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).

Wordless Finished 6" x 72" Plaid Wool/Camel Scarf

More Ambitious Weaving

I ordered a 12.5 dent heddle for my loom, which handles 12.5 threads per inch, which will weave a much finer cloth (and in case you're wondering, the heddles for this loom will all work for a trade-up loom, whenever I get one, even though the trade-up loom will be wider). The holes in this heddle are really small, meaning that I can only warp the loom with fingering weight yarn. Luckily, I have a lot (a LOT) of fingering weight yarn on hand.

 Using a 12.5 dent heddle also means that I have to thread many many thin strands through many many little holes with a teeny tiny little crochet hook. That takes awhile. It would have taken a lot longer if I had not already learned the lesson about chaining the warp so it doesn't tangle. Still, it took me a couple of hours to get the loom warped. I now see why weavers use many many yards of warp, enough for multiple projects. I would do that myself, except this beginner loom won't hold more than about 3 yards' worth. My next loom will have a warp beam.

 I'm using some coned camel/wool yarn that I bought on eBay many years ago (at least a decade). This weaving stuff really is a stash-buster (not that this scarf will use very much yarn, but still).

Weaving plaid is tricky because not only do your selvedges have to be even, your stripes have to be even too. This job is complicated by the fact that I only have one shuttle (The Hub will make some for me this weekend, and I have a couple of plastic ones on the way, but right now? Just one), so I have to wind it with different yarn for every section. It's not hard, it just slows me down.

I'm making progress even so.

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.

The Aha! Moment

Finally, a use for all those novelty yarns that I bought back when I thought I was going to like knitting with novelty yarns!

 Warped with commercial cotton. The weft is a merino/sparkle novelty yarn that I've had forever.

 Shiny!

 6 1/2" wide, 72" long (excluding fringe). It took about 80 yds of weft.

 You can't see the sparkle in this shot, but it's there.

Start to finish (including warping the loom): 3 1/2 hours!

Finished Scarf

 All done with the weaving (I wanted plenty of warp left over for the fringe).

 Pulled off the loom.

 Washed and dried (though not yet ironed). It's 70" long (excluding fringe) and 6 1/4" wide. I am very pleased with how even my selvedges are- I'm getting better at that. I love the gentle color variations.

I learned one important thing: if you're going to combine different weights in your warp thread or yarn, distribute it throughout the warp. When the outside edges are heavier, the weft doesn't pack as tightly, and therefore the lighter/finer inside section gets a little crooked. The crookedy parts aren't horrible, but I did struggle with it a bit throughout.

Even though the blue/green yarn was soft and squooshy, the finished fabric isn't as soft as I thought it was going to be, so this scarf won't be next-to-skin. It'll have to be worn over a collar or turtleneck. Or it'll be a table runner. Tables rarely have sensitive necks.

Almost Done

I finished hand quilting the center panel of the Firebird baby quilt.

 What's really amazing is that I've worked on it every single evening for several hours (except on American Idol nights, and the couple of evenings that I had previous engagements) for well over a month, and I'm not sick of it. That is not to say that I'm sorry to be finished with the main quilting, but I have not grown to hate every single inch of this cloth, which is how I usually feel at the finishing line of a Major Project.

 I am going to work one random/squiggly quilting line along the center of the pieced fabric borders, sewing sort of on and around the paisley outlines. I wouldn't have to quilt that section at all, the batting is a solid piece of bonded cotton so it's not going anywhere, but I thought it might look odd to have that great swath unquilted fabric when the rest of the piece is stitched heavily. I'm not going to use the hoop for those areas, I'm just going to work running stitches, so it should go pretty quickly. After that, I just have to sew the binding (machine sewing it to the quilt, and then hand tacking it down).

 I love this design, and the quilting has been fun. If you've a mind to give this one a shot, you can order it from Spoonflower here. It's an original Cean Irminger design.

I don't know if I'm ready to start another quilted project right away (I have some class samples to knit up), but just in case, I ordered a yard of this for another baby quilt center panel. And a yard of this coordinating fabric for the border strips. Fun, no?

In the meantime, I only have a couple more feet to weave on the scarf/runner project. I'm slowly getting the hang of this! And the correct size heddle arrived, so next up will be a scarf or runner with heavier yarn. Woohoo!.

More Wordless because tonight is American Idol, and I'll use plenty of words then

Wordless Weaving