Rag Rugs, Part 2

As you saw in yesterday’s post, the “warm” and “cool” warps blend into the background pretty easily, letting the rags shine.

Before class, my Aunt Suzie and I had been going through my mom’s quilting room, and I selected mostly her fabrics to wash and bring with me to The Mannings. From the wide variety of fabrics that I took with me, Tom helped me pick five to rip for weft, then I wove one rug on each “flavor” of warp. The first rug started with these strips:


I had more of the purple and less of the blue, so I counted strips, did a little math, and figured out how to stagger the blue among the purple. And this is what I wound up with:


Even as the warp stripes change, the fabric is still the star in this rug.


Despite the new technique, I think I did a decent job on my selvedges. They are pretty even!


I was really pleased with the final result


The second set of strips was a yellow batik, an orange batik, and a really large cut of a batik that looked like a bruise in various stages of healing. I picked that hunk of fabric for this class because I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to sew with it.


I basically had the same number of strips for each of the three fabrics. The bruise fabric was significantly longer than the orange and yellow, but I joined the three together to form one “super-strip,” divided that pile in half, threw the extra yellow in the center, and reversed order for the second half of the rug.


Yeah, I know you can’t really tell in the picture. But that’s what I did! I swear!


Again, my selvedges were pretty good. You can se some of the lumps where I joined strips, but I’m fine with it. I may join strips with my sewing machine in the future, but the fold technique we learned in class works just fine for something that will be walked on regularly.

It seemed like the warm warp/bruise fabric rug was significantly shorter than the cool/purple rug, but that wasn’t really the case at the end of the day.


Although the difference is a bit more obvious when one end is aligned.


All in all, I really love both rugs and have a good idea where each one will live. I think. We’ll see.


Regardless, this class was awesome. Another purely perfect Mannings experience!!!

Rag Rugs, Part 1

One of the big things I learned in 2012 is to never mess around about signing up for classes at The Mannings, one of my favorite places on earth. I didn’t jump when the first half of the year’s classes were posted, so when I they posted classes for the second half of the year, I jumped.

I signed up for “Beginning Rag Rugs,” a class taking place on the last two days of October. As I was getting my act together to leave town on Monday, October 29, Carol called from The Mannings to tell me that the forecast for Hurricane Sandy in their area was scary. They’d try to reschedule later in the week, but for now, class wasn’t happening.


Fortunately, Sandy took it easy on East Berlin, Pa., and its surrounding areas, so I headed east on Halloween to start my class on November 1. This class provides pre-warped looms, and is set for six students. Three looms had a “warm” warp.


And three looms had a “cool” warp.


I was indecisive, and fortunate that I had a classmate who was also interested in trying both warps, so Janet and I swapped looms after we finished our first rug. Janet brought thrift-store sheets for her rugs, and because she did not like the small lump caused by the suggested joining method and had some very short strips, she chose to make very small rugs.

Her first one was on the “warm” warp.



And her second rug was on the “cool” warp.


I don’t remember where/how she was planning to use her rugs. That’s a casualty of not blogging until nearly two months after the class. Oops.

Meanwhile, Joyce had essentially two full bolts of very similar brown leaf-print batik, and she was able to weave two long rugs on her warm-warp loom.




Sondra had some really cool coverlet remnants that she had dyed with natural dyes in her home studio (which sounds REALLY cool and includes several family heirloom large rug looms!)


It was an unusual weft and a bit of a challenge to work with, but she wound up with a really awesome rug with all kinds of texture.


And then, there was Judith. A truly lovely person who retired to the area just so she could be closer to The Mannings! How cool is that?!?!?!!! She came in with a bolt of purple batik and a bolt of fuschia batik and came up with some awesome rugs on her cool-warped loom.






I helped her tear some of her strips. Fun!






This post is already ginormous, so I’ll show you my two rugs tomorrow!

Color Affection

Like 7,000 of my other fellow knitters, I decided earlier this year that I wanted to knit a Color Affection shawl.

 I cast on this project with my just-purchased Signature needles and some stash Sanguine Gryphon Eidos while I was at Maryland Sheep & Wool back in May. It was a simple thing to get going, and I flew through the first two sections of this knit.


The second color was some ShiBui Stacatto, a very nice yarn with a tight twist and a bit of sheen from its 30% silk content. I was still chugging along, and I was still happy.

Then, I added some Bugga! as my third color. And I hated it. There was no contrast, the lighter blue just blended. I’ve since seen lots (and lots!) of Color Affections with little to no contrast, but they really don’t appeal to me at all. So I’m very glad that I ripped and re-started with this wonderful Serenity 20 in Midnight Blue.


Knitting garter stitch is one of my favorite things. I can zip right along and be productive while I’m doing a myriad of other things. Reading, watching sports on TV, pretty much anything. It’s very soothing to me, and I love it.


The shape of this shawl isn’t my favorite, and I won’t knit another one. But I’ll probably (eventually) do another knit from this same designer. Hooray for garter stitch!

Color Affection 

Pattern: Color Affection by Veera Välimäki 

Yarn/Color #1: Sanguine Gryphon Eidos/Euthydemus 

Yarn/Color #2: Shibui Stacatto/Rain 

Yarn/Color #3: Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20/Midnight Blue 

Quantity: 1 skein each. Had maybe 2-3 yards of leftovers of the Stacatto, plenty of yarns 1 and 3. 

Needles: US 6/4.0mm from Signature Needle Arts 

Started: 5 May 2012 

Finished: 29 July 2012 

Mods: Ignored suggested border width. Knit until I was ready to be done That took longer than normal because I loved the Serenity 20 so much.

Wiggle Wrap

If we start talking about projects that have been finished but undocumented for a very, very, very long time, we have to start with my Wiggle Wrap.


I got the yarn and pattern for this project at TNNA in 2011. I started knitting it in February, and this was the pattern I took on my California softball trip way back in February. It was perfect travel knitting, especially since it meant I could easily take only one thing. No way I was going to finish!


The pattern was perfect for a long-striping yarn like Kauni, and an absolute snap to memorize.


It didn’t get boring or repetitive until I was well past the halfway point. Then it just took a ridiculously long time before I blocked it.


I doubt I’ll knit this again. I do kind of wish I’d done the wider version, but really, this was fine. It lived in the store as a sample for a little bit, then it’s just been sitting around waiting for a blog post. So here you go.

Wiggle Wrap 

Pattern: Wiggle Wrap by Sally Brandl 

Yarn: Kauni 8/2 Effektgarn 

Colors: EQ and EF 

Quantity: 1 skein of each color, I knit until I ran out. 

Needles: US 6 

Started: 5 February 2012 

Finished: 6 April 2012 

Mods: None, other than ignoring the length instructions.

I'm Back

After my quick succession of finished project posts back in October (yikes!), I ran into a confluence of issues that basically stopped my blogging cold:

• The LYS where I worked started a liquidation sales, and one of the first things to go were the mannequins. That made it tough to get finished project photos of my remaining finished projects.

• For pretty much all of October and Novemeber, I was at a full-sprint. Not enough time to sleep, let alone enough time to photo-edit or blog.

 • Photo editing takes time. I didn’t have any to spare.

But, today is a snow day, and I’m going to do a bunch of photo editing and prepping blog posts. I have had all kinds of adventures, so hopefully I’ll have plenty of stuff to show you over the next few weeks.


And then, my Dad and Aunt Suzie can quit asking when I’m going to start blogging again.

Ginormous Man Socks

Every year, I head to the Women’s College World Series with a plain vanilla sock plan. Most years, it’s too damn hot to even think about knitting, and I barely get a few stitches in.

This year, it was in the 50s in Oklahoma City in June. I was freezing, and knitting was helpful in many ways. Since I married a man who wears a US 11.5 wide, there was lots of knitting to be done, both at the WCWS and as I walked the floor at TNNA. The Hubster got a new pair of socks out of the bargain.


I used my favorite toe, a garter toe.


New Pathways heels are also my favorites. If you’re going to knit a gigantic sock, twice, then dammit you should do your favorite things. Especially when the recipient won’t wear colors.


I made the legs fairly tall, and increased a bit so they wouldn’t be overly tight on his calves. They took a while, but overall, I’d say they were a win.


So, now, my super-awesome husband has TWO pairs of handknit socks. Go, me.

Softball Socks 2012 

Pattern: Riverbed Master from New Pathways for Sock Knitters 

Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight 

Color: Korppi 

Quantity: I used two skeins, one for each sock. Had leftovers on both. 

Needles: US 2/2.75mm for feet, US2.5/3.0mm for legs 

Started: 1 June 2012 

Finished: 13 July 2012

Go U, NU

The other sewing project I had planned for the end of August that turned into an epic mad dash was a pair of baby quilts for a college friend of the Hubster’s. M is expecting twins, and another member of their little group decided that it would be fun to throw her a themed baby shower when much of the group came together in Syracuse for Northwestern’s football opener.

 Gifts were to be either Purple or “ridiculous.”

 I chose purple.


When I offered to make these quilts (in late July), I took a look at my fabric stash and realized it was pretty light in the purple department. Two days before she died, my mom was going up to our favorite Pittsburgh quilt store (The Quilt Company) in order to buy a sewing cabinet. I tagged along both for company and to look for purple fabrics.


Mom called me from a shop in Peters Township while I was at the gym that Friday telling me that Sew Much Fun might have some candidates as well. I stopped and got a few more options on Saturday morning before my shift at Bloomin.


As I’ve blogged previously, everything scheduled for August came to a complete halt the following day. Once I finished the SpaceCadet project, I had four days to do this pair of quilts, start to finish. Game on. I started piecing the tops on Sunday night, sandwiched them on Monday and Tuesday, quilted Tuesday and Wednesday, and had the bindings sewn down Thursday and washed them Thursday night. I win.

Because I had no real plan for precisely which colors I’d use in each quilt, I decided from the beginning that I’d do a scrappy binding.


I also used my favorite technique to start/finish binding, and it worked out perfectly, as you can see above.


There’s one “Northwestern” touch that I put on both quilts. My original plan had been to quilt a “sculpted N” into a block of the quilt, but there was no time. So I added “Go U, NU” to both quilts. Since clearly, these kids will be Wildcats, just like their mom.


I had flannel in the stash, and these quilts were ditch quilted, then stippled. Quick and dirty. It’s one of the reason I love quilting. There is no way in hell I could do ANY knitted gift for twins, start to finish, between Sunday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. But with quilting, all is possible.

Parents-to-be have been instructed that these quilts are machine-wash, and should be dragged through the mud and puked on. It's one of the things I love about baby quilts. They're damn durable. Win.

I.B. Footsie

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I finished a pair of socks for me. It appears that I haven’t blogged them yet, so here goes.


I picked this pattern, I.B. Footsie by Heather Zoppetti, because I’d already knit a pair of her CSI Socks (Dawn Gnot) and loved them. And it would play nicely with a skein from my ever-growing SpaceCadet collection.


It did cross my mind to switch these to Upstream socks, but I didn’t want to reverse-engineer the stitch pattern, so I left it as-is. I even used DPNs as-written! My lone set of Signature DPNs, actually.


It took a little while for me to get the stitch pattern memorized, but once that happened, these socks zipped right along.

  Toe Pic!
I even did the toes as-written, although I modified slightly to make the toe more rounded (decreased every round, not every other round for the last six rounds). Then I kitchnered.


The heel is almost as-written. I did make one mod, based on the strong recommendation of my friend Turtlegirl76. The double-gusset heel! She’s right (of course). It does cup your heel really nicely, and I like that it takes the gusset decreases out of play, leaving a nice clean transition from leg to foot. Need a better look?


OK, so it’s kind of difficult to take a picture of the sole of your own foot. Sue me. In all, this was a fun, quick knit. The calendar may not show that it was quick, but that was because I put it down for long stretches, primarily because I didn’t want to mess with DPNs outside of home. I am sure I’ll enjoy wearing this pair for many winters to come.

I.B. Footsie Socks 

Pattern: I.B. Footsie by Heather Zoppetti 

Yarn: SpaceCadet Creations Estelle 

Color: Calm Before the Storm 

Quantity: roughly 60% of the 430-yard skein 

Needles: US 1.5 (2.5mm) Signature DPNs

Started: 8 April 2012 

Finished: 14 July 2012 

Mods: Double-gusset heel, rounder toe than written.