Flabbergasted - I Won First Prize.....

Some time ago, I had woven one of my very first scarfs on my Ashford rigid heddle. It was just a simple tabby scarf in a red & black marled yarn.

I ended up giving it to my friend's mom who lives back East. She loved it, and unbeknownst to me, entered it in their county faire.

 

(Pict taken from behind glass, so it doesn't look quite the same).

FIRST PLACE! I'm floored, flabbergasted, and really touched that she thought it was good enough to enter into the county faire contest. I'm even more surprised that it won. It was the very first scarf that I had woven.

Geez.

Now, I have to figure out how best to thank her. Maybe another knitted or woven item is in order.....

In Sickness and in Health.....

I apologize for the radio silence on my end. This past two weeks was somewhat of a whirlwind. DH & I went up to the Valhalla Ren Faire (I'll post photos later), but when we got home, I got very ill.

This year, I started having allergic reactions to the various blooming trees and weeds. It was enough that I had to start taking Claritin on a daily basis. Prior to this year, I had extremely mild to no reactions to those trees having sex. (Ah, the joys of getting 'older').

While I was in Tahoe for the Faire, I was surrounded by trees! I took Claritin every day while I was there, but it was hard. I think it overwhelmed my system. So when we got back home, I got sick, which at first, I thought was just allergic reactions, but then it got worse. I completely lost my voice (which meant I had to cancel podcasting until I got better).

I was having problems taking deep breaths and was winded (and thus tired) very easily. I was getting exhausted from doing simple household chores or even working on the computer or heck...knitting. I ended up napping a lot, which is saying something for me as I am not a nap-person.

The doctor diagnosed a viral cold on top of all the allergy crap. She put me on four different types of medication, but the combination made me loopy; there was a severe lack of concentration, and I felt like I was detached from any emotional involvement.

(My medical retinue with my "medicine bag")

Knitting was difficult at best as I had a few complicated projects on the needles. I had one project involving stockinette and slipped stitches, but even that proved troublesome after a while.

So, I couldn't knit, crochet, and I couldn't read (as I couldn't retain anything I had read). I was pretty much good for background movies & t.v. shows, and napping -- in other words, pretty useless in my mind. This was very difficult for me! I WANTED TO KNIT. (Even DH noticed that I hadn't knitted as much.)

But now, I've had enough of an attention span to do something "simpler" than knitting. My houndstooth scarf (out of my own handspun) had been languishing on the rigid heddle, so I've picked it back up again.

Hopefully, this will keep me until I don't need the meds anymore. And then I can start knitting again.

And hopefully, I can get back to blogging on a regular basis, and I can finally get to recording the next podcast!

The Zen of Using Other People's Tutorials

Sometimes, reinventing the wheel is absolutely no fun and takes up way too much time. So, when I picked up a really cute wallet/purse frame, I wanted to find out how to make my own, but I didn't want to reinvent the wheel.

So, Google to the rescue! A quick search online for "purse frame patterns"  found several web pages that had instructions for how to make your own.  After perusing several of them, I found this website the most concise and helpful. And I started constructing my own pattern using her instructions (with my own modifications, of course!).

Here's the pretty purse frame, and my rough drawing of the pattern based on the instructions. I didn't quite make it as long, but I wanted to get the angles correct.

I had some left over hand-woven fabric from my Zippered Pouch, and had "just" enough to create my own little purse wallet. So using my drawn pattern, I cut out the remaining handwoven fabric.  I opted to use orange linen for the lining because I wanted to see inside the wallet for loose change, etc.

I skipped her optional steps because I didn't want a flat bottomed wallet. In addition, I did make one minor change to the very wonderful instructions on that website. Instead of glue'ing the fabric into the frame, I opted to sew it instead. This purse frame had holes just for that very purpose. It did take a bit of finagling to put the fabric into the frame and pin it, but then once I got started it was pretty easy.

But, overall, I found the instructions extremely simple and easy to follow. I pretty much followed the instructions without a hitch.

And here's the finished wallet! It's big enough for coins, spare cash, and maybe a few cards.

Sufficed to say, I was rather pleased with the tutorial, and it was much MUCH nicer to use someone else's tutorial than try and figure things out myself.

The Internet has really made crafting much easier. Chances are that someone, somewhere, has done a similar project and written up instructions for it. It's just a matter for YOU to do some searching and looking. The time you spend researching can save you quite a bit of time trying to figure things out, as well as help you avoid some pitfalls that others have made.

And, of course, if you can't seem to find what you're looking for, you can always write your own tutorial and help another crafter out.

Weaving with Handspun

The other day, I posed about the custom stand that my husband built for my Ashford Rigid Heddle loom. Now, here's what  I've got weaving.....a handspun houndstooth scarf.

There's something to be said for knitting and weaving with your own handspun. It absolutely tickles me pink that I've created a yarn that I will then use to create a finished garment.

In this instance, I have some leftover handspun that I called "Tweed Spice" from my Hiker's Waistcoast. There's quite a bit left -- not enough to make another sweater, but certainly a lot more than just a hat. It's a lovely merino/silk blend that reminds me of the color of my tabby cats. And it was a pleasure to knit with it.

So, I decided to combine it with commercial yarn (Cascade Venezia Worsted) to make a houndstooth scarf using my Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom.

I know from weaving my Zippered Pouch that the merino and silk would give me a beautiful drape, even with a thicker yarn than the sport weight, especially once it's been washed and fulled.

Right now, it's a bit slow going as I warped quite a bit, and I only have a few moments here & there to spare for weaving. But it's coming out rather nicely.

Custom Built Loom Stand

You know your DH loves you when he takes part of his Saturday to build you a loom stand. I had been using a small desk to prop up my Ashford Rigid Heddle loom, which was highly inconvenient. I started looking at buying the separate loom stands, but DH said he could go ahead and build me one instead.

So last Saturday, we went to Home Depot and he bought some oak, some nuts & bolts, and got to work. There was a bit of measuring that occurred to check to see what angle I wanted everything and to ensure everything was sturdy.

But in the end, I got this....

He wants to add some shuttle baskets to the edges, but for now, it's completely serviceable. YAY!

Zippered Pouch Completed

After getting back from Gallifrey, I wanted to finish up my zippered pouch, so I went to JoAnn's and picked up a 7" zipper, and got to work. I had recently found a Zippered Pouch tutorial and used it as a general guidelines. It's a pretty good tutorial, so I suggest you read it, if you want to make your own.

I cut the pieces for both the lining & fashion fabric

And added the zipper to the woven fabric.

 

And sewed up the sides and added the lining. And viola! 20 minutes later, I had a nifty zippered pouch.

 

Finished Objects: Part 3: Weaving

2012 was the year I started weaving very simple projects (mostly scarves & bags), but it was definitnely something I wanted to learn

My First Weaving Project. The warp & weft are exactly the same

This piece was an experiment in trying a tartan, and was turned into a "bag" for my shuttles & dents

This one was turned into a purse, and made into leftovers from other projects.

My first houndstooth

A Hawaiian Tartan using Cascade 220. It's a bit too wide for a scarf and is more of a "sash".

This one I wove with handspun & some matching commercial yarn, and it turned out lovely.

Black Hills Gold

I had 166 yards of handspun yarn that I loved, but I didn't know what to do with -- I had enough maybe for a hat or a cowl or something larger if I mixed it with commercial yarn.

• 60% merino
• 30% bamboo
• 10% firestar

The PurlGurls at Purlescence yarns suggested I tried weaving with it. And they helped me match it with some lovely Cascade Venezia sport in a green/bronze color. It matched perfectly. It was a color I would not have picked, but I was surprised at how well it went with the handspun.

The resulting fabric is thusly:

Hawaiian Tartan

When I started weaving the Hawaiian tartan, I knew I wanted something to wear for the Highland games. So, I went looking for the Hawaiian tartan pattern, and found this webpage that not only had the colors, but also a thread count (albeit on thinner cotton thread) (so I extrapolated and created a spreadsheet with the thread count.)

The colors represent Hawaii and are as follows:

the Blue represents the ocean and the sky

the Green represents the islands' plant life and foliage

the Brown stripe shows the distinctive red-brown earth in Hawaii

the Red & Yellow represent the fire and lava that formed the Hawaiian Islands, as well as honoring the Hawaiian Ali'i (Royalty)

Here's the warp:

And the finished piece. It measures about 6" long and 12.5" wide. It'll serve as a sash for the Highland games.

I used all Cascade 220 yarns, including a Cascade 220 blue tweed as it had all of the other colors in it. (Here's my Ravelry project page).

More information about the Hawaiian tartan is here.

My pattern version of this tartan is on Google Docs as a spreadsheet.

I've also found the California state tartan on Wikipedia, along with the thread count. I might have to make this in the future as well.

Weaving Bug -- I don't think so!

Well, I don't think I've caught the weaving bug 100% --- I'm not going gangbusters --- but I officially picked up the Ashford 24" rigid heddle loom December 30, 2011, and I've gotten 4 weaving projects done.

My first project was the simple tabby scarf in red/black marl yarn.

The second project was an experiment in colors and width. This is 22" wide and 3 feet long.

The 3rd project was an experiment in plaid (which got sewn up to make a carry-bag for the different rigid heddles. And yes, I cut my woven fabric with scissors down the middle....). This was 18" wide and 1.5 yards long.

The 4th project was a houndstooth scarf in acid green & black tweed (not that the tweedy parts showed up in the finished scarf

And the most current project is a Hawaiian tartan plaid that's a wider scarf / sash that I can wear to the Scottish Highland games.

Here's the warp

And lest you think I'm ONLY weaving, I've finished a pair of socks for myself. And actively on the needles, I've got a cabled tam, a cashmere sweater, AND I've spun up & plied the last of Frank so I can finish up the sleeves on a yet another sweater (that I haven't posted about yet).

So, no, if I had the weaving bug, I'd ONLY be doing weaving projects.

Right?

New Year of Crafting

Work's been keeping me super busy as of late, and while I've had time to craft, I haven't had time to blog as much. If you're keeping up with the Geek Girl Crafts Podcast, you'll hear most of what I've been doing there.

The latest piece of news is that my sweet DH decided to get me a loom for the holidays. Yes, a loom. After I said that I wasn't planning on weaving anytime soon. Apparently, he'd been listening to the Purlescence Girls too much.

It's an Ashford 24" Rigid Heddle Loom. The Purl Girls helped me do my first warp, and here's the finished product, which is a 9" scarf, which uses the same Cascade 220 red & black marled yarn as the warp & the weft.

It's really pretty, but after a while, I got very bored weaving it, as it was the same pattern repeatedly.

In addition to the loom, he got me the book, The Handweaver's Pattern Directory. So after I finished the scarf, I flipped through it, found a 2-color tabby pattern I liked, and started warping.

The warping was relatively easy, although I had a slight problem when running the top yarn through the middle bit of the heddle (I missed one) that I didn't realize until I started weaving...ah well....

It's actually working out relatively well, and I will take the mistake as a learning topic.

I figure that I can use some of my extra stash that's been sitting there unused for a while (esp. the Cascade 220) and play with the loom.

So far, so good.

I will make an attempt to get the last of 2011's projects up onto the blog.