moved to http://craftyamber.vox.com/

so with ravelry I haven't felt the need to blog about knitting. For me it is feeling redundant. So I started a general "craft" blog here to keep track of my knitting, stained glass making, paper craft, whatever stuff I make. Come by and see me :)

what pattern did I use for that hat from the last post?

It's the Marsan Watchcap and I LOVE the pattern. This is my 5th one. It's a twisted rib stitch so it gets a ton of texture and is very stretchy:)

I've used handspun, superwash worsted wool, wool/cotton... it all seems to work well :)

looming

so I've been mostly playing with my loom lately. Once you get the thing warped the weaving part goes really fast. And I'm getting better at the warping... not great but better :)

I finished up a scarf in beaverslide wool:

unlike with knitting you can't see the whole project while makin git. The scarf rolls up onto the beam and you see it all when you are done. SO at about the half way point I changed my stripe size... by accident. It started as 4 rows dark red 8 rows dusty red. That turned into 4 rows dark red and 6 rows dusty red. Oops. I'm a new enough weaver that I will just chock that one up to practice and not worry about it.

And another scarf (less mistakes) using a natural alpaca for the warp and some handspun navajo plied yarn for the weaving part:

This one I am happy with :)

and I've started a new one:

using knitpicks gloss for the warp and knitpicks decadence (alpaca) for the weft. So far so good. I like the subtle brown on brown part. Makes me want to make another one in all brown.

also been plodding along on candy stripes form the IK holiday issue:


and a hat for my husband:

using Filatura Di Crosa Zara. Should be nice to wear if I ever finish it :)

high school...

You paid attention during 86% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

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Weaving...

My husband got me a Kromski Harp rigid heddle loom for my birthday:


The weaving part is super easy (at least a basic plain weave is) but wraping/worping (not sure the propper term) is hard! My tension is all over the place (the warp is the long string that goes the length of the project).

but I made a small scarf with some handspun & sock yarn:


It's a little short but otherwise I am happy with it.

Now I'm working on a longer scarf with a cotton warp (from artfibers) and beaverslide fishermasn wool. The cotton warp is even more wonky in tension than the sock yarn was. But it's still going ok:


and a bit of spinning (my first traditional 3 ply - 1 strand "hot rod" bfl and 2 strands natural bfl):






it makes me think of fruit stripe gum :)

post christmas selfish knitting

So I've been working on a few non gift items just-because-I-feel-like-making-them projects.



it's just a basic entrelac pattern using Tilli Thomas Pure and Simple silk. So decadent to work with.



this is candy stripes form IK holiday issue. I'm using some long stashed rowan kid classic (it's for me).

and a little spinning and navajo plying:




and most exciting.... I got a loom for my birthday. It came yesterday and I have no idea what I'm doing but plan to spend some time with it this weekend :)

christmas knitting

So here are some of the finished items (see my project page for all the yummy details):



and then I'll have a few more things to knit but not for people I'll see tomorrow :)

Happy Holidays!

navajo plying

I wanted to try novajo plying with my yarn rather than the traditional plying... so here is my first try:

it's romney wool and is very over twisted and feels like rope...

second try:



wool blend and much better, but a very chunky yarn.

and the third time is apparently the charm:



merino fiber from handpaintedyarn.com. The single is much finer and I made sure not to overspin the single, then worked really slowly while plying. This one I love. The color stays together very nicely. I can see using navajo plying quite a bit.

something amazing has happened

I finished a project. Well actually two! Anyone who checks in here semi-regularly will notice that I start a lot of projects... and finish not so many.

But I actually have a couple done :)

I started a little squishy ball from "knitted Toys" by Zoe Mellor in July. I knit 3 of the little pieces and then put it down. In 2 afternoons I knit the other 3 and sewed it together. Not sure why it took me so long to get back to this one. Nice easyish knit (had to keep track of shaping the pieces). I used some Cascade D'oro (discontinued 50/50 wool alpaca) and Valley Yarns Stockbridge (Webs almost identical yarn - yarn.com). I needed less than 25% of a ball of each color.





I aslo finished my mom's poncho from a couple posts ago. Don't have a new photo yet though :)

lots of undocumented spinning

I have been spinning more than usual and posting about it less... so here's some catch up.

"deep woods" superwash merino (fat cat knits - etsy)




"royal" superwash merino (pigeon on roof studios -etsy)


"explorer" wool (spunky ecclectic):


"pulse" bfl (spunky ecclectic):


I finally got around to washing and photographing these the other day (the color is a little off... the short daylight hours are making accurate color photos hard)