A Year of Projects 2015, Week 26.5

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For the past week, I’ve been crafting like it’s my job.  I also had an unusually high number of fun activities.  I had lunch in Diagon Alley with Ravelry friends who were in Orlando on vacation from Massachusetts.

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Of all the items listed for sale here, I most want the never-tangle wool.

I went to my first ever professional soccer game.  It was my cousin’s wife’s birthday and that’s what she wanted to do.

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My husband and I bought tickets to view last Sunday’s SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from the NASA causeway.  We didn’t want to get up at the crack of dawn and drive over, so we drove over Saturday night and stayed in a hotel.

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If you look closely, you can see Launch Pad 40 and maybe the rocket on the pad. There’s 4 objects that look like buildings. Pad 40 is between the two right hand buildings. There’s 4 lightning towers surrounding the pad; the rocket is in the middle.  It’s a slightly thicker line than the 4 surrounding towers.

Here’s the video I took of the launch.  The vehicle failed 139 seconds after launch.  I stopped recording two seconds before that because I was using my phone to record video and could barely see anything at that point.  It looked like a beautiful, perfect launch with nothing more to see.  And then the Liquid Oxygen tank exploded.

I still managed to get quite a bit of crafting done!  Let’s review the ridiculously ambitious list of goals I wrote:

Goals for June 21 to 30, 2015

  • Finish Raindrops on Roses Shawl (Headmistress Challenge)
  • Finish Grisou Scarf (homework, but which class?)
  • Finish Solid / 1×1 Scarf (OWL)
  • Three more color and weave scarves to meet OWL 50% (highly unlikely to finish)
  • Finish current Heart Illusion Dishcloth, plus 4 more (COMC?)
  • Tier Scarf (Charms or Potions)
  • Crochet Dishcloths (Transfiguration)
  • MHK1 swatches (Divination and / or Charms)
  • Small stuffed bird (DADA)
  • Cast on Sweet Summer Shawl (Quidditch Round 3; due July 8)
  • Liquid Silver Swatch (OOTP; due July 19)
  • Cast on Begonia Swirl Shawl (Headmistress Challenge; due July 28)

Fully Accomplished Goals

I finished the Raindrops on Roses Shawl.  I absolutely love it.  I test knit this for Assorted Musings (Ravelry, blog); the pattern will be released on July 15.  I plan to publish a detailed blog post for FO Friday on July 3.

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I finished the Grisou Scarf.  I test knit this for Sasoolero (Ravelry, blog) and I’m not sure when she plans to release the pattern.  I will publish a blog post on this project for FO Friday on July 3.

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Partially Accomplished Goals

I started the Solid / 1×1 Scarf.  I’ve woven somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of it.  I have the hardest time taking pictures of weaving in progress.  Since the finished work gets wound onto the cloth beam, it’s difficult to see progress!

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I finished the Heart Illusion Dishcloth that I had in progress, plus two more.

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I started the tier scarf and knit about 1/3 of it.

Knitting while waiting for the rocket launch.
Knitting while waiting for the rocket launch.

I crocheted one dishcloth.  In my goal, I didn’t say how many I wanted to knit.  I need 18 for the Dishcloth Advent Calendar, but didn’t expect to get them all done this month.  I was hoping for 9.  I learned how to single crochet increase, single crochet decrease, and crochet through the back loop.

I knit the first 3 swatches for MHK1.  I still need to weave in the ends and block them.  I also wrote answers to several more questions.

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Unaccomplished Goals

As expected, I did not weave the 3 additional scarves for my OWL.  I did not make the stuffed bird.  I decided to submit the Grisou scarf for DADA instead, and didn’t need the bird for anything else.  I have not cast on the Sweet Summer Shawl.  I will be doing that today.  I have not swatched for Liquid Silver.  I will be doing that today.  I have not cast on Begonia Swirl Shawl.  I think I’m going to wait a couple of weeks and cast on before I go to TKGA in San Diego.  It will make excellent travel knitting.

Other Projects

I made a felted cat bed for Tiger.  I managed to knit 1,047 yards worth of garter stitch in less than 3 days, felt it, and stitch it together!  It wasn’t on my goal list because I hadn’t decided to do it until after I wrote that list.  Tiger’s been sleeping on an alpaca blanket my father bought me when he was in Peru and I didn’t want it ruined.  I needed a quick replacement.

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Goals for July 1 to 5, 2015

  • Knit at least 1/2 of the Sweet Summer Shawl
  • Cast on Miranda Shawl
  • Swatch and Cast on Bubbles Baby Blanket
  • Swatch and Cast on Liquid Silver Shawl
  • Finish spinning and plying the Cormo I’ve been working on since February
  • Start spinning the 3 Feet of Sheep (8 ounces BFL) on July 4 for Tour de Fleece

I’m tempted to write more, but I think this is more than enough.  My husband is off on Friday and Monday for the July 4 holiday.  I will have less crafting time than usual because I’ll be hanging out with him, and we’re going to the beach for at least one day!

Updated List of Goals for 2015

Knitting

  • Knit myself a sweater
  • Improve my finishing techniques
  • Finish MHK Level 1
    • First 3 swatches finished by June 24, 2015
  • Dishcloth Advent Calendar
    • Tribbles, finished January 18, 2015
    • Leaves, finished March 30, 2015 but never blogged
    • Heart Illusion Dishcloths (in progress)
  • Charity Knits
  • Do some test knits
    • Sand Tracks Scarf, finished June 16, 2015
    • Grisou Scarf, finished June 24, 2015
    • Raindrops on Roses Shawlette, finished June 27, 2015
  • Finish or frog all UFOs
    • Traveling Scarf
    • Bigger on the Inside Hat
    • Evenstar
    • Quinn Bag
    • Baby Blue Monster
  • Socks
  • Other Projects
  • Design at least one project from scratch

Crochet

  • Learn to read crochet patterns
  • Learn all the basic crochet stitches.
  • Make at least one non-granny square crochet project
  • Dishcloth Advent Calendar
    • Diagonal Crochet Dishcloths (in progress)

Spinning

  • Breed Specific Spinning
  • Learn to spin on a drop spindle

Weaving

  • Continue playing with color and weave drafts
  • Learn pick up stick drafts
  • Learn Inkle Weaving
  • Learn Kumihimo braiding
  • Explore Twill weaves on the floor loom
  • Make items for the Guild Sale
  • Other

Dyeing

  • Finish dyeing the MAPLE LEAF Shawls
  • pH / water source experiment
  • Return to dye triangles project

A Year of Projects 2015, Week 25

It’s been a busy week around here, and this coming week will be busy too.  However, there’s always time to craft!

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Here’s the list of goals I wrote last week:

Goals for the Week of June 14 – 20, 2015

  • Finish the Sand Tracks Scarf.
  • Finish the Raindrops on Roses Shawlette.
  • Finish half of the questions and swatches for MHK1.
  • Finish at least one color and weave scarf on the rigid heddle loom.
  • Cast on the Liquid Silver Shawl.
  • Knit the Grisou Scarf (another test knit).

I’ve finished the Sand Tracks Scarf.

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The Raindrops on Roses Shawlette is a stockinette stitch body with three repeats of a lace pattern.  I finished that, but did not bind off.  I have enough yarn to knit at least one, possibly two, more repeats of the lace.  Since this is a test knit, I e-mailed the designer and asked if she preferred that I bind off now, per the pattern, or if it was okay for me to knit extra repeats.  She said she’d like to see the shawl in a larger size, so I’m going to knit the additional repeats and expect to finish early this week.  Here’s how it looked on Wednesday, 4 rows shy of finishing the first three lace repeats:

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I haven’t done anything with MHK1 this week.  I need to make this a priority as I want to finish before I go to TKGA’s Annual Conference in San Diego from July 21-26.

Yesterday, I tied on a color and weave scarf.  This is a solid red warp.  The weft alternates one pick of the same red as the warp with one pick of a tweed.  I’ve woven perhaps 1/4 of the scarf, and plan to finish it early this week.

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I looked at all the crafting I plan to finish this month and decided to move Liquid Silver to early July.  I do want to swatch for it by the end of the month.

The Grisou Scarf is a test knit.  I am using a different yarn than the designer, so swatched for it.  I ended up knitting swatches with three different size needles!  I’ve just got to finish the border, and expect to finish knitting it today.

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While I was waiting to hear back from the designer of Raindrops on Roses and for the Grisou swatches to dry, I cast on another Heart Illusion Dishcloth.  I got about 1/2 of it knit.

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Finally, though this has nothing to do with knitting, I wanted to post a picture of me with my father, since today is Father’s Day in the United States.  I often say that I’ve birdwatched since I was 6 months old.  My father started birdwatching shortly after my parents married, and once I came along, I was in a backpack on his back.  This morning, my father, mother, aunt, uncle, and I went birdwatching for Father’s Day.  We went to a newly opened 11 mile drive that skirts along the northern edge of Lake Apopka, not far from where we live.  We only saw 22 species of birds, all of which are common in our area, but we saw many, many individual birds of most species.  Here’s a picture my mom took of my Dad and I, looking at birds:

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Goals for June 21 to 30, 2015

I’m writing this set of goals through the end of the month, to cover the class deadlines for the HPKCHC.  I honestly don’t expect to finish all of these items, but I’m going to do my best!

  • Finish Raindrops on Roses Shawl (Headmistress Challenge)
  • Finish Grisou Scarf (homework, but which class?)
  • Finish Solid / 1×1 Scarf (OWL)
  • Three more color and weave scarves to meet OWL 50% (highly unlikely to finish)
  • Finish current Heart Illusion Dishcloth, plus 4 more (COMC?)
  • Tier Scarf (Charms or Potions)
  • Crochet Dishcloths (Transfiguration)
  • MHK1 swatches (Divination and / or Charms)
  • Small stuffed bird (DADA)
  • Cast on Sweet Summer Shawl (Quidditch Round 3; due July 8)
  • Liquid Silver Swatch (OOTP; due July 19)
  • Cast on Begonia Swirl Shawl (Headmistress Challenge; due July 28)

Updated List of Goals for 2015

Knitting

  • Knit myself a sweater
  • Improve my finishing techniques
  • Finish MHK Level 1
  • Dishcloth Advent Calendar
    • Tribbles, finished January 18, 2015
    • Leaves, finished March 30, 2015 but never blogged
    • Heart Illusion Dishcloths (in progress)
  • Charity Knits
  • Do some test knits
    • Sand Tracks Scarf, finished June 16, 2015
    • Raindrops on Roses Shawlette (in progress)
  • Finish or frog all UFOs
    • Traveling Scarf
    • Bigger on the Inside Hat
    • Evenstar
    • Quinn Bag
    • Baby Blue Monster
  • Socks
  • Other Projects
  • Design at least one project from scratch

Crochet

  • Learn to read crochet patterns
  • Learn all the basic crochet stitches.
  • Make at least one non-granny square crochet project
  • Dishcloth Advent Calendar

Spinning

  • Breed Specific Spinning
  • Learn to spin on a drop spindle

Weaving

  • Continue playing with color and weave drafts
  • Learn pick up stick drafts
  • Learn Inkle Weaving
  • Learn Kumihimo braiding
  • Explore Twill weaves on the floor loom
  • Make items for the Guild Sale
  • Other

Dyeing

  • Finish dyeing the MAPLE LEAF Shawls
  • pH / water source experiment
  • Return to dye triangles project

Woven Doctor Who Scarf

I finished the Doctor Who Scarf while I was in Vermont last week, and presented it to my cousin as a graduation gift.  He loved it!  Here’s all the info about the scarf.

Official Stats

  • Draft: Plain Weave
  • Loom: 15″ Cricket Rigid Heddle Loom
  • Reed: 8
  • Warp Stats
    • Yarn: 369 yards llama yarn, gifted to me by Stacy, produced at a local-to-her farm
    • Loom waste: 42 yards
    • Total Warp Ends: 96
    • Ends Per Inch (EPI): 8
    • Warp Length: 16 feet (no, that’s not a typo!)
  • Weft Stats
    • Yarn:
      • 52 yards Berroco Vintage, colorway 5180 (purple)
      • 63 yards llama yarn (camel)
      • 24 yards Peace Fleece worsted in Sheplova Mushroom (bronze)
      • 36 yards Peace Fleece worsted in Khrushchev Corn (yellow)
      • 70 yards Peace Fleece worsted in Sakhalin Salmon (rust)
      • 69 yards Lion Brand Amazing in Olympia (gray)
      • 44 yards Peace Fleece worsted in Shaba (?) (green)
    • Picks Per Inch (PPI): 7-8
    • Width in the Reed: 12″
  • Dimensions Before Finishing: 164″ x 11.5″ (not including fringe)
  • Finished Dimensions: 153″ x 10.5″ (not including fringe)
  • Made for: My cousin Cooper, as a college graduation present
  • Ravelry Project Page

About This Project

My cousin loves Doctor Who (and many other things geeky), so I decided to make him a Doctor Who scarf as a graduation present.  If you aren’t familiar with this particular bit of geekery, Doctor Who is a science fiction television show produced by the BBC.  It’s been around since 1963, though it was off the air between 1989 and 2005 (If you’d like an overview of the show, check out the Wikipedia entry).  The title character is a time traveling alien who regenerates rather than dying.  So far, 13 different actors have portrayed the Doctor (I’m counting John Hurt as the War Doctor, for those of you yelling that it’s only 12).

Each iteration of the Doctor has a different personality and costuming.  The Fourth Doctor, portrayed by actor Tom Baker, wore a very long multi-colored scarf.  According to legend, the scarf came about because a costume designer picked up some wool and handed it over to a knitter, asking her to knit a scarf.  She used up all the wool she was given, creating a very long scarf.  While this wasn’t the original intention of the costume designer, he liked it and the BBC went ahead with it.  Over the various seasons that Tom Baker was on the show, different versions of the scarf were created, including a stunt scarf.  Many people — including me — have knit replicas of that scarf, and there’s a website recounting the various iterations of the scarf and options for knitting it yourself.

I knit this scarf for my husband back in 2010.  I'd rather poke my eyes out with my knitting needles than knit this much garter stitch again.
I knit this scarf for my husband back in 2010. I’d rather poke my eyes out with my knitting needles than knit this much garter stitch again.

Since I didn’t want to knit that much garter stitch again, I decided to try weaving the scarf instead.  I looked on Ravelry and found woven Dr. Who scarves by the following Ravelers: Jason, Serenova, Littleredmitten, jeen, jeen again, jeen a third time, jeen a fourth time to use up the leftovers from the first three, quiltnknitgirl, rosalynk, and MountainAsh.  Only Jeen has detailed project information.  Some of the others included the yarn and yardage used, but no detailed project notes.  Therefore, I used the knitting patterns at Doctor Who Scarf and created a spreadsheet to figure out the weaving.

When making a Doctor Who scarf, you can decide to be true to the literal representation of the scarf, the spirit of the scarf, or both.  A literal representation of the scarf means picking a season, getting yarn that is as close as possible to the colors used in the scarf in that season, and knitting stripes that are exactly the width of the ones on the scarf.  The spirit of the scarf is going with what you have on hand and making something unexpected.

I knew I wasn’t going for a straight literal representation of the scarf because that would mean knitting it.  I also wanted to use as much stash yarn as possible, rather than buying yarn.  I tried to get as close as possible to the colors in the scarf as my stash would allow, but I wasn’t going to stress about minor color variations (I ended up buying purple yarn because I had nothing in my stash that was close, but everything else came from stash).  On the other hand, I did want to pick a season and replicate the color order and stripe lengths of that season’s scarf.  The Doctor Who Scarf website has a side-by-side comparison of the scarves for seasons 12 to 14, with the total length, stripe length, and total width of the scarf marked.  I decided to go with a season 12 scarf because it is the longest of all of them.

Unlike knitting, weaving shrinks when taking off the loom and wet finished.  In order to adjust for this, I added 20% to the length of each stripe, hoping that by doing so, I would get close to the correct stripe size after finishing.  The scarf only shrunk by a total of 11″, which is about 7% of the pre-finishing length, so I probably could have added only 10% to the length when weaving.  Unfortunately, I forgot to measure the length of stripes after finishing, so I don’t have the data to do an actual comparison.  Since I used 3 different brands of yarn in the weft, I assume the different yarns shrank at different rates, but don’t know for sure.

This is the first project in which I did calculations to determine the yardage I needed for weft.  I used a spreadsheet formula to add the length of all stripes of each color.  I then multiplied that length by 88 (8 picks per inch * 11 inches wide in the finished scarf) and divided by 36 to get an estimated yardage for each color.  This calculation was not particularly accurate.

Total Weft LengthEstimated Weft YardageActual Weft Yardage
Purple18.3044.7352
Camel32.4079.2063
Bronze19.2046.9323
Mustard13.8033.7336
Rust22.5055.0070
Grey23.7057.9369
Greenish Brown24.9060.8744
154.80378.40357

There’s a number of possible reasons my initial calculations were inaccurate.  One is that I did not accurately measure the length of each color as I wove.  Or perhaps I missed weaving a stripe in one color.  I don’t think this is the case — I had a 4×6 card with a list of stripes and I crossed them off as I wove — but it’s possible.

I wasn’t always getting 8 picks per inch as I wove, partly due to tension challenges (more on that in a minute) and partly because of the different types of yarn.  Since I used stash yarns, and some of the yarns were partial balls, I may not have had an accurate weight for the partial skeins before I started the project.  I didn’t weigh each one; I relied on the weight listed in Ravelry, assuming that I had accurately listed information on my earlier projects.

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The Trouble with Tassels

In the television show, the tassels are made from one strand of each of the seven colors in the scarf.  When weaving, the fringe is usually the warp, and the warp for this project is only one color.  I considered a number of options for finishing the scarf.  I could:

  • Dye individual strands of fringe to match the stripes
  • Cut off the fringe, sew a hem, make tassels, and sew them to the edge of the scarf
  • Needlefelt 1″ or so on each end, rather than hemming, then sew the tassels to the needlefelted edge
  • Leave the warp as the fringe, leaning towards the spirit of the scarf not an accurate representation

I planned to sew a hem, but I ended up leaving the warp as fringe because I ran out of time — the scarf took nearly 15 hours to dry and by the time it was dry I had to pack it.  I don’t think needlefelting would have worked on this project, because I don’t think the llama yarn I used for warp would felt.  I tried wet-felting a join between two skeins and it didn’t work.

Warped Warp

As soon as I started tying on the warp, I knew that this warp was going to be problematic.  This yarn was very stretchy.  The long warp meant that the warp was sagging between the loom and the warping peg, resulting in different lengths for each strand of warp.

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Then disaster struck — I had one more strand of yarn to bring through the heddle when the warping peg hopped onto the floor.  My entire warp was on the floor, and the loop at the end was in disarray.  Rather than rewarping the entire project, I gathered up the end, shook the warp to even it out as much as possible, then wound it onto the loom.  I stopped regularly to yank the warp and shake out any tangles.  When the warp was mostly wound on, I cut above the loop so that the warp would be even.  Since I had to cut so much off to even up the end, my warp was a little too short for my planned project.  I had to skip the last two stripes.

The llama yarn wasn’t the best warp.  It was strong, but it was very stretchy and hairy.  The stretchiness, combined with the long length of this warp, led to variations in tension as I wove.  The hairiness of the warp meant that it shed as I moved the heddle back and forth, leaving debris all over my floor and table.

Learning Experiences

This was the first project I wove using a boat shuttle.  I have the 9″ Mini Schacht Shuttle (The Woolery, affiliate link), which I received as a Christmas gift.  I wanted that shuttle specifically for this project.  Seven colors, and long stretches of a single color make it impossible to carry yarn up the selvedge.  The price of the boat shuttle plus a couple dozen 4″ bobbins (The Woolery, affiliate link) is a bit more than buying extra stick shuttles, but the boat shuttle is more flexible.

It took me a little while to get used to the boat shuttle.  I discovered that it worked better when the tension was higher.  When the tension was too loose, the boat shuttle tended to slip between the warp strands and fall to the floor.  I also learned that the boat shuttle worked better when I threw it right side up.  The bobbin does not sit directly in the middle of the shuttle; it is a bit closer to the top than the bottom.  If I put the shuttle through with the top side down, the wider parts of the bobbin tended to catch on the warp strands.  The shuttle has “Schacht” printed on the side of it.  It is right side up when that printing is right side up.

This is the first project I’ve done where I cut the yarn for color changes rather than carrying colors up the selvedge.  Therefore, it is the first project where I had to manage ends.  On other projects, I carried the ends along the bottom of the work.  I started doing that with this project and ran into a problem.  As I wound, the cloth beam caught the ends and pulled them vertically.  If you look carefully at the purple stripe in the foreground of the picture on the deck, you can see some wonkiness to the selvedge.  This is the result of the end getting caught in the cloth beam and pulling.  After I figure out what was happening, I brought my ends to the top of the work and cut them short before winding them around the cloth beam.

This project was just about the maximum size the 15″ Cricket loom can handle.  By the time I finished, the cloth beam was full.  I might have been able to get one more turn of the cloth beam — just enough to finish those extra two stripes — but it would have been close.  The yarns I used for this project were heavy worsted weight.  Thinner yarns would make a thinner cloth, so theoretically the loom should be able to handle a longer warp if I used fingering- or lace-weight yarn.

Conclusion

Weaving a Doctor Who Scarf is a lot more fun than knitting one.  I tied on the warp on Saturday and cut the finished project off the loom on Wednesday.  The project took something like 16 hours of hands on time, including the extra time it took to fix the warp after the warping peg abandoned its duties.  While I don’t want to knit a Doctor Who Scarf ever again, I wouldn’t hesitate to weave one!

Cooper opening the scarf while my mother (l) and cousin (Cooper's sister) (r) watch.
Cooper opening the scarf while my mother (l) and cousin (Cooper’s sister) (r) watch.

KCBW6, Day 5: Something Different

Today’s prompt is to publish something different than you usually publish.  The ways in which this particular post is different for me has more to do with process than content.  I always write posts from my desktop at home.  If I’m not home, I don’t write.  I no longer carry a laptop with me and my iPad can be a bit annoying to use for blogging.

Despite this usual practice, I am writing this post on my iPad, while sitting in the West Hartford, CT library, 1500+ miles from my home in Florida.  I wanted to share my past week with you!  Last Friday, May 8, I left Florida and flew to Hartford, then drove up to Burlington, Vermont.  I’ve wandered around New England, visiting family, friends, and yarn stores.  I’ve limited myself to one picture for each day of the trip — also a departure from my usual wordy posts.  Don’t worry, there will be more posts on the yarny portions of the trip!

After I arrived in Vermont, I had to cut the ends off the Dr. Who Scarf.
On Saturday, I attended my cousin's college graduation.
On Saturday, I attended my cousin’s college graduation.
On Sunday, I visited a dairy farm and a cow tried to eat me. Seriously! She wasn’t just licking — she wrapped her tongue around my wrist and tried to drag my hand into her mouth.
On Monday, I check out the Burlington, Vermont area.  This included a tour of the Ben & Jerry's factory.
On Monday, I checked out the Burlington, Vermont area. This included a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s factory.
On Tuesday, I yarn crawled my way from Burlington, Vermont to Northampton, Massachusetts.
On Wednesday, I visited WEBS!! (For the uninitiated, that’s the largest yarn store in the U.S.) I had them ship my yarn because cones don’t compress well in luggage.
On Thursday, I visited The Book Barn.  This is my favorite used bookstore and it is located in Niantic and East Lyme, Connecticut.
On Thursday, I visited The Book Barn. This is my favorite used bookstore and it is located in Niantic and East Lyme, Connecticut.

Today, I’m flying home.  I have so much yarny wonderfulness to share with you from this week.  I can’t wait to get home and start writing!

WIP Wednesday: May 6, 2015

It’s been another busy week of crafting!  Spending the entire weekend doing demos helped in that regard.  I worked slower than usual, since I was chatting with Festival attendees and regularly leaving my work aside to show an interested person how to weave on the floor loom, but I was there for so many hours that I got a lot done despite the frequent interruptions.

Super Secret Shawl

I only got 1/2 of a repeat done this week.  I will be bringing this project with me as travel knitting next week, and expect to get a great deal more finished.

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Cormo Spinning

I spent most of Saturday spinning.  Three hours at my weekly spinning group followed by 5 hours spinning at the Festival of the Arts was enough time to spin at least half of the bobbin that is on my wheel (2.5 to 3 ounces).

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Woven Doctor Who Scarf

On Saturday night, I tied this scarf on to my rigid heddle loom.  This evening I finished weaving it and it is currently soaking for wet finishing.

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