Aran knitting and dino spines

I got the gist of the Baltic weave so now am going to put the inkle away until the rug is finished. I've decided that trying to run more than one loom at a time is too much for me now-a-days.

And as for rug status... I am almost done with the threading. Just a couple more bundles to thread and I'll be ready to wind the warp on. I can usually go faster with the warping process but I've been figuring stuff out on the Harrisville model that I didn't have on the Kessy. Like the nifty little heddles and bars that are pretty easy to change and other little things. I'll have to get some paper for the wind on as I'm used to a sectional beam. I'm guessing brown wrapping paper will do fine.

And looky who I found! It's Miss Ivy. Her baby girl has gone off to the Twitter Art Exhibit in Orlando. I thought I'd lost Miss Ivy but found her while rearranging the studio. I'll start to paint her tomorrow.

The continuing saga of the chunky teal yarn... I've decided to do a small lap blanket. I cast on 120 and will do a combination of Trinity stitch and chunky double cable. I know you're supposed to put the cable in a field of purl stitches, but I want to try to put it in a field of the Trinity, think maybe it might look cooler somehow. I tried to draw what it might look like but I think my drawing looks like a dinosaur's spinal column. Oh well, you get the idea.

I have been checking out the YouTube for Aran knitting and sweaters. I came across this video and was really intrigued. I'd like to make a sweater for my husband since he doesn't have one, but will start with the small blanket first.

Looms Ahoy!

The new loom is home. Thank you Cindy of Delighted Hands ... I love the loom! And the tour of your super awesome home :)

And I was right... this loom is so much easier to work with than the big mama, Kessy. Very good loom for a poor little cripple like me... I feel like the China Girl of Oz ...

...except no where near as cute ;-(  ... just delicate and breakable.

Anywho, I realized that this loom also takes up practically no space at all, and further realized I have a big bare space on my studio floor which needs, you guessed it, a hand woven rug!

So I got out the design book and started planning. I'm partial to krokbragd so thought I'd go with that. I also thought I'd use up some of my stash wool, so am using black and hand dyed blue I already had with some red that I bought just for this project. Have already started measuring the warp. Can't wait to be weaving again.

Last post I had mentioned that I was planning to use this yarn for a rigid heddle piece. But something kept bothering me about it. I kept going back and looking at the design in my book, and just wasn't liking it. Something was wrong. Then while in St. Augustine week before last, I woke early in our warm hotel room and started thinking how much I liked that Paton's chunky Shetland (I know,... I have a serious fiber problem) and envisioned the yarn as a cable knit throw or pillows or something cable knit. So scratch the weaving plan... I'm knitting that stuff up!

In inkle land... not much happening due to being away and then getting the Harrisville set up, but I have started this Baltic band.

The New Year approacheth

The new year is here and of course I'm sitting here thinking of what I want to do differently this year. Everything! Well, not exactly everything but one thing I want to do differently is have a bit more control over how I spend my time and what I let into my life.

I've been re-evaluating social media. I found that FB and Twitter were eating up way too much of my time. Also, you may be friends with someone on either one, who is perfectly lovely, but they may be friends with total wacko's. This started me thinking... what am I exposing myself to? Who am I exposing myself to? And more importantly, why?

So now I do a quick scan of both, keeping it down to no more than 20 min. and that's it, once per day. I can't tell you how much time I've bought back for myself just doing this. And frankly, I have to say, I feel a lot calmer. I think social media feeds into the culture of fear and angst that we've created for ourselves, and too much time spent there is not good.

Another thing that feeds the fear is TV which seems to promote, and even revere, a very stupid and violent popular culture. So I'm watching less and getting more reading and knitting done as a result. ... and again, feeling calmer. There is too much noise and always from the wrong people.

All that being said and done, I have started work on the Handweaver's Guild of America's certificate of excellence, or the COE. I've pretty much put everything else aside for this. So far, I have gotten my binder in order and started collecting the articles and books I'll have to read. There is a whole lot of reading involved.

I started warping the inkle loom for a Finnish band, following directions from Mary Meigs Atwater's book, Byways in Handweaving. I began to feel like the pattern seemed like it was going to be way too wide for my Schacht loom and then I just wasn't "feeling it" at all. I've decided on a narrower Baltic style band, and so have taken on the tedious task of un-winding the warp. Luckily, you warp the same for Baltic pieces so this warp won't be wasted, just narrowed.  

Not quite the hot mess it looks like. It will be fine... keep repeating... fine, just fine. 

After I started this band, I saw an article on the Sami people's band weaving and would like to learn more about Scandinavian weaving (being as I'm of Laplander descent) and the article is from Handwoven, March/April 2013. 

Look at the reindeer's lovely handwoven bands. She is quite the classy lady. Coco Chanel would be proud of her accessorizing savvy. 

I got this nifty little beginner loom for Christmas and am hoping I can use it for card weaving. It's really a child's beginner rigid heddle loom, but I think it will work for cards. Beka makes this model.

The warp is measured out and I am going to see if this draft will work. It is a modified draft from one I found in Candace Crockett's card weaving book.