Why I just paid for wool

*Loooong pause*

It was soft?

I went to the Sheep and Wool Festival. Two big barns were full of vendors selling yarn, spinning supplies, and innumerable balls of batting. And lots of stuff with sheep on it. And some alpaca stuff. Even some angora rabbit stuff.

It was with some baffllement I realized I was carrying a skein of alpaca-merino blend. I had made it all of three booths from the point of purchase before the thought rose unbidden: "I just spent most of my money on this. Why??"

It didn't help that at the time I was passing some really shiny, pretty bamboo yarn. It was cheaper than what I had just bought! The yarn across the aisle was cheaper than what I had just bought! Why on earth had I sprung for this reddish grayish twist of fiber, when there were so many other gleaming options?

I think it was because it was soft. Alpaca wool and really fine merino doesn't feel like scratchy wool, it's just sort of kushy and almost silky.

That and the woman who sold me the stuff was very nice, and suggested that it was good yarn for weaving. I hadn't told her I was looking for weaving stuff. It took me by surprise. I hadn't caught on yet that the heddle I had just bought and was carrying under one arm was an obvious giveaway. I might as well have carried a sign: I'm a weaver! I am a sucker for weaveable yarn!

While knitters just shell out for the yarn, and maybe the occasional knitting needle, weavers require a whole lot more equipment, bigger batches of yarn, and more accessories in general. Ergo, weavers have the potential to spend way more money, which may explain why salespeople were suddenly very nice to me.

Unfortunately the fact I only bought one skein meant I needed more yarn, to go with it. I couldn't afford more alpaca wool, so I went with cotton. It's not nearly as soft, but at least I am clear in my mind of why I bought it. To go with the first skein!

Scarf done!

Warning: weaving jargon follows


I finished weaving this the other night. It's destined for Sister #2, who was visiting when I set the loom up and will be visiting again, probably about the time I get around to setting the loom up again for a second scarf. This time there will be less joy of discovery (cor, it's a piece o'cloth!). Maybe. I am still a rank beginner, so I'm sure I can discover some new problems to overcome. See the diagonal stripe? Turns out you end up with a lacy pattern of holes all along the edge. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, I will be putting yarn on the shuttle a whole lot more. It's hard to pass an entire ball of yarn through the narrow passage of threads, but I did not realize how much easier the shuttle makes things until half way through. Not until after the stripe, of course.

Once I use up the rest of the yarn I've got (further lessons of past debacles: don't use fuzzy for the warp!) I can think of other things. I'm tempted by double-weave. This is basically quantum mechanics for a rigid heddle loom: you end up with a folded piece of cloth twice the width of what you'd been weaving. *Oooo, ahhhh* It takes another heddle, though. And pick-up sticks, which I'd never heard of before putzing around online today. See what wonderful things vacation inspires?

Fiber arts

Yay, finished my very short weaving and now my loom is free again! I'm taking it over to the fiber store to see if they have any nice (and cheap, please) thread I can restring with for a bigger project. And hopefully they'll help me restring. This last one I did on my own was all askew, so the heddle was rubbing against the frame on one side. I am less than talented with these sorts of things. I have lots of half-formed plans to weave cloth for use in bellydance and ren faire costumes, but first let's just weave the cloth, yes?

I have also discovered Tunisian crochet, which is awesome. It's essentially knitting with a crochet hook. Crochet hooks have always made way more sense to me, and it never seemed fair that all the sorts of yarn things I wanted to make required knitting needles. That or incredibly confusing patterns. Doilies? Oh yeah. There are some lovely lacy patterns out there, but way beyond my skill level (what, read a pattern?!)

This has nothing to do with vet school, since this is stuff I never get to play with during school. But I still have a month of summer left to be crafty and musical and well-read. I'm working on War and Peace at my boyfriend's bequest. I'm on page 40! Keep in mind I'm also reading Dancing to the Edge of the Precipice (biography of a courtier from French revolution era), Man on Earth (all the anthropology I never got around to learning), and various sci-fi/fantasy books. Mainly Patricia Briggs, because it allows me to indulge in the current vampire/werewolf fad in literature without feeling like I drop five IQ points after every chapter.