Struggling with non-wool fiber

The Essential Tee is kicking my butt, right from the get-go. The one-step provisional cast-on is new-to-me, and now (12 rows in) creating the bottom hem is a bit of a puzzlement. Also, I'm not used to working with non-wool fiber like the linen-cotton blend that Oleander is. The project is on pause while I suss out some solutions.

I did knit a swatch, but I'm not sure how helpful it is - knitting a square swatch means knit a row and purl a row while knitting in the round is all knit - other than showing me what the fabric is like and how much it will shrink.

The yarn is a bit splitty plus totally non-springy, and stitches fall off the metal needles very easily. I may switch to bamboo-tipped circular needles (which I would have to purchase). One thing I am definitely going to do is take some leftover sock yarn and practice the new techniques a bit so that I am more satisfied with the results.

Knitting: When frustrated with the Essential Tee (see above), I work on socks.
Spinning: I'm back at the wheel, back to the Romney.

I've been procrastinating on warping the 24" rigid heddle loom because the project I've chosen for it has 250 double-warp (500!) ends. But now that the bobbin winder insert has arrived, I have no more excuses. All I need is time and patience.

Playing with clasped-weft weaving

Several years ago, the program at our local weaving guild was about clasped-weft and clasped-warp weaving. Even though it may seem like I am not paying attention, I really am. This summer I decided to play around with the clasped-weft method.

Clasped-weft weaving results in a mostly weft-faced fabric. When executing the clasped-weft rows, each pass has double the weft. This left me questioning what to do with the rows of just one color. Sometimes I wove with just one strand, other times tried it with two. The results look different, but not necessarily wrong.

My efforts were based on a pattern in The Weaver's Idea Book, by Jane Patrick, called "Summertime Coasters". For warp, I used some Maurice Brassard 8/4 cotton warp (colorway 'Linen' I think). For weft, I started out with Tahki Stacy Charles Cotton Classic 100% Mercerised Cotton, in 'Milk Chocolate', 'Raspberry', and 'Leaf Green'. The yarn is a bit springy, if you know what I mean, and I had a hard time beating it down with the heddle alone.

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Then I switched to Pisgah Peaches & Creme Ombres ('Spring Meadows'), Lion Brand Lion Cotton Solid in white, and Den-M-Nit Pure Indigo Cotton (dyed). Although all are rated as worsted, the denim yarn is on the light side, yet it seemed to work okay with the heavier worsted.

By now I was getting the hang of things, including beating the weft with a fork to pack it down better. These are in the Den-M-Nit Pure Indigo Cotton (dyed and undyed).

Ordinarily, I don't use hemstitch for securing the warp fore and aft, but this time got in a lot of practice. A couple of these examples show you how it looks when you do it wrong, which forced me to learn to do it right.

These coasters were made on my Ashford SampleIt 9" loom, which is becoming my favorite loom of all.

But first...

Starting a new project requires gathering one's tools and selecting one's fiber. And then what? Sometimes it involves learning something brand new on step one. That is the case with the Essential Tee from Purl Soho.

The "Provisional cast-on: One-step method" threw me a bit. I tried learning it with the yarn for the tee, but decided I'd better practice with something a bit woolly-er. I won't say I mastered it, but I comfort myself with the fact that the cast on won't show once the bottom of the tee is hemmed.

Knitting: Working on the latest socks as my portable project. Started the Essential Tee using Oleander, a fingering-weight cotton linen blend, without swatching; then I chickened out and started a swatch because I don't know how the fabric will come out.

Weaving: The clasped-weft coasters are off the loom.

I really thought I would have more time for fiber this summer, even imagined myself spinning on the deck. But the weather has been superbly uncooperative - hot and sticky. Thank goodness for AC.

Comfort yarn

Last week was rough, so I skipped my usual update. (The FO posts I wrote ahead of time and scheduled their publishing, so you had plenty to read.) I hope this week will be better (fingers crossed!)

For comfort, I dove into my stash, in hopes of finding something to use with this pattern. It's knit in fingering weight yarn, but of course I don't have a tee-shirt-worth of fingering weight yarn that could work. So I ordered the yarn the pattern called for along with the pattern, from Purl Soho. Because I deserve it!

Knitting: Frogged the Lempi sweater. Started a pair of socks, just in time for spending some time visiting a relative in the hospital. (He's home now.)

Spinning: I think I did no spinning, despite joining Tour de Fleece.
Weaving: The clasped-weft coasters are turning out to be a "learning experience" but at least I am getting lots of practice hemstitching.

One of my spare bedrooms has been designated as The Studio, but one day I realized I don't like working in there. Even though there are two windows, the room feels kind of claustrophobic. So I rearranged a few things and now the 24" Ashford loom is in the den, along side my spinning wheel. We'll see how that works out... and if I actually use it out there. I have several other looms of various sizes, but they can't all fit into the den, so I'm not sure how all this will evolve.

The clasped-weft coaster project is taking up most of the dining room table. With the leaf in it, that table is just about perfect for warping the SampleIt loom, which is how the mess starts. The older I get, the more I need organization and simplicity.

Shades of yellow

I was going to create separate posts for each of the dye materials I used for my solar dyeing experiment, but they all turned out to be yellow, more or less. Not much difference there, so why make separate posts?

For posterity's sake, here is what I did:

Zinnia blossoms (dried):

• Oops - didn't crush dried blossoms before using
• Oops - didn't weigh blossoms before using
• Half in one mason jar with tap water (neutral pH), half in another jar with well water (oops - didn't check pH of well water, assume it is neutral)
• Set jars in sun for three days
• Drained blossoms and discarded
• Using cold alum mordanted Cascade 220 - one mini skein (50 yds) in one jar, one in the other jar
• Set in sun for two days

Lobster mushrooms:

• Oops - didn't chop mushrooms before using
• Oops - didn't weigh mushrooms before using
• Half in one mason jar with tap water (neutral pH), half in another jar with well water (oops - didn't check pH of well water, assume it is neutral)
• Set jars in sun for three days - got kind of foamy
• Drained mushrooms and saved them for future use
• Using rhubarb leaf mordanted Cascade 220 - one mini skein (50 yds) in one jar, one in the other jar
• Set in sun for two days
• Mold in well water jar stained the yarn a bit

Oak galls:

• Oops - didn't crush galls before using
• Oops - didn't weigh galls before using
• All galls in a mason jar with tap water (neutral pH)
• Set jar in sun for a three days
• Drained galls and saed them for future use
• Using unmordanted Cascade 220 - one mini skein (50 yds) in jar
• Set in sun for two days

From left to right: zinnia in tap water, zinnia in well water, mushroom in tap water, mushroom in well water, oak gall

I am letting the used mushrooms dry out, to be chopped or crushed, to see if I get more dye from them using heat. Similarly, I'm letting the used galls dry, to be crushed, to see if I get more dye from them using heat; they can still be used to mordant fibers even when no dye left.

I thought solar dyeing would be easier than heating up pots of dye baths, etc., and it is, but the results were not all that impressive. Of course, I just jumped in without doing any research. I may try solar dyeing again, but with more care.

Skinny scarf from leftovers

I warped my SampleIt to take to the county fair so interested parties could try their hand at weaving. Once home, I just keep going, using up bits and bobs of naturally dyed yarn. (For the record: dyer's coreopsis, sunflower, sycamore bark, tomato vine, rhubarb leaf, dahlia, turmeric, Queen Anne's lace, onion skins.) Here is the result:

Pattern: None
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Ashford SampleIt
Warp: Cascade 220
Weft: Cascade 220
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5 (more or less)
Ends: 32
Finished size: 3.5"x59" (plus fringe)
Finishing: Untwisted tassels on the ends, single crocheted sock yarn (Happy Days Fiber Arts Sock Weight in 'End of Harvest') along the selvages

If I had had a plan, I would have interspersed the darker wefts with the lighter ones, but - oh, well - too late now. The crochet along the selvages is a bit wonky as well, but it adds character.

I wondered what I could wear this scarf with when it occurred to me that it would go well with the Lempi sweater I knit from naturally dyed yarn. One can't wear too many handknits at one time.

Seven-strand bathroom rug

When I get a little twitchy about how much yarn I own, a stash-buster relieves some of that angst. This rug used up a LOT of cotton yarn - 1210g - including some that was leftover from frogging a pair of curtains I knit (before I knew how to weave) that had faded badly on one side.

It measures 24"x32" and turned out a little wonky. I didn't keep good notes along the way as I was just winging it, didn't even record the hook size. Basically, I crocheted a chain, single crocheted each row until it felt almost big enough, then crocheted around the border a couple of times. I didn't even try to weave in any ends, just tied on new bits as needed and let the tails add "texture".

Crocheting a 7-strand anything involves a lot of yarn wrangling. A "lazy Kate" made from a shoe box and knitting needles helped, as did having three yarn bowls. The basic structure consisted of:

• 2 strands Den-M-Nit Pure Indigo Cotton yarn and 1 strand Universal Yarn Linen Tweed (red) throughout
• 1 strand of cotton thread throughout (first blue, then natural) - J&P Coats Royale Classic Crochet Thread (size 10)
• 1 strand worsted weight cotton yarn throughout - first Lily Sugar'n Cream Stripes ('Country Stripes'), then Pisgah Peaches & Creme Ombres ('Spring Meadows')
• 2 strands Maysville 8/4 Cotton Carpet Rug Warp throughout (navy, red, pink, yellow, etc.)

Crocheting something that bulky is very hard on my wrists. And yet, I can envision doing it again, maybe with leftover sock yarns.