Not Nice Knot!

 Well King Cole, that knot in the skein of "Riot DK"  is not at all subtle!

I'm in the middle of knitting a long, narrow, shaped scarf of my own design. It features a long slow colour shift that should work well with the design. SO aggravating to come upon this ugly knot in the skein. 

It's annoying enough to find a knot hidden in the depths of a ball of yarn, but it adds another whole dimension of exasperation when you find it in a slow colour shift yarn and the manufacturer made NO attempt whatsoever to maintain the continuity of the colour shift.

Moving Day

Today was moving day ----

Well, it was for the Saori CH60 anyway. My tiny little weaving room has been terribly overcrowded ever since the Woolhouse Tools Carolyn and the Leclerc Dorothy moved in. Tired of barely having room to turn around, let alone actually weave, I moved the Saori to an unused corner of the living room today.

On the loom is a warp made from a "grab bag" from a former guild members estate. The guild challenged us to use these yarns to create something and to have it ready in time for the Christmas Luncheon which is only one month from now. 

These are the yarns I received. Most are handspun. I think one is a commercially spun yarn, perhaps dyed by the former guild member.

Rooting through my own stash I found little bits n bobs of yarns I can use with the ones from the grab bag. Most notably is the multicoloured handspun one. I think it will be a good colour inspiration for choosing further yarns for both warp and weft. 

In other news, I spent ALL of October working exclusively on a Mystery Knitalong that has now come to an end. Wow! Big project. LOTS of knitting! I'll tell you more about that once I have a few modelled pictures.

 

Moving Along

This project is moving along at a good pace considering how busy I've been with other commitments!



The first 36 rows are complete, and with the yarn being an aran weight a few rows adds up quite quickly. I'm already finished the neckline shaping.

Beginnings

2017 is off to a great start. I've made some important commitments to better health and one week in it is going well and I am feeling very positive about the improvements I'm making.

I've had a birthday since my last blog post. Among other things I received some wonderful yarny goodness as gifts. This huge ball of "Crazy Zauberball" was a most generous gift from my sister-in-law. It will likely find it's way into a special weaving. I haven't yet decided exactly what. It is too precious to waste so I will put some thought into where I'll go with that one.




The next three items are all skeins of "Socks That Rock" yarn hand dyed in a palindrome manner. These were a birthday gift from my husband.  I will use all three to weave scarves in a Faux Ikat fashion. I spent some time today preparing the first skein for the loom.



It requires some special handling to get the colours to pool and mimic IKAT dyeing. More on that in a future post.

Souvenir of a Different Sort

For many years now I haven’t been able to be away from home for long due to other commitments, but a recent change in that situation meant I was able to spend a 4 day weekend away. Not much of a “vacation”, but even a 9 hour car drive north to see relatives (some I hadn't even met yet!) is a break from the norm for me and well appreciated.

Once at our destination my sister-in-law was kind enough to drive me around to see how much our old home town has changed (28 years since we moved). There were locations that have changed so much that I didn’t even realize right away where we were!

I had no intention of shopping on this trip but my sister-in-law took me to visit a tiny little yarn shop hidden away in behind another business on the top floor of what was an old, old building even when I lived there. Not being one to accumulate knickknacks and other useless souvenirs I jumped on the chance to spend a little “holiday money” on a souvenir of a sort I know I will truly enjoy. ;-)

Inspired by another weaver’s project that used clasped weft with Zauberball on one side and a plain, solid colour on the other, I’ve always wanted to give the idea a go. I’ve just never been able to justify paying so much for a single ball of yarn! With my little splurge, now's my chance!

CH60 Inaugural Warp

Warp's on the new Saori CH60 and I'm back weaving again.



New Saori looms come with a pre-threaded, sleyed, and beamed warp so once the loom itself is assembled it only takes a few minutes to tie on and your're off and weaving. It was a welcome reward for the time spent actually building the loom!

The colourful blips in the first section of weaving have generated quite a bit of interest in the Saori forums I've posted the picture in, so I'll explain in more detail for those who do not frequent those forums.

The warp is the all black cotton pre-wound that came with the loom It's 150 threads wide and 6m long. It's threaded one end per dent in a 5dp-cm reed. It's a bit widely spaced for my tastes but I wasn't about to mess with re-sleying the whole thing over that.



The 'background' weft is "Dalegarn - Falk" (100% wool sportsweight) that I had on hand from a failed knitting project. The pretty pops of colour and texture that so many are raving over is from a ball of "Brunello Black" (67% wool, 33% acrylic) which is a discontinued super bulky weight yarn. The ball in the photo is obviously not the colour used in the weaving. I used that colour up.

My plan is to use this yardage to make hats. The main part will be woven but each hat will have a hand knitted ribbing. We'll see how that plan goes once the yardage is wet finished. I think this first section may be a bit stiff for the intended purpose. I've got another section done now and I'm being super careful to gently 'place' the weft so that there will be room for a slight fulling of the finished fabric.

Brown Paper Packages

Around Christmas time everyone seems to love a visit from the postal delivery man. Flame is no exception. He was so excited about the big brown box that he nearly pushed it up the stairs single handedly.

Not all December deliveries are filled with gifts though. Some are stuffed to the brim with supplies for making presents! In a house filled with crafty elves, that is even BETTER!!

Flame was quick to point out that this particular box is from Knitpicks so maybe Elfonda Schelf's yarn had arrived.

Elfonda is in her glory. All her favourite colours! Flame is thrilled too. Elfonda has promised him knitting lessons.

Stash Busting

As if I didn't have enough projects on the go! I'm next in line to use the guild loom for a Stash Busting Rug (aka "Twice Woven Rug"). I'm not a big stash hoarder so it's difficult for me to gather enough yarn up to do any sort of colour scheme.

This represents about half of my total stash. For the most part it's bits and pieces of leftovers from old projects, although there is a fair bit of handspun in there (wool that is too scratchy or in too short of supply to do much with). I think I'll go with a "lights, dull/darks, brights" division of the yarn. Hopefully it won't come off as too hideous in the final rug. With this type of rug it is really hard to guess what the end result will be.

Curious? Take a peek at my last one. ---> 1 2 3 4 5

The remainder of my stash is a bit of laceweight, enough handspun in large enough amounts for a few warm vests, and a basket of complete balls of sock yarn.