Thursday 3 May 2012

Nothing

   Ello folks, I have absolutely nothing to blog, zilch, nadda, not a single thing. Its been a very lazy week for me, I've not done anything yarn wise, no knitting, weaving or spinning. I did do a little gardening, transplanted and thinned some of my tobacco plants. 
  My sister is due down on Sunday so now I'm in a rush to finish weaving the scarf but the problem is I'm not very happy with the results so far so might not end up giving it to her after all. That's even if I can get it finished in time. I'll see how it turns out after its been washed but if I'm not happy I'll save it as a sample so I can see my improvements over time. I can always whip up a book mark or keythob on the inkle loom, love the inkle loom as its really quick to weave simple patterns.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Wet and lazy week

   Ello folks, slow lazy wet week and nothing to blog about. I'm still weaving this darn scarf and having trouble with the edges on one side, I'm not sure but I think I might of messed up when I warped it. I think I warped it left to right then cut and threaded the holes right to left, not sure if that's a problem or not but the warps sort of look wrong at the back winding peg thing. The edge on one side isn't perfect but that's down to me and lack of experience, the other edge is very messy and I'm not sure why. The messy edge could be I have warped the scarf wrong, I seem to remember reading somewhere about using odd or was that even numbers of warps, maybe that's the problem. I need to read more me thinks.
   I'll keep at it until its finished and even though this one project has taken much longer than it should of done I'll jump straight back on the horse and weave another project making sure I warp, cut and thread all the same direction. Will try and find out if I need even or odd number warps too. Not sure what the next project will be, am thinking of dinner place mats for my moms birthday but will depend on what yarn I have around the house. I'd really like to weave something in a variegated yarn like my last project, that one was so much more fun than this one but that's probably because it went well with very few mistakes. Got lucky I guess.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.

Saturday 21 April 2012

Dirty whites and shady greys

   Ello folks, a pretty slow week this week, got a little bit of this done and a little bit of that done but overall not much done really. I have been carding and blending some white and grey fleece, its all kind of mixed up with some dirty whites and various shades of grey. Once its all spun and plied the colours should be some what more uniform but not perfect, not that I want perfect. I do like the natural colours of some fleeces and with blending you can get some interesting greys, browns and blacks. Not to mention dirty whites. Once I've spun and plied this fleece I'll be knitting my fingerless gloves, Lord knows I could do with them here lately and for next month too.

  Hope you all have a great weekend, take care folks.

Monday 16 April 2012

Love Hate

   Ello folks, hope you all had a great weekend. I got a tiny bit of knitting done and some weaving but had a small mishap. I messed the colours up on the scarf, got very frustrated and nearly took it all off the loom. Taking it off the loom would of been a waste of yarn and I hate wasting yarn. I'm not very happy with this piece really and carrying on is sort of a waste of yarn but the practise will do me good. In the end I walked away for a coffee and came back and unwove the colours and made a start reweaving. I've not caught up with where I was but am close enough, just lost a couple of days is all.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.

Saturday 14 April 2012

A little knitting

   Ello folks,not much to report really. Got a little knitting done and a little weaving, I think the woven scarf will be finished sometime next week. I'll try and remember to charge the batts. so I can take some pictures and do a picture post. I'll get pics of the last piece I did and hopefully the scarf on the loom and finished off the loom too. I'm not sure if I have any knitted pieces around to take pictures of, I really should of taken pictures of my Christmas knits.

  Hope you all have a great weekend, take care folks.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Another short post

    Ello folks, another short post today because I have nothing to write about. I'm still trying to get back into the habit of blogging on a regular basis. I'm still slowly weaving the scarf, my hearts just not into this project though for some reason. I was looking at the last thing I weaved, I wasn't overly impressed when I first took it off the loom but its really grown on me. I think I'll buy some more variegated yarn for my next weaving project, what every that is.

  I've gotten a little knitting done the last couple of days, knitting the moss, seed, stitch scarf to go with the five fold aran braid cable pockets. I'm in no rush with this scarf and enjoy knitting moss stitch, doesn't require much thinking about and fills the time when I have a few mins doing nothing.

  Have a great day, take care folks.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Short and sweet

   Ello folks, still have nothing to blog about but thought I'd best check in and see if I can start blogging more often, even if I have nothing to blog about. I haven't gotten much weaving done on the scarf, I'm not 100% happy with the colours or the way its turning out. The pattern would look great in different colours, as for the way its turning out that's all my fault. I really do need to practise much more. The edges to the scarf aren't as even as I would like, the weaving in of the colour changes are pretty sloppy and the whole piece isn't as balanced as I had planned, I think that's a counting mistake on my part though. Well that's all for today, short and sweet.

  Hope you all had a great weekend, have a great day and take care folks.

Friday 6 April 2012

Happy Easter.

   Ello folks, another short post today as I've nothing crafty to report. This weekend I'm hoping to make a real dent in the scarf that's been sat on the loom much longer than it should of. I'm not sure when my sister is due so I really need to get a move on and make sure this scarf gets finished otherwise she will not be getting a Christmas present this year.(eta for last Christmas)
  Apart from not being too happy with the way the blue and purple are going together in the scarf I'm also unhappy with the tails I weave in when joining a colour, I've made the tails too short and there not weaving in tightly enough creating little bumps. I'm not going to unweave what I've already done, I'll just make future colour join tails longer so I can weave them in better, all part of the learning process.

  Hope you all have a great weekend, take care folks and have a blessed Easter.

Thursday 5 April 2012

Short quick blog post.

   Ello folks, not much to blog about so just a short quick post tonight. I've switched off the stupid unreadable codes so anyone can now post comments. I really need to clean up the main page, things like projects and I should clean up a few of the other pages like current and future projects. Depending on anymore changes to blogger I might switch to another platform like wordpress, that is if I can get back into blogging more often again. Might not be worth my while to switch.

  Had a day off yesterday that I was planning to get some weaving done but ended up messing around trying to install TOR and get it to work. I didn't manage to get it to work but did learn how to use the terminal in linux better. I'll try again maybe this weekend, for now I have a live cd version of TOR so if I have to slip the .govs leash I can do.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Lost my mojo.

   Ello folks, hope your all doing well. I've gotten very little weaving done even though I had all weekend free, kind of makes it hard to blog about crafty stuff so this will be a short post I reckon. I'm not 100% happy with the colours I'm using for the scarf I'm weaving, the light blue and purple are too close so the squares don't stand out as much as I'd of liked. I've started so I'll finish and next time pick colours that contrast more.

  The weather here is pretty wicked at the moment, high winds, cold, rain and we might get some snow over night. Tonight I really wish I had made a start on spinning, and finished and knitted the fingerless gloves I have planned. Oh well, I'm sure they will be ready for next winter.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.

Saturday 31 March 2012

Lazy lazy day.

   Ello folks, seems to have been a good week for my blogging, just not sure I can keep it up. I didn't get any weaving done today as planned, I had a very lazy day sat in front of the computer catching up on tv shows. I gave up my tv in February but still like to watch the odd program on the computer, N.C.I.S, Sons of Anarchy and one I had forgotten about, The Mentalist which I caught up on today.I never really watched tv when I had it but had it on a lot as back ground noise, I don't miss it at all as it, usually, gives me more time to get on with crafty stuff.

  I'll get some weaving done tomorrow and I need to get some more knitting done on the five fold aran braid pocket scarf, I haven't knitted any since I decided it only needed to be done by Christmas. I still need to do some spinning for the fingerless gloves I want to knit, wish i had them now as the weather has really chilled the last two days and will be getting cooler next week. I have a tray of tobacco plants on the window sill that I hope are going to be ok with this cold snap.

  Hope you all have a great weekend, take care folks.

Thursday 29 March 2012

Weaving anew

   Ello folks, yep I'm posting for a third day in a row. Can't promise I'll keep it up though. I finished weaving the pattern in the sock yarn and cut it off the loom, wasted a lot of yarn which I hate to do but I really didn't like the way it was. I have saved the wasted yarn, it might come in handy for something, stuffing maybe.

  I warped a new pattern on the rigid heddle after I cut the old one from the loom, didn't really take me long which was good as warping can be a pain at times. The yarn I warped with is the acrylic stuff I got free with my old knitting magazines, its pretty soft stuff and nice colours. The pattern is a sort of check board with the solid colours forming a 4 square(purple) in the centre with solid colours coming off that into an x(Pink, lilac) shape. Not sure that makes sense, I'll try and get some pictures while its on the loom and when I've finished it. Using a pink, lilac then a purple as the main colour, wish now I had used more contrasting colours but it still looks good. I think I can finish this scarf pretty quickly, have plenty of time this weekend to have a real crack at it so should take me less than a week.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Oh what a tangled web we weave.

   Ello folks, just because I'm posting for a second day in a row doesn't been I'm back to blogging full time but I will try and post more often again. Promise. Well I warped the rigid heddle loom and straight away I didn't like it but I started weaving to see how it would turn out. Not very well. As I said yesterday I was planing on working with sock yarn even though I knew it wouldn't be balanced because the reeds not set up for it, what I hadn't realised was that the warp patterns wouldn't show at all. I sort of corrected this by unweaving the rows I had done and re weaving them using double the yarn. With the double yarn the warps are showing better but not great. The whole thing isn't great, right from the start I wasn't happy with the warp, it just looked wrong.

  Now I have no idea what to do, I'll weave a little more of whats on the loom just to finish the pattern once through then I will cut it off and just keep it as a sample of what not to do. For the next project I could still use the sock yarn but double it through the reed for a balanced piece but I'm really not keen on this sock yarn, its full of flubs and splits easy. Probably better to weave with it than knit with it though. I might have a go at a checked pattern using double sock yarn in grey and white, or I might see what else is in my stash that I have enough of to weave a scarf. I'll keep you all informed.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

A weaving week.

   Ello folks, you may of noticed I'm still not back to blogging full time, heh. I did manage to get a lot done last week, all weaving on my main rigid heddle loom. I warped and wove a pretty wide scarf using 3 variegated yarns that resulted in a nice mix of colours. The yarns were all double knits and the scarf drapes ok, maybe a little stiff, am still undecided. The scarf has been washed and I think its come out pretty well. Its all one size, no pulling in, but the selvedges(US selvages, didn't know that) are a little wonky here and there and I've missed one warp near the beginning. I also managed to do the hem stitch and it worked out really well with a nice tidy fringe that didn't need to be knotted.

  This week, tomorrow, I'm going to start a new scarf using sock yarns. I know about working out my set and balanced weaving but still need to learn about how things feel, drape. I'm not 100% sure of the pattern I'm going to attempt, have a rough idea in my head based on MaCleod tartan but not in those colours. I'll keep you all informed, I think with the sock yarn being so thin this scarf will take me longer.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.