Yarns From the Shetland Rovings

I have three more yarns to add to my collection of Shetland colors. You may remember that I had three commercial rovings, leftover from spinning for my Rare Breed Sweater (which is almost done!!!) ....
.... which have become three yarns....

I didn't make extensive spinning notes on these, but I can tell you that the black and grey are British Shetland. Their fibers measured five to six inches in length. I got both of these from Woodland Woolworks. The black had some interesting white fibers scattered here and there throughout. I bought the moorit from Paradise Fibers (way back when Kate owned it) and it's fiber length averages four inches.

All three were quick to spin (ah the joys of pre-prepared fiber!) They were spun to match the size of the rest of my Shetland yarns, so that their 2-ply WPI ranges from 14 to 16.

One thing that surprised me was that when I washed the yarns, the water was dirty! I've never had this happen with commercial rovings, but they washed beautifully as you can see.

So, at this point I have 14 yarns, each a different, lovely Shetland color. One more color to go, and then I'm ready to start swatching!

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

First Advancing Twill Samples

At long last I have some samples to show from my first advancing twill experiments. Even though I initially had a problem with this warp, I finally got them resolved and was able to start weaving.

I put a rather long (six yard) warp on the loom for this, with the idea that I could do a lot of treadling experiments with this threading and tie up. I plan to use the ones I like best for at least one scarf as well.

Both warp and weft are some synthetic yarns that I picked up somewhere for a dollar each. They are both about the size of an 8/2 cotton. I have 288 warp ends, sett at 24 epi.

The first of the samples I plan to keep with my advancing twill drafts and notes. Those drafts along with a explanation of what advancing twills are, can be found at this (click here) post.

For all my samples I used the same threading and treadle tie up. This first example uses a straight, one through eight treadling. You can see a copy of the draft by clicking here.

The second sample was treadles as drawn in. In other words, the treadling followed the same sequence as the threading did. You can see that draft by clicking here.

(The weft color is off a bit because of the lighting.)

My third sample used a straight treadling with reverse: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. That draft is right here.

I really like the way this one turned out, but one problem that it has is the length of the floats. In her workshop notes, Stacey recommended that the floats be no more than three. My weft floats are fine in this respect, but I have vertical warp floats of five at the reverses. You can see this better in the draft I made. (Link in previous paragraph.) This will give me something to work on, and I'll have some more samples to show soon.

 

First Advancing Twill Samples 

© Dec 2007 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:

Twills - The Basics
Advancing Twills - A Simple Definition

House Socks

Done!

I have to admit that I lost these for awhile so that I was a little late getting them done. I had hidden them away Thanksgiving week, as Recipient was here all week. In my general straightening up and furniture rearranging, I put them somewhere and promptly forgot exactly where that was. I finally found them last week, tucked away on my bookshelf. Whew. I couldn't imagine what in the world I'd done with them.

These are the cuff down, the Red Heart worsted weight ones. A lot of you responded to my wondering how well acrylic yarns worked for socks, saying that the problem acrylic is that doesn't allow feet to breathe. Hence sweating can be a problem. Of course I won't mention that to Recipient, who won't wear them in shoes anyway. I'll be curious as to how they wear.

Like my Summer Socks, these are knitted from three different yarns. This time however, instead of cutting the yarn and having a lot of ends to weave in, I took Bettina's suggestion and carried the yarn up the stripes. This did create some rather long vertical floats on the inside, which hopefully won't get toes or toenails caught in them. However it sure did make knitting and finishing faster and easier. A good thing too, since they needed to be done before Christmas.

The stripes are a Fibonacci sequence of 2, 3, and 5. By using three colors and alternating them as you see, I had a pattern that I was happy with.

My family celebrates Christmas, so no matter how you and yours celebrate this season, I want to wish all of you a very happy one!

© December 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Leigh's Fiber Gallery: Socks
My Fascination With Fibonacci

Preparing To Weave - Problem!!!

OK. I thought everything was going well. My first warp on this loom had been successful, so I had every reason to believe that this one would be even better. Winding on the warp on had gone well and I was ready for the next step: tying up the treadles.

I reviewed the Glimakra set-up video. I re-read Tying Up the Countermarche Loom. I borrowed a nifty idea from Dorothy.....

.... a put a box under the treadles to support them while tying them up. Very helpful! Not only was it easier to reach under the treadles, but it gave me a height to aim for while tying them up.

Happily, the tie up went much quicker than the first time. The first time took me all day. This time it only took about two hours.

Then I took out the locking pins. These hold the shafts in place while the loom is being warped, threaded, and tied up. This is the "Before" photo of the shafts before I took the pins out.....

(Shaft number 8 is bowed and does ride higher.)

And this is the "After" shot...

Notice anything different? They all (except #8) sank!!! They aren't supposed to do this! I couldn't believe it! This didn't happen the first time! I wanted to scream and pull my hair out. But instead, I reminded myself that I always learn more from my problems and mistakes, than from just happening to get a thing right. I was so frustrated at that point, that I decided to sleep on it and try again with a rested mind.

The next day I put the locking pins back in and shifted into problem solving mode. I started at the top of the loom and worked my way down, noting that the warp was centered in the heddle eyes, the upper lamms were slightly elevated at the open end, and that the lower lamms were parallel to the floor.

Next, I re-read Dorothy's "Treadles Again and A Few Inches Woven" post. This time I took notes so I could remember her rules for tying up the treadles and tried to think them through as I followed them. When I finished my adjustments, I held my breath and pulled out the locking pins again. This time they stayed. What a relief!

Next will be to weave about an inch or so of plain weave and then check and adjust the shed.

After that, I can actually start weaving!

 Preparing To Weave - Problem!!! 

© Dec 2007 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Responses to "Preparing to Weave" Comments

This first photo is for Carol, who was interested in how I attached the 1/2 gallon milk jug weights to my warp bouts. I've done a lot of experimenting with this and for me, the slip knot & s-hook method has been the easiest.

The s-hooks are the heavy dutiest (is that a word???) ones I could find at Home Depot. I've also tried shoe laces and the large rings found in embroidery kits. But I like the s-hooks the best.

The milk jugs have worked well, however they are not without their hazards, especially if one has cats. Check out what happened in these posts, "Undulating Shadow Weave 1" and "A Weaving Setback", to see what I mean.

Laritza uses dumb bells as weights, something that is still on my list to try!

Peg commented on the placement of my raddle in my latest warp . . .

. . . . which is in front of the shafts. This leads me to a true confession - this latest warp hasn't gone on without it's glitches!

This one had to do with which end of the warp I marked my raddle groups. Even though I planned to review the steps to warping my Glimakra, I didn't review the part about measuring the warp (I've done that one a squillion times, right?)

For my Schacht Mighty Wolf, I use one of Deb Chandler's methods, which marks the raddle groups (pictured at right) at the end opposite the threading cross. The raddle groups are dropped into the raddle, which is placed on the back beam. (Photo here) After the warp has been wound onto the warp beam, the cross remains at the front of the loom, ready for heddle threading.

In the Glimakra set-up video however, the raddle groups are marked at the same end as the cross. The cross is positioned at the back of the loom to be attached to the back apron rod. It is held by lease sticks as the warp is wound on to the warp beam. (For photos and details on this, check out my "Warping the Glimakra: Winding It On" post.)

Well, when I carried this six yard long chained warp to the loom, I realized that the raddle groups were at the "wrong" end, i.e. the opposite end from the threading cross. So I had to put the raddle at the front of the loom, where the raddle groups are. At first this worried me, as I thought I needed it behind the shafts to thread the heddles. However, I remembered that, in the set-up video, the raddle is removed completely and the individual warp ends are picked out from the cross for threading. So alls well that ends well.

I realize that this may be a somewhat confusing post, certainly for the nonweaver, but probably for weavers too. Fortunately not a lot of things in weaving are written in stone. We have our preferred ways of getting results, but thankfully there are back-ups if needed. And I certainly needed one here.

 Responses to "Preparing to Weave" Comments 

© Dec 2007 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Post

Advancing Twills - Preparing to Weave 

Advancing Twills - Preparing to Weave

Things have been pretty busy around here, a lot of them non-fiber. So I have been slow to make much progress on anything, or so it seems. However, I still have the advancing twill workshop on my mind and have been slowly dressing the loom for my first drafts.

Actually, this is only the second completely new warp I've put on my Glimakra. In the seven months I've had it, all of my afghans and blankets were woven by tying on more warp for each one. This enabled me to weave six projects, and only thread and tie-up once (my way to go!)

So, since it's been awhile, I had to go back and review each step.

I also took time to double check the shaft and lamm tie-ups that I did the first time, and to do a little tweaking.

One resource that has been very helpful this go-round, is Dorothy's Dot's Fibre To Fabric . Dorothy has an amazing ability to analyze the mechanics of the countermarche loom; something that I cannot clearly fathom. In this (click here) post, she gives a lot of good information on tying up the treadles, which is my next step.

My first tie up of the Glimakra treadles was quite an ordeal, so I am hoping that it goes a little better/faster this time. I confess that I've been procrastinating on this step, but the time has come and today is the day. If all goes well, my next weaving post will have some weaving to show! If not, then you'll get something else.

 Advancing Twills - Preparing to Weave 

© Dec 2007 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Post

 Responses to "Preparing to Weave" Comments

Last Minute Shetland Additions!

Looky what I found in my mail box this morning!

These are from two different silver and grey Shetland fleeces, all washed and waiting to be spun!

These, of course, came from Cathy, whose contributions are largely responsible for my Shetland Yarn Collection (soon to be a Fair Isle something or other.)

The sample on the left is a little more of this lamb fleece, and the one on the right is either lamb or yearling from another source. Hmm. Which means I'll have one more yarn for another thumbnail to fill out my yarn collage!

These will keep me busy with spinning, as I still have Christmas weaving and knitting to finish. Plus, my Rare Breed Sweater needs to be finished too. Still, I'm excited about all the Shetland colors I have to work with. :)

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

My Shetland Yarns (So Far)

Here are thumbnails to give an idea of the Shetland yarns I have so far:

In real life the sizes (WPI) of the yarns are pretty close; the size discrepancies you see here are due to my scanner and camera.

All of these were spun from the Shetland fleece samples from Cathy, the enabler, who is generously offering to nurture my Shetland addiction with more samples if needed. However, I also have three Shetland rovings.....

... all of which are different colors than the yarns. These are rather generically labeled grey, black, and moorit. I have about eight ounces each of the grey and black, and about four ounces of the moorit. So including all the previously spun samples, I can have enough yarn for just about anything I want to make.

However, first things first. After I spin some of the rovings I may succumb to the temptation to knit a swatch or two, but I still have those socks to finish and also my Rare Breed Sweater. So you know what I'll be thinking about while I finish those two projects!

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Last of the Shetland Fleece Samples

OK. This is the last of the Shetland fleece samples from Cathy, and I have loved working with this one. True, it has had quite a bit of VM and a few second cuts, but it's softness has been heavenly and it's color variations a delight to the eye.

If I had the entire fleece, I would want to either just tease or pick it, and then spin it by the handful, the way I do angora rabbit. This would have mixed the colors as I grabbed them randomly, and created a lovely variegated yarn. However, with just a little over 3.5 ounces to work with, I wanted to use it with my other Shetland yarns in a project. So I decided to drumcard the fiber to blend the colors.

This closeup shows the lovely range of light to dark brown, all with champagne tips. A single coated fleece, it was the softest so far. Below is the color they all blended together to become.

The yarn:

The particulars:

* Weight of clean fiber - 3.6 ounces
* Staple length - 1 - 3 inches
* Crimp - 6 per inch
* Wheel - Kromski Minstrel double drive
* Spinning ratio - 8.5 to 1
* Twist angle - 28º
* Singles - 28 WPI
* 2-ply - 13 WPI
* Yardage - 254+ yards

So I now have three shades of fawn yarn:

Even though I've finished spinning all the fleece samples, I still have some Shetland rovings that I bought for my Rare Breed Sweater. My next step will be to take an inventory of my Shetland yarn collection, start spinning some of those rovings, and think about possible knitting projects. I have something Fair Isle in mind, I'm just not sure about any of the details yet.

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Fretting Over That Green Yarn

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for all your encouraging comments and suggestions on my last post. I got some confirmation on some ideas I had already been tossing around, and some things I hadn't considered, but which would be very do-able, if not radical! I was very interested in your different opinions, which helped me realize that the final results are very much subjective.

I did happen to find a 30 inch strand of green, hopefully enough to finish those 20 stitches! But that still leaves the neck band, which I really prefer would match the front bands, so I worked on two possible solutions over the weekend. I figured that I'd start with these, and then move on to another idea if neither one worked.

The first, was to knit some swatches to see if I couldn't come up with a two color band, imitating the Fair Isle stitches I'd used in the sweater. My problem here, was that I couldn't figure out how to adapt Fair Isle to a k1p1 ribbing.

The other thing I decided to try, was to dye some of the white yarn to see how well I could match the green. I realize that the chances of actually accomplishing this were slim to none, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. My first major at university was painting, and one thing I had was an eye for matching color. It wasn't something I could explain how I did, but by mixing paints on my palette, I could match any color on anybodies canvas. However, I know that dyes don't work the same way paints do, but I still had to give it a try even if only to prove to myself that I couldn't do it.

I knew that the green in the sweater was Cushings, and I seemed to recall that the old dyestocks I have on hand were mixed at the same time. I was out of the Ocean Green, but still had some Lemon and Sky Blue dyestocks leftover. So I set about, adding one spoonful of each at a time, turning up the heat, and checking my progress.

I kept a small snippet of the yarn I was trying to match in a bowl of water. this way I could compare the colors while wet, as I know that colors lighten some with drying.

When I got to the point where the color values were about the same, my green experimental skein was still a tad too bright. So I mixed a little Scarlet dyestock and added a smidgen in hopes it would dull it enough. Here is a photograph of the results...

And below is a scan of the newly dyed skein with that 30 inch strand of original green yarn mixed in. The scan didn't turn out the same color as the photo, but it is still useful for a comparison.....

What do you all think???? Would anyone notice if I used it for the neckband????

One difference I notice is that I did a better job on the new skein. The original skeins were a little spotty, which shows up in the knitting. Still, if was just for the neckband........ maybe it would work?

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
So. Whatever Happened to That RBS Anyway?
Winter Knitting Project
Rare Breed Sweater Swatches
TA-DAH! Rare Breed Sweater Done!

So. Whatever Happened to That RBS Anyway?

Ah yes. My Rare Breed Sweater. Last seen about a month ago. Well, I got this far .......

... and then ran out of green yarn!!!!!

That's right, I ran out of green yarn with only 20 stitches to go to finish the right front band.

So. Everything has come to a halt while I am in the problem solving mode.

One other thing bothers me too; the neck band. I don't like the look of the green going up the front and then just ending there like a tall green column leading to nowhere. So I am trying to rethink that as well. I think I would like it much better with the neckband in green, but alas....... I knitted in in white in the first place because I knew I'd be cutting it close with the green. On the other hand, I don't think I'd like the bands to be all in white, either.

Of course, if I kept impeccable dyeing records, I could simply dye some more, as I do have more yarn in the breed of the body (Ryeland.) But I don't keep impeccable dyeing records. In fact, it's been so long ago since I dyed this yarn, that I don't really recall much except that it was Cushings. It occurred to me yesterday, that it might have been 'Ocean Green', as I kept that around for a long time. But then again, it might not have been. I don't have any Cushings 'Ocean Green' anyway.

This cardigan has been in the works for a long time. I first got the idea back in August of 2002. The Online Guild was doing a Hebridean Rare Breed Fleece Challenge that month, and as I worked with my 150 grams of raw Hebridean fleece, I wondered what I could do with it. Being a project person, I wanted to be able to show it off in something. That's when I got the idea for this sweater, with each little sheep being a different rare breed.

The yarn for the body of the sweater was spun in February 2003, when the OLG had a Ryeland Rare Breed Challenge. I was able to purchase an entire kilo for that one, and decided that this would be the bulk of the sweater. For the sheep, I've been collecting and spinning rare breed samples since then.

So, considering that I've been working on this for over five years, I don't reckon a little more time is going to hurt anything. *sigh*

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Fretting Over That Green Yarn
Winter Knitting Project
Rare Breed Sweater Swatches
TA-DAH! Rare Breed Sweater Done!

Advancing Twills - A Simple Definition

By Leigh

In my last post I tried to give a simple explanation of the four basic twill categories. As promised, I'll now see how well I can do with a simple explanation of what advancing twills are.

Advancing twills could be categorized as "broken twills," (twills in which some shafts are skipped in the threading). In advancing twills, a number of warp ends are chosen (for example five ends) and are threaded as a section. Each section omits (skips) at least one shaft between it, and the next. (1,2,3,4,5 then 2,3,4,5,6 then 3,4,5,6,7 etc.) The result is that the warp section appear to be advancing (on paper that is.)

I understand things better with pictures, so let me try to explain it with some. Since advancing twills evidently are most suited for more than four shafts, my drawdowns will be for eight shafts.

A drawdown is a pen and paper (or computer if one has weaving software) representation of a weaving. The drawdown below is for an 8-shaft straight twill (each shaft threaded in successive order, 1 through 8). The threading is shown across the top, using numbers to keep track of which shaft is indicated.

The box in the upper right hand corner shows the tie-up. It indicates how the treadles are to be tied to the shafts, so that each treadle lifts whatever shafts are tied to it. In this case, I'm using a pretty standard 8-shaft twill tie-up. The end result will be that my weft will travel under three warp ends, over three, then under one, and over one. (This is known as a 3/3/1/1 tie-up.)

The column going down the right hand side of the page is the treadling order. Starting at the top, I treadle one through eight. Since this is the same as the threading pattern, it is also known as "as drawn in" or "tromp as writ."

The colored-in blue boxes give an idea of how the cloth will look once woven.

This whole thing is called a drawdown because one starts at the top corner (nearest the tie-up) and colors in the squares drawing down from the top.

OK. If I leave the tie-up and treadling the same, but begin to advance the threading, this is what I get:

I've taken sections of five warp ends each, and advanced them by skipping (omitting) one shaft between each section. Pretty neat, huh?

So what happens if I change up the treadling?

This one is treadled as drawn in. You can see that the treadling pattern is the same as the threading pattern.

What if I do a point-type treadling?

As you can see, it is treadled one through eight and then reversed.

Of course, I only have a regular size graph paper notebook, so I only get a part of what the weaving will actually look like, but it's enough to really get me excited about this! And that's when I start asking, "what if........"

What would happen if I tried an extended point treadling? What if I did the advancing treadling and reversed each section? How would a rosepath treadling look? What if I used a different number of threads in my warp sections? How would it look if I changed the number of shafts skipped? And what about starting with a point twill threading to advance? Or an extended point threading? Then too, what if I changed the tie-up? Then there are color combinations to try. And different yarns to experiment with. As you can see, the possibilities are endless!

There are some rules to all of this, though at this point I don't have an experiential understanding of what they are. However, Stacey has done an excellent job with the workshop lessons, so that all the information is very handy.

My next step is to choose a yarn and measure a warp. I plan to warp the loom for the advancing draft above, and put on plenty of length to experiment with the treadling.

© 28 November 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
Twills - The Basics
First Advancing Twill Samples
Advancing Twills - A Few More Samples
Continuing with Advancing Twill Samples
Advancing Twills - Second Verse

Twills - The Basics

By Leigh

Even if you aren't a weaver, you are familiar with twills. Blue jeans are made from twill fabric. You've probably heard of Herringbone Tweed, which is a twill fabric. My zig zag afghans are all twill weaves. After plain weave, it is probably the most common weave structure there is, and is usually the second structure new weavers learn.

The Online Guild is finishing up it's Advancing Twills workshop this month. I've had a lot of other goings on, but have been able to read through the workshop notes and start on some advancing twill drafts.

I have found that even though I have woven quite a few samplers and projects in twill, I am still usually unable to readily conjure up an image when terms like "extended point" or "rosepath" are tossed about, let alone "advancing twills". I think that this is because usually, I just follow a draft. When I'm done, I love the results, but can't say that I really understand it. I think this has been especially true of twills for me, because there are so many variations and ways to change them.

So before I got on with the advancing twills, I reckoned it would be good to go back and study the basics first. I find that when I attempt to explain something to someone else (in this case, you all!), it forces me to go beyond a superficial or passing grasp of the subject. In order to put it into my own words, I have to begin to understand the concept behind the terms. I'm hoping that this post will help me do that.

Twills are easily recognizable because they contain diagonals. Looking closely, the diagonals are like stair steps, with every step having at least one warp thread in common with its neighbours.

The sample on the left is a simple, straight, 2/2 twill. This means that the weft thread travels over two warp threads, then under two.

There are four basic categories of twills: straight, point, extended point, and broken. I'm going to focus on the threading patterns for each of these.

Straight Twills

The threading moves in one direction because the shafts are threaded successively; 1 through 4, or 1 through 8, etc. It can go to the left, or the right, as long as it is consistent.

Point Twills

These reverse directions, ending on the same shaft they start on. It isn't limited to the number of shafts one has, and can extend beyond them like this,

as long as the starting and reverse points always occur on the same shafts.

Rosepath

is an point twill which is extended one thread more than the number of shafts available. I've included this one because I hear it referred to often, but have never been able to remember the draft when I hear it mentioned.

Extended Point Twills

combine sections of straight twill with point twill. Unlike point twills, in which the direction changes only once before returning to the starting point, extended point twills can change direction more than once.

Broken Twills

have a "break" in the threading. In other words, some shafts are omitted. Rather than having a successive threading order, their threading order has skips in it.

There are other types of twill, but these are the basic ones. If I can just get them to stick in my head I'll be happy. Variations on any of these are endless. One can vary the threading, the treadling, the combination of shafts lifted (the tie-up), the type and size of yarns, sett, or the colors used. The number of warp threads the weft goes over and under can be varied. The warp can dominate the pattern, or the weft can.

So there you have it. Oddly, no one book of mine had a straightforward, complete definition for them all(!) Not sure why; perhaps each author simply puts down the most important feature to them. At any rate, here are the sources I used:

Advancing Twill OLG Workshop notes, by Stacey Harvey-Brown, The Loom Room, Staffordshire, UK, 2007

The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers by Madelyn van der Hoogt, Unicorn Books and Crafts, Inc., Petluma, CA, 1993

Eight Shafts A Place to Begin by Wanda Jean Shelp and Carolyn Wostenberg, self-published by Wanda J. Shelp, Worland, WY, 1991

The Weaving Book by Helene Bress, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1981

Next I'll try to explain what an advancing twill is. Click here to go on to that.

© 26 November 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:

Advancing Twills - A Simple Definition

Mystery of the Zig Zag Twills - Lining up color stripes with twill threading

Waffle Weave - Another idea for twill threadings

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish all you Americans a Happy Thanksgiving. We have a busy family weekend ahead and I'm having a fun day in the kitchen, making pumpkin and apples pies, and cornbread for stuffing the turkey. The little edible turkeys are a tradition at our house; an idea brought home by my daughter when she was in kindergarten.

The table runner the turkey is sitting on, was woven by me about five years ago or so. It is woven in plain weave from hemp singles (and was that ever a mess to weave with).

It was the first plaid I designed. I use it to decorate every Thanksgiving.

I'll see you all after the weekend!

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Shh - These Socks Are A Secret

I hadn't planned on giving any socks this year for Christmas. For that matter, I hadn't planned on doing any knitting at all for Christmas. But two things changed my mind.

One was Janet, whose stash reduction knitting has been both interesting as well as inspiring to me (especially her Eccentric Piece). So I've been thinking about all the leftover Red Heart yarn that I have, thinking of weaving with it instead, perhaps some eccentric pieces of my own.

Then the other day I saw this button at Etsy:



I was just curious about the selling process there, but that "Buy Handmade" button got me to thinking. Of course, obviously it is doubtful that I would buy anything handmade this Christmas, but I thought that I should certainly "Give Handmade" to everyone on my list.

So I decided to knit these socks. Being knitted of Red Heart worsted weight yarns they will be too bulky to wear with shoes, hence I have dubbed them "House Socks." I've chosen three colors of yarn, using a Fibonacci sequence of 2, 3, and 5 rows, alternating the brown with the blue and green. I'm happy with that, but after sewing in all those ends for my summer socks, I decided to take Bettina's suggestion and carry the yarn up the stripes. I'll let you know how that part goes.

I'm not sure how well acrylic wears for socks, but since the yarn is leftover anyway, it will be a good opportunity to test it for this purpose. At any rate, they are knitting up very quickly, so I should have them done in plenty of time.

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related Posts:
Gallery Photos: Socks
House Socks - the completed socks
My Fascination With Fibonacci

A Fawn Shetland Sample

This next sample of Shetland fleece, Cathy had labeled "fawn." When I first examined it, I was puzzled at this. If it was fawn, it was a very light one, but it didn't look like the other fawn Shetland samples. In those, the individual fibers themselves were colored.


This fawn sample (on the right) appeared white with cream tips, and had black and reddish-brown fibers scattered throughout. These darker fibers were much coarser than the white/cream. I was curious about this coloring, but couldn't find it listed on the Shetland colors and patterns resources I've been using.

The staples were from four to six inches in length, with one to four crimps per inch. There was a very nice luster to the fleece.

I had washed this sample along with the last one I posted about (which is the white one on the left in the top photo) and it was fluffy and clean and ready to drumcard. The fleece was open, but full of vegetable matter. I ran it through the drumcarder twice, and then the batts were ready to spin.

The particulars:
* Weight of clean fiber - 4.5 ounces
* Wheel - Kromski Minstrel double drive
* Ratio - 8.5 to 1
* Twist angle - 28º
* Singles - 30 WPI
* 2-ply - 15 WPI
* Weight of yarn - 4.5 ounces
* Yardage - 248.75 yards

The color of the yarn actually looks more to me like a warm grey than fawn (photo only semi-accurate). Fortunately there won't be a test on this! I'm just happy to be getting a nice variety of Shetland colors for some project in the near future.

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Sock Knitting Bag

By Leigh

My project over the weekend was to make a new bag to carry my sock knitting.

You might remember this fabric as from an earlier post. It is leftover from one of my space-dyed warp experiments. The warp was variegated 4-ply cotton yarn. The weft was an 8/2 white cotton. Part of the fabric was used to make a diddy bag for my dad, but I had enough leftover for a bag for myself.

For my purposes, I wanted a small bag with a squared bottom and handles. Since the handwoven fabric wasn't dense enough to guarantee that I wouldn't loose any double pointed knitting needles, I also decided to line it with a commercial fabric. For the handles, I found a sturdy polyester belting at Hobby Lobby.

Before I could start sewing however, I needed to do something about my sewing machine. The tension knob was not at all responsive, and I was afraid that the machine needed some extensive repair. I did some searching on the Internet first, and found an excellent article on Secrets of Embroidery. From that article, I learned about tension problems and how to fix them. It gave instructions about how to adjust the bobbin tension, though Singer doesn't make this at all easy to do! Fortunately, I achieved an acceptable bobbin tension without too much difficulty. Then I could start sewing on my bag.

The fabrics were cut into 12 by 24 inch pieces. I sewed the sides up lengthwise. To make the squared bottom, I opened the side seams and sewed them across the bottom of the bag, to forming triangle shaped flaps.

When turned right side out, this forms a nice, square bottom on the bag...

I tacked down the handles on the right side of the bag, and then sewed the outer and inner pieces around the top, right sides together. I left a four inch opening to pull it outside out.

After turning, I slip stitched the opening closed, gave it a quick press, and there you have it.

© 12 Nov 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:

Gallery Photos: Bags

What I Took Off My Old Loom - The fabric & a diddy bag.