String is addictive. It is just lucky for me that it is a positive rather than a destructive force in my life. I do go weeks, sometimes months without string, but it always dangles before my eyes again and tempts me back. I've been doing a number of smaller projects lately. A third attempt at a knitted hat. Continued slow work naalbinding a pouch. Tablet weaving a pattern I made based on the Anglo-Saxon diamonds pattern--I altered the inner diamond to be more leaf-shaped. Some quick inkle projects--a chain pattern in linen-cotton blend and a widened version in cotton. I'm hustling through the inkle because I'm donating them at an event next week.
Dreams of complex tablet weaving, going back to double face weave, wrapping my head around twill, actually weaving with silk, trying out brocading all dance through my head as do thoughts of trying out a warp-weighted loom of my own. Of course, I'd have to get the loom first.
I don't have access to a camera right now, which makes this blog a little harder. I tablet wove another of the wave patterns in purples and blues and sent it to its new home without a picture. It was funny wrapping my head back around it--it had been quite a while since I'd done any tablet-weaving. But I got it worked out and even fixed a color issue I'd had with my first try at that pattern. If you get a dot of the wrong color in that pattern (well, two mirror image dots), try doing one set of three forward, three back before returning to four forward, four back (that's only for one of the two packs of course). It shifted where the colors were perfectly and off I went. I cut off the portion with the mistakes and the fix, so if I ever do get access to a camera again, I can show you what I'm talking about.
I also messed up my modified Anglo-Saxon diamonds at one point when I fell into the turning pattern from the wave pattern! Oops. Took a little doing to undo that one and get it on track again. Plus, I had warped up one of the cards wrong, with three white and one purple instead of three purple and one white. I tried simply suppressing the white when it shouldn't be showing, which helped some. Then I added an extra purple to the weft for a few picks to get it anchored, then brought it out in it's new place in the warp, threaded it through the hole it would be replacing in the mis-threaded card, and warped it all up. Then I cut the old thread. Viola, purple instead of white.
I need to do the last one now. I just cut that one to get the white out of the mix. The pattern appears fine with one thread missing, but the card has a tendency to pull out of place, and I have to be very careful to ensure it doesn't turn itself when I don't want it to. I've had to go back and correct for that too a couple times. Just when I'd fixed that the last time, the pattern did something else odd. Frustrated with all the backtracking on what should have been a simple fast pattern, I took up inkle for the moment so I could power through before next week's deadline. But after that I'll have to get back on the horse. If I don't have the patience for this pattern, after all, then I'm not going to do well with more complex things.
I've also been doing a lot of spinning again of late. And I tried out pre-dyed roving for the first time. I got some beautiful green roving over the holidays and have now spun it all up. I tried not to go quite as thread-thin as I'd been doing with the oatmeal colored yarn, but still kept it fairly thin. I think I'm going to try two-ply with it. I wonder if I have the courage to try to weave with it and I wonder if it's strong enough to hold up under tension. If not, I might be better off making it a higher ply and knitting something with it. It took a little getting used to--I think I've been weaving with the same big batch of roving so long that it was a little strange transitioning to any other wool--but once I got going it was good. The green is gorgeous all spun up, so it hasn't stopped it's temptation to do more with it. On the other hand, I'm tempted to go choose a new color. If I'm going to weave or knit with it, it will need friends.
Also, I've been helping teach the toddler (my niece, of sorts) how to weave. I'm actually kind of jealous of her loom. It spreads the threads more than I'd like with no way to adjust that, but the transition of the shed is effortless as was stringing it up. She's weaving a fuzzy blanket for her doll! It's precious.
