posted by Charleen at 11:50 PM
What a day -- I spent the morning at school trying to get ready for next week. My daughter Laura came by and asked me to help her get a new futon..should only take an hour and a half she said. Oh yeah, she was also hungry, so we had to go by way of Taco Bell. Went to Ikea, and suddenly remembered that the Philadelphia area has the highest concentration of colleges in the nation. Two hours later we were loading our purchases into the car. Then we had to put all of the stuff she had around her bed in the bathroom, (because she lives in a 12 x 15 efficiency apt.) dismantle her day bed, assemble the sofa bed (she didn't like the futon), take all the boxes and trash (including the box spring and mattress) to the trash dumpster, which we somehow ended up locking the lid shut, and then I got to come home. Seven and a half hours later. Yikes, no weaving, no school work, BUT I did make two pretty nifty adjustable book racks.
If you click on the thumbnail you can see a better picture ( oh and the bottle of tequila behind it, well let's just say that's making up for my busy day!) The middle block that might look a little tippy (no, I wasn't drinking when I made them) slides back and forth to hold the books. I was getting tired of book ends that slipped and allowed books to crash in the middle of class. So I tried these. They turned out really cool, and I got to use a drill stop for the first time. That allowed me to drill only partially into the two end pieces. The middle piece, of course, is drilled all the way through with a slightly bigger drill bit. I bought a router last year, but I've never tried it yet. I think I'll take these two to school tomorrow, as is, but make another set for my home office and try rounding the top with a saber saw, and then going over it with the router to make a decorative edge. I'll stain and seal them too for a more finished product.
Unfortunately I didn't get any time to begin weaving the false damask towels, but I'm hoping to finish up my classroom tomorrow morning (didn't I say this last week??) and then begin weaving. Maybe my new beads will come in tomorrow and I can start on my distaff too. Although I'm looking forward to the three day weekend, it also marks the end of my playing around time.
posted by Charleen at 10:10 PM
In this end of the summer scramble, I have so many different things started that I'm going to have to buy more needles just to finish them. Can you believe I don't have another size 3 16" or size 8 24". I mean - I probably have 4 or 5 for in all the major sizes, and they are all in WIPS. And yet --- I worry that picking up new needles will also mean finding another thing to start.
Vogue Knitting emailed the Map of the World Afghan and cushion pattern today. It's a 2MB pdf file with color charts. Pretty cool. You can just copy the charts and enlarge them right on the computer. I still don't think I'd make the type of projection they use - the points and tassles don't do anything for me. I would do it in panels though - especially since I probably won't even think about doing it until next summer.
I worked out the tie-up on the false damask so that I can walk the treadles. I don't know why I thought it would be so difficult. I love the whole process that has to be done before you can even start to weave. I've been spending the last couple of days trying to work it all out. I'm going to spend the morning at school, then I can sit down and start weaving!
posted by Charleen at 9:20 PM
My oldest daughter began law school at Villanova this week and I go back to school next week, so we've been running around like crazy trying to finish things up. Unfortunately, we're too much alike - so instead finishing things, we've been starting even more projects!
I brought home a little loom 
that
the we had in the art department at school. I've been playing with the idea
to do this hands-on Industrial Revolution unit. The art teachers don't use it,
so I can keep it while I experiment. It's a counterbalance loom, but it's missing
a couple little doo-dads, like these. Of course,
it's dusty and filthy too, so I guess the first thing to do is clean it up good.
The reed seems to be 13 dent, which seems odd.
Maybe its metric. What I'm thinking, is to have them make CD spindles, maybe
spin up a yard or two, and then have them try their hand at weaving, with this
loom, or one of the other small frame type looms I have. I'll bring in my wheel
too, so they can try that. (If I get really brave I'll get somebody to tape
me throwing a few picks on my loom.) Then we can figure out how much thread
would have to be spun to make a square yard of different types fabrics and they
will get an appreciation of how much time that took and why people didn't have
many changes of clothing. What I want them to see is how much time these machines
freed up, and how for the first time, some people will start to have leisure
time. Any ideas?
I really wanted to feel like I had the warping process under control while I still had a little free time. I read and reread Peggy Osterkamp's two books and tried to visualize how each step leads to the other. Then, I tried her a few of her techniques: using a kite stick to wrap the warp rather than chaining it, loading the raddle at a table, etc. I've beamed it, threaded the heddles, and will try to sley the reed tonight.
I cut my losses (literally) on the towel project and took it off. The warp was twisting more and more as I went on, leading into tension problems. The right fourth of the warp was loose and spongey, while the left fourth was extremely tight, and the middle was good. I have the Peggy Osterkamp's books and I'm going to try a shorter warp, and use the kite stick like she suggests.
I lost 3.5" in width which puts them a little too narrow for the exchange, which really isn't a problem, since I want to keep these first three. I made two green (8/2)with one treadling and one rust(8/2) with another. The warp was natural(6/2). I folded them over partially so that you could see the two patterns.
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There were a couple of problems (but I'm still pretty proud of them). One side of the rust towel is about 1.5" longer than the other. But I figure it's because the warp was so loose on that side by the time I got to the rust. Another problem was the hem. I've read that people use sewing thread for the plain weave part. That seemed so drastically thinner that I just used the same 8/2 cotton for the plain weave - but even before I hemmed it you could see how the plain weave portion was wider (by about .5"). I tried to make sure the was very little pressure on the foot so that it wouldn't increase the width any more. I guess the next time I'll try the sewing thread.
Now for the next warp. This time I'm doing broken twill. I'd love to put a four thread plain weave on each side, but can't figure out how to do that so, looks like I'll be trying floating selvedges.
I just realized I hadn't posted a picture of the finished Wallaby. 
(Thanks again, Cath) The sock photo competition started to get to me. I thought
I was alone in the house, so I ran downstairs, put the wallaby on a teddy bear
and began looking for a fairly clean place to photo (and that took me a LONG
time!). I ran into the family room laughing to myself and started to set it
up, then I heard someone clear his throat and almost jumped out of my skin.
My son was sitting at the computer working on his resume. My explanation was
pretty lame - he didn't really see the humor in the way Catherine
took the picture, or the socks on the spotlessly
clean grill - but who cares, the picture is cute!
I tried to take another weaving class all summer and couldn't find anything. Today I got a notice from the guild that there's a warp dyeing class being offered at two different times. YIPPEE - only problem - the first is the second Monday and Tuesday of September, IN THE MORNING and the other is Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday - the same weekend that I'm going to Claudia's stash spinning class. But the good news is there's a six week class on Thursday nights starting in October. It's described as "a round robin class, in which you will experience 6 different threading patterns and their appropriate treadling sequences plus at least 3 other possibilities based on each threading. Each session we will discuss how to design for a new structure." I already sent in my registration and I aked that she consider running the warp dyeing class again in the winter. You see, everyone at school just thinks I'm anal because I've been going into school all summer and have all my psych vocab sheets run off for 2002-2003 year, but what they don't know is I'm planning to have a life OUTSIDE of the classroom this year!
Now....back to the socks (and how to photograph them, 
hmmmm)
posted by Charleen at 11:26 PM
What's with that Tag-Board?? This is the second weekend it went all wonky. This time it lost the last few days of messages. I got tired of blogger losing everything right at the end of a long post, so I do it myself now. I wonder if there's a similar tag board system I can run myself. Have to look into that.
I spent an hour or two today fooling around with PC Stitch. I'm the advisor to the Asian American Club at our high school. One of my students did a great drawing that we've turned into our logo and had tee shirts printed up. I wanted to put the design on the back of a vest and I was not really successful with Photoshop and Excel for grafting (despite the able suggestions from Elaine!). This program is really cool. You can choose the canvas, so I put in 5 stitches/inch wide by 7 stitches/inch long. You can also choose how many colors you want in the palette. I had to make a few adjustments, you can add colors, find and replace, etc. My daughter does a lot of cross stitch and she's going to scan her boyfriend's nephew's picture in and do a cross stich of him. I'm having fun with this, although I don't know how enthusiastic I'll be in the middle of this intarsia project.
I started the second treadling on my Rose Path project. I like this one too, but it shows a lot of the warp color. I think it might look better with two colors, instead of the natural. My husband really likes the first one and wants a throw. Since I only have a 40" loom it would have to be doubleweave - Yikes! can't think about that now.
I found some nice blue superwash in one of my stash bins, so I started Claudia's Wee Bigger Aran. It's looking really good, but this yarn (Phildar, Pure Laine) has a lot of joins that I have to cut out. Four, and I haven't even finished the first skein yet. Hopefully the rest won't be as bad. I like the XO cable and the doubleseed stitch and finished the first sleeve already.
Tomorrow I've got to get back to playing with that mohair.
posted by Charleen at 3:00 PM
By Jove, I think I've got it 
I got the warp sleyed and tied on and began sampling. I didn't notice any mistakes
at first. Then after a few rows of patterning it began to look wierd. I realized
that I hadn't hooked the heddle bars back up and two harnesses got hooked together.
Fixed that, and then saw that I made a threading mistake. I thought I was going
to have to tie a string heddle, but Chandler said to snip the side of the top
and bottom heddle opening, take it off, and put it where it belongs. I couldn't
seem to get in there to snip it but I unthreaded 5 threads, took an extra heddle
and snipped that and popped it on the correct harness and rethreaded. Everything
is looking good (so far)
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I am a little worried about the amount that it is drawing in. It went from 21" in the reed, to 19". Oh well, if it shrinks too much for the dishtowel exchange they can be, what was that Claudia said? Oh yeah, "fraternal sextuplet" placemats!
Spent the morning at school again. Rearranging, filing, etc. I think I'm going to paint my filing cabinets tomorrow. I have six, yes a little packrat - but an organized one - and they are pretty beat up and all different colors. As much as I don't want to give up all my fiber time, I'm always excited at the start of a new year. Clean slate, fresh pencils... I even have my assignments and schedules posted for the kids. Check it out!
Now on to grafting the wallaby hood and back to the loom.
posted by Charleen at 7:20 AM
After a harrowing ordeal of untangling a seven yard warp, the heddles are threaded. I'm going into school for a couple of hours this morning, and then back to sleying and weaving!
I think this blog is allowing for some introspection that I never usually give myself time for. I delivered the hooded baby sweater to its recipient and the two grandmothers were ooing and ahhing. They asked me if my mother knit and talked about their family members who worked with fibers. It got me thinking about families and how lucky I am.
There is so much hurt and pain suffered as a result of the families that people are raised in. My family and childhood was so blissful that I don't think I realized the magnitude of problems that can occur until I had children and began observing and talking with other parents. The thought of not wanting to see your parents or siblings was just so foreign to me. As my husband was transfered and we moved around, I missed not being able to jump in the car after breakfast and be at my parents before lunch. And here I was talking with women who lived 10 minutes from their family and made it a point to NOT see them. How does this fit into a fiber blog? Except for one aunt, no one in my family did anything in the way of fiber playing. Yet, when this bug hit me at the age of 8 or 9, my family did everything they could to support me.
My first real fiber present (potholder kits not included) was a Barbie knitting kit. I got a pair of red plastic needles, yarn, and instructions to make a coat and pillbox hat (ala Jackie Kennedy). Can you imagine a first time project making a coat, in pieces, for a skinny (well, not everywhere) doll? I was supposed to make a tapered set-in sleeve for a first project. After many attempts I was discouraged, but my mother came home with the green Coats & Clark How to book, and I was rolling. I never made the coat, but I knitted things, ripped it apart and knitted more, just to knit. After the yarn was shredded beyond hope, I found out you could just go to the local 5 and 10 cent store and BUY MORE!!! That little green book was my only source for a long time. I made hats, mittens, and learned to crochet from it.
Aroung 10 or 11, I decided I wanted to sew. Dad went out a bought a Singer treadle machine. He sold and repaired Hoover vacuums, and his salesman told him to start me on a treadle (can you imagine a 25 year army veteran, turned vacuum repairman, discussing his daughter's fiber interests?). Then he had it converted into an electric, ( I know, but didn't know THEN) then upgraded to a new machine, complete with cams that could do "fancy" stitches.
When my youngest sister married in 1983, my two daughters were flower girls.
I made them dresses to match the bridesmaids and my father was so impressed
with my talent that when he saw the new computerized Viking on the Today show
a week or two after the wedding he called me. Now my father HATED the phone.
When I called from college he
would say, "How are you? Here's your mother". So a phone call from
PA to Michigan was unusual to say the least. He told me to find that machine
and buy it, he would pay for it. Maybe that doesn't sound so extraordinary to
you, but he died a week after I picked up that machine. I never finish anything
early (you know, hemming in the car and the way to the event), but that year
I had a new machine, and all the Halloween costumes (for 4 kids) were done a
week before they were needed. That machine is will be 19 years old this fall,
and I still feel so close to him when I set it up.
This reminiscing started with a comment on ST about different machines, but really got me on a roll. I was going through old pictures and found a picture of my father, with one of my first crochet projects. I was very impatient, and never bothered with gauge. I thought I was going to have a hat for my little sister and stayed up all night working on it. He got up around 5:30 and we decided it may be a little TOO big for her. Sort of like the sweater I knitted for my husband (to-be) which was too big for my 275 pound cousin! As I look back, I realize that some things stay the same, as others change. I am much more patient with the sampling, gauging, etc. in fact, that is sometimes as far as I get, because it's the most fun!! BUT, I'll still stay up to the wee hours if I'm really into a project. And I'm still the happy recipient of fiber support, only now it's usually in the form of gift certificates and magazine subscriptions.
posted by Charleen at 9:38 AM
I've been putting all my efforts into getting these dishtowels on the loom. The warp is wound, and since it's only my third effort, I thought I would catch my breath and think ahead. My first, the purple painted mohair, left me with taking off heddles after the first couple of inches because they were rubbing against the yarn. Second one, doubleweave, I realized I didn't take into account the strip on the fold would be twice as large.
So I counted heddles, added some to the first harness, and then thought I'd look at the Davison book to make sure everything was right. Where the hell did I get THIS pattern. I thought I was settled on Rose Path Project No. 1. The winweave draft I called canaan, but neither look anything like the book. Neither the threading or the tie up (even considering that I have to reverse Davison's tie ups for my Macomber). Actually it's pretty cool, considering that I had 28 warps in my repeat and Rose Path only has 8. But it makes you wonder where my head has been lately. So back to the drawing boards. The warp is fine, since it's all natural either way.
posted by Charleen at 4:36 PM
Thanks to Catherine,
I'm back to work on the second baby sweater! She so kindly typed out the part
of the instructions I was missing and emailed them to me. Thanks Cath. I'm actually
further up than this now, starting the opening placket.
I love making this one, and think it'll be my signature baby gift for a while.
I love the yarn I used for the other hooded sweater (Euro Yarns' Cuddly Classic
DK.) It is THE softest acrylic I have ever felt, but making a sweater in so
many little pieces and sewing it all together was a major PITA. I'll have to
see if they make a worsted weight. Also, I think making the Wallaby in the smallest
size (2) will get a lot more use.
posted by Charleen at
I finished something! Thank you,
thank you. The hooded baby sweater 
is drying and ready to give. Unfortunately, my Wonderful Wallaby is wallowing
because I can't find the booklet. (I sound like the wascally wabbit) I have
the sleeves and body ready to put together and it is no where to be found. I
knew I shouldn't have cleaned so much last weekend. I'll give it a couple more
days, then I may use Jackie Fee's Sweater Workshop and make my own placket and
hood. If you have the pattern and want to email or fax me the last half of a
size 2, I'd appreciate it (hint, hint)
I'm looking for a source for a wrist distaff? Theresa suggested I get one to help with my flying fiber and I need all the help I can get.
Weaving, don't ask. Maybe today that warp will get done, but first some school work. All those plans I had to work a little everyday on school work somehow got put aside. Gee, how did that happen. I looked into a canvas bag I brought home from school June 13th - there was a plastic container with some leftovers YUCH - probably should have at least unpacked the bags :-/
posted by Charleen at 8:15 PM
I'm really enjoying the posts about spindle spinning, but I hate to say I've never gotten the hang of it. I have a few, and every couple of months I'll take them out and give it another try. If I can keep the fiber from getting all tangled up in it, I just spin a little, it goes backwards, and then it drops!! If you're in the neighbor, stop by and give me a lesson. At least they're pretty to look at.....
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Never got the warp wound for the dishtowels. I woke up at after 3 hours and couldn't get back to sleep. Didn't think I was coherent enough to tackle that. But I was just lazy enough to sit around and knit. I'll give it another try tomorrow, after I go into school and size up the situation. I sent a lot of papers to Graphics to get printed over the summer. Hopefully, they're done. I'm going to have to ease into September.
posted by Charleen at 9:52 PM
It was a crazy weekend, lots of cleaning and company. My niece Stacy was visiting from Atlanta. She just had her second baby and she's really getting into her knitting. It was fun talking about her project list. When I was cleaning I found a couple duplicate knitting magazines and she was pleased to get them. She also took an extra Spin Off. She was checking out the spindles too - looks like she's getting the bug. I remembered that I bought one of those Barbie Knitting machines a while back, so we got it out and Siena, her four year old, had a great time cranking out a long tube. It was really fun to see how excited she was about making something herself. She also had a blast helping me with the ball winder.
I played around with the merino and mohair for the mohair exchange this evening. I tried out a 50/50 mix, but think I'll up the merino part a bit. Maybe I'll try for a worsted weight (yeah, like I have any control over what it's going to be!!), I should have enough for a hat and mittens after I finish with the samples.
I got a lot of knitting done while I burned CDs today. My husband wanted me to install Office XP on the family room computer, but my son has so much music on the hard drive that I couldn't do it. I burned 25 cds of Pearl Jam concerts ( mp3s and mpegs) and freed up 12 gig. He still has another 14 gig of music, but at least I bought us a little more space until I can install a bigger hard drive. I got the wallaby up to the arms. I'm going to put it all together tonight and hopefully get to the neck. I also got to the heel on one of my Regia jacquard socks. Didn't want to turn a heel, while I was switching discs and deleting files!!
Tomorrow I'll finalize my plans for the dish towel exchange. Here's a good link I heard about on one of my lists. Check out the towels!! There were some good ideas, but I'm pretty sure I'm still going with the Rose Path. I want to get the warp on by the weekend. School will be starting soon, and I want to get started before everything hits the fan.
posted by Charleen at 9:08 PM
I've been reading about weaving a lot lately - planning what I want to do for
the dishtowel exchange. The Rose Path Project No. 1, in Davison's book looks
interesting. There are about 10 different treadlings options I'd like to use.
I want to put an all natural warp on, enough for about a dozen towels, then
use different colors for the weft. Handwoven's Design Collections have some
neat towels, but I like the idea of warping once and then trying out all of
these different patterns. I'm going to make two of each, so that I can keep
one for reference. Should I use 8/2? I have lots of different colors in that
size.
I stopped by my LYS to pick up some variegated roving to blend with mohair from Coppermoose for the mohair exchange - haven't decided what proportion I'm going to use. The owner had the knitted peacock on the counter. Brought back memories. I knitted one for a friend years ago when it was the rage on the knit list. (I never said I wasn't a lemming!) Now I want one for myself. I have plenty of perl cotton - but I need to wait until after this weekend to begin.
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| mohair from Coppermoose | merino from Ashland Bay |
A new-to-me catalog came today - Knit Picks. It had the Map of the World Afghan kit. Did I miss that in Vogue Knitting? I made the sweater out of Peace Fleece about six years ago, but I never remember seeing the afghan in the magazine. It's really cool, with more countries represented. I'd love to get the pattern, but I don't think I'd do the curved edge and tassles. Maybe I can just put one of my map jpgs on my PC Stitch and make my own pattern. hm, that's a thought.....
I need to clean up my dining room for company on Sunday, but I'm having a hard time putting away the piles of Spin Off, etc. Every time I pick one up I find something else I forgot I wanted to do. My husband came in and didn't see any progress, finally I told him I'd clean the bathrooms, he should just put everything in a box and take it to the basement. It's the only way it's getting done, and I'll just bring up the box Monday and resume the mess!! Guess I'd better put my feet up, drink a glass of wine and read all the new magazines I got today. Tomorrow I clean and cook.
