Penguono Sweater Progress

 Heddle threading has been slow. In fact it came to a stop last weekend with a trip to the emergency room with what turned out to be a blood clot in the leg Dan had surgery on. So, we've had various tests and doctor visits this past week, which has given me more knitting time. 

Of the sweater, I've got the right shoulder and front done now, and am working on the left front. 

In looking at the above photo, I'm not too sure about the dark brown section on the edge of the right front. I may choose to re-knit it in a different color. Even though my color changes are spontaneous, it still has to look "right" to me. 

I'm not on a time schedule, so my pace is relaxed. Hopefully, I'll get back to heddle threading next week so I can move on to the next step in that project. 

Penguono Sweater Progress © 2026

 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Warp Notes Part 3

The warp is sleyed, the reed is in place, and I'm on to threading the heddles.

The thread ends are in random color order in the reed, and I have two ends per dent, so I can choose one or the other for the heddle order. I'm just trying not to put the same color in adjacent heddles. 

Not that it would be disastrous, but to keep anything that looks like a stripe from standing out visually. I just have to keep an eye on the next reed pair of colors as I make my choices. 

To warp front-to-back, I'm able to lower the seat on the bench and put it inside the loom.

That makes it easy to reach everything. Fortunately, it's an easy threading pattern.

Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Warp Notes Part 3 

© 2026  by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Knitting Progress

Here is my waiting room knitting progress.

working on knitting the right front

If you missed that post, it's a sweater designed by Westknits. With Dan in recovery mode from surgery, our routine is different, including the time I have for writing, reading, and computer work. I've been doing Dan's chores and all the driving, plus spending more time in companion mode, which means watching more videos than usual, and that means more time for knitting. 

This particular sweater is a pattern test for me. I dutifully read through patterns before I begin knitting, but most of the time they don't make sense to me until I knit to each point and can see it in my hands. But I needed a project quickly and so chose acrylic yarns in colors that I'm not especially fond of. In other words, it won't be a disappointment if I make mistakes or it doesn't turn out satisfactorily.

The welts were new for me and fun to learn. He has a video on how to make them, which helped.

knitted welts

I think when I make one with my handspun, I'll make the welts with fewer rows so they don't stick out as much. 

The other thing I want to experiment with is sleeve length. The pattern features short sleeves, whereas I would prefer long ones.

All in all, I like the way the sweater is constructed. There will be no pieces to sew together. All rows are finished with slipping the last stitch with yarn in front and then knitting them on the return. That makes a very nice selvedge for picking up stitches for the next section. 

Another plus is that it's almost all in garter stitch. Except for the stockinette stitch welts and the back panel which is in seed stitch, there has been very little perling! So it's quite easy and quick to knit. Garter and seed stitch make for a thicker, warmer fabric too. 

I was a little hesitant on spontaneous color selection at first. But once I got knitting it started to come easily and I could see what color I wanted to use next and how much. I think it will be a good project for using up small skeins and leftover balls of my handspun.

Knitting Progress © 2026

 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Warp Notes Part 2

 Sleying the reed has begun.

I want 20 ends per inch and my closest reed in 10 dents per inch. So I'm sleying two ends per dent. 

It's been fairly quick. I wound the yarn onto the warping board in a random color order, so now it's just a matter of making sure I don't have two of the same color in the same dent. 

Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Warp Notes Part 2 

© 2026  by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Warp Notes Part 1

At last my first leaf motif warp measured and I have thoughts.

Measuring the warp presented some challenges.

Designing a random warp. Previously, I mentioned the challenges of designing a random stripe warp, here.

Winding a random warp. Thoughts and ideas here.  

Threading Order and the cross. Weavers rely on the cross to maintain the threading order. This is true of both the threading cross and when warping back-to-front, the raddle cross. Orderly threads means no tangles! Stripes with groups of threads in one color are typical, but my random warp meant each end was a different color. I chose to not cut each thread and tie on a new one when I changed the color.  Instead, I just set that color aside and continued with the next color. That meant that my threads crossed one another at the turn of the cross. 

It didn't take long to realize that because the various colors passed over the other colors each time I used them, warping back-to-front wouldn't work. So I'm opting for front-to-back, where I can choose which thread goes next. I may have to shake out a few tangles when I wind the warp onto the back beam, but it will prevent tangles at the raddle cross due to crossover of the threads.

That probably doesn't make any sense! So let's just say I'm having to adjust my technique to address the circumstances. 

Conclusion. Even though I get better warp tension on my Glimakra by warping back to front, if I do another random warp from scratch in the future, I'll warp it front to back. I don't have it all figured out, but it wasn't a waste of time because I learned a lot.  

For my four seasons color motif, the next warp (spring) will be tied on, which will make things much easier.

Next up is sleying the reed (and seeing how well I do with my random color for that).

Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Warp Notes Part 1 

© 2026  by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal