Two Free Lion Brand patterns: Simple Lace Shawl L32067 and Spring Ruana L20086/7

Simple Lace Shawl

I've been working on these two patterns since early November. I've finished both shawls. I really enjoyed both patterns.

The client wanted the Simple Shawl to be in purples and the ruana in a rich brown. The overriding concern for both shawls was that they be easy care and SOFT. I decided to use Simply Soft from Caron for the yarn for both projects.

The Simple Lace Shawl pattern (http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L32067.html?noImages=) calls for a Lion brand yarn called "Unique". This is a 5 on the weight category classification--fairly thick, chunky yarn. It is a varigated yarn, i.e.: each skein has several colors. Unfortunately, none of the colorways for this yarn come in purples, although one of the colorways, "garden", has some purple in it. 

There are a couple of what is termed as "lys's" (local yarn shop/store) in my area, but I don't know where they are. What I have heard about them is that their staffs are not friendly, tend to be snooty and rude, and their yarn prices are extremely high.

The reason to go to a yarn shop at all is to "experience" the yarns. You can't get the feel of the yarn from a computer screen. You can't compare one shade with another to see if they will work. I don't mind paying more for quality yarn. If I'm going to buy silk, cashmere, camel, wool, or some other, more exotic yarn, then I know I'm not going to get it for three dollars a skein, ball or whatever. If I want to sample the yarn, then going to a yarn shop is a good idea, because you don't have to wait on shipping. 

I usually buy my yarn from Joann's, because the store has a large selection and it's in a mall about 5 minutes from my house with lots of free parking. Unfortunately, Joann's was out of "garden". I looked for some others that might work, but when I knitted up a sample, it came out looking more like variations on blues than purples. I did have some lavender, purple and a navy blue in my stash in Simply Soft, though and went with that, using two strands held together. Simply Soft is a category 3-ish, so the resulting fabric is a bit heavier than it would have been using a category 5. BUT, it IS soft, and easy care. Most importantly though, it is PURPLE.

The Simple Lace shawl pattern is triangular shawl in an eyelet pattern. You alternate the colors. I made two rows with the purple and blue held together with the eyelets done in the lavender. It is knitted in three panels. I really like the way the panels are joined on this. The center panel is done first, making a kind of chevron. It is knitted from the top down. Then you turn it sideways and pick up stitches from one of the edges. The edge panels decrease continually as you go, so at the end you are left with three stitches you knit together. I took the yarn ends of all three colors I used and knotted them together, making kind of a tassel on each side.

Middle section is knitted first.

This side was picked up first. I had to change purples, which doesn't show up so well in this photo.

I did this side last. The tassel doesn't show up very well on this one.  But at least I remembered to get a photo!

Spring Ruana, full length, on my kitchen table.

Close up of V-Stitch pattern.

Spring Ruana, folded.

There are two versions of the Spring Ruana pattern, a knitted version and a crocheted version. Ths is the link for the crocheted : http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L20086.html?noImages=. I chose to work the crochet pattern because of time constraints. I have been crocheting since I was 9 and I am faster and more accurate with that. For a pattern I'd never worked, I wanted to be comfortable with the stitches.

There are two stitch patterns in this shawl. The border pattern consists of alternating double and single crochet stitches, with a two stitch repeat over two rows. The v-stitch pattern is a four stitch repeat over two rows.

The original pattern instructions call for the ruana to be done in three pieces and then assembled: two scarves in the v-stitch, joined by a shorter middle panel in the border pattern. Sewing makes my fingers go numb, so I made a couple of changes. I worked the pattern as one piece, adding up the stitches for each part. I worked the middle panel in the v-stitch in the same way as the two lace panels. I did not double the border pattern for the middle panel.

I think I did a very good job on these. I am currently working on making a scarf in a matching pattern for each shawl. I am starting with the scarf for the ruana pattern, because it is easier...you just make one of the lace panels. The simple shawl, however won't be that simple, because I don't want to make it with doubled yarn for a scarf. More on those next post.

Ponchos in Lion Brand Homespun: Williamsburg and a Scarf in Progress

Poncho 2 in Lionbrand Homespun: Williamsburg

I got the poncho finished that was commissioned! Yaaaaay! The photo above is the new one. I made it about 5 or 6? inches longer than the first one.

As you can see, first one is shorter.

As I recall, I was crocheting it while wearing it during a fireworks show at Wilson Park, with my terrified 3 year old trying her level best to escape the noise of the festive bombardments by crawling head first into my lap. I had to finish off and disuade the attempt to return to the womb. The previous year, both the two youngest had tried to crawl headfirst into my lap.

"Why choose to sit in that particular spot?" I hear you query.

For some reason, my husband and the boys thought being almost directly underneath where the fireworks were shot off would be cool. Since it's always an entire year between fireworks display, I forget the effect it has. Now the only one it would bother would be me, but with the economy as down as it has been, there have been no displays for a number of years.

Poncho 1

Poncho 2

But I digress. The client wanted a longer poncho. This color of yarn has been discontinued for about 10 years, at least. Fortunately I had 5 or 6 skeins in my stash, so I was able to complete the second poncho. My client wanted 3 scarves in this color, but I've got only enough for half of a scarf.

There are two rows of greeny-blue Homespun Waterfall, so far, at the top of the scarf. The scarf is about 6 ft. long, and I'm planning on about 18 inches wide.

This is closer, but my hands are shakey on close-ups.

I've got about 4 to 6 inches in the Williamsburg and one more untouched skein of the same color. I'm going to make three panels: the two outside ones in Williamsburg and the middle panel in Waterfall, which is the color that is on the two rows at the top of the scarf.

The scarf will be about 18 inches wide, and 6 feet long. It's crocheted lengthwise in half double stitch. For half double, you yarn over like you were going to do a double crochet, but pull the yarn through all the loops at once, as if it were a single crochet stitch. On the short ends (18 inches), I'm going to slip stitch all the way around, and then put a border of two double crochet per stitch on each end of the scarf. I plan to have the colors of the border match the colors of the panels, but we'll see if I have enough yarn.

Vanilla Extract

Back in February, I made up some vanilla extract. I checked the bottles the other day. It smells more of vanilla than the alcohol, so it's going to be ready fairly soon. It's fairly easy to make. All you need is a clean, airtight bottle or jar (preferably glass), vanilla beans, and some sort of distilled liquor, like vodka or bourbon. Tools needed are a liquid measuring cup, labels, and a nice, sharp knife. I bought the beans online; they were on sale! Yay!

I went to the grocery and after much deliberation, I bought a 750 ml bottle of the cheapest vodka they had. I brought it home, slit my vanilla beans (lengthwise) and stuck a few (3 beans to 8 oz. of vodka) in some empty vanilla bottles I had sitting around in my cupboard because I just couldn't bear to throw them away. I filled the bottles with vodka, screwed the caps on really tight and stuck the bottles in the back of the pantry cupboard to steep.

A few days ago, I got another bottle of cheap vodka and made up more vanilla for some gifts. One of the people who got the vanilla mentioned that it would probably make a great cocktail just as it was. I was floored. I had no idea what to say. I'd never thought of using it as a cocktail. I don't even know if the stuff is drinkable.

I mean, I'm sure it's safe, because they sell it in the grocery store. It's not like it's moonshine, or chang'a or anything like that. It didn't have an acetone-y, mimeograph machine fluid, rubbing alcohol smell, either, so that's good (isn't it?). I guess. The label on the first bottle was in Cyrillic and it said "standard" (yes, I can read Russian...well, sound it out, anyway.). The second bottle label is in English and is made in the U.S. (in Vermont).

I buy vodka to use in pie crust and making up extract, so I look for the least expensive stuff in the largest amount possible. Judging by what I'd get if I were to buy chocolate, coffee, tea or cheese in the same way, this is probably NOT the best criteria for buying the best wine, beer, and liquor.

I had to totally psych myself up to do this. Those of you who either know my extended family, grew up like me, or are my extended family understand what I mean. The rest of you are all like "why???". I must have gone to the store on 7 or 8 different trips and chickened out of buying it before I actually did. There are very strong temperance roots on both sides of my family. (I see that blank look on your face. Frustrated sigh! Look it up. There's a Ken Burns documentary on the subject. Granted, it's from the opposite point of view, but that's only to be expected.)

So...I have NO idea if a glass jelly jar of barely steeped vanilla beans in vodka would make a good cocktail or not. Any comments on the merits of what constitutes a "better" vodka and if that makes a difference in the taste of the pie crust (or vanilla extract) would be appreciated. Attacks on my background, since it's not my doing, won't be (who needs that, right?).

To Do List

You're reading this, so obviously, you're out of lives on Candy Crush and your FarmVille crops (versions 1 AND 2) are nowhere near ready to pick and your crafting energy and wells won't replenish for another three hours. You can't think of any more words for Words With Friends, either...not with the letters you were just dealt, anyway (x, k, q, and four t's with all vowels on the board taken). You really don't want to have to get off the internet or go to your site online or do whatever it is you ought to be doing, you're tired of the "You're Procrastinating" song, so you're spending time with me. I appreciate it. No, really. I really appreciate your time spent reading this.

If you're still with me, I have a lot of work to do. This is going to help me think through and figure out how to get it done. I got commissions for 4 pieces last week at church!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy!! I'm happy, can't you tell? This means someone is going to PAY me MONEY to crochet!

She wants three scarves and a blue poncho just like the poncho I made for me at the height of the foofy useless scarf knitting/crocheting craze/revival some 8 or 10 years ago.

This is the blue poncho I crocheted for myself.

The color of the yarn I used for my poncho has been discontinued, but think I have enough to do the poncho, but not the scarves. I've started on the poncho to get that out of the way. It's going quite fast, I think.

Of course I'm not being interrupted by children crawling into my lap like cats do when you are crocheting, knitting, reading the paper, or working on the computer. My kids have gotten too big to do that. It still doesn't deter the youngest if she really wants attention, but it's also been hot for Torrance this week. While muggy weather doesn't seem to deter cats at all--it has the opposite effect, actually--it DOES tend to deter a young teen from mommy glomming.

In case you're wondering, NO, I don't have any cats. At all. My husband is allergic to them. I did have cats and dogs (and ducks, and chickens) when I was a kid. I lived in rural Ohio then. There was more space there.

So. Planning.

"I'm procrastinating/all day I sit there waiting/for the perfect moment to begin..."

Oh all right!

So. Set timer for an hour. Keep it in reach so I can turn it off when it beeps, get up and stretch my hands, go do something else, and then come back. If I do two or three hours, then I will see how many rows I can get done in that time...I might even finish it! Yay!

After that, I will need to alternately heat and ice my shoulder for 20 minutes, each. Then I will probably need to cook food for somebody, or go get groceries, and then cook food, or go take somebody someplace, or do SOMETHING, the nefarious purpose of which is to interfere with my crafting.

Fortunately, my middle child has a dentist's appointment tomorrow morning, so I will get some work done there!

Coogee Bay Dress Interweave Summer 2012 Update

Collar close-up

Soooo this is what I've done so far. Above is a close up of the collar. I got bored with continually adding motifs. I had one row on the other side. The problem was the sleeves are formed by doing the collar. I decided to crochet it to get a feel for how it will look when I'm done. The magazine instructions call for a spiraled crochet collar. I don't like to work round in spirals. I don't like the rows running into each other. I like a definite beginning and end to each row. So I crocheted the collar in rows in the round, and chained up at the end of each row. However, if you look at the center of the collar, this does make a visible join.

This is blurry. Sorry! This was originally designated as the "front" but since the collar has the chain up bit, I have decided that this will be the back. I still need to add more motifs to the bottom.

So this is the "new" front.

I've been adding motifs to the "new" front. I definitely will need to make a panel for the side and underarm. I'm having trouble holding the camera still when I take these photos. Sorry for the blur.

Spears 4 Warping the loom--Photos

This is the box the loom came in. My husband wanted to know what was meant by "reasonable length".

The loom is now all warped and ready for "Hands on History" day at the elementary school. Here are some photos of the process. Assembling the loom is not difficult. It's the actual warping where I have problems, mainly because it's tedious.

I forgot to take a photo before I started. This is with one section  of 16 threads put on. 

The reed/heddle has 168 dents--which is 10 dents per inch...it's about 17 inches long. As I said in the previous post about this loom, the warp is one from a project I had to cut off without finishing. The yarn itself is Paton's Classic Wool, in various colors.

The metal hook thing is a mini crochet hook which came in the box.  I use it to  sley the reed.  To Sley means to bring the yarn or thread through the reed and/or heddle. The thing with the wire loops is the heddle for this loom. The problem I'm currently having with trying to weave, here, is that the yarn that goes through the spaces gets stuck on the loops.

Here, I've poked the hook through the loop and grabbed the yarn with it.

Now, I'm pulling the yarn back through the loop.

The spaces on the reed are wide enough that I can just poke the yarn through.

This is from the back, tying the warp to the back beam. I used  the "butcher's knot" to tie on this end.

Here it is, all ready to go for the 4th-5th graders! 

On the cloth beam end, I secured the warp with an overhand knot and then put some blue painter's tape over the teeth, so the threads wouldn't come out when I advance the warp. On the other end, I used an old grocery circular (I think it was Vons) to cushion the threads so the layers don't stick together. This is something they don't tell you about in the instructions. When you weave, you need to put cardboard, smooth sticks, or an old sheet in between the layers of the threads and the cloth. In my case, it's last week's handy dandy grocery circular. Newspapers wouldn't work if you were working with a white warp because the ink would rub off on the threads.

I'm having a huge problem with this. The threads in the spaces want to hang up on the loops in the wire heddle. I'm not sure how to combat this. Battens? Or maybe misting the warp? I am NOT taking the warp off and sizing it with the solution of Elmer's glue!

I've ordered a new plastic heddle and it should get here by the end of this week or the beginning of next. They don't make this loom any more, so I ordered a 10 dent 16 inch Ashford heddle.

Duh! I just went back over and I tightened the warp. It doesn't stick, now. (Oh, darn, I've got another heddle coming...I'll just have to do a double heddle next time!)

Floor looms have a ratchet/gear thingy with a handle. This one, obviously, doesn't. To tighten the warp, I unscrewed the wing nuts on the back beam on both sides, and rolled the beam until the threads were extremely taut. You need to be able to feel/hear a "twang" on the thread, like it was a bent bow or guitar. 

Please note: you will not be able to launch arrows, play "Stairway to Heaven" or "Smoke on the Water" on your warp! That's NOT the purpose of the loom!

If you have a warp that is longer than the length of your loom, you will need to periodically roll the cloth up on the front one. To do this, you have to unscrew the wing nuts so you can roll both beams. You can't roll just the one, because if you do, you'll snap the threads. You'll also need to tighten the back beam from time to time, because the thread will stretch.

Even with the tightened warp, I have to slide the heddle up and down the length of the warp a couple of times to unstick the threads. Oh well, it will have to do for now. I think the 4th graders will enjoy it...or at the very least it will be an "educational" experience.

Warping the Spear's Size 4 Weaving Loom: First impressions and Planning.

I've been scouring the web, trying different word combinations, trying to find either a video tutorial or just a plain print one for this loom with not a lot of luck. A lot of people post photos of projects completed on this loom, and I've come across blogs that discuss getting one of the Spear's looms in a variety of sizes, but not one that discusses in detail how to go about warping the Size 4 with the rigid heddle.

First of all, I've misplaced my instruction manual. I read it when I first got the loom, of course, but I didn't find it very helpful. Someone posted pictures of the size 4 instruction booklet on Flicker, and I read the instructions again and found my original opinion to be correct. It was difficult to understand. I know why I'm having difficulties, but that doesn't help. The instructions fail to detail how to tie on the warp...at least, I'm having difficulty figuring them out.

I am in the process of warping the loom. I'm using warp from a project that I had abandoned and cut off a different loom. I didn't measure it...I think the strands are around 5 feet long. I don't really care how long it is. The purpose of this project is so to give the fourth graders at a local elementary the experience of weaving during a "pioneer living" day.

The loom itself was originally sold as a toy. The box says that it has a 16 inch weaving width. The front and back beams have "teeth". That is, there are grooves or slits cut into both beams. The beams are identical. They are also not smooth, which is a problem if you have a hairy yarn that snags.

A heddle is a warp lifting device. It lifts a group of threads at one time so you can weave more efficiently. Most simple rigid heddles will have a slot and hole construction. Think of a picket fence as the heddle. There are spaces in between each picket post. Those are the slots. Imagine each picket board with a knot hole in the center and you have the idea.

The wire heddle has twice as many spaces as the beams. This means that you have to put two threads in each of the "teeth" on the beams. One of the two goes through the wire loop and the other goes in the space in between. There will be 168 warp threads then, if you use the original heddle and if you use the teeth on the beams. Since I'm using Paton's Classic Wool, the beam teeth are full. If you had a thinner yarn or thread, it wouldn't be so bad.

So those are my impressions, so far. I will take photos to show what I'm doing and keep you posted.

If you want to ask questions, leave me an e-mail so I can get back with you. Thank you, Jackie and Angela for posting comments on previous blog entries!