Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Watching and Celebrating

I'm having great fun watching the Olympics right now. I love the winter sports!

I'm also enjoying wearing my Celebration 2010 scarf, designed by Shelley and knit from our exclusive Lorna's Laces colourway, Olympic.


This scarf is so warm, and can be worn in many different styles. It was tricky to get started, but once I found a rhythm it was completed quickly.
Thanks for a great pattern, Shelley!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Even the customers want to work.......

Here is Lisa visiting (and weighing/bagging raw fleece at Fun Knits) from Moosejaw, Saskatchewan.  Shelley and I grabbed her up for duty when we realized how much she LOVES anything related to fibre.  Her fingers were magnetically drawn to holding and pulling the sheared sheep fleece from New Zealand.  She was wonderful!!!!
Thanks Lisa :)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Finished and fabulous

I love the blanket. I twisted all of the fringes and fulled it in the washing machine now it is hanging over the ironing board drying. It only shrunk 2" each way and it softened up so much. It is light as a feather but will be really warm. It turned out better than I hoped. Now I can't wait for it to dry. I will bring it to spinning on Tuesday for anyone wanting to see it in person.
Here is a close up of the fabric
Now I wonder what colour blanket to do next

Saturday, February 13, 2010

It's off the loom

I wove all day today and with some help from Deb got the blanket off the loom. It is certainly bright. Tonight I am twisting the fringes and then tomorrow it will get gently fulled in the washer. Want to see some pictures.
I just love it and can't wait to get it finished. Fresh off the loom it is 48" wide and 72" long plus an 8" fringe on each end. It will shrink a bit in the wash. I will post a picture of it once it is fulled.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Kauni Blanket in progress

Yesterday Meika came over to help me weave the Kauni Blanket. She loves weaving but has never helped me on the big loom before. She usually weaves on my 16"  Louet Kombo table Loom
First we wound the bobbins. Then we got started weaving with a filler yarn to fill up the space before the real weaving starts. Meika crawls under the loom and works the foot pedal with her hands. I told her when to change sheds - After about 3 times she announced
" Grandma you don't need to tell me anymore. I get it" and she did get it.
Then she threw the shuttle and beat the weaving. I had to help her a bit with the beating so she didn't make it too tight. Once I showed her she got that too.
She needs to grow quite a bit to operate the loom from the seat but she tried. The last picture is about 15" woven on the blanket. It is quite vibrant as you can see. I would expect no less from Kauni EQ. You may notice the weave is fairly loose but this will change when the blanket is fulled. I love it and hope to finish it today and twist the fringes tomorrow then full it. It is 52" wide on the loom and I am weaving 7 ft so fulled it will likely be about 48" X 6 1/2 ft.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Weaving with Kauni

This Kauni EQ yarn is going to become a woven blanket. Ever since I started getting Kauni yarn I always wanted to weave a blanket with it. I imagined this great rainbow colourful blanket that would be so soft and warm but light. Finally I will get to see this. I wound the warp and it was amazing. Since there are 434 ends in the blanket I had to wind the warp in 2 sections. They looked great chained up and waiting to go on the loom.
I finished getting the warp on the loom late last night so today I want to play hookey from all of my commitments and weave. I can't even imagine how neat this will look. I think it will make little checks when I weave it. I am not sure. I will post once the weaving starts and show how it looks.


My loom is a 60" Gertrude Woolhouse loom.












Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Celebration 2010 scarf




We are having a fun knit a long over at Ravelry in the Fun Knits group. We are knitting the 2010 Celebration scarf. This is a fun and frustrating scarf to knit but will be very worth the effort when done. Brenda has finished her scarf already. She is the first to finish by the way and I guess she is extra motivated as she is attending the Olympics in person - lucky her.



This scarf is knit with one of Fun Knits exclusive colour - Olympic from Lorna's Laces. We are purposely stacking the colours to make vertical stripes of the colours. This may sound easy but it isn't. This all depends on tension and needle size and your individual knitting.



I call this 3D knitting as it defiantely adds a new dimension to your knitting.