Back at the Beginning Again, Tea Towels on 8 Shafts

I have a history of weaving tea towels in January.  It gives me a chance to focus on my posture at the loom while creating something beautiful.  This year is no exception so I chose a fairly straightforward pattern that I have modified significantly.

I pulled a warp in 2/8 cotton using some really bright and happy colours, pink, green, blue and magenta.  I wanted to work with summer colours while we are in the middle of Vancouver Islands greyest months.

I chose my pattern and then proceeded to make fairly bold stripes.  When I do this I work only half of the pattern and then use PCW Fibreworks to mirror the first half.  This makes sure that the placement of stripes is even across the fabric.  I let the program do the work for me.

I made the warp, which was a tad painful due to all of the colour changes and popped it on the loom.  Threading the warp was my next step and then tying on went well.

I chose to weave the first tea towel with navy weft and it wasn’t very far along that I noticed something amiss.  There was a 9 thread float dead centre of my warp! 

It took a bit of sleuthing, but what appears to have happened is that when I mirrored the threading on the computer I must have deleted a single thread and boom.....9 thread float.

I really didn’t want to pull the entire warp off the loom, so I cut out what I had woven and at this point I decided I didn’t like the navy weft.

I un-sleyed half of the reed, up to centre where the error was and added two string heddles to the warp. I hung these two floating warp threads and, Bob’s your uncle, I’m ready to move forward.

While I was looking on the computer to find the error, I also decided to change up the treadling and I’m very pleased with the change, so a new treadling and a new weft colour;  I guess my mistake was meant to be!

I’m still really enjoying knitting hats at the moment and this is my very first original pattern.  It hasn’t been blocked yet, but I think its a winner.

First Post of the New Year

Happy New Year and our wishes for a wonderful 2024 to all of you.

This past couple of weeks have been absolutely packed for us.  We have celebrated two birthdays on top of  Christmas so we have really been hopping around here, with no real weaving time at all!  

The first birthday was Michael’s a few days prior to Christmas.  We went all out on the cake and made him an explosion of chocolate.  

This is a white chocolate and orange cake with dark chocolate ganache filling covered with milk chocolate Swiss meringue butter cream frosting.  It then has is chocolate feathers on the outside.  Needless to say, it was a big hit and thankfully we had friends to help eat it!

Then came Christmas morning and we made this lovely Star Bread for Christmas breakfast....just plain yummy.

Immediately after Christmas Ngaire’s birthday arrived and we jumped right back into the over the top cake bakes; we decided to make a Prinsesstårta.  Of course, since the cake wasn’t difficult enough we changed up a few things.  The cake itself was an orange chiffon cake, white chocolate puffed rice crunch layer, homemade dark cherry jam, vanilla pastry cream, vanilla creme diplomate, homemade marzipan with a homemade fondant rose.  It took virtually all day to make! 

It was pretty hard to cut, but tastes like a dream.

I have also been doing some knitting over the hols and I fell in love with the Alpine Bloom Hat by Caitlin Hunter.  I bought the pattern on Ravelry.

I knit the black and pink hat out of handspun merino and Ngaire was very happy with it, but I found the brim a bit too long for my liking.

I knit the same hat again with Rauma Garn (Norwegian wool) in a brighter pink and deep blue and I was much happier with the results with the fold under brim.

12 Shaft Advancing Silk Scarf

Another week, another painted silk scarf, another conundrum; this seems to be the never ending theme of my weaving life.

I picked a lovely teal and purple warp because I thought it would be any easy one to find a weft for and this could not have been more wrong!  But, I’m getting ahead of myself because the first thing I do is pick the pattern I’m going to weave.

The 12 Shaft Advancing Twill draft has large diamonds and has quite a large repeat of 95 threads. It is amazingly pretty and gives spots of weft, spots of warp and a definite diagonal. 

Ngaire wove this scarf a while ago and I thought it was time for a re-visit.  Ngaires full post can be found here.

Now that I had the painted warp chosen and the pattern, now choosing the weft for the scarf.

I lined up the first of the possible candidates: magenta, dark teal, eggplant, light teal and mauve.  I draped the warp over them and was able to delete a couple right away.

I was down to dark teal, magenta and mauve and these I took to the loom to trial out.

I wove a few picks of each and just for the heck of it I added silver.  The dark teal made the purple look brown, so no to that one.  The magenta was exciting, but took over the whole scarf, again a big no.  The  silver made the warp fade into the background, a resounding no.  The mauve was  the only choice for me.  It made the warp colour show through and rosey’d up the purple.

We have been in a November fog for days now, so getting a photo has been a challenge, it is so, so grey outside!  Here is an early photo of the scarf showing the lovely shine as it goes over the breast beam.

And another from a slightly different angle.

Now that gardening season over for awhile, time to hit the knitting needles.  This is my latest project using hand spun natural merino and hand spun merino/silk blend in dark purple.  I’m quite pleased with it and I know it will look even better once I block it.  The pattern is called FARA Hat, by Anniki Leppik and I bought the pattern on Ravelry.

New Project and New Problems

Our Guild Study Group ‘Exploring More’ has decided on our new topic, which will be ~ Weaving Layers.
This led to much discussion about the scope of the topic and we decided to paint it in very broad strokes.  For our purposes we decided that we could explore Pique, Finnweave or Doubleweave to name a few.

I have been wanting to explore Deflected Doubleweave for some time, so the article in Handwoven January/February 2007 by Madelyn Van Der Hoogt on page 68 caught my eye as it is really graphic.

I plan to weave two scarves using two colours of silk, natural coloured 30/1 tussah silk and the other is soft chocolate 30/1 bombyx silk.  Due to the fine grist of the yarns I chose to weave at 40 epi in a 20 dent reed with 2 ends per dent, rather than what was suggested in the magazine article.

I have used both of these silks before with really lovely results.

The natural silk was woven in squares and I used leno to ensure that the square stayed in place.  I was lucky enough to have this scarf published in Handwoven May/June 2011.

This is the chocolate silk woven with heavy raw silk streaks in the warp.

I pulled the warp in two sections and the first section sat on the warping board overnight.  The next day I made the second section and immediately started warping the loom.

As I started pulling the warp, which is 4 ends of chocolate and 4 ends of natural; a snarling, bridging grabbing problem started to rear its ugly head.  I was completely taken aback because alone, neither of these yarns caused any problems when I used them previously.

The section that had just come off the warping board was horrendous!  The section that sat on the warping board overnight was much better behaved, so time to relax may have been the difference.
The warp was pulled on by inches and the whole six yards took over an excruciating hour to get onto the loom.

These yarns did not get better after they were on the loom, just sitting on the lease sticks the warp ends bridged together.

And each individual thread had to be teased out of a curling mess!  Not fun at all.

I’m halfway through pulling the warp through the reed and now I’m questioning whether I should have gone for such a fine reed, but only time will tell.  It was a conundrum, if I put 4 ends together in a 10 dent reed, the warp would have more twisting opportunities but 2 ends in a 20 dent reed mean they can stick more.

I rarely follow a weaving ‘recipe’ but this time I am while I learn the in’s and out’s of Deflected Doubleweave.  I have put on enough warp for two scarves and the second scarf will have an original treadling sequence so I can make two different scarves.  At this point its ‘fingers crossed’!

My sweater is progressing at a snail’s pace right now, each circular row takes me 30 minutes to knit and this navy is really hard to knit at night, so I'm just doing a couple of rows a day.

Tea Towels ~ Home Stretch

Finally my tea towels are off the loom, but in my haste I cut off the warp after nine tea towels instead of the ten I should have woven.  Obviously I was done, done, done with this project!

There is something so very satisfying seeing the big fat roll of tea towels and all the promise they hold.

This is just a beauty shot of the tea towels fanned out, such a happy moment!

Now that the tea towels have been washed, pressed and had the hems pinned up. I get to sit in the sun and sew them.  I prefer to sew the hems by hand as I have had mixed results with machining them.  I always seem to get them pulled out of whack.  I now have a ‘walking foot’ for my sewing machine so it may be time to try again.

I have been plodding along with my top down pullover and I’m really pleased with it.  I have amended the pattern to exclude the side split and to continue the increases in the body to make it an A line.

I am using this lovely wool in Worsted weight so I’ve had to make some adjustments there too as the pattern called for a much finer yarn.

Today in the garden the Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) is really showing a growth spurt, Spring is really beginning showing her beautiful face.

An Abrupt Halt

At the beginning of January I put on a 2/8 unmercerized cotton warp, eleven yards long in deep navy blue.  The plan was to make ten tea towels.

My pattern is a very lovely all over pattern in twill on twelve shafts.

By mid January I had woven eight tea towels.

I had decided to weave the tea towels in two different colour groups.  The first group of five were woven in deep jewel tones; red, turquoise(2), purple and green. 

The second group were a bit of a stash buster in spring tones and I planned on weaving, pale blue, lilac(2), celery and yellow.

This is a photo of the celery tea towel and I had one of those wonderful moments when the pirn and the pattern ended at the same time ~ so immensly satisfying!

Then it happened, I went to the medical lab to do my regular blood work and the lab tech somehow damaged a nerve in my left arm while taking blood.  The pain was nothing less than astonishing when I extended my arm!  This put my weaving on hold while I am coming to grips with allowing the nerve to settle down, no full extention was what feels best. I don’t want to even begin to describe the kerfuffle of getting dressed in the morning!
 
The upside of a weaving haitus is that I started to knit a sweater.  I have only begun the project and my plan is to have the colour sequence, cream at the top, gold in the centre and navy at the bottom.

I’ve had my eye on this top down knit tunic by Drops Design for awhile.  It's called the Sweet Nothing Jumper and it is a free pattern from Garnstudio and can be found on the web or on Ravelry.  Wouldn't it be a fine thing to morph into a tall blond at the same time!

Today I was able to weave for a short time.  I can throw the shuttle pretty well, but I can only beat using my right hand.  Needless to say it's slow going but I am determined to finish this project and set up for our study groups new challenge by the end of February. 

My garden shot today is of these sweet determined pansies stuggling after the wind and rain has bashed them about.  They still make me happy!

Eight Shaft Huck Lace Shawl

The Qualicum Weavers and Spinners just finished our annual sale and I was the committee chair this year.   Although the others in the committee did the bulk of the work, just planning and worrying that I missed something was tiring.  It turned out that the worries were for naught as we had a hugely successful sale last weekend with around twenty weavers and spinners putting their work up for sale and everyone making some sales.

I had a put a fine merino wool shawl on the loom several weeks before the sale, with the hope that it would be ready to include, but sadly it sat unwoven as the sale day drew closer.  The colour is all wrong here, it is actually a lovely deep apricot with a slight grey shade.

The pattern is eight shaft double diamond huck lace, and I am really very pleased with how it came out.  I did not have enough heddles on shafts 1 and 2, so Ngaire spent a few minutes on PCW and put it over 10 shafts for me.  This really made a difference as spreading it out on a countermarche loom makes lifting the shafts really easy.

Here it is off the loom and washed, but not yet pressed or fringe twizzled.

I liked this pattern so much that I’ve put on a series of runners in deep gold mercerized cotton to take advantage of the pattern already tied up on the loom. 

The pattern looks great on a shawl and I know it will make stunning table runners.  The loom always looks so very lovely from this angle doesn't it?

I had such great hopes for putting some of my hand spun and hand knits into the guild sales, but that too was not to be.

This is a mananita that I have been knitting recently.  The pattern is from The Best Of Knitters Magazine Shawls and Scarves and the pattern is by Meg Swanson.  I used my own hand spun fine merino yarn in a wonderful deep gold colour.

The knitting is all finished, now I just have to apply myself and get it blocked., I don't know why I just don't do it...but here it sits.

The garden shot for today was taken this morning and shows my Grevillea victoriae in bloom.  This shrub from Australia is amazing since I just moved it this summer....still alive and kicking after all that stress.

Making My Knitting Christmas Angel

I had a hard time figuring out what to do for my project for the twenty fifth anniversary of the Qualicum Weavers and Spinners Guild.  The theme is glitz and the guild provided 20 grams of yarn.  Mum and I talked about ideas and we both wanted to do something different.  Mum came up with spool knitted necklace and I came up with doing a Christmas Tree Topper Angel.

The idea came about because a lady from my old guild in the Okanagan makes Christmas angels by crochet but I can’t crochet so I had to come up with a different way.

Plan A – The idea was to weave a body on a paper yarn cone, that I covered in plastic wrap using weaving wool.  After weaving the body I was going to Modge Podge the body and then slip it off the paper cone.  I placed some nails around the bottom and top to hold the thread.  Well, the nails were too short and the threads didn’t hold.  So I scraped the idea.

On to Plan B.  This one worked so here are the instructions.  I painted to the paper yarn cone silver.

I covered the body with the glitz yarn using a looping technique with a latch hook.

Push the latch hook up the centre of the cone.  Grabbing the thread in the hook and then pull it through the cone.

This creates a loop that you pass the ball of yarn through.  Then you snug up the loop tight to the cone.

You do this all the way around the cone.  I had to stop when I couldn’t fit the latch hook through the centre hole anymore.  So, if your cone has a small opening at the top you may want to enlarge it so you can get better coverage on the body.

The next step; I wanted to add more sparkle to the body and I also wanted to cover up the holes that I had made from Plan A!

I needle wove a band of silver thread along the bottom of the body of the angel.  Just in case you wanted to know it was a 2/6 reclining twill.  And I did eleven bands around the base.

I then used Modge Podge, which is basically white glue, on the inside of the cone.  It holds the outside threads in place and also protects the threads from the eventual Christmas tree branches.

For the head I wrapped a one inch Styrofoam in the same thread as the body.  It just looks like a ball of yarn!

For the wings I auditioned a couple of shapes cut out from a piece of paper.

Then I used the winning wing design to make a template, it is a little hard to see because I used a pencil when I traced it.  Then, I used galvanized wire from the gardening section of the dollar store to bend into wings and the halo.  Doesn't the wings look like a tooth?!

I used the same looping method from the body of the angel to cover the wings and the halo.  It took a surprisingly long time but it was something that can be done in front of the TV.

The wings needed to have more shine to them so I used silver thread.  I placed the silver thread on a sewing bobbin to keep things tidy and used the looping method from the body of the angel.  The wings were attached using hot glue to the body.  In the picture you can see the curve that was added to the wings so that they laid flat on the curved body of the angel.  The wings were attached in two places and had some hot glue showing so to cover the spots I placed two large rhinestones on top of the hot glue.  Sorry I don’t have a picture.

A last minute addition was to add arms and some knitting.  The arms were done the same way as the wings and the halo.  The knitting needles are toothpicks that I painted silver and added a bead to the end.  I can’t knit so Mum did the knitting for me, thanks Mum!  Again I don't have any progress photos, sorry.

To attach the last elements was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle.  The halo has a long stem that fit into the top of the cone and had a curve in it to go around the head.  The arms balanced on top of the cone with a dab of hot glue.  Then the head was attached on top of everything with a bit more hot glue.  Unfortunately some of the hot glue was showing around the neck area.  So the solution was to take some of the glitz thread and twizzle it making a round cord.  Then the cord was added with just a dab of Modge Podge around the neck to hold a bow; then the ends were encouraged to cascade down the body.  

She is quite cute and I am looking forward to having her on my Christmas tree this year!