Thrifting

My granddaughter wanted to go "thrifting" today. We hit up the three thrift stores closest to my house. She found a couple of tops. I found a "new" sewing machine.

Finding a manual for it is another thing. Hopefully, Singer's customer support will be able to help me.

I also found a mug I could not resist.

Knitting: A while back I knit a dishcloth from some yarn I dyed with the dye left over from the tie-dye program at the spinning guild; I finished a second one from the same skein, so now I consider that project finished. Some knitting occurred on the second pair of anklets.
Spinning: Some of the merino/alpaca is three-plied; I plan to chainply the rest.
Weaving: The 24" Ashford rigid heddle loom is warped with red and black 8/4 cotton warp, for a pair of houndstooth dish towels. I continue to prep for the next weaving guild program - tapestry techniques.

Speaking of dyeing, I recently learned of the Maiwa School of Textiles which offers some online classes, one of which is titled "The Natural Dye Workshop". Yes, I have taken some natural dye workshops from local teachers, but this is at a different level. The price of the class itself is reasonable, but the (optional) supply kit is a bit expensive. I'm tempted, but don't have the time right now. Maybe this summer?

A successful meetup

I am the "outreach coordinator" for the weaving guild and have been acting like one for the spinning guild. Hence all our demonstrating in public to raise the awareness of both guilds. This seems to have helped the spinning guild - there were 30 people present at our last meeting - but the weaving guild? Not so much. It seems to be withering away.

So I decided to try something different, form a fiber arts group at a local gallery called Artlink. This happened to coincide with another person's desire to do the same thing, so we have been working on it together. Today was our first meeting.

There were 18 of us, representing all kinds of hand working skills - knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing, quilting, weaving, etc. I wore my weaving guild tee shirt even though I brought only knitting to work on as I anticipated being busy with organizing things. Only one other guild member showed up, which I found disappointing, but the group is great, all ages, all interested in learning new things. The topic at our next meeting will be spinning, so I'll bring my wheel and wear my spinning guild tee shirt and try to convince some other spinners to show up.

Knitting: Started a second pair of anklets, from the same yarn.
Weaving: Preparing for the next weaving guild meeting where another member and I will teach some tapestry techniques.

Refreshing my tapestry skills

Yesterday I also participated in a Zoom session out of the Austin guild I belong to, on natural dyeing. I have done a fair bit of that myself but am always interested in learning more... and I did pick up some tips and ideas. For example, I have a LOT of gray handspun which I now plan to overdye with marigold or goldenrod this summer.

I'm still recovering from my cold, but almost there. I'm also becoming a bit resentful that I am involved in lots of fiber activities without having time to DO much fiber work myself. Hopefully, that will change as winter is the perfect time to hunker down with some wool.

That was the week that wasn't

This past week I have been suffering from the ugliest cold I have had in years. Covid test negative, no body aches, all in my sinuses, so definitely a cold. After a while, I can't tell if I feel worse from the cold symptoms or from the cold meds.

Barbara Walker, a giant in the knitting community, passed away last month. The Yarn Harlot wrote a lovely tribute in IG, but darned if I can figure out how to link to it (the December 26, 2025 post). So here is the text in its entirety. (Sorry, Steph!)

"In 2008 I called Barbara G. Walker and I asked her if she would come and teach for me at the first Sock Summit. I didn’t know her, but I had all her books (knitting and not) and it felt like calling Paul McCartney and asking if he’d want to hang out and jam. It took a conversation, but she agreed and I had the privilege of getting to know her and knitters, she was wonderful. Humble, impossibly clever, irrepressibly funny and wonderfully ingenious. She knit me this little fish and I’ve had it on my corkboard forever - a very Barbara knit. Even if you never knew her, I guarantee she touched your life, even if you never read one of her books, even if you don’t own one of her stitch dictionaries, even if you’ve never heard of her- there are two reasons that make her legend. Barbara was responsible for the first charted patterns coming into North America, and gentle knitters - one lovely day in the 70s, Barbara Walker invented the SSK -something you do everyday on your needles sprang from the sparkling mind of this person. Barbara died this past Sunday and we should all hoist a glass in her honour. Barbara Walker, hero to knitters everywhere whether they know it or not."

Knitting: All I accomplished this past week was finishing the anklets and working on the headband I started oh, so long ago.

My SO has several pairs of handmade socks with holes in them. Not worn areas, but out-and-out holes. I can't figure out how he did this. Since I recently purchased some books on creative mending, I am going to take a stab at fixing them.

I checked the entries for the holey socks on Ravelry, and they were all made with sock yarn, not something delicate and prone to wear and tear. The stockinette areas should be relatively simply, the ribbed areas not so simple, but the baby cables? Not so sure I can duplicate that. We shall see!

That's MADAME President

I agreed to be the president for the spinning guild for 2026, and already I am regretting it a bit. Getting everything organized has been a lot of work! I'm hoping once I get the committee chairs named, things will fall into place and everything will just glide along. (HAHAHAHA)

Actually, we have a great group of officers who are young (as in younger than me) and enthusiastic. I am hopeful that it will be a great year for the guild.

Knitting: The anklets are ready for the Kitchener stitch to close the toes (tonight's goal); there is enough yarn to make another pair.

Spinning: At yesterday's spin-in, I finished spinning the merino/alpaca.

I'm still planning to catch up on outstanding blog posts. Hopefully, you don't feel overly inundated with what I have managed so far. They just might be a little slower coming.

Lempi sweater

I created this post in July, 2024, but for some reason, never posted it. Gah! So here it is.

I can't believe I have not created a primary post about this sweater. The knitting has been long done, but I didn't consider it complete until it had buttons. I've taken it to spinning guild meetings sans buttons, but it could not go to the county fair without them. So now it is officially DONE.

Pattern: Lempi, by Tiina Kaarela
Yarn: Cascade 220, naturally dyed with a variety of materials and methods (see list below)
Needles: US8 (US6 for ribbing)
Modifications: quite a few!

I started this project in June, 2023, and sewed the buttons on June, 2024. Instead of rewriting what I posted on Ravelry, I will just copy and paste what is there.

The pattern is written in Finnish, translated to British English, and I'm struggling a bit with the instructions. Also, my gauge seems to be off, so I am knitting a swatch to double check.
The neck is *way* tighter than the photo, too.
***** The swatch reveals that even after blocking, my gauge is off. But I like the fabric that results from using US8 needles. So instead of going up a needle size, I'm going to knit a size larger.
So, I started over, but using US6 instead of US4 for the collar. Also, used an alternating long tail cast on and went right into the ribbing.
***** Some of the instructions are foreign to me. Instead of a "wrap-and-turn", they call for a "double stitch". And I could not figure out the buttonhole instructions, so I just did the usual YO-k2tog.
***** Too many errors, so ripped back almost to the beginning. Now I am using wrap and turn instead of the DS.
***** Again, with the errors! I was knitting along, fat, dumb, and happy, when I realized I had skipped two buttonholes. I tried dropping stitches and repairing the problem but ended up ripping back about 50 rows. And THEN I screwed up the spacing of the increases, so had to rip back about 8 rows to fix that. *sigh*
***** 8/21/23 - FINALLY reached the ribbing. This will be long enough to be a sweater dress.
***** Pockets. Ugh. For some reason, I have 22 stitches on one side, 23 on the other. I am going to do a k2tog on the "long" side, to even them up, as otherwise the stitches work out for knitting in the round. BUT after the pickup round, the "front" edge will be purl so that the fabric will bend, and at the next round, will purl two stitches at either "end" of the pocket, so it will fold along the edges without bulk.
***** Done with knitting and blocking, just need to sew on buttons and fix a hole that opened up under one arm.
***** Sewed on buttons made from deer antlers - UGH. Replaced them with buttons from JoAnn.
***** THIS SWEATER WON BEST OF SHOW AT THE ALLEN COUNTY FAIR OPEN CLASS COMPETITION!!!

And now, for posterity's sake, here are the details about the naturally dyed yarn:

Yarn	Material	Mordant	Modifier
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried)	Cold alum	Iron
Cascade 220	Sycamore bark	None	None
Cascade 220	Sycamore bark	None	Iron
Cascade 220	Onion skins - Combined dye bath exhaust	None	None
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried)	Cold alum	Acid
Cascade 220	Sycamore bark	Cold alum	Alkaline
Cascade 220	Dyers coreopsis	Cold alum	Alkaline
Valley Yarn Wool	Queen Anne's Lace	None	Iron
Valley Yarn Wool	Queen Anne's lace	None	None
Cascade 220	Onion skins -Secondary dye bath exhaust	Alum	None
Cascade 220	Dyers coreopsis	None	Alkaline
Valley Yarns Wool	Queen Anne's Lace	Alum	Iron
Cascade 220	Tomato vine	Alum and cream of tartar	Ammonia
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried) exhaust	None	Iron
Cascade 220	Tomato vine	Alum and cream of tartar	Iron
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried) exhaust	None	Acid
Cascade 220	Onion skins - Primary dye bath exhaust	Alum	None

Leno curtains

These curtains have been a long time coming. My goal was to have a pair of lacy panels to hang in my bathroom window, something that would let some light in while obsuring the interior. Those objectives appear to have been met with the leno weave structure, although I should view them from outside after dark, to see just how obsuring they are when the light is on.

Pattern: none
Weave structure: leno
Loom: Ashford 24" rigid heddle
Warp: Valley Yarns Cotton 3/2 (which is mercerized), in 2550 ('Nautical Blue')
Weft: Same as warp
EPI/PPI: 10/10-ish
Ends: 236
Finished size: 41"/44"L (from rod pocket fold to top of hem fringe), 20"W Finishing: Phillipine tie at rod pocket, twisted fringe at hem.

Using a temple to maintain the selvages, I started weaving them in January of 2022, and the first panel came off the loom in February, the second in March. After a long hiatus (until April 2025), I twisted the fringe at the bottom.

This past month, I created the rod pocket by folding the top and tying the fringe onto the main body of the fabric (as opposed to simply sewing the rod pocket), then finished by using the Phillipine Tie to make things look tidier.

Due to uneven beating, the two panels are different lengths. I'm hoping a few steamy showers will relax the fabric a bit so they hang straighter.

They are far from perfect. If I were to redo this project, I would be more careful about length (they are too long to cover half the window, too short to cover the entire window, hence the 3/4 coverage). I would also make more of an attempt to beat evenly, by measuring my progress with more precision. Live and learn.

Fiber guilds everywhere

Not satisfied with belonging to two fiber guilds here in town, I have joined the Michigan League of Handweavers and the Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin (Texas). Actually, I was a member of the Michigan one several years ago, to get discounts on classes at the Michigan Fiber Festival. One of my (now local) fiber friends is from Texas, has retained her membership in the guild, and speaks highly of it, enticing me to join. With the magic of Zoom, it is possible to participate remotely.

I hope there is a fiber guild or two where you live.

Knitting: One anklet is ready for the toe, the other over halfway there.
Spinning: During a Zoom spin-in with the Austin guild, I worked on the merino/alpaca blend.
Weaving: *Finally* hung the leno curtains in my bathroom, so now I consider them done-done

Once again, I have been working on the mess I call a studio, partially because the mess had extended to the dining room. Step one was to corral all the handspun into trash bags - TWO big ones! - so I could sort what was not yarn. I also disassembled the Great Grizzly with the intention of selling it, as I never completed one project on it. Now the dining room mess is in the studio in a not-so-messy state.

I don't have any resolutions for the new year. In the past, it seemed like they resembled wishful thinking more than goals. I am hoping to figure out what to do with all that handspun, though. Using handspun has been the theme of a series of programs with the Austin guild this past year or so, and those sessions are recorded. Hopefully, something there will inspire me.