So Many Projects, Not Enough Time In The Day

I have been quite busy. No pictures yet. Since I'm working on so many things, school and work included that I haven't finished one of them yet :) I started working so, combined with school means a lot less fiber time for me. But, I can buy more supplies. So it's okay.

In the realm of knitting I started two projects, a headband with a bow, and a pair of socks. :) Both are looking great so far. I'm using some handspun for the headband.

I am almost finished weaving the hat for a family friend. I lost steam and energy at the halfway point and decided to work on it for a couple hours today. It's really progressed. :)

I've started two spinning projects. One is a large endeavor. I decided to spin enough Norwegian wool to make a sweater for my boyfriend. It's going to be pretty time consuming, but so far it's been a dream to spin up. The color is magnificent. I just hope I ordered enough fiber. He also surprised me with some silk fiber, remembering that I'd been wanting to try my hand at it, he ordered me some. <3 Very sweet. But, I didn't have a light enough drop spindle to spin it. So right up until 20 minutes ago, it's been sitting in my desk drawer, calling to me. It's amazing. It sticks to my super dry hands, but it spins so fine, I love it. I'll be quite busy spinning for a while. That's not even including the Lincoln top I still have over half the bag of. (I hate spinning it, it feels like doll hair).

So here is my new spindle, and my silk! <3 Glorious, and tiny.

But that's what I've been up to :)

Spin Me 'Round. Right 'Round.

During some random television free time, I started spinning some more yarn. I bought 8 oz. of Lincoln top roving. 2oz made 87 (ish) yards of yarn. I did find some Norwegian roving that looks absolutely amazing. $11.00 for 8 oz. Anyway :) I just wanted to share my handspun. It hasn't been dyed yet. I wanted to make another 2 oz and dye them together.

Back To The Loom

It truly feels like an eternity has passed since I was able to weave. I did spent two weeks removing rust and dirt from my loom. I know I should have done that when I first received it, but I was far too eager and short on time (I needed to make an Xmas gift) Better late than never. I had to replace screws, and in all reality, the reed needs replaced as well the near future. So that will also have to happen. But, until then, I can use the one I have. My next project is a baby hat, and then I should have more than enough warp on the loom for a lot of small projects or a single large project. :) It's going to be fun.

Dragging My Feet.

It's been a very slow month. My progress has almost been non-existent. But I have begun to acquire some handy tools. Well, just one so far. I got a little brass hook for threading and sleying. Along with that I got 12 mini-cones of yarn 600yds a piece. I am excited to get weaving. I have a list of potential pieces. Which is where the problem lies. I am trying to finish the little strap detail for my messenger bag, and it's like pulling teeth to work on it, let a lone finish it. I think it's because it's just a standard twill. While I am changing the direction with every color change it isn't holding my interest. But I'm still picking away at it. I'll there there, little by little. It will be finished.

Weaving In Inches Part Two: The Finishing.

I cut my weaving off the loom around 3am Tuesday morning. It looked pretty good. The underside looked particularly woolly with the yarn bits hanging out. I hung it on my headboard and went to sleep. The following day I put Futurama on via netflix. It took me two movies, and 4 Episodes of season 4 to weave all my ends in. But it looked great. I Folded both sides under and hemmed them. It felt stiff...but I had never blocked anything before, and was afraid it would start fulling. So I did some reading online to find out the best approach. Finding little information (mostly due to the fact that I was most likely not putting the correct phrase into the search engine) so I decided to do it the 'safe' way first, and if that didn't work, the scary risky way.

The safe way involved using the steam from my iron directly on the scarf, then putting a towel over it and pressing it with the iron. Repeating for both sides. The risky way would have been without the towel. But the safe way worked fine. I pressed until my arms were sore. Hung it up as it was still damp. Once it dried it was soft, and flowed nicely. I wrapped it up and shipped it out. I was shocked to find that it would make it there on the 24th. In time for Xmas! Hurray! So here are some pictures I took before blocking, and after.

Before Blocking:

After:

And there it is, about to be wrapped up.Hopefully he likes it.
Happy Xmas everyone. : D

Weaving In Inches

My table loom has been warped and woven on for the last few days. It took some mental adjustments to get used to. I learned on a Schacht Baby Wolf. A really great floor loom. I'll have one someday. But To go from that to a vintage table loom (which is of course much smaller) wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I'm there though. I have a fairly decent system worked out for using the hand levers.

The only downside is that with the end of the semester and the holidays, I haven't had as much time to weave as I needed. I'm working on an Xmas gift, that will not be able to arrive on time with shipping and all. But I'm still weaving an inch or two in between running around and studying. It'll get there. Just not on time. Even still, I'm hoping it will turn out and that the person it is intended for enjoys it. Of course, there will be a photo once it's finished. :)

End Of The Semester

Well, Monday is the official last day of weaving class for me. I will receive my projects (now graded) have my review/sit-down with the instructor and be on my way. I'm excited to take my pieces home and put them to use. Mainly as gifts. These two however, I am keeping for myself. They are Parts A and B of my final project. Initially they were meant to be one fabulous messenger bag, but I wove B too wide and now it is a scarf. My colors...are insanely bright. Which makes me appreciate the Black and White warp as they really help to break up the brightness. I would imagine someone who knows a great deal about color theory and color in general might have something to say about them. They do seem to scream at me. But enough babbling. Here they are:

Final Project A:

He has a face! I should name him Frank.

Project B:

This is my scarf, prior to the fringe...which took quite a few hours. So I will show an up close image of it.

Hours and hours of work...and probably Carpal Tunnel. It's much lovelier in person I assure you. :) I've already got my table loom partially set up with my next project.