I Like to Mix It Up

Sweater Yarn
Originally uploaded by sapoague

As you can see from the photo I like to throw a lot of yarn into a basket and see what I can make with it. That's always been the case with my fiber art. I like to mix colors and textures, find order in a kind of intuitive way of working. And now that I've started knitting I have a whole 'nother venue for the fun.

Well, actually I started with the pattern to the right, and then I threw a lot yarn into the basket, but you can see what I'm getting at. (In fact, I've added other yarns since I took this photo, and taken one yarn out.)

I'm knitting this very basic cardigan by designer Barry Klein that I found on Patternfish, and it calls for this really expensive yarn by Trendsetter called Venus. Venus is yarn that is a bunch of textures and colors all strung together in a harmonious fashion, and I think it's great, but I have this stash that needs thinning.

So I started looking for this and that. I found purple Lambs Pride worsted, and some textured yarns my sister gave me, and some Brown Sheep Prairie Silks that I handpainted a while ago. I added some Noro Furisode and voila.

I bound off the back last night and now I'm working on the left front. Will take more photos soon.

Wool Shawl

Wool shawl warp wound
Originally uploaded by sapoague

Yikes! this stuff is fuzzy.

I wound the warp on Tuesday evening, and it went fine, if a little slow. But I'm used to slow, because I wind all my chenille warps the same way and chenille is pretty texturey (maybe not a word, but it fits). I don't have any more photos, but since then I tied to the front warp rod and wove a rag header. I chose the light blue alpaca and the medium blue fuzzy mohair for wefts. I will alternate between them randomly in plain weave.

The best part? I only broke one warp end during the winding. So I've got a repair yarn hanging off the back beam and weighted.