Yarns from the Lake

Colorwork Sweater

I used to wear sweaters to work all winter in Minnesota. Since I retired, moved to a rural area, went through the pandemic, and have been spending three months of winter in Arizona, I hardly ever wear a sweater (or make up, haha). In cooler weather, I usually wear a sweatshirt or a polar fleece top for maximum comfort

Lately I have been seeing colorwork sweaters all over. I dug out my Norwegian Sweater that I bought in Norway in 1988 to wear on Christmas Eve.

Me on the right end of the bench wearing my Norwegian sweater.

I have knit several sweaters in my life, including two when I was in college. Sweaters are a big project that take time and use a lot of yarn. Of course I like the expensive stuff, so it has not been a regular thing.

The only colorwork experience I have are knitting some Arne & Carlos Christmas balls. At the time, I did not have any instructions on how to do colorwork, other than googling what to do with the floats on the back.

This fall there was a School of Sweet Georgia online class for designing and knitting a colorwork sweater. I was intrigued but not ready to dive in at that time, being a little intimidated and also busy with other projects.

The sweater pattern included for the colorwork class is written for hand knitting from the bottom up, with the body and sleeves completed first, and then joined together on a long circular needle to continue knitting the yoke in the round. I wanted to try making the main body and sleeves on my LK150 flat knitting machine. The pattern is ideal for that, and this project would involve learning new colorwork and machine knitting skills.

I ordered the Sweet Georgia BFL+Silk DK yarn used in the pattern. I had a hard time justifying the cost, given that I hardly wear the sweaters I already have. Whenever I discuss having trouble spending money on expensive yarn or knitting tools, people always remind me how much money Wayne spends on golf. I also have to remind myself that this is the cost of my hobby. It is a learning experience, and not necessarily about how many times I will use the thing I am making.

The Sweet Georgia yarn was on sale, and I decided it could be a Christmas gift to myself. They did not have enough skeins in stock of the color I wanted, but I was able to place the order. Later I found out Sweet Georgia Yarns dyed the additional skeins to fulfil my order, or maybe in any case to refill their stock. When the yarn arrived, I gave the box directly to Wayne without opening it, to wrap up for Christmas. It was hard not to look at it right away! Later I wound one skein into ball so I could knit a swatch.

I decided to try making the sweater with some cheaper yarn before using the Sweet Georgia yarn. The Valley Yarns Worthington Wool/Alpaca/Viscose yarn I bought was not cheap either. It has quite a different feel, but I like both of the yarns.

I made swatches on the knitting machine using different combinations of tension and stitch length settings to see what would result in a gauge closest to the pattern. The color in the following photo is too dark and too blue. The photo above of the ball of yarn is more accurate.

Swatches knit on the machine with different settings

I was not able to match the exact gauge specified in the pattern. I settled on tension and stitch gauge settings that were close. Based on the stitches per inch I was getting, I picked the sweater size in the pattern that resulted in the correct final measurements for me. Knitting the front and back panels went quickly. They were the same size each, approximately a big square.

Knitting the front and back sweater pieces on the machine

The knitting is very stretched out while it is on the machine. The panel for the front of the sweater looked huge. When removed, it takes some time to relax into the natural density. Even after sitting overnight and a steaming, the front panel was 20″ wide instead of 18.75″, and it was an inch shorter than I expected. I considered doing the panel over again the next size down, but I was worried that would be too small.

I had been using my knitting machine in our three season porch. That room is not heated in the winter, and it was freezing in there. My work table in the basement is round which does not work, so I moved it temporarily to our kitchen table. I went ahead and knitted the panels for the back and the two sleeves. The sleeves started at the cuff and had some increases going up to the underarm.

Following is a photo of the four pieces knit on the machine. The taller narrower front piece was steamed some. The back and two sleeves shown below had not been steamed or blocked.

I did not have any more time to spend on this project in December, as I was very busy getting ready for a full house of guests for the Solstice weekend, a trip to the Twin Cities for Christmas a few days after that, and driving to Arizona with our 5th Wheel Trailer at the end of the month. After I finished machine knitting the sweater panels, I put the knitting machine and all the accessories back in the box until spring.

I was worried about what would happen when I hand knitted the ribbing and yoke on to the machine knitted panels. It could look bad if my hand knitting looked a lot different than the machine knitted parts. I had not thought about this before. Should I block the machine knit panels first and then join them together for the hand knitting? Or should I wait for the all the knitting to be complete and then block the entire thing at the same time?

During those last busy days of December, I was able to hand knit a swatch in the evenings while watching TV, when I would not have been doing anything else anyway. I made the swatch with the same number of stitches and rows as the machine knit swatches, using what I thought was a size 4 needle as suggested by the pattern. The gauge seemed too loose and big, so I knit another swatch using a size 3 needle. That one came out closer to the gauge of my machine knit panels.

Later I realized that the reason the first swatch was so much bigger was because it was a size 6 needle, not a size 4 needle. I knit another swatch using a size 4 needle while we were in the car on the way to Arizona.

Knitting a swatch with size four needle in the car

I stressed about the gauge differences between my machine knit panels, my hand knit swatches, how they compared to the gauge expected by the pattern, and when and how to do the blocking. Eventually I felt better after realizing that this was a practice sweater, that did not have to be perfect, and I could do some blocking after it was complete to make small adjustments. Really the only decision was what size needle to use for hand knitting the yoke. Following is a photo of the swatches knit in needle sizes 3, 4, and 6.

Before we left for Arizona, I made time to steam the machine knit panels to get the sides to lay flatter, so I would be at a good stopping point. The next photo shows all four panels looking much better, after more steaming in the laundromat at the RV park in Arizona.

The next step was mattress stitching the sleeve seams together, and mattress stitching the front and back panels together at the side seams. The instructions I found for mattress stitching the baby sweater I made earlier said to go under one stitch at a time on each side. The instructions I found in a School of Sweet Georgia machine knitting hat class said to go under two stitches at a time on each side. I liked that better as it would get done twice as fast.

After seaming the side seams and the sleeves, all the parts were joined on a long circular needle to begin the yoke. It looked very wide and short, but seemed about right compared to one of my sweaters.

The colorwork design of leaves on the pattern is nice, and there are instructions for knitting that exactly as shown. There are also instructions for designing your own colorwork. I wanted to do a different pattern for the colorwork on the yoke of the sweater. I found some ideas on Pinterest including a snowflake looking design that had the same repeat count as the design in the pattern, so it would be easy to substitute.

In the designing your sweater workbook there was a chart to fill in your own pattern.

After joining the body and sleeves there were 10 even rows of knitting followed by one row with some decreases, and then it was time to start the colorwork. I had not had a chance to get white yarn for the snowflake colorwork while we were still in Minnesota. In January, we went to Prescott, Arizona, for a sock machine crank-in that was held at a Fiber Creek LLC, a very big nice yarn shop. I was able to buy the white yarn there.

We also had an early dinner with a couple we know who live in Prescott. It is not a big town, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. While we were eating, an acquaintance of theirs stopped by to say hi. After he left, we were told that he was the nephew of Don Knotts, on his way to do comedy shows on a cruise ship.

I watched another School of Sweet Georgia class on Stranded Colorwork before I started the first colorwork row. Included are instructions for several ways to hold two different yarns so that the floats on the back stay tidy and the tension stays right.

There are tips on how to make sure the knitting does not pucker where the big floats are tacked on the back. I thought I was doing a decent job as I was going along. The knitting was going pretty fast, and soon I was on the last decrease row of the yoke. There are stitch markers to easily mark the pattern repeats. When I got to one section, there should have been nine stitches in between the markers but instead there were 10 stitches. I could have just knitted another two stitches together and problem solved. I like to know where I made the mistake, so I spent some time examining the knitting. I found the mistake about 6 rows down, where I must have forgotten to do one of the decreases on that row. ARGGGHHHH.

Colorwork done, but there was a missed decrease six rows down

I was now thinking that the upper part of the colorwork should be symmetrical with the bottom, with the zig zag pattern repeated above the snowflakes. Also, I was not very happy with the puckering that was obvious where the floats were tacked on the back. I had not done as good a job on that as I thought.

With all of these issues, I made a big decision to rip out all the rows of the snowflakes and try again. It was a bummer to do that, but it is part of learning and I knew I would be happier with the end result.

The following photo shows where I started picking up stitches just below the snowflakes with an extra long circular needle. Doing that allowed me to quickly rip out all the stitches above that point, and then be ready to continue on without dropping any stitches.

The next photo shows all the stitches picked up below the colorwork, with the repeats marked.

Stitches picked up above bottom row of colorwork, in preparation for ripping out knitting above that

One suggestion for successful colorwork is to use a bigger needle size which I had not done the first time, so I tried that on the second try. The next photo shows the sweater after I ripped out the colorwork and redid it with the revised pattern and larger needle size. The zig zag above the snowflakes does not match exactly due to having an odd number of stitches in each repeat instead of an even number.

Colorwork redone with a slightly different pattern

After the colorwork and continuing to the neck are some decrease rows, some short rows on the back, and one inch of ribbing.

When I started knitting the ribbing at the bottom, I thought the sweater was maybe too long. Earlier when it was the pieces off the knitting machine, I thought it was too short. This is a mystery.

I considered finishing the ribbing and wearing the sweater as is for a time, knowing I could rip it back later. After knitting a couple more rows and trying it on again, I decided that I really did not like the long length and went ahead with frogging it back. First I picked up stitches three inches back, where I wanted to restart the ribbing.

Stitched picked up for ripping out the ribbing and three inches of ribbing.

Ripping out the ribbing knit in the round was easy. Frogging the main body of the sweater was not easy. First I had to undo three inches of mattress stitch on each side seam. When starting to rip out the rows of flat knitting done on the knitting machine, I realized that each row was somehow looped so that you could not just rip it out back and forth the way you would if it had been hand knitted. I had to cut the yarn a bunch of times.

Once the extra rows of knitting were removed back to where I had picked up stitches, there were some adjustments needed. I had unintentionally picked up stitches from different rows. In the process of fixing that, I ended up with a bit of a gap on one side where the front and back panels met. I thought it would be ok, but after knitting an inch or so of ribbing, I decided it was not ok. I pulled out the needle and picked up the stitches a row up, got it lined up correctly at the sides, and started the ribbing again, for the third time. Following are photos of the sweater with the ribbing just about done. I worked on the last couple of rows in the car while out and about, and while working in the gift shop at the resort.

Knitting while working in the resort gift shop

As written for hand knitting, the pattern starts at the bottom with a tubular cast on, followed by the ribbing and then the main body. Instead, I added the ribbing on last, after using my knitting machine to make the front and back panels. I used a normal bind off for the neck ribbing, but I was worried that might not be stretchy enough for the bottom. I happened to get a link with instructions for Ruke bind off that is stretchy, works for two by two ribbing, and has a similar look to tubular cast on used in the pattern. I went with that and it worked out well.

Ruke bind off for bottom of sweater and sleeves

I knitted three inches of ribbing and the Ruke bind off at the bottom, and at the end of the sleeves. Following is a photo of the sweater completed, but before blocking.

I finished this wool sweater just in time for the 104 degree Fahrenheit record high temperature for March in Arizona. We had never used the air conditioning in our RV until this year. We are grateful it works. I was planning on having Wayne take a photo of me wearing the sweater in the community building at our resort, where the the lighting is good, the air conditioning is on, and there are nice background options. He did not want to walk over there in the middle of the day in the extreme heat. He said he could get a good photo inside the RV despite the poor lighting, with some editing. Following are the before and after photo taken inside the RV. I am not really a fan of photoshopping in a different background, but it was fun for Wayne to try.

My sister-in-law Marlene took a couple more photos in natural light outside, with more focus on the sweater.

I am very pleased with how the sweater turned out. I will wait until we are back home in April to block it. I had a bad experience blocking a sweater once by getting it completely wet, so I am hesitant to do that. I need to do more research on best methods of blocking for different types of yarn.

I plan on making another combination hand and machine knit sweater with the same pattern, using the more expensive Sweet Georgia yarn. I will probably use the colorwork design of leaves as written in the pattern. In the meantime, for something different, I am knitting a stuffed animal bunny.

Sock Machine Experiments

After owning my Erlbacher Circular Sock Machine (CSM) for more than a year, I am comfortable knitting a basic sock without looking at any instructions. I have cranked quite a few pairs of socks for myself and for others. Following is a photo of seven pairs I made for myself .

Over the fall and winter I tried some new things with the sock machine.

I wanted to make socks for my son’s mother-in-law, Mary Jo, who has small feet. First I cranked a pair using the cylinder that I use for ladies socks, with the right number of foot rows for a size six shoe. I was not surprised that it was a little big around. I tried again adding a strand of Lycra yarn with the regular sock yarn. This makes the fabric gather in more than the plain sock yarn, and the sock stretches out as needed on the foot. Some people do this for every pair of socks. This was my first try using Lycra, and although it accomplished the purpose, I am not sure I like the way it changes the color of the sock. It comes in different colors, but I only have one cone of an off white as shown in the photo below.

When I bought my sock machine, I ordered two cylinders with different numbers of needles. The 64 needle cylinder works for most women’s socks, and the 72 needle cylinder is right for men’s socks or a bigger circumference sock. At this point I decided to order a 54 needle cylinder for a smaller adult sock or a child size sock.

54 needle cylinder and ribber for my circular sock machine

Once I had the 54 needle cylinder, I cranked a third pair of socks for Mary Jo to see how that would fit compared to the others. She sent me a photo of the three pairs of socks next to each other. They all have the same number of leg and foot rows. The pair on the right has Lycra. She reported that the socks with the Lycra fit the best. This is good information.

I experimented with making Yoga Socks. I do not know if anyone actually wears yoga socks, which have an opening where the heel and toe would normally be. There are CSM patterns for making the heel opening. I tried one but was not happy with the result. I tried again using an afterthought heel concept where you knit past the place where the heel will be, and then add the heel later, or in this case a slit. It was easy to crank a tube with the hung hem at the top. I picked up stitches on two rows above and below where the heel opening would be, removed the stitches on the row between, and then hand knitted a couple of rows of ribbing instead of a complete heel.

Stitches picked up for afterthought heel or slot

Ready to hand knit a few rows of ribbing for the heel slot

I hand knitted four rows of ribbing at the toe end. This method involves more hand work than the pattern, but I do not mind and I like the result better.

Yoga socks complete with hand knit ribbing at heel and toe openings

I also tried making variations of fingerless mittens with and without a ribbed wrist, with and without a thumb gusset, with and without added Lycra, and using cylinders with different numbers of needles. It was an opportunity to practice using the ribbing attachment. I know how to use it, but it is intimidating. It is harder to see what is going on and harder to fix mistakes. The next photo shows the CSM cranking out a ribbed cuff for a fingerless mitten.

The next photo shows an incomplete fingerless mitten with a thumb. I tried several versions of this. The mitt in the photo has a dropped stitch on the ribbed cuff. The end of the thumb and hand are not finished.

I tried another pattern with mock ribbing that had every forth needle removed. It is much easier than actual ribbing with the CSM, but I did like the look of it. There is another way to do a fingerless mitten with a slot instead of an actual thumb. I modified the pattern to add a crochet border around the slot and at the end of the hand. The pair in the photo below has a hung hem at the wrist. The same concept could have a ribbed cuff. I may try more variations, but honestly I am not very motivated to make more fingerless gloves.

Fingerless gloves with a slot for the thumb and crochet trim

In February, I sponsored a crank-in at our 55+ resort in Arizona. Several people expressed interest on the AZ Crank-Ins Facebook page. Only one person came, but it worked out well. She had owned her beautiful periwinkle blue Erlbacher for two years, but had not ever actually made a sock. We worked together to get her tension at a good setting and made a couple of other adjustments to the machine. Then I guided her in cranking a sock step by step. A couple of non fatal mistakes were made, but it was a functional sock. The tension was a bit loose, but she will be able to try again with the tension a little tighter. I gave her the very detailed step by step instructions that I had written out for myself, that I no longer need.

Crank-in attendee’s periwinkle blue sock machine

Our children and grandchildren were visiting in Arizona for a week. Before they got here, I went to Goodwill and bought some toys and books so the toddlers would have some things to play with. One purchase was a doll that did not have any clothes on. She seemed like the right size for a sun dress made with the sock machine. I cranked a tube with a hung hem, and a sort of mini heel at the top that was tacked down. I braided some yarn for straps.

I used a looser tension than for socks so it would be big enough around. The back of the dress is shown in the following photo, next to one of my CSM socks for comparison.

Blair likes to play with dolls. She always takes the clothes off. I found she had taken the CSM dress off this doll too LOL. After they left I put it back on. We will bring it back home to Minnesota, along with the other toys I bought.

I am always keeping an eye out for other non sock things to make with the sock machine. In the meantime, I will keep cranking more socks.

Baby Yoga Pants

I am always looking for a knitting pattern that is not too complicated, not too big, and that someone will actually use or wear. I can figure out complicated, but I prefer projects that do not take forever to finish, and that I can do while watching TV.

The teacher of the machine knitting class at the School of Sweet Georgia, Barb Barone, told me about a Baby Yoga Pants pattern. She suggested it could be adapted for machine knitting, but I thought it was a good hand knitting project to make for my granddaughter.

Nora doesn’t do yoga LOL, but I thought they were cute, and a fun knitting project that would not take too long to complete.

I wanted to make the baby pants in yarn that would be practical, comfortable and washable. I didn’t have anything on hand, so I ordered two skeins of machine washable Berroco Vintage, a wool, acrylic, and nylon blend worsted weight yarn. The color is “rhubarb”, like the color of the skein below, rather than the purple in some of the other photos.

The pattern starts at the waist. For the girls version you can add a row of picot edging at the place where the top is folded over for the waistband. After knitting the right number of rows, you knit the cast on row in with the current row, making a seamless join with a casing for a tie or elastic around the waist. This is the same as a hung hem at the top of circular sock machine socks. It is easier on the CSM.

The number of stitches around stays the same as you knit the waistband. When I was ready to join the cast on edge to make the casing, I ended up with fewer cast on stitches picked up than the live stitches on the needles. I figured I could fudge it and it would be OK. Also, I was not sure that the picot edge was coming out in the right place exactly at the top, even though I had carefully counted rows. I forged ahead despite these concerns. The photo below shows the gap where the cast on edge is folded over and joined, with fewer cast on stitches.

The pants were knitting up pretty fast. After getting about an inch past the join, I changed my mind and decided to rip that part out and do it over again, making sure my cast on stitches matched up. I picked up stitches from a row before the picot edge and ripped everything out to that row.

Picking up stitches before the picot edge to get ready for frogging

I decided not to do the picot edge at the top on the re-do, because then it did not matter exactly how many rows there were for the casing. I was in the Twin Cities over the Thanksgiving weekend while working on this, so I had some time in the car and sitting around to work on it that I would not have had at home. It did not take long to catch up to where I had been, and get even farther along in the pattern.

After the waistband and a few more rows, there were some short rows to add shaping in the bum to make room for a diaper.

Stitches are added in the middle on the front and back for a crotch gusset. Each leg is knit in the round.

I checked the pattern for how many leg rows to knit. It said to knit for 14 inches from the top of the waist. With my gauge of six rows per inch, 14 inches came out to 84 rows. Somehow I got mixed up (me?) and got in my head that the leg would be 84 rows long. When the leg was about eight inches long, something did not seem right. The entire thing was supposed to be 14″, not just the leg. I had a couple of extra inches of leg, according to the pattern. It would not be very hard to frog off the extra leg rows, but at this point I wanted to do a little research. I put the project aside until I could figure it out.

At Walmart a few days later I looked at three different size 12 month pants to get measurements of the circumference, the bum section and the legs. Back at home I compared those measurements to the pants in progress. Lucky me, I was actually pretty close after all. Nora was long at birth, so it seemed like the pants would work as is.

The next step was knitting an optional ruffly border at the bottom of the first leg, and then casting off.

After knitting the second leg, the last step was grafting together the gusset area in the crotch.

The pants looked nice after adding elastic in the waist and steaming.

The pants were supposed to be size 12 months. Nora was about 8 months at the time of the following photo. They stretched up into a costume for an ABBA concert.

Later Kelsey sent me the following photos of Blair, age 2 1/2, wearing the pants. She is large for her age. The bum part fit better, but they were capris on her. Not sure if she just got out of the bathtub or what!

Maybe the pants will fit Nora in a couple of months. They were fun to knit, and I hope someone can wear them some time. I would knit this pattern again, but maybe make the legs longer in proportion to the rest, or the waist part shorter, or at least compare the measurements to the recipient while the project was in process.

I was working on this project in December which seems like ages ago now. We have been in Arizona since the beginning of January. James and Kelsey and the granddaughters, plus Britta and Isaac, are coming to visit soon. I doubt the yoga pants will be in the suitcase. The weather here has been much warmer than what we have experienced before, so I expect the swimming pool at their Airbnb will get a lot of use.

Melt the ICE

The colorwork sweater I am making is on hold while I knit a couple of red hats.

Needle & Skein, a local yarn shop in the Twin Cities, advertised a knitting pattern for a red hat, similar to red protest hats made during the Nazi occupation in Norway. All proceeds from sale of the pattern were to be donated to local charities. This has gone viral, and now people all over the country and in foreign countries are knitting red hats. Red yarn is out of stock everywhere. The Melt the ICE Hat pattern by Paul Neary is available on Ravelry here.

From the pattern: “In the 1940’s, Norwegians made and wore red pointed hats with a tassel as a form of visual protest against Nazi occupation of their country. Within two years, the Nazis made these protest hats illegal and punishable by law to wear, make, or distribute. As purveyors of traditional craft, we felt it appropriate to revisit this design”.

I have generally shied away from posting about politics on social media, and have kept this blog politics free. Until now. What has been going on in my hometown of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota is not OK. For most of the people I know, I am speaking to the choir. For the others, please listen from someone who grew up there and has family and friends with first hand experience.

I support undocumented violent criminals being deported, but that is not what is happening. What is happening is poorly trained ICE agents roaming around randomly grabbing people off the street, breaking windows and dragging people out of cars, throwing people on the ground, spraying chemicals inside cars containing infants, sending children off t0 Texas, shooting people in the street.

In proportion to the population of the Twin Cities, the number of undocumented immigrants is low compared to southern border states. Most brown people in Minnesota are citizens or here legally, working and providing needed services. When have legal citizens had to carry around “documents” to prove it?

I am not in favor of any kind of violence on either side. There have been some protesters getting out of control, but the vast majority of the 1000’s of people out in the streets are behaving peacefully.

If you think that the “protestors” you see on TV are paid or backed by some organization, that is just not true. I know many people personally who have been out on the streets “protesting”, or helping out their neighbors. They are doing it because they are outraged, they care and want to help people in need. They are not getting recruited or paid, it just happens, even when it is below zero outside. I know a couple who cancelled a road trip so they could be home to support their community. They and other people I know personally are packing meals at local churches for families afraid to leave their house, driving people to and from work, escorting children to school, buying and dropping off groceries. A friend participated in collecting winter coats for detainees who have been released from the detention center in January with no jacket.

My granddaughters attend a Spanish immersion day care. It is wonderful to think they will be bilingual. The caregivers are native Spanish speakers who are all documented. Regardless, my son reported that ICE knocked on the door of the daycare, during the day while children were there. They did not have any warrants or a reason to go there, they were just looking to round up any Brown person they could. No one let them in and they left.

I heard a story in the media about a young adult in Duluth, Minnesota, home on break from college. She had a load of clothes in her car to drop off at the Goodwill. She happens to be African. ICE stopped her and interrogated her for a long time, asking for papers and implying that she was trying to “escape” the country with all the clothes. Some of the things in the media are exaggerated, have inaccuracies, or are just wrong. You don’t always know what to believe, so at the time I took this with a grain of salt. Later I was talking to a friend who went to school with my sister. It turns out that the young woman in the news story is the adopted daughter of another classmate of theirs. Not fake news. It happened.

Likely you have seen news reports showing the thousands of people out marching on a couple of occasions in below zero Fahrenheit temperatures. The following image of a rally in downtown Minneapolis on January 23 was widely published by news media.

There have been other quieter things happening spontaneously in Minneapolis on frozen city lakes.

There was a memorial bike ride in Minneapolis to honor Alex Pretti, who was shot while aiding a woman who had been thrown to the ground. Alex was an avid biker. 1000’s of bike riders turned out on a cold January day. The following image is from CBS News. There is an article from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) News about the bike ride you can read here.

I have seen a couple of comments online that knitting red hats does not help, and it just makes people think they are helping, that you should be donating money to local aid funds. I disagree. I have donated to multiple local aid funds, and sales of the pattern are all donated. You can do both. Knitting red hats is a form of solidarity and a way to visibly communicate your position. People in Minnesota need warm hats to be out in person protesting or helping their neighbors in the cold weather. It is a way to stand out and be counted. Also noting that the activity of knitting is calming when you feel stressed or anxious whether you are sitting in your home by yourself, or knitting together with a group sharing the same purpose.

National Public Radio (NPR) wrote a good article about the red hat phenomenon that you can read here.

Being a knitter, and not in Minneapolis to help in person, buying the pattern and knitting a hat was a way I could contribute (in addition to money I had already donated to several funds). I texted a friend about finding red yarn, and she happened to be at a yarn shop right then. She was able to get me three skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash worsted weight wool yarn.

I asked a few people at home who I thought might want a hat. One person responded right away, so I started a hat for her using her head circumference, with the gauge information, to determine how many stitches to cast on. I have a few requests from other people for a hat.

I am not going to share all the steps of making the hat like I usually do, other than a couple of comments. The hat pattern is pretty basic, but uses a kind of cast-on I have never done before called tubular cast on. I found some instructions on YouTube by Laura Nelkin. It took a couple of tries to get it right. At one point I was trying to knit a few rows in the dark in the car (what could go wrong?). I started knitting the wrong direction and ended up with a hole that I noticed right away when I got back around to that spot. I only had to undo one row, no big deal. I changed the pattern up a little so the ribbing was shorter and there were some plain stockinette rows in the main part of the hat. The plain knitting goes faster, and I also liked the look better. I knitted enough rows for the cuff to fold over more than the original pattern shows.

It has been fun to see all the different variations of red hats being made, including a tiny hat that can be used as a pin or ornament.

In only a few weeks, $650,000 has been raised from hat pattern sales, and over 7,000 red hats have been posted on Ravelry. The following was posted by Needle & Skein yarn shop.

News media is reporting that some of the ICE agents have been or are going to be removed from Minnesota. I really hope that is the case.

Sister Hats

I was in between hand knitting projects for a while last fall. When we were at my son’s house in St. Paul, I offered to knit matching winter hats for the granddaughters. My daughter-in-law liked the idea. The timing was perfect at that moment, while the girls were napping, to hop in the car and run over to the Yarnery to pick out yarn. Kelsey selected two balls of super wash Berroco Ultra Wool in different shades of purple, so she would be able to tell the hats apart. Including the cost of pom poms which were as much as the yarn, these were not budget hats.

I was a little surprised that neither granddaughter protested or squirmed when I used a measuring tape to get their head circumference. Back at home I dug out an old hat pattern that I bought in paper format many years ago. It is now available here on Ravelry. I planned to knit a basic beanie with a cuff that can be folded over more or less as needed, for fit or for extra warmth.

This pattern is great as you can make any size hat with any yarn, using head measurements of the recipient, and with different options for the cuff and the top. I knitted a gauge swatch to figure out how many stitches to cast on for the desired circumference.

I decided to start with the smaller hat, so if it did not come out right there would be less to rip out and start over. The pattern has fewer stitches on the cuff than the main part of the hat, using one size smaller needles. After the cuff is finished, stitches are added and a larger needle is used.

For Nora’s hat the math resulted in 72 stitches for the cuff for her 17″ circumference head. That is the same number of stitches that I use for a man’s sock! This shows how much of a difference the yarn and needle size makes. Sock yarn is much thinner than worsted weight.

Both of these projects have 72 stitches around

After completing the cuff and knitting a few inches of the main part of the hat, I realized I needed another measurement that I did not have. I should have gotten the crown measurement for each girl, from bottom of the earlobe over the head to the other earlobe. That is needed to determine when to start decreases for the top of the hat. I stopped knitting when I thought it was at about the right place, and put the project on hold until the next time we were in St. Paul, when I could get the actual measurement. At that time I was also able to put the partially finished hat on Nora’s head. It seemed just right, so I started the decreases, and from there the rest of the knitting went quickly.

Knowing that Blair’s head circumference was two inches larger than Nora’s, I went ahead and started her hat accordingly.

Kelsey had requested the hats be lined with polar fleece. That adds another layer of warmth for Minnesota winter, protection from the wind, and a soft surface against their head. It also adds complexity to the project. I did not have a pattern, and the lining would have to be custom fit. Shopping for fabric is problematic these days, but on one of my trips to the Twin Cities I found a lavender color of polar fleece at Hobby Lobby that worked for both hats.

I do not have a good history of blocking my knitting projects. I know you should, so I soaked the two completed hats in warm water with a bit of soap, rinsed them out carefully and laid them out to dry. I also washed and dried the polar fleece in case it might shrink a bit. I did not think it would, and I doubt these hats will ever get washed. However I have been burned in the past when I did not prewash fabric, and then after a garment was finished it shrank when washed. After blocking the hats looked nice.

The final step was making the polar fleece linings. I looked online for ideas on how to do this. One source suggested laying the hat flat and drawing around it, then cutting out two layers of the lining in that shape and sewing them together. At first I was going to ask Wayne to hold a hat stretched out while I measured it, but then I realized that one of our melamine salad plates was exactly the right size. I put the plate inside the hat and drew around it.

This method was easy, but a little simplistic. The polar fleece does stretch, but the shaping was only going one direction. For the second hat I cut a rectangle that was big enough to go all the way around, and then did some shaping on four sides. It was still not perfect, but a little better.

I was not sure how much shaping was actually needed and did not want to put any more effort in than necessary. If it was fine, great, if not, I could try again.

Getting the linings inside the hats and pinned in place was tricky as the knitting had to be stretched out. When the knitting was relaxed, the polar fleece bunched up. The polar fleece does not ravel, so it is possible to sew the raw edge to the hat. However I decided it looked nicer to fold the edge under a bit.

Sewing the lining on the inside of Nora’s hat

The pom poms were attached before sewing the linings on. The hats look bulky with the lining in place, but not as much when stretched out.

When we went to James and Kelsey’s house over Thanksgiving weekend, I brought the completed the hats. This time neither girl were in the mood to keep the hats on long enough to get a good photo. Following is the best photo I got of Nora wearing her hat.

I gave up on getting a better photo of Nora wearing the hat. The next photo shows Blair with her hat not pushed all the way down, and one of her dolls wearing Nora’s hat.

They came to our house the weekend before Christmas for a Solstice Celebration. This time the girls tolerated wearing their hats for some time outside. The linings seemed to be just fine.

I have knitted several things for the granddaughters that were fun to knit, but not very practical for their lifestyle. These hats turned out great, were needed, fit, and I hope will get some use.

Winter Solstice Weekend

Ideally I would have published this post before Christmas, or at least before the end of 2025. I was not able to get it together, as the last two weeks of the year were super busy with activities related to the holidays, entertaining and visiting family, and getting ready for our winter in Arizona.

In the summer of 2020 we had a tornado come by our side of the lake, where we live in West Central Minnesota. It was pretty traumatic. I wrote a blog post about it that you can read here. A lot of trees came down at our family cabin, all along the east side of the lake, and in our yard. After all the cleanup there was a massive pile of logs and brush at the cabin property. That December our son and daughter-in-law were here for a weekend visit, which happened to coincide with the Winter Solstice. We were inspired to have a celebration that included burning the giant brush pile. It was the biggest bon fire of our lives.

Skipping ahead to this year, we invited a group of close family to our house for the Winter Solstice weekend of 2025, to spend “hygge” time together and celebrate the shortest day of the year Scandinavian style. Hygge is a Norwegian and Danish word that describes “a cozy, contented mood evoked by comfort and conviviality” (according to Wikipedia).

Usually we do not have any company over the holidays, so we do not get out many Christmas decorations. We have a skinny tree that belonged to my parents. I have changed out many of the decorations to include some of my own favorites, including hand knit Christmas balls. At the end of the season this tree gets carried, as is, down to the furnace room in the basement, where it sits until the following season when we carry it back upstairs.

Our son James and daughter-in-law Kelsey arrived with their two young children, Blair and Nora, on Friday evening. After enduring a lot of crying and unplanned stops, they arrived for a late easy dinner of frozen pizza.

The next morning we opened a few Christmas gifts early. It did not make sense to bring gifts that Wayne and I had for each other down to the Twin Cities for the actual holiday. And we decided to have Blair and Nora open their gifts at our house, rather than on Christmas Day when there would be many more from other people at their house. Wayne got a pair of socks that I cranked on my circular sock machine, using the Schachenmayr Arne and Carlos self striping yarn he picked out for himself last Christmas, and some of his favorite white chocolate. I ordered some expensive yarn online for a sweater that I gave him to wrap without looking at it.

The rest of the guests arrived early in the afternoon on Saturday, including our daughter Britta, my sister and her husband Betsy and Ron, our niece and her husband Em and Cooper, and our nephew Dan. There were also three dog visitors. After everyone was settled in, the first group activity of the weekend was frosting Christmas cookies I had baked earlier.

Blair gave the frosted cookies an A+.

The cookies were very festive, but I am not sure how I feel about eating the bright colored dyes. FYI, food dye can also be used to dye yarn.

The rest of the photos are grouped by subject, and are not necessarily in chronological order. Nora got passed around a lot, which was a nice break for James and Kelsey. Nora admired Em’s tattoo of the family cabin on her arm.

Wayne relaxed in his new fishing theme lounge pants.

We had spent quite a bit of time getting the house ready for guests, but of course it was chaos as soon as everyone was in the house, and the grand children started playing with old and new toys.

In addition to a lot of lounging, a puzzle was completed and many card games were played over the weekend.

Despite cold temperatures, a group of people went for a walk. It was a little slippery but otherwise the fresh air felt good.

The adult kids had agreed to be in charge of the dinners Saturday and Sunday evening. That was a huge treat for me. I was happy to buy all the food and ingredients ahead of time. James made homemade Swedish meatballs and sauce from scratch for one meal, with mashed potatoes and green beans. Dan and Cooper served as sous chefs, and the other young people helped get the table set. It would have been a lot easier to buy the Swedish meatballs at Ikea, but everyone raved about James’s version.

For the second dinner, Em made Bolognese, with help from the other young folks. I had never had that version of pasta and sauce before, but can report it was very delicious. I did not get a photo. Later we were watching an episode of Landman with Billy Bob Thornton. His ex wife is back and has made Bolognese for dinner. There are several guests at the table who keep calling it spaghetti, which contributes to her being upset. I got a kick out of that since I knew it was a lot of work to make, and we had just recently had the same meal.

We celebrated Ron’s birthday. He did not turn seven years old. Add a zero to that.

James took Blair outside and down the backyard towards the lake, after Kelsey got her bundled up in her snowsuit. In the photo below she is holding a cooler pack that she sometimes requests for an “owie”, whether she actually has one or not.

You can just barely see a couple of ice fishing shacks on the lake in front of our house.

On Sunday afternoon Wayne got set up for the Solstice celebration in the driveway. He brought a table outside for cookies and drinks, got a fire going in the metal fire pit, and lit ice lanterns. The extreme cold temperatures we had the previous week were not good for being outside, but were excellent for ice lantern production.

Everyone got bundled up for time outside. Nora got to ride around on a plastic sled. The hill on the lake side of our house has been used for sliding in past years, but there were no takers this weekend. Blair will have nothing to do with sliding, and was even very unhappy seeing James on a sled.

The bonfire did not compare to the enormous version 2020, but at least one could stand close to it!

Betsy, Britta and I all wore hand knit headwear. I made the red bandana/cowl for Betsy, Britta knitted her own hood (the photo does not show it very well), and I knitted my headband.

James had to work on Monday. They left after dinner on Sunday, hoping the return trip would involve less crying and more sleeping. Everyone else left on Monday. That gave us a couple of days to clean up, prepare for the short trip to the Twin Cities for Christmas, and start to get ready for towing the RV to Arizona for our three month stay there. We hope to do another Solstice weekend in 2026 with Wayne’s family.

Disclaimer: Some of the photos were taken by Wayne.

Holiday Table Runner

My husband had been encouraging me for a long time to weave a table runner. I had not used my floor loom for almost a year, since it was stored away while we replaced our old living room carpeting with hardwood floor last December 2024.

The School of Sweet Georgia “Winterful Weave-Along” got me inspired to move the floor loom back into the living room and weave something. Usually I do not like work along projects where everyone makes the same thing. And I really do not like a work along surprise project. What if I don’t even like it? In this case, I liked the plaid pattern that was suggested, and I was inspired to finally make a table runner using holiday colors for my son and daughter-in-law.

Pattern for School of Sweet Georgia Weave Along

The pattern uses four colors of 100% Lambswool yarn for a scarf. Instead of wool yarn I chose cotton, using off white and blue I had on hand, and red and green I purchased for the project. The red and green yarns are 3/2 cotton, which is a little thicker than the off white and blue 8/4 cotton. Using two different thicknesses of yarn in one weaving project can cause issues with the tension, but I like how it can make the outcome more interesting (hopefully in a good way). And I was also trying to use what I had on hand rather then spending more money.

Cotton yarn for holiday theme table runner

In order to pick colors for a plaid, it was suggested to make a tiny sample of the warp yarns that are being considered by wrapping them around a card. I did this using a smaller number of threads but in the same proportions as the pattern, and only reflecting one half of the pattern. The other half would be a mirror image. By substituting the colors exactly according to the pattern, the edge would have been off white. I did not think that looked good, so I replaced it with red.

Small sample with the right proportions of colors

I measured the warp yarn using a warping board on our kitchen island. I have found that my favorite method of anchoring the warping board is by attaching is to a big box with an old belt. That keeps it stable and at the right height.

I have tried several different methods of measuring out the yarn when there are multiple colors. One way is to measure each color separately. I tried that once and did not like it. In the past I have tied the beginning of the round on to the post, and tied the end on again as needed when changing colors. This time I attached the ends to the side with a piece of painters tape. It worked great and then I did not have a bunch of knots.

Beginning and end of rounds held in place with tape

Wayne helped me move the loom from the three season porch where it had been collapsed in the corner for almost a year. It turned out to be more time consuming than I expected to get it set up for use. The cords holding the harnesses came undone and I had to look up instructions online to figure out how to get them back in place correctly.

The harnesses came undone when trying to re-assemble the loom

Several hours later and with better lighting, I was ready to start warping.

Once the loom was all re-assembled, I got going on warping the project. I have heard that weaving is faster than knitting the same thing. Getting all the warp threads on the loom and ready to go (“dressing the loom”) takes longer than the actual weaving part.

Once the warp yarn was all on the loom, wound around the back beam, and tied on to the front beam, I was able to weave the first rows and do the hem stitch at the beginning of the table runner.

First rows woven and hem stitch in progress

After I finished weaving five repeats of the plaid pattern on the table runner, it seemed long enough and I was not sure if there was enough warp yarn left for another repeat. I went ahead and did the hem stitch at the end. Not wanting to waste the warp yarn that was left, I started weaving the remaining with all red yarn.

The end of the table runner, and the beginning of a towel in all red

Without changing colors, weaving the end of the warp went pretty fast, and I ended up with enough for a coordinating kitchen towel. Where the blue and red intersect looks like purple.

The table runner came out pretty well, although the edges were a little uneven due to woven in ends from color changes, and two different thicknesses of yarn.

Following is a photo of the table runner on our dining table. We were having some people over for dinner, but I removed the table runner for that meal, as I did not want to get it stained before giving it to James and Kelsey.

At James and Kelsey’s house on Christmas Day, I took the following photo of three towels I made at different times. The mostly white towel was one of the first towels I made as a new weaver. Since then I have determined that using a majority of white yarn is not a good idea as it gets stained easily.

When I was growing up my mom had a set of Spode Christmas Tree dinnerware. After we had our own households, my sister and I each had our own set of 12. When my mom passed away, we each took six from her set. Living at the lake, we did not need 18 place settings! I gave 12 to James and Kelsey, and kept six. James and Kelsey had 14 people for Christmas dinner using the new table runner and the Spode plates.

I would like to make another table runner for us to keep. That will have to wait until spring or summer, as I cannot bring the floor loom to Arizona for the winter!

Cross Stitch Project Abandoned

When I was growing up, my sister and I had felt Christmas stockings that our mom had made. They were not very big and not stretchy, so there was only so much that Santa could fit in them. When I got married, and later when we had kids, I sewed stockings for my family in the same style. The Meg stocking in the photo below is the one my mom made when I was little. I made the others later.

There are so many styles of Christmas stockings. My sister had a variety for her family, as seen in the following photo.

My daughter-in-law’s family had cross stitch stockings that her grandma had made for her and her three siblings. I offered to make a stocking for our granddaughter, Blair when she was still an infant two years ago. After consulting with Kelsey and looking up options in various crafts, I ordered the following counted cross stitch kit.

The kit contained a totally blank piece of grayish white fabric canvas with little squares in the weave pattern for the stitches. All the different colors of yarn were stapled on to two strips of cardboard.

I have done many crafts in my time including cross stitch, needlepoint, embroidery, sewing, macrame, crochet, knitting, weaving, spinning, and others. I knew this project was very detailed, but I am good at that and was not worried about being able to figure it out.

There was a chart on a piece of paper with the design. Each square on the chart represented one stitch to put on the canvas. The different colors and types of stitches were represented by a different symbol. I had to figure out the design for the letters of Blair’s name using a template provided. The following photo shows only half of the entire design.

Another chart was a key to all the symbols.

The directions said to fold the canvas in half lengthwise and crosswise to find the center, then mark the spot with a bit of thread. In order to begin stitching, you start at the marked place on the canvas. I used a post-it flag to mark where I was on the pattern.

After finding the place where you want to start stitching, you look at the symbol for that stitch on the chart, and then go to the other chart to find out what color yarn to use, and what stitch. Then you get the yarn in the right color(s) from one of the cardboard strips. Then you go back to the canvas and figure out again where to put the stitches.

The vast majority of the stitches are all the same, with just a simple cross using two strands of the same color. Some stitches have two different colors of yarn. There are other stitches used for outlining, and I don’t remember what else. In the photo above the red thread is where I marked the center of the pattern. I would have started in a slightly different spot if I had realized that the stitches in the center were almost the same color as the canvas.

In order to have the minimum number of changes of yarn, you try to do all the stitches that you can reasonably get to in the color you are working with, until you run out of that piece of yarn. That means sometimes going up or down a row or skipping over some blank space. You end up with a mess on the back.

After finishing the first strand of gray yarn, the next logical group of stitches was….a different color of gray yarn.

I was working on this project almost two years ago while we were in Arizona. There was plenty of time to finish it before Blair’s first Christmas. Each session working on the cross stitch project involved laying out all the charts and supplies and getting reoriented to where I was in the design. The stitches were very, very small. My close up eyesight is not that great any more.

I usually have multiple projects going on, and I found that I was always choosing to work on one of the other projects instead of the cross stitch project. After we got back home to Minnesota that spring, the project went in a basket for a couple of months. Finally, it was a relief when I realized it was OK to not finish it. Actually, I had barely started. What you see in the photo above is as far as I got.

Kelsey was very understanding when I told her that I had bailed on the project. Before Christmas that year she bought a different stocking that was not going to be an heirloom, but fulfilled the purpose.

Now there is another granddaughter. For this year, Kelsey ordered Blair and Nora needlepoint stockings. I have done some needlepoint projects before in the distant past, and probably would have been able to do that. But maybe my eyes are not up to that either, and probably I would rather focus on my other crafts.

We’ll be spending Christmas 2025 at James and Kelsey’s house. Our daughter will be with us. Life is good, and I wish everyone a peaceful holiday season however you celebrate.

Another Baby Sweater

The purple 100% wool yarn I dyed at fall Fiber Day is the perfect type of yarn for making something on my newish LK-150 flatbed knitting machine. I aspire to make a sweater for myself, but there is not enough purple yarn for that. The yarn is not ideal for a baby sweater, but making another small sweater was good for practicing on the machine.

There are some You Tube videos and patterns for making an easy machine knit sweater. After making the crossover baby sweater, I understood the basics of what to do. Combining information from several sources, I came up with my own “pattern” (so much for just following a pattern). I knit a gauge swatch on the machine, and then using measurements from another pattern, I came up with how many stitches and rows were about right for the front and back, and the sleeves.

I knit a rectangle on the machine for the front, putting waste yarn on the stitches that would be joined to the back at the shoulder, and putting the middle stitches on waste yarn for the neck. It looked way too long! I could have been a dress instead of a sweater. I figured out how many rows long it should be instead, picked up the stitches with a long circular needle at that row, and then frogged out the rows above that. I hand knitted on waste yarn at the shoulders by hand, and put the neck stitches on waste yarn again.

After knitting the back the same size as the improved front, I joined the front and back at the shoulders. For the other baby sweater I did the join on the machine. This time I joined the shoulders using kitchener stitch by hand, the same way I do for finishing off the toes on my circular sock machine socks. It makes a perfect seamless join.

One shoulder joined with kitchener stitch

The sleeves in the other pattern were knit as two separate pieces, and then joined to the body at the side. This time I hung the side of the sweater on the machine and then machine knitted the sleeves directly on, with some decreases and then waste yarn at the cuff.

And voila the machine knitting part was done. The finishing to be done by hand included mattress stitching the side seams and sleeve seam, finishing off the cuffs of the sleeves, and finishing off the neck.

The other sweater I made had the lives stitches at the neck bound off with a back stitch bind off. This time I thought it would look nice to pick up the live stitches onto knitting needles, knit a few rows, and then bind off.

Ready to finish the neck, but there is a hole at the shoulder

Notice there is a weird hole at the top of one sleeve seam at the shoulder. After getting to this point, I realized that the neck opening likely would not fit over my granddaughter’s head. A hat I knit her in about the same weight yarn had 72 stitches around. There are only about 50 stitches in the circumference of this neck, after adding two stitches at each side.

Around this time I happened to see a funny video on Instagram with actress Kristin Bell on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Apparently she is a knitter. She is talking about a sweater she knit where the neck turned out too small, and she could not get it over her head. Every knitter makes mistakes, even celebrities.

I was glad I figured out that the neck was going to be too small before getting any further. After thinking on this problem for a few days I came up with a plan to undo the stitches that made the shoulder join on one side, and then add those live stitches onto the neck. The opening would be bigger and I could put a button on the shoulder.

Undoing the shoulder kitchener stitches was not hard, but then the top of the sleeve was messed up. I kept looking at it trying to figure out how to get it be right. It turned out to be easy to rejoin about 3 shoulder stitches on the sleeve side, and then re knit the entire sleeve. The next photo shows the project with the shoulder stitches adjusted and ready to re-knit on the sleeve.

It did not take long at all to re hang the side of the sweater on the machine and knit on the sleeve over again.

Following is a photo with a couple of rows knitted at the neck, with two button holes and then bound off. I did a backstitch bind off at the end of one sleeve, but did not like it and later changed it. The waste yarn is still on at the cuff of the other sleeve in this photo.

Instead of back stitch bind off on the end of the sleeves, I put the stitches on knitting needles and did a normal bind off.

On our next visit to the Twin Cities, I tried the sweater on Nora. It fit perfectly! I do not think the yarn is machine washable, and it could be a bit scratchy. It looks cute, but probably won’t get much actual use.

After making two small sweaters on the knitting machine, I am feeling comfortable about tackling a sweater for myself. Meanwhile, I will be super busy with holiday preparations and activities, and getting ready for three months in Arizona.

Nome Schoolhouse Weekend

The Nome Schoolhouse is an abandoned school building restored into a retreat and event center, with lodging and a fiber mill. It is located in Nome, North Dakota, about an hour west of Fargo, North Dakota. I wrote a blog post about my first visit there last year with my friend Mary. You can read about the building and that experience here. We had such a great time that we came back this November for two nights with my sister Betsy, and another friend, Mary Lou.

Last fall I had not paid much attention to the town of Nome. This time Mary and I arrived in the afternoon, early enough for a walk while it was still light out. Nome was incorporated in 1901. There were a couple of devastating fires early on, and for many reasons, like other rural areas, there is not much of a town left today. The current population is under 100, and there are only a couple of blocks of houses, with a few about to collapse. We saw one gift shop, but no gas station or grocery store or any other retail businesses. It is kind of sad. On a brighter note, the population has increased since the restoration of the school building and opening of the Nome Schoolhouse.

Following is a photo from the early days of Nome. I should have taken a couple of photos of what it looks like today.

After our walk around town, we checked out the property outside the schoolhouse building. The photo below shows the side of the gymnasium and an addition on the back with the lodging, dining room, and commercial kitchen.

There is a old barn under restoration, and a few fiber animals maintained for educational purposes.

Two alpacas and two sheep were very friendly. A highland mini cow is coming to join the other fiber animals, after it is weaned from its mother. Regular cows do not have wool coats, but, according to this source, the hair on highland cows can be brushed off and spun for a durable yarn.

There have been some changes to the Nome Schoolhouse business since I was there a year ago. Most importantly, one of the two original partners has exited the business. Chris Armbrust is now the sole owner and is forging ahead successfully on her own.

Following are two photos of the “History Room”, set up as a gathering place and work area where we hung out during our stay.

We noticed a few changes in the public rooms. The space in the next photo had previously been an apartment for one of the employees, but is now a common room including a full kitchen stocked with snacks for guests.

The guest rooms are all cozy and decorated with unique themes related to the history of the building or textiles. I did not get any photos other than this cute pillow.

The views outside are beautiful, even with the late fall gray scenery.

There is a sitting area is the hallway with fiber crafting books and comfortable chairs. A coffee station and microwave are located just around the corner.

The large gymnasium is available for event rental. While we were there, a group of ladies with their sewing machines were making pillowcases for a battered women’s shelter. In the photo below my sister is painting at the far end near the big garage door. She had started working outside, but it ended up being too cold and windy.

Our friend Mary Lou is an accomplished knitter, and is now interested in weaving. I brought my rigid heddle loom for her to try it out. There was enough time over the weekend to direct warp a set of two dish towels using cotton yarn, and then weave the entire first towel. She took the loom home to finish the second towel on her own.

Direct warping a set of towels on the rigid heddle loom

Mary does natural dyeing and needle felting.

Wool Mary dyed using natural materials for color

Mary was adding a face to a rabbit she had made years before. She shared this photo of the rabbit and a dog after completing them later at home.

Betsy worked on a couple of oil paintings.

I had brought some knitting projects, but when I was not helping Mary Lou with the weaving, I spent most of my time spinning. I was determined to finish the samples I had started in July for the School of Sweet Georgia “Spinning Up a Level” online class.

I made a lot of progress spinning samples of various thicknesses, and with different combinations of low or high twist in singles or plied yarn.

Samples for School of Sweet Georgia Spinning Up a Level class

We ate dinner in the on site dining room both Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday the restaurant was open to the public. It was not open on Saturday, but as overnight guests we were able to order dinner. Saturday morning the staff asked us if lasagne sounded good for dinner. Yes! Before we were done eating our custom made meal, all the staff in the building left for the day. The four of us were the only people in the entire building until morning. We did not want to leave a mess, so cleared our dishes and left them rinsed in the commercial sink in the kitchen, and got the table ready for use the next day.

Breakfast was included with our room rental. This was not a Super 8 style cereal, muffins and waffles buffet. On Saturday morning the dining room was open to the public with a full breakfast menu. We were told to go ahead and pick out whatever we wanted from the menu. On Sunday morning, we did not have menu options, but were served a huge complete breakfast including crustless quiche, toast, yogurt, and fresh fruit. There was a bowl of homemade granola on the table. It was delicious and way more than my normal breakfast of cereal or oatmeal.

Along with fun art and decorations all over the building related to the history of the school or fiber art, there were a couple of inspirational messages that resonated with our group.

Proprietor Chris stood with us for a slightly blurry selfie.

It was an amazing weekend. We look forward to another overnight visit to the Nome Schoolhouse next fall.

P.S. At the beginning of December, I saw a posting on Facebook of “Walter”, a highland mini cow that now lives at the Nome Schoolhouse.