Tencel Huck Shawl

Hi there - my post this week is a bit of a repeat really. A few weeks ago I did an aqua blue 8/2 Tencel scarf in a Huck Lace draft. That scarf went to the Maisie and Mac Gallery in Cupar where it was spotted by a gentleman looking for two shawls for Christmas presents for his daughters. He liked the blue colour and the Huck pattern but wanted it to be  shawl width. So this is my very first commission !

This is the third time I have used this draft and it is so easy to set up and weave so I felt quite confident. It is very different having that bit of pressure though, this one had to be right ! I hadn't felt that before ! If I made a mistake it could always be mine or get lost somewhere but not this time ! This was also the last of my aqua Tencel so I couldn't afford to get it wrong !

Here it is on the loom, I just did straightforward diamonds this time without the bit in the middle

I did seem different at 25" wide on the loom. My sett was the same as the last one at 24 epi but somehow this seemed a much looser weave. I persuaded myself it would drape well if it was looser and carried on.

I didn't have any problems with the weaving and both ends were hemstitched and beaded as you can see in the first picture.

It did tighten up a bit in the washing but is still quite loose for my liking ! It does drape well as you can see in this picture of the finished shawl.

When I have done shawls before they have always been snowflake drafts and if I am honest I think I prefer the snowflake. The Huck looked ok as a scarf but  24" wide is a bit much maybe.

However, it was what the gentleman asked for and I hope he will like it. He does want a second one but hasn't decided on a colour just yet.

I think that's about all for this week. Happy weaving everyone !

A Knitting Week

Hi there !

Thank you to everyone who posted comments after last week's blog. I found them very helpful and am now convinced I was beating too hard and should have checked that I had a balanced weave. I may have cured my broken edge thread problem but must now learn to stop beating everything to death !! I will have another go at Pinwheels before too long !

Last week I went to our holiday place in Crail in Fife. The idea was to have a leisurely week visiting the Pittenweem Arts Festival and playing golf. Tony was back at home playing golf for three days. 

However, our Scottish weather had other ideas and I had picked the worst possible week for my stay. The Kingdom of Fife had exceptional rain, by the 10th of the month we had had three times the average expected for the whole month and everything and everywhere was awash. I did make it to the festival on two occasions but it was no fun tramping in and out of houses with wet clothes and shoes. It was very sad for those people exhibiting, they pay a lot of money to sign up for the festival and rent rooms and, of course, put an enormous amount of work into getting everything ready. The people I spoke to had noticed a marked drop in visitor numbers and in sales.

Golf was also a washout both at Crail and back home in Lochmaben. The competitions Tony had stayed at home to play in were all cancelled. On the plus side that meant a few odd jobs got done around the house !!

So, what did I do ? Well, I knitted most of the week, only venturing out to buy food !

I had one shawl already on the needles and about half finished. It was a pattern I had had in my 'queue' for a while from Blue Button Studios, called Pteryla.  It was a very straightforward, well written pattern and I used a 4ply Merino from  Helen at Ripples Crafts Yarns.

This first picture shows a close up of the texture of the shawl.................

The second picture shows how nice and warm this can be around the shoulders. In fact is was so cold one of the days I actually wore it !! I really liked the soft lavender colour and when it was washed and blocked the pattern loosened up and the yarn softened even more.

I had five days left so what next ? I had a ball of sock yarn, not my favourite but it needed to be used up. Luckily I had another pattern with me, again, one I had been meaning to try for a while.

Once again, a pattern from Ravelry, Arabella, from Knitting Kninja Design.  Now this was a very lacey pattern and I wasn't sure how it would work out but decided to use the sock yarn as a trial.

The pattern was very well written and presented and easy to follow. having said that though, I couldn't have watched TV while doing it as missing a yarn over could have been a bit of a problem !

With nobody to disturb me I found it knitted up very quickly. It didn't look much on the needles but I'm used to that ! Once it was washed and pinned out to shape the lace pattern really showed up as you can see in this photo........................

I really prefer to do my lace knitting with finer 2 ply yarn maybe in cashmere or silk but this certainly showed me how the lace worked out and I would certainly do it again as it is very effective.

here it is from the front............................

So, all in all I had a very productive week, two shawls completed and plenty of rest !

Back home again now and already there is a warp on the loom so more weaving to talk about next time.

Pinwheels maybe but maybe not !!

Hi there folks ! This post is the story of my latest weaving project ! 

Back in June I bought some yarn from Helen of Ripples Yarns She is based away up in the north of Scotland near a place called Lochinver and she hand dyes a beautiful selection of yarns. The yarn I used for this project was 70% alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere in lace weight with 1200 metres to 100gms. From the Interweave yarn chart that equates to a 24/2 yarn. You can see the colours below and they were chosen by my friend Joan who kindly took care of us last winter when we were stranded in the snow. This is going to be a scarf for her to wear while walking to work this coming winter.

I asked Joan to choose a design from a selection of books and drafts. The one she decided on was the Twill Stars by Vicki Tardy in the Handwoven Scarves book, page 96. A nice pinwheel draft which I had often thought of trying. Here is the picture from the book..................

Setting up the loom was uneventful, straight draw threading and an easy tie up for eight shafts. The warp was 8 grey alternating with 8 purple with doubled floating selvedges.

So the first thing to do is sample and the picture below shows the result. Not a pinwheel in sight just some rather dainty squares. Not what I wanted. Would it improve with washing ? No, this was after washing so no 'magic in my water ' !!

So, what do you do next ! Consult with two experienced weavers !! I knew Ellen on Ravelry had already used this draft so we Skyped and she showed me how it should look  and I thought I must have the tie up wrong so down I went to check but no nothing untoward there, and I checked at least three times !!

I also new that Susan of Thrums had woven this draft so I asked her what she thought might be wrong. 

She suggested that I try another tie up for pinwheels from the Carol Strickler book of 8 shaft patterns. I had sleyed at 28epi but decided to re-sley at 24epi just in case it was a bit too tight. Then I tied up as for the draft on page 20 number 61. This is what I got............................

Still not a pinwheel in sight ! I made this picture extra large so that those of you with experienced and keen eyes can maybe explain why I can't have pin wheels. This tie up did give me more pronounced floats in the corners but sadly no wheels !!

I didn't have enough warp left to play around anymore so this was how it was going to be. Weaving went well and not a broken thread in all 2 metres of it ! The usual fringe twisting took place on my trusty board !

It washed nicely but no pinwheels appeared. The finished scarf looks like this.................

I am sure Joan will like it but she won't get the nice pinwheels she thought she was getting !!

If anybody out there has had a similar experience I would love to know the answer. Was the yarn too fine or was the sett too tight or was it both ? Please add your thoughts in the comments section.

Hopefully I will try this again sometime as it is a very striking design and seems to be popular.

'Til next time, happy weaving !