More Teasing

Here's another little peek at the mystery project.



I've actually got more done than I'm showing, but until it's completely ready for the big reveal it's more fun to keep you guessing.

Cactus? Fungus?

Curious? More details in a future post.

Better Idea

I've decided on a different stitch pattern and now I'm much happier with the vest project!



I'm stranding two balls of the same "W-EC" colourway of Kauni against one another, just starting each ball in a different section of the colour sequence. I'm using Knitpicks Palette yarn in "Heathered Garnet" as the fleck of contrast. If you look closely at the picture (clicking on it will enlarge it a bit) you can see how the patterning is gradually getting darker. That is not just a trick of the light. The background and foreground are both getting darker in this section.

There are mistakes. I'll use duplicate stitch to camouflage them when I am done.

Having Second Thoughts

Now that I've got a fairly good start on the vest I'm making, I'm not so sure about the patterning. I L-O-V-E the way the Kauni yarn in the ribbing and background is progressing smoothly from one shade of grey to the next, but the stranded patterning?-----Meh.


When I did my swatching for this pattern I was working with a section of the Kauni that was dark. (The pattern I ended up choosing is everything above the line of gold.)



I really liked the way the Garnet Heather colour looked muted yet rich against the dark background and how the gold colour became little flecks of interest. I knew that the effect would be different and would contrast more against the light grey sections of the Kauni yarn, but----well, I didn't expect it to be so drastic! I didn't swatch that part and I'm more than a bit disappointed in how it looks. I also think that the small oval pattern looks fine on the small sample but when placed on a larger sweater it becomes too much, ya know? Kind of like a speckled disease or something?

So now I'm back to the drawing board. I love the ribbing, I'm keeping that, but I've got to come up with a new choice for the patterning. Should I go back to my original plan to put the patterning from Knitpicks Ladies Jacquard Sweater Vest in there?



My fear, with this large floral pattern, is that the outer motifs may end up landing in a target like fashion right over my boobs. Not so great hmmm? I guess I could count rows and estimate where the flowers truly would land, and then adjust if necessary, but----well, maybe I'm not so in love with that floral as I at first thought. I'm really not much of a floral or wild print kind of gal anyway. I'm not even one for wearing t-shirts with pictures or sayings on them. Honestly, most of my wardrobe is plain, solid colours. I can't think of a single thing that has any kind of print let alone a floral.

Hmmmm, now there's a thought. Maybe I should knit just with the Kauni, no patterning at all? What do you think? Chime in in the comments. I'd like to have your opinion. I'll also take it to Knitters' Circle tonight and get the other knitter's opinions.

Designing With Kauni

Originally this:

was purchased to make the "Ladies Jacquard Vest" from Knitpicks.com, but using Kauni 8/2 for the background. I thought the softly varied light grey to black shading would look more interesting under the Burgundy tweed patterning. Unfortunately the Kauni is a bit thicker than the Knitpicks Palette yarn that is called for in the pattern and I wasn't able to achieve gauge and still maintain a soft, drapable fabric.

So I have designed an entirely different vest for myself using Sweater Wizard. This vest will still have the varying greys/black background and the burgundy tweed patterning but the stitch pattern and neckline will be different. I'm hoping it will actually look better than the original plan. At least I won't end up with flowers planted directly over the...ahem..."girls".

Guild Challenge Met

All the bits and pieces I've shown over the past week are now assembled into something useful and worthwhile. A project tote, or perhaps a bag for yarn stash. It's 10" high, not including the handles, and a little over 24" around, about an 8" diameter.

• I took the handwoven fabric from the mystery bag given out by the guild for the year end challenge
  
• embellished it with embroidery
  
• crocheted over the wonky selvedges
  
• cut off the portion with the threading mistakes
  
• crocheted a circular bottom piece
  
• constructed a plastic canvas support
  
• used an inkle loom to weave bands for the handles
  
• sewed a lining (no raw seam edges anywhere) with a channel for a pull cord closure
  
• made a coordinating Kumihimo drawstring
• added a cord lock to gather and close the lining.

I left the fuzzy fringe end of the original weaving because I felt it added texture and interest to the bag.

All and all a very successful project, I think! I'll be proud to hand it in at the year end potluck.

Playing With the Band

Another chapter in the story of the Guild Challenge.

I'm putting a lot more work into this challenge than I need to, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it. I'm even learning a thing or two. For instance, I have finally got around to trying the little Kumihimo kit I bought at the last Fibres West.

I found that the long lengths of yarn needed kept getting tangled as I was weaving the narrow band so I first tried bobbin lace bobbins. I know there is supposed to be a way of using these for Kumihimo and also as bobbins when doing intarsia, I've seen it done, but even with a half hitch over the top they keep unwinding on me. Frequently!

So I've switched to the only other thing I could readily find, what I'm calling my "IKEA bobbins". I wound the yarn around the outside of the little bag clips and then just tucked the end into the clip before I closed it. It's working very well actually, and I may just use the idea for knitting intarsia as well.

So here's a close-up of my little braid. I'm finding that Kumihimo braiding takes a long, long time to produce any length.


The braid pictured above is shown much larger than life. In reality it is only about the width of a shoe lace for a sports shoe. That was a bit of a disappointment. There are eight strands of reasonably thick yarn in there! I thought the braid would be much wider. With it being so narrow, it isn't going to work for my original purpose, BUT I can still use it for this project, just not where I originally intended.

Of course that means I had to come up with another idea for the wider bands I will still need. In waltzes another new-to-me project. This is the first time I've warped my larger, chair height inkle loom. I've used table top inkle looms before, but this is the first time for the big guy.


Wondering where all this is going? Stay tuned. More will be forthcoming as it is worked out and worked on.

Adding a Framework

Further work on the guild's challenge project I introduced in the last two posts:

I stitched the ends of a strip of plastic canvas together. Don't worry, this will be a hidden support system.

I'm now in the process of adding a bottom piece. I'm crocheting it from more of that handspun. The centre portion of an ice-cream lid will provide additional strength and shape to the bottom.

Bottom of what? Wait and see. It's still a work in progress.

First Thoughts

Continuing from yesterday's post about the guild's year end challenge:

I originally thought I'd make a soft, lined, knitting bag. I even had wooden handles much like this that I could use. That fringe looked lovely folded down through the sewing slot in the handles. But after I dealt with that threading mistake 2.5" in from the selvedge the piece became too narrow for the wooden handles and I had to move on to Plan B.

I'm quite excited about my new idea. I'll give you more details about it tomorrow but for now I'll show this image of the work in progress and tell you a bit about what I'm doing.

Using dark brown handspun I've crocheted over those pesky selvedges to cover the floats while at the same time dealing with the raw edge on the side where there was a mistake. It's one row of single crochet finished with a row of crab stitch. By itself that very dark handspun stood out too much in contrast so I'm adding a bit of creative embroidery to bring the dark brown into the rest of the bag and at the same time liven up that otherwise ho-hum pink accent.

Rising to the Challenge

Every year the Chilliwack Spinners and Weavers Guild has a year end challenge for its members. This year paper bags with mystery contents were handed out earlier in the year. The bags held either yarn or a piece of handwoven fabric. We've been asked to take the whatever we find in the bag to make something from it that can be sold at the Christmas Craft Fair next November.

The two mystery bags I was given both held handwoven cloth. One of the pieces was a mistake free, and rather attractive weaving. I have ideas for that which I'll work on later.

The second bag contained a more challenging piece. It's a 26"L x 11.5"W piece of grey and dark brown plain weave done in handspun wool with a rather uninspiring, hot pink accent. Only one end has fringe.

The other end is cut off and machine sewn. Both selvages have long floats where the colours were loosely carried up the sides.

One side of the weaving has a threading mistake 2.5" from the selvedge that renders it unusable within guild standards for shows and sales, so I have to either cut it off and use the narrower width, or find a way of creatively covering the mistake.

Stay tuned. After some creative calisthenics I'll be back tomorrow with the day's developments.

Perfect Nap Blankie

I had a different blog post planned but when hunting down pictures for it I found this:

It's a photo of my eldest granddaughter, Kaylen, all cozy under the Pentagon Blanket during an impromptu nap at Grandma's. I couldn't resist showing this off first. The "real" post I had planned can wait until tomorrow.

Crying Uncle!

Okay, I've had enough. I'm giving up! But I refuse to call this a complete failure.

I learnt a lot.

• I learnt things like how to painstakingly pick back several rows of machine knitted lace.
  
• I learnt to remain calm and quickly grab a crochet hook when a stitch drops and runs like an escaping toddler in a busy parking lot.
• I learnt that a small crochet hook catches stitches faster and more reliably than the transfer tool or the latch hook.
• I learnt that I can see better close up with my graduated lens glasses than I can with my contact lenses.
  
• I learnt that the beads will all break if you tighten up the stitches so much that the carriage hits them.
• I learnt that a knitting machine will knit a stitch when it is supposed to create an eyelet just because it darn well feels like it!----and then it will hide the fact until you have knit several more rows.
  
• I learnt that it takes at least 30 times as long to undo a machine knit row as it does to knit it incorrectly in the first place.
  
• I learnt to check my end stitches every row.
• I learnt that every 8th stitch in every 7th row is a lot of beads.
• I learnt that beaded rows are not fast.
  
• I learnt that too little weight causes problems.
  
• I learnt that too much weight also causes problems.
• I learnt that even though a knitting machine can knit a row incredibly fast, the actual process of getting a finished article from a machine can be very slow anyway.

I also learnt that a beaded, machine knit lace curtain could be breathtakingly beautiful----but right now I'd rather move on to something else.

Some day I may try this again. Some day.

Pretend Hungry?

My granddaughters should be able to whip up some awesome pretend meals with this bounty.

Kaylen's big enough now, but Kenzie will have to wait a couple of years. By then her older sister should be a master of plastic cuisine and can teach her the fine art of preparing pretend food.

Good Friday Indeed

Good Friday is a great day to welcome a new grandchild into the world!

Kenzie Joan, born April 10th at 1:06pm and weighing 9 pounds, 12 ounces.

Egg Dyeing

Has anyone else found that the Easter egg dyeing kits are scarce this year? My daughter and I went looking for them last week and couldn't find the paint-with-a-cotton-swab type that are the most fun for a toddler to use. All we could find were these egg dip type which amount to an adult dropping eggs into the dye bath (or like we did, allow the child to do it, smashing many eggs and splashing dye everywhere) and then the child sitting around and waiting and waiting and waiting for the dye to intensify.

Then waiting and waiting and waiting for the eggs to dry before being allowed to colour a few faint lines, attempt to stick on some not-so-sticky stickers, and then the best part.......

.......crushing most of the eggs in your tiny fist so that you can eat them instead of dinner!

Long Journey

This project is taking a while. It seems I've been spinning this merino/mohair blend forever!

POUNDS of the stuff!

I stay with one wheel spinning project at a time.

And prefer to tackle large batches of the same thing so that when I'm done I actually have enough for a large project, this time probably a sweater. It's an interesting looking yarn, generally a solid, but with subtle variations and a pretty sheen.

Mary Jane Skimmers

Done.



And now on to something else.......

Soleful Night

Insomnia doesn't often hit me, but when it does I don't take it lying down. I woke at 12:30am and by 1:30am had given up on any thought of getting more sleep.

I quietly entertained myself for several hours by spinning on a large project I have on the go. When I grew tired of that (yet wasn't "tired" if you know what I mean) I turned to crochet.



These are the soles to a pair of Adult Mary Jane Skimmers, a pattern my daughter bought in hopes that I would crochet them for her. They should be fairly comfortable to wear as the soles when assembled are double thick. The bright soles go on the inside of the slippers and are stacked over the black ones.

The worsted weight yarn is held doubled so the construction of these slippers is going quite quickly. I'll likely have finished photos for blogging by tomorrow. That is IF I have time after I have a nap. Man, am I tired now! I hope my daughter doesn't go into labour today. I'd never make it through to the delivery.

Changing Course

When I bought this yarn from "Laura Fry Weaving Studio" I was planning to use the handpainted Rayon in the "Northern Brights" colourway for warp and the Bamboo on the cone for weft in two scarves, one for myself and the other to sell or give as a gift.

I'm still planning on doing that, but my idea has switched looms. I was planning to warp my rigid heddle loom with two ends per slot or hole in the 10 dpi reed, making a basket weave effect. I'm now thinking it would be much smarter for me to drag my 8-shaft table loom out of the closet for this project. For one, the scarves would have a nicer drape done in a twill. Twill is much easier to do on a multi-shaft loom. Another good reason is that I could warp and weave both scarves at once on the larger loom. I'm not so sure my Beka rigid heddle loom would be able to handle a length of 13 or 14 feet. And a third reason; weaving of fine yarns goes much faster with a boat shuttle than it would with the stick shuttle necessary on my Beka.

So there ya go, the thought process behind switching looms for this project, even though I find warping the rigid heddle so much easier....and less frightening and less prone to warp snarling error.

Subconscious Perhaps?

Maybe my subconscious is pushing me further in the direction of bobbin lace making?

I find bobbin lace making fascinating (like all of the fibre arts!). There is a woman in my spinning and weaving guild that does it and I love looking at the pieces she occasionally brings for Show and Tell. I've been avoiding becoming involved myself though, always managing to talk myself out of it, telling myself that I don't need another hobby and asking myself what would I do with a bunch of handmade lace anyway. That voice of reluctance is getting quieter though, fading away until I can hardly hear it.

The purchase of 10 wooden lace making bobbins kind of looks like I've already slipped into the deep chasm of yet another hobby doesn't it? But wait, I didn't buy these for bobbin lace making. I saw Sharon from "Homespun Haven" using them to wind the threads she was using for Kumihimo (the bobbins added a bit of weight too). She mentioned that they make good intarsia bobbins too and that was all it took, I was sold! So these are now my Kumihimo/instarsia/maybe-some-day-bobbin-lace-making bobbins.

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm weak. I know that some day someone will hand me a bobbin lace making pillow and I'll be sunk, totally smitten, doomed to add yet another obsession to my long list of hobbies.

I need more hours in my days. Or days in my month. Or somethin'.