Knitting retreat, errors, fun on the loom!

I finally put that tencel on the loom which includes the warp I hand dyed a few years ago... It's a combination weave (in this case, twill and basket weave).  It went on pretty easily, although I was worried about registration of the colored parts and I ended up slipping the threads and getting it pretty poorly aligned. I spent some time debating if I wanted to worry about that; but my color sections are 8 inches or so long and I decided after some thinking and some advice from A.K. to leave it. I'm super glad I did. 

I'd designed a special twill for the color changing sections... and HATED it after I've woven about 6 inches. It had strong horizontal lines which obliterated the color changes and were in general very distracting. So I rejiggered the tie up to make those sections zig-zag; it's a little boring but a lot easier than rethreading. 

When I wound on, the paper got pretty crinkled... I remember thinking that this is bad, it'll cause me tons of tension issues as I weave. About 6 inches in the tension went wonky. I cut out what I'd woven, then rebeamed it with smooth flat happy paper and now the tension is awesome. I also fixed a threading error... I'm about 10" into the weaving and having fun.

I have to have this off the loom by the time I leave for S's wedding as I'll have to rethread for CNCH as soon as I get home! So I'm holding off on the rugs until then.

I've been trying to make a camp shirt that fits so I can use the pattern for my paper yardage. It "finished" and in the washer at the moment, and I'll see how it looks when it comes out... I learned a lot but will sew one more before I cut into the paper.  I made some mistakes... The biggest was picking up the rotary cutter instead of the little rolly marking thingy and cutting a bunch of holes where I'd wanted to make buttons and stuff. I covered the hole at the sleeve cap with embroidery, but managed to get my machine to seize up doing so... It was the trip to get it fixed that caused me to take the runner I made in the last post. I covered the button band with a bias strip of matching fabric, and the buttonholes sit on top of the slits so that's okay. There are two minor holes just under the collar as it turns, and I haven't decided which visible mending to wear there. I may or may not add a pocket with the same embroidery as the sleeves. But I like the fit and it's not hard to sew. Next up, I'll do the same shirt again in a batik from Malaysia.

I'm bringing up the subject of errors because I'm making a lot of them. Nearly all of them are because I didn't listen to my instincts (like having to rebeam the warp) or because I didn't clean up my workspace (picking up the cutter instead of the marker). 

I'm still knitting on Sunset and Sand Dunes or whatever it's called... K's version is lovely and she's about 6 inches ahead of me! I decided not to bring it to our knitting retreat this year. I cast on another Afternoon Tea Shawl (I left the first one in Taos), in bluegreen; this will keep me occupied on the plane and at the wedding. I should finger out if I want beads on it... I also cast on Shiny in a red brown silk that I bought in Amsterdam. The retreat was lovely but I think one day too long, which is fine after complaining for so many years about it being too short! Highlights included a trip to Monarch Knitting, where I bought the yarn for a cowl I'd like to make for our Japanese trip, and inner at the Pocket, where Christophers used to be. 

I have been spinning some but there's nothing to note.

We had a bottle of Skouras Salto (Moscofilero); it's made with wild yeast on the Peloponnesian peninsula (specifically Nemea). Wow. Light, good summer wine, a little salinity; it would be wonderful with fish on the grill. I'm ordering more, while researching the Nemean Lion. 

I have to add that I did some research on the Nemean Lion to see if I could figure out its parentage. There are some legends that it's descended from the Chimera, but also conflicting stories that it's mother was Echidna. I did a double take then went down the internet rathole of researching what the relationship was between an Australian monotreme and a half reptile, half human Greek demi-god. Apparently the Echidna (animal) was initial thought to be a blend of reptile and mammal before the egg-laying mammal thing was figured out, thus the name... But did you know that they have elecrosensors in their snouts that they used to find prey? As far as Wikipedia knows, it's echidna, platypus, and one type of dolphin that do that. I'm fascinated.