Thursday, May 28, 2009

At Last, Actual Fiber Content :)

By Leigh

Remember these socks?

Chequerboard Socks in progressThese are my Lucy Neatby Chequerboard Socks. This is the project I didn't pack away during moving, so that I would have at least some fiber in my hands to help me keep my sanity in the midst of the chaos of boxes everywhere and not being able to find anything.

I've enjoyed working on these socks, and they've been interesting because the short row garter stitch toe and heel are new for me. I didn't think I would care for them at first, but they match the thickness of the stranded knitting for the chequerboard body of the socks, and so work quite well.

But I've run into a problem. Not because of the pattern, but because of my foot.

The checks are stretched so tight before and after the heel, so as to pull them all out of shape. I'm not happy with how this looks and am not sure what to do about it.

The pattern calls for sizing the sock based on the ankle measurement. I admit I didn't do this because I have skinny ankles. I used the ball of my foot instead, and as you can see, the sock fits fine there. But the ball of my foot has a much smaller circumference than before and after my heel, hence the pulling.

What to do! The only thing I can think of is to somehow increase checks, but am not sure how to do that without distorting the checkerboard pattern. The logical place is at the bottom of the socks. Still, I'm stumped! Suggestions???

Posted 31 May 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

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Monday, May 25, 2009

The State of My Studio

By Leigh

The move went well. It wore us out but everything is here. Now for the unpacking. *sigh* Below is the current state of my new studio after the move. (For the "before" shot, click here.)


This is all my yarns, fibers, fleeces, books, magazines, dyes, and equipment. The loom is in pieces off to the left of the photo. Now I've got to find homes for it all!


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My New Studio
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

My New Studio

By Leigh

This is actually a duplicate post. However, it is very on topic for this blog and besides, several of you have asked about it! This room was one of the things I loved when I first saw the house. It is a sun room, but I immediately envisioned it as my weaving and fiber studio.

There is a set of French doors off of the living room.

This house has lots of French doors
These lead to a sun room, which will become my studio.

This is the room which will become my weaving studio
After thoroughly cleaning the kitchen, I decided to tackle this room next. I figured that this way, I could move a little of my stash and equipment with each trip to the house.

I love all the windows
Here is a 360 degree look at this room. The windows on the immediate left look toward the back of the house.

And how light it is
One thing you can see in the above photo is the beadboard ceiling. The walls however, are smooth.

The circle on the wall in the corner is a stove pipe flue cover, leading to a chimney outside the corner of this room. Obviously a wood or coal burning stove once stood in this corner. I say coal, because one of the outbuildings has a room with coal all over the floor.

I love the view too
As you can see, there are lots of windows and lots of natural light, making this the perfect choice for my weaving studio!

All it needs is a shade tree outside these windows
The front windows look out at the front yard and across the street.

I like that it exits to the screed porch too.
There is a closet in the corner. The other door leads out onto the screened in front porch. This is the only solid wall I have in this room.

Not much wall space though for books & stash
The wood floors are in fair shape, and will be much improved with sanding and refinishing.

I will put shelves here.
This closet was added as an afterthought to this room. Possibly to make it a third bedroom. For my purposes, I think I would prefer shelving here. The interior of the closet offers a peek into what the room was like before it was painted.

I love natural colored wood
The baseboards were originally unpainted. The closet floor is darker than the rest of the room. Possibly it was stained or painted at one time and had been sanded after the closet was added(???)

A peek into the past.When I removed the switch plate to wash the walls, I discovered the original wood of the wall, which had been painted twice; once a darker green, and later a lighter green. These same colors were used in several other rooms as well.

The double-hung windows are likely original to the house.....

I need screens on most of them too.
These operate with weights and pulleys; you can see the pulley rope on this one seems to be in fairly good condition. The ropes on some of the other windows are broken, and some of the windows are painted shut.

This room presents several challenges for me. The first is that there isn't much wall space, and I have a lot of stash, books, and equipment! DH says I could put shelving in front of the windows, but I am loathe to block any of that light.

Because of those windows however, and the orientation of the house (of which the front faces west), this room gets a lot of late afternoon sun. This in turn heats the room up considerably. While this will be welcome during winter months, it has the potential to be unbearable during the summer. I have this problem at our apartment, but I couldn't do anything about it! Now I can and I plan to plant a deciduous shade tree in the front yard this fall!

The last challenge is the size of the room. It measures 9' 3.5" by 19'11". It is the width I am concerned about, because of the size of my loom. My Glimakra Standard measures about six feet in width, so obviously the "getting around" room will be somewhat restricted. Depth-wise, my loom is about five and a half feet, not counting the bench. Even so, this is the perfect room for my studio!


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