weaving helper

weaving helper
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

I have been attempting to learn to weave on my Rigid Heddle loom. As I posted before Ms Violet has come to think that the loom and its cloth is her own special bed. I thought I would share a photo of her on "her bed" Grin yall can see why I have problems weaving around her. If I can get her to move I will post some photos of the Brooks Bouquet and the pick up patterns I have been working on.

Leno samples

leno samples
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

And some "huck lace" attempts. This was going to be a warm winter shawl woven on my Rigid Heddle but I got a bit sidetracked. Ms Violet loves sleeping on it so this piece will probably turn into a bed for her.

Grin it was certainly interesting when she plopped down on top of "HER" cloth when I had the loom in weaving position. UFF! A 12 pound cat dropping on you lap is bad enough but when she is dropping down and driving the edge of the loom into your belly that is a bit too much. I chased her off once I got some air back in my lungs much to her annoyance. After all it was HER bed I was messing with right?

 
SMILE this chair was one of the best things I found at our local fair. I was also lucky that my winnings covered about half the cost of it or Toli would never have agreed to it. It is the perfect height for my wheels and for his loom and looks nice enough we would not be ashamed to offer it to company. Also comfortable enough with that thick cushion and the back support. I only wish I could have afforded a second one in red for Toli so we would not have to share.

My pretty chair has a secret too. Turns out the seat lifts up from the back and reveals a nice storage area. Grin mine has puni, orf hooks, and a bit of this and that in it already.

Busy summer

June 24th I stepped in a small depression in a parking lot sigh. Such a small thing to do the damage it caused. A fractured ankle and wrist and 6 weeks of lost wages. The timing was of course horrid. I had 16 more rounds on the Wedding Shawl to go and could not knit with my wrist in a splint...

Since the wedding was 2 DAYS after my wrist would come out of the splint I asked my LYSO if she knew of anyone that might be willing to finish the shawl for me. :-) Penny volunteered herself and it got finished in time for Leesa to wear.

Here is the shawl blocking:


And the radiant bride and her new husband.


It was a lovely wedding and I was so happy she had her silk shawl finished to wear to it there. The best part was when her father had them stopped by him and in front of every one gave them and their union a blessing! (he and the pastor doing the service had planned it) This was a HUGE surprise to them as up until that moment he had done nothing but talk bad about Micheal, how they met and the horrible mistake her wedding was. They truly glowed when he had finished the blessing.

After the wedding came County Fair. Whew what a whirlwind. Because of the wedding shawl and then my injuries I only had a few entries mostly in Fiber Arts made with handspun from Juliespins on Etsy. I met her through a Ravelry destash and ended up buying a lot of her high quality handspun.

My pride and joy of the fair was a little outfit for my granddaughter Alex. Have I mentioned her before? She is about 12 weeks old now and is so adorable in her pinafore, hat and booties ;-)




The set is made from some luscious Cormo handspun by Julie into a soft lofty yarn. In fact the judge said she wanted a pair of slippers in her size from yarn that soft. Julie you done good. The judge LOVED that Cormo yarn.

Besides the baby set I managed to finish a yarn holder and a stuffed octopus also made from some of Julies yarns and a lovely crocheted hat which Angie fell in love with.

That hat was made with yarn from my friend Shelly of Rose Garden Fibers. I have been using yarn from Shelly for a few years now as somehow I never seem to have enough time to both spin and knit/crochet items from my own yarn. The yarn I used this year was actually bought a couple of years ago and those skeins have been made into socks, booties, and finally this year the lovely crocheted Divine Hat . While checking out this hat pattern look over her other patterns as she has some nice ones.

Of course the kids and many adults LOVED the octopus whom I call Yorick. His pattern came from hansigurumi who makes some of the neatest knitted animal patterns. I have more then the octopus already and just have to get her newest pattern. GRIN it is a Jackalope. I live in Wyoming (think wild west a few hours north of Denver,Colorado) so I have to make one, right?

QAL keeps growing

And yesterday Leesa finally got to see it for the first time in real life. She fell in LOVE. The color, the drape, the softness, the pattern, etc etc. Good thing since it is far too late to start another shawl and have it done in time for her wedding. The photo is what Leesa got to see and handle.


I will have to knuckle down and really concentrate on her shawl as her wedding is getting rather close and I still have 50 rounds to go. But that is 50 round for the large version :) I can always stop early just make the small version but I honestly think I can finish the large version which is the one that she and I both fell in love with.

Of course don't ask what I am doing today. Grin I am cheating. I set aside the shawl to work on a gauge swatch for a sweater I want to make. I have this lovely denim blue yarn and I found a pattern that it will suit so well. I bought it from Carodan Farm and it is called the Cabled Oregon Sweater It looks like just the thing for our winter that refuses to end. Today we are supposed to get up to 59F sigh my poor garden doesn't know if it should grow or curl up and sleep.

Queen Anne's Lace and other knitting

The shawl is slowly growing. I am now up to row 87. YIPPIE only 73 more to go groan... I am wondering if this shawl will get finished in time for the wedding in July. But I will keep working on it as time permits. The picture is how the shawl looked at row 77. SMILE that is TEN rows ago.

I did finally sit down and figure out that I have about 45 minutes of knitting time I can almost count on at work with another 1 or 2 hours at home if I am lucky and Ms Violet behaves and I don't come home exhausted and simply fall into bed.

I have also been sidetracked by other projects. Hats for the kids and me, socks for me and DH, other simple little but time consuming things.

The current hats are for Hunter and one for his little sister Isis who is my new grandbaby. Ya know you can't simply give one child a present both have to get one. Actually I stared Hunters hat first so I could learn the pattern. It is a variation of the Entrelac Hat by Lorraine Major I picked a blue camouflage yarn made by Bernat thinking it had nice long color runs. OOPS nope they are short ones and are making stripes! I think it is rather odd looking entrelac.

Back to the wedding shawl.

I am a bad blogger again (warning heavy on photos)

But I do have a bit of an excuse...

In March they started to paint the store I work at. I am allergic to paint fumes. Needless to say most of March passed in a drugged haze. Sometime in the middle of the month a large box was delivered to the store for me. To give an idea just how bad I felt I did not run out immediately and pick it up even knowing it was there and that it was my brand new spinning wheel! I waited until I had to go into work and picked it up then. The box was huge thank goodness I have a nice station wagon type car.

Of course I was not sick enough to hold off once I got the box home. I did have to stay up and put the wheel together with a bit of help from Ms Violet. She also had to inspect the finial product.



Grin isn't it lovely? Her name is Josephine and she is a Jensen Ashley with a 30 inch wheel made in black walnut. She spins like a dream! Now to save funds and get her a house mate in cherry grin I am still sorta yearning for a Tina II like I learned to spin on..

So that was March. April just as I was starting to feel better DH had a stroke, a mild one thankfully but still enough to mess life up for a while. And this was his second on in just over a year which has all of us a bit worried. While he was home waiting for the okay to return to work I took him to a yarn store where I was getting weaving lessons. HE TOOK OVER MY LESSONS!

He loves weaving! He is also good at it. This is that very first weaving project. I had made the warp but had not finished warping the loom. He did that, chose the weft, and did all the weaving. Nancy our instructor says he shows real talent. His birthday was May 11th and he got weaving items and was tickled pink.

However the real present did not come home until last week. Nancy found a used Baby Wolf loom I could make payments on. The look on his face when he found out he had his own loom was priceless. Grin I figured the loom was probably the cheapest physical therapy I could get. Needless to say I was thrilled when I was told that weaving was also one of the best therapies he could have to recover from his stroke!

I did manage to get some knitting done on the wedding shawl and a few other projects while DH was busy weaving. I have been learning Entrelac! I have a pair of socks started in it and as soon as I can find my dpns will have a baby hat started for OUR NEW GRANDDAUGHTER! She was born yesterday more information will be posted later including photos.