To Weave Or Not To Weave...

For the last two days, I've ventured outside my fiber craft comfort zone, and dipped my toes into the world of weaving.  Ewe-nique Creations, our local yarn store, now sells Cricket Looms from Schacht Spindle Company.  Unlike the intimidating floor looms most people, myself included, associate with weaving, these looms are small and portable.  I was introduced to one of these looms during one of my visits to Ewe-nique. One of the owners had hers set up with the beginning of a summer scarf in progress, and I got a chance to weave a few rows into it.  I must say I was intrigued, but at the time, I didn't give owning a loom of my own much thought.

Last week, during my panic trip to buy more yarn for my Haruni, I was again drawn to the loom sitting on the table.  I began to ask more questions about weaving, and was invited back to spend some time learning how to use this loom.  I went back Wednesday, and spent several hours weaving, and getting to know the shop owners.  I found out the owner of the loom is like me, in that she loves to start projects but has trouble staying focused enough to finish them.  I can definitely relate to that feeling!  I finished up the scarf for her on Thursday.  How fun!  These are a few photos I took with my phone while I was at the store:

I took this picture to show the compact size of the loom.

I zoomed in so you could see the work in progress, and get a general idea of how the loom works.

This is simply a closeup of the woven fabric.

I had a great time learning about a new craft, but I barely scratched the surface of what weaving is about.  I must confess I've begun to like the idea of owning one of these looms and weaving scarves of my own. Then I think of the expense.  I've talked myself out of it, and back into it several times.  So will I soon add weaving to my list of hobbies?  I just don't know yet.

The Magic Of Blocking

During the latter part of last year, I discovered the most amazing thread on Ravelry.  It's called Blocking: Before and After, and it has changed my whole way of thinking.  I used to think it didn't really matter if an item was blocked if it was knit or crocheted with even tension. I also didn't knit lace.  Oh, I had tried many a lacy pattern, but I was never happy with the way they turned out.  Believing I just didn't have the talent for lace knitting, I gave up and focused on other knitting that felt I was good at.  After browsing through Ravelry's blocking thread, and ogling all the before and after pictures posted by fellow Ravelers, I became a believer (a blocking convert, if you will). This thread also renewed my interest in lace patterns, and helped me to realize that I CAN knit lace.  There was nothing wrong with the way I was knitting it, I had just left off the most important step, which is blocking.  Now, I don't even consider a lace project to be complete until it's blocked.  

I've picked out some before and after pictures of my own to illustrate just how important blocking is.  I hope you enjoy:

Big Lace Scarf:  Fresh off the needles, no matter how much I tried to smooth it down, the sides intended to roll.

Blocking helped display the simple open design of this pattern.

Windowpane Scarf fresh off the hook.  Before blocking it was all rumpled and squishy.

After blocking, my Windowpane scarf is smooth and crisp.

Haruni fresh off the needles.  Needless to say, I was underwhelmed.

Haruni open and amazing. Blocking made all the difference in the world for this shawl.

Georgiana before:  This was my first project after getting back on the lace band wagon.  I guess I still had my doubts, because, in a desperate attempt to see the lace pattern, I kept pausing my knitting to pull the points down.

Georgiana after:  I needn't have worried, because it blocked into a beautiful airy shawl.  In hindsight, I could have really  emphasized the points by pulling more aggressively during the pinning, but it was my first lace block.  Still, it's not bad for a blocking beginner.

This is one of the motifs for my Noro Puzzle Scarf.  Before blocking, it drew backward forming a U, instead of an open box shape.

The same piece after blocking:  The corners are more pronounced and the piece lays flat.

All these pieces, sewn together, became one of my most treasured hand knit scarves.

I hope this visual post helps other knitters who have yet to dive into the world of blocking.  If you've stopped knitting lace because of this, I urge you to give it another try. With blocking, you can definitely do it.  If you're a Ravelry member, don't hesitate to check out that thread.  It's in the Yarn & Fiber forum on the main board.  You'll be amazed and inspired, I promise.
For those of my readers who do not knit or crochet, I hope the photo comparisons were interesting enough to keep you tuned in.

Haruni: The Final Post

I took Haruni off  the blocking mats today, and it really is beautiful!  I was so excited about the pattern itself, that I forgot to mention the yarn.  I used one hank of Cascade Heritage Silk, which is a beautiful fingering weight yarn with plenty of drape.  Perfect for lacy shawl knitting :)

Looking lovely outside on my front porch plant table.  I wish you could have seen it gently blowing in the breeze.

looking just as lovely inside.  Please ignore my sloppy t-shirt.  This shawl deserves a lovely dress.

I thought I was never going to finish this thing, but I'm so glad I did!

Haruni Detail Post

Let me start out by acknowledging the designer.  Haruni is a beautiful lacy shawl pattern, designed by Emily Ross.  It is available to Ravelry members as a free download.  While it may have been time consuming for me, knitting this shawl has been well worth it.  I look at my finished Haruni, as it lays drying on the mats, and I honestly can't believe I knit that.  The pattern is broken down into two charts and ends with a loopy cast off.  Chart A, which creates the delicate lacy body of the shawl is super easy, and works up pretty fast.  Chart B, on the other hand, consists of multiple increases to produce the chunky leaf pattern across the bottom.  I thought I was never going to finish this chart (the largest rows had over 500 stitches!), but I soldiered on until the whole thing was completed! This is when I began to panic.  Chart B used a huge amount of yarn and left me with just over 2.5 yards.  The pattern offers two methods for creating the loopy cast off, a crochet version, and a knitted icord version.  According to the instructions, the icord method uses more yarn (thank you so much, Emily Ross, for including this note).  I decided to do the crochet cast off, but I still ran out to our local yarn seller and bought another hank (What can I say?  Sometimes my faith is weak). As I made my purchase, I showed the owner my shawl, and explained my situation to her.  She told me that if I had enough yarn to complete my cast off without breaking into the new hank, she'd let me exchange it (she's super nice!)

I've included this picture to illustrate the reason for my fear.  This is all the yarn I had left going into the cast off!

This is the amount of yarn I had after the cast off was completed. Whew!

Turns out I panicked for nothing, because I had more than enough yarn for the crochet cast off.  Would it have been enough for the icord cast off?  I don't know.  I'm glad I didn't attempt it, because now I have another trip to the yarn shop to look forward to.  This trip will have to wait until the shawl is dry, because I want to show it to my new friends at the yarn shop.
So was it worth it all?  Absolutely, 100%, Yes!  Most of my frustration was self-inflicted and will not be an issue should I knit another Haruni in the future...and as you can see from the previous post, this shawl is beautiful!  I still can't believe I knit that...

Bragging!

It's the wee hours of the morning, and I just finished pinning my Haruni shawl onto the blocking mats.  I thought I was never going to finish this thing.  I'll write about it tomorrow in more detail, as I'm completely exhausted, but I was just too proud of it not to share at least one photo.

And now, I must retire to my quarters.  Good night..good morning...or whatever it is.  Hope everyone has a very blessed day!

Product Recommendation!

During the course of my knitting life, I have tried many different wool washes for my hand knits.  Soak, Eucalan, and Kookaburra have become my favorites, and I'll continue to alternately buy them all, but as of last weekend, Kookaburra has risen to the position of absolute favorite!

This was a perfect job for my new drying rack.  Dave bought this from Walmart for my non-dryer friendly clothes.

It all started several months ago.  I was browsing the Hobby Lobby yarn section, as I love to do, and came across a skein of Lion Brand Homespun Thick and Quick.  I don't work with this yarn often, because it has a tendency to split, but I just couldn't resist this color.  One skein of the super bulky weight yarn is all I need for a beautiful, fall colored scarf.  I did what I swore I'd stop doing, and bought this yarn without a pattern in mind, which meant setting it to the side until I came across one.  Instead of packing it away, I put it in one of my decorative baskets in the craft room for future use.  It was last week, when I began to think more seriously about a use for this yarn.  When I picked up the skein to check the label for yardage amount, and noticed it was damp.  Oh no!  That can only mean one thing in my cat-filled house.  It only took one sniff to confirm my suspicion, and remind me of why I always pack my yarn away as I purchase it.
After I finished berating myself for my easily preventable mistake, I went to work.  I used the foot board of the twin bed in the craft room to unwind my skein into a ring.  With contrasting waste yarn, I tied each end down, then evenly spaced two more ties around the ring.  This makes the yarn ring less likely to tangle on its self during the soaking process.  I filled the sink with cool-ish water, then added my Kookaburra wool wash.  I soaked it for double the recommended time.  After removing it from the water, I used my waste yarn ties as guides to reposicion my yarn back into a ring.  I squeezed out, and towel dried my yarn before putting on the drying rack on the back porch, where It's been since Saturday night.  After the yarn dried, I was planning to give it another soak in Natures Miracle to get rid any last traces of urine smell, but to my surprise, the smell is completely gone!  Kookaburra Wool Wash alone did the trick!
So yes, I'll still buy the other two brands just because I like different scented woolens, but wool wash that can get rid of cat urine smell deserves a permanent place on my cleaning shelf.

Take 2

My Aunt Bettie's scarf just came off the blocking mats!  As I said before, cotton is not as lofty and light weight as wool, but I think that will be ok in this case.  The scarf drapes beautifully, and the openness of the lace pattern prevents it from being too heavy.  I hope she likes it as much as she liked the first one.

A Few Garden Pictures

I've not posted many garden pictures this Spring, mainly because my yard looks terrible.  We planned to spread some new grass seed this year.  We moved the potted plants to the walkway, leaving the yard clear for this purpose.  Those plans haven't materialized, so my plants just look like a big disarrayed jungle cluttering up my walkway.  Of course, we can't forget the lovely weeds that have grown up between the rocky surface of my patio.  Not exactly the backdrop I want displayed on my blog.

 When I got to church this morning, I was thrilled to see my cousin, who had come in from out of town.  After service, she told me that she had missed seeing my flowers this year.  I can't disappoint my cousin.  When I got home, I grabbed my camera, and headed outside.  With some careful zooming and cropping, I think I managed to capture the beauty without the surrounding messiness.  So, Regina, this is for you. :) 

My red salvia is in bloom.  The hummingbirds love this stuff.  It is drought resistant making it perfect for my often neglected garden.

There is a lot going on in this shot, but my main focus is my Snow Angel coral bells in the very front.  To the left we have my big, fancy hosta (I don't remember the variety), and on the right, part of my Japanese Holly Fern.  In the back ground are two other varieties of coral bell, and I think I see some sorrel from my potted herb garden peeking over the hosta.

This is my second, and soon-to-be third orange rose from this plant.  I never used to like orange roses, but they've grown on me.

I save the best picture for last.  This is my Honey Perfume yellow rosebush.  This, Dave and I both agree, is the prettiest rosebush we own.  I'm always very proud of it.

I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday evening!

Newly Reorganized

It's finally done!  Dave had the framework for this closet built especially for me before we were married.  Sadly, I had let it get cluttered and messy as the years went by, but all the home improvements changed all that. After the carpet was laid, we had a fresh, clean house to redo any way we wished.  Opening my cluttered closet each morning was a mood killer, and cast a shadow over my feeling of clean.  So, we got to work...

I used to have a canvas shoe rack hanging from the left side dowel, saving the shoe box shelves for my sweaters and knits.  The canvas shoe rack was nice in its day, but over the years it had lost its appeal.  It was very heavy, unmovable, and took up too much room.  We bought plastic containers for my shoes, and I decided to used the shoe box shelves for their intended purpose.  I like it much better this way.

With the shelves now occupied with shoes, I found a new home for my knits on the top shelf above my dresses and long skirts.  Needless to say, we bought lots of storage containers this week. 

The shelf above my double layer closet dowels will temporarily hold my boots and sweaters until I need them this winter.  I also had room for a bin of yarn.  There always seems to be room for a bin of yarn. :)

I hope you enjoyed this little peek inside my closet. Maybe these ideas help someone in their own efforts to reorganize.

Oops!

I made quite a mistake. The Inishowen scarf I just knit was a gift for my recently widowed great aunt. She had given one of her hand knit scarves to a lady she'd met at the VA hospital, who had admired it so much. I knit this scarf for Aunt Bettie to replace the one she had so selflessly shared with another.

No camouflage this time. I knew better than to photo this one against the backdrop of the carpet.

I finished Inishowen last week, blocked it over the weekend, then gave it to Aunt Bettie before prayer meeting Tuesday night. The good news is she absolutely loved it! The pattern and the color were perfect! The bad news is that none of that matters, because she's allergic to wool. I know I should have asked about allergies before picking out yarn, but I really wanted to surprise her.
I donated the wool scarf to the church for raffle, and promised Aunt Bettie a new scarf. I'm happy to report that I found the perfect yarn in my stash. It's a Rowan yarn, called Cotton Jeans. I don't remember exactly when I bought this yarn, but I do remember getting quite a bargain, as it was being discontinued. Not to worry, because I have more than enough to knit this scarf. Cotton isn't as light weight as wool, but this yarn has a nice, soft drape, and the color is almost identical to the wool I used for the other one. I think she'll like it just as much, I'm just sorry she has to wait another week.