This Project Needs a Time Out!

Murphy must be sitting on my shoulder! For every 10 rows that I've woven on this lap rug, I think I have "unwoven" 3. Sometimes I don't get a good shed and other times I have a treadling error. I tried stepping away from the loom for a day to see if that helps...not! Back in my days as a "working at a paying job person" (aka not retired), I had a theory that sometimes projects just take on bad karma - for no apparent reason. And once the bad karma hits it, no matter what you do, the project is going to be problems, problems, problems. That's the way this lap rug has been. First I didn't have enough warp and had to order more, then I had many, many problems when I was tying on the warp (and I was just trying on to the old warp, for goodness sake!). And now I have the treadling and not a clear shed issues. Details: the warp is cotton and the weft is a merino angora.

Back on my table loom, I have finished the silk merino scarf (using Lisa Souza's Silk Merino in her Mardi Gras colorway). It's very soft and the photo doesn't do it justice. Then I did a really quick project -- a Mobius. With some advice from Woven~n~Spun, I used a silk warp with some everyday worsted yarn. I wove about 38 inches, 7 inches wide. What I learned is: 1) use a soft yarn as the weft and 2) make it a little longer. I was locked in on the warp length because I was using some silk that Daisey, the yarn eating-dog, had had a little snack on. (Below is the yarn eating dog trying to look like she's sorry [not].) She likes silk almost as much as she likes cashmere.

I'm getting ready to warp my table loom again to make a scarf using some of Lisa's new Baby Alpaca Sport, in the petroglyph colorway. The warp is some black/dark brown yarn that I got in Utah at Unraveled in Sandy.