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The weekend was full of ups and downs, and ultimately, I'm trying not to feel like I wasted the entire thing. Most of my disappointment is tied up in the fact that I am currently quite displeased with both my current knitting project, AND the project that I just put on my loom.
That odd slanty problem that I noticed in the stitches of my last sweater is happening again on this new sweater. It looks terrible. I believe it's being caused by the fact that my yarn is too fine for the needles that I chose. It depressed the heck out of me, but in the end, I've only put about a week's worth of work into this "failure"... Having moped all day Sunday, I've finally decided that this sweater will go into the garbage (Figuratively speaking. I will rip out the stitches and use the yarn as weft for my current weaving project.) and I'll plan a new project on smaller needles and see if that doesn't clear up the issue. Maybe
I'll take some yarn and needles to Needle Arts at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
naughtyaelf's house and ask Moira to teach me to make socks. I have some size 1 needles that may be just the thing for this yarn.
I should have worked more on my Boar's Head dress, but I just didn't feel like measuring and cutting gores. I really hate measuring and cutting fabric. It's nearly phobic. Part of the problem is that my finished cuts almost never work. That ties into the fact that I guestimate *everything* because I'm too lazy to take exact measurements. It's something that I'm going to have to get over, if I want to make decent garb. As usual, I'm frustrated with myself because I KNOW I'm capable of better work, but I'm always too rushed to do things the *right* way. I'll just have to remind myself that this time I am *not* rushed, and if I want things to turn out, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and take the time to *pin* and *measure*.
On the up side of things, I did finish my first-ever weaving project, and I actually quite like the way the fabric turned out. It isn't quite enough for an apron dress, but I'm sure I'll figure out *something* that can be made out of this pretty me-made wool fabric. On the down side of the same project, if I'm *good* I'll write up some documentation and compete this thing in A&S at Boar's Head. It is, after all, woven by me, with weft that I spun myself... So it's a neat 2 part project that I'm sure would get me good marks - if I was able to document it. I hate documentation. Does anyone know where I can get some historical documentation on a rigid heddle loom, spinning wheel, and tabby weave fabric? I know that the spinning wheel, at least, can be found in the Lutrell Psalter.... The rest I KNOW is period (Actually, tabby weave is pre-period. Like Neolithic age or something) but I'm having trouble finding references on the intarwebs. Maybeeithni will be able to help me dig up some references to rigid heddle, but I don't have the $$$ to buy a bunch of reference books before my self-imposed Boar's Head deadline, so I'm pretty well stuck with documenting out of books that people have lying about *now*.
I have a feeling that the best I will be able to do is to document the backstrap/rigid heddle loom and justify the use of the frame/rigid heddle loom for purposes of portability. I don't know why my brain is having such a hard time with what should be a very simple paper. I'm very tempted to blame the whole issue on SAD or some other seasonal brain malfunction, but I just can't seem to get my head around how to justify a weaving pattern of such antiquity (2500 BC) on a relatively modern loom which was made with yarn that was produced on a spinning wheel (1400 AD) that probably wasn't available to a culture that was using a rigid heddle loom during that period. My brain is way too literal sometimes. But if I want this project to work as a Viking piece, then I should have done all the spinning with a drop spindle... But I don't have *time* for that. And additionally, as a viking piece, I *should* have then used a standing warp-weighted loom, rather than a rigid heddle. *ARGH!* The only thing that is similar to what the vikings would have used is the END product. 22 inch wide, tabby woven, wool fabric.
I rewarped my loom with yarn that I spun myself, instead of the commercial wool that I used last time. In the "Good to Know" category, I need 4 balls of yarn to to a 10 foot warp. In the "Pissing Me Off" category, I used two differnet wool yarns that I've spun because I liked the color difference... Unfortunatley, despite the fact that the yarns were the same guage, my weaving is uneven, because the wool from the Blue Faced Leischesters is "grabby" and the Corridale is somewhat more smooth... So the Corridale weaves more tightly than the Leischester, and now my project is getting all slanty.
(Corridale on the right, Leischester on the left.)
So yes... I'm cranky this morning.
That odd slanty problem that I noticed in the stitches of my last sweater is happening again on this new sweater. It looks terrible. I believe it's being caused by the fact that my yarn is too fine for the needles that I chose. It depressed the heck out of me, but in the end, I've only put about a week's worth of work into this "failure"... Having moped all day Sunday, I've finally decided that this sweater will go into the garbage (Figuratively speaking. I will rip out the stitches and use the yarn as weft for my current weaving project.) and I'll plan a new project on smaller needles and see if that doesn't clear up the issue. Maybe
I'll take some yarn and needles to Needle Arts at
naughtyaelf's house and ask Moira to teach me to make socks. I have some size 1 needles that may be just the thing for this yarn. I should have worked more on my Boar's Head dress, but I just didn't feel like measuring and cutting gores. I really hate measuring and cutting fabric. It's nearly phobic. Part of the problem is that my finished cuts almost never work. That ties into the fact that I guestimate *everything* because I'm too lazy to take exact measurements. It's something that I'm going to have to get over, if I want to make decent garb. As usual, I'm frustrated with myself because I KNOW I'm capable of better work, but I'm always too rushed to do things the *right* way. I'll just have to remind myself that this time I am *not* rushed, and if I want things to turn out, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and take the time to *pin* and *measure*.
On the up side of things, I did finish my first-ever weaving project, and I actually quite like the way the fabric turned out. It isn't quite enough for an apron dress, but I'm sure I'll figure out *something* that can be made out of this pretty me-made wool fabric. On the down side of the same project, if I'm *good* I'll write up some documentation and compete this thing in A&S at Boar's Head. It is, after all, woven by me, with weft that I spun myself... So it's a neat 2 part project that I'm sure would get me good marks - if I was able to document it. I hate documentation. Does anyone know where I can get some historical documentation on a rigid heddle loom, spinning wheel, and tabby weave fabric? I know that the spinning wheel, at least, can be found in the Lutrell Psalter.... The rest I KNOW is period (Actually, tabby weave is pre-period. Like Neolithic age or something) but I'm having trouble finding references on the intarwebs. Maybe
eithni will be able to help me dig up some references to rigid heddle, but I don't have the $$$ to buy a bunch of reference books before my self-imposed Boar's Head deadline, so I'm pretty well stuck with documenting out of books that people have lying about *now*.I have a feeling that the best I will be able to do is to document the backstrap/rigid heddle loom and justify the use of the frame/rigid heddle loom for purposes of portability. I don't know why my brain is having such a hard time with what should be a very simple paper. I'm very tempted to blame the whole issue on SAD or some other seasonal brain malfunction, but I just can't seem to get my head around how to justify a weaving pattern of such antiquity (2500 BC) on a relatively modern loom which was made with yarn that was produced on a spinning wheel (1400 AD) that probably wasn't available to a culture that was using a rigid heddle loom during that period. My brain is way too literal sometimes. But if I want this project to work as a Viking piece, then I should have done all the spinning with a drop spindle... But I don't have *time* for that. And additionally, as a viking piece, I *should* have then used a standing warp-weighted loom, rather than a rigid heddle. *ARGH!* The only thing that is similar to what the vikings would have used is the END product. 22 inch wide, tabby woven, wool fabric.
I rewarped my loom with yarn that I spun myself, instead of the commercial wool that I used last time. In the "Good to Know" category, I need 4 balls of yarn to to a 10 foot warp. In the "Pissing Me Off" category, I used two differnet wool yarns that I've spun because I liked the color difference... Unfortunatley, despite the fact that the yarns were the same guage, my weaving is uneven, because the wool from the Blue Faced Leischesters is "grabby" and the Corridale is somewhat more smooth... So the Corridale weaves more tightly than the Leischester, and now my project is getting all slanty.
(Corridale on the right, Leischester on the left.)
So yes... I'm cranky this morning.
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I have all kinds of references for weaving, too. I can look some up when I get home, and send you stuff if you want.
From:
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From:
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Textiles and Clothing, c.1150-1450 (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London) (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London) by Elisabeth Crowfoot (Author), Frances Pritchard (Author), Kay Staniland (Author)
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber (1995).
From:
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Oh, and I'd be happy to teach you to knit socks if Aelf is busy, just let me know. I'll be at Boar's Head and have relatively little planned.
From:
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I'm not particularly adept at blocking, but I know people who are...
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