Friday Five: 5 Works-in-Progress

In the past few years, I’ve become more less rabid about writing about what I’m making, mostly because I don’t think it’s particularly interesting to report on the 2 cm of progress I managed to make since the last post. But when deadlines roll around (our TNNA crate ships out on Monday! whooosh), I seem to get a boost of adrenaline that powers me through new projects. So, here’s a couple things that I’ve been working on:

1. Foolproof Cowl — Finished!

Finished Foolproof Cowl

It’s off the needles. I zoomed through the last section of rapidly decreasing stitches (such a good feeling) while watching the second to last episode of this season’s Nashville. Such a guilty pleasure for me. Along with my ketchup potato chips. Here’s a sneaky peek into the upcoming TNNA — you’ll be able to get these very yarns to make this very cowl. We’ll see you Friday at TNNA and I’ll be wearing my Foolproof (or maybe our dressform will be). Now, I just need to weave in the ends and block it.

2. Mulberry Socks

Mulberry Socks in Tough Love Sock

I’m quite proud of myself that I’ve been carrying this little sock around with me. Just a little bit of knitting here and there, in between things and I’m making a bit of progress. BTW, I love my knitting bag… it’s from MisoCraftyKnits »

3. Sail Shawl Scraptacular

Weaving on the Louet Spring Loom

Featuring a warp made from Sail Shawl scraps

Using Habu Tsumugi Silk as weft makes a gorgeous, nubby fabric

We are knitting up samples of each colourway of our Sail Shawl kits and there was a bag of leftover yarns from the Evening Song (purples) kit just sitting in my office. It seemed like plenty of yarn still, so I took it home and wound a warp with it. It’s 190 ends and 2.46 yards long, made from Tough Love Sock in Mulberry and Ultraviolet and Glitterati Sock in Wisteria. I held four ends together while I warped (one of each of the Tough Love Sock plus both ends of a centre-pull ball of Wisteria) to make the warping go a lot faster. And I wanted to have a random arrangement of the three colours throughout the scarf.

Since I didn’t have my wide 12-dent reed available, I used a 10-dent reed and consulted this reed substitution chart to get 12.5 ends per inch (sleyed 1-1-1-2). This makes the scarf approximately 15.5 to 16″ wide in the reed.

I tried a couple different yarns for weft, including our Merino Silk Lace, CashSilk Lace, and Merino Silk Fine. It could be that all I have is an overabundance of yarn in Raspberry and Ultraviolet, but I felt strongly that I wanted a slightly different texture. Finally, I pulled out the Tsumugi Silk from Habu that I’ve been stashing since Dan and I traveled to Kyoto in 2008. I love the texture of this nubby silk yarn. It is like the umami of yarn arts. Mmmm.

While I adore my big loom and I am craving that feeling of throwing the shuttle back and forth, I know it’s a slower process. It took me several sessions over two days of sitting down to arrange the warp in the raddle, then wind the back beam, then thread the heddles and sley the reed. And I just wanted to conduct a little experiment to see how much faster it would be to warp the Cricket loom…

4. Snapdragon Mini-Skein Scarf

Party of Five Mini-Skeins in Tough Love Sock (Snapdragon) on the Cricket Loom

Party of Five Mini-Skeins in Tough Love Sock (Snapdragon) on the Cricket Loom

Party of Five Mini-Skeins in Tough Love Sock (Snapdragon) on the Cricket Loom

It’s true what they say… you really can start weaving on the Cricket Loom within an hour. I’m using one of our Party of Five Mini-Skein sets in Tough Love Sock (Snapdragon colourway) and I warped the Cricket with random stripes. The warp is about the length of my dining room table, so I’m guessing it’s about 2 to 2.5 yards. I used the 12-dent reed here, so basically, it’s just like the scarf above, except that it’s about 9″ wide rather than 15″ and it took me less than an hour to have the loom warped and ready to weave. Crazy. The weaving itself is slower going and my edges are a little more wonky looking, but I can weave a bit while I hang out with the husband, rather than hiding in my attic by my lonesome.

5. The pile o’ unfinished things

Color Dive Quilt

There are so many. I didn’t take a photo of them because I was attempting spring cleaning and they are literally in a pile in the attic. There is a Lush cardigan that would be lovely to wear at TNNA, if I could finish in time. And there’s a Gramps cardigan for baby Russell which was meant for his one-year old birthday… which was 6 months ago…

But I’m distracted from finishing any of these… because I’m currently fixated on starting this Color Dive Quilt by Anna Maria Horner. I do have a stack of True Colors fat quarters from Anna Maria Horner, but it wouldn’t be enough… this quilt need something like 40 to 50 fat quarters for more colour options!

I’m thinking about making this quilt, while also thinking about making another My Song quilt for myself… while also considering the other projects I have queued and want to knit. I’m pretty sure it’s that when the adrenaline starts flowing to get work crafting done, it also releases this flood of ideas for crafting in general. It’s this ebb and flow of wanting to make all the things and then being tired and spent and not wanting to knit a single stitch. I’m happy to ride this wave of energy all the way into shore. What are you making this weekend?