A Dish of Towels

I knew I couldn't go to dinner empty handed. So I packed a dish with towels cuz honey, I don't cook. Ha! I finally gave my friends their wedding present. They opened the box and saw the towels and said "Oh great, we need these!" and then I got to say those words that are always such fun for us DIY crafty types..."I made them." The look of surprise and delight was worth all the drama. They promised that they would use them until they were ratty and worn. Considering how huge they are (33" x 22"! They didn't quite shrink as much as the pattern said they would.) I think they will be good for throwing on the floor to mop up spills and splashes. Hooray!


Ultimately I am very pleased with how they came out. I really thought that my warping issues made this a doomed project. In the end I was able to make 3 lovely towels with only a dash of wabi-sabi. There were supposed to be 4 towels but the rewinding of the warp ate up some length.

One of my New Year's Resolution's is to never let my loom be empty for more than a week. It looks like we are finally moving and I have restarted the process of organizing our things. Time is tight but my goal is to crank out at least one small project before the loom has to be packed up. Perhaps a scarf for me...

Scotty, I Need More Power!

One of the great UFO's of '07 is a set of dishtowels intended as a gift for a bridal shower back in October. I honestly believed that I could wind the warp and weave the towels in about a week. All was going well until I realized I was 20 warp threads short. I was determined to make these towels by the pattern I was following, but 20 threads short is a lot of threads. And I wanted to make 4 towels. 6 yards of warp. 490 itty bitty threads. Warp speed: sloooooooooow.


I very carefully unwound all that warp, added 20 friggin' threads and rewound. It took forever. I even enlisted the help of Hotty Hubby who not only wound bobbins of thread for the weft (and subsequently got teased ruthlessly at the gym about his "bobbins") but he learned how to turn the crank on my loom to wind the warp and claims to have dislocated his elbow in the process. (Bullocks. But it makes him feel special so play along.) The effort paid off because not only did I have the neatest warp ever, my shed is very clean and I only broke one warp thread! (I know I have lost some knitters at this point but trust me, it's all good.)


I fixed the broken warp thread by adding in a thread off the cone and weighing it with a pack of batteries (Duracell size C if you must know) and have finally started weaving. It's January, but according to Emily Post, I have 3 months to give my gift. The sad part is that I also ordered something off their registry and have been holding it hostage. I understand that I am in complete denial about what I am doing, but I am now so determined to make this happen that I have explained to my friends that their gift is, uh, back ordered and I have been so efficient at getting stuff done during Cashew's first nap that the second nap is dedicated to weaving.


And it's going well. I have finished one blue towel and have started a red one. Of course all this warp drama had me hating weaving and ready to throw in the towel. (Ha! Towel!) But once I started weaving, I fell in love all over again. It is wonderfully satisfying to watch the design grow. I have been doing a lot of plain weave and this "Huck-a-Back Blocks" is very satisfying. The draft is from Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book but I got the pattern from Best Of Handwoven: Top Ten Towels on Four Shafts by Interweave Press.

Yes, I am aware that I am pushing it with this Emily Post thing, but I am determined. And completely off my rocker. Woo hoo!

Gah - Part III

The Zephyr Gals totally pulled through! They answered my email and helped me get my hands on that pattern. Juliet has begun. Hooray! Yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky in color 16023.

So why the Gah - Part III?


See those 2 threads hanging there? There are supposed to be 26 of them hanging there. I am missing 24 threads.

Go ahead, say it out loud. I did. GAH.

Get It? Got It! Good.

I have finally moved on. After asking the same questions over and over again, I walked away from the loom for a couple of days. I stopped thinking about the two threads per end thing. And then this past weekend I sat down at my loom and began to thread. There are two threads per warp end and I am going to thread them as singles.

The grand revelation? It works just the same.

So all you experienced weavers out there who are wondering with furrowed brow what to do when you come across two threads per warp end and you only need one and are utterly confused by this little dilemma - you can measure your warp with "two ends in hand". It doesn't mess up the cross, it doesn't mess up the shed. In fact, it can make things go more quickly. So pluck that little tip from the Annie Tree of Knowledge and finally get a good nights sleep. If you need any more help, just let me know. I'm here for you.

The poppana? Eh. I decided not to use it and instead am making placemats using Nashua Ecologie Cotton in various colorways. I'm loving this project now!

And for all my knitting buddies that got a headache from all this weaving speak...

Thanks for commenting anyway!

If I Understood I'd Tromp as Writ

So my mom emails my family in Finland. Liisa reads my blog. She talks to her daughter Anna-Leena on the phone. Anna-Leena posts a comment to my blog translating the piece of paper. While all that is happening, Natalie's boyfriend tells her that "reunassa vahvikelangat" means "sides have re-enforced wool". Christine emails me, providing me not only with a manual of Finnish weaving terms, but a picture of what my weaving will look like. At least we think it will look like. I still have questions. So since the blogosphere has been a great help, let's go for round 2, shall we?

My loom - LeClerc 4 Harness
My weft - Poppana
My reed - 10 dent ordered and on it's way

According to Christine, I use 2 harnesses and thread them and treadle them as written. I don't understand how I treadle 1,1,1 though. According to Anna-Leena and Liisa, I am supposed to thread 2 threads per dent for the first two holes on both sides, (I think that explains the "reunassa vahvikelangat") and all the other dents should be threaded with a single thread. With a single thread. But each warp end has two threads. I am lost in translation. Is it each warp end per dent, or each thread per dent? Warp end (two threads) makes sense to me, but oh whoah is me with the new weaving terminology mixed in with a foreign language.


I have all these errands to run and phone calls to make and I can't because there are 2 threads per warp end. Do I thread through the heddles with a warp end or a single thread? If I am supposed to thread the reed with single threads per dent, why is the warp made of doubled thread? Where's that email from Christine with the Finnish manual? I am trying desperately to wrap my head around what is probably the simplest and easiest project ever.

Single thread per dent, but there are 2 threads per warp end.

Help.

Apua

Every summer my mom goes to Finland. I must say, this works out very well for me, as she always brings back some neat yarn from the country where it seems like everyone knits and weaves. One summer she brought me this weaving project. The warp and weft are ready to go and I have been waiting to get better at weaving before I put this on my loom. I didn't want my beginner clumsiness to screw it up. However, I think the bigger problem is the little piece of paper that seems to hold some instructions. I don't speak Finnish. No biggy, right? Using my Finnish to English dictionary, I have figured out some words, and I am hoping that as I wind the warp on my loom some of these numbers will start to make sense. Meanwhile my brow is furrowed as I stare at this piece of paper, willing an English translation. I see Botox in my future.

If you speak Finnish or know anyone who does and can offer some assistance, I'd greatly appreciate it! So would my forehead.

Kiitos!

Clean Dishtowels

All this knitting really slows down my weaving. So this post is dedicated to my poor dishtowels, which have been finished for over a week and have been patiently waiting for their moment to show off. And seeing as these are my first dishtowels ever, I really need a moment to toot my own horn. Oh wait, I was writing as if my dishtowels were alive and had feelings... but who are we kidding.It's my blog and my bragging rights. Rock on!

So above is a photo of my Fibonacci inspired towels fresh off the loom. Kind of stiff looking. Kinda eck. But the beauty of weaving is similar to the thrill of blocking lace. Give them a hot bath and a hot iron and ta da!


They shrunk about 2 inches in length and one inch in width. They are much softer, though still burlappy. A little thick. And then I remind myself that they are handwoven dishtowels, not machine made towels from Williams Sonoma. That's right. Snuh-ap!

While admiring them, Hotty Hubby asked if we could actually use them. Use them? As flattering as I think it is that my very Hotty Hubby actually wants to sop up whatever dark, greasy whoknowswhatthatgoois with them, I am not ready to stain these towels. I promised him that I would make him his own set that he could trash with coffee grounds all he wanted.


Knowing that the fibers will bloom when washed, I was still nervous about my very obvious threading sequence remaining visible. See how the vertical lines in the towel are making their own little pattern?


After two hot washes and two tumbles in the dryer, everything bloomed just fine. The only thing that bothers me is that even after ironing, the fabric is very wrinkly, like a brown paper bag that was crinkled and that flattened out. I don't know why this is, perhaps it had to do with tension? Or the cotton used? Or my sett? I don't know. Overall, I am very happy with my first go at dishtowels and I look forward to making more. I have another warp for a different project ready to go and I am debating winding it on the loom and trying to bust out another FO before we move. Hmmm....

Vanilla, Please!

Has a week gone by already? Yeowser. Here's a plain ol' update. Nothing fancy, no humorous story, no puns. Just vanilla blogging. Things have been busy here at Annie's House of Yarn and Diapers. Between house guests, litter box chores and strollercize, there has been some crafty magic, but I tell you my friends. I am tired. Babette has kept me sane. (Sometimes it's nice to have a project that you really have to look at to work on and keeps you from having to keep up conversation.) It's moving along and I have to start working on the bigger squares.


I finished one Sidewinder, and am tinking more than knitting on the second one. But I will finish. The "one yarn discipline at a time" thing is killing me. I really really want to start Blouson. By next weekend, garsh darn it!


One dishtowel down, and working on the second one. I only know one finishing technique for the edges of my dishtowels. I'm not sure how I feel about fringe for this project. I guess I'll find out!

I have also, of course, been Ravelrying. I do a lazy knitters version. I click on 'friends'. Click on 'friends activity' and look at all the projects everyone else has added to their queue's and add them to mine. Y'all have great taste in knitting projects!

More clever analogies of life and yarn to come, and I promise some updated pictures of Cashew! In the meantime, feel free to read how "knitting and purling" found its way into my birth plan.

Fun with Fibonacci

One of the things I love about weaving is design. You can take something as simple as dishtowels, use a plain warp and play with the weft like crazy. So I had me some fun with Fibonacci. Fibonacci was a mathematician. (Go read about him here.) So to play with Fibonacci, you gotta make like a bunny and bust out your linear recurrence equation. A linear recurrence equation is a recurrence equation on a sequence of numbers expressing Xn as a first-degree polynomial... Fine, so I looked that up on Mathworld. Stop laughing. Here's how I understand it...start with 1 and 1. Add them together, you get 2. Now take the last number (1) and add it to 2. You get 3. Now add that to the last number and you get 5. Are you following me? 1,1,2,3,5. Those numbers will act as your number of rows for a given color. That's the basics. Now play.


I actually started with the number 2, and I took it to the number 10, and then came back the other way. I assigned that sequence to green. I then reversed it and assigned it cream.

Green - 2, 2, 4, 6, 10, 10, 6, 4, 2, 2

Cream - 10, 6, 4, 2, 2, 2, 4, 6, 10

Hmmmm. Technically I think there was supposed to be another "2" in the cream, but whatever. That's my Wabi Sabi.

Neato, right? And not just cool for weaving. Knitting, crochet... (Flickr pool, anyone?)


Now a weaving question. Is it normal to see your threading sequence? That will tighten up in the wash, right?

The Menu

I really loved my June Plan. Yes, I was tired from trying to fit so much in, but the upside is all the options I now have. It's like going to your favorite cafe and picking something from the menu. Shall I blog about my Babette short stack?

Or perhaps my fiber rich dish towels...

Or shall I go straight for a Curlicue salad? Decisions, decisions!

Checking In

The June Plan has been implemented. I have learned that maintenance is key, along with automatic litter boxes. My warp has been sleyed through the reed, now I just need to tie it to the front beam and start weaving! Could there be a dishtowel or two before the end of June?


Babette is coming along. I'm still loving this project. It's nice to work on something that is so entertaining. Each square is fairly quick to make and each one is different. Love that. I am thinking about adding two more colors. Perhaps an earthy pink and a dirty teal. Hmmm.


Curlicue. It's almost done! Can you believe it? Two more sections to go. The only way it will get finished is if I get knitting.

So I guess I should go knit.

The Most Comfortable Seat in the House

Unbweavable, but twue.

Who knew that threading the heddles would be so comfortable for a big ol' belly? I've had a grand time threading.

All this cleaning, reorganizing, waddling and complaining deserves an online shopping spree, yes? I knew you'd agree. I am short a few heddles for my project, so off to Webs online store I go. Heddles in my cart... and heck, while there, why not get a poppana shuttle? (I do need one.)

The package arrived yesterday. Turns out the heddles are backordered! Ah well, I know a trick to make heddles out of string.

The yarn?

HEY! How did that get in there???

OK, FINE. But to quote Tina: I think buying yarn has become my bag of candy or my swift pint of beer. It's a little pick me up for whenever I'm feeling grumpy or sad. Does that make it as unhealthy an addiction as the other options? Maybe, but a) it doesn't make me fat, b) it doesn't pickle my liver, and c) it makes me happy to have so many creative options at my finger tips.

I *heart* Yarn

Section 8 of Curlicue. Slow going.

I have been thinking a lot about stash. There is this knitter in my knitting group named Penelope. Sadly, blogless. *cough* More shocking, stashless. *HACK* Fantastic knitter. How could she possibly be without a stash? And then I realized that every time I see her, she has on a handknit sweater. Handknit socks. Handknit mittens. And then it occurred to me - SHE KNITS! I mean, really. She actually knits. How many sweaters do I have? Uh, one. How much yarn do I have for sweaters? A lot.

Falling Leaves. Love. Slow going.

So every time I see her, I pester her. I have discovered that she likes to shop for yarn online. She has her credit card number memorized. Yet she possesses this ability to say (and obey) "Walk away from the yarn and no one gets hurt". So there's this other knitter in my group - Hila. If I spend an afternoon knitting with her, I find myself buying yarn. (It's not really her fault. It doesn't take much to be an enabler.) This past weekend, I was knitting with Hila. I got home, went to my computer to look up Trekking Natura and bam, there I was with 4 skeins in my shopping cart. "Walk away from the yarn and no one gets hurt." Why did I need four skeins? Well, I want to make socks for hotty hubby. I'm not sure what colors he might like. They all look nice. Can't hurt to have extra skeins. Can't hurt? That phrase is the means to a stash explosion. I quickly closed out the screen.

Threading the heddles. Doesn't hurt my hands. Slow going anyway.

When shopping for clothes, one holds them up in front of the mirror and says "I think I will wear this here and for this occasion and I will feel great and this will make me happy." We try on a life we hope to have. My stash is about knitting I hope to do. So my little hobby of poking yarn with sticks has become an example of how one can forget to live in the moment. (Are you following me?) I am not making any plans to stop buying yarn. (Hello, 12 steps, not one giant leap.) But I am thinking about being happy with what I am working on now and feeling the satisfaction of completion, instead of jumping ahead to that next, someday soon, project. Of course my hands are so DAMN SWOLLEN that the idea of completing a couple rows makes me giggle like a little girl. I have no choice but to stare at my current projects and face the reality of buying more yarn. I simply can't try to knit any faster!

Warped

My puffy fingers need a break from knitting, but my yarn obsession can not stop. Above is the beginning of a warp for some cotton dishtowels. My warp will stay cream and with each towel I will play with different stripes of green. Fairly simple, yet interesting enough to delight me with each pick.

Not much progress has been made on Curlicue this week. Still on section 8, but hope that my rested fingers will be able to get it together and knock out another section or two this weekend. No progress shot so I'll leave you with this comment from my last post...

Allena writes: I get the yarn under your pillow, but why is the roving in the freezer?

Good question. I'll get back to you when I think of an answer.