Falling

Time to check in for a bit. It has been dry, windy and alternately warm and cool here, leading to a general feeling of ' am I sick or are these dust sniffles? '. All the lotion and hair conditioner has come out from storage, as well as the flannel jammies.

I am still working in weaving class, warping up for an overshot practice piece. One mistake in the warp became 2 and then 3... what a mess. I muddled thru and learned a lot about just doing things correctly in the first place! Threading has commenced and I should be ready to throw a shuttle in a couple more weeks. Home weaving has been on hold, although I have repaired the warping board and have a long list of things that need to be made up, and soon.

Mama and the kittens all got sterilized last week and are recovering nicely. The boys look a little... deflated. The girls got more of a Brazilian wax. Want one?

Knitting has recommenced after a long wool-free summer. The burgundy Icarus shawl has been dusted off and is looking good. I have also been threatening to have a Wallaby KAL for a couple years now and finally started one so that I will be able to help the class. The brown romney I was spinning last winter is just the thing and progress is swift.

Driving has been cut to a minimum until I can save up the $400 I need for the rest of the repairs it needs (my oil change ended up being $300 in repairs and that was just the things that would have killed me on the way home), but I think I can carpool to the Handweavers' show this weekend, so fun is still in my future!

The Happiest Time of the Year

Today is a good day. A great day. A day second only to 'get the space heater out of storage' Day. Today is......First Handknit Socks of the Season Day. My feet are all toasty warm now (that brown rock is Dozer with a walk-on role).

In other news, I spent a good chunk of yesterday warping and sampling for Martha's blanket. The sample is coming out beautifully, but the pets were not as happy.

Dozer wonders if he measures up. Tuppy has decided to appoint himself Master of Scissors. Perhaps he is showing me he knows he goes in for the snip this month? He really is a sweet cat... anyone want him?

Parade of Finished Objects

First, the upholstery fabric. I think it came out quite well. It softened after wet-finishing, but the blue did not pucker noticeably and the boucle bits in the white stripes became more prominent. It has a good weight and a dense enough texture to be approved for upholstery by my weaving class, so I call it a success. Now to find cheap pillow forms and some foam to make a weaving bench pad.

A wide shot of the cottolin fabric. This is the twill side, and you can barely, barely see the herringbone pattern through the textured, striped yarn. This picture is after wet-finishing, a trip through the dryer and having the holy hell ironed out of it. Measured shrinkage was minimal, although the cotton portion did fluff up considerably. The fabric has become much softer and more pliable. The tabby side also came out well, but the picture is not very interesting. "Yup, looks like cloth, Martha". A super-close up of the twill portion. Hopefully you can click to enlarge but I can see about setting up a weaving folder on my flickr account for better viewing. I really enjoyed working with the linen, broken warp threads notwithstanding.

I have also discovered that I am sick of using a dummy warp. It is meant to give extra length to the warp so that you can use every inch of your fashion fabric, which is valuable for dear yarns or handspun. I find that I lose more weaving time, and gain more stress, than I had in the weaving process in that last 6 inches. I will stick to tying a back apron rod onto the warp beam.

Next on the weaving plate? Overshot sampling in weaving class and cotton tea-towels (full size) at home. I also need to warp up for the gray blanket.