Yarns from the Lake

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.

Top from Hand Woven Fabric

In the summer and fall of 2024 I sewed a skirt for my daughter, using fabric I wove on my four harness floor loom. I wrote about it here.

There was enough fabric left to make a matching top. I started the top project this summer when Britta was visiting, but it took me until fall to finish it.

The leftover fabric included a big rectangle, plus a strip that we had cut off the bottom of the skirt to make it shorter.

Strips of fabric cut off the bottom of the skirt

I envisioned a very simple camisole style top with the fabric wrapped around her bodice, and with an opening at the side or back. I found some plain muslin fabric in my stash to use for a mock up. The next photo shows the first version of how the top could work.

The project turned out to be more of a challenge than it might have been for a couple of reasons. Britta wanted the top to be very fitted, and we only had a short amount of time to work on it together when she was visiting over the summer. I did not want to make button holes in the hand woven fabric. I was not sure what type of closure would work best, that could be adjusted later if I did not get the fit perfect. We decided that the closure should be in the center back.

There were only the three pieces to cut out of the actual fabric (not including the straps), using the mock up pieces as patterns. I sewed them together at the sides, which actually wrapped around to the back. After Britta went back to her home in Oakland, California, I continued working on the top.

Britta’s waist measurement is quite a bit smaller than her upper body measurement, so there was extra fabric at the lower back. Darts would have worked. However I thought that folding some of the fabric up at an angle looked nice, would work well for a fitted look, and there would be less fabric to join at the center back.

I used my serger to finish the edges of the fabric where there was not a selvedge, and then folded it over for a very narrow hem that I hand sewed down.

I was able to get the project to this point without too much trouble. My sister-in-law Yvonne, who lives close to Britta, was visiting a few weeks later. I sent the in progress top home with her, along with a padded envelope so she could mail it back to me after Britta tried it on. Yvonne and Britta facetimed with me for a fitting session. I had a bunch of safety pins holding down the places in the back that were folder over, which allowed them to make adjustments. As it turned out, it was pretty close based on measurements I had taken when Britta was at my house.

It seemed like the most effective type of back closure was corset style lacing. That would allow it to be as tight as desired, and also adjustable if I did not get the measurements perfectly. I found some YouTube videos showing how to make corset style lacing, which involved sewing loops on to a secure base. I also had to find something to use for the laces.

The town of 14,000 near my home does not have any good options for fabric and sewing supplies. Even in the Twin Cities, the options are limited now that Joann Fabrics is gone. On one of our trips to the Cities I looked at Michaels, and at a small upscale fabric store in St Paul, near where my son lives. I bought a couple of ribbon options for ties that could have worked, but I was not thrilled with them.

While all this was happening, I had been experimenting with band weaving on a narrow rigid heddle style loom. I wove a narrow band using the same cottolin yarn that I had used for the woven fabric. I was not sure exactly what I was going to use it for. It could be used for either the loops or the ties, if I did not find something better.

Hand weaving a band using the same yarn as the fabric

The videos on making a corset style closure suggested using something called “rigilene boning”, a flat plastic style of boning that you can sew fabric loops on to. It was supposedly available at Hobby Lobby. I had never shopped there before, but checked it out on another trip to the Cities. It turns out that Hobby Lobby has a decent fabric department, but they did not have the rigilene style of boning. I did find some ribbon options that were the right color, and some cotton fabric for lining the back of the top. I was not sure if Britta would have picked this fabric out, but the colors looked really good with the hand woven fabric, and I liked it a lot.

Supplies for the top in the right colors

I was just winging it at this point trying different things to make the corset back. The videos suggested sewing loops using bias cut strips of satin fabric. I did not want to do that. Instead I made loops by folding 1/4″ yellow ribbon in half and zig zagging it. I thought it would work to sew the loops on to wide grosgrain ribbon, and then sew that on to the lining fabric. The loops wanted to wiggle all over, and when I finally got one loop attached, the ribbon started to rip. That was not going to work.

At this point, I went ahead and ordered the rigilene boning online. The project was delayed again while I waited for that to arrive, and was side tracked by other activities. Once it came and I was mentally ready to tackle this challenge again, I was able to sew the loops on to the very stiff rigiline boning, holding them in place with scotch tape.

I cut the lining fabric to match the shape of the back sections, and ironed on some interfacing that I had from sewing projects many years ago.

The next steps were sewing the strips of boning with the loops attached on to the lining pieces with two rows of straight stitch on the sewing machine, and then sewing the lining pieces on to the actual top.

Adding interfacing and boning to the lining

Sewing the lining on to the back of the top

I sewed the lining edge with the boning on it to the top with one row of zig zag stitch on the sewing machine. I sewed the other three sides down by hand, leaving an opening on the top edge for the straps. Earlier I had sewed the straps on to the front by hand. Now I inserted the straps in between the woven fabric and lining on the back and hand stitched it in place. I did not want to sew it on the machine in case it needed to be adjusted later.

Following are photos of the completed project from the back and front, using the hand woven band for the ties. I am not sure if the bow is supposed to be at the top or the bottom. I have seen it both ways.

I mailed the top to Britta, praying it would not get lost in the USPS along the way. I included some other options for ties that could be used for a different look.

The next photo shows the only scraps that were left of the original woven fabric.

All the fabric that was left after making the skirt and top

Britta sent photos of herself modeling the outfit. Yea, it fits. It is a little wrinkly, but that is the nature of the cotton/linen blend fabric. I think it is a losing battle trying to keep it ironed.

After Britta got the rosemaling tattoo, she was surprised that more people comment on her fish tattoo.

This project turned out to be more of a hassle and take way longer than I expected. I like the way it turned out, and more importantly, and Britta likes it. There is another project I have in the works for some knitted felted slippers where I am having to figure out how to make my idea work. For the foreseeable future, I plan on sticking to projects where I can follow a pattern, and not have to figure something out from scratch. We’ll see how that works out.