Boldly Going

 Here is where the gy-normous warp ended yesterday, 35 minutes after "closing time."  The warp is on, wound to the shortest thread and ready to be threaded next week.  Yes, even at my most optimistic, I believe my foot will be completely healed before Bertha and I get started with the weaving of this monster.  I'm excited to get started but want to take my sweet time and be accurate. No one wants to unthread half of a 720 thread warp!
  I can't thank enough the dedicated team who helped wind it.  Thanks Ann, Bonnie, Christy, Cindy and Marie!  I know it wasn't how you thought you'd be spending your afternoon, but I sure do appreciate it!


Meanwhile, on the home front, I've been playing with some of my stash.  Long, long ago, during the second dye-day I participated in with the TW's, I dyed what I thought would be my challenge shawl warp.  Unfortunately, due to inadequate math skills, I only had half enough threads.  That warp has languished in a box in the loominaria since then.  I wasn't even sure I liked it!  Why do I keep ending up with mint green and bubble gum pink?  My grandmother made me a quilt for high school graduation in those very colors, but I loved it to death and it is now in fiber heaven.  But it must have made its mark, because in unguarded moments, I return to that combination.

Warp into weft

It was not enough for a shawl, but a little too much for a scarf, and when we decided at work to have Secret Santa, with a $10 limit, I pulled that warp out of its box.  See, I paid for this yarn a long time ago, and it's just been sitting there.  So my rationale is that I'm spending less than $10 since it was going to waste anyway!  And I teamed it with some purple and green chenille that I ordered four years ago to knit scarves that never happened.  Free, again!  Get it?  If the yarn is left over or unloved--I really never liked that green chenille!--or for a project that never happened, why, it's free!   It's a new area of finance:  Fiber Economics.  One can rationalize a lot of yarn purchases that way!

Sunshine through the warp

  Since it was too much for a scarf, I tried winding the second half of the warp into weft.  I wound and wound, sometimes by bobbin winder, sometimes by hand to go through tangles.  I tell you, it wasn't pretty!  Scared the animals once in a while with cascades of curse words.  But I got most of it wound.  What I couldn't finish, I gave to LouAnn for her art yarn spinning.  I would love to see that when it's done!
  At first, I wasn't sure at all about the color combination, with the chenille.  But it was one of those Leave the Room moments, coming back in and seeing them together and falling in love with them.  I wound the chenille all at once, a mistake, but managed to get them separated into their stripes once they were on the loom.  The stripes are Fibonacci'd:  1-2-3-5-1-5-3-2-1, in the chenille.  The chenille was supposed to be in plain weave and the dyed bamboo in huck lace, same pattern as the curtain project, but once I started weaving, the chenille wouldn't stay in plain weave.  Not sure why, but this entire project so far has been an experiment.  I wound the chenille on a separate set of lease sticks to keep the tension even for both, hoped for the best with the color combination and am still not sure if anyone will like it but me!
  So here I go, off into the unknown, taking tiny risks and hoping for the best.  I like the chenille-only plain weave section at the beginning best, but will continue with the first scarf in the huck lace pattern, using the dyed bamboo weft.  If it still looks funky, I've got warp enough for two more for the gifts.  I'll just keep the funky one!
  It's one of those projects I can't stay away from, so back I go until it's time to go to work.  Have a wonderful week, and Happy Weaving!
Maggie