Stuff I've been doing this week

So a while ago I made a hat for Jake and he really liked it but did not like wearing it. Originally it was way to big so I frogged it and cast back on with fewer stitches...making it too small. It's cute and it sorta fits but it's a stretch.

It does however fit Abby perfectly and she loves it to the point that she screamed and had a fit the last time I tried to put it on Jacob. So now it's Not Jake's Hat.I think the best part is that the ear ties are long enough they come to her knees with the tassels on them. It is really cute.

I finished up the yarn I was spinning on the Turkish and finally got started knitting the scarf I have been eyeing for a while. Here it is, almost done (keep in mind it is not blocked yet so it will look even better after that happens).While I was on Orcas with the kids I brought my spinning wheel and finallly started spinning the Faukland fiber I bought from Jeannie. It was a real challenge to spin worsted after having spun laceweight but I think I got fairly close. If anything it is a little chunkier than I planned but it will still make a fun sweater for Abby.The first fiber braid is all spun and plyed. One more to go. I think it's a total of 8oz.

I also finally got my ass in gear and ripped back the socks I made for Brandi for Christmas (they were too long). and got them sorted out. Hopefully they fit now. If not I am just starting from scratch.

Ok, so we all know I need a new hobby like I need a hole in the head but....

At the monthly spinning guild meeting one of the ladies was giving out free weaving yarn - the only catch was that she wanted to see something woven with it by I think June...Well I have had a loom in my craft closet for about 6 years now and have never taken it out of the box. I figured that if the yarn was free and the loom was free, I really didn't have anything to lose. So I checked out a book on Rigid Heddle Weaving from the guild library and brought it home. That was Tuesday night. By midmorning Wednesday I learned that I needed a way to wind my warp. Since I don't have a warping board I improvised:The only complaint I would have about the Tinker Toy method is that now they make the darned things out of plastic (great if you need to block your yarn...)and so the 'dowels' started to bend a little as I got close to the top (wouldn't have happened if I wasn't using as much tension) which caused the warp to be slightly shorter on one end - live and learn. Next time I am definitely using the single post warping method.
By Wednesday evening this is what I had after teaching myself to warp the loom and making myself some shuttles out of cardboard:

Last night I pulled this off of the loom:This morning I finished tying the warp threads. In about a week I have made a sampler. It is ugly as I am not hot on the color choice but it was free, what can I say. I tried out a few things and am glad to be over the initial learning curve. Here is a closeup of a couple of things I tried:
Now it's all about fine tuning. Next up will be a plaid scarf. We'll see how that goes.
I also learned about halfway through that the cardboard shuttles were simply not cutting it as they were snagging often enough to be so irritating I didn't want to weave. So I grabbed a balsa wood stick and got out the old Xacto knife and sandpaper and made myself some nice (smooth and lightweight) shuttles. I also remembered what a pain in the ass it was threading the heddle with a teensy tiny crochet hook that would only go into the heddle about 1 inch before it got too think not to mention the head being so small it would not work on anything thicker than laceweight yarn. So I made me a heddle hook to:
Ain't I crafty?