Monday, April 1, 2013

High Fiber—April Fool for Fiber


I've given up all my fiber fun so I can spend the time doing housework and keep my home spotless. Not!


The big quilting news for this week is that Julie finished quilting my Hexagon Quilt. I'm going to use it as a table topper for the little table in our living room, which is currently shoved out of the way to make room for the loom in its temporary home. (Wouldn't you know, the pathway to the sliding-glass door downstairs, through which the loom must pass, will be the last to give up its multiple feet of snow.)

Speaking of the loom, I managed to warp it all in one day, as I said in last week's blog post. However, when I got ready to start weaving the two denim chair mats, I discovered a sleying mistake.


It was fairly easy to fix, though, so soon I was weaving the border for the first mat:


The borders are a basket weave using carpet warp, the same as the warp thread. The thinner, darker threads are just there to spread out the warp threads. They will be removed. I'll machine-sew along the outer edges of the borders and then hem them.

Now I have the first chair mat finished. I have a lease stick placed in between the two mats, and I'm ready to start the second one. No need to cut the first one off. There's plenty of room for a bunch of mats on my loom.


I have a good start on Daphne's Bunny Suit sweater:


This is the back. It's time for the neck shaping. I'm using Swish DK in "Squirrel Heather" and "Lava Heather." I originally planned on using "Dove Heather" for the bunnies, but there didn't seem to be enough contrast. I had plenty of the "Lava Heather" from DH's sweater.

Speaking of which, as I mentioned in last week's blog post, I frogged the Christmas Waffle Cardi. The lovely yarn was pretty kinked up, so I gave it a nice bath. Here it is hanging in the downstairs shower to drip dry:

Then I balled up the yarn:


I'm ready to go on the new sweater, which is the Texture-striped Pullover by Jon Gilliam. I will rename the sweater, but it has a waffle stripe, so I will probably keep the "Christmas Waffle" theme.

I picked up some yarn to make a chemo hat for an acquaintance who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I'll be making this hat with this yarn.

Speaking of cancer, our own Knit4Many is walking the Relay for Life on April 5th, an all-nighter! Here's her donation page, if you want to help with the cause. Donors of $5 or more will be entered in a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to Knit Picks!

On the home front, the chute part of the laundry chute was finally finished and installed in the laundry room.


Clothes dropped into the chute in our bathroom closet floor are deposited directly into a laundry basket in our laundry room. No more carrying the laundry basket down the stairs!

And...the pups are enjoying the disappearance of the snow. Here they are enjoying being able to smell the new life in the bare ground:


I thought you would like a gratuitous baby photo, so here's a recent photo of Soren. Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a great Passover and/or Easter celebration!

Don't forget to tune into the Fiber Hooligan Podcast later today.

What's on my needles: Daphne's Bunny Suit, back almost done, and Dogwood Blossoms. Ready to CO for Christmas Waffle Sweater, Part Deux, and the Not-Just-For-Chemo Reversible Cloche.
What's on my loom: Ready to go on the second chair mat.
What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving, "Fawn," just a little bit done.
What's on my iPad: Finished His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik from Audible.com, then listened to Golden Days by D. E. Stevenson, also from Audible. (The first book is an imaginative tale about the Napoleonic wars in a world where all sides have access to dragons. The second book is the further adventures of Mrs. Tim, written like a diary, and very funny. It's like being able to visit people in early-mid 20th Century England.) Now I'm listening to another Audible audiobook, Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear.
What's on my Featherweight: No progress on Delectable Pathways this week. It's too hard to go up and down the stairs. However, I hope to be able to get the machine work finished soon.
What's in my wine glass: Lindeman's Bin 50 Shiraz 2011, which made it into the 50+ Best Buy Best Value Awards. Nice!
Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook, using the iPad for photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.

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