A Weaving Project

Well, it all started about 3 years ago at a stash swap at the Yarnery. 

I got a bag of Sierra from a co-worker and while I did use a ball or so in a project for Christmas 2010, the majority of it was still sitting in my basement waiting to realize its destiny.

The other month I had a visit from my friend Susan who loaned me the amazing, beautiful, floor loom that I have had in my basement for over a year, and she suggested that I weave a blanket from the Sierra.

Saturday, I finally got down to it and brought out the warping board. I spent some time setting up the loom yesterday and this morning I have made an actual start on a blanket. 

I think this will be for the baby, but it might just end up on the couch (it's chilly up here you know).

Little Things

I have been finishing up little projects lately.
Last year when I made Siobhan, a doll for the Elder, I wasn't ever very happy with her face.
She always looked a little too mischievous, or even homicidal if I really look at her. It was the eyes, I have always had trouble with eyes. This summer, however, I learned a new technique which makes a circle every time, and I gave Siobhan a little plastic, or cotton, surgery.I used a Spider Web embroidered eye, which is sorta like this video, except I only used 5 spokes, and I just went over and under, and over and under until the whole circle was full.
It took about a half hour, and she was good as new, if not better since she wasn't quite so scary.

In other crafts, I am also doing some knitting and weaving to build up some stock for a craft sale coming up in December.
I have 2 scarves woven and I have this grand plan to make matching hats so I can sell sets.


Today I finished up a hat, and I am pretty happy with it, other than the fact that the pattern doesn't show up that well in the color/texture of this yarn.
I am using a pattern of my own, and it's all still in the experimental stages as far as the ideal yarn, needles, sizing, etc.

I think I will start a sweater for myself soon, though I do have some important mitten knitting to get busy with as well; those kids of mine don't want frozen fingers this fall/winter.

Altered

So, last week I wove a scarf that I wasn't too excited about.My weaving teacher recommended that we use variegated yarn for the first weaving projects to hide mistakes. I did that, and I wanted a challenge so I tried all one color, and I could see my mistakes, but I could also not see anything very interesting.
So, I felted the scarf down and added some needle-felting and I came up with this-It is quite floppy along the edges, I am choosing to embrace this, and the fringe looks a little worse for the wear, probably will get a trim, but ultimately I think I made the right choice.
The yarn was 100% undyed alpaca and the resulting felty scarf is warmer and cozier than you can imagine.
I used some handspun (by me) yarn for the swirls, I was going for a winter wind kind of thing.

We have a craft and baked goodies sale next week at church and this is one of my offerings.
I will also bring the PINK scarf that I made last week.This week has been about coziness and goodies, and that's just fine with me.

Still weaving

The obsession continues...

I broke down and bought a warping board and made two more scarves since my last post.

I wanted to try out something different, so I wove a scarf using the same yarn for warp and weft.
I also wanted to see how some simple plaid would work up.
I think the white scarf is kind of boring, so I am working up a plan to give it a little snazz.

I am pretty pleased with the plaid.

The Younger Hug-a-Bug liked the warping board when I brought it home.
He told me it was like a big bow and arrow.

We spent a few minutes bouncing toys off the strings, it was pretty fun.

obsession

I work in a yarn store, as I have previously mentioned, frequently, but I don't know if I shared that the yarn store is owned by a company that makes wooden toys and rigid heddle looms.
I wish we sold the toys in the yarn store, but we don't.
We do however sell the looms.
Well, I decided that if we sell looms then I should learn how to use them so I would be a better salesperson and that is why I signed up for the weaving class that I spoke of last week.

What I didn't know it how satisfying it is to weave a scarf in a couple of hours, or how quickly I would become obsessed.

This may be the year that everyone I know gets a scarf for Christmas.

Since I finished my first project on Saturday at class I have woven two more scarves.

The first two were warped with fingering weight yarns, and the third was with a lace weight.
I'm not totally sold on the third one.
It could be the color.
I was using up some stash...

Anyway, all I can think about is getting back to the yarn store to lay out a couple of more warps to do more and more scarves.

I have to give the loom back at the end of class, it's only a loaner.
Maybe by the end of class I will have this out of my system.
If not, I guess I'm buying a loom.

weaving

This morning I began a weaving class at The Yarnery.
So much fun.
So much information in the first class what with wrapping the warping board and lining everything up and tension and whatnot.
I got started on a scarf in class and when I brought the loom home my lovely Elder Hug-a-Bug was very interested in this new project.
So, I set her up in the kitchen and she went to town.She was doing as well as any of the folks in our class.
Maybe someone needs a loom for her birthday.