Buttons for the finish!

17.05.19 Last week...The pattern is Textures—A Poncho Pattern by Melanie Smith from Spin-Off Magazine, Winter 2017.  I finished knitting the project last month, blocked it, changed the ribbing at the sides by re-knitting them with a smaller needle, and then folded it and put it away.  Yesterday I looked through my button stash and found a tube of wooden buttons I purchased when Depth of Field, a yarn shop, was closing.  Also in that issue of Spin-Off is  I wrote an article (pages 90-91) about a group weaving project out of Anoka Fiber Works.

The handspun project yarn has been in my stash for some time and there was a ball of roving ready to spin when I was reorganizing my fiber room.  It is nice to use up a large amount of handspun yarn in a project.  The roving colorway name Dark Side of the Moon, Coopworth wool/silk noil blend, from Hidden Valley Woollen Mill.

 

I like the look of the rustic sliced wood buttons.

Sweater weather is here!

It is that time of year again, which makes me happy.  The woollies are coming out of the cedar chest and placed within easy reach.  Since the last post I've been working on Plans B, C, and D for the twill fabric because the width is just shy of what I need for a skirt.

The two pieces of fabric came off the Cricket loom and can be used together for a top or separate for scarves.  The jury's still out on that.  Yesterday, the fabric for the sides of the cotton top came off the Cricket and I am very happy with the result.  The loom was warped with 158-inches of hemp, cotton, and cotton/linen and the weft  was a textured cotton throughout.  All the yarns were from my stash and originally intended for sweaters.  Combining the everything into one project is a great way to use up that yarn and the colors worked well together.  There are a couple of pretty cotton skeins that I will use as part of the weft for the center and back panels.  The Pontunic is from Weave Knit Wear, by Judith Shangold.

For the warp, the thinnest yarn is hemp, textured white and the blue are cotton, and the green is cotton/linen.  The weft is a textured brown cotton.  I love the color and texture of everything together.  Everything will soften up nicely with washing.  

There are two knitting projects in the works (amongst other WIPs and UFOs) for holiday knitting.  One is a sweater for Ben, a classic Mary Maxim cardigan with a moose on it.  Classic Alafoss Lopi is my yarn of choice and it will be nice and warm.  A friend and I took a drive to Depth of Field in Minneapolis to find the yarn, as it isn't easy to find in most of this area's yarn shops.  Woolly wool is considered scratchy or "old" these days.  Yes, I had a local yarn shop clerk use physical quotation marks while saying old when she referred to the yarn about which I'd inquired.  'Tis a shame some folks this that about some wools.  I love Icelandic wool for its warm loftiness.  The more I wash my garments made with it, the better they look and feel.  Washing makes the yarn bloom and spaces are filled in with fibers creating a woolly halo on the fabric's surface.  The warmth of the knitted fabric is warm without heaviness and often I wear a sweater instead of a jacket for that reason.

14.12.2016 Oh my, time certainly has flown by!  I had a commissioned project to knit and it set my other projects on hold for a bit.  I'm back to working on two gifts for Jim and Ben's sweater.

In the meantime...the article in Spin-Off, Winter 2017 issue came in the mail and we were very happy to see ourselves in the magazine on pages 90 and 91!

Weaving a top continues...off the loom!

The first half of the top came off the loom yesterday everything measured to my calculations.  The plan to make one side wider did not work, as the 15-inch width of the loom is too narrow.  No problem, I have a plan B for that!  The part of this I am working out is when the sides are sewn together and the neck has to be cut.  Before the pieces can be joined the fabric will need to be washed  and pressed.

27.05.16 As with any project, the road to finishing is sometimes bumpy.  Measure twice, cut once...wise words, indeed.  I warped for the second half of the top at home and did not recheck my measurements.  With only inches to finish, I ran out of warp.  To save the handspun weft I sacrificed the warp by cutting the piece off the loom and re-winding the handspun onto the shuttles.  I called the experience yarn carnage, although the Harrisville sport  warp suffered more than the handspun.

I now have the two halves, which are washed and pressed.  After sewing the halves together, the neck will need to be marked and cut.  While cutting fabric is not a huge undertaking, the placement, stay stitching, and cutting of the neck opening is cringe-worthy.  I will go through my patterns and also look at tops from my closet for dimensions.  To make a facing, or make binding tape. An old issue of Threads magazine, August/September 1991, has wonderful ideas for finishing techniques on simple shaped garments.

I am glad to have multiple shuttles.

Cutting the warp and re-winding the shuttles.

Thrums and waste yarn.

The fabric softened and bloomed beautifully.  I have to test sew scrap fabric to see if the fabric will smoothly feed through the sewing machine.  

The end of last week I sent in the yarn snippets, article, and photo to Spin-Off magazine.  I proposed a feature of our vest weaving projects.  The Wednesday Weaving group has grown and attracted many other weavers since the art crawl.  We are all working of different projects, now.  My post top project might be the tapestry woven bag from Spin-Off, winter 1997.