A little spun out

I'm done with the yarn I was spinning for a weaving friend. I tried to make it as fine as possible, but between my limited wheel ratio (14:1), the fiber (Corriedale roving), and my skill, it didn't come out as fine as I had hoped. Also, it feels like it has a lot of grist, meaning it is tightly spun and plied, so feels a bit coarse.


This was my first attempt at such a fine yarn, so I asked a couple of fiber friends for some hints. They were not all that helpful. My inclination is to try again, but with top from a long-haired breed, such as Romney or Lincoln or BFL, but neither of them could confirm or deny my ideas. Scrounging in my stash produced some mystery fiber (maybe alpaca?) that seems to have a long staple, plus about a pound of New Zealand Romney (why did I buy it?) So the experiment will continue.

Knitting: Working away on the 'Graham' slouchy hat.
Spinning: Finished the fine spinning for my weaving friend, to be delivered later this week.
Weaving: Worked on two weavings, both in shades of gray.

I celebrated a milestone birthday recently. These two tee shirts express how I feel about that.


Have a happy Halloween!

Random blanket/shawls/runners

When I started this project (in 2016!), I fully intended to weave a third panel and sew them together to make a blanket. I'm not sure what happened, but I ran out of steam (and maybe yarn). The first two panels hung in the closet, awaiting their fate. The cover of a recent Little Looms gave me the idea to reframe them as shawls. My daughter, however, thinks they would do better as table runners.

Pattern: Random-striped Blanket, from Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom, by Syne Mitchell
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Ashford 24" rigid heddle
Warp: Yarn leftover from this vest
Weft: More yarn left over from the above mentioned vest, plus some similar yarn in natural or white
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5 (theoretically)
Ends: 166
Finished size: 45" x 18" each (not including fringe)


Finishing these two panels involved twisting a LOT of fringe.

I have no idea where my notes are for this project. For the vest, I developed a spreadsheet, which provided some input for these two panels. But otherwise, the details are lost to history. (If I ever come across those notes, maybe I'll update this post.)

This project was one of my first. There are a few floats, but otherwise it turned out surprising good. The yarn fulled nicely, too. I may still stitch the panels together, as they would make a lovely, if narrow, lap robe.

Seed stitch dishcloths

For some reason, probably because of the heat and humidity, I don't like to knit wool during the summer even though I have an air conditioned house that protects me from the elements. Instead, I gravitate to cotton. Well, summer is over, and so is the cotton knitting.

Pattern: Alaina's Simple Seed Stitch Dishcloth, by Alaina Privette
Yarn: Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Co. Peaches & Creme Ombres, in 'Shaded Pastels'
Needles: US7 (cast on and bind off with US8)
Modifications: None


It feels like knitting seed stitch takes twice as long as just knitting or just purling, as the yarn has to be moved front-to-back or back-to-front for each stitch. But once you build up a rhythm, it doesn't seem so bad.

There is a stack of handknit dishcloths by my front door, free to visitors, but apparently I have saturated the market. I still have a LOT of worsted weight cotton that doesn't seem suitable for much of anything else, but I will put a pause on dishcloths for a while.

Lost, not found

The weather is gorgeous today, but earlier this week it was cold enough I wore this scarf. Unfortunately, while walking the mall, I dropped it somewhere. I was too tired to rewalk the mall in search of it, but I did return several days later to check their lost and found. (I didn't want the scarf to think I had abandoned it.) Alas, no luck. I hope it found a new home and did not wind up in the trash.

Knitting: Finished the second seed stitch dishcloth, mainly because I wanted to start something new without it hanging over my head. The new thing is another 'Graham' slouchy hat which my daughter and granddaughter favor, this one in pink.
Spinning: A weaving friend requested some handspun for a project she is working on. This first required spinning, plying, and clearing two bobbins of Shetland that had been sitting around for several months. Now I am spinning some yellow Corriedale as thin as my wheel and I can go; it is taking a *really* long time to spin.
Weaving: Finished twisting the fringe on the blanket/shawl/table runner, and fulled the two pieces; separate post to follow.

Besides protecting the recliner with some "blizzard" fleece, I completely covered the TV couch, the only piece of furniture that the dogs are allowed on. It's a bit much, but very practical.

I also covered the seats of the livingroom couch and loveseat. One of the cats already puked on one of those efforts (and the fleece washed up very nicely). And here is more proof that the cats are "using" the furniture covers.

Have a protective week.

Garter dishcloths on the bias

When I decided to knit more dishcloths in garter, but on the bias, I tried to wing it at first. After all, one of my first knitting projects was a dishcloth. But for some reason, it was not working out very well. So I found a simple pattern that someone else had figured out.

Pattern: Garter Stitch Dishcloth, by Joan Janes
Yarn: Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Co. Peaches & Creme Ombres, colorway '130 Shaded Pastels'
Needles: US7
Modifications: None


This was more TV watching knitting, a great distraction from the incessant, repetitive commercials. (If "they" know so much about us, how come the only commercials I see are for products that I am not interested in and/or that don't apply to me for a variety of reasons?)

I recently sorted through a drawer of finished objects and came across quite a few dishcloths from an earlier era. So now there is a growing pile on the "gift table" near my front door. Just in time for the holidays.

Practice tapestry curves sampler

After helping lead a workshop on tapestry weaving, I thought about what we might cover next with the group (since they want to continue). Curves came to mind because they are hard. Rebecca Mezoff's book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving, has some exercises for weaving curves. I grabbed some yarn totally inappropriate for tapestry weaving and got to work.

Pattern: None, I did employ a "cartoon" to guide my weaving
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Mirrix Tapestry Loom
Warp: 12/6 cotton seine twine (I think)
Weft: Some fingering weight samples from a natural dyeing workshop. I doubled the yarn for this piece.
EPI/PPI: 8/?
Ends: 42
Finished size: 23" x 5" (not including excess warp)

First, I just winged it, creating curves and outlining them as I went.

Then I clipped on a cartoon (using WonderClips - love them!) and wove line by line.

Next, using the same cartoon, I tried weaving the shapes first, then filling in later.

Finally, I turned the cartoon on its side and tried weaving vertical curves.

I decided what I would probably prefer to do is weave a few rows of a shape, then fill in the rest of those rows before continuing. That would help my old eyes keep track of the rows more easily. As it turns out, this is how Marcos Bautista (mentioned in my previous post) weaves!

Working with doubled yarn was tricky. I'm guessing it was sock yarn, which is usually superwash and/or contains nylon. It won't felt, so the doubled yarn would not "stick" together. Invariably, one of the plies lagged the other, creating selvage problems. Sometimes a weaver will lightly twist a "bundle" of yarn, but I don't think that would have worked in this case. Plus, sometimes the weaver may not want the plies to twist, for design purposes.

This was a good experiment - I learned a lot!

Supporting the arts

This past year or so, I have purchased some art. My budget doesn't allow for big ticket items, but I enjoy supporting emerging artists as well as the lesser known. A while back, I bought some weavings from Marcos Bautista during the Three Rivers Festival "Art in the Park" event. He also sells the items his family weaves in the Paradigm Gallery at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. That organization has a "Second Thursday" event where an artist from the shop demonstrates his/her art. This past week, it was Marcos! Besides getting to see how the weaving is done, up close and personal, I purchased a 2.5' x 5' rug that is NOT going on the floor. I laid it across the foot of my bed for now, but it will eventually go on the wall over the bedstead.

Knitting: Finished one seed stitch dishcloth, started another. I think that will be the last one for a while.
Weaving: Did some finishing work on the tapestry curves sampler - added beads, etc. Separate post to follow. I also started another wall hanging on the frame loom, using that jumbo bulky yarn; it will be mostly soumak. Also, I decided to turn some cloth I wove a long time ago (meant to be a blanket) into two shawls; it's ready for fringe twisting.

A little sewing has occurred. Well, not really sewing, as the "Blizzard" fleece is a "no-sew" fabric. I purchased a LOT of it on sale from Joann (never buy anything there that is not on sale and/or without a coupon) with the intention of making somewhat pet-proof covers for the furniture. The dogs are not allowed on the furniture except the TV sofa, and the cover I use for that is getting very worn. The cats can't be trained to stay off the furniture, let alone not puke on it, so I wanted something I could yank off and throw into the washer. So far, the recliner is protected. Of course, I have not seen a cat on that chair since I added the cover.

I have a date for my next shoulder replacement: November 30. I am both looking forward to it and dreading it. On the one hand, there's the discomfort, and the recovery is kind of tedious (six weeks in the sling, six weeks of physical therapy). On the other hand, it will be great to have two working, painfree shoulders again.

Have an easy week!

Wall hanging in shades of gray

I impulsively purchased some jumbo bulky yarn at the Portland fiber fest last spring. It is so bulky I could not figure out what to do with it. Also, it is merino and feels like it would not withstand much abrasion. After trying this and that, I ended up with a wall hanging.

Pattern: none, just my own concoction.
Weave structure: plain weave
Loom: frame rug loom
Warp: Maysville 8/4 Carpet Warp, in medium gray
Weft: Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok Jumbo, in 'Snow Storm', 'Gray Stone', and 'Arctic Cloud'
Decor: Cascade 220 Superwash in black; Ella Rae Classic in red
EPI/PPI: 5/2
Ends: 118
Finished size: 17" x 28" (without extra long ends)


I wove this sideways on the loom, so each pass had a loop on one side and loose ends on the other. Once it came off the loom, I puzzled over how to secure the selvages on all four sides. On what had been the top and bottom on the loom, now the sides, I knotted the warp and wove the ends into the fabric. But what to do for the loops and loose ends? Inspired by Sheila Hicks, I decided to wrap them, in black except for one vertical pair which I wrapped in red, from top to bottom.

I'm leaving the loose ends at whatever length they ended up being, which complicates photographing the piece. I'm still in search of an appropriate rod for hanging. Since it hangs rather lopsided, I may use a branch that will correct the skewing.

More help

After learning some tips and tricks for warping and tying on, I checked out a video by Liz Gipson, "Life after Warping". I almost didn't watch it because I already know how to weave on a rigid heddle loom. But it was also very helpful. I found it at our local library.

And speaking of our local library, several of us from both the spinning guild and the weaving guild spent a couple of hours at the downtown branch in honor of Spinning and Weaving Week (promoted by the Handweavers Guild of America). We demonstrated spinning and weaving and answered questions from the passers-by. The libary clientele is quite diverse!

Knitting: Still working on the seed stitch dishcloth.
Weaving: Warped my Mirrix tapestry loom and started a weaving of handspun gradients, from black to natural, so I could take it all to the above mentioned event. I also attempted to warp and weave on my Swatchmaker, but the yarn proved to be very sticky, which is why we sample. And I experimented (poorly) with an idea for woven diamonds on the SampleIt.

Last weekend, my SO and I went on another art studio tour, this one a bit south of here. We thought it wouldn't take too long, but we chatted up most of the artists and had a great time. One artist who used to weave but now paints with encaustics had an interesting weaving on her wall.

The base is old mattress springs! One of a kind, I'm sure. (Sorry my pix are not the best. A better photo can be found here.)

One of the best parts of this studio tour was how each artist had helpers in the form of family and friends who were incredibly supportive and informative, especially the spouses.

Our last stop was the studio of a weaving friend and her painter husband. I came away with a borrowed book on Sheila Hicks. One of Sheila's signiture moves is wrapping warp, which gave me an idea for finishing a wall hanging that was bogging me down.

Have a warped week!