Here it is, Sunday night again already, and I haven’t posted yet. Fortunately, I have been crafting more than my blogging might suggest. (Mostly, I have been swamped by work.) Also fortunately, the semester ends next Saturday, so I’ll be able to switch to a planning-and-preparing mode rather than a constantly-on-demand mode, so I might actually be coherent and creative again. But anyway. Here’s what’s been going on behind the scenes.

1) A lot of stockinette.

I need something mindless when the semester is crazy, and this laceweight moebius has been just the thing. I ran out of yarn yesterday, and started the cast off in a contrasting color. On a whim, I also added some beads. I kind of love it.

2) A quick diversion.

This was last weekend’s project. I heard through the grapevine that my niece is in a stuffed animal phase. I grabbed some yarn leftovers and did some doodling. Not sure I’m 100% thrilled with the ears, but I like how the rest of it came out.  I think she may also need a dress, but we’ll see what happens before the holiday.

3) Another quick diversion.

We have somehow managed to misplace all 5 pairs of Branden’s handwarmers. This is mostly my fault: Branden is constantly losing his handwarmers around the house and can usually only find one of any given pair. Last spring, I forced him to collect them all in one place so that we could find them, which means that they have all disappeared together this time. It’s gotten to the time of year when the steering wheel is cold in the morning, so I whipped up an emergency pair from some handspun in the stash.

4) Playing with a new toy.

I finally caved and bought a floor loom. I’ve been wanting a wider loom forever, and the smaller loom was starting to limit my ability to produce the things I want to produce. So, we bit the bullet and upgraded to a 36″ weaving width. It also has four more shafts (total of 8), so I have some experimenting to do. First, though, I took advantage of the wider weaving area to make a color gamp.

A gamp is really just a fancy word for a sampler. I made a warp with about an inch of each color in my stash, and am now weaving an inch with each color in turn. You get one square where warp and weft are the same color along the diagonal, and the other squares show you that color mixed with all the others. It’s a great reference piece to have on hand, and I’ve needed some color recently. I wove one in plain weave and am about halfway through one in twill. I can’t wait to have these hanging on my wall!