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Easter weekend

No weaving going on this weekend. My hands are now too grubby to touch yarn! Gardening and spring type yard work instead. For instance, here’s Randy filling the new garden box with compost and dirt. He sifts all the rock and roots out first, lots of work but it makes a nice growing bed. The tomatoes will go here this year. He also put up the pea trellis, tho they haven’t quite reached that high yet. 😉 A bumper crop of rhubarb in the back there. The bed to the right will have summer squashes and cukes eventually, they’re still in the baby seed bed, but growing nicely, as are the onions in the left photo. I planted three kinds this year, the regular yellow, also some white and red which I haven’t tried before. The bushy plant is a perennial celery. Kind of a cross between celery and parsley, I guess. It has the celery leaf flavor, and that’s what I like. It’s in its third year now.

yard new bed pea tressis onion bed

But I will show you the  squares I wove last week from the stash picks. I am leaning heavily to the one on the right. It’s the easiest to weave and I rather like it’s texture. I think it’ll make a nice summer top. But it won’t be a fast one because even being easiest, it is still a slow yarn slow work with. I don’t seem to have the labels handy but if I haven’t said what it is, I will when I get back to it.

swatches2

Meantime, I am enjoying a nice summer this spring. Hope it’s a warm sunny weekend where you are!

Looking for the next project!

I liked my new top so much that I went out to Le Shed this morning and rummaged into the bins and found some potential yarns for summer tops. I bought this stash (most of an 8×10′ shed) from a knitting lady who retired and moved so there is a lot of stuff in there that I am not familiar with.  I found these four that look like I may have enough for a project. There is one more, a thick and thin linen that looks nice but is heck to weave with on this type of loom. I’m not sure how these are going to do, either. I’ve started weaving a swatch of one. It’s pretty and very summery. It claims to be cotton, mohair, and poly something or other. The one at the bottom of the photo. It seems to be do-able but it will be slow going. Should be a lovely fabric if I can get them done.  I am working on designs. We all know how well that worked this last time! But I have High Hopes! And even if the last one didn’t quite work out as originally planned it still worked out so this one probably will too. Check back now and then to see how it’s going. I’m still looking for ideas for that other pile of squares, too.

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Finished

Got it finished and done and wearing it. This just goes to prove my point about evolving projects. It is pretty much nothing like what I started out to make but I am delighted with it! I ended up not using the pattern for anything but some sizing and  there is absolutely no cutting or machine sewing in this one, either. So if you were expecting that ‘lesson’ I have to apologize but I’m sure I’ll get back to that one of these days, too. Now I have to figure out what to do with that other stack of squares I’ve woven up!

But if you have some lovely soft yarn in your stash, I encourage you to make something for yourself. Most of us have too many scarves and afghans already. This top is so lovely and soft against even my old hide that I don’t want to take it off!  I started posting about this one on March 20 and had a few squares woven at that time so it has taken me a bit under one month to complete this project. Since I remade the other shirt in that same time period, not to mention taking care of the rest of life as we all must, I don’t think it really qualifies as a long-term project, either.

So here it is… ta-da!

   Finished2  Finished back2

Almost done

Okay, got it together, tried it on. It fits! so I wove a bunch of 2×6’s to add a little to the length, my calculations telling me I did not have enough to make it 4×6. But it may take awhile to get this strip added as I am trying to make it look like I had planned this all along so am attaching it with a kind of lacy looking stitch. I hope. I added the slide stitch pattern to the front neck and also to this bottom trim to give it a bit of interest. I don’t remember if I said but the neckline I had planned proved to be too low for my  taste so I added another 6×6 there, as you can see.

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Still at it.

Beautiful day today.  Peas not up yet but I see one tomato peeping though.  These heirloom Oxhearts are going to be a little late since I managed to kill my first little ones, but I like them enough to try.

But I finished weaving and have it about half assembled. Not sure how much I’ll get done this weekend since I’m going to have to be in the shop but I’ll work on it when I can. It’s coming along. Hope you are getting some done on your project.

But meantime, Randy bought these lovely glass solar mushrooms for my birthday. The weather is finely nice enough for me to put them out to try. So pretty! They come with pegs for sticking them in the ground but that’s not going to happen. I’m going to have him make a base for them so they can sit on the deck, safely and prettily. He got them at Lowes, if you like them, too. They are quite bright.

glass mushrooms

A bit of a remodel

Things are changing. It was supposed to look like this:

plans 2

And then it looked more like this:

plans 3

And now I’ve rearranged it again.

plans 4

I’m pretty sure I have enough yarn to do it this way since it looks like I have to stick to what I have. It’ll be shorter so not a tunic but I think it’ll be long enough and if not I may use the scarlet or the cream and work a border. These things evolve. That’s one of the lessons, I guess. It could evolve yet again as I am not sure this one is going to work, either. I could get by without the ‘sleeves’ but I am really trying not to. I need 5 more squares, if I can squeeze it out of these last 1 3/4 skeins. Hang on, I’m getting there!

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Yet another excuse…

I am making progress here but slowly.  Shop work and you know it’s gardening season, too, so other things are calling but I am getting it assembled. I’ve given up on finding more of this yarn so it looks like it may have to be sleeveless after all. I guess I can live with that.4-9    DSC01679

And the other squares I was weaving have run into a hitch. But as I have not yet decided what I want them to be , I guess it’s not an urgent problem, huh? The difficulties of life just keep coming, don’t they?! Ah well, it would be nice if this was the worse we had to deal with, wouldn’t it?  I’ll try to show you a bit more progress tomorrow.

Meantime, I hope your projects are moving along! Wishing you warm and sunny!

 

 

 

Ready to assemble… maybe…

I have all the squares woven for the tunic but…! I am still trying to figure a way to add sleeves.  I really like it all brown but I also really need sleeves. I had intended to beg for yarn but I don’t want to wait. It’s hell when you can’t get everything you want Right Now!  Still fretting over what to do but it is good to go, if I decided to do it. Robin has been a good boy today, too, staying on his kitty blanket and off my project.

Ready to assemble 2

It’s still trying to snow. Temp has been slowing dropping all day. It’s (nearly) April fur heaven’s sake!

 

Recounting

Decided to lay it out and see how it was coming. Took some new measurements, too. I didn’t flunk out of math in high school but my Pop, who was a surveyor back in the Olden Days before calculators and computers, had been known to wonder how he managed to sire such math dunderheads! lol

Okay, but I don’t think my initial guesstimate was too far off. I scooted the cat over and laid them out on the bed. Laid the pattern out over them and came up with a couple modifications. Not entirely happy with it yet, but I still have more squares to weave so time to mull it over.

First trial  First Pattern fit

I think I may yet rearrange the upper bodice. I’ll have to see how it fits once I get most of it assembled. One thing I have learned during this design it myself era is never weave ends in until you are Absolutely Sure it’s right. It is really difficult to find ends if you have to frog once you’re done a proper job of weaving them in!

Okay– back to weaving while it’s still raining and too wet for gardening.

Still weaving…

But meantime I thought I’d chat a bit about ideas. I have a picture file on my computer under Weaving Clothing called Ideas. When I see a picture of a garment- sewn, knitted, whatever- that I think I could possibly make with the looms, I save it in this file. Of course, there are many more ideas than I’ll ever have time to make so I thought I’d share a few “Inspired by” here to give you an idea.

Here’s a couple for you with the big shawl looms. I’m pretty sure this first dress could be done but it’s a bit difficult to sketch here. I’m going to have to get out the paper towels and work in the round for this one. But I’d love it if some of you put your minds to it and came up with a plan! The second one, the shawl with sleeves, or whatever that might be called, is easier. I have thought about making that one for my daughter who likes drapey things. Trouble is, as always, the time to do it. The sleeves could be knitted in, of course, but also woven with the smaller squares or triangles. I made some prelim sketches just to keep the idea in my head. You never know…

image5961859hoodedcape

And there are lots for the smaller looms. This one would be pretty easy. If it’s your project, I have to thank you for the inspiration, I don’t remember where I saw it. It was Multi woven, the 4″ I believe, but if you have a big dog it could also be done with the 6 inch or one of the Quilt Weaver squares.

Dog coat

If you’re looking forward to summer and have the ‘figger’ for it, here’s a pretty simple top for hot weather. Your teen could wear this. The woven blocks should be a fairly tight and modest fabric but would still be lighter and more comfortable than this crocheted version probably would be. Something like a soft cotton or one of the bamboo, silky yarns might be good.

halter top planJust something to think about while I am weaving for this tunic. Make your own file, & teach yourself to think in squares and triangles while looking at clothing. Get out your stash of already woven squares and spread them out and get inspired!