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.

Machine quilted runner on the embroidery machine

 

I took a class in machine quilting using my embroidery head; this is the runner we made. There are 10 repeats of the motif, all more or less well aligned... 

We started by centering a design 4" from one long border, and half way on the long axis, and stitching it out; then worked towards the edges. When one side was done, we did the other in the same manner. What I learned:

• Mark the line that everything will align to with chalk pencil.
• Use template paper made for stitching out a design, or stitch it out on organza to help align the design as you go along. Make sure to mark both axis.
• Put the template on first, then hoop the project; put it on the machine and use the centering function to put the center in the right place. Then check starting/ending points (on the Bernina, proceed to the stitch out sheet then hit the button that looks like a broken thread; the search button will let you enter the stitch number.
• Make sure to remove the template before you start stitching! Go to the first stitch, then bring the bobbin thread up to the top and hold on for a few stitches. Stop the embroidery at this point and cut the threads.
• If you don't have enough border to stitch everything out, hoop with the water soluble paper with the one sticky side and stick your project to it after slashing with a pin and peeling off the paper; trim it later and wash to remove. 
• Looks like if there is a problem, you should NOT remove the hoop! You can pick out the problem with a seam ripper and then use the same function as used to navigate to first and last points to get close to where you need to restitch.
• Embroidery tension is low, approximately 3 (of 10); the lower the tension, the further towards the back of the work the thread "knot" will be. If I'm using a quilt sandwich, I don't need stabilizer, and I should experiment with regular sewing tension (like 5).

The instructor, Allegra, was fabulous. She mentioned two things I need to look into. Dime makes a magnetic hoop that's supposed to be easier than managing thumb screws... And she uses Bernina's free design software to print out her design templates.

You can see where I joined motifs, on the left side of this flower... You really have to look for the joins!

New! Things!

Progress!!! Fiber-wise,

• I finished the Permutations poncho and it looks great; it's already been out to dinner twice. (Photo coming)
• The two Beiderwand pillows are on the couch.

  

  Beiderwand

  
  
• Two of the 3 Ikats that I've intended to hang are hanging; the third will go up on Sunday after DH visits the hardware store. I had to fringe one of them and figure out hanging tech for all of them.  Basically, I sewed 3/4" velcro to a cotton sleeve, and basted the cotton sleeve to the back of the ikat. The other half of the velcro was stapled to a baseboard sized piece of wood and nailed to the wall; then the ikat was applied to the to the hanging board. 
• Sommerloch is blocked and ready to wear (photo pending). 
• I figured out where I am on the Sunsets and Sand sweater (from last year) and knitting away on that. 
• I started a shirt in linen from the camp shirt pattern, minus darts. It's slow going as it's making me nervous. 
• My looms are naked, and it's been awhile. That's not good.

I also finished making the limoncello, and am working at spring cleaning my clothing closet. The piano lessons continue and progress is slow, but I'm still enjoying the process.

April '23:What I have been doing and what is on the short list

What I have been doing and what is on the short list:

Volunteer in the garden:
Spunky Monkey

• Permutations: A Dan Doh poncho pattern, travelled to Australia with me. I got quite a bit done on the flights and I'm currently working on the last 40 or so rows, and I want to wear this at our knitting retreat in June.
• Sommerloch sweater: It is done except the bottom edge curls up a bit and the shoulders need to be tightened up a bit. I'm lazily pouting about it, but really... it would take a couple of hours at most to make it wearable, and it does fit. 
• Sunsets and Sand sweater: I stopped working on it before I left on vacation last May. I think I'm half way. I need to figure out where I am and get working on it!
• The Beiderwand pillow tops: They are off the loom but need wet finishing and pillow-top-making.
• Shirt made out of paper fabric: I finally sewed up a muslin without darts from the Natalie pattern and it looks fine, so I can proceed with figuring out the rest of the project. I did by some cotton/linen to make the shirt first so I have more practice. For other fabrics, I think I'd like to put the dart back in and make it work, or move the dart to the shoulder and release it in a cute little pleat. And I found a cute collar trick in Threads magazine I need to try.
• I also need to get hanging hardware on the ikats so that they may be hung...
• There is currently nothing on the looms, either. The study group is working on combo weaves which I'm not excited about at the moment, so I'm tempted to use a kit I got from KS's stash for advancing twill scarves. 

I'm also playing a lot of piano, and I need to get the vegetable garden going in the next two weeks. I've got some guild stuff to do and it seems like an awful lot of doctors stuff going on for someone who is healthy.

Q1'23 finished things (3)

I'm late in posting my Q1 progress... I finished:

• First yarn spun on the Nano
• The cardwoven hiking belt
• Handspun paper fabric
• The Tasmanian Overland Track

I'm particularly fond on the 4th accomplishment on the list...

You'd think now I'm back I'd be getting a lot done. Well, between medical appointments from my unhappy knee, general malaise that results from returning from travel, and a true unwillingness to make any decisions about what's next, I'm a little stuck.

Don't forget these beans, and a belt.

Note to self: This is the BBQ bean recipe that I particularly like. I've posted it before but will do so again.  I don't have a smoker so I finished it in the oven.  We had them for lunch today and the only thing missing was ribs and some cole slaw. 

Other than that, not much new... a little spinning; some knitting is happening; I'm half way through threading my loom; and I have a belt ready for the hiking trip.

I'm going to talk about the belt a bit... The driver for this is that I'm long waisted (pretty much everything on me is long, being tall and all), and many pants are cut for folks that are shorter and wider, resulting in pants that didn't hit my waist and would either fall down or leave a chilly unattractive gap between my shirt and pants. I finally found hiking pants that are long enough in the waist, but they don't have belt loops, instead being slightly elastic. I tried wearing them multiple days in a row but the waist stretches a bit and I found myself fussing with pulling them up a lot.  

Also, I'm fairly serious about losing some weight. I'm down about 8 pounds and likely to lose more on vacation. Then I plan on losing a bit more. And I'd hate to just get rid of these pants because all they need is a belt.

Think of it as a visual resume

My solution was to put belt loops on the pants and weave a belt. I've been procrastinating for weeks because I have no idea how to make belt loops... Last night I finally spent time in the studio analyzing a pair of jeans and came up with a pretty good solution, but it's out of cotton and I'm not sure how durable it will be.

To make the belt loops, I cut strips of cotton 1.5" wide and sewed them into a tube with a 1/4" seam. Then I trimmed the seam (makes turning easier), and turned the tube so the seam in on the inside. I used what's essentially a large tie wrap to iron the tube flat (there are plastic pieces made for this) with the seam down the middle of one side. I then top stitched close to the both edges.

The pants have patch pockets on the front so I aligned the two front belt loops with the edge of the pocket closer to the front; one belt loop in center back, and one on each side halfway between the front belt and center back.

Then I wondered how the heck they make a tube and turn it using denim for blue jeans... a quick examination revealed that the fabric is folded in thirds and the top stitching also produces some sort of magic web like stitch on the back side. If you want an example, grab yourself a pair of jeans and take a look.

The belt, as I mentioned in the last post is cotton with nylon weft and nylon edges. I wore it for today's hike and the belt and belt buckle are not uncomfortable with the pack belt. Success!

Lots of walking, little studioing

I'm training for a 6 day hut to hut walk so doing a lot of walking, not putting in a lot of studio time... My max was 58km in one week with 15 pound backpack and a bunch of climbing. I've backed off a bunch but still trying to get the studio mojo back; one of the issues is I need to clean up in there, and I'm procrastinating...

I did finish weaving the paper yarn fabric! It's 13" wide (approx) and about 6 feet long. I washed it on the "handwash" cycle and hung it to dry; Looking forward to sewing it. There's maybe a yard or so of warp left on the loom, I need a plan for it...

The Sommerloch sweater is almost done but sitting in Knitting Purgatory right now. I need to tighten up the neckline a little and re-bind off a little tighter. I'm delaying as it's not warm enough to wear it anyways.

I warped up a card woven band for a belt; 30 cards of 10/2 cotton, with nylon alternating with the cotton on the edges. I'm also using a nylon weft. This was recommended to me as the edges of belts tend to wear more; but I fear that the nylon is abrading the cotton! I'll need to put belt loops on my hiking pants to use with it.

The goat spinning project is delayed by lack of time... Also I may use commercial yarn and not leftovers for the first rug; seems prudent.

I cast on the DanDoh Permutations poncho and my knitting happily on it. 

I'm also ready to warp the loom with yardage for 2 pillows... 

As always, making a list of what I'm working on always makes me realize that I'm doing more than I think I'm doing! Which was the original purpose for this blog.