Archive | July 2014

Tri Shawl

Jul30

That didn’t take long! Fast to weave and I found an interesting way to assemble that also added about an inch to each seam so makes the shawl a bit bigger for my single ball of yarn. Found this purple in my stash for the trim and like the way it looks. Took 15 triangles. I left the tip off as I really don’t need an arrow pointing ‘there’.

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The join, in case you’re liking that, is a 5 stitch dc shell. Since I used the 14″ Tri it worked out this way: On the short side: 2 sc, skip 1 loop, *shell, sk 2,  slip stitch, sk 2* but you’ll need to adjust for your size. It’s the same basic thing so not a problem how many you skip or don’t skip. To join, work the same thing but dc 3 then slip your hook out and into the center stitch of the opposite shell and draw the loop though, then dc two more to finish the shell. Try to keep the right side up, which I failed to pay attention to at first, but it really doesn’t show much in the shawl unless you really look for it. I finished the shawl edge with a row of sc and a row of reverse sc in the shawl yarn and the top edge is just dc adjusted to lay flat.

My shawl measures 62″ wide by 30″ deep. My yarn, a soft merino, had a lot of draw-up so my tris are about 11″ on the side. Yours will likely be larger depending, of course, on your yarn and weaving tension. The shell join adds about an inch to each seam.

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Okay, your turn. A quick project for summer to have you ready for fall!

Tri Shawl

Jul28

I started weaving these triangles in Eugene last month thinking that tho I tell people they can weave shawls with the small looms, I have never made one myself & really ought to. I have this ball of some 600+ yards which should  give me quite a few tris…  It’s a light worsted 100% merino, very nice but with a lot of stretch and as a result, a lot of draw up. Which I didn’t really pay much attention at first. I am weaving on the 14″ triangle but my tris measure 11 1/2  to 12 inches on a side. I need two more tris to finish a shawl of about 62″ hypotenuse. I still have quite a bit of yarn but not enough to make it another row wide. Anyway, by the time I get it assembled and maybe add a fringe or edging (more likely) I’ll probably be running short. Did I say I still need to weave two tris? I wove 4 or 5 yesterday so it’s going pretty fast. I still have all those 4″ Multi squares that I haven’t quite figure out what to do with. Well, it’s July and hot so yarn thoughts are not coming thick and fast! =) Hope you’re getting in a little weaving these days, tho. Good time to work on a shawl which will come in handy when you can use a light wrap later this fall, you know.

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Just thinking…

Jul19

It’s July and too hot to be doing much with yarn. I am working on a project for a book to be published by somebody else. I hope I can get it done in time.

But meantime, cleaning up the kitchen this morning, I got to thinking about dishrags. Lots of people weave them on the looms, Sis is one of them. I have also done it but mostly for the how-to pictures. I have clung to my sponges. But awhile back Sis gave me a stack of her old faded ones to use as rags in the shop or somewhere. I just shoved them in the kitchen towel drawer. The other day I got a bug to clean out the overflowing drawer and remembered seeing on someones blog that she had a basket in her kitchen filled with old dishrags, etc to use as clean up rags and save paper towels so I got out one of my hand made baskets (arthritis won’t allow that anymore) and put them all in it. And have started using them for that purpose. And I think I am converted! They are easy to rinse out and hang on the edge of the sink to dry. It was too easy to toss the sponge into the sink where it probably grew some really nasty stuff. I know I went though a lot of them. I remember reading in a “green” magazine that it was actually cheaper and more energy efficient to  use paper towels. The author if this piece having proved to herself that the manufacture and delivery of the paper towels saved more energy that the washing of dish cloths. I am going to equate the making of the paper towels with the manufacture of yarn, energy wise. And I refuse to think of the “energy” spent weaving the cloths as effecting the global climate, so will skip to the washing. If you ran a batch just for the dishrags, yeah, that would count, but who does that? You toss the in with whatever batch seems appropriate to your style of doing laundry and as that energy would be used with or without the cloths that also can’t be counted against your ‘carbon footprint’. So it seems to me that the handwoven cloth is going to come off ahead however you look at it. There’s a little water used to rise the cloth but I usually rinsed the sponges and often the paper towels as I use the tough ones so that can’t add to much.

And more to the point… The dishrags woven with kitchen cotton do a much better job of cleaning! That’s really the part that converted me. I am going to have to weave a few more of these handy bits. I’ve had some people tell me they use them as wash cloths, too. I’ll have to give that a try next.

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Summer time….

Jul11

And, contrary  to that lovely song, the livin’ is not easy.  It is hectic! Jobs and orders piling up, three shows coming up to have stock for, people calling daily with jobs that need doing now! So that’s my excuse for not posting lately. No, that’s my reason! I am getting some weaving done, it’s for that book, if I can get it finished in time. If you have great ideas you might want to check into this. The more the merrier as is said:

posted 8 days ago (Thursday, July 3)

Stackpole Books is currently requesting submissions of Pin Loom projects to be published in a book in Fall 2015. We are looking for all sorts of pin loom projects on any small loom. We want to see your creativity! The details of the Call for Submissions are available here: http://media.stackpolebooks.com/submissions/f15pinloomdesigns.pdf. Please contact me with any questions at cderr at stackpolebooks dot com.

Meantime our local grocery is up for sale. If you’d like to move to a lovely mountain village and run your own little corner ‘general’ store here’s an opportunity not to miss. I have no interest in this except as a customer. But if you’re a weaver, I’d dearly love to have you as a neighbor, too! (call Steve  at Weaverville Realty)

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And when someone complains about me & how I get things done, I wear this shirt which explains my philosophy. Popeye got it right! Hope your day is going your way!

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