Projects

Photo Studio & Socks

As part of my graphic design business I decided to expand my services to product photography. I was so excited to get my light box kit yesterday. I’m ready to go!

Photo studio is so big!

The Christmas season was so busy that my twisted rib sock didn’t get worked on. I decided about 10 days before Christmas to knit a pillow cover for my niece for Christmas. I got it done, but I forgot to get some images.

I did finish the first sock as seen here (and photographed in my new studio):

If you are a maker and want high quality, beautiful product photography which helps sell your goods, you can contact me through Blue Bug Design.

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Testing for Facebook issues

Sorry all as I try to figure out why WordPress and Facebook aren’t playing nice and showing the correct image when I post use the auto post to Facebook. I’m sure everyone is tired of seeing my sheep icon every time I post.

Louise

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It has been a busy holiday season for me and I have plenty to tell you but it will have to wait until the New Year. I hope to build up this blog in 2019 and to create a place to share and provide more resources for knitters and now weavers.

I would like to wish you all the best during the holiday season and into 2019.

Louise

Projects

Red Ribbed Socks

It’s been a whole month but I’m back. I know I said the next project would be a weaving one but I’d like to share this guy first. My husband bought me some lovely yarn for Mother’s day in red and orange. There was some hinting to make socks. So I’m making one pair for him (in red) and one pair for me (in orange). In my typical way I’m making the pattern up as I go. I have a basic sock recipe I follow using foot measurements and gauge. The rib is twisted every 8th round and 11th round which comes from a pattern stitch book I purchased a few years ago. 

I find it funny that I’m such a pattern junkie, much more than a yarn junkie, but more often than not I end up creating my own pattern. I can’t explain it.

As promised here is my latest woven belt. I’m really happy with the metal belt ends I purchased. Unfortunately I think the D rings are a bit heavy for a belt. They seem to be better suited for something heavy duty like a bag. Also the belt end does fit through the D rings, but I think it would have been better to have slightly larger D rings so the belt end would fit through more easily. I’m learning and loving it!

Projects

This year I had promised myself I would blog once a week with a mix of projects and interesting knitting related articles. Here it is Fall and I haven’t been able to do that. I’m starting to think getting it together isn’t possible. I have so much going on that I can’t seem to stay focused or set goals. You would think by the time you were middle aged you’d have it figured out, but nope, not me. It’s a weird time for me. I feel like I’m transitioning. I just not sure what I’m transitioning into. Thank goodness I have my fibre arts to keep me sane.

I’ve been weaving but I’ll save stuff about that for my next post. Today I wanted to share a photo of my final Kitchen Mat.  I was so happy to finish it just a few days before Thanksgiving (Canadian). Originally I was worried about it sliding but it’s so heavy it stays in place pretty well. Of course my dog, Patches thinks it great to smush up or to lay on.

 

Even though I love this mat I’m not sure I’d make it again. It uses a ton of cotton yard because it’s three strands held together. And it was hard to knit up the last (white) section because it  it weighs 3.5 lbs. On the upside I have some left over yarn to make matching dishcloths.

Weaving

The busiest time of year has come for me. The fall is the best season because,  it’s cooler, has the two best holidays (Thanksgiving and Halloween), is filled with beautiful fall colours and marks the end of  humidity. However it is also jammed packed with birthdays, holidays and social events. I am booked solid until mid-November. Yet despite being so busy I manage to still find time to knit and weave.

I’m discovering a lot about inkle weaving, like the importance of beating down the weft and keeping the edges straight. As you can see in photo if you don’t beat down the weft tight enough the result is very different. Also not keeping the edges consistent causes the band to get wider and wider. It’s been a quite a struggle to keep my weaving consistent. I hope with enough practice I can do better.


This is how the final bookmarks turned out. I love the look of the picked up threads to create a pattern. There are several ways to create patterns in inkle weaving. I’ve only taught myself three ways and can’t wait to try out the others.

I took this photo to show the difference between the two bookmarks I’ve made. The thinner one I made uses single strands of 2/8 cotton yarn while the diamond patterned one uses 2 strands of 2/8 cotton.

This last bookmark I did a different pattern simply because I wanted to see how it would look. I will definitely be making a series of these ones.

I finally purchased more yarn in a variety of colours. I have a great resource for weaving parts and yarns thanks to Camilla Valley Farms.

 

Projects

My kitchen mat has been put on the back burner because of  all the weaving I have been doing. I’ve worked on it a bit in the evenings but it’s hot and so heavy I usually put it down after a few rows. It’s not the ideal project for the summer. Fortunately I only have around 65 rows to go.

All that’s left is the white section

This is basically where the mat is going to go when it’s done

Since my graphic design business is lagging I’ve decided to build stock of handmade products to sell this fall – just in time for Christmas. I’ll share what I’m doing next week. The items are woven. The feedback about them from friends and family has been encouraging which makes me feel good about making more.

I’m also looking for some seasonal work to fill in the gaps. It’s so difficult to find graphic design work or business out there, it’s disappointing. There has been no lack of effort to find work or new clients on my part. Sigh.

The upside is with my extra time I’ve been focusing more on making things. And maybe that’s what I’m meant to do. Make beautiful and useful things.

Projects

Two years ago I asked for an inkle loom for Christmas and I only recently learn to use it. The first thing I noticed is that there are very few resources online for inkle weaving. I’ve been spoiled by the vast sea of resources out there for knitters. I expected to find everything I needed in a neat and tidy place online. The reality is I had to piece things together through bad 1990’s websites and poorly focused videos.

This is my third attempt to weave something and my first successful project. The previous two attempts end up with really wonky bands. It took some time to figure out how to keep my edges even and to keep the tension right.

I decided to draft my own design. I did this more to see if I understood how the wrap facing thing works. Weaving is like knitting in that it helps a lot if you know how to ‘read’ you work.

Setting up the warp takes patience and attention to detail but once that’s done the weaving part goes quickly. I love seeing the pattern build.

I feel a new addiction coming on. There are some many cool things I can make using these bands and there are several techniques including tablet weaving (I have the cards I just don’t know where to start). I forgot to take photos but after I did this traditional two-row type weaving I tried out some pick up weaving which has you pick up warp threads below and dropping corresponding top warp threads to created a different kind of pattern.

I plan to make several belts and sell them online and craft fairs next year. I used two d-rings for two belts I made in last week, but I plan to use d-rings and metal belt tips for the belts I’m going to sell. I also discovered that pick up patterns have front and back sides and don’t work well with the d-rings. I’ll have to use different belt hardware for that style of weaving.

Here are my belts which are kind of rough but I’ve been wearing them anyway.

Traditional, two row inkle weaving

Pick up inkle weaving

Projects

While I was on vacation my internet connection was spotty so I wasn’t able to do any blogging. I did do a lot of relaxing.  It was a week of board games, knitting, watching movies and vintage t.v. shows, photography and swimming. Just what the whole family needed.



So my latest project is a kitchen mat. The one I have now is hard to clean and the rubber backing is flaking off. I can’t vacuum it properly and when I throw it in the washer the rubber back comes off and sticks to everything. I decided if I knit one out of cotton I can wash it easily. The cotton is very heavy and my hope is I won’t need any anti-slip backing. If I do, I think I have some options that would work well like non-slip backing from the fabric store that doesn’t have to be stuck on the mat or waterproof bathroom caulking (hopefully it could stand being washed). I’m not going to worry about it too much for now.


There is no pattern for this Kitchen Mat – it’s seed stitched using three strands of worsted weight cotton. I’ll be sure to post the pattern when I’m done. By the way this thing weights a ton already and it’s only half done.