Posts
I've been getting increasingly irritated with Vox. Halfway through writing posts, I accidentally click on an image I've inserted, which navigates me away from the compose window and loses what I've written. It won't let me at the code for the blog style or for individual posts. And I've just realised that it doesn't allow non-members to comment, which is kind of contrary to the spirit of a blog, if you ask me.
So I'm moving over to Blogger. You can now find Triskellian knitting, weaving and spinning, at www.triskellian.com/blog, and syndicated at www.triskellian.com/blog/atom.xml.
Setting up the loom to weave this took all day on Saturday. Several hours in the morning for measuring the warp threads, several more hours for threading alternate warp threads through the holes on the heddle at a crafting date with Sadie, B and G in the afternoon, and another hour or so in the evening tying on the warp. It wasn't until Sunday that I finally got to start weaving, and it almost feels like an anticlimax after spending so much time in planning and preparation :-)
The fabric looks puckered because I'm deliberately making each row of weft slightly longer than the width of the warp, so that when it's finished and washed the extra length of the weft will, I hope, even out and partly cover the warp, making weft-dominant fabric.
I am now declaring the spinning for the red leaf wrap to be completed!
That's the red leaf singles for the weft on the left, and the two-ply merino for the warp on the right, finished just now. My next task is warping the loom, so I can take my weaving to a crafting date tomorrow :-)
And I've been making decent progress on the red cardigan too:
Notice that the arm holding the camera is clad in a finished sleeve, the other sleeve reaches the elbow, and the body is considerably longer than in the last photo I posted.
I estimate that it took me about 10 hours to spin the first 100g, so it should be possible to finish up, especially since R is away for part of this week, so I won't have to choose between spinning and hanging out with him!
So now I have a decision, I can get on with spinning the rest of it!
I've spent today spinning and then weaving a sample for the red leaf wrap. This is 12.5dpi, with the warp very fine two-ply burgundy merino worsted, and the weft red leaf woolen singles at about 5m/g. The sample is just long enough to go round my wrist, so that's where I'm wearing it, and very pretty it is too.
Next up, spinning some of the burgundy at about 5m/g woolen to ply with the rest of the red leaf sample yarn and then weave at 7.5dpi with that in both warp and weft.
(Note for non-spinners: worsted-spun yarn is denser, smoother and stronger; woolen-spun yarn is loftier, warmer and softer.)
The first sekrit project is what many partners of knitters will have been given today, the heart from Knitty. This was loads of fun to knit, and small enough that R didn't even notice that for a couple of evenings, every time he looked in my direction, my hand 'happened to' cover what I was knitting. The yarns are Dream in Colour Smooshy in dark red, and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Valentine - luxury sock yarns for a luxury heart :-)
While taking photos for the previous post, I spotted this cheerful view in the background. Left to right: Baudelaire, Clessidra, Elegant ribbed stockings, Push-me-pull-you, Triskell cable, Coriolis. I've got a pretty good wardrobe of handknitted socks now - there are several more pairs which aren't on the radiator, including the dissertation socks currently on my feet :-)
Since writing the last entry, I have spun this:
That's batch five of the red leaf fibre, and the last one for the time being. I'm now at about 1,000m, so I'm going to stop spinning the red leaf and start spinning some of this:
Knitting is like building a house. Even if you only have a rough idea of what the finished house will be like, you still have to make decisions about what kind of foundations to build before you can lay the first brick. And once you start laying bricks there's a certain order things must happen in, and a limit to what you can change on the fly.
Crochet, on the other hand, is like a paper and pencil sketch. You start with a rough outline, maybe some tentative lines, and build up from there. If you think you need a bit more on one side, you just go over and add some more. There are of course still limits to what you can change on the fly, but they're different limits, and I think - from brief exposure to it - that they are fewer.
I'm surprised how different the two crafts are, and surprised it's taken me this long to pick up a hook for something other than fixing dropped knit stitches. I've not fallen instantly in love: I don't like the appearance of crocheted fabric as much as I do knitted fabric, and I don't understand crochet yet. But for toys, and playing, and making things up as I go along, it has definite possibilities.
