Thursday, June 26, 2008

Another Crush...

I’ve got another crush. I’ve been doing a bit of crochet using patterns from 200 Crochet Blocks (awesome book!) in the hopes of doing a lap blanket with some finished squares. Crochet is a nice diversion from knitting and I’m really enjoying it. But…that’s not my crush.

For years I’ve avoided the fiber-y crafts that seem to dovetail from knitting and crochet: things like spinning, dying, or even felting have never appealed to me. That all changed recently, however, when there was an episode of Ready, Set, Knit (the Webs podcast) that briefly discussed some rigid heddle weaving classes they were doing. I have always been intrigued by weaving, but the investment of time and money necessary for a floor loom was way beyond me. Rigid Heddle looms bypass these obstacles by being small (so you can do weaving in front of the TV!), less expensive (much less than the thousands of $$ you’d spend on a floor loom), and quick to use. The show referenced a girl in their shop that had created a scarf using 100 grams of sock yarn in under three (!) hours.

So I’ve got a weaving crush. I’ve been eyeing looms at the Woolery and imagining the things I could create with a loom – scarves, table runners, placemats…even blankets if I pieced together multiple pieces.

Sigh. I’ve been giving myself a couple of weeks to mull over this and make the “big decision”…what should I do?

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Some little things

Whoa! It's been over a month since I last posted. To be honest, I lost a bit of my knitting mojo after the whirlwind of my dissertation defense and graduation. After a brief hiatus, though, I am slowly dipping my toe in the water and doing some small projects. Here's what I've accomplished since I last checked in:

1. Finished Currer. I hated the look of the crab-stitch button band that the pattern calls for. So after ripping out the button band several times I finally settled on a garter-stitch band and blue buttons.
2. Finished a Mason-Dixon "ballband" dishcloth.
3. Made some headway in the log cabin blanket I'm knitting for Lincoln.
4. Queued up a bunch of little projects (this involved a trip to the knitting store, of course!). These will be revealed as I begin working on them...

As for my crochet "crush", I may have to wait awhile as I get my mojo back.