Towels

The towels I wove a while ago are getting pretty dirty- we use them as our primar kitchen towels, so I wove up some new ones. I think I posted about warping them, but I finished them awhile ago. Since I have the new machine with the pretty decorative stitches, I decided to give them some borders (I mean, when else will I ever use those stitches?)


Aren't they pretty? One of them is already pretty dirty... apparently our kitchen is messy or something...

Here is a close up of the stitches. One nice think about my Bernina, the bobbin side stitches are just as pretty as the top side. My old (cheapo) machine was NOT like that.

Weaving!

I LOVE my loom. It's so easy to weave scarves- something I NEVER knit (because they take so long.) Both of these were knit in just one weekend, 2 weekends in a row.

The first is a wide scarf I intend to wear by folding in half. It's warp is Knitpicks Stroll and it's weft is Noro Kureyon sock. Even after washing it's a little bit itchy, but I LOVE the colors. And my selvages are getting a bit better.

So this one I did last weekend- it is with Tahki Cotton Classic. I meant it to be a stash buster, the pink has been in my stash since college- but well, I had to buy the purple. Then, I loved making it so much I went and bought 2 colors of green so I can make another one!


No weaving this weekend. I wanted to start one, but didn't have time today, and need to do some knitting. My Dad still needs a headcover for his 3 wood.

I finished a monster for nephew in FtW- but today got the cutest call from him. He wants headcovers for HIS 1 wood- just like Papa's. Which means, now I have to go buy purple yarn.

Scarf in a Day

And not even a long day! I think this took me about 6 hours. (I posted about warping on facebook 9 hours ago, and took a yoga break, lunch break and a dinner break.)

A 10-in wide 6.5 ft scarf. It's not that soft though, so I might make it a table runner.

I used 1 skein of Red Heart "Soft" (yeah- I bought it to practice weaving, it was actually soft to the fingers- very splitty, which is WEIRD for weaving. I wouldn't knit with it) and Universal Yarns "Moods". Moods was on MAJOR sale at WEBS (yarn.com) and the color change from black to color and back again was very cool. (So that's why the "Soft" is black- I thought it would go well.

I'm very happy with the actual weaving, my selvedges are pretty even, warping only took an hour- and I used just about ever inch of both skeins. The scarf is slightly longer than I had hoped (was shooting for 6 ft) I can never calculate the shrinking/loom waste well. Oh well.

If I do wear this as a scarf it's designed to be the fold in half and slip loop through itself variety. Otherwise it pretty much eats me alive, since I'm small and it's big.

I love my Ashford Rigid Heddle. Now I need to get a reed for thinner yarns.

A day of finishing...

Today was supposed to be a day of cleaning. That didn't happen. (Though yesterday it did, so I made some progress on the house this weekend. Instead, I finished up a few things.

First- the dishcloths I started not too long after Christmas. These are all folded in quarters, each has 2 stripes and is about 25" long, though they aren't all exact, and the yellow is shorter than the rest. The single yellow cloth is because I had yellow left on my shuttle from a practice project and wanted to empty it off. I actually had warp left to make it longer, but didn't want to reload the shuttle. These were taken before they were washed, so the fringe hasn't been cut yet- it's about 1/2" long now. I love them so much- so soft and really thin. I've never thought of knitted fabric as excessively thick, but this makes it seem so.

A close up of the yellow, before washing. During the wash it shrinks a bit and becomes tighter, though it didn't shrink as much as I expected. The stripe is done with the warp- which means that it is put onto the loom when I start, and not "woven" in using the weft.

Then, I finishd some stitch markers I started around Thanksgiving. I needed a second plier to do them. Sadly, I broke my favorite one by squishing a bead, it just exploded everywhere. Oops. Small problem- what do I do with all the stitch markers? Need some?

A friend recently asked if I finished the Daffodil design yet. Nope, I haven't, even though the babies are here, and out of the NICU!!! I'm so excited for my sister that they are home.

But there was a milestone- I finished off a spool of thread! Here's the new one that I started (I will not need all of it, thank goodness) and the empty one. I am on row 152 of row 168. This sounds almost done, but I have about 20% left... The rows are all getting smaller, but only by a little, they are all massive. I did 4 rows today, and it took me about 8 hours, including time to fold laundry and play on the internet a bit. My goal is half a row a night on worknights.

I also started 2 new pairs of socks- one for me out of gorgeous Dibadu yarn in Feuerwerk colorway (fireworks), and a pair out of Knitpicks Essential for my Dad. I've never made yarn for anyone else.

The last thing that happened this weekend- US Nationals part 1: Men's and Pairs. It was a thrilling weekend, I am so excited about the upcoming olympics, and even Four Continents (where some of my favorites are heading...)