Weaving Through Checks

Check check.

I've started weaving a 2-shaft draft using my AKL, and while the reed marks are distorting the pattern a bit (a lot), I can see it coming out if I try to shift my focus on a point beyond the actual weave! Exciting times. Hopefully the reed marks will lighten up, or better yet disappear, once it's off the loom and I put it through the wash.

More of the check pattern. And the reed marks.

So. While it's pretty obvious in hindsight - and I'm not too sure why I thought it would be the case - I thought that the checks would be larger. I envisioned them larger. (Which, if they were, would have made the cloth pretty unstable in the middle of the checks if I were ever to cut into the cloth to make something of it.) Even though I knew, just by looking at the draft, that the checks would each have 3 strands making up their width. Oh well. At least I know how to translate weaving drafts onto my rigid heddle loom.

That being said though, I'm not completely satisfied with the sett that I can achieve once I move onto doing anything beyond plain weave, especially once I get to 3-shaft drafts: because the threading sequences don't necessarily use every hole and slot, I can't double my sett even using the two heddles (because each hole/eye acts as a different shaft, and then the slots act as the third one). Even with this draft, which was made for 2 harnesses, my sett was far from doubled, even though I used two heddles. As it is, it's not too light, but I really like the idea of working fine, so perhaps a floor or table loom would better suit my purposes? Something to think about for the future.

You can see the two heddles here in rest position.

The Oracles at Delphi

Hand-dyed fingering-weight superwash merino

So I've been trying out this dyeing thing using some food colouring pastes (Wilton), and been getting some really lovely results! Mostly with the superwash merino yarns, but also with the BFL and Corriedale. I get the feeling BFL & Corriedale soak up the dye a little bit quicker than the superwash merino, so when this colour broke, the BFL & Corriedale got all the pink-purple hues and left all this lovely blue-turquoise-teal for the merinos to soak up.

Test-knitting. Hush hush.

And of course, I've had to knit it up to see what it looks like used, so I've used my two skeins of fingering weight superwash merino dyed in this colourway for a test knit. I've already finished up and it's just blocking now - the colours dyed pretty evenly across both skeins (hurrah!) so there aren't any sudden changes in how it knit up, and while I wasn't too excited about it while it was on the needles (I'm more a fan of semi-solids rather than variegated), it looks pretty darn nice blocking, if I do say so myself. It's probably going to go to my friend as a graduation present, since I've been promising to knit her something for years now. Also, this colour is perfect for her love of space!

Zenith

It's actually in the 20s right now. Sweltering.

Third sweater complete! This was a pretty mindless knit, even into the cables part, which I really needed at the time. I'm ready to do a huge allover cable sweater or cardigan at this point, complete with buttons (read: Timberline), but Zenith was perfect for this semester. I really enjoyed the look of the original sweater, so just went ahead and copied it. A simple grey mock turtleneck complete with simple cable details at the yoke? I had a hole in my closet for that.

Look how happy I am!

The only thing I would change is probably to knit a couple more rounds - maybe 3 or 5 more rounds - for the yoke, so that there's a bit more breathing room in the underarm area. It's a perfect fit if I wasn't wearing much under it, but because I didn't get gauge, this might just be a gauge issue rather than a pattern issue. I love the short rows at the back of the neck - they make the mock turtleneck very comfy, since it doesn't feel like the back is slipping down.

I'm also pretty happy with this yarn! It feels pretty durable, yet soft enough that if I so chose, I could probably wear it next to my skin (it is a little itchy, but it's ok). I mean, my neck hasn't started complaining yet, so I think it's probably fine. Definitely wanting to work with this again.

As for the TCK sweater KAL, I'm kind of behind by a month or two at this point. My linen cardigan's coming along, but I haven't churned out anything for the month of April (going with the one sweater a month schedule here) and I don't really have anything I think I can finish for May. Maybe I'll have to pick up the sheep vest or the green Sherwood to help me along.

Will it Twill? (For Sale.)

Just added this scarf to my etsy shop.

It's 100% superwash merino, handwoven in a chevron pattern, and the dimensions are as follows: 12.5 x 64" (not including 7.5" fringe on either end). You can get this lovely scarf for yourself for just $110 + shipping! Click on the link above or visit my store here.

Will it twill? Will it twill?

What's this? Something other than plain weave? You mean you can do that?

Of course it'will. Of course it'will. It did. But it's a chevron. And I was aiming more for a herringbone pattern... it probably didn't help matters that I had chosen a chevron draft, but I was really hoping.

It's 134g of madtosh tosh lace, handwoven on my Ashford Knitter's Loom using two 12dpi rigid heddles.

You can see it a little better in this photo.

That being said, I am quite happy with the fact that I have now figured out how to read weaving drafts (kind of, I think, more or less?) and also that I've woven something other than plain weave (finally), so all's well. Now I'm really just more worried about how I'm going to do herringbone on my AKL. All the drafts I could find of it required 4 shafts, and I'm pretty sure that my rigid heddle loom can only do up to 3 shafts before requiring pick up sticks, which I'm really not looking forward to using. I'm wondering whether I can just do a 3-shaft herringbone pattern instead. It works in my head, but actually doing it is another issue altogether.

Either way, now that I've figured out how to kind of work out 3-shaft drafts on my AKL, that opens up a world of possibilities, which should keep me plenty busy over the summer. There's also a not-so-little side project that I'll be doing, which might surface (or not) depending on its success.

Cotton

It's a ghost!

Here's the cream/white cotton blanket. It didn't turn out to be as much of a chore as I had expected it to be (which is almost disappointing, seeing as that was a huge part of the reason I avoided it for so long... I could've been finished that much sooner!), and I'm really pleased with the result! Now I just need to hemstitch at 30", cut off 3" extra after that for fringe, then hemstitch the other side and possibly print on the remaining yardage. It's the perfect size for a large scarf! I really want to whip up a couple of these and print all over them, or maybe try dyeing with them or painting over them. Really soft and quite lovely.

Not a Wreck

Not a wreck.

Finished a Shipwreck Shawl for Katie! I hope with all my might that the name of the shawl does not portend the future.

I skipped the beads, but otherwise followed the directions completely.  Beautiful shawl! Not quite as difficult as I thought it'd be, and it didn't take nearly as long as I had originally expected either. I love when things turn out that way.

Now I've just got to hand it off and hope that she likes it!