Alke is very, very cool

Hey there all of you readers!  Is there a one among you who does not have a Ravelry account?  Because I just so happen to be holding an unanswered Ravelery invite, and I will forward it to you upon request.  First-come, first-serve.  If you have been wanting to join the Ravelry community but keep forgetting to sign up, or are discouraged by the 1-week-waiting list, take heart and leave a comment (be sure that your e-mail is linked).  I'll send it along to the first commenter who wants it.

Moving on...

Thanks for all of the woven love and complements on the belly  The baby feels like a little superstar, and I'm not discouraging it.  I hope to show you the wriggling little creature in short-order; I feel full to the bursting... although I was huge with Daisy as well, and she was 9 days late.  ~sigh~

Something very cool happened today.  I went to pick up my mail, and there was a package waiting for me from the Netherlands.  I could hardly wait to open it!  Alke, a friend from the Spunky boards over on Ravelry had sent me this as a little "cheer-up" surprise:




Now the book is just precious (there are crochet things in there, but the sewed softies esp. caught my eye -- as soon as the sewing but bites again, this book will be seeing a lot of use!), and the card was lovely, but the scarf!  I literally had tears in my eyes as I unfolded it.  A handspun, handknit scarf, from Alke, to me.  No one has ever spun for me before, and I can tell you that it is a precious, precious gift.  I put it on several hours ago, and I am loathe to take it off.


One-Row Handspun Scarf knit by Alke using her handspun Spunky Eclectic BFL club fiber in Pie For Everyone

Thankfully, it *almost* goes with what I'm wearing (because, you know, I AM a fashion maven and all of that good stuff).  (I'm completely kidding -- what you can't see is that I'm wearing gray-and-red yoga pants with this ensemble.  Eye-catching, I'll assure you.)

Here's a close up of the scarf texture, because we all know how much I love close-ups:



Beauty.

Thank you, Alke.  Words cannot express how much this little package meant to me.  You are a sweetheart.

On the weaving front, I finished Daisy's scarf last night:


I warped the loom alternating 4 ends each of my handspun Rosebud (that I knit Daisy's hat and mittens out of), and Knit Picks Panache in Merlot, back when it was 100% alpaca and still in production.  (It then went to an Alpaca/Merino/Silk blend, and more recently discontinued.)

To create a checked pattern, I alternated 4 rows of each yarn.  It actually almost looks plaid to me because of the handspun color changes.  Once again, I was thrilled with the difference a quick soak did for the fabric.  This morning it was so much drapier and softer than when I cut it off the loom last night.  Daisy wore it out today with a huge smile on her little face.

I experimented with the fringe a little bit:


Certainly would be more effective with a longer fringe section, but for a 20-month-old, it's probably for the best.  (In all reality, it's not all that safe to let a toddler run around with something round their neck anyway, but I'm keeping her closely supervised.  Plus, it's squishy and thick, which is a plus.)



Alltogether fast, easy, and fun project.  (There Laura, I've done it.  So sorry.  And you can hold me completely responsible for any loom purchases from now on.)

Now it's back to the hoodie.  I want to have it finished by the end of the week, which seems to be a possibility at this point... will keep you posted.

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Bellyshot: 38 weeks (and more weaving!)

38 weeks.  My friends, this is no illusion.  And I still have 2 weeks to go.  Amazing, yes?

Weaving content coming up -- if you do not wish to start weaving, you may want to look away from all of the woven pr0n.  Incoming....

Two nights ago after putting the children in bed, I opened up the Cricket manual and figured out how to warp it.  As it turns out, it's crazy easy.  So easy, that I wove off an entire scarf that night (Sparky's).  The next morning, the boys were chomping at the bit for me to weave off a scarf for Max too, so I let them help me warp.


This is the single-peg method described in the materials supplied, and it's seriously so simple that I was able to keep things straight while being "helped" extensively.  They thought that it was great fun to race across the kitchen and put the loops of yarn over the warping peg (next to Sparky's hand -- kind of blends in with the background here).  There was a bit of fighting ("it's MY turn to run!!!"), but overall it was fun.  And I didn't loose my brain.  And we actually managed to warp the thing.  Pretty incredible, let me tell you.

By bedtime last night, I had completed weaving Max's scarf as well.  I wet-finished them both (I was amazed by how much of a difference a soak in some Eucalan-infused water did for the finished item!), and we had two little drapy, soft scarves this morning.  The boys have been running around the house with them since, but I managed to confiscate them for a (brief) photo shoot.

Sparky's Little Man Scarf: 57" long, 4-1/4" wide.


I had spun this yarn using the Fractile Stripe method, and it was very interesting to see it all organized in a woven fabric.





Max's Little Man Scarf: 53" long, 4" wide.


You might remember that this started out as a multi-layered batt.  I spun the colors at random with no distinct patterning.  Once again, I love seeing it in the woven fabric.




I warped the loom for both scarves using a complimentary color of KnitPicks Palette fingering weight yarn.  I used the 12 dent reed so that it would be a weft-faced fabric (unlike the balanced weave of my grandma's light blue scarf).  Weft-faced fabric is one in which the weft (yarn going back and forth across) is mostly all that you see in the finished product.

Upon completing these two projects in such quick succession, I can assure you that practice does indeed benefit the weaver.  My selvedges have been cleaning up more and more as I'm mindful of the edge warp threads.  I have noticed that I need to leave a tiny bit more slack when I'm right in the middle, but pull it just a little tighter when I'm close to the back-beam and then again when I'm nearing the heddle.

Now that those are done, my boys are asking "Where's Daisy's scarf?"  She's been running around with my grandma's scarf, so I knew that I needed to get right on it (sets of 3, sets of 3.  Soon it will be everything in sets of 4... does this mean that I should be working on another Sheldon?)

Someone on Ravelry was wondering how lap-weaving was working out for me with my greatly decreased lap, so these pictures are for her:


(Spunky Eclectic Romney in Eclipse being spun in the foreground -- more on that in a future post)

As you can see, I've "created" a shelf to work on by putting my feet up on something under the desk, and hooking the back end of the loom over my keyboard drawer (since I have a laptop and don't use it anyway).

Oh, and...yeah, I've never shown my house in such dissaray.  However, when my husband is here, he hates to have all of my stuff encroaching on the computer area, so I only have a tiny bit longer to enjoy the Desk Disaster.  This means that you, my friends, have a rare "real" glimpse of me in my natural habitat.  =)



As soon as I finish Daisy's scarf, it's back to the Central Park Hoodie.  I've picked up the stitches for the hood, and I really want to finally wear it!!

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Refreshing

This week has been a little bit difficult for me -- trying to buy a larger vehicle (and running into stupid problems that shouldn't be an issue), running extra errands, having trouble sleeping, combating with crazy nesting instinct, not being able to accomplish much homeschool with the children (for the above reasons)...

I had scheduled my monthly spinning Friday for today a few weeks ago, but as this week unfolded, I started to feel that panic that often threatens to grip me as a new baby gets ready to arrive. "I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it" was oft repeated in my head, even as I accomplished each task. Looking around my disheveled house, I felt certain that I should cancel Spinning Friday...but then I realized something. I need Normal Life to continue. I need things to look forward to each day. I need something to clean my house for. I want to have people to bake and cook for (besides my children).

I'm sitting here now in my tidy house; everyone from the spinning group has gone, the children are in their quiet times or naptimes, and I am so glad that I decided to keep the date. I feel refreshed by the visit with the other ladies, successful to have managed to clean the house and bake, and all together satisfied and pleased with the day.

For every spinning event that I hold at my house, I bake something special for everyone to eat when they walk in the door -- the last two times was cinnamon rolls (from a fantastic recipe at Bon Appetit that actually produces light, soft rolls!), so this time I made Baked Donuts.



For my kids, the best part was the donut holes:



Recipe found at 101cookbooks with a few modifications: I threw everything into my bread machine -- all the liquid first, then all the dry, just as I do with my bread. The recipe calls for 5 cups flour, but I used 5-1/2 because the dough was too sticky. 1-1/2 cups of the total flour was whole wheat, which didn't weigh the finished product down at all. I actually might try substituting a cup more next time. I also doubled the cinnamon in the cinnamon-sugar topping, and actually would up it to a whole tablespoon next time, because I loved the extra flavor.

I made up the dough last night, shaped it, and then put it on parchment paper-lined panes, wrapped it in saran wrap and then put a layer of aluminum foil over all to ensure that they didn't dry out overnight. This morning, I proofed them in a slightly warm oven with a bowl of hot, freshly boiled water sitting below them.

Instead of sliding the parchment paper onto pre-heated baking stones like I do when I bake cookies and muffins, I chose to leave them on the pans this time, and the texture was lighter and more pleasing than when I'd used stones another time. Overall, I was very happy with them, and will make them again. Plus, anything that can be prepped the night before and needs only to be slid into the oven in the morning is great to me. Feels like I didn't even have to do anything, yet I can still eat freshly baked deliciousness!

Moving on to more fibrous talk, I finally cut this off the loom:

(For details on EPI, etc. visit the Ravelry page)

I decided to experiment with a bit of tone-on-tone embroidery at the one end, and free-handed a little flower.


I certainly wasn't perfect by the end, but you can see the learning curve in the selvedges by looking at the first few inches:


Even though it's far from perfect, I enjoyed the process, and I think the finished product is not too bad. The shifting blues are pleasing (thanks to the Bluegrass Franquemont Fibers Batt I spun the weft from), and the drape and hand of the fabric is lovely. (By the way, I did iron the piece, but from the looks of the above photo I can see that I could have used a heavier hand!) I'm going to send this to my grandma for Christmas, and I know that she'll cherish it always. Because, you know, grandmas are cool like that. (Plus, she looks fantastic in these colors.)



Now Sparky and Max want scarves, so I was thinking of using up the rest of the handspun from their hats...I just might warp the Cricket tonight. If I don't, I'll have to answer to Sparky tomorrow, I'm sure.

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Cricket

To those of you who stopped by to comment -- words of encouragement, or just to have a hearty chuckle at my little tribe -- thank you.  It's because of all of you that I don't feel so alone at this time in my life.  (Although, that almost sounds strange to say, seeing as how I never actually AM alone...well, you know what I mean.)

So I've decided that yesterday must have just been a very off day for me (by the way, I did end up falling asleep...at around 3 AM.  Thank God the kids let me have a tiny little morning nap while they snacked and watched videos.)  And I have proof of my off-ness.  A few weeks ago, I ordered a little Cricket loom (Schacht's newest, and in stock at Spunky Eclectic), and have been waiting for it eagerly ever since.  It'll be great to be able to hold it in my lap while weaving, carry it easily from place to place, etc.  I have a feeling that projects warped on it will be completed more quickly than my much more stationary Kromski Harp.  I have also been looking forward to the latest edition of Spunky Club fiber.

When I picked up my mail yesterday, there were about 5 or 6 boxes, mostly Christmas gifts from Stateside relatives, or things my husband had ordered himself, or whatever.  I glanced through them quickly, and brought them all upstairs (3 trips.  This is why I've hardly gained weight this pregnancy.  It's impossible when you climb stairs of this magnitude a total of 6-10 times in a row several times a week.)  I was tired, and just stacked them all in the hall.

This morning, I happened to give the stack another glance so that I could email my husband and let him know which of his mail-orders had come in.  In that moment, this caught my eye:


Loom + wool.  Yes, my friends, I had not even seen it.  Is that possible?  I gathered this from the post office, loaded it in my car, carried it up two flights of stairs and stacked it in a tower...and NEVER READ THE LABEL OR CUSTOMS FORM.

All I can say is...hurray for surprises!!

(Yes, those are the hands of my two little criminals, and Daisy's fingernails are painted, although she's eaten the red from most of her fingers by now.  Please don't tell me how harmful polish might be to a toddler's system.  I'm not in the mood.)

As it turns out, the thing is crazy easy to set up.  I had it looking like this within the first half-hour of opening the box, and that included a group trip to gather tools from the tool-box, and the excitement of being run round in circles while piecing it together.  If I can do it under those circumstances, I feel certain that anyone can.


(On the left you can see the club fiber peeking through it's plastic wrap.  I'll post proper pictures of it eventually, of course.)

I love that the loom is fashioned entirely of good quality wood, with no nasty little plastic bits to cheapen it.  I was also pleased that the two balls of worsted weight yarn that come with it are 100% wool.  And it's so affordable!  And portable!  But let me show you my very favorite part:


The grumpy little cricket.  I'm in love.  Now if only I could stop knitting sweaters long enough to warp the thing...  (half-way through sleeve #2 on CPH...)

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Weaving, spinning, knitting plans

Today I laid out my new cloth on the table for a closer look.



It's interesting to see the distinct learning curve in the fabric.



At the start, according to Betty Linn Davenport (the author of the book I referenced yesterday, Rigid Heddle Weaving), you are to weave 6 rows of waste yarn. I wanted to be sure that it contrasted well so that I could see what I was doing, thus the pink. Once I'd started, however, I decided to use up all that I'd wound onto my shuttle, because using such a high contrast was very helpful in figuring out exactly what I was doing.

You can see in the multi-green that at first, my fabric was very...drapey, shall we say. This IS a technique, although not the one I was aiming for yesterday.

Once I'd gotten a little more adjusted to what I was doing, I switched from the multi-green weft to a solid cream, and decided to experiment with a pick-up stick for a few stripes of a float pattern.



By the end, I had determined that, to make a fabric that I was happiest with, I needed to beat the heddle forward at an angle towards me, which packed things in nice and neat.



I also learned how to work in ends as I wove. Since the yarn is a firm cotton, I untwisted the plies, put the end into the next available shed, and then pulled out a few of the ends. After those were snipped off, it wasn't visible where I'd changed yarn.

I'm sure that wet finishing it would take out at least a little bit of the wobbly bits, but I'm not concerned with this piece. I'll worry about that more with future projects, but for right now, I'm considering this cloth done. Sparky, Max and Daisy are now the delighted owners of their very own handwoven blanket for their teddy bears. With little guys in the house, nothing has to go to waste!

The children and I went through my stash together, and they picked each picked out wool for this season's hat and mitten sets.

(In the column of three: Max, Daisy, Sparky)

As you can see, I've started on Daisy's today: 2 of the 8oz of Celebration (Spunky Club Shetland from 2007).

Not to overload you with pictures (wait, do I ever worry about that?), here are two skeins of handspun that I completely forgot to tell you about that I finished up this week:




This was the Bluegrass Franquemont Fibers batt that I posted about a few days ago.



2-ply, 142 yards, 1 oz, sport/fingering.

And then another Franquemont Fibers batt that started out like this:



And turned into this:



2-ply, 328 yards, 1.7 oz, laceweight/fingering.



I didn't realize that cream yarn could even be interesting, but this fiber blend is so perfectly creamy, complete with subtle glimmers of sparkling firestar, and the cashmere...and the silk...mmmmmm

Seriously, if you've never tried a Franquemont Fibers batt, you are missing out, my friend.

Tomorrow, I'll show you what I'm doing with the Bluegrass.

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Woven

There's something that I don't think I've ever told you. I've had a lot of guilt about it, so I don't even think that I've ever taken it's picture, or discussed it in any way. I have a loom. About a year ago, I asked my husband to buy me a 30" Kromski Harp. The first hurdle was putting it together, which took about a month or so for me to get around to, but I finally just sat down one night and did it (I hate assembling little parts!) Then I had to wind a warp.

I chose dishcloth cotton, because I have a ton of it that I bought very cheaply, and almost never use it for anything (beanie bags, and a purse for my little sister once, but I DO NOT ever knit dishcloths -- well, once. But that's all.) Anyway, I wound off a striped green and cream warp, but the experience was kind of frustrating, since my warping pegs started popping out towards the end, and since the cotton is thick, they soon overwhelmed the length of the pegs as well...by the time I was done, my neck was tight and back was sore, and I was done with it for a while. I packed the warp away, vowing to put it on the loom someday...

I don't know how long it's actually been. I've just been very intimidated by learning how to thread the warp through the heddle, tie it on the beams, etc. On the Spunky Club forum on Ravelry, people have been talking about weaving a lot lately, and I finally decided: this is it. I need to just get down to it and figure it out. People do it, so it must be a "doable" thing, right? Right. The trouble is, I didn't want to risk getting interrupted at any point (I turn into Mean Mommy at those moments), so this left the evenings. Once I get the children in bed at 8 though, my brain seems to shut down, and all I want to do is sleep -- the lovely fatigue of the 3rd trimester. (Generally I still stay up at least an hour or so to spin, but I don't really have to think to do that...)

All of this to say: I posted to my local knitting/spinning group that I wanted some warping company. One girl, Steffi, responded, saying that she'd never done it, but she'd be glad to help me figure it out.

Today was Spinning Friday at my house, a monthly meeting I have, and Steffi was able to come. Not only did she "help" me figure it out, but she warped it for me! She was my warping angel...or Warped Angel? Steffi, I can't thank you enough!! Sometimes I just need a little help getting over the hump of a project...



After everyone left and my children were watching their afternoon videos, I got out my long ignored copy of Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving (which Steffi had used to figure out the warping), and... I wove!



I got a little bit done this afternoon, but once I put the children to bed, I sat down and finished the entire warp. I now have 36 inches of finished fabric.



It is far from perfect or lovely, but it is weaving! And it is mine! (Those pictures were taken in the early stages, when there was still natural light in the living room -- I'll have to take full shots tomorrow of the whole thing, when I get the chance.)

I have so many ideas now for what I could do. All of that handspun, just sitting around...mmmmmmm......If I was not pregnant, tired, and in possession of a sore back, I'd warp it again right now. I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow!

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