New Loom

Last year, my Cricket Loom (a wonderful first Mother's Day gift from Elise) hooked me on weaving.  I know, the girl went all out and set the bar pretty high for Mother's Day- hopefully she can live up to the standard this year :-)

The Cricket was perfect for learning to weave on a rigid heddle loom.  The compact size made it easy to move around.  I could work on projects on the couch, and there were even a few car rides that involved weaving.  Although I broke every weaving rule out there (I was clueless... and still am a bit!), I managed to come up with a few pieces that I *love*.

But, as my appetite for weaving grew- it was time for a larger loom.  Enter my Ashford 32" rigid heddle:

To tell you the truth, this was actually a Christmas present from Joe.  The loom has been sitting here warped since... oh... January (see, the blog isn't the only thing that has been neglected in my life the past few months!).   Time has gotten away from me a bit, work has distracted me that much more- and I also have a little color issue.

I know I won't have enough of this fingering weight Plucky Primo in Candy Apple seen as the warp.  I need to add some more color, and right now I'm kind of thinking of weaving in more of a true red.  But like I said, it's completely undecided and the hesitation continues!

I know every time I bring up weaving, I have a whole slew of questions coming in on the blog and emails.  People asking about how I learned, if I know of any good reference videos out there, questions on warping, etc.  Well, I am pleased to say that I finally have an answer for all of you looking to get in to weaving.

Want to know what it is?!?

I'll tell you...




tomorrow.


Stay tuned :-)



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For Those Who Are Wondering...

I've purchased the yarn to completely finish my Legacy wrap.  With a comment like this from katherinelynn_04, how could I not?

        " RIP IT!! it will bother you if several years down the line it still isn't fixed. Plus, don't you
        want to be an example for your daughter? Finishing what you started and all that? Plus, it 
        might make it's way into being an heirloom. Don't make it an unfinished one! "
            
Yes, there were many votes for keeping it as is, but the mere fact that it's my own pattern should be enough reason for me to do it up right!

So, with yarn purchased, half the battle is over- I still dread picking up 100 loose stitches- but it is decided- it must be done (if not for me- than for my daughter!).

For those of you asking more details about my weaving project from yesterday, I've added the project to Ravelry with all necessary info.  I can't believe I didn't even post about the yarn used, I guess I was too excited to share the project (it's Cascade Magnum, btw- I've updated yesterday's post, too).  '

And finally, many of you have asked when Legacy will be available alone as a pattern.  I plan on working this weekend to get things ready to roll by early next week- stay tuned!

Almost forgot... I know I will have some questions about them- so I better go ahead and share.  The buttons in the first picture are Jul Silver Pedestal Buttons.  I originally shared about them here and am excited to finally have some in my possession.   I'll show you more when my wrap is totally finished and they are all in place :-)

Looming Around

Or maybe I should say "looming a round", which is exactly what I did in my latest weaving project.

For those of you who have experienced the joy of a quick cowl knit up in bulky weight yarn- you ain't seen nothing yet!  Oh- the pleasure of weaving with chunky weight yarn might just surpass the glee produced with an "instant gratification knit".

After warping my little loom (which honestly didn't take more than 20 minutes), I probably spent under a half hour actually weaving this cowl.  If I would've left it as a chunky scarf, that would have been it!

I did decide that I wanted to experiment a bit and see if I could produce a round cowl from my loom.  So, the most time was invested weaving each end in to the other end.  It did produce a seam (as seen below), but it is hardly noticeable while on.

I am still quite in love with the look of woven fabric, and now I feel I have seen a range of what a simple rigid heddle loom can produce.  From lace weight to bulky weight, it seems you can't go wrong.

What do you think?  I think I just found my new favorite cowl!

Loom: Schacht Cricket
Yarn: Cascade Magnum (just over half a skein?)
Raveled: here

A Little Punch of Red

You saw a preview a while back- here's the finished product:

 I fell in love with this color combo back in the spring and was itching to knit something with my Amethyst Heather and Garnet yarns.   The lace weight yarn was doubled in both the warp and weft.  Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn and the scarf was a little shorter than I originally planned.  There must be some secret weaver's formula I don't know about yet for this sort of thing.   Anyone out there know the proper way to figure out yardage for weaving?

What this meant is I had a ton of extra yarn on the loom that was going to go to waste (fortunately I whipped up some braids to create a headband- we'll see if it actually gets use or not).

Loom: Schacht Cricket Loom

Warp and Weft: Cascade Alpaca Lace in Amethyst Heather with a touch of Garnet (held double)

Present Day Weaving

Now that I've gotten you all caught up on the past few months, I can finally reveal what's on my loom now. 

Once again I have broken weaving rules by warping my loom with lace weight yarn, but this time I held it double (can you say "hold yarn double" when talking about weaving?  Hmmm... who knows).

The yarn is Cascade Alpaca Lace yarn in Amethyst Heather and a touch of Garnet.  It's moving right along and I hope to get a new project on the loom soon.

And for those of you wondering where all the knitting content is, I promise to have more of that for you soon, too!

Weaving with Noro

I've written in the past about how I am a little leery of Noro yarn.  When I first saw it, I didn't really understand the fascination.  I decided I should knit with it before drawing any conclusions and started these socks:

I began to understand the wonder of Noro yarn, but still wasn't ready to fill my stash wall with it.

When looking for ideas for weaving projects online, many of my favorites happened to be made with Noro yarn.  With as quick as weaving projects go, I figured I could try it out in a woven garment.  Despite being advised against it, I decided to warp my loom with Noro Sekku, a lace weight yarn.

Warping the loom was amazing.  Colors started unfolding before my eyes, I never knew what to expect next. 

I started weaving- it clicked.  I finally understood the beauty of Noro yarn.

Warp and Weft: Noro Sekku in Red, Green, Purple

Done on my Schacht Cricket Rigid Heddle Loom

Life and Other Fibery Things

 As I mentioned last week, life has changed a bit since I was last blogging.  What was once a sweet little baby who would sit nicely and watch us go about our business:

Has become a little ball of energy who never stops moving (or putting things in her mouth!):

                   

                   

Life is always exciting with a little one around.  She keeps us more than busy, but I have been finding time for some knitting lately.  When I went on my little knitting strike a few months ago,  I didn't go totally without fiber.  For Mother's Day,  Elise gifted me a Cricket Loom and I was quickly wrapped up in all things weaving.  In fact, in the first week I received the gift, I learned to warp my loom and completed 3 scarves.  

I will now share some pictures from my first two projects... just remember that it's a learning process!

My first project was a plaid scarf from yarn leftovers.  I believe there was some bamboo silk and also some cotton.  I know... weird fiber combination. Learning lessons with every project!

As you can see in this close-up pictures, I am still learning about tension of weaving- those edges are a far cry from perfect.

Next up was a simple scarf with variegated wool.  Since I'm not one to typically use variegated yarn, I went shopping specifically for some multi-colored fiber to work with.  My warp was Stonehedge Fiber Mill's Shepherd's Wool and my weft was the variegated wool I went shopping for that I can't recall the name of.

I do love the look of a woven garment, but I have decided that I will use my multi-colored picks for the warp from now on.

Ok, so these were my learning projects.  My next project looks a little crazier than I would normally pick out, but I'm excited to share it with you... tomorrow :-)

Cricket

With all of the Blogger hoopla last week, I almost forgot to show off my mother's day gift from Elise.

Does this baby have great taste or what?!  After a week in the box, this past weekend I tackled my first project... a couple days later my second... a day after that my third.  Addiction?  Umm... yes!  It may be time to start looking at larger looms.

For those of you out there who weave, I need help.  I am so new to this and it is all so foreign, but I am absolutely loving it.  What are the best resources for a new weaver?  I've found a few helpful youtube videos, but I would love to know where some of you more experienced weavers go- websites, books, etc- share, please!