Kit & Caboodle tote

This project exercised my brain a bit. A comment about there being barely enough yarn from two skeins encouraged me to purchase an extra skein, which came in useful for swatching so I could practice the one-step provisional cast-on and the right- and left-twist stitches.

Project: Kit & Caboodle tote from Purl Soho
Yarn: Purl Soho Sunshower Cotton, in 'Bright Watermelon'
Needles: US8
Modifications: None.

The pattern is very easy to understand, even the attached i-cord instructions. There are alternative instructions if you just don't want to try the one-step provisional cast-on, and there is an online tutorial at Purl Soho if you do.

My only reservation is if the i-cord straps will be sturdy enough or will they stretch? Ditto the fabric. A few items seem okay, though. It would definitely work as a project bag.

I blocked the tote in hot tap water, then ran it through the dryer. It came out still damp and took *forever* to air dry.

Stash woes

I have two spare bedrooms that I use as "studio space" although I don't actually work on anything in them. They both are a hodgepodge of fiber, fiber equipment, books, etc. I'm trying to figure out how to make the yarn more accessible, but am not having much luck because there is simply TOO MUCH. And I keep spinning MORE.

My granddaughter doesn't stay with me much anymore, and it is just as well, as this is "her" room:

Closet is full

Handspun, roving, acrylic, a toteful of material

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Needle felting, carpet warp, books, magazines, notebooks, etc.

Even the bed is covered

One problem is that I tend to find a pattern I want to make, then end up buying *more* yarn because the yarn I have won't work with the pattern. Perhaps I should look at the yarn first, then find a pattern it will work with. At least until I run out of yarn?

Dyeing: Running skeins of yarn through the amaranth bath. Created a rudbeckia dye bath to use with iron-mordanted yarn, and iron-mordanted the yarn.
Knitting: Finished the Kit & Caboodle tote, except for the blocking. Decided I'd better get a move on regarding xmas socks - the holidays will be here before you know it

That is another issue: I can knit, weave, crochet things... but not everyone I know is interested in being on the receiving end of these handmade objects. The guilds have opportunities to sell items, but only certain items (like amigurumi animals) sell well, at least around here. What to do, what to do?

Tie-dye extravaganza

Can someone have too much fun tie-dyeing? Apparently, the only limitation is how much dye one has and how much fiber is available. In my case, there was a lot of dye left over from the spinning guild program, so that was not a problem. And I had a few white cotton tees to sacrifice. But that was not enough.

Many (many!) years ago, I purchased several yards of muslin to experiment with, using natural dyes. Only two samples ended up in a dye pot. I took the extra undyed samples to the guild meeting, but no one took me up on dyeing them. Oh, well! More for me to use.

The booklet that came with the kit offered a variety of designs to try, and I tried almost all of them.

These two shirts represent "crumple dyeing". The garment is crumpled up, then the dye applied as squiggles or speckles. I don't usually wear yellow, but the lemon one actually looks good on me.

Sunbursts are a classic tie-dye design. I made several.

Rainbow sunburst

Large sunburst

Small sunburst

Swirls are also a tie-dye classic. This is my attempt at a swirl.

Pleats are relatively simple to do. This one is an example of "random pleats". Could be better.

The booklet showed a tee with pleats across the chest. I took it one step further by pleating in (sorta) stripes.

The folded designs are the most dramatic. This is my attempt at a "flag fold" folded design. (Don't tell the others, but this one is my favorite.)

The following two shirts are supposed to be examples of Shibori designs. I wrapped the tees around pool noodles, neglected to secure them with rubber bands, and dribbled dye on them, aiming for a diagonal pattern. I think they could be better.

At the guild meeting, white cotton towels laid on top of the plastic table cover sopped up the extra dye, plus hand towels and washcloths were available for wiping (gloved) hands. At home, I soaked all the terry in the leftover yellow dye, then dumped the items plus the dye into a bucket of soda ash. I would hesitate to offer these to a house guest, but I'm happy to use them.

I purchased a couple of skeins of Peaches & Creme Original cotton yarn (from Walmart, since our local Joann store is no more *sob*) to dye with. I skeined them around two dining room chairs, then after dyeing them, reskeined them on a niddy noddy, just to mix things up.

One skein was 'White' and one was 'Natural'. I labeled them at some point, then mixed up the labels, but it doesn't seem to matter to the dye as long as there were no blank areas.

Just because a label says the garment is 100% cotton, that doesn't mean that the stitching is cotton. I'm guessing in this case the thread was polyester, but I have to admit that I like the contrast.

I relied primarily on the booklet that came with the kit, but the local library has a plethora of books on dyeing fabric. That topic is a whole new rabbit hole to fall down. The books I referenced:

After dyeing, the not-so-much-fun starts: rinsing (and rinsing and rinsing) to get rid of the soda ash and extra dye, then washing in Synthrapol or a similar detergent, then drying them. The recommendation is to continue to launder the tie-dyed fabric separately for a time or two, just to be safe.

I'm obviously going to wear the shirts, but what to do with all those 36" x 45" muslin pieces? By themselves, they are a bit small for lap robes, but maybe crib quilts? I am open to suggestions.

Fit to be tie-dyed

The spinning guild meeting where I led a hands-on activity of tie-dyeing went well. In fact, several people thanked me afterwards for providing them the opportunity to make something new. Not everyone present participated, so I had a lot of dye left over, which I put to good use the next day. More on that later.

Dyeing: Not only did I do a lot of tie-dyeing this past week, I gathered rudbeckia from the backyard for more dyeing.

Before

After

Knitting: Still working on the Kit and Caboodle tote and the socks.
Spinning: Still plying the last batch of Romney.

One of the weaving guild members passed away this summer; Sue was over 100 and led a life full of fiber art. Some of her fiber tools have been donated to the guild, but a LOT of stuff was made available to us for a donation to the guild. It is easy to go overboard when presented with so much, but I limited myself to one braid of roving, a couple of pairs of scissors, three books, and all the undyed wool and linen yarn I could lay my hands on.

Exercising the old brain

Per my MO, when frustrated with one project, I start another, in this case the Kit + Caboodle tote from Purl Soho. Alas, as with the Essential Tee, there are new techniques to learn: the one-step provisiounal cast-on using scrap yarn and stitch patterns for twisting right and left. I am getting a bit smarter and created a swatch, not for gauge but to practice. Now the tote is underway.

Knitting: See above. Also, the heels are turned on the current pair of socks.
Spinning: I made good progress on the Romney this past week and am ready to ply, ply, ply.

The next spinning guild meeting is about dyeing non-protein fibers. I am not an expert in this topic, but decided one way to teach it would be to have a hands-on activity, like tie dyeing. United Arts and Education did not have the tie dye kit that I used before, so I purchased one from Dharma Trading. WOW! They put this kit together themselves, and it is very complete, which is helping my confidence.

There are six application bottles for mixing color, three colors of dye, a mask (don't want to breathe the dye powder), gloves (more protection), soda ash, urea, Dharma Crafts' version of Synthrapol, rubber bands, binder clips, and instructions. What more could I ask for? Now, instead of dreading the meeting, I am looking forward to it.

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.

Beware!

At last night's spinning guild meeting, someone mentioned that Knitpicks has been purchased by a private equity firm that is phasing out the Knitpicks brand yarns. It looks like this firm has also purchased Jimmy Beans, Berroco, and Madtosh among others. As if that is not bad enough, recent purchases from Knitpicks have been found to be infested with moths and/or larva and/or eggs. The firm is playing dumb about the infestation. What a nightmare! Makes me reluctant to purchase any yarn right now - not that I don't have plenty already.

Several methods of eliminating infestations can be found online. Not sure which ones work best, and I hope I never have to find out.

The contrary dyer

Last week I was so excited about the idea of solar dyeing yarn that I did not bother to do any research ahead of time. I did not crush the zinnia blossoms or the oak galls, did not chop up the lobster mushrooms. Consequently, the results were... a bit disappointing. However, I saved and dried the oak galls and lobster mushrooms - they are drying in the garage on screens - and I hope I can get more dye from them using heat. At least the oak galls can be used as a mordant.

Crochet: Finished 7-strand bathroom rug - separate post to follow.
Dyeing: Finished solar dyeing experiment - separate post to follow.
Knitting: Disenchanted with second Lempi sweater, so intend to frog it. Perhaps that yarn would be better for intarsia? Or stranded knitting?
Spinning: Joined the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry, to help get me through the Romney.
Weaving: Finished the skinny scarf; separate post to follow. Started clasped weft coasters.

I subsccribe to a newsletter from Robbie LeFleur which is mostly about weaving transparencies. The last one (read here) really excited me, as using coarse handspun as a warp is a real possibility. I hope some of her readers respond with their experiences with this idea.

Most transparencies use linen as a warp, but wool transparent tapestries use wool. Besides handspun, I'm wondering if other coarse wools would work well. Specifically, I am thinking of Kauni Effectyarn, which I used to weave this shawl. Another of Robbie's posts included a sample one of her students created on a pocket loom, so now I have some ideas for little samples to get me started on transparencies.

I forgot to mention a couple of purchases I made last week. One is bowl to use with a supported spindle. There is a dimple in the middle to keep the spindle from wandering away as one spins.

The other purchase was of some silk and some bamboo fiber, both lustrous and soft, to spin on the supported spindle.

Now all I need to do is find the spindle!

An aside: I decided to take the summer off from watching TV. I wasn't watching a lot of TV - an hour or two in the evening - but afterwards I always felt... some kind of negative emotion, even though I enjoyed what I watched. Now I feel more... content. Some of my favorites are releasing new seasons soon, though. We'll see how I handle that.