Darn

 Today I tackled the collection of handknit socks that were in need of repair.  Darn.  Darning isn't hard.  It isn't exciting either, but it takes less time to darn my socks than to spin and knit a new pair.  So, here's to darning.

This sock got two repairs:  a knit-like stitch up near the toes and a replacement flap knit to cover a gaping hole at the heel.  I didn't have any more of the original yarn, so I used  a chain-ply (3-ply) sample in bright yellow and orange. The flap was knit on 6 stitches that I picked up from the heel, increased to cover the hole and then sewn to the sock. We'll see how well this works.

The knit-like stitch is basically a duplicate stitch where I used a needle and the yarn to re-create the knit stitches.  The 3-ply patch yarn is bigger than the original yarn and it looks a bit odd.

 Here is the same type of repair on a different sock.  (Did I mention that I had a stack of these to do?)  This repair was done with the same yarn as the original and hides nicely.  The photo to the left shows how the original knitting was hanging together by a thread.  It's easiest to do the duplicate stitch repair on holes like this.

 There was a big hole in the heel of these socks too, but I wasn't willing to do another knit flap so these socks got the "weave across the hole" type of patch.  Yarn was sewn across the hole and then woven the other direction to cover the hole. --These are my acrylic house slippers. I don't really care about them as long as they keep my feet warm.  If they were handspun, I might have knit another flap.

 And here is the trio of non-holey socks (well, except for the hole for my foot!) Ready to be returned to use!  Whew!

Skeinsgiving-Fancy Kitty Drum Carder

These photos are from the batt I carded on the Fancy Kitty drum carder up at The Spinning Loft at Beth's "Batt Bar".   The dark green fiber is bamboo.  The glitter is firestar and there is a tiny bit of pink wool.  The bamboo behaved very differently than the wool that day.  When I pulled off pieces of the bamboo roving the ends splayed out away from each other (like fine hair with tons of static electricity).  The wools didn't do that!

I used the Fancy Kitty drum carder at the table.  It wasn't my favorite of the three drum carders, but it worked just fine. (Sorry.  I know that's not a great endorsement....but, it worked.  It didn't wow me. It just worked.--Go to Beth's and try it out.  And then check out the Ravelry Fancy Kitty Lovers group because they are having a drawing for one of their carders for Christmas.)

This is how the mini-skein and tiny bit of reserve batt looked on Monday after I finished spinning.

 This snarl is what it looked like today (Wed) when I found it to take more pictures!  What happened?  I think the fiber and the skein got pushed aside together and the staticky bamboo fibers had a party.  (I also think I got a lesson about the importance of putting things away and not leaving them out on the desk to be pushed aside by the next person who needs the desk.)

The skein is now wound up nicely and the bit of batt tucked into a tiny ball.  One more fluffy batt to spin! (Thanks again, Beth.  The batt bar was loads of fun!)

Skeinsgiving Batt--Cotton Blend-Louet

 The day after Thanksgiving, Beth at "The Spinning Loft" in Howell, Michigan had a sale on fibers and a "batt bar".  At the bar were three different drum carders and four huge (bigger than bushel size!) baskets of fiber to play with. The name "Skeinsgiving" is what Beth called the day.

This batt was my third dip into the baskets.  It is mostly cotton--a blue turquoise and a darker blue turquoise--with some dark green bamboo and a bit of firestar/nylon and pink wool.  I carded it on the Louet carder that Beth had out.

 I played around with the batt a bit as I spun it.  The cotton was not well carded prior to my blending everything else with it.  I tried putting it through the carder first (so it got at least two passes) but it is so short that it didn't get carded very well!

The Louet carder did have a very nice adjustment knob for the licker in drum that made it very easy to adjust!

I ended up just attenuating or pulling on the batt to make it spinable.  Spinning it without attenuating left too much texture for my taste.  Hand carding it blended the colors too much for me. When I spin dyed cotton slivers I usually do this same sort of attenuation.  Pinch the fibers with the pinching fingers about 2" apart and pull gently.  Do this along the length of the fiber prep.

 Here is my very pretty, very nicely textured three ply yarn.  I like this!  It does a good job of showing color and texture and looking like a solid yarn.

Here is the two ply yarn.  I ran out of one spool of singles before the other two, so I made a two ply.  I don't like it as much as the three ply.  It looks scrawny--kind of underfed--compared to the three ply.  The bumps in the singles stand out more in the two ply than in the three.

It's too late to spin any more tonight....but I have two more batts to play with...Thanks for the Skeinsgiving, Beth!

Quilt Blocks--November

Two blocks of one orientation; one of another.  Guess who goofed.  Yup.  Me. 

I was considering making the blocks different by changing the orientation of the green hour-glasses, but this change was entirely by accident (shh!  Don't tell anyone!).  At least it will help make the three quilts distinguishable!

Scherenschnitte aka "Chicken Soup"

 My good friend Marybeth called this morning.  "I've got some chicken soup for you.  It will help you feel better.  Will you be home this morning and I'll bring it over?"

Now, I'm not sick, but we've been dealing with a whole slew of interesting challenges and I have been a bit under the weather.  And, I know Marybeth enough that when she has something to bring over, the correct answer is "sure! come on over."

Today was no exception.  I didn't need any soup, but Marybeth is a wonderful cook and an excellent canner....and I really expected soup.

 Instead of soup, I received three beautiful, framed scherenschnitte or paper cuttings.  Where Marybeth finds the patience and the steadiness to make these beautiful things I will never know, but I am so awed!

Before she had even left I was staring at my walls trying to decide what to take down to make room for these when she said, "They are for your shop."

I don't have a shop....yet. Maybe someday.  I'm seriously thinking about a shop.  Wouldn't it be fun?  Do you think anyone would drive to Crawfordsville to take weaving, spinning, & dyeing classes or to buy yarn?

Until my "real" shop is open I'm going to have to find a place for these three bowls of chicken soup.  I feel very loved!

Handspun, Handknit Mittens

Just about the time I finished his new green striped hat, my son lost his mittens.  That was after we discovered that the hat was just a bit too short and added earflaps.  What were the chances that I would have enough handspun left to make two (matching) mittens?  The mittens are the "Kennebunk Wooly Bear Mittens" by Robin Hansen from the 1987 edition of Homespun Handknit.  I like the pattern (this is the third pair I've made) and usually make it without the loops of yarn inside.  And, yes, I did just have enough yarn!

Here's my "ninja" mitten man--he says they are ninja mittens because it's hard to make a fist when he has them on, so his hands are in ninja form.

Matchless

It followed me home, Mom.  Can I keep it?  Please?

My Mother-in-Law tells the story of watching my husband half carry, half drag a cat up the walk and into the house.  He may have been four or five.  Once the cat was inside, he turned to his mom and said, "It followed me home.  Can I keep it?"

Well, I went to my local weaving store and test drove a Matchless.  Then I placed an order for one.  Then I drove out to pick up the wheel.  "It followed me home."  I think I'll keep it!

Cotton Intensive

This is my last set of samples for the cotton presentation next week.  The lower three samples are plain weave; the upper three are twills (it's hard to see that in this photo).  Each sample has a different thread density or sett.  My favorite?  Upper right--it's the twill at the closest sett (36 epi for 10/2 cotton).  I love how it shows the warp colors! 

Wool Preparation for Spinning

Preparing wool for spinning

This started out as an experiment to see how well I liked Judith Mackenzie McCuin's methods for washing fleece (from Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning).  It turned out to be an exercise in what not to do with fibers of multiple lengths!

The wool is from a sheep named "Lambert".  I believe he was a Cotswold lamb.  His wool, being just a lamb, has a short staple--about 2" long--and there are lots of shorter bits in the fleece.

After soaking and washing the wool per Judith's technique, I let it dry and then started to prepare it for spinning.

Here is what you should NOT do with a fleece like this:  Don't put it through the drumcarder and expect a nice, smooth, fluffy batt.  What I got was a very textured batt.  The little pieces didn't get carded smooth.  I think there were just too short to get caught properly on the teeth.

I ended up taking the very textured batts and combing them with my Louet mini combs.  There was a lot of waste, but the resulting fiber is smooth and looks like it will spin well.  It doesn't have much luster, but at least it is not full of bumps and unexpected stuff.

In the photo, counter clockwise starting at the bottom right corner are (1) drumcarded batts, (2)-in the yellow tub--combed fiber, and (3) -to the upper left--the waste from combing the drumcarded batts.

I think I learned a lesson.  Don't try to card a mix of fiber lengths and expect a smooth result.  (This might be a great technique for making a textured yarn!)

Conner Prairie Textile Studio

Glimakra loom at Conner Prairie

 I have been doing some new things lately.  I started volunteering at the Conner Prairie Textile Studio.  This isn't one of the areas open to the public, but rather a building tucked off to one side of the property and filled to the gills with looms, spinning wheels, quilting frames, etc.

I just finished weaving some linen yardage, intended for towels, on a Glimakra loom.  Compared to my Baby Wolf this loom is huge!  It has been a treat to learn to weave on it, though!

The toweling is in 20/2 linen and is a 2-2 twill/basket weave pattern.

Linen toweling --2/2 twill & basket weave

Handspun Alpaca Lace Scarfette

blocking the scarfette

After a few weeks of work, most recently while listening to "My Antonia" by Willa Cather, the last of my raw alpaca fibers were transformed into yarn.  Last year I had processed the better part of a grocery sack of fiber into yarn and made scarves for a friend.  She owns the alpacas and (gasp!) just had the fiber languishing in her living room!  Most of that fiber was prepared with a dog comb or my mini combs (it's been long enough that I don't remember which!) and this fiber was the stuff that was too short from that original processing.  I carded this and made a sport-weight two-ply yarn.

Once the yarn was spun & wet finished, I started knitting lace.  The first pattern I tried had four or five pattern rows.  By row three or four I had made a mistake, and found a one-pattern-row lace.  Whew.  I can do one row of lace patterning!

Alpaca scarfette

Here it is, carded, spun, knit, blocked and ready to be worn.  The little pin is a handcarved do-dad that I whittled just to have something to hold the scarf together.  Alpaca is a wonderful fiber--so soft! 

Applesauce Spoons

It's applesauce season at my house.  Each year we make as much applesauce as we can.  We love to eat the stuff!

The last few years as we have stirred the gloriously hot, sweet applesauce we have burned our fingers.  We have learned to use the glass lids to our big pots as face shields so the applesauce volcanoes don't get us, but with our little spoons we have not been able to protect our fingers.

New spoons and old spoons together.

Check out our new applesauce spoons!  These new spoons are bamboo, just like the other spoons we like, but are at least 8" longer.  They work wonderfully!  Lots of leverage for stirring the full apple pots plus lots of extra,outside-of-the-pot space to hold the spoon.

Hooray for wonderful utensils! (And for a wonderful Ace Hardware store that stocks "oddities" like these!)

September Quilt Squares

September is almost done, but I did it!  I got my three quilt squares cut out and sewn together.  The two on the left are made the way the pattern is written.  The one on the right is my error.  I sewed it wrong and decided I liked it enough to leave it the way it is.

There are a few squares like this one "odd" one that I think will help personalize these quilts.  I need a way to distinguish between the three quilts, and I think my children will appreciate having unique things in their quilts. 

I am again thinking about when I will finish these and give them to my children.  By December all the squares should be done, but then the sashing and quilting will need to happen.  The kids may not get these this year!

Scarf Contest

The Indiana Sheep Association held a scarf contest in conjunction with their recent meeting. 

As judge for the event, I got to handle the scarves.  It's one of the things a fiber addict loves to do--touch the fibers!

There were three categories:  knit scarves, crocheted scarves, and 100% Indiana wool scarves.

Picking Wool-Cotswold Lamb

 Most people know that wool doesn't grow on a plant and that to harvest wool it must be sheared from the sheep.  However, after the sheep has been sheared and the wool washed, it helps to "pick" the wool --essentially tease the locks of fibers open--to make it easier to card or comb.

This is wool from a Cotswold lamb sheared in 2006 and washed this last week.

 The first half or so of the fibers were easy.  I spent about an hour on my back porch picking open these locks.

The unpicked locks are on the right.

My piles are getting bigger.  Unpicked locks on the right; a small pile of very short wool and trash right next to it near the top of the newspaper.  The picked locks pile is growing. Off to the left are piles of locks that need more washing.

 Oh do my shoulders ache.  The original pile was just under 4 ounces.  Will it ever be done?

And, finally, from one unpicked pile to three piles--trash on the right, picked locks in the middle, and locks that need more washing on the left.

Start to finish required approximately 3 hours of work.

On & Off the Loom

 This little roll of fabric just came off the loom yesterday.  The bulk of it is 10/2 cotton, but the two sections with multicolored stripes are 100% wool (merino, I think!).  I wove and cut off a sample from this warp and the wool shrank beautifully creating soft ruffles of the cotton.  I have yet to wash these.  One scarf is the plaid you see here.  The other is all the darker red/magenta in the weft.

The weave structure is plain weave for most of the width and basket weave for the wool stripes.


This card represents one of the many little steps I hope to take in the next few months.  I have begun working on the Handweaving Guild of America's "Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning" (aka COE or COE-H).

worsted spinning on left; woolen on right.

The COE requires 40 skeins of handspun and each skein is to be labeled with a card that specifies, among other things, the "type of spinning".  I tend to spin a "semi-worsted" style of yarn and not think about spinning type much, so I sat down and read some reference books about types of spinning and then got to work on spinning some "worsted" yarn and then some "woolen" yarn.

I used some commercially prepared Romney wool roving and first combed some of it with my single row mini combs.  The combed wool was pulled through a diz (holes punched in an old yogurt lid!) and pulled into a prepared top.  The resulting yarn is smooth and dense and has a nice sheen to it.  Next I took the short bits from the combing process and carded them with my cotton cards.  After one or two passes on the cards, I rolled the wool into a fluffy rolag and began to spin with a long draw and attenuated the fibers to a narrow yarn.  The result, a poofy, slightly irregular yarn (something for me to work on!) that has more loft than the worsted yarn and much less sheen.

Learning is so cool!

Deflected Doubleweave

This is one of those projects that surprised me.  I have had some worsted weight handspun yarns for a while and have been trying to come up with a way to use them. One is a light pink and the other a dark.  The trick is that they are both irregular--and some of the dark spots in the light pink are very similar to the light spots in the dark pink.  Argh!

I had tried to use these in a shadow weave, but that didn't fly.  Looking through my Handwoven Magazines, I came across the "black & white" issue (J/F 2007) and realized that I could try some of these scarves.  The deflected double weave scarves by Madelyn Van Der Hoogt and Stephanie Meisel caught my eye.  They both use blocks of color (less of a chance for me to loose track of which thread is light and which is dark) and have nice geometric patterns.

I went with Madelyn's pattern, p.68-71, and have now woven my first bit of deflected double weave.  Is it perfect, awesome, exactly what I wanted?  ....no.... But it is a GREAT sample and a good introduction to deflected doubleweave.


And, I remember thinking that I would "never" weave one of these black and white pieces!  Dear me! This isn't the first time this has happened! 

I have two more skeins of yarn like this, but in greens....I wonder what they will become.

Dye Day

Here are my solar dye pots on the front walk to my home. The weather has been hot (90 F) and sunny. Perfect for dyeing.

The colors are turkey red, black, yellow, two little pots of greens, brillant blue, and a big pot of green.

And, just so I remember, this dyeing day was the day we took our Heart Kitty to the shelter to be put down. He was not well, but it's still hard to let him go.

August Quilt Blocks

Here are my quilt blocks for August. I think they design is called "Martha's Star". I tried two color combinations, one with a green & white center and one with red & white. I prefer the green & white, but am amazed at the change of focus that comes with changing the colors.






This is the stitch length knob for my sewing machine. I took a picture of it to remind me to look at it! These blocks were all sewn with the longest stitch length-4! I usually sew blocks with a 3 or 3.5 stitch length.

T-shirt neck Ribbing Removal

My great aunt loves t-shirts, but hates the ribbing around the neck. It used to be that she would take her shirts to a seamstress who would do the work for her. This week she brought her new shirt to me.

In theory, I knew that this job could be done. --Remove the ribbing. Turn the neck fabric under twice and sew.--But, I had never done this before and I was full of trepidation! After all, this was my great aunt's recorder orchestra t-shirt and I didn't want to mess it up!

A quick google search was unfruitful. Lots of people showed how to add a contrasting neck after removing the ribbing, but I didn't find any that just turned the t-shirt fabric under.

Out came one of my old and almost dead t-shirt--the '93-'94 MHC physics t-shirt that features "Fred the scary grad student" on the back. I used it as my test. I was pleased to see that there was enough stretch in the shirt fabric that the job was pretty straight forward. I took a deep breath and proceeded to cut and sew my aunt's shirt. And it worked! Now to get it back to her so she can wear it! :)

The details: I cut the ribbing off close to the stitching on the back of the neck. At the front center I cut ~3/8" below the lowest line of stitching and curved it to meet the cut at the back. I then used pins to mark the fold line, 3/8" from the cut edge, and ironed the fold. From the inside, I made the second fold to hide the cut edge and pinned it roughly every inch or inch and a half. The blind-stitch foot with its center vertical part made it easy to keep the stitching straight. I used a long stitch--3.5-- on my wonderful, old elna supermatic.


And, I finished the hat for my son. I think that his choice of using the dark green and variegated green yarns in an alternating pattern worked great! I love how these worsted weight yarns knit up so quickly! This hat was on and off the needles in less than a week. That is amazingly fast compared to the months of sock knitting for my husband's size 13 feet!

A little bit of this...

A little bit of this...a little bit of that...

One of the discussion groups I follow recently touched on the topic of French Spindles. A few youtube videos later and I went off and whittled myself a spindle. This particular spindle is very light weight and doesn't spin very well. Maybe I should invest in better tools!














With my husband's socks finished, I have started (and finished) some other knitting projects. This one, in worsted weight acrylic, went on and off the needles last week. It's a "slouch" hat for my oldest daughter. She loves yellow. She hates wool. I had this yarn in my stash--it's leftover from my niece's Harry Potter scarf years ago!--viola! One hat ready for winter!











Here's the hat on my head. I think it looks better on my daughter, but she was already in bed by the time I took this photo!

















And here's the next hat. This one is a simple k3, p2 ribbed hat for my son. The neat thing is his choice of colors. He told me he wanted a turquoise colored hat. I had him point to things that were in the right color range and then went to my stash to see what I could find. After a few false starts, he chose this very dark green and very light variegated green. When I started talking about how to use the yarns, ie. what kind of striping he wanted in the hat, he very clearly told me how he wanted the two colors woven together one after the other. I was skeptical, but knit a little color swatch. It looked great! Now the hat is underway! Hooray!

Creativity Exercise

Robin at Rurification posted a creativity exercise. Find 10 beautiful things in your home. Photograph them or describe them.

Here's a mosaic of my ten things for tonight:
A photo of my grandparents in their old age. A peach from my friend's tree.


Grainlines on the faux floor. Oregano blooms salvaged from today's trimming by my five year old.

A print of a woman sheaving (?) grain in a field. A toy dino--check out the details!

Paintbrushes--indicators of a job now done. Etched glass.


A tiny turtle that used to sit in my great aunt's office. Now it cuddles up with one of my plants. Some clay creations from my son.


Sometimes the trick of looking for beauty is seeing what is already here. Thanks Robin!

Miscellaneous Collection of Stuff

My great aunts are wonderful. Every time one of them travels this way by car I receive gifts. This time, I got a new (to me) sewing desk and a new (to me) old sewing machine. Here's the new desk all set up. It looks nice at this point.







This photo is of my old desk. The blue blob is covering my sewing machine to protect it from the lint from the wool yarn I've been rewinding. The pile of stuff to the left of the machine--see the pink fabric?--well, that's my pile of stuff. It's something of an archeological monument....the deeper you dig, you unearth projects from further back in time. Periodically, I do try and clean my desk. It's pretty bad right now. The wooden structure in front of the desk is one of my spinning wheels. It's only there because I was setting up the new desk and needed space to move.



Even though my sewing desk is piled high with past projects, I managed to sew my three quilt squares for July. Again, I am amazed at how quickly these blocks with "big" pieces go together.















And here's a piece of weaving. It's a small piece, only 2" wide, but I think it's pretty cool.

It is a combination of balanced plain weave, huck lace and warp faced weaving. It's like weaving an inkle band in the middle of a bit of lace.

I came across the idea in a collection of old weaving newsletters with swatches. I bought the papers at The Fiber Event a few years ago. Every now and then I pull out the binder where I store them and peruse the samples. I love having woven samples to examine! My mind hasn't quite figured out the jump from 2D drafts to 3D fabrics, and samples really help.

The inspiration for this piece was from "Pinellas Weaving News, January 18, 1969, page 3. The source cited is a "Weavers Seminar at Amherst, Mass., 1967 by Grace C. Reed, weaving teacher and co-designer of Macomber Looms" and the yardage was woven by Eva L.E. Quinn. The original piece won Best in Show at the Pinellas County Fair in 1968.

I ran into a few tension issues with this piece--the warp faced band in the center builds a ridge on the front beam, which lowers the tension on the other areas of the fabric. Next time I'll have to put some sort of filler on the front beam to help even out the tension.

Weave Structure--Cannele

Last year in the "Fab Four" workshop with Robyn Spady I was introduced to the weave structure "cannele". On four shafts it is a plain weave fabric with warp and weft floats, much like the photo to the left. This year, in Charka 201 with Eileen Hallman, Eileen suggested trying a cannele weave structure with a twill background (for improved drape). My hope is to use some of my handspun cottons to weave a fabric that I can use for a top of some sort. Cannele is a reasonable option for showcasing a special yarn without having to use tons of it!

Eileen shared a 10 or 12 shaft cannele draft with me and I went to work to modify it for my 8 shaft loom. After lots of tweaking, I got a draft that I liked (after weaving my sample I can laugh at some of the mistakes in my draft...I should have done a short sampler earlier in the drafting process!) I finally put on a short and narrow warp--two yards long, 5-6" on loom. I used 10/2 cotton (unmercerized) as the main warp with a handspun 2-ply pinkish/red cotton as the warp float yarn.

Here are a few of the things I tried:
(at the top) 10/2 cotton weft with wool/tencel weft floats. I like the thicker yarn for the weft floats

After a while I discovered that I didn't have to weave the weft floats. Here is a piece with the pinkish/red warp float yarn used as weft. No weft floats.


I tried a couple of different colors of 10/2 cotton as weft. Then I tried some handspun cotton singles as weft. This single was from a two color roving that we used in Eileen's class to practice using our spinning to make color changes. The thin singles make the fabric seem so much softer than the commercial 10/2. I wonder if this will change after wet finishing?

June Quilt Block

Here's the quilt block for June. I love how quickly these smaller blocks with big sub-blocks can go together!

Six times 3 blocks down; six times 3 blocks to go!