Pulling-up Socks and Closing the Fell

To The Knit Knack Blog’s readers and friends:

You too may be feeling a dash of strain sprinkled with sleep deprivation, and sometime fist-shaking.  On a surprisingly mild December day that is also quiet enough for thinking, I have some admin good news & project successes to share.  First the…

Good admin news

In a series of steps this year we have moved more surely towards continuing to create the blog in 2019.  The latest step is to keep working with the photography mostly in Flickr for now.  We were a free member with over 1,000 photos.  Imagine the chill on reading:

Free members with more than 1,000 photos or videos uploaded to Flickr will no longer be able to upload new content after Tuesday, January 8, 2019 unless they upgrade to Pro. After February 5, 2019, free accounts that contain over 1,000 photos or videos will have content deleted — starting from oldest to newest date uploaded — to meet the new limit.

Did I want the grief of meeting the new limit?  Dear readers, I did not.  We upgraded and I am calling it a Christmas present to myself & my 1,422 all rights reserved photos.  Not a final decision by any means but rather a step into the new year.

We have a big anniversary coming… this next March, TKK turns 10 years old!  Possibly the only thing that has not changed about TKK since 2009 is the intention.  It’s simple really, I build posts on work done.  A tidy idea with no room for affiliates, sponsors or senders of swag.  Just right here in the scary & unpaid open, I put out what’s the most compelling.

TKK is a blog about adult learning that I started as a very unlikely, very new knitter.  In some ways it has come full circle – I do know my way around & am less of a novice even with weaving but find myself at home in the same way that I used to be at paid employment… with less community than I would like, and frankly, stressed.

This morning, I started listening to the latest “On Being” Podcast show.  Krista Tippett interviews her friend, Dr. Pauline Boss who floored me when she said:

The treatment of sadness is connection.

Dr. Boss’ area of work is ambiguous loss, and I will be going back eagerly to hear the rest of the uncut interview.  The admin news does allow TKK to go forward with the idea of connecting outside the walled craft gardens.  Let’s see where it takes us.

Pulling-up my handspun socks!

What a good feeling to have finished the Strie Cheviot wool socks this Sunday!  The designer is Lara Neel.

Ever so snug!

These socks were knit pretty evenly split between 2 months this fall.  The foot soles are knit through the back loop (i.e. crossing the knit stitches).  The 2-ply Cheviot yarn is Z-twist direction, and was slightly loose knit through the front loop.

Points out where I briefly knit as usual in the first sock

For a few rounds on the first sock, I forgot the ktbl plan.  That band shows clearly in the sock – do you see the slight pucker?

So, so good! That new sock feeling

The gentle flashing in the handspun was fun to watch unfold on the needles, and I am in love with the finished socks.  Wearing them has put a spring in my step!

Closing the Fell

Nothing is uncomplicated about weaving a week before family visits for Christmas.  If you are going to do that in the guest room then this a good kind of project to choose.

Ever so sweet baby blanket

The sage 8/4 cotton is 2 ends x 2 picks plain weave, and the Monte Cristo cotton bouclé is 2 x 2 common basket weave.

After pausing to water the orchids, yesterday morning, I sat at the loom bench as much as possible.  The short warp is finished!

Wow that was quick – hemmed-stitching!

The basket weave took-up more than I expected over the 2.5 yard warp, and it will be a smaller size baby blanket.  Good thing I am sending it home for the newborn phase!

As I threw the shuttles, I had time to think both about weaving & a knitted olive branch that I mailed mid-week.

Happy birthday

This is a 20″ circumference (small) Téamh hat designed by Jennifer Tepper Heverly for a turning-six-this-week girl.  As Jennifer explains in her pattern, “téamh” is Irish Gaelic for “warming.”  It’s been sent in an icing of relations, and is not her first FO off my needles.  The yarn here is Cascade 220 Heathers, knit on 3.5 mm needles.

One hat led to another!

For a very happy kiddo

Both versions modified the pattern from a garter texture to the traditional reverse stockinette.  I also kept the same needle-size for a snug fit.

Ears are covered!

The yarn is “Glittering Caves” MCN worsted by Sheepy Time Knits.  Now that this hat has T’s enthusiastic up-take, I have learned more about what’s important in a hat for him:

• Covers the ears;
• Warm but not with a folded brim because those are weird;
• Dyed-in-the-wool colour; and super-importantly
• Pom-pom is awesome.

Who knew?!?

Also meets with T’s approval – handspun Monster

This mid-September start on a Lloyd the Tall Monster by Rebecca Danger (“Knit a Monster Nursery”, p. 57) sat in pieces for oh, a month.  The yarn is my handspun BFLxShetland 3-ply knit on 3.25 mm double point needles.

With craft gifts almost all given, I am hoping to work up a garment for me soon.  As I sat at my loom this week, I weighed a thought.  Be it resolved to weave more in 2019?  That is the question.  Carving time for weaving = sacrificing other more established patterns.  It may well be time to do that because weaving feels like a barrel of potential.

Weaving smaller

As the pile of small knits grew & yarn production slowed, I have gathered weaving thoughts.  The last month threw-up one challenge after another.  In my role as Head Cook & Bottle Washer, I have been taken-up with navigating us through it all safely towards the holidays.

Since these challenges are of the I Specifically Told You Not to Upset my Apple Cart variety (powers that be are so awesome), I have frayed nerves that needed some attention too.  Pushed back are the spicy projects, and brought forward are some that have the right mix of inspiration + do-ability.

Side Note:  volunteer spinning hat has also been side-lined, temporarily.  I miss Spindlers and other spaces but am trying to herd adult cats as it were, and know that the team is very capable in my hopefully short absence.

At some point as I scratched an apparently strong itch to knit hats, it dawned that a single cotton blanket to welcome my good friend’s baby was the thing that I could make.  The Monte Cristo cone of cotton bouclé had come home with more adventurous napkin-intended 16/2 tubes.  Now that I see the purchase order it was the week before things went sideways!  Good timing that.

For Gail

This 2.5 yard warp uses the white bouclé yarn as 2/2 basket weave, and the sage 8/4 cotton will be plain weave if all goes according to plan.  The sett that I chose is 15 epi, and it will fill most of my Mighty Wolf loom’s weaving width.

Super calming to thread

This is a modification of “Tutti Frutti” by Tom Knisely in Handwoven Baby Blankets, p. 24, and I am threading 4 of my shafts.  In planning, I found good advice on setting-up basket weave in Mary Elizabeth Laughlin’s More Than Four, p. 13.  With my sett and 12-dent reed, I will be able to separate the bouclé basket threads at both heddles (shown here) & reed dents.  There is a special place in heaven for weavers who share tricks & tips in their books.

Our friends are already very busy parents of 2 girls, and this has special thoughts going into the weave.  It was a joy to notice the pregnancy on my trip home this summer, and Gail is not only a great friend but her support for all stages of my textiles journey has meant the world to me.  She truly is a rare pleasure to weave for, and I am sharing the project as I go with her.

Even smaller but in its own way BIG

Such a good step forward

This has been so exciting that I have pretty much live-tweeted the entire band!  This one will have images to spare.  It started this September, and has been good to finally sit with the Lithuanian pick-up traditions that I have read about and so admired.

The pattern that I am building up to here is named as ‘postscripts’ (prierašciai) in Lithuanian Sashes by Anastazija Tamošaitiené & Antanas Tamošaitis, p. 250.  It is for the last section of the band.

At my loom, and very intent on learning!

It was another book before me that started with a diamond over 7 blue pattern threads.  The technique is given as Rinktiné juosta, pick-up patterned sash in the very well explained Reflections from a Flaxen Past:  For Love of Lithuanian Weaving by Kati Reeder Meek, p. 136.

There I was in the next stage of weaving the design given by weaver, Elena Matulioniene in the ‘hundred-pattern’ type, candle burning and all.  The busy area rug was annoying me all the way, and to protests of both N & T it has gone down to the basement where it can’t bother my eyes.

Without me, the loom

The tools are resting on my straw braided backstrap from Indonesia and all work together to make this possible.  The shuttle with yellow weft yarn was made by Alvin Ramer.  Next down is my Andean llama bone beater (ruki) that made it all possible as the blue pattern threads (Cascade 220) pilled & fuzzed like crazy on each successive pick!  Lastly is a mahogany sword that came with Abby Franquemont’s class kit.

Please remind me that the room barely holds me + a 3-yard backstrap warp?  I clamped to the top of the mantle until a lot of the band was woven and on the cloth beam.  Getting back to finish the last of this warp will be a pleasure not a chore.

As soon as Gail’s blanket is cut-off, the loom will be closed.  We have family visiting from Jamaica, a very welcome change!

St. Andrew Tribute – twin handwoven blankets

These blankets are for my cousin’s twin boys – a tribute to her, and an extension of The Earl of St. Andrews district tartan to the parish of our birth in Jamaica.

The 1930 design is by A. A. Bottomley.  Having been created for the use of Prince George, it is a ‘royal’ district tartan.  The idea was not just what I thought Cat would like but also to weave a sett from “District Tartans” by Gordon Teall of Teallach & Philip D. Smith Jr.

Plaid in cone form

In January the Valley Yarns 5/2 mercerized cotton had arrived.  This is not an exact reproduction but I knew the shades would be key for the pattern to work.  The real work took several attempts – I needed to find a way to pivot the pattern, and fit my 36″ wide Schacht Mighty Wolf loom with the 3 lbs of cotton.

The sett that I chose is 18 epi, and I decided (wisely as it happens) to trust my colours without pre-sampling them.  In his “Handwoven Baby Blankets“, Tom Knisely gives a closer sett with this same yarn, so there was a clear choice.

Beaming at last! 

A summer day camp for T made this all possible but not easy.  I happily started winding the warp on Emancipation Day, August 1.  Hemming was completed last night, August 17.

Good weaving

The initial impulse was frankly hard to live up to on this project.  It’s not for a lack of feeling but the opposite.

Weaving a wide project that is also exacting stretched me.  This is only my second wider warp, and was 31.75″ under tension (I used a temple/stretcher).  As you may have heard me at nights on Twitter that straight plaid line was only after a re-start.

Backstrap sticks to the rescue

The warp needed some help on the beam by around the half-way mark.  I added tension in spots, fine-tuning all the while.  The darker sticks are from an Indonesian backstrap loom.  They were long & smooth enough to prevent further trouble.

Cutting to hem the baby blankets

As I have said before, finishing the weaving often (heh, always until now) gets pushed-back.  This time I paced the weaving better & kept going although T was with me at home this week.

Matching but not quite

The blue-on-blue blocks are my favourite.  The half-tones coming together this well had me practically leaping to give them a hard press right out of the machine.

More differences!

The twins are fraternal, and so are their blankets.  The 2nd woven on the right has a green hem instead of the pattern blue of the 1st woven.  It is also slightly longer.

Ready for delivery by hand

Dearest Cat,

You have been very patient, and I am happy to be coming to meet your bambinos with our gift.  It all came together.  August has always been your month after all!

Love, Me

Making gifts to celebrate new lives is something I have stuck with through ups & downs.  The blog stopped hearing of them for the most part but this one feels extra-special.  Plus, I learned a lot in the planning and execution.  It wasn’t just booties and a cardigan!

New year, inspired!

Happy new year!  Our holidays were spent back home in Jamaica.  It was the mix of what we call Christmas breeze, friends and family that made this trip extra-special.

Christmas breeze in Jamaica, defined

Inspiration came by more than sheer natural beauty.  The island is still dealing with the Chikungunya virus outbreak.  It is transmitted by mosquitoes, and last October the government declared ChikV a national emergency.  We are not infected but close family members are still coping with serious joint pain, and other symptoms.

In meeting ChikV, the economy, and not to mention personal challenges, I am inspired by the strength & creativity of people back home.  Things are difficult for so many that we know & love.

View at Eits Cafe, Newcastle, Jamaica

Any view of the Blue Mountains is beautiful.  This was on the patio after lunch at Eits Cafe in Newcastle.  I grew up with a similar tree-line view from the bedroom that I shared with my brother.  The land is green.

Speaking of eating

Our waitress at dinner in St. Mary on the north coast came back to make sure we understood how the snapper would be plated.  “That’s what we want!  Whole fish!”  She smiled, approvingly.

Harmony Hall, St. Mary, Jamaica

Returning to visit the first art gallery I ever loved.  The old great house, Harmony Hall is just as lovely as ever.  We enjoyed our visit & the freshly-squeezed limeades immensely.

Happy old sea grape tree in St. Mary

Every good beach no matter how small needs good shade.  The best seashells came home with me to Canada (hints:  look under the seaweed; use a stick; avoid sand-flies).  These two saw immediate love with the cotton spinning!

Seashell vacation cotton spindle

Just looking down at the beach, sometimes you might find fossilized coral.  This one survived the area’s blasting.

Coral fossil on Jamaica’s north coast

We spent less than 48 hours on the north coast this trip.  Even so, I have happy thoughts about the Art Gallery of Burlington’s curated show this year.  It is “Colour of Water.”

My shadow casts colour too

This is 1 of 6 handwoven towels that I finished in time for Christmas.  Taking the other 5 home for hand-hemming was how I got them all done!

Keep it Simple kitchen towel gift

I rushed to weave more towels in this 2/8 cotton using the denim colour for warp.  The progress story & were surprisingly popular with friends & family, so I had to make 2 extras!

Christmas gift towels on the loom!

The towels were all loved.  A little too loved since I found myself saying over & over, “No!  You totally should use them!”

These are the Keep it Simple towels by Mary Ann Geers.  Diane helped me fix a sleying error after the first towel, and she flagged what I soon discovered was a silly tie-up error.

Another friend, Margaret, has enabled me into some excellent weaving pattern books just this week.  Lots to learn this year about structure!

Christmas morning Bougainvillea

 

Luckily, there is still more inspiration in baby form.  My brother & sister-in-law are expecting!  We are so thrilled, and this is the launch of All The Plans!

Laying good 2015 plans

The top book here is very important:  “Knitting Counterpanes” by Mary Walker Phillips.  I think my handspun Romney yarn may be perfect for a small-sized knit counterpane.

See the two folders above the backstrap loom book?  They are pick-up patterns recorded by Catherine A. Stirrup from designs of Peru & Mexico.  A weaver kindly sent them to me with the backstrap weaving books in her destash.

Welcome to the herd, Tabachek spindles!

To much fan-fare, I opened a superbly packed box with the 2 Tabachek spindles (right, above) & a surprise.  This was late last year.  When my friend, Devin, offered the spindles to me, I was so thrilled!  They are a favourite make, and holly was a quiet dream as well.

Devin, they are loved, and see regular use both at home, and at spin-ins!  The grey fibre is yak/merino/silk top.

Spindles! Progress!

Cheers for 2015, everyone!  Looking forward to lots of projects, new friends, and especially becoming an Auntie!

 

Cottoning on to cotton

The recent trouble with my hands brought me back to cotton in a big way.  Of everything else only my cotton spin had a gentle enough action for longer stints.

My friend the takhli

This composition says almost everything about what got me over a Learn to Spin Cotton phase.  Three of four things, in fact:

1. A low stool:  sits in front of my couch, and under my lap level.  It is comfortable, and with pillows at the base of my back, I do not need to lean forward.  The new ergonomics awareness means that I don’t want to raise my drawing arm (left) above shoulder-level.  This set-up helps a lot.
2. A big shell:  it’s from Michael’s.  I love the haptic feedback from shell ridges when the metal takhli tip moves, slows, stops.  It breaks through the concentration I have with drawing cotton back into each make of yarn.
3. That cotton:  super-easy to spin.  It’s from the Cotton Clouds kit.  Please leave us a comment if you recognize which cotton it is exactly!  We wants more…

Number 4 of 4 arguably saves my wrist the most.  It’s my waist distaff that I got in last year’s Barbara Reid Auction:

Distaff does the cotton lifting

The lower half is a carved blade designed to be tucked at the waist.  Slid to my left-side in between the couch cushion & arm it angles perfectly towards the stool set-up.  I first did this in another bid to focus on the twist, and fine-tuning with a second draw.  It’s also perfect for taking all weight off the injured left wrist.

One thing led to another

As I started to prepare 2-strand plying balls, I remembered some other incomplete cotton spins.  So much was just waiting for me to wake up!

Plied cotton on the Akha spindle

By sheer co-incidence my copy of “Exotic Fiber Spindling” by Amelia Garripoli had just arrived in the mail.  To my delight, Amelia bases her discussion on the Akha spindle.  It is the style used by the northern hill tribes of Thailand, traditionally for cotton, and other short fibres.

Out came my empty Tom Forrester Akha spindle.  She came from Carolina Homespun last spring and is 20g with a lovely Sapele Mahogany whorl, and a Birch shaft.  Light enough for achy hands & fine cotton!

Five cotton skeins boiling!

By mid-March, I had 5 skeins of 2-ply cotton in a finishing boil.  The recipe is from Stephanie Gaustad’s “Spinning Cotton” Interweave video but is a 40-minute boil in an alkaline bath to clean & set the cotton.

Quintet of handspun cotton yarn

The green yarn is the most special of the lot.  It came from Phreadde’s gift of home-grown seed cottons, and I have shown/thanked her in FOAY already.

It’s largely in the support

The metal tip of takhlis move at an amazing speed.  One light flick is all it takes.  Getting feel, noise, and skating all within good parameters has sent me searching out different surfaces.  I love the shells but dislike ceramic & wood.

 

All things bright & beautiful – takhli support bowl

This painted gourd is from Ten Thousand Villages, and seems to work fairly well with both takhli & African clay bead spindles.  It reminds me of calabash from home but is not made in Jamaica.

My next experiment will be a condensed milk tin.  It leaped off the page of the Spring 2014 issue of Wild Fibers Magazine.  The phang spinners of Pangong, India seem at-one with my people when it comes to loving ‘tin milk’!

An irie snowflake, and January is happening

Civilized Snowflake

Oh, January, I see your cold and raise you a handspun, Paper Snowflake.  This wonderful knit pattern is by Naomi Parkhurst was ideal (ideal, I tell you!) for my many hours-worth of 3-ply cotton yarn that I made with coin takhli spindles.

A very wet Snowflake

As the pics show, this was made a while ago in better weather.  It hangs on my studio bulletin board, and is an awesome reminder that small amounts are not useless.

It has taken time but cotton seems to be here to stay.  None of my cotton spindles is ever empty, and I gradually spin more.  Spinning with the seed attached is amazing but I also figured out that if the Turkish distaff holds a length of top then I can spin it that way too.

The fact of the matter

I am still getting used to this loss.  The tree had to be removed after the ice storm damage, and was a better candidate for the estate of my dreams than our suburban back yard, it’s true.

Hard work underway in bitter cold

I had a full two deleted sentences re: neighbour activity.  Let’s just say salt was rubbed in the wound shortly after I took this picture.

A woodpile from a giving tree

It has been a wrench.  Our home feels different with the new outlook.  We can work with it (new window treatments, please) but first there’s that unwanted bill to take care of.

N has made promises to chop the wood for the fireplace.  Now that would be a fun development and a first!

Bright spots

Of the many (as yet un-processed) things happening this month, I have a few to share.

A third woven twill kitchen towel!

Level 2 of weaving class started last week.  I am using all spare moments to get my twill towels woven.  For this third towel, I kept the yellow weft but learned how to carry the slate blue up the selvedge.  Most of the windowpane is 24 shots of yellow.  I am carrying up by twisting in every fourth pick.

Fourth and last twill kitchen towel!

The fourth towel is underway.  The weft is now light blue, and I am weaving it in broken twill.  It is nice to not be as concerned with keeping an even beat.

Wee Peggy the friendly wheel

In between weaving sessions, I treated myself to a spin-in day at the Fibre Garden in Jordan.  My Wee Peggy wheel is perfect for these events – she travels well, and is easy for me to spin and participate.  I am spinning Waterloo Wools polwarth hand-dyed top in the Tidepool colourway.

There is also much spinning here at home.  This yarn is now all plied up & finished.  It is one ply of a lovely Entbatt, and one ply of bombyx silk – all spun on spindles.  I will give better detail and yarn pics in a later post.

December weaving and more

It has been a very busy month.  With the 1st level of weaving classes ending, I signed-up for the winter session and tried to get as much loom time as possible.  My oh-so-fun twill sampler needed attention.

2/2 Herringbone Twill section of satisfaction

It has 6 twill structures in the 2 blues.  Even as someone who would skip sampling whenever she can get away with it, I found this to be an excellent exercise.  Just having the dark/light warp threads alternate in the middle gave each structure such a radically different look.  It’s not something I would have understood without doing.

Twill sampler, underside

Going to the studio in daytime was very cool.  The lighting is great, and whenever guild members were around they were friendly & engaging.

Easy on the eyes, Burlington Guild’s classroom

The beauty of this class is that we didn’t stop at samplers.  We had a first project choice of tea towels or scarves.  After Beth convincingly said, “Go for it!” I chose the plaid windowpane towels that one of our instructors, MargaretJane Wallace designed.  Beth has seen some of these pictures already but that’s 5 colours plus 2 wound together!  

First tea towels warp finally beamed!

Both winding the warp-of-many colours, and beaming gave me many lessons in yarn management.  MargaretJane helped me work past the tension issues.  It amazed me how well-behaved the darks were when the yellow & white warp threads barely co-operated.  There was tangling due to pills, sagging, and the left side was just fine.

Threading the loom

Around this period of taking real care to get things going in an orderly way, MargaretJane scared the wits out of me.  Says, MJ,:

I like what you have done there, Lara.  It’s going to make for lively towels.

What?!  She had spotted the sequence a mile away – I only had one warp stripe in light blue.  It’s true, you can see it too.  My towels won’t have the precise symmetry within a left-side only plaid’s asymmetry.  Oops!  We all laughed together, and it’s not a big deal.

Testing, testing

The first step after threading was to experiment with weft colour, and twill structures for this plaid counterpane deal.

Possibilities!

With so many colour-changes ahead, I decided on a straight 2/2 twill.  A warp-faced twill was tempting but I didn’t want to fight the counter-balance loom’s action.

Deep thoughts were thought

Back at home, I was pouring over a set of new weaving books for insight on plaid, twill, and everything weaving.  After much thought, I went with a white ground for the 1st (of 4) towel.  It wasn’t long before I decided to play with the counterpane, and framed the plaid with the poor, neglected light blue.

Lively plaid, white weft ground

This is much different to the knitting process but somehow it feels right.  I am reading, watching videos on loom maintenance & weaving well, and generally stretching myself.  What cut a lot of the effort short was the late fall weather.

You may have heard about our late fall weather?

First there was a massive snowstorm on December 14th.  Much shoveling ensued.

Still fall? Really?

Toby seemed happy for his hand-spun  4-ply Coopworth wool sweater.  It kept snow off his big-dog chest.

Toby, The Knit Knack blog’s mascot

Such was the snow that I used my new hand-spun (from fleece! spindles!) tam.  There is a maker’s story behind this but for now, I will just say 1 thing: ears are covered!

Warm enough, I promise.

All that snow was really just a chance to knit (more later when pics are taken).  Trouble hit with the ice storm a week later.  As in the weekend before Christmas.

As the ice storm weighed in

It was my first experience of freezing rain, and an ice storm.  By mid-morning we heard a tearing crash, bang as our Norway Maple’s heavy side fell under ice & hit the fence.

It pains me to see

We are still waiting for the arborist to arrive.  This Norway Maple tree dominates the backyard in all seasons.  She is in so many of my pictures for The Knit Knack’s posts.  It’s a wrenching sight, and impossible to avoid seeing.

Ice-encased lilac

For that sadness we did not loose power as others did, and the house is intact.  The dangerous beauty has thankfully melted at last.  It could have been so much worse.

Hearing the wind in the icicles was so very eerie.  It was perfectly quiet except for the chak-chak of the trees.

Sunrise on the night’s ice accumulation

Three days later on Christmas the world was still bent under the ice.

Willow bowed down to the sidewalk

Rose of Sharon, iced

 

But still, a holiday was had with the boys

There were knitted gifts for others but this tweet was N happily modeling his newly felted wool slippers:

Dashing! He loves them, blanket stitch and all. #knitting #Christmas pic.twitter.com/thBfGkWDan

— Lara (@irieknit) December 25, 2013

Melvin really liked my new batts from Enting Fibercraft.  We had to talk quietly about how cats are allowed to look but not touch even pretty fibre.

He is a lover that Melvin

Friends & family have surprised us with baskets of treats – each wonderful in its own right.  This was the first through the door.

Something for everyone (cat & dog, excepted)

We are still in stay-cation mode with a house guest.  Although a wheel would cramp everyone’s space, I am spinning up a storm on my drop spindles.

Happy New Year when it comes, y’all!