Loomy Thoughts

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Weaving again!

If I keep this up I might actually finish this log cabin project!  No picture again, as it looks the same as the last time and I still can't tell how much warp I have left.  Another 6 months or so though.... :-D


I have been spinning too - I think I finally got a decent picture of the Woodland Violets cashmere/merino:



I also played with the Polonaise:


I guess that bobbin is just about full (finally!). :-D 


And I've even been spinning on the Bulky Pinkie:


Isn't it interesting how different the two bobbins are?  I have one more bobbin to spin; this will be a 3-ply.  If it looks too weird after plying, I may try cable-plying to see what happens (usually cable-plying is 2-ply to 2-ply).  It would make for a short yarn, but it would also be somewhat bulky.


That's all I have for now.  I have a new doo-dad coming for the Production, so I'd better get to finishing the current bobbin. :-)

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Thursday, February 11, 2010

In which we actually speak of WEAVING...

And there is some spinning too, of course!

Here we have a really bad photo of the Brooks Bouquet 'placemat' that came off the Flip last week, after finishing the fringe.  It's wrinkled from washing, and I need to wash it again as there is a line of dirt that didn't come out the first time so I haven't ironed it yet.  And the color is all wrong in this photo - it's a light gold/champagne color.


You can see the drawback of letting a project sit for months untouched - very uneven selvedges (and incorrect notes - my notes say I did hemstitching on the cloth beam side - turns out I didn't :-/).  Though it should look better once ironed.

And - I've even been weaving a bit on the rigid heddle group's weave-along that I started LAST JUNE.  Still not done, but I'm closer!




Here is an interesting spinning experiment.  Remember the Pixie Farts batt I spun?  I split half of that batt with a spinning buddy, and here are the results:


Interestingly, her skein is more green than mine - it's a bit more obvious in person than in the photo (and she didn't add the pink).  I used the Penguin quill spinner though I mostly spun short-draw (you can do that on a treadled quill wheel :-) ), and she used a Babe Fiber Starter.  We'll have to do another experiment one of these days. :-D

And, the merino-cashmere batt I mentioned last week:


And how it's spinning up:

 

(Sorry about the lousy picture - it was nighttime and the light is funny in that room - and that wheel is heavy so I don't like to move it if I don't have to.)  It is 'variegating' into blue-er and more-purple-y lengths, and shorter sections of lighter lavender-ish colors (plus barber pole effects).  And even when it's super-thin (which I'm trying to avoid) it's still silky.  It's difficult to draft though - it's kind of stuck together a bit so I'm splitting the roving lengthwise into strips, so along with it wanting to spin thin it's a bit of a poky spin.

I've been meaning to spin on the Navajo spindle for several days now - hopefully tonight is the night.  And I want do a little weaving - I really want to get back to the rug, but I'm making myself finish the log cabin project first.  We'll see what happens!

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Monday, February 01, 2010

Yay!

I finally finished weaving the Brooks Bouquet project on the Flip!  I didn't get a photo yet, as it looks kind of scraggly since it's been on the loom for... 8 months or so and I still need to tie and trim the fringe and wash it, but it felt good to weave again - it's been a long time.  Now I'm eyeing the Harp project (last year's weave-along for the Yahoo rigid heddle group) - it shouldn't take too long to finish, especially since I really want to get back to work on the rug on the Hearthside loom. :-D


Spinning

I've started a new project on the Penguin.  It's a merino-cashmere (YUM!) blend from Corgi Hill Farm on Etsy (I cannot resist her stuff!) in blue-purpley shades - beautiful!  It's spinning pretty fine, and I'm struggling to spin a tiny bit thicker so I can at least see it. :-)  It's still soft even when thread-thin - I love this stuff!

Will post photos later - probably in a new post since I might not get photos for a couple of days. 

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