Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Third Time's a Charm

I was inspired by the Yarn Harlot's blog to pull out my Cricket Loom again. I tried it about a year ago with no luck. I was determined to get things going and to start zipping through my stash.

I found some yarn I had bought for a scarf and thought it would be good to start with - lots of colour and texture so I hoped it would be forgiving of tension errors as I got used to working with the loom. I set everything up, got ready to go - and discovered that I had just made the exact same mistake the Yarn Harlot had blogged about - a little too inspired by her, I guess. I undid it all and started over. I didn't make the same mistake twice - I made a new one the second time and discovered why things hadn't gone so smoothly when I tried it last year. I found some instructions on youtube that were far batter than the ones that came with the loom.





Third time I got it all set up and started weaving and wow! Now I see what all the fuss is about. Even with it being my first time I was able to finish a scarf in two hours. Not two days, two hours.



A couple of years ago I was crazy about Noro yarns. I made a Lizard Ridge afghan with it and more hats than I can count. I have made a couple pairs of socks with it too. It is absolutely the worst sock yarn I have ever knit with but it makes just about the nicest socks to wear, once they have been washed. I think there were a number of bags and purses somewhere along the line, too. I have a few scarves made with Noro Silk Garden but I am pretty burned out of the Noro jag I was on. Trouble is that I still have a bag of it hanging around at the back of my closet. I think the Cricket Loom is the answer to that problem..........









And about three hours later I had this -



It is straightforward, fun, and look how quickly I can enjoy my stash. Yarns like Noro that I am tired of knitting with are fine for an afternoon date with the loom and then they can make their way to a new home. Weaving will never replace knitting for me but it sure is a great alternative for stash busting. Two scarves in a day - and not just any day, but my first day as a weaver. What could be sweeter?

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