So provided nothing horrible happens between here and Japan, my loom should be here within the next couple of weeks. I sorted all my ravelry stash and added the colour tags so I can easily sort by colour to remember what yarns I have in various colour families. While doing so, I realised that I don’t have very much cotton at all, pretty much only a load of dishcloth cotton, which is wonderful and makes awesome squishy teatowels, but is fairly limiting as it’s rather fat. So I hunted around the internet for some cheaper cottons for practicing 4 shaft patterns with. I ended up buying this surprise mixed box from yeoman yarns. 4 kilos of cotton for £30 including delivery!
They allow you to have some input in what you get, so I said it was for weaving so I’d prefer mostly finer weights, and that I like natural colours and bright jewel colours, please no pastels.
This is what the postman brought me!
It is all unlabelled, so I have no idea what it is, and many of the items are mill ends or otherwise unrepeatable, so it’s not a great thing to buy if you want to know exactly what you’re getting and be able to order more, but for learning purposes without spending a lot of money, it’s perfect, and I’m really impressed with the great value for money.
In closer detail:
random small cones given as freebie
bright red. very fine. 2 ply, approx 44 wpi, 2 cones, 282g each including cone
raspberry, purple, green, and beige. 2 ply yarn cabled (2 x 2ply) approx 515g including cone, 30wpi
natural, about fingering weight, 22 wpi, 3 ply, 595g including cone
turquoise, 4 ply, 18 wpi 553 g including cone
natural, singles, thin with thicker slubs, 515g including cone, 30wpi
I also got bored of reading and thinking about weaving, so decided to actually DO some. I got my rigid heddle out with a couple of skeins of wollmeise (campari orange and herzblut), a ball of my very first handspun in coordinating colours for texture, and made these two scarves:
Fingers crossed the saori loom gets here soon, and that it’s not too hard to assemble, then I’ll be doing all sorts of twills and other fun things soon!
LOOOOOOOOM! I have a love of the Campari Piccolo (it’s why I used it in one of my designs that I’m not allowed to claim yet because I can’t show it off yet and….boo!). I may wind up ordering another skein or two at some point.
Also, had a funky dream about you and me being wedding planners for a total bridezilla. I think we brought out a lot of sass and basically told her to go to hell. And then I realized I’ve no idea what you sound like so……my brain kept saying, “She’s English, dammit” but my dream gave you a basic Midwestern US accent (rather like mine). Thought I’d share…