The Dragon's Lair

...Though it may seem otherwise to my blog readers and friends awaiting e-mails. I have rather neglected my little corner of cyberspace here.

I could give the list of excuses - had the in-laws visiting. Got a nasty little cold, which is being shared among the entire family, including aforementioned in-laws (No, not on purpose. I like my in-laws. Honest!) - and I'm sure I could come up with various and sundry other reasons. Really though, I just haven't felt like being at the computer as much lately.

My weaving has not been as neglected as my computer though! Since last posting, I have:

• Completed* the 6 jewel tone towels.
• Woven fabric for a bag.
• Made warps for two more bags.
• Made almost half the warp for the next set of towels.

*I should say "almost completed", as I don't think the sewing pin fastened hem on the pink towel would be viewed as a viable finishing technique. The thrill of avoiding impalement every time you dry your hands just doesn't seem to appeal to most people for some odd reason. I finally got ahold of some bright pink sewing thread Saturday though, so this will soon be remedied.

I have also learned a few things:

• 4/2 cotton has a lot more take-up than 8/2 cotton. A LOT more (hopefully the next warps for the bags will end up being the correct length).
• While weaving on a little toy-like loom will reduce the footprint left, it won't reduce the under-the-loom fuzz-per-square-inch ratio. This fuzzy loom footprint will be left stuck to your bedspread in a funny little square that absolutely does NOT want to brush off if you choose to use this toy-like loom while sitting on your bed and don't think to put anything under it.
• To maintain the neat random stripeyness (very technical terms being used here) of a variegated warp, instead of muddying it up, simply cross it with a solid colored weft. Completely obvious, I know, but I haven't played with variegated yarns that much yet and it was sort of a lightbulb moment, or perhaps more of a "duh" moment for me

I shall leave you now with a few photos. Three of the four remaining towels that I have yet to show off Apparently I don't have pictures of #6 on my computer yet, so that will come later!

Here are the ones I do have though:

Towel #3
M's & W's treadling. Photographed at the very beginning of the towel, and in two halves, so that you can see the comparison to the original patterns

Towel #4
PINK! Trying pink as weft, with some black accents on either end

Towel #5
Back to diamonds again, but little teeny ones this time!

You remember this drool-worthy warp?

And all my rapturous praise of it?

Well, my formerly-rapturous-feelings are somewhat less, well... rapturous. In fact, they're rather the opposite. There have been moments of grumbling threats involving large pairs of scissors to said warp, though it doesn't seem particularly intimidated by my scary threats and continues to misbehave.

It had that lovely, silky smooth sheen that the rayon gave it - but I failed to bear in mind that 50% was still wool. That particular fact is rearing it's head now. See here -

It's not just the fact that it's wool... It's the fact that it's wool singles, and in addition to that it was spun in that thick-and-thin manner. Doesn't look too silky smooth anymore, does it? That (and worse) is now how my warp looks in front of the reed, as soon as the beater has made a few passes. Fuzziness of that sort is not exactly conducive to clean sheds. And forbid the very idea of ever making a mistake and trying to unweave a shot or two. Good thing I'm not weaving anything more complicated than a straight twill!

Another frustration these obstacles create is making the weaving crawl along at a pace that makes a race between snails look fast and exciting in comparison *sigh*

I should have known this yarn was too good to be true. And to be honest, I think I had this whispering, niggling little feeling lurking in the background trying to tell me so. I believe this particular feeling is the one named "Experience" and, unfortunately, is not yet grown enough to make it's voice heard over Enthusiasm, Creativity and a few such other of the louder occupants in there. You would think that Common Sense would have shown up to help out Experience make some pleas in this case, but for some reason she was absent at the time.

I now know not to ever ever use this yarn as warp again. Amazingly though, I've only had one broken warp string so far. I expect some more before I get to the end though.

Despite all the frustrations, I haven't yet made good on my scissor wielding threats and am still gradually weaving on it each week after my guild meeting. I'm nearing the 30" mark now, so it's come a little ways.

I just fervently hope that the perseverance pays off and I have a nice shawl in the end, not a shawl with a warp so shredded that it's been pre-pilled before it even left the loom. Nothing for it but to wait and see, I guess.

I decided against playing with the leno, and "K" agreed that was probably a wise choice with this yarn. The accent chosen instead was to make some stripes on one end by reversing the 3/1 twill. Here's a look at how that came out (this also gives a hint at what the opposite side of the shawl looks like) -

When taking this picture, the stripes were already over the breastbeam and making their way down in preparation to wind on to the cloth beam before I finally remembered to take the camera with me one week. I imagine I got some raised eyebrows or funny looks from the last few guild members that happened to still be hanging around when I took the photos, since I had to lay on the floor to do so.
Oh well... I never have denied being a bit odd.

I shall update on how the shawl turns out eventually, but don't hold your breath - I don't want to be responsible for any blue faces out there. I hear there's a nice little snail race track not too far off, and on the weekends they even spice things up by bringing in some of those lighting fast turtles for a spin around the track! Maybe you could pass the time there while you wait ;-)