DesigKnit

There are some things that I never, ever utter, and “too hot to knit” is among them. I am the person that can wear a wool sweater for an hour in late June because I’m excited that I just finished it. I can be cold when it’s 70 degrees out. I don’t sweat, and I am never too hot.

But today, this weekend, right now, I am too hot to knit. A big, still, humid pocket of air has settled over the city today, and it is warm. I think the real problem is that it only got down to 70 last night, so nothing cooled off overnight. When it’s hot by 8 am, it’s going to be a hot day.

There have actually been a few nights this week where pulling a large, heavy wool sweater over to work on was just really not appealing. So I’ve been working on other things. Cleaning the loom (oh my, it is dirty!). Reading. Taking my cue from the cats and laying around in a languorous heap.

Last weekend, I spent the warm part of the day finishing up my current weaving project. I took the fabric off the loom, washed it, and hemmed the ends. And I now have a set of tea towels:

These have been on the loom for a while, and quite frankly, haven’t been getting much attention. I’m happy to have them finished now, and it is very satisfying to have a little pile of handwoven items to pet.

Here they are all laid out so you can see the patterns:

The thing that I find endlessly fascinating about weaving is how many different fabrics you can get by just changing the order in which you pick up the shafts. All of these pieces were woven using the same warp threads; all of the vertical strings are the same. The only difference is which ones you pick up when, and which colors you use to weave the weft (the back and forth part), and yet you end up with entirely different fabrics. It boggles my mind to think of all the possibilities.

Next, I am planning to make a scarf with these:

Last year, my aunt sent me a package for Christmas containing three skeins of Lion Brand chenille. I love the colors, and I love the look of the yarn, but it’s not the kind of stuff that I knit with. I thought it might be good woven, though, so I bought a cone of bamboo to match the color.

I wound the warp this morning (i.e. I used a gadget Branden made me to measure out 100  5-yard lengths of yarn for the warp threads), and tied them on to the back of the loom, ready to be threaded through one by one. I cannot say how much I love the color of this yarn (the photo of the yarn on the loom is more true to its real color). When this project is finished, I think I’m going to do a textured weave with just this color as both warp and weft.

This will be just a narrow piece; a scarf about 10 inches wide. With such a thick weft yarn, it should go very quickly, and I’m really excited to see how the chenille works up. I am always amazed at how differently fibers perform in weaving and knitting, and I think that this yarn is really going to shine in a woven cloth. And, I can work on it when it’s too hot to knit, which is an added bonus.