Weaving Part 2

This Wednesday, my 3rd weaving class, I started to weave! This first picture was taken after few inches weaving. That is the "boat shuttle" in between the threads.

This last picture shows the threads need to stay "crossed" (a clear triangle), so I won't miss any thread or weave a thread in the wrong place....confusing confusing. When I first started weaving, Tammy told me to keep an eye on the thread, made sure they are on their correct position. Whew, how do I do that? I mean I know my thread pattern, but total of 151 threads on 4 shafts...I didn't get it. I end up with couple mistakes, I caught one right away, so I was able to weave back and fix it, but the other one was way back, oh well, we'll figure something out, there is just no way I'll go all the way back to the first few inches to fix that, my project is suppose to be 100 inches long, I'm at 50 inches now. Another few hours I should be able to finish my scarf. I need to find time to go back to the studio soon before I forget how to do it...

Wicked

Well, I wanted to finish Sahara before I start Wicked, but but but....even if I finish Sahara now I can't wear it! So, I casted on for Wicked, I'm using Berroco's Softwist. I'm still working on Sahara, I finished one sleeve, one more to go, I will try to finish Sahara before end of this month (will I?!).

I'm making the short sleeves size M, I need something big enough to cover my tummy, I hope I can finish it before my belly gets too big or the weather gets too warm...

This picture was taken couple days ago, I just put the sleeves on scrap yarn today, I tried it on, so far so good, love it!

I caved in

When I took my yarn dyeing class at TLD Designs, I saw Tammy's weaved scarves, stoles and some garments, I was so mesmerized by her FOs. I know it costs "a lot" of money to get into this hobby, but I just want to try it to see what "weaving" is all about.

I signed up the beginners class #1, it will take total of 12 hours to finish the class (3 hours at a time). My first meet was on 2/14, Tammy spent about 1.5 hours just to go over the different types of looms, and parts of the looms (way too many things to remember). Then I got to decide what my first project will be, I picked a long scarf (100"). Then we spent another 1/2 hour to 45 min to write up a worksheet for my scarf; basically how much yarn I need and how much yarn will go to waste and how the shrinkage rate will affect my finish scarf....lots of math. After all that, I got to pick the yarns, ooh, my favorite part. Tammy said this also a time consuming part, some people will take forever to decide what to use, it's just too many possibilities. I wasn't so bad, I picked mine out pretty quick--purple theme, I picked 2 rayon chenille yarns, one metallic thread, one thick & thin novalty yarn and one royan snob yarn (some yarns I just couldn't come up with a suitable names, sorry :-p). I found this on All Fiber Arts's website, it shows the steps of how to warp a loom, it explained better if you are lost already ^O^.

My worksheet

Then I got to use the "warping board" and "warping paddle" to measure the warp threads (yarns) and put it on the warping board. I know it probably doesn't make any sense if you don't know anything about weaving, that's how I felt for my first 90 min of the class (totally clueless)! But once Tammy got me going then I started to get the idea about the "warping board and the paddle". I can't say I completely know what I was doing, but I was able to followed her instructions pretty well, Tammy said by the time I get to my 3rd projects, I'll have better ideas about weaving (3rd project? How am I going to achieve that?). It took me about 1/2 hour to 45 min to put my "threads" onto the warping board. That was my Beginner Weaving 1-1.

We met again on 2/16, the goal was to put all the threads on to the "reed" and then onto the loom. Sound easy, eh? NOOOO! I took down my threads from the warping board with no problem, piece of cake!

Here is the hard part, well, not hard, but very tedious; I need to thread all my threads (151 threads to be exact) thru the "reed" and then put the reed on to the loom and then thread all 151 threads thru the "heddles". I was very concentrated at this task, if not, my finished scarf will not look the way I wanted. This process took me about 3.5 hours. Next week, I will need to "wind the warp" and then "tie the warp on the loom" then I can start weaving!!

threads on the reed

thread on heddles

back of the loom with all threads thru the heddles

I'm still need to put all those long threads on the back warp...comb...comb...pull tight...wind

all threads are on the the loom...yeah!!

Confession?

I always thought Regina's baby countdown thing was so cute, I just couldn't resist, I had to put it up there...so guess what? Yep, I'm pregnant!

With my first baby, I did okay, I was able to eat, excise, and play with my rubber stamps. This time, I caught the "morning sickness" bug, except it doesn't happen in the morning, it happens in the afternoon, and worst between 6pm~midnight. I am always tired and nauseous (results: cranky), I've been yelling at my 3-yo and dear hubby alot (feel so guilty) mostly because my son doesn't listen to me. I feel so bad that I don't have energy to play with my 3-yo, he is like the "Energized" bunny, non-stop, I just couldn't keep up with him! I don't even feel like pick the needles and knit (I really need to finish my Sahara). Some of my friends say I should feel better after 3 months, some say they puked the whole 9 months....I'm crossing my fingers that it'll over after 3 months, I'm at 10 weeks, oh, two more weeks......

Long time no Blog

Wow, I can't believe I haven't blog anything since 1/17! Well, this one is kind of like a "documentary" for our very first handmade yarn swift, it was for my sister's birthday. I couldn't post this before her birthday, that would ruin the "surprise".

Sometimes in the 2nd week of Jan. I was just wandering from one blog to another and happened to see Carrieoke made a yarn swift using this instruction. Hubby is a very very good "handy" man (to me). He likes to hand made things, he loves working with metals(especially steel), but in this case, I think wood is more practical. I printed out the instruction to see if he's interested in making one. I showed him, and he seemed pretty excited about it, he's more interested in finding out if we can actually make it under $20. We went out and bought all the material for just under $20 (Home Depot, Ace hardware), yeah!! Hubby's friend Randy has a wood workshop in his basement, he got table sew, drill, and lots other tools (which I don't know the names) that are for wood working.

We went over to Randy's house on Sunday 1/14. Hubby was only planning on cutting the wood and then go home to finish the project, but Randy offered to help since he's got all the nice tools. So we stayed about 5~6 hours and finished the yarn swift there.

That tool on the right was used to "round" off the edges (one of Randy's suggestion), which turned out very nice, very professtional looking :-P

Hubby drilling holes on one of the piece.



After everything was cut, drilled, smoothed/rounded, we took it home and hubby used something called "Bee Wax" to finish all the pieces. We assembled everything together, it spins beautifully. I didn't have a chance to take a picture, this one is from my sis's blog. I'm proud to say "it works"!!