Gebrochene Baby Blanket

Gebrochene is a broken twill, most of the pattern drafts found are for 12 and more shafts but there are a few that can be taken down to 8 shafts. I fell in love with the pattern during a workshop with Marjie Thompson last Fall. Here is a picture of the draft I used after modifying the original to fit the three panels I needed to weave.

As part of my practice for THE coverlet I plan to weave, I decided to make a baby blanket with three panels using the broken twill structure. This would give me opportunity to get a better feel of joins, hems, etc.

Yarn: Noho cotton 1,320 yds/lb sett at 14 epi. White for warp, pastel baby colors variegated for weft.
Width on the reed: 19 inches
Finished width: 12.75 inches (Take up: do the math)
Length woven per panel: 39 inches including one inch with 20/2 cotton to minimize hem thickness and one inch in plain weave in the pattern yarn.
Finished length per panel: 38 inches
Number of panels woven: 3

The yarn was clearly the wrong selection for this structure, the bumps in the yarn muddle the pattern and it is hard to see unless you stand to the side and in low light. With a bit of faith you can see the diamonds here:





Color: the variegated yarn pools like every other variegated yarn I have ever worked with. (Note to self: never use variegated yarn again. You KNOW you don't like it.)
I joined the panels by hand going over and under the warp threads, it was easy and the seams are barely visible...it would be better if the yarn had been one color. I washed it in the machine with 3 blue jeans so it would take all the beating possible and dried it likewise. It has shrunk to the max and it will be easy to wash in the future. I used the serger on the edges and a folded over hem with the sewing machine.
Here is a picture of the join:



One of the panels turned out about an inch longer because I changed the way I was weaving after the first panel. (Note to self: stick with what you are doing till the end, even if in the process you read about a 'better' way to beat.) I was able to match the panels enough to where only a bit of undulation can be seen as in this picture:



In conclusion: The blanket if functional, it has lovely drape and will serve well. It was not worth the effort of the complicated treadling, I could have obtained probably a better result with a more simple structure. I will still give it to intended baby (who was born a week ago). My hope is that it will become his drag blanket and serve him well for years to come.

It took just a few beads!

The mystery fiber fabric became a shawl. The weavers in my guild determined it was a shawl and so it is. As seen in the prior picture, I had woven about 5 inches in scrap yarn with the purpose of protecting the potential fringe during the wash.

Inspired by Susan, I followed her tutorial and here are the results:

Apparently great minds think alike because Leigh just published her beaded fringe, except she followed Lynnette's tutorial. Interesting enough, Leigh's project was also somewhat of a disappointment at first, not so after the beads.

I am quite happy with the results, it was not a lost cause after all. The shawl is long enough that I can wrap it around almost twice....or maybe it needs a different owner.

Look who came over to visit!

and the news she has

Bridget said... It is kind of you to make such lovely comments about the veil I designed and knitted for my daughter. The center motif is original, as are many of the stitch patterns. Very soon, Schoolhouse Press will be publishing a pattern for a scarf with two lace alphabets on it, one that I designed for this piece, and another worked from the opposite direction.

Sketchbooks

There has been a lot of talk lately about sketchbooks. Peg and others have talked about different software packages that can be used to create them. Ideas and screen shots have been shared.

I have had a fiber/design/ideas sketchbook for ages, always in my trusty notebook. My notebooks have been ongoing ever since I can remember. They are small (4x6 or so) spiral notebooks where I write things to do, things to remember, design ideas, sketches, yarn amounts, knitting calculations and whatever else needs a secure place to be written on. There is a large pile of them, each with start and end dates. Sometimes I go through a couple a year, sometimes one will last more than a year, it all depends on how busy I am. For the most part, I can remember when and where I sketched something down, I go back and review if there is something I want to make. As we all know, life has had a dramatic change with the IT era, but there are still things I do by hand, sketches being one of them. Going back to the notebooks and finding things quickly is not that easy anymore. What to do with the sketches? what to do if I see or think of something and I am not at the computer? Plus I use three different computers plus the cell phone.
I made a list of requirements:
-Indexing capability
-Easy notes
-Scanned sketches
-'standard' format
-Non exclusive software so I can open the file in any of the computers I happen to be at. Ideally non-proprietary software

I decided to use the word processor in OpenOffice. I can create a TOC, by using styles I can keep the TOC current. I can write as many notes as I want. I can insert pictures and scans.



Scanned sketch: each project idea has title, typed notes and the scan(s) from the notebook. The only other thing I might want to add is dates. Other than that, this will work going forward.

Dealing with less than perfect

Peg wrote about dealing with frustration and getting back to work. She asked her readers to write about how we overcome frustration and resume work. Then today Tien wrote about the roots of frustration. Both struck home with me.

I have been knitting the Princess shawl for over a year now and very close to the end line I came across the terrible designed corners. People say it will block out and all will be fine, the designer says its OK to fudge. I have not been able to overcome it. I wanted a perfect lovely Shetland shawl that I had knit with all my love for lace. It has been sitting in a bag for a couple of months now. I have to confess I have even thought of giving it away. I know its not that big of a deal, but for me it is. In my heart it was my master piece, the piece that would demonstrate, to me at least, that I am an experienced lace knitter and I can do it all. The pieces I have designed and people have loved did not count. I wanted this shawl. Tien has the perfect explanation of why this happened, in her blog she writes:

"One of the things they taught us is that clinging lies at the core of suffering. Clinging, or attaching to a specific result, causes pain when the result doesn’t happen. The degree of pain, of course, is related to the degree of clinging. The tighter you cling to a desire, the more pain you feel when the desire does not happen."

Well there it is, all out. There was/is way too much clinging on my part to this piece. Nothing else mattered, I was blinded with the end result I had in my mind and did not exist. Not even the prototype of the shawl is anywhere close to what I had in my mind. Maybe now that I know it is less than perfect I can move on and finish it. It is after all a shawl like any other I have knit and will knit. The perfect master piece might not exist and if it did, do I want to suffer through it? The definite answer is no, I want to enjoy the process and admire the final piece.

The best part of it all is that in the process I have learned several lessons. Knitting and life lessons alike.

Shuttle Tamer

Like any other weaver I have shuttles, lots of shuttles, long and short. Until today I had them in a basket but always worried they would get damaged. I wanted them hanging and handy. I wove one in double weave from Handwoven magazine but did not like it, the shuttles go in sideways and the width is fixed to whatever you set the warp to.
I wanted something that would hold all the shuttles I have and those that might come. A shoe hanger came to mind but finding one long enough for sky shuttles and pickup sticks was not going to happen. What's a girl to do? Make one right?



I used a corduroy fabric I bought at the upholstery fabric store for the back (double) and a thick cotton (almost but not quite, canvas thick fabric for the pockets) also from the upholstery fabric store. I had bought the fabric for a bag I had in mind with lots of pockets. Both were remnants and quite large pieces. I drew the pattern during a meeting this week at work :). I measured the back so it would fit the inside frame of the door and not interfere with the lock. The pockets were carefully eyeballed (precise measurement....) but making sure I would have one row of long pockets for the long shuttles and that the smaller pockets would fit a regular boat shuttle. The smaller ones are completely covered but my hand fits and they are easy to get out.


I cut the two pieces for the back, then hemmed the top and bottom for the pockets. Folded the fabric in half and divided by three on each side. Each pocket is 25 centimeters on the front and 10 cms in the back. Sewed the vertical seams and then folded the fabric to make the pleats at the bottom. Then.....sandwiched the two back parts and used the serger including the three hanging bands. Reinforced the outer seams with the sewing machine because in the places I had the tree layers of fabric the serger slipped a bit. Flipped the whole thing over and closed it shut at the bottom. It is huge but fits all the shuttles and I have plenty of spare pockets.
The colors are not exactly pretty but they match and it is dark enough so that it will not have to be washed very often, I did prewash the fabric so I know I will not have unpleasant surprises.

There it is, hanging from the back of the door in my studio.

Next up: a backpack for the weaving bench. Stay tuned!

ETA: I just looked at the enlarged picture...ignore the chalk marks......I am not a seamstress!

I knew there was a purpose

35+ years ago I started an iron collection. Over the years I have acquired 80+ of them most are miniatures but there are big heavy ones too. Over the years people have asked many times what is the purpose of so many irons. I just smiled and never answered, I did not know! But today, I found it.



I finished weaving a rug and I had to turn the hems. I decided to use "OK to Wash Glue" before I sew the hems. I needed something heavy to hold the hems together while they dry. Something a phone book would had come handy for, or maybe a pharmacology book. Since phone books are long gone from my house, and the pharmacology books are busy with something else, I wondered and walked around bit. There they where, the irons! I hauled 16 of them to press the hems of two rugs. Nice and heavy, pressing away. Tomorrow when the glue is dry, I will finish them up.