Weaving - second attempt

Let me remind you about my Bloggiversary Giveaway! If you're interested in some goodies, please leave a comment to the post on my giveaway and I'll draw a winner on 12th April! The cross-stitched sheep got some company of the yarn balls and it's not the end of the surprises. ^^

On Friday morning I decided to try weaving again. So I put on the Cast on podcast by Brenda Dayne (btw, in one episode she talked about weaving using the Ashford Knitter's Loom! *^v^*) and started warping the beast. This time I used wool - the tangle I bought on line. This yarn is thick and coarse, and in some incredible colours. i decided to use different shades of red. After three hours I finished warping the loom and Robert came home from work, just in time to help me to even the tension on the rolls. I had to adjust some threads but it was nothing compared to the previous warping with linen thread!
In the evening I started to weave and very quickly got it how to keep the weft tension correct and end up with the even piece of fabric from the beginning to the end.


Is it a table rug I made?


No. *^v^* A shawl I'm going to wear at the medieval events with my Viking outfits. ^^ (please disregard my blah pale face)
It's 120 cm long, 50 cm wide, 100% scratchy wool and it took me six hours altogether to make (3 hours of warping and three hours of weaving and finishing).

At least that's my first attempt at a Viking shawl. I think I'd like the shawl to be more variegated, so I'm warping the loom again today and I'll be weaving another piece of cloth with stripes.

Look at the texture, I love it and I keep touching it whenever I go near it. ^^


Other crafty news - I tried to unravel the sweater I bought second hand for its yarn, but after some struggle I gave up and got rid of it. The yarn turned out not what I thought it would be. It looked like a nice thick soft light cream/orangy thread (while still in a sweater form), but then it unravelled into a split two thin threads with a brown polyester thin core and some cream and orange pieces of roving attached to it, and it was really difficult to take it apart. So, I decided it wasn't worth an effort.

Straight from the Cauldron
For today's lunch I made chicken again, but according to Anthony Worrall Thompson's recipe, it's very easy and delicious! ^^ He used the whole chicken and I used chicken thighs.

How to
- remove the bones from 8 chicken thighs, fry them in a pan on some butter skin side down, add some salt, remove the chicken on a spare plate,
- to the same pan add: 1 big onion chopped, 3 cloves of garlic crushed, 1 cellery (sticks) sliced, some fresh thyme sticks, 1 can of tomatoes, 1 table spoon of sweet paprika, 1 table spoon of fish sauce, 400 ml of chicken stock; cook it for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally,
- cook the potatoes (about 12 - 14 medium size ones) and place them onto the baking tray, spray them with olive oil and salt,
- put the vegetable mixture in the middle of the baking tray,
- place the chicken thighs on top of the vegetables,
- add some more thyme leaves,
- put it in the oven and leave it there for 35 - 40 minutes (180 C).

Smacznego! *^v^*