Ryan's new gloves and a frogged sweater

I'm trying to finish these gloves for Ryan before he leaves for Alaska for the summer but I find myself setting them aside frequently and looking to my other projects. I think it is because I don't really believe I have enough leftover sock yarn to finish these and I'm putting off the inevitable of finding out I don't have enough yarn as I'm trying to complete the pinky finger. I also know that I will so have to abandon these nice looking stripes for solid turquoise and I'm not convinced it is going to look okay though Ryan says he is okay with this.

And here we have the latest victim of my merciless frogging. I knew I wasn't liking this project and I really really needed a cardigan so this yarn is currently hanging in the shower drying in anticipation of my next sweater project which is Oblique from Knitty. I've swatched and I'm ready to go.

More terrible photos of my projects. I uploaded these from Flickr and they aren't very good but I haven't figured out why. They obviously aren't big enough or something...

silk scarf/shawl continued

Every time I look at that photo I cringe. It absolutely does not do justice to the finished project which is silky and drapey with a very linear pattern which appealed to me. Unfortunately I turned in the scarf on saturday to be included in out guild booth in Helena in June. So it will be awhile until I get it back to take a proper photograph. I get quite nervous when presenting my projects to the guild as they have so many years of experience and I often find myself doing something a little unconventional only because I didn't know any better. I had some trouble with the edge threads breaking on this project which is I assume because I shouldn't have used the single ply silk yarn as the warp. I was able to salvage the project with an improvised temple consisting of a couple of +paper clips, some leftover 5/2 pearl cotton, and some plastic containers filled with rocks.

One last note....I used pascal's triangle to design the stripe pattern within the summer and winter structure. I love that!

Bad photo of silk shawl.

MAWS project complete

Darn. The camera is home but no photos yet. I finished the silk shawl/wrap project on the small loom this week and it is lovely. Not what I planned, but very nice indeed. The yarn is Henry's Attic 1 and 2 ply Rapunzel (100% Tussah Silk) dyed by me using Earthues Natural Extracts. The mordant was alum and cream of tartar and the dyes used were Logwood Purple and Grey. I used the 1 ply for the warp which was a mistake and used a Summer and Winter pattern. I accidentally set the warp wider than I had planned hence I have a much (3") wider piece of fabric than I intended. Ooops. So it's sort of a weird size, somewhere between a scarf and shawl. This project is for the Bozeman Weaver's Guild booth at the MAWS conference in Helena. We each picked a photo of a Montana Wildflower to use as inspriration. I chose a photo that I had taken while on vacation in the Pryor Mountains and I was using slide film at the time so I don't have a digital copy...only a print. So I'll tell you the flower was obviously purple. Photos tomorrow hopefully.

loads of new rug weaving fiber

A couple years ago I bought about 50lb (?, it may have been more) of karakul fleeces for a good price from a customer at the mill. These fleeces sat in bags, first in the greenhouse and then in the attic of the mill, for a long time. I felt guilty every time I saw the pile, unused. When I left the mill I finally took the plunge and asked to have alot of it processed into roving for handspinning and a small amount into yarn for rug warp. Well yesterday I picked it all up and yikes there is alot of spinning to do. So I have decided to set myself a goal of spinning all the rug wool by the end of the summer. I think if I spin it all up first before committed to a project I might have an easier (less stressful) time of working with the finished yarn. We'll see.

long time gone

Well I'm back in front of the computer all day so thought I might resurrect this project. I am without camera right now so I can't take any picture of my current projets. I do have a few in progress and more than a few in my head.

Actual work in progress...
1. Shawl collar sweater design-hopefully will be a sweater pattern for Thirteen Mile.
2. Woven silk scarf-this project has turned into a bear. I'll post more when I can get some pictures going in a few weeks. The warp is a single ply silk that keeps breaking on the left edge. I have some ideas about how to deal with this than involve a floating selvage that I continually add twist into to keep it strong.
3. Woven wool rug-this is a weft faced 100% montana wool rug I'm really excited about but unfortunately haven't worked on much lately. It's on the loom in the barn studio and I've been a baby about the cold lately.

Projects in my head....
1. Wool yardage for a skirt for me. This has been in my head for awhile but every time I free up the small loom something else needs to get done (i.e. birthday presents, guild projects, etc.)
2. Ryan annual pair of socks. I need to ask Ryan whether he actually wants any more socks. Maybe gloves....
3. Sister Kelley's birthday present....still brainstorming on this one.....could the wool rug get done for Kelley?

Weaving class graduate

One of my main accomplisments in the last month was the completion of my 10 week beginning handweaving class. Whew, the homework was intense and we had two people drop out of the class but at the end of 10 weeks I have made tons of samples and this....my pride and joy new towel...which I gave to Ryan to use as his summer bath towel. I like to point out to everyone that I didn't get to choose the colors or the weaving pattern which are not my favorite but I still can't believe that I made this!!!

Long time no....

Well gosh. I'm not sure what happened. I guess not sitting in front of a computer all day has really affected my posting frequency. Oh well. All I've been doing is working anyway. Not alot of knitting to share. Following are pictures from shearing day. In no particular order you will see the unsheared sheep, myself, Molly and Katherine, more sheep and unsheared sheep, Becky, and cute little one in the backpack that I taught to say "nice to meet ya" during lunch, and the shearers.