Drop by Drop

For several months, I have been planning a warp for the Summer and Winter Kitchen Towels in the Handwoven E-Book "Top Ten Towels on Four Shafts". In fact since June, five skeins of yarn have been scoured and waiting on the cabinet in my utility room. The time has long since passed to get them off the cabinet.

The thing that has stopped me is the number of colors of yarn that are required. The towels use five different colors of 5/2 cotton plus white. I had exactly one of those colors - white.

When I started weaving, I decided I would try to dye many of the colors called for, since I do not want to add to the large supply of yarn that I have already. The problem is I have no formal art training, so my color mixing knowledge relies heavily on what I learned from finger paints in kindergarten.

For this project, my challenge came in mixing some colors that were close to the colors used in the original pattern - although I am sure other colors would be equally pretty. I really struggled over how to mix some of the colors especially the "California Gold". I had the yellow part down, but was not sure how to get the gold part. I also needed to mix a "Dark Turk" color and a coral color.

From my earlier fiber reactive dye experiments, I learned that the mixed dye solutions can be painted onto watercolor paper, and the dried samples are pretty close to what the actual dyed cloth or yarn will be. Someplace, I also saw that a coffee filter can be substituted for the paper. So, I decided to mix a gradation of the colors between two colors in 9 steps, and try out the coffee filters as a place to preserve my samples.

I used a watercolor mixing palette, and put drops of Deep Yellow in the indentations with an eyedropper. In the first indent, I put one drop, in the second two drops and so forth all around to the last one which got 10 drops. Next, I used Chocolate Brown dye solution and in the indentation with one drop of Deep Yellow, I put 9 drops of Chocolate Brown. The two drops of yellow got 8 drops of brown and so on around. I did not put any brown in the indentation that had the 10 drops of yellow. So each basin had a total of 10 drops of dye, giving a simple formula that can be used to mix larger quantities of that same color.

Next I used a paint brush to paint little samples of each color all around the coffee filter. Now I have a good idea about how to get that California Gold color, or rather my interpretation of it, for the warp for the towels. I also have samples of the colors that can be mixed from these two colors and a rough idea of how to get the color I am aiming for.

I repeated this sampling with the rest of the dye solutions I had mixed up. Now I have lots of color samples to use for a quick reference the next time I dye yarn or fabric.

I dyed the yarn which had been scoured and skeined for three months. It is now curing in my hot water heater closet. I will be rising it in a couple of days, so soon, I will be ready to wind the Summer and Winter Towels Warp. I also dyed some muslin for my She-Knits Autumn Mystery Bag which is felted and waiting for a lining.

This was a fun exercise. It made me think of the art classes I did not get to take. I really do have a lot of colors hiding in a few jars of dye powder.

Drop in the Bucket Stash Busting

The Fall 09 Handwoven magazine contained at least four projects that appeal to me. The first one, the Budget Bamboo Shawl is off the loom already. Since the weaving weather is very good for being in my non climate controlled studio, I have rushed to get another project on the loom from the Fall 09 issue.

The new project is the Stash Busting Placemats which is now warped and the weaving is in progress. The sad thing is that I don't think my stash will actually see a big reduction. In fact, I think I have a net increase in stash since I did not have the 8/2 cotton used in the warp for these mats - so that FORCED me to go shopping closeouts at Webs.

However, I did uncover a cone of Cotton Flake in my stash that is going to give these just the look I wanted. I love the colors of this flake. The mats, in progress, are looking just the way I envisioned them. They are going to make a nice gift for someone on my Christmas list.

For the warp of these, I used one strand of navy blue and one strand of chocolate brown. In the weft I have 2 strands of navy blue, one strand of chocolate brown and 3 strands of the cotton flake. Laura Fry, the designer, used two strands of Cotton Flake in her sample, but I wanted mine a bit more hefty so I have opted for 3 strands.

The pattern did not really talk about how many picks of plain weave to use after the hemstitching, so I chose 3 for a total of 6 picks of plain weave. The pattern is a broken twill and I really love it. It is making a nice fabric for a busy yarn, so I will probably use this draft again

I have one mat woven and am ready to hemstitch the second one.

I am already queuing up the next project from this Handwoven issue. I can mind weave really fast. Too bad the weaving goes much slower or my stash might actually be in trouble!

Off the Loom

My Budget Bamboo Shawl is complete! It is off the loom, fringed, washed and pressed.
It was a fun project - one of those that made me want to do more weaving. The finished fabric is soft and very drapey.


It wove very quickly. I analyzed the tie ups and draft and discovered that I really only needed 3 treadles tied up. I rearranged those so that when my shuttle was on the left, I used the far left treadle, and when my shuttle was on the right, I used either the fourth or sixth treadle depending on where I was in the weaving sequence.


Other treadles were tied up in the draft, but they were for weaving some alternate designs with the same pattern. I decided to stick to the treadling sequence used for the sample in the magazine, after I looked at the alternates in my weaving software.

I bought 6 balls of the Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Crochet yarn and used most of 5. It took almost all of 3 balls for the warp, and 2 balls for the weft. I tried to pay attention to the 15 ppi which meant a light touch on the beater.









I did make a few weaving mistakes that I did not catch while I was weaving. I would have unwoven a ways to correct then if I had seen them. I will chalk this up to being a beginner - although with each project complete, I am farther along the path to being a real weaver.

I don't think the mistakes will matter in the long run, and I will improve next time.

As far as I know, I am the only one in our Weave Along who is done with the shawl. I don't think the others have their warps on the loom yet.

I am planning my next project already. I have my sights set on the Stash Buster Placemats in the same issue of Handwoven (Fall 2009). I really love this issue of Handwoven. After the placemats are done, there are still 2 more projects in that issue of the magazine that I want to try.

These projects will all end up as Christmas presents. I just hope I can get done before the cold weather hits because then my '"weaving studio (a. k. a the garage) " becomes too cold to use.

Blame it On Charlene

In September, Peggy, Kate Faye and I went to the Cajun Lagnaippe Fiber For'em. This is a nice little fiber festival held at a camp in southwest Louisiana.


The For'em features lots of great classes including Weaving, Bobbin Lace, Sock Machine Knitting, and Machine Knitting taught by Yours Truly. The teacher of the Beginning Weaving Class, Charlene, had this bamboo shawl as one of her samples. She wove it from the directions in the September/October 2009 Handwoven Magazine, called the Budget Bamboo Shawl.


The shawl is made from Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Crochet Cotton. It is woven in Bronson Lace (new for me). The yarn costs less than $15. It is available at Wal-Mart, JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby.

Charlene had deviated from the pattern and used a cream color for the warp and white for the weft, and the subtle difference gave the shawl lots of depth. Kate, Peggy, Faye and I all loved it, so we decided we would all weave it in a Weave A Long or WAL.


So, we all got the yarn and two Wednesdays ago at spinning we began winding our warps. I was able to finish winding mine, and I believe that Kate and Peggy have theirs wound too.


This week, after finishing my Scarf Jail Scarves (that is a whole nother story), I began warping my loom. The loom is a very old Le Clerc Nilus that I think was made in the 1950's or 1960's. It was a school loom, and I am sure could tell lots of stories if it could talk.

I am a process person, so I am always looking for a new twist on stuff. Never mind that I am a beginning level weaver with less that a dozen warps under my belt. Last year I ordered the Singing Weaver's (Nadine Saunders) Warping on a Shoestring video, and I also ordered Peggy Osterkamp's Warping from the Back Video, as well as her book on warping. So, armed with all this information, I decided to branch out (since I am so NOT an expert on warping from the front of the loom) and break out my new raddle to put this warp on from the back using a combination of Peggy and Nadine's techiques.


Nadine uses shoestrings for lots of things when she weaves. She ties the warp to the back apron with shoe strings, and she also ties the warp to the front apron rod with shoestrings. It takes a bunch of shoestrings for her technique and I had shopped Ebay and ordered mine last spring from someone who had some close outs (can't imagine why red and green plaid sparkly shoe laces would have been on close out). I think I paid less than $10 for 40 pairs. You can see them in the photo and even see the glitter!


So, the photos show my warp going on the loom from the back with the raddle in place (Peggy O does this a little differently and I might try her process next time). It also shows my completed tied on warp and glittery shoestrings!


A gadget I got, that I highly recommend is the Auto Reed Hook. This tool is a must have - though a little expensive, it is well worth it. This was the first time I had used it. That hook cut my reed threading time by 2/3rds at least. I LOVE it. If you are a weaver, put it on your Christmas list.


So today, I tied the warp on to the front beam with the shoelaces and a snitch knot a la "Warping on a Shoestring". I found it very easy to remove the knots and correct the two crossed in the reed threads, and I believe I am now ready to weave the shawl.


As a side note, two errors in the threading is the least I have ever had! I must be improving with time in the chair.


The next thing to conquer is hemstitching since the shawl is hemstitched on both ends, and you start with the hemstiching before the weaving.


I will be weaving on the shawl tomorrow!

Peggy, Faye, Kate and Marlene get busy! I want to see your progress. This is a Weave-Along, not a Weave-Alone!

Charlene, see what you have started?

Shade Tree Knitting Machine Mechanics

A very common problem with Brother and Knitking knitting machines is as they age, the fairisle button becomes glued to the thread lace button by old oil and grease. My favorite machine has been suffering from this malady, and with no knitting machine service people in the area, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I thought maybe someone else might benefit from this information, so I am breaking my blogging silence.

Now one thing that does work on this problem every time I am aware of is to remove the carriage from the machine and warm up the center bottom of the carriage with a hairdryer for about a minute, then retry the buttons. Repeat a couple of times if needed.

I have used the hairdryer, with success, on this particular carriage. The problem is that the gunk rehardened and the button restuck, so more drastic measures were called for. My Bulky machine had the very same problem, and I used the hairdryer on it. After nine months the buttons are still working properly, so the hairdryer is the first thing I would recommend.

If you want to try this, you are on your own, I just want to make that perfectly clear. I am not going to accept any responsibility for your results.

Things can definitely go wrong, and if you are not 100 percent confident, then you best leave this for the experts. We still have a handful of folks in the Machine Knitting Repair business, and I suggest you send your carriage to them if you are not mechanically minded.


I have NO Knitting Machine Mechanics training. I have been thinking about doing this for literally months and have studied everything I could find on the subject, including the 930 Service Manual and the one website I found with photos of something very similar on a different machine.




So, if you are still with me, here is how I unstuck my fairisle button:


I used a flat head and Phillips screw driver, a container to hold the screws and parts, a container for some mineral spirits also known as paint thinner, a bristle brush, some news paper, some paper towels, Q-tips and Formula 409 cleaner.

1. I removed the carriage and the presser plate. Then I unscrewed the handle. My machine has a motor drive, so the handle is attached by a bracket. For most machines the handle is held on by long screws.




2. I turned the tension dial to past zero to help line everything up later. I made sure the Hold button was all the way at the left. The release button should be at the left naturally.




3. Carefully, with the flat blade screwdriver I pried up around the center white disk. This disk is held on with delicate plastic feet, and I was very careful with it. If a foot breaks, it will not stay in place and I would be guessing about my tension. I also know a lot of this old plastic is very fragile.
   



4. Next I removed the screw in the center of the tension dial and lift the dial and the small center disc straight off.




5. I turned the carriage over and removed the two screws that connect the cover to the business part of the carriage. On every carriage I have examined these screws are gold colored, but that may not be true always. There are lots of screws here and removing the wrong one would mean a trip to the repair person, so I was extremely careful.



6. Next I poured a little mineral spirits into a small container (I was in a well ventilated area), and applied it to the center area and edges of the carriage. I worked with all the buttons. I let it sit for a few minutes, then wiped off the excess and repeated. I kept working with it, and soon the farisle button button was unstuck! Then using the Q-Tips, I carefully wiped off the gunky areas of the carriage. I did not want to knock anything loose!
   


7. So, all that remained was to reassemble the carriage cover and knobs and switches. There are a couple of tricky bits here. First thing I did was to wipe off the interior of the cover with the Formula 409 and a paper towel, just to get all the sticky residue that I could
   
   
8. Next, the hold button and the release lever go back into place on top of the carriage. Then place the cover over the carriage insides and reattach with the golden screws.
   I checked all the levers and buttons to see if they were working, and found out the intarsia feature would not engage, so I had to take the golden screws back out and try again. The next time everything worked. I have a photo here so you can see the placement of the levers.



9. Next I replaced the tension disc. Since I turned the dial as far as it would go before I started, I knew the position was correct.



10. The small disc that goes under the screw was a little tricky to get back on. The "bump" goes up, and The notch goes at the bottom. The notch will line up with the red line on the center plastic disk when it is snapped carefully back on. I was careful to line up the notch first then gently snap in the disk. I was still worried about those fragile feet!
    
    
11. All that remained was to reattach the handle and I was done with this repair!

I hope that my experience helps someone else. It was not too hard to do, and since we Brother/Knitking People are now on our own, we have to help one another when the repairs are fairly simple.

The Art of Front Loader Felting

If you get one of the new High Efficiency front loading washing machines, you will notice that your clothes are suddenly a whole lot cleaner and seem much dryer when they come out of the wash than they did when all you had was your top loader. The new machines use a lot less water than the top loaders and they are much more gentle on your clothes. They have a computer in control that evaluates the load and decides how much water to use and how much washing is really needed.

When you tell your knitting friends who do not have a front loader yet, about your new acquisition, I bet the first thing you hear is that it is nice for you to have a modern machine, but to forget felting your knitting ever again - unless it is something that you don't want felted!

Well, friends, do not despair. You can felt in your front loader, but you will have to be more determined than before. Felting in the front loader is even more of an art than it used to be in the top loader, because the first thing you have to do is outsmart your smart washing machine! Things probably won't felt in 5 minutes like before - it may take one or two complete cycles to get the look you want.

I would tell you to start by reading the book that comes with the machine so that you understand all the settings, but my experience is that the books are totally worthless and do not cover how to take control of your washer. For example, my washer - an LG brand - will spin out without spraying water if I just turn it on, and select the spin speed I want then press the start button. This is not documented anywhere in the book that came with it. Someone on the Internet made this discovery and shared it on one of the lists I read in response to my whining.

Felting wool requires heat and agitation - and your agitation does not count. Since the washer computes how much water to use, if you just put your item to be felted in, with nothing else, don't expect much felting to occur - unless the wool felts super easy. So, find out how to run your load with really hot water. One item is not going to create much agitation either.

Get yourself some felting helpers to build a load that will definitely cause some agitation as well as adding weight to the load to fool the computer into thinking that you have a big load - and thus need more water.

I have some items that I keep just for my felting loads. My recipe consists of one dozen tennis balls. The photo shows them in a mesh bag, but I dump them loose in the machine when I felt. Add to the balls, one pair of old jeans (or more) a pair of flip flops, one old towel (or more) and an optional pair of old tennis shoes. Now you have an agitating load!

The next thing you have to do is experiment a little - remember this is an art and all front loaders are not created equally plus different wools felt at different rates. The best thing to do is to make a swatch (this is not a dirty word!) and felt it using the concoction you have assembled to do the deed.

Wet your swatch and don't squeeze out too much water. I have found that a wet swatch felts faster than a dry one. I guess it is because no wash water is wasted getting it wet, and you get a fast temperature change - one of the felting keys.

Put your swatch in a zippered pillow cover then into the wash. Don't forget to add a little soap , Dawn or Synthropol (not detergent since it contains whiteners). Set your machine on hot or Sani-Wash and let her rip! The swatch needs to be at least 6 inches wide and long so you are getting something to work with.

In my front loader, I can usually get a satisfactory felted item in one wash cycle for most wools, but for others it takes two cycles. I have found I have to use the Sani-Wash cycle to get really hot water most of the time. I also pick a long cycle, although some people say that it is the temperature changes that cause the felting to occur, so a shorter cycle might work too.

Felting time does vary with the wool used. I had one commercial yarn that felted well in my machine with half of a normal hot wash cycle. A long hot cycle would have ruined this project. My favorite handspun wool takes two to three Sani-Wash (extra hot and long) cycles to make suitable felt. So, experience is the best teacher, and when in doubt, swatch and felt the swatch.

Once your item is felted to your liking, pull and stretch it into shape over a box and or towels or other stuffing that makes it the right size. Then let it dry.

If you want to read a good felting reference, I suggest either of Kathleen Taylor's books on felting - Knit One Felt Too or I Heart Felting. She has some great information about swatches and felting in both of those books. She does not have front loader specific stuff though.

Good luck with your felting projects!

Rockstars and Space Bags

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is the largest Fiber Festival of it's kind in the United States. Since shortly after I began spinning in 2003, I knew I wanted to go. This was my lucky year.

I have a spinning friend in Virginia, Julie, of Julie's Handspun Yarns, who I get to see rarely. Julie invited me to come and stay with her and attend the festival. I felt so lucky to have a guide and I left the planning up to her. I felt so lucky to have an experienced guide for the festival. I wanted to be sure I did not miss anything important, and I know Julie would be sure I didn't.

So, the Thursday before the festival, I caught a plane and headed to Virginia. Very early Saturday morning, we left Julie's house and headed for the Festival.


We arrived before the official opening time, and went on in. This was a good thing, because we were able to go to the big Exposition Center before it got too crowded. We bought a beautiful silver merino fleece that won second place in it's class in the fleece judging. We split this fleece and sent it to be processed.


We wandered through the barn and managed to get through about 1 more barn before the crowds got so big, you could not stir them with a stick. There were lines for T-Shirts and lines for Socks That Rock yarn which we did not get in. We decided that we were not waiting in line for those.

Most of the booths were so crowded that there was no way to get in. We did score a washed and skirted Coopworth fleece that we split. I have not spun Coopworth before, but it looks really nice.




I went to the Ravelry Meetup, and got to meet Mary Heather, Jess, and Casey. The lady in the wine colored sweater is a Ravelry friend - Llamalady (Barbara) that I also got to visit with. It was really fun to get to actually speak with someone I felt like I knew from the Ravlery She-Kints Group.

The day passed quickly. My friend Cindy was there working at the Jacob Sheep Conservancy Booth, and she wanted to go to dinner with us, so we were waiting for her to "get off work". This made us hang around later than we would have.

I was falling down tired so I found a bench outside of one of the barns and sat down. Being Texan, I made small talk with another lady sitting on the bench. I asked her what she bought and one thing she had was Socks that Rock sock yarn. This yarn is famous for the wonderful colors it is dyed in. I have never knit with this but have been hearing about it for a couple of years. By this time, late in the day, the lines were all gone. So, I got Julie and we headed to the Fold's booth.

The Fold had lots of Socks that Rock Yarn left at full retail, and they had a basket of seconds on sale at a good price, but only 4 skeins were left and the colors were, shall we say, ugly. So we shopped around their booth, and while we were making up our minds they put out the seconds they had held back for Sunday - two huge bins - and we got first choice! We got the Socks that Rock Yarn at a good price and we did not have to wait in line at all!

The next day at the Festival, it was raining and it never let up all day. This was good for us, but bad for the vendors since it hurt the crowds. The day starts with the Sheep to Shawl Competition.

Julie is a member of the Tidewater Treadlers Sheep to Shawl team, so we were there very early to get ready. I had never seen a Sheep to Shawl competition, and it was lots of fun to watch the sheep - a black Hog Island Ewe - get shorn, and then have the spinning and weaving commence.

In a Sheep to Shawl Competition, the loom arrives with the warp on it. The sheep is shorn and the spinners start spinning the fleece in the grease. Once the first bobbin is done, the weaving starts. The team has a short length of time to spin the weft for the shawl and get the shawl woven. It is important that the spinners keep up with the weaver.

The team is judged on several criteria, including their weaving accuracy, spinning quality, costumes (the Treadlers compete in Colonial dress), adherence to the size specified for the shawl and their teamwork. Once the shawls are completed and off the loom they are washed before being judged. After the awards are announced, all the shawls are auctioned off.

The Tidewater Treadlers had won the competition three times before, and they added win number four to their record this year. They also won a special award for the best spinners in the competition.

While Julie was spinning, I took the Umbrella and went to Jennie the Potter's booth to meet Knitting Rockstars Amy Singer from Knitty and Heather Ordover from the Craft-Lit Podcast. These two ladies are so nice in person - just the way I expected them to be.

I did some shopping and got Finnsheep roving and superwash Blue Faced Leichester roving as well as a few other treasures.


Once the Sheep to Shawl Competition was over, Julie and I bought another fleece - this one from a Columbia Sheep, and we took that to be processed. On the way back, we noticed there was no line for T-Shirts, so we stopped in and got one. Our patience - or lack of it - regarding waiting in lines paid off for us again.

Because of the rain, we really did not get to see all the booths at the festival. We missed the skein competition as well as the handmade garments. We also missed the sheep dog trials as well as lots of other stuff I am sure. I guess that gives me something to look forward to when I manage to go back.

Monday morning, it was back to Texas for me. I was very concerned about getting all my loot in my suitcase and I would have never made it without Space Bags! That suitcase was stuffed to the gills. I was very worried about it popping. I am sure the TSA did not open it, because I don't think it could have been closed again.

I arrived home bone tired and very happy. This was the most fun I have had in a long time. The only thing that would have made the trip better would have been more sleep!