A Built-In Warping Trapeze

I recently reviewed Kati Meek’s new book, Warp With a Trapeze and Dance with Your Loom using Live-Weight-Tensioned Warps, for Spin-Off magazine (for the spring 2007 issue, I believe). It inspired me. I put a warp on the loom over the weekend and gave the trapeze a try. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to build a trapeze because one of my home looms resides on an interior balcony. It was quite simple to do. Unlike Kati’s recommendation that you wind on through the lease sticks, I only used a raddle (because I shifted methods in the middle of warping). Here are the basics with a few photos. Once the warp is attached to the loom, I squared the loom to the balcony half-wall and tossed the warp “tail” over the wall. Then I went downstairs, added 5 pounds of weights to the end of the warp and started to wind on. Following Kati’s instructions, I “spanked” the warp to remove tangles, found I needed no choke ties because I was able to put the entire warp under weight. It was more twisted than it should have been, I probably could have split the warp into two separately weighted bundles, but it still worked just fine. Here’s what it looked like from downstairs (when it was nearly wound on):

and the web from the top side as I was winding on:

 

and the back beam when I was nearly done weaving. It still looked great and I had no tension problems.

The bottom line: I’d do it again. It was fun. It was fast (max 10 minutes). It worked!

For the curious, this project was for lace placemats and a table runner for my parents for Christmas. When I told Mariah it was a Christmas present, she asked, “For 2008?” No. “For 2007.” No, for 2006. “Mooooom.” Then, “That figures. You haven’t finished my blanket yet.” She’s right. Her blanket has been on the Cranbrook for two years. Ouch. It’s a double-weave, queen-sized blanket that I’m making from two fleeces from a ewe she adopted while in a farm program at Mt. Bruce Station (when she was in 2nd grade and now she’s in high school!). Guess I’d better get busy. At least it is FINALLY ready to weave.

The placemats are off the loom and I’ve begun finishing them. I see why having auto advance and tensioning is such a help on a loom. The placemats are several different sizes. They are close, but not identical. If I hadn’t been so impatient, I would have been able to reduce the variance by doing a better job of counting threads at each end and hand finishing them at that point. But, no, I was on a deadline (going to visit the folks this weekend) and, as always, was anxious to see what would happen to the fabric when it was finished. Lace is easy to weave, but it looks SO much different after it is finished that a bit of faith is required when weaving it. I’ll post a photo of the finished items when they are done.

Potpourri

Knit
Michigan

The total raised continues to go up . . . we are now at nearly $19,000! This is a picture of one of the activities: Silly knitting . . . more photos will be posted at Knit Michigan as soon as I get them in. If you have any photos to share, we’d love to have them as we were “camera challenged.” Also view photos at the Black Sheep Blog: http://bskg.blogspot.com/

New Yarn!

Three new Crystal Palace Yarns arrived this week – Panda Cotton, Panda Wool and Bamboozle. All incorporate bamboo and are machine washable. The colors are fresh and spring-ey – the perfect anti-dote to all this cold! Find patterns for the new yarns at www.straw.com, but be sure to stop in and see them in person.

 

A lesson in knitting

Being the curious knitting explorer that I have turned into, when I submitted my application for the final portion of the Master Knitting program with TKGA, I also checked the box to enroll in the Mosaic Knitting correspondence course. Oh my! Is it so easy to check a box and so much harder to do the program! That was nearly a year ago. This week I decided that I needed to finish the Mosaic program before I went any farther on the Master Knitter program.

But, let me go back. Mosaic knitting is a form of slip stitch knitting where two colors of yarn appear in a row, but you only knit with one color at a time. Patterns are achieved by slipping stitches from the row below to bring the color to the active row. It may be worked in garter or stockinette stitch. The photos below (click to see them bigger) are, from left to right: the same pattern executed in stockinette stitch on the left and garter stitch on the right; three colors used (still knitting one color per row); and a border that I think was called junkyard dog or something like that (imagine it on the bottom of a little boys sweater).

   

The mosaic course is six lessons long. Each lesson is submitted before the next one is begun. The first four lessons progress from the basic technique through variations that include using variegated yarn and applying the technique as a border. The “graduation” project is a sweater of your own design that incorporates all-over mosaic patterning. The fifth lesson is the submission of the back of the sweater and the final lesson the finished garment.

It is this garment that has drilled home the importance of focus. It took me months to finish the back. I’ve now knit one front and 4 inches of the second front (my sweater is a cardigan) in less than two weeks. Getting into the rhythm of a pattern takes a few hours before you are “up to speed.” With the back I never got the rhythm because I knitted in fits and spurts. Now, with the focused knitting time I’ve been able to speed up the process.

Which poses the question, “Is it important to knit fast?” As a recreational knitter, I’d answer that with a resounding, NO. But, as a shop owner, designer and instructor, I have to knit fast! So, figuring out how to squeeze more hours into a day is pretty important. Which reminds me of a lady I was helping recently who was surprised that I knit at home, too. Let’s see, I frequently weave while the household is getting up and around and almost knit when I get home. When I’m too tired to knit or weave, there’s always spinning that needs to be done. It doesn’t end. And I never get tired of playing with wool.

Besides having the best customers in the world, I also have the perfect job for me. I’m a very, very lucky individual!

Baby, It’s COLD Outside

As I write, most of the schools in Michigan are closed and, if it’s anything like yesterday, it will be too cold even for the knitter’s to come out. Good thing we have serious stashes at home! It’s much warmer at our house this morning - up a full five degrees over yesterday’s nine below. A good day for warm wooly mittens and Orenburg lace shawls. Yes, plural. Shawls. It’s a two shawl day!

I have heard from several people that I’ve been absent from this blog for a while. Yup. Sure have been. It has been so very, very busy at the shop that I’ve had a hard time keeping up with just about everything. After returning from the island it always takes me a few days to get my feet back under me, find the top of my desk and bottom of my mailbox and prepare for all the new classes on the schedule. Then, we had our annual Smart Sheep Party which is really a thank you event to our best customers (to qualify this year, simply take one class or spend more than $500 at the shop during calendar year 2007). Participants enjoyed great sales prices, chances to up their fiber purchase discounts to 50% off retail, great eats and wonderful company. Many brought their knitting and “hung out.” One of my favorite parts of the evening is the fashion parade. Following are photos of Kathy in her Bohus sweater knit from Jamieson’s Spindrift, Jane in her Sweater Workshop inspired Shepherd’s wool raglan, and a close up of Lisa’s Silk Garden modular vest knit from Lucy Neatby’s Equilateral Vest pattern (she’s fulled it slightly because it was too big!).

All in all, it was an evening of inspiration and bargains!

The Friday before the Smart Sheep Party was another very cool knitting event. The Detroit Chamber Winds had a recital and invited knitters. Sally, the oboeist and event coordinator, is a knitter and one of my students. The evening was well-attended by knitters and others, including Christa and Shelby Newhouse who were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. There was a good turn out of familiar faces and the music was so wonderful that sometimes you just had to put down your needles and absorb it. As with any gathering of knitters, we enjoyed a lovely display of knitted items, including the pianists handspun Collie-wool lace shawl. Its natural gold color made it glow. I hope Sally can pull off an evening like this again because we all enjoyed it.

While January was busy, there’s no way it could top Knit Michigan, which was held February 3 at Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills. Bridget Dean and I conceived the idea for this event, but it took a whole slew of enthusiastic fiber folks to make it a reality. Sorry, no photos yet, but they are coming! The bottom line is we had over 350 people participate in some way - as visitors, volunteers, marathoners, or instructors - and we grossed over $14,000 which means we will be able to forward over $3,000 to each of our four charities: Gilda’s Club, Genesys Health System, Karamanos Cancer Center and the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. More on Knit Michigan as soon as I have pictures and I’ll share some stories with you at the same time.