so very warped
It just sort of happened. The folks at Tempe Yarn and Fiber say the store is a "guilt-free zone," what that really means is that you will get sucked into depths of fiber art you never thought possible. Hehe.
So one Wednesday night, the "hypothetical placemats" were born as an idea for my mother's birthday on May 22. We talked about knitting, crocheting, felting...but the thing that stuck in my head was weaving. Who doesn't love a woven placemat?
A few weeks later, somewhere in a darkened yarn store in Tempe, the loom waits for me. It took two days of diligent work and lots of help to get it to this stage. This is Kromski Harp loom with a stand. It's a rigid heddle loom. I have no idea what that means.
My mother's favorite colors are blue and brown. Mine are orange and fushia. You see we have slightly different tastes. But I am WILD about these colors. The Mango Moon silk ribbon is the star and was the inspiration for the project. It's interspersed with some wool and cotton in beige and a brown tweed. It reminds me of an oyster shell. Can you tell how amazing the blue is, not a hokey baby blue but a natural pearlescent color with the slightest greenish tinge? And the browns! Deep true seal brown and an amazing deep maroon.
The yarn for the weft is as yet undecided. Here I was testing some of my handspun baby llama fiber as a possibility, but I think i will go for something less fuzzy (there's a bamboo I keep thinking about). This picture has such depth of color, I had to include it.
I'm thinking I will crochet some napkin rings out of the leftover ribbon.
All the knitting is still secret. All I can say is holy ends, batman!
And Omar! I don't know why he's not blogging. I'm done making excuses for him.
Friday night he and I stood agape as Terry demonstrated her sock knitting machine from the 1920s. Socks while you wait! That thing can knit a pair of socks faster than Grumperina. Faster than you can say Grumperina. ;) It's really very cool and an amazing piece of history.
Speaking of warped, have you seen the preview for Black Sheep?
Comments
Is that how socks are machine knit today as well? I always wondered about that.
Posted by: Michelle | March 26, 2007 10:21 PM
It's amazing to me that no one has brought back the sock knitting machine. I think either Addi or Inox makes a little crank machine that can bang out some worsted weight hats, and I'm pretty sure that there is a barbie brand knitter that does the same thing, but why no proper sock knitting machine? Wouldn't it be great to do everything but the heel and toes in a night and add those by hand? I'd crank (literally) through my sock yarn stash in no time.
Posted by: Marnie | March 29, 2007 4:31 PM
Pretty!
Posted by: Greeley | April 3, 2007 11:01 AM