More Colours in Twill

The last few towels flew off the loom, and I pretty much flew by the seat of my pants in deciding what colour combinations to use.

For the fifth towel, I went with one in kelly green and magenta, which is definitely one of my favourites of the whole bunch.  It's really bright and I like how the colours work together.

With the sixth towel, I realized that I was running out of towels to weave, and I wanted to get back to orange, since I had really liked the previous orange one a lot.  Since I had done it with magenta already (and didn't want to do anything too tonally similar like the dark red) I matched it up with the dark purple.  I like this one a lot too.

The other light colour I'd only used once was yellow, and while I toyed with using it against the kelly green or against the orange, I was afraid that they just wouldn't have enough contrast to be visually interesting.  I went with magenta instead, since both of my previous magenta towels turned out so pretty.  In the end, I think it's a bit too similar to the yellow/red combo (until you see them next to each other they look pretty close) but je ne regrette rien.

I had to get them off the loom quickly because I have a time-sensitive project to weave - Handwoven magazine is taking submissions for designs for a new e-book and I wanted to weave up a sample to submit it - but once that is all done, I will hem and wash and iron these towels and show them off as a set.

Can't Stop Won't Stop

After doing the last colourful set of towels, I really wanted to do another set in some different colours, and keep playing with the concept.  I thought it would be fun to do a set in Mardi Gras colours (purple, green, and gold) so chose a couple of shades of each and used a weaving program on the computer to come up with a point twill stripe design that I liked.  In the end, I also added a deep red to help balance out the darks and lights in the design.

Once I had the green summer and winter towels off the loom, I couldn't wait to get started on this warp, since it's so colourful and fun (and the weaving is comparatively mindless.)

My initial plan was to do seven towels in total, with each of the first three towels in one of the three colour groups.  I started with one in Kelly Green and Pistachio.  You can see it at the bottom of the photo.  The two colours are both relatively light, and there wasn't a lot of contrast between the stripes.  It made an overall wash of green over the colours of the whole warp, which I didn't hate, but it wasn't what I was imagining.  I decided to nix my initial plan to follow up with a purple/magenta striped towel and an orange/yellow towel.  I wanted more contrast between the stripes to make the towels more visually interesting.

With that in mind, I did the second towel in orange and magenta stripes.  This one had a lot of visual pop and I was really happy with how it turned out.  The colours have a good amount of contrast and they give the warp colours a lot of variation.  I like how the twill diamonds alternate between columns when the weft stripes alternate between dark/light.  In the green towel, they only show up distinctly in the dark warp stripes, since the greens are both so light.

For the third towel, I stayed with high contrast and did a towel with stripes in Pistachio green and a deep Purple.  Again, I think the contrast makes it much better and I like the green better here.

I went with yellow and deep red stripes for the fourth towel.  It is only subtly different than the previous one, but definitely still pleasing to the eye.

That passes the halfway point for the towels, since there should be a total of seven.  I have a couple of colour combinations planned for the last ones, but to be honest, I'm actually reconsidering doing the yellow/orange combo... and even the purple/magenta...  what do you think?

So Many Socks

As time marches on, here at Chez Crafty, I am completing projects at a much faster pace than I have been blogging them.  I have had it pointed out to me that I am being remiss in keeping everyone up to date with my goings on, so here is a finished-sock round-up for you, to get things started.

First a simple two-colour striped sock, as is one of my favourites.  I did the usual 3:1 ratio of rounds, this time as 6 rounds grey to 2 rounds pink.  I love how these turned out - they are a really cozy colour combination and so comfy.

The second pair is one that I took my time completing - one of my knitting groups had decided to do a stranded colour work knitalong, and I chose this design.  I pretty much only worked on them when I was with the group, so they took a long time.  The pattern is a super fun one, that you build as you go - components of the design are printed off onto paper and made into dice that you roll to decide what the overall sock will look like, 10 lines of knitting at a time.  The randomness of it and the anticipation of what the next section would add to the design kept me going on this one.  Of course, stranded knitting makes some thick warm socks, so I probably will wear these around home on chilly mornings, and not so much in shoes.

When Knit Picks reintroduced some new colours of Felici self-striping yarn, I couldn't resist picking up at least one colourway - this one is called Rustic Cabin and I fell in love with it.  Didn't take long to make a lovely pair of stockingette toe-up socks.  I will have to keep my eyes peeled for more Felici in the future.  There is nothing I enjoy more than peacefully knitting mindless stockingette and having it come out in pretty stripes without any effort on my part.

Finally, Hazel Knits did a knitalong for March/April - this cool pair of socks were the recommended design.  I thought they were super pretty and just happened to have some beautiful silvery Hazel Knits yarn in my stash, so I knitted some up.  The original pattern had beads, as well, but I left them out.  I think they're still really beautiful!

Of course I have two more pairs on the needles right now.  I will never run out of socks!  Many other things are going on, as well, including completed weaving projects and new weaving projects, so stay tuned.

Fire & Water

I started just playing around with different colour combinations, since I have a lot of colours to work with, this year, so I made a scarf with a combination of red/orange/yellow in the warp.  I was going to do the whole weft in a lighter yellow (as you see in the bottom right of the photo) but decided that the light colour was washing out all of the vibrancy of the warp.  I plopped some orange stripes in there, and that helped, so then I switched to some darker paprika stripes and liked that too.  For the darkest colour, I also shrunk the width of the stripe, just to keep things interesting.  I think the way it changes looks pretty cool.

Then I decided to try something with a greenier tone, so I put a couple of pale greens and a yellow in the next warp and wove it with a light blue and a darker blue/green, in an unequal ratio.  The combination of colours makes me think of Aquaman, though I'm sure no kids today would even know who that is.

The Season for Scarves

So it's that time of year again, where I occupy my weaving loom (Miss Bennet) with a whole series of quick and fun and colourful scarves for donation.  This year I inadvertently started out with a bit of a Disney theme, since my first inspiration was to weave a scarf for all the little girls who want to be Elsa, from Frozen.  I just picked a handful of representative colours and did the warp randomly, and the weft in little stripes of two colours.

Then my next thought was of a recent favourite Disney lady of mine, Merida, from Brave.  I did a tartan-ish design (she's Scottish, so duh) and used the colours of her dress and hair to weave it.  I really love how it turned out, particularly since I was lazy about it and just used two of the colours for weft, when there were so many more in the warp.

My third inspiration was Maleficent, from the recent movie version with Angelina Jolie.  I used a bunch of darker colours in the warp (and again two in stripes in the weft) but this time did an inlay technique with a couple of shades of green (like green misty magic.)  Well, the two shades of green turned out to be a bit too close, since they look pretty much like the same yarn, and the mist might look more like PacMan, but I still think it's really cool how it turned out.

I have another scarf on the loom right now, but am always looking for inspiration, if you have any ideas...

Hudson's Bay-by Surprise Jacket

As I was sitting there working on the HBC shawl a few weeks ago, one of my knitty girlfriends was working on a Baby Surprise Jacket.  I was thinking about all the leftover coloured yarn I would have from the shawl and then I had an epiphany: an HBC BSJ!

I was intending to wait until after the summer to start it, since I have a few time sensitive projects these days, but then I realized I have a bit of time before the August Camp Loopy project starts, and I couldn't bear to think of finishing the sweater I'm working on in this oppressive heat, and a BSJ only takes a few days...  So I cast it on and knit it up, squeeing all the way.

I thought about a few ways to incorporate the stripes, either right at the beginning (i.e. just after the sleeve cuffs) or through the main part of the body, but because the jacket itself is so wee, the stripes would have to be thin single ridges of colour to fit in most positions.  In the end, I decided to put them in the "work the middle 90 stitches for 10 ridges" part of the pattern so they would just be in the hem area around the bottom, but had to upsize that section to 14 ridges to accomodate all of the colours in a 2-ridge width.  The jacket ended up looking a bit long, but when I blocked it, I tugged it a bit wider and shorter and it turned out fine.

I was planning to get some little blonde wood buttons, but then I found these darker dyed wooden ones with little leaves on them, and they were so enchanting and perfect for a little outdoorsy baby that I bought them on the spot.

I still have tons of yarn left over, so I might just make this my new go-to baby gift.

HBC Shawl

Of course, the thing that prompted me to finally write a post about the June shawl yesterday was because I have another shawl to write about today!

Since I was a kid, I've always loved the iconic look of the Hudson's Bay Company point blankets: a simple off-white blanket with the four wide stripes of colour.  It's an instantly recognizable symbol of Canada (though admittedly not always a good one.)  As they cost hundreds of dollars, I've always relegated it to the "someday" pile.

Much to my happiness, the second project for Camp Loopy was to knit something up (using at least 600 yards of yarn) that is somehow reminiscent of a favourite place.  I instantly thought of the shawl Point, based on the concept of the classic HBC blanket.

The Loopy Ewe carries about a million colours of solid fingering weight yarn, in 200 yard skeins, which make it easy to stock up for striped projects.  I got one little skein each of the colours (and have just tons left over) and then three skeins of the Ivory.  The pattern only calls for two, but since that would give me essentially a one-skein sized shawl (like the one I posted yesterday) I elected to upsize it a bit.

The main body of the shawl is a little knit-purl pattern that adds just enough texture, particularly in a simple ivory colour, and then mindless garter stitch to make the stripes.  Because I'd upsized the shawl, I also decided to make each stripe three ridges of garter stitch instead of two (i.e. six rows of knitting instead of four.)  I really like it, since the stripes in the blankets are so fat and I didn't want these ones to be too thin.

Much to my dismay, the red yarn bled a bit into the ivory as it was washed.  I tried a second soak to minimize it, and while that did work to some extent, you can still see the little bit of red there, if you are looking for it.  I suppose I'd better wash the rest of the red before I make anything else with it, and keep that in mind in future.

Having pulled it up from drying on my bedroom floor, I couldn't wait even a moment to try it on for a selfie, without any makeup or even a sensible look on my face.

Perfect.

Two Friends are Better Than One

One of my most awesome work friends (hi Kate!) is super fun and crazy and always makes me laugh.  She isn't a fiber-crafty lady, but she good-naturedly puts up with my own craft insanity.  Recently she pointed me toward a cool crafty blog by another friend of hers from BC, Fig Cottage.  Turns out the lovely lady who writes this blog recently posted her first published pattern, a cute little toque called Kitimat.  I decided it might be a neat idea for me to knit one for myself (newbie knitwear designers gotta look out for each other, after all) but then I had an even more brilliant idea: why not knit one for Kate, then it's like a crazy mashup of two of her fibery friends, one who designed it and one who knit it.

I used Patons Classic Wool - when I saw this fantastic greeny yellow colour (called Lemongrass) I couldn't say no to it, and I thought it looked pretty awesome (dare I say "modern"?) with the dark grey mix.  Of course a huge pom pom is a must.

What matters most is that Kate loved it.

Green Apple Fossoways

I mentioned previously that I'm starting to purposefully knit my way through the last of my variegated sock yarn stash.  I've decided to do it the easy way and just make the simplest stockingette socks from them all.  Not only will it be a quick and mindless batch of projects, but it's also an exercise in Letting Go of the Outcome.  My tendency is to be an über-planner and a bit of a perfectionist and I do like to challenge that tendency by just doing, sometimes, and learning that I can still fall in love with unpredictable results.

My latest simple sock project from the yarn stash was this pair of bright and happy green and yellow Koigu KPPPM socks.  The stunning beauty of a skein of handpainted KPPPM is definitely one of the hardest temptations for me to resist, though it is also a yarn for which it can be difficult to find an appropriate knitting design.  I've been hoarding this Koigu for the better part of a decade, so it's a nice feeling to finally use it.  The socks even ended up being pretty cute - the effect is mostly stripey, which is the most I could have hoped for.

p.s. George RR Martin fans will perhaps recognize the name of these socks - but only from the books, not from HBO!

L is for Lightning

I decided to start using up some of the leftovers, for this scarf, and picked a simple 2/2 twill with Oxblood for the warp and Lemon Yellow for the weft.  I thought it would make an interesting scarf if I did a bunch of random back-and-forth with the twill, and it did.  Then I realized that I was going to run out of yellow before the scarf was long enough, so I had to throw in a bunch of natural yarn to make up the difference, and I did it randomly in amongst the random twill.  It made for an interesting effect, overall.  If I had the choice, I would have rather it was just yellow, since I think that colour combination vibrates less, but as Tim Gunn would say: make it work.

Two More for the Kids

The first colour combo I chose with the Cascade 220 is a bold one - a deep teal blue (Azure) with a lighter Lemon Yellow.  I did this particular weaving draft in last year's scarves, as well, but in a colour combination that didn't have enough contrast.  This one has lots of contrast, and in fact vibrates a bit when you look at it.  I'm pretty sure that some kid will love this crazy scarf.  I hope it gives them a bit of a puzzle, too, to figure out how there are vertical stripes on one side of the scarf and horizontal stripes on the other side.

Yesterday, I worked up a second colour combination with the three-colour hopsack.  This time, I used the Peruvian Highland Wool in Peach for the warp and did the weft in Brick and Natural.  As I mentioned, the gingham effect is much more successful this time, presumably because of the use of the Natural yarn.

Up Side Down Side

I got an early start on today's block, so I'm able to show this one off before I even have to go to work.  I also bound off my Cashmere Affection shawl this morning and laid it out to block - feeling very satisfied and accomplished, today.

This photo doesn't do the yellow justice.  It's really a lovely colour, with swirls of blue-green through it.  Very very pleased with this one.

Only two blocks left (one for the quilt and one for a pillow.)  I'm starting to see the end coming, which has me both excited and a bit sad.  I've really enjoyed putting each of these blocks together, and don't want it to end, except of course that I'll have a gorgeous quilt to use when I'm done.

Second Primary

A bit late in the day, but I did manage to finish the seventh block of my Swoon quilt tonight.  For those of you who didn't love the last block I did in primary colours: sorry, but I did it again.

I do like the way the light lemony yellow sort of fades into the background, making the bright red stand out so well.

Start Swooning

Today I had some time to myself and I decided to pop some episodes of Robin of Sherwood into the DVD player and start assembling the first block of my Swoon quilt.  Three episodes later I am the proud owner of one beautiful finished block.  Those of you following along may notice that I started with the center square of the quilt - it's certainly the most popular move on Hollywood Squares, and there's nothing wrong with it here, either.

Without a frame of reference in the photo, you can't really tell, but these quilt blocks are huuuuuge!  They are 24 inches square, which is why there are only nine of them (with sashing between) to make a full-size quilt.

One down.

Inkle Bookmark (with afro!)

Before my birthday, I gave my HLM a list of some things that would make good gifts (hint, hint.)  One of those things was an inkle loom, and imagine my delight when I actually got one for my birthday!  Then imagine my dismay when I realized it came in pieces and I had to put it together, myself.

After some gluing and screwing (gutter-mind) and sandpapering and hammering, I finally got to try it out.  A couple of nights ago I used a little pattern that came with the loom to make a warp and tried a little weaving.

I used some leftover Knit Picks Palette, which turned out to be a bit hairy for the project - it's hard to get a good clean shed when using grabby wool, so I just did a short little inkle band, which will make a perfect bookmark.  The fluffy wool makes a little afro hairdo at the end of the bookmark, but I think when I use other types of yarn, that might not happen.  In any case, it was fun, and the tips I'd found helped me to make fairly even selvedges.  I'm pretty excited to try some different sorts of things on my little loom.

p.s. It's an Ashford Inklette loom.  I've named her Pepper, if you were wondering, and I'm sure you were.

Busy Bee

I've been AWOL for a bit because I caught a case of finish-itis. Unfortunately not also a case of taking-photos-itis.

Hallowe'en came and went and I'm particularly pleased with this year's costume: the adorable and beloved Bee Girl from Blind Melon's No Rain video.

Obviously I knit the armwarmers and the hat (from KnitPicks Palette), and just altered a yellow henley t-shirt for the top. Most of the effort went into sewing the tutu, which entailed me nearly drowning in 6 yards of black netting and yellow ribbon. Having never made a tutu before, it was a bit of a hack, but certainly good enough.


A lot of people didn't get the reference, and just thought I was a bumblebee, which was okay, because the people who do remember Bee Girl loved it and I made people giggle happily all day, and feel a warm golden glow of reminiscence.

Sunshine Plaid Towels

Just in time for holiday gifting, I finished my towels. There were three in total, and on Sunday night, I finished the weaving, zigzagged the hems, cut them apart, sewed the hems down, machine washed them, and then ironed them partially dry before laying them flat to dry overnight. Then on Monday morning, I folded one up and gave it away. Phew. The other two will be going to new homes, as well, which means I still won't know, firsthand, how well they will work to dry dishes. I will have to trust others' opinions on that, at least for now. I believe I mentioned previously that I have more of the cotton/linen blend that I will make more towels with, sometime soon. Perhaps I will keep some of those to try them out.

After washing, the fabric softened up and fluffed up, and now it has quite a nice soft hand. The selvedges evened up a bit, too, which is nice. While I was weaving, the warp threads along either side of the cloth were looser than the ones in the middle (despite me trying to fix this prior to weaving.) I was worried that the selvedges would end up wobbly because of it, but they looked okay off the loom and even better once washed. As per usual, finishing can hide many errors.


There were a few errors, alas, that I noticed on the underside of at least one of the towels, where a few warp threads were skipped and left a little block of threads. I think it gives the towels character. It certainly proves they were handmade.

My biggest lesson with these towels was in changing weft colours (and frequently.) I mostly just wove in the starting tail in the next shed, but left the finishing tails hanging. I am a bit worried about it, since I don't know how well the cut ends will stay in place. I certainly don't want them developing holes along that selvedge, especially as they are gifts. I am placing my trust in more experienced weavers, who say that it will work out.

Overall, I did enjoy this pattern. The repetitive nature of the blocks kept me wanting to weave Just One More, and they also gave a way to gauge how far I had woven, without the fuss of trying to measure the cloth before it wound around the beam. I will, however, be taking a break from plaid to go back to something simpler (one colour in the warp, one in the weft) for some little facecloths in the leftover cotton/linen. I am going to sample a few patterns I invented, and see how they turn out. Then maybe back to the plaid for that woven blanket I had planned...?

Some Greenish Socks

These socks were the first chance I had to try out Sanguine Gryphon's Skinny Bugga sock yarn, which is a decadent merino/cashmere/nylon blend, and it certainly won't be the last time I use it. The yarn is very soft and strong and round (perfect for cables) and of course the colours from Sanguine Gryphon are always spectacular.

This particular colour is called Goldenrod Crab Spider (and if you look up that particular kind of spider, it really is that crazy colour.) I love the way the yarn is such a shocking greenish yellow -- not the sort of colour I would usually use, but I really enjoyed it while I was knitting.

I also have a fair bit of it left over, so there will be a lot of crazy yellow crocheted hexagons in my ongoing blankie.

As for the pattern: it was simple enough, basically a 2x2 rib with cables every sixth round. The cables were a bit fiddly, since you are crossing the two knit ribs while leaving the purls in the center. I found that the cables really took away from the stretchiness of the resulting fabric, and I had to make a larger size sock (with a larger gauge needle) than I would have had to, if it were simply ribbing. In the end, they are lovely and soft (and bright!) for cold winter months to come.