Kumihimo

On Monday evening, the program for the weaving group at Anoka Fiber Works was learning how to make simple Kumihimo braids.  Sharing instructions, Mary and I paired up and used some leftover threads from Kathryn's weaving.  There is a very good website here.  Below is a photo of the braid I made at the meeting, a 10-cord flat braid with a vertical/horizontal pattern, 2 cord crossover.  The button was the anchor.  The black threads on the sides were the crisscross strands in the middle as you will see in the rest of the photos.

Naturally, when I got home I had to try it out with some wool yarn.  The weight from the small scissors was helpful.  I did not have to pull the braid through the hole. 

Looking a bit like jellyfish tentacles.  I used a small scissors to weight the braid  as it goes through the hole in the middle of the white loom.

The looms were made from foam-core board.

the braid in progress.  One at a time, the strands above and below trade places...

...when the strands are all in place, the horizontal strands trade places (crisscross) and the process begins again.  The yellow-green horizontal strands are along the sides of the flat braid.  

Another FO (finished object) in my ongoing efforts to wipe out the WIPs.  The Puffin Mantle, by Kate Davies is finally finished.  It was a delightful project to knit with an easy garter stitch in the round chevron pattern.  The yarn made the project extra-special because I purchased it at Jamieson & Smith in Lerwick.

On my way to the scout camp in Wisconsin, I stopped by Darn Knit Anyway in Stillwater, Minnesota. There is a new sculpture in front of the shop.  He is  adorable.  I will have to bring the Humpty Ds with me next time so I can get a photo of them together.

  

 

He is smiling and therefore must not be in any pain from his great fall.

We have been hiking with the crew twice a week to prepare for the backpacking trip to New Mexico later in the summer.  The wildflowers were so pretty on this particular Sunday.

WOW

Wiping out works in progress...I am making great strides on the Puffin Mantle and should finish over the weekend.

The Beaded Beret stopped because I ran out of the beads.  I have new beads and will take out the row and possibly mix the beads.  Must think about this one a bit.

The cotton sweater is coming along.  I am at the mind-numbing stockinette stitch body.  The Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim DK is lovely yarn in pale denim.

The orange project is an entrelac bowl (it was a short phase some years ago) like the one (that needs to be fulled) beside the snowman, one of three that have been in a basket for longer than I can remember.  I have a lace sweater that needs to be frogged and the yarn re-purposed, as well as the vest that needs armbands.    Single patterns are now organized and filed and books are easier to find, as I rearranged them.  Patterns for classes are pulled and ready to use.  Samples are all finished, documentations are turned in, and I can focus on other projects.  Projects include paintings, weaving, spinning, and wet and needle felting.  Making progress is good!

Progress on the woven top

Yesterday I sewed the halves of the top together with the sewing machine.  When I tried that with my vest pieces, it did not work and I had to hand stitch.  I tested the opening size on a paper pattern and it worked out well.  I will not be turning under a seam allowance, but the plan is to make some binding tape out of fabric, possibly linen.  I have not sewn the side seams yet because I may be adding fabric to the bottom and tried it on.  It looks better than I expected.  There is more of the same fabric on the loom, so there are some possibilities for longer sleeves or a border added to the bottom.  The border is the first choice.

The plate I used to outline the neck opening.

Two-thirds of the opening is in the front and one-third is in the back with the shoulder seam at the fold between.  A running stitch is worked around the pattern piece, with the sewing machine stay stitching is outside the running stitch and zigzag is inside the running stitch.

After cutting, the running stitches were removed.  

Fiber, knitting, and a little Shepherd's Harvest

May has been a busy month.  A few weeks ago was Shepherd's Harvest Festival.  This year it was cold and a bit rainy, but that just gave me an excuse to bundle up and wear woollies.  On Friday, Linda taught the felted sheep rug class.  I was prepared to stomp around in a baby pool, but the weather was far too cold for that.  We worked by hand instead.  It took time and muscle, but the results were delightfully sheepy.  I was particularly happy the locks I placed around the sheep and at the forehead felted maintaining their curl.

Linda had the prefect heads finished.  We made our eyes and lightly needle felted them on the faces.  To the left is my wool spread out in the ring ready to felt.

I see you!

On Saturday morning I demonstrated top whorl drop spindle spinning.  It is always fun to meet new people and see familiar faces.  There were lots of folks wanting to learn how to spin.  After spinning, I walked around to check out the vendors.  I stopped at the Anoka Fiber Works area and Kathryn told me about some very nice Shetland laceweight yarn from Sandy's Palette.  I bought two light and two dark skeins.  I am going to use one or both colors for a hap from The Book of Haps by Kate Davies.  

My favorite thing to do at Shepherd's Harvest is to visit the sheep barn.  It was early enough to see some of the sheep before shearing.  I picked up my Jacob fleece from Marcia.  She contacted me before the festival for ChiChi's fleece.  This year Marcia brought along a few sheep from her flock.  ChiChi was not there.  She likes to hide under the llama, making her difficult to catch.  The fleece was slightly smaller than last year's at just over two pounds.  

Pictured below are a few of the sheep that were in the barn...baaa, we're ready for our closeup.

The Jacob sheep were freshly sheared. 

When I got home I readied the fleece for scouring by separating the dark and light sections.  Like having a new box of crayons, I always dumped the box of 64 and arranged them chromatically.  ChiChi's fleece is a lovely grayscale.    

I have about equal amounts of black and grays with most of it being white.  Marcia does a good job of skirting, so very little veggie matter or dirty bits.  

Below are the goodies I bought at Shepherd's Harvest.  I just took more time to enjoy looking and visiting than purchasing.  

Oh my, look at the lovely Shetland laceweight!
This was my monochromatic Shepherd's Harvest year.

Linda had sheep pin kits in her booth inside the barn.  She was doing a demo when I was there.  I wanted gray, so she switched out the white.  That will be a much quicker project than the rug!

The night before the demo, I took the time to card a batt with Finn roving as the base and added a bit of gray wool, hemp, sari silk, and white alpaca with color bits.  Naturally, I forgot to add it to the bag.  After winding off the yarn from Stella, I spun a couple of pretty skeins of tweedy goodness.  

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.