Year Of Projects: week 29

This week has been a bit of an all rounder: I managed to knit, spin and weave!

On knitting, I’ve done some more progress on the sleeves of my second version of Michele Wang’s Squall, though not enough to warrant an update on the pictures posted in a previous update – and it struck me that I started knitting this sweater in April last year! This is unconscionable! It generally takes me 6 weeks to knit a cabled sweater, so you see what weaving does to you!

Talking of which, I took the twill Gamp from Janet Phillips‘ ” Designing Woven Fabric” off the loom – it will go in the wash today, and then it will be a matter of studying it! I ended up with 3.15m/3’4″ of sample, 46cm/18″ wide, though no doubt dimensions will change after washing, and I am contemplating using it as a light “comfort blanket” when working from home, so that in idle times my eye can wander over the 500 patterns!

Twill gamp off the loom – before wet finishing and pressing

Indeed, I will have to inspect them very closely, as I have now yarn for yardage for a summer dress! The current plan is for a cotton warp and a linen singles weft. The yarn will be very fine (the 16/2 cotton, which is about cobweb weight yarn, it has 1,300m per 100g weight, and similarly the linen), and I hope to turn it into a flowing dress, though it will be quite a while before I’ll be able to travel to somewhere where I can wear it, but hey, we could always get a scorching summer in Scotland! These are the beauties, beautifully packaged and arrived quickly from My Fine Weaving Yarn, aka my favourite yarn pusher!

16/2 organic mercerised cotton by Garnhuset I Kinna and and 16/1 linen by Växbo Lin

The yarns are really lovely, both by Swedish companies – and they are quite a bit cheaper than knitting yarns, so something for lovers of fine yarn to consider.

I’ve also progressed with my spinning – here is the first single off the spindle and ready to ply, and the spindle filling up again:

From my absolute beginner position, I have found the two videos by Anita Osterhaug (former Handwoven Magazine editor), Drop Spinning 101 and Drop Spinning 102 really very very good, I’ve watched both three times already, and I think I am not finished yet! I am sure there are other excellent resources out there, but these come with an “all access subscription” to Handwoven magazine, which I have. Incidentally, Handwoven offers a free trial month (you have to start a subscription and then cancel it I think), and they have countless videos on weaving, spinning, dying.

One final point to note: I want to warmly recommend the free series of Handweavers’s Guild of America interviews to fibre artists, taking place every Tuesday that I mentioned last week – really interesting. If you can’t get into the live event on Zoom, you can follow from Facebook (and do not need a Facebook account).

Hope you have a very crafty week!

This is a year of projects (YOP) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group, and an idea – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fibre activities, then update your blog every week if you manage. The objective is to keep track of progress on any fiber crafts with maximum flexibility: post, don’t post, follow your list, change it – so really it is just an opportunity to get to know of more blogs and activities of those who share a passion for anything fibre crafts.