Thursday, January 29, 2009

Weaving Stuff (Skip if you only like Lace)
























Just a short post to show some of my stuff for weaving. At the top we have Swedish Weaving Shuttles by Bluster Bay in Curly Maple and Leopard Wood. Very thin and will be able to go through the shed of the Rigid Heddle Loom that I own. I just have to make quills out of paper and I'm in business. Of course, I've never done that before but I don't find that to be a deterrent.
Below that I have boat shuttles by Schacht in Cherry and some sort of combination wood. All of them are "slim" shuttles and can use either quills or plastic bobbins. Because I want to protect my tools, I'm taking placemats or table runners and making padded rolls for my shuttles. The Stick Shuttles were made for me by BrandywineWoodworks and are made of Canary Wood, Walnut, Sheaoak and Bubinga. Below those we have tapestry bobbins made of Goncalo Alves, Red Heart, Mallee Burl, Birdseye Maple and Koa. Not that I'm going to do tapestry work but you can use them for other things besides tapestry work. Of course, with all those shuttles, I needed a Quill Winder which I got on E-Bay from someone who gets used ones and cleans them up. Under that, thanks to Lartiza, I got a battery opperated fringe winder from Lacis. So much better than twisting them by hand that I almost wept for joy. Thank You Laritiza! Below these I have several skeins of fingering weight yarn from A Verb For Keeping Warm. The brown skeins are superwash merino in colorway Kerala and the Red is65/35 wool/tussah silk in "Brick". Not lace weight but can be used for weaving some really nice scarves. I can practice a few techniques with this heavier weight yarn. Last but not least, I continue stash busting. I took left-over cashmere from ColorMartUK and wove it with "Double Kiss" Rayon yarn that I have had FOREVER in my stash from "Wool in the Woods". It makes a nice scarf and I have enough for a second one (good "Mother/Daughter" scarves). I have more yarn for weaving but I don't think you need to be that bored. Did I mention I also have lots of books? I swear the next post will be about lace. I'm almost done with the center of the Crown Prince Shawl and I did fix Goldregen
so I can start knitting on that again. With Stitches West coming up, I have to finish at least one of these or hang my head in shame :-)

Saturday, January 03, 2009

When Good Needles Go Bad (Mission Control, We Have A Problem)





So I'm knitting along on Goldregen when I notice something is not quite right. You know, a kind of looseness where there is not supposed to be anything loose. That's when I realize the join where the needle is supposed to meet the cable has separated. Sigh. I really do suck at fixing this type of thing but I'm not looking forward to trying to pick back about 5 rows of work on US 0000 needles. I think I will leave it for awhile and look at it tomorrow. Maybe it will look better in the morning. Sigh. However, I have made a second project on the loom. It only took 2 days and is a scarf for my sister made from Lisa Sousa's Baby Alpaca Lace in colorway "Sun Bleached Mahogany". Finally something my sister is willing to wear! So I guess I have to be satisfied with that success while my lace knitting kicks the crap out of me.
Happy New Year!