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.