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!