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.

Bootcamp Knitting

My daybreak has become my shuttle & meeting knitting. Recently, I spent 2 days in a "bootcamp" training that lasted 8 hours each day. There was a lot of power point presentations and rather dry lectures on technology, development processes, example code, etc.

It was boring, but informational.

I took the time to knit on my daybreak. I got quite a bit done on it.

Using Cascade 220 Venezia Sport

Unfortunately, progress on the Daybreak slowed down after the meeting (not to mention the rows got longer and longer with each stripe, and it became my shuttle knitting. So I get about 1.5 hours each day to work on it while I ride the shuttle to work.

Now, I'm down to the last few inches with all of the purl ridges. Hopefully, I'll have to done before Thanksgiving.

Adventures in Machine Knitting

So, yesterday, I finally picked up the knitting machine from the repair shop, which was a mini-saga. If you listen to the podcast, you'll have heard the story. Sufficed to say, everything's working now.

So, when I got it home, I grabbed our workhorse table, clamped it down, grabbed some left over yarn (Cascade 220), and set about making some test swatches.

Worsted weight yarn is about the "thinnest" this machine can do unless you want a loose weave. As it was, the weave for worsted is also pretty loose, but nothing that I can't live with in anything I'd make on this machine.

I also played with changing color. As seen in the photo, it ain't bad. It's stockinette stitch only, so it "curls" in on itself, but nothing that a good washing & blocking won't fix...or a crocheted edge.

I also figure that since its Cascade 220, I can felt the yarn just a little bit to tighten up the weave, and it won't harm the overall end product.

Why am I using a knitting machine? So, if you listen to the podcast, you'll know that my Viking wanted the Doctor Who scarf from Season 18 (the red outfit with the red scarf). I am NOT about to hand-knit a 20 foot scarf by ANY means as it takes TOO DAMN LONG -- ask anyone who has knitted one -- but a machine knit one? Sure it won't be "exactly" like the original (the original was a garter stitch scarf, and this is stockinette, but honestly...who's gonna care outside of the Doctor Who police?

So after a few test runs where I made some mistakes, learned some things, then I started in on the Scarf. After about 10 minutes of putzing, I had this:

Overall, the machine is a *blast* to use. It is relatively easy to use, and everything goes by quick! After playing with the machine for several hours, I had ~8 feet of scarf, and had gone through nearly 1 skein of every color. I have one more skein of every color, and am going to need to pick up about 2 more of each color.

It was nice to see so much progress after a few hours work. This would have taken MONTHS to do by hand.

Not to say that I didn't have any problems. I made some minor mistakes, which were easily fixed, and some BIG mistakes that...while fixable took a LOT of time to fix.

1) always make sure you have enough yarn for a row. If you don't, everything comes off the machine, and you have to carefully put everything back on carefully and tear your hair out. If you're unsure if you have enough, then you don't have enough so SPLICE in another skein!

2) MAKE SURE THE WEIGHT is on before you even start. Otherwise, it drops stitches of the needles.

3) move the weight every 10 rows. It helps with the tension.

4) When you move the weight every other time, double check the following:
a) no other needle has moved into position. Otherwise, you increase a stitch, which can be corrected easily by a K2TOG.
b) make sure that no stitch has accidently dropped. This is also easily fixable since it's just like regular knitting, but a PITA, because you're looking at the reverse side of the stockinette stitch.

5) Small color changes are a PITA, because you have to snip the yarn in order to do a small color change, unlike hand knitting. This makes for a LOT of loose ends to knot & weave into the scarf.

Overall, I could see making a bulky-weight blanket for just around the house or something similar...or making something nifty to just felt and cut out squares...after all, different tools provide different uses, and the knitting machine is no exception. But I'm not going to be giving up my needles anytime soon.

Accidental Knitting Group

I unintentionally started a knitting group at work yesterday. Well, I should really say that I didn't initially intend to actually start a knitting group at work, but circumstances being what they are, it's what ended up happending...unexpectedly.Here's how it went down:

We have a "spam" list at work. People can send anything to the spam list, such as want ads, for sale, requests for recommendations, anything.

Someone posted a "knitter needs help" request. She was a beginning knitter and had somehow did something to her knitting as she was trying to fix a dropped stitch and something went horribly wrong; she was afraid to make it worse. A couple of people responded, and when I emailed said person privately, she had said two people had helped her already, and was glad to see so many knitters at work.

I said we should start our own knitting circle, and she heartily agreed.

So, knowing our IT group, I requested a knitting email alias put together (which they did in 5 minutes), posted it to the SPAM list, and people started adding themselves. We have a bunch of knitters here, plus some in offices in other parts of the country.

Then I scheduled our first meet-up on Friday (as it was the earliest in everyone's calendar). All in the space of about 2 hours. So, there ya go.

Sometimes, it helps to be a little proactive. And it helps that knitters are a very very social group and just love to get together for any excuse to knit.

Gretta

I've started spinning one of the fleeces I got from the Retzlaff Winery Event (that I didn't attend) that was processed by Morro Fleeceworks


Gretta is a merino/corriedale cross from Janet Heppler's Nebo Rock Ranch, and processed by Morro Fleece works. She was a 6 pound fleece, and I got 4 pounds 5 oz back from Morro.

I did a sampling, as I wanted a heavier worsted weight yarn for a potential sweater. I did Sample A first, and didn't quite like how the yarn turned out. Then I spun up Sample B.

Sample A) 7.25:1 ratio (left) spun worseted 3ply

Sample B) a 5.5:1 ratio (right) spun semi-woolen 3ply

Sample A came out an aran weight yarn
Sample B came out a heavier worsted weight yarn...and very lofty

So, I'll be spinning Gretta in the Sample B ratio & style. And so far I've gotten 2 ounces spun up, and she's an absolute delight to spin -- woolen spinning really suits her. She's like a soft grey cloud of soft fur that I just want to bury my face into because of the softness.

The Lack of Buttons: Finished Sweaters

This past week, I finally finished the Mondo Cable Cardigan I started last month, which all things considering, isn't a shabby length of time to knit a sweater. Some sweaters I've knitted took several months (like the February Lady's Tunic Sweater that I started in April, then finished in August.)

I'm really happy with how the Mondo Cable Cardigan came out. The color's perfect and I didn't mess up too badly. (I had missed an increase at one point, but that's not really a sticking point for this sweater.

It has about 2 inches of ease, which is perfect for wearing as layers. And the wool is light enough to not make it too bulky, but as it's wool, it's *warm* --- perfect for fall weather. (Plus, today, it's actually nippy enough to wear to work!)
I like it so much that I think I shall make another (at a later date) with a smaller collar that's better fit for a zipper.

And here is the aforementioned Febuary Lady's Tunic Sweater. It was the never-ending sweater. I had made incredible progress on it, until about the last 6 inches, then it started to slog so I put it down to finish some other projects, working on it occassionally. When we started podcasting, I finally got enough 'gumption' to actually attempt to finish it.

The angora/cashmere wool sweater Tunic is also VERY warm and VERY soft. It's like wearing a fluff cloud. However, due to the square neckline, it's more suited for high neck shirts (like turtle/mock-turtle necks).
Unfortunately, I only had two clasps (as featured in the photo) for it, when it really needed about 2 more. I had procrastinated going to JoAnne's to get more for about two months, but decided since I needed buttons for the Mondo, I'd pick them up as well.

THEN I discover that JoAnne's doesn't carry those particular closures anymore! GAH! I had to search online & buy more online. I don't know when they stopped carrying those closures, but it had to be within the past several months (as I had bought the same exact closures back in January for another cardigan).

The Knitter Network

Today, I headed over to JoAnn's to pick up heavy duty red thread for DH, who needed it for his project. They had their typical 40-50% flyers at the front of the store so I picked one up. I found the thread and thought to also pick up more locking stitch markers, because I needed more.

Then I saw they had 30% off all their knitting books, and I found Nicky Epstein's book, Beyond the Edge.

I had heard good things about the book, and after flipping through it, was pretty much convinced that it needed to come home with me. PLUS, you can't beat the 30% off.

When I got to the register, the cashier commented on the book & told me she had taken Nicky's class at this "big knitting event" that happens every year. When I asked if it was at Stitches, she smiled, then we geeked a bit about Stitches & Nicky's book. I asked her about Nicky's class. (Luckily, there was no one else waiting in line).

When she rung the book up, it didn't ring up the 30% off, but she graciously took the coupon and took off 40%. THEN she ran the stitch markers also at 40% (Normally, you can only use a coupon once!) But I did have to pay full price for the thread. LOL

So, yes, go-go Knitter's Network!

Ren Faire Outfit Completed

I've been working on this particular outfit on-and-off for the past two months. I completed the skirt in about 2 hours, but neglected to hem (as I hate hemming) for some time.

The bodice also took about 3 hours, but I neglected to add the grommets (as I hate grommetting) for some time.

Finishing work is a Pain In the Posterior. So, both languished in the UFO bin for a bit until I finally got off my duff to get to work. (Plus I had to wear these to the upcoming Ren Faire, so they needed to be finished.

Grommetting took only about an hour. Hemming took another hour. But the results are great.

(The upper half of the mannequin isn't quite the right size for me, but is perfect for hemming skirts)

Finished Spinning Projects

I've been busy as of late. Between work, sewing, knitting, spinning, and various events...not to mention podcasting, well, it's been hectic. :-)

I finally got around to taking some photos of a variety of finished projects, including some amazing Targhee from Abstract Fibers; colorway=Malificient. How could I say no to almost all of my favorite colors

It spun up beautifully into a lovely marled skein. I forgot to take a photo of the skein, but here it in in a cake. 383 yards that will be made into something...not sure what yet.

Oh, and there's also my Tweed Spice from Tour De Fleece.

It went from the lovely top to singles

to a final 3-ply worseted

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough for a sweater (slightly short of 900 yards), so I'm going to try and either find an appropriate vest / shrug to go with the yardage, or combine it with commercial to produce enough for a sweater.

Bonfire Projects

Back in May/July, I had spun up some beautiful Abstract Fibers merino/silk blend called BonFire into 205 yards of sport weight yarn.

Subsequently, I had finished up two projects with the yarn. (I love knitting with handspun!)

Firelands -- a cowl of my own design. And I had a used about 159 yards of the handspun to create it.

I had left over yarn, and I really wanted to use the remaining yardage up, but didn't have enough to really do much of anything else unless I wanted to mix it with commercial yarn.

Then the latest fall version of Knitty appeared and they had the pattern, Pretty Twisted, which used left over yarn to make some pretty bracelets.

I named it "Embers" to reflect the leftover parts of Bonfire, and I found some cute buttons to match as the colors also reminded of an autumn day.

Episode 2

Episode 2 of the Geek Girl Crafts Podcast is up!

So, give a listen!

Fleeces!

I love getting packages in the mail, especially those that come from Morro Fleeceworks. Previously, I had two fleeces sent to them: a white hogget fleece and a dark grey ewe. They look absolutely beautiful in the box.

Sherri put a note in with the fleece. Apparently, the hogget fleece had a lot of VM (which I was told), but also a lot of 2nd cuts (usually, a fleece is sheared off with one fluid motion; and 2nd cuts are when they have to go back to recut the fleece and is not necessarily desirable in a fleece). I'm a bit disappointed in the shepherdess who didn't tell me about the second cuts although she did warn me about the VM (veggie matter) that was in the fleece.

However, not withstanding, the fleeces are beautiful and so very well done that I can't wait to start spinning it....Sometime after I finish spinning everything else that is on my 2 wheels.....

Superwash Hair

Superwash wool is wool that can be run through the laundry (washer/dryer) without the wool shrinking. Wool shrinks when the scales lift up and rub against each other, thereby locking down on nearby fibers and "felt"; hot water and agitation (i.e washing through the washer/dryer) are the usual culprits that cause felting. As a note, the number of scales on a given strand also give a certain amount of curl.

There are two ways to get superwash wool, but either way reduces the number of "scales" ( or the cuticles) of the hair by either:
1) shaving scales off each strand, thereby reducing crimp and the potential for felting and shrinking.
2) glueing the scales down by coating it with a special polymer

Superwash wool often has a "smoother" feeling than regular wool.

Recently, a friend of mine who is a hairdresser told me how the new "Brazillian Blowout" straightens curly hair --- essentially, each hair strand is "coated" with a glue (much like superwash wool) to straighten it.

It also feels "smoother" than regular hair.

Basically, the Brazillian Blowout creates superwash hair.

We have a podcast!

So, I mentioned previously that I was working on a podcast in the works. Well, that's become a reality!

Introducing the Geek Girls Crafts podcast -- a podcast by geek who just happen to be girls, talking about geeky topics from books, movies, technology, science fiction, cosplay,  conventions that they attend, and all of the geek events in the SF bay area. In addition, they talk about their DIY and crafting projects and how it fits into their geek lifestyles.

Listen here:
Geek Girl Crafts Podcast

PodCast in the Works

Some friends and I are working on a podcast that's in the same vein as this blog. We just recorded our first show yesterday, and I'm working on getting the audio edited and finalized.

We're VERY excited. I'll be making an 'official' announcement soon enough along with the appropriate links, etc.

Brief Thoughts on The Schact Sidekick: A Review

Ever since the Schact Sidekick was announced, I've been really looking forward to giving it a try. The Sidekick looked very nifty and the preliminary reviews were excellent. But, since I like to try wheels out first, I wasn't ready to pre-order it.

If it worked out for me, I had plans to sell my Ashford Joy for the Schact Sidekick. So, when my LYS finally got one into their store, I gave it a test drive.

My Initial Impressions:

* It's a very cute wheel, and looks to be well-engineered
* It is very small, and would travel very well.
* It treadles beautifully. However, being of a shorter stature, I do have to be in a slightly taller chair for it.

Then my wonderful spinning guru at my LYS showed me how to break it down, and this is where I started noticing problems. I'll be listing the advantages/disadvantages as I saw them.

Advantages:

* They use some nify handles to loosen a lot of parts (much like bikes).
* The Sidekick is very light to handle, albeit an awkward shape.
* Treadling is very smooth and very easy.
* Nearly everything has it's place.
* The orfice is of a good size, and you can probably do some art & bulky yarns with it.
* It's very well engineered (although I think it might be a little *too* over-engineered, see my notes below.)
* This wheel is tiny with a SMALL footprint. It'd fit nicely in a small apartment. You can probably take it on as carry on luggage on a plane (provided you don't carry anything else)
* It comes with two types of whorls (medium & fast). Also you can get an additional slow whorl (4.25:1/5.25:1) and the High speed whorl (12.5:1/15.25:1)

Disadvantages:

The following are some of the disadvantages that I found with the Sidekick. These are based on my personal preferences, and not something that is a "deteriment" to the wheel, but basically some things that might annoy me.

* It's not exactly easy to fold down the Sidekick. There are screws to be loosened, removed, then parts are rejiggered, then screwed into their proper places.

Unlike my Joy, where it's a push here, fold this, then zip into the bag and you're ready to go, the Sidekick takes a bit of doing. I'm sure that once you get used to breaking it down, it'll get faster. I'm just comparing it to the Joy where it was easy to fold up out of the box.)

* There's no place to put the flyer that would secure it well once it's folded down, nor is there a place to store extra bobbins.

* There's no handle by which to heft the Sidekick when it's folded, but there's plenty of real estate on the wheel to put something there. So, I don't know why Schact didn't do this one thing.

* There's no built-in kate (not a deal breaker for me, but something I noticed).

* The travel bobbins are PRICEY ($30.00 apiece). If you don't already have a Schact Matchless or Ladybug, you'll be investing in additional bobbins.

* I'm not sure how much I like their Scotch tension design that puts the spring on the wrong side of the nut, which causes it to lose a little bit of finer tension control as with other Scotch tension wheels. I really have to crank the nob to get a change in tension (unlike my Kiwi or Joy where a small twist to the spring provides additional tension)

Conclusions:

This is a very nice wheel that I would buy if I already didn't have the Joy. But this is a wheel that I would highly recommend people to consider IF:

* you're looking for a wheel that could serve as a home & travel wheel, I'd go for the Sidekick.

* you don't have a lot of space in my home/apartment, and needed something with a small foot print, I'd go for the Sidekick (although I think breaking it down repeatedly would be a hassle.)

* you're travelling and am going to be leaving your wheel set up for an extended period of time, I think this is an excellent wheel. If you need to constantly setup & fold up your wheel, this might get annoying, depending on your own personal preferences.

* you don't already own a travelling wheel.

I don't think I'll be selling my Joy for the Sidekick. I think the Joy is a little bit more "travel" friendly than the Sidekick; it's certainly easier to break down and I like the extra bobbin storage. Also their bag allows me to put fiber and other tools easily.

Sooper Seekrit Project

I'm working on a Sooper Seekkkrit Project that has to do with geek girls and crafting. Hopefully, it'll come into fruition this August. I've been doing prep-work in the meantime.

For this one, I am blaming several things:
a) Jasmin of the Knitmore Girls Podcast, coz, well, I can, and she initially put the seed into my head

b) Several conversations at WesterCon 2011 that basically said, "Why the hell not?"

More to come later...

TDF 2011: Final Day

One Pound of Fiber

This is 16 quills (1 ounce per quill) in my little Cthulu knitting bowl.

So, I finished my TDF 2011 goals 2 days ahead of schedule. So, I opted to spin the last 2 ounces of the fiber (as I had 18 ounces total, but only a goal of 16 ounces, or 1 pound) as extra credit. However, I only managed to finish one extra ounce due to Life (TM).

And will make a wonderful 3ply yarn....enough (hopefully) for a sweater.

TDF: The Home Stretch Day 21

It's almost the end of Tour de Fleece, and I'm working hard to accomplish my goal. I somewhat fell behind the pack last weekend because we had a trip planned that would leave me with several days of no spinning. Consequently, I tried to make up for it last week by spinning extra to make up for those last few days, for fear of being "rushed" at the end.
As a result, I'm really close to finishing my goal of 1lb of fiber for TDF. I have less than 1 ounce left of the required 16 ounces.

And then I looked at the TDF dates again....

I THOUGHT that TDF finished TODAY, 22nd of July, instead of July 24th. (Instead of 22 DAYS to finish, my brain transposed it to finishing BY the 22nd).

Silly me. I'm definitely prettier than smart in this case, it worked out in my favor as I am completely ahead of schedule!

Consequently, I will take these extra days to spin up the 2 additional ounces that would be left over from the fiber (I had a little over 1lb of fiber), and maybe, just maybe, I can also start plying.

AND, that would be EXTRA credit for TDF.