robknits: ramping up

Late August is crazy time for anyone working for universities, and this August is no exception. Projects to finish, projects to start, faculty and students gearing up for class. And I have this insane desire to knit. I am working exclusively on these socks:

The pattern is Wendy Johnson's Nanner socks. For some reason I love knitting this pattern, and at the moment I am having trouble stopping, staying up late streaming episodes of Midsomer Murders and knitting away until the early hours. It means I am making great progress on the socks and getting to work exhausted. And, of course, after buying unique and expensive sock yarns while on vacation, I am using a very reasonably priced skein of yarn I bought at my LYS. The yarn is Jarbo Garn's Mini Raggi. I wish it came in more colors in this blending stripe, because I like working with it. Some of their other colorways are the fair-isle striping print, which I like less. Anyway, I either need to find other sock patterns I enjoy as much, or decide it is OK to have a whole drawerful of Nanners.

I didn't mention that while I was at the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center, I discovered that they had a Mirrix tapestry loom for sale. It had been donated to them but they don't keep tapestry looms in the shop. So they decided it would be a good way to raise some money. This is the loom:

But the one they had for sale was a large one, their 32" wide loom, the "Joni." They had to ship it to me, since of course it would not fit in my suitcase, and it arrived yesterday. I paid less than half price for the loom. So I tackled a reorganization of the studio in honor of its arrival. Tapestry weavers in general are going through a small crisis, though. Many of use used Paternayan Persian and crewel yarns as the weft in weaving, but Paternayan, which had been around forever, has gone out of business. I have a modest stockpile, but like the instructor at my class, I will need to find other yarn. Most crewel yarn is unfortunately sold in small lengths -- weavers really need something sold in hanks, or there are a gazillion ends that need to be taken care of and a million joins in the middle of tapestries. Brown Sheep is an American yarn company that produces a couple of possibilities. We tried using their Nature Spun fingering weight yarn in the workshop. It comes in skeins, since it is a knitting yarn, but knitting yarns tend to be softer than weaver yarns, which presents problems. They also have Waverly, a needlepoint yarn that is a lot like the Paternayan. The instructor likes using a lighter yarn so that she can bundle together variations in color. I have been doing that with the Paternayan, but that involves unwinding the 3 plies of the yarn. Which is a real pain. I will have to do that with the Waverly as well, unless we find a lighter yarn to use. Crewel yarn is a possibility. But it has to be mothproof, it has to come in lots of colors, it has to be available in hanks... The yarns imported by Nordsk Fjord Fiber are a possibility -- they used to import the Hagen loom, a predecessor to the Mirrix. A number of the tapestry artists I follow dye their own yarn, but that will have to wait for my next life.

I want to be home playing with yarn, but I am reminding myself that the job pays for workshops, looms and yarn.

Comments

I have to remind myself all the time that I work so I can buy pretty yarn (and feed myself). I just wish that working didn't interfere so much with the fibre time.

Posted by: Keri | September 02, 2012 at 12:53 PM