Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season!

Ta da!

First... Mmmmm... krumkake...

I haven't eaten them all - yet. If I'm not careful I may have to make another batch though. :-D I hope to make some lefse before heading to the olde homestead for the holiday, but I may run out of energy.


And now, what we've all been waiting for, to see if it would actually turn out or not:

(Click on the image for a magnified view.)

Woven on my grandmother's loom, with my grandmother's leftover quilt batting, as a gift for my mom. Pink is Mom's favorite color, but this was as close as I could get and I think it works pretty well. Grandma had quite a crafting talent - she could look at a dress and make up a pattern and sew it up perfectly; she quilted, tatted, knit, crocheted, and probably did other crafts that I don't remember or know about (I never saw this loom nor knew she did any kind of weaving until I started taking up small-loom weaving a few years ago). Unfortunately not much of that ability has passed down to me - I may have great ideas, but I'm not so good on the ability side of things.

I grew to like using that loom after all, though at first I thought it was awful to use compared to the Harp. It's just different, and takes a little adjusting to. I'll have to make notes on what worked and what didn't, for next time. (For one thing, I need to learn how to warp properly (sigh).)

This picture is before washing, and I'm going trim back the fringe by half. If the fringe knots weren't so tight I'd consider tucking the ends back into the knots, and have extra-thick fringe; but unfortunately (or fortunately, since it is now drying in the bathtub) that's impossible. The sides didn't turn out all that evenly, but I think that was somewhat because of the weft I was using - that was a real pain to work with sometimes. I'm going to try to do more detailed post about the project after Christmas. It was really a fun and relatively-quick project (it would go a lot faster if I was using roving instead of old quilt batting), and I certainly can foresee doing another one. I've got some nice Icelandic roving that needs using up.... :-D

Quick update

I got sidetracked last night and didn't get my update done, so here's a quick update with better info (and pictures!) to follow tonight (hopefully).

The Hearthside project is off the loom, the fringe is tied, and now I need to wash it (first testing the cotton warp for colorfastness) and trim the fringe. I brought it into work yesterday and everyone thought it was pretty, so it must not look as rustic as I thought. We'll see what the recipient thinks!

Ahhhhh...

DH gave me my Christmas present early last night - a shiatsu massager that you set in your chair. Just what I needed after a long day on the loom! What a guy! :-D

The other good news is the Hearthside project is almost done. The hem is finished, I did the hemstitching last night, and now I need to tidy up the woven batt a bit. Hopefully that won't take too long; then I can cut it off the loom and tie the fringe. Trim the fringe (after I decide how long to make it), a careful washing in the bathtub, and I'll be FINISHED. YAY!

Also in the plan-of-the-day, is making krumkake and wrapping Christmas presents. I see DH is already getting the stuff out to make pizzelles, so I'd better get to work on the loom! Though I might have to sit on the shiatsu massager first....


Oh - and I finally found instructions on how to put buttons on the blog. If you look to your right, you will see the button for Wendy's "Knit From Your Stash 2007" campaign. I'm looking forward to this; I will need to take pictures of my stash (it won't all fit in one picture!). Maybe I'll even get some UFOs finished (I can hope, anyway). My projects will probably mostly be weaving, as I seem to do that faster than knitting/crocheting. Let's see... cotton on the floor loom; acrylic on the Harp...

Hearthside project update...

I made my goal of 4 more inches last night, which makes it 32"; and I'll soon be out of warp. I'll have to make a note to allow for extra loom waste on this loom. If I'm really really lucky (and diligent), I might actually be able to take this off the loom today. I'm planning on the fringing the ends, so that ought to go relatively quickly.


I was reading Wendy's blog this morning,

http://wendyknits.net/

and she and L-B are doing a "Knit From Your Stash 2007". What an excellent idea! I have waaay too much stash, a lot of it cheap acrylic; and really need to downsize it (I probably need to do another purge of yarn I'm not going to use - I donate it to one of the nursing homes and they really appreciate it!). Perhaps weaving will make a dent - I have a ton of worsted cotton I could use as weft for towels perhaps, maybe on the floor loom. Another ton of Lion Brand's Homespun that I had originally purchased to make a 'color palette' afghan (but they kept adding colors, and I couldn't keep up, and the dog's toenails catch on the stuff). Hmm... wonder what I could weave with the Homespun as weft - it's mainly single skeins of different colors, and what would I use for warp? I may do a granny square (ugh!) afghan out of the neutral colors. Some things to think about during today's weaving.


I'm off to brew a cup of my favorite tea, and then to the loom. :-D

As promised...

This is how far I was before Tuesday night's weaving. I'm now up to about 28", so there may be light at the end of the tunnel (at least, I can see the warp dowel on the back beam already - wow was I surprised!). I think this angle isn't the best to show what it looks like; hopefully the next picture will be better. I'll have details next week or so, as time permits. It's actually a fun project, but it would be more fun if I had more time!

Not much to report...

I'm still working on the Hearthside project. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to do 3 - 4 inches last night, and wow did my upper back/neck hurt (if I could tilt the loom towards me more I could avoid that particular pain; but unfortunately I can't do that with this loom). I might have to sit at the loom for shorter stretches, but I can be prepping fiber for the project while I'm not weaving. I was advancing the warp last night and I still find that a bit tricky with this loom - it's big and kind of clunky, so it takes longer than it would on the Harp. I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with the look of the project, at least on the loom.

I did take pictures last night, but didn't have time to download them from the camera. I'll try to post a picture tonight or tomorrow. Only another week and a half of weaving time!

Thank goodness it's Monday!

I spent all weekend (mostly) working on the Hearthside project; wow is this time-consuming! I have about 18" done - I think I had 4" when I started. As I figure out the best way to do this it goes a bit faster, but I am waaaay behind schedule and may not get this finished when I need to (I forsee some late nights). I sure am paying for my crafty-laziness now! (As it turns out, I don't need the knitting project done as soon as I thought I did so that's on the backburner.)

I will post pics & details of this project (such as why it goes so slowly - there really is a good reason) either right before or right after Christmas. DH thinks it looks good - I still think it looks rather 'rustic', but DH is saying it looks kind of 'arty'. Hmm.... Maybe I'll make another one - someday. LOL After working with this loom more, though, I'm liking it better. At first I thought it was really hard to use, but I'm getting used to it now. Now if I could just learn how to wind a warp on without it getting messed up. :-(


My weaving friend is lending me a reed for the floor loom, and DH picked out the wood yesterday (he's going with walnut instead of cherry) to fix the broken beater bar arm. It has to warm up first before he shapes it, but he might have it ready tomorrow. The Hearthside project takes precedence though, so I probably won't get to the floor loom stuff until Christmas week.

Updates as I know them! :-D

I've been lazy...

I haven't been crafting this week again, which unfortunately tends to be my response to a crafting deadline. Which is why I rarely make things for people that are for a specific event. My excuses - Christmas shopping, both on-line and in person (have I mentioned I HATE shopping??); my dad's birthday was this week and wow was he talkative when I called him! LOL And I've been looking at some stuff for the floor loom. Luckily my weaving friend is going to lend me a spare reed for now, so I can 'forget' about shopping for floor loom stuff for now. :-D

I will have to really turn-to on the crafting front this weekend though, as I had hoped to have this all done by now (I certainly had enough time - I started the knitting project in January or February!). So I guess I'll just be working on 3 projects this weekend - the Hearthside project, the knitting project, and for variety, the small loom scarf (which isn't due for Christmas, but it will give me a break and DH probably wishes it were done as it is COOOOOLD here right now!).

Wish me luck!

A-weaving we will goooo

Updated with pictures!

It looks like I may have found the problem - yay!




I spent the weekend doing weaver-ly things. :-D First up, the Harp project.

I did the hemstitching, following the instructions in Holland's "Weaving Primer" (an excellent resource for non-multi-harness weavers, IMO). I pulled the stitches tight, though none of my books say that you are supposed to, but I liked the nice edge I ended up with. I still don't see how that edge will not ravel, but since I'm also fringing the warp and sewing around the pockets I guess I won't find out on this particular project. I did learn that it is a very good idea to decide to hemstitch before the end of the project. :-) It is much easier to do while the project is under tension. I was able to make it work, by cutting the warp off the warp beam, removing the heddle, and then unrolling the cloth from the cloth beam back onto the warp beam until I got to the cloth edge. It worked well enough, but would've been better had I stitched at the beginning.

I decided to do a braided fringe, as the wrap looked like it needed something 'more'. Very simple, but a bit time consuming (especially with a 60 lb. spaniel on your lap!). I'm not quite finished with that yet, and then I need to sew the pockets on.


I worked on the Hearthside's project a little - wow do my hem edges look BAD but I'm so far behind schedule on this I'm not gonig to take the time to re-do it. It's looking a bit rustic, but I think it will be ok. I'm going to hemstitch this as well.


No progress on the floor loom other than taking the broken beater bar off. I still need to buy a reed for it anyway, so it will be awhile before I do anything on this loom

Snow Day!!!

It didn't start snowing til 0300, and look at the accumulation! Quite unusual for here. Work actually closed down today due to the weather - a first in the 10 years I've been there. There hasn't been a snowplow by our place since before 0430, and we live on a main highway; there hasn't been any traffic at ALL on the road. The sun is starting to break through, but since we had up to an inch of ice on the road before the snow, I don't think anyone is going anywhere anytime soon. Sounds like DH just started up the tractor though - he's probably going to plow the drive again. Ain't country living grand? :-D

I believe I will take advantage of this 'spare time' windfall, and do weaving stuff today. I need to get going on the Hearthside loom project that I've been avoiding because I don't know what I'm doing; and I want to look over that floor loom some more, after some really nice people on the big Weaving group asked some interesting questions and offered excellent advice. I also need to hemstitch the wrap that is still on the Harp. Since I didn't do any crafty stuff all week, I need to make up for it. I think I'll brew another cup of tea, and start with the floor loom while DH is still here to help me unfold it. :-)
The snowdog - waiting for me to come out and play even though the door is snowed shut! LOL He can barely get out the doggy door - and only because he's been in and out almost constantly. :-D