Reduce, Reuse

Back when I was quilting I LOVED scrap quilts.  I loved the idea of using up every little bit of fabric until you just didn't have enough left to make anything else with it.  I despise the idea of waste...efficiency in all things is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

When I first started weaving, I noticed that I would like bits of yarn left on the bobbins after finishing a project...these bits would get wound back on the original cone or ball of yarn to be used in the next project, but I found later that doing this was annoying...I didn't know how long that bit that was wound back on was and in the end I would throw away more than I wanted to...

So, I decided to start winding on the bits onto cones to wait until the day that I had enough to make a warp out of.  I do this with all the yarns I use, but since I make towels more than anything else, well...I had enough (finally) to make my "weftovers" towels.

And boy did they turn out cute!  I'm going to have a hard time parting with these, but they are up for sale on the Etsy shop...and I hope that they make someone happy.  They are bright and cheerful and such a neat record of my work over the past few months.  Expect many more weftovers!

Balance

Finding balance is one of those things that's very hard for me.  I'll work too hard, then rest too much, the play too hard, and then regret it.

My previous relationship didn't encourage balance, and I have had to focus very hard in the past couple of years to achieve balance in my life.

Art relies on balance, too.  One of the things that's important with art, though, is that too much balance can result in an effect that's boring or uninteresting.  So, the challenge of the artist is to create balance while at the same time putting in something that puts that balance just slightly off kilter.

Modern art put things way off kilter--think of Picasso.  His cubist works flatten the images to nothing but squares and lines.  Yet, we still know what the "thing" is that's in the painting--a nude woman, horses running, a woman dancing.  How does he achieve that when the image is so out of balance...by not going TOO far off balance.

I've been weaving very balanced projects these past couple of weeks. 

These pieces are gorgeous...they have a sense of balance and completeness that calms and creates a sense of beauty.  They are pretty.  And I love them...

But in the whole sense of balancing things...I'm in need of some fun! 

I've been dying to start my next project.  It's going to be a "weftover" project of towels.  After I finish each project I wind off the yarn that's left on the bobbins with other yarns of the appropriate size.  I've been dying to make this project for a couple of years...so I'm excited that it's my next one.  No balance there.  I'm sure when I finish them I'll find some place in the middle to hang out for a while.

Pictures as soon as I have them...I promise.

The me before coffee

I've been having lots of fun with my weaving experiments lately.  It's been fun to challenge myself a little and see what cool things I can make on the loom that my previous prejudices about what makes a "good towel" or "good scarf" are going out the window.  It's been such a wonderful learning experience...and it's been fun.

I made this gorgeous set of towels with both my "jazz" method of creating the warp, but also with my desire to try something new.

The pattern is called an "undulating twill" and results in a really amazing chevron or zig zag that you don't normally get when weaving.  The undulations happen by skipping or repeating a number in the normal treadling sequence.

So for instance, I might normally treadle 1-8-1 to get a zig zag, but in an undulating twill I might treadle 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 666, 7777, 888....and so on.

I had convinced myself that this wouldn't make good towels because there would be too long of floats...that they wouldn't hold up, or that they'd be too loose.

But, boy was I wrong.  The finished fabric on these not only looks different and better than what it did on the loom, but it is SO SOFT.  I can't wait to hear reports on how it uses and how it lasts.

Alas...I was in such a frenzy this morning (and before my coffee) that I didn't get pictures of these gorgeous ladies before I shipped them off...Reminder to self: drink both cups of coffee before attempting to mail anything off.

Jazz

I love jazz music.  The improvisation, the fun, the creativity, the team work...the variations on themes.

I've been doing a lot of weaving lately.  Which is wonderful.  People have been ordering towels, which I love making.  I approach the design and weaving of them in the sense of a jazz improvisation...variation on a theme if you will.

First off, when winding the warp (theme) I like to use a deck of cards to determine how many ends to wind for that particular color.  Sometimes, like the towels featured in this post, I'll assign a "number" to the color and when I draw a card, I'll wind that many ends.  This allows for some control and balance (the key of the tune, if you will) but still provides for some random and methods of interpretation as well.

You can see in the photo that each towel is a different color.  The colors are picked from those in the warp.  Variation on theme #1.  What I love about this variation is that it allows for completely different looks.  The warp and weft threads "interact" with each other and make for really pretty stripes or plaid looks...

The second variation that I like to do is to weave a different pattern for each towel.  Right now I'm studying different weave structures as I create.  These are all different variations on either undulating twill or "cords"...

I especially loved this towel:

The way the warp and weft threads interact it looks like I wove a cross hatch but instead I just wove a cord weave.  It's cool and has some nice texture.

In the process of the variations on the main theme, I'm learning about fabric structure and what makes good towels.  One of the towels (the 2nd from the top in the first picture) is super squishy and drapy.  It's absolutely lovely and I think will make a wonderfully absorbent towel, but I'm curious to how long it will last.  In scarf or wrap form it would be divine...something I'll need to remember for the future!

Have a wonderfully jazzy and improvisational day today!  Add a little wonder and variation on themes to your day and see how it makes you feel!

Weaving a little magic

So many months ago I bought some yarn to make Alyssa a scarf.  It's Maleficent in Sparkle Gnome from GnomeAcres.  It's gorgeous yarn and I was really excited to make her something special for her move to Florida and her new life...Then, as you know, all hell broke loose, I got divorced, moved across the country and that yarn hid out in a basket until a couple of weeks ago.

I was, of course, looking for my tapestry needles (which happened to be in my purse because that's where every knitter carries her tapestry needles, don't you know!) and found a bag of yarn--2 packages of which had never been opened.  Club yarns from Dragonfly and Cookie A from August.  I was so thrilled to see them, touch them and mourn for the sadness that was my life at that time.  Then I put them in my special place and will get them out in my 2015 year of the clubs!

Anyway, back to Maleficent.  I knew I wanted to weave this scarf and was really excited this "weekend" to finally sit down at the loom and get it started.

I just have to say that it's gorgeous on the loom.  Can't wait to see it off of the loom...in fact, I think I'm going to do some fancy tied fringe to bring about the full magical effect.

Happy Monday every body!  It's my Wednesday!

On this, my birthday eve

I've been very reflective today.  Thinking about where I was last year and what I was doing for my birthday (Roanoke, VA, for David's conference...I bought the coat that has been keeping me warm the past couple of weeks) and how different things are this year.

It's times like birthdays and holidays where we have traditions and fond memories that make us nostalgic for the way things were, for the people who are gone from our lives, for the things we don't have/won't have again.

This year has been particularly hard.  I lost my dad, my uncle, my marriage.  My daughters moved away and while I haven't "lost" them it's different.

I suppose you could say I've also lost my home.

I totally switched my career path and moved across the country to see if I could make it reality.

And as I sit on the eve of my birthday and reflect on my past, this year in particular but the other years too, I know that I am beyond blessed to have had such a happy life, to have been privileged, educated, warm, comfortable and loved.

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I am dedicating the "new year" (which begins tomorrow) to the "new me".  I will be born on this 45th birthday of my life.  I will explore, expand, create and live.  I will be happy and strong and proud.

I will glory in the sunsets and sunrises when I get to see them.

I will love and be kind.

And I will never stop being grateful for all of you who have held me strong through this past year.  Those of you who have embraced me, encouraged me, and held me up when I felt like falling flat down.

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Art and Nature

Somedays the inspiration just hits me...and somedays I say "wow, clearly I was inspired by that and didn't know it"...

Case in point:

Weaving

Once you're all tied on it's time to start weaving.  The process of weaving involves throwing the shuttle back and forth and beating the weft into place.  It requires tightening of the warp threads and stamina.  You "tromp" a treadle to lift the shed in a pattern.  In the process the weft threads go under some threads and over other threads and once beat into place create a solid cloth with durability and beauty.

There are so many places to go with the weaving analogy, but today I'm going to focus on beating and tightening because that's where I am...maybe tomorrow I'll dig a little deeper.

The process of "beating" the weft sounds so violent, but it really isn't.  You don't beat hard because if you do you'll end up with a really tight fabric that won't be good for much--maybe a rug, but that's debatable.  You can actually "beat" really softly and create light diaphanous fabric...something that has more air to it than heft.  I like to do this with scarves. I challenge myself to beat softly and evenly and see if I can do it...create beauty and structure.

I'm trying to do that with my life right now.  I'm beating all the pieces into place...not violently but in order to create structure.  I'm not beating hard as that would mean there would be places that wouldn't look right, that would feel uncomfortable and wouldn't function properly in the finished me.  So, I'm being gentle but even and working on getting something that has structure and boundaries and beauty in the end.

And tightening the warp...well...without a tight warp your end woven fabric would look shabby at best and may not work at all if it's truly awful.  The warp has to be retensioned every several beats early in a project.  This takes out the looseness that inevitably happens when you're winding on and creates a fabric that is even throughout the entire length.  It's important to keep retensioning even when you feel like you've over tightened already.  You don't want to go crazy and break the warp threads, but if you pay attention, the fabric will tell you what's tight enough and you'll get a fabric that is even throughout and truly wonderful.

In my life I liken this retensioning the warp to holding myself responsible.  For all things--taking care of myself, being vulnerable, learning this process of being healthy (mentally and physically), going easy on myself (not tightening too much and breaking my threads!), but also trying to maintain some structure underneath that will look good throughout the whole length of me--staying true to myself in other words.

The warp threads of our life are the ones that we have throughout the whole part of being us.  They're the ones that make up our core values and if we take care of them, keep them lined up, properly tensioned and carefully tended, we'll create a fabric that will be recognizable throughout despite different weft threads we weave in.  And the beauty that is us is truly unique because of it.

Tying On

The next step in preparing to weave is "Tying on"...It really involves two parts--tying on and the winding on.  The tying part happens at the front and back end of the warp.

What you see here is the back beam with the warp wound on.  First you tie all those loose ends that you saw yesterday around  a rod, then roll it on straightening and tidying the ends as they go through the reed and the heddles.  

This part can be tricky, but if you've wound your warp well, sleyed and threaded accurately (i.e. no crossed threads) it should "shake out" and get even as you go. 

I kind of think of it as carefully untangling really really long unruly hair (since I have rather unruly hair I guess that's why I think of it that way).

One thing about the Harrisville loom that I like a lot is that the shafts are not stable front to back.  They'll give a little when the warp is winding on and that protects from breaking warp threads.

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And that's where I'm going with today's analogy.  In so many things with my life right now, I'm realigning the threads as I know them.  Sometimes this makes me very anxious and insecure.  I'm learning that while I may have expressed some emotions I kept others (the "bad" ones) hidden away.  I'm letting them out now because I'm learning that you can't really build appropriate boundaries and have healthy relationships unless you're willing to recognize when things aren't perfect.

Ummm...that's really hard...and it scares me...and it makes me want to run and hide and then I get all tangled up...so...I shake myself, let myself cry if I need to, hug the cats (Zora participates with this better than Pearl) and get back to winding on.  

It's a good thing because what I'm going to show you tomorrow, the prepared loom, is that thing that I'm striving for.  I'm not near there yet...my threads have gotten very unruly but nothing is unmanageable.

Threading

The next step after you have sleyed the reed is to thread the heddles.  A heddle is a metal (sometimes it's made of plastic or nylon, but mine are metal) object with a hole in the middle.  It holds the threads onto a shaft so that you can weave patterns.   This part of the design process is for me very tedious.  I enjoy doing patterns, so know it's a necessary part of the overall effect, but sometimes it can be overwhelming.  Threading the loom takes almost as long as weaving the project (this depends on the thickness of thread and how many threads you have in a project of course, but roughly...about 1/2 the time is spent "dressing" the loom and half "weaving.")

To thread you take a single thread from the warp and place it through the eye of the heddle on the appropriate shaft.  You need to keep from crossing the warp threads and every thread needs to come to the back at its place.  One thing that is really cool about a threaded loom is that when its finished it reminds me of little soldiers lining up for inventory.

Here is the loom threaded for the towel project I'm currently working on.

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To continue using the weaving analogy for the process of healing and self-discovery, threading represents that necessary step in life to put all the individual pieces of everything that makes up the beauty of your life in alignment.  To assign them to their proper place, and then secure them so that they all know where they belong.  It can be tedious work, but in the end (and tomorrow you'll see how the threading is so worth it) having everything where it belongs makes everything else run more smoothly.

Sleying

I like the homophonic nature of the word "sley"...because to be honest, I feel like I've been slaying some demons this week.  Of all the weeks since I've been in Nevada, this has probably been the most difficult emotionally.  I'm not exactly sure why, though I have been feeling a tad lonely (ok a lot lonely)...but I know this too shall pass.

One day I'll have a passel of friends and it'll all be good.  But today...today I was sad and lonely.

Those demons I'm slaying?  Well, they have to do with the ones that burrowed under my skin at some point in my life and said it was ok for people to control or take advantage of me.  In a way those demons gave me a lot of protection and as I slay them, they go away and I'm feeling rather exposed and vulnerable.

BUT, I'm learning.  And acknowledging emotions, being vulnerable, all of that is part of being human and making connections and being able to develop strong healthy relationships.  And I'm all over that.  So, I'll be lonely for a bit and learn about myself and figure this out.  Because this whole journey has opened my heart to the realization that this is totally worth it.

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so, what the heck is sleying, then?

See the picture below.  It is of a sleyed reed in my loom.

The first step in dressing the loom is to take the wound warp (I'll go through the process of planning a project with my next set of towels...planning the project culminates in winding the warp and that was already done with this project before I got to NV) and separate groups of the threads so that they lay evenly across the loom.  During this particular project, I took two threads and "sleyed" them through the "dent" in my reed which sits in the beater of the loom.  I love watching the warp get laid out as I'm working on it.  It shows me the beauty of the projects and allows me to see how the colors play together and whether my idea worked (usually it does, I'm happy to say).

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Sleying, slaying...I'm doing a good bit of both these days.  I'm happy to say that both are necessary to making the next steps in my life or weaving possible...and just like the warp that gets laid out for me to view, slaying these demons is allowing me to see the beauty of the life I'm laying out before me too.  Deep breaths and trusting in myself...and plunging ahead!

Weaving

I started working on some towels today.  Aren't they pretty?

I wound up this warp a long time ago...last year some time?  But I just couldn't motivate myself to weave.

Now that I'm living alone and don't have to worry about the time I'm spending away from my partner, I can weave whenever and for however long I feel like it...and that's a pretty amazing feeling.

So, some towels are begun!

The kindness of strangers

Well...the loom arrived this afternoon as planned.  So nice to know it is here.  One of my work colleagues volunteered to come by and help me with it if the FedEx guy wouldn't deliver it up to the apartment, but I'm happy to report that the FedEx guy delivered it to the apartment.  The neighbor came out to help.

It took a while to get it all back together because it wasn't closed up properly before shipping so all of the harness cables had come unhooked.  It took a while but I managed to get them hooked back up.  All but one and it was broken so I've already ordered a replacement.  Yea!

SO, the weaving will commence soon.  If you want something, let me know.  I sell at a fairly reasonable price and the stuff you get is AMAZING (I couldn't lie about that!).

Anyway, One day, if I manage to build some inventory I'm going to open an Etsy shop, but until then, just send me a personal message to lesliestbutler at gmail dot com and I'll talk with you.

(I don't typically promote my wares on my blog so I hope you'll forgive me for doing so, but I've not sold for a long time and wanted folks who've been asking to know that I'm ready to start taking some orders!)

Past Tense

I remember when I got the call that Daddy passed away, I thought "We have to refer to him in past tense now."  I know...weird English major...but that's me.  I think in terms of language, grammar and putting sentences together.

And I remember thinking "I don't know how to do that."

I am finding that it is extremely difficult to do.  It should be just a simple parsing of a verb.  Taking it from its infinitive form--to be--to past tense--was/were/been--...but man...that is so profound.

And I don't like it...at all...not one tiny little bit.

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What I'm noticing, and this is really interesting, is that I'm making the mistake and saying things like "Daddy tells this really funny story."  Or, as was the case on Friday last week at my student worker end-of-term party, "Daddy LOVES NutterButter cookies."  I had a whole roomful of pity filled eyes look at me when I made that grammatical error.  And it was really hard to see and kind of choked me up for a minute and I almost couldn't go on with the funny story about my daddy and the NutterButter cookies (I'll tell you below).

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So, right now, I don't like past tense and I'm convinced it's why I have 30 works in progress and about 10 more in my head that I want to work on...Crochet continues to be pretty intense.  I subscribed to 3 crochet magazines yesterday, am planning an entire house decorated with crochet items...the possibilities! (future tense...that feels so much better).

Today's picture is of the mutilated yarn on its second warp.  This one is brown cotton and the weaving pattern is called "Cat's Paws."

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Daddy's Story:  Daddy loved Nutter Butter cookies when I was growing up.  Mom would go to the grocery store on Saturdays and buy him a package of them and he would open them up as soon as we got home.  They would sit on the counter and he would grab one or two, or a handful, as he walked through the kitchen on his way to various places (on Saturday or Sunday afternoons in the fall that would often be from in front of the TV watching football to the bathroom and back again).  He could plow through an entire package of cookies in the weekend.

Shortly after my father turned 50, he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, so mom quit buying the Nutter Butters and anything else sweet that would tempt him.  And then one day mom was buying peaches from the road-side stand, stepped off the curb and broke both of her ankles at the same time.  My dad was then put in charge of going to the grocery store.  He came home from that first trip so excited because "did you know they started making Nutter Butters again"...there were 2 packages in the bags...one for that day and one for the rest of the week.

When life give you lemons...

...or when a cat destroys your yarn....

Make scarves!

I have the first of 2 scarves finished from the salvaged kitty terror incident.  I'll have finished pics to show later this week, but I did want to tease you with the first one on the loom:

I'm not sure why the pic is turned sideways, but anyway, the warp is actually running right to left...I used a silver and pale green tencel (two strands, one of each color) for the warp and the Cephalopod yarn is the weft.  The pattern is a simple twill and was a perfect first project for getting back on the loom.  I completely finished this project yesterday, minus the fringe twisting.  I think I'll have a fringe twisting "party" later this week as I have another scarf in there that needs fringe twisted, the one I'll make today, and then I need to get Liz's birthday scarf finished (yes, that's from her January 2nd birthday).

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Daddy's story:  My daddy would always say to me, "how much do you love me?"  We had this little routine where I would respond "this much" and hold my fingers a tiny bit apart.  He would pout and pretend to cry and say "Is that all...say you love me more."  And I would then hold my hands about a foot apart and say, "I love you this much daddy." At this point he would "tune up and cry" and say "How much do you love me?" and I would throw my arms wide and say "I love you this much Daddy" and I'd run and give him a big-old-hug.

One time I threw him for a loop, though.  He asked me how much I loved him and I held up my right hand and said, "I love you this much."  He looked puzzled and said..."what does that mean."  I looked at him and pointed at my right hand and said, "my love starts here and goes on and on and on...my arms aren't big enough to show you!"    I got an extra big hug for that one.  I was probably 4 or 5 at the time. (and think I was pretty precocious, to be honest!)

Look! Look!

I managed to get a warp wound and on the loom yesterday!  woot!

I'm making Alyssa's birthday scarf.  The warp is a tencel variegated held together with a rayon slub.  The weft yarn is "Little Flowers" by Crystal Palace (from stash...I'm still being good, don't worry).  It's a fun string with tufts in black and white...and there's something silver and sparkly in there as well.

One note about the yarn.  I originally thought I would knit something up with this.  I really wanted the yarn to be all alone and shine by itself.  I didn't make it past the first row.  It's a pretty yarn, but it's grabby and was a major annoyance with knitting, or at least the way I like to knit which is to crank out stitches as fast as I can maneuver hands and yarn and having adorable little tufts grab at each other every time you try to set the stitch...just not fun.  I didn't even try frogging what I'd knitted, so be warned...if you intend to embark on knitting with this yarn, be patient, have time, and do not make a mistake!

And a couple of notes about weaving:  It's been a long time since I've been with my loom.  I don't think I've made anything on the big loom since moving back to the house in May.  I've lost at least 50 pounds since then and almost 100 overall.  I'ma different person inside that loom and it's a very different experience dressing the loom and working with it.  I expected as much just wasn't quite prepared for the actual feeling of it.

Also, I need a bench cushion...the cushion that used to be my rear is now gone, and the bones there weren't super happy about sitting on a hard wooden bench and moving back and forth as I treadled.  Something to make?  possibly...would be a great stash buster!

I'd rather be weaving

...right now...right this very minute.    Weaving...sitting at my loom passing shuttle through shed and making a gorgeous scarf for my daughter (and then another for the other daughter).  And THEN I want to embark on a major stash reduction of towel yarn, so be prepared.  There may be stuff for sale eventually.

I truly do love weaving and I've missed it like crazy the past two years.  It's been really difficult to find time to weave once I started working away from home again.  Plus, the diet this past year left me really drained of energy so weaving of an evening wasn't really an option.

I'd planned to spend my Christmas break this way:
-4 days with my parents
-10 days weaving and dying (the latter if the weather was warm enough)

Instead I spent my Christmas break this way:
-4 days with my parents
-3 days at home getting everything ready to go BACK to my parents
-5 days with my parents
-2 days recovering from being at my parents.

Don't get me wrong.  I wouldn't trade that time with my parents for anything.  It's become painfully apparent that every minute I get to spend with my dad that he's aware that I'm there and interacting with me is a blessing, just not what I'd planned.

And, those of you who are artists and serious crafters know this, when you have been itching to cast on a new project, set up the loom for a woven design, or just need to get your fingers on yarn, substituting another craft because of time or space allocations doesn't really do you justice.

And, you also know this, crafting is an emotional release.  I need lots of that right now.

The right kind of crafting for the right kind of emotional release.

All of this is to say that what I WANT to do is weave, what I've had time to do is knit.  And knitting just isn't "cutting it" right now.  I love the pillow I'm making.  It's pretty and soft and will fit perfectly in Betty's house...and is almost finished on one side.  I've enjoyed seeing my "design" come to life.  I've even enjoyed that I'm combining my former love of quilting and my current passion for knitting by knitting a traditional quilt square.

But what I'm finding each evening is that when it's time to sit down and craft, I don't want to do what I'm doing.  I want to do something else, but there's a reason for me not doing it.  And I'm frustrated with that. I'm sad about it and I want to get to it.

SO, I'm (kind of) looking forward to the fact that David has to work 3 nights a week this semester.  I'll not have that excuse pulling me away from weaving.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to find a rhythm that works for me--weaving, knitting, hanging with the family, seeing my parents when I can.  Not overwhelming myself and stretching too thin, but being able to meet my creative needs...at least somewhat.

Because...look at this face...she wants me to finish "her" monster. (which is knitting, not weaving, but also not really a possibility right now considering my hands hurt when knitting monsters, so I'm pacing myself!)

So very tired

I think I've used that title before--so very tired--but things this past week (and probably last) have truly worn me out.  I could put my head on my desk and take a nap but I fear not being able to wake up again.

I know I'm not thinking clearly and can only hope that I'm not giving bad advice to all the students I've been working with.

Today I want to share with you a scarf that I'm working on.  I call it "improv" because I have (sort of) made this one up as I've gone along.  The stripes were determined using a deck of cards.  I wound the warp until I ran out of red yarn--thus I let the project be as wide as it ended up being.

Then I decided to thread it so that the red diagonal stripes would go in the opposite direction as the grey and black, creating an interesting wave pattern.  This decision was made up as I sat down to start threading.  I really like the result.

One of the finished projects

This scarf is knitted with a lovely rayon warp (think silky soft without the price) and sock yarn.  The sock yarn is self-striping.  I get the yarn in a more or less monthly installment of the yarn club from Knitterly Things.  Each month I look at the skein of yarn and think "There's no way she can make a prettier skein next month" and somehow she does.

I also decided that after getting 6 or so pairs of striped socks, that I did need the yarn to do something else, so I experimented in weaving with it.  The name of this colorway is Dancing Waters, And to be honest, it took me back to a story I wrote in undergrad about my Native American great (many times) grandmother who I named Singing Rain.  I knew that the weaving pattern needed to somehow evoke a Native American theme, so I chose a simple broken twill (that's the zig-zag pattern you see that doesn't quite match at the top and bottom) and let the stripes and the lovely deep red warp do the work.

I'm very happy with this project, and also a little sad that I didn't have quite enough yarn to make a second scarf for sale, because this ones mine.  Mineminemineminemine.

[a little technical weaving talk here...if you want to, skip ahead to the picture]

And, for the record, the drape is wonderful, and it's amazingly soft.  If you want to weave with sock yarn, I always recommend something soft and silky for the warp (or weft whichever is the opposite of the where you have the sock yarn) and then setting the project just a tad looser than would be "obvious" based on wraps per inch.  This project was sett at 10epi for a twill pattern.  The rayon (which is a 10/2 yarn) is pretty skinny, so I actually doubled it in each dent and heddle.

If you're working on a rigid heddle loom, I think you could probably use a 10epi sett as long as you didn't beat too hard.  On the loom it looks a little loosey-goosey, but as soon as you take it off, the springy-ness of the sock yarn draws the project in and everything looks just right. This allows the scarf to be drapey and not stiff.  Once washed, the yarn blooms and everything gets all snuggly and the end result is a very pretty scarf that I can hardly wait to wear.

Busy day(s) (and a lot of promises of future pictures!)

I like being busy at work...it's being bored or not having enough to do at work that makes me tired and irritated.

Being busy, even too busy, is so much better.  The days go by faster, I have a real sense of accomplishment, and at the end of the day I feel somehow more energized than not.

So, thank goodness I've had a couple of busy days at work, and the rest of the month looks like it'll stay busy, so hopefully (fingers crossed) I won't get cranky from not being busy enough.

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I find it interesting that when I'm busy at work I'm also much more productive at home with my crafting.  I am working steadily on the baby sweater (Great Wool Experiment #4).  I'm not going to post pics of it until it's been given to the new parents, JIC they take a peek at the blog.  But trust me, after finishing the right front, I'm enamored.  Not enough to want a new baby, but to hope people around me start having babies so I can make them tiny little sweaters.

I'm using a yarn, in a lovely shade of orange and pink, from a company called Dream in Color.  They yarns are hand dyed and very beautiful.  The yarn I'm using is a sock-weight yarn, which you already know I love to work with, and so pretty that I'm hoping I have enough yarn leftover to make myself a pair of socks when I'm finished.  I love working with this yarn and can't wait for the gift to be finished...how sweet little baby girl will look when this set finally fits her.

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The other projects I've been working on at home are my square a day blanket.  I'm 4 squares away from finishing row 5!  I'll have a picture of it then.  I'm also working on the Noro blanket that David bought for me.  I have a dark green square and a dark blue/purple square finished.  The next ball I chose is a lovely bright multi-color that's working up so interestingly.  The middle is a pinky-lavendar, the first round is different hues of bright green and the final round is (so far) bright pink and orange.  I can't wait to post a picture of this one, but it's not quite ready yet.

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My picture today is of the cricket loom with the lovely mutli-colored scarf in it.  The yarn is from Unique Sheep and is a cotton and bamboo blend.  The drape on this yarn is gorgeous...it worked up into a very light-weight and pretty scarf.  I love how the mutli-colors work across each other and end up looking like a crazy plaid.  I'll have a picture of it after it's been washed.  Behind the loom, if you look carefully, you'll see Pearl, my sweet kitty.  She's crazy about weaving and particularly likes the cricket loom (I think because it appears to be just about the right size for her).  All last weekend I had to battle with her about whether she could eat the yarn or the rigid heddle, or sit underneath the loom while I was working, or play with any thread that was hanging loose.  At this moment, she was sneaking up on me.