Finished Scarf

The gray scarf is done! Here are some hastily taken photos in the waning light of my hotel room.

Knitting Olympics and a new Scarf Project

I was taking a small break after the napkin marathon to participate in the knitting Olympics. I spent the 17 days of the Olympic games working on a sweater. It was a simple top down raglan style with a lace pattern, based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's baby jacket from her Knitter's Almanac.

And here it is:


I might go back and make the sleeves longer at some point. I haven't decided.

Toward the end of the Olympics, I was contacted by a friend of my sister. She was wanting some hats and scarves made. One of her requests was for a scarf in either charcoal gray, or shades of black, navy and gray. I had quite a bit of Zephyr in black and white. I also had some tencel in Navy and gray. Then I realized I could use some un-knitted cashmere in charcoal gray as a weft to pull a multicolor warp together. I thank Bonnie for the idea of the cashmere. While I was off in Minneapolis last week, I did the unknitting. This weekend I pulled together all the various yarns.



The balls in front are the gloriously soft cashmere. I ended up with over 4 oz from one sweater!

I then wound my warp on Friday night while watching Manor House on DVD. It was supposed to be "girls night" out, but I had a terrible cold and didn't want to pass it along to everyone. I'm feeling much better now, thankfully.

Saturday I was quite busy helping Robin with wedding preparations,but I did manage to get the reed sleyed:



And this morning I threaded the heddles and wound the warp on. Despite the various fibers it wound on quite nicely as I listened to Frankenstein on Craftlit. I'm working my way through all the old episodes now, and gosh, they're a lot of fun.

Then I wound my first lovely cashmere bobbin and got to weaving! Here's the first six inches:



And here's a closeup shot:



The straight twill structure lets some of the weft color shine through, but the overall effect is definitely of gray. You can't imagine how soft this is too! I'm accustomed to weaving things that feel a bit rough until they're wet finished, but this cashmere is extremely soft already.

I have enough warp on here for two scarves--one for my sister's friend and one for ? I think everyone I know will want it as soon as they touch it.

Towels upon Towels

The Teal/Turquoise towels are off to their new owner. Well, 4 of them are. I'm left with two that I've listed on Etsy:



And after a terrible struggle with a very weak warp yarn, I finished weaving a bunch of crackle towels. I ended up using nearly a can of hairspray to try to keep the warp threads from breaking. I also used a paper clip temple to help minimize draw in. It all worked quite well and after a disastrous first towel, I ended up with just a few broken ends here and there.

I've just washed them and they're waiting for pressing and ironing right now, but here's a preview:



I've been complaining about the lack of sun, and you'll note that picture was taken with a flash. Of course today, we get sun but I've had too much work to be able to take a break for pressing and hemming, so no pictures yet. Boo!

That does remind me, though, that I should go use the sun to take a picture of the socks I just finished knitting :)