Saturday, November 24, 2012

Just in the "Nick" of time

I cut these off the loom, put them through the washer and dryer on hot, because I want people to know they can USE these tea towels and they won't look different, or shrink or whatever. Anyhow, I did all this a week ago. Then I warped one of my painted scarf warps (photos of those later on), wove one of the warps off and half of the next, and still the tea towels sat on the couch, unfinished.

When I'm on a time schedule, as I am now, it's really difficult to make myself sit down for several hours and hem tea towels. I absolutely believe they need to be hand-hemmed. I don't feel right about them if they're not. But it takes time. Probably half an hour per tea towel for the actually hand work.

As it happened, I spent this weekend with my sister, who is undergoing chemo, and took her to her treatments, cooked, talked, kept up with meds, etc. I am SO happy to be able to do this. AND, there was lots of time for handwork. So, I got the tea towels hemmed, got I-chord made for my felted bag, which will go in the washer Monday, and I'm knitting on a pair of Christmas slippers. Whoo-hoo! Good weekend for getting handwork done!

Here are the tea towels. The pattern is Waldenweave by Bertha Gray Hayes. Warp is 10/2 unmercerized natural.




There are a couple blues (one crossed with an 8/2 and one with a double strand of 20/2), a set of green (8/2 cross), a set of moroon-ish red (8/2 cross), a single blues-ish one crossed with one thread of variegated 20/2 and a coordinating solid 20/2, and a set crossed with a cotton/linen slub. The tabby on most was 20/2 in cream, but on the green ones, I used a light brown tabby, and the maroon ones have a very light yellows and natural variegated tabby.

I hemmed them, then ran them through another wash (cold) and damp dried them (just to get them thoroughly damp), then hard pressed with an iron, laying them flat to finish drying, and they're done. Done!

I also twisted fringe on the two scarves, wet finished and ironed them, and they're rolled up in the suitcase.

It was a good weekend. I would never have been able to make myself sit through that much handwork in a row at home.

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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Back at it

The first thing I did in the loom room upon my return was finish the tea towel warp. Those are now wet finished and on the couch, waiting for me to hand hem. They're really pretty and have a nice weight to them. I much prefer 10//2 cotton to 8/2 cotton for tea towels. Personal preference.

Today I put on the first of the painted scarf warps and wove one scarf.





Photo is a bit funky. This first scarf came out really pretty. I have another one on this warp, and hope to get that done tomorrow. I really like Ms & Os for painted warp. There's enough plain weave areas to give it good strength, enough grouped threads areas to make it drape, and the painted areas show well.

Here's a photo of the warp on the loom, taken from the back of the loom:





I'm still not completely rested from my trip. Each night I go to bed thinking THIS is the night I completely catch up!

I have several commitments in the next couple weeks, but am hoping to grab enough time to get several of these scarf warps woven. The warp is tencel, so the ends will have to be twisted or braided. That's when a narrow warp is a good thing! I'll use tencel for weft as much as I can. If I just can't live with my color options, I have lots of colors in 10/2 cotton.

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Too much room?

This is what happens when you bring stuff from the States to your daughter and you end up looking at a lot of space in your suitcase for the trip back. This striped sock yarn is SO CHEAP here. It's 5 E for a 100 g ball. Way too cheap to let that pass.

To date, I've bought 10 balls. Seven of them are for friends, but I've only been to 2 of the 14 (I think) Woolworth's in Berlin.




A couple days ago, at the first Woolworth's, I also found 90% wool 10% alpaca bulky on sale for 1 E per 100 g. I bought all they had (only 6 ;-( ) and made my daughter a pair of felted slippers.



This is a free pattern from Ravelry (Drops Slippers). They're a quick knit but I did have to sew a couple darts in the back part to decrease the foot opening. It works, but I'm making another pair and am going to try just running a basting stitch (using the yarn) around the back and drawing it up before felting. We'll see how that goes.

Anyhow, the front fits her foot perfectly and they really have a medieval court look about them.

It's been very gray here, which is about what I expect from November. They are a little further north than I am in Missouri, which means fewer daylight hours. That, with the gray skies, leads to lots of hot drinks and knitting. Good thing the yarn's so cheap.


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