The white 6″ cotton squares are going to take a long time, if they ever do get done. The one I washed did soften up. Not a lot, it’ll still be a ‘crisp’ cotton, but mostly it’s going to take a long time to weave them. So meantime I have a new project started. Have some worsted weight cotton in my stash. It’s make by blue sky Alpaca, but it’s 100% cotton and very soft. I’m not sure how it will wear but decided to try it. I’m using the 14″ triangle for this one. I just finished weaving the first Tri. It took 30 minutes to weave this one, it’s woven plain. The yarn has a subtle variation with very light blue, a slightly darker blue, and just a tiny touch of a light green. It doesn’t photograph well. I might work a texture for the yoke tris. Haven’t decided about that yet. But here’s the sketch of what I have in mind and the fist tri.
Archives
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
A bit of a remodel
Things are changing. It was supposed to look like this:
And then it looked more like this:
And now I’ve rearranged it again.
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!
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.

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!
Still at it. I am starting the assembly but…
Meantime, the hall closet has reached critical so I had to undertake that task today. I’ve sorted a lot of it for goodwill but there are some things I just can’t see going there. One is this collection of crocheted doilies. My grandmother, & mother’s work mostly, and some of mine. I kept the ones I just can’t bear to part with but there are more and they will never be used again here and my kids don’t want these things, they really don’t mean anything to them. I was wondering if any of you might do lace crafts and could use them. I have seen everything from Hostess aprons, vests, and blouses, to lamp shades made using vintage doilies. I am never going to have the time to use them myself and I would love them to go to someone who could appreciate the work that has gone into them and give them new life. They could, of course, be used as doilies but I know not many modern homes use those anymore. Still, if you would like this bunch of handmade lace, I would be happy to send it to you, just let me know soon.
The doilies are gone to a new happy home!
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.
It’s still trying to snow. Temp has been slowing dropping all day. It’s (nearly) April fur heaven’s sake!


















