Clapotis contest, and some crochet

Have you ever knit a clapotis? The pattern appeared on Knitty.com twenty years ago. To celebrate this popular project, Knitty is offering a clapotis fest contest.
Knitters are encouraged to use yarn from an indie dyer.

I knit one in 2010, from Cascade Pima Tencel, a yarn that has been (rightly) discontinued, as it sheds. I may knit another, maybe from handspun. The deadline is December 1, 2024, so I have some time to decide, as the first one took less than two weeks to knit.

My granddaughter has expressed an interest in learning to crochet(!) I'm so excited, as I have tried to interest her in crafts over the years but to no avail. She wants to be able to make amigurumi animals. We've had one lesson so far: chain stitch and single crochet. Next up will be honing her technique: how to hold the yarn and needle to maintain tension and produce even stitches. I hope she has been practicing.

I stocked up on cheap yarn for her to use.

My granddaughter's interest in crochet has revived my interest in it as well. A fiber friend fed that fire by sharing a photo of two baskets she crocheted from yarn scraps. So, of course, I had to try my hand at a basket myself.

The pattern is from Crochet Southwest, by Susan Kennedy, and is called "Artisan Market Baskets". It calls for seven yarns held together (although any combination that results in a bulky yarn would work). I am pulling both ends from a cake of sock yarn (one of those Why did I buy this?!? purchases), two colors of 8/4 cotton, one color of Lion Brand cotton, Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton leftover from a weaving project, and some varigated Sinfonia mercerized cotton I think I purchased at Tuesday Morning. So mostly cotton, but I think it is impossible to select a bad choice of yarns and colors for this project.

The hardest part is the yarn wrangling. If you look closely at the photo below, near the center you will see a bit of brown sock yarn that I didn't maintain tension on, so there is a loose loop. By the time I noticed it (and several others), I was far enough along I didn't want to go back, but I'm trying to be more careful going forward.

The only other problem with crochet is it makes my hands hurt.

Crocheting: See basket info above. I also started a Woobles penquin.

Dyeing: I cut down some of the amaranth, which is now soaking in tap water in the garage. I plan is to use half with an alum-mordanted yarn, half with rhubarb leaf-mordanted yarn. I hope to soak the rest of the amaranth in well water, which contains a lot of iron. which should produce a different result. Amaranth is not very colorfast, so I am going to dye some test samples as well.

Knitting: Socks progressing. I still haven't felted the L-Bag pieces.
Spinning: I keep looking at the fiber on the spinning wheel, keep meaning to get back to it, but so far no success.

I don't mean to keep harping on swatching, but I started one this past week, to see how two yarns looked together. I didn't have to go far to decide I don't like them knit this way.

I keep looking for a pattern for this rather coarse yarn, but so far no luck.

I never regret swatching

I'm still enamored with the sweater I mentioned several posts ago. I think I could make modifications to this pattern (which I knit a while ago) that would approximate what I'm aiming for. But what kind of stitich to use?

I started with one called Ringwood, on a heathered brown yarn, but the stitches barely showed up. I switched to some Lion Brand Fisherman's wool in natural and I switched to a basketweave stitch. The stitch shows up much better on the lighter wool, plus the stitch pattern is a bit easier.

Interestingly, I find the wrong side of the fabric to be more interesting than the right side. Several friends I've canvassed agree. The sweater pattern is knit in reverse stockinette, so it should work well.

Now the question is whether to purchase more Lion Brand yarn, or make do with something I already have. There is some yarn I bought many years ago, some in natural and some in maroon, but there is not enough of either color to make a sweater. So now I am going to knit a swatch using this yarn in stripes. Hopefully, after that I will feel confident enough to cast on.

Knitting: My SO had hand surgery this past week, so I made some progress on the socks while sitting in the waiting room. The pocket square for the latest L-bag is almost done.
Spinning: It occurred to me that the roving I purchased at the last weaving guild meeting was priced per ounce, whereas I thought the price was for each bag. I fretted about that, but the seller assured me the price on each bag was for the bagful. Whew! The merino that I am now spinning came from her.

The local parks and rec department discontinued the spring fiber fest at Salomon Farm (attendence was too low after the pandemic). Instead, the guilds will have a presence at the Fall Harvest Festival. I'm digging out some unwanted knitting to sell, pricing each item around $5 per ounce, which of course does not cover labor. We'll see how that goes.

Swatching can be reassuring

Last week I decided to start another L-Bag, this time using the sport-ish weight Kauni yarn I purchased at the estate sale. I wasn't sure what needles to use, and had started a swatch that was not knitting up very well. Fortunately for me, one of my spin-in groups includes the author of this pattern. I mentioned my dilemma to Lorinda, and she reminded me that the pattern included instructions for knitting it with sport weight yarn. Duh!

So I jumped right in and started knitting the bag with US10 needles, but I still wasn't very happy with how things were going. So I knit up a new swatch. Initially, I put it in a small lingerie bag and threw it in with my regular wash, but that did not do the job. I finished the felting by hand and am quite pleased with the results.

Still, I restarted the bag because, after using a knitted cast on, I had neglected to knit through the back on the first row and the top was rather floppy. Now I am on my way.

Knitting: Started an L-Bag - see aboe. The heels are turned on the basketweave socks, but now I am bogged down on them. Progress is being made on the non-matching socks, as they have been my traveling project.

I have not been spinning much lately. When I spin at spin-ins, I tend to go too fast and the yarn gets kinky (can't talk and spin at the same time), so I've been knitting instead.

In the better-late-than-never department, a quilt top that I hand-pieced over 45 years ago finally got quilted. One of my fiber friends has a free-arm sewing machine, and she uses it to generate a bit of extra cash by quilting for others. I was ecstatic with the results (and the price - a pittance compared to what others charge - it pays to have fiber friends).

For some reason, I made the quilt top too long. So I asked Beth to cut off two rows of blocks and make them into a wall hanging, for over the bed. Now I need to find a rod to hang it from, one that won't kill me if it falls off the wall.

Change o' pace

In the past, the January weaving guild meeting was sparsely attended due to a combination of weather, travel, illness, etc. This year, the leadership decided to make the January meeting a Zoom meeting, with no business to discuss. It wasn't very well attended, either, but I really enjoyed informally chatting about weaving. And since we were all in our own homes, we got a glimpse of how the others live. I hope we can continue this as a new tradition, either via Zoom or in person.

The spinning guild's year starts in January, and we are trying something different there, too - co-presidents instead of a president and vice president. Two relatively new members stepped up and are generating some excitement before we have even had our first meeting of the year. It's time to shake things up a bit.

Knitting: I finished the garter scarf I've been knitting for my SO. Then I turned around and started an "infinity scarf" with the yarn I received at the spinning guild xmas party. The Habitation throw is ready to be grafted.
Weaving: I hemmed the latest waffle weave wash cloths, so that is another project out of the UFO pile. I worked up some Brooks bouquet samples for kitchen curtains, but I'm not sure what they taught me other than using the swatch maker may not be the best way to weave samples.
There is a local organization called the Build Guild. It provides space and equipment for "makers". My SO and I decided to join, to have somewhere to play with clay. There are pottery wheels, but we prefer to hand build; there is a slab roller I'm itching to try. Someone runs the kilns, so we don't have to mess with firing our pieces. It also gives us a place to store our tools and such, so less mess at home. We'll see how this new activity works out for us.

Swatching matters

When the local spinning guild visited Wabash Woollen Works (which I have yet to blog about), my SO acted as my chauffeur (and earned props as the only man brave enough to do such a "girly" thing). While there, I told him to pick out some yarn for a new scarf. He chose a skein of alpaca in hand dyed "Marigold" and a skein of merino/alpaca in what I will call "Loden". Before starting the scarf, I created some samples to see what he might like.

I was concerned about the alpaca stretching (it doesn't snap back), so I first tried holding both yarns together and knitting some garter. Then I tried mistake rib with both strands, which proved to be too bulky. Then I tried some striping in mistake rib. And just for fun, wove a tiny sample.

Despite the diameter of the alpaca being smaller than the blend, the marigold overwhelmed the loden in the weaving. My SO did not want stripes and wanted less drape than one of his current scarves, so he picked the plain garter. I am slipping the first stitch knitwise to give the fabric more stability.

Knitting: The new scarf is now 7.5" long. I feel like I am in the homestretch with the Habitation throw, but each row is over 250 stitches now, so it is slow going.
Weaving: On the inkle loom, I wove about six inches of the Krokbragd sheep, then unwove about six inches, as I found I wasn't picking up one thread. I was tempted to just give up and cut the warp off the loom, but I knew I would feel better about it today. (I do.) This isn't the first mistake I have made on this warp, so I will soldier on and make more mistakes while I practice.

When I had my windows replaced recently, I took down the bathroom curtain I knit a while back. The inner side looks fine, but the outer one is surprisingly faded. I used Dem-N-Nit Pure Indigo Cotton yarn, so I guess I should have expected it to fade, just like denim does.

This past week was busy. One happy surprise was being able to attend my granddaughter's dance recital. Other than her piano recital last spring, I have not been able to see her in action up on a stage for a l-o-n-g time. This county is in the red zone now re Covid, so I don't know if "they" will try to shut down such events again. At least everyone, dancers and audience alike, was masked and there were enough performances that people could spread out in the high school auditorium. Unless things change, this will be our new normal going forward.

Spinning for projects quandry

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been spinning with projects in mind - a rug and a sweater/wrap. I have two spinning wheels, a Kiwi2 and a Joy2, both from Ashford. I am spinning the fat rug yarn on the Kiwi2, the sweater yarn on the Joy2. This way I can work on both project yarns without having to swap out bobbins.

Single, on bobbin

The sweater roving is pink and gray, feels like a mixture of breeds (hopefully, I will find something with the name of the fiber on it) and is kind of coarse. Despite a fair amount of VM (vegetable matter), it spins up nicely. It did bleed a bit when soaked to set the twist.

A little bleeding

Lately, I have become enamored with three-ply, which is good for the fat rug yarn. I'm not so sure about using three-ply for the sweater, though. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, but my three-ply is more like aran or even bulky. Not that I couldn't adjust the gauge and knit it with a heavier yarn, I'm just not sure I want to.

7-8 wraps per inch

Three-ply yarn knits up smoother, especially in stockinette, because the yarn is round; it also pills less than 2-ply. An alternative to knitting with the aran weight yarn would be to spin finer singles and 3-ply those into a worsted weight yarn. That is an option.

3-ply

When plying singles, invariably one bobbin runs out before the others. When that happened with the 3-ply, I plied the remaining singles into a 2-ply. Now I have samples of each, to knit swatches with.

9 wraps per inch

2-ply on left, 3-ply on right

The Veronika cardigan pattern has a lot of positive ease, so gauge is not critical. Since I don't really like a lot of positive ease, I plan to knit the smaller size, in which case I might care more about gauge. Also, I don't want to run out of yarn since I won't be able to buy more of this roving.

2-ply swatch, in purl ridge stitch

About 30 rows per 4", aiming for 26

After swatching the worsted weight and hitting the stitches-per-inch gauge, I thought, This is it! But I am having second thoughts, so I will knit up the aran weight, to see if I like it better. Also, I am playing around with the idea of widening the stockinette area between the garter ridges, then knitting the garter ridges in a contrasting color, like black.

16 stitches per 4"

Decisions, decisions.

Plying experiment, part deux

A couple of posts back, I discussed plying commercial worsted yarn to create a (super)bulky yarn for tapestry weaving. I decided to weave up a sample, on my 3-in-1 Swatch Maker. That makes this a double experiment, as I was not sure how the Swatch Maker would work for a tapestry sample.

For this experiment, I warped every other slot, creating 4 EPIs instead of 8. This was because of the thickness of the weft yarn; still, it was difficult to beat the yarn hard enough to hide the 8/4 cotton warp. I meant to take a photo of the work in progress, to illustrate how I used bamboo US9 DPNs to open the shed on the Swatch Maker. The DPNs also helped keep the fabric from sliding down the warp threads when I beat, but just barely.

The finished swatch measures 5.25" x 2.75", and is rather thick, more like a rug than a tapestry. I like the effect of the three colors plied, then woven; I could see plying yellow, orange, and red, for weaving a sunset. One negative was the yarn becoming untwisted as I worked with it. Next time, I will try shocking the yarn more when setting the twist.

The last swatch (for now)

It took me some research to understand what "twill" is when it comes to handweaving. Basically, you are creating staggered floats across the fabric, with the back being the reverse of the front. If using a rigid heddle loom, this is more easily accomplished using two (or more) heddles. Since I am swatching on a swatch maker, I did it by hand, which helped me understand just what twill is.

The warp is in light gray, the weft in dark gray, both are Cascade 220. If I understand the nomenclature correctly, this would be a 3/1 twill: over three threads, under one, repeat. On the front, the light gray barely shows.

The back is dramatically different. This is a good example of how swatching can help determine the results. If I had thought of it, I could have done a variety of twills in the swatch - 1/1, 2/1, 3/1, 4/1 - to see how the two colors work together.

When weaving in ends, I was careful enough that they don't show... much. The hemstitching really shows on the back, of course. That would be something to keep in mind when working something reversible.

Now that I have my four swatches completed, I'm eager to hear the guild presentation and see what other examples there are. Swatching has also taught me that I don't need to always be creating a finished object to enjoy weaving - or knitting, for that matter.

Swatch #3

Here is the third swatch, in checks, in preparation of the next weaving guild meeting. The colors are what I might call wine and rose, in Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK. The selvages look better; I just carried the yarns up one side.

I still haven't marked any vertical lines on the swatch maker. However, I am getting better at warping through the holes. My method involves wrapping the yarn around two chairs as I go, to keep the yarn from snarling. Kind of annoying but effective.

I'm still color-challenged, but I am working on it. Converting a color photo to black and white helps determine contrast. I think these two colors are okay in that department despite being in the same hue family.

One more swatch to go, in twill. That will be a bit challenging on the swatch maker, but doable. I'm getting more comfortable with hemstitching.

Another homework swatch

My goal is to complete four swatches before the next weavers guild meeting, plus do xmas. This is swatch number two, a log cabin pattern, in dark brown and tan. If you ignore the selvages, it turned out okay.

The pulling in of the selvages is a common problem when weaving by hand. I think adding some more lines to the swatch maker should help, two vertical ones where the selvages should be.

My SO found this design so dramatic that he wants a log cabin scarf in the same colors. I will hemstitch it, like I did here, but not do the lattice fringe.

Make no mistake - I still knit

Most of my recent posts have not been about knitting. Should I change the name of the blog? Or does the banner picture say it all?

After a summer (and part of autumn) hiatus, I am knitting again, this time with my own homespun. I knit something up with my first ever homespun, but it was basically what we politely refer to as "art yarn" - big and fat but not on purpose (sort of like my body). Now my homespun is more like worsted, but not consistently so.

Since the diameter of the singles was so erratic, determining WPI (wraps per inch) seemed useless. So I knit up a couple of swatches, one on US7 and one on US8 needles. (And just for fun, I threw them into the walnut husk dye bath.)

Yep, I would call this worsted, or close enough. And I think the Lincoln wool took the dye well. But not as well as what I think is Cascade 220, which I finished the bind off with on one swatch.

Then, since my oatmeal scarf disappeared one day last winter, I decided to knit myself another oatmeal scarf.

Pattern: Easy Mistake-Rib Scarf in Three Weights, more or less
Yarn: homespun Lincoln 2-ply, undyed
Needles: US8
Modifications: not really, other than I slip the first stitch knitwise on each row

The uneven spinning gives this scarf a "rustic" look. For length, I aim for a scarf that is as long as the wearer is tall. Even though the yarn was a bit coarse, the scarf did stretch a bit when soaked and blocked.

Besides this scarf, I have a hat in the same homespun in progress, plus a pair of socks to gift (currently turning heels), and a rug on US17 needles, for my bathroom. So, yes, I still knit.

Second guessing gone wild

So. After deciding to knit my drop shoulder top down ski sweater in moss stitch... I started it in the large checks that I thought I did not like. And guess what - I was right, I do NOT like the large checks. So I started over, with the moss stitch. And guess what - I was wrong, I do NOT like the moss stitch. So I swatched again, this time using the ringwood stitch i previously used for a pair of gloves and a baby sweater.

Now THIS I like! If you are ever knitting a sweater and find yourself thinking, It would be easier just to BUY a sweater, STOP and change something - the yarn, the needles, the pattern, SOMETHING. I was freaking out a bit about starting over for the third time, but I am so glad I did.

While second guessing the stitch pattern, I was also second guessing the size. Fortunately, Fringe Association posted about measuring other sweaters as a guide for determining stitch counts. I piled up a bunch of store-bought sweaters but was not sure I liked what they were telling me. Then I pulled out a handknit sweater and tried it on, to determine the ease. Perfectly zero. I usually wear something fitted under this sweater and it works fine. Let's measure it.

Just what I expected.

The next question is, How much ease do I want in my new sweater? Given swatching is a gamble and arithmetic is a lie, causing my sweaters to turn out larger than I plan, I am going to aim for zero ease on this sweater, with the expectation that some positive ease will magically appear. Perfectly logical, right?