Crocheted Shawl

Late yesterday afternoon while watching men's curling (congrats Canada!!!) I started a crocheted shawl using my garden party handspun. This is how it looks folded in half - I'm actually crocheting in a circle at the moment but folded it over for the picture since that's how it will eventually look. Once I reach 12" folded (at around 8" now) I start on the lacy shell bottom section of the shawl. I've crocheted this pattern once before out of my handspun using a beautiful variegated pastel colorway, it was a gift for my mother but I had never gotten around to making one for myself. This yarn will be perfect for wearing with denim. The nice thing about this shawl is that it actually hugs the shoulders so no readjusting to keep it there. If anyone is interested the pattern is in the Spring 2007 issue of Spin-Off Magazine with an article on it's history - it's called the Four Generation Shawl.

Spinning and curling............

Last night I finished up the final of the roving I pulled into colorways originally shown in the February 7th post. There are 430 yards of this blue colorway. Now I'll need to think about what project these 4 colorways should be used for, of course, I have a limited number of yards so will have to ponder on this.

Curling yesterday was very exciting - I was really hoping the Canadian women's team would win the gold but they ended up losing - they played great though. At this very moment the men's game for the bronze is on tv - Sweden vs Switzerland. Right now the cute young Swedes are ahead at the beginning of End 10 - I hope they can keep that lead although it would be very exciting to go into overtime........but I still want them to win in the end. I can't believe I have fallen in love with this sport! 3pm brings on the match for gold/silver medals - I'll have to dvr it since we have to go out mid-way through.

More curling............

As I watch the cute little Swedes losing the curling match (is it called a match?) in End 9 I feel for them but they are young and have gone so much further than expected - and the Canadian team is incredible so I would have been surprised had they not won. But the Swedish team still has a chance for the bronze on Saturday..........yes, I have it written down when the women are playing tomorrow for medals and when the men are playing Saturday. I just read comments from Theresa and Susan on my last post where I talked about curling - had me smiling. And yes, congrats to Canada for how well they're doing in the Olympics!

So, on the weaving front I did get that other warp woven, the white T-105 cotton covered polyester thread. Now I can think about projects I 'want' to weave - first off being a quick chenille scarf a customer mentioned wanting if I ever wove teal and salmon together, then fingertip towels for a multi-guild towel exchange.

The UPS truck was here a bit ago with 2 boxes totalling 89 pounds of Ashland Bay rovings - some new colors and a number of replacement colors for those I've sold out of. It's always fun to open those boxes but it also means lots of time spent weighing out fiber and packaging it in 8 ounce bags.

After I cut the warp off the loom I remembered I hadn't sewn on the leather handles I ordered from Homestead Heirlooms for the grazing sheep bag I knit and felted. Below is the finished bag. This pattern was out of the book 'I Heart Felt', I made a few changes to the pattern as I went. The handles were hard on the fingers to sew on but they are oh so nice and had great instructions on how to sew them on with the wooden buttons on the backside. Many thanks to my friend Kathy for telling me about the two gals who do this leatherwork. When I ordered the handles I also ordered some leather oak leaf pins complete with little wooden acorn embellishments.

Why can't I devour devore?

I am having the hardest time with this devore guild program - I love devore, commercial devore, but not so thrilled with this woven devore. I'm sure (I hope) once I'm finished and have burnt out designs in the handwoven scarves I'll look at them and think they're beautiful but for now I'm avoiding it all together...........I've even been cleaning out and organizing drawers, cabinets & closets instead of weaving! That's unbelieveable for those that know me well. My new incentive is that nothing else goes on a loom until the weaving is done for this program. I'll still have the burn out work to do and my program handout but that's ok, it will be fit in here and there before April 10.

But yesterday I did get back to that soy silk/bamboo warp on the loom - it's off, sample is waiting to be burnt out. I wound a warp and have it almost threaded through the reed and ready to start weaving on today. This warp is white T-105 commercial cotton covered polyester sewing thread. It's rather thick, similar to a 10/2 size. I took a picture but it was pretty boring looking so you're seeing one little corner on the entertainment center in the studio instead. Back to this T-105 - what is supposed to happen when I apply the Fiber-etch (burn out gel) is that the cotton will burn out leaving only the polyester and will result in see-through areas in the fabric. This is different from what I've been doing so far weaving with 2 different fibers (threads) - this is one thread that contains two different fibers. I understand it won't be drapey, like for a scarf, so I only put on 2 yards to sample. It will remain white since disperse dyes are needed to dye this fiber combo. I have boatloads of acid dyes and fiber reactive dyes.....I don't need to add disperse dyes to the cupboard for one sample of something I may not weave with again.

On another note - I know curling at the olympics is being made fun of, great humorous article in the sports section of our local paper this week not to mention nationwide comments. Up until this last week I've probably seen less than 60 seconds of curling in my life. I'm loving it! For those that know me, they know I'm not exactly a sports fanatic, far from it, but I'm loving this curling. Right now the women's semi-finals are on, this afternoon the men's semi-finals. Yesterday was an exciting play-off game between the young (cute) Swedish men's team and the Brits - the cute young Swedes won, they play the Canadians tonight who are top notch. Sam couldn't believe it when I told him all about the game in the evening. I'm not sure what it is about curling that I love - maybe it's something that I could see trying, maybe it's the accents of the commentators - kind of Canadian/Minnesotan, who knows but I know I'll miss it when it's gone. If we travel to Canada in the future (likely) I'll have to plan our trip around a curling tournament to attend, like our trip to Seattle planned around the Mariners/Orioles game.

More handspun...........

Here's more of the handspun of the coordinating colorways from a handpainted roving. In the original post of February 7th this was the roving in the lower left hand corner. It's more green than I would have liked but the yellow area in the roving was very small, maybe 3" so the tips of blue and teal overtook the yellow. It's still nice though. Working on the blue now, blue with tips of yellow and purple.

More spinning.........

Here is more of the spinning (404 yards) from the colonial roving in my post from February 7th. This was the roving in the upper left hand corner of the picture - mostly purple with bits of blue and teal. Between the Woolee Winder and watching the olympics I'm getting a bit more spinning done that usual. This evening will start the yellow color with bits of turquoise and blue on the tips.

Another devore warp.........

It's time to get back to the loom. I've been stagnant - am not overly enthused about the guild program I need to give in April on woven devore and since I won't let myself weave anything else until the program is finished I haven't been weaving. Today I decided I needed to get the second to the last warp for the program on the loom - it's soy silk (pink) and bamboo (mauve). At the end of this scarf warp I'll weave a little sample to try out the devore on before doing it on the actual scarf. The bamboo will burn out where I apply the burnout paste, the soy silk will not.

The final warp for this program will be using commercial sewing thread, T105, which is a cotton covered polyester......it's on it's way here from Textura Trading. The cotton will burn out leaving a much thinner thread of only polyester. I understand it's not very drapey so will probably sample first and not assume it will make a nice scarf. It only comes in white but can be dyed. From what I understand disperse dyes are used but I'm not sure why fiber reactive dyes couldn't be used, the cotton would dye, the polyester not.....might be interesting.

Woolee Winder, starting to love it.........

Here is the start of the roving I separated into color sections from the post of February 7th. This is the pile in the upper right hand corner, teal with tips of yellow and purple. I love the way the colors blended. I have 376 yards of this color - it's a bit thinner than fingering weight. Tonight while watching the Olympics I'll start on the mostly purple colorway.

And the Woolee Winder and I have become friends, it's really gotten broken in and is much more pleasant to use. I still need to give Nathan a call to discuss the touchiness of the brake but I'm starting to love it. And no more noise is a great thing - that would have been the deal breaker on whether to keep it or not. I'm spinning so much quicker without having to manually move the position of the yarn on the bobbin - I flew plying. As Martha would say "it's a good thing".

Woolee Winder Update

My Woolee Winder update - it's getting better. The noise is pretty much gone. I started spinning 'real' fiber, not test fiber and it's turning out great. I still haven't gotten it as smooth as I'd like - I've switched up the brake band many times but right now I'm sticking with the same cord I use on my Lendrum. I meant to call Nathan today to talk to him about this but never got around to it - hopefully I won't forget tomorrow.

Very important - I don't want to deter anyone who is thinking of buying one from doing so. I've talked/emailed many folks that have not had any problems at all and love their Woolee Winders. Thank goodness I spoke with one local friend who had the same noise problem when she first got hers - she told me it eventually went away after a bit of spinning. Also so glad I read comments on Ravelry, at least I knew I wasn't the only one.

So, I'm beginning to think I won't be returning it. I'll see how I feel after I spin and ply what I'm working on right now. This is the fiber from the recent post where I pulled it apart at the color changes. This is the primarily teal color with bits of purple and yellow - I like the way it's turning out.

On another note today I was working on a sewing project for the WOW factor for my April weaving guild program on woven devore. Since I'm not enthused about the woven devore I definitely need the WOW factor! I can't tell what it is since some guild members check in with my blog.

Woolee Winder

So the excitement of the arrival of the Woolee Winder quickly wore off Monday evening. As my husband said it sounded like a hunk of junk. With much oiling, tons of oiling, wipe up the drip oiling the clankety-clank and clickety-click have gone away - it's been replaced by a fairly quiet whorling. Sam thinks the teflon piece must have seated in after spinning on it for a while - it was not smooth at all running up and down the chase, would stick in places, now it's fairly smooth. So, that challenge conquered but still the challenge of it not spinning smoothly. A friend of mine brought her wheel with WW on it to guild yesterday for me to try out - oh, so smooth and spun like a dream - hmpf! Others I know had no problems with it. I then wrote to Susan who also has a Majacraft with WW to find out how hers was doing - well, of course, it was spinning beautifully so she suggested I check out the posts on the Majacraft group on Ravelry. Thank you Susan! I learned that the brake cord that comes standard on the Majacraft and works beautifully with the plastic bobbins does not like wood bobbins. One suggestion was 40lb fishing line. I didn't have any last night so I went to look at what was on the wood bobbins of my Lendrum, a different kind of cord which I snagged some of out of the repair kit and put it on the Majacraft. Better but not perfect. Today I bought 50lb fishing line - seemed to be better for a bit but then wasn't so back to the Lendrum line for now. I'm going to give Nathan a call at WW for more hints/tips. I was thinking of returning it but it's starting to break in now so it might just make a life here. I understand he has a great return policy if I'm not happy with it. Tonight I'm actually going to start spinning something other than junky test wool. This whole spinning thing is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful............well, unless you're spinning cotton!

Spinning and Woolee Winder

My new Woolee Winder awaits me at the post office tomorrow morning. I'm so excited. I should be able to fly spinning without having to move the yarn along the bobbin manually every once in a while. The big decision, which took weeks, was do I get it for the Majacraft Little Gem or for the Lendrum upright. I finally decided on the Majacraft - since that's even smaller and more portable than the Lendrum I end up spinning on it more often.

So, last night I decided to visit the roving stash (mine bought elsewhere, not all the hand-dyed and Ashland Bay I have for sale......although many of those were tempting, but I'll spin some up next project). I came up with 2 packages of this Colonial wool in the Purple Haze colorway from Great Balls of Fiber up in WA. I'd put a link but Sara doesn't have a website. She always has a booth at NWRSA and OFFF though.

I decided to try a technique Shelly of Butternut Woolens had examples of at OFFF this past fall. I pulled apart the roving at the color separations and will spin each separately. But since wispy bits of the adjoining colors came while pulling the roving apart there will be bits of those colors spun in with the main color. I should end up with 4 coordinating yarns when I'm done. Not sure what the end project will be - it's the spinning I'm excited about - will decide what it will be used for at a later time.
Would love to be spinning while watching the SuperBowl this afternoon but want to wait for the Woolee Winder so I'll probably knit instead. Family coming over today - potluck yummies. I'm making cheese fondue, chips/peach mango salsa/guacamole and chocolate fondue for dessert.

Silk and Tencel Devore Sample

Here's a devore sample on the silk/tencel warp. I am so glad I'm doing samples on each scarf warp before burning out the cellulose fiber on the real scarf. This is the first sample where the edges have been ragged after the burnout - that's the tencel fraying. So no burnout on the actual scarf off this warp. Of course before I did this sample I put another warp on using tencel - this time with wool. I just finished weaving it, maybe will get to the devore sample of that tomorrow - will see if it's a repeat of fraying edges to confirm that tencel is not a good fiber choice or was the above sample just a fluke.

Ashland Bay sample spinning

I finally finished up spinning samples of Ashland Bay Trading Co roving. Each time I place an order I spin up a little sample of any new color I've gotten. This way I can put a picture of how the roving looks spun up on my blog and have them here for those who come to buy in person can see and feel them. Now I'm ready to check out my roving stash and figure out what I want to spin next...........so many choices, not sure how I'll choose.

Knitting & Felting

These are the latest knit felted belt bags I've made. Two of them are special orders, one a birthday gift, the rest will hopefully be bought at some point. Above is a close up of the needlefelting I've done on the bags after they're felted. The grazing sheep bag was felted this morning - picture to come after it dries, not sure if I'll wait until I get the leather handles or not for the picture.

Wool Bamboo Devore

Here's the second devore sample - the purple is 2/24 merino wool, the black is Bambu 12. The design isn't really a design, just a shape I cut out to make the stencil, it's a sample afterall.

Grazing Sheep Bag

This is a knitting project I started 2 nights ago. It's the grazing sheep bag that's knit and then felted, pattern from the book 'I Heart Felt'. I've been thinking about making it for quite a while, have had the book and wool sitting in a basket waiting but there was never time - now I'm making time in the evenings. I have made a few changes like making the bag a bit wider and making one of the sheep black instead of white, if I had some gray Cascade 220 I'd throw a few gray ones in there too, but I don't. I was thrown off getting ready to start when I kept looking at the graph and at the photo in the book and they didn't match. I went online looking for a correction to the book, no luck, other companies are great about putting these online. So, then I went on Ravelry to search for other knitters who have made the bag and found 28, all with tips and comments on errors in the book.

On the weaving front today. I did do another devore sample on the wool/bamboo scarf sample, it's drying now. I warped up the loom for a silk/tencel scarf that I will also do devore on, will weave a sample on the end of the warp to test it before working on the scarf. Half the scarf is woven, not sure if there's time for weaving tomorrow as I'll be out much of the day.

Devore Sample

Here's the devore sample from the scarf warp from the previous post. I played with the color in my editing program so the burnout area would show well, there really isn't this much contrast, it's much more subtle but for photography purposes I needed the contrast. The sample turned out perfectly although I still question what happens to the rayon edges of the burn out area with use. One of my questions for Anne Fields from whom I took a seminar from at the ANWG conference last May. Her book was to be out this past fall but now not until April or May - I've got my copy pre-ordered on Amazon for as soon as it comes in.

The process is to burn out any cellulose fibers using Fiber Etch (Dharma Trading Co). There are recipes to make your own burnout solution, it's easier for me to buy it already made. Animal/protein fibers will not burn out. This sample is woven in merino wool and rayon.

Sett is determined by what is needed for a nice hand without being too sleazy after the burnout in the merino area (natural color). I was concerned about drape in the body of the scarf where the merino is joined by the rayon so I sett it just a tiny bit looser and it turned out just fine. So my total is 24 epi, in the burnout areas the wool is 12 epi.

Using plain weave is best, floats from other weave structures such as twill wouldn't work as well in the edge areas of the burnout. I wound the wool & rayon together on the warping board, then when it came to threading the heddles I put wool in harnesses 1 & 2, rayon in harnesses 3 & 4 - it was woven in plain weave, raising 1 & 3 together, then 2 & 4 together. The weft was the wool & rayon wound together on the bobbin (hint later) with ppi at 12.

After weaving I washed and let dry the sample to remove any spinning oils or dirt.

I made a quick stencil from freezer paper which works great because you can iron it onto fabric, shiney side down, and it will temporarily stick to the fabric.

I applied Fiber Etch with a stiff paint/craft brush working from the edges of the stencil in as to not let any seep under the stencil/freezer paper. It must be saturated very well. I turned the fabric over to touch up any areas on the backside that hadn't gotten saturated.

The fabric needs to dry completely, overnight is ok but best not to leave the Fiber Etch on any longer than necessary so I helped it along with a blow dryer.

Once dry, I laid the fabric down on a few pages of newspaper covered with a paper towel. Put a piece of aluminum foil on top of the fabric and iron, moving the iron constantly, using a setting appropriate for the fiber but NO steam. The burnout area will start to turn brown. When it starts to flake off if you rub it with your finger it's done. The Fiber Etch is nasty stuff - I worked in the garage with the door open wearing a mask and gloves, am thinking I need to find a respirator. All those little flakes & fumes are very nasty, you don't want to inhale them.

After all the burnout is done, wash the fabric out and let dry. The burnout areas are transparent.

I'm not sure what design will end up on the scarf, will think about that later. In the meantime I'm putting on another warp of wool with bamboo. I'm a little concerned about this wool, it's very thin and fragile, hopefully I won't have any problems with breakage in the weaving process. I'll try as many fiber combinations as I can for the guild program although I probably won't have nearly the amount of samples/finished pieces as usual just because I want to limit my exposure to the Fiber Etch.

Hint: when winding 2 or more yarns together on a bobbin sometimes one strand will be a bit looser than the other leading to problems on the edges while weaving. You can use a doubling stand, if you have one, or just use whatever you have, what I did. For an example: place one cone on the floor, put a chair with a slotted seat over it, put the other cone on the chair seat, pull the bottom yarn up through the center of the top cone and then wind them together on to the bobbin - the slight amount of twist keeps the two at the same length. I was hoping my kumihimo stand would work for this but the legs are too close together to get a cone on the bottom under the hole so I just used a little wooden box I have.

Phew........long post.................

Trying something new..........

I'm trying a new technique for me - devore, actually woven devore. I need to give a presentation to my weaving guild on it in April so I thought it best to get going. Yesterday I wove a scarf and sample piece using 2/18 merino mixed with a multi-color rayon flake in the warp and weft. I was concerned about drape since the sett is supposed to be for the wool areas where the burnout will occur - this means there are more total ends per inch than I would usually do since there is also the rayon flake. So, instead of a 12-15epi for this it has a 24 epi. I washed the sample piece last night and it's very drapey, good choice of fibers to mix together. Today I'll use a stencil and apply Fiber Etch in the design area which will burn out the rayon leaving only the wool. Definitely a good idea to try this out on the sample piece before the scarf. I'll post a picture of it after finished and dry. After I tackle this first try at it I'll start on other projects mixing other fibers together, I have several cones of yarn waiting to be wound into warps using silks, bamboos, soysilk, tencel and wool. The Fiber Etch burns out cellulose fibers not affecting protein/animal fibers.

And here's Bailey - he was thinking hard down in the studio yesterday helping me pick out other fibers to try with the devore technique. He has his doubts about this process..........

New things.......

Here's a picture of one of the items I was making before Christmas for gifts and for sale - Coffee Cozy's to keep from burning hands on hot take-out coffee cups. I'll have to try and get a better picture at some point - they're quilted using decorative stitches. These are stacks of different fabricways - I've made many more since then. They'll eventually be up for sale in my etsy shop after I get some time for picture taking.

I knit, felted and then needlefelted details on these santa ornaments. The pattern is in the book I (heart) Felt by Kathleen Taylor.

I have another fun gift item I gave for the holidays but need to open one of the leftovers up to take a picture - will come in the near future.

Been sewing.......

I've been sewing recently. This is the Standalone Bag that I finished up today. What a challenge - the directions were lacking so I ripped out stitches a number of times before I figured out what I was 'really' supposed to do. This is the large size, there's also a mini size. On this large size there is no closure planned but the mini pattern had it so I copied that pattern piece and put a magnetic snap closure on this with a button sewn on top for decoration. I'd love to make the mini but it will take a while before I have the patience to do another one. I bought the pattern only, already had this great gingko fabric in my stash. The gal who sells this pattern also sells kits with all the materials and finished bags (go for the finished bag if you're interested unless you like a challenge). She had a booth at OFFF this past September, also has an etsy shop.

Here's a side angle.

And here it is opened up - very cool that it stands like this. I'm thinking it will make a perfect knitting bag or drop spindle tote. The large pattern also had inside pockets. I made them, had them pinned in and then decided not to sew them on, I probably wouldn't end up using them.

Here's the other pattern I've been playing with sewing. The pattern was a bit too small so I blew it up on the copier in one direction. Now it's the perfect size for sock yarn and the socks in progress on the needles.......or anything else fun one wants to put it in.