Inkled

I follow a blog called Inkled Pink. Not many recent posts but for a while the owner was posting "daily band practice". That's what inkle weaving is - the creation of warp-faced bands. My goal is to practice a bit every day, most recently trying to learn pick-up, but I still found our recent mini inkle workshop to be helpful.

Two members of my weaving guild have been supporting each other (mostly remotely) as they explore inkle weaving. Cindy and Phil (who insists he is *not* a weaver despite evidence to the contrary) showed a select group of us how to pick up both unheddled and heddled designs. I had (mostly) mastered unheddled but could not figure out the heddled version. Cindy demonstrated and I learned what I was doing wrong.

Yellow is unheddled, gray is heddled

The group hopes to get together again, as the 2.5 hours *flew* by.

Spinning: Despite running the red Tunis through the drum carder, not enough VM fell out - there is still a lot there, so the spinning continues to go slow. I'm afraid if I take a break from it to spin something else, I'll never make it back.
Weaving: Inkling (see above).

The pandemic may not be over, but it is starting to feel that way for me and mine. My granddaughter is not vaccinated yet, so still wears a mask indoors when we are out and about, and we have been out and about A LOT. She spent a week at "zoo camp", then attended a kids art class at PFW. She is spending Tuesdays with me (I sense a book coming from this: Tuesdays with Grandma) which means I transport her hither and yon. She is also taking tennis lessons through parks and rec, piano lessons through PFW, and now she is interested in chess! Yesterday we spent some time at the local chess club (and learned a few things), then visited Artlink to see the member show. She is 10 now and even more fun to be with. I don't know much about chess, but if we are going to play with any frequency, I will have to up my game (so to speak).

The inkle hole

I'm enrolled in a mini workshop next Saturday, in executing pick-up on an inkle loom. Toward that end, I dragged out my already-warped inkle loom to practice with because I hate to feel unprepared. The inkle loom was warped from a previous practice session, but despite viewing a couple of YT videos, I managed to screw something up and could not advance the threads. I cut that bit off, then rewarped the loom... several times before I got it right. Today I found another warping error, but I think I can continue, at least for a while; I didn't position the part that loosens and tightens the warp correctly, so now I can't loosen it enough to slide the warp forward. We'll see how far I get before having to cut that warp off, too. Chalk it up to a learning experience, better now than in the workshop.

(As a knitter, I am used to preserving as much yarn as possible when working on a project, as sometimes the yarn is rather expensive. When the yarn is 8/4 carpet warp, however, I am wasting pennies, not dollars. Also, I save the waste to use as thrums.)

Spinning: More red Tunis, of course, but this week spun while sitting on the deck.
Weaving: Inkling (see above).

I took some UFOs to JoAnn to try to match material to line the bags and thread to hem a doll blanket. So many choices of fabric, most of them for quilting, it was paralyzing. Then there was the checkout line. Ugh. One thing I have no patience for anymore is standing in lines, especially if I have only a few things to purchase. I managed to find some thread at home I can use for the doll blanket. I supposed I can order the fabric online, then just pick it up at the store. Right now, I still feel rather paralyzed.

(A similar thing happened when shopping for a new dishwasher, but I took my daughter along and she helped me narrow the choices.)

Looped

I ran across four almost-finished washcloths last week while scrounging around in the studio. My brain has no memory of this project, but I had left a brief entry in Ravelry after starting the project, in November, 2016. Slowly, bits and pieces came back to me: I think the inspiration for this bit of weaving came from a program at a weavers guild meeting. Otherwise, BLANK.

Weave structure: looped pile as described for Looped-Pile Washcloths in Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom
Loom: Ashford rigid heddle, 24" maybe?
Yarn: Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Co., Sugar n Creme Ombres, in 'Spring Meadows'
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5
Size after hemming and washing: 8" long, 7.75" wide

The pic above I believe reflects the original pattern: a looped row followed by three plain weave rows. The one below places the looped pile rows closer together.

The pattern invited the reader to experiment with the looped stitches. Below is a heart.

I'm not sure what I was attempting with this design.

When I found these washcloths, the ends had been machine stitched. After the shrinkage debacle on the recent dishcloths, I decided to send these through the laundry before the final hemming, which proved to be successful. As I become more confident in finishing techniques, I hope to tackle more of the weaving UFOs that are laying around.

Out and about

Decatur (Indiana) has an annual sculpture tour. Each year about this time, new scuptures replace the ones on display from the previous year. Friday night was the unveiling, plus music and food trucks. A fiber friend of mine and her husband have a studio/gallery in downtown Decatur. They hosted an open house this weekend, which my SO and I decided to attend. We did not go Friday night - besides the crowds, it was really HOT. Saturday was not much better temperature-wise, but no crowds, so we actually were able to talk with the artists. Of course, I was mainly interested in the weaving, but my SO (a photographer) is interested in painting. Jovan is 72, never painted a stroke until four years ago, but he has quite a body of work already. It's never too late!

Spinning: Still slogging away at the red Tunis. *sigh*
Weaving: While looking for something, I ran across a set of four "loopy" dishcloths that were complete except for being hemmed. Initially, I had not idea where they came from, but fortunately had left a brief mention of them in Ravelry at the start. I washed them yesterday and have started to hem them.

I'm typing this on the deck. The heat has abated and we are looking forward to highs in the 80's and 70's as the week progresses. As I've said before, fiber takes a backseat to yardening this time of year, and that is okay.

Foiled (I hope)

Ordinarily, my cats leave fiber alone. However. Beau the Feline Destroyer of All Things Nice sometimes eats roving. Not just any roving - he does have his standards - but this habit has interfered with my desire to move a spinning wheel to the den. I came up with this idea, though.

The roving is protected by a gallon Ziploc bag. So far, this has worked. The real test will be with Shetland top, which seems to be Beau's favorite fiber for consumption. We shall see.

Fiber prep: With some help from my granddaughter, we cranked the rest of the red Tunis through the drum carder, in half-ounce chunks.
Spinning: I have started spinning some of this red Tunis and, yes, there is less VM in it. What a relief!

I seem to have developed a bit of a case of agoraphobia from the pandemic. I tend to be a homebody to begin with, so enjoyed having an excuse to not go anywhere. Now that things are opening up a bit, I find I still don't want to go anywhere. I was planning to attend the weaving guild meeting in person this past week, but at the last minute decided to Zoom it. I'm glad I Zoomed, as I was tired anyway.

I'm glad I attended, though. The program was on yarn, or more specifically, the making of yarn. Even though I feel like I know about yarn, I still learned a thing or two from the presentation. For example, pulling yarn from a center-pull yarn can result in the untwisting of the plies. To avoid this, when winding a skein on a ball winder, first slide a toilet paper core over the center of the ball winder and wind the yarn onto it. Then when using the yarn, be it for knitting or weaving or whatever, insert a dowel or straight knitting needle into the core and unwind the ball from the outside. A couple of strategically placed holes in a shoe box to support the dowel helps faciliate this.