Help

I hate to warp my rigid heddle loom. Invariably, the pegs pop off and/or I kick the loom, making the warp all cattywampus and/or the warp is grossly uneven.


Then a fiber friend steered me toward Amy McKnight and her hybrid warping videos. Ordinarily, you can't use a warping board with an Ashford rigid heddle loom, but she has figured out to do that AND wind on the warp without a helper. I am in awe.

And then what? Well, here's what. Sara Goldenberg White has an instructional video (courtesy of Long Thread Media, publisher of Little Looms) that shows you how to tie onto the front beam so that everything comes out even.

What did we ever do before the Internet?

Knitting: I finished the bias dishcloths and started one in seed stitch. I am discovering that watching TV is not conducive to knitting seed stitch. I make a mistake every other row when I am distracted by the show I am viewing. So I've been reduced to knitting sans TV.
Weaving: I finished my curves practice on the Mirrix tapestry loom. Now it's back to the skyline sample.

Last Tuesday, I visited the shoulder surgeon for my one-year checkup. The new (left) shoulder is still good as new, should last forever. I had him check out the right one. After testing its strength and flexibility, he commented that it was pretty useless. I wouldn't go that far, but the micro movements of knitting and the reaching of weaving are quite painful. So it will be replaced as well, after the first of the year.

Have a bionic week.

Garter dishcloths

I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I do stream some favorite shows. I'm too cheap to pay extra to eliminate commercials, but find them to be tedious and boring. Enter simple knitting. These garter stitch dishcloths are perfect for bridging the gap.

Pattern: none; just cast on 40 stitches, knit until the piece looks squarish, then bind off.
Yarn: Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Co. Peaches & Creme Ombres, colorway '130 Shaded Pastels'
Needles: US7 (but cast on and bound off with US8)


I'm always a bit reluctant to use a colorway that includes white or natural for dishcloths, as once the dishcloths get used, they get a bit dingy. But I have a lot of cotton yarn like this and plan to use it up one way or another.

Once upon a time, I knit a towel, but that took *forever*. Dishcloths are just the right size for a simple knitting project.

Vacation is over

My SO and I spent the past week in the Hudson Valley, our first major vacation in several years. We stayed at a lovely AirBnB in Newburgh and visited Dia Beacon and Storm King, as well as the town of New Paltz. I decided to make a total vacation of our time away, didn't even take any knitting. But now I'm back and ready to roll (almost).

An upcoming event that I am in charge of is celebrating Spinning and Weaving Week by spinning and weaving at the main branch of the Allen County Public Library. The spinning guild has done this before, but this will be the first time the weaving guild participates. I missed last week's spinning guild meeting, but watched it the next day on FB. OMG - the misinformation! I erroneously thought I would not need to provide detailed information about the event, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Fortunately, there is time for corrections.

Why is this event a big deal? Both guilds have suffered a loss of membership and participation over the course of the pandemic. Both guilds want to raise their profiles in the community, to attract new members. The spinning guild has a presence in several reinactment events that often require period costume, but the art of spinning then looks like some outdated craft from the "good ol' days". The library event provides both guilds with the opportunity to update their images.

Even though I eschewed fiber while on vacation, I did pick up some inspiration from the decor of our AirBnB.

Now I am going to take the rest of the day to finish recovering from our vacation. Have a restful week.

Experimenting

Once upon a time, I contemplated purchasing a duplex. My plan was to live in the downstairs half and use the upstairs as a fiber studio. I mentally revisited that plan as I experimented with overdyeing yarn this past week, as it would be lovely to have two kitchens, one for cooking, one for dyeing.

Knitting: I finished a second dishcloth and started a third, this time knitting on the bias. I forgot how annoying it is to try to knit two together when using cotton.
Dyeing: A separate post will detail my overdyeing experiment, using acid dyes.

Weaving: Still practicing weaving curves in tapestry.

A blog post by Rebecca Mezoff discusses the Mirrix Summer Weaving Challenge "Wander and Weave". The idea is to wander around outside somewhere and notice what colors catch your eye. Capture those colors with notes, photos, drawings, whatever. Then create a weaving sample using just the colors. The point is to better learn how to discern colors. I tried this by photographing late summer blossoms around the yard, but despite having closets and cupboards full of yarn, I found matching the colors to be wildly impossible. I definitely could use some color training, but I'm bound and determined not to buy any more yarn.

Hope you have a week of possibilities.