The beau and I went to Adelaide for the recent long weekend, to a convention where one of the events is a masquerade, which is usually a disco plus costume sort of thing. The theme of the masquerade was ‘the future of the future’.

That put me in mind of robots and lycra bodysuits, which really isn’t my thing, so I’d decided not to dress up. It’s not compulsary. But then, at the last moment I spotted this:

Swine Flu Masque by Homero Luna & David Castillo. (Unfortunately, when I washed it after the event, the blue cotton of the nostrils bled, but I doubt I’ll get a second chance to wear it – swine flu is already becoming Old News.)

It was a bit hit and got many laughs.

And had a special irony for me, as I suspect I would have been better off catching swine flu than the flu/cold/whatever I did catch. From what I’ve heard and read, it takes a couple of weeks to get over swine flu if you’re ‘young’ and healthy. I’ve lost five weeks because of the bug I had, and though I managed to gain a three week extension to my work deadline I’m going to have to work weekends and evenings until the end of July to make it.

My back is already acting up, and RSI would be a disaster right now. So there may not be much knitting, crochet or weaving going on around here. But there may be lots of stress-relieving stash aquisition.

And I’ve ordered something special and a bit indulgent to cheer myself up, that should arrive late next week. I can’t wait to show you!

Last Thursday I ordered some sock yarn and it arrived on Tuesday. First there was a batch of 4 skeins from The Bead and Opal Wool Queen. Then from the Yarn Market I got another four socks worth of yarn, several reels of reinforcement thread, and an extra little something.

They’re mostly Lang Jawoll, Regia and Opal sock yarn because those have stood up to washing and wear the best or got good reviews for resilience on the net. Not all these will be used for my Socks For Others Club. I couldn’t resist adding a couple of extras. It turned out to be a boon, as when I laid eyes on one skein I knew it suited one of the recipients perfectly. (There’s also some Regia in there that I picked up a few weeks back.)

The extra something is a test ball of Bamboozle. I’ve been keeping an eye out for non-wool yarns that might work for Tubey for ages. I figured some sort of cotton or plant fibre with elastic would be needed. Cascade Fixation was a possibility, but it’s been discontinued. This might do the trick. I plan to try Colorimetry again with this skein. If the yarn works I’ll start hunting for it on sale.

I was amazed that the two batches of yarn, which were ordered on the same day, arrived on the same day, yet one came from Australia and the other from the US. Mind you, the postage from the US was considerably pricier.

The order I placed with Bendigo Woollen Mills so I could finish the Ruffles Scarf was on the same day as the others, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Ah, long gone are the days when Bendy yarn would arrive the next day. But if that’s a sign of their growing popularity, I’m definitely not complaining.

Hey look! A FO!

It’s the Celtic Cable Neckwarmer by Lindsay Henricks, knit with Eki Riva Casual. The alpaca yarn works for this, despite the lack of memory, because the neckwarmer sits in place and doesn’t require elasticity to stay put.

After I finished this I started another scarf, which I’m calling “Tassle”.

Not following any pattern, but it’s inspired by Donyale’s Silky Scarf which was her take on Jonna by Norah Gaughan. The basic scarf is such a simple and basic shape, it’s probably been done many times before, but a good idea is worth repeating, right? I cast on four stitches and kept increasing every second row until I was satisfied with the width, then it’s just ribbing until it’s time to start decreasing.

I’m going to put a single tassle on each point. Maybe with a bead. We’ll see.

I just tidied up my list of FOs for the year. The last few charity scarves weren’t there, and though I’d already posted a pic of this one I hadn’t listed it as a charity scarf because I’d decided to keep it.

I’ve decided to call it the Margaret Scarf. The sock yarn and laceweight that I used in the project had the most amazing dye job, and it turns out it was done by a friend of Caroline, who gave me the yarn. Margaret passed away a while ago and I never met her, but I admire her cleverness and love the way her yarn works in this scarf.

I sent off my second batch of woven scarves to the Bushfire Relief Centre last week, along with the crochet Meltwater Hat and Scarf and a knitted hat I made ages ago that’s a bit too big for me so it was in my ‘potential gifts’ bag.

I’d decided it was time for a break and to try a few new techniques with the loom. A while back I bought the second heddle kit and installed it, but hadn’t got around to trying it out. I wanted to try making tubes using double weave that I’d make into wine bottle carrier/cosies.

I was a bit worried about the warping, as I’d read of other weavers having trouble.

Hooking the threads to pull through the front heddle was a bit awkward, and the instructions have you work from right to left which is opposite to what I’m used to, but in comparison to warping up the table loom it’s still pretty straight forward.

I wound some yarn onto a shuttle to play with and started experimenting. Getting a tabby/plain weave happening wasn’t hard – and there are instructions for that in the Ashford Book of Rigid Heddle Weaving. But then I tried to do a twill and found that, even with a pick up stick, I couldn’t quite get the full pattern happening. I figured if I couldn’t get the four positions needed for twill I wouldn’t be able to do double weave.

I began to wonder where I’d go the idea I could do double weave with a second heddle. There were no instructions for it in the book. I searched the internet. I browsed forums. Eventually I gave up and cut the warp from the loom, deciding I’d just do the bottle cosies on the table loom instead.

Then I read on Weavolution that there were supposed to be instructions on double weave included with the second heddle kit. Following a link to the Ashford site, I found a pdf that I’d actually downloaded ages ago. So that’s where I got the idea is was possible! But I’d forgotten about it, and no instructions had come with my kit. Too late now!

In the meantime, I warped up the loom to try another technique. Using handspun as warp for the first time, I put stripes of it and machine washable Bendy classic 3ply on the loom, then started weaving a very loose weft of the Bendy. The idea is, you throw the scarf in the wash, the handspun felts and the machine washable wool doesn’t shink, instead forming ruffles.

Except, well, that I ran out of Bendy for the weft mid-way. I have some more on order, but it looks like this project is on hiatus for now. All of which has me thinking two things: my weaving mojo in on holidays, and Ashford need to put out a book of projects to try using the second heddle.

Been very busy this last week. Adelaide on the weekend, then work, fixing internet, work, meetings, work, shopping, work car service, work, tree removal, work, cabinet delivery and assemblage, work, cookie making, and much, much more.

No time for long posts or taking pics, but I thought I’d stop by and say:

Weavolution is up and running!

What is Weavolution? Well, it’s a Ravelry-like site for weavers, with a place to post pics of your projects, drafts and project instructions, discussion groups and forums. It’s very much a beta version, but should evolve and improve as Ravelry has.

After blogging about the last batch of scarves, I made a couple of decisions. Firstly that I would keep the first one, and secondly that I would try a few new techniques with the second and third.

The skipped stitches of the misbehaving alpaca silk scarf were sewn in, then I tied on some wooden beads. The handspun scarf was stitched and gathered together across the width in several places.

I felted the alpaca silk one. It came out all artsy and reminiscent of seafoam.

I mean to dye the handspun scarf. This is a shibori method I’ve seen on Weavezine and in Handwoven magazine.

The return of relative wellness meant I was able to start catching up on things I’d neglected for the previous five weeks. Including spending three days cleaning the house. (It was in a really bad way, and I could only manage a few hours at a time before zonking out.) So it was a while before I got to weave again. Eventually I finished this scarf woven with Rowan Tapestry, a soft and silvery yarn.

And then I was able to take this one off the loom, too. It’s woven with a single ball of Vintage Hues.

I think I may be done with churning out scarves now. Once I’ve dyed up the handspun scarf I’ll send the second batch off to the relief centre. I’ve got a list of weaving techniques and projects to tackle next. But that’ll have to fit in around a lot of other stuff, since I’m weeks and weeks behind with work, and have a gadzillion things to catch up on.

The last pair are done. Another pair done in a week. Two in a fortnight. I dunno what’s got into me. It usually takes me about a month to knit a pair of socks.

The knitting was done two nights ago. I spent last night weaving in these:

Adding one row of cream yarn between the brown stripes looks good, but boy did it create a lot of ends.

Here are all the personal sock club socks:

I started mid-February. Six socks done by the end of May. Phew!

What next? I’ve can move straight on to my Dad’s socks, but I’ve yet to order the yarn for the rest of the Socks For Others Club recipients (though there’s been lots of online store ogling). Mind you, two of them haven’t sent me measurements yet. Must chase that.

The first alpaca scarf off the needles:

Pattern: Easy Wave Scarf from Knitting New Scarves
Yarn: Eki Riva Casual
Adjustments: because I was using thinner yarn than specified in the pattern, I increased the width to 30 stitches.
Comments: thought the pattern is fiddly at first, I got into a rhythm after a while and was able to sit and watch tv as I knit.
Verdict: it’s lovely!

The next alpaca scarf went straight on the needles. This time it’s the Celtic Cable neckwarmer:

And thanks to some knitting time at camera club, I finished the first of my final personal sock club socks:

After looking at the big pile of yarns I had for these, I decided the reddish toned ones didn’t fit and took them out. I want them to be mainly brown socks. Then, instead of randomly varied stripes I went for even ones, with a cream stripe between them. Which is still going to give me heaps of ends to sew in, but I like the look of them. I can’t help thinking, though, that I could have dyed up yarn with stripes like this, and had very few ends to sew in.

–

I’ve decided to go ahead with the Socks For Others Club. I asked on my private Live Journal if any of my LJ friends wanted handknit socks, expecting to get no response, and was surprised to find I had more than enough interest within a few hours of posting. There’s even a waiting list.

I’m going to put the recipient’s measurements with yarn of their colour preference into bags so I get the same anticipation and surprise as I did with the personal sock club. Well, except for one cheat – I want to knit my Dad’s socks first as his birthday is in July. And I need time to buy or dye the other yarn.

Because, believe it or not, I don’t have enough sock yarn for this. I do have heaps of Patonyle, but I’ve noticed that it tends to go fuzzy with washing and I want to make sure the socks I give away are robust enough to survive a non-knitters laundry habits.

Back in New Zealand last year I got all inspired by the glaciers I’d seen to design a hat or scarf that had the rippley effect of the ice, with blue water in the crevices. I bought three balls of Shepherd 12ply Felted Lambswool, in white, blue and a deeper blue.

A few days ago I got the itch to try out my idea. Trouble was, none of the methods I tried, in knitting or crochet, gave me quite the look I was after, and for some reason I’d only bought one ball of white for an idea that was mostly white, and that wasn’t enough.

In the end I gave up on the idea for now, but I was really enjoying working with the yarn so I tried a wavy crochet effect:

Which was fun to do, and kinda looks a bit like the threaded rivers of New Zealand. With the leftovers I just managed to make a hat to match.