Loose Ends

Today a short report on a knitting project I completed over the weekend - a new pair of fingerless gloves for myself, using some jumperweight Jamieson & Smith 2 ply wool that I had in my stash. They only took a couple of weeks, knitting mainly in the evenings for an hour or so. See all those loose ends on the inside-out glove? They are the result of changing colors many times to make the pretty little Fair Isle motifs on the right side. I spent several evenings weaving in all those yarn ends - not my favorite thing to do.



But I tackled those ends as soon as the knitting was done. I was eager to wear my mitts!



The pattern, Knab Fingerless Gloves, is from Ann Feitelson's book The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, using seven colors of the jumperweight wool and US size 1 1/2 double point needles. I made a few minor modifications to fit my hands and suit my own tastes. Today is the winter solstice, shortest day of the year. I'm celebrating by wearing my comfy, colorful mitts - and no loose ends inside or out!

No Swimming Today

The temperature was a nippy 14 degrees this morning when I stepped out on the back porch to watch the sun rising behind the trees on the far side of our pond. The light sifting through the trees and casting gleaming streaks across the ice made me catch my breath. It's true - I'm an easy target for being captured by nature's beauty, but the view from the back porch this morning just seemed like the perfect expression of a winter's day, even though there is no snow on the ground. The delicate early morning sunlight showed every little object to its best advantage, right down to the frostiness of the air.



Our river birches were certainly looking their best. Now that all leaves have departed, you can easily see the papery bark on their trunks. That texture really speaks to fiber-oriented people. You just have to step up close and touch those curling shreds, examine the lines and traces on the inside surface, a secret code to decipher.



And how about autumn leaves frozen in the icy water, their colors still dusky for a little while, one last memory of the year's growing season, before they darken and decompose. Some of the leaves this morning were dusted with a sugary frosting.



I'm a four-season person. I love to watch the seasons shift and enjoy the treasures offered by each one. One of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, seems to spend much time watching these things too. In her poem Messenger from her collection of poems, Thirst, she puts it perfectly -

"Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished."

Best wishes for a beautiful day for all.

It's Never Too Late...

... to be thankful for the riches in your life.

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend I had time to finish knitting something for myself - this warm, cuddly cowl.



As I was working the last few stitches, I kept thinking about the special people and critters who contributed in one way or another to the final product. I'd like to give them some recognition and thanks.

First off, the beautiful cowl pattern Buttermilk Sky is an original design by my sister Bonnie. I think it's the first cowl I've ever made. I wasn't sure how the furry yarn would work with the stitch pattern, so it was a pleasant surprise to see how the yarn and texture complemented each other. I think Buttermilk Sky would pair beautifully with many yarns. The stitch pattern is easy to learn and the knitting goes quickly, so there's plenty of time to make a couple for holiday gifts if you're in need of gift ideas.

The yarn is some that I spun earlier this year. It's a 50/50 blend of my angora rabbits' wool with some fine fawn-colored alpaca fleece. My friends, Bonnie and Carl of ABC Ranch, blended the fibers and processed them into a lovely spinner's roving that required absolutely no preparation on my part. All I had to do was sit at my spinning wheel and let the fibers glide through my fingers. The resulting 2 ply yarn was lofty and soft and measured 13 wraps per inch. I used a US5 circular needle which yielded a plush fabric with lots of halo.



Of course, there would be no yarn and no cowl whatsoever without the beautiful wool of my three angora rabbits. Each one is a different color and has his own personality. All three are friendly and easy to work with. Let me introduce them.

Bailey



Tai Pae



And Tobin



Thanks, woolly boys!

So, in this one simple knitting project, I have lots to be thankful for. As if that isn't enough, the weather forecasters are predicting some cold temperatures in the next few days. I won't have to wait too long to try out my cowl. Life is good!

Fruit of the Loom

Next weekend, November 13, 14, and 15, the Columbia Weavers and Spinners Guild will hold its 20th annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale. I've been a participating member in the sale from the beginning and always look forward to this fun, but rather intense affair. Like all of the twenty-some participants, I've been hard at work all year, trying to produce fiber art that will represent the best of my skills. Many of my things are purchased by people I don't know, and I never see these items again. This year I decided to take some photos of my weavings for the sale so that maybe five or ten years from now, I'll have a reminder of what I was making back in 2009.

First of all, handfuls of brightly-colored woven bookmarks. These are so much fun to weave on a simple inkle loom. The color combinations and patterns are endless.



Next, a bevy of little drawstring treasure bags. On most warps, I like to weave a yard or so of fabric just for these little bags. This allows me to try out color, yarn and design ideas that might not be suitable for table linens. These bags are perfect for small gifts, jewelry, glasses, and special treasures.



Breadcloths always seem to be a popular item at the sale. A loaf of homemade bread nestled in a handwoven breadcloth is a gift that will be remembered for years.





I only have a few table runners this year. Several were given to special friends over the course of the year, so just three will be going to the sale.



While I may not have many runners, I'm bringing armloads of towels. Handwoven towels seem to be a perennial favorite project among weavers, and I'm no exception. They are also an extremely popular item at the sale. We usually have a wall of towels in a rainbow of colors, literally something for everyone's tastes. We find that people who purchase the towels often use them for other purposes such as table runners or even wall hangings!



So there's a summary of my woven items for the sale. In addition to the weavings, I'll be bringing some knitted items - several hats and scarves using my own handspun/hand-dyed yarns. And finally, an assortment of colorful little holiday hat ornaments - great for hanging on the Christmas tree or to warm the head of your favorite house elf!

Yipes!

Look out! It's a bat!!!








OK, relax. He just wants to wish everyone a wickedly Happy Halloween!

Honeysuckle's Last Blooms

Just as summer was giving way to autumn, I took the last pieces of Honeysuckle Twill variations off my studio loom. I had written about this project in a post early last month. The warp was a lustrous 10/2 Tencel yarn in natural. The neutral base allowed me to play with any color I wanted, but I decided to work with "flowery" colors for the most part.

Three of these pieces were breadcloths, using 5/2 perle cotton as the weft and a pretty straightforward twill treadling. Here are two of them.



One of my favorite weft pairings for Tencel is 8/2 unmercerized cotton. The resulting fabric is a nice blend of the two yarns. The Tencel gives a bit of sheen and a drapey (but not slithery) hand to the cloth. The cotton contributes cushy softness and adds absorbency. This blue towel is woven with the 8/2 unmercerized cotton using a satin tie-up.



For the final piece of this warp, I used a balanced twill tie-up. A balanced tie-up is one in which the number of warp threads rising is equal to the number of warp threads remaining down, so that neither the warp or weft is dominating on the face of the cloth. Again the wefts were 8/2 unmercerized cotton. I used a delicate salmon and light apricot - a final nod to the lighter palette of early summer.



I haven't quite settled on my next project for this loom but weaving these last few Honeysuckle fabrics was a fitting way to bring my summer weaving to a close.

Raddled, Beamed, Knotted, Weaving!

This post is a follow-up to the previous one. During the past week I made some headway in getting all those miles of warp threads onto my loom. On Wednesday I spread the warp in the raddle at the top of my loom, being careful to keep the colors in their correct order.



My Louet Megado loom has an excellent built-in raddle on its castle, as do all of the Louet looms. A raddle is a device which keeps the warp threads in their proper places and helps distribute them evenly on the warp beam.

Once the warp was arranged in the raddle, I attached it to a dowel rod which I then lashed to the warp beam and carefully wound the 15 yard warp onto the warp beam. (I know, I know, these terms sound like something out of Star Trek, but, hey, weavers have been warping, beaming and throwing shuttles long before Gene Roddenberry was even born!) The photo below shows the warp coming down from the raddle, over the back beam, and finally wound nice and snug on the warp beam below. Spreading the warp in the raddle and then beaming it on took two hours.




The next step was to tie each warp thread to the corresponding thread of the old warp which was still on the loom. I plan to use the same threading as I used in my Owls towels, so tying the new warp onto the old saved the step of threading the heddles (the vertical white nylon items in the next photo.) I used square knots to tie each of the 520 new threads to the 520 old threads. I estimated I could tie about 100 knots in a half an hour, so that's another two and one half hours of prep time - and a lot of square knots!



It was late Friday afternoon when all the knots were tied and the old warp was pulled forward to the front of the loom. It in turn pulled the new warp through the heddles, through the reed, and all the way to the front of the loom. At that point I was able to cut off the old warp and tie the new warp ends on to a rod attached to the cloth beam. (The woven fabric is rolled onto the cloth beam where it remains until the weaver unrolls it and cuts it off.) This step took another hour. I didn't take photos of this process because the anticipation was too great! After all that preparation, I just had to get the warp tied up and begin weaving. So... that's exactly what I did.

As luck would have it, Saturday was a grey old day, perfect for staying inside and tossing my shuttle back and forth at my loom. Here's a look at the cloth so far. The weft for the first piece is 8/2 gold tencel. My inspiration for this fabric was an autumn sunset in our woods.



Now that the loom is dressed again, I can look forward to many happy weaving hours. I haven't yet added up the time spent in preparation. I'm sure it will sound like a lot of time and trouble to non-weavers, but for weavers, it's all part of the process. And as the saying goes ... You have to be warped to weave!