Friday, March 02, 2012

Looming back into view

Hello!  This, unbelievably, is the first non-book-review post of the year.

Mostly, this has been due to the usual time-of-year-kicking-me-in-the-head thing; I've also ended up doing some work at home and some earlier mornings/longer days at work; and transport has been a bit terrible too.
I think the low point this year came on the week beginning February 6, when I spent 25 hours just getting to work and back  (normally my week is extreme by some people's reckoning at around 17.5 hours just travelling) and then, as the kicker on the Saturday, failing completely to get to Kew Gardens for a wander about and Cake Crawl with some lovely knitters.  Standing on a station for 45 mins in -13C (Ely; frozen points) has given me a greater appreciation of Arctic/Antarctic explorers; in terms of confirming my belief in their total insanity.

So, anyway; I've been maundering away feeling knackered thinking "nobody's going to be interested in my boring life; I've done nothing..."   And that might be true; but this evening I, and the rest of the carriage, spent 45 minutes being treated to a woman directing her husband around Iceland.  Enthusiastically; and extraordinarily loudly.  Which would have been really interesting if she were talking about the country, rather than the frozen food shop.  Unfortunately, it turns out Mum couldn't get to Iceland so she was going to send Dad round on a string. "Well, yes, chili chicken bits, but ARE THEY BREADED, TONY?  ARE THEY BREADED?"

This set me a somewhat lower bar.

So; I got a loom for Christmas! A 24" Ashford rigid heddle loom, to be specific. It's a lovely beast. I loved it first because it involved the application of wax, a lot of self-assembly, and a wonderfully-constructed set of parts packed by someone from a company which feels confident enough in its workers and training that it gives each packer a business card with "Proudly packed by" on it. I've assembled an Ashford wheel, done bits for an Ashford carder, and now the loom - everything works wonderfully.

While I was waiting for the wax to dry on December 28, I opened my Christmas presents from friends (hadn't had time before I set off to my parents') and had two lovely skeins of sari silk from my friend Chai in Toronto; looking at the colours and the sheen, I wondered about weaving it...

So, this is what I got for my first project;

Picture 012

Warp was a purple bamboo yarn I'd bought to make a hat without realising that actually bamboo + hat probably means cold head. The weft was partly the sari silk and partly remnants of some lovely charcoal grey Jaeger Extra Fine Merino in charcoal. Here's the thing on the table. It's shorter than I was hoping, but taught me a valuable lesson about how much yarn you waste in the weaving process. And it still looks nice on the table...

runnerontable

With Chai (and her February birthday) still in mind, I decided to make a houndstooth check scarf from slightly thicker yarn in two different textures, and that worked out pretty well, too - this is the detail view on the loom

chai_scarf_detail

and this is what it looked like after washing

chai_scarf_dtl

Warping with a yarn with so much angora was probably silly; it took ages; but I did love the final fabric...

And to come full circle; I warped up again the day I couldn't get to Kew. I'm sure Tina is responsible for the amount of red in this project, but it also reflects the amount of red/orange sock leftovers I had kicking about.

Not-Kew_scarf

I'm still weaving this one, and enjoying it, although finding it more difficult to get the edges straight with the finer yarn...

9 comments:

Mary de B said...

Hello! Lovely to see you in action. That sari silk is wonderful stuff, isn't it?
I just read the House at Sea's End the other day. Can't wait to see what happens next!

Jackier said...

I particularly like the blue green woven scarf - very lovely

Alison said...

::giggle:: I'm afraid that, "ARE THEY BREADED, TONY? ARE THEY BREADED?" is goign to stay with me all day.

The weaving is all looking spectacularly lovely! I warped up with some sock yarn the other day, but I don't like the weft I've picked; it's too fine and too light a colour. I think I'm going to have to dye some more...

What dent heddle are you using for the sock stuff, if I can ask?

Liz said...

Thanks, Alison! I'll PM you as well...

Thought I'd pass that particular earworm on. It's going to be my touchstone against other people's immoderate enthusiasm, I think!

I'm using a 10-dent heddle - I'm not sure whether a 12.5 wouldn't have been better but I don't have one of those yet. (You notice I said "yet"...). Seems to be working reasonably well, I think...

Wibbo said...

Howled out loud at ARE THEY BREADED, TONY? ARE THEY BREADED? Buzzphrase of the year, I think!

Daisy said...

That's very pretty!
Good grief, oh for quiet carriages that are actually quiet... I'd never stopped to think about the weekly length of my commute = 15 hours. Ugh. Although not as bad as yours! ;-)

Rosie said...

what wonderful weaving! Hope the worst of the winter commutes are over now.

littlelixie said...

Glad you're back. That weaving is amazing! Really beautiful things. "ARE THEY BREADED TONY" is also going to stay with me today - and posisbly forever!

Chai said...

The blue-green scarf is lovelier even than it looks here! So soft, and such wonderful colours. Many, many thanks, Liz!

Glad you liked the sari silk, and "The Help."

And thank you for making me laugh at poor Tony and his wife. . . .