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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

I know I usually post about weaving but I've put some of that on hold to work on the wedding ghan although I did finish the inkle band and may work on some bags this weekend since we have three glorious days off.

I just want to make sure I get the ghan finished and out of my way in time for the wedding on August 21 so I don't start to panic that I didn't finish on time. I also need some opinions on some finising ideas and thought I'd run them by you all for suggestions or comments.




First here's the pic of the ghan 48 rows in, it's actually starting to look like the pics in the pattern. It's easy to knit and all the charts are written in long hand which saves me alot of time, the next one I want to knit just from the charts to see if I can read them as I should without the written instruction crutch.

For the finishing touches I thought I'd have someone embroider thier names and the date of the wedding on silk and sew it in place on the interior of the ghan, but this is cable and lace and lace edges and I don't know if that would look good at one of the corners of the ghan, I could sew it at the center but not I'm just not sure. Do you think that this would be a nice addition or should I skip it altogether? If I don't skip it should I have the embroidery be done on a square or long strip? What color of thread do you think would look good with this beige? Gold, Silver Black?

Monday, May 24, 2010

Wedding Gift Decision- Part II

I spoke to the bride and groom on Friday, um well nix the yarn I chose they want something very neutral, beige.... I never do anything in plain beige, it's just so...... well bland. I know it can really be beautiful if the pattern is interesting which thank God this pattern really is. Armed with this new color, I set out to find beige, do you know how hard that really is? I went to three different stores, there is white beige, cream beige, vanilla bean beige, taupe beige, caramel beige, tweed beige and the list goes on really, it's just beige. After a bit of arguing with myself ( the store clerks thought I'd lost my mind) I settled on Caron One Pound - name of the color (your gonna love this) Lace 585. I didn't know Lace had a specific color??? Oh well it didn't hurt that the giant skeins were on sale for $5.97 so I got two just in case I need some extra Lace color. The yarn is actually soft to knit with and I figure after a wash and dry should really feel nice. I'm saving the other yarn for myself there's another throw that I have my eye on.


This is a pic of the one I'm working on, this is my friend's afghan the one that started it all!
In weaving news I'm almost done with the inkle strap and I've been working on a the final project for P2P. I also came across this ad and OMG I went into cardiac arrest when I read it.. I called spoke to the nicest gentleman, who was over joyed to talk to another weaver in S. Fl imagine that he said. (we are so rare we're on the extinction list). He has a tentative buyer, should that not happen he will give me a call, talk about a bummer, but maybe the other lady won't come through but really at that price she'd be nuts. Oh well we'll keep hunting!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Wedding Gift Decision

I finally made a decision on a wedding gift for our friends. I went to knit club Wednesday and my friend had made this baby blanket, called Serenity oh my Lord this is so beautiful in person that I just knew at that moment I wanted to knit it. I have yarn in my stash that works out perfect for the afghan the long print will just be sensational for the cables and lacy bits. I have to say this one it an addictive knit.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Thoughtful Thrusday



There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Books, inkles and Lots of Fun!!

The books my boys ordered came in yesterday, these are the Mom's day gift's from my kids, Card Weaving, Learning to Weave (I can finally return the borrowed book to the library) and Woven Treasures. I'm so excited, I've been reading the Card Weaving book and am planning to warp it on the RH, I saw a youtube video that was done this way and it seemed possible and easier than my small inkle. I've also convinced the plastic department manager at work that he needs to make me some cards out of 1/16" plastic, we have a router machine that can accomplish 30 perfect cards in 2 mins flat much easier and longer lasting that the deck I cut up. I will owe him a knitted cap this is what we bartered for, frankly I think I got the better end of the deal ;) . In Woven Treasures there's a book cover that my son has requested for his Bible, that will take top priority over the card weaving but it's all in the works because I plan to make a strips for the book cover to mark pages with.
I also need to think about a wedding gift for our friends they're getting married in August which gives me some time, but I'm a bit stumped on what to create for them, they have been previously married and have a house full of everything, I thought about a nice gift card to a restaurant but also wanted to hand make something for them to mark their special day, any suggestions? knitting although that's a close call or woven, give me some ideas please. With all that is going on creatively, Meg over at Megweaves emailed the deadline for Pics2Picks, aaaaacccckkkkkk, June 5 OMG... really... already!!! I have one more project I wanted to accomplish for the exhibition so I have to get my behind in gear and git-her-done (is that the way he says it?). That one will be a surprise so I can't show any pics until the big reveal.

But.... I can show you pics of my new inkle weaving based on the fabric swatch I chose. This is my own design and I like the colors and pattern, I may never be able to repeat the pattern but I like it, actually on second thought, I could if I wrote it down, I guess I need to start an inkle loom journal to match all the other weaving and knitting journals (yet another project, whew all this should take me well into the end of this year).

Friday, May 14, 2010

Inkle Weave Designing

The inkle bags are something that I really enjoy making and I can put them up for sale online. I came around to the idea that DD had planted in my head, why not, after all if they don't sell I've lost nothing, enjoyed my weaving, and expanded my skills. If they do well then that's great also, it's sort of a new attitude with my creative work, I want to do what makes me happy and for the moment this is what that is. To that end, I picked up a bunch of fat quarters that appealed to me in color and pattern. I lean towards the splotchy ones they seem very free form and laid back, although I know that they were really well planned out and not just happened, but they have a good vibe for me.
After rolling around the blogosphere, I came across this post at Weave4Fun great blog lots of info and ideas, but this post was something I wanted to try and thought it was a good exercise for me especially to pick colors for a specific fabric. I picked the fabric quarter that interested me at the moment and did the little card yarn wrap swatch (I don't know the technical name someone please let me know, I don't want to sound like a total buffoon).
The purple looks blueish on the card but not on my inkle I guess if I would have wrapped it next to the yellow it would have taken it's true hue being opposites on the color wheel. I started warping last night and hope to finish this weekend. I'm using one of Mary Atwater's draft from How to Weave on an Inkle Loom. I've change the color sequence and will add extra warp ends to get a wider band, hopefully it will look right once it's all on the loom.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Just because I haven't bored you enough!

I promise this will be the last post on these. Magnetic snaps
Back pocket with Velcro dots.

Finished pieces 6" x 5" for the entire woven bag, and 6" x 4.5" on the jean with woven flap. I like both bags but for some odd reason the jean bag is what I would buy if I saw it.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I finished my inkle loom band for the Baja Bag last night and came up with a design for the bag that will allow for two pockets and the flap. I'm going to work on it tonight and hopefully post a finished piece tomorrow.
I really like the way the colors turn out after much debate on the hot pink I've settled that I really do like it after all and the yellow also does it's color change from deep burnt yellow to a faint hint of yellow which to me at least adds extra interest. I love to play with color and am going to experiment some with this vibrant pink and some purples and see how that works out.
In other news I went to the Urologist today, everything checks out fine, no cysts, no polyps, nothing, nada, zilich, so what's causing the UTI's no one seems to know other than some women are more prone to getting them as they get older. OLDER!! jeez I thought 45 was the new 35, according to the media hype LOL.. I now have to monitor myself as soon as I get the UTI, I need to go back and analyse what I ate, drank or did that may have triggered it. So I have a maintenance RX and an RX for full blown cystitis, so we'll wait and see hopefully I will not have an episode for a while, cause I have to tell you, I'm really tired of this nonsense and would not like to go back to them until my next appt in August.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Weekend Redux





Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, I hope your day was wonderful. I was busy this weekend with a lot of activity none of which was at the loom, but I did get some sewing projects finished. Another tissue box cover this was a gift for my cousin, for Mother's day, she loved it, couldn't stop raving about it and how proud she was of my creativity. My SIL got the last of the brown warped covers and was equally impressed. Thank God, I thought they were going to be like WTH is this crap, but I was pleasantly surprised, I guess they're coming around to the fact that handmade gifts are gifts of time and love rather than what they cost and name brand.
My DD got me Card Weaving by Candace Crockett from my wish list, that was really exciting, something new to learn and have fun with. The boys also got something from my wish list but it was delayed in delivery so I'll have a surprise this week. I finished this new bag from recycled jeans and some extra woven fabric that was stashed away, I used it Saturday and the weaving started to give out at one of the sewn edges, I have to repair it or decided to use some other woven fabric, still planning what I'm going to do with it.






Did some more knitting on my June Marinella Shawl .
In which I just found out the instructions are written incorrectly the lace portion says SSK which is slip1 slip1 knit tog, well the designer meant s1 k1 psso, arrrrghhhh, well regardless it's staying the way it is, I'm on my 5 repeat and it's 15" long I don't want to rip it out since I actually wanted any easy summer knit.




And finally the big TADA!

I've lost 15 pounds and am really excited I broke through the 10# barrier.




Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Thank you!!

Thank you for all the suggestion and remedies, I have them all copied and as soon as I get another trigger will try them out. I'm on Macrobid and it's working, will have a Cystoscopy on Tues 5/11 and that should determine what it going on in there.


In other news I finished warping my inkle for a baja bag, I like the colors although I'm rethinking the hot pink, doesn't seem hot enough for the other colors but it's weaving up nicely and I'll finish it up and see how I feel about it then. If anything the strip can always become book marks or a strap for something else.



I also finished the cropped cardi and wore it on Saturday, I need to knit another, but this time I'm going to go down a size, I can't believe it I need to knit a medium, when a large is usually my size, but then again you can never be too sure with knitting patterns.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Need some Help!

I've had a UTI (urinary tract infection) for two weeks, been through 3 antibiotics and still not gone, I'm so over it already! I'm prone to getting them and if you've had one you know it's not a happy place, if you've never had one, thank God and pray you never do. What a pain in the tuchis, well another place but this is a family friendly blog.

Does anyone have any herbal, home or non prescription remedies to share, my bladder and I would love to hear from you.