Drying In The Breeze, With Cat

More Garden Weaving

The weather has been spectacular here lately (you won't hear me say that very often in the hot humid South!) It's been so nice to bring a loom outside and weave in the pleasant breeze.

Such A Lovely Day

Babies!!

Seeds

Chiot's Run's 5x5 Garden Challenge

Today, I am...

Realizing... that it's been ages since I blogged! I have so much to catch up on, but for now I'll borrow a page from Margene's book and give a snapshot of what's going on around here.

Today, I am...

Reading . . . Under My Hat, an anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan (short stories about witches, excellent) and The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (a bit of a slog, I'm having a hard time staying interested)

Knitting . . . a pair of socks from handspun Southern Cross Fibre club "Buccaneer"

Spinning... superwash corriedale wool, "David's Gift", club fiber from Spunky Eclectic in 2010

Weaving... the end of a linen warp that was used for a Theo Moorman workshop - I'm going to weave off the rest of the warp and use it for napkins

Listening to. . . podcasts about science fiction books and Doctor Who

Thinking about . . . plans for upcoming weaving projects (a handspun wool scarf, a cotton warp for napkins, a silk warp for shawls)

Dreading . . . the inevitable approach of the summer heat and humidity

Planning . . . my meals for next week

Excited about . . . getting back on track with healthy routines

Drinking . . . water

Itching to . . . get back to the mountains (in June, for our anniversary, for sure!)

Needing to . . . get my hair trimmed

Organizing . . . the kitchen - we moved things around on the counters, and now there's more workspace, yay!

Huck Luck Adventure Workshop

Our Weaving Chicks Study Group had a workshop this past weekend on Huck Variations, 12 different patterns using the same threading and tieup, just changing the treadling.

My friend Bonnie organized and presented it. We did two sets of the 12 samples, one set to wash and one set to leave as-is for comparison. We used a thick 8/3 white cotton as both warp and weft, and some people used color for one repeat of each pattern to make the design more visible.

1” cardboard strips were used for separators between samples, and we either used Fray-Chek or hemstitched the ends of each sample. I hemstitched mine.

Here's Bonnie's already washed sample - the texture is so different from the cloth on the loom!

We learned a lot about huck and its different textures, and are already dreaming about different uses/projects for different designs. A great time was had by all!

Extreme Plying

In the Southern Cross Fibre group on Ravelry, we're doing an Extreme Plying SAL (spin-a-long). None of this mundane single or 2-ply or 3-ply or n-ply stuff for us... the more extreme the better. I thought I'd kick things off (and wet my feet) with a 9-ply yarn. Thus far, the highest I've plied is a 4-ply (for Mr. Debbie's sweater yarn).

To this end, I split a braid of SCF Red Rock finn into 9 equal pieces:

 Then I spun each piece onto a separate bobbin:

They're pretty equal - some of the bobbins look like they have more on them, but they don't - they weren't empty before I started spinning. I just spun on top of leftovers.

The plan is to thread each singles through a rigid heddle to keep them equally spread, then guide them onto the wheel as I ply. I have no idea what I'll do with the finished yarn, but I think it will be COOL. :)

3 Miles!

...of handspun, that is. I keep track of the yards I spin - that's plied yards... I can't possibly keep track of the singles yardage before plying, so I just keep track of finished yarn. I use a little widget called Knitmeter - it keeps track of your spinning, crochet, or knitting. You can see it in my sidebar, and get one for yourself if you like. I'm a bit amazed that I've hit 3 miles already in 2013! I think completing Mr. Debbie's sweater yarn helped with that...

Speaking of which, here's the finished 4-ply (4 separate plies, fingering weight) sweater yarn. All polwarth, 4 different colorways from Southern Cross Fibre, spun separately and plied together. It's 1800 yards, more than enough for a sweater and matching socks:

Here's a skein of Hello Yarn, rambouillet in one of her shop colorways, "Throwing Stones". 300 yards of n-ply sportweight:

Some luscious merino/silk, from Enchanted Knoll Farm's Hooves club, December 2012, "Rusty Cock". I'm calling it "Rooster"... 150 yards of n-ply sportweight:

And finally, more silk for weaving scarves. This is 2 ounces of tussah silk, from Enchanted Knoll Farm, in her "Gold Dust Woman" colorway. I spun it into 400 yards of n-ply laceweight:

Handwoven Rainbow Black Towels

I finished the towels! These may be my favorite so far. The rainbow colors against the black background remind me of stained glass. 10/2 cotton, hand-hemmed, 16"x24".

My only regret is not having wound a longer warp! I was low on the black 10/2 cotton, so I only wound an 8 towel warp. Thankfully, I've restocked, so I can weave some more!