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.

Day 58

A little under the weather, as in sleeping most of the day and running a bit of a fever.  So, a little blanket knitting, and that's it.

Day 57

Knitting.

Day 56

I said to myself, "I will get back to weaving.  Really, I will."  So, tonight after work and after dinner, I vacuumed the blanket wool fuzz, lots of wool fuzz, off the Norwood.

And then I sat on the couch for two hours and finished off square #6 of this year for the February Blanket and started square #7. There it is, above.

Of course, I'm beating myself up because I'm not weaving, but really, there's nothing wrong with knitting blanket squares.  This blanket is a record, not only of choices of colors over the years I've been knitting it, but also of all the years - 25, maybe 30 now - that I've been buying yarn and spinning yarn and knitting with it.  Tonight, I was kept company on the couch by a very small ball of Bartlett yarn in a blue-green.  That Bartlett yarn was the first yarn I ever bought, to learn to knit with, back ages ago.  I'll knit it into this blanket somewhere, one of these years, along with so many of the other yarns that have kept me company.

Day 55

Knitting, aka procrastinating about weaving.  I may need weaverly bucking-up.

Day 54

Busy day, busy evening equals two stitches knit, just for whatever forward progress I can get.

(OK, OK, so I want to knock off early and go read all the old weaving books that just arrived - that counts, right?)

Day 53

One round on a blanket square, just so I could say I did, because I have fallen prey to the unwelcome thought, "Just why do I, do we, do all this knitting, spinning, weaving anyway?  What on earth is the point of this?"

I mean, I could be doing something much more substantial instead, like watching television or sorting old bills or something truly Necessary and Inspiring like dusting window mullions, couldn't I? Indeed, shouldn't I?

Day 52

More socializing, this time on the coast, so a little February Blanket knitting, a little Glenfiddich knitting.... and then the weekend's over.  Alas.

Day 51

A busy, sociable day (well, busy except for the nap), so only a few rounds on a blanket square today.

Day 50

Fifty days.  Amazing.

OK, I've decided this really is a sinus infection that's bringing me down and making it hard to do anything more than mindless knitting.

Just not enough energy to tackle anything else.

Day 49

Knitting on the February Blanket.  Knitting, knitting, knitting.  I forget, every year, how draining February is.  Yes, the days are longer.  Yes, the sun is stronger.  Yes, this winter is much, much milder than lat year.  But still, it's cold and dry and endless, and therefore I knit, in the hope and faith that every stitch taken in this state of winter trudging will yet result in surprising beauty come spring.

Day 48

And now for something completely different this evening: helping a friend hem heavy white tablecloths for her restaurant.  (With yummy pizza and Honest Weight beer.)

Day 47

See that?  Yeah, shaft #7 is tied up when #8 should have been.  Oopsie.  Oh, well, I bet I can correct all those mis-weavings ...

Later.  In the meantime, I can mostly cope with mindless knitting.

Day 46

Well, the blanket is off the loom, but half of it - the half I couldn't really see while weaving it - is all fucked up.

I'm still debating what to do with it.

Lots of February Blanket square knitting while thinking.

Day 45 - Brr!

Well, I tried to finish weaving the doublewide blanket, but I got through two repeats and a bit, and gave up because that room - a former garage - was just too cold.  It was around -10 F, with a wind chill of -25 or so.  COLD!

Instead, I camped out on the couch with knitting.

Assorted blankets and shawls were called into action just to keep me warm!

Day 44

Two repeats on the goose-eye blanket.  Slowly, slowly, the knots approach the back of the heddles.

Adding to square #3 of the February Blanket:

And a few rows on Glenfiddich:

Day 43

One - one! - repeat on the twill blanket.  Lots of unweaving, though, until I realized one of the tie-up cords had come undone. Oopsie.

And 5 or 6 rows on Glenfiddich.

Day 42

A few rounds on a new February Blanket square while waiting for my (late) carpool. And that was it for today.

Day 41

Knitting, knitting, knitting.

Knitting while I wait for the (late) carpool.  Knitting while I ride in the carpool.  Knitting while I take the train to Boston for work.  Knitting in the evening because my brain is too shot for weaving.

At least this square is better looking than the first one this month, which I think I'll frog back part way and reknit.

After I weave in the ends on this one.

Day 40

Two blanket repeats woven.

Quite a lot knit on a February Blanket square, in large part because finally it is light enough in the morning and evening that I can knit while I'm carpooling.  It's turning towards spring!  (after another couple months of winter)

Day 39

Two repeats on the woven blanket, twelve rounds on a new February Blanket square.  Life is so ordinary, isn't it?

Day 38

Two repeats on the doublewide blanket.

Two inches on the Glenfiddich cardigan.

Instead of more weaving/knitting/spinning, I went for a hike and then shopping for work clothes. How an entire mall can be full of completely uninteresting, unfitting, unbecoming clothes is beyond me!  I need to start sewing more.

Day 37

Two repeats on the doublewide blanket.  I should have woven more, but I figured out the problem with the short rows on Glenfiddich - who knew there are two kinds of "knit into the stitch below" stitches? - so I made good progress on that.

Now I wait to see if it'll fit, since I rejiggered the chosen size to use Aran-weight yarn instead of DK-weight.

Day 36

Two repeats on the blanket, several rounds on the other blanket.  (What's with the blanket obsession?)

Pictures, pictures...OK, you're right, you need pictures.

The finished blanket rolling up on the cloth beam:

I can see the knots at the end of the warp - this is a good thing!

And one rather ugly February Blanket square, still needing its ends woven it and to be blocked (and to be disguised among dozens of its more lovely (I hope) sisters):

Days 34 and 35

Oopsie!  I forgot to post last night, probably because of a wicked sinus headache.  Anyway: a couple of rounds on a February Blanket square were all I managed.

Tonight, however, SO much more progress.  Two repeats on the doublewide blanket, a couple of rounds on a February Blanket square, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Day 33

Two repeats on the doublewide blanket. A little knitting on the February Blanket.

Day 32

The entire evening was spent on work-related phone calls, so all I got done for fiber work was :

Yep, that's the February Blanket again.  Note how it is sitting on a living room rug.  ALL I got done tonight was to pull the project off the shelves and put it in the living room where I can work on it.  Woo!

And now it's bedtime....

Day 31

The end of the first month.

I sewed the buttons on the handspun cardigan.  Only four and a half years since I started spinning the yarn in the Tour de Fleece in July of 2011.  The first of the Twelve Goals for this year.  You'll get a photo eventually - I need an accomplice.

And that means it's time to go full tilt on the doublewide blanket.  I want it DONE - woven, mended, fringes twisted, and washed - by the end of February.  So, today I wove seven repeats, two at a time.  After all, I bought the fleece for the warp in 2007, at Rhinebeck, so it's time to get it over with.

Finally, I cast on for the Glenfiddich cardigan in the Wendy Traditional Aran gray wool I bought in Oban, Scotland, in August of 2015. Row 5 (and rows 2 through 4 are short-rowed, so quite short) is giving me fits, however, so all that's done is the cast-on and Row 1.  Plus several sticky notes and diagrams, trying to figure out where I went wrong.  So much for forward progress.

Day 30

Another (not) productive day.  Buttons acquired. Enchanted Knoll singles wound off onto a storage bobbin.  Eight picks of weaving thrown, to demonstrate for a non-weaving friend (she was impressed). Perhaps I have calculated which size of Glenfiddich to follow if I'm knitting it with thicker yarn (114% difference in gauge, or choose the size that is 88% of the size I want it to be) (AKA cast on and pray).  There was also wardrobe sorting and dust removal.  I will deny all rumors of the acquisition of padded hangers, however.  Surely, I'm too old to finally be an Adult.

Day 29

Finally got the rest of the pattern printed.

Finally finished spinning the first half of the three Enchanted Knoll batts I bought in August.  There are about 5.5 to 6 ounces on this bobbin.

Day 28

SUCH a productive day.

Or not.  I went shopping for buttons for the cardigan. Nada.  I'm not looking for fancy ones, either, just six simple, black or turquoise, 7/8th-inch buttons.  At least Joann's had buttons; Michael's did not.  (Get offa my lawn, you youngsters!)

And then tonight I bought the pattern for Glenfiddich, to knit in the souvenir yarn from Scotland.  My printer printed half the pages and declared itself out of ink.  Well, phooey.  At least I got the laundry put away.

Keeping track every day of what I accomplish (or not) is illuminating.  Apparently, half of knitting or spinning or weaving is sheer stubborn persistence, increment by increment.

Day 27

Cast off!

Day 26

I see the end of the cardigan coming up and I am knittingknittingknitting the endless buttonband.  Six buttonholes tonight.  Two rows of k2p2 to go, then the bind-off, and I'm DONE.  Need to find buttons, though.

Day 25

A break from the blanket.  Instead, I tossed the stash in search of yarn for the Mason-Dixon Stopover KAL.  Alas, nothing suitable.

So, I knit on the cardigan buttonband - I'm about half-way through.

Day 24

You know, I love the way the blanket is turning out - it's very handsome - but oh, it's such a slog to weave.  Two more repeats today.

But!  But!  The cardigan body is done and seamed; I'm picking up stitches for the buttonband.  Whee!

Day 23

Two repeats on the blanket.  I'm about a quarter done.

Starting to weave the rug sample.  Hmm, the cotton yarn is floating above the wool; I'll have to fiddle with the tie-up and treadling and see if I can tuck the cotton among the wool.  My vision is for a field of dark blue, bumpy wool, punctuated by spots of bright turquoise cotton. I'm not quite there.

The sleeve cap fits!  At least, I think it does.  I'm at the stage where I think, "Was this sweater really worth making?"

More spinning of Enchanted Knoll batts.  Spinning, spinning, spinning.  Thinking about what to spin for a deflected doubleweave shawl. In my mind, I can see the standard deflected doubleweave shapes standing bold as usual and melding into each other, depending on the colors.  Rather like the patchwork I used to sew, where the prints helped blur the hard edge where one piece was sewn to another.

But no snow.  I'm jealous.  And relieved.

Day 22

Two repeats on the blanket and two seams on the cardigan.  Of course, then I realized I had sewn the front opening of the cardigan to the side seam, so really, I ended up with two repeats on the blanket and one sweater seam sewn.

Still, it's progress. I'll take it.

Day 21

Too much of a headache tonight to do more than knit on the Giant Sleeve of Doom, but at least now I'm up to the sleeve cap.  I suppose I ought to fit the other sleeve into the body and see if the sleeve cap fits as written.  Of course it won't - such is the life of a knitter - but perhaps I'm finally experienced enough to realize I shouldn't have to frog and reknit both sleeve caps.

Day 20

A day off.

ETA: I spoke too soon - I added an inch to the endless sleeve.

Day 19

One (one!) repeat on the blanket. A little reading on deflected doubleweave. Real work doesn't leave much time for fiber.

Day 18

Etherknitter and I got the Varpapuu together, at least most of the way.  I need to play with TexSolv to finish the task, but it feels good to have Ms. Varp together again.  What a lovely, solid loom!  I look forward to seeing what she can weave,

In other news, a little sleeve knitting, a little weaving of the rug sample hem, a little wrapping up warmly against the bitter wind. It's cold out there, baby!

Day 17

A little of everything today: 3 or 4 repeats on the blanket, threading and beaming the ruglet, reading more about deflected doubleweave, beginning to fiddle around with a draft for a tablecloth-with-inset-runner, and knitting the cardigan sleeve.  Progress on many fronts, and yet hardly anything visible. I calculated it will take me about 3 weeks to weave off the blanket, if I work at it almost every day.

I suppose what I'm doing is building up patience.

Day 16

It's a cold, raw day here, with a bit of sloppy snow this morning.

I slogged a little on the blanket.

I got a 4-shaft deflected doubleweave rug sample underway.

And now I'm slowly working up the second sleeve of the cardigan, kept warm by a handwoven blanket, sweater, and shawl wrapped around my neck.

It's the time of year when progress on all fronts is slow and simple survival is cause enough for celebration.

Day 15

I have a three-day weekend.  With luck, this pile of parts (plus more)...

Will become a loom.  A old, 60-inch, 8-shaft, countermarche Varpapuu loom. With beams to die for. I couldn't resist beginning to match the marks tonight, although I'm pretty sure I put the back bottom beam in backwards.  Ah, tomorrow I'll fix that.

Wish me luck.

Two Weeks

Still spinning the first half of these three Enchanted Knoll batts.

Lovely stuff, but it's taking forever.

But sometimes forever is OK.

Day ...what is it?...13

Learning about deflected doubleweave and spinning, spinning, spinning and figuring out which cabin to reserve for Rhinebeck, nine months from tomorrow.

Ah, the busy life of the crazed fiber fanatic.

Day 12

Knitting k2p2 cuff ribbing.  No brain for anything else. In fact, maybe I'll just get into bed right now.

Day 11

We have lift-off!

And it opens!

I'm so easily amused.

Day 10

High-level procrastinating on weaving the blanket today.  I started winding a warp for a deflected doubleweave rug sample, with varying block sizes.  I went over to Laurie's house and borrowed three bags of books and magazines with material on deflected doubleweave.  And now I'm knitting cuff #2 for the handspun cardigan.  Perhaps the warm temperatures and rain are contributing to an odd headache, and perhaps the headache is contributing to a lack pf drive to tackle the blanket.

Or I'm just lazy.

Day 9

An afternoon with fiber friends, including wine, a geriatric cat, homemade bread, and Skyping to the West Coast and Canada.  I finished the first cardigan sleeve. Life is good.

Day 8

Pulling out leftover wool yarns, to give to a friend who's planning on knitting hats for charity.

And now I'm going to knit.  It's been a long week and, while I should weave, I'm just not going to.

Day 7

I knit a little on the cardigan sleeve this evening, enough to start a new ball.  Sleeves are SLOW.

I wound 6 bobbins of thick cotton for the blanket heading.  Maybe I need 6-inch bobbins; 4-inch bobbins don't hold much at this thickness of yarn. Or use a rug shuttle, but the shed isn't wonderful.  Hmm.

I played on Fiberworks to reverse the tie-up for the doublewide blanket - yep, it produces everything the same, except the SW and NE quadrants of the tie-up are reversed.

Now I suppose I ought to go tie up the Norwood with the new tie-up.  Yup, ought to do that right about now.  Yep, I should.

Yes, I'm procrastinating.  Not because of the contortions of re-tying, but because I'm not absolutely convinced this will solve the problem, and I don't want to face more problems.

I suppose I could compromise - do the retying and then retire from the battlefield till tomorrow night.

Some days I hate being a grown-up.

ETA:  It worked, it worked!

(That's just the header yarn, to get the spacing right at the beginning.  You'll see the real weft tomorrow.  Or this weekend.)

Day 6

Learning about deflected doubleweave.  I've dug out everything I can find in my books and magazines, and I've been compiling a list of other articles and books I'd like to find.  Plus, my mind is zooming waaaay out ahead of my knowledge, dancing on the edge of reality, saying, oh, you could make the lines wiggle and shimmer, the colors come and go in delightful ways, the smooth give way to the hills and valleys.

I better read something boring tonight, if I'm ever to fall asleep at a reasonable hour.

Day 5

Five stitches on the cardigan sleeve this morning while waiting for my carpool mate.  I hate it when she's on time and I can't get much done!

Tonight, I'm putting some of the usual 8-shaft deflected doubleweave drafts into Fiberworks, so I can understand the common and changing variables (the tie-up changes!).

I'm aiming to work up a gamp draft that I can weave off and see what the fabric does.  Maybe several gamps, or change the tie-up along the length of the warp.  Fun!

And brr, it's cold - it might be time to huddle under a blanket on the couch and knit.

Day 4

A few rows of sleeve knitting.  With my feet up.  And a bit of wine.

Quite enough for a Monday night.  Re-entry is tough.

Day 3

I finished threading, beaming, and tying on the warp for Pat to practice on.  I'm not thrilled with the color combo, but it'll do.

I also finished tying on the wool blanket warp.  I like to let wool and cotton warps "rest" overnight after I've tied the first half of a square knot on the front apron rod, so they do all the stretching and settling in then, rather than as I start weaving. I couldn't do that with Pat's warp (it's 8/2 cotton), but learning how to deal with wonky warp tension is part of learning how to weave, right?

Then Pat came over and we had a yummy, yummy lunch at Soup on the Fly here in town.  Then she started learning to weave.

Meanwhile, I tied up the Norwood for the blanket.

I think Pat is a Born Weaver - look at that selvedge!

I, on the other hand - well, somehow the fold that's supposed to be on the left side of the warp is ending up on the right side.  Oopsie.  Probably just need to reverse the tie-up, but I'll do that tomorrow; my brain is shot tonight.  Maybe a little light spinning or knitting, just bedtime for me.

Day 2

I got bored with spinning last night, so I added a couple of inches to the first sleeve of the Cannon Street cardigan.

Today was my monthly 6-hour Explorations in Advanced Weaving class with Laurie Autio.  We covered 2-block weaves, especially stripes and checks, and, as always, she brought some wonderful examples for us to look at and fondle.

Tomorrow Pat is coming over to hang out, and she wants to learn to weave, so I wound a short 3-yard warp of 8/2 cotton for us to put on my table loom.

A straightforward rosepath threading, so she can play with treadlings.  Warp is now wound and sleyed; then there was a short break for re-arranging heddles on shafts.  Luckily, I discovered the heddle deficit early in the process, so not too much use for all those bad words I've learned in my fiber studies.

2016: Day 1 of 366

I'm planning to keep track of what I do this year by writing a sentence or two and posting a photo, if possible, every time I do something fibery this year.

Since I had today off, I did lots.

I blocked a dark pink hat I knit from deep-stash wool, because none of my hats go well with my new red-violet early-winter coat.

I'm knitting Glenna C's Cannon Street cardigan in handspun (one strand of black Icelandic, 2 strands of Spunky Eclectic BFL).  I just got notice of a correction to the pattern, so I compared what I've knit - the back, both fronts - to the new pattern, and decided eh, I'm not going to bother reknitting the top of the back just for two stitches, at least until sewing the body together or adding the buttonband proves me wrong.  I still think there's a k2top/p2top mix-up for the left front, but maybe that's just my confusion; that part of the pattern wasn't changed.

I copied and assembled my weaving homework for tomorrow's monthly Advanced Weaving class, taught by Laurie Autio.  This month's homework was to come up with lots of treadling and tie-up variations for a simple 4-shaft, straight-draw threading.

I beamed and started tying on the handspun warp on the 8-shaft Norwood, for a doublewide goose-eye twill blanket.  I think this will be an "interesting" warp to weave off, because it is sett so densely; I had two ends snap during the beaming.

And now it's evening and I'm going to start spinning the third of three Enchanted Knoll batts I bought this summer at Fiber Revival.  Lovely, lovely fiber, if a bit more sparkly than I really like; I'm planning a gradient two-ply, for a big lace shawl.

Not a bad start to the year at all.