The saga of the linen towels

When Quince launched Sparrow it just came in natural and I fell in love. I ordered some, and when it came I thought about how beautiful linen towels would be, so I bought some more…

Then I realized how insane it would be to knit towels on such tiny needles, so I decided I would try to weave them. I had done some weaving in college and with the help of a refresher private lesson or two I thought I would be good to go. So I rented a floor loom for a couple of months. That first lesson revealed I would need to buy a lot more Sparrow, so much more due to the loom waste that it was just too excessive.

V weaving

So, I did what any fiber lover would do, I bought more linen, much, much finer and more suitable to weaving. And I wove a set of towels…

Linen Towels

Linen Towels

Linen Towels

But I still had my Sparrow..

I thought it would be cool to knit them after all, but approach it like a meditation, to knit just a couple rows a day, or about 20-30 minutes. I started on a Winter Solstice… I actually stuck with it through both bath towels and into the hand towel but somewhere about October I got distracted and lost my mojo, so the project marinated for over a year.

Linen Towels

I finally dug it out this winter and finished the hand towel and one wash cloth. All seed stitch, all on 3mm needles. This is by far the craziest project or pair of projects I have ever done, but I love both sets!

Linen Towels

Woven Scarves

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing fiber get transformed into something that is not only beautiful, but also useful. Virginia continues to explore the various ways of doing that. Over the last couple of weeks, she has worked on a couple of simple, but elegant scarves. These are both woven on her rigid heddle loom – such a simple machine, but the possibilities for creation (even with just a basic weave) are seemingly boundless. In the case of these two recent projects, different yarns were used for both the weft and the warp, the last one using some of my handspun yarn.

Woven Scarf

Woven Scarf

Woven Scarf

Woven Scarf

Of Mittens, Socks and… Weaving!

I promised I’d post some yarn-related projects. So, without further ado, here are some that Virginia has recently completed.

These are Finnish Mittens from Folk Mittens. The pattern is by Marcia Lewandowski. Virginia knit these using Misty Alpaca’s worsted-weight yarn. One of the things that I like about these mittens is that she knit them for me. I like my hands to be warm, and these certainly do the trick.

Finnish Mittens

Also off the needles is another pair of socks. These are made using Trekking, and are based on the Waffle Rib pattern in Charlene Schurch’s book Sensational Knitted Socks.

Waffle Socks (28 of 52)

I knew it was only a matter of time before the weaving bug bit Virginia. It finally did with Mr. Kringle visiting early, bringing a 24-inch rigid heddle loom. No sooner had the box been opened and loom assembled, that a “test” project was started.

Virginia's Foray into Weaving

This colorful weave was created with some Fleece Artist superwash merino. Given the speed with which this project started and finished, I’d say there’s bound to be more to share in the very near future. And, I must say, the bug has rebitten me, and I feel myself being pulled away from the felting fun I’ve been having.

In Full Swing

The blog may have been down, but that does not mean there weren’t any projects being worked on, finished, and made ready to share.

Plaid Runner

This weaving project is finally finished. It’s about 9 feet long and made from cotton “carpet warp.” It’s the perfect length for the library table sitting in our sun room.

Plaid Runner

Now that Spring has been making an effort to stick around, we can put away the heavy winter blankets and enjoy this first major crochet project from Virginia.

Vcrochets_afghan_01b

It’s one giant granny square made from Jamieson’s Spindrift… so many great colors to choose from, and having 75 rows, there was plenty of opportunity to play with color.