Project planning mind dump

November 15, 2012 at 8:25 am (crafting, ideas, knitting, quilting, spinning, weaving)

I have too many ideas…

  • Dishcloths for weaving on floor loom — high priority as I would like to do some for Xmas gifts
  • Cowl for me — linen stitch?
  • Hat for Mom — or maybe a headband? Make sure it is super soft!!!
  • Hat for me! — I want ear flaps
  • grey handspun sweater — shaping my ideas
  • I would say brown handspun sweater, but it is till being spun
  • Charity knitting: preemie hats — need to check my numbers
  • Inkle bands with leftover sock yarn? — I need some time to focus on the new patterns in the book
  • Rigid heddle scarves
  • Pinwheel quilt — idea testing stage
  • Felted wool applique quilt — in process
  • Christmas stockings? Request from a family that I am willing to consider (for pay!), but it needs some idea shaping
  • Stole with combination of lace and cables; I can’t seem to get a creamy white out of my head, even though I’m really not a white clothing person.
  • Baby sweater or two, or maybe booties? Hats?
  • Finish off friend’s quilt (for pay!)

Okay, I think that is all that has been floating around in my head. When I look at it, I can prioritize.

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Crafts progress 2011 to 2012

July 20, 2012 at 4:45 pm (crafting, crossstitch, embroidery, knitting, personal goals, quilting, sewing, spinning, weaving)
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I’ve suddenly realized that I haven’t done any kind of real craft update on the blog for a while, other than as part of the roundup. I think it’s time to consider what I’ve done in the past year.

Also, I DID have some goals — I’ll have to go find them. I know I didn’t achieve some of them, so it’s time to re-evaluate for next year.

Knitting projects completed in 2011

  • Socks #22 (gift for Mom)
  • Baby kimono #3 (finished and gifted)
  • Wool Peddler’s shawl
  • baby kimono #2 (finished and gifted)
  • Socks #21 (wearing and in the dirty clothes)
  • Chemo hat for a girl at church (finished and gifted, although I’m not sure she likes it)
  • Socks #19 (wearing and in the dirty clothes)
  • Candleflames shawl
  • Bamboo skirt (I’m still weaving in the ends and have yet to line it, but all the knitting is done)
  • Now it’s to be felted (a piece of knitted fabric that I hope to use in a bag)
  • Always on hand baby sweater (finished and gifted)
  • Socks #18 (wearing and in the dirty clothes)
  • Baby blanket (2X) for charity (finished and gifted)

Huh, that’s thirteen knitting projects finished in 2011; I find that rather gratifying.

Items still in progress: Summerweight sweater, boiled wool jacket, Shelter sweater, Socks #20, Pine and Ivy shawl, and Socks #23. Already finished knitting Baby kimono #4 in stockinette version, just need to sew together and block.

Knitting goals? Finish sweaters in progress; knit sweater out of gray handspun; do more shawls, a cowl, a hat, and plenty of socks. Figure out one or two of Cat Bordhi’s new sock structures so that I can adapt them. Right now I’m just following a pattern, and I want a certain amount of mental independence from that for socks.

Weaving: did some inkle loom weaving and messed with the shawl on the loom, but actually did very little. I want to focus on this more.

Weaving goals? Do two projects on the big loom. I don’t care if they are new or old, just DO TWO. Maybe take a class?

Quilting: finished the denim quilt, but did little at home. Did work on the feathered star wall hanging, but I would like to FINISH it. Also worked on French braid quilt a bit.

Quilting goals? Do some machine quilting on finished sampler top. Also finish the feathered star. Finish French braid top. Get to the quilting of it if I can. Figure out a new hand project to do at work. (I’m thinking of wool felt applique, which will be a nice blend of quilting and embroidery.) Maybe take a class?

Spinning: worked on some stuff off and on, but nothing with much consistency. Did finish the bamboo/silk blend earlier in the year.

Spinning goals? Just keep working on something as steadily as possible. Right now it is the camel/sick blend. Eventual goal is to get to that lovely brown roving for a sweater.

Cross-stitch/Embroidery: Finished Dragon and castle cross-stitch of many years. Started Celtic cross blackwork embroidery.

Embroidery goals? Just work on the blackwork project. I have no specific goals with this, even though I may choose to play with Take a stitch Tuesday. But that will be PLAY, not commitment.

Sewing: messed around with some stuff, but didn’t really do any sewing.

Sewing goals? Finish two garments. Probably a skirt and a dress.

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felted fabric

April 8, 2010 at 8:15 am (crafting, ideas, knitting, weaving)
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I’ve had an idea.

I found that if I knitted the Harrisville yarn that I had used for weaving, then felted it, it made very nice felted fabric. And it could be washed to the point where it would not shrink any more. And I like felted fabric, but wasn’t feeling inspired by the thought of non-knitted felting (at least not now, maybe one day).

So what do I want to do with it? I want to make some cardigan with the felted fabric. This is basically the same thing as the boiled wool jackets that I have already, and I love them. I wear them a LOT in the winter. I have one in green and one in blue (indigo-dyed from a cream white, but it was getting so many stains, it needed to be dyed so I could keep using it without looking icky).

So I am going to knit a whole lot of stockinette and then throw it into the washer and dryer — multiple times — to create some lovely fabric that will then be cut up and sewn.

Here’s the experiment where I checked to see if it would work: Felted fabric from knitting It made a nice, dense fabric, not too thick, that will work nicely, I think. There are still decisions to make — edging? handsew? — but I’m looking forward to having a yellow one. I just hope I have enough yarn! It’s leftovers.

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Weaving project from the snow

March 25, 2010 at 5:56 pm (ideas, weaving)
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I also call it the guild leftovers project. The wool warp came from a guild sale about two years ago. The alpaca weft came from another guild sale about a year ago. I finally did something with them.

green warpThe warp was from four different shades of green, warped in a consistent order of darkest to lightest. It was a nice, thin laceweight. But because it was leftovers, I only had one small amount of each color, so I warped it long and thin. Had I thought through the amount consequences, I probably would have done something shorter and wider, but — oh, well. The alpaca weft was a lovely tweed green that blended nicely with the greens in the warp. (I like green.) Alpaca green weft

So, next comes the result, which is a long, narrow piece of cloth that I’m not quite sure what to do with. The original warp was about nine yards long. What’s produced is more like 8 yards long, but only six inches wide. Challenging to do anything with. I’m thinking a skirt, but I’m not quite sure there is enough material. I might be able to make some complementary fabric to go with it and use as inserts and/or a waistband. I still have plenty of the alpaca, and some of the original wool leftovers as well. I attempted last weekend to do a waistband on the inkle loom, but that was a signal failure, due to the extreme stickiness of the wool. I’m frustrated enough with that that I am inclined to cut it off and call it a learning experience. Though, I’m not exactly sure how to make wool on an inkle loom work. I’ll have to ask the ladies in the guild if they have any experience with laceweight wool on an inkle loom — does it work at all?

But anyway, I thought I’d show you the finished product. It was a lovely quiet project to work on during the snowbound week in February. I had already started it before that week, but most of the weaving was done during those quiet days at home, and I very much enjoyed it. I’m already setting up the next project and planning something else in my head.

Finished green warp

The long warp in all its glory.

Ignore the mess behind it, please.

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Summary of work

October 8, 2009 at 6:47 pm (crafting, crossstitch, knitting, quilting, sewing, spinning, weaving)

Summary of work that was finished back in October 2009. Why I hadn’t yet published this????

Have I finished anything? Well, actually yes!

  1. Weaving dishtowels — I finished two and got the warp off. My beginning status definitely showed clearly.
  2. Spinning silk — Finished! Looks good.

    Silk spinning finally done.

    Silk spinning finally done.

  3. Domovoi shawl — Done with that too!!!

    Domovoi shawl done and blocked

    Domovoi shawl done and blocked

  4. Socks — Having regained stitch covers, I have worked on several socks since then.
  5. Lochinvar sweater — still hibernating until I pick up the arms
  6. Top-down sweater — done!
  7. Scarf — Frogged and still contemplating. this one is turning out to be a problem. But I think I may have finally have the solution: double knitting. Now to find instructions.
  8. Baby kimono — Done!
  9. Dragon crossstitch — All stitching done, lots of backstitch done, but still need to work on the dragon backstitch.
  10. Quilting of denim quilt, done by hand, moving along slow but steady
  11. Sampler quilt for machine quilting — I need to baste it
  12. Crazy quilt — still piecing
  13. French braid quilt for bedroom — still piecing
  14. Bag for DNiece1 — holding
  15. Nightshirt for learning about sewing with knits — did one successfully, now I need to do some unsewing on the second one
  16. Muslin for dress in style I really like — still undone
  17. Baby hat, using up leftovers — did two
  18. Weaving done after February class.

Okay, that’s enough for now. I need to take a look around and see what I’ve done since then.

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Work continues

August 4, 2008 at 8:02 am (crafting, personal goals, weaving)

I haven’t been very talkative this summer so I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve been doing.

Crafts-wise, I am continuing to do little knitting projects (baby sweater, another pair of socks), spin a little alpaca, plug away at my handquilting and cross-stitch projects, and warp the loom for the next project (I finished the sampler). I just finished that last night, and boy! was that an adventure. Frustration!

Why? Well, of course, being the ambitious person I am, I decided that for me, the next good sampler was simply some dishcloths, trying out different twill patterns, using finer cottolin thread. In and of itself, that wasn’t really difficult (although I did have an annoying moment winding the warp, when I realized I had wound precisely half the warp and had to go back and wind again). Sleying the reed took comparatively little time, since I had decided on a fairly plain pattern of wide 5″ white with 1″ blue stripes, but threading the heddles — whew! — that took a while.

Then yesterday, I finished that little bit of threading that was left and finally started to beam the warp. I was trying the front to back method, since I had done the back to front method before. Conclusion: either I made some nasty mistakes or the front to back method and I do NOT get along. I am quite sure I lost some warp length in the process of getting it to hold taut. Next time, I wonder if it would work better if I had a second pair of hands to help? I’ll certainly ask about that at the next guild meeting.

In the meantime, I am keeping busy with the renovation of my front bathroom. Drywall is up and the next project will be tiling the shower. Today I must mud the joints for the second time and also try to get the silicone around the edges of the inset shelving for the shower wall so that it is ready for tiling on Saturday. Plus, today, I should be receiving the prefab shed which is going up in my backyard soon. Which reminds me, I think I need to call my HOA to nag about trimming the trees next door.

It’s home improvement year.

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Weaving project begins

July 25, 2008 at 12:24 pm (crafting, weaving)


Weaving project #2 (1)

Originally uploaded by bibliotecaria2

Starting the next weaving project, I’m warping the loom here. Lots of playing around with ideas before I settled on the basic idea of dishcloths that have a basic twill threading, so that I can play with tie-up and treadling for all kinds of different possibilities.

Of course, I made an interesting mistake of winding my warp, starting to thread the reed, and suddenly realizing I had only wound half of what I needed. I don’t know where my brain went that day, other than mentally asleep with exhaustion. (It had been a long day of home improvement work.)

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What have I been doing? (Weaving)

March 19, 2008 at 9:57 am (crafting, weaving)

Well, now I’ve added in a new fiber hobby.

In January, I finally succumbed to the silent pressure of my own curiosity, and bought a loom. After joining a spinning and weaving guild, I began to realize fairly quickly that being around all these weavers was a “bad” thing. It made me want to do it as well. Most earnestly. I resisted for over a year, but late last year began to think seriously about it. Always before it had just been dreaming and browsing. Then I realized it was pretty much a done deal inside my head when I set myself a maximum allowable price. It is a used Macomber loom, 8-shaft. I need to find out more about it, since I think there is something that needs a little bit of repair and/or improvement, although it fully functions as is.

I picked up the used loom through the guild, which was nice. It allowed me to stretch out the payment so that it sat well in my budget.

I started out learning what to do using the Deborah Chandler book Learning to weave, which is really good in giving those extremely detailed, step-by-step instructions that really tell you what to do. I’ve already done a the beginning sampler. Now to work my way through the rest of the book!

warping the loom

Here’s a picture in the process of warping the loom.

Here are some pictures of what I’ve created so far.first samples

The final picture is slightly blurry — I clearly need to try again on that one — but it is using some of my first handspun in the weft, attempting a 2/2 twill pattern for the first time.

handspun weft

The process of adding in this new hobby is slow, but I am already thinking of dish towels! And Christmas presents! And who knows what else? Eventually…

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