Friday, August 14, 2026
Tuesday, August 04, 2026
Mysterious Weaving Problem
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Summer TV Knitting: Mitered Squares
Earlier this summer I was digging through my filing cabinet and found a pattern for this vest.
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| Amanda's Building Blocks |
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Uncovered
Remember this?
This was originally intended to be for a pair of "Big and Little Brother Blankets" for my two grandsons. I started working on them about a year ago, and then the project got buried under a pile of incoming boxes from my stepmother's home plus making room in my front room floor loom room for remodeling. My sewing room became my storage area and has been so for months now. But the other day I took a break from dealing with our abundance of tomatoes, blueberries, and milk to make some progress in organizing my storage mess.
Anyway, I can get to my table loom again! I'm not sure if the project will still become brother blankets, but I love the colors. Once harvest, canning, and cheesemaking season slows down, I'll be able to get back to it.
Currently my evening weaving is still on Winter Leaves, which looks exactly the same now as it did then, except I'm making progress on length.
So, just checking in. How is everybody else doing?
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Leaf Motif: Spring Yarn Color Choices
Now that the sampling is done for Winter Leaves, the weaving itself is fairly monotonous. I did indulge in an inexpensive MP3 player, to listen to downloaded books from my county library and librevox.org. The treadling pattern is fairly simple, so by combining the two activities, I have a very pleasant evening pastime.
With weaving underway, it's time to start thinking about the colors of the next season - spring. Both spring and summer leaves are green. So I have to ponder how to make the two weavings—Spring Leaves and Summer Leaves—distinctive. I want people to look at them and get which is which, rather than wonder which is which?
So I've been collecting greens. I've taken quite a few photographs, and posted them as color studies on my photography journal:
I plan to do another one on late summer greens as well.
From these, I've observed that, in general, new leaves in spring are a fresher, lighter, brighter green. Early summer leaves are turning darker; still bright, but not as light in value and hue. There are exceptions to this, of course, but for my purposes, I need color ranges that will enable a viewer to easily distinguish which is spring and which is summer.
For Spring Leaves, here are my color options
There's plenty of time to decide, however, as weaving Winter Leaves will likely take awhile.
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Penguono Sweater Knitting Update
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Winter Leaves: Sample #4 (The Winner?)
This one is actually the backside of sample #2, which I discovered with a mirror when I was examining sample #3.
| Could be leaves. Could be feathers! |
It required a little tweaking; I
- Retied my treadles the opposite of what they were before (very easy to do with my new lamm-top treadle tie-up system.) This put the back of the fabric on the top.
- Reversed the treadling order to give the leaves a "right side up" appearance.
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Winter Leaves: Sample #3
Woven with a lighter weight weft.
| Sample #3 on top, sample #2 (heavier weft) on bottom. |
| Flipped, sample #2 is on the top and #3 is on the bottom. |
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Winter Leaves: Sample #2
| Sample #2 |
I like the pattern but I still have the same question - does it look like leaves?
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Winter Leaves: Sample #1
Sunday, June 07, 2026
At Last
Threaded, tensioned, and header woven! I'm finally ready to test weft yarns.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
How To Make a Repair (Replacement) Heddle on a Glimakra Loom
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Leaf Motif: A Different Draft
So, my original leaf motif draft didn't work. But before giving up on leaves altogether, I did some hunting around to see if there was anything out there that would work. Here's what I eventually found.
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| Eva Stossel's Networked Weaving Draft 2 |
- leaf motif (so I can keep my idea of seasonally colored leaves)
- 8-shaft point twill threading (which I'm already threaded for)
- 8 treadles (I have 10, so that leaves 2 for tabby)
- treadles single shafts only (!)
My only concern (besides whether or not it would actually work) was the 5-end floats. But I figured I'll give it a try and see what I thought.
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Leaf Motif Draft: There's a Problem
I found the leaf motif draft on handweaving.net. The original draft for this was 8 shafts and 30 treadles. (The links in the caption are to document the source. This will take you to a drawdown if you don't have an account. You have to have a paid account to see the full draft.)
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| Original: Draft #80360: 8-shaft version of 79845, 2004-2026 |
Someone later reduced it from 30 to 10 treadles.
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| Modified: Draft #80362: 8-shaft version#80360; reduced to 10 treadles, Ruth Barbour, 2004-2026 |
The reduced version requires pressing two treadles per shed. My problem is the mechanics of the countermarch loom, where the shed (opening in the warp to pass the shuttle through) is created by lifting some shafts and lowering the rest. Each shaft is tied to each treadle to go either up or down, depending on the tie-up pattern. In this leaf draft, the treadling pattern requires using treadles simultaneously that have shafts tied opposite. I can't raise and lower a shaft at the same time!
For some reason my brain did not catch this. It feels like it should have been obvious, except it wasn't. I think it's one of those things I had to relearn. (After a 17 year break from weaving, I'm finding there are lots of things in the relearn department.)
So.
It would probably work on an 8-shaft jack loom, because on a jack loom only the rising shafts are tied. Except I don't have an 8-shaft jack loom
I could try a skeleton tie-up. Except I'm not sure I could manage to press four treadles at the same time.
I could look for a different draft. Which is where I'm at now. The warp is already on, with a point twill threading, so I need to find a draft that will work with that and requires only one treadle at a time!
Stay tuned.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Lamm-Top Treadle Tie-up
At last, the Leaf Motif warp was on the loom and it was time to tie up the treadles. For a countermarch loom like my Glimakra, that used to mean many back-breaking hours on the floor hunching over the treadles. It meant rearranging and rethreading all the treadle cords for each new draft. I have a step-by-step in this post -> Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 5: Tying Up the Lamms & Treadles.
Then I learned about a method of tying up countermarch treadles from the top of the lamms. I had to give it a try. Here are my blog posts about what I learned and how I set up my loom for it:
- Treadle Tie-Up From the Top For My Glimakra: Resources
- Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: What I'll Need
- Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Preparing the Texsolv Cords
- Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Installing the Texsolv Cords
And here's a photo of what it looked like when I was done, ready to tie up the treadles.
- Shafts 1, 2, 3 use the top mark.
- Shafts 4, 5, 6 use the middle mark.
- Shafts 7, 8 use the bottom mark.
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Leaf Motif Draft and Tim's Treadle Reducer
So, the treadling for my leaf motif draft looks a bit complicated.
Not one I'll be able to memorize! Is it possible to simplify this? That's where Tim's Treadle Reducer comes in handy. It takes the tie-up of complicated treadling patterns, analyzes it, and offers a simpler way to tie up the treadles which should simplify the treadling sequence.
Here are my results:
They're exactly the same! LOL! That tells me that the original treadling sequence was way more complicated and that what the draft offers is a skeleton tie-up for the draft. Even so, I'll need a way to keep track of where I am in the sequence.
Onward.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Leaf Motif Random Color Warp is on the Loom!
Good grief, I never thought getting a warp on the loom would be noteworthy on a project, but I've had so much trouble with this warp that I'm celebrating that it's finally accomplished!
What took so long? Besides not having unlimited amounts of time for weaving anymore, I made so many threading mistakes! Threaded the heddles, checked the threading and found mistakes, corrected the mistakes, checked again, and then found new mistakes! What's annoying is that it's not a complicated threading pattern: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - repeat. I can't believe I had so many errors. And I wasn't even listening to a book while I did it.
And then there were the tangles. What a mess. Changing the color for every warp end to create a random color warp was a disaster. I picked up a different color yarn for each new end which meant there was a lot of crossing over on the first and last pegs on my warping board. I think this was the major reason for the tangles. I've never had so many tangles! In fact, I'm a little surprised that I didn't give up and throw the whole thing away. Perhaps it was the unwelcome idea of having to start the warp again from scratch that was the deterrent. My random color idea didn't work the first time, so likely it wouldn't work a second time either. I just started thinking of it as a puzzle to solve.
Ironically, the very project I hoped would be a relaxing distraction from the several stressors in my life, became a stressor itself. Anyway, it's on the loom! Yay!
Next is tying up the treadles. I'm trying a new system here, and if it works as well as promised, I'll be ready to actually start weaving soon!
Saturday, April 11, 2026
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.
Wednesday, April 01, 2026
Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Color 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.
Saturday, March 28, 2026
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.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Color 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.
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Color Warp Notes Part 1
Monday, March 16, 2026
Treasure Chest
I recently inherited my stepmother's old cedar chest. As I thought about arranging my newly remodeled weaving room, I knew exactly where to put it.
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| Cedar Chest in its new home under the front window. |
It's not something I recall seeing at my paternal grandmother's house, so I'm assuming it was passed down through my stepmother's family or perhaps purchased for her or by her when she was a young woman.
I couldn't find a date on the chest, but I was able to find information on the manufacturer. It was made by the Ed Roos Company which operated between 1918 to 1951 in Forest Park, Illinois. By the 1930s, it was the largest cedar chest manufacturer in the world, employing 400 people and utilizing something like three million feet of cedar annually. The chests were popularly sold as hope or dowry chests and were shipped all over the world.
What treasures am I keeping inside it?
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| Quilts! |
Many of these were made by my great-grandmother. I remember as a very little girl, I was allowed to play with her 1-inch quilt squares. She was bedridden in the latter years of her life, and my grandmother said that her quiltmaking was a lifesaver. It kept her productive and creatively engaged until the end of her eighty-five years. The first four quilts shown here made by her.
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| Wreath of Leaves |
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My grandmother penciled the name of the pattern, the quilt maker, and the date of completion in the corner of each quilt. |
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| Desert Flower 1952 |
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| Rose of Sharon, or Garland Quilt. 1943 |
They're all in good shape, except a little dirty from use. My grandmother felt that they were meant to be enjoyed, so instead of keeping them packed away in a trunk, she would change them out periodically for the bedspread on her's and my grandfather's bed. When my grandmother passed away, each of her nine grandchildren were given one of these quilts. Plus I had one given to me previously, and received the one given to my stepmother.
Although I have mostly applique quilts, my great-grandmother also made pieced quilts. This one is my childhood quilt, made for me by her, and one I loved dearly as a kid.
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| This one is dirty and badly love-worn and has no date. |
Other quilts in the cedar chest are of unknown origin.
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Simple beginners quilt given to me by my grandmother. Either I don't recall who made it or perhaps she didn't know, but someone in the family. |
I believe the next several came down from my stepmother's family. There are no names or dates on any of them.
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| a log cabin quilt |
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| a tied quilt |
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| double wedding ring |
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My own beginner's quilt, 'Moon Over the Mountain' in phases of the moon
with unrelated scraps of fabric. It was hand-sewn and hand-quilted. I used an old blanket for the batting. |
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| This was my next quilt, hand-pieced and hand-quilted. |









