren't too far off square.

Getting up to date

Having finished the crocheted Simply Spring top recently, I was tempted to start another summer top. I've had some Emu Perle (acrylic which looks like perle cotton, light DK weight) in the stash for ages in several colours and I've used some of it for other tops. This time lilac was the choice, and the pattern I'm using as a starting point is the cover design of the latest Interweave Crochet magazine (Spring 2009). Instead of the flowered yoke I will have a try at working a more solid circular yoke. So far I nearly have half a front done and the fabric is very pleasing. I'm using a 5mm hook.

My interest in various yarny pursuits fluctuates with time, and at the moment crochet is pushing its way to the front. This was why I ordered some more Clover soft touch hooks to fill in the gaps of my set. When they first came out, I bought the set which covered 2.5mm to 6mm in half mm increments. I just discovered that they now make the quarter mm sizes between 2mm and 4mm, along with a range of steel hooks in the smaller sizes 0.5mm to 1.75mm. So, seeing that they are my favourite hooks, I couldn't resist. Of course I had to make a case to keep them in, so I made another like my original one.


I have managed a little knitting: the neckband of the Cabled Spiral is nearly done, but I need to put the stitches on a longer needle so that I can try it on to check. I've also started a sock with the Wendy Happy bamboo/nylon yarn. I'm using Wendyknits Seaweed sock pattern with a little alteration to the lace pattern. I'm reversing the chart on alternate repeats. This is the second attempt because the first try was too big, so I'm doing the medium size now. Even on 2.5mm needles 66sts seems to be enough in this pattern.

Last but not least I finally finished spinning some superwash english wool tops which I dyed myself. It is fairly bright and it ended up about DK weight 2 ply. (223m, 91g)