I Can’t Be-weave it!

Look what I’ve got!

ignore the obvious error; ain't it grand?

Yes, I did manage to not tie the warp to the apron rod properly (hint:  it’s supposed to wrap around the top bar) but that is the first warping I’ve ever done all by myself.

Last Friday, I went to the marvelous Colette’s weaving studio, Interstitial Spaces.  Her studio is a magical playground with looms and spinning wheels galore in a formerly industrial space.  I highly recommend it – and I have to say that Colette is a really awesome person, and that hanging out with her was one of the highlights of my week.

Actually, I’m going to back up and tell you a bit about my week.  On Monday, I had my first day off in about two weeks – pyjamas were busted out, and I was cozy.  Tuesday, I was at Ariadne, which just happens to be one of the best places in the world.  Wednesday and Thursday, I worked – and I worked nights, which I hate.  I’m a sleepy kind of person and I need a regular schedule in order to keep going.  Once I’ve established a good schedule I have as much energy as the next person, but if I’m dithering around late at night I know I’ll sleep in way to late.  I hate working nights.  So, on Thursday, I got home at midnight and then got up early enough to visit Colette on Friday morning.  Friday afternoon, I went to work and when I got home (at frigging half past midnight) I assembled my brand new loom.  I even survived this obstacle:

Luckily, my partner had a similar screw to replace the one pictured above.  Isn’t that bizarre?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a screw borked that badly.

Regardless, I had to work again on Saturday, so I got up early and warped my loom.  I got everything wound up and cut properly so I could weave after work.  And then, again, after freaking midnight, I got home and decided to go crazy.

I wove a strip that Colette set up for me on Friday so I wasn’t a complete beginner.

I was pretty pleased with that mini-scarf.  It hasn’t been blocked (or fulled?) so it’s still not finished, but it does look mighty spiffy.  And yes, the colours aren’t my usual palate, but those are the colours that come free with the kit in Brown Sheep Nature Spun.  It’s 100% superwash wool.  My hypothesis is that the colours were chosen for contrast and so that beginner weavers won’t be shy in ‘wasting’ the yarn.  In terms of my first solo project, I’m anticipating that the scarf-like thing I wove will make the best cat blanket ever.

This is a picture of me weaving in action.  My partner took the picture, and I’m sort of glad that it highlights how I’m learning to change yarns.  See that big thick blue stripe smack dab in the middle?  That’s because I didn’t move the rigid heddle when I was packing the end of one length of blue yarn.

There it is!  It hasn’t been blocked (or fulled?) in these pictures.  It is dripping in my bathtub right now, but I wanted to get some before and after pictures.  I’m sorry that I didn’t get the snaps done in the bald light of day;  I was practicing the piano and got sidetracked.

I experimented a lot last night.  I don’t know if it was the exhaustion from working or the exhilaration of weaving, but I felt like a master of creation as I wove.  Of course, my edges are messy and my tension ain’t perfect, but I’m mighty pleased with the results.  Take the the picture above:  I wanted to replicate a pattern on a beautiful hemp scarf Colette had woven in silvery blue hemp.  I don’t know if I did it, but I really like the results.

I slipped some stitches as well.  Rather, I did something similar to slipping stitches;  I maneuvered the shuttle underneath the lower part of the shed so I could see what would happen.  Apparently, the warp gets longer and stripier.

This is when I maneuvered the shuttle over top the shed.  I also started playing with that haystack effect.  See how I wrapped smaller amounts of warp in the green part in the lower part of the picture?  It’s really cool, what you can do with this kind of medication.  I’m really excited to learn more about manipulating these effects.

And last but not least, some plain tabi weave.

Oh, dear.  I’m really tired and think I should rest up for tomorrow.  I’m going to rummage through my stash and find my next weaving project.  I see visions of plaid rumbling behind my eyes.

Looming Ahead

Hello internet!

I’ve not been posting properly lately.  I used to think that posting every three days was reasonable, and I really got it done – but then, the past two weeks happened.  I got a job serving, and wouldn’t you know that I worked 97 hours last week (plus other commitments doing other things).  Not only did I not knit very much, but I also barely managed to keep eating properly.  It wasn’t a winning couple of weeks chez nous.  But!  I did finish those Belle Epoque socks.

I decided to disregard the pattern instructions and knit the lace pattern down to the toe.  I did that by decreasing until the 1×1 rib was used up, and then I started decreasing the faux cable.  I think it worked out really nicely, and I’m glad I listened to my gut.  They fit perfectly, and the yarn is really nice and light.

I’m pretty pleased with the finished project regardless of my previous grumpiness.  I’m pleased I don’t have to knit on it anymore!

In other super exciting news, guess what I’m going to do with this yarn after Friday?

Why, yes!  That is Hemp for Knitting from Lana Knits in Sprout and Olive colourways!  How did you know?

I’m going to purchase (get this) a Cricket loom this Friday.  Come hell or high water – I’m so, so excited!  I’m going to use the lighter green for the warp and the darker green for the weft.

Old/New Ideas

I’m still chugging away at those socks.  Those Belle Epoque socks are going to be completed this week I (foolishly) swear, come hell or high water.  I just want them out of the way so I can get onto something that I’m excited about.

I’ve finished the gusset and am just knitting onto the foot.  I’ve got 4 inches past the heel flap and I’m planning on knitting about 7.25 inches total until I start decreasing for the toe.  Pet peeve alert:  I kind of loathe that no sock pattern I’ve ever met has the negative ease of the length of the foot listed.  Because of that, I’m a bit concerned about when to start decreasing.  On the one hand (foot?) I don’t want the foot to be too short, and on the other, I hate that extra quarter of an inch that can end up flopping around if I knit for too long.  This is therefore the most trepidacious part of sock knitting.

Knitting on the terrace has been awesome.  I love my apartment because it’s such a typical Montreal apartment;  the terrace is so perfect, and I love sitting in the sunshine.  The weather has been great lately.  Sunshine makes any project more enjoyable.

I’ve been experiencing a bit of a knitting slump as of late; but you know what’s making me more excited about fibre arts is this yarn.  Cascade Eco in brown and orange seems like it’d make the best 70s style zip-up cardigan.  Don’t you think?

I’m super excited about knitting with this yarn!  I’ve seen so many cool things come out of Cascade Eco, and I really like the colours I picked out (with Mollyann’s help, of course.)

I had been waiting for a third skein of the Cascade Ecological wool in brown to come from the company, but I’m relatively pleased about the contrast from the orange to the brown, so I don’t mind mixing it all in.

Ahh.  Orange you glad I took all these pictures?

Ms.Tania Sultana

Last night, I finished my armband for Tania.

I cast on 20 stitches and knit for 8 3/4 inches.  Then I used the colour charts provided on the microRevolt website to make the 149 with intarsia.  I then knit for 5 rows and divided for the button holes as follows:

• k 6, turn work, and knit the same 6 stitches in stockinette for 8 rows.
• Break yarn, and then knit 8 stitches on left hand needle for 8 rows.
• Break yarn, and then knit remaining 6 stitches for 8 rows.
• Purl across all 20 stitches to join.
• Knit across picking up the loose cross-yarn over the two buttonholes and knitting it together with the next stitch.

I then knit another 5 rows and bound off.  I used chain stitch to outline the button holes and the edge of the armband.

I used handspun and hand dyed yarn – a gift from the old woman who used to live in my borough.  I thought it was fitting.

I’ll post better pictures tomorrow, along with #148: Md. Maruf Hossain.

Flame On!

Okay, so without further ado, feast your eyes on the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen.

Isn’t that amazing?  I’m so pumped!

Now I’m going to go cast on for the armband for 146+!

Don’t be fooled by the socks that I’ve got…

…I’m still a knitter that likes to block.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to show you the rainbow herringbone socks that I bound off yesterday.  The newly completed sock hasn’t been subjected to the rigorous stretching and fondling that its older sister has, so it looks much thinner.

The heathered black is a good yarn whose ball band was lost years ago, but the bright rainbow sock yarn is Zitron Trekking (XXL) in 1001.  It’s a great yarn – I liked knitting with it a lot.  This is actually the second pair of socks I’ve attempted using the same ball of yarn.  The XXL in its name is apt.

The pattern was improvised by yours truly.  Knit from the toe-up with a standard houndstooth pattern, they’re pretty and soft.  I took no heed of trying to make them match.  Fraternal socks are much more delicious (in my humble opinion).

Next time, I will use another kind of heel.  While I am generally more than satisfied with these socks, I’m unimpressed by how tight the heels are.  I know that blocking will rectify the problem (after all, I’ve knit basically this pattern before) but I want to wear them now with no problems, and if the socks were my invention, shouldn’t they comply to my every need, whim, or desire?

A secret part of me is thinking that it’s not the heel’s fault.  After all, I do have EE width size US 5 feet.  Do most hobbits use short row shaping on their heels?

I like them lots.  I’m extra pleased that I’ve managed to make a pair of socks for, y’know, myself.  I think I’m allied with most sock knitters when I say that someday I’d love to have enough handknit socks to replace all the crummy machine knit ones I got from the grocery store.  At this point, I only have three pairs for myself.

But, until I cast on for the next pair, I’ll have to block these.  Not tonight, though;  I’m hoping to have a dinner party tonight, and I can’t just leave my socks hanging around.  I feel that’s poor etiquette.  Patrick is already waiting by the window.

Raspberry

I promised a while ago to post pictures of the baby sweater and booties I’ve knit in the past few weeks.

That’s Elizabeth Zimmerman’s February baby sweater on two needles and Saartje’s booties in Mission Falls 136 in Raspberry.   I did yarn overs instead of increases in the yoke of the sweater so I could pull some satin pink ribbon through, and used matching buttons on the booties and sweater.  I also knit the booties on 4mm needles.  I didn’t do an increasing row on the booties, and reduced my decreases accordingly.  You can look at my ravelry page for more details.  I also knit buttonholes instead of sewing buttonholes into the flaps after the fact by adding an extra knit row, and binding off in the second knit row.  I used a knit cast on instead of a long tail cast on, and cast on an extra three stitches for extra space.  I then embroidered around the buttonholes on the booties.

There are white birds embossed into these baby pink buttons.  They kind of look like cave drawings.  They’re hard to photograph, but they look really cool.

I really like how my partner and I chose the supplies for this project.  Yes, this is a gift for a little baby girl whose name means “womanly”, but I wanted to make a sweater that wasn’t just pretty and pink.  I think it’s super cool when modern mothers dress their kids in bright, lively colours and let the child’s personality develop through providing a variety of activities or styles from which the child can choose.  What resulted by our choosing a dynamic main colour and more ‘girly’ accents is, I hope, a happy medium.  A feminine garment that emphasizes this new person’s middle name, which means “noble strength” or “storm”.

The ribbons are pretty, but they also make the sweater more adjustable.  I hope that it’s usable more quickly that way; after all, the baby was only born a few weeks ago.  She’s tiny as of yet!  And I hope the buttons will keep it on for longer.

I’m going to include extra buttons and ribbon in the box, with the hope that this new baby runs and plays a heck of a lot.  I hope this sweater gets dirty, muddy, and stretched out, and that once this person grows into an adult, she can look at herself in pictures roughhousing wearing this sweater and feel good.

Agony

The other day, I made the mistake of going to the grocery store.  ”Sweet potatoes are delicious,” I foolishly said to myself, and toddled on down the block to gather up some greens and veggies.  I came home to this.

I know you can’t see it, but there are two more skeins on the floor underneath the chair.  The boxes are the cats’ play area, but the tissue paper was stolen and the chair dramatically knocked over.  I would have been grumpier but for the pride in Bazorov’s face.  The stash boxes (the purple and blue boxes on the shelving unit) have since been moved to the top shelf, but that hasn’t done much to save the rainbow mohair.

I haven’t mended the buttons on my sweater because I haven’t really gotten my paws on it yet (pun intended).  I’ve also started a really nifty sock pattern; the show-off stranded socks by Anne Campbell. I absolutely adore the slipped stitches.  I’m knitting the socks two at a time using striped Turtle Toes from Turtlepurl Yarns in the POW colourway. It’s 75% superwash merino and 25% nylon.  I’m knitting it in the small size for Ariadne Knits.

I’m sorry the picture is so dark;  I’ll knit some more on it tonight and then take some pictures in the broad light of day.  It gets dark at about 4:30 in the afternoon now, and I had a rather dramatic sick day.  This cold is moving into the stage where I feel as though I’ve been pummeled by hammers.

The colours are so vibrant!  And the slipped stitches make that very bright green look like fish scales – shiny and clean.   I’m really pleased with how the pattern shows off the colourway.  You can tell that a lot of work went into hand painting this yarn – it’s so soft and stretchy.

Absolutely lovely; balm for an unwillingly destashed soul.  I’m off to eat some tomato soup.

Inner City Pressure

I adore Flight of the Conchords deeply, so I figured I’d share this video.  I’m also feeling some inner sinus pressure.  Who could resist a pun like that?

I started sewing buttons onto my sweater yesterday.  I placed two correctly.  And then?  And then.  I messed up, and sewed one button about one stitch too far up and then I based another button from that button, and now I have to take them off and re-do them.  It feels insurmountable until I look at those shiny new buttons.

Aren’t they lovely?  I love metal buttons in general, but gosh, I love these buttons.  This colourway of Lamb’s Pride Superwash Worsted has a silver tone to it, and the silver buttons pick it up.  Here’s a more detailed shot.

Does anyone know what those crests symbolize?  I’m working under the assumption that they don’t really mean anything, but I don’t want to be like the one girl I knew in High School who wore a Le Tigre shirt because she liked tigers.

My Manos del Uruguay mittens are making me sad.  I took them into Ariadne and weighed them; the completed mitten weighs 32 grams and the ball weighs 19 grams.  Tragic!  I think I’m going to end up ripping out the cuff to see if I can re-knit the cuff in another yarn, and hopefully, that increase the yardage enough to make two gorgeous mittens.

I also cast on for Elizabeth Zimmerman’s baby sweater on two needles from her Knitter’s Almanac (Schoolhouse Press) last night.  I’m using Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash in Raspberry.  Knitting this sweater is a bit strange; the pattern isn’t as, well, blocked out as more modern patterns, but the writing flows nicely.  I like how the knitter is invited to change the pattern at will.  I’ve also decided to do yarn overs instead of invisible increases so that there will be space to pull some pretty ribbons through the sweater.

I chose the colour because it’s feminine but bright.  Babies are born basically blind, so bright colours are more easily visible to them.  Pale, pastel colours for babies don’t make a lot of sense to me.  The mother of the baby looks great in vibrant colours so I hope she’ll like it.

How’s the inner city pressure treating my kitties?

Sigh-nus

I was so sad yesterday when I was nearly done my sweater that I dove headfirst into a pair of mittens.  Bella’s mittens, to be specific.  I’m not one for following patterns – so this was unusual for me – but I figured I’d try.  After all, it’s an incredibly popular pattern, and I had some delicious Manos Clasica in a rich colourway that I wanted to use.

Four hours later, I had this:

 

That said, I made a bunch of changes for my peculiar and particular hands.  I cast on 30 stitches (not 43) and used a 8 stitch cable (not 12).  I made the cuff 2 inches long and only started the cable pattern on the hand of the mitten.  I increased the gusset on every round for 5 rounds and then kept knitting with the gusset stitches on my needle for another 5 rounds.  I did that so that the gusset would jut out more – I have funny thumbs.

I really like how they look and feel.  I don’t love knitting with the thick and thin yarn, but I absolutely adore how it knits up.  It really shows off the colour way, Olivewood.  And it stretches so beautifully into the 1×1 rib!

I’m scared I won’t have enough yarn for the second mitten, but I weighed them today (the ball and the mitten) and it seems like it may work.

Is anyone else sick?  I feel so gross.  You know you’re sick when your nose transforms itself into a faucet and your friends tell you that you ‘look like crap’ – although I do appreciate the candor.

Hasta mañana everyone!  I hope my body fights this off soon.