WeaveCast and an Unhappy Project...

So, I've been working on a really pretty 8-shaft shadow weave scarf on my big loom. It's made of 18/2 Jaggerspun wool, in teal and silvery grey - quite a nice combination, it has turned out, for a men's scarf. BUT. Sigh. Partway through, I snapped a warp thread. Phooey. Repairable, but I don't like to sell anything with an error like that in it. So, I thought, ok, I'll give it to Carlos for Christmas, he'll like it, he's already looked at it and said he likes it. And then, partway through, my pattern starts getting all out of whack. What on earth?? My treadling hasn't changed, I haven't got the shuttle order backwards (you use two shuttles and to weave shadow weave). Weirdness.

Turns out on of the cords that tie-up my one of my treadles (the 8th one, actually) had come undone, so whenever I opened the shed with that 8th treadle, the first shaft wasn't rising. Hmph. My big loom lives in the basement (poor thing) and the lighting isn't spectacular (poor me, lol), or I might have spotted it earlier, there's a definite weft float in the pattern for about half of the scarf. Argh!

So much for my powers of observation.

I'm going to blame it on Syne Mitchell.

Syne has a wonderful (free) podcast all about weaving - WeaveCast. It's great! Go check it out now!

At any rate, I've been listening to it while weaving this scarf (weaving with 18/2 wool is a slooooow process) and was having such fun listening - and laughing - that I wasn't paying enough attention to my project.

Does this mean I'll leave the iPod behind while weaving this evening?

Nope. :) I'm only through episode 2 of 18!

Twisting Madness

Wow, I've actually managed to finish two more scarves in record time. Twisted fringe during Red Sox games, got them washed, and managed to take photos during Conall's 30-second nap this afternoon (sigh) (my kids don't sleep). Nothing like a sale to light a fire under one's rear...

The first is a lime/white twill woven from zephyr (50/50 wool/silk) and 50/50 alpaca wool:

The pattern is called "gothic cross" and is from Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book. If you're a weaver with a four-shaft (or more) loom and don't already own this book, run, don't walk to Amazon and get yourself one. (It's an old book, out of print, but you can still find it!)

Here's a closer view of the pattern:

I like it. :) The reverse side is predominantly green, but I think of this as the front side.

I looooove how this second scarf turned out, though!



This is a turned Ms and Os pattern - and it's made from three shades of pink bamboo (love that bamboo) - ranging from light shell pink to burgundy to outline the cells. Would make a nice gift for a breast cancer survivor...

Bamboo, it turns out, loves Ms and Os. Who knew?! It shrinks up just enough during finishing, I think, to really take to a structure that requires the yarn to move. Which means the finer version of the yarn would probably make gorgeous lace, too. Hmmm....

I'm thinking I might have to make another one of these, and a little headband/scarflette, too, for myself. Now if I can just get around to choosing the best pictures and getting these two listed in my etsy store...

Ms and Os Scarf

I keep forgetting to post this guy!

There she is. Not so bad in the end - I like the scalloped edges that Ms and Os creates. Does it look sort of blue-tinged to you? Or is it just my computer?

Man, I have to get better at taking pictures. Maybe actually splurge and buy a dress form, sigh. I wish I could come up with a more creative way to take pics of my stuff that actually still shows the texture, movement, drapability (is that even a word?? lol) of the fabric, etc. I've been thinking about finding a nice rich looking woven basket, too. Or maybe even a great piece of stone to drape them across? But whatever I do, I need to figure out something and get consistent with it!

A fuzzy scarf and a dead computer...

My poor laptop was on the fritz for quite a while there - we finally figured out it was the keyboard. All sticky and ooky from toddler fingers and Little Girl's (black cat) habit of sitting on it in the winter because it's warm.

Wonderful hubby Carlos ordered a new keyboard for me and replaced it. Hooray for nerdly husbands. Should we take another gander at his nerd score??



LOL! (Not that I should laugh too loud... see my score if you want.)

In the meantime, I finished the first scarf that I'm making with some yummy pink yarn from YarnChef at etsy. That same shadow-weave pattern with the pseudo-circles, I keep using it!

Anyway, I combined the pink merino with chocolate colored bamboo and fulled it a bit unintentionally when I finished it - but I like how it came out.



My only complaint is that it's hard to see the lovely variegation in the pink yarn - I'm currently weaving another scarf in Ms&Os that will show it a bit more, I think...

Although I'm also thinking I'm going to back up quite a bit and start the second scarf over - I don't have enough of the pink yarn left to use as all of the warp and all of the weft, but I do have enough for the warp plus some weft. So, I wove about five inches using the pink as the weft and then switched to a white Zephyr:


The idea is to then duplicate that pink portion at the other end of the scarf. It's ok, but I'm actually thinking of backing up and making pink and white stripes at the ends with white in the middle - less jarring, but I'd still get to use the pink yarn in the weft too. Off to unweave...

ACEO

Hey, I finally got around to taking some pictures of my first ACEO! For those of you who don't know what an ACEO is (I didn't either until a couple weeks ago), Wiki has a nice explanation.

So, anywho, here it is:


Cute little thing, huh? It's woven in doubleweave pickup, which can be insanely slow, but allows you to make fun patterns even just on a little four-shaft loom. EtsyFAST is doing a little group project of sorts to make fiber ACEOs, which I think is a great idea...

On other fronts, the shawl is progressing! I've woven about 27" so far - and have discovered that since it is so wide I can't weave for more than a half hour or so at a time without getting a big ol' backache. Sigh. Getting old. The shawl, though, is lovely, love that Zephyr yarn! Almost feels like cheating when you start out with such a lovely fiber...