Weaving Delays Continue

Weaving Delays Continue © 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Mysterious Weaving Problem

The other day I sat down to weave on my winter leaf motif, and discovered there was a problem with the pattern. 

I hadn't changed anything, so what was going on??? I wove through the entire treadle sequence and was able to identify the culprit as treadle #1. But what could it be? I hadn't changed the threading, I hadn't changed the tension, the treadle itself seemed to be in order, nor was the warp caught on something. 

Next I inspected the lamms.

The problem, I discovered, is that one of the anchor pins was missing. I found it across the floor. How in the world had it gotten over there?

I didn't have to search far for the answer.

This is Violet, the newest member of our household. She had been playing with the treadle cords but II didn't think she could actually make some mischief! You can read here story here.

Happily, the fix was an easy one and I'm back to weaving the pattern as it should be.

Mysterious Weaving Problem © 2026

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Summer TV Knitting: Mitered Squares

Earlier this summer I was digging through my filing cabinet and found a pattern for this vest. 

Amanda's Building Blocks

I purchased in mail order and still had the receipt attached - dated 2008! I paid $5.95 for it with $1 for shipping and handling. A quick search and I found it for sale on Etsy. It's now a PDF download priced at $7.50. I say that's fantastic resistance to rising price madness - way to go Amanda!

It was the squares that caught my eye, knitted individually in color changes as desired. With my Penguono Sweater being too hot and heavy to knit on, might this vest not be a good project for summer? Or at least playing around with the squares?

The pattern is based on domino theory knitting. It's knitted in garter stitch so it's quick to knit. The pattern is teaching me how to join on new squares to create larger projects. Even so, I have not found the pattern directions to be precisely clear and I've had several re-starts as I try to figure it out and make adjustments to make it come out correctly. Here's my awkward start on a learning sampler.

I think it would be much more interesting with a variegated yarn, but I'm using what I've got until I feel more confident with it.

It's a nice after-dinner project, while we watch a library video on TV.

Summer TV Knitting: Mitered Squares

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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?

Uncovered © 2026 by 

Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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:

• spring greens
• early summer greens

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

The darker green on the left is 6/2 cotton and would be my weft. The five lighter greens on the right are all 8/2s and would be for my random color order warp. My Winter Leaves warp has four warp colors; here I'm looking at five choices. My original thought was to choose four and tie them onto the winter warp, following the same color changes. Right now, I can't decide which four to choose. Maybe use all five? I can't make up my mind!

There's plenty of time to decide, however, as weaving Winter Leaves will likely take awhile. 

Leaf Motif: Spring Yarn Color Choices

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Penguono Sweater Knitting Update

 It's been awhile since my last update on my knitting project. Mostly this is because the bulk of it has been knitted and it is bulky indeed. It's one piece and like knitting with a blanket on my lap, as summer weather dominates our days. 

It's still interesting and fun to knit, but I confess the size of it is causing me to hesitate. This particular sweater is basically a mock-up to learn the pattern and test the sizing. It's a size large, but it's so big! When I try it on, I think it would fit two of me. Typically I'll go with medium for a clothing fit or large for a layered, over-garment fit. This seems much larger than that.

The pattern calls for a circular needle size of US 10.5 (6.5 mm). I'm using an 8. The finished sweater size is determined by the yarn weight. I'm using a worsted weight acrylic yarn, and actually, the chest circumference is correct for a large size sweater - 54" (137 cm), except I still have to add the facings. If I'd used the called for needle size, it would be even bigger!

When I do an image search for "Westknits Penguono Sweater," I see that it's a very popular pattern to knit and the everybody's is on the generously large side. So I reckon I'm not alone.

Since July and August are our hottest months, I'm not sure how much more knitting on it I'll be inclined to do. It's got me thinking, for sure. My original intent is to knit one with my odds and ends of handspun, since the pattern easily facilitates yarn and color changes. I'll have to lay out all my handspun according to size and see what I've got. If I use my handspun, I'll definitely want to wear it, but I definitely don't want it this large. If I don't like the fit, then I won't wear it. I need to do some thinking and calculating on this one for sure. 

Penguono Sweater Knitting Update

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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 

1. 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.
2. Reversed the treadling order to give the leaves a "right side up" appearance.

I'm quite happy with this sample. I like that the white weft outlines the leaves and ribs of the leaf, even though perhaps the white makes it harder to make out the leaves. 

I'm wondering if a darker color would outline the leaves better, although I like the white because it's the color of snow. The other option would be darker warp colors, but then muted is the color of winter as well. I do like that the random winter color palette for the warp is much more prominent than in the other samples. This is more the look I was wanting from the beginning.

I'm definitely happy with Sample #4. Onward!

Winter Leaves: Sample #4 (The Winner?)

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Winter Leaves: Sample #3

 Woven with a lighter weight weft.

Warp: 8/2 cottons in four colors

Weft: 8/2 cotton in white

Sett: 20 e.p.i.

PPI: 28

Initially, I thought the pattern might be less pronounced with the same weight weft as warp. But I think it works nicely.

Out of curiosity, I grabbed a hand mirror to take a peek at the underside. 

Sample #3 on top, sample #2 (heavier weft) on bottom.

And if I turn the photo upside down?

Flipped, sample #2 is on the top and #3 is on the bottom.

I think I may have found my leaves. 

Winter Leaves: Sample #3 © 2026

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Winter Leaves: Sample #2

Sample #2

Yarns are cotton.

Warp is in 8/2s.

Weft is 6/2.

Sett is 20 e.p.i.

The difference between this sample and the first one is the beat. Sample #1 was beat with an open shed, sample #2 with a closed shed. I'm experimenting because with my table loom, the open shed beat makes for a better structure. On this loom, the opposite is true. Every loom is different. 

Picks per inch here is 28.

The warp colors blend nicely to a wintry leaf brown. Closeup, the 4 warp colors can be picked out.

Combined with the white weft I think it works well for winter leaves.

I like the pattern but I still have the same question - does it look like leaves?

Winter Leaves: Sample #2 © 2026

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Winter Leaves: Sample #1

Four inches of my first leaf motif color scheme (winter) woven. I'm experimenting with the beat and the rhythm of the treadling.  On my my table loom, I beat the weft shot with an open shed because it looks better. For this sample, beating with the shed open gave me 13 picks per inch 

I can kind of see leaves. Maybe they are upside down? I'll try a firmer beat next.

Yarns are cotton.

Warp is in 8/2s.

Weft is 6/2.

Sett is 20 e.p.i.

Winter Leaves: Sample #1 © 2026

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

At Last

 Threaded, tensioned, and header woven! I'm finally ready to test weft yarns.

At Last © 2026 by Leigh

at Leigh's Fiber Journal

How To Make a Repair (Replacement) Heddle on a Glimakra Loom

 At last, I tied up the treadles for the new leaf motif draft and was ready to weave my header. Lo and behold, I had another threading error! I honestly think part of the problem is my bifocals. Even with progressive lenses, it's difficult to get that sweet spot for several activities, such as heddle threading and painting ceilings. I even have trouble viewing my computer screen comfortably. 

I had skipped a heddle, so I searched about for how to add another heddle in the middle of the shaft. I ran across this video by Underwood Textile Arts. I'm embedding it here, for future reference! 

EDIT to add a link to Peggy Osterkamp's latest blog post, Repair Heddles: New (to me) Methods. It looks like another easy method for adding Texsolv heddles.

How To Make a Repair (Replacement) Heddle on a Glimakra Loom  

Text © 2026  by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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.

Eva Stossel's Networked Weaving Draft 2

I originally found it on Pinterest, but with no link or credit to the designer. The uploaded image was small anyway, so I kept hunting and eventually found the source. It has everything I'm looking for:

• 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. 

Leaf Motif: A Different Draft  

© 2026  by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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.)

Original: Draft #80360: 8-shaft version of 79845, 2004-2026

Someone later reduced it from 30 to 10 treadles.

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. 

Leaf Motif Draft: There's a Problem 

© 2026  by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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.

This is a permanent arrangement. I no longer have to change all the cords according to length for each draft. Attaching the treadles to the correct lamms is done from the top.

I've always tied up the treadles as the last step in dressing the loom, so the warp already tied to the front. With the lamm-top tie-up it's possible to attach the treadles before securing and tensioning the warp. So this time, I had to do my tie-up from the back of the loom, where my bench was already set up for heddle threading. It probably would be easier if done from the front, with the cloth and knee beams removed for easy access to the lamms. I'll try that next time.

I made a grid on an index card and diagrammed the tie-up from the draft. On the diagram, I numbered my shafts and treadles, and made a note for the marks on the cord. 

The marks indicate where to put the anchor pegs. 

• Shafts 1, 2, 3 use the top mark.
• Shafts 4, 5, 6 use the middle mark.
• Shafts 7, 8 use the bottom mark.

They can be adjusted as needed for an even shed. Here's what it looked like when I was done. 

Next, I'll pull the locking pins from the countermarch and make sure everything is level. Then I'll be ready to start weaving. I have two weights of weft yarn, so I'll be sampling those first. 

Lamm-Top Treadle Tie-up © 2026

 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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. 

Leaf Motif Draft and Tim's Treadle Reducer 

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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!

Leaf Motif Random Color Warp is on the Loom! 

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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 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.

Leaf Motif Dishtowels: Random Color 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