Weaving

Here we have a selection of pick up stick patterns. What a great way to get some texture! I'll be dividing this length up into assorted mats and hemming them. My favourite so far is waffle weave and I want to try that with some warp stripes some time. Some of the warp threads get deflected and if they were in another colour, I think it would look way more complicated than it is.

I just got started on some plaid. Initially I warped with two heddles to try some double weave, which I managed okay, but the cotton was sticking in the slots and getting a clean shed was annoyingly difficult. I wove a few inches and abandoned the project. I then removed half of the warp and retied to try a few twill patterns, but the sett was wrong for that, so I abandoned that too. I removed the warp and measured some more to go with it, and threaded the 12.5dpi heddle for plain weave. I have had this 4 ply cotton for a while and it suggested a plaid pattern, so here it is. I'm aiming for a balanced weave, and so far the squares aren't too far off square.

Getting up to date

Having finished the crocheted Simply Spring top recently, I was tempted to start another summer top. I've had some Emu Perle (acrylic which looks like perle cotton, light DK weight) in the stash for ages in several colours and I've used some of it for other tops. This time lilac was the choice, and the pattern I'm using as a starting point is the cover design of the latest Interweave Crochet magazine (Spring 2009). Instead of the flowered yoke I will have a try at working a more solid circular yoke. So far I nearly have half a front done and the fabric is very pleasing. I'm using a 5mm hook.

My interest in various yarny pursuits fluctuates with time, and at the moment crochet is pushing its way to the front. This was why I ordered some more Clover soft touch hooks to fill in the gaps of my set. When they first came out, I bought the set which covered 2.5mm to 6mm in half mm increments. I just discovered that they now make the quarter mm sizes between 2mm and 4mm, along with a range of steel hooks in the smaller sizes 0.5mm to 1.75mm. So, seeing that they are my favourite hooks, I couldn't resist. Of course I had to make a case to keep them in, so I made another like my original one.


I have managed a little knitting: the neckband of the Cabled Spiral is nearly done, but I need to put the stitches on a longer needle so that I can try it on to check. I've also started a sock with the Wendy Happy bamboo/nylon yarn. I'm using Wendyknits Seaweed sock pattern with a little alteration to the lace pattern. I'm reversing the chart on alternate repeats. This is the second attempt because the first try was too big, so I'm doing the medium size now. Even on 2.5mm needles 66sts seems to be enough in this pattern.

Last but not least I finally finished spinning some superwash english wool tops which I dyed myself. It is fairly bright and it ended up about DK weight 2 ply. (223m, 91g)

Playing catch up and a Drum carder

I have some FOs to report; the Monkey socks are done and I'm very happy with them. The Regia yarn is superb to work with and feels soft.


After a bit of a time out, the Simply Spring crochet top is finished too. I had to decide how to finish the neck edge and the bottom edge. the pattern has you work just one row of dc (UK terminology), but I needed a bit more depth to prevent the neckline gaping and to stop the lower edge from flaring out. In the end I worked several rounds of dc, ch1 where the dc goes into the ch space on the previous round. After washing and blocking, I'm pleased with the fit of it. Now we just need some warm weather. For a change I've finished something in advance of needing it. This won't be the case for the Cabled Spiral because by the time I finish that, it will be too warm to wear it.


I finally finished the Wendy Happy scarf and used my new hair braider gizmo to twist the fringes. It certainly saves some wear on the fingers. 36.8cm in the heddle, 35.2cm wide after finishing and 1.8m long excluding fringe.


I need to wear glasses for reading and I hang them round my neck with a made by me kumihimo cord so I don't lose them, and one of the rubber ends gave way a couple of weeks ago, so I dusted off the marudai and made a couple of new cords. I ended up using the one at the bottom, attaching it to some new rubber ends. Job done!

I've saved the best for last - I have a drum carder now. My hubby decided that he would like to build one for me quite a while ago. He is not a well man, so this has really given him something to work towards, doing a little at a time. He enjoys precision metal work, so the majority of the structure is metal with a minimum of wood! I've christened it, and it works great.



I have two doffer rods and a small carder for cleaning the cloth. The gap between the drums can be adjusted and the infeed tray can be raised and lowered. It has high quality sealed bearings and will outlast me I think.

A couple of progress pics

On the loom:
4 ply cotton at 12.5 dpi, with simple pick up stick patterning.

Repeating myself

We are having to have a new central heating boiler installed after the old one stopped working over a week ago. Luckily the weather hasn't been too bad, and a couple of oil filled radiators are taking the edge off, and along with the immersion heater for water, we haven't been too badly affected. Work begins on Thursday, and we've drained the system and made a start on emptying cupboards where access will be needed. Crafting has to take a back seat for a while, but I can still fit some in.


My second Cabled Spiral sweater is still stocking stitch and no cables yet, but the body is excellent mindless knitting, and it is growing. The yarn is Emu superwash DK in a marled grey and it's very soft. I'm having to use 4.5mm needles to get gauge which is odd, but whatever works is fine with me.

This is one and a bit no purl Monkey socks. My first pair were made exactly as the pattern, but these have plain ribbing, not twisted, and a slip stitch heel instead of stocking stitch. The yarn is Regia Design Line, Kaffe Fassett colour 4260, which I think is the Caribbean colourway. I'm pretty happy with the way these are turning out. There is the occasional splodge of colour, but mostly pleasing stripey bits.

I can see a trend here, my current knitting projects include two repeated items.


Weaving-wise, currently I'm weaving a wide scarf/stole with Wendy Happy bamboo/nylon 4 ply yarn in shade Aquarius. It is threaded at 12.5 epi now having started out at 10 epi which proved to be much too airy. Weft is a dark airforce blue/ grey 3 ply wool. It's plain weave and the width on loom is 14.25".


I haven't mentioned the next ufo until now, because I wasn't sure about it early on, but I've been crocheting too. This is the Simply Spring top from Crochet! magazine May 2007. The yarn is Rowan Cashcotton DK in Sage and Parchment. I'm using a 4.5mm hook and recalculating because of the gauge difference. The back is about 75% done, so it won't be too long before it's done.

In a bit of a rush

Does this remind you of anything? It's cotton which I will be making into an oven glove, hopefully with better insulation properties than my current one which lets heat through far too fast for my liking. I just wove a long strip of plain weave using the same rustic type of cotton for both warp and weft. I need to get some binding and then I'll put it together.

I really wanted to make something that used some twill patterning, so I made YAS (yet another scarf). I threaded two 10 dpi heddles in a 3 2 1 3 2 1 threading which worked out at 15 epi. I'll elaborate about the threading another time,'cos I don't have the time right now. I explored the weave drafts at Handweaving.net and found two which worked for me. I used one for about 10" at each end of the scarf and a second for the middle section. The pattern at the ends (no. 62700) was very different on each side, while the other (no. 34910) was the same on each side.


This shows the transition from one pattern to the next, the ribbon was my length guide, because I needed to know when to start the ending pattern. The yarn is 80% acrylic, 20% wool 4 ply from the machine knit stash. The finished scarf is 20cm wide and 1.82m long. On the loom it was 19cm and 2m. I always thought that woven fabric decreased in width when finished, but not mine, well not all of it. I tried twisted fringe for the first time - my poor fingers. I need to get a fringe twister if I'm going to do more of this. I love the effect though.

In knitting news, I've finished one all knit (no purls) Monkey sock, and started the second. These really are going quite fast for me. I've started another Cabled Spiral sweater because I really like the yoke, but this one has ribs for the cuffs and body. So far I have both sleeves done to the armpit and about 4" of the body completed.

I've just started weaving YAS using Wendy Happy bamboo yarn for warp, plain weave with a 3 ply wool weft. Pretty. I'll try to get some photos taken soon.

A glut of FOs

This keeps happening to me, and I don't know why. All of a sudden, I finish projects at nearly the same time. Each time, there is a vacuum when I can't decide what to make next. I've started a Monkey sock to keep me going, after all, I have to have something to knit.

Kearsarge is done, and it fits well. This is Patons Diploma Gold DK yarn with 4mm needles, and I used less than 10 x 50g balls.

The bright kettle dyed socks are done too. These are my standard 72st 2.5mm needle socks and I like them. I won't be overdyeing them. Cold feet aren't an option wearing these!

Fulled woven bag

This is the start of a fulled bag using some Jojoland Rhythm yarn left over from a previous project and some coned wool yarn that has been vegetating in the stash for a loooong time. The Rhythm is a 4 ply with each ply changing colour along its length. I thought it would be ideal for trying the clasped weft technique. On the loom the fabric was very holey, but after fulling by hand, it closed up nicely...

and shrunk too. I just caught it at the size I wanted and then set about weaving a strap to match using the same yarns in a warp faced band.

This was also fulled and the next step was to bribe my sewing machine. One broken and two bent needles later, I had a bag. I turned under the edges of the flap and front top edge of the bag and instead of basting or pinning the raw edges before machining, I needle felted them to hold them in place. The lining has pockets and was sewed in by hand.

Twill on the rigid heddle loom

I've been playing with 1/2 and 2/1 twill recently. I blame this book. On one of my rare forays to the shops, I visited Borders bookshop and found this, the only weaving book they had. No longer are fabric types totally mysterious. Sadly for me, the book is aimed at weavers with a 4 shaft loom, but there are a few things which are for 2. This twill isn't one of them really because it needs 3. Undaunted, I figured out the threading for extended point threading. I used two 10 dpi heddles and some red 4 ply wool/nylon yarn. I used the holes in one heddle as one shaft, the holes in the second heddle as the second and the slots in both as the third. This involved missing every 4th hole in each heddle and having either 1 or 2 threads in each slot which meant that the sett was variable.

With this setup, six different sheds are possible: front heddle up, rear heddle up, both heddles down, giving weft dominance and the opposite: front heddle down, rear heddle down, both heddles up, giving warp dominance. The patterns you can get are not what you expect to see on a rigid heddle loom. Yet again, I'm using up oddments so my trademark eclectic colourways are in evidence.










It's been fun trying this out and I may use the technique for an actual item sometime. The uneven sett doesn't really detract from the fabric, in fact it adds an extra dimension to it, especially on the chevron pattern.

Just to say that I have still been knitting, and that the second sleeve of Kearsarge was finished last night. I will have enough yarn. Phew!