Blossom Twill Weaving Draft

On September 20, 2023August 7, 2023 By iswimlikeafishIn ravelry, weaving, yarn1 Comment

Close up of a yellow to purple twill gradient warp wrapped around a woman's neck.

This yarn was meant to be a colorwork sweater. I had every intention of diligently dividing the single cake into the 4-ish colors that make up the African Daisy gradient in order to work the gorgeous yoke in the pattern Antique Flora by Wool & Pine. It’s hard not to reach for a black sweater in the middle of winter when the weather is dark and gloomy. I wanted to be reaching for a sweater that was only dark grey to provide a backdrop for the vibrant colors within the African Daisy gradient.

But even the best-laid plans don’t always come to pass. The truth is, the more I stared at the yarn the more I wanted it wrapped around me — an oversized shawl to cover my shoulders and bring color to my winter wardrobe.

Once the pivot was made, attention needed to be paid to using dark grey to accent the bright colors, not bring them down. This nixed using plain or a patterned weave as it would tone colors down rather than lift them up.

Even though this wrap is not as long as it could have been (my preference would have had it be about 5-6 inches longer), I love the length it is and that I have an entire gradient wrapped around my shoulders.

Make your own

Materials:

Warp – 2 x Mad Hatter by Wonderland Yarns & Frabjous Fibers (344 yrds/393 m per 4 oz; sport weight; 100% merino); sample shown in Little Bat
Weft – 1 x Mad Hatter Blossom by Wonderland Yarns & Frabjous Fibers (515 yrds/470.9 m per 6 oz; sport weight; 100% merino); sample shown in African Daisy

Don’t forget! You can use the discount YARNVIP for 15% off your total purchase from Wonderland Yarns (discount not eligible on sale items, with other discounts, or on yarn clubs).

Equipment:

4-shaft loom with a minimum 25-inch (50 cm) weaving width
10-dent reed

Structure:

Weave Structure: Twill

Warp Length: approximately 2.61 yards (238.7 cm) includes about 20 inches of loom waste

Warp Ends: approximately 240 ends

Ends Per Inch (EPI): 10 EPI

Picks Per Inch (PPI): 02 PPI

Finished size:

Approximately 51 in (129.5 cm) long (including fringe), 18.5 in (47 cm) wide

Weaving Directions:

Floor loom: Using a warping board, wind your warp along 2.61 yards for a total of 240 warp ends.

Warp the loom back to front using the preferred warping method according to the draft. Tie or lash the warp ends onto the front apron rod.

Using some waste yarn, weave a few picks for a header and then begin weaving according to the draft, pausing after a few inches to hemstitch the start of the scarf.

Continue for approximately 49″ and then hemstitch the end of the scarf. Treat the fringe and block using preferred methods.

Weaving draft alt text. Warp is set up across 4 shafts in a 1-2-3-4 tie up using the solid color. 4 treddles are used and attached to the shafts as follows. 1+4, 1+2, 2+3, and 3+4. Treddles are then worked 1-4 while weaving to achieve the twill pattern.

Peplum Top-Turned Dress

On September 13, 2023 By iswimlikeafishIn sewing3 Comments

A purple floral sleeveless dress with open books hung on a black hanger at the top of a white door.

One of the hardest things about being new to a craft is justifying the cost of materials. On the one hand, you want to work with nice yarn or fabric, on the other hand, you know that your finished garment probably isn’t going to be perfect for a little while (if ever). This isn’t to say that you want to save, or hoard, quality materials until you feel good enough, it’s just to say that this is probably one of the reasons beginners hesitate to spend money on patterns or purchase their materials on sale. It’s not that we don’t want to spend the money, it’s that we want to take the pressure off a little bit.

I’ve written this before, but I love Notion in Vt. The class offerings are interesting and designed so that the skills build upon each other. More to the point, I love the sale section and start there whenever I visit. To date, I have snagged ballerina, book, and windmill designs.

Originally, I purchased the book fabric to make another Cleo skirt because I wear my ballerina Cleo all the time. The longer I stared at the fabric, however, the more convinced I was that it needed to be a dress. Since there isn’t a true adult version of Germanium, I spent some time falling down the Pinterest rabbit hole and stumbled upon the Peplum Top by Peppermint Magazine. “All” I would need to do is lengthen the peplum piece.

Although I thought it would be, the hardest part of making this dress was not the v-neck back. The hardest part of making this dress was attempting to do it with only 2 yards of fabric. I don’t wear this dress as often as I would if it was about 2 inches longer. The other thing I didn’t take into account was the stiffness of the fabric, I think for the first time I understand the importance of bust darts!

September 2023 Book Club: Her Royal Spyness

On September 8, 2023 By iswimlikeafishIn Book ClubLeave a comment

Her Royal Spyness is the first novel in a seventeen-book series set in Britain during the 1930s. featuring Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie (Georgie). Georgie is thirty-fourth in line for the British throne, the daughter of a Scottish Duke and an English actress, and navigating being a single woman during a period of time when money is tight and women don’t have a lot of opportunities outside of marriage. Tired of lingering like an unwanted guest in the cold and draughty Castle Rannoch, Georgie resolves to escape to the vibrant city of London, where she takes refuge in the family townhouse.

After leaving Scotland and arriving at the family townhouse in London, Georgie navigates life without help from cooks (she eats a lot of canned beans) and her lady’s maid (she avoids the iron). You can’t help but root for her, even though her method of dealing with these issues reminds me of a college or graduate student. A lot of time spent just barely getting by and not a lot of time spent learning what she doesn’t know. I also feel like she doesn’t really appreciate having the townhouse to escape to, but suppose that’s not really part of the story.

Even knowing that there was going to be a death (this was after all marketed as a cozy mystery), the death felt a little random. I’m still not really sure how the convenience of it all was pulled off.

Ultimately, this novel serves as a delightful introduction to the world of Georgie and her escapades. I couldn’t help but be captivated by Georgie’s world and found myself reaching for the second book (which was better than the first).

September is shaping up to be a busy month, so let’s read Anatomy: A Love Story for October.

Cover art for Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.

Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.

When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.

Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.

But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.

Coal and Scuttles Wrap

On August 30, 2023July 27, 2023 By iswimlikeafishIn weaving, yarnLeave a comment

A man wearing a teal shawl standing on a deck staring across a grassy backyard. The shawl has 5 different shades of grey vertical stripes.

As the mother of a toddler, finding time to weave is easier than finding time to warp my loom. Warping takes hours, while actually weaving feels like it takes minutes in comparison. It takes hours to plan and get set up, and all the while I’m reminding myself that intentionally setting aside moments to engage in the process is forcing me to engage in a slower world where time is measured by threading heddles instead of email correspondence. A slower world, like when our daughter finds a toy she loves and plays with it for 20 minutes instead of two (this is actually the best, I love watching her play while getting a few sips of tea in in the morning).

Weaving brings together color and texture in a different way than knitting, so for this wrap, I focused on long blocks of color going the length of the wrap rather than short blocks of color going the width. The weft being a solid color seems to make the blocks more dramatic, I like that the greys bring the teal down and that the teal brings the greys up. I like that there was a rhythm to working this wrap — it was the first time I used a boat shuttle and I was amazed by the difference when compared to a stick shuttle.

Close up of a man's neck with a teal shawl wrapped loosely around it. The shawl has 5 different shades of grey vertical stripes.

Thinking about summer and not ready to think about bundling yourself up for winter? Imagine yourself curling up on a cool summer night. Are you picturing yourself without a sweater, sweatshirt or shawl? Of course not. So, why wait to warp your loom or cast on until the cooler months? At the very least, fall is just around the corner.