Acquisitions/Stash Management
I bought a skein of Regia Pairfect yarn designed by Arne and Carlos to make my husband a pair of socks for Christmas. My plan is to cast them on later today and them be finished for him to wear Christmas Day.
Felting
I felted 3 x 20cm Highland seascape lampshades this week. Two with a beach and one without but it has angelina sparkles in the sea. These are now in the Alchemist Gallery in Dingwall for sale.
I also felted a sea/landscape bauble. This one isn’t in the shop yet.
Fibre Prep
This took really no effort at all, it’s some wool fibre that is too scratchy for a project and I thinned out a very fine layer of sari silk waste fibre and wrapped that around the scratchy fibre and popped them in these plastic baubles from Hobbycraft.
Knitting
Other/household
I have made a start on Dolores’ cable knit jumper. It is made in separate sections so this will eventually be my first separate piece constructed garment, albeit a cuddly toy sized version. If any of you have knit an adult sized jumper with cables in 4 ply/fingering weight then you deserve a medal.
Spinning
I finished spinning my 2nd batch of US Rambouillet top. It has been soaked and still drying.
Weaving
Inkle loom
You would think having a new Inkle loom that I would practice some straight forward pattern bands, right? Well where’s the adventure in doing that? Instead I dived straight in with attempting to weave Monk’s Belt sample patterns.
Techie bit: Monk’s Belt is a method of using two different thicknesses of yarn to give you a raised pattern and a background fabric. I have used 2/16 mercerised Egyptian cotton in lilac and 3×2/16 mercerised Egyptian cotton in Gentian (purple). These are the actual yarn weights as sold, not me doing 3 threads of 2/16, although I assume that is also an option, but definitely easier to buy it wound already.
I warped the Inkle loom which took ages as you have to cut and tie your last and next colour almost every rotation. When I was done I looked at my loom and it made no sense to me at all! I then checked the picture again and realised I had looped some of my yarn incorrectly. My Ashford Inklette loom has the heddles the opposite way around which is why I’d got confused…I think.
So, I unwound all the thread and hoped that when I re-threaded it that the knots for the colour changes would all still line up or be easy to fix with additional knots. Thank goodness it did actually all work out.
Once I’d re-warped I looked at the chart and thought 💭 what the heck do I do now ⁉️ So I went off and made dinner and then was felting things for a few days.
Eventually I looked on YouTube. Well I may have found the one single subject on earth that has no YouTube videos about it!!! There’s some for doing it on a rigid heddle or table loom but none on an Inkle loom.
I had a look on the Inkle weaving for beginners Facebook group and searched “Monk’s” and what came back was a lot of weavers who had tried and failed to grasp weaving this pattern style. Weavers who were using the same pattern book as me! This was not a good sign.
On Saturday I asked some advice on our Weaving interest group call. I seem to have crossed a pale yarn when manipulating the threads and struggled to pick the right purple ones because they were hard to see. So it looks….well rubbish so far 😂 These threads are extremely thin.
But its early days and I have ordered a table that will allow me to do it watching TV in the lounge. When that arrives I’ll have better lighting and angle so fingers crossed I’ll have a neater bit to show next week!
Other News
I’ve got a couple of medical things going on at the moment and my GP said this week just ask them to combine ultrasound appointments when I get the invites to book my appointments. A two for one deal would usually excite me 🤣
I have booked a trip for us to go back to the Outer Hebrides in March next year, this time staying on South Uist which will make it handy for us to take the ferry on a day trip to the Isle of Barra, which my husband hasn’t been to yet. We are also on the lookout for a place on Islay (an Inner Hebrides isle) too.
I hope all my US friends had a great time with friends and family last week for Thanksgiving.
This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 12th year, but this is my 5th year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry.
HighlandHeffalump 
Always frightens me when someone has “medical issues”. Wishing you good, at least actionable, results and good health. Great to hear you taking all the weaving challenges in stride. I suspect my loom would be a broken pile of wood. Your fiber filled balls are beautiful. I can’t wait to hang my little fiber balls on my tree in Florida later this week. So nice to have a trip planned for the spring. Always helped hubby and I get through the glum of January (our wedding anniversary is in Feb so we always took anniversary vacations until the kids reached school age). Great idea to do a pieced sweater on a doll/child size. I will definitely do that before I try an adult pieced sweater. So far it’s raglan for me!!
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I did a lot of inkle loom weaving in the day – I’d made mine, with assistance from my father, so it was longer than average, and probably wider as well. Being long meant I didn’t cut and tie changes in yarn, just kept tension on and did the next stripe. A couple of narrow strips of cardboard woven in to start evened everything out. The weaving I’ve done that most relied on uneven weights of warp and weft was log cabin place mats, but I did those on my floor loom. Good luck – I’m sure you can figure it out!
I love the concept of using those unusable bits of fiber in the clear balls. I have some (both balls, and surplus fiber!) and should consider something like that.
How many spi do you get with fingering weight? The sweater I finished for my cousin last spring was 6 stitches/inch, but with all the cables and lace, it was a fun knit, and went relatively quickly. I posted it here: https://kayak2016blog.wordpress.com/2022/02/14/blue-sweater-completed/
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Oh I’ll have to have a look….7 stitches per inch in the moss stitch section (unblocked). Well I believe you deserve a gold star and some other type of award for your jumper!
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I definitely can see the sparkles – all your felted pieces are, as usual, gorgeous. You’ve had loads of crafting progress this week too! I think those socks will be perfect for the holidays. That sounds like a lovely holiday – and one on my bucket list for someday too. 🙂
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The Western Isle aka The Outer Hebrides are well worth a visit. With my ex-husband we did 9 islands in a few days so it can be done, but I’ve enjoyed the week on Lewis/Harris we did this March and we stayed on North Uist about 4 years ago I think. It is a different pace of life, the beaches are like the Caribbean…I mean literally…the Gulf Stream brings all that lovely white sand made by the munching parrot fish in the Caribbean and deposits it on the western side of the islands, so its turquoise waters. It does not have their temperatures though…but it has less people and I’d always prefer less people than hotter weather 🙂
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We are not really “beach” people, if beach means laying out in the sun and baking, but I absolutely love a deserted, windswept beach, so this sounds like the perfect area for us. Definitely will plan for a trip at some point to enjoy the “less people”. 🙂
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I see sparkles on your lampshades. Your fiber filled ornaments are so pretty. Surely they will sell well in the shop. You have great patience. I am not sure I would be patient with weaving. SO many ‘parts’ need to be perfect. I have enough trouble with knitting needles. The first sweater I ever made had a cable going horizontally across the chest. It was pieced together too. In fact, it was my first knitting project ever. I made one for me and a matching one for my husband. I loved that sweater and never knew it was supposed to be an advanced knit. I love doing cables and never find them bothersome, just time consuming. Hopefully your ‘medical issues’ will not be anything too bothersome. Your holiday for next year sounds lovely.
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Your post was pure eye candy! I love the baubles with the yarn and sari silk in them. Your felting is always so awesome. I like the weaving from your Inkle loom but I know nothing but it looks great to me.
I hope your medical issues are not serious and that they resolve themselves.
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Wow! So many projects done and they are all so beautiful. Love your lampshades, baubles, spinning and Dolores’ jumper! Looks like you have set yourself a real challenge with the inkle loom weaving – looking forward to seeing what you create with it!
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Your baubles are gorgeous. I need to make some of those!
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[…] 🆕️ US Rambouillet 1️⃣✅ started week 13, finished week 15. 2️⃣✅ started week 20, finished week 22. […]
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[…] 🆕️ ✅ US Rambouillet 1️⃣✅ started week 13, finished week 15. 2️⃣✅ started week 20, finished week 22. […]
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