There's more

Same ol' warp . . . this time I'm using sock yarn in the weft. I tried to make socks of this, my first attempt, actually, but there are very dark patches in the yarn and I just could not see to knit it. One strand is too fine for the thick warp, so I plied two balls together with the spinning wheel and it is just right.

I now see light at the end of the warp tunnel for this batch of blue and purple, so I'm off to scheme about what's next.

Weave Worthy??

In no time at all, I completed the scarf shown in my last post. I can't show a photo of it because it is hidden on the front beam (weaving lingo, don't 'cha know) beneath my newest production.

The star of the show is some of my hand-dyed handspun yarn.

The supporting cast is found resting on the bench, namely the same blue and purple wool warp as in my last post along with a tiny bit of left-over ribbon yarn of uncertain parentage, some rayon fancy stuff, and a soy-wool blend that is really chunky and really soft but impossible to knit with.

I am finding it nearly impossible to get anything else done, ie. prairie dresses for my nieces that still need to even be cut out, and niece Emily's jacket I promised TWO birthdays ago. (have I already blogged about this? I do feel guilty, which could be assuaged by actually DOING the sewing)

Anyway, I'm mighty proud of the result:

I told Kelly he could have this scarf for a gift exchange at work, but am seriously reconsidering that offer. I foresee having trouble letting someone else who might not REALLY, really, really appreciate handwoven have it. Actually, I think weaving will foment in me a judgmental tendency which may (ok, will) cause me to categorize people by whether they are weave-worthy, or not. I kind of (kind of????) already do that with knitting. I haven't worked out the exact calculus between knitting and weaving. It is possible one could be weave-worthy but not knit-worthy or vice versa, it takes a lot of work to be judgmental so I've got some details yet to work out. I have tentatively named this latest character flaw the craft caste.

I have not neglected knitting in favor of weaving. I've completed my bono kimono sweater (Loops Pattern) knit of stash yarn. It is washed, blocked and ready to be seamed up.

I participated in a pincushion swap on Ravelry and made these two to send to a gal in England. The dress-form one was a lot of fun, but the felted teacup was a pain in the rear to make and I slopped glue all over so it was a better idea than result. I haven't heard from the recipient, so maybe the glue was still wet--oops!

So long -- UGLY

As previously reported, I wound some wildly bright red and yellow yarn (called warp) on my loom and began to weave. I flipped through a book and followed different weaving patterns pretty much wily-nily, just to see what would happen. This did.

After about 5 feet of this experiment, I realized that I had wound on waaaaaay more warp than was prudent and, even worse, I had exhausted my ability to tolerate the colors.

Since I had seen a thread on Ravelry about weaving with chenille, I thought I might try that. I used up the left over bit from my mother’s birthday gift and got really jazzed about how the bright blue muted the warp colors and how luscious (yes-luscious) the fabric felt.

Then, I started picking around the stash looking for something else to use. I spied my very first lumpy-bumpy over twisted handspun. I was going to save it for posterity but it also happened to be my very first dye experiment (spelled m-i-s-t-a-k-e). Criminally ugly, it was never going to be used for anything because it looked like clown barf.
Something amazing happened when the Ronald McDonald colored warp met clown barf yarn. The ugly completely disappeared.

Watching that happen was exciting. Kind of like watching your kid win a race, score (or prevent) a goal, OR watch a photo develop in the darkroom, but not as stinky (that goes for all 3 examples–kid athletes smell bad).

The possibilities!!!!! Ugly can be obliterated through weaving!?! Who knew?

We gotta get the word out.

Uh-Oh . . . I feel an(other) obsession coming on.

So, of course (of course!) I stayed up half the night warping the loom again with the idea of using more of my hand-dyed handspun. And here I go again . . .

To confess: I may have screwed up a bit on my calculation of the warp measurement. I thought I’d warp enough for two scarves and figured a little more than 7 feet each would be generous, considering waste. In the light of day, I realize that in my enthusiasm I probably warped on too much. It was late and I can’t quite remember what I did but I HOPE I didn’t measure 7 yards for each of the two scarves. Surely NOT--That would be 42 feet. It’s entirely possible –it was a whole LOT of yarn.