Category Archives: Weaving

Bad Boy

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Well, you know I couldn’t stay good for long. The completion of two socks meant the commencement of two others. The first is in Dragonfly Fiber‘s Djinni Sock.

The colorway is Reluctant Dragon that I purchased at the Homespun Yarn Party. The stitch pattern is one that I have done before, the slip stitch rib from SKS. I started out the sock using a rib and moss pattern from one of the Knitting Treasuries, but it was just not working out as I had hoped. There was surprising little elasticity to the stitch pattern. Elasticity is not a problem with the slip stitch rib. In fact, I have had to change over to using the magic loop rather than my beloved 12″ circulars because the draw in of the pattern makes the 12″ kind of a pain.

You may notice that Reluctant Dragon is kind of dark, so for lighter knitting, I started another Naiad sock.

This colorway is Oriole – Dubious, which I also got that the Homespun Yarn Party. I am not quite sure what Dubious means, perhaps a test run of a colorway or something, but I really like how this is kintting up, and love the base yarn.

Oh, and I have started spinning up the fiber I got from Neighborhood Fiber at HYP.

It spins up pretty easily, with me being half way through the braid now. Being part silk though, it does stick to my sweaty hands. A little baby powder helps with that problem, though.

And finally, there is this to explain:

But I will do that a little later. Right now, someone is looking to be petted.

Copyright 2010 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

Caught Up

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It feels like forever since I posted anything fibery, so here is a nice big post to catch up on what has been going on with the textiles.

After finishing the STR heel experiment, I started on these socks.

The sock yarn is Eidos from Sanguine Gryphon in the colorway Poesis. The colors don’t show up well in my photography. (I either need a new camera, am a lousy photographer, or all of the above.) It is a rather dark sock, making it kind of difficult to work on at night. Note to self, stick with lighter colorways. I do like the resulting sock, though.

The pattern for the sock club is coming along well, now that I have taken a break from it for a few weeks. I made a number of edits and am knitting the revised edition now. I am pretty amazed at how fast the second one is going. After only a few days, I am already turning the heel.

The spinning has not stopped either.

This is the Sea Kelp Salad from the Fiber Feast by Hungry for Handspun. I am wishing I spun this with not so much twist and not so thin, because it is taking quiet a while to work through the roving. (This is all my fault, not the rovings.) I figure I will do a chained ply with this single.

And I have gotten back to the loom.

This is Sea Silk from Handmaiden. The warp is the Pewter colorway (I believe,) and the weft is of unknown name, but is browns and purples. My original idea for this scarf was to do a 3/1 twill rib, that you can see a bit of at the bottom; but that weave needs a tighter sett than 12 epi for this yarn, and making this a tighter sett would make the scarf narrower that I would like. That means that the scarf is now plain weave. So far, so good.

But that is not the only weaving going on.

These are squares that I wove using the Weave-It loom. It is a fun little thing that makes weaving portable. The Weave-It is actually my mother’s; but I borrowed several years ago, and it never made it way back to her. She hasn’t missed it, so far.

I am not sure what I am going to make from these squares. I may be a blanket of size to be determined. It is a nice diversion, at the very least.

Copyright 2009 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

Hide and Seek

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This is kind of embarrassing to admit, given how I tease others for having to go through their stashes so that they don’t go out and buy something that they already have hidden away somewhere; but when I went searching through containers to find the worsted weight that I told you about in the last post, I found yarn that I forgot that I had! Fortunately, it is such great stuff that I have gotten over my embarrassment rather quickly.

As a means of setting the scene, the Interlacements yarn was purchased from Judy Ditmore during MAFA’s 2005 conference. That was the same time that I purchased the yarn for Mr. Penney’s sofa shawl. Well, one of the other vendors at that conference was Habu!

Yes, that’s right. It was chance to see Habu’s yarn’s first hand, rather than just on the website. And to see and touch these yarns meant that I had to purchase some.

This is 20/3 bamboo. It feels wonderful, and I have 13.7 ounces of it. SQUEEE!

This is 2/48 merino wool. I have about 7 ounces of this. There is no suggested epi for this yarn on the site, so I am going to have to do a wrap to find out what sett I will do.

And finally, there is this little wonder, 21/3×2 silk organize. According to the label, there are 4600 yards per skein for this silk, and I have 4 skeins of it. Working with this will probably make my head hurt, but it will be worth it.

Now, if you notice, all of this is undyed. Toward that end, this arrived in the mail the other day:

Granted, I have done dyeing before; but having additional references is never a bad thing for me. Dye days will be in my future!

Copyright 2009 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

Paralyzer

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About a month or so ago, I took a gander at our dishtowels, and thought that we could use some new ones around here. The towels are starting to show some wear after being used and going through the laundry about every week or so for about ten years. Besides, since moving into this house about three years ago, I really haven’t woven anything for it. Continue reading →

Rain or Shine

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Well, another Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival has come and gone, and I have managed to keep my streak of being there when it wasn’t raining. I have been going to the festival for over 20 years now, and I have yet to be there when it is raining. Given how much rain we got this weekend, the record was really in danger, but I persevered!

I actually was at the festival Friday night, helping to set up the skein and garment competition. There weren’t as many entries as last year. I didn’t enter anything because I have been busy with other things and didn’t have a chance to make anything that I would think of entering. Maybe others were in the same predicament.

Mr. Penney and I arrived after lunch on Saturday. While there we got to see a number of people from the knitting group. Strangely, most of them were without any bags in their hands. We were assured that this was because they had already made a trip to the car to unload. One, however, had the right idea; and had her sons come along and carry her bags as their Mother’s Day gift to her.

I, of course, did make contributions to my stash. First place of purchase was Cloverhill:

At the top is Corriedale from Grafton Fiber, while at the bottom is Dragon Sock from Dragonfly Fiber and Luxury Sock (a merino/nylon/cashmere blend) from Neighborhood Fiber Co. The blue Corriedale is already on the wheel.

After that, the next stop my wallet made was at Spirit Trail:

The first two braids are an alpaca/merino/tussah silk blend, and the last braid is superwash BFL.

Finally, after going by the both several times waiting for the line to go away, it became apparent that there was always going to be a line at The Fold, so I might as well just bite the bullet and go stand in it.

While Socks That Rock might be what everyone else was going for, I was interested in their exotic fibers for spinning. When I saw that they had two different, natural shades of baby camel, I was glad I took the time in line. Since I was in line anyway, picked up some skeins of STR lightweight in Jabberwocky, Scum Bubbles, and Bait-A. Amazingly enough, the women ahead of me went through the whole booth without getting a thing. No, really. Now there is willpower. (That, or common sense. Not sure which.)

Copyright 2009 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

Mr. Brightside

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If there was a bright side to me being sick, it is that it clears my schedule. Going to my company holiday party? Not anymore. Meeting friends out for lunch? I don’t think so. Going to get a couple extra hours of work in at the office? Not so much.

Now, I wasn’t major league sick; but sick enough that I felt it was best to stay away from other people and fill myself up with as much over the counter medication as I could get a hold of. (God bless Tylenol. Takes away pain and fever for close to four hours!)

The cleared schedule meant that I got to finish these: Continue reading →

Closer than Close

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This post may be of particular interest of Roseann.

No, it is not completely finished. There is still the fringe to do, as well as fulling it; but the Habu silk scarf is off of the loom, which is a big deal for me.

The colors are pretty true in these photos. We shall see after fulling (which is similar to washing, but is not meant to clean the weaving but to relax the threads so that they settle into place.) It may turn out pretty different after that. More to come.

Copyright 2009 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com