WIPs for July 2018

It's been a scorcher around here, so naturally the solution is more yarn. (And AC/fans, and doing all my outdoor activites before the sun comes up.) Still, there hasn't been much knitting happening. Why have a lap full of wool when you can weave or spin instead? I've managed to do a fair bit of weaving - I got the floor loom pieces done and managed to get a couple of things on and off the rigid heddle loom, and warped and wove a handpainted warp from a workshop I took in May. Most of these things seem to exist only over on Instagram, so feel free to check me out over there!
 
I did escape to Montana for a glorious week of perfect weather, and had lots of fiber fun to boot. At MAWS, I fell pretty hard for SAORI weaving, and have been looking for ways to incorporate its principles into more of my weaving. 


Knitting

• I'm about an inch of ribbing away from finishing a machine-knit sweater that I guess I started in June. The yarn is a basic worsted weight that's been sitting in my stash for almost 10 years. When I bought it, I thought I *needed* a heather blue/gray sweater - which is really not my color. I overdyed the yarn this spring and reverse-engineered a bottom-up sweater in the round to be top-down and in pieces for the knitting machine. I'm doing all the ribbing by hand.  Other than that, all knitting projects are in hibernation for now. 

Weaving

• I welcomed a new loom into the flock. Well, new to me - it's a Jano, made by Leclerc as one of their early table looms. It has treadles, though, and I can tie up more than one shaft to each treadle. I have a SAORI warp on there now, and am looking forward to getting to know the loom.
• I have a couple of warps ready to wind on - but which loom and which threading? 
• One of the things I learned from studying the warp-weighted loom was that cloth was frequently woven as singles - which makes sense, since plying is an extra step that would have taken plenty of time. So I've been letting ideas about weaving with singles roll around in my head. Maybe this will be the month that I do it.

Spinning

• I did finish one of my two alpaca projects in June, which just leaves the one...
• And the SAORI ideas filter through to spinning. I've played a little with blending and spinning for SAORI weaving, and it was loads of fun. So there might be more of that in the future. 

Sewing

• I'm still looking for a good sewing pattern to use for my handwoven fabric...I started a top that has been languishing. It's clearly not a good candidate for handwoven fabric (for me, at least) since it uses so much yardage. But I'd still like to finish it.
• Again with the SAORI - maybe that's the place to spend time with my handwoven fabric and sewing?
• The piece pictured at the top is the handpainted warp I wove. It's really just a tiny scrap of cloth - it was a 2 yard warp, and after wet finishing I figure there's about a yard of fabric there. What should it become in life? A bag? 

Happy Fourth of July to all y'all in the States!

xx,

​Pamela