Makin' Mawatas
Tonight’s adventure in silk management… making mawatas – silk hankies!
Tiny silk swatch
Howdy all!
I haven’t been knitting much lately, because I’ve been focusing on raising worms and reeling silk …
But I finally managed to bring the steel needles and the bug spit together!
Eri update!
The tiny silkworms continue to grow. They are entering the second instar, shedding their first larval skins. And like Tammy Faye, they have Lee Press-on Face
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.
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.