Merry Christmas!

Love, Peace, Joy, Hope, and a Merry Christmas to you and yours!  xoxoxoxo

 

Wednesday Weaving: SurpriseBlameStaceyEdition

Long ago, (not really, I just don't remember, and if I look it up, the blogging will never happen) Stacey mentioned weaving kits from Spunky Eclectic and that they have a club.  I loved what she had woven, and for the first time, the idea of a club appealed to me.  I'm still new to weaving, and the club is for the rigid heddle loom.  I looked at kits.  I thought about joining the club.  I considered colors.  Then, I bought nothing.  I looked again and convinced myself not to get anything.  I made some sort of comment about the budget.  Stacey responded that $33 every-other-month probably wouldn't break the budget.  Still, I had to think about it.  Then I decided to go for it.  I decided to really go for it by not selecting a color family, but instead, choosing the Surprise option.  Then, I waited.  

Finally, the day arrived, and I had my first club shipment.  I looked at its bright loveliness, and worked to clear a spot on life and loom to weave it.  Then, life was in full swing, and it was, well, it was kind of killing me.  But we're not talking about that, and really, that kind of stuff is boring.  

Anyway, let's just fast-forward to the weaving part.  I loved playing with this kit.  It is not something I would have chosen on my own; not the pairing of yarns, not the colors, but it was perfect.  To me, it is candy corn, autumn, and sunshine.  I decided to not make it a scarf as the pattern intended, but instead I turned it into a möbius cowl.  I later found what would probably be a better way to do this, but I still think it turned out well.  The weaving was fast with the big, lumpy, bumpy, thick-and-thin, this-will-not-be-even-so-no-need-to-try yarn for the weft that was so freeing.  Then of course, there was the fun of the silver sparkle in the warp yarn that I just loved.

This is going to be either a birthday or Christmas present for the daughter, (she's a Christmas Eve baby) depending on the wrapping paper situation. 

Now, I wait patiently for the next club shipment.  Being open to whatever arrives is a good thing.   

November Goals: Evaluation Time

Since I set goals over at CrankyPants for November, that makes the first post of December an easy one.  I said I would weave two things, finish and mail a baby blanket, finish the garter center of the Bridgewater I have been knitting, crochet a doll, sew an animal backpack, make a decision about making Christmas gifts.  I did it all, although the mailing of the baby blanket was not until December 1.  Let's see how I do with December, eh?

 

Mochimochiland Modification Monday

 
So, did you try to Catch 'em All with that game?  Are you still playing?  Did someone show you that you can knit/crochet 'em all?  I caught some, still play a little, and knit only a couple.  I used my past experience and various patterns from Anna Hrachovec to guide me in the process, and that felt pretty good.  For a moment I had ideas of making many and giving them as gifts because several people in the family played the game, but my enthusiasm for doing that went away a little quicker than their interest in continuing with the game.  I think I might make more if/when the mood strikes, (I might even have part of one waiting for that mood) but for now, these two are it.     

Swap it Up

So, along with my return to blogging, I ventured into the world of swapping.  I stress about swaps, so I only plan to do a little, but if I could afford it and if they were all as great as this latest, I would swap all the time.  I played it safe with a swap over on Ravelry in Team Crankypants hosted by Cookie.  She did a great job organizing the swap.  She kept it simple, made the rules straightforward, and set a short, but reasonable timetable from sign up to mailing.  I loved the whole experience, had fun putting together a parcel for my partner, (forgot to take a picture) and love everything I received from my partner. 

 

Weaving Wednesday

What do we talk about on Wednesdays?  That's right, weaving.  Do I have it in me to carry on a weekly blog topic for the foreseeable future?  Have you been here before?  So, no, I probably won't have weaving to show every Wednesday, but that's what day it is today, and as it happens, I have weaving to show.  

 
Today I have a scarf to show.  I wove this for my brother mostly from the yarn he brought back from Iceland last year.  To add a bit more color, I also used some Lion Brand Amazing in the Arcadia colorway.  I like the scarf, and had it ready to go for my brother's birthday and his trip with his family to Shenandoah.  The yellow bit is probably my favorite, and it was totally unplanned.  That might be what makes it best.  I just loaded up the warping board and then moved it to the loom, and when I saw that yellow, I knew it would be good.  After that, I just wound stick shuttles and wove, changing colors randomly until I reached the end.  I think my brother liked it, and that is the best of all!  

Knitting Little Big Things (and crocheting, too)

And that's all I have to say about that. 

Do You Have Your Costume?

So, these were actually made back in the spring when I was thinking of giving them to my nephew for his birthday.  I wasn't sure whether they would be sturdy enough for a preschooler, I did not complete as many as I had planned, and then they just went to live in my craft room.  I'll probably add them to the collection of toys for the kids to play with when they visit; I just haven't gotten around to it.  

However, there is one that will not be handed over to the babies.  I knit the Prince as Batman/Joker when Prince died.  It still makes me a little bit sad, but knitting this little finger puppet helped. 

Weft Behind

The poor wittle blog, all by itself, so lonesome, waiting so long for new posts and comment love.  So, I decide to return to it, and as soon as I begin adding tags for the first post, there is eye rolling and an exasperated sigh.  The blog wants to protest the manner of my return, but fears another long silence, abandonment, or, deletion.  Still, I hear the sullen mutterings.  It wonders whether I deliberately chose the return post topic deliberately in an attempt to find out if we will truly hear crickets chirping in the silence after clicking the publish button.  It wonders if I had considered less popular, more repelling topics such as religion, politics, crafting my own reusable LadyDays products, or an extreme frugality that eschews toilet paper.  

Ah, but this space has never been about popularity, so I carry on with the topic lying at my feet.  What, not the topic at hand?  No, that will have to wait for me to finish some mittens.  I'm talking about weaving, and not just any weaving, but rugs.  I decided to try out weft-faced (though I keep embarrassingly and erroneously typing warp-faced, even though I do know the difference) weaving.  The purple and navy rug goes in the downstairs bathroom.  The other one goes beside Bruce's side of the bed because he has wanted a rug there and he likes this one. 

I ended up with two rugs because I was both stupid and lucky.  I was stupid to charge ahead with something new without carefully reading the directions.  What was my mistake?  I was supposed to thread every other slot/hole spot on the reed instead of every slot/hole across.  I remedied that by clipping the extra warp ends and tossing them over the back.  Then when I finished the first rug, I re-threaded the reed as well as I could, and wove the second rug.  That I was able to weave two rugs is the lucky part.  

As far as the yarn deets, the purple yarn is Cascade Pastaza (discontinued yarn, and longtime stash resident) and I think the navy is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and Manos del Uruguay.  That I was able to use up the Pastaza and some leftover random navy yarns is another way I was lucky.  The other rug is Lion Brand Amazing in Glacier Bay.  Perhaps we will talk more about that yarn later, but it may be one of those things that we will declare never happened.  Anyway, now I just have to work up the nerve to put these rugs on the floor and use them.  Actually, that does not bother me too much.  I have made them to be used, I enjoyed making them, and if they need replacing, I will make more.  I do have some yarn.