Hello, darkness, my old friend

Daylight savings time ends tomorrow. THANK GOD! I am not one of those people who likes to be out and about until 10pm during the summer, prefer the morning light. So I am looking forward to what will now be early dog walks and early evenings when I can just sit and knit (or whatever) in the dark.

Knitting: Speaking of knitting, I am making progress on the zebra socks, about ready to turn the heels; and I was right - they are turning out weird, which I decided to embrace.

Spinning: More Romney has been plied; I feel like I am in the homestretch.

Weaving: With much swearing (and Annie MacHale's help), I managed to warp the inkle loom for the tote bag strap.

Last night was Trick or Treat here. Instead of locking the pets away while I jumped up to answer the doorbell periodically, I sat in a rocker on the front porch and knit. Before my time, this neighborhood had lots of kids. Now - not so much. A total of 16, including a few that were a bit old to be begging for candy. I think that is an all time low.

Road trip

On our way to northwest Indiana yesterday, my SO and I stopped at Zinck's Fabric Outlet in Ligonier. Several of my fiber friends rave about this place, so I wanted to take a looksee. WOW. That is a lot of fabric! Makes me wish I were more of a sewist. I purchased a few notions, but may return once I have a plan in place that requires fabric.

Knitting: I gave up on the original DK socks for my son, just did not like how they were turning out. So I purchased *more* DK yarn, in black for toes, heels, cuffs, and in a zebra-like colorway for feet and legs, which I think will turn out kind of weird. I made some headway on the headband.

Spinning: A spin-in at a fiber friend's house afforded me the opportunity to sit and spin for a while; working on some merino/alpaca blend that is turning out really thin (which leaves me second guessing the wheel ratio I am using for it).
Weaving: The body of the tote bag is off the loom; time to warp the inkle for the strap.

My son married his longtime girl friend this past summer. I knit them each a pair of socks for xmas, thought it would be nice to give a pair to my new step-granddaughter(?). Making the deadline might have been tight, but while perusing my sock drawer, I realized I have a pair I knit for myself that I have not yet worn. So those can be gifted, easing one holiday stress.

Accountability

I am reading Art Work, by Sally Mann. Right off the bat, she discusses the literal work involved in making art. Some of it is creative work, some of it is drudgery, and sometimes it looks like the artist is not doing anything at all, but it all goes into the finished product in one way or another.

One would think that when one is retired, there would be plenty of time for making things. Somehow, it does not work out that way. Other activities, even mundane chores like laundry or vacuuming, feel more pressing. I tend to do the things I don't like to do (i.e. housework) early in the day ("Eat the toad first"), but then I run out of energy for the "fun" things.

My SO has a similar problem. So now we are holding each other accountable by texting daily photos of what we are working on. It doesn't have to be a finished object, just a representation that we are each doing *something* besides the usual. For example, today he is experimenting with cyanotype, while I am weaving.

And by looking at the daily photos, I have a record that I can use when posting to this blog. Win-win.

Knitting: For some reason, the second toe of the socks for my son took three tries, but I am (hopefully) on my way. The headband is slowly growing.

Sewing: I'm not actually sewing yet, but I purchased two "fat quarters" that I want to turn into a zippered pillow cover, as practice for turning two of the tie-dyed muslin pieces into a giant zippered pillow cover. And I watched some YT videos on how to install zippers.
Weaving: The tote is about one-third woven.

If you look closely at the sock photo, you will see that I am listening to the Artist/Mother Podcast while I knit. Having finished Mark Twain, I needed a new audio companion, and while my children are middle-aged, I can still relate to most of what is discussed in these interviews. Kaylan Buteyn is local, co-owns Kinhouse Art, and has become a new friend.

Xmas socks for my SO

Nothing says I LOVE YOU like a pair of handknit socks... unless the intended recepiant does not want handknit socks. My daughter and granddaughter are not interested, but my SO is happy to get them.

Pattern: Short-row Toe and Heel Basic Socks, by Wendy D. Johnson
Yarn: Some kind of sock yarn from the estate sale that visited the spinning guild, feels like merino and nylon (ball band lost); Simply Socks Yarn for toes, heels, and cuffs, in 'Natural'
Needles:US1
Modifications: None to speak of

Why do I knit socks toe-up? Why do I knit the toes, heels, and cuffs in constrasting yarn? Because after years of knitting top-down socks and skating perilously close to running out of yarn, I figured that it would be better to run out of yarn on the leg. The contrasting yarn is extra insurance, as who wants short socks?

This colorway is "interesting" - wide bands of blues interspersed with narrow bits of white. I'm glad I was able to line up the stripes. The contrasting toes, heels, and cuffs also allows me some room to make the socks match.

Another event over for the year

This weekend's event was the Harvest Festival at Salomon Farm. The deal the spinning guild has with parks 'n rec is we help them promote the park in exchange for meeting at the learning center for free. Fortunately, I was not the organizer and just provided support: brought balloons from the previous weekend (it's our 50th anniversary) and the banner and helped set up and tear down.

The guild had two tables, one for demonstrating carding and spindling (geared toward kids) and spinning and one for sale items. Two of our members have been very busy knitting and crocheting little stuffed animals, which were a big hit. Their success is timely, as the program for this week's meeting is "earning money from fiber".

Knitting: Another pair of socks is complete; separate post to follow. A guild member who sells handmade, homemade, and homegrown products at farmers markets showed us some headbands she knits, so I had to start one when I got home, from sock yarn.

Spinning: Romney, Romney, Romney; the singles are fine and that takes a long time.

My SO and I have been regular visitors at Kinhouse Art, a small gallery here in town. The two artists who use part of the gallery for their studio mostly work in textiles, which gives me ideas of what to do with all that tie-dyed muslin I have, which has me circling back to fabric printing. As if I don't have enough to work on.

Red, White, and Navy Scarf

The last time I warped the SampleIt for a demonstration scarf, then finished the scarf at home, I had no plan. This time I had a plan. Like most plans, this one did not turn out quite right. When I used the dining room table for the warp surface, I forgot that I had removed the table leaf. Consequently, the scarf turned out shorter than expected.

Pattern: None
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Ashford SampleIt
Warp: Patons North America Classic Wool Worsted in 230 'Bright Red', Valley Yarns Northhampton Worsted in 02 'Natural', and some worsted wool in navy
Weft: Same as warp
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5 (more or less)
Ends: 50
Finished size: 40" (plus fringe) x 5.25"
Finishing: The selvages turned out halfway decent, so no additional finishing required

Warp:

• 4 red
• 2 navy
• 4 red
• 4 white
• 2 navy
• 4 white
• repeat above sequence
• 4 red
• 2 navy
• 4 red

Weft:

• 4 picks red 
• Hemstitch 2 across up 3 
• ** 2 picks navy
• 4 picks red 
• 4 picks white 
• 2 picks navy
• 4 picks white 
• 4 picks red 
• Repeat from ** until out of warp, ending with red/navy/red
• Hemstitch 2 across down 3
• Trim fringe to 2"

I recall the scarf my dad used, and it must have been about this length. He didn't wrap his scarf around his neck like most of us do these days, but crossed it and laid it flat against his chest. It kept the cold from slipping down his neck without adding bulk. Alternatively, one could do something similar and add a decorative pin to hold it in place. Or the scarf could be for a child. Not a waste of yarn at all.

I'm glad THAT is over!

I would not describe myself as bi-polar, but I tend to run hot, then icy about the guilds I belong to. When I'm hot, I volunteer for stuff. When I'm icy, I swear I am never doing anything guild-related ever again.

That's how I felt over today's public demonstrations at a local farmers market, for Spinning and Weaving Week and the spinning guild's 50th anniversary, which I was responsible for organizing. Despite my trepidations, everything went well, the guild members who participated enjoyed themselves, and we may have even picked up a few new prospects.

However. There are so many festivals this time of year around these parts that I think we can scrap Spinning and Weaving Week in the future. For example, there is a harvest festival next weekend that the spinning guild is kind of obligated to attend. We can do only so much.

Dyeing: I'm finished messing around with the Indian hemp dye experiment; separate post to follow.
Knitting: My SO's socks are at the cuff.
Spinning: More Romney.
Weaving: The tote bag project on the Ashford 24" rigid heddle is tied on the front beam. For today's event, I quickly warped up the SampleIt yesterday for a scarf and nearly finished it today.

While spinning or knitting, I sometimes listen to an audio book. I'm about 75% through Mark Twain by Ron Chernow, via the libaray app Libby. The problem is it is a L-O-N-G doorstop of a book, and I can check it out only three weeks at a time, and - how dare they! - other readers have holds on it which prevents me from renewing it. I think when my turn rolls around again, I should be able to finish it.

Softest Cotton Bathmat

It's not unusual for me to knit with cotton in the summer heat. No one wants dishcloths anymore, so I wound up knitting this bathmat. It wasn't a difficult knit, but I'm glad I didn't have to undo any of it because the "eyelash" bits obscured everything else.

Pattern: Softest Cotton Washcloth + Bath Mat, by Purl Soho
Yarn: Purl Soho Witch Hazel in 'Classic Denim'
Needle: US8 (started with DPNs, switched to 16" circs, then 24" circs, finished with 60" circs)
Modifications: None except to use a suspended bind off, which was a bit too loose and left the edges a bit ruffle-y.

I'm not sure why I picked blue, since it was destined for a bathroom that's mostly green. I purchased an extra ball, but did not use as much as the pattern said, so now I have 2 extra balls, enough to knit some washcloths as well, which will also be the wrong color for that bathroom.

The bathmat *is* very soft. My only concern is there is no non-slip backing on it. Not sure how I would remedy that. Suggestions?

Knit me something?

At a recent spin-in, I chatted with a woman who used to knit professionally; she charged by the stitch. I calculated how many stitches I knit in one of my typical pairs of socks, figured $.01 per stitch, added a bit for the cost of the yarn, and arrived at $300. For a pair of my handknit socks. WOW! If I paid that much for a pair of socks, I would expect them to last forever, but they don't.

Dyeing: Started soaking yarn in the Indian hemp dye bath.
Knitting: Slaving away on socks.

Spinning: The eternal Romney.
Weaving: Threaded the heddle on my 24" Ashford, wound the warp around the back beam, now ready to tie onto the front, for a tote bag.

Blogger has a feature that tells me how many views my blog receives. In the past, the numbers have run to about 40 or so per posting. Lately, those numbers have jumped, in one case over 1000. I have to assume the additional views are from AI bots. To those of you who are real people, thank you for reading (or at least visiting) my blog. For the rest of the so-called viewers, welcome?

Xmas socks for my daughter-in-law

If someone appreciates handknit socks, I am happy to oblige. My son and his (now) wife are just like that. As xmas approaches, though, I get a little frantic about getting theirs knitted in time. One pair down.

Pattern: Short-Row Toe and Heel Basic Socks, by Wendy D. Johnson
Yarn: Some sock yarn I purchased at an estate sale; if I have the ball band, I don't know where it is, but I'm guessing this yarn is merino and nylon. The cuffs, toes, and heels are in some sock yarn I purchased at Simply Socks, but yarn information is long gone.
Needles: US1
Modifications: None to speak of; used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.

Initially, I was a skeptical that I could match the stripes, so started off not doing that. But once I saw the pattern repeat, I ripped back and started sock #2 over again.

Matchy match!

Dyeing iron-mordanted yarn in rudbeckia dye bath

One thing I have to say about iron mordanting: DON'T. It takes much less work to do a cool alum mordant and an iron afterbath than to do the iron mordant up front. Also, one has more control of the outcome.

I didn't keep very good notes about this whole dye experiment, nor very many photos. At least the photos I did take have a date-time stamp, so there is a timeline of sorts.

First, I gathered flower heads from Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivanttii 'Goldsturm' growing in the area of my yard I refer to as The Meadow. These I left to soak in water for several days.

Next, I heated the flowerhead bath for an hour or so, to extract the dye and let it cool overnight.

Meanwhile, I mordanted four small skeins of handspun wool singles in an iron bath. Those I rinsed thoroughly, as iron can be hard on fiber.

Over the next several days, I added a skein to the dye bath, heated the dye bath for an our or so, then let it cool before removing the yarn. I processed one skein at a time, hoping to gain variations in the depth of color. It didn't work like I expected - all I got was dark gray with little variation. I finished by dyeing a skein of rhubarb leaf mordanted Cascade 220.

The handspun singles all look about the same, even the ones that were put into an "exhausted" dye bath. The skein of Cascade 220 that was not iron-mordanted but mordanted with rhubarb leaf came out dull, which I suspect is an aspect of the rhubarb leaf mordant. At least it looks different from the others.

So what did I do wrong? For one thing, I neglected to weigh the plant material, to get an idea of just how much yarn could be dyed with it. Mordanting the yarn with iron I believe corrupted the dye bath, so I ended up with dark gray yarn instead of the dark green I was aiming for. I was not careful, nor did I take my time and plan things out before hand. Hopefully, lessons learned!

What was the plan?

While clearing off one of the (MANY) horizontal surfaces in my home that accumulate junk, I found a bag from Joann with some doodads in it: a dozen buttons, some Czech beads, beading needles, and needle threaders. The receipt was from February 2024, and there is a blog entry that shows the buttons (they were for the Lempi sweater, which has different buttons on it), but the rest is a mystery.

Knitting: My SO's socks are about half-done, turning heels.
Spinning: Still working on the Romney.
Weaving: *Trying* to get the 24" Ashford rigid heddle loom warped.

When I was working, I'd get home too tired to do much of anything. To counter that, I started getting up earlier so I could spend some time doing things I wanted to do, usually involving fiber. (It helped to be a morning person.) I find myself in a similar situation now: I sleep until whenever, read the news and do some puzzles while drinking tea, walk the dog... and suddenly it is almost time for lunch. So now I am making a point of getting up earlier and spinning while I drink my tea and listen to Morning Edition on NPR. It's a much more pleasant way to start the day.

Inventory woes

My first attempt at taking inventory of my handspun left me feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. The shelf I chose to start with contained a lot of my early spinning, kindly described as "art yarn", and I couldn't decide what to do with it. It will probably go into a bag for now while I continue with the rest.

My idea of choosing yarn first, then a pattern, is not working out very well, either. Some of the handspun still feels too precious to use. I need to learn to "kill my darlings".

Dyeing: Still working through documenting my efforts; wish I had kept better notes.
Knitting: Finished the bathroom rug; separate post to follow. My SO's socks are coming along. And I purchased some DK sock yarn from Simply Socks for my son's socks.
Spinning: Plied more of the Romney.

On a brighter note, the recent program for the spinning guild provided a hands-on opportunity to use a blending board and create rolags. I was aiming for koi colors, but they look more like bees.

I sold my blending board to a fiber friend a while ago, and for a moment that night regretted it. But I have a small drum carder and some hand cards, so I'm not totally bereft or without tools. The spinning guild has a spinning wheel we rent to beginners; perhaps someone would donate a blending board for the same purpose.

Ice dyeing with Kool-Aid

Rule #1: Wear gloves!

I became interested in ice dyeing after a presentation at the weaving guild by our resident expert. I am no expert, but it seems like part of the magic is getting colors in a dye to separate.

The simplest yarn dyeing I have found is with Kool-Aid (plain - without sweetener). The citric acid in the powder acts as a mordant for the food coloring. Some of the flavors are made up of a single color, so if you want to see colors separate, read the packages to make sure there is more than one color.

I've tried Kool-Aid dyeing with only wool, but I assume it will work with any protein fiber. As far as I know, it won't work with plant fibers like cotton, but perhaps after treating the cloth with soda ash? Verification of this concept is left to the student.

The yarn I chose for the first batch was some from an estate sale, of unknown source; it may even be handspun. I soaked it in water initially, to help with the absorbtion of the color. I laid it in a sieve so that it would not be resting in the melted dye bath.

Instead of covering the yarn with ice, then sprinkling Kool-Aid on the ice, I made ice cubes from barely diluted Kool-Aid.

I neglected to weigh the yarn and calculate just how much Kool-Aid I should use, so the colors are rather pale.

But the Grape colors - red and blue - did separate.

The Black Cherry Kool-Aid cubes went after the Grape. Black Cherry also consists of red and blue, but red (which is listed earlier on the ingredient list) is much more prominent.

The final step was to put the finished yarn inside a ziplock bag (leaving the bag open a bit to let steam escape) and zapping it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, turning the bag over halfway through.

While the colors are not vibrant, I like how they turned out.

What would one call this colorway? 'Muted Fruit Cocktail'?

So after Grape and Black Cherry came Orange and Lemonade. Orange is made up of red and yellow, the Lemonade is just yellow.

This time I used some commercial yarn, Hayfield Natural Wool DK, about 50g, divided into two smaller skeins. Again, I soaked it beforehand. One skein went into the sieve.

Since some of the dye in the first experiment ran through the yarn, leaving a puddle in the bowl below the sieve, I placed the other skein in the bowl to catch the excess color. It didn't work out quite like I expected.

By now I was out of Kool-Aid ice cubes, so I placed plain ice cubes on top of the yarn in the sieve and sprinkled them with the powdered Orange Kool-Aid. A package of Lemonade went into the bowl. Each skein was placed in a ziplock bag and zapped in the microwave for a minute.

What would you call these colorways? 'Koi 1' and 'Koi 2'? I think they would pair well with black.

Be aware that the yarn will smell like Kool-Aid once dyeing is complete. After rinsing the yarn in cold water, I made up a cold water bath using Unicorn Fibre Fibre Wash, to get the smell out.

I still have a package of Lemonade Kool-Aid, so I may dye another small skein with that at some later date, as a companion to the above skeins.

A little freak-out

I've been organizing an event for Spinning and Weaving Week, choosing to demonstrate at a local farmers market instead of the library. (More traffic.) But then I read that the market is no longer.

Well, it turns out that wasn't exactly correct. The farmers market is being "rebranded", so all that is changing is its name and who is in charge at the upper levels. The staff is the same, the place is the same, the day and time is the same. With less than a month to go, I'm glad that I won't have to scramble for a venue.

Dyeing: Managed to get all the skeins off the line in the laundry room, so hopefully posts will follow.
Knitting: The daughter-in-law socks are done; separate post to follow. I gave up on the socks I was going to knit my son because 80 stitches per round?!? Too much. I will purchase some DK sock yarn for his. Meanwhile, I started a pair for my SO.

More knitting: As if I don't have enough to do, I started knitting a round fuzzy cotton bathroom rug. It's mindless knitting, and almost done.

Spinning: I went to a spin-in on Saturday, but took some merino-alpaca roving that is shades of blue, to give myself a break from that white Romney. And I bought MORE roving: Polish merino "premiere" in 'Orchid'.

My latest brainstorm for getting the stash under control (other than to just stop buying fiber!) is to take inventory so I know just what I have and how much. Then maybe I can follow through on my idea of finding projects to suit the yarn I have instead of always buying more. That will be a big ask/task.