Tour de Fleece

I am having so much fun with the Tour de Fleece that I have decided to try blogging a bit about fibrous stuff, rather than just being blog mama for Ben's blog. Last year was the first time I did the TdF, and we were travelling, so while it was fun, I wasn't able to participate alot online, and I was only able to work with a couple fibers on drop spindles. This year, we are spending the whole summer (such as it is -- the high is predicted to be 66 tomorrow!) in town, so in spite of needing to write a book chapter by the end of the month I have thrown myself in whole hog. Along with spinning every day, I have assigned myself two challenges: spin on the charka every day Ben is in daycare, and try a bunch of art yarns (using Jacie Bogg's "Sit and Spin" DVD as a teacher). I still need to do my charka time today, but I've gone through a c. 2 ounce ball of cotton, and plied it up into a three ply that I am very proud of. Cotton and the charka are both getting easier each day. I want to keep this up at least three days a week through the summer to really get them into my muscle memory. I may even make a dent in my big bin of cotton. Here are my singles (wound onto weaving bobbins for plying) and my three-ply yarn, drying.

Weaving a Tartan

Late in June, I put my first warp onto my loom (a Mighty Wolf) since Baby B was born, about 11 months ago. When he was born I still had a warp on the loom, for baby blankets for him and his cousin (I'll show a picture later), so I have woven since he was born, just not alot. On June 30, we had a wedding to go to, and Baby B needed an outfit. So I foolishly decided that I would make him a pair of pants in his family tartan, and this required weaving the fabric. I analyzed a scarf my husband had in the tartan to figure out the colors, proportions, etc, and then checked my stash. I had nothing appropriate. So I bundled B into the car and drove about an hour to my closest local weaving store, where I picked up 8/2 cotton in green, blue, and black. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in yellow. They could order it, but I was on a tight deadline and didn't relish making the drive again to pick it up. So I decided to go ahead and use a yellow silk in a similar weight, which was a little risky, since silk doesn't shrink and cotton does. However, there's only a thin stripe of yellow, so I thought I might get away with it. I wound the warp for c. 5 yards of fabric, 22 inches wide on the loom, only because threading the loom is so much of the work I didn't want to do it for only a yard or less. My husband spent alot of time playing with B so I could put it on the loom quickly, and once I got it on, the weaving (in the classic 2/2 twill) went very quickly. I only wove about a yard, then wove some scrap yarn so I could cut off what I had woven and make pants and tie the rest of the warp back on. I washed it, and the gamble with the silk worked out. I took a pair of his pants and drafted a pattern from it, adding little extra ease, and cut the pants out. Since I didn't have a functioning sewing machine at that point, I scrounged up some iron-on stabilizer (old stuff for waistbands) to keep the cut edges from unraveling, and sewed them up by hand, finishing the project in the car on the way to PA the day before the wedding. They were a hit! The fabric doesn't wear terribly well, but they are comfy and the Johnston clan appreciated them. I've used lacing to tie the rest of the warp back on, and will weave it eventually, although I'm not sure what I will do with the cloth.