Rigid Heddle Love

Well, I’m getting a late start on NaKniSweMo, but I’m bound and determined to get at least one sweater done, and maybe 2. My plan is to make matching-ish cardigans for me and Pearly. I’m using this, a Tour de Fleece handspun from a couple years back.

It’s actually not my favorite yarn ever, a disappointing final combination of some really gorgeous fiber that promised to be marvelous right up until I plied it. I’m hoping I like it better in a sweater than in the skein–and from winding it into balls, I think I just might.

I thought I’d be doing shitloads of baby knitting, but once Birdy started crawling, I kinda put up my knitting and am only just now getting it back out. I’m hoping to be able to just wing it, using the cast-on numbers from this sweater, which has had a very long life, thanks to the all-over ribbing, but which she won’t be able to wear that much longer:

I think that was the last think I knit. OH! No, there’s something else on the needles, something that I need to hurry up and finish now that it’s cold. I think it’s going to be awesome. I hope.

Next weekend, I’m taking a weaving class from Linda Stanfill, who taught me how to warp my Knitter’s Loom during October’s Fiber School. I started what I thought would be a big throw rug from my amassed stash from fiber workshop handspun (my own, demo samples, and orphans from Yarn School, Camp Pluckyfluff, classes I taught at The Wicked Stitch, etc.). But 1) it was way too long to wind on and I had to keep unrolling and rigging it back up by tying it on and 2) I chose a weakish yarn for the warp and it just couldn’t hold up for the yards and yards required of it, and I got sick of knotting in more.

But in the end, I ended up with yards of great handwoven fabric that I’m probably making into sari silk-lined project bags for Woolfest.

Then I got the wee Ashford SampleIt! (yes, allonewordhalfitalicized with an exclamation point!) mini rigid heddle and started making scarves from handspun and commercial stash. It’s so gratifying to weave up handspun you’ve been puzzling over how to use for years. I’m hoping to weave a lot of Christmas presents, plus a nice batch for Woolfest. (Look at me thinking of Woolfest sooner than the week before! I’m a planning mastermind!)

Both of these use Laura’s Pygoras handspun for warp and commercial yarn for weft. The first one, I didn’t have enough handspun for all the slots, so I alternated between handspun and commercial. I really like the results.