Weaving Class Tote, part 2

The bag on the cover of the Spring 2025 issue of Little Looms was the goal.

Not too shabby.

But getting there was rather painful. After struggling with the instructions, the handwoven material, my lack of sewing skills, etc., I decided to make a practice bag. This helped immensely. Then I basically tore apart what I had accomplished so far and started over with the sewing of the handwoven. My seam ripper and I really got to know each other during this phase.

This inkle band is more substantial than the one for the practice bag, but I think it too is a bit flimsy. Annie MacHale weaves guitar straps using Sinfonia mercerized cotton; in the future, I will do the same when I want something more firm.

While the foam stabilizer was easy to sew through, tension problems arose when the layers included not only the handwoven, the foam, and the cotton lining, but the inkle band as well. Some have suggested using a "walking foot" (whatever that is) to remedy this.

Pattern: Weaving Class Tote, by Michele Marshall from the Spring 2025 issue of Little Looms
Weave structure: plain weave
Loom 1: Ashford rigid heddle 24"
Warp: 8/2 cotton in colors as close as I already had without buying (too much) more
Weft: 8/2 cotton in white
EPI/PPI: 12.5/11
Ends: 250 doubled, so 500
Loom 2: Ashford inkle loom
Warp: 8/4 cotton rug warp in colors I already had without buying (too much) more
Weft: 8/4 cotton run warp in white
EPI/PPI: 39/9
Ends: 73

This weaving project is the most ambitious one I have tried so far, but I learned a lot. When I recover, I hope to sew more bags, from both handwoven and commercial fabric.

Weaving Class Tote, part 1

The more one weaves, the more one feels comfortable with the whole process. And the more one views videos on line, reads blog posts, and shares with fellow weavers, the more one incorporates new and better ways of doing things. This project is an example of that process.

8/2 cotton, doubled for warp and weft

While idly watching a YT video on weaving towels, I noticed the weaver did two things that I've added to my repertoire: attach the back warping stick to the heddle to keep them steady and use multiple "pegs" when warping.

Steady as she goes

Repurposed coat rack

After a few false starts with warping, I thought (rather smugly) I was well on my way. But then I discovered I was reading the warping chart incorrectly. Could I just forge ahead? No, the stripes on the bag would look all wrong. So I removed those errant warp threads and started over.

Then, while winding the warp onto the back beam, I found two broken warps. WTH?!? Fortunately, they both were at one edge, so I just knotted them together and hoped they would be hidden when the sides were joined.

I use different methods for tying onto the front beam. This one usually gives me the best tension all the way across the warp.

Once the warping was done, the weaving went fairly smoothly. I attached a measuring tape to keep track of my progress.

After I finished weaving the straps on my inkle loom, both the straps and the fabric went into the washing machine for a good dunking, then into the dryer. This "sets" the weave of the cotton yarn well.

The fabric and straps sat for quite a while after this, while I got up the gumption to actually sew the bag. What motivated me was an upcoming weaving guild program on making bags and purses with handwoven. See part 2.

Priorities

Lately I have had to spend (a lot of) time doing what my daughter refers to as "adulting" - paying bills, filing taxes, examining finances, etc. Plus there is the usual chores and errands and relationships. And my granddaughter made the tennis team and wants me to practice with her. And I had eye surgery - the cataract in my right eye has been replaced, and next week the left one will get the treatment. Such is (old) life.

Knitting: Those freakin' anklets are finally done. I prepared yarn (meaning I spent several hours wrestling with yarn barf) for the next pair.
Weaving: The houndstooth scarf is also finished.

As if I don't have enough to do, I have started baking sourdough. Feeding the starter is like having another pet. Even though I have baked plenty of bread in my life, this is a new adventure.

I think I have not shared a mug I purchased at Simply Socks the last time I was there. The same sentiment applies to coffee.

I'm trying to catch up on my FO posts, but they are piling up. In an effort to find more time, I have even been skipping some fiber events that I ordinarily would attend. There are only so many hours in the day/days in the week/energy in this body.

Practice bag

I'm not a sewist. I can barely stitch a straight seam. So my stuggles sewing the Weaving Class Tote led me to stitch up a practice bag using commercial fabric.

The pattern in Little Looms provided a link to a two-part tutorial from the Missouri Quilt Company. I watched this multiple times, and the techniques finally sank into my tiny brain.

I think I purchased this material at a moving sale that one of the weaving guild members staged. Bosal In-R-Form Plus double-sided fusible foam stabilizer provides the stiffness needed for this bag to stand up by itself. The bottom is boxed, which helps as well.

The lining is some muslin that I threw into the dye pot after dyeing yarn with dyers coreopsis.

I wove the handles on my inkle loom using 8/4 cotton. They seem really flimsy, plus no matter how much I iron them, they look wrinkled. Also, they are too long for this size bag.

While this is not a perfect bag by any means, I am fairly satisfied with the results. Understanding the pattern instructions and improving my sewing techniques were the goals, and that happened.

Other things I learned (and they apply to many activities) include taking things slow, one step at a time, and walking away when I need a break.

What's your cyanotype?

Today my SO and I participated in a cyanotype workshop using transparencies. The chemistry is beyond me, but basically you apply a mixture of chemicals to paper (or other suitable material), place transparencies on the paper after it is dry, and place them under UV light. Since today was overcast, we relied on artifical light.

After UV exposure, the chemical solution is washed off in water to stop the process, then the paper is passed through a hydrogen peroxide solution (or it can be left to air dry, but that takes longer). Oxygen "sets" the color. It's all very scientific.

In the photo above, the test strip on the right is an example of what happens if the paper is not right under the UV light source (or so the instructor said). The magic did not happen. Knowing that, I made sure the "final" picture was positioned correctly. Much better.

What does this have to do with fiber? My plan is to document my garden plants using cyanotype on muslin, then sew the pieces together to make a quilt.

Knitting: I keep thinking those anklets are almost done, yet they go on and on, despite my efforts.
Weaving: The houndstooth scarf is off the loom.

The other night I sat through a Zoom presentation from another guild that I thought was going to be about how to sew with handwoven cloth. Alas, the speaker just talked about her career sewing from handwoven cloth. And she was technologically inept, had her speakers turned so low she could not hear us; consequently, when the slide show stopped and she didn't, there was no way to tell her. Note to self: if I ever arrange a speaker on Zoom or if I am a speaker on Zoom, make sure there is an exchange of phone numbers so contact can be made if there is a glitch.

Almost too successful, part 2

I passed around a sign-up sheet for a rigid heddle weaving study group at both the spinning guild and the weaving guild, plus at the fiber club. Sixteen people signed up. That is a lot. Now I have to organize everyone and everything and find a venue. My vision is the more experienced weavers will help the noobs, but we'll see how that works out.

Knitting: In the homestretch on the second pair of anklets.
Sewing: Finished the weaving class tote, finally.
Spinning: Not quite done with the Polish merino.
Weaving: Stymied by the tension issues on the houndstooth towels. I needed something to demo at the Jay County Fiber Arts and Artisans Fair, so I warped up a houndstooth scarf.

I came down with another cold this past week, but it seems to have departed prematurely (except for feelings of fatigue). I made it to the fair for a couple of hours. I'm glad I went, as I overheard the spinning guild VP mention to a passerby that we were going to be Zooming the meetings. Huh? I had started working on that myself. I am happy she took the initiative, but it would have been nice to be informed about it since I am the president.

At this week's weaving guild, I brought up a couple of things we can do to attract more members, then dropped them in the other members' laps. It would be easy for them to just let me do it all, but I want some buy-in from the rest of the gang. Fortunately, a couple of them stepped up. We have several new members, so that helps demonstrate what I doing as the "outreach coordinator".

Almost too successful

Today's FW Fiber Arts Club was packed with twenty-five attendees. The program was "gathering dye materials for natural dyeing", which may have been part of the draw, but many present were from the local embroidery guild. Everyone listened to what the speakers had to say and asked questions, then afterwards chatted up a storm amongst themselves. On their way out, several thanked me for organizing the group. If the meetings get any larger, we may need to find an alternative place to meet.

Two books I think my library needs:
This past week my SO and I attended an artist talk at a local gallery. The speaker is a member of the weaving guild, but her fiber career has taken off and we rarely see her anymore. One of her areas of expertise is ice dyeing fabric and yarn. (Now I find myself wondering if there is a way to marry ice dyeing and natural dyeing. Something to meditate on.)

Knitting: Turned the heels on the latest anklets.
Sewing: The practice bag is finished.
Spinning: In the homestretch spinning the Polish merino.
Weaving: Tension problems mount on the houndstooth towels, which may become one towel and a placemat.

Something new for you weavers: a tutorial on how to do Italian hemstitch. I haven't tried this yet, but it is on my fiber bucket list.

This past week I met with the doctor who is going to perform cataract surgery on my tired old eyes later this month. It's not critical, but it would be nice to knit black or navy yarn without wearing a headlamp.

Top-down anklets

Sometimes after a day of wearing handknit wool socks, my lower calves itch. Yet I like to wear wool socks to bed in the winter. My solution to this dilemma is to knit some anklets.

Pattern: Short-Row Toe and Heel Basic Socks, by Wendy D. Johnson
Yarn: Some kind of sock yarn I must have dyed at a dyeing workshop of some kind
Needles: US1
Modifications: Knit top-down

Ordinarily, I knit socks toe-up, but for some reason I just could not get this pair going that way. So I knit them top-down. The heels are still short-row, but the toes are simple decreases, ending with the Kitchener stitch.

Since there was no way to make them match, I knit each one from a different end of the yarn cake. For some reason, they are loose, even the ribbing at the top, so they don't stay on very well. But they suffice for their intended use. If I were to try again (and I am), I would knit toe-up and make the tops longer, especially the ribbing.

Dyeing with amaranth

Amaranth is a good news/bad news kind of dye plant. It's easy to grow, but it will reseed itself rampantly. It can dye beautifully, but the color is reputed to be fugitvie. I tried dyeing with it once before, but I could not help giving it another go.

Inspired by this blog post, I used the cold water method again but this time used just the seed heads, leaves, and twigs (no stalkes), soaked in three gallons of undiluted household vinegar. That was on a Sunday.

I let that steep until the following Tuesday, when I strained the liquor and added unmordanted yarn (one skein of Cascade 220). That soaked for two days, I believe. When I rinsed it, not much color bled out.

Another unmordanted skein of Cascade 220 went into the "exhaust" for two days. Not much difference in color.

Then I dyed a skein of Cascade 220 mordanted with rhubarb leaf and a mini-skein of Cascade 220 mordanted with alum in the second exhaust bath. The rhubarb leaf mordanted skein looks a bit dull compared to the others...

... while the alum mordanted one appears brighter.

These colors are all simply luscious! Worried that they might fade, I am storing them in black cloth bags that I keep inside an opaque plastic bin. I have yet to set up a test for colorfastness.

The instructions for a warm water method using alum may be found at this site. If the amaranth reappears this summer, I may give it a try as well.

A fiber-ish week

One of my ideas for gaining new weaving guild members is to demonstrate weaving at the local yarn stores. As I mentioned before, one is closing (and I still think it would make a great fiber club). I visited another one yesterday, Simply Socks, but Allison wasn't there. I eyeballed the space, and quite frankly, there isn't much room for setting up a loom, even a small one. The place is simply full of yarn (minus four skeins that followed me home).

Above are two skeins of Cascade Cotton Sox I plan to weave into a summer-weight shawl. Below is some Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light + Copper.

If you look closely, you can see the copper glitter. I'm not sure what I will do with this but probably weave it into something. I bought two skeins, so that shoud be enough for something, right?

Knitting: I planned to do about two hours of knitting during an online natural dyeing presentation, but it was canceled at the last minute. Oh, well.
Sewing: Stymied by the tote made from handwoven cloth, I decided the best thing to do would be make a practice one out of regular cloth. This helped me get the directions straight in my head. Neither bag is finished, but I feel more confident going forward.
Spinning: Deligently spinning the Polish merino (at least, I think that is what it is).
Weaving: Still slaving away at the houndstooth towels; one is done. The practice bag needed a handle, so I wove one on the inkle loom, lickety split.

While I was complaining to my SO about the missing supported spindle, I said something like, "I even bought silk roving to spin on it" - and a light bulb went off. I knew *exactly* where the spindle was - with that fiber. And I was right. End of mystery.

Headband in blues

Last summer a vendor at a farmers market was selling (among other things) handknit headbands. They looked like they were knit from worsted (or maybe handspun) yarn and seemed bulky to me. So I went home and started knitting one from some leftover sock yarn.

Pattern: None
Yarn: Unknown sock yarn from an estate sale
Needles: US1

I started with 3-stitch i-cord. After about 9 inches of that, I increased the stitch count at either end of the row using kfb, purling back. Once there were 24 stitches, I switched to knitting in the round. When the middle bit seemed long enough, it was back to flat knitting, decreasing the stitches (k2tog at one end, ssk at the other) every other row, purling back. With only 3 stitches remaining, more i-cord to match the beginning.

The end result is a bit stretchy, so I probably could have made the whole thing shorter. This was an experiment that may or may not be repeated. We'll see if I feel the urge for more.

Melt the ICE hat

I bought the pattern on Ravelry and figured that was what was important, as the money goes to charity. Since I have SABLE (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy), I did not want to buy red yarn just for this hat. But when I checked the stash, I found some red yarn. So I knit the hat.

Pattern: Melt the ICE Hat, by Paul S. Neary
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in 893 Ruby
Needles: US8
Modifications: Increased the ribbing from 6 inches to 7

Once I was beyond the 1x1 ribbing, the instructions puzzled me. Instead of decreasing at four places like a beanie, the decreases were in only two places, creating a different shape. I double checked this anomoly with a fiber friend who has knit several of these.

An alternative to the braided tassel could be a fat i-cord, but I like the braid because it is different. Were I to knit this hat again with this yarn, I would shift down a needle size, as it feels a bit loose on me (and I have a big head).

A pause - sort of

The first half of the month is very busy for me, with fiber meetings and fiber meet-ups of one sort or another. The second half is usually calmer, but stuff keeps cropping up. I don't suffer from FOMO, but....

And yet I am contemplating starting a rigid heddle weaving study group. Thinking there might be three or four interested parties, I was surprised to have about eight would-be weavers interested... and I haven't even asked at the weaving guild meeting yet. I'm glad the interest is there, though. (This is part of my agenda to get more members for the weaving guild.)

It also would be easier if I did not belong to a couple of non-local guilds. Yesterday I attended a two-hour meeting (remotely) about transitioning from using commercial yarn to handspun for weaving. It was very interesting, informative, and inspiritng. The chitchat was running into a third hour, though, so I bailed.

Knitting: I forgot to mention before that I finished the headband several weeks ago. The Melt the ICE hat is done as well. I made a lot of progress on the anklets during that online meeting.

Spinning: Finished chain-plying the last of the merino/alpaca fiber and skeined it. I forgot to mention that I started spinning the Polish merino about a month ago - I can't keep up.
Weaving: Working on the houndstooth towels; the tension is really messed up, so it is slow going.

I decided to put my new spindle with the supported spindle and its spinning dish, for safekeeping. But I can't find the latter. I have a set of drawers with each drawer dedicated to a different fiber activity, so I put the spindle in the spinning drawer. I hope I remember that it is there come March, and I hope I can find the missing supported spindle by then as well, as the March spinning guild meeting is about spindling. It is hell getting old.

Setting boundaries

I did not attend the quilt guild sale last week. After checking out an e-book on quilting and a quilt magazine from the local library and perusing them, I decided my interest in quilting is minimal, in the area of maybe making some placemats and that is about it. No need to purchase anything, so no trip to the sale.

Some of my fiber friends have become "craftivists" (as in "activists") and hosted a knit-along for the Melt the ICE hat. I contemplated attending, but decided my presence was not necessary. My time and energy has its limits.

Which is what I had to remind myself when I learned that a local yarn store is selling its business. Once upon a time (like 20 years ago), I contemplated starting a yarn cafe and/or online yarn business (inspired by Simply Socks). That didn't happen, obviously, but yesterday I contemplated selling my house to purchase the local yarn store... until I reminded myself that I am on the downward slope of my life. I need to cut back, not add more.

I have a few regrets in my life, but one can't do everything.

Knitting: I started a Melt the ICE hat, plus knit a bit on the anklets.

The tapestry techniques program went well at the weaving guild meeting this past week. Today's spin-in was fun, per usual. The program for the March meeting of the spinning guild is about spindling, so I purchased a spindle.

The dumb thing is I used to have several spindles, but gave them away. Now, when I see someone spindling, I wish I could too. I'm easily swayed when it comes to fiber.

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.