January 30, 2003

Lots of good movies helped me get a couple of things finished up this weekend.
I saw Signs, then watched the 1934 The Rise of Catherine the Great
on History International, Analyze This, Finding Forrester, and
finally, The Mummy. It was a great day, my family all had plans to
go out to different parties to route for the Eagles, unfortunately that didn't
have the desired results. I finished weaving the brown
and white plaid blanket on Saturday, and twisted the ends and washed it
yesterday. I finished the second
scuff (Nancy Lindberg pattern) for my youngest son, Josh, yesterday and
fulled and fitted
them before he left to watch the playoff games. The
mohair shows up iridescent on the picture, but they are not so glowing in
person. He likes them, but I think I'll try the Fibertrends
clog for me - it seems to come up on the back a little more. I have the bootie
slipper, but I want something I can kick off.

I got the 6" Schacht bobbins for the old shuttle
I had, but I guess I didn't measure right, because it has the little flanges
on the ends and it just fits. But did I think it through before I forced it
in? I think you know the anwer to that! So now I have to either crush the
bobbin, or try to get a hacksaw blade down in there to cut the metal. I think
I'm going to have to sacrifice the bobbin since there's only about an 1/8"
on either side. Duh... The good news, I've ordered a new Schact shuttle that
will accomodate these 6" bobbins. I want to be able to cut down on bobbin
changes when I'm using thicker weft yarns. Speaking of shuttles, I love my
new Bluster
Bay shuttle. It just shoots across the loom, but since I won't be using
the 15" shuttle that often, I really don't want to put out that much
money.

I have about 25 rows left on my Pi Shawl. I haven't decided what border I'm
going to do yet. I've been using the alpaca from one my UFOs
and it is so soft and drapey. I've been thinking about my next shawl and although
I haven't narrowed it down yet, I think it will be from Folk Shawls.

Once I get three scantron keys filled in for 3 different 200 question midterms
AND my eyes begin to focus again, I'm going to start spinning
some more Beast. I find that if I use a tennis elbow strap on my arm and alternate
projects my tendonitis is minimized. Besides, I know I'll want to play with
my new Schacht as soon as it gets here, so I won't be up for any thick yarn
on the Louet for a while.

January 15, 2003

I'm working on another doubleweave blanket. The benefit of making all of
these with thick worsted weight yarn is that I can wind less than 400 ends,
even for a 52 inch blanket, and get lots of warping practice. Although I have
bagged up enough yarn for 3 or 4 more, I am starting to get a little bored.
I'm going to make one more (for my brother) and then start something new.
I've been thinking about an overshot coverlet (thanks for the book, Kate)
or a doubleweave bathmat. We just finished painting our bathroom and putting
up a new cabinet. I thought I'd try a doubleweave where the two layers are
interlocked and exchange colors - maybe 6/2 cotton for the warp and 8/2 for
the weft. I also promised my niece (and goddaughter) a Burberry-ish scarf.
I'm waiting for the yarn to come in, in the meantime I can't decide if I want
to do that in twill or plain weave. Gotta keep weaving though, because once
my new wheel comes in I know I'll be abandoning my loom for awhile!

Three day weekend coming up........

January 8, 2003

Talk about learning experiences -- well, duh, I guess when you forget to
factor in loom waste you're going to get a rather short blanket! Luckily I
had planned on a rather LONG blanket, so I ended up with one measuring 52"
x 52". I thought I'd just put it in my car, but my son says it's just
the right size for when he watches a movie sitting up <g>

I was happy with the way my fold line ended up. When I first took it off
the loom and opened
it up, you could see that it was rather loose from having fishing
lines running along with the last two threads. (that was a change from
my last double weaving where the But after washing and pressing it looks great.
HOWEVER there's another problem I hadn't thought of. The plaid
reverses when it gets to the center. (see
finished blanket here)I knew the bottom layer had to reverse for threading,
but it never occurred to me that I had to reverse the stripes in the warp
so that it would follow the same pattern as the top. Oh well, it's warm -
if slightly short. Now on to the next one.

January 1, 2003

The blanket is starting to pull together. At
6-7 ppi it is weaving up quickly (even for doubleweave). I hope the fishing
line going through the last two heddles will do the trick on the fold. I
like that I don't have to worry about going over on the way out, etc.

I found a threading error after about 5". I was going to try and fix it
after it came off the loom, but decided to bite the bullet and unweave. The
wool was really sticking together, but I gave it another spray of starch before
I started again, and it's been smooth sailing.