Day 119

Did I do anything fibery today?  Hmm...Oh!  I washed the first two runners.  They came out great.  They still need pressing and hemming, though.  In other news, a four-hour stroll through the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge with a bunch of friends was fantastic - lots of dragonflies and butterflies, birds and turtles.  Ice cream after, of course, and then a three-hour nap to cover from the effects of sun and that much walking.  Life may shift from the fiber focus of winter to the garden and walking focus of summer, and that's OK by me.

Day 118

Wove off runner #3, and a little mindless knitting.

Day 117

A little mindless knitting.  Did I work on runner #2 this morning?  I don't know; this morning was a long time ago.

Day 116

Working on runner #2.

Day 115

Not in the mood.  Too much grown-up-ing today.

Day 114

I finished-finished Stopover today.  Blocked and everything.

No weaving this weekend.  I should have, but there was lots of gardening and a bit of hiking and I'm pooped, plus the tendon on the back of my right hand is protesting, so I'm resting it.  I think it was all the compost I moved.  Which isn't all the compost I need to move.  Ah, spring - the days are longer and the to-do list lengthens even faster.

Day 113

I had to make a run to Webs today.  I'm running out of the cranberry weft for the deflected doubleweave warp, and this is the last Saturday I have free till mid-June, which is just a little too late.  So, now I have more cranberry and more gold, too, for good measure, just in case, and, oh, six other colors of 5/2 cotton to play with on this warp.  I better dream up some more projects with 5/2 cotton.

Tonight, I finished knitting Stopover.  I still have all the ends to weave in, and the damned grafting in the armpits, but DONE.  It fits, too.

Day 112

Took yesterday off.  So to speak.

Tonight, I worked up the design for the second DDW runner and started knitting the yoke on Stopover.

Day 110

A little mindless knitting.  Both too tired and too wired to weave - too many ideas floating around in my head.

Day 109

Finished weaving the first of six DDW projects on the red/gold/silver warp.  That's good.

Day 108

Weaving the first runner on the deflected doubleweave warp.  It's nice enough, but I'm both anxious and bored by it.

And then to Pat's in the afternoon for lamb-watching.

Day 107

Not a thing.  No knitting, no spinning, no weaving.

Unless you count re-reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit. Or all the looking at patterns in the woods and a lovely brook as I took a walk with friends today.

That was enough.

Day 106

Iceland comes to the rescue!  I ran out of the main color for my Stopover pullover (long story).  I ordered a skein from Webs; they sent the wrong color (close, but not).  So I ordered a skein from Iceland, but enough for yet another Lettlopi sweater in a different design.  The skein (in the right dyelot!) arrived today, so I knit with it tonight.

Plus getting organized for the first runner on the deflected doubleweave warp and a little truly mindless knitting on Lichen.

Day 105

More mindless knitting.

Day 104

Oof.  One conference call and three intense meetings at work today, and I have no brain left.  So, tonight there was mindless knitting.  Shortly, there may be mindless sleeping.

Day 103

Re-beamed the runner warp, because the knots were at just the right point to rest on the slats of the sectional beam and therefore stick up bumpily through the wound warp.  A pile of warp in front of the loom and a few sticks later, it was all set.  I tied it up (surely there is a better way!), found and fixed a mis-threaded heddle, and I'm off and weaving.  First up: a nice, one-foot-or-so sample, to be hemmed and washed within an inch of its life, to see if this warp will work for deflected doubleweave.

And the peas are up!

Day 102

Sleyed, threaded, and beamed the table runner warp.

Day 101

Wove off more samples on the black wool and bright cotton DDW warp.  Did I take photos to show you?  No.

Made a decision on the weaving homework - one warp, six projects.  Essentially a table runner warp, of cranberry/gold/natural 5/2 cotton.  The warp is wound.  it may not be the most exciting thing I've ever woven, but it'll get done.

Day 100

One hundred days.  I really am obsessed, aren't I?

Started weaving the plainweave tonight.  The first photo is with flash; the second without.

I had to take the car for an inspection and oil change, and had no mindless knitting, so I cast on for Lichen with some dark blue-green Shalimar Yarns Breathless, superwash Merino/cashmere/silk.  It'll be nice mindless knitting.

I would have been knitting on my Stopover, but the dark blue Lettlopi Webs sent was the wrong color, so I said screw it and ordered another skein of the right color from Iceland (and yarn to make another sweater, this one by Norah Gaughan).

Finally, I played around with drafts for deflected doubleweave.  I might just weave six projects on one warp after all, not that I really want or am excited about six table runners or similar-weight projects, but it'll get done and I can move on.

Day 99

Finished beaming the wide wool warp.  I really should figure out a faster way.

Day 98

Finished threading the heddles and started winding on.  Not too tangled, considering how many overlapping bouts I have going.  I love this warp!  I can't wait to weave it off!

Day 97

More threading of heddles; more putting still more heddles on the shafts.  Almost done.

Day 96

More plainweave threading.  I wish I could capture the multi-color beauty of this warp.

Day 95

Look at that - I did forget to blog last night!  Probably because it was a "found day" -  it snowed hard enough I stayed home.

Anyhow, I finished sleying the plainweave warp and started threading.

Fiddled around with an asymmetric DDW draft and determined that, yup, indeed I do not have enough yarn to finish Stopover.

Day 94

Oh, brain, you are so full.  Four-block designs before lunch; summer and winter after lunch.  And then I sat down after dinner to design another deflected doubleweave design for the 8-shaft loom, starting with a nice 8-block profile design.  I do not want to talk about how long it look me to realize that if each DDW block takes two shafts, I can't weave an 8-block DDW profile on an 8-shaft loom.  As I said, brain is full.

The plainweave warp is almost done, and I have the sneaking suspicion I'm going to run out of the main color for Stopover.

Day 93

You know, learning more and more and more about weaving is fun.  Lots of fun.  It's just frustrating not having the time to weave it all.

Nor the brain left to figure it all out.  Therefore, I spent the evening doing more to get the next plainweave warp on the Purrington.  8.5 yards, about 35 inches wide, Harrisville Shetland and Bartlett Sportweight partial cones, plus a little of this and that, mostly in russets, browns, and cranberry tones.  I don't know yet what the weft will be.  I don't know what I'll do with the fabric, either.  Have cloth, I guess.

Day 92

To sum up weaving homework: floats in Spot Bronson can get way too long way too quickly, and then you have to do fancy treadling to turn half of them into the other kind of floats.

Not surprisingly, after an hour of that, I resorted to sleying and winding more warp for plainweave.