Still busy

Blogging hasn't been at the top of my to do list for a while, but since it is a really good way to keep track of my crafty projects, I thought I'd better start posting again. I'm going to start with current projects and work backwards. Whether I'll get through the backlog is doubtful, but we'll see.

On the loom is the third tea towel of this warp of 3/14 cotton.


These are the first two off the loom. I had to re-beam the warp because of uneven tension - when I originally beamed it, the lease sticks were continually causing snags and tangles. Maybe next time I'll warp front to back. The draft is from Twill Thrills p79, Alice Schlein's network drafted twill on 8 shafts.

On the needles is a Norah Gaughan design, Drift. I don't have pictures yet, one sleeve (swatch) is done, and the back is started. I'm using Twilleys of Stamford Freedom Spirit in a reddish colourway.


On the hook is a ripple scarf in Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. There have been a couple of knots which has been a nuisance, but so far I've managed to maintain the colour sequence.

A recently completed item is the Girl Friday cardi from Knitty. I altered the neck shaping so that the neck width was wider, and the shoulder seams sit correctly. However, the sleeves are narrow, so if I was to knit it again, I would make them wider. All the same it is a lovely cardi.

A gentle nudge

I'm still here, just not very active blogwise. A dear friend emailed me yesterday to ask if I was alright because I hadn't updated for so long. So, here I am.

I can't even remember everything I've achieved in the last few months, but this post will include those things that I have pictures of.

This is Haruni, knitted with my own hand dyed and hand spun merino and silk blend yarn.

I only just made it...

The shawl isn't very big, but it makes me happy.

Cubist socks by Cookie A. These were a free pattern from Knitting Daily. They look better when worn, since the stitch pattern causes them to look distorted. There have been a couple of other pairs of socks, but they didn't make the photoshoot yet.

Stash enhancement has been going on. This is some of the Araucania multy sock yarn I acquired to knit some lightweight sweaters. Sadly I'm back to the beginning again, since my swatch lied, and the twisted rib was indeed twisted/biased. I suspect that working in the round is the culprit with the rib, worked back and forth it usually looks fine.


I hadn't tried tapestry crochet before, but this is a Mukluk in progress. The pattern is from an Inside Crochet magazine. I had to go up several hook sizes to get gauge, finally settling on 3.5mm with DK yarn.

I had a play with Huck lace, and had great difficulty with getting the ppi even. Maybe I should have made the sett more dense. I do better when I can beat as opposed to pressing the warp into place gently.
On the loom at the moment is a very narrow warp in no.8 pearl cotton for bookmarks in various twill patterns.

Weaving steadily, knitting and crochet too

I've been making progress on various projects lately, but haven't managed to get an opportunity to blog about them, not helped by the lack of photos. My Snow Queen shawl is getting larger, and I'm on the last chart now. It's just a big blob, so no picture yet. Other knitting news involves a Printed Silk cardigan started. I've only managed to do a few inches on the back so far, but it's looking good. I'm using Sirdar Just Soya DK in the Spinach colourway. I swatched with 3.75mm needles and got gauge, but when I washed the swatch it grew a lot. So I cast on with 3.5mm needles for a smaller size and I'm hoping for the best.

I also finished a crocheted sweater which needs a photo shoot yet. Because I like to crochet, I started another garment, this time a top down raglan cardigan. The yarn is Sirdar Countrystyle in a brightish green, and I'm using a 4.5mm hook. I'm designing it as I go along.

I warped the loom with some 4 ply acrylic/wool yarn for a seat cover and cushion cover. I threaded it for an 8 shaft straight draw, and sampled a few twill patterns before settling on one for the seat cover, and a different one for the cushion. The colour scheme is not my favourite, but it needs to emulate the existing one which is brown. The sett is 15 epi.

Here is my very first broken warp thread, well actually it frayed rather than broke, but I fixed it okay. Also visible is my tally counter. I press once per pick and can then find out where I am if my concentration is broken. My sliding beater is working really well, it's the best improvement we could have made to this loom. This fabric is off the loom now and washed and steamed, ready for sewing.

I wanted to weave some more tea towels since I've been using the rigid heddle ones all the time, and it's lovely to be handling your handiwork on a daily basis. So when I discovered this project article on the Interweave site I just had to follow it up. I'd heard about network drafting and wondered what it is and the article removes some of the mystery. I've been buying some cones of 3/14 combed cotton in various colours and it should work well for towels so I put on a 4m warp back to front at 25 epi using my new raddle, and have started weaving the first towel after trying a few different weft colours. My temple finally arrived after a 3 month wait so I'm using a temple for the first time and it really helps with keeping the selvedge threads straight for beating. I decided on navy weft for the first towel, and I'm about half way through it now.

Welcome 2010

I spent most of today playing with my new to me loom. I had a 4 shaft Varpapuu table loom for Christmas, and hubby and I have been building a new replacement castle with 8 shafts for it. I had tried it with a very small warp and it was working well, so I've wound a cotton warp for a twill sampler or gamp. Today was the day for getting it threaded and wound on. I had eventual success, although it took a while. I discovered two errors in threading and with the help of a string heddle, all is now well.

In progress...

Ready to go....

The black/multi scarves are off the Kromski which is now folded up and having a rest. One is still waiting for fringe twisting, although the other is now living with my sister in law.



Meg of the blog Unravelling has asked for pictures of looms as they are today. So, these are my two.
The Topsy Turvy moebius is done. It took a couple of evenings to work the I-cord cast off all around, and I'll get a picture once it's been washed and blocked. How do you block a moebius without putting creases in?
I also finished my Round ripple afghan which I began almost 2 years ago.



It ended up about 50" across the points. This is aran weight acrylic/wool blend yarn with a 6mm hook.

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.