December Catch Up

As usual, I have weeks to catch up on so let’s skip the whole 2012 year-in-review thing and the inevitable 2013 resolution post (at least for now) and go straight to the yarny stuff.

No, I have not been gone for weeks because I died under a pile of smittens, but I did keep going with them for at least a few more days.

After smitten #10, I was able to conquer the obsession  (okay, fine, I started running out of appropriate handspun leftovers).  A day or so after I cleared my head from the smitten haze, I started back on my WIPs and the rest of December actually ended up being rather productive.  First up, I almost finished a sweater.

Yes, it's an odd picture, but the sleeve cuffs (can you call 8 inches a cuff?) are the coolest thing about the sweater so there ya go.  I totally could have been wearing this one for Christmas had I planned a little better when I bought this yarn for a completely different project over two years ago and psychically realized I was going to change patterns and probably needed one more skein.  For a couple of nights, I played the "maybe if I knit fast enough, I can finish before the yarn runs out" game.  Then I came back to reality, weighed my yarn, and admitted there was no way that what I had left would get me through the second sleeve.  I hunted up and ordered an extra skein, but was forced to put the sweater aside to save my remaining yarn so that I could alternate it with the new skein.  MadTosh is not exactly known for consistent skeins even when you buy them together, and two years apart?  Yeah, I was just hoping it was still some shade of grey.

Forced to abandon the sweater, a funny thing happened.  I was hit with strange motivation to knit my heart out and finish a pair of socks that were intended to be a Christmas gift--an idea I had long ago given up on since the first sock wasn't even completely finished.  This motivation hit on Dec. 22nd.  Nice timing, right?  Here is what the next three days looked like:

Yup, I said it, BAM!  I knit the entire second sock in two and a half days.  Yes, I know there are awesome knitters out there that can bust out a pair in the same amount of time, and yes, I realize these aren't exactly tall socks, but whatever, a sock in three days is about as good as it's ever going to get for this fickle knitter.

With the socks finished, I had the drive back from Connecticut to Maryland free to turn back to the handspun projects.  Relaxing on the couch after we got home, I finished up the Lacy Baktus scarf.

 

A few days and three different bind-offs later, Mike's socks made their way to the finished pile.

Then I threw some handspun on the loom and busted out a scarf for no particular reason.

  

And yet, I still wasn't quite finished.  I managed to squeeze one more skein of handspun and most of a hat in before the calendar hit 2013.

I tried to spin bulky yarn.  I mostly failed.  And while I love, Love, LOVE the hat pattern (Squall by Glenna C.),  I do not love how it looks with the color variation so the yarn is destined for another project.  Still, I enjoyed the hell out of myself knitting it, so it's all good.

And there's the December crafting.  Phew!  I'll try to get January in before we hit February!

Finished Object Friday: The Birdhouse Scarf

Back in January I started weaving a scarf with my new loom.  Everyone says weaving goes fast.  The only problem is that it only goes fast if you take the loom out of the closet.  Isn't this blog is just a wealth of useful information?  Don't answer that.  Nevertheless, after over 8 months, I can finally present my first finished weaving project.

Yarn:  Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs Strychnine, Little Birdhouse in My Soul
Pattern: Plain weave, 84 ends, 10 dent reed.
Finished Size: length=79 inches, including fringe; width=7 inches

Part of the reason the scarf lingered for so long in the closet is because I ran out of yarn and wanted the scarf to be another foot longer.  By the time I sought out some more yarn and a generous Raveler sent me some of her leftovers, I had completely lost interest in the project.  Only when I had a bout of insomnia a week or so ago was I motivated enough to pull out the loom and finish the scarf.  I'm happy with the finished project, although it certainly reveals I have a lot of practice ahead of me.  The main issue?  Edges.  One side is nice and neat, but the other?  Not so much.

I'm a little discouraged that I haven't been motivated to spend more time on learning to weave, but then I remind myself that it took a few tries before I really dove into spinning as well.  There were several false starts with spindles before the obsession really took hold.  Every relationship takes work; I know weaving and I will grow to love each other soon.  Before I start my next project, I think I'm going to spend some time watching the Craftsy lessons on Rigid Heddle Weaving.  A little instruction might be just what I need to feel more comfortable with my loom and eager to get weaving.  Well that and figuring out what else I can do with fabric from a small loom that is not a scarf.

Until then, just the one pretty scarf to admire.

I'm going back to my spinning wheel now.  Happy Friday all!

Visit Tami's for more FO Friday!

New Year, New Craft

For the last few months, I’ve been admiring woven scarves on Ravelry.  As I flipped through a Webs catalog awhile back, I casually remarked to Mike that maybe in a few years I’d look into weaving.  For the record, I knew absolutely nothing about weaving other than self-striping sock yarns made pretty woven scarves.  Looms?  No knowledge at all other than that’s what you use to get pretty woven scarves.  The actual process of weaving?  Well, weavers talk about needing to warp their looms, whatever that is.   And that would be the extent of my weaving knowledge.

You can imagine that I was a bit surprised when Mike handed me a box Christmas morning, and I unwrapped:

I may know zippo about weaving, but I know Mike deserves some major good husband points for taking an offhand comment I made about something I’d like to try and running with it.  I mean, the guy read loom reviews.  More points for helping me assemble the loom. 

Once assembled, I started pouring through instructions and learned how to warp the loom, which I now understand is basically getting the vertical threads all measured and threaded to weave. 

My small house is not exactly well suited to the task, but I made it work. Then, I poured through more instructions and actually started weaving.  My first attempt was appropriately a total mess.

I only wove about a foot of that blue and green yarn before cutting it off the loom and starting something else. Still uncertain about how things would come out, I chose a handspun skein that was a little lumpy and not quite my colors for the warp and dug out some Lamb's Pride from the stash drawer to use for the weft (horizontal threads).

The fabric was much more even, but not surprisingly, drab-colored yarn created a drab fabric.  Olive green, mustard yellow, and some brownish golds mixed with charcoal grey?  Blech.  The ugly project, however, gave me lots of practice and when I was finished, I finally felt ready to try making one of those pretty self-striping sock yarn scarves.  Still lacking the confidence to break into any of my really prized self-striping skeins, I dug out a club skein I got last year that I was pretty lukewarm on. 

And now I'm halfway to a self-striping woven scarf of my very own.  How cool is that?  And looms?  Freaking brilliant.  How does anyone ever come up with this stuff?  I know there are a zillion weaving techniques, patterns, and textures to learn, but right now I'm just enjoying keeping everything simple.  It's fun to know though that when time and energy allows I have a whole new craft to explore.  Thank you, Mike!