A Loom with a View

I actually took this picture (along with some others) a few days ago, but I still think it’s really pretty.  I haven’t taken the strap off of the loom either, so I feel it’s okay to post this picture.  Just imagine that there is more finished strap wrapped around that bottom bar and less warp left to weave, okay?

This project had a huge learning curve for me.  I misunderstood the differences between warp- and weft-faced weaving, and was under the impression that the darker green weft would be showing more than the lighter green warp.

Warp-faced weaves are stronger than balanced weaves.  It’s just true;  ask anybody.  (Actually, I’m no expert.  I read a bunch of books recently.  It seems like that’s the general consensus.)  So I was aspiring toward a warp-faced weave with a weft-faced weave in the back of my mind.  I knew that the finished object would shrink in width, so I warped it so there’d be about 3.5 inches on a 10 dent reed with a balanced weave (32 picks or so, I can’t quite recall).

I aspired toward a strap of 2 inches wide.  I’m getting about 1.7 inches, which is a bit of a problem when it comes to making a shiny new guitar strap.

I have a small instrument called a cuatro.  I got it when I lived in Venezuela in 2009, and it’s lovely, but it has no strap.  It also has no pegs for straps, but that’s beside the point at this juncture of my weaving career.  It’s a really pretty maple colour, and it was handmade by the famous guitar maker Navarro’s apprentice, Tovar.  It needs to be portable, and that is my only complaint.  I have a feeling that this strap would suit my cuatro right down to the ground.  Since the cuatro is about the same size as a half-size guitar, it doesn’t really matter that the strap isn’t at optimum warp-faced strength.

So!  Let’s review.  Because I had warp- and weft-faced weaves mixed up in my mind, I warped the loom with the wrong colour and didn’t pull the weft tightly enough, which is why the weft threads are more visible than they should be.  I have to say,  I  really like the colour effect.  I should also say that I’m glad I didn’t pull it that tightly because there’s not much I can do with a strap that’s only an inch wide.

For my next strap (and there will be a next strap) I’ll warp 60 picks.  I’ll use the darker green colour, and pull the weft tightly enough to get an appropriate finished product, and I may make it a bit longer depending on what this strap looks like when I’ve taken it off of the loom.

I think I’m going to varnish this lil’ Cricket.

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?

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.

Austerity

austere (adj.) 1. severe or strict in appearance or manner. 2. lacking comforts, luxuries, or decoration. origin Greek austeros ‘severe’.

From the Oxford Paperback Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Wordpower Guide published in 2001.

Once, I showed this blog to an old friend of mine.  He said that the aesthetic was ‘austere’, and implied that I should change it up, add some warm colours.  Then I showed it to my friend Mollyann at Ariadne, and she said that she liked it.  She used that same word, austere, and then said it looked homey.

I like the idea of austerity.  But then, I like neutral colours and hard lines, and I admire asceticism, and I love a good dry wine or a nice sour olive.  I value strong, hard work and a relatively practical outlook.  The harsh yarns are my favourite, and I love the colours that sink behind brighter tones.  I guess it’s no wonder.  I grew up in a sober, solemn, and serious environment.  I’m really starting to see how growing up on a cold, rocky island has impacted my colour preferences.

taken from newfiegirldotcom's flickr page

I got that picture from here.

I love those cool silvery greens and grey blues, and they tend to influence my knitting.  When I started to learn more and more about fibre, I was attracted to those bright tones that most new knitters love, but I always go back to my colour palate.

Even my cats match it.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m missing out;  if, by not trying out yarns or colours I’m not immediately attracted to, I’m somehow limiting myself.  But then, when I knit something for the store or for someone else… there’s just no spark.  And it’s hard to finish something that you’re not absolutely in love with.

Speaking of which.  I have announced today that I will not sleep until the 7 knit rows and 6 purl rows of this sweater plus ribbing are complete.  I have been swamped lately, and have been so desperate for unadulterated knitting time that I managed to knit 4 rows in a dark theatre with only two mistakes.  This sweater will be done before the next knit night – this Thursday.

I think my next project will involve richer tones, but still will fit into this heathered aesthetic.  I like the idea of knitting more “bitter” or “harsh” sweaters – it feels like a better preparation for the cold than sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.

Happy New Year, everybody.

Weather Event

This morning, I woke up to the sounds of rustling in the kitchen.  I thought that was odd, so I dragged my weary self out of bed to investigate.  Bazorov had instigated a wrestling match with the garbage bin.  The garbage bag liberated itself and one handle had Bazzy in a hold that I can only attempt to describe – he had one paw and his head through the bag’s handle and was confused as to the bag kept following him around.  Patrick was frantic for his brother’s safety (and was also scared of the rustling sound).  I rescued him, and there was much rejoicing.  (Mrow!)

But who can sleep after such a dramatic moment?  Not I.  So I got up and sat in front of the window and chatted on the phone with my mother.  The sky was a very pretty peachy golden colour, so I decided to take some pictures of my mitten that I finished last night.

I know you can’t really see it from that picture, but doesn’t it make the blue and the green in the mitten just pop?  I also like how it’s obvious that I accidentally dropped about four stitches.

I decided to take another picture of the mitten, just on the table because of the colour contrast.  I really like taking pictures of my knitting, if that’s not obvious.  It’s so cool how you can take a functional piece of art and turn it into a graphical one.  Did I just invent a word?

I did a swirly top on the mittens, and I love it.  I had intended to follow a pattern for these mittens, but heck.  I ended up improvising regardless.  I don’t like the idea of grafting the tops of mittens together, and I didn’t love the ribbing, or gusset placement, or, well, much of anything, despite the pattern being basically really good.  I have loads of respect for a good, clear free pattern.  Yesterday, though, I was at Ariadne, and some people said that they liked the striping pattern, so I think I’ll put this mitten up on the “Patterns” page soon.

While I was taking pictures, the sky darkened dramatically.  It was stark – from a peach pink to a lavender grey in seconds.  The wind!  And then?  The rain.

Sheets of rain, at about a 45 degree angle to the ground.  I watched a woman walking down the street pull out her umbrella and battle the wind.  And then?  The snow!

Here’s a shot of the garden in front of the building.  It snowed for about four minutes (just to toy with my girlish heart) and then stopped.  The sky brightened, the wind slowed, and now there’s a bright blue sky and absolute golden sunlight.  The weather!

An aside:  I’ve always hated the expression “weather event”.  The weather is so big and so deep and so tall (to paraphrase the great Dr. Seuss) that it’s continuously happening.  How can it be an event if it’s always happening?  Technically, if you can point at a specific instance of weather, you could split it infinitely into a multitude of instantaneous events to the point of silliness and I just can’t bear silliness when it comes to science.  But this morning?  That’s what I would call an event, and it was free to see.

Watching What I Eat

Oh gosh.

Yesterday morning, while lounging in bed (can you blame me?  It was Sunday!) I got a call from my landlady.  She was letting us know that we should clean out our fridge and move it, since she would be coming with a replacement fridge at 3:30 pm.  I was pretty pleased about all the notice because it gave us a lot of time to get our apartment into landlady viewing mode – you know, that kind of clean that makes you hang up your favourite sweater instead of draping it on a chair.  It also gave us an opportunity to go through our fridge and throw out some stuff.  We had some frozen compost that we’ve been meaning to get to the bin downstairs.

So 4:30 rolls around, and she shows up, asking that we please just wait for another hour.  Our response was obvious;  where else were we going?  Besides, Bad Santa was lighting up my computer screen and we were snacking on delicious hummus and pita.  (A quick side note:  my partner has always said that Bad Santa was one of his favourite movies so I agreed to watch it with him.  I concur – it was hilarious, but not suitable for any audience that doesn’t like crass humour.  Now I hope he’ll actually stay awake during my favourite movie, The Bicycle Thief.)

At around 6, she and some men brought the fridge upstairs with much difficulty.  The fridge is pretty new, so it’s a bit more deep due to the coils being covered, and the doors are fairly narrow for that.  But the fridge is about an inch and a half too tall to fit under the cupboards!  And they didn’t take the old fridge with them!  And because they laid the new fridge on its back to move it (which is a no-no because of how the fluids settle in the coils) so I can’t even turn it on until this evening!

And so, the old fridge has been plunked right in the middle of our living room.  It’s plugged in to save the integrity of our yogurt and eggs.  It’s humming until at least 4 o’clock this afternoon, because I don’t want to fry the innards of my new cold food making machine.  It’s humming at me.  It’s glaring at me.  And my cats are loving it.

Bazorov is on the left and Patrick is on the right.  They’ve been jumping up and down on it all day long, much to their delight.  They’ve exhibited absolutely no interest in the new fridge which is probably a good thing since there’s now a giant space behind the fridge.  We pushed the stove so that it’s immediately next to the fridge to keep cats from frolicking in that space.

It’s kind of ridiculous how that space makes me feel this anxious.  I just don’t like the idea of my cat jumping up on the fridge and getting stuck behind there.  I mean, if there are appliances working then there will be heat, and I don’t want them to get burnt.  It’s also basically impossible to clean properly in there as often as I’d like and I don’t want them to inhale burning stinky dust.  You know?

This may sound odd, but I really think of having cats as an enormous privilege.  They’re my friends, and I’m lucky that they’re in my life.  They have improved my existence tremendously, and help me keep myself in the present.  I am a very anxious and perfectionist person and they really show me how to relax, which I appreciate.  I try to repay them by keeping the house clean and neat and making sure they have everything they need to be happy but the idea of them getting hurt just makes me sad.

In an unrelated note (this is a knitting blog, right?)  I’ve been doing a lot of knitting and crocheting lately.  I’m crotcheting a hat,  knitting two hats, and both knitting and crotcheting a project for Ariadne.

I’ve run into a rather consistent problem of running out of yarn.  It’s so frustrating!  The hat I’m crocheting is being so difficult – I’ve frogged it three times.  I frogged the green hat four times.  I ran out of the light purple Lang Yarns yarn for the pitcher plant hat, so I’m trying to build up the courage to just switch to the darker purple.  No one will notice, right?  It’s just the lining!  But I hate that.

It’s also grey and rainy outside.  Pass the french press, someone.

Maybe I should just take some time to look out the window.  Or just relax.

Comfy

Yesterday was a delicious sort of bright fall apple day.  Wonderful and crisp and cold with a tang in the air that just doesn’t exist in any other season.

The main source of light in my apartment faces the west, so we’ve been getting really good evening/afternoon light in that great seasonal yellow.  I’ve taken a lot of amateur photos.  I received a digital camera as a gift last year, and I’m trying to use the hell out of it.  Why not?

This is a snippet of what I’m working on.

Yum.  Oh, bamboo shiny, and oh.

hempwol cardi

I love it.

hempwol in sicilian olive

#220 Hempwol.  It’s a lovely yarn that warms to the fingers and makes the most crisp cables I’ve been in a while.  It’s a 65%/35% wool/hemp blend.  My only complaint is that the hemp bristles off a bit in its own hempy way and can lead to my clumsy hands splitting the hemp from the wool, but such is tweedy yarn.  A slight untwist/retwist strategy has aided in this complaint, but I don’t love that I have to mess with it.

I’m pretty enthused that I’ve been able to design my own cable pattern for this sweater.  I’m pleased with it – I wanted a cable pattern that isn’t totally mirrored, and it shows in the finished project.  I tried to do a slipped stitch diamond pattern on the back, but that didn’t show properly.  I’ve been working with yarns with a higher twist and more colour consistency as of late and didn’t think that the tweed would hide the pattern.  Replacing the diamonds with a texturized stitch pattern and more cables has made the sweater much more professional looking.  I’m relatively pleased with myself.

Onwards and upwards to the sleeves!  I’m about an inch onto them, and I’m excited but nervous.  No one wants to rip back this far into a sweater.

I got the most awesome gift yesterday – $100 USD!

It's all about the Benjamins!

No, I’m just kidding.  It was a chocolate bar with a hazelnut filling, and it only cost $1.00.  But it was a lovely and thoughtful gift, and made for a most excellent snack.

What else did I want to share with you?  Perhaps a quiet moment of contemplation.

Bazorov and his Nemesis

This light is great.