This post officially post-poned due to a family wedding on a Sunday night that required interstate travel and a small person who would not go to bed until 2 AM after we got home.  She just doesn't understand the whole "you need to go to bed because Mommy and Daddy need to go to work in the morning."  But going to the aforesaid wedding meant that we got to grab my dad and bring him home with us (along with another treat that will no doubt show up on the blog in the future), so baby girl has a fun fun week ahead of her, and I always enjoy having my Dad around!

I'll be back on my regularly scheduled time on Wednesday. 

First off, thank you to everyone for your kind comment about the o w l s sweater.  I've worn it twice  and simply love it.  I wish I'd knit it sooner so that I  could wear it more before it gets warm!

Sometimes I have a whole collection of things I can write about, but the world around me is making it too hard for me to focus on writing.   Or my mood is just wrong, and I know that mood will color everything and make simple happy things seem grim.  Such is today.  Today itself was wonderful -- one of those good days that I would happily live again -- but tomorrow will bring me some unhappy tasks and the anticipation of them has left me wrapping up the day in a not so great place.

So instead of writing, I will leave you with a few random good things...


1.  I have started taking a weaving class at the Chicago Weaving School, and I am enjoying it very much.  Tonight I finished warping my first 4 harness loom and wove my first twill.  I also warped my rigid heddle loom with my 8 dent heddle today in preparation for some funky plaid dishtowels to welcome spring into my kitchen.   I do like me some weaving, yes I do. 

2.  My husband has some year old Bourbon Vanilla Porter on tap right now.  I did not like it right after he first brewed it, but the aging process has made it a fabulous beer.  I will miss it muchly when it is gone.

3.  There is almost nothing better than a windy spring day and a trip to the park with Z and my Dad.  Ms. Z practically ran 6 the whole six blocks to get there.  Clearly I am not the only one in the house who can't wait for spring to get here and stay here!

4.  Without any prompting on my part, my Dad made the most beautiful warping board for me -- it's a 14 yard board made of walnut left over from the rocking chair he made for my brother and sister-in-law.  I can't wait to warp something up on it!

5.  I downloaded the Amazon Kindle reader application for my iPhone on Wednesday and downloaded a free book chapter (Niel Gaiman's American Gods: A Novel , which I really want to read the full version of someday).  The whole process worked seamlessly.  I don't consider my iPhone the ideal e-book reader, but it does a pretty good job for those times when you'd like something to read but want to travel light.    If you have an iPhone, the software is free and since you can download free first chapters for books to "demo" them, you can try without buying anything at all.  Very cool.

Every so often I get the opportunity to review a knitting book.  Even more rarely do I get the chance to review a book that uses knitting as a central theme, but doesn't focus on patterns and knitting technique, but knitting as a vehicle to discuss other topics.

Knitting the Threads of Time: Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft is just such a book.  The author uses the knitting of a sweater for her 6 year old son during a winter in St. Paul as a vehicle to discuss fiber arts as they have developed through time and through multiple cultural traditions.  This sweater is the author's first experience knitting a sweater and as she works through the various issues she encounters with it, she finds ways to connect to cultures and traditions, some ancient, some more recent.  It's got a bit of history, a bit of cultural exploration, a bit of the personal journey to self-discovery woven into it.  Certainly the "new knitter taking a journey to self awareness via knitting her first sweater" is not a new motif, but it is a comfortable one that makes for a nice launching point for the elements Nora Murphy explores.

I like to do a little reading before bed to help calm my mind and to distract me from the days events.  This book fit nicely into that ritual.  It's not a deep book when it comes to discussing any of the history or traditions that it introduces, and it is certainly not a comprehensive knitting history, but it would certainly be a reasonable launching point for anyone interested in exploring the social history of the fiber arts more deeply -- in addition to a rather nice index, she also includes a bibliography of source material that the reader can use as a starting point to finding more information about specific subjects. 

I enjoyed reading this book and found it to have a similar tone to Victoria Finlay's
Color: A Natural History of the Palette, which I also enjoyed (Finlay's book, however goes into a good deal more detail and while a travelogue, is not focused on the author's story so much as the stories of the people involved in producing the pigments she is researching).  It's a relatively short book (less than 200 pages) that reads quickly and leaves you curious about how the textile arts (she doesn't focus on knitting exclusively)  have affected women in the past -- and how they will continue to affect us in the future.

P.S.  Speaking of books, thanks for all the encouragement to add American Gods.  Not surprisingly, I am liking that first chapter I downloaded.  I suspect it might make it into my reading rotation soon.  Assuming I can put down the weaving books that have captured my interest of late... 

Today we've been house cleaning.  It's a good thing to do as John prepares to start his new job on Monday and as we get ready for our big holiday party.  No matter when we clean, the process always makes me assess my crafty projects as well as the amount of stuff I have.  I've been in bit of an acquisition phase as far as sock yarn is concerned... and at the same time, it's cold and I want to knit sweaters and baby accessories for my tiny person who never seems to have enough warm things to wear.  And, of course, I'm really jonesing for a new sweater of my own.  All of this leads to a lot of startitis.  So it's time to make a list so that I can figure out how I can finish up what I've got going and get to some new things that are exciting to me to!

Quilting Projects

1. My fiery Blooming 9 Patch
2. My paper piece purple/yellow color study quilt
3. My "fire and ice" Modern Thinking quilt
   
4. My doll sized version of the Children's Delight quilt -- which I am going to machine quilt and apply the binding to.
   

Crochet Projects

1. An amigurumi "surprise" project that is going to make it's way to Houston for my new and completely sweet baby nephew. DONE! 
   
2. An amigurumi octopus for Z.

Knitting Projects

1. Regia baby socks for Z (just need to sew down the edges!) DONE!
   
2. Francie socks for me (time to cast on the second sock!)
3. STR Silkie socks for me (playing with an interesting pattern stitch)
4. Rogue (poor Rogue!  still in need of applied i-cord edging, having her sleeves sewn in and a zipper -- how can I so want this sweater and be so anemic in my efforts to get it done?)
5. Stained Glass Scarf for John (I am now  past the half way point for both colors... still a long ways to go.  I wish I had another long car trip coming up... long nursing sessions and car trips seem to be the only way I can get this scarf worked on!)
6. Habu Kushu Kushu scarf (I like the result of this project, but don't really like knitting with the fine silk/stainless yarn all on it's own.  Probably another project that would benefit from a car trip and limited knitting options).
7. Zebra Striper baby sweater (no, I have not shown any snaps of this one yet, but I have gotten it started!  it's going to be my first steeking adventure.)
8. Mountain Colors Three Ply Targhee blanket (I need to put this one by the couch and work on it when I watch TV.  It's the idea TV project since it's worked up in squares and it's absolutely yummy warm yarn to work with!).
9. Celestine -- another little toy for a special baby.  DONE!  And to be shipped soon!
   

Projects I Really Want to Start

1. Crochet granny square afghan for Z.  Should I make this out of the Vanna's Choice acrylic that I have for making ami toys or should I go a little crazy and order a couple of skeins of Dream in Color Classy?  This is one where my practical side and my heart are not in agreement.
2. Design 3 from "Noro Book 3" by Jenny Watson -- it's a V-neck cardigan in Silk Garden that would be oh so lovely for work.
3. Cool and Cherish from Rowan Classic Style -- they are discontinuing Cashcotton DK so it's on sale in many places and a perfect sub for the Merino Silk DK in the book.
4. Cabled gauntlets.  I have the yarn all balled up and ready to go.  I just need to find the perfect cable.
5. Another pair of STR heavyweight socks for John.  The man needs warm socks for winter commuting! DONE!  Two pairs of socks for John this winter!
   

I am sure I could come up with more if I put my mind to it... but this will be a good to do lis and general reminder board for now.

* I'm going to use this as a personal reference list for a while... so it will get updated when I cross things off and publish again.  Apologies if it keeps showing up in your RSS feeds as new. 

As I mentioned a little while ago, I recently started taking a weaving class at the Chicago Weaving School.  The class I am taking is the complete beginner course and the general idea is to start on a 4 harness loom and weave a sampler to introduce the basic concepts in weaving.

In my first class, Natalie got me started by sitting me down with a table full of colored wool on cones.  She explained some of the basics about weaving and warping and the loom I was going to use, and then let me decide what I wanted to warp my loom with.  It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I focused on blue and purple hues, and incorporated a lot of bright color.  My final warp included a 3" section of blue a 3" section that alternated magenta, purple and magenta in one inch segments, a 2" segment with alternating rose and yellow warp threads, a 2" segment with blue and red alternating every 2 warp threads and, finally, a 2" section alternating green and orange every 4 warp threads.  If this had been a project with a distinct purpose I might have been more purposeful with my color selection, but because this was meant to be a sampler, I was more interested in seeing the interplay of different colors.

Preparing my warp threads, sleying the reed and threading the heddles took all of my first class.  On my second class, I tied the warp threads to the back of the loom and then wound the warp onto the back beam and tied the threads to the front beam.  And after that, I was pretty much off and weaving.

My heddles were threaded in a "straight twill" (meaning that the first thread is controlled by the first harness, the second thread controlled by the second harness, the third thread is controlled by the 3rd harness and the 4th thread is controlled by the 4th harness and this threading is repeated for the entire width of the warp).  I've practiced plain weave, basket weave, basic twills, and weaving on opposites.  I've learned how to set up a floating selvedge -- which I now think is likely to be manadatory on almost any project I work on.  I'm not changing color with too much intention, except to see what happens with high contrast and low contrast yarns in the context of my warp and weft.  I'm not all that excited about the bright yellow, but it did help me see something, so it ended up working the way I needed it to.

Last Thursday was my 4th class and I finished up one of my last "basic" structures: rib weave.

On a 4 harness loom, this is accomplished by raising either 1 or three warp threads at one time and alternating colors in the weft.    You'll notice that where I was working on rib weave, the warp contributes little to the color perception, that's because rib weave is very "weft faced" and it's very easy to pack the weft threads tightly sot hat the warp threads are mostly hidden.

This class has really got my creative juices flowing again.  I find weaving very engaging in a visceral sort of way.  So much color, so much texture, so many fibers so many possibilites for household textiles.  I already have half a dozen potential projects running around in my head and different looms and techniques that I want to try.    I've decided that it's likely that  floor loom will be in my future, but not any time soon.  I want to test out a lot of options to figure out what the best options are for me.  And really, the more I play with the 4 harness loom,the more impressed I am with what can be done with my rigid heddle with the help of a pickup stick.  But more on that, later.

Well, that title says it all for today... I've got a few things that I could talk about, I've even got some pictures edited, but I'm not feeling the inspiration for any of the topics that normally helps me get them onto the blog. 

Funny how I can have a good day, and at the same time have a series of tiny things slowly but surely take the wind out of my sails.  I feel like a balloon with a tiny tiny hole out of which all my motivation has slowly leaked out. 

I'll be back on Monday, bright-fingered and with bells on to do show and tell with my latest completed weaving project.  Weaving is a place that cotton yarn really shines.

Good weekend, all!