dontcallmebecky

hits and misses

I started my second weaving project last weekend. I was so excited to use this Noro Sakura yarn for the warp. Sakura is so pretty in the skein. Some parts of it are wound tightly and look just like friendship bracelets and other parts look like bi-color handspun.

I meticulously wound it on my warping pegs (extra long for good measure).

I got Jon to help me wind the warp on my loom - evenly and with cardstock, too.

And then I started weaving. My selvedge edges are much better this time around thanks to Angela's tip to use 2 threads on each end of the warp instead of one.

After a few cranks of the warping peg, a few warp lengths started coming unraveled. While the scarf looks okay in this photo, it's much worse up close. Let's just say that Noro is not strong enough for warping and double knots or scotch tape will not fix broken length of warp!  I should have given up when I first saw that scraggly threads coming through the rigid heddle, but I kept going. 

After a few days of staring at this project, I've decided to rip it out and save the weft yarn (my precious Plucky MCN Sport!) for another project.  Fortunately, I got the Sakura on super sale at my LYS, so I'm only out about $5 and a few hours of crafting time.

I will happily mail the unused Sakura off to anyone who wants to use it for a craft project of some sort (there's about 70, 3 yard pieces of this stuff). Just leave a note in the comments and I'll mail it off.

this and that

I won this embroidery pattern giveaway from Rosamaria earlier this year (I'm too embarrassed to go back and see how long it's been!). She and her sister started up this darling etsy store, Mi hermana y yo, that sells bags, pillows and embroidery patterns. I got to pick my favorite embroidery pattern and I went with the Frida Kahlo pattern (of course, as I'm a big Frida/Mexico fan). The embroidery pattern came with three designs, and so far I've stitched up the first design in the set.

I patterned my Frida after this photograph and my favorite part of this design is all of the flowers in her hair and, of course, the unibrow. I think I stitched her nose around 8 times before stopping the madness and calling it good. I'm planning on turning this piece into a tote bag to house one of my crafting WIPs, so stay tuned!

It's been quite a while since I've done any embroidery, but I think it's such a fun warm weather hobby. I still want to do some more embroidery this summer and I even have a few Sublime Stitching patterns ironed on to some tea towels and in my crafting queue already (I'm thinking the Sexy Librarian pattern is definitely appropriate now considering my new degree). Plus, I still want to stitch up this adorable buffalo pattern.

I finished up my first woven scarf on Saturday night. I'm glad to have my practice scarf out of the way as the sloppy selvedge edges and uneven tension are bothering me a bit. At least now I know what I need to improve on for the next project, right?

(All of the details for this project are in my ravelry project page if you're interested).