The House Elf Liberation Front

The easiest way to warp a rigid heddle loom is to warp it directly, which is where you put the yarn on the loom as you measure it. However, direct warping assumes a few things. That you have a house or apartment where you can set a loom and a peg several yards apart on tables, for example. Direct warping was not designed for the college student.

Enter the warping board. A warping board is a rectangular frame with a bunch of pegs around the perimeter. You use the warping board to measure your yarn, and then you transfer the yarn to your loom. At first I resisted getting one because of the price, but if you, say, have a father who is handy with woodworking and has a well-stocked workshop, you can get one for the price of a few wingnuts. I have a good dad.

This is a warping board, with the warp for another Noro scarf on it:



You wrap the yarn from peg to peg, using whichever combination of pegs gets you to the right length. (And then if you are thinking, you take a picture so that you won't have to experiment again in the future.) If you look at the right side of the photo, you'll see that the yarn crosses over itself between two pegs. That's to make it easier to thread the heddle later on - even if the rest of the warp gets jumbled, if you always take the thread that's on top of the cross, the warp will go onto the loom in the right order.

The warp is on the loom now, and I'm about half done with the weaving. I'd be further along, but this week had the Blackhawks lose two games in a row in the NHL finals, and I ended up having to rip out nine inches of weaving when I realized that my selvedges were a whole lot tighter than they had been earlier in the scarf. It looks much better on the second try. I'll take photos once it's finished.

The weaving project I've been working on lately is a set of coasters. Or rather, several sets, since they're 4.5" wide and I warped the loom with enough yarn for a long scarf. I wanted to be able to practice keeping my selvedges and beating even, as well as having an opportunity to experiment with the way stripes in the warp and weft interact. Coasters seemed like more fun than a sampler.

To begin with, the loom was warped with alternating stripes of green and purple (Cascade 220, from stash), each stripe 2 ends wide. After I got tired of that, I cut what I'd done off the loom and rethreaded it so that the stripes were just one thread wide. There's a weaving draft (pattern) called log cabin where both the warp and the weft are made up of stripes that are one thread wide. In plain weave, which is what I'm doing, you get a result that looks like the first photo on this page, with alternating blocks of horizontal and vertical stripes. It looks way harder to do than it actually is. Furthermore -- and this is what inspired me to post -- if you turn the fabric over, the directions of the stripes are reversed so that what were vertical stripes on the front are horizontal stripes on the back.

It reminds me of when I learned how to do ribbing when I was just learning to knit. I like being at a stage where everything is new and interesting.

I tried to put a warp on my loom tonight. It did not go well, more due to equipment failure than anything else.

In order to use the direct warping method (the one that doesn't require extra equipment), you clamp the loom to a table and then clamp a peg to some other furniture. The distance between the peg and a certain beam on the loom determines how long each of the warp threads will be. The problem I had was that the most convenient setup for me involved clamping the peg to my tv stand, which has a beveled edge. It was okay at first, but when I was about half finished, the tension on the threads running between the loom and the peg was enough to yank it off, tangling all the yarn. I put the peg back and untangled the ends once, but when it happened a second time, I decided to cut the yarn off the loom (it was from a $3 ball of dishcloth cotton - no great loss) and pack it in for the night.

I'll try again tomorrow. I really want to have a project going before my parents come to visit next weekend. It looks like I should be able to clamp the peg more firmly if I use my computer table, which has a squared-off edge, so warping it should just be a matter of dragging an end table into place to hold the loom and then going to it.

I sometimes have problems because my two main hobbies - knitting, and assorted things computery - both cause RSI problems. In my experience, they tend to cause identical issues. If my wrists hurt, I am suddenly out of hobbies. Not fun.

A friend of the family has a floor loom that I've always found interesting in a vague, cannot afford that way. During the Ravelympics this year, I saw a lot of weaving projects show up in the parade of finished objects. I clicked on some of them out of curiosity, and discovered rigid heddle looms. They're small enough to be used in a very small apartment, and they're inexpensive enough that between birthday money and work, they're within my price range. More importantly, googling turned up a bunch of anecdata about knitters with RSI problems who, nevertheless, can still weave.

So! Last weekend, I ordered a 20" Schacht Flip. It comes with a 10-dent heddle, and I ordered an 8-dent heddle as well. I'm assuming that first weaving projects have a lot in common with first knitting projects when it comes to the quality of the results, and I have a lot of cheap dishcloth cotton that will work well (I think) with the 8 dent heddle.

UPS tells me that I will be getting the loom on Tuesday (or rather, my landlord will get it Monday and then will close for the day before I get home from class). I'm excited, and I'm pondering what to do first after I've stopped mangling the cheap cotton. Dishcloths? A scarf? Cloth for my as-yet-uncovered other throw pillow? The choices are endless, and yet very, very rectangular.

Last week at this time, the Ravelympics were just winding up. I ended up finishing three of my four projects.

( Project #1: Frogging )

( Project #2: Time Lord Socks )

( Project #3: Throw pillow )

Project #4 would have been to finish weaving in ends and crocheting the border of a throw blanket. New goal: get it done before the blanket's second birthday in August. Two years is too long for a WIP.

I was in the mood for some instant gratification, so this week I've been working on a pair of Fuzzy Feet. Mine aren't going to be terribly fuzzy - I'm using Knitpicks Shamrock, which doesn't have the mohair of the recommended yarn - but they should be nice and warm.

I'm enjoying them so far. They're really just overgrown ankle socks that you felt down into slippers. As basic sock patterns go, it's a well-written one. And they definitely qualify as near-instant gratification knits. The first one is done already...


Ravelry project

...and I'm hoping that between work tomorrow morning and Friday afternoon, I'll be able to finish the second one. I'll felt them over the weekend when I wash towels, and I'll cross my fingers that the Shamrock yarn behaves as expected. Tip for the future: buy enough yarn to swatch with.

~~~

Last week I finished up a Wizardly Incognito Cap in movie!Ravenclaw colors as a swap gift for someone. Fun pattern, although I should have remembered before I started it that I find ribbing to be tedious after awhile. This picture is in its incognito form. Your other choice is to wear it with the brim not folded up. If you give the crown a tug, the decreases are positioned such that it goes all pointy and wizard-hat shaped.


Ravelry project

It's probably inevitable that I've decided to make a sock blankie. Blankets are my very favorite kind of knitting project. I like sock yarn - both the feel of knitting that gauge, and the colors. I like instant gratification, but I also like the predictability of having a project that's always ready to be worked on. I have questionable decorating taste. Given all that, the sock blankie is the perfect long-term project for me.

Problem is, I don't knit socks quickly. Working only with my own scraps, I'm pretty sure I'd never accumulate enough to make a whole blanket. This? Is why I love the internet. (And also why I love having a steady job.) A purchase of Koigu mill ends from someone on Ravelry, a purchase of skeinlets from someone on Etsy, and I'm off.

The blankie is two days old and three squares big:



(click to embiggen)

It'd be bigger, but I spent most of yesterday's knitting time swatching and most of today's knitting time winding off skeinlets of the Koigu for a swap. I don't have any idea how long this project will take, but since I intend to use it more as a backup/inbetween project instead of the main thing I work on, I expect it'll take awhile.

Vital Information:
Needles: US 2 (2.75mm)
Square size: 31 stitches
Ravelry project link

My sister is a gamer, and over the summer she asked me to make her a new dice bag. The yarn she picked, Knitpicks Essential Kettle Dyed, is a sock yarn. I, not in possession of circs in an appropriate size and not a fan of casting onto DPNs, decided to come up with something that would avoid the issue entirely.

Mitered squares are fun because they look so much more complicated than they really are. Little mitered squares are great, because it takes you no time at all to finish one. And a bag is an excellent thing to make out of mitered squares, because you can knot and trim the ends rather than weaving them in. I really like this pattern.

( Pictures! )

The Ravelry page for this project is here.

This semester, my job includes a lot of sit and do nothing time, so I've been knitting more than I have in a long while. Given that I'm, shall we say, highly distractible, this means that I've been knitting a lot of different things.

Active WIPS:
• Felted bag - Bigger Booga Bag pattern, in Cascade 220 and mystery handpainted wool. I'm nearly done with the bag itself, but I haven't started the i-cord for the straps yet.
• Scarf for myself - Multidirectional Scarf pattern, in Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted. I'm probably around 40% done with this.
• Leafy lace wrap - my own pattern, in Cascade Heritage. I've forgotten where I am on this one.
• Garterfish - my ongoing afghan project, from the A Recipe For Fish pattern. Yarn is scraps of Cascade 220. Hasn't seen much action lately due to a lack of appropriate scraps.

Next Batch of Projects:
• Hat for myself - same yarn as the scarf. Haven't decided on a pattern yet.
• Christmas ornament - a kit I got at Stitches Midwest. I left it at my parents' house rather than trying to bring a glass ornament home via Amtrak, so this one has to wait for Halloween or Thanksgiving.
• I also have enough yarn for two short-sleeved tops. Short-sleeved top weather ended yesterday, though, so I may ignore this until it gets closer to spring.

My sister has a winter birthday. This year, she asked for a hat and scarf set for her birthday and Christmas. She wanted stripes, a tassel on the hat and fringe on the scarf, and for it to be red and purple to match her red coat.

I was able to make the hat and the scarf out of two skeins of black yarn and one each of the red and purple. There's a little black left unused (perhaps a fifth of the skein) and very little red or purple.

Striped Hat
Gauge: 4.75 spi
Needles: Bamboo dpns, US #6 (4mm)
Yarn: Cascade 220
Pattern: basic hat pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, more or less.

The stripes at the brim were made by doing a longtail caston with two strands that put black on the bottom and purple on the needle, and then knitting a round of black, a round of red, and another round of black. I like the effect, but weaving in the ends neatly later was unpleasant. The tie for the tassel was made by braiding together one strand of each of the three colors.


( Hat Pics! )

Striped Scarf
Gauge: uncertain - didn't measure after blocking
Needles: Denise, US #9 (5.5mm)
Yarn: Cascade 220
Pattern: CO 60 sts, join round, knit until nearly out of yarn.

I used larger needles for the scarf than for the hat so that the scarf would be nice and limp. Because it's a tube, I wasn't worried about the individual layers being wind resistant. The end result is heavy, but she lives in Boston. A heavy, warm scarf isn't a bad thing.

Blocking is a lovely thing. When I realized I was nearly out of yarn, the scarf was about five and a half feet long, or possibly a little less. Hoping I wouldn't have to start new skeins of anything, I soaked the scarf in some tepid water, squeezed out as much as I could, and then laid it out on garbage bags to dry. I was able to stretch it quite a bit at first, and it grew a little longer each time I flipped it. When it was nearly dry, I took it off the floor and hung it over the shower rod to get a little more length out of it (and also to get it out of my only hallway.) End result after almost 48 hours of drying time: a seven foot long scarf, which is what my sister requested.

Closed tubes are lovely things too, when you're doing stripes. Rather than weave in a kazillion ends, I tied each pair of ends into a very secure knot, trimmed them down a little, and left them. This had the pleasant side effect of mostly fixing the jogs between the stripes as the last stitch of one stripe and the first stitch of the next were pulled tight together. It's visible in the photos, but it's not noticeable unless you're looking for it.

One thing I forgot to take photos of is the side "seams". There's a trick I read about in an Elizabeth Zimmerman book (possibly Knitter's Almanac) for stabilizing knit tubes by faking some seams on the sides. She had sweaters in mind, but it worked amazingly well here. Right at the end, knit until you reach the stitch you want to turn into a seam. Drop it aaaall the way down to the bottom. Then, with a crochet hook, start to pick it up. Instead of picking up each ladder to make a stitch as you would if you dropped the stitch accidentally, you pick up one ladder, then two ladders, then one, then two, and so on. What was three stitches becomes two. This makes a column of stitches that looks the same to the casual observer and that is ridged in a way that makes the fabric want to fold there. Voila! Scarf knit in the round that actually wants to lay flat rather than twisting.

( Scarf Pics! )