Just another Knitter learns to weave

Shawls are done

2008-07-05T16:31:00.001-07:00

I ran out of green yarn as I neared the minimum length for two shawls so I decided that's where I would stop. I did have to use some other yarn on the end of one shawl to get them to be long enough so it ended up with a bright yellow stripe at the end.

Here they both are!

And here I'm modeling the all green one. I really like it. I wasn't sure that I would, given the colors and the kinda busy pattern I picked, but somehow it all works.

I did intend to have the shawls be a bit longer. I wove approximately 160" total, or 80" each on the loom, expecting to end up with around 72" after take up, and 70" after hemming. Either my measuring tapes are all crap (could be...) or the takeup was a bit more because I ended with right around 67" each, just barely over the minimum of 66".

As my first weaving with very fine gauge wool, this was a great learning experience. I now know how to beat carefully to avoid broken warp threads. I also know that I tend to prefer shorter warps. I'm probably going to stick to doing only 1 thing at a time so I don't have to weave off warps longer than, say, four yards or so.

Next up--I've come up with a color scheme for a simple plaid double-weave blanket. I've got 5 colors of Harrisville Shetland that I'm going to set at 10epi. What a treat to work with "big" yarn after the 20/2 wool! I'm winding the warp tonight in front of the TV with Brent and will try to get it on the loom tomorrow. This is my first try at doubleweave. I understand the concept pretty well, so we'll see how that translates to reality.

A lesson

2008-07-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

I've been weaving along on the Afghans for Afghans shawls. I'm nearly out of green yarn for the weft, and I'm not sure I'm going to have sufficient length for 2 shawls, let alone 3. I may have to substitute another color. I have some brown I think that might work OK.

I'm working with approximately 20/2 wool in the warp. This is the finest warp yarn I've used. For the first 10 inches or so I had a broken warp yarn every few minutes. It was very trying on my patience!

I did some research online and saw someone mentioning that for fine yarn, they beat with an open shed. But more interestingly, they would beat twice--once on the current open shed and once on the next.

It took me a while to get the rhythm of beat-change shed-beat-throw, but after I got it, wow what a difference. From that point on, I only had 2 broken warp threads! It also really evened out my beat, I think.

Yay for new things learned.

Resurrection

2008-06-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't quit knitting, just blogging. I'm going to make an attempt to start this up again, but with a fairly good dose of weaving content. I took a weaving class last summer and have been doing quite a lot of it lately.

I recently finished my first waffle-weave project. These towels were from a kit I got from Halcyon Yarns. The kit was to make 3 towels, but I had enough warp for an additional square dishcloth.

I've only hemmed the dishcloth so far. Even though I used sewing thread for the weft on the hems, the flare is quite pronounced compared to the draw-in of the waffles. I'm going to have to mess with the hem on the others a bit to get it to look nice.

These towels are for us. They should go nicely with the green kitchen walls!

During the WEBS anniversary sale, I picked up a few cones of 6/2 unmercerized cotton. I used almost an entire cone of the "oatmeal" color for some huck lace towels for my cousin's wedding (Coming up this Saturday!). I'll post another picture of the completed towels. I'm going to be cross stitching a monogram on some of them in white embroidery floss.

I got the lace pattern out of an Interweave Press compilation of huck lace articles from Handwoven magazine. I'm really impressed with the book. It gets into detail about the structure and how to create your own patterns. It also has instructions for a form of huck that can be done with pickup sticks on the rigid heddle loom. I'm planning to try that out with panels for an afghan one day.

And finally, the next project on the loom. I'm making some shawls for Afghans for Afghans. Syne at weavecast sent me a pre-wound warp (major time saver!) in these crazy colors. I've gotten started on sleying the reed but a diversion to go hear some jazz at the Missouri Botanical Gardens last night has put the brakes on that project for a bit. I might get some more done today, since I got some Alias dvds from Netflix in the mail yesterday.

I'm planning on doing the shawl in an undulating twill pattern from the Davison book. That'll be my first try at undulating twill and at an EPI of 30. Previously I've only done as high as 25.

A quick update

2007-07-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to pop up a quick photo before I dash off to the airport for this week's work. I started these socks ages ago, using some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn I got (I believe) in Minneapolis at some random yarn store out in the middle of an office park.

I used Charlene Schurch's Sensation Knitted socks for the formula. The Eye of Partridge heel flap looks very nice in this yarn. The slipped stitches form almost a checkerboard. Oh, also--this was my first try at a tubular cast on. I love the results it gives, despite the fact that it's fiddly to work.

Anyway, it was a fun, quick knit!

Firebird Socks

2007-07-15T12:00:00.001-07:00

I just finished the June socks from the Rockin Sock club. I worked them top-down according to pattern except for the toe, which I did as normal stockinette instead of short-rowed garter stitch. It should keep them from being too bulky around my toes.

I've photographed them out in the garden as it's quite a lovely sunny day out there:

More of the Shawl Mystery

2007-07-14T17:00:00.001-07:00

Clue three was released this week and I spent much of the afternoon working on it. I finished just in time to get a photo in the waning afternoon sunlight.

It's definitely looking like "something" but I can't for the life of me think what the theme might be. Obviously the faggoting is making very clear points. Not sure if that has a meaning or not. Hum. Oh, and to answer Jessica's question from last week since I don't have a great way to respond to comments--The beads are indeed red.

In other knitting news, a couple weeks ago I finished the knee socks I was making with the April yarn from the rockin sock club. This was the "silkie" wool/silk blend and it feels diving. I have to use straps as garters to keep them up though. I might thread in some elastic instead.

My apologies for the poor photo. There wasn't any good light and I haven't persuaded brent to take another photo on a better day.

On the Mystery Stole Bandwagon

2007-07-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

So I was browsing around Ravelry the other day when I was struck by all these lovely pictures of a stole in progress. It was the Mystery Stole 3. I saw that signups were closing in a few days so I hurried over and signed up, and immediately started knitting.

The instructions said that it was best worked in black or white, and I had some off-white alpaca/silk blend laceweight that would be just right. I hopped off to the craft store and picked up some beads, and off I went.

Yesterday, clue 2 was released (more of the pattern), and I just finished it today. Here's what it's looking like:

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what the main motif on this end is supposed to be? Here's a closeup

Also, for posterity's sake, here's the photo I took at the end of clue 1. I didn't want to make a separate post for it too. It was also taken in better light so it looks white instead of blue :)

A bad blogging spell

2007-06-05T07:45:00.001-07:00

I've been on a bit of a bad blogging spell, and truly bad knitting too. I haven't knit much, though I've purchased more yarn (who can help it?). I did eventually rip out the grasshopper sock I was working on before, and reknit it. I'm nearly finished with sock number 1:

I'm using the over the knee socks pattern from Handknit Holidays, but made mine just knee socks instead of over-the-knee. The detail on the back is a bit lost in the striping of the yarn, but that's OK--it keeps me interested in the pattern at least.

In addition, I happened to win a contest on the STR Rockin Sock Club blog! I got a prize of a lightweight STR skein of Lunasea:

Tiny update

2007-05-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing much knitting, but I have been crafting a bit. I got a felting kit, so I've been experimenting with that. I also have been playing with ideas for stuff to make and sell at a big garage sale event in June. I'll leave you with a couple photos from that fun, before I head off for a long weekend. Yay for vacation days!

Felted wine cozy -- soon to be decorated via needle felting.

Felted beer/soda cozy -- already decorated with orange needle felting details, but I didn't have a photo of it.

Mmm, cozy

2007-05-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's nights like tonight that I love handknit socks. I'm sitting out on my back porch (yes, with the laptop), watching it rain, with cozy wool socks keeping my toes nice and toasty, even though they're a tiny bit damp from the rain.

Sock Club Time!

2007-04-28T16:08:00.000-07:00

The BMFA Rockin Sock club kit for april has arrived! The yarn is a new wool/silk blend that has a lovely barber-pole effect due to the different dyeing properties. I don't have any great pictures of the colorway, but here's what I do have:

"Walking on the Wild Tide" colorway, and Grasshopper sock pattern

Of course I couldn't handle waiting to cast on, so here's my progress thus far. I've just finished the heel and am starting on the leg part. It's still yet to be determined whether I'll do the knee highs or normal sock length. I think I'd like to do the knee highs, but the pattern is a little boring so I'm not sure.

No knitting content included

2007-04-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

I've done a little swatching here and there, but most of my weekend and this week so far have been consumed by gardening!

A collection of random bushes along the south edge of the yard, plus the birdbath with petunias under it:

And my vegetable garden boxes. Nothing's up yet, but most of it's planted:

Oh, I almost forgot. In exciting knitting news, my brown and pink swatch was approved for my vest project! Yay!

Invisible progress

2007-04-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

The past few days haven't produced much in the way of knitted objects, but have been educational and somewhat interesting at least.

First off, I got several new books in the mail. I love getting reprints of the classics:

I also got a shipment from Knitpicks so I could start swatching for my Level 2 vest. I've pretty much set on doing a houndstooth vest of my own design. Probably a scoop neck. I heard people say that Palette was scratchy, but I find it quite soft and very pleasant to work with. Here's what I've done as far as a swatch I like:

I also tried lavender and cream, but didn't care for the end result. There wasn't enough contrast I think. I have several other colors to play with, and might have to alter from the pink/brown combo above if the committee thinks it's too dark.

I shudder to think how much knitting it's going to take to make an entire vest at 8 stitches per inch. Good grief, what am I getting into :)

More swatching

2007-04-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

My laptop was out of commission for the weekend as the cord broke and I had to have a new one shipped to me. During that time I did a fair amount of swatching for the master knitter stuff. I misread the instructions for my first cable swatch so I'm using it as my test swatch for the Cable Flare solution. Here are the cable ones I did finish, plus a very pretty lace swatch that ended up being too big :(

You can kind of see some little black lines on the lace swatch. Those are extra T pins in my "cat prevention" attempt. I do not know what it is about knitted swatches but they are cat magnets. Even with the pins, I caught one of them sneaking a paw or two onto it. Sheesh.

As for the cables--wow you can really see the flare problem. I'm kind of surprised they don't have us resolve it on all 3 swatches.

I also did some seaming work. I seamed an exceedingly beautiful 1x1 rib seam, but realized after the fact that my cast on edges aren't the same (one's bumpy, one's smooth), so I have to redo it. I might rework the entire swatch to use a tubular cast on anyway since those are so pretty.

I'm struggling a lot with the seed stitch seam. I got my copy of IK from Spring 2002, and it's helpful but translating it to the reality of my swatch is being troublesome.

Some Lace

2007-04-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

My airplane knitting for the week consisted of lace swatches for my level 2 tkga stuff. I used the Barbara Walker Treasuries (books 1 and 2). One of the fun parts of this has been charting the patterns. I prefer to work lace (and cables) almost exclusively from charts, so before starting each swatch, I charted out the lace pattern.

Here are 3 of the swatches I did. The bottom one is a Milanese Lace, and I don't think I'm going to use it. I got lazy and made it too small I think. The top left is "Starlight" lace. I really like this pattern. It's clever and open and pretty. The top right one is "Elfin" lace. It's a very straightforward pattern--easy to work and pretty.

I'm working on another lace swatch now, to replace the Milanese one. It's a wider pattern, and more of a panel than an allover stitch as these were. I'm a little worried that it might end up exceeding the 7" square limitation, but we'll see how it goes.

I passed!

2007-04-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I got the letter with my resubmitted level 1 swatches saying that I passed! I then got started on the knitting for level 2 in earnest. I have all the pieces knit for swatches 1-4, and 6-7. I had a question on number 5, but that's been answered so I can get to that soon. I also knit the decrease swatches (8-10), and started on my first lace swatch.

Here's a peek at all the ones I've finished as they're being blocked:

The lace is going to take a while. I'm using size 2 needles and some pretty fine laceweight yarn. The inch of seed stitch on each end is a bit time consuming. For the first one, I've picked "Elfin Lace" from the first Barbara Walker Treasury. I got it all charted out, so writing the pattern should be quite simple.

I have a flight tomorrow, but will probably take my socks in progress instead of dragging this TKGA stuff along. It's no fun to carry around my reference books.

More Socks

2007-04-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Motivated by the STR socks, I finished up a pair that had been sitting around for a few months. They're very bright and cheery. I don't think I used enough stitches for the heel, as it doesn't seem to fit quite right. But that doesn't matter much--they're just simple ribbed socks out of some very pretty yarn:

I have quite a bit of the yarn left, so they'll have to become toes and heels for a matching solid I think.

Inside Out Socks

2007-04-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

With the big shawl done, I had a chance to finish up my February Sock kit socks from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin Socks Club. The pattern was interesting. I hadn't ever worked reversible cables before. They're not identical on each side, but are equally attractive.

The one on the top is "right side" out, while the lower one is "inside out". They're made with Socks that Rock Mediumweight at a very tight gauge. I used up very nearly the entire hank.

Anyway, I like trying the patterns with the yarns they sent, but seriously this isn't a great match. The colorway is entirely too busy for the cabling and doesn't look very good. It would work much better on a solid or near solid.

Now I think I'll finish up a pair of socks that's been sitting around nearly done for 6 months or so. They're bright and cheerful, in a red/yellow colorway from Artyarns I think.

Down Time

2007-03-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, now that the shawl's done, I feel like there's a weight lifted. I finished my level 1 resubmit swatch for the Master Knitter program and got it mailed off today. I pulled out the cuff of my Inside Out sock for the Rockin Socks club and started reknitting on size 2s. I printed out the instructions for the first few swatches in TKGA's level 2 course. This one's not going to be as quick to finish as the first one was. Lots of seaming and finishing stuff!

That didn't take long

2007-03-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

I made my decision. No border on this baby. I reconsidered the tremendous size and determined that any addition would be a bad idea. It's seriously huge. Wingspan is about 8.5 feet, and it goes from the base of my neck to mid calf when I don't fold any of the top edge down. Huge.

Here it is in the process of blocking.

And here it is draped over my cedar chest:

The edge pattern detail:

And the field detail:

Finally, proof that it fits through a ring. Not a wedding ring exactly, but a class ring at least :)

Decisions

2007-03-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

I've come to the end of the main part of the Three cornered shawl in clover pattern from Victorian Lace Today. Whew that took a while.

Here it is, nearly 8 feet across in its unblocked glory:

From the pictures I thought it was smooth sailing once I got to the last chart. Oh my, I was wrong. There are miles and miles of those little clover eyelets:

Now I have to consider the Willow Border that should go along the top. I'm not convinced I need a border, given the size. I also am nearing the end of my yarn. I probably have 10 grams left, which is a fair amount at this weight, but probably not enough for around 520 rows at 12 stitches per row. hm. I could always get more, but I really don't know if I want to do a border. Will have to think on it.

Movin right along

2007-03-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Due to untold hours in airports, on planes, and in hotel rooms, I've made it through the first repeat of chart F. 7 more repeats of that left. The rows are down to about 250 stitches, so that makes things go a bit faster. After that, I'll have to do the edging along the top. I anticipate that taking a while--especially picking up all those stitches.

I'm almost done with ball 2 of my yarn. I think I'll be able to finish it with the third ball. I wasn't quite sure how the yardage would work out for my substitution, so that makes me pretty happy.

So anyway, here it is. Could double as a tablecloth I think!

Squeal

2007-03-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

I got my level 1 Master Knitter submission packet back! I have one swatch to re-do and one question. That's it! Not much at all :) Maybe I'll do it this weekend.

Still working along on the clover shawl. Almost done with the clover leaf pattern repeats. I think I'll finish that this weekend and get on to the eyelet section. I love this yarn.

A lesson learned

2007-03-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

I bound off on the first STR sock today. Though I had tried it on a few rows into the leg pattern, I didn't realize how the fit would be affected by finishing the rest of the leg. I can hardly get it on. The cables on the leg have reduced the stretch to almost nothing.

I also have a lovely example of how gauge affects patterning of hand-painted yarns:

The foot is done on size 0 needles, and a little ways up the leg, I switched to size 1. Very clearly, the 0's pool, and the 1's stripe. I prefer the stripes, but the pooly parts are going to be in my shoes anyway, and the fit is nice and snug, so I wouldn't want to go up a needle size there.

I've set the poor sock aside for now, but when I'm feeling fortified, I'll rip it back to the start of the leg and rework it on size 2's so I can actually get them on and off. No idea what the yarn will do on size 2's yet :)

Off to work on the Clover Shawl for a bit instead.

In progress

2007-03-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

I've been working along on the "Three Cornered Shawl in a Clover Leaf Pattern" from Victorian Lace Today. Here's my progress so far, at the end of the first repeat of chart C. I'm hoping I'll have enough yarn. Too soon to tell as I'm not finished with the first ball yet.

And here's my progress on the STR Monsoon colorway sock from the Rockin Sock club. Well, I think we all know what it looks like.