Author: horsenettle

The long, long warp

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  • image from www.flickr.com
  • image from www.flickr.com
  • image from www.flickr.com
image from www.flickr.com

Have you ever seen the 1953 movie, "The Long, Long Trailer" starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz? You haven't? Well, why not? It's a charming story about a newlywed couple driving their way across America towing, you guessed it, a long, long trailer. The anxiety it causes smacks of real life, somehow, and even with the stereotypical roles, I find the movie funny, sweet, and worthy of re-watching.

So, why am I recommending a movie instead of writing about weaving? Because, part of "The Long, Long Trailer" revolves around the problems dealing with a very long and complicated trailer… and somehow I've created a very long and complicated warp. It's bothering me. I mean, it's like nine feet long! And this is on a backstrap loom!

I don't know what got into me. I have this old acrylic Red Heart that I've used for a few small projects, but I'm starting to think it's cursed. Everything I try to make out of it fails, so I can't explain why I kept on warping my 10" Beka 8 dent rigid heddle with this long, long acrylic warp. I just kept on warping! And I didn't even have a project in mind. I just wanted to weave.

So, now I'm stuck. I have a few feet finished with multiple color changes and some really lovely, bumpy edges (yes, that's sarcasm), but due to my newness with weaving and using a rigid heddle, I've found it easier to roll up the entire thing and leave it where it all started, firmly attached to the radiator. Once I unroll it again and start weaving, well, it'll turn into the movie for me… "Always think of the trailer as a train behind you… Forty feet of train!"

Okay, so maybe you need to watch the movie to understand what I've gotten myself into. And if you do watch the movie, think of me during the scene where they slowly and painfully drive their way up a twisting and turning mountain road. We'll see if I make it down the other side in one piece.

Dead of winter

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During this quiet time of winter, I've been spending much of my time doing things other than knitting or weaving, but I still have a few projects to blog about. Coming soon: the story of "The Long, Long Warp," and exciting pictures of onion skin dyed socks. (They're orange.) Stay tuned!

Authentic Knitting Board Projects

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AKBribbedscarf
AKBshawl1
AKBshawl2
Here are the two projects I finished for Christmas presents. The first is a simple ribbed scarf made on the 10" AKB. I used Cascade Vintage yarn, about 1.5 skeins. The entire project went fairly quick since there aren't any tricky patterns to follow, just a ribbed wrapping. I used three washers as spacers on the board to keep the stitches a little snug. After it was finished, I hand washed and blocked it, and the scarf "grew" about half a foot, which was just what I hoped.

The second project was a shawl, made with a worsted weight, hand dyed wool/bamboo blend. I had purchased about 600 yards and used most of it. I followed the pattern for Faith Schmidt's Lacey Scarf pattern, found on the AKB site, and the 28" board. I used 51 pegs and repeated the pattern five times. For this shawl, I put the spacers at the 1" width, and I knitted two sides, then sewed them together. If I had to do this over, I would shrink the width to 41 pegs, make it one piece, and add an additional 6" or so. I did block it with an iron and spritzes of water from a spray bottle. I didn't want to tackle washing and blocking it so close to Christmas in case I had a disaster on my hands. 
It was fun to make projects with these boards. I've already started a third project, this time for me.