Loom Lunacy

It’s official… I’m a totally hopeless case when it comes to loom knitting. I get teary and drool at the sight of yarn, thinking of all the wonderful things I could make with it. I’m scanning YouTube and the web for various new stitches and projects to challenge me. I discovered websites for men who knit. I learned to loom knit my first sock and I’m becoming more familiar with all the knitting terminology. I’m starting to combine different yarns to see how they look together. I haven’t scratched a single piece of scratchboard for awhile. And now my coworkers know that I loom knit, and I’m not ashamed. One of them even asked me to make a hat, and when I made it for him, he bought it (my first sale, yippee!) It’s official: I’M A LOOM KNITTER!!! Deal with it. I wonder if there is a way to combine knitting and scratchboard…

Here are a few of the projects I’ve been working on to date -

My adult hat collection:

This was an experiment I did using Lion Brand Homespun Montana Sky and some glass beads I bought from Michael's. I strung the beads onto the yarn and kept moving them down the yarn as I knit until I got to where I wanted to place them. It was a tedious process. Once it was done the beads were loosely attached after all that, and they flop around. Next time I will add the beads after I finish the hat. I think next time I would also use more beads or larger beads.

This is my hat, which I used Lion Brand Thick and Quick navy blue wool, and another navy blue regular yarn. I created brims for all my other adult hats, but this was the first one I tried without a brim. I thought if I didn't make a brim that it might unravel, but that isn't the case, so some of my baby hats are brimless also. The two blues are different hues; if you look carefully you can see it:

This is a hat and scarf set I did using Homespun Black, Montana Sky, and the remnants of another mixed white Homespun that I had:

Another hat I made, using Lion Brand Homespun Harvest. I like the variations in color:

This was my first baby hat. I used Bernat Baby Coordinates White. It has a silky white strand running through it, I don't know if you can see that from the picture. After I made this hat, I just kept adding the Bernat White to everything else I did:

Here are a few baby hats that I combined different weights of yarn together, just to experiment.

This one has three different color strands and is very thick. It wasn't too hard working with three strands but it was a little tricky making sure they were all together on each peg:

Here is the Montana Sky and Bernat White together:

Next to the white baby hat, I think I like this one (Bernat white and Homespun Saffron) the best:

Here’s my first sock. I figured I would try to figure out on my own how to make the heel, but my meager attempts did not work (i.e decreasing the size and then just leaving one stand on a peg while I continued to knit, hence the loop you see hanging out from the side). So I turned to the web, and after some clear instructions I figured it out:

Here’s my attempt at alternating ribbed stitches. I like how the pattern looks, and though the yarn looks black it is actually navy blue. Can you see the pattern? The photo didn't really translate it too well. I was running out of the blue yarn, so I started playing with the pattern a bit, making it smaller.

Finally, I am attempting to make a poinsettia (using Lion Brand Holiday Homespun Holly) based on a tutorial I found on the Loom Lore blog (Friday, 12/7/07): http://loomlady.blogspot.com/. It took me nearly an hour to do the first leaf, since I wasn’t used to the technique involved with making it. The yarn keeps getting so tight, I have to fight with it to get it to pull it over the pegs sometimes. But the results come out so tightly woven it’s nice. And I like how I can pull together one end of the yarn and it closes the knitting up, and the more you knit the more it starts making a cup-like shape. Eventually I am going to have a complete flower to post on my blog, and I will be so proud of it!

The photo is a little dark because that red yarn is so bright that the camera flash made it too intense. Those "sparkles" are the yellow thread that holds the yarn together.

You might think I am partial to Lion Brand yarn, and I do admit that I enjoy using it very much, but I also can appreciate the fine yarns from other manufacturers and from individuals that I see online at etsy and other sites.

You can see I've been busy!!! Maybe you should get a loom and see how much fun it is for yourself!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY ALL

My wife said, "What do you want to do today?" After church the rest of the day was mine. So what to do? I could catch up on my online work, I could do some artwork, I could take a much needed nap or read a book, etc. So what did I decide to do? I mowed the lawn because it has been raining so much lately and today was one of the first days it hasn't rained. I wasn't alone, I heard a few other lawn mowers humming too. And I did a little art. Yay the longest day of the year! Cows are mooing, fireflies are lighting up, and I got some artwork done.

Grounds For Sculpture

I forgot to mention that the fam and I went to Grounds For Sculpture down in Hamilton NJ a few weekends ago. It was great! It wasn't too far of a drive either. Peacocks wander about the property as you meander through the landscaped grounds full of different sculptures of various sizes, colors, shapes, and styles. My daughter liked it so much she said she wanted to come back before we even left the parking lot. I liked the fact that she was able to touch many of the sculptures, so we didn't have to walk through there telling her "Don't touch that!" every two minutes. It was their anniversary celebration, so they had dancing and free ice cream and cupcakes. They were also having artist's tours, where one of the artists who has a sculpture on the grounds discusses their art. A good time was had by all. If you go be prepared to spend a lot of time walking outside, though they do have indoor exhibits as well. There are also two dining areas: one is a restaurant, the other a cafe, priced accordingly. It cost $10 per person to get in, and my daughter was free. But if you have a Bank of America card and you go the first weekend of the month, you get in free. You can read more about it (and see pictures) at my wife's blog, Super Savvy Spender. The link: http://supersavvyspender.blogspot.com/ and read June 8.

Back in the Zone

I got some artwork done, which is great. At first it felt a little mechanical, but then my creative zone kicked in and I was able to start drawing freely. Now I notice that even if I only have a moment to draw, the creative zone kicks in faster. I can enter in and draw without having to warm up, and the piece will look as though it may have been completed in a few sittings rather than the long time it is taking for it to be created.

The Wild Kingdom continues...

This week I saw a baby fox in our yard.

At first it was at the back of the yard, gnawing on a bone, presumably something it had killed. Then it wandered about, nibbling on things crawling about in the grass that I couldn't see. I stood still and took pictures of it. It came closer and closer until it was only 10 feet away, and that's when I got this picture:

It looked up when it heard the camera click. I moved, and it scampered away. When I looked out the window later on, it was still in the yard but further away.

And every night we can hear the cows across the street mooing. Even with the doors and windows closed, you can hear them pretty well.

I'm almost halfway done with writing my book, yay! I hope you will read it. It's about how a creative person can connect to God through quiet time and so much more than that.

Also, I wanted to include some pictures of the last two scarves I had loom knitted for two dear friends: