Herding Cats
The Eri babies are doing well. They are quite a bit different from the Bombyx cats, which is making them intriguing and also challenging.
Archive for month: February, 2004
Chris's ribbon – finally!
This project has kind of stymied my loom for the past few months. It’s OK, though – I have been so busy knitting that I really haven’t noticed. I decided to finish this up for Valentine’s Day for Chris. If you look closely, you can see that the peacock feather (which is my symbol for me) has a heart in the center. I was concerned that it would be too subtle, but I think it shows up OK. I forgot to include a penny or dime for scale; this ribbon is made of 60/2 spun silk, and is 5/8″ across. The brocade lettering and the peacock feather are all done from my reeled silk, dyed with Jacquard acid dyes.
The strapwork is double-faced, so that it shows up on both sides. The pattern area is 25 tablets across, the all-black border is 2 on each side (to keep the pattern from bumping into the edging) and then the edge pattern is 6 tablets wide, turned all one way. The background of the brocade is double-turn double-face done in plain weave.
A little closer on the ends.
Close-up of the peacock feather. The crown isn’t quite as crisp as I had hoped, but I think it still looks OK. I thought about doing a valentine heart in red, and was about 2/3 of the way through drafting out the pattern, but decided that would be too gushy.
Reeling Silk
This is a little photo-journal of the silk reeling process as I do it. I’ve raised silkworms for three years now, and this is how you go about getting the cocoons turned into thread.
Coronet Hat: finished!
Got some time this afternoon and got the coronet hat finished! It was just a little bit loose/big, but after blocking and drying (okay, and some time in Microwave Time Out…) it fits fine.
Coronet WIP; knitting on planes
Howdy all!
I just got back from a fantastic trip to the Grammys! I took my current project, and got a lot done on it. It’s Knitty’s “Coronet,” designed by the talented and gracious artichaut who was so kind as to answer my questions about adapting the pattern for my handspun.
I had an excellent experience with taking my handwork on the plane. I had gotten a start on the cabled band before leaving for the trip, so I had about 5″ of it worked; the rest of it was all knitted on the planes and in the airports. I would have finished on the way home, but ran out of yarn. I wasn’t sure how much I’d need – now I have to spin some more before I can finish the knitting! I didn’t have a single issue with any of the security folks; my little wooden tube has 4 aluminum and 5 plastic needles, plus my bag has a big tapestry yarn needle and a thread-cutter (Clover, the pendant kind) and a latch hook for catching dropped stitches. Didn’t even get a second look from the security folks, although I always get a few odd glances being a guy knitting in public. Unfortunately, nobody came up and said howdy.