Apologies again if this photo isn't in focus. While I'm doing well with other tasks, the computer is still a bit of a blur - although it's getting better. :}
So, it's confession time. I've been avoiding the AVL and the two shuttle DPW - and the shuttle boxes that started misbehaving for some unknown reason. It's intermittant, so I just get going nicely and then the boxes don't align properly which means the shuttle gets launched into the stratosphere and winds up on the floor on the right hand side of the loom. You know, the side that is inaccessible unless I run aaaaallllll the way around the loom to get to it. :}
In spite of my best intentions to fire it up today, I wound up
a) finishing my book
b) weaving another rayon chenille scarf (finishing warp #2)
c) packaging up a copy of Magic (only 84 copies left - let your friends know that there is one week left in the special offer as outlined in my May 9 blog post) and mailing it
d) running to the annex to pick up my lace stuff, more silk boucle to wind into skeins
e) winding skeins
f) visiting with the neighbour and knitting while she hand sewed on a dress for her grand daughter
g) well, by now it was dinner time
h) you get the drift..........
So, my intention for tomorrow is to Fire Up The AVL! I have bags full of painted warps that need to be woven into shawls because another box of painted warps is en route and due to arrive in a few days.
Not to mention all the other yarn that I already have. Like the yarn in the above photo. This is a lovely wool/bamboo/silk blend that knits up wonderfully. I'm trying to get a sample shawl done in case I decide to sell the skeins I've been dyeing. I bought it to weave with, but it's a little heavier/denser than I like to go with the Bambu 7. :(
However it knits up into a luscious textile that feels quite wonderful. I'm using a size 7 (American) needles with about 7 stitches per inch and the shawl is coming along quite nicely. The skeins are 4 ounces, and I'm about half done the skein and the shawl is a nice size so it goes a long way.
With 15% bamboo, the yarn takes the colour so it has a nice tweedy effect (what I imagine the abrash the rug people talk about in rugs would look like) - solid but not quite.
And yes, the shawl is shaped. I started with 251 stitches, reduced two stitches on either side of the centre until there were 211 left and now I'm just knitting in the knits and purling in the purls until the shawl is the length I want.
Since I'm used to knitting scarves with about 36 stitches, I was afraid this shawl was going to take forever, but my AVL avoidance has resulted in my spending more time knitting than I would do ordinarily. :D Silver linings - there are always silver linings - even if you have to dig deep at times to find them. :^)
Currently reading Alexandria by Lindsey Davis
3 comments:
Perhaps your unconscious mind is still working on the problem with the AVL. Sometimes when I procrastinate I find that BOOM all of a sudden I can work on the task again because somehow I understand something I didn't understand before. That's pretty gestalt sounding, I guess, but I don't know how else to explain it.
So I bet when you get to the AVL something will fall into place and you will know what it is you didn't know before. :-)
Or I'll just re-confirm that I really don't like fighting with my equipment. :^) Or maybe the loom will be chastised enough from being ignored that it will be better behaved?
And sometimes one just has to grit teeth and go deal with the dog on the loom.......... :}
That's part of the problem with these intermittant problems - sometimes they come for no apparent reason, and sometimes they go away and one is left scratching ones head wondering why.
Cheers,
Laura
I agree with Sharon's comments. Will be interesting what is happening today, and if you fired up the AVL. Keep us posted. Don't forget to sit down at the AVL with a big smile and positive thoughts and energy. Weaverly yours .... Barbara
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