Fireside Sock Knitting

By Leigh

Theresa recently cleaned out her library and I was the happy recipient of Knit Socks! 15 Cool Patterns For Toasty Feet by Betsy Lee McCarthy. I love wearing handknit socks, I love knitting them, and I love collecting sock pattern books.

Obviously I am happy to add this to my own library and of course I set about trying to decide which pattern to knit first. My initial idea was to use one of the patterns with these yarns ...

... from this post, I'm A Sucker For Sock Yarn.

I found a pattern I liked and knitted a swatch. Unfortunately my gauge was too large but I don't have any sock needles smaller than US2's. Well, I do, but they are bamboo which I've broken because, well, I'm not sure why except that I knit with a lot of tension in my hands as well as my gauge! Ordinarily I would just recalculate the pattern but I don't feel like going through the mental gymnastics for that at this point. I decided to save that pattern and those yarns until I can get some double pointed 1's. Instead, I looked for a pattern with the gauge I'd knitted and this is the one I ended up with....

Fortunately this pattern was also on my "must knit" list. The stitch pattern was easy to memorize and it is very pleasant and relaxing to knit by the fire at the end of the day.

If feels good to be knitting again.

Posted 29 November 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

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I'm A Sucker For Sock Yarn

My $6.93 Shuttle

By Leigh

I was browsing a thrift shop this morning and found this...

Of course I bought it! (Click pic for a little bigger). It cost me a total of $6.93 including tax and is in excellent shape. I know absolutely zilch about end-feed shuttles, so I need your help! Did I just buy a pretty ornament for my studio? Or can I actually weave with it? It has no identifying markings, but stamped on the bottom are these: SH (or 5H) 852 on one side, and M 3394-37 on the other. It's 16.5 inches long. I'm assuming it's an industrial shuttle (???)

Help?

Posted 23 November 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Shams And Rags

By Leigh

I finished my quilted pillow shams!

They aren't perfect, but I think they look well enough with the comforter.

I've also been cutting rag strips for the matching rag rug.

If you recall, this is going to be a summer & winter polychrome rag rug. This means that I will use a S & W threading, but will throw two different colored pattern shots between tabby shots. The whole thing is straightforward enough that I don't need to make a full drawdown for it. The threading will be a 2-block (4-shaft) summer and winter.

My sett will be 16 epi, and I want the squares to be the same size as those in the shams, 4 inches. That means each square will have 64 ends. With a threading unit of 4 ends, each block will be 16 units. I haven't calculated the width yet, probably four feet, for which I would need about 12 blocks and 768 ends. Length needs to be about 6 feet, which will probably require miles of rags!

Treadling will alternate two colors per block, following the same sequence as my pillow shams:

Pattern shot - blue
Pattern shot - green
Tabby a
Pattern shot - blue
Pattern shot - green
Tabby b
Repeat for four inches

Pattern shot - green
Pattern shot - brown
Tabby a
Pattern shot - green
Pattern shot - brown
Tabby b
Repeat for four inches

Pattern shot - brown
Pattern shot - blue
Tabby a
Pattern shot - brown
Pattern shot - blue
Tabby b
Repeat for four inches

Repeat

Rag cutting is rather slow going, I admit, but I can't get to my loom anyway, until we get the dining room floor down (which is next on the indoor project list). I started out measuring the width of the rags, but quickly abandoned that in preference to the eyeball method. It's faster and it will be close enough!

To be continued ........ one of these days.

Posted 12 November 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

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Summer & Winter: Polychrome Rug 1
Summer & Winter: Polychrome Rug 2

Sheep To Shawl

By Leigh

For the past several years my guild has been doing a Sheep To Shawl at SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) at the WNC Ag Center in Asheville, NC. This year I was able to participate.

We had a great location and gorgeous autumn weather. Since this is a local event, most of our active guild members were volunteering in other aspects of the Fiber Fair, but we had four spinners and a weaver to demonstrate the process.

We started with a donated, washed Border Leicester Fleece. Charlene, who coordinated the event, did the drum carding.

A lot of folks were interested in the entire process. This is Barbara, demonstrating spinning and answering questions.

Rats, but if someone didn't volunteer to take my picture too. Note that I'm wearing my Fiber Forum socks.

Teena demonstrated on her electric spinner.

Ellen did the weaving.

The warp was a combination of 2-ply handspun and commercial wool yarn. There was a little alpaca thrown in as well. The singles we spun that day were used for the weft. The plan for the shawl is to raffle it with proceeds going toward the Blue Ridge Fiber Show.

In the afternoon, we had a shearing demonstration. This is Elspeth, a rescue sheep. She is a registered Shetland, who other than not having been sheared for at least two years, was healthy.

Paula, who owns Shetlands, did the shearing. She used a shearing stand and started at the tail.

As she sheared her way to the front, Elspeth's fleece was rolled up toward her head.

The fleece was in amazingly good condition, with very little cotting or felting. Other than a break indicating the next year's growth, it was lovely. [UPDATE 10/30: I just found out that Elspeth's fleece weighed 11 pounds.]

Elspeth got a massage after her ordeal. She wasn't too happy about being there, but calmed down considerably as the shearing progressed.

And the rest of the Fiber Fair?

It was bigger, better, and busier than ever, with more vendors, more classes, and more folks coming to look, buy, learn, and see.

My haul?

Just this, a 20.5 inch Schacht rag shuttle for the rag rug I plan to weave for our bedroom.

I didn't stay till the end because I had a pretty good drive home. It just felt good to get my wheel out and spin again. Hopefully this winter I can resume spinning as a daily activity. By the fire. Sounds good, doesn't it?

Posted 25 October 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

A Little Quilting

By Leigh

What better thing to do on a drizzly, damp, chilly, dark day than sit by a cozy fire ...

... and do a little sewing.

Thanks to our fireplace project, everything around here has been dusty and disorganized. With the new hardwood dining room floor to be put in next, the forecast is for more of the same, especially when we get to sanding it. So, weaving projects like living room draperies, and even sock knitting (I discovered that I can't find my needles) are on hold at the moment.

Still, I have to do something, which turned out to be an inspiration to make some pillow shams to match a comforter...

... which matches the green walls of our bedroom.

Initially, I had rag rugs in mind, so when I thought about sewing some pillow shams, I thought about making something that I could coordinate with a rag rug. I chose a very simple block pattern...
... and used a progressive color sequence which I can reproduce as a polychrome rag rug.

Quilting was my introduction to the world of fabric and textiles. Though it's been a long time since I've pieced any tops or done any quilting, I still very much appreciate the art.

At first I thought I'd do the quilting by hand. I used to have both a quilting frame and a quilting hoop, but I believe these were left behind along the way. I believe I still have some large embroidery hoops somewhere, but I'm really not sure where at the moment. So, I'm doing something I've never done before...

... quilting by machine. I appreciate how quickly it's going though and this is meant to be a simple project after all.

I'm not really following a pattern, but I did find instructions to sew mitered corners, here. There's lots of other good stuff there too.

Posted 14 October 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com