SpaceMika

I’ve had a few inquires about the half-twill I wove up on the rigid heddle loom a few months ago. For anyone playing along at home, I finally got around to creating a pattern chart to explain exactly what it is that I did:

Weave pattern using a pickup stick on a rigid heddle loom

Warp the loom as usual. Thread the pickup stick through every fourth warp thread (the warp goes through a hole, then a slot, then a hole, then a slot… pick up every other slotted thread). Weave with the heddle up, then down, then up + the pickup stick (lifts extra warp threads), then down, then up, then down + the pickup stick (pushes down extra warp threads). The end fabric has the warp with lengthwise floats and the weft with widthwise floats, and is inverted-reversible (ie, anywhere with lengthwise floats on the front has widthwise floats on the back).

I picked up some strawberry yarn last year, and couldn’t find anything to do with it. I tried more lace knitting than I care to acknowledge, and all came out looking downright funky so I frogged over and over again.

strawberry warp

strawberry warp

This yarn was meant for weaving, and that’s just what I’ll do.

Strawberry Shawl

I like it more than any of the knitting, but I’m still less enchanted than I was with the original yarn. Still, it’s bright and cheerful, and it’s on a scenic ocean cruise to find a new home with the lovely lady in Portland in 3-6 months.

Sometimes a girl just has to settled down with a glass of white wine and string yarn all over the kitchen.

This is my first effort using pickup sticks on my rigid heddle loom. I used the stick to pick up half the free warp threads, then did a repeating pattern of up, down, stick+up, down, up, stick+down. I think this makes a blend of twill and plain weave.

update: instructions and a chart for this fabric are here.

I’d picked up some yarn to go with the Merry Blues yarn, and when it didn’t turn out as I anticipated, I used the yarn to make a blue scarf.

Today I brought it outside for a photoshoot in the sun. I don’t want to admit how many photos I took, and I’m not really satisfied that any of them illustrate how soft yet geometric it is. Pretty good for an accidental project!

The white & purple shawls are from the yarn leftover from Georgie’s scarf

I’ve recently had my first experiences working with angora yarns. Although I’m incredibly impressed with Naturally Sensation’s 70% merino, 30% angora 10 ply yarn, I’m substantially less impressed with other brands with a higher percentage of bunny.

Naturally Sensation angora: soft, delicious, and if you look at it sharply, it gazes up with its big bunny-sheep eyes and pleads for a cuddle.

Naturally Sensation is the white yarn in Georgie’s scarf, and in the pair of shawls I made from the leftover yarn. It’s soft, and although it snaps if you give it a good tug, it’s strong enough to use as a warp-yarn without fear.

Louisa Harding’s 70% angora, 25% wool, 5% nylon doesn’t just break or tear, it actually falls apart! Without putting undue tension on the yarn, it snaps all the time. It’d be impossible to weave with it as the warp yarn as it’d constantly break every time you tightened, and knitting is downright frustrating. I’m very cautiously attempting it as a weft yarn, and already it’s broken more time than I can count. I’m learning to not so much pull the yarn as to rest it gently in place.

Louisa Harding angora: soft, delicious, and snaps if you look at it sharply.

Soft & delicious, but in the future I’ll be sticking with no more than 30% bunny in my yarns.

Also, I think I’m allergic to bunnies. I guess it’s a good thing I missed out on meeting them.

I picked up possum-yarn when I was in New Zealand, but didn’t get around to knitting it until recently. I agree with the knitty review to some extent. I didn’t find it split at all, but that might be the amazing (also NZ) Quill-brand needles. It tears incredibly easily if you give it a yank, but doesn’t break while knitting.

I am finding the possum a bit itchier than I’d anticipated (again, departing from the knitty review). All the advertising calls it ecologically responsible fur because in New Zealand, possums are a pest killing all the endangered flightless birds, but at the same time I can’t quite wrap my heart around moral-fur, so that also rubs me a little wrong about the yarn.

The gloves are a simple-knit, just a ribbed tube with a thumb stuck on, but are very warm and comfy. Pattern: co 30 on six 6 needles, k2p2 rib for a while, k2tg x2, knit flat for a few rows, mk2, rejoin in circle, knit a bit more, cast off. Pick up stitches along the thumb hole, kit in a rib in the round for a while, cast off. Done!

The hat is equally simple — co 120 in one colour, knit next row in main colour, k10, p2, k6, p2 rib, decrease by a bit each row (I did k2tog & decs on either side of the k10 blocks until they were down to k4, and on the k6 blocks until they were down to k2), then keep pattern for a while. Alternate colours by 1 row, main colour for 1 row, 5 rows, main colour for 1 row, 1 row, return to main colour and continue on. To decrease at the top, I did some k2togs & decs until all stiches were knits, then k2togs until only 5 stitches remained, cast off, and wove the end in.

The scarf is the only item without any of the possum-wool. I photographed it before, here

All projects are plain weave on a Rigid Heddle loom.