Craftylilly

Tale of a mohair warp

About two months ago, I dug out a collection of purple yarns that had been marinating in my stash for a few years.  I decided that since the yarns did not call out to be knit, perhaps their true destiny was to be woven into a lovely scarf.  I am a very beginning weaver.  Only two scarves have been woven on my rigid heddle loom.  I didn't realize that one should really not use a mohair yarn as a warp.  Warping the loom went relatively smoothly, although I did notice that as I threaded the heddle that the mohair yarn seemed to stick a bit.  That should have been a clue.  I soon realized as I started to weave, that mohair is very, very sticky.  So sticky is mohair, that as I raised and lowered the heddle, the yarn would stick together so much that I had to seperate them by hand every time I tried to create a shed.  Weaving took a very long time.  Very long.  The only thing that kept me from cutting the yarn off the loom and stomping on it in disgust was how beautiful the finished project was coming out.  I used a couple of novelty yarns that had metallic fibers running through them as the weft, and I really like how this yarn twinkles through the mohair halo. 

So, in the end, I kept with it, and completed the scarf yesterday while the kids enjoyed their last day at Bible camp.  The scarf is destined to be given to a good friend so I know it will be well loved.  I'm never using mohair as a warp again though.  I've learned my lesson.

Summer of craft

I've been a busy crafter this summer.  Yes, the kids are out of school which sometimes means I can't get a lot of crafting done, but I've been doing projects with them, and have been finding 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there to craft.  It's amazing how much progress can actually be made by lots of short periods of crafting time throughout a week. 

The biggest and most exciting crafting for me these past few weeks has been getting reacquainted with my spinning wheel.  I picked out some red, white, and blue corriedale roving from my stash, and spun up around 300 yards of 2 ply in sport to worsted weight.  I think it came out quite pretty.  Two interesting things came out of this project too.  One, since I did not seperate the colors when I spun it up, the results is a lovely meld of red, white, and blue making much of the yarn a lovely purple.  Two, I spun this up while watching several episodes of Dr. Who Season Three and discovered that the Red Ranger likes Dr. Who as well.  That's my boy.

I've also been crafting with my kids.  Of course this isn't any surprise for those of you who have known me long.  Our latest project was pony bead lacing.  The kids did some basic stringing.  The Red Ranger made a necklace and bracelet, and Princess of Quite-a-lot made a long string of beads that she said could be used for a snake, sculpture, or forcefield protecting her action figures from attack.  I made a simple cuff bracelet closed with a button.  We then had a fun photo shoot to show off our creations.  If you are my friend on facebook, you can check out the rest of the photo shoot which includes the kids' creations as well, and a goofy picture of me with mine.

I've also finished knitting up my Chocolate Lace tank which used the Spidery Tank pattern from the latest Interweave.  I'll post pictures of that later. I've also sewed a top that needs pictures too. Contemplation has begun on taking out the crocet hook again and making a bag.  If you check out Futuregirl, she's got a super cute free crochet pattern for a bag; it's called Starling bag.  I'm thinking of picking up a hook to try my hand at it.  Knitting has begun on a Spring Things Shawl as well.  I've also got a scarf on the loom, but I wasn't the smartest beginning weaver and warped my Harp with... wait for it... mohair.  Yes, woe is me.  It's slow going, but it's going to be so pretty, and it's a gift for a friend who will love it, so it's worth the effort.