Getting Distracted

I keep meaning to publish new patterns more regularly but, somehow, it never happens. Partly it's being ill but also I do keep getting distracted. This is my latest distraction ...

After years of dithering, I've finally got round to buying myself an inkle loom and learning how to use it. I chose the Lojan 3-in-1 Inkle Loom as it seemed to tick all the boxes. It's big, can accommodate wide bands and is reasonably priced. Lojan products come flat packed for assembly but they give you everything you need, right down to a piece of sandpaper and a very nice little screwdriver. I got very excited about that screwdriver.

You can buy just the inkle loom or add tablets and a weaving board to be able to use it for card weaving too. I bought all the extras even though I'm not planning to learn card weaving yet. I spent a while finishing the pieces with beeswax (the whole of the top floor of the house smelt of honey) before putting it together and getting started.

I found the learning process difficult as I didn't have a 'this is what you do and this is what you do next' book which I would have liked. There are lots of videos but I don't learn well from videos and they all suggest different things! In the end I worked from what written instructions I could find and then looked up specific things as I got to them and picked the one I could understand. I've now made lots of notes so next time it should be easier.

Here's my first band off the loom ...

I'm going to keep this one as it is to serve as a reminder of where I started from. It's not perfect but I'm pleased with it and I did enjoy this new type of weaving. If anyone wants to learn more about this loom, Kelly Casanova has done a very good review of it where you can see it in action.

I rather foolishly decided to design my own colour pattern for my first band which turned out to be quite complicated. I used this pattern editor which is very good but gave me another new thing to master and then I found that you have to be much bolder with your colour choices in inkle weaving than in other sorts of designing. I got there in the end, helped by Annie Machale's excellent book In Celebration of Plain Weave.

In between weaving sessions, I have been trying to sort out some new patterns. Today I finally finished writing up what is really a very simple knitted shawl.

Stay-Put Shawl

This is a knitted lace rectangle sewn together to make a shawl that slips on over the head and stays in place. It would have been ready weeks ago only, having knitted the bluey green one in aran weight yarn, I then wondered what it would look like in thin sock yarn ... so ended up knitting another one. I got it done at last and you can download the free pattern from ravelry as normal.

I'm also more than halfway through making a new crochet blanket which should be ready before too long. It's going to be called 'Winter Granny' so it would be nice if I could finish it before Spring.

I've got to crochet these four big sqaures together and then add a colourful border.

Every year I knit mini stockings to go on Christmas presents and, quite often, I change the design. I keep meaning to publish them but then I forget (or remember in early Summer which doesn't seem the best time for them). I've got three ready to write up which means I've got actual notes for what I did and photos. 

There's a Fair Isle one, a very traditional looking slip stitch one and a textured one. That last one isn't very exciting but I was very pleased with how the candy cane topping worked and feel the need to share that with people. Now I just have to make myself write up the patterns ...