Tea on Tuesday

 No time for tea today! We have a holiday dinner tomorrow night, and a very large chocolate mocha honey cake is in the oven, a pizza on the way home with my husband. I do have a few more shawl photos to share with you. The first photo shows the Peaceful Day shawl blocking. After it blocked, I added a little crocheted ruffle to it in a contrasting purple.

The second photo shows the Fareose shaped shawl on the loom. It is coming along very nicely, although I banged my head on the wall pretty well over this one. I think it will be a lovely shawl now, and it is the last pattern to be written for the shawl project. A little more testing on the small ruffled shawl, and then editing and photos - and finally patterns! 
Thank you to all of you who have sent me such wonderful, encouraging notes about the shawls. It keeps me working hard ☺
Copyright 2011 by Invisible Loom and Craft, Renee Van Hoy, all rights reserved.

On and Off the Loom

I have more photos of "the shawl project" to share with you today. The first photo shows the pink Hydrangea Petal Lace Shawl being blocked. It was made from 50 pegs, and blocked to 64 inches by 28 inches.

The second photo is shows a large V-back shawl on my 66 peg 1/2 inch gauge CinDwood loom. The center point of the shawl is at the bottom right of the photo. The yarn is Knit Picks City Tweed in Plum Wine, a soft blend of merino and alpaca in a DK weight. The shawl has simple lace rows that will follow the "V" shape when it is blocked out. I'm planning to add a little crochet edging in a contrasting color.

The last photo shows the Diamonds in the Ruff(les) shawl being blocked. This shawl was made on 58 pegs, and blocked out to over 75 inches. It wraps around and around for a wonderful effect, with the lace displayed nicely across the back.

I'm about to cast on the last of the "shawl project" shawls. I've made the doll size model, and I just have to decide on the yarn.

What's on your loom? Copyright 2011 by Invisible Loom and Craft, Renee Van Hoy. All Rights Reserved.                                                                       

A Loom Mystery

Just off my loom, the first photo shows an unblocked pink Hydrangea Petal Lace Shawl.  This version was made from a fingering weight yarn, using only 50 pegs on a 1/2 inch gauge loom.  The second photo is my loom mystery. The pegs and loom piece are from the new Martha Stewart loom. The mystery is what size and gauge is this loom?  There are two peg sizes. The pegs come separately from the loom, and fit firmly into the peg slots. I've lined them up in the photos with my tactile measuring tape to give you a general idea of how the pegs measure in different configurations.

Starting from the left side: Two large pegs next to each other have a very narrow opening for yarn. A fingering weight will fit between them, but the pegs are very large, so I'm not sure what kind of fabric this combination will make.The next combination is two large pegs with an empty peg slot between them. This appears to be larger than the yellow Knifty Knitter, about 7/8 inch gauge.  One large and one small peg have about a 3/8 inch spacing, but the peg sizes are different enough that the fabric made will be uneven. Two small pegs with one empty peg space between them are 3/4 inch space, and are pretty close in size to the pegs on the old long Knifty Knitters. Last, the two small pegs have about a 3/8 inch space, similar to the "small" gauge.

For comparison, I've lined up the Martha pegs with my Markman Adjustable looms. The Markman large gauge (3/4 inch) is smaller than the large pegs on the Martha.

The Markman 1/2 inch gauge is larger than the two small Martha pegs. There is no 1/2 inch equivalent on the Martha loom, which disappoints me, as this is my favorite gauge.

The Markman small gauge is similar to the Martha loom with two small pegs next to each other. So, is our mystery solved? Maybe. Martha's loom appears to have a 7/8 gauge, a 3/4 gauge,  and a 3/8 gauge (extra large, large and small). The Martha loom is "semi-adjustable", allowing for you to make a fixed loom in many different configurations. It is not an adjustable loom - it will not let you change the number of pegs you are using while you are working on a project. But it does give you a greater number of pegs and options. Hopefully there will be a few more configurations and peg sizes coming to fill in the gaps between the peg sizes. Overall, I'm pleased to have this loom, and look forward to trying some of the lace pieces I've been working on in the 3/8 inch gauge on the Martha loom.

Copyright 2011 by Invisible Loom and Craft, Renee Van Hoy. All Rights Reserved.