kitty: a happy crafty weekend

With work, there hasn't been a lot of crafting going on, but I did have an absolutley amazing crafty weekend. I took some real time off for myself, something I seldom have the luxury of doing it seems these days. First off, a little weaving update, not a lot to report.

The Specs: Pattern: Striped Table Runner Yarn: Vintage Dry Spun Linen. Hand Spun Japanese Hemp, and Tsumugi Silk Loom: Macomber - 4-harness The weaving is coming along painfully slow. Part of the problem is I only get to weave once a week, I have been absent as well as the teacher, and the other problem is that the headles on the loom unfortunately are cutting the dry spun linen so that my back is beginning to look like a torcher device of broken strings. So any small advances of the loom require resetting up all the spindles and the spools to regain tension. Even with very careful set up, the tension is also beginning to get off. So the back of the loom now has a group of knitting needles holding threads on top.

Doesn't that look like a scary photo? I stopped this past week because two more threads were loosening up and I didn't feel like finding something to take up the slack.

So now on to the fun stuff. One of the girls in the weaving class was sweet enough to come up with a fiber day for any one who wanted to come this past weekend. L brought her amazing fleeces from this past springs cutting. They were the absolute nicest fleeces I think I have ever seen. They were clean, not greasy, and some of the prettiest colours. Here were two of her boy’s fleeces. All it did was make me really wish I could go pet a sheep and thank them for their beautiful fiber. L is truly a good mother to her sheep. I ended up buying one of the fleeces from her that was an amazing brown and fawn colour. Her name was Cathy, after "Chatty Cathy," since she is the loud one in the flock. I will post more photos when I try my hand at breaking apart the folds and washing it this spring. I just need to find some netting and safety pins. I cannot wait. It is destined for a lace shawl.

While there I spent the afternoon spinning and talking with friends. I finished up a ball of roving that I had started over the holidays and when I got home I was brave enough to try my hand at spinning hopefully sock weight for Mia. She sent me this roving at Christmas, so hopefully I can manage to spin her some sock yarn as a gift. It always amazes me to see how multi-colour roving spins up. You can never tell, or at least I cannot tell yet. The above is from one of Spunky Eclectic blends. I also started a mitten on Sunday night, but that will have to wait until there is a match for its debut before felting. L was sweet enough to bring me yarn, needles, and a pattern since she knew I always wanted to learn to knit mittens. Now my end product does look pretty funny. Have a great crafty week!