McDonald Dishcloths

I dyed some cotton yarn with the leftovers from the tie-dye program I presented at the spinning guild. The colors remind me of the corporate colors for McDonald's, hence the name. I am in no way encouraging anyone to actually eat there.

Pattern: none
Yarn: Peaches & Creme Original Solids, hand-dyed
Needles: US7

For the diagonal one, I cast on three stitches, knit a row, then K1, YO, K to last stitch, YO, K1, turn and knit back. When the stitch count reached 47, I knit two rows, then begain the decreases: K2tog, YO, K2tog, K to last 4 stitches, K2tog, YO, K2tog, turn and knit back. When back to three stitches left, bind off.

For the second one, I cast on 32 stitches (long tail), knit back and forth until I was almost out of yarn (which happened to coincide with where the dishcloth formed a square), then bound off.

My kids claim they need no more dishcloths, but I still like to have a couple on hand, just in case.

It's a bit much

Saturday I (remotely) attended a Guild Development Retreat hosted by the Handweavers Guild of America (which is about more than weaving). Four sessions on various topics, plus chat rooms. I picked up a LOT of ideas for building both of the guilds I belong to.

Today I led the latest fiber gathering which now has a name: the Fort Wayne Fiber Arts Club. The other organizer could not be there, so it fell on me. Fortunately, I had help: some spinning guild members demonstrated prepping fiber using flickers, combs, cards, and a blending board, plus spindling. We also listened to a mini-lecture about historical undergarments.

Tuesday evening the local quilt guild is having a sale, which I feel compelled to attend. And on Wednesday I am one of the program presenters at the weaving guild. Then there is a spin-in next Saturday and the spinning guild meeting next week. Whew!

Knitting: Progress on the anklets, mostly achieved during one of the retreat sessions that didn't really apply to my guilds. Purchased the pattern for the Melt the Ice hat (available on Ravelry).
Spinning: Chain-plying the merino-alpaca yarn, which keeps breaking.
Weaving: Some progress on the houndstooth towels.

I was going to write a post about dyeing with Indian hemp, but the results were so disappointing, plus my notes kind of petered out after a while. The yarn is some mystery handspun singles, so the type of wool may have contributed to this failure. I plan to overdye it this summer, with something, *anything*.

One of my other hobbies is pottery, which has fallen by the wayside. And you can see why.

Thrifting

My granddaughter wanted to go "thrifting" today. We hit up the three thrift stores closest to my house. She found a couple of tops. I found a "new" sewing machine.

Finding a manual for it is another thing. Hopefully, Singer's customer support will be able to help me.

I also found a mug I could not resist.

Knitting: A while back I knit a dishcloth from some yarn I dyed with the dye left over from the tie-dye program at the spinning guild; I finished a second one from the same skein, so now I consider that project finished. Some knitting occurred on the second pair of anklets.
Spinning: Some of the merino/alpaca is three-plied; I plan to chainply the rest.
Weaving: The 24" Ashford rigid heddle loom is warped with red and black 8/4 cotton warp, for a pair of houndstooth dish towels. I continue to prep for the next weaving guild program - tapestry techniques.

Speaking of dyeing, I recently learned of the Maiwa School of Textiles which offers some online classes, one of which is titled "The Natural Dye Workshop". Yes, I have taken some natural dye workshops from local teachers, but this is at a different level. The price of the class itself is reasonable, but the (optional) supply kit is a bit expensive. I'm tempted, but don't have the time right now. Maybe this summer?

A successful meetup

I am the "outreach coordinator" for the weaving guild and have been acting like one for the spinning guild. Hence all our demonstrating in public to raise the awareness of both guilds. This seems to have helped the spinning guild - there were 30 people present at our last meeting - but the weaving guild? Not so much. It seems to be withering away.

So I decided to try something different, form a fiber arts group at a local gallery called Artlink. This happened to coincide with another person's desire to do the same thing, so we have been working on it together. Today was our first meeting.

There were 18 of us, representing all kinds of hand working skills - knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing, quilting, weaving, etc. I wore my weaving guild tee shirt even though I brought only knitting to work on as I anticipated being busy with organizing things. Only one other guild member showed up, which I found disappointing, but the group is great, all ages, all interested in learning new things. The topic at our next meeting will be spinning, so I'll bring my wheel and wear my spinning guild tee shirt and try to convince some other spinners to show up.

Knitting: Started a second pair of anklets, from the same yarn.
Weaving: Preparing for the next weaving guild meeting where another member and I will teach some tapestry techniques.

Refreshing my tapestry skills

Yesterday I also participated in a Zoom session out of the Austin guild I belong to, on natural dyeing. I have done a fair bit of that myself but am always interested in learning more... and I did pick up some tips and ideas. For example, I have a LOT of gray handspun which I now plan to overdye with marigold or goldenrod this summer.

I'm still recovering from my cold, but almost there. I'm also becoming a bit resentful that I am involved in lots of fiber activities without having time to DO much fiber work myself. Hopefully, that will change as winter is the perfect time to hunker down with some wool.

That was the week that wasn't

This past week I have been suffering from the ugliest cold I have had in years. Covid test negative, no body aches, all in my sinuses, so definitely a cold. After a while, I can't tell if I feel worse from the cold symptoms or from the cold meds.

Barbara Walker, a giant in the knitting community, passed away last month. The Yarn Harlot wrote a lovely tribute in IG, but darned if I can figure out how to link to it (the December 26, 2025 post). So here is the text in its entirety. (Sorry, Steph!)

"In 2008 I called Barbara G. Walker and I asked her if she would come and teach for me at the first Sock Summit. I didn’t know her, but I had all her books (knitting and not) and it felt like calling Paul McCartney and asking if he’d want to hang out and jam. It took a conversation, but she agreed and I had the privilege of getting to know her and knitters, she was wonderful. Humble, impossibly clever, irrepressibly funny and wonderfully ingenious. She knit me this little fish and I’ve had it on my corkboard forever - a very Barbara knit. Even if you never knew her, I guarantee she touched your life, even if you never read one of her books, even if you don’t own one of her stitch dictionaries, even if you’ve never heard of her- there are two reasons that make her legend. Barbara was responsible for the first charted patterns coming into North America, and gentle knitters - one lovely day in the 70s, Barbara Walker invented the SSK -something you do everyday on your needles sprang from the sparkling mind of this person. Barbara died this past Sunday and we should all hoist a glass in her honour. Barbara Walker, hero to knitters everywhere whether they know it or not."

Knitting: All I accomplished this past week was finishing the anklets and working on the headband I started oh, so long ago.

My SO has several pairs of handmade socks with holes in them. Not worn areas, but out-and-out holes. I can't figure out how he did this. Since I recently purchased some books on creative mending, I am going to take a stab at fixing them.

I checked the entries for the holey socks on Ravelry, and they were all made with sock yarn, not something delicate and prone to wear and tear. The stockinette areas should be relatively simply, the ribbed areas not so simple, but the baby cables? Not so sure I can duplicate that. We shall see!

That's MADAME President

I agreed to be the president for the spinning guild for 2026, and already I am regretting it a bit. Getting everything organized has been a lot of work! I'm hoping once I get the committee chairs named, things will fall into place and everything will just glide along. (HAHAHAHA)

Actually, we have a great group of officers who are young (as in younger than me) and enthusiastic. I am hopeful that it will be a great year for the guild.

Knitting: The anklets are ready for the Kitchener stitch to close the toes (tonight's goal); there is enough yarn to make another pair.

Spinning: At yesterday's spin-in, I finished spinning the merino/alpaca.

I'm still planning to catch up on outstanding blog posts. Hopefully, you don't feel overly inundated with what I have managed so far. They just might be a little slower coming.

Lempi sweater

I created this post in July, 2024, but for some reason, never posted it. Gah! So here it is.

I can't believe I have not created a primary post about this sweater. The knitting has been long done, but I didn't consider it complete until it had buttons. I've taken it to spinning guild meetings sans buttons, but it could not go to the county fair without them. So now it is officially DONE.

Pattern: Lempi, by Tiina Kaarela
Yarn: Cascade 220, naturally dyed with a variety of materials and methods (see list below)
Needles: US8 (US6 for ribbing)
Modifications: quite a few!

I started this project in June, 2023, and sewed the buttons on June, 2024. Instead of rewriting what I posted on Ravelry, I will just copy and paste what is there.

The pattern is written in Finnish, translated to British English, and I'm struggling a bit with the instructions. Also, my gauge seems to be off, so I am knitting a swatch to double check.
The neck is *way* tighter than the photo, too.
***** The swatch reveals that even after blocking, my gauge is off. But I like the fabric that results from using US8 needles. So instead of going up a needle size, I'm going to knit a size larger.
So, I started over, but using US6 instead of US4 for the collar. Also, used an alternating long tail cast on and went right into the ribbing.
***** Some of the instructions are foreign to me. Instead of a "wrap-and-turn", they call for a "double stitch". And I could not figure out the buttonhole instructions, so I just did the usual YO-k2tog.
***** Too many errors, so ripped back almost to the beginning. Now I am using wrap and turn instead of the DS.
***** Again, with the errors! I was knitting along, fat, dumb, and happy, when I realized I had skipped two buttonholes. I tried dropping stitches and repairing the problem but ended up ripping back about 50 rows. And THEN I screwed up the spacing of the increases, so had to rip back about 8 rows to fix that. *sigh*
***** 8/21/23 - FINALLY reached the ribbing. This will be long enough to be a sweater dress.
***** Pockets. Ugh. For some reason, I have 22 stitches on one side, 23 on the other. I am going to do a k2tog on the "long" side, to even them up, as otherwise the stitches work out for knitting in the round. BUT after the pickup round, the "front" edge will be purl so that the fabric will bend, and at the next round, will purl two stitches at either "end" of the pocket, so it will fold along the edges without bulk.
***** Done with knitting and blocking, just need to sew on buttons and fix a hole that opened up under one arm.
***** Sewed on buttons made from deer antlers - UGH. Replaced them with buttons from JoAnn.
***** THIS SWEATER WON BEST OF SHOW AT THE ALLEN COUNTY FAIR OPEN CLASS COMPETITION!!!

And now, for posterity's sake, here are the details about the naturally dyed yarn:

Yarn	Material	Mordant	Modifier
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried)	Cold alum	Iron
Cascade 220	Sycamore bark	None	None
Cascade 220	Sycamore bark	None	Iron
Cascade 220	Onion skins - Combined dye bath exhaust	None	None
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried)	Cold alum	Acid
Cascade 220	Sycamore bark	Cold alum	Alkaline
Cascade 220	Dyers coreopsis	Cold alum	Alkaline
Valley Yarn Wool	Queen Anne's Lace	None	Iron
Valley Yarn Wool	Queen Anne's lace	None	None
Cascade 220	Onion skins -Secondary dye bath exhaust	Alum	None
Cascade 220	Dyers coreopsis	None	Alkaline
Valley Yarns Wool	Queen Anne's Lace	Alum	Iron
Cascade 220	Tomato vine	Alum and cream of tartar	Ammonia
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried) exhaust	None	Iron
Cascade 220	Tomato vine	Alum and cream of tartar	Iron
Cascade 220	Dahlia (dried) exhaust	None	Acid
Cascade 220	Onion skins - Primary dye bath exhaust	Alum	None