Day 91

Put a new DDW warp on the loom and wove off the first of a few samples.

I was hoping for bigger and puffier bright cotton areas, but this is a nice start.

In knitting news, I just joined the sleeves and body of Stopover and am crawling up the yoke.

Day 90

Twisted the fringe on the DDW shawl and washed it.

Day 89

I took the day off work, so the pink DDW shawl is off the loom, the weaving homework is puzzled over, and a foot or so is added to sleeve #2.  Productivity, indeed - too bad I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Day 88

A couple of feet woven on the DDW warp.  Lots of unweaving whenever I hit the D block, because the damned chains kept jumping off the hooks.  I finally lengthened the chain, which helped, but the the shed was shallow.  Surely, there's a better way.

And some sleeve knitting, to the point the sleeve is off the doublepoints and on a short circular.  Now I shall fly!

Day 87

Today was all about warps.

Winding them:

Weaving them off:

Planning new ones:

Apparently, I'm all about pink and brown right now.  I did not foresee that.

Day 86

A trip to WEBS. Total haul:  one boat shuttle, 2 cones of linen, a cone of dark gray neppy wool millend, 2 cones of very fine cashmere/silk - one navy, one gold - and a skein of bulky turquoise wool with which to mend the buttonholes in my knit coat.  And a magazine, Eucalan, a new tapestry needle case.  I think that was it.

I finished weaving the sized/unsized singles warp.  The unsized selvedges kept breaking; I finally replaced one with the Merino/Tencel I was using for weft.

And finished off the body of Stopover with a few short rows on the back, to raise the neck, and cast on for sleeve #2.  Moving right along.

Day 85

Current score: 1 sized warp end broken; 3 sized warp ends broken, mostly on or near the selvedges.  Yes, I'm stubborn, but I'm learning my lesson: always ply.  ;~)

And I'm winding another plainweave warp in wool.  I like the thrill of using up lots of yarn!

Day 84

The sized warp was dry, so I dressed the loom with it and used the unsized warp to either side, because I wanted to subject the unsized warp to the "worst" weaving conditions.  Started weaving it off in plainweave with Merino/Tencel and, interestingly, one of the sized ends was the first to break.

And carpooling is great for banging out a sweater - I'm almost finished sleeve #1 of Stopover.

Day 83

I sized a bout of handspun singles with gelatin.

And then I talked to Pat for an hour about new Shetland lambs and work and life and how the new fleeces are gorgeous and and....

Day 82

A quiet night knitting on sleeve #1 of Stopover.

Day 81

I fulled the green plainweave - lovely stuff - and started spinning the second half of the three Enchanted Knoll batts.

Day 80

As I suspected, the knobby rayon yarn did not hold up as warp, at leas not at this sett and with flat steel heddles.  So, I trashed it and replaced it with a heathery pink Bartlett sportweight. A bit too thick and a bit too pink, but it'll do.

I may rip out this beginning and add more picks to the dark purple stripes; I'm going to sleep on that decision.

In other news, sleeve #1 of Stopover is underway.

Day 79

A day of knitting with a friend has brought Stopover within an inch or so of the yoke.  Fast sweater knitting, indeed.

And I was seduced by singles weaving.  I dug out some old, old ( damn, I did keep notes - they're from 2010) BFL singles, not terribly thin, but thin enough.  Just enough yardage for the warp of a scarf.  I wound two bouts.  I'll size one, but not the other; I'm curious to see how singles behave.  The cone in the middle is a silk (maybe with some cotton?) noil millend.  I'd have to double it for weft for a balanced-ish plainweave scarf and I'm not sure there's enough yardage for that.  Lots of other choices in my stash, though, one of the pleasures of a copious collection.

Day 78

An hour and a half, and the Norwood is threaded.  I'm still unconvinced this will work.

Day77

Lots of knitting time during two hours of riding to and from work. I'm up to the waist.

The next warp is sleyed.

I think I procrastinate getting next warps on the loom because, oh, what if it's a disaster?  What if the bumpy rayon warp hangs up on the reed and shreds?  What if it's all too busy?  Maybe it's too wide for the length of warp I wound?  But none of these questions can be answered until I sample, and if I'm going to sample, I might as well weave a scarf - a wide one - while I'm at it.

Now, I'm going to go see if I can stick a lace window in the middle of those nice boring little plainweave polygons in deflected doubleweave, I bet I can.

Day 76

Finished weaving the wool yardage, about four and a quarter yards.  It's nice stuff - I wonder how it'll feel after washing.

Day 75

More plainweaving.  More fiddling with deflected doubleweave drafts (less symmetry this time).

Day 74

A day's carpooling afforded enough time to knit up what's left of the first ball of blue, after the swatch, so, since I do not trust that swatch, I blocked the first 4-5 inches of the back.  We shall see.

The wool yardage is piling up.

More fiddling with the DDW draft.  It's too symmetrical, but it'll do for a first 8-shaft project.  Now, can I figure out a way to post it here? ... Well, not an elegant way, but this will do.

Day 73

More weaving of plainweave.  More fiddling with deflected doubleweave drafts.

I cast on for Stopover.

Day 72

Lots of weaving on the plainweave warp.  I like just making cloth, but I don't know what I'll do with this (or many fabrics I make).  Maybe I'll leave it for the inevirable dead weaver's sale.

Lots of playing with the draft for the purple deflected doubleweave scarf, but I still don't quite get it.  I can sub it different profiles, but then trying to also change the tie-up produces the digital equivalent of mud.  And I still want the structure to bend the warps more than it does.  I need to sample more.

It was a beautiful day, so I photographed the February Blanket before putting it away for the year.

And my Icelandic yarn came, already!  Swatching has commended.

I'm not enamored of the motif for the Stopover sweater; it's a little boxy for my liking.  I may try to find another 6-stitch motif before I get up to the yoke.

Day 71

I started weaving the plainweave warp.

The colors are somewhere in between these two shots, one with and one without flash.

It's shocking to realize that I wound this warp (well, almost all of it; I added more once I had it sleyed) on Sunday and have worked every night since getting it sleyed, threaded, wound on, and finally tied on tonight.  It was a little fussy, because I had 6 or 7 bouts of wool criss-crossing each other in front of the reed, so it snagged a good bit while winding on.  Plus, I sleyed and then re-sleyed, to get the width and color distribution I wanted.  It's discouraging to see how long it takes to get even a simple, 21-inch-wide, 2 ends/dent in a 10-dent reed, 5-yard-long warp up and running.

On the other hand, I like the fabric it's making.  I'm weaving it off with a thin dark green wool millend yarn, something nameless but nice.

Day 70

Oh, I suppose I ought to go take a photo for you.  Hold on....

There.  Happy now?

I just realized I've been blogging off and on, mostly off in recent years, for just over ten years.  I wonder what my fiber life will look like ten years from now?

Day 69

Order out of chaos, one end at a time.

Day 68

Sleying and threading the plainweave warp.

Day 67

I finished the last February Blanket square I'm going to knit this year (barring a sudden need for tons of mindless knitting later on).

I'm sad to pack it all away (well, I'll take a photo of all of the squares this coming weekend or so), but I'm ready to do something more thinky now.

Day 66

Productivity in action.

Washed all the February Blanket blocks I've finished so far this year.

Wound a warp for an 8-shaft deflected doubleweave scarf for a friend.

Wound a warp for a random, green, plainweave length of cloth, just because (probably because it's almost spring).  Some of these yarns are handspun.

Helped another friend with a fine-dining tablecloth emergency. (Six-inch drop or twelve?  How to reinforce an inside corner? We resorted to sampling with sheets of paper.)

And I'm a sheep - I ordered yarn for a Stopover.  I'm not the only ewe on this farm, however.

Day 65

Oops, forgot to post last night.

A weavy day!  Explorations in Advanced Weaving, with Laurie Autio.  First of two classes on lace.  Alas, I forgot my camera for her samples.  Normally, I'm not drawn to the precision, small size, and monochrome of most traditional lace, but Laurie had a lovely piece I wish I could have photographed.  Lace Bronson, in 30/2 unbleached linen, mostly, with single, white, 40/1 linen threads that formed a grid over it all.  The white threads were the "crosses" in the lace windows.  Charming.  I don't know who wove it.

And then I knit on the last February Blanket square for this year, or for a while, anyway.  Knitting those squares is too addictive, too easy, and I'm not getting myself to other projects.  Maybe one more session on this square, and then I'll pack it all away.  There are looms calling!

Days 59-64

No, I didn't die and drop off the ends of the earth, although for a couple of days I felt as though I did.

So, to catch up:

Days 59-60:  So sick I didn't knit or weave or spin or even read about any of that.  I haven't been that sick in years and years.  "Just" an intestinal virus, but I hardly ever get those.

Day 61:  Not flat on my back in bed, but not going to work either. Therefore, lots of February Blanket knitting.  (I think it was March, though?)

Day 62:  To work, most of the day, followed by blanket knitting.

Day 63-64: Ditto, but I made it all day at work.  Here's a badly lit photo of all the progress on blanket knitting this year.

See that unfinished square in the middle?  I'm going to finish that, but then I'm going to wrench myself away from this addictiveness and do something wild, like, oh, weave.  Spin.  Pick up the non-blanket projects I dropped about a week ago.

I do promise to get a good photo of all the February Blankets squares some time soon, once this year's output is all finished and blocked.