Bias Binding, How Do I Dislike Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

It is a mystery to me why I would have picked a pattern to actually make that relied so heavily on bias binding. A classic, "What was I thinking????" moment. And then to follow through on making said binding and applying it while squinting through bloodshot, red and irritated eyes, only the Universe will know for sure. I am begging a cold and flu addled brain. Now you all probably think that all's well that end's well and my complaining is much ado over nothing. Well, the binding came out absolutely horrible.

My kingdom for a good technique as a substitute. Love's labour was not lost. The garment, a poncho of good hard tweedy wool, was specifically slated for wear around the house and barn.

If it had come out well I would have worn it to town until the hay became embedded in it, or the first smelly slobber stain. You may not have seen it, but I would know it was there. I will say it is quite comfortable and just the right amount of warmth for over a turtleneck in the house. So even if it was a comedy of errors, it is still a wonderful and useful addition to my working wardrobe.

Since I am feeling much better, I managed some towel warp weaving.

This lovely yellow is towel two, the first was the soft jade green I used on one of the pillowcase hems. The pattern a simple triple 4 shaft bird's eye. I am quite happy with it and can see these doing fine service in the kitchen. There is a fair amount of tracking on this, mostly due to the fact that my fine reed was still tied up on the pillowcases when I wound, threaded and sleyed this warp. I believe most of it will disappear after it's first wash in hot water and then the hot dryer. The second color of silk is half wound onto a cone and hopefully I'll get that done and be working on the warping board this weekend. I am going to do a fancy pinwheel design using the eight shafts on the Delta. I've found three different drafts and need to sit down and look at all of them for differences in the tie-ups and how they affect the pattern. They are all so close on a quick inspection as far as the woven pattern

Fabric has been cut for a second pair of pants. I have sized the pattern down to a straight medium.

This fabric is a cotton/poly blend twill left over from the slipcover for the large sofa. I have some lovely pants fabrics ready to go, but since I am playing with sizing and also new smaller pockets and placement, I figured I would use this.

They will make fine sturdy pants even if they aren't the prettiest.

A quick note about what's coming up on this blog and Michelle's over at Boulderneigh.

We'll be doing posts tomorrow about some wonderful products that are local to each of us. Michelle had the idea and I have often thought about mentioning all together some of the wonderful stuff available locally to me in one place. If any of you would like to join in on your respective blogs and tell us about local to you fab products, please, do!

And of course, there will be the yarn drawing winners posted on Monday.

Finally, the parting shot. Stuck or Not? That is the Question. And it needs some explanation.

My man Dennett, now that he is about 18, hard of hearing and vision impaired (although not 3 legged which had been a requirement for being off leash on walks), has earned the right to be off leash in areas close to the house and under very close supervision. Face it, should he even see a squirrel, he can no longer out run me. Being still an independent cuss he takes off (really, imagine slowly wanders), towards the woods and into deeper snow. It looks like he's stuck, so I snap my photo and go to help him. Ah, he was just playing keep away! When he saw me come into range he plowed through that snow and into the woods trying to make a break for it, a very slow break but the spirit still burns bright. He also knows that there is less snow under trees! You go kiddo, I'm right behind you. And yes, I carried him back through the worst of it, while allowing him all the dignity he deserves. ;)

Fan Mail From A Flounder

If you were all Rocky and Bullwinkle fans you might remember that line. And believe me, I have tried for YEARS to work that one into a conversation. Since it has proven utterly impossible so far, I figured a blog post about postcards might be as close as I'm ever going to get.

So I stuck my toe back into the quilting waters and up popped a quilted postcard. Two have been made in fact. One was, well posted off to it's recipient, the other is staying right here with me. It's taken me a long time to come to grips that I don't have to quilt big, or even medium sized to quilt. I can just do an itty bitty thing and be happy.

In fact, I can do an itty bitty thing on my woven leftovers and be extremely happy. And that's just what I did. I took my idea of a prayer flag, and quilted one to a piece of woven pillowcase left over, ( this was the short piece I did to test the threading and such before digging in for the long weave).

Then I used a diamond lozenge also in silk and appliqued it right one underneath the flag. This is the Native American symbol for wind. The knots and fringe are leftover thrums. On the back a piece of fabric with dragonflies.

The first piece was sent off to Lorna's owner, because dang I just know it's going to take a bit of time to get all the prayers written out for this run of flags, and Lorna was a special little Scottie.

As you can plainly see from the post card pics, the towel warp is in process too and I am winding the 1000 plus yards of flippin fine silk for a scarf.

I could have sworn I said I wasn't going to work with really fine threads for a while, but there it is. That silk has just been begging to be made into a scarf.

Of course we are talking an 8-10 inch wide warp as compared to 25. So, I have justified it.

The cold is on the move, downward as they usually do. I am so grateful that my eyes are starting to actually clear up. We have gone from Lucifer red, to tired and strained pink. A VAST improvement. I can actually see what I'm doing most of the time.

I am giving you all a heads up. Next week I will be doing a Pay It Forward Yarn Give-Away. I have cleaned out my surplus and have bundled it into batches. I think there are four or five. Details will be forthcoming with the post.

Parting shot: Our Own Fractured Fairy Tale- Necessity Makes Strange Leash Fellows

What Ever Happened To....?

Since my weaving time has been cut out due to a wrist sprain ( left one and I'll no doubt live), I figured I would catch you up on some weaving that has been done!

Remember the alpaca/linen/mohair warp that was on Hannah Hollandia when my folks came to visit? Well, I decided it was too open and weak for a long scarf, but it would make a fantastic and artsy short little collar type scarf/dickie and that's exactly what I did with it.

I folded it over, left the ends (although some do need a bit of trimming), did a loose knotting, found a vintage button that my Mom had actually saved at one point and there you have it. It feels softer on your neck than I ever would have thought too.

Some of you readers might remember that my Dad received some very fine silk while he was visiting and spirited it up to his bag to make a scarf when he got home. He did indeed do just that and what a beautiful scarf he made!

This is done in a light silver grey and gold. The warp was the silver silk, the weft the gold and the pattern is a snowflake design from Twill Thrills if memory serves. I didn't want to show it earlier since this was a part of their annual holiday dessert party and the scarf was given to the person whose name was drawn from the hat. Since it has gone to it's new lucky owner I felt it safe.

I was sorely tempted to send a lot of paper scraps with my name on them believe me!

It's interesting to see the different styles of weaving isn't it?

Now the shuttle throwing is out for a week or two, but sewing is not. I've been busy on gifts which I can't show and getting my ducks in a row for when I can start on some sewing for myself again. I've made use of some sales both over the Internet and locally. The medium weight denim (with a tad of stretch), is earmarked for pants.

The lovely 100% silk grey and white daisy print is for a blouse. The black that is next to it is some old fabric I had that is close in weight.

I will make a test blouse before I cut into that silk since there is none to spare on a mistake. In fact, I will have to make the blouse collar-less, which is fine by me. I'm also opting not to do the sleeve cuffs as I don't really like them on short sleeves.

The Heather Ross Kokka fabric has yet to decide what it wants to be. I have some options but haven't settled on one. The scene on the blue is The Owl and the Pussycat. I just love it.

I think I can thread this up without problems.

Its a town day today, the sleigh needs to deliver this down to the lovely ladies at my favorite store, The Webster's.

There's stocking stuffers for critters to get and I suppose I will have to decide on a holiday feast pretty soon. I'm thinking tenderloin. Parting shot: Fodder for Gene to Photoshop no doubt as he too might be thinking tenderloin!

Off The Loom and Gifted

I haven't said much about the scarf since it was decided that it would be the perfect gift for a wonderful friend that is moving far away. I was hoping if I took forever weaving it, they would just have to wait to leave. As we all know, that is never the case. It came off the loom Saturday and was finished and drying two hours later.

The Mountain Colors Winter Lace yarn is another I would use in a heartbeat. Wonderful to weave with. I wish I could do a blanket or coverlet using it, but it would terribly expensive. The novelty yarn provided a little challenge but I like the way it defined the squares and gave the overall piece a window pane texture.

It was stretchy and slippery and could have really been a problem once off the loom. In any event, I was sorry to see it go and my friend with it. Good luck Carol and Anyu on all the new adventures waiting for you in Idaho!

On farm news, nothing much to report. Some riding, some training, getting ready to shop for the years hay supply. With all the wet weather it has taken longer for first cutting to come in, but it looked like last week most of the fields have been cut and I'll bet baling is happening around the valley this week. The boys are getting rotated out one at a time to graze some of our over grown areas. I learned a very important lesson yesterday. NEVER put out Nick and Boo together. The two took off, through the woods and up the road. I could hear their hooves running up and down looking for our driveway. A slow moving logging truck spooked them enough to head back towards our driveway where they ducked in and met me as I was heading down with treats. Nick and Boo came running up like two long lost puppies. Snorting and hot and not realizing the disaster they had avoided. Needless to say, one went back in the paddock.

I was exhausted by 6:00 am yesterday after that self inflicted fiasco.

Lastly, some Stella contraband photos.

I did get my slipper back right after these pics were snapped. I couldn't tell if any real damage has been done. This pair is on its last legs as it is. The cat bed was rediscovered after it was put away since Rodger is too big for it. Fits Stella perfectly. She had a grand time dragging it outside and then someone, I don't know who other than male, peed on it ( fair game once in the pen proper). So it's in the wash at the moment.

Getting to Know All About You

Well, it took a week and some waiting and adjusting but weaving has commenced on the Glimakra Julia.

As with any new thing, there are some things you love, some things that you don't and somethings you just need to get use to.

The love column includes, size, getting good tight tension, easy to warp and treadle tie-ups, lack of noise and so far, shed and weaving. The getting used to column includes, shafts that don't lock in quite the way any of my other looms do, best place to tie the lease sticks on, adjusting the horses and shafts. Things in the don't like column are the lack of a cross bar/foot rest at the front of the loom. None of the benches I have left offer a cross bar either since the looms they go with have generous foot rest bars on the front of the loom. And being a light loom, she does walk. Heck I can make a loom four times her weight walk, and this is an easy fix.

I was wishing I had not sold the bench with the Murphy, but it too had no cross support in front for resting a foot, so no tears shed on that front.

In other weaving news, the blanket is just about done. I am at the second plaid part at the far end and hopefully will finish it up tomorrow. I was to involved into getting Julia weaving to leave for town yesterday. I have been pitifully slow on the pillowcase warp with a little less than half of the 736 ends wound and chained.

In knitting news, the Deadliest Crab has been started 3 times and finally seems to be moving along. I screwed up the count on the short rows the first time and twisted my stitches the second. Sheesh! He's a complicated little crab.

In farm news, Dennett did indeed make it out of surgery just fine. He lost one molar and had a thorough cleaning job. The vet was amazed at just how good his back teeth are. They did the liver biopsy and he has a very shaved tummy and two little stitches

at the actual biopsy site. He did not bounce back like the dog of old though. It took a good 48-72 hours before he was feeling himself and a lot of my time over the last couple of days was just spent keeping an eye on him, trying to anticipate what or where he might want to go. His tummy has been a bit upset and with both a long course of antibiotics and the anesthesia it's no surprise. The biopsy did not show cancer but beyond that I haven't had a chance to go completely over the results. It sounded like a hoppin' day at the vets yesterday and I have no qualms with waiting while true emergencies are handled. I'll give a ring today if I haven't received one. In the end, this fine old dog is at the end of his life, but today, he's eaten a grand breakfast which he was jumping up in the air to receive, snarled at Smoochie for being a pest and is having his after breakfast nap (complete with snoring) at my feet. I'll take it.

Geeky Gifts

I have often thought my prodigious fiber activities could be in direct response to the copious amounts of tools we have kicking around here. If fiber is my legacy, tools certainly are Gene's. We have saws and drills and all sorts of things that look like they could be used to torture cats.Only joking, we save all nifty torture devices for the dogs!

:-)

But there is one tool in his arsenal that we fight over. I won the good hammer battle BTW, it now sits in my little tool section in the studio, but this tool has both of us at odds. At any time of the day or night, I will hear, "Okay, where did you put it?" Closely followed by some sort of ear burning curse to keep my paws off his cheese. I then usually point out he has a lot of cheese, certainly he can find other cheese to do what this cheese does. He's getting smart though, yesterday mornings comeback asked if I would use linen when I wanted wool, after all they are all CHEESE! So, Mr. Smarty Pants finally did something about the division of tool cheese. He bought me my own.

Other than a hammer and a nail, this is the most useful tool in the house. You gotta love a man that brings you home stuff like this.

The sweater is just about done. The sleeves are all sewn to the shoulders and awaiting me to sew up the sides and sleeve seams.

Then pick up and knit the neck ribbing,weave in ends, wash, block, dry, pictures and then off to Massachusetts. I spent part of my afternoon scanning the hoards of toy patterns. So many fun ones to choose from.

Carolyn has been reduced to the sum of her parts. Finding boxes for some of the odd lengths and sizes is proving challenging. I'll tell you one thing, when the new spinning wheel and loom come, I am saving their boxes. It just makes life easier all around.

The pillowcase warp goes slowly, but then again, what's the rush?

There was a bit of weaving on the blanket but most of the fiber time was spent on the sweater.

On farm news, the horses not only are muddy but shedding. They look very unappealing right now. I can't find my shedding blade so this Friday another will be picked up. Everyone is stomping around, full of high energy and all of them need some quality time on the lunge line and a little pre conditioning for the riding mounts. Hay this year was good and they are all a little fat. Spring brings along with warmth and sunshine, an assortment of wormers, the clippers will come out soon and hoof nippers, the annual farm vet visit and some serious barn clean-up. Gene and I have a date to take Cooper and Dandy for a long walk down the BLM road. Not riding, just good fun walking the big dogs kind of stroll thing. Let them rubber neck at the trees that might have fallen and get any jump and jiggle out while in hand and so we can all go investigate if need be. We'll split up on one of the trails to get a sense of how buddy sour they may have become, see if we can find some delicate shoots just waiting for a quick graze and marvel that we have had these two fellows for so many years and what truly good kind horses they are.

Plaid

I'm not a big plaid person, although some day I would like to sit down and do some tartan cloth on the loom. It can however wait until the mood strikes. The plaid I am actually referring to is in the blanket. Now I could do the whole thing plaid but I much prefer just the bits at either end with the middle bit just being stripes. I had the foresight to take a picture before I rolled past the plaid part completely. Done in the same sequence as the stripes, yellow, blue, white, dark green and tan. At the other end it will be the same but in reverse, starting with tan.

I also need to say that every time I weave on "Hey Baby" Delta I fall in love all over again. This loom, however expensive it was to buy, is worth its weight in gold to me.

The hardest thing about these triple weave warps (once you are past the threading, sleying and adding the evil slippery fishing line) is getting a nice even beat. One layer builds up while you are weaving another layer and makes it difficult to keep everything perfect, at least for me. Thankfully, I can say the fulling process works wonders in this area and is just as important as all the other steps in weaving a wool blanket.

The pillowcase warp has been started on too, not much done but really it's 5 yards of 20/2 organic natural cotton done at 700 something ends total. It's like measuring thread out. I can't imagine doing something like 60 or 120/2 warp, but I am sure someday I will get to it. For now conquering 20/2 is just fine. ;-)

Not too much else to report, some snow, some rain, some cold temps, some sunshine.

House cleaning was uneventful yesterday ( unless you count a short period of critter terrorizing...) although I would like to say it is SO MUCH easier to clean in the studio without Barbara there. She was a hard loom to clean around and under. The Louets sit high and open allowing for easy vacuum and mopping access. A good and wonderful thing! The Carolyn loom is getting slowly taken apart ( and documented) for shipping cross country. Today is guild meeting so hopefully tomorrow I can get her completely broken down and begin the search for some big boxes.

The Anti Merino

I know, I know, everyone loves merino for it's next to the skin softness and it IS soft and dreamy to wear. I like knitting with it when it's mixed with other things. In the yarn petting zoo, it is always a favorite. But for spinning, it drives me crazy. There is a balance there between hard twisted little singles and singles that disintegrate back into roving. I have a hard time finding that narrow middle ground. So it was when I went into town Friday and picked up one more skein of wool for my Dad's sweater ( I think we're up to 14 but who's counting) and there was a lovely ball of pure Romney roving, grown and sheared in Ashland at Dona's farm. This fiber has umami!

Dona ( who owns the Webster's) sells this and yarn, Silver Cloud Farm, which is what went into the saddle blankets. The cost for the yarn is $8.00 for 210 yards and it's knit on a US 7-9 needle. Gene's cabled sweater will be made from a lovely dark moss green

version. The roving cost $2.00 per oz, cleaned and all ready to be spun and I am the happy spinner just waiting to finish this merino bobbin to get to it too! Why the recap? Appreciation. While I was in New England in January, I did get to poke around a couple of area yarn stores and in one was a Romney yarn from Maine. I don't remember the farm name but it was beautiful yarn, maybe a tad softer due to the spin. It was more open and it was hand dyed. It all makes a difference and the cost was $18.00 per 150+- yard skein. Now don't think it wasn't worth it, it was. American grown wool, processed and lovingly dyed local to New England. Next trip I may have to revisit it. But I also gained an enormous amount of respect and appreciation for my local flocks and the people who bring their goods to market for me in whatever form.

Whenever I work with a truly home grown fiber, I get a special boost knowing I could probably hunt that particular flock down and meet the sheep and certainly the shepherd or shepherdess.

Now, there has been some weaving going on and the blanket is making a nice start.

My feet remembered the treadle pattern all on their own. It interesting to note that every weaver likes a certain footfall pattern. I know many who like a walking motion. I don't. I split my treadles right down the middle and let the left foot do the left side and the right foot do the right side. I read my treadles like a book, left to right and I will rewrite a treadle pattern if it doesn't accommodate. If there is tabby, I give it to the left foot to deal with on treadles 1 & 2.

This treadle sequence has no tabby, it runs 1-3-5-6-4-2-1, the left foot does 1,2&3 the right 4,5, & 6. It works for me.

On farm news, I was woken up at two in the morning by distant caterwauling. MY cat caterwauling. Rodger didn't make it in for last call Friday night and there must have been a stranger around. I jumped out of bed and flew down the stairs, dogs barking in tow and lights flying on, all to rescue my kitty. He came to the front door, 3 times his normal size, a little dirty and certainly upset. I gave him the once over and noted no punctures or scratches. He had been clinging to a pine tree. His underside certainly smelled of pine and there was a spot or two of pitch, but otherwise untouched. After a good sit at the food bowl he spent the day curled up on one of the dog blankets. Close call! Because of this I am making a little sign by the front door, it will say "CAT IN" on one side and "CAT OUT" on the other, so whoever goes to bed last will know to call in the kitty or not. Should have done this long ago.

Showing Off

I certainly don't have anything to show you at this point, but a weaver near and dear to me certainly does!

My Father, who had his first rug warp on the Harrisville Collingwood loom interrupted this winter due to surgery, is both feeling well and weaving beautifully. I have been getting progress reports and pictures as the rug moved along until yesterday when it was finally completed and thrown down for daily use.

What a beauty! I am unsure of the sett, maybe 6 epi and I know he used shaft switching. The warp is linen ( 11 or so yards are on the loom) and the weft is three strands of Harrisville Highland for each pass.

As you can see, the rug itself already has a following! The two cherubs would be Foxy and Omar, true queen and king of the domain. They made final finishing a tad tricky I'm told.

Now my lazy butt has been planted in a number of places, the blanket warp is almost completely threaded, I am over half way through filling up a bobbin with some really pretty variegated green lace weight singles and the sweater sleeve is just about at the decrease stage. I also found a pillowcase pattern for Hannah's next warp. For those that have saved or acquired old Handwoven's, it's in the May/June 1989 issue, page 45, a two block basket weave. They have done it in 10/2 natural cotton, but I am going to be using 20/2 organic unbleached for a finer texture. This pattern will use all of the Louet's 8 shafts.

Nothing to report farm wise. The mud is so nasty at the gate area I've been driving Bob up to a back part of the paddock to dole out hay morning and night. On my way up I spring the girls loose.

They race past Bob and through the wooded area, bleating, bells ringing and crashing through undergrowth loud enough to wake the dead or at least get the dogs barking in the house. Ah, music to my ears, but not always Gene's! The snow was an overnight wonder a couple of days ago. Lasted through the morning and then melted down to brown. I did get to enjoy it if even for only the wee hours of the morning.

And speaking of dogs, my friend Linda ( who I really need to call and say Hi to) sent me this gem. Kudos to the advertising people for Pedigree. I don't feed your food but I appreciate that while you make commercials that cause me to cry and part with cash in other ways ( Adoption drive) you also make ones that put a smile on my face. I think all you dog owners will enjoy this really lovely minute and half.

Thanks Linda, I thought I caught all the good ones during Westminster, but you sent me the one I hadn't seen.

Footnote, I hope all the New England visitors are able to read this post. You guys had quite the wind event and I hope you are all safe and sound, warm and dry and have your power back.

Curling, It's Not Just for Watching

In fact if it hadn't been for all those curling matches I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep half as much as I did. Let me back up to bring you up to speed (that would be slow) on the lost ah... last week. Two words: Sinus Infection. In fact the sinus infection from hell. I can't remember a time when I really did nothing but feed animals and the rest of the time spent in bed. Now I did read a little bit, knit a little bit and the daytime Olympic programs had some decent highlights but beyond that, a lost week. It wasn't until yesterday when I woke up feeling more myself. The blanket threading went from almost zero to over half threaded, the sleeve has grown inches and I even managed to catch a bit of the night time Olympic figure skating. I say a bit because NBC's coverage has me nuts. If they are going to do us on a delay, even in the same time zone, can't we get more than 10 minutes of something else besides skiing at a time? As usual, great Olympics, lousy coverage. Nuff said on that front.

I did however feel the need to dust around my studio and organize a little. The shuttles for one thing needed to be cleaned and have a little polish, and they make such a pretty collection, I couldn't resist showing them off just a little.

From left to right ( towards Rodger's pointy little head):

The first four are all Jenkins shuttles, of which the quilted maple is my most loved shuttle. It was my first shuttle and I wish now I had bought both the quilted maples ones available.

After the four Jenkins shuttles comes a Bluster Bay Shuttle in Curly Black Walnut. This is a nicely made shuttle also, but I deduct points because the rod that holds the bobbin only comes up enough to allow the bobbin on and snaps back, making it harder to thread through the slot. A small thing I know, but all the Jenkins have an upright position you can put the bobbin rod into making it very easy to thread.

Next up is a Schacht low profile shuttle and while it is not my favorite it is colorful and comes in quite handy for the Woolhouse Carolyn table loom.

Following is one of two Schacht End Feed shuttles and these are my second favorites.

Last, but not least, is an older LeClerc shuttle and I like this little one a lot. Nice weight, feels good in the hand and well finished. If I only had a choice of the mass produced Schachts or LeClerc boat shuttles, I would go LeClercs, hands down, better weight, better finish at least judging from these older shuttles I own.

Next up are the rug shuttles although I have put my second little LeClerc shuttle out because it's such a pretty dark color. The two rug shuttles on the ends are LeClercs, both bought used. The two in the middle are Schachts, one rug, one ski shuttle.

Other than the stick shuttles I was gifted in January from Sue, this is it in my collection. A little something to cover most circumstances!

Now, you can see a little progress on the blanket. I managed to get just an inch or so past center before I quit for the day on loom stuff. Today I'll try to make good progress in the second half. Three of the drawing batches of yarn have shipped out, three are packed and waiting on the next trip to town, so winners, they will be to you soon.

On farm news, after a glorious week of lovely sunny weather that I didn't get to enjoy, it snowed yesterday and last night. Looks like about 5 inches. The snow amounts here have been pitiful and we are very happy for anything we can get.

I got a good look at the phantom cat I saw a few weeks back. One morning while zoning out at my desk (and trying to swallow an antibiotic the size of a horse pill) I saw him/her. Looks well cared for and my bet is it has a home it goes to. Someone (Juno?)

left me a mouse on the front porch as a get well gift. I have but the mouse........

I clipped Dennett down. He grows such a dense coat that when he starts to shed it gets matted, so it's easier to just clip him, then vacuum and brush like crazy for a while.

Unlike most of my dogs he enjoyed his bath too. Of course in his 17 years he's had a lot of time to get use to them. For the last week we had our own little Olympic sport, Syncronized Snoring, he on his bed right beside me on mine. :-)

Mojo

Well, with all the hubbub around here since Christmas, I was beginning to feel like the weaving mojo was taking a vacation. I took pity on Gene the destroyer of all things knitted and woven, and decided to make him a scarf. A sturdy one.

I had been looking at my stash, and mohair was out, some merino and alpaca was out, mostly due to color, but it isn't really up to the abuse Gene wrecks on his wearables.

Low and behold, like Cupid with an arrow, Dona at Websters made a passing comment about the new Crazy Zauberball yarn I was looking at for socks. It was simply, wonder what it would look like woven.... Can you see the light bulb going off?

Well, it did. Sock yarn is tough (75% wool 25% nylon) and this sock yarn has long color changes that don't repeat. What an interesting warp it would make indeed. I chose the colorway Submarine. I only needed some weft and found that in lovely skein of Mountain Colors Winter Lace, colorway Wild Horse. Geez, even the name was perfect!

So Sunday I measured out the warp got it on the loom, threaded, sleyed and then

re-sleyed. 10 epi was just too open even for me and not having the grab of a mohair or fuzzy yarn, it just wasn't going to work.

I went up to 15 epi to maintain the warp patterning and got to work on weaving in earnest yesterday. I was so grateful for bifocals using that 15 dent reed I have. I've also made a mental note to avoid using it if at all possible.

The kitchen rag rug runner is almost done on the Barbara V loom. I want to try weaving some baling twine after I'm done with it. I certainly have a lot of it.

The sweater knitting is coming along, I have about 6 inches done on the front.

On farm news, we've had a little nuisance snow, the temps have been normal for this time of year. Juno got locked in the basement by accident. Gene left the door ajar, then went and closed and locked it. Last night at feeding, no Juno. I checked all the trees she usually gets stuck in, calling out in the snow storm and then back tracked to where

I had seen Buzz hanging out. Ever faithful Buzz, waiting by the basement door, and there peeking out a window, Juno. Curiosity and cats, need I say more. ;-)

Without Further Ado

Behold! ;-)

Now, down to business. There was a lot of things to love about the triple weave. It was really a very pleasant experience. Easy to check the layers were staying separated each time I moved the temple. I could see the under side, but everything in the middle, forget it. The ginormous shed on the Louet loom made it all much easier and did a great job of freeing grabby yarn from the warp. The end feed shuttle adjusted worked nicely with the Harrisville Shetland, although it took some time to get it adjusted well. BTW, dropping a shuttle can put it out of adjustment. I sent it sailing a couple of times much to my shame and Jack's delight.

I still had some cramming at the folds, it was much better than the twill cotton blanket

and fulling the blanket certainly helped a lot. Had I made this bigger and fulled more, I suspect the fold areas would be gone.

The fishing line in selvages and folds worked beautifully. I had no help to remove them and found an easy way to get them out without rumpling up the blanket a lot. I tied a fishing line end to the deadbolt knob on the door, went to the other end of the blanket and eased the fishing line out with steady pulling pressure. The problem I had with the fishing line was them tangling with each other off the back of the loom. Must find a better way to keep them from doing that for the next blanket. Selvages were actually acceptable.

They do tend to slide around on the line, but none of the edges abraded or broke, so it was a good trade off and using a temple also helped to keep draw in and resulting frayed wool warp at bay. Speaking of temples, I want to thank Lynette over at Dust Bunnies Under My Loom, for such a good tutorial. Sharon had asked about temples

and I went over to Lynette's to get the link and read the tutorial again while I was there. I had my temple adjusted too tightly on the warp. Once I readjusted it to be easily put in place with a finger's worth of pressure, my selvages improved some more. Thank you so much Lynette for having some great resources on your blog.

I love the mohair and wool hand spun in the blanket, but it does cause a little rippling. I don't mind it, I knew it would do that and for me is a feature.

Others may not like it but it certainly could show up in future blankets. The fabric sitting there is what I am going to bind the blanket with.

So, Dawn asked if I would weave another blanket this way. Yes, in a heartbeat. In fact I have at least two more blankets in the planning stages and an overshot coverlet that is just a little spark floating around right now. I can't do the overshot in triple weave since I don't have 12 shafts (dang!) but I can do double width. And thank you Cindie

for coming up with that wonderful simple triple weave draft. It's a keeper!

A bit about the Harrisville wool itself. I never would have guessed it would soften up as nicely as it did. It's not merino and will never be merino, but it is plenty soft for me and Gene and the added durability this wool provides makes making a blanket worth while. It should last for years. It is light enough to be a summer blanket with just a sheet, assuming you are cooling off into the low 60's at night. What I like about wool as compared to cotton is the weight. I can't stand a lot of weight on me while I sleep and cotton blankets are heavy especially in a king size. I sleep with my feet thrown out even on the coldest night and hate to feel like I'm in strapped in with heavy bedding.

Wool works for me in just about most circumstances.

Some changes for the next blanket... I'm still thinking about going to 8 epi

making the blanket width say 35" on the loom and fulling a bit more. The fishing line needs reining in from twisting on itself as it hangs. Doubling and cramming the selvage edges to keep them a little nicer when weaving and also provide a bit heavier hand for the finished cloth. I am going to try some different wools for future blankets.

After the New Year I plan to get in some MacAuslands 2 or 3 ply. And look for some mohair to make an appearance in the warp.