Fiber Musings

Guess what this is?

Yup. I did it. I cut into my Timber Frame vest. This is the cut out of the first arm hole. I haven’t picked up the stitches of the second one nor the neck yet. That’s tomorrow. I hope to have this finished either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Why the delay? I’m not happy with the neck that I’ve outline stitched. I think the neck opening might be too small. I might turn it into a short “V” neck instead. Here’s a picture of the sweater with the templates pinned in.

Yes, the armholes were a bit pointy, but I fixed that when I stitched it. I found it quite difficult to do curves on the sewing machine with the knitted fabric. I suppose that will come with some practice.

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Well, the Sheep to Shawl wasn’t really a Sheep to Shawl. It was part of a Small Farm exhibit put on by the state extension services to help small farmers. It was actually pretty interesting exhibit. A little of everything from lectures on West Nile Virus, composting, herding dog demos, and, of course, fiber demo. That’s where the Sheep the Shawl comes in. I did get a close up view and a demo of how a Triangle Loom works. It’s a lot easier than I thought — once you’ve seen how it’s done.

Of course, that motivated me to try my hand at a small weavette style loom that I’ve been meaning to experiment with. I stopped off at an art supply store and bought 4 stretcher bars, went home, and built me a 7″x7″ loom with some brads set at approximate 5 nails per inch (technically, 3/16″ apart). Here are my Woven Samples. Clockwise from the top left: double stranded Fisherman’s Wool (Lion Brand), kool-aid dyed; variagated cotton ribbon; single strand Fisherman’s Wool; hand spun silk; hand spun 2 ply wool (kool-aid dyed).

I like the way the hand-spun wool square turned out. Here’s what it looked like in roving form (see Experiment #2). I’ve been trying to figure out what I was going to do with all of this. Now, I should be able to make a lap blanket.

If you are interested in how I built the loom, see my project notes.

Here’s a picture of my current sock project. I really like the way the the spiral ribbing is working out. I just made it up as I went along … k2,p2 for 3 rounds; k1,p2,k2 for 3 rounds; p2,k2 for 3 rounds; etc. Notice how even the colors are spiraling around the leg, along with the rib. Let’s see if I can duplicate it on the second sock.

I doubt if I will get to the Timber Frame today. Sunday afternoons are usually reserved for volunteer time.

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Just in case any of you are waiting with bated breath for the cutting of the Timber Frame, I have a confession to make. I haven’t done anything with it since Wednesday night.

Instead, I’ve been coming up with every other tasks I can think of … getting a mailing out for my favorite non-profit, an impromptu stitch-n-bitch with my friend Patti, getting the dog to the groomers, getting a facial for myself at a spa that I’ve been wanting to try out for a long time, sitting on the back deck knitting on my LL sock until sun down (first time this Spring).

I’ve been busy! And I won’t get to it today because I’m going to watch a Sheep to Shawl demonstration.

This will be my first Sheep to Shawl. I wanted to see how it’s done. I’ll take lots of pictures and report back later today (along with a picture of the LL sock).

Ta!

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Woo Hoo! Today was my last day of work for 5, count ‘em, 5 whole weeks! My (former) manager was still not talking to me, but I’m coming to terms that it’s him, not me. He chose to take my decision to move on personally, as a betrayal of our friendship, which it wasn’t. As a co-worker keeps reminding me, it’s all about me. Me, me, me, me, me … and my sanity, my health, my marriage, my goals, in short, me.

Anyway, guess how I’m going to celebrate my first day of the sabbatical? Yeah, the title and the picture (click on the picture for a larger view) gave it away. I’m going to sew up the sleeves and collar of the Timber Frame and, gasp, cut it. I finally got the last inch or so finished this evening, with lots of help from EliSpot. She kept wanting to crawl into the center of the body tube, which made it impossible to turn the work.

The stitches aren’t very even because of the two handed knitting. It got more and more even as I got used to it. I’m hoping that the uneven-ness will disappear once I wash it. See Timber Frame entry for a picture of the inside.

I know that I don’t want drop sleeves for the vest, but a more standard curved armholes. But I can’t decide it I want a V Neck or a rounded neck. I generally like a V Neck, but the last few days of scooting reminded me that I need to have something that helps block the wind at the V of my jacket. I’m not very good at remembering to wear one of my scarves. So, I think I’ll be going with the round neck line.

I still have some yarn left over. I think I will make a matching pill hat with it. If there are still leftovers, perhaps a pair of voodoo for next fall/winter.

On the spinning side, I’m working my way through hand carding and spindling 8 ounces of Suffolk that I got from my guild. The Golding spindle is an absolute joy to spin with.

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I haven’t had much chance to update the blog lately. Too many things going on and not much to tell. Big project at work and it was consuming my life. After 43 months of this pace made me re-evaluate my life … so I quit. Well, sort of. I’m taking a leave of absence from work to figure out what I want in a new job. I either return in a new position in the same company or I don’t. I’m giving myself the entire month of April to figure it out. This way, I miss the entire quarter close drama (I support the financial reporting systems — or should I say, “I used to support …”?)

But now that the decision has been made, I feel much calmer. And it’s really odd to be only working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I don’t know when was the last time that I actually worked 40 hours a week with time to have lunch!

So, enough of the depressing news. Bush is doing enough of that for us. I don’t need to add more.

On to more interesting things … I took and passed my Motorcycle Safety class! Now I can rider my scooter (150cc Vespa) legally. It really was a fun class. I was given the option of taking the class (and the riding exam) on my scooter, but I opted to take it on one of their “real” motorcycles — a Suzuki 250cc bike. Considered small by motorcycle standards, but pretty big by mine (only my toes can touch the ground). It was one of those really cold, rainy, and windy weekends in Seattle — just another normal wintry day. I think I caught a cold from that weekend that I’m still fighting off.

Not much happening on the fiber front. I’m having a difficult time concentrating because of all the stuff at work. I work on a few rows of this and that and then I lose interested. I did finish spinning and plying the LL Tahoe rovings (10 oz., 1152 yards, navajo plied).

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some of the projects finished during my time off. I did sign up to demo at the Shepherd’s Extravaganza on Sunday, April 13th. If you are heading there, drop by and say hello! I don’t know what shift I’ll be doing yet.

That’s all for now. Ta!

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