I’ve discussed before the need to be documenting what you do. I’m not that great at it when it comes to crafting, though. The featured picture is my weaving “journal”. I really only use when I’m making a pattern in the weft, since that is what I’m actively doing, and I don’t want to unwind everything to figure out if I did 6 inches or 8 inches in that stripe. I also use it to doodle my patterning for my warp. I have x number of spaces, and I want y number of stripes, but I want z number such and such a width. For everyone who thought math wouldn’t help them…I have to draw pictures…and I actually did pretty good in math. As you can see, I futz, and then end up with “nothing like this”. But I guess it’s a place to start, right?
So, what is my “failure”? I didn’t figure out how much yarn I was starting with. I had teal and lavender, and then a variegated mess of the two. I knew I wanted stripes of the solid, and make the weft the variegated. This was “found” yarn. I have no idea where or when I got it, but it came without bands, and so I just kind of went for it.
I was going to have a perfectly symmetrical warp, so, I started in the middle and worked my way out, and yeah, not enough yarn. Oops. That’s OK, though! One of my favorite sayings is “If you don’t have a Plan B, you don’t have a Plan”. I’m pretty sure I first heard that on NCIS because I’ve ALWAYS been an old lady. I had some left over teal from the yarn potluck, I figured I’d just add that into the mix and see. This is even adding that in, and I’m still not balanced AT ALL. Plus, I ran out of the teal potluck yarn.
So, yeah, that didn’t work either. My entryway was out of commission for a day until I could get more of the potluck yarn to finish up the warp. (Poor Poopie) As you can see, there really ended up being almost no rhyme or reason to the stripes, though it looks like there should be. When these things happen, I think fondly of my BFF from high school, A. We would go to our friend’s house for lunch, where they had a wall hanging that *ALMOST* had a pattern to the quilt blocks. If you pulled off this row, then the remainder had a pattern, or if you pulled from the other side, the rest would have a pattern. It drove A batty. This stripe pattern looks like it should have a pattern, and just maybe you aren’t smart enough to see it. If you see it, you are smarter than me. This is what happens when you don’t properly prepare, and neither Plans A nor B really work out.
.
I am confident enough in my weaving that this isn’t a big deal. Also, despite what I have thought for years and years, I am a process crafter. There’s a school of thought that one is either a “process” (knitter, but I’m substituting crafter), or a “product”. Are you in it for the process? or just the finished product? I’ve always thought I’m a product crafter, since in so much of my life I’m so goal-oriented. However, I’ve had to come to terms that I’m not necessarily what I always thought I was. I’m taking a journey, not arriving at a destination. Since I’m not trying to make something in particular, there isn’t a place I’m heading, so I can’t get lost. For those of you who know me IRL and are confused…this is in crafting ONLY. And ONLY when I don’t have a Project in mind. I can be Zen with whatever comes. IRL, I have obligations I need to meet. I cannot just be Zen with whatever comes, because that could mean I’m not able to fulfill my obligations. When I’m making a Project, Poopie can attest that the frustrations of gauge not working or colors not being right drives me to tears. As I’ve stated before, I have no weaving obligations. I make cloth. That’s it. Cloth. And you are the A hole for trying to make it more. So, maybe I have a “direction” I’m going, I’m heading towards Cloth, as long as I’m still heading in that direction, I’m good.
This is the weaving I was doing during my experiment with living without electricity. (Like the spin I put on that awful week?) But, one of the warp threads broke, and while totally fixable, it wasn’t something I felt comfortable doing by candlelight. One of the things I love about crafting is that all of the problems in crafting (unlike life) can be fixed. By me. Even if the fix is tearing it all out, and never looking at it again. This wasn’t that drastic an issue. I can fix a broken warp thread. See?
Yes, these pictures are all the same project. The difference in light makes a huge difference, and is a major reason why I miss buying fiber in person. I just can’t tell over the computer screen what color something is. I’d also like you to note the subtleness that all the cross colors create. It almost looks like it should be plaid. Again, A’s brain would explode. In most of my crafting, as long as I don’t let anyone see the pattern (you know, like the weaving journal I posted at the top), I’m golden. I made Cloth. No one has any way of knowing I wanted North Cloth, and ended up with South Cloth. Except, Dear Reader, I’m letting you in on my secret. I’m counting on you to keep it.
There’s another lesson in here about colors mixing, and the unexpected joys that can bring, but I’m tired right now, and it’s not quite formulating for me. I’m going to go and watch a serial killer documentary and work on some more weaving. Have a great weekend!
My favorite John story from that day was one of the ladies had warped her loom funky. I didn’t see/hear exactly what she did. But, that meant her piece wasn’t doing what she wanted it to do. John went over to her, and figured out it was the warp, and not her weaving. He said something to the effect of he didn’t want her to feel bad about her weaving, she was doing great. She did need to feel bad about her warping, though. Keep in mind, she comes to many of his classes, and he develops wonderful rapport with all of his students. So, in the moment, we all laughed (she included). The warp was fixed, and she carried on. Auntie Pam bought me a loom, and John signed it for me.
Spinning with Judith is always a joy. She had me putting random things in with my fiber, which is how I ended up with this lichen yarn. She’s just so matter of fact about spinning, I love her so much. There’s never anything that we shouldn’t try. She tells us what the potential pitfalls may be, but never says “don’t do that”. Granted, it’s spinning, not anything that’s going to blow up. The worst thing that will happen is the yarn will fall apart. Oh well. I did see these totally awesome spinning wheels that are in little pseudo briefcases…
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it for the longest time. I only ask for a skein of yarn because I never know what I’m going to get, and I want it to be something of reasonable cost. 
My MIL asked for a rainbow runner for her table. Finally, I knew what to use the yarn for! I wove this runner. There wasn’t enough of the yarn for either a full warp, or to use as weft. Generally speaking, warp is the long strands of fiber, whereas weft is what goes back and forth side to side. The lovely thing about weaving is that you are not constrained to use the same yarn for the whole project. Which is why knitters/crocheters often expand out into weaving.
(I have SOOOO many stories of my honeymoon adventures, which I’m sure I’ll share), we went to Whitefish, MT. I stopped by a yarn store, and purchased a skein there, and then I made this lovely cowl.
It’s half yarn store, and half guitar store. In that store, they have locally dyed yarn. By the smell and the colors, I believe that they are Kool Aid dyed. I turned that yarn into this cute little wrist bag for projects. As a side note, they also sell yarn at the Ace Hardware in Lihue, but that’s just generic yarn.
But…I had some projects half started from Madrona. Plus another thing I just started (which is not the shawl I’m supposed to make for Sheri, because I suck). 
Plus spinning, plus…plus…plus… So, I just packed a little of everything. There’s the weaving on the knitting loom that hopes to become a hat someday. There’s the new hat. There’s the drop spindling.
The tables were lit with Beer signs. There was even a large biker dude, complete with motorcycle patches on his leather jacket. Also, he had an itty bitty dog with its own leather vest. Apparently, it was a support dog? The dichotomy was startling to say the least.
When I sat down and opened my notebook to be ready to take notes, I found this. I don’t remember which kid had done this, but I’m thinking it was likely Thing 1. This was a random notebook from the house, and this was done a long time ago. But, how fun to find it!
The round part will be woven to make the top of a hat. My plan is then to pick up and knit down. I’m planning on using twined knitting to keep a similar texture. We’ll see how this experiment ends up working. There was also a technique for continuous weaving which should use a Danish Scarf Loom–which may or may not exist anymore. I didn’t play with that technique, but it plays with the idea of what is the warp and what is the weft. This is what I want Pam to teach this summer since the idea is completely fascinating. Weaving is really Pam’s area of expertise more than mine. We’ll see…
And so it is with zippers. As you can see, in a very short amount of time, I learned how to add a zipper to knit fabric.
La Tejedora Crafts 