30 Days Of November, Day 1: Of Woven Things
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| Hello November! -source |
Morning all, it's been a very long time since I have written anything, but I firmly believe in the adage that it is better late than never. My life has changed a lot over the last few years or so since I have been actively blogging.
The major thing that happened to me is that I had Carpal Tunnel surgery in December 2015 that threw my knitting life into a tailspin. Even now almost two years later, knitting still causes me pain and I fear I will never be able to do it again. This caused me many moments of depression which was lifted recently when I remembered my Knitter's Loom from Ashford.
I had given up using it because I was struggling to get the tension right and I got discouraged. Now however, faced with piles of yarn and a bum hand, I took it back up with the vow to stick with it even if I meet with trouble. I also found motivation from the memory a lovely man named Paul that had hand-made a few of my weaving shuttles. I never cease to think of his creativity, kindness and skill when I use the shuttles and so I wanted to honor his memory and master the skill of weaving.
I have since made two projects the first of which was riddled with mistakes, but it was supposed to be the test piece. It was very thin, so as to avoid me warping up a big piece and wasting yarn if I made a mistake in the process, and it was also made from worsted weight so as to be easier to see.
The selvedge was atrocious and so the the scarf ended up with an uneven border. I also cut it off the loom before deciding how to finish it, so I had to tie the ends into tassels. There was also an issue with how hard I was beating the weft into place; as well as me winging the method for joining in a new set of yarn.
I hunted down some Youtube videos which helped the end of the project to go a lot smoother and I lamented having not consulted them in the first place! I do need to get a couple books for reference but Youtube is good enough for now.
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| First Attempt |
The second scarf titled Mini-Skein Love was better, though not perfect; I also cut it off the loom before hem-stitching which made that process extra fiddly but I got it done in the end. And certainly it was even less perfect after one of my kitties got to it while it was blocking and put their claws into it. At least I know for sure that it is kitty approved!
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| One of the culprits, Opera |
It was made from a nude warp and several mini-skeins of similar colour-ways as the name suggests. The yarn weight was fingering which caused the finished product to be super soft and very delicate. I am proud of it because it was my first real effort of weaving that turned out nicely in a long, long time.
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| Second Scarf |
I did my best to fix this as I go along but then I ran into the second problem where I am going to run out of my chosen weft yarn before I reach the end.
I do have other yarn left over from the warp I can use but I can not claim that it will look like intentional stripping, or an attempt at a pattern unless I undo some of what I have done so far and redo it with the different yarns interspersed.
As disheartening a task as that seems, I am committed to putting my best effort forward and to simply continue on would not be my best effort.
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| Set-up For Third Attempt |
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| Project underway |
All in all I am happy to be back in the business of fiber-crafting. There is little else that can match the satisfaction of turning thread into something wearable. I may attempt knitting again with much larger needles and see if perhaps that is easier on the hands, so stay tuned for that experiment.
Until later guys, keep crafting.
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