Yarn flowers

Reading blogs can be so dangerous.  Sometimes, you see something in a whole new light and you become obsessed.  Such was the case when I read this post by Curiousweaver.  I’ve never really had a huge desire to make yarn flowers before.  Until I saw hers.  What a neat little touch.  I spent the next couple of hours looking at flowers, looms, and instructions.  In the end, I made the simplest of looms.

I used a compass to draw the circles on a piece of paper, then taped it to a small box. I just eyeballed the spoke lines, and used plain old brad nails. I found some 8/2 tencel that had been the end of a warp and got started. I started big and worked my way down in size. I tossed them on the lamp shade so they didn’t get lost in the couch cushions

I kind of like them there.

I don’t know that I’ll use these particular ones in any project, they’re mostly just for learning how to do it.

The sampler that never ends

I am still working on the sampler.  Good grief, am I slow or what.  I did cut off the 30 epi part and resley to 24 epi. I also re-threaded from 8 shafts to 16 because I had come up with my own little draft and figured I might as well try it out on the 24 epi sampler.  Somewhere between creating the draft and re-threading, I forgot what I was planning and threaded a straight draw when I should have threaded a point draw.

While weaving the 24 epi sampler, I noticed a loose thread.  Apparently when I tied onto the tie bar, I didn’t get one in there with the same tension as the rest of the bout.  It was only a little loose and it wasn’t really affecting the cloth, but it was bugging me so I hung a weight off that thread.  Which I guess was too much weight, or maybe it got caught on something, because a couple inches of weaving later, I noticed that there was a dark line appearing in my cloth due to a warp thread missing.  Here I’ve already started the repair

At first I told myself that it was just a sampler and it didn’t really matter if that one thread was missing for a few inches.  I certainly wasn’t going to unweave almost 5 inches of 16/2 cotton. But, wouldn’t this be a good time to learn how to fix a thread.  As it turns out, it was.  It was time consuming.  Those threads are tiny and sometimes I would get it wrong, but I would take it out and do it again until it was right.  I think there is one spot that I went under or over the wrong thread but hey.. sampler.. no one would notice.. I’m leaving it there. Not bad at all for my first time

One of these days

One of these days, I want to weave a cape.  I’ll wear it when I’m lurking around in the woods with elves,  trying to protect The Ring.  Or maybe, I’ll wear it at night, with the hood low over my forehead, while carrying a scythe.  Even more fun would be to wait until my husband falls asleep, then wake him up while standing in front of him in a dimly lit room. Or maybe I’ll just wear it to the grocery store.

I’m not sure where I’ll really wear it, I just want one.  What I really want is solid black wool.  Now really, I have enough yarn to last me for a long while so I’ve not been in any hurry to buy wool for a cape.  I’ve never even woven with wool so when I got the wool last month, I was thrilled.  Finally, wool to weave with.  And then this morning, another jackpot.  Someone brought several large garbage bags of yarn to the guild, to be given away.  There were at least 50 cones of Harrisville wool.  Again, I have enough yarn to last for a long while, but free wool is free wool.  Maybe I’m not meant to have a black cape, but one with a bit of color.

Someone said she saw some breakage in one of the cones and warned that there are moths in the cones.  She suggested sitting them in the hot sun.  I don’t see any obvious breakage in the ones I have but I have them sitting outside in the sun anyway.  To keep birds from leaving any surprise gifts on my precious yarn, I have them in those zippered bags that bedding comes in.  I still plan on giving them some fun time in the freezer too.  (The very bottom left pink cone is cotton, all the rest are Harrisville wool.)

ETA: Closer inspection found 2 cones with damage.  I doubt the original owner knew it was there because I really had to look for it. I’m not mad at anyone, other than the evil moths.  Also, what I want is actually a long flowy cloak, not a short cape.