Your Cup of Tea?

My daughter and her friend, Bina, were hanging out in my room when I said I needed to get my computer to update my blog. Bina ask, "You have a blog?" My daughter told her I've had it for over a year. (It actually been over 2 years now.) I told Bina that it's "not your cup of tea" and that it's about wool. She said, "I love wool" and promptly took out her knitting. Very cool!
I attempted to use some hand spun yarn to weave. The warp is a variety of random strands. I used a dyed gray for the weft. My yarn was much weaker than commercial yarn and some of the warp broke and I had to fix it. I had planned for a scarf but it's too dense to actually wear as one. I didn't take the time to make a sample, of course.
Now I'm spinning the gray-blue wool silk blend that I dyed last time I did a "dying day".

Pain-free Warping

I've returned to the loom with a new attitude: easy does it. No more long hours of warping. I'll just do an hour here and an hour there and eventually get it done. This way I won't kill my back slumping over trying to tread the heddles. The last rag rug was a good learning experience. It's stiffer because I used 12 epi and a wider strip of fabric. It has lumps because I used the existing seems in the cotton pajama pants I cut up.


Not only does craftypuppylover make awesome rally signs (see last post), she also makes beautiful Batts! Check her out on etsy.

Enjoying the Sanity

The Seattle Rally to Restore Sanity was lots of fun this morning. I enjoyed most of the home-made signs that people brought. My favorite was, of course, "Keep Calm and Carry Yarn".

Back to Knitting

I'm back to knitting due to the incredibly sore lower back that I've acquired. It started at work, but has worsened from weaving. The giant loom is sitting there half-warped and taking up space. It's so frustrating that I can't weave, but bending down to tread the heddles will send me over the edge.

The last chance I have to go to a Sounder's game is on Oct. 31st. Since I'm a fan without "gear" I've decided to knit up some Sounder's colored accessories. I've started a hat then some type of glove or mitten will follow. I'm pretty much making it up as I go.
My other knitting project involves a yarn that I made several years ago. I had bought a whole colored fleece and washed and spun it into a 2-ply. I actually didn't get all the grease out but it feels okay. The strands are too thin so I'm knitting with a double strand. The sweater is definitely home-made looking. More photos to follow...

Danish Shawl

A while back I saw a pattern in Spin-Off for a traditional Danish Shawl. I finally got around to knitting it. I used hand-spun yarn from my stash and chose non-traditional (not Danish traditional) colors. The edging took the good part of a day to crochet.

Meet My New Loom

Ah, here she is--my new loom! She takes up a lot of space, but I love her. My work-space is the dining area--it has good light, but it's a tight fit to squeeze behind the loom when I'm warping.
This time I made 2 rugs from the same warp.
The warping goes slow, but the weaving goes fast. After I knotted the ends, I had 2 rugs...
...one out of cotton scraps...
...and one out of wool. Now I'm ready to put on the next warp and make more!

My First Rag Rug

I haven't put any photos of it up yet, but I got a floor loom a few weeks back. My first project on it was this rag rug. I'm going to give it to my mom when I see her at Thanksgiving (hi mom, if you are reading this). As soon as I starting thinking about rag rugs, I became obsessed with them. I have purchased 3 books and have started following a few blogs of rag rug makers. The piles of fabric scraps are growing! To me rag rugs are a combination of weaving and quilting. The thing that I love about quilting is using up scraps of fabric. It appeals to the recycle-er in me. I'm going to start warping for my next project: a wool rag rug.