Ta-Da!

We have weaving! I warped my loom! Finally! Here, I'm going to make you watch all the boring details.

First, I wound off a nine-yard warp of purple Harrisville Shetland wool, enough for three scarves about 8-9 inches wide (depending on how much they shrink). If I'm going to go to the trouble of warping the loom, I might as well get several scarves from it, and I can try all sorts of different colors/patterns/shiny things (well, I can try three different ideas, at any rate).

Then I raddled the warp on the back beam of my loom. Raddle is a great word, isn't it?

I wound the warp carefully - carefully! - onto the back beam.

I threaded the heddles - another great new word - in a straight twill threading. That means the first thread went through a heddle on the first harness, the second thread went through a second-harness heddle, the third thread through a heddle on the third harness, and the fourth thread through a heddle on the fourth and final (on this loom) harness. I even remembered to leave floating selvedges!

I sleyed the reed - I have got to look up the derivation of the word sley - but no photos for you, just this one, of tying the warp onto the front apron rod.

Then - then! - I wove! I used some of that new-fangled Noro sock yarn as weft and started a straightforward lean-right-then-left twill, which I thought might show off the long color progressions of this yarn. Don't look closely at my wonky selvedges and ignore the toilet paper (that's just for establishing the correct spacing of the threads at the beginning) - it's all OK by me right now, and I know it'll just keep getting better and better the more I practice. Just like tension in knitting. My rigid heddle weaving is getting better and better, just from doing it over and over again.

And then I rested for two days, utterly exhausted from my labors.

Well, almost. It took me most of Sunday afternoon and evening to measure the warp, dress the loom, and weave all of about 4 inches of scarf. By then it was 8 PM and I was wiped. It's surprising how implementing a new and complicated skill can take so much out of one, and yet be so fulfilling. Not a bad way to make the change to a new year!

Habits

Well, since it's nearly the end of the year, I've been thinking about habits. Bad habits, mine in particular, and the difficulty of changing bad habits.

Yesterday, when I was at WEBS for their big sale, I perused their marked-down knitting yarns, of course, but found nothing of interest. Not because there was nothing worth knitting, mind you, there were plenty of lovely, inexpensive, good-quality merinos, for example, but because my single-track mind seems to have moved onto weaving. Thus, all I wanted, all I came home with, was weaving yarn - 21 cones of yarn, to be precise. See?

That's a lot of yarn. I'm going to dig out the rest of my weaving-appropriate yarn this week and stock these shelves with it - the shelves, conveniently, are right next to my big loom. That would be the big loom I've still not managed to warp successfully.

So, one of my habits that is a bit much is how I get so single-minded about something to the exclusion of everything else, and how I combine that with pursuing the easiest part of being obsessed with something new - such as buying weaving yarn and weaving books, not to mention a big loom - while avoiding the harder parts - such as learning to warp the big loom.

I know I'll push myself past the difficulties of warping the big loom (and I have lots of experienced-weaver friends who can come help if I need them), but it's pointing out to me how I get to a certain, fairly decent level of knowledge for any pursuit I take up, but I never, or rarely at least, get really, really good at something. I learn about 80% of what there is to know, and then I get distracted by something else. So, for example, I'm a pretty good knitter - I can cable and knit lace and Fair Isle and intarsia, sweaters and hats and gloves and socks, I've even steeked, back in the days before knit-blogging - but my interest in knitting is flagging a bit. I'm still knitting (I may have knit for six babies this year, but my parents' Christmas afghan? maybe by next Christmas, I think; my hands need a rest), but evidently I'm not going to turn into an incredible knitting designer. Of course, does the world really need yet another lace shawl or cabled sock or Fair Isle vest pattern? Probably not, come to think of it. (I still can't figure out how to use Ravelry efficiently for finding patterns, by the way.)

It's funny, this getting older stuff, it nibbles at me, with the dread of not having the time to do or be what I want, whenever I can figure out what it is I want to do or be when I grow up. I love the thrill of being obsessed, but sometimes I'd like a little balance in my life. To get some exercise now and then. To cook and eat good food. To push myself past that initial plateau of good-enough knitting/spinning/weaving/dragonfly-chasing/whatever, and get to that very hard work of creating out of my own being.

An exhausting thought, and yet I come around to it again and again over the years. Hmm.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of the second strip of the heathered-wool blanket I promised you. I've got the third strip - a dark one again - already warped on the rigid heddle loom and the first color of weft already woven. It'll be really interesting to see how this all turns out - I have some control of parts of this process (choosing the yarns, setting up the overall dark-light stripe pattern, etc.), but much of it is up to chance (how each strip will look next to its final neighbors), and that keeps me fascinated. It's a path of discovery I'm weaving myself here.

Here and There

Whew, that's over with! OK, where were we?

Ah, yes, babies! This is another lousy photo of Kristin's baby's hat finished - all together now: awwww. Kristin's not due for another week yet, so I am very proud to say that I finished knitting presents for six babies this year before each one was born, and I'm even happier to say that all those born so far are doing just ducky, along with their moms, and there's no reason to expect Kristin to be any different. Whew, indeed!

In other news, I'm in love with what's coming off my rigid heddle loom - look!

And look some more!

And still more!

This is a strip about 20" wide by 6 feet long, of leftover heathery knitting yarns in worsted weights, or thereabouts. I measured off 2.5 yards in bundles of 12 different 2-ply dark blues, greens, and purples for the dark stripes, and then eight or so light greens, off-whites, violets, and pale blues for the light stripe in the middle. I tied each strand onto the loom in a random fashion to be my warp. Then I chose singles, loosely-spun, and other not-so-sturdy yarns to be the weft, dark, medium, and light colors, and wove random blocks of weft. It turned out to be beautiful! It has a lovely pointillistic effect, especially once washed (I think these photos are pre-washing).

I'm planning to make five such strips out of the same leftover yarns and then sewing them together on their long sides to make a blanket or throw. I've already woven the next strip, making the warp light-dark-light striped rather than dark-light-dark striped. I'll show you photos of that tomorrow, I think. I don't like it quite as much on its own, but I like very much what these two first two strips look like butted up against each other - different levels of simplicity and complexity juxtaposed, not to mention using up boodles of old yarn.

As for the big, 4-harness loom, I've replaced all the cords holding the harnesses and treadles with Texsolv cord, which has made the job of balancing everything against each other much simpler, and I'm just about ready to take a deep breath and try warping the loom again. I spent this morning at the WEBS year-end sale and came home with two big bags of coned yarn - cottons for napkins, Tencel for scarves, red and white rayon for a Christmassy shawl, I think, and a cone of light gray textured silk to dye. You didn't think I'd let my supply of yarn get dangerously low with all that weaving, now, did you?

Some Days

The Good News:

I finished weaving the blue thing on my rigid heddle loom. Here is a close-up, pre-washing, end-trimming, and fringe-fixing.

I like it, I just don't know what it is - a runner? A wrap? A sample? Anyhow, the warp for this was some 100% cotton Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine and the weft was half Tahki Chelsea Silk (65% silk, 35% wool), half five other wool/silk/mohair leftovers. By half and half in the weft, I mean that every other pick (that's what knitters would call a row) was the Chelsea Silk, and the alternate picks were 6 rows of one leftover, then 6 rows of another. Confused yet?

More Good News:

Despite this fuzzy photo, I am damn near done the excessive baby-knitting this year. I just have to wait for this Flower Power hat to dry (it's taking forever) and I can sew the knitted flower on top of the stalk, and I. Am. Done. Oh, and thank you for your comments on the orange and blue-maybe-gray checkerboard - I decided the way to overcome my doubts about that was to add a lot more orange.

And Then There's This:

That box is empty now.

I am trying to warp my new loom and it is driving me right up a wall. I need a real raddle (that thing clamped to the back of the loom, holding the warp threads apart, is a makeshift raddle). I need to grow a few more inches, so I can hold the warp from the front of the loom, step on the brake-release lever on the side of the loom to release the back warp beam, and crank said beam, causing the warp to allegedly wind onto the beam in an orderly fashion.

Not in the sort of fashion that causes warp threads to break and make little piles like this:

Hence, the angry cookie-gobbling. I believe that counts as dinner tonight. Friggin' fiber obsession. If only I were normal, I could have spent the day in a mall instead.

I think I'll go spin something mindless, maybe to very loud music. Maybe I'll spin very, very fast, in fact. Very.

Hmmm...

OK, gang, what do you think of how the colors on this hat go together? This is the Flower Power hat from Knitty and I'm ambivalent at best about the orange and blue checkerboarding.

I'm knitting this for Kristin's baby - did I tell you there's another baby-to-be at my workplace? No? Well, Kristin is due in about 3 weeks - we just hired her about three months ago, so she wasn't included in my earlier assessment of how many babies I'm knitting for this year. Kristin's cherublet makes six babies I've outfitted this year and, no, she doesn't know the sex of the baby yet.

So, anyway, the pattern calls for two strands held together of five or six colors of Filatura di Crosa 501 superwash merino - and lo! that's exactly the yarn I have leftover from the two baby sweaters I knit for Melissa earlier this year (Ronan and Maeve are growing like gangbusters, thank you for asking). I also had some Debbie Bliss Rialto superwash merino - that's the blue up there - and I thought it went well with the deep fuchsia, olive green, orange, and violet of the 501.

But maybe not.

...


Loom? What loom? OK, I admit: I'm scared of my new loom. But as soon as I finish this post, I am going to go dig out a specific yarn from my stash and starting measuring off a warp.

I hope.

Having Fun is Exhausting

I bought a loom! A used Purrington, 4-harness, 6-treadle, 36-inch-wide, floor loom, with a 12-dent reed and assorted goodies.

Ain't she purty? She's at least 17 years old and probably older, according to the woman who sold it to me. I think I'll write the Purrington people and see if they can give me a general date for its manufacture. The Purrington company is based in West Virginia now, but my loom was made in Haydenville, MA, maybe an hour from me, back when Purrington was part of the Lane Loom Company.

Not to mention a little overwhelming. I don't know why buying this has knocked me for a loop, but I guess it brings up all sorts of feelings of guilt and should I really do this and what have I done and I don't have time and money (it was only $250. Geez.), etc., etc.

I'll get over that, trust me.

So, it's mostly all put together, but I have to tie up the treadles to the harnesses still, and probably take a good bit back apart, as I screwed up putting on the front brake lever. It's really fascinating to see how it all goes together so nicely. As Donna, my weaving teacher, told me, "Looms are simple machines, really."

In other news, I warped up my rigid heddle loom with some Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine and started using up various leftover blue yarns. I'm weaving one pick (that's one weft thread) of a pale blue wool/silk combo throughout the piece, alternated with a pick of some other yarn, for a total of 6 picks of each "other" yarn. That was clear as mud, right? Basically, I'm weaving what I hope are subtle stripes, that's all you really need to know.

Finally, lest you think I have gone entirely over to the weaving side, here is the fifth baby present of the year, the Big Bad Baby Blanket out of the Kangaroo Dyer's sock yarn in the Spruce colorway, blocking on towels and rugs of non-matching colors. This turned out beautifully, despite my lousy photo of it. It's not sunny today (and won't be for days and days), so I can't get a good photo for you of the depth and richness of colors in this yarn. It's good stuff.

WAHOOO!

I'm getting a loom! Tomorrow night! A used, 36-inch-wide, 4-harness, 6-treadle, Purrington counterbalance loom! Yay!

So if over the past three years or so, I've really revved up my knitting (egged on by knitbloggers everywhere), bought a wheel, learned to spin, learned to weave, bought a loom (tomorrow! did I tell you I get it tomorrow?) - what's next? Tatting? Crocheting? Quilting?

Did I ever tell I used to quilt? I even had a quilt in this show, a long, long time ago, before I had a life...a story for another time.

I'm getting a loom, I'm getting a loom, happy dance, happy happy dance....

November Blooms

As Elizabeth commented, the Harrisville Highland yarn did indeed bloom when I washed my finished scarf - in very hot water and Eucalan, with a good bit of scrunching, should you care about the details. Look!

Very, very nice. Not Malabrigo-soft, but I don't care. The selvedges turned out beautifully and I love the misty, pointillist quality of the yarns in close-up.

Alas, the weaving class has come to the official end, at least for me. I thought there was one more project to come, based on a comment of Donna's but I think when she mentioned something about a third warp, it was because she can read this obsessive mind of mine and she knew I would continue weaving. Luckily for me, the rest of the class is not nearly so obsessive and thus are not yet finished with their chenille scarves, so Donna is going to let me continue to borrow the loom, at least till January (minus this week, when she needs it for a demonstration). Yay! I am plotting something big (like a seamed blanket) and excessive (because I'm an obsessive over-achiever), but at least I'm planning on using up lots of stash as weft (I hope). As for the rigid heddle loom, well, I'm going to try using some Elsebeth Lavold Cotton patine as warp for a big runner/wrap/scarf thingy - I'm not sure how it will work, but it's fascinating to me, nonetheless.

As Promised

It's amazing how much one can get done when one doesn't have to work. I did indeed get the rigid heddle loom warped with the five Harrisville Highland colors - Hemlock, Turquoise Tweed, Bluegrass, Woodsmoke, and Charcoal, should you care - and I've woven maybe two feet of it so far, in your basic tabby weave. Subtle, yet complex. I thought that the creativity in weaving would come all in the planning stages, but I'm happy to find that, as in this scarf, warping a medley of colors together randomly works well and the weaving itself, although I'm only using one color (Charcoal), is quick enough that I don't get bored. I can't wait to see how this unwashed wool will bloom when I wash and finished this scarf!

Did I mention my next weaving class is tomorrow? [happy dance]

After Putting in the Turkey, Before Baking Pumpkin Pie

I'm blogging a little, since all is quiet on the Thanksgiving front here, at least till 4 or so when Earle gets home from work and cooking revs into high gear.

So, about that weaving - here's the rayon chenille warp I put on my loaner loom last Saturday afternoon.

And here are the two six-foot scarves I finished last night.

Woot! Pretty! Take a closer look at the random walk twill on one of these. I like it, I like it! It reminds me of river currents, especially in these colors. I made this twill pattern up as I went along, and I enjoyed the freedom this gave me to create (a little) as I went along.

You know, I just may have pulled out the rigid heddle loom Earle gave me two Christmases ago, right after finishing these scarves. I just may have pulled out seven cones of Harrisville Highland wool from my stash (what, you don't stash in prep for possible future obsessions?! what's wrong with you?) and chosen five colors to use in a scarf for the long-suffering Earle. I just may have measured off the warp late last night and I just may have threaded the warp on the rigid heddle loom. For that matter, I just may be waiting impatiently for a reply to the email I sent to a seller on Craigslist, who is selling a 6-treadle LeClerc loom three towns over, for only $100. Not that I'm obsessed or anything. Not me.

And if you're really good, I'll show you the new warp tomorrow, the yarn and my patience willing.

Productivity in Three Parts

Accomplishing a lot means: a) I don't have time to blog; and b) I have a lot to tell you about when I do get around to blogging (in other words, I'm avoiding raking the leaves this afternoon).

So, let us start with knitting, shall we?

I finished the Minimalist Cardigan about 10 days ago, and I love it! I have a few days right after I finished when I thought, eh, is this all there is? But I figure that was just a short bout of the baby blues, because I've worn it several times since I finished and I find it very comfortable and I get lots of compliments. I'd show you a photo of it on, but I can't get me, a photographer, and the sunshine to all be in one place at once.

The details:
Pattern: Minimalist Cardigan, by Ruthie Nussbaum, from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. I knit size 43 1/2.
Yarn: Malabrigo merino, in the color verdeazul, about 5.5 balls, which is just about the yardage the pattern called for. I am proud to say that this yarn was in my stash and that I bought it at a 40% off sale.
Needles: Clover bamboo circulars, size 7.
Stated: August 26, 2007.
Finished: November 9, 2007, just about 11 weeks, slightly over the 10 weeks I estimated it takes me to knit a sweater.
Modifications and Comments: The only thing I modified was the grafting at the back of the collar: I did a three-needle bind-off instead, because I simply couldn't deal with grafting.

I don't think it makes any difference in the final garment, and since the Malabrigo pills terribly when you mess with it, I think it would have been hell to graft with. Which reminds me: I didn't use the Malabrigo for seaming; I used some Paternayan needlepoint yarn I had around.

And speaking of pilling, the collar is already pilling, after only a few days of wear, but the moss stitch isn't pilling at all. Interesting, eh? I think I'll invest in a sweater stone.

The only other knitting I've been doing is this Big Bad Baby Blanket; I'm maybe one-third done. It's slow, but I'll keep plugging away on it. Luckily, this baby isn't due till mid-December.

In spinning news, here's a photo of the Ashland Bay merino/silk I spun up a while ago, but couldn't get a photo for you. I have no idea what the yardage is on this, except "a lot," because I couldn't stand to count that many strands in the skeins as I wound it off on a swift. I think I need a skeinwinder and/or one of those yardage counter doohickies.

Last weekend, I had such a strong urge to spin that I grabbed the nearest hank of hand-dyed top, some Romney in deep purples, browns, and silvers. Lovely stuff, and I'd tell you the dyer, except.... Well, anyway, I spun it up very quickly and loved it! It looked like a brocade sitting there on my bobbin! I'd show you a pic, but all the ones I took were blurry, and I loved it so much I immediately plied it with four colors of Shetland fingering-weight yarn that I had, and plunged the yarn into hot water with Eucalan.

The dye ran. Darn! See that lighter colored skein above? I spun the darker strand; the lighter strand was light pink Shetland - now it's light purple, despite what your monitor tells you. I rinsed this yarn several times and added some vinegar to the last wash, and the water finally ran clear, but I'm afraid the yarn is much more muddled in color than when I plied it. Oh, well, I guess I should have been suspicious when a little of the dye came off on my fingers as I spun it.

In better spinning news, I have a new convert to introduce to you.

This is the lovely and talented Isabel. She is 13 and she is spinning her first-ever single on my Louet S10. She looks happy, doesn't she? Last Sunday, we had the second in a series of Second Sunday Soirees we're having at the Millers River Environmental Center, in Athol, MA - a chance to everyone to come hang out in the afternoon and knit, spin, weave, whatever (feel free to join us on December 9th!). Isabel came with her mom Pat and her sister Olivia. This is the same Isabel who went to Rhinebeck with Pat and me, and the same Isabel whose Shetland lamb fleece I bought at Rhinebeck. We are all very proud of Isabel, aren't we?

Finally, I have weaving news!

Last weekend, I started a four-part beginning weaving class at the North Quabbin Textile Studio, with Donna Cavagnac. Before the first class, Donna had each student pick out 4 or 5 colors of cotton, and Donna, bless her, warped the looms for us with five yards of striped warp. That meant that at the first class we could just start weaving away! Donna started us with a few inches of plain weave and then gave us some treadling instructions for different twill patterns. After a couple of hours, she sent us home with our looms (4-harness Schachts) and cones of cotton, with a homework assignment: weave off the warp. Boy, there's a lot of weaving in five yards of warp! I didn't finish until a couple of hours into yesterday's 6-hour class. I haven't washed these pieces yet, but here are a lot of photos of some of what I wove on that first warp.

The last three photos show the stretch where I used some of my knitting yarns as weft, just to play (note the leaves I should be/am not raking up). I really like how the textures of the cotton and the wool or silk or wool/viscose or whatever played off each other. I'm not so sure how these will wash up (and Donna was a little worried, too) but even if the piece gets ruined in the wash, it was worth it to learn how the textures worked with each other.

After we finished our cotton warps, Donna had each of us (there are 4 students) choose colors of rayon chenille to weave two scarves. Then we got to measure and wind off the warp ourselves, and warp the loom by ourselves (with a lot of help...). The next homework assignment: weave those two scarves, one in plain weave, one in twills. I suspect I'll be badly behaved and mix up twills and plain weave in both scarves.

So, I've been busy - how about you?