mopey-ness over for now- time for fibery goodness!

Thanks for all the kind comments- I was getting pretty upset last night, I think it was because I was tired and because it was my face so thanks for everyone making me feel better. *hugs*

So for ten days straight about a month ago, while I was studying for exams, I decided to weave my parents a blanket. I had just finished a weaving class and my friend Darlene lent me one of the looms to go home and practice. I decided it would be perfect to use up some of my single skeins that I have in my stash since I'm mostly knitting larger things now. You tend to weave shawls with the tri loom, as they make nice little triangle and if you sew two together they are a nice size for a shawl, or four together for a baby blanket. Then I decided to weave my parents a blanket. And I was leaving for home in two weeks. So I started weaving.

Here's the tri-loom with the alpaca paint on it. You start at the top and go across then use a hook to pull the yarn through the strands going across and then you pull it over to the other side and it is already woven through... okay- this is impossible to describe but yeah. It rocks. Each triangle takes about 2 to 5 hours each to finish. The alpaca turned out really freaky with all the blue on one side, the light blue in the centre, and the purple on the other side. Usually it goes kinda plaid so this was really neato fantastico.
After the squares were done, I sewed them together into four- which took nearly as long as the weaving.


Then I sewed those squares togetherAnd then the blanket! Turned out rather massive. I was going to do 24 squares but I was exhausted after 16 and I figured it would just be smaller but the size turned out perfect! Jenn laid out the squares for me because after 6 days of weaving 16 squares I was kinda crazy. So for those of you who aren't fibre enthusiats (sp?) you may want to stop now because I'm going to go through the squares. It's totally yarn porn. Triangle #1: Hand dyed and spun mohair by Darlene and egyptian cotton- this was a little hard to weave because of the loops but the cotton kept it study. Triange #2: Noro Silk Garden- who here doesn't love silk garden? It's like The God of yarn. I have about 6 shots of this triangle for my own enjoyment.
Triangle #3: Mosiac- this is some wonderful acrylic that I picked up awhile ago. The colours are much deeper than in the photo and so far it's one of the favorites. You can see here the plaid pattern that turns up normally.

Triangle #4: Noro Kureyon- I used this yarn a few times in different colour ways. I love how soft spots of this wool gets, like fluffy kitten bellies.
Triangle #5: Silk- I cannot remember the name of this yarn but it is 100% silk. It's a solid colour but it is like cream woven together and was one of the quickest to weave too. I think I did it in about 2 hours.
Triangle #6- Noro Kureyon- mmmmm......... noro.............. drooooool. And very easy to weave too. There were a few snags as the strands in the centre of the loom would get a little worked but overall fine.
Triangle #7: Mohair alpaca- this was just evil to weave but I stuck through. It took me forever but it was worth it. Mmmm..... fuzzy. I'm slightly allergic to alpaca so it was kinda ironic that this one was one of the longest to weave.
Triangle #8: Mexico yarn from Drunken Monkey (hi Brooke!) This stuff has amazing yardage. I didn't want to use it because I want to make a scarf out of the mexico but it went so well with the other colours I decided to and the skein is barely touched! I'll have more than enough to knit my mexico scarf.
Triangle #9: Raj Silk- this is some of my Nepal yarn and it was not fun to weave but the result was wonderful. I got this yarn at Canada Day fair.
Triangle #10: Merino paint- I came very close to running out of this yarn even though I started with an entire skein (I didn't check the yardage- bad Leone bad) so I was pulling very tightly on the yarn to get enough and the yarn on the loom was like a trampoline. It was worth it though.
Triangle #11: Hand dyed wool and weaving thread- yeah. This was a bad idea but I didn't realize that till a little bit in. The picture is very fuzzy but it's these beautiful shades of purple and the thread is black. It turned out the black weaving thread was broken and I was constantly tying ends together and not realizing the yarn had ended until halfway through the weaving process but meh. The thread is so small that you can't even feel the knots.
Triangle #12: Hand dyed wool- I have no idea what happened to this photo but it's a shame because Darlene did an amazing job on this colour. Very dark hues and deep. I used this yarn for the border as well. Triangle #13: Rayon ribbon- this was one of the first ones and it was just really hard to weave in the ends because I had to use two skeins. But it moved along very easily.

Triangle #14: Noro Kureyon- again. Me lurves it so. See the fuzzy goodness? Fuzzy goodness!Triangle #15: Bamboo- the same kind as Bamboozle! Very slinky and fun. I held two strands together- the blue and the pink. Mmmmm...... bamboo. Triangle #16: Alpaca Paint- This stuff is wonderful. I bought it specific for the blanket because I've wanted to get it forever and this was the perfect oppurtunity. Wonderful. Don't you want to touch it? Mmmmm..... alpaca. And yes, I am allergic but I don't care- I'd sleep with it. Every night.

And that's it. I'm going to bed. Goodnight!