Realizations

I mentioned that I've embarked on an uncharacteristic cleaning binge, delving into drawers and closet corners that have not seen the light of day since we moved into this house a decade ago.  Among other things, I uncovered a largish box of sock yarn that I bought at the Sock Summit in Portland. In '09. The box sat where it has sat for the last three years, next to the TV in the bedroom, under a pile of blankets and a couple of American Girl dolls...

It was just about intervention time, I think.

So while this urge lasts, in addition to being fairly ruthless about tossing excess junk (why would we keep a non-functional computer monitor? Why would we save four of them?  Along with broken answering machines and a coffee maker dutifully labeled "leaks"?), and cleaning (oh the dust... the dust), and filling bag after bag with nice clothes that we simply don't wear (or... urk... don't fit), I've made executive decisions about some of the things I've saved, and some of the things that I thought I was going to do. And some of the things I am currently doing.

Remember that box of novelty yarn that I posted yesterday, the one I found up on the bedroom closet shelf? It's now on the way to my sister, who wanted the yarn. I will be sending more off, and donating some to charities, and selling some on eBay (eventually- the Wool Room is last on my Tackle List, since boxes from every other room are still being added to the WR inventory).

See these? These are single socks that were knitted for The Big Book of Socks. The actual socks from the book. There just wasn't time to knit whole pairs for photography before publication. The photo samples came back to me eventually and there are easily 35 single socks in this pile. I saved the yarn for these socks, stashing partial balls and bits in another closet next to my office. I always intended to knit the mates, and then use the socks for gifts.

Guess what? I finally realized that I am never, ever going to knit the mates. It's simply not going to happen. I have moved on. I am totally over these socks.

So what am I going to do with them? Not a clue. I can't bring myself to toss them, and single socks are not much use to anyone, but I now know for sure that I'm not going to knit the mates, which is such a relief. I had been dreading that job. Maybe I'll cut them up for doll clothes, or use them as working samples in a steeking class. In any case, I have admitted to myself, and now to you all, that they're never going to be pairs.

And what will I do with the yarn? It depends- most will go in with my leftover yarns for socks and hats. Some will be woven into scarves, some will be given away. And some... are you sitting down? .... some of it is just going to be tossed.

There, I said it.

Which brings me to another realization: Unless I'm on a deadline, and under contract, I don't have to finish a project that I hate.

Remember this from a few days ago?

This is lovely Crystal Palace Panda Cotton and Panda Wool yarn (both bamboo blends). It's wonderful yarn, light and soft and fun to knit with. But it's not well suited for weaving. It's a bit elastic, and the ends don't blend in nicely, and I hated working with it. Hated it so much that I hadn't picked up the shuttle for several days. Yesterday, after deciding that I could just let the Single Socks ride, I looked at the loom, and even though there was more than 2' of warp left, I said the hell with it, and cut the scarf off.

Yep, I decided that I hated weaving with the yarn, and that there was absolutely no point in forcing myself to keep working on this scarf just for the sake of using up the warp. The finished scarf is 5 1/2" wide (elastic, remember), and 44" long (excluding fringe), which is long enough for a short scarf. It's soft enough and drapey and it looks great (though it's not ironable- I nearly melted it on a medium setting). And I will never weave with that yarn again.

And then I warped the loom with something that I am enjoying using: Knit Picks Main Line Cotton warp, and some fringey novelty yarn (content unknown). This is going to weave quickly, and it's going to make a nubbly, fun scarf (and the fringey ends may poke out as it's worn, which will be cool).

But best of all, I'm enjoying the process again, which is the whole point.

What a tangled web...

Well, not really, but there are only so many weaving quotes out there.

Anyway, I've been having fun.

 I wanted to play with Gingham, which is a variety of plaid woven with only 2 colors (one of them white). I have an entire Romney fleece that was mill spun to a worsted weight. I washed the fleece, and then sent it out to be spun. Yeah, I know- I love spinning, but I don't love spinning acres and acres of plain white. Besides, I wanted to see how the millspinning looked. Verdict: it looks great. Anyway, the white is the millspun, and the green is some of my handspun.

 I really love how this came out. It's my generic scarf size- 6 1/2" wide x 72" long (excluding fringes)(I'm still wrapping the warp around 2 kitchen chairs).

 The gingham plaid looks good too. I'm going to do more of it, probably with smaller squares.

 It wasn't until I got the scarf off the loom that I noticed this huge blooper, right in the center. Sigh.

 The non-blooper parts look pretty good though. I'm learning more and more with every project.

 On Sunday, I decided to play with leftover yarns. My only restriction was that the yarn had to be handspun, and it had to be leftover. I used assorted fibers (mostly wool, but some silk, some alpaca, some mohair blends) and weights (in some cases, I doubled the strands for the weft). I used my 8 dent heddle (8 threads per inch).

 And then I just chose colors and wove the scarf, roughly equal areas unless there wasn't enough yarn to do that. I wanted it to look semi-random. This wasn't a 3 1/2 hour scarf, but I still started and finished it on the same day.

I think it turned out really well, and I especially like the yellow/gray sections. I have plenty of that yarn on hand, and I may weave a yellow and gray scarf.

Oh, most of these scarves are not next-to-skin soft, so they'll have to be worn with collars, which isn't a big deal on a coat. Or they can all serve as table runners. However they end up being used, they're all going in the Big Tub 'O Knitted Things (which may need a title change).

Almost Wordless Weaving Noro

I like the dark warp better, but both are pretty, and each scarf used almost an entire skein of Noro Kureyon (both skeins were the same colorway).

Oh, Picture #5 is why I want a loom with a cloth beam- it's really hard to advance the warp evenly on this loom.

In the bag!

I had to drag the sewing machine downstairs in order to sew the binding to the Firebird quilt (yes! I'm done! Pics Friday!), so while I had it set up, I figured I might as well put the handspun/handwoven cotton bag together, even though I really had no idea what kind of bag I wanted to make, or how to make it.

 I knew I was going to have to line the handwoven fabric because though it's pretty, it is also flimsy. It would never hold up to any kind of use without a sturdy underlining. I dug through my stuff (I have lots of stuff, trust me), and came up with a blank, strapless canvas bag- part of a bulk order I got back when I was designing projects for I Heart Felt.

 I didn't want to just sew a shell to put over the canvas bag body, so I mulled on it for a bit.

I decided to take the bag seams out so I could sew the handspun cloth directly to the canvas. I thought that would anchor the cloth to the backing pretty well.

 It was obviously meant to be- the shortest woven section fit the bag length perfectly. This was my very first woven cloth (the strap doesn't qualify- though I suppose it's cloth too), so the color sections aren't straight or even. That will matter later. Or maybe it doesn't matter, but the crookedness does come into play. I sewed the plaid strip to the center of the bag, and then trimmed off the excess warp (the knots).

 Then I cut some stripey woven cloth, pieced the sections (stripe selvedge to plaid selvedge) and zig-zagged them in place, and trimmed the excess. I also zig-zagged along the center brown section, just to keep the fabric from slipping around. After that, I sewed one side seam.

 I pinned and sewed a section of the strap fabric to the upper edge of the bag- both to add strength and stability and because it looks pretty (and I had a lot- 102"- of that strap fabric). The rest of the sewing was a snap- I sewed the other side seam, and then the bottom miters. I forgot to take pictures of the strap assembly, but... well... I sewed straps in place.

 How's this for cool? The stripey sides match perfectly to the creases.

 The plaid front looks good too, even though the crookedness in the weaving is the first (and last) thing that I see. I don't know for sure what I'll put in the bag- it's fairly deep, so it would work as a spindle bag. Or maybe a wine bottle carrier.

Not bad, for a first weaving project, eh?

I have about a yard of the fabric left (some plaid, some striped), and some strap. It's not enough for another bag this size, so I don't know what I'll make with it. Whatever it ends up being, it won't happen this week. I've already put the sewing machine away.

Wordless Weaving

Second Verse, almost the same as the first...

I was thrilled with my first woven bit of plaid cloth- sure the edges weren't perfectly even, and there were obvious crookedy parts in the weft, but for a first time, I was pretty proud. Unfortunately, pride notwithstanding,  I still didn't have enough fabric for the bag I envisioned making. I had plenty of that handspun cotton yarn left, so I decided to warp the loom again, this time with much longer ... warps? Weaving words are complicated...

I still don't have a warping board, so I improvised. 18 times around the chairs for each color section (once apiece for blue, white, and dark brown, twice for the mottled brown).

 I underestimated the tangling capacity of long cotton strands. They were a mess by the time I got the heddle threaded. It took me over an hour to straighten them out and chain the sections. Won't let that happen again... nosiree...

 My friend Helen suggested using drinking straws or strips of paper to help the first rows stay neat and even. I love Helen.

 Look at how nice this is coming out! I'm thrilled with the even edges and fairly straight rows.

Oh no! Disaster! The warp was cut from handspun cotton yarn, which has thick and thin spots. One of the thick spots frayed with the repeated motion of the heddle, and it broke. Now I know that broken warp threads happen to everyone eventually, but I panicked a bit anyway. I tried several solutions to replace the thread and none worked. Since I now had enough plaid fabric for my project, and it wasn't necessary for this piece to be *all of one cloth*, I wove in a few spacer strips and advanced the warp past the break (I advanced enough past the broken spot for the warp tension to be restored,). Then I went to Facebook to whine, which is what I should have done in the first place because Helen and Connie both told me how to fix broken warp threads. I love Helen and Connie.

But, as I said, I already had enough plaid fabric, so I decided to weave some stripes, just for the hell of it. I Used up the last of the mottled brown yarn, and am now weaving up the rest of the blue in stripes.

Stripes are pretty too, no?

I should finish this piece today- I have *plans* for the next project.

Oh, and the correct heddle is on the way. Woohoo!

Look what the UPS man dropped off!

Simple, basic, for children, pre-warped. I might even be able to figure it out.

And guess who's going to a weaving retreat tomorrow? Great timing, eh?