Monday, September 26, 2011

Progress!

I made progress on many fronts this week.

I started threading the heddles for the bamboo project, and then I remembered that fully half of the heddles in this project are on shaft 1, and I didn't have enough ready, so I had to undo my work, shift a bunch of heddles over to the left, and start over.

*le sigh*

But at least I didn't get too far before I remembered this crucial fact. The first time I made this scarf I got to nearly the very end and ran out of heddles, and that required some bad words to be said while I enlisted Tech Support to help me move some from another shaft.

It could have been worse.
I also enlisted Tech Support's help to fix the horrible loop problem on the chenille project, but now that it's fixed it's still a giant mess. It might be easier to just scrap it altogether and start over. We'll see.

In other news, the second sock is done!

Here we are just before starting on the toe.
And here they are as a pair! I think I might try to block these babies so the lace will be more clear.
And finally, now that the socks are done, I was forced to go back to the border of the pineapple doily. I frogged it and started over. Turns out I'd started it in the wrong place before which was why the directions weren't working for me. Worked like a charm the second time around.

This is about halfway through the border process.
You see those little clusters at the top? Triple crochet clusters coming off of a 10-stitch chain. Crocheters will know what a pain in the rear that was. That row of border alone took me a couple of hours.
And now the border is done. All that's left is four little motifs in the middle to bring it all together, and then blocking (and starching, probably).

And finally, a couple of grannies and weavette squares to use up the sock yarn. My pile of both is growing, but not yet big enough to make anything.

Monday, September 19, 2011

I need a new project

Or perhaps I just need to suck it up and attend to the two weaving projects that I sort of started and then abandoned. I have a bad habit of doing that. So: not much to share this week.

Some more progress on the second sock ... in fact I might just finish it this coming weekend.

I finished the heel flap.
And turned the heel.
And picked up stitches along the sides and wrestled everything back onto three needles.
And finished the instep. I have about 35 more rows of the foot to do, then the toe, then I'm done!
In crochet news, check out this awesome crocheted parasol, which I found here.

So. Cute.

Monday, September 12, 2011

It might not look like much

But I have done a tremendous amount of work on the second sock. I spent about a week at the cabin, and had grand plans to start and finish the chenille project, and to go running every morning, and to be an all-around productive person. It didn't quite work out that way though. I had two migraines on the only two decent running days, and then the remnants of tropical storm Lee hit us, and it rained and rained and rained some more. And on Labor Day, Tech Support was on the ladder cleaning the gutters (he's Tech Support in a number of fields) when the ladder slipped and he fell and broke his toe and banged up pretty much the rest of his body. So needless to say he wasn't available to help me with the chenille project.

So anyway, I finished the thread runner! But I haven't yet figured out the best way to block and starch it. Should I soak it and pin it and let it dry before starching? Should I spray it and then pin it? It's going to take about one million pins, so I worry that it'll have dried out before I can get it pinned in place. Any advice would be most welcome.

So pretty! I hope it'll be even prettier once it's flat.
I also got the new bamboo warp onto the loom a couple of weeks ago, but haven't had the energy to start threading the heddles. I'm starting to think I need a remedial warping course. For some reason getting the warp onto the back beam has become a tedious chore that I hate. And you can see from the photos that it wasn't exactly a smooth and even result. Hopefully I didn't mess things up too badly.



As for the sock, I finished the cuff and the leg, and am now about halfway through the heel flap (not pictured).

This is going so much more quickly without any other projects to distract me.
Perhaps next week I will have gotten over my warping frustration and will have some real progress to show. Fingers crossed that Tech Support can walk by next weekend!