Monday, January 10th, 2011 | Author:
The Gnome Weaving:
So, I started on the next scarf, and came up with an awesome and terrible plan for when I’m done with this warp. Awesome and terrible as the sea, and amazing enough it might be worth pushing off other plans… assuming I can pull it off. It will be plainweave, which is new to me, and the yarn I think I have enough of for it is sockyarn, which is stretchy. Hrm, not sure about that.
But it really needs to be a shawl to show off the effect properly. And I don’t think I have enough white zephyr left for that. Which leaves my sock yarn base. We’ll see.
Anyway, current stuff. A ways back I finished spinning my first Abby Franquemont batt in a luxurious and shimmery grey-blue. I finally got it plied (with itself) and set, so I wound up some bobbins and started weaving on my next project. This scarf uses elements from the two preceeding it, combined into more complicated (and elegant?) motifs. Also it will involve a bit of colorwork as I want to blend from this blue to an (unplied) forest green midway.
Here’s the first end motif, with the yarn. Still the same black zephyr warp.
I’m very happy with it. I’m into the body of the scarf now which is a fairly basic (but elegant) goose eye, similar to the first scarf I wove, but with a starred eye instead of a dotted one. More photos soon.
XMas:
Xmas was, as usual, with family. Plus the lovely Jess, my brother’s girlfriend. It was a great time, as always.
I gave Jess a genuine bottom whorl spindle from Peru, with braids of my hand dyed Rambouillet, Romney, and Wensleydale. I taught her to spin on a bottom whorl last year. She took to it like a fish to water.
I got Matt a handwoven alpaca/wool belt from Chinchero Peru… which I still need to ask someone how to properly tie so it holds things better. We sang!
Matt, Jess, and I went for a lovely hike. They’re cute together, don’t you think?
Nice views. Notice I am standing lower than him, he’s not really that much taller (2 inchesish).
We could look out over town! Good walk, good company.
New Fiber Equipment:
Most of my xmas gifts were backpacking/camping gear, which is excellent. It keeps me from freezing.
My biggest gift was from my little brother, Matt. An Ashford DRUM CARDER, ZOMG! ZOMG! With a lovely blending drum on it!
So, of course I immediately set it up and blended myself a batt! Looking through my stuff I grabbed some grey shetland and some white wensleydale. Opening it up and feeding it in slowly in layers, I made an approximately 50/50 wensleydale/shetland blend. It’s very soft and lofty and awesome. I need to get out a spindle and spin it because it’s awesome! I can’t wait to play more.
My first ever batt. The second one was even more even.
More soon, socks, New Years, and more!
That’s all for now!
~The Gnome
