Next Project

My second pair of socks are finished, these were the cammo socks. They turned out pretty cool, one toe needed to be knit in the more yellow of the yarn, as I ran out of the nice mottled green.  That's ok though, what shows will be the nice mottled, or heathered green.

My next project is revisiting the shirt warp from a couple of years ago. I'm working from a sample in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, accession number 98.1822g.  I had a good chunk of that warp left over from the project when it fell off the back beam.  Like a good, frugal girl, I crocheted up what was left, put it in a bag and into my string bin, determined to revisit it.

Well, now is as good a time as any.

This week I have done the finishing set up of my loom with help from Pierre.  We washed it down, blech it was dirty.  Then I loaded the harnesses with heddles, which I do not have enough of.  Pierre made a bunch of lees sticks for detangling, but also for winding on the back beam.  I also had to stitch my back beam apron on again as someone in its past lifetime had cut the beam rods off (thankfully I still have them).  With an equal amount of enjoying our longer than long weekend, we got the loom ready for loading with thread.

This morning I came upstairs and got geared up to thread the loom with that old warp.  Have I mentioned how tangled it is.  That I washed the excess starch out of it and it's a big old mess.  Have I mentioned that there's no cross marked any more, nor do I know where the centre line is.  I looked at it and thought, why that HELL am I bothering!  More than enough work to untangle the thing, then more to get it on the loom, and then I'm not even sure if I will have gotten the centre right, or any of the pattern...it is plaid after all.

So it sits in the chair, contemplating its own messiness, and I am winding a new warp.

The new warp will not be nearly as long.  My winding board only does a five metre length on a good day.  Nor will it be as wide as the original project.  I am winding it in sections, crocheting each section up, tying it to the back beam, and hopefully not getting it as tangled as the last time around.

I might use the old warp for weft threads...that will depend on how many spools of thread I have on hand.

I have a few projects on the go this summer.  Weaving this shirt warp, then a hose warp in worsted wool.  I have a 1775 suit to make for Pierre, and I have to finish my pink striped gown.  Then, during, as soon as freaking possible, I'm also embroidering a stomacher for Jennifer Wilber, for her wedding at the beginning of August.
AND, I'm thinking about submitting a paper proposal for next year's Canadian Museums Association conference that's due June 12th.

And helping mum through Chemo.