Thing-a-Week #52

Last March, I pledged to try to do one fiber-related thing each week for a year. And here I am, one year later, having mostly fulfilled that commitment. Sure, I took a whole quarter off, and this week’s Thing is fully a week late, but who’s counting?

For my final Thing, I wove another pooling scarf. This is something I promised to a friend at Stitches West, using some yarn she bought at the show.

The warp is Western Sky Knits Magnolia Sock (superwash merino, cashmere, & nylon) in “Fall Sky,” and the weft is Valley Yarns 10/2 Bamboo in “Silver Grey.” Seems a fitting end to this project, don’t you think?

Thanks, everyone, for following along. I’ll no doubt be posting more of my fibery adventures, just not on this cadence. Next, I think I’ll be lazy for a little bit then start looking at some longer-term projects. Stay tuned!

Thing-a-Week #48

Alright. Back to weaving now. Another pooling scarf.

This is using Blue Moon Socks that Rock superwash wool in the “Tricoter / LYS Tour 2009″ colorway for the warp, and Navy Valley Yarns tencel for the weft. I like this pooling stuff.

Oh, and I’m off to Stitches West this week. Maybe I’ll cheat and make one of my class projects this week’s thing. Easy, right?

Thing-a-Week #43

This is late. I made another woven scarf. That WIP is still on my table loom, so I hopped on the rigid heddle to make this.

The warp is Creatively Dyed Yarns Steele in colorway “Corus,” and the weft is Valley Yarns 10/2 Bamboo in black. I was going for a pooled color effect, in which I carefully plan the length of the warp to make the colors match up to make broad stripes. The fine bamboo lets the warp show through rather nicely.

“Elle,” you say, “don’t you make anything but scarves?” Yes, I could, but I just find scarves a great way to explore different colors and textures quickly while at the same time producing something I’ll actually use. I’ve been mostly exploring color, but maybe I should try something with texture.

Thing-a-Week #42

Back in March, I stated that my only rule for doing Thing-a-Week would be that I would have to start and finish my item in one week. This week, I broke that rule. I bit off more than I could chew, and didn’t get anywhere near complete on this week’s Thing.

I was going to start in on a sampler from the book I was using for last week’s Thing, but when I looked more closely at it, I realized it’d take literally miles of yarn to do the whole thing, which I didn’t have. So instead I dipped into some of my new Tencel yarn to make yet another scarf (8/2 Tencel in “Gold” and “Shale”). What I didn’t count on was the amount of time it takes to weave such a long item with such fine yarn at my learner’s pace. It’s still on the loom:

It is pretty, but it’s only about a foot-and-a-half of what I intended to be a 6-foot skinny scarf. I threaded the loom for what’s called a Rosepath, and treadled a reverse twill repeating pattern to make the little diamonds (with a straight twill at intervals to make the zigzag, when I got bored).

I’m actually pleasantly surprised with how it’s turning out. My beating and selvages are a little wonky here and there, but I figure this will give me a lot of practice. I know there’s more I can do with different treadling with Rosepath, too, but I sort of wanted a consistent look for the scarf. We’ll see if I change my mind as I work on it some more.

Thing-a-Week #41

As I noted last week, I broke down and bought an old but never-used Rasmussen table loom. I still have plans for my rigid heddle, but I’m intrigued by the possibilities of this 4-shaft loom. I haven’t done much with it yet, but I did manage to make a quick sampler on it.

First, I wound the warp, using some cotton carpet warp that was included with the table loom. My rigid heddle, a Kromski Harp, came with pegs to turn the bottom of it into a warping board, so that’s what I used. I actually rewound this after I took the picture to make a shorter warp, though.

After warping the loom, I began to weave. I just threaded a simple twill, to get a feel for it. (My husband even made me a raddle to spread the warp. I keep saying he’s a keeper!) At first I just did a plain weave, but then started in on a sampler in one of the books that came with the loom. (The books are very 70s. One of them even goes into macrame!)

The sampler in the book (Weaving by Shirley Held) turned out to be pretty good, and after trying it for a while, I saw that I really could be doing a sampler with varied threading, so I’m going to start over. I cut off the sampler I was working on, and here it is!

Not too bad for a first try. I can see that I need to work on my selvage, but the patterns don’t look half bad. I’m on my way!

Thing-a-Week #40

I said I was trying to use up my stash yarns, and I wasn’t lying. Behold, another woven scarf!

I went with a sport-weight yarn this time for the warp: Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino, colorway “Sedona.” The purples in this yarn just begged for another deep purple for the weft, so I used Valley Yarns 8/2 Tencel in “Amethyst.”

This time I practiced my weft spacing, shooting for 12 epi, which I think turned out well. However, the merino was super-duper stretchy, making it difficult to control warp tension and resulting in a slight waviness. Almost looks intentional, though, so I’m not going to complain.

In other news, I picked up a new Rasmussen 4-shaft table loom last night. I still love my rigid heddle, but this loom will give me a chance to practice some interesting patterns.

Beauty, eh?

Thing-a-Week #39

Switching gears, I hopped back on my loom and wove me a new scarf.

The warp is Arucania Ranco Multy, a wool/nylon blend, hand-dyed in rich browns. The weft is Valley Yarns 8/2 Tencel in “Spice,” a nice deep red. The scarf measures 7 in. wide by around 6 ft. long. I also decided to twist the fringe (including strands of the tencel with the warp yarn), which I’m rather pleased with.

If I had to do it over again, I’d not pack my weft in as much. I’m not thrilled at how much the red overpowers the brown, and the weft is a little uneven. Still, it turned out pretty well.

I’m off for a couple of weeks, so I hope to use up some of my stash yarns just practicing my weaving. Wish me luck!

Thing-a-Week #21

Last Saturday I had a crafting day with my friend Ewenique. In addition to the dyeing I talked about last week, I also got her started weaving on my rigid heddle loom. Unfortunately, we ran out of time that day, and I finished it for her this week so she could have it before she left town. I handed it over Friday night.

photo credit: ewenique

Beautiful, isn’t it? That’s Noro Silk Garden Sock on both warp and weft, in contrasting colorways. It was pretty quick to finish, and it turned out great. Good job Ewenique!

Thing-a-Week #12

More weaving! I made another scarf using some Trekking Hand Art sock yarn. It’s totally different from my first scarf. I might actually wear it.

It’s pretty long, though: 8 in. x 9 ft. Still, I’m really pleased with it. I tried to make it somewhat open, so it’s light and thin and has great drape. I used the same yarn for both warp and weft. And my selvage edges are better!

I think I’m getting the hang of this weaving thing!

Thing-a-Week #10

I unexpectedly received a rigid heddle loom this week from my awesome husband for an early birthday present, so my Thing this week was pretty much decided for me. This is my first try at a woven scarf with the loom. I’d made one earlier in class, but didn’t get to finish it. This one is full length, 8″ x 65″.

I didn’t use my best yarns on it since I knew I’d probably screw a lot up. And I did… the selvage edges are pretty bad and there are a few mistakes where I wasn’t watching my warp. I did use up the yarn I spun for Thing #9 last week, though! That’s on the warp, along with some navy Lion Brand wool. The weft is an old skein of marine blue Candide wool yarn, a little scratchy, but it was good to practice with. I can only get better, right?