Yarn Crawling and Weaving

Saturday after posting the Happy Birthday to MJ, I set out with my fellow Salem knitters and went on a yarn crawl in the Eugene area.

First we went to Ben Franklin, where I wasn't inspired to buy anything. They had a very nice selection of sock yarns, but most of them were things I had already. We went on to The Knit Shop which was really a nice store. They had a pretty decent selection of sock yarn (and a really great selection of lots of other stuff, but I'm not really an "other stuff" knitter). I wanted to get some Panda Wool, but none of the colors really appealed to me so I restrained myself.

Next we hit Soft Horizons where I found some Zauberball. This is a strange stripey yarn rolled into a rather lopsided ball - and in beautiful blues. :) I also couldn't resist a skein of Dream In Color Smooshy in Some Summer Sky. So pretty! I've been trying to pick semisolids or very lightly variegated yarn when I buy now, since I like to knit more complex patterns but don't like it when they don't show up.

Our last stop was Fiber Nooks and Crannies. They had a lovely store with lots of yarn and a small selection of spinning fiber. A huge amount of Koigu too! And a nice selection of sock yarn including some beautiful Arucania stuff that sadly had silk. I would have bought it otherwise.

It was a lot of fun to hang out with all the knitters, and nice to see so many new shops too. :)

As for knitting, I've been slogging along on a few different things, but nothing exciting enough for pictures except this:



I wove! After reading a book about weaving and doing a little experimentation with the loom - I had to figure out how to tie the heddles so they would move - I started a little practice weaving with the warp that was already there and some random scraps of yarn.

The tension is really uneven since I was too lazy to tie the warp on properly and it's been sitting on there for upwards of 15 years, so I think it's slipped sideways a bit. Also there were a couple of strings missing, you can see a thicker band of stitches (?) towards the middle.

But so far not bad. I learned how to make the heddles move properly, learned what kind of tension I need, fashioned a shuttle of sorts, and learned how to change yarn (you can see a bit of pink peeking out. I also learned that using a fuzzy single ply warp is probably not the best for a beginner - the strands sort of stick together and make it a bit hard to separate so there are a few spots where one of the "up" yarns stayed down and vice-versa. (Yeah, my weaving speak is so technical.)

I think I will go ahead with my sock yarn project, provided I can figure out how to warp the loom. And I've also discovered, already, that two heddles is not enough. With two you can only do a plain or "tabby" weave. That's what I wanted for my sock yarn scarf anyway, but if I was going to get into weaving I would want to be able to do stuff that was a little more complicated. I think I would definitely want at least a 4 heddle loom.

Listening to: Strange Machines ~ The Gathering, Muzzle, Smashing Pumpkins