54 posts tagged “red”
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.
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.)
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:
But my cardigan is very progressy :-)
Before:
After:
Today, The Princess Bride and the push-me-pull-you socks have been vying for my attention. I've had to pause in my knitting during particularly interesting bits of book, and pause in my reading during particularly interesting bits of sock. The socks are now finished; the book has about a third to go.
1. Joined at the ribbing, just before casting off.
2. Just after casting off, looking like what would happen if Georgia O'Keefe was a knitter.
3. Immediately post-separation. Outer sock still inside-out on the left; inner sock on the right, right-way-out as it has been all along (my first real sight of the right-side!)
4. Both socks right-way-out.
5. On my feet, with the stripes lining up! (With bad colour matching - the other photos are a better match.)
These are very close to being finished. Double knitting the ribbing is a bit fiddly, but it's a joy to be able to read my knitting again after acres of reverse stocking stitch, even though since it's ribbing I rarely actually need to read it. I have misknit several stitches on the inside sock, knit instead of purl or vice versa, but nothing two minutes with a crochet hook won't solve.
