Tricks

The Seattle pinwheel scarf is coming along really well!  This yarn is a DREAM to work with, that's probably how it got its name "dream in color"!

 

My ravelry friend introduced me to these plastic paperclips from Wal-mart to hold the extra heddles in place.  They worked really well!  I never really did much to keep the extra heddles at the edges, and sometimes I would have problems with my threads wearing and breaking.  This technique also helps to cut down on a lot of noise created by the extra heddles rattling around.

I love weaving tricks!

I love the process!

I love the process of setting up the loom.  And I love sharing that process when I'm making something for someone else who doesn't weave!  Here are some updated pictures of the Seattle Scarf:

It's all set up and ready for weaving!

The tree pic

I totally forgot to update this tree pic, but as you can see, it didn't change much!  Yes, I labeled it January and yes, it might be a bit deceitful, but it just needs to fit the pattern!  Plus, honestly, it didn't change much!  I'll take February's later this week, and then onward and back on track!

Pinwheel scarf!

My Ravelry friend contacted me and said she wanted another scarf!  Remember the super-duper long scarf I made a few months ago?  She wants another one, same color, but with pinwheels as the design.  She also wanted it made out of the Dream in Color Classy merino wool yarn.  It's so wonderfully soft!  It also has a very neat dye pattern to it.  Here is the warp that has already been measured out:

At first I thought the sett was going to be 8, but when the yarn arrived in the mail I noticed it will be more like 10.  At first I was worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn, but I think everything will be ok!  Now that I measured out the warp, I can sense that there will be enough yarn left.  Plus, I tend to over-calculate just a little bit! 

Here are the stats:
Warp length = 3 yards
Black warp = 21 threads
Gray warp = 16 threads
Warp color rotation = B8, G8, B8, G8, B8, G8, B8, G8, B8
Sett = 10 epi

Stash-buster blanket

 I have decided to make this doubleweave blanket a complete stash-reducing project!

 So far, I have woven through several skeins of acrylic yarn, and it feels so good to clear them off my shelf!

 

This blanket is weaving up so quickly.  In fact, I have only spent a few hours weaving and I am at least 75% done!

 The two layers seem to be working out just fine, too!  Here is a peek inside:

 It's such a long stretch that my depth of field on my camera has a hard time!  Here's the other end:

 So far, I have managed to weave through 24 bobbins of yarn! 

 

It's really thick on the loom.  I hope 4 yards of warp wasn't too long!

I haven't done much plain weave since getting my floor looms, but it's cute!  I kind of miss it!

I can't wait to experiment with some doubleweave 2/2 twills on my 8-shaft loom.  That will be amazing, also!

But first, I must finish my first doubleweave feat! 

If the state of CA fell off, AZ would have a beach.

Ever since I was a kid, I was told that CA was going to break off at a fault line and then AZ would have some beach front property!  

I can't help but to chuckle at the fact that I used to believe that!  

This yarn is called "beach" and it makes me think of the beach the whole time I'm working with it!  

It's like working with paradise! 

I almost had enough yarn to finish this whole warp, but I was 20 yards short!  Arg!

So I just measured out 5 strands that were similar in color to the other ones.  

I used strands of green, blue, aqua, and navy.

 

I spread them out randomly so they don't stand out like a sore thumb!

"Marty, you're not thinking 3-dimensionally!"

I haven't even made it to the end of my 2.5 yard sample warp for doubleweave, and I am already feeling so ready for my first blanket!  The sample washed up so awesome, you can't even tell there was a fold there.  That was my goal!  I am so ready to move onto the real thing.  And I know exactly what yarn I want... I want the green & blue yarn that I used for Brian's shawl.  I love the way that yarn looks!  It was called "beach" by Red Heart kids.  I have decided to make a 4-yard warp, so it would be plenty long.  When I first started my calculations for the blanket, I only calculated one layer.  But later it occurred to me that I only did 1 layer, so I calculated for 2 and I have JUST ENOUGH yarn!!  Can you believe it?!  What luck!!  The first mistake made me think of the quote from Doc Brown in the movie Back to the Future, "Marty, you're not thinking 3-demensionally!"  Now that I'm thinking 3 dimensionally, I have a sett of 16 epi, or 8 epi per layer.  I am warping the full width of my reed, or 26" across, which is a total of 416 ends.  Multiplied all together makes it 1,664 yards of yarn, which is just shy of a mile, 0.954mi to be exact!  Divide it by 232 yards per skein, and it will be 7.17 skeins... and that is all the beach yarn I have left.  I'm so lucky!  Best of all, because I bought the yarn on sale, this warp will only cost $13.62.  Now I will need to pick out a different color for the weft, but so many colors would match this stuff... white, green, black, aqua, blue, even bright pink!  I love this stuff! 

Wish me luck measuring out all these ends... I'm so excited to have this opportunity to weave a blanket that is so wide... I am predicting it will be somewhere around 44"-46" across.  This is just way cool!  Next blanket will be a twill on the 8-shaft loom!  One step at a time...

No seams!

 This is straight off the loom, without any washing.

And you can hardly see the seam!  

It travels from top to bottom at the arrow in this picture:

 Not bad!  I think I am headed towards either a blanket in cotton or wool, a table cloth, a table runner using profile drafts, and a little drawstring pouch.  My expectations aren't very high, are they?!

Hey batter, batter... 3 stikes and you're out!

 Doubleweave.

 The words used to send shivers down my spine.

Well, at first when I had my very first rigid heddle loom I was really intrigued by the whole idea.  But I tried it and it was such a disaster!  I used the wrong yarn, and since I was such a new weaver I didn't think sampling was very important.  And I paid the price on that one!

After trashing the project, I didn't even speak the words "doubleweave" ever again.... until I bought my 4-shaft loom. I put a very small warp on it but decided it wasn't for me at the time mostly because I wanted to focus on things I couldn't do on my rigid heddle loom (and plain weave was not one of the focus points!).

I guess it must have been somewhere in the back of my mind to try, because during the last interweavepress.com sale, I decided to order myself the doubleweave book and both DVDs.  I figured it could be like an at-home study course!  

It sat on my shelf for a long time before I would touch it.  I kept it in the back of my mind and every time I came up looking for a next project, I would somehow avoid those library items altogether!  

My weaving friend Carma (the person who helped me fix my loom) suggested I make a blanket from doubleweave a few weeks ago.  It's not the first time she's made this suggestion to me, either.  Carma is also the judge at the county fair in the weaving department and when I made my P2P2 blanket, she suggested I try doubleweave on it so I wouldn't have the seam up the middle.

Finally, I feel motivated after producing the wool shawl.  Wouldn't a blanket be wonderful?  My loom isn't wide enough for a blanket, nor do I have room (or $$) for yet another loom.  The doubleweave is just the motivation I needed to pull out my materials and start to practice!

And guess what?  Everything is working out perfectly!  This is my THIRD try with doubleweave-- and maybe it's the loom, maybe it's my skills, or maybe it's the great reference materials-- but I feel like it's so much more successful than the other 2 tries!  I have a feeling a lot of it has to do with just being better prepared by the materials and the skills and weaving knowledge I've collected. 

My sample is very small at the moment, but at the bottom is a tube, the middle is some layers to possibly fulfill a friend's very old and repeated request for a Harry Potter-like scarf, and the top part of this sample is the one-layer blanket style.  I can't wait to get some of these pieces off and finish them in the washer and dryer to really see how they look and feel.

Armed... and dangerous!

I finished weaving shawl! And now I'm armed against the cold weather.  Look out frost!!

 

It was really stiff until I washed it in very hot water in my washing machine… no turning action though. Just laid it into the water with some dish soap, spun it out, took it out and filled the washer again, laid it into the hot water, spun it out, and put it into the sun to dry.

 

  It softened up SO much!

  And it’s SO warm!

And it’s the perfect length!

Bring it on winter!  Bring on the cold!
I'm armed... and dangerous!

So far, so good!

 So far, so good!

 

 And so far, it's weaving up perfectly square!

 

I love pinwheels!

Old Wool

I was going through some old wool that was given to me and I came across these faded skeins.  I decided to over-dye it so that it can actually be useful for something.  I don't know if the faded areas are extra fragile or not, but I am willing to use it in at least a rug.

I like the way the dyeing turned out.  I used kiwi color dye, and it's blotchy because of those whitish areas, but I do like it!  It will weave up nicely!  Plus, it was free, so I really can't complain!

I'll set the green stuff aside until it dries, but I'll use it in my next project.  I need to get some of this stash used up!  I have a lot of this wool.

I used up some of this wool before in my blue and white rug back in June:

I have been eying this old wool as a warp, even though it is a bit on the brittle side.  I decided to take a chance and weave a shawl... but the plan is to be gentle with it!  This warp is 3 yards long, which is about 1/2 yard longer than Brian's man-shawl.  We have decided that 2.5 yards for a shawl is just a bit on the skimpy side.  This one should be perfect...

 

I especially like the colors... the dark blue mixed with the lighter blue.  At first I wasn't sure there would be enough contrast, but it is just perfect!  And so much more relaxing than my last few projects!

 
I was going to do just a scarf, kind of like those acrylic scarves from a few months ago, the ones with the huge motifs... but I really wanted a shawl or wrap instead.  So far, this project is going really fast because the sett is 8 ends per inch.  I had it threaded in less than 45 minutes!

When it comes off the loom, I am going to ever so slightly felt it in the sink by shocking the fibers with hot and cold water, just to make it a bit thicker.... which also might increase the strength of it, if it is brittle.  So far, I haven't had a problem with it.  This shawl is going to be so warm for the winter!

 

I wish I had a loom big enough to do a blanket in a solid piece.

Maybe someday!

 Oh, and PS.  My loom is weaving up SUPER straight now!  Yay!!  I am about half way done with this shawl already and it's not at all crooked!  In fact, this is the straightest I've ever woven with this loom... ever!!