Where am I going with this???

I've been waiting anxiously for this in the mail. Now that it's here I'm not sure where I'm going with it. Up to this point I've been borrowing all the books on weaving from the library, and after doing some reading I know I'm going to have to take some classes. I was naively thinking that weaving was going to come easy to me, I'm not so sure about that now.
Kromski Harp, Rigid Heddle Loom 32"
How it came packed......some assembly is required.
My assistant Noodles.
She soon tired, and took a nap. Right in the middle of my work area. I was trying to assemble the stand for the loom, but it was a two person job and I had to wait until DH was home.
All done! She's a Polish beauty! Now I just have to find the time to warp.
In the meantime I've been slowly progressing on my DD's Pakuna sweater. Blocked the back piece last night which then I can sew the front to the back in order to pick up and cast on for the sleeves.Next I've been forever wanting to knit a pair of Latvian mittens. This is the fourth time ripping this project apart, but I think I've got the size right now.
I'm using 2.00mm dpn with three different colours of yarn. The white I'm using is from my stash Gaella Irish Worsted Knitting Wool. The dark blue is also from the stash Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Artic Pool Heather colourway. The light blue I had a heck of a time finding. None of my LYS carried the type of baby blue I needed so I ended up going to Michael's and buying Bernat Satin worsted weight. The pattern I'm using is 10e Kurzeme, Alsungas (graph 108) from the book pictured below Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis. Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2008 also has a pattern of one of the mittens from the book. The instructions for the mitten in Vogue is a little easier to follow, and it would be a good intro into knitting Latvian mittens.

Snow and more snow......


Here in Western Canada we've been getting snow, but I don't think it's the dump that the East has been getting. I was shovelling for 2 1/2 hours this morning. It feels like it's never ending.

My DH usually does most of the shovelling, but this morning I was up and out of the house early to drop off our car to the autodealer to have them look at why the ABS brake light is now on all the time. Another 'never ending' thing to add to the list of our Mazda 3 '05 tweaky problems.



My DH has been leaving his winter touques laying around, and several days ago he couldn't find one when he was going out to shovel ...so back to the stash, and I came up with enough leftover Alpaca from other projects, and made this....I saw this touque on Knitty.blog and was delighted that she included the link for the free pattern Jacques Cousteau Hat. I used 4.00mm dpn's for this project, larger than what the pattern called for, as my Alpaca was spun thicker. I wanted this to be a tight gauge, no holes for the wind to blow through, or the snow to melt down into. Which resulted in my hands feeling the brunt of it.

In between resting my aching fingers I continued on spinning...

I consider myself still a beginner at spinning, and so far this is the thinnest I've been able to spin. This is the two ply of the kool aid dyed fibre I posted about earlier. It still baffles me how some spinners (Maia) can spin a three-ply and it comes out even thinner than my two. I guess these mysteries are there for us to strive for, but I'm still holding out that there's a spinning secret that I haven't heard about, and one day someone's going to tune me in. Actually realistically I know I'm going to probably be told it's all about the practicing, which of course means...you gotta put in the time to see the thin ply.

That's all for now...Stay warm everybody!!