Weaving tools

This scarf is made from Mandala yarn in Parrot. The color changes are too long,am not real happy with the large patches of colors. The yarn itself is very soft,might work out better as a shawl.

These are some shuttles that I made in an adult wood shop class recently.  They are maple,for the 10" loom. Also made some 36" shuttles for the larger loom. Finished with Howard's feed and wax.

These are the "new" tools that the title refers to. Size 5 heddles  for both looms, a size 10 for the  SampleIt plus a stand. They come unfinished so all the pieces were covered with Howard's feed and wax.  Used painters tape to cover the plastic on the heddles,that is the green you see.

Ordered a pin loom to try out. Needed one more item to qualify for free shipping.

These are the first 2 squares made on the pin loom. The top square was made with 1 strand of yarn and the bottom square is made of 2 strands. The yarn is a heavier weight than worsted,and it was a little difficult  at the end weaving. Next time will try doubled worsted and sport weight to see which works better.  Hoping to make some coasters out of handspun yarn with this little loom. It seems to be quick &easy,and portable.

Here is the latest scarf, a fingering weight yarn, using the new size 10 heddle. Looking forward to trying out some of the pretty sock yarns on this loom.

This is the yarn, an acrylic,polyester blend with gold metallic thread that isn't showing up well on the camera.

Have also ordered a stand for the 32" loom,it should be here in a few days. Will post photos of that,plus the stand for the 10" loom when its put together. Time to get ready for work.

All about weaving lately

Bought a 10" Ashford SampleIt. It came unfinished and unassembled. Used Howard's Feed and Wax which gave a very nice finish to the wood.  It was easy to put together and is becoming my favorite loom. Very portable,for taking to weaving guild meetings,camping and demonstrating. Hoping to spend some time at our local farm market next summer to sell some hand wovens,and this would be a nice loom to demonstrate weaving on. Also will be taking it to a family reunion next summer,s o they can try it out.

First weaving project on the  new loom. Pink warp,it is Vannas choice yarn and am not sure of the color,the label is gone. The weft is an acrylic boucle,also without a label. Turned out very nice,soft and cuddly.

This is a kitchen towel project on the 15" Schacht  Flip loom. It is Peaches and Cream cotton for the warp,and the weft is crochet thread.  The texture will shrink up after a trip through the washer and dryer. The ends will be hemmed,not fringed.

This is the second project on the sampleit loom. My daughter requested a short scarf,and  the yarn is Premier Puzzle,the color is Tangram. It is so soft,have plans to make a ruana out of it for myself.

In progress on the loom.

Finished scarf.

This was started  last night,a stashbuster project. Warp is black Red Heart and the weft is some kind of chunky multicolored yarn. Made a rug out of the yarn,it was a fair entry,but again no label. The threading hook is there to see how thick the yarn is.

In progress this morning, it's going very quickly,have about 18 inches left to weave

Here is a project using the wavy shuttle. Took awhile to get the hang of it,as far as selvedges and how hard to beat for even spacing. Fun to do,though.

Finished scarf. Will do another one soon. The yarn was Red Heart Pooling in the color Papaya.

2019 fair entries and summer fun

Bought this yarn at Nanettes gifts and yarns,a beautiful shop. The pattern is the Hurricane hat on Ravelry. Gina is the name of the yarn,100 % wool. 

My daughter took this photo,I was very happy to finally get to see the inside of this shop. Every time we go by here they were closed for a vacation,or its after hours. I bought the yarn showed above,2 skeins and a handcarved shawl  pick to wear with a shawl I wove.  There are so many things I make that dont get used,so decided to wear it soon.  Want to try weaving a ruana soon. Tried some on in T.J. Maxx's when we were on our trip to Duluth and really was motivated to try making one. Would be nice to wear something unique once in awhile.

This is Lake of the Clouds from the Escarpment  trail in the Porcupine Mts. I took 2 basketry classes there at the Porkies folk school.

Another  view  of the trail farther along.

Sunset on my way to the porkies,I drove there by myself and set up the camper the night before the classes.

Here is one of the baskets I made.  This class showed how to shape a basket without measurements or a pattern. The other class was a mixed barks basket,made from cedar,willow and birch barks.

Here is the bark basket. It was such fun to learn about using natural materials. The rim filler,a twisted cord was made from cattail leaves!

This pattern is an older one,Two color mittens in Simply  soft yarn.

Rainbow shawl, from Restful Rainbow shawl in a ball from Lion Brand. I have shared photos of this one before.

This baby blanket didn't place very well. I entered 2 similar items and put this one in the any other not listed above category. 

Busy summer

 We bought a 1990 pop up camper and have been working on getting it ready and using it. We took it out one weekend in early June,but the bugs were so bad we left early.  I can set it up by myself, just need to learn how to back it up.

Have plans on taking it to the Porcupine Mts in Aug. They have a school there called the Porkies Folk School where they offer classes through the summer. Two members of my weaving guild are teaching basketry classes! Hope to stay there all weekend,as it's a two hour drive one way.  The classes are all day classes so I could do some hiking in the evenings.

Taken at the Black Creek nature sanctuary,the beach trail comes out on Lake Superior.

Crochet stitch markers I made for my oldest daughter.

This is a  necklace made for my granddaughter so she will leave her mother's stitch markers alone.

Camping in the pop up,you can see the corner of my loom sitting on the table. Still working on the brown scarf.

Travel knitting,this is the Mosaic blanket from the Purl Soho site. Hope to finish it for a fair entry.

Finished some spinning,this is roving from Camelot fibers.

Two color mittens. Yarn is Simply Soft,and its an older pattern that one of my patients an expert knitter shared with me.

A nice suprise with variagation

Here is the baby blanket in progress, it was almost finished in this photo.  At the beginning I was tempted to cut it off the loom and start something else, there were tension problems and the down shed didn't work very well.  Ended up with lots of floats, where I missed threads and the weft went across a couple threads instead of over,under. Would notice it a few rows later, then would have to unweave and fix the row.  It turned out well, was glad in the end that I didn't quit!  The variagated yarn made this plaid.  Was planning on using pale yellow for the weft, wasn't sure there was enough yarn to do the whole thing but after seeing what it was doing, decided to take a chance and go for it.  There is actually enough left over for a hat, or two.

Here it is finished with the fringes twisted.  Love how it turned out, and it is so soft!  Am planning on entering it in our weaving guilds best of show contest later this month.  We are supposed to enter something inspired by nature.  This is definitely inspired by summer.  It was between  this or my dark purple shawl, which makes me think of starry night skies and our northern lights.

Now what to make next on the big rigid heddle loom?   Have an handspun throw in mind, have a lot of partial balls that could be used.  Am not sure how to proceed yet, it would have to be made in two sections and sewn together, and have to figure out a pattern and colors to make that work.

Will have to look through my yarn and come up with something,it should be a fun one  after the last project was so problematic!  Part of the trouble was the heddle was tight for the yarn, wanted a closer sett weave, now am thinking of another baby blanket with the larger heddle for lightness. Maybe a pretty plaid or lots of stripes?  Can't have a loom sitting empty,right?

 

My two weaving helpers.  They keep me company while weaving out in my sun porch. 

Made a newborn sized earflap hat on the standard gauge knitting machine.  Want to make more,soon and try some fair isle designs.  The next one will increase the tension when rehanging the hem, that row is so small it doesn't want to lay flat.   Learn as we go...

Also finished weaving the scarf on the 15" Flip loom.  The yarn is Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball in Mystical Mirage.  Love how it turned out, but will make the next one at least 5 inches longer. 

Already warped for another scarf, this is Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball in Namaste Neutrals.  Wasn't crazy about the colors until it was on the loom, now am looking forward to weaving it up.  While warping this morning, a woodpecker was so loud outside I could hear it in the house with the furnace running! Probably will think of that bird everytime I sit down at the loom, now.

 The snow is almost gone, and we are seeing many species of birds in the yard and at the feeder.  Was happy to see a bright yellow goldfinch out there this morning, hope to see more soon.

The pink machine knit baby afghan with the heart edging is on hold for awhile, or time out!  One side of the heart edgings is much closer spaced than the other side. I spaced them much too close together.  Can't decide whether to unravel the whole thing and make something else or pull it out and redo it yet again.  In the meantime I will weave and make some teeny earflap hats.  Until next time....

Tuck stitch success

Here is the finished sample from the first design I tried in the last post on the electronic knitting machine.  The problem was drawing the design on the mylar sheet. I put the knit stitches on the mylar and should have put the tuck sts on there! Once redone it worked fine!  This stitch is in a baby blanket I want to make soon. The colors alternate every row and there is a machine knit edging sewn on after the blanket is done. Also looks cute on hats,just picturing some pretty baby hat colors with a ribbing.

Too many ideas and not enough hours in the day.

This is another tuck st pattern. This one is only 2 sts across and 2 sts high.  This is a dishcloth pattern from Ravelry,and the yarn is 8/2 cotton rug warp.

Here is the front of the finished dishcloth. Looks like ribbing,because the tuck stitch pattern is every other stitch,and alternates every row. The yarn I used was thinner than what the pattern called for,so had to change the tension from 8 to 5 and that worked out well.

Will be making more of these in different colors and patterns.  They are good practice pieces and a way to use your swatches

The day didn't go as planned

Decided today to try tuck stitch on the electronic knitting machine. Found the stitch pattern book,and the mylar sheets to make the design I wanted. Planned on doing a practice swatch to make the multicolored tuck st baby blanket out of Diana Sullivan's pattern book for baby afghans.

This is what the pattern looks like. The X are stitches and the blank areas are needles that dont knit and hold yarn,to make a pretty pattern.

Here is the graph paper that comes with the mylar sheets to draw out the pattern. I used pencil,then  put the mylar sheet over to draw the design on it with a special marker that came with it all. Comvenient,right?

Here the design is on the mylar,made a few mistakes,the marker went on heavier than planned. Was able to use an eraser to get some of the extra off.

Here is the results,need to figure out why this happened. So decided to take a break after several tries and work on the heart afghan on the mid gauge machine.  Needed to join the third panel.

Made a mistake and joined the bottom short end of the panel to the long side edge.  Am going to make dinner then spend some time organizing and cleaning my craft room. Need to take a  break from the 2 machines for a little while and maybe do some reading or YouTube watching to see what went wrong with the tuck stitch. Am not one to give up easily,so will keep at it,eventually.