Knitting in Hugs and Kisses

If you know any preschoolers you know the wig and glasses are from Yo Gabba Gabba. They were actually a present to my son from his MIL but what two-year-old doesn't think all presents, especially on his birthday, belong to him!

I knit Claudia's Wee Bigger Aran a long time ago (i.e., 2002, before I was a grandmother). Now that I'm knitting for Jackson the idea of knitting all of those Xs and Os take on a different meaning - hugs and kisses surrounding him.



Both sleeves done.



Body done, just waiting until he comes over tomorrow to the check length of both sleeves and body before joining



Close up of those cute Xs and Os.



I'm a winner! Yes, the important thing is that Claudia raised a whopping $31,070.73 with her Knitters Against MS Ride. Now that the niceties are over, I WON!! Donna donated several skeins of yarn and I won three of them. I've already cast on with the cool denim.



Just in case you needed another picture of Jackson celebrating his 2nd birthday.
Large toys are courtesy of the doting aunts and uncles.

Weaving Along

I thought I'd lash on the cloth beam because my chains were a little uneven and I thought I could save some warp. I've tried it a few times and was not a fan, but, hey!, it's summer, I have a little time, right?



That would be wrong! I can't seem to get even tension even when using a very slippery nylon cord. It looks so easy when Tom Knisley does it :-)



So back to the tried and true!



Plain weave and one color weft. What a joy! I'm listening to books on my ipod and just throwing the shuttle. How relaxing can you get?

Warping Front to Back

So I had these beautiful warps dyed up but I wasn't sure how I was going to warp since the bright fuschia and red/orange needed to be spread out over the width of the warp.



So I thought I go back to front to back warping, something I haven't done much of lately. So long ago, actually, that I had to go back to my own tutorial (c. 2002).



Sleying the reed.



This technique allows me to design in the reed although I actually had it all planned out. It works well if you have a bunch of warp chains and want a random placement.



I used my trapeze but I think the next time I'll just keep tugging on the chains. Since the border stripes were stretching across the width of the warp it was putting a bit of tension on some of the threads.



Reading to go!

Summer Towels

Every summer four of us (high school teachers) get together to sit by the pool, talk, eat, drink, and try to figure out how summer can stretch out just a few more weeks!

And every summer as I pack up my contribution and get ready to walk out the door I think - "I should have made something special to commemorate our get togethers" but, of course, I don't have anything and it escapes my mind until the following summer. That is, until this spring when I began plotting. I wound the warp right before school got out and (after suffering through my obligatory end of school/start of vacation migraine) I spent a leisurely Friday dyeing the warp.

I started with one of my favorite flowers, Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia), as inspiration.



Using the Golden Mean I wound a center stripe of 144 ends and two adjoining stripes of 90 ends. Here's the two side stripes.



And the center



Fuschia stripes (13 ends) bordered by an end of red orange will separate the stripes and serve as a border.

More photos are here.