A day of Spinning

It was just so pretty outside, that I just couldn't resist it any longer. I had to take my spinning

wheel outside and spin. So outside I went with my bucket of Australian Bond Somemore Batts, my chair, bobbins, and spinning wheel.

I spun up 2 1/2 batts in a little over 3 hours, of course my 2 bobbins were half full when I started spinning today. Tomorrow I'll be ready to start plying skein #7 of 2 ply yarn.

I had to laugh when I saw this picture, that my hubby took of me spinning. I was really concentrating on my spinning when he took this picture, that I didn't hear him take the picture. The other thing that caused me to laugh was my lily white legs and ever graying hair. I guess I've been inside far too long and that explains the white legs, as for the graying hair;......well, I have no excuse for that. LOL

Somemore's Handwoven Australian Bond Shawl

I took two pictures of this shawl in two different ways, to show it off as best I could. This shawl is Beige/Brown in color and was wove on my Schacht 36" Baby Wolf Loom. This shawl measures 91"L x 16"W plus fringe. I choose the pattern "A German Bird's Eye" to weave this shawl. This is a Sheep to Shawl. The fleece that I used to make this shawl with came from "Gleason's Fine Woolies" and their sheep "Somemore".

Handwoven Shawl Day 10

Well, I finished my Handwoven Somemore Australian Bond Shawl today. I washed it and hung it outside to dry. I think I made it a little too long and probably could have made it a little wider. Oh well, I didn't really have a pattern to go by, other then the pattern that I wove into the shawl.

I wove on this shawl today for 3 hours and 18 minutes before I finished weaving and started taking it off the loom. Whenever, I weave another shawl, I will know how wide to make it and how long too. I still have some yarn left over from the 5th skein. I need to rewind that yarn and then figure out, just how much yarn I did use in this shawl. I will have to post that tomorrow though when I will take another picture of the shawl. The different shades of the fleece really give this shawl a nice shadow pattern IMO.

Handwoven Shawl Day 9

This skein is actually my sixth skein of 2 ply lace weight yarn. This skein has 358 yards, and is 2 1/2 oz or 72 grams and has 17 wpi. I had washed this skein a while back, but got involved in weaving on this shawl that I forgot about it. Then after I started weaving and was getting close to finishing up the 4 skeins I started with for this shawl, I knew I needed to get busy and figure out the yardage, ounces, grams and wpi, for this skein. So today I did just that, then made up a label for it (mainly for my purpose), so I wouldn't forget this information and would have it for later, when I needed to total my yardage for this shawl.

Once I did all this, I began weaving and got into my weaving zone (LOL). I did have to back track a couple of times, but this was because I was switching shuttles and had to make sure that I had the pattern going right. After 2 hours and 37 minutes of weaving, I had my 4th skein completely finished and skein you see above wound on the shuttle and 4 rows wove with the new skein. The apron rod is now showing on the back roller, which means that it won't be long now before it starts to move over the back beam.

Handwoven Shawl Day 8

Yeah, I fixed loose weft thread, and got busy weaving and playing catch up. I wove for 3 hours and 16 minutes today and I'm now half way through skein #4.

The shawl is really moving along quite well and my front roller has quite bit of the shawl wrapped around it.
The remaining warp that is still on the back beam is slowly being moved off the roller as I weave. I don't know yet if I'll have to wind up yet another skein for this shawl. I do have the skein for it if needed, I just haven't figured out the yardage and grams yet.

Handwoven Shawl Day 7

Today was an Oooopsy day. I started my day with cleaning my house, doing laundry (in other words being a good girl). LOL Then I dyed some polwarth roving and had to hang it to dry in guest bathroom shower. Once I did that I went to my spinning/weaving room to weave and everything was going okay;.............until I saw a loose weft thread 72 rows back (this was back almost to where I had started weaving today). So I began the process of taking each of these rows out 1 row at a time. I had to stop because it was starting to drive me nuts. So tomorrow I'll go back to it with a better frame of mind and finish taking out the remaining rows, and then begin the process of reweaving those rows and move forward.

Handwoven Shawl Day 6

Yes, I know its Sunday and I really shouldn't be weaving today, but I just had to come upstairs do a little weaving. I started out winding up skein #4 into a center pull ball and then weaving with the remaining yarn from skein #3. Once I had skein #3 all used up, I began winding yarn onto my shuttle from skein #4 and started weaving again. All in all I spent 1 hour 16 minutes weaving today.

Handwoven Shawl Day 5

It was another hot one today and I had all the windows open in my spinning/weaving room and my ceiling fan going as well. That helped to keep me cool during the 2 hours and 3 minutes, I spent weaving on my shawl today and even then I didn't quite finish using up skein #3. You can see in the picture I still have a little bit on my shuttle. I have skein #4 laying out to be wound into a skein tomorrow. I have the treadle pattern pretty much memorized now, but still forget sometimes as to which row I just finished. So I have the treadle pattern written down on a piece of paper and taped to my loom. I always try to end the treadle pattern at the end of a pattern repeat. This helps so that when I come back to my weaving after taking a break or the next day, I know where to start weaving.

Handwoven Shawl Day 4

Today after I finished dying some roving, I headed upstairs to my spinning/weaving room and started weaving on my shawl. I only spent 1 hour and 37 minutes weaving, as it was just too darn hot to weave today (92 F outside). I have almost gone through my third skein of yarn on this shawl. This first skein was used as the first half of the warp (121 threads), and the second skein started out as the remaining warp threads ( 71 threads), and the rest of the second skein went into the weft, which I finished using yesterday. Yesterday, I started using the third skein in the weft. I will probably finish up the third skein tomorrow and start using a fourth skein.

This picture here shows the shawl now has wound around the front roller. I think its has only wound around the roller once. I still have quite a bit of warp on the back roller, so I'll be weaving for a while. I love weaving on this shawl and look forward to going upstairs to weave, even in the heat. LOL

Handwoven Shawl Day 3

I went up to my spinning/weaving room this morning and started in weaving on my shawl. I spent 4 hours and 52 minutes weaving today. There were times though that I forgot where I was at on the pattern and I'd have to take a few rows out and then redo it. I think I did this about 4 or 5 times. It was really hot here today (91F), so I had problem's with the threads sticking together, when I'd raise different shafts. I'd have to separate the threads before I could throw my shuttle. This picture doesn't really show the pattern on the shawl, so I took another picture from a different angle.

This picture shows the underneath of the shawl, as it comes around the front beam to wind around the front roller. You can see some of the pattern on the top, but really see the pattern (which is the reverse of the pattern), from the underneath.

Handwoven Shawl Day 2

Today started off with warping up 4 more threads, to give me a total of 192 warp threads for weaving this shawl. Then I once I had all 192 warp threads threaded threw my reed, it was on to threading my heddles using a 12 stitch "A German Bird's Eye" weaving pattern and then tying off both the back and the front of the loom. This shawl measures 19 inches wide on the loom. The picture to the right shows everything tied off and ready for the weaving to begin.

Once I had the warp tied off, I picked up my shuttle and started winding on enough yarn to start the weaving process. I then tied up my treadles in a 1 & 4, 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 3 & 4 pattern. The treadling is what helps to make the pattern. I'm not exactly sure just how much I wove today, as I didn't measure it. This was 7 hours and 15 minutes of warping, and weaving today.

Threading my loom for a handwoven shawl/stole

For my next project with some of my Handspun Australian Bond Somemore Fleece, I thought I'd weave a shawl/stole. I want this shawl/stole to be 18 1/2 inches wide on the loom, so I've measured off the area on my loom, to show where to start the threading and where to end the threading. I've already threaded 121 threads through the reed, and I need 67 more threads, to finish off the width. This will give me 188 threads on this shawl/stole.

Once I have this done, I will start threading the heddles for the design I want to weave. Then all I will have to do after that is tie off the back and front of the loom and set up the treadles. Then I can start the weaving process. I will take pictures when I have the loom warped.

Somemore's Waving Ribbon Socks Drying on the line

After washing them in Eucalan Lavender Wool Wash yeseterday, I hung them up in my shower to drip most of the water out. Later I decided that I'd hang them outside on the rope I dry my rovings on. It was 86F yesterday and so they dried fairly fast. I kept coming outside to check and see how they were drying. Around 4:30 pm I took them off the line and tried them on my feet and yes they now fit prefectly. These socks felt wonderful on my feet and I just know that my feet will be toasty warm this winter.

Somemore's Waving Ribbon Socks finished

I finished the socks this morning, then washed them by hand and having the hanging out to dry. I will post pictures of them later when they are nice and dry. I did try them on before washing and found them to be a little loose on my feet. This will probably go away after washing and drying them. Since this is the first time, I've ever spun a 3 ply yarn from fleece and knitted socks from I found it to be quite enjoyable. I know my feet will be warm and happy this winter.

Now I just need to finish spinning up the remaining batts into 2 ply lace weight yarn. I've begun warping some of my handspun 2 ply lace weight yarn onto my warping board. I have 1 warp finished which has 121 threads in it and I've started winding for a second warp. I haven't quite decided on a weaving pattern. Although, I have thought about an 8 stitch Rosepath pattern, stilling deciding though.

Mate to first sock started

I finished my first sock this morning and rewound the remaining skein to see how much yarn I had used in the first sock. I originally started out with 269.5 yards, 3 1/8 ounces, 86 grams. I had left over 119.5 yards, 1 1/4 ounces, 36 grams. So I used 150 yards, 1 7/8 ounces, 50 grams in the first sock.

The picture of the skein you see here is my second skein of 3 ply yarn. This skein has 231 yards, 2 5/8 ounces, 74 grams. I will use this to knit of the mate. If I calculate things right, I should have 81 yards, 1 3/8 ounces, 24 grams left over from this skein when I'm finished.

Here's the finished first sock, along with the beginning of the mate. Now to get moving on finishing the mate up.

Somemore's Waving Ribbing Socks

This is day 7 of knitting on "Somemore's Waving Ribbing Socks" I have 5 more rows to knit on the foot and then I'll start taking off for the toes. This is only the first sock of course and I still have the mate to knit up. I'm about half way through my skein of Handspun Somemore's Beige/Brown Australian Bond 3 ply sock yarn. This skein had 269.5 yards, 3 1/3 oz or 86 grams originally and by the looks of my skein and sock, I think I've used about half of the skein already. No way of really telling until I finish this sock and rewind the skein to see how many yards/oz/grams are left. It will give me an idea of how much yarn I'll need to knit the mate.

Normally I'd have 1 sock finished and the mate about half way finished. But I've been knitting on other things as well as spinning up more yarn.

A new project begins

This project began with me spinning and filling up 3 bobbins and then plying all 3 together. I have spun a navajo plied yarn, but I had never tried filling up 3 bobbins of singles and then plying them together. I had heard that spinning a 3 ply yarn makes the yarn more rounder and durable for knitting socks, so I thought I'd give it a try. Guess what;............I like it!

On Thursday June 30th I finished plying my first skein of 3 ply yarn and washed it. Then I went back to plying up the remainder of the yarn on the bobbins for a second skein. Friday July 1st I wound up my first skein to see what my yardage and such were.

3 ply Australian Bond

Beige/Brown Sock Yarn

14 wpi

269.5 yards

3 1/8 ounces

86 grams

I found that my 3 ply yarn was on 3 wpi short of being the same as my 2 ply yarn, which is 17 wpi. I also noticed that everyone was right about the yarn being more rounder.

Friday July 1st I started casting on for a pair of socks that I call "Somemore's Waving Ribbing Socks". I then took this project with me, to my husbands Dr's appointment, to get his stitches out. While hubby was in getting his stitches removed I was knitting and managed to get the cuff finished and 1 row of the leg started, by the time hubby came out. Then after dinner that night I knit 15 more rows before going to bed.

Yesterday I knitted another 26 rows and then took the picture above. Since that picture and as of this morning I have finished the leg of the sock and started on the heel flap.

My second skein is all dry, I just need to wind it up and figure out the yardage and such.

Somemore's Ostrich Plumes Scarf

This scarf was started on June 8th, with my very first skein from Somemore's 4.4 lb 1/2 fleece. This skein had 372. 5 yards in it and weight 2 3/4 oz or 78 grams. I had a very small amount left over from this skein.

This picture was taken on June 14th, when I have roughly 15 inches knitted on it. I knitted on this scarf not only at home but in Dr's offices when waiting on my husband and while he was in surgery to remove skin cancer. It helped me to have something to do.

Yesterday I finished knitting the last 6 rows of seed stitch and then wove in the ends, washed and blocked it. I knitted a total of 11 repeats of the Ostrich Plumes pattern. This scarf is 52 3/4 inches long and 8 inches wide. The natural color of the yarn really give the Ostrich Plumes pattern a nice look. This scarf drapes really well and the softness of the Australian Bond wool feels nice around the neck.