Everybody's Weavin' on the Weekend

Thanks to loaned warping board (Thanks Mags!), I got the loom all set up and and started weaving on Saturday!!

The loom came with a bunch of yarn cones, and I chose this neutral-toned mid-weight one (20 wraps-per-inch or wpis) as my first warp and chose an eggplant-colored thick-and-thin yarn for the weft.

Lacking a sley hook for getting the yarn through the reed, I improvised with an old club card, which worked really well.

I wanted to step it up a bit from my first woven scarf, so I chose one of the example draw-downs from Deborah Chandler's Learning to Weave. The hardest part was figuring out how to read the draw-down chart, after that the necessary threading and treadling is no more difficult than for a plain weave.

I'm working on getting a rhythm for treadling and beating, which is probably the most difficult part of the process for me at this point, but thus far, I've got about one foot of weaving done. I do think I may have made the sett (or spacing between the warp threads) too wide, but we'll see once I take it off the loom (and wash it).

Finished Object Roundup

I finished a couple of knitting projects last week, just in time to show them off this weekend. The first one, which which I wore to the NETA SPA- knit & spin retreat on Saturday was the FLOGS jacket I've been showing progress on over the past few weeks.

I love the finished sweater. It's super cozy (though it weighs a ton!). It's knit in Quince & Co. Puffin in Nasturtium, which is the smoothest bulky yarn I've ever worked with. I think the shape is great and rather flattering. If I made one change, it would be to knit the collar a needle size down, as it lost some of it's stand-up-ness during blocking.

These socks I started knitting in the fall last year as my travel project. I worked on them on my trips to Rhinebeck, Chicago, and Southern California that seemed to happen in ridiculously rapid succession and then didn't pick them up until about a week ago. The pattern is the Paul Atwell Socks, which I really enjoyed knitting (when I got around to it). The stitch pattern is easy to memorize, but it has a great effect for so little effort. The story behind the pattern (and the Family Trunk Project in general) is worth a read.

I've already got a new spring-weight sweater on the needles and yesterday I cast on a new pair of socks. Can't have those needles empty, can I?

SPA -Knit & Spin Retreat

On Saturday, my knitting group made the short drive up to Freeport for the annual NETA SPA Knit and Spin retreat.

We grabbed our spot in front of the lobby fire for the second (third?) year in a row and spent the day shopping, knitting, and spinning. With a brief break for barbecue.

I spent all my time spindle-spinning and I made significant process toward my 2011 Knitolution to spin 4 oz. and knit a shawl/shawl-lette. I only have about .5 oz of spinning left to do.

(This shirt should come with an asterisk -

*unless you're buying cashmere. Which I didn't, but someone else did!)

In My Studio: Before & Now

So one of the best things about the new house? I have my own studio.

(And whenever I say I'm going to my studio, I immediately think of this random reality tv moment I saw last summer. One, be forewarned, it'll get stuck in your head.  And two, it's worth it to watch to the second half of the video to see how context can change a song.)

I've co-opted the first floor bedroom, which used to belong to a baseball fan.

Thus far, we've only had the opportunity to remove the wallpaper (fortunately one easily-removable layer), so the room is far from finished, but I needed to set up and do some sewin'. So I figured I'd show it in it's current state.

The bears really make it.

There's great natural light during the day and there's plenty of space for my cutting table and all the other stuff. There might even be extra space, except...

there's one thing more: I bought a loom.

It's a 36inch four heddle Harrisville that I got used at a really great price on Sunday, thanks to a tip from Bristol. I haven't done anything with it yet except drool, but soon and very soon.

I'm so excited!!!

My Valentine Skirt

Happy Valentine's Day!!

About two weeks ago, I ordered a pretty red dress online and afterward thought it would be great to wear on Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, it didn't show up by Saturday.

Come Sunday, I decided I wanted something red to wear anyway.

Remembering I had some red fabric in my stash (received as part of the same group of fabric that became the granny skirt) and grabbing a simple previously made pattern (Simplicity 2758). I whipped this skirt up in an evening.

It is generally know that I am not a fast sewer.

It was only a through a confluence of positive circumstances that it came together so quickly:

1. I happened to have all the materials on hand, including the fabric, interfacing, red thread and a sufficiently long red zipper.
2. I has sewed the pattern before, so the pattern pieces were already cut out and I knew it fit well.
3. The pattern is basically three pieces: skirt front, skirt back, and waist band. Plus the added strip for the faux bow.
4. Only two seams to finish!
5. The material is a faux suede, so I couldn't really iron it. Meaning, I didn't have to iron it!
6. The zipper went in super easily on the first try.

To add a hint of pizazz, I added some top stitching on the waistband and on off-center bow.

And voila! Festive Valentine's Day skirt!

Sweater Update

I'm going to call it a case of hubris. I was knitting my bulky sweater and going through about 1½ balls of yarn a day and I'll admit it, I was thinking - you know, I might be able to knit this sweater in a week!! When last I showed this sweater (on 1/28) it looked like this:

January 29:

January 31:

February 2 (Morning):

February 2 (Evening):

Cue trombone sounds: "Wha-wha-wha-waaaaaaaaaaaah!"

I took the whole thing apart.

I had  swatched, washed and blocked and measured my swatch, but then on a larger scale, my gauge grew and the sweater was just too big. So I frogged it and started again the evening of the 2nd in the next size down.

The good news is, it fits great now, and I'm right back to where I left off the first time yarn usage-wise and a little further ahead pattern-wise.

February 9:

On the Wires, On the Needles

Wednesday night I finished my lace project and put it on the blocking wires. Getting a project like this wet is awesome and terrifying, awesome because the lace really opens up and becomes truly lovely, terrifying because I had no idea how big it might get. (I generally only do gauge swatches for sweaters).

Fortunately this "scarf on steroids" project, as I've come to call it, ended up wider, but not substantially longer than the pattern. Not to say it isn't huge anyway - for a sense of scale, the orange strip on the ground is a yard stick.

This weekend I'll pull it off the wires and do some wearing demo photos and then it'll be packed up and shipped off to my mother in Northern California.

My long-neglected second sock not piquing my interest enough, I immediately cast on a new project (after swatching!) yesterday morning and I've already knit through a ball and a half. Lord love bulky yarn!!

Here's what I've done so far.

Must knit more!!

I Think I Ate a Whole Pie Yesterday

So the day after I moved in, I naturally invited a bunch of people over for my second annual National Pie Day celebration, like you do.

There were knitting quizzes and pie trivia!

There were door prizes!

There was much tea consumed!

There were rows knitted!

And there was a pie per person! (and some creme brulee that snuck in, but who can complain?)

(Counterclockwise from bottom right: quiche (egg pie), shepherd's pie, vegetarian shepherd's pie, banana's foster pie, cherry cream pie, spinach feta and phyllo pie, lemon meringue, and s'more pie.)

In other news, it's -10° F outside, but the house is warm and there were a pair of beautiful cardinals chirping outside my living room window as I ate my breakfast this morning.

And I have a bunch of leftover savory pies for my lunch. Not a bad start to a cold day!!

Work In Progress

In the midst of all the painting, packing and scraping, it's nice to have a simple lace pattern to turn to at night.

Mr. Cleaver's Christmas Shirt

Last year for Christmas, I  secretly knit Mr. Cleaver a sweater. This year, I secretly sewed him a shirt.

Secret sewing is much more difficult than secret knitting, especially when your sewing machine lives in your bedroom! But I squeezed the project in on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, when Mr. Cleaver left for work early (except for one when we lost power!).  I did kick him out of the house for an hour and a half on the 22nd or 23rd so I could do the buttons and buttonholes, and I thought for sure he was onto me.

But Christmas morning came and he opened his shirt and I had to tell him I made it, even though I stitched something inside one of the cuffs,  which I guess is a good thing. I did work really hard to make it the shirt as professional as possible, including doing flat-felled seams throughout and matching the plaids wherever possible.  You could practically wear this thing inside out!

A flat-felled seam.

My biggest worry was that it wouldn't fit, even though I kept comparing it to shirts in his closet, but it fit great and he wore it all Christmas day. The fabric is a lovely light-weight wool  from the Pendleton wool mills that irons and wears like a dream. My family has a long-history with Pendleton wool button-downs, so I was glad I could bring Mr. Cleaver into the tradition.

Pattern: McCalls' M6044 - View C

Fabric: Pendleton Lightweight Wool from Gorgeous Fabrics

Flat-Felled Seam Tutorial: sewneau.com