Category Archives: Weaving

Mid-week progress

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Hmm… not a whole lot of the progress stuff. I watched a DVD the other night, so that was spinning time – and I think I’ve done about 25 or 30 grams of the fine merino, so next time I watch some TV I’ll start plying that. I did find the lace flyer in preparation for the plying, as the higher ratios will speed up the process.

The first blue lacy sock is almost done – about one more pattern repeat before I start on the toes. I might get it finished tomorrow night. I’ve done no more weaving since the weekend, but hopefully I’ll get the second rainbow scarf finished this weekend.

I’ll have to decide what I’m going to do for the Armidale Show. I’m not competitive at all, but I feel strongly that I should enter something so that there are at least some entries in the various spinning and weaving classes. The pavilion contests will just die if there are no entries, so I try to do my bit. But it’s a bit tricky when I haven’t actually made a whole lot in the past year! The second rainbow scarf will go in (that gives a deadline for it to be finished by!) and I’m thinking that I might dye some handspun yarn this weekend and knit either socks or mittens.

I’ll have a look at my fibre stash and see about spinning a skein or two for the spinning sections. Yes, I could enter the white merino I’m spinning now, but since one of my skeins won the fine spinning section two years ago, and the resulting scarf won last year, it might be regarded as overdoing things 😉 So perhaps I should challenge myself and do a fancy skein, or a medium-weight blended skein or something.

I think I’ll need to watch a few DVDs in the next couple of weeks, to have some spinning time 🙂  However, I have to fit all this in plus finding the pattern for the dolls we’re going to make and raffle, organise our group’s move to new premises, do a demonstration on Australia Day, and make some hand-spun and/or handwoven clothes for the dolls. Oh, yes, and go to the day-job, do some work on the PhD, and get some writing done.

Inkle bookmarks

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Inkle woven bookmark

I wove some bookmarks on my larger inkle loom a couple of months ago, but ran out of the silver beads to put on the ends, so only two out of the five are finished so far. However, just before Christmas I found some more of the beads at the markets, so now I can twist the fringes on the others. I sent one of the finished ones to a friend; I’ll probably use the others as small gifts here and there. I’ll probably weave some more at some stage, as it was a quick and easy thing to do, and I can have the loom at the computer and weave while I’m thinking of words to write!

Inkle woven bookmark detail

The pattern was a very sinple one – quick and mindless to weave! – and the yarns were fine wool yarns from my stash. I wove these ones in black and purple for a halloween theme, but if I weave another lot they’ll be in different colours.

Rainbow scarf

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I painted a warp for the first time a few months back as part of our groups Something New Challenge. The warp is a fine wool, sett at 36epi and threaded in a combination of straight and advancing twill, and I wound sufficient length for two scarves.

For the weft of the first scarf, I used some fine Toorallie wool yarns from my stash – I didn’t have exactly the right colours, though, so it was definitely an experiment and learning experience. Because the weft yarns were finer than the warp, I used two strands and could therefore mix colours to assist with the shading from one to the next. Although the greens in the middle of the scarf came out beautifully, with the shading progressing without lines, it’s not so smooth in other areas – partly due to my limited choice of colours to use, and partly to using two picks at a time of each colour when changing, instead of one alternating.

Warp painted rainbow scarf

However, I’m quite happy with the result of the first scarf, as it was quite an adventure for me, and I’m looking forward to weaving the second. In the stash sorting the other day, I came across a couple more shades of fine wool yarn, and I have dyed a small skein of yarn to a dark mauve, so I will have more colours to blend, as well as the knowledge of alternating single picks for a couple more pattern repeats for each colour change.

Warp painted rainbow scarf - detail