Do I take this or that??

I planned a trip to visit the Mouse House "Disney" for my hubby's b-day, for Labor day weekend the man just loves to go to the "Happiest Place on Earth" and since it's only a four hour drive, I can't complain. I wanted a cruise but our passports are not in and we kinda need those cause not being let back in is scary, and God only knows that Cuba is not an option.

As a fiber person, you know I must take along some knitting, if I could fit the RH in the car I'd take that too, but since we are going in his Corvette, it doesn't fit, I hardly fit but that's another story.

I find it amusing that other people worry about what clothes to pack and me; I worry about which project needs undivided attention for an 8 hour car trip, but I know in my heart that I'm not the only one as I have read countless blogs on this very topic.

So should I take the entrelac ghan which is languishing because it's too hot to have it sitting on my lap or

the Ruana which has befallen the same fate.

Should I start on the baby wash cloths that will go with the woven baby blankies for babies that are due in December, or the tunic which is frustrating me to no ends and finally the Incan Tunic that has but the collar started, ah all of life's decisions should be this complicated.

New Knitting Bag

I wove this fabric in January 2008, it was a sampler for the 12.5 DPI heddle I'd gotten.
Being my mother's daughter I didn't get rid of it and put it in "my magic closet" ( I'm really starting to act like my mom ;0D) for when I thought I might use it in some project or other.

Yesterday, I had the day off due to Tropical Storm Fay(which was a wind blower and soaker but thank God not damaging) I was so excited to not have anything planned other than my fiber per suits. YIPPEEEE!!! I'd been shopping for a knitting bag, nothing too big or small with just the right pockets for my things. I've seen some really nice and $$$$ bags, but really I would rather spend the moola on more yarn especially weaving yarn since I need to get going on the Christmas list. I decided that I could experiment with this piece of sample fabric and see what I could come up with.

If I can toot my own horn, I was quite smitten and a bit smug when I finished, although it posed a challenge I think it was worth the effort. So tonight at knit group I'll have a new bag to show off. ;0)

Textural Woven Eye Candy

I was looking through the new Crate & Barrel catalog and found some very interesting textural and woven items. The first is a really beautiful table runner which can easily be made on an RH and is currently at the top of my to do list for Christmas Presents I thought the colors on this one were very complimentary. The rug is made of felted wool strips, an that was something I have not seen. In this set I loved the texture of the rugs, although I don't think I can do rag rugs on my loom, I like the colors and structures of these.

Then there are these pillows, WOW!! talk about a pop of color, very entertaining to the eye. I checked my weaving files and notes and I have something close to this warp in the Mary Atwater booklet for the inkle loom. Yet another item that can be achieve on my RH and on the to do list.

It's not that I don't get enough inspiration from all the weaving blogs, and believe me there are a bunch that I absolutely love, but few can be accomplished on my loom, so when I do find pictures of recognizable weave structures I can accomplish I get kinda giddy so bare with me.

Lacy Loveliness

I bought this beautiful linen blend yarn with the intentions of knitting this, February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne, which I totally loved when I saw it, but then I scheduled vacation for DH's birthday weekend and found that I needed a shrug to go with a dress that I have for DH's birthday dinner it's a fancy shmancy place with jackets required for men, but I digress. The dress is really pretty but has no sleeves, last time I wore it I had a shawl, and it became a drag to wear the entire evening, so I decided a shrug was in order and this yarn perfectly matches the dress, hum what a coinkydink. (earth tones; they just haunt me, hehe) I decided on a pattern for the shrug "Simple Lace Shrug" by Lisa Sisk, thank you Ravelry for all the freebie patterns and tips what a great community, if you don't belong sign up as quickly as your clicker can take you there! So I cast on and improvised as I went along, I wanted my shrug longer in the back and in the arms and so I adjusted accordingly. So far this is the results of my knitting.

I like this pattern this is the first time I knit anything lacy and I like the effect, but now I also understand why anyone who knits lace loves the pointy needles, I need to get my Harmony set from Knit Picks if I plan to be knitting lace, ah, just another reason to buy more fiber related goodies.

Really!? Can you pay cash?

Considering I have some really nice knitting that I have been working on to show you all but blogger doesn't want to upload pics, yet again today I thought I'd have a fire sale. Any takers??

My blog is worth $9,032.64.
How much is your blog worth?

Woven Failure, Lessons Learned

I just noticed that I haven't posted anything for weeks, shame on me but in my defense I have been sucked into the massive underworld called Ravelry, WOW is that community huge and lots of fun by the way.


My weaving update, well I've been working on the light weight shawl after many difficulties and weaving mistakes I couldn't bear to weave two picks every ten minutes to then find mistakes and unweave 4 picks below that. The warp was not cooperating and was not lifting and lowering under any tension, I was aggravated beyond words and after two days and no progress I cut the warp off my loom.


This pic is of the loom warped with the second cotton which was Aunt Lydias 3, the weave was tighter but the warp of gassed cotton was not lifting.



This is a pic of the gassed cotton warp and weft, before washing and drying,totally unstable.




This final pic is of the top portion of gassed warp/weft and the bottom of gassed warp/ #3 weft. I have to say that after the wash the instabilities was significantly less noticeable, and in the bottom portion it was gone. I have about 4' of fabric that I plan to sew in to a project bag as to not waste the yarn and keep the sample useful.On another note,I have been informed that there are two more babies on the way, both girls so the next warp and weft will be for simple yet satisfying baby blankies. I need a break from the mind blogging stuff for a while, and to think Christmas is just around the corner and not one thing has been finished, not knitted or woven. AH - such is the life of a fiber artist if I can call myself that these days.

Open Weave Shawl

I was finally able to start weaving the shawl, (excuse the photo Blogger is uncooperative today) It has not been without some challenge the yarn is slippery and doesn't catch on to itself, it slips and slides from one position to the other it's behaving like fine fishing line. In order to stabilize the first few picks I hemstitched them.

Another issue I'm having is that when the shed is in the down position which causes the slotted yarn to be in the up position is is very loose this is annoying but I have resorted to sticking a pickup stick in before the weft to keep it down. When the slotted yarn is in the up position same thing really loose, what I've done here is use another pick up stick behind the heddle for tension.

In the passive position when all the yarn slotted and heddle holes are even across the loom, the tension is fine ** scratches head in question** okay I give - wasup with this?? What did I do incorrectly cause I can't figure this one out. I retied and rolled the back and cloth beam as tight as I can, you can bounce a dime off this stuff it's so tight, if I rubbed coal on it for a week I'd have a diamond.
This is the close up of the fabric being produced very open and lacy I was going to do some leno and lace work but not with this yarn I can't even begin to control it on plain weave and I think I may drive myself crazy with lace work. I'm planning on trying to use some other thicker yarn for the weft maybe the 3 ply cotton and see if it reacts any different. More on this later.

Cones, Knots and Weaving

I finally got into warping my loom after it had been neglected for a while and I must admit it felt really good to get going again. ;o). Since I knew the warp was going to be a large one for my standards, I started ten slots in and left ten at the end, I was having trouble with the cone as I started to warp on it would stay on the floor and would roll around which made pulling the yarn through the slots a task. As I was going along I thought there has got to be an easier way, and I'm all good for easier. I got to thinking with my limited space and the fact that the wall is mirrored, which I should have taken down years ago, urrrrgh! I hate mirrored walls, but they came with the house and since we were raising three kids the $$ was really never available to have them removed and now we're just selling the house so they're staying, but I digress. I came up with this; simple but very effective, some twine, and afghan hook and a crawl under the loom. Voila! easy peasy.
You can't see it in this pic but I took the thread and looped it around the bottom slat and then up to the back inner beam so that it would not tangle and had some tension to it. I was as happy as a piggy in mud, and proud at my solution to boot. DH thought is was great, of course he's already thinking of how he can improve it to make it permanent.
After all the sleying, and tying I was almost done, but this yarn is slippery, really you'd think it was coated with Vaseline. I would tie and do a few group then the first would be slipping, forcing me to go back and retie, this was annoying. Until I finally started doing some nautical knots, a bow knot did the trick and seemed to keep it tied with the tension cranked up, the final pic is of the warp still tied and tight this morning so I guess it's going to keep. Now for the fun stuff weaving!

Burn Baby Burn

Rubysue at Ravelry explained how to do the burn test on my yarn so that I could figure out what I'm working with before I start weaving. So I too a flame torch to my yarns (mawhhaahhaa)! I felt like a mad scientist

From left to Right:

#1 is RH acrylic - melted like ice cream on a hot day smelled awful.

#2 is Patons Tweeds 25% wool 75% acrylic - melted but smelled like burnt hair like a way too hot straightening iron, yep I know that smell ;0).

#3 is Peaches 100% cotton burned just like a candle wick not much smell other than burnt.

# 4 is the mystery yarn and it burned just like #3

So I think I'm safe to say that the mystery yarn is indeed cotton. Now I know how to treat it in the washing and drying of the garment I'll make with it.

After all that yarn murder, I needed to knit and let my yarn know that I loved it teehee. I've been working on the Oblique Sweater and I have frogged this back part more than all of my knitting put together, I know I wanted a challenge and this one is giving me a run for the money. I have read some of the posts for some members of Ravelry and they all seem to have some difficulty starting so I don't feel like a complete idiot. But 5 times is a bit much ,no? Last nite I decided to try the last time and so far I think I've accomplished the pattern. In the flesh I cannot see the left leaning portion but in the pics it showed up really nicely, which made me so happy I just burst into a happy dance when I saw it. Yes, the other people that live in the house think I'm nuts but their use to the knitting craze, especially if I've been muttering at it for awhile.

TA-DA! I know it's not much, but this took me some serious time to accomplish, but I'm on the second repeat and it's getting easier, so I should pick up some speed soon, hopefully.

Mystery Yarn Sparks Weaving Mojo.

My mom has lots of yarn, notions and material, as she was digging around her magic closet, she came across two cones of this. The story behind the yarn, well, we owned a grocery store with a cafeteria and we were close to the Miami River's shipping docks for freight cargo back in the late 70's early 80's. The men that traveled the cargo ships would come in, buy supplies and eat the great Cuban food my mom's cook Ana would make, in those trips they noticed that my mom and grandma, who both worked in the store and cafeteria would knit at idle times. As thank you gifts they brought them these cones of hilo(thread) pronounced [eelo] in Spanish. My grandma crocheted me a dress for my 18th birthday in a royal blue(azul vitral) [asool veetral] which I have to this day, I must get it out and take a pic of it. The colors were always primary; red, green, white and royal blue, I never saw yellow or black. They came from Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Las Islas ( the Islands) or Centro America (Central America) somewhere on the southeastern coast of the Caribbean. It's not much to go on but that's their history, they are at least 20 yrs old and from the Caribbean - mysterious? Maybe, maybe not. What is it really, I don't know, I assume it's cotton crochet yarn because that what my mom and g- ma used it for, so I compared it with what I have on hand.

#1 - is the mystery yarn it is 3 ply I think cotton with very thin tight twist 2.75mm or 2.25mm

#2 - is Aunt Lydia's size 3 100% mercerized cotton also 3 ply - 3.5mm needles

#3 - is Bernat Cool crochet 70% cotton 30% nylon 6 ply cabled - 3.75mm needles

#4 - is Peaches and Creme 100% cotton 4 ply ww - 6mm needles

I still don't know how to figure out the scale of measuring yarn, that more experienced weavers use to identify yarns, like(80/20 or 80/10), I have read it a few times but it hasn't really sunk in. Since I'm visual I need to see the difference to really understand what is being talked about. A trip to the local LYS might help, and that is on my to-do list. I also don't know how to do the burn test I heard of other folks doing and quite frankly scares me some.

Here they are in the order that I photographed the threads, except for the cabled crochet. I did notice that the mystery cone has a super high sheen and doesn't break if I pull on it really tight, I can can break the Aunt Lydias and the Peaches. It is also the thinnest yarn I've ever thought about working with and the cone is plastic PVC. The mystery yarn has sparked my imagination for some weaving, I'm planning a shawl with it as warp and weft since I think it will drape really nicely and I want to see what it does together. Then I plan to try some experiments with the different yarns to see how they all react to each other after weaving, washing and drying. My Weaving Mojo is back and in force, this should be fun.

If anyone has ever seen any yarn that looks like this and knows what it is please let me know.

Donations Needed!

I found this post on Ravelry and wanted to Bless her family with as many fiber helpers as I could, please read the story and donate. She is raffling off her stash for a great cause, to help the most deserving people who have given so much of their lives to others.

Happy July 4th!!!!

USA Glitters






USA Glitters


If you can celebrate the 4th of July, remember to THANK a soldier or a veteran, it's because of them we can do it freely!

Have a great and safe Holiday & Weekend!

Knitting and Handmade Gifts

Since I've been knitting instead of weaving this past week I wanted to share some pics of the projects that are currently taking up my time and energy.The Knitted Ruana from Folk Shawls, I love the variation of colors, I'm not sure about the sage color it seems out of place, but it's growing on me. I may need to find a darker, forest green and put it in there for some extra balance, I haven't decided yet. I am enjoying the fact that I have to purposely think of the yarn choice before knitting the next row, it is an exploration in color sequencing and coordination, really an eye opener to the textures, colors and weights of the yarns.
My base is the beige color which has specks of blue I figured almost any color can be used, but the more I work on it the less that is evident, I don't want too many colors because I know I wouldn't use it and I really want to be able to wear it without feeling that it's clownish, so since earth tones are my game this one project won't be any different to much of the DH's dismay, he always wants me to wear bold colors, but I don't feel comfortable in them and so I levitate to Earth and Jewel tones, I have maybe one or two things in a shock color but not as overall wardrobe, just not me.

And last but not in the least less of a color experiment is the entrelac ghan, (see honey this has lots of color) it's grown seven rows since the last post, it didn't seem like much until I compared the photo 22 rows and counting. I figure I can do 36 rows, which according to this site should be 36 x 48 I don't know if that's right but it sounds large enough. My mom saw it the other day and thought it was beautiful, but she remarked what is it, once I answered, she stated that she wouldn't know what to do with it? (WHAT!!!???) I was defeated especially since I was going to give it to her for her birthday, but not after that comment, I've worked too hard on this one to gift it to another "gee thanks gift".

I try not to knit or weave for anyone for this reason, I'm always afraid I'll get the look, you know, the one that says gee thanks, but it's going into be re-gifted for a co worker I don't like, look (That's what I call the "gee thanks gift"). I use to make hand made gifts for Mother's Day or Birthdays, when I first started beading a few years ago, but since I always got the lukewarm thank you from certain family members, I figured I won't waste my time. I have five SIL's, two of which love everything I make, it could be poop on a stick and they would just love it, for these two I do still hand make gifts with enjoyment and pride, another one of them would have to be something really specific that she would have to hand pick yarn, project and such, for me to work on and that would ruin the surprise of gifting, never mind killing my creative mojo it's the equivalent to me of giving money or having to give from a bridal list and baby shower lists, I really hate those things, there's no creative thinking in it, no surprise. Then there are the other two, which are what the kids today call "Label Whores" if it's not designer it's not good enough, so for these two I don't do much and since I don't buy designer anything, I don't get them much other than house gifts, you know candles etc.. Which brings me back to, I now have a ghan that is without a giftee, DH has been hinting that he wanted one for the couch maybe that's who really deserves my knitting.

New Projects

I have to say, I enjoy weaving and knitting, but right now I have been knitting far more than weaving. I have been contemplating the knit ruana for what seems to be ever. I know it's a garment I will enjoy on my yearly travels to NC, of which I'm already planning for next Jan/February. I finally choose the pattern from Folk Shawls,by Cheryl Oberle
Knitted Ruana I checked the book out from the library and now would like to own a copy, I need to wait on that though cause I just spend $$ on yarn. If you like shawls and need some terrific patterns this book is a must. Not only are the patterns beautiful, but the author gives the history and folklore to each shawl. Did you know that in Ireland if the master knitter in the village places knitting needles in a baby girls hand she will be a knitter. I wonder if you placed a shuttle boat in that baby's hand if they'll become weavers. I will definitely put both items in my grand baby's hands a test that out. hehe.

This ruana is going to be another stash buster, according to all the posts on Ravelry, but I have a sweater I knitted and totally didn't appreciate so it's getting frogged and reinvented or is the new p.c. term would be re-purposed . I guess if your really think about it, it would be reused, recycled and re-purposed, wow talk about going green call HGTV I need my own show! LOL. Here a shot of the ruana just started a few days ago with 215 st it's a long knit, but it's mindless knitting so I can actually watch movies, instead of listening to them.

I also started swatching for the Oblique sweater by Veronik Avery from Knitty.com fall of 07' I've been contemplating this sweater since I saw it. I remember downloading the pattern for when I became a really good knitter, am I there yet? I dunno, but I'm going to counterbalance the mindless knitting in the evenings with challenge knitting during my lunch hour at work. I picked a cotton yarn from the Etsy shop Yarntopia - Hand painted Worsted Wt. Cotton Boucle Yarn colorway is Oregon. Most of the knitted items I've seen for this pattern have been in solid colors, but I want to try something different. I will knit the back and see how it looks if I don't like it I'll pick something different and use this yarn for weaving.

Momma's gotta a brand new bag!

I finished the bag this weekend. I'd like to say that I really enjoyed making it but it was nerve racking! I did the fusible backing and that was the best, thank you all for that tidbit of wisdom I appreciate it. I cut my weaving with minimal weaving fallout and that was a relief. Would I make another bag after this venture? For sure, after I finished and looked at my bag I thought that wasn't so bad, some tense moments but all in all it came out really nice and I already enjoyed using it on Saturday night. The DD even said she thought it was really cute and might borrow it, so I'd say it was a successful project. The first pic is of the woven fabric pre-cutting with the fusible interfacing on. This is a shot of the fabric cut and ready to be sewn, it was thick and my poor sewing machine had some snags with it.Sewn and ready to finish with strap and button, I also hemstitched at the beginning and end of each weave for extra stability.Woven interior prior to ironing.Finished and ready for a night out on the town!
This bag was created with help from this tutorial at Lisa Lam's http://www.u-handbag.com/

website, if you haven't been there please visit it's a great site.

Old Weaving, New Weaving and Some Storage for Good Measure

For those of you who are always looking for neat storage ideas. I found these plastic storage boxes at BJ's Wholesale, they were $ 4.95 for two, they are reusable and can hold a lot of yarn. Trust me I fill both up, they're a great bargain for all that they can hold and when not being used can collapse to fit under the bed or the back of a closet with minimal space a plus all around in my book.

Weaving this last week had been slow, I was unmotivated by the warp I had on the loom I tried to experiment with the warp and it really did not live up to my expectations, I wove it off and gifted it to my Mom, she of course loved it so it wasn't a total loss, she says the colors are happy and really sunny. This was to be the dish towels to compliment the place mats I did a few posts back, but I just wasn't really into the whole thing.

I had finished the inkle straps and cut them into 13.5" lengths to weave into fabric for a summer purse. I started last night and I really like what I see.

The first pic is of the front and the second is of the back side, which was fun to see as I crawl under my loom. I read somewhere, I'm sure from someones blog that they keep a mirror with them as they weave to check the underside of the fabric as it goes along. *note to self must get said mirror* I think I will weave this fabric off rather quickly since I feel really excited by it. I'm starting to think of how I will stabilize the straps to sew the purse together. I had some great comments a while back from my eyeglass purse mishap, about using fusible interfacing to fuse my material before cutting and sewing, I checked with my mom,"super seamstress" and she has a ton of this stuff in her wonderfully over stuffed magic fabric closet. She said she told me so the first time and I didn't listen, but really I don't remember the conversation, (mother/daughter selective hearing was turn on) this time I'm listening cause if I mess up this fabric I'm going to be depressed for a month.

SMALL SCARF VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

Welcome, we are so excited that you have joined us. We are Weavers and Fiber Artists from around the world in various stages of weaving experiences, we hope you enjoy the exhibition, please feel free to post comments also be sure to follow the links below to other wonderful small scarf exhibits.

Autumn and Winter
Cotton Chenille in Plain Weave

This scarf was inspired by my trips to North Carolina, reminding me of the many log cabins, and well worn men's flannel shirts.

Spring and Summer
Cotton, Rayon and Acrylic
In Leno Lace and Plain Weave

The inspiration for this scarf is of an early morning in the sand as you look up at the sky it's still pink and cream from the night drifting away.

Here are the promised links:
Crystal, "Baby-Hugs", PA, USA
Terri Bibby, "Weaving a Life", Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada
The Big Gallery

One Size Does Not Fit All!!

How annoying is that phrase? I got a pattern for a knitted shawl, it says one size fits all, but really who does 'ONE SIZE' fit. If you buy a t-shirt one size fits all and your a size 2 you look like your wearing a tent with sleeves, if your a large( 10/12) like me, you look pregnant and like your trying to hide the twins, if your tall then you look like your wearing a tent that's too short. So what's my point you may ask, well I'm in search of a pattern for a ruana, or shawl that will fit me, granted I know I might need to make mods, and that's okay, but not a one size fit all type of deal, because I know it is humanly impossible to be one size fits all.

The last shawl pattern I knitted was a shorty, what I liked was that I could modify the pattern, what I didn't like was that it didn't cover my arms very well no matter what the modifications it didn't work. I used it and love the feel of that particular yarn but the fit is not right. So from there my odyssey had begun to find the right pattern . I think the ruana would be a better fit since they seem to have a poncho like coverage with the shawl like opening in the front. I love this one

GU420 Oat Couture Knit Ruana. Would it be large enough for me to throw the one side over the shoulder as I would like to wear it? I love the look of this pattern I've been drooling over it for a while, but I can't see the pattern until I buy it so I don't know if I can knit it and use it as I want to and that's a bummer. So the search continued until I found is this one, technically a shawl, but I like the shape of it, the colors are a bit too much for me, but I think this one would flip over my shoulder quite nicely and offer good coverage.

Fire In The Sky Shawl by Debbie O'NeillKnit from 1 hank of Alpine Baby from Cherry Tree Hill Yarns. Again, I can't look at the pattern so I don't know if I can modify without major issues.

I have looked in the free patterns at various outlets and am not inspired, there aren't many patterns for ruanas, although there is a plethora of patterns for shawls.

While I would like to knit it, I may just convince myself to weave one instead, there is a pattern in the Ashford Book for Rigid Heddle, although still not the shape I like but that can be modified by the width of the warp and length, so that might be the solution to this wee problem.

What do you think, know of any ruana patterns I may take a liking to??

Inkle Bands

I've been working on my inkle loom and making these bands. I have three so far each measure 60" in length and are 3/4" thick. My concept for these is to weave them together to make a purse, I think I will need at least six to seven bands with handles and all. I'm going to start cutting them and hemming them this weekend hopefully I'll not encounter any problems there.

Afghan Update

I thought I'd update you on some behind the scenes knitting, this is my movie watch project, the DH is an avid movie watcher and rents movies at least 3 times a week so when I'm interested in a movie this is what I work on while I watch, aka the stash buster afghan. It's 32" wide and so far only 21" long at this rate it will take me right up until Christmas before it's finished and just in time to gift it to my mom.

I'm not working the yarn in any particular order just trying to get some color in some sort of sequences which it might give the piece a cohesive look I don't know if I'm accomplishing that but I'm into the 15th color and not a repeat yet.