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.

Sweetgrass the Movie

Sweetgrass is a documentary without narration. The sounds from the natural surroundings and the occasional voices of men and women make up the soundtrack for this film. Amazingly, I was hook-in to this story by just the visual footage. The pace is beautifully slow. If you are watching it with young kids, be aware that about 3/4 the way through the film you will hear a string of obscenities lasting several minutes that would be beyond a "R" rating. Personally I think using the tortured sounding cuss-fest of the herder is brilliant, patched into this quiet film. Furthermore, it's shot in Montana so there's a special sentimentality for me.

While watching this film, I kept thinking that people need to see where their wool comes from. For those who are appalled by the harsh treatment of these animals, just know that this kind of ranching is considered more humane than what's happening in Australia.

I found Sweetgrass on Netflix and it's a "watch instantly" movie.

Remember the '70s?

Someone recently said that orange is liked only by those young enough not to remember the '70s. I remember the '70s and that's why I'm thinking about over-dyeing this 3 ply yarn that I made.