Jane Stafford's Online Guild

At the weaving retreat in Salt Spring Island last year, Jane and the house group spoke about weaving guilds.  We all shared our frustration with the way many guilds are run and that they are not usually geared to beginners.  Jane hinted that she was going to do something about that.

I just joined her online guild for a flat annual rate.  Jane provides 10 video lessons per year with techniques to become a more proficient weaver.  The first episode just went live and it is all about winding warps.  Great tips that I will be using to wind my next warp.

You can sign up on her website and she even has an online forum for discussions and questions.

I did find that I was getting dizzy watching the warping reels turning.

A Mystery Project

I pulled out some knitting bags with WIPs to decide what to take on my next trip to start working on my new year goals.  I came across this project that has no pattern.

I posted a query on Ravelry for some assistance and someone was able to find out it was a mystery.  The Ravelry collective is awesome.  I also did some sleuthing through my blog and found this entry from August 17, 2012.

Mystery solved since it was a mystery knit along for the Trapeze Shawl by Laura Nelkin.

It looks like I got through posting about clue 5 with one clue left.  I got through the i-cord bind off at the top of the shawl.  I made a notation that all that is left is the sides and the bottom.

Goals for 2017

With a few extra days off at the beginning of the year, I had some time to think about my goals for the year.  Due to the climate, I suspect it will be a chaotic year with lots of changes.

I decided that I would take the Frugal Woods challenge to start.  I might not be able to accomplish the level of frugality that is recommended but it is a good way to re-evalute spending and goals - long and short term.

I also decided that my loom will not be naked this year for long.  I signed up for the JST online guild which should help me strengthen the basics which I glossed over in my drive to make things.  It should start this week and I can learn and plan projects throughout the year until my retreat in October.  I hope I can show off some new skills by then.

Since I have an abundance of fiber from so many great places, I'm going to set aside a specific amount of time per month to spin.  My tendency is to spin with a project in mind, but I might just need to start spinning for spinnings sake and decide what to do with the finished yarn after that.  There will be no fiber or knitting yarn buying this year for sure.  I might be tempted by some weaving yarn if needed but that decision will be taken into account with the frugal challenge.

I also want to work on some of my knitting projects that have been languishing.  I have bags of unfinished projects and will just have to pull one out at a time to finish.  I have been reading a few blogs which recommended setting up monthly bags for projects to be knit and I'll just pull a bag out at random of a WIP and work until it is finished.  Hopefully, some of these bags will be empty come the end of the year.

The epic knit project that I will start at this year and will probably go for the next 4 years (in defense of the new administration) will be to start the Evenstar shawl.  I had started this when the first clue came out and after many mistakes that I never went back to finish and the Oh Shiny syndrome that also diverted my attention.  This will be my way of silent protest.

I hope that everyone has a great 2017 - I'm hoping that it will be better than 2016.

New Round of Scarves

My loom goal for 2017 is that it can never be naked for any length of time.  So after Grace's towels came off, I was ready for a new warp.  Since I still have all those silk skeins and more of the cotton for warp, I went to wind a few more.

I went back and looked at my modifications and I still can't quite grasp the size of the width and centering it on the loom.  I'm off center yet again with the orange warp and I had 3 strands per dent on the raddle which is still not quite right.

I can also use some more practice tying on to the front beam as the tension is slightly wonky.  I can see I had a threading error already on the right size, but I'm leaving it as a design element.  Orange warp with green weft to start and then orange weft for the next.

Each scarf will be 2 yards (62") long with 6" of fringe on each side.  2 threads per dent in a 8-dent reed.  216 epi so I'm hoping that they will turn out the same texture as the last.

Grace's Towels Finished

I was able to get 7 and about a quarter towels off of the 4 yard warp.  I had very little yarn waste at the end but it was super difficult to weave on the last bit as I could not get a good shed so I was unable to finish the 26 inches plus another inch of plain weave.

After zigzagging the ends and in between the towels, they all went into the wash and dry.

I pressed and then cut and sewed up the hems for the extra piece which amounts to a square and the 6 towels for Grace.

For the last towel, I decided to try to use my serger with a 5/8" downturn feller to see how that would look.  

I decided even though the edge is a bit rough, I liked that there was not any extra fabric for the fold over hem.  If I do this again, I need at least 1.5" hem on each end so the fold over is still in the plain weave.

Annual Dinner

The family has a big meat dinner every year and this year was no exception.  We added Eileen and Grace to the mix this year.

Great dinner as usual.

Bubby made a new friend.

Dragon Quilt Progress

I was also able to finish the center panel of the dragon quilt.

Next step is to join the three pieces and then add in the border.  It is so close to being finished.

Grace's Towels

Made a bit of progress on Grace's towels.  After dressing up the loom, I had little loom waste.

I had to make a little adjustment but the weaving has commenced.