Hello again

I have been knitting and setting up the next weaving project. My Afterparty sweater/jersey/jumper* is coming along nicely, I am into the third sleeve. Yes three - the first sleeve didn't quite follow the rate of increases, I had worked the increases every 5 instead of every 6 rounds. So I frogged back to the beginning of the increases and worked it again. This morning I joined up with James, and J - all three of us gathered at James house to watch the final of Eurovision Song Quest. I rediscovered it last year - and decided to make a point of watching again - just like we did as kids when it was televised. Of course New Zealand isn't European and has no way to enter (unlike Australia!). That little jaunt made for nearly four hours of straight knitting time on a Sunday morning - which is nearly 1/3 of a sleeve. And the winner - lets just say it wasn't my pick - but I'm not officially European (so don't get a vote) and the final show as pretty light spectacular fantastic!

The loom is part-way dressed, I successfully moved the cross from in front of the reed to behind it - a little bit of magic that completely confused Bear who was helping.  This link provided really clear instructions, and it was kind of magic, turn lease stick,  pull warpk insert new lease stick and voila! Transferred.



 



Saturday I threaded 1/3 of the heddles, and Sunday afternoon managed to get the rest threaded. There are 600 in total - and the pattern repeats over 20 threads - between working in sets of four and checking - it was slow going. This time I am using iWeaveIt, the weaving app for iPad. This has a neat feature that lets you work through threading block by block. I spent the time turning the loom so the best light from the window was over my shoulder - and eventually added a desk lamp so I could work beyond sun set (it is May so dusk falls around 5pm now).

As I began to wind it onto the back beam - I realized that I had missed tying on 4 threads - and now I have to pause and unwind and attach it with the others to the back beam. I cant believe I missed it - and there is nothing to do but fix it and continue carefully. I know that it will be fiddly to fix - as there are also two broken threads to fix and re-thread through the heddles. There is something a little odd about some one like me working on something that requires so much careful managing - I really prefer things that flow craftwise - but once the prep is done - weaving flows.

 Here is the progress shot of the sleeves, at this rate these will be done soon - which means the yoke is next. The yoke on this sweater is colour work - so lots of fun to look forward to.

I liked the proportions of this sweater, a slightly wider boxy body and longer sleeves - and I am hoping this darker burnt orange will fit into my wardrobe of blue and blue grey and black easily.

* sweater/jersey/jumper, I grew up in New Zealand speaking of these garments as jumpers, and perhaps jerseys, but with the leap into online knitting communities the word sweater has joined my vocab. This leaves me a little confused as to what word to use when talking online so I use all three.

Na Stella