Fall Colors, Fall Sweater

Yeah! My sweater is finished just in time for fall weather!


This is the sweater I started spinning for last year (details in my March post titled "A scarf for Spring and some colorful spinning"). The spinning uses a "fractal stripe" technique I learned from Janel Laidman in class at Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat back in 2008 (see Spin-Off magazine, Summer 2007 for her article). It is fun and easy and gave me some fun (and sometimes unpredictable) striping on this sweater (thanks in part to the fabulous dye work by Lisa of Dicentra Designs).

colorway Cinnamon (my favorite)


colorway Madrona (my favorite)

(OK, it's true, I love them both)

And this is how it all began


I used an "unpattern" - the "Top-Down Pullover with Raglan Sleeves" by Karen Alfke to size, design, and construct the sweater. An "Unpattern" is essentially a generic recipe/knitting sequence, that you plug in your own sweater measurements, gauge, and design details. Then you do a little simple math, follow the clearly structured steps of construction, and away you go.

And now it's done. Cinnamon colorway at the top, and Madrona at the bottom.
I love love love this sweater!

Thanks Janel, Lisa, and Karen!

The End of the Summer Blues

Well, this is the summer wrap-up, so it's going to be a long one!

This is so weird - blue is not one of my colors, I'm a fan of fall colors - oranges, golds, olive greens, warm browns - but here I find myself with a summer's worth of blue projects! (OK, some of them tend towards green, and there's a bit of gold and purple here and there, but still . . .)

Part 1 - spinning blue
A Crosspatch Creations Signature Blend layered batt with lovely textures of Romney wool, Bombyx silk, and Tussah silk (colorway "Gwen and Her Daughters").


A Crosspatch Creations Rainbow Roving blended in sweet tweedyness with lovely soft CVM wool (California Varigated Mutant sheep - it's fine, really, they're not radioactive or anything), Tussah silk, and silk noil (colorway "Victoria into the Woods" - OK, it's green - but it's got some blue bits in it!).


Tussah silk in the "Kelp" colorway by Tactile (love this stuff)


Bombyx silk in the "Evergreen" colorway by Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks (sorry about the glare, that's the shine of Bombyx silk for you)


And a 50/50 blend of Merino and Bombyx in "Scarab" colorway from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks


Now I just have two decisions to make
1. Am I going to ply these or use them as singles?
2. What am I going to make? (I'm seeing some kind of a warm textured cardigan, maybe)

Part 2 - Weaving Blue
Rigid Heddle Weaving (Schacht Cricket loom) - Log Cabin Weave
This pattern is so much fun! I learned it from the Schacht Spindle Newsletter (scroll down the linked page to Spring 2005 - the instructions are for a table runner, but it's easy enough to narrow it down for a scarf).
I used some yummy O-Wool Balance (50/50 Merino and Cotton) in Gold and Teal
Here's the warp threading pattern (bottom shed is just the opposite)


and when you weave it with the same sequence of colors in the weft, you get this


Because of the threading pattern, you end up with a double color at each block transition, which creates this cool outline/shadow thing.

Weaving tech - 8 dent reed, 7 inches in the reed, 56 ends (7 groups of 8 ends in pattern), 6 foot warp on loom,
Off loom - shrunk to 6 1/2 inches wide and 5 feet long (including finished fringe - twisted and tied)

Part 3 - Cardweaving Blue
This is a sampler (lesson 1 on Candace Crockett's DVD - it's out of print, but was able to borrow it from the Seattle Weaver's Guild) that turned into my banjo strap. Used 5/2 cotton.
All of these patterns come from the same threading (warp) of the cards!

even the back looks cool


So here's some basic cardweaving - You thread your warp through the cards in a pattern, and tie one end up to some immovable object (the knob to the TV cabinet works well) and the other end attached to your own belt like so (OMG, I'm even wearing blue clothes!)


Spread the cards a bit and turn them one quarter turn - either towards yourself or away from yourself, depending on the pattern (doesn't it look like my hands are turning really fast?)


Then, after running the cards forward and back to clear the shed, push the shuttle on through


Use the shuttle to press the weft firmly into place, and turn the cards again. Then, with the weft locked in place, snug it up to even out the selvedge edge.

To turn it into a banjo strap, I had to narrow it down to fit under the keys around the "pot", so I dropped out a card (4 threads) on each side every 4 turns (or so, I may have lost count here and there)


And here's how that works on the banjo


then I did a fun little 4 ply braid on all the loose ends


And then you go to American Banjo Camp where you meet a fellow weaver who wants to make a strap, too!