Janet's Project

Janet is a fairly new Swedish weaver who was kind enough to send me a photo of her project.  She's done something here that I haven't so far and that's to frame with a row of contrasting yarn just above the fringe.  I've seen it done before and it really is a nice touch that I'll use, too.

I hope she continues to find useful information on this blog.

Faye's Swedish Weaving Afghan

This is Faye's afghan, all finished except the hemming.  The truer colors show up in the bottom 2 photos but even they don't show the richness of color in this afghan to it's best effect.

Faye used a lot of variegated yarns and chose her pattern as she went rather than having a full plan from the start.  She also worried that her fringe might be too long but I think it's perfect.

I haven't been a fan of this fabric color (I think it's called potato) but, after seeing how beautiful it looks with the yarn she chose I want to do one, too.  

Lap Afghan Complete

I finally finished the lap afghan I've been working on and it's turned out well.  The 47" x 30" size is perfect for a lap afghan and easier to manhandle than the full sized one.  The fabric is white monks cloth and the yarn is Simply Soft in medium purple and soft green.  I love this color combination, especially on the white cloth.

I did the weaving horizontally but planned for the pattern to be viewed vertically...I hope that makes sense.  Playing around with and designing the lattice/diamonds was lots of fun.  I do this with most of my projects now and it's another way to make them unique.

I'll be sticking to lap afghans and table runners for a while now.

Unique Lattice

Something I enjoy doing very much is creating unique lattice/diamonds in my projects.  I began this lap afghan using part of an existing pattern but waiting until that was complete before figuring out how I'd do the lattice.  The only rule is that everything has to connect and be consistent.  I've only finished one section but I hope it shows what I mean.

When I first started learning Swedish weaving it was accepted to do large lattice/diamonds inbetween the patterns but one day one of my friends decided to use small diamonds instead.  And this is how we came to open our minds to the many other possibilities we could produce.

Sometimes innovations come out of mistakes but, regardless where they come from, it's fun to try new ways.  If you don't like it, you can pull it out.

I'll post a photo of the completed project when it's finished.

Coming Along Nicely

This is really a lot more colorful than it looks in the photo...yarns are medium purple and light green on white monks cloth.  The pattern is vertical rather than horizontal.  Once I've finished the pattern, I'll fill in with lattice but I haven't decide yet exactly how I'll do that.

Lap Afghan

I wasn't up to starting a full afghan but I had this piece measuring 48" long x 30" wide already prepared so this will be my new project.  The yarn colors are aqua mist and lavender blue...I've used this combination before and really like it!  I'm not sure yet what color or pattern I'll do the lattice but that's a long way off.  I do have some leftover variegated with these colors in it but I'm not sure I have enough so we'll see.

I guess you can see I'm sometimes not very neat when I put my work aside for the day...it's very wrinkled but that will smooth out.  The pattern is complete on one side and barely started on the other side (pattern will be done vertically instead of horizontally) and I also have one row of the pattern started in the center.  I'm still deciding how much of the pattern and how much of the lattice I'll do, though.  There is already fringe on each side so I'm pretty sure I'll fringe each end, too.

I'll post a photo when it's finished...I think it will be lovely!

Christmas Runner Done

I finished this runner, measuring 48" long x 19" wide and am as pleased as I can be considering the difficulty using the yarn I did.  I used Caron's Simply Soft Party which has a silver thread running through it and it wasn't easy to keep together.

It helped to cut extra long strands of yarn so I wouldn't run a little short at each end because that is where the silver thread was most likely to unravel.  All in all, I will use the yarn I have for other projects but I would never buy it again.  I've heard from other weavers that they didn't like it, either, so I'm not alone in my opinion.

I haven't hemmed the ends yet but won't leave a fringe for the simple reason that I feel I need to fold the ends over and double stitch to keep the silver thread from coming loose.  You shouldn't have to do that to secure your yarn...you should be able to leave a fringe but, in this case, I'm not sure that would hold well.

Anyway, it's done, it's pretty, and I've learned a lesson.  That's success as far as I'm concerned!