Yarns from the Lake

Another Baby Ensemble

I knit a baby sweater while anticipating the birth of our granddaughter in June 2023. I used some pinkish yarn from Valley Yarns in a 48% cotton/ 46% modal/ 6 % silk blend. Modal is a fiber make from beech tree cellulose that is a breathable, absorbent alternative to cotton. It is very soft. Not ideal if you are going to wash it a bunch of times, but I had it on hand.

The pattern I used is called “Another 5 Hour Baby Sweater”. It is knit in the round from the top down, my preferred method for sweaters. It is available for free on Ravelry. Click here for the pattern.

The sweater is knit in stockinette stitch flat, with rows alternating between knit and purl stitches. The first three stitches are always knit on every row, even on the purl rows, which makes a mock front band and keeps the knitting from curling over.

I made a mistake on one of the front openings. I purled all the way across and forgot to knit the last three stitches. I noticed it after I had knit about 10 or 12 more rows. I tried to fix it by undoing those columns (one at a time), and reknitting the stitches using a crochet hook. I did not do it correctly on every stitch and eventually gave up, but my attempt camouflaged the problem a little, and it is covered up by the other side with the button holes. I forgot to take a photo.

I don’t know if it took five hours, but it was not long before the baby sized sweater was finished. The color is more accurate in the earlier photos, the following photo looks washed out.

The sweater looked very small. Unless you are comparing it to an actual baby, it is hard to guess what size it is. I remember when my daughter, Britta, was about 7 months old we travelled to see my friend and her infant twins. Being twins and premature, they were quite small. Britta had seemed like an average baby until she was up next to the tiny twins. My friend commented that Britta looked like she was ready to get a part time job in comparison.

I sewed a pair of flowered pants for Britta when she was a baby. The fabric matches the sweater, but they did not seem like the same size as the sweater. This outfit looks cute in the photo, but I did not think the two items would work as an ensemble. The pants seemed to me a bigger size than the sweater.

Over the holidays when Blair was about six months old I got a photo of her wearing the pink sweater, with a onesie and pants I found in her closet. She is wearing a Hanna Andersson cotton knit pilot cap. The flowered pants were at our house, not available to try on.

Blair wearing the pink sweater and a Hanna Andersson pilot cap

I used to have Hanna Andersson pilot caps for my son James (Blair’s dad) when he was an infant. Following is a photo of James at two months old looking very pudgy and wearing his pilot cap. For the record, he grew out of his baby fat nicely and is now almost 6′ 5″ tall and slender.

My son, Blair’s dad, at age two months wearing a Hanna Andersson pilot cap

After we got back from Arizona this spring, I wondered if the flowered pants might be the right size. When we went to James and Kelsey’s house I brought the pants along. The pink sweater was too small by this time. The flowered pants were the right size around the waist and bottom, but they were capri length. I don’t think they were supposed to be capri pants. Here she is wearing the flowered pants with a fishing shirt that Kelsey had as a baby.

I remember having a hard time managing all the baby clothes that people gave us. There were clothes that were only worn once, some that were never worn at all. I guess we will never know if the pink sweater and flowered pants might have worked together after all.

More Floor Loom Towels

After weaving the rest of the warp yarn that came on my vintage Structo Artcraft loom (read about that here), I was ready to make something on my floor loom. I had not used it since before Christmas, because I cannot bring it to Arizona! I decided to make another set of towels with the same cotton and linen yarn as I used for towels I made on my rigid heddle loom in Arizona (read about that project here), with different colors and a more complicated pattern.

The warp yarn is blue 100% cotton, off white 100% cotton, and a bit of yellow Gist Duet cotton/linen blend. The weft yarn is the same off white and yellow, but instead of the blue cotton, I used 100% blue linen yarn that I had dyed myself.

Hand dyed blue linen yarn, 100% cotton yarn in blue and off white, and yellow Gist Duet cotton/linen blend yarn

I used a pattern from Gist, adapting it for towel width.

I am still looking for the perfect place to use my warping board for measuring out warp yarn. It should be the right height so I am not bending over or reaching up high. It needs to be stable, not wobbling or jiggling. Nothing should be sticking out between the pegs or interfering with the path of the yarn. The yarn should flow easily off the cone or ball from the floor below. This time I hung the warping board on some cabinet door knobs above my kitchen desk, as it seemed like a good height and nothing was sticking out in the wrong place. I tied it on to the knobs with a ribbon, and then used painters tape to keep it immobile. It was not perfect as the yarn had to sit on the desk rather than the floor, and the wall of the pantry was right there. It worked as well or better than the other places in the house I have tried.

Blue cotton yarn measured out for towels

There are different ways to measure out multiple colors of warp yarn. I decided to measure out each of the three colors separately. In retrospect, knowing how that would affect the “sleying the reed” step, I would have done it differently.

Following is a photo with the three different warp yarn bundles, or “chains” as they are called, ready to be threaded through the reed. The red towels with similar yarn I made in Arizona had 12 warp yarns per inch. For this project I used the eight dent reed with two ends per slot, for a denser fabric with 16 yarns per inch.

All three colors of warp yarn measured and ready to go

The way to keep the warp yarn in order for floor loom projects is with a “cross” that forms as the yarn is measured out on the warping board. Two sticks are used to keep this cross in place as you “sley the reed” (thread the yarn ends through the slots in the reed), so the ends can be threaded in the same order as they were measured out. In the following photo the “cross” of the blue yarn is visible between the two sticks. The white warp bundle is bunched up on the sticks to the left of the blue yarn.

Threading the blue yarn through the reed, leaving empty spaces for the white and yellow

The pattern has seven blue ends, alternating with a block of seven ends composed of off white with one yellow in the middle. After threading on some of the blue, leaving empty slots for the off white and yellow, I realized that the off white ends would have to majorly reach across the blue ends as they filled in the spaces between the blocks of blue. The next photo is a close up of the blue ends threaded through the reed, with the empty slots waiting for white and yellow.

Close up of the blue ends through the reed, with spaces left for the off white and yellow

I wrote out some notes to help keep track of what order to thread the yarn ends through the slots. It was a little confusing given I was using two ends per slot with an odd number in the color blocks, so some slots have two different colors.

My threading notes for threading the reed and heddles

After threading all the blue yarn through the slots in the reed, it was time to figure out what to do about the white. My previous floor loom projects had all the warp yarns wound consecutively into one warp chain, with every slot in the reed filled as I went, leaving no spaces. I looked through various instructions in books and online, and found a suggestion that made sense to me to use another set of sticks for the white yarn that could sit on top of the blue yarn. I found two yard sticks that worked for the purpose. It was still messy looking but allowed the white yarn to spread out across the reed on top of the blue yarn, rather than reach way across from one side.

Threading the off white yarn through the reed using another set of sticks on top of the blue yarn

There were only 22 ends of yellow (one per pattern repeat), so I used a method of holding that bundle in my hand while maintaining the “cross” as I threaded (instead of using the lease sticks). I did not get a photo because both my hands were occupied. Following is a photo taken after all three colors were threaded through the slots of the reed.

All three colors threaded through the slots in the reed

The yellow Duet cotton/linen yarn is slightly thinner than the blue and off white cotton yarn, with one end of yellow in every repeat of 14 yarns. As I was working I wondered if the yellow was going to get lost in the pattern and not show up very well. Of course I should have thought about this before I measured out all the yarn for the project and starting sleying the reed. While it was still possible, if not ideal, I decided to add a strand of some yellow Cottolin yarn in with each end of the Duet yellow ends. Cottolin and Duet are both cotton / linen blends, but the Cottolin is thinner and the color I had was a little more goldish than the Duet. One strand of each together is thicker and would pop out better. The next photo shows the yellow Cottolin yarn next to the yellow Duet yarn.

Two yellow yarns together seemed better than the yellow Duet by itself

After threading all the colors and ends (317 ends, about 20″ across) through the reed, it was time to thread them through the heddles and tie them on at the back.

Threading the ends through the heddles and tying them on to the bar at the back of the loom

All warp ends threaded and tied on the back

After all the ends were tied on, I wound the warp yarn around the beam at the back, and then I was ready to tie the other ends of the warp yarn on to the front.

Tying the warp yarn on at the front of the loom

The colors I chose make this towel look very Swedish.

The second towel of the set has a slightly different pattern with three rows of white instead of five. I used white instead of blue for the border and hem stitching.

Following is my post-it note with the treadling pattern for the second towel. The first row is harness one and two in white yarn. The second row is harness two and three in white yarn. There are 10 rows in one pattern repeat.

The next photo shows a close up of the yellow and white yarns being carried up the side while weaving a blue row. The odd number of rows in each color caused the carrying up of yarn to alternate sides, so it was a but lumpy but symmetrical.

I had measured out warp yarn to weave three towels. This involves estimating how much yarn is needed for loom waste, fringe between towels, take-up, and shrinkage. I looked at my notes from other towel projects. I have had the problem of not enough warp yarn before, so I wanted to make sure I had enough this time.

I wove 24″ for the first and second towel. When I got to the third towel I used the same pattern as the second towel. When I got to 24″, there was still a lot of warp yarn left so I kept weaving for 31″. That was as long as I wanted to go, and I needed to be done with this project . There was still warp yarn left, but it was hard to tell how much exactly without unwinding it from the back.

I cut the project off the loom, cut the towels apart, wove in the ends, and then washed the three towels in the washing machine and ran them through the dryer. I noticed something wrong on one of the towels while ironing them. I used the wrong treadling pattern for two blue rows, and possibly some of the rows between. My head hurts trying to figure it out. There is probably a way to fix it, but I do not have time or energy for that in the near future. Can you spot the incorrect rows?

Following is a close up photo showing the two different weft patterns side by side.

Following are photos of this current set of towels, next to the towels I made on my rigid heddle loom in Arizona with the same yarns in different colors. The warp yarns in both cases are 100% 8/4 cotton and Gist Duet cotton/linen blend. The weft yarns are 100% 8/4 cotton and 100% linen hand dyed. The blue and yellow towels have a more complicated four harness pattern with 16 ends per inch. The red towels are plain weave with the pattern formed by the colors, with 12 ends per inch.

My sister asked me if the blue and yellow towels were “harder” than the cottolin towels I wove before the holidays (and wrote about here). Maybe she thought that was the case due to the pattern formed by the colors, but the answer is no. The warping was a little harder due to the way I measured each color separately, but not because of the pattern. Weaving the pattern of weft rows was easier because of the multiple colors. I could tell exactly where I was in the pattern by looking at what color row should be next (although that did not stop me from making mistakes). The cottolin towels had a long repeat and it was not easy to tell exactly which row I was on. With the multiple colors I had to carry the colors up the sides as I wove, so that was an extra step but not “hard”. The next photo shows one of the cottolin towels next to one from this blue and yellow set.

Cottolin towel from December project, next to current towel just finished

Later in the summer I may try to tie more warp yarn on to the warp yarn still on the loom, leftover from this towel project. I hate to waste the excess warp yarn that I did not use. I tried tying warp yarn on to leftover warp yarn another time that did not go well, but I think I did not use the right type of knot and there may have been other problems. It should work, and reduce the time needed to get another project warped.

At some point over the summer I am going to have to fold and move my floor loom out of the living room when our flooring re-do project happens. Also this summer we have two trips, our annual family reunion at the cabin, and another family get together. One thing at a time.

Spring Fiber Day 2024

I have quite a few friends and family members who like to attend Fiber Day at the Ellison’s sheep farm in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. It is more than a day trip from Minneapolis, and the spring event is Mother’s Day weekend, so often people have conflicts. Spring Fiber Day is usually the same day as Fishing Opener in Minnesota. My husband is normally away on an annual fishing opener trip with some friends.

Some years all my people are busy with other things. I do not mind attending Fiber Day on my own and having a solo weekend to focus on what I want to do. This year I had a houseful of people. We lucked out and had a beautiful day and a fun girls weekend (plus one young man!).

Deb, a former coworker and knitter friend, came from Minneapolis. She had never been to Fiber Day before, but was excited to check it out. Another friend who has attended many times, Mary Lou, came with a knitting project. They enjoyed talking knitting, and Mary Lou was able to pick Deb’s mind while figuring out a complicated part of a pattern.

My cousin Lisa came with her seven year old daughter, plus three young adult children. It was her way of celebrating Mother’s Day. Her 20 year old son Everett tagged along for the weekend, without having any idea what “Fiber Day” was. He is a great kid interested in many things. At the event he sat down at a table with 90 something year old Grandma Alice and made a beautiful felted landscape. Everett has also done some blacksmithing, and talked to Dave Ellison about his forge. I did know know Dave had a forge. Everett added his name to the mailing list for future Fiber Day events.

There was a chair behind the house that looked like it had been out there for a long time. I thought it was kind of funny and artistic. Fortunately, there were plenty of other chairs for actual sitting.

My sister Betsy used to do quilting, but lately has been taking painting classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She set up her equipment behind the Ellison’s house and worked on a landscape painting, while most of the other people were working on something related to knitting, spinning, felting, or dyeing.

Betsy enjoyed the day working outside on a landscape painting

I brought my spinning wheel along, but never set it up. My knitting project never made it out of the bag either. Instead I was busy loading my blending board with fiber to make rolags, and working on a couple of dyeing projects. Following is a photo with me and other people looking over dyeing supplies.

The pots for wool dyeing were over the fire and ready to go.

Deb and I bought skeins of yarn from the Ellison’s sheep for dyeing. One of the dye pots had dye left from someone else’s project, so we added more in a slightly different color and dropped our yarn in. After simmering for about 20 minutes we took it out to cool off, and then rinsed it carefully in cold water.

Yarn from the Ellison’s sheep dyed turquoise

The yarn turned out a beautiful turquoise color.

I had brought some 100% linen yarn from home, plus an old white tee shirt, to dye in jars using the cold method with a different type of dye for cotton and linen fibers.

Jars with linen yarn and a tee shirt ready for dyeing

I had wanted to dye the yarn and tee shirt lavender, but there were only a few colors of dye that did not include purple or blue. There were several jars of yellow and red dye, so instead I tried for a light orange color. After soaking the items in water with soda ash, I added the water and dye to the jars without measuring very carefully, and then stuffed in the skeins of yarn and the tee shirt. I left the jars soaking overnight which was longer than necessary.

Dye jars with yarn and a tee shirt back at my house

One of the skeins of yarn turned out darker than the other one. They both have some variegation. The tee shirt came out quite tie dyed looking from being bunched up in the jar.

Yarn and tee shirt after rinsing out the extra dye

It seemed like part of the lighter skein of yarn did not take any dye, but when comparing it to the original undyed natural yarn, it was a different color.

Variations in color compared to the original undyed linen yarn

I have not used my Blending Board in quite a while. After watching a School of Sweet Georgia class called Blending Boards: From Rolags to Roving, I wanted to make rolags. They are rolls of fiber that are fun to spin. Fiber Day seemed like a good opportunity to use a block of time for this. Ahead of time at home I dug through my fiber stash closet and picked out some various types of fiber that went together. I weighed all the fiber and divided it into six groups of about one ounce each. The fibers included wool roving from the Ellison’s, a silk/camel roving from a fiber fair, two different colors of Alpaca locks, and some Angora rabbit. After I had weighed and divided it all, I decided to throw in some orange wool for a pop of color.

Measuring out one ounce of fiber to blend on the Blending Board

Six groups of fiber about one ounce each

I didn’t get a picture of loading the Blending Board in action, but following are photos of the board with layers of fiber on it.

Back at home I used dowels to lift and roll fiber off the board into rolags. I got three or four rolags off of one board full of fiber.

Making a rolag off the board of bended fiber

I tried to “diz” off the blending board, which is pulling the fiber off the board through a tiny hole to make roving. It worked, but was not going smoothly, so I went back to making rolags, which was what I wanted anyway.

Some fiber I “dizzed” off the blending board into roving

I finished making the rolags back at home. Spinning them into yarn will be for another time, after I finish two other spinning projects in process.

Friday evening before Fiber Day was the night when many areas around the country had Northern Lights. We went outside at about 10:00 pm and could see them from the yard. With my eyes I could see shimmering lights, but not the colors. When I looked through my phone camera I could see the colors. I saw photos other people posted with more brilliant colors, but following are a couple I took. I considered getting up later in the night to see if the sky looked different, but that did not happen.

The colors in the Northern Lights would make a beautiful blended yarn colorway! I might even have fiber in all those colors that I could blend on my blending board or drum carder some day.

Last weekend was our extended family cabin work weekend. We had family at our house and a full schedule of maintenance projects. In addition to some weeding, I was in charge of group lunches and dinners for the work crew, with assistance from a few others. The peonies along the road were planted by my great grandmother. One end of the bed had a gap, followed by a very unhealthy looking plant. On the spur of the moment while weeding, I made the executive decision to move the edging bricks over leaving a smaller symmetrical garden with less future maintenance. It looks nice now, but it will be full of weeds again in a couple of weeks.

It is going to be a busy summer with a couple of trips, and groups of people coming to stay at our house and the cabin. We are also in the process of picking out what product to use in place of 24 year old living room, dining area and bedroom carpeting. At one time I had hoped to have that project complete by June, but that was not realistic. It is difficult finding time to work on the projects I already have in progress, and it is not even summer yet.

Baby Hats

I like knitting for my granddaughter, who was born last summer. One problem is that usually I have no idea how old she is going to be when a particular item will fit. I knit two baby size hats using the same pattern, one tiny and one bigger. I was not necessarily trying to achieve different sizes, it was just how they turned out based on the yarn I chose from my stash.

The pattern I used for both hats is called Pixie Baby Cap, available on Ravelry. Yarn for the first hat is Lang Amira 93% cotton / 7 % nylon. It is described as a “chainette” yarn with suggested needle size of nine or ten. It is really soft.

I cast on with a size nine needle, but after knitting for a few inches I started over with size eight. Following is a photo showing the beginning of the project.

This is one of those patterns where you have no idea what is going on but just have to go with it, and eventually it starts to make sense.

It is knitted flat and then folded in half, with one side seamed that becomes the top. The next image is from the pattern.

Following are photos showing the hat ready to seam the top with a three needle bind off, and then part way done with the bind off.

Part way done with three needle bind off

The pattern suggested making I-Cord for the ties. I tried to make a length of I-Cord using three stitches, but it was too thick. I abandoned that and instead cut three lengths of yarn for each tie, pulled them through the corner, and braided it. It came out more appropriately sized for the hat. Following is a photo of the hat, with one braided tie attached, and the too thick I-Cord below.

Hat with one braided tie, and the too thick I-Cord below

This pattern is quick to knit, and unless you are trying to get a certain exact size, you don’t have to worry much about gauge.

I gave the hat to my son and daughter-in-law for the baby. I never got a photo and now she is too big for this size.

The second hat from the same pattern was knit with 50% acrylic / 40% wool / 10% nylon Berroco Vintage Chunky yarn. It came out bigger. I may have cast on more stitches. Once you figure out how the pattern works, it is easy to make it with different sizes of yarn or a different number of stitches. I did not take any work-in-progress photos, but following are pictures of the finished blue version of the hat.

Recently we were in St. Paul visiting James and Kelsey (and more importantly, Blair haha). The blue hat was just the right size, and the weather was cool enough to warrant wearing it on a walk outside.

Last year I posted about a baby sweater I had knit out of the same blue yarn. I gave the sweater to Kelsey at the baby shower before Blair was born. Following is the link for the blog post about the sweater: https://yarnsfromthelake.com/2023/08/10/baby-ensemble/

I had forgotten about the blue sweater at the time Blair was wearing the hat. Later Kelsey found it in the closet and sent me a couple of Instagram worthy photos with the hat and sweater on together. Love Love Love!!

The sweater is a little big. Maybe if she is going to wear it out of the house she will also have pants on. I could sew some cute matching baby pants, but I will have to decide if I really want to break out the sewing machine. It is going to be a busy summer, so I have to be careful not to plan more projects than I can really do.

Structo Artcraft Loom

I friend of mine was helping clean out a storage room at her church. It was packed with crafting supplies that had not been used in a long time, including a table top weaving loom. She sent me a photo of the loom and asked if I wanted it. YES! I wanted this vintage four shaft Structo Artcraft loom.

Vintage Structo Artcraft loom from the front

I was not familiar with the brand, but found information online. Structo Artcraft looms have an interesting history starting in the early 1900’s. Structo Manufacturing, located in Freeport, Illinois, made metal toys. In 1921 they started making toy looms out of the same metal. Later they made looms for adults out of wood, eventually selling the Structo Artcraft Loom business to Dick Blick in 1972. The Dick Blick company manufactured and sold several sizes and models of the looms until 1981. You can find listings for Structo Artcraft looms on ebay, Etsy, and Craigs List. What you can’t find are current replacement parts. There is a Facebook group for people interested in these looms, so that is a place to look for information, advice or parts.

This loom is a hybrid of my other two looms. It has four harnesses, the same as my floor loom. The wood frame is 30″ wide with a weaving width of about 26″. My rigid heddle loom has a weaving width of 15″, while my floor loom has a weaving width of 36″. The 15 dent (ends per inch) reed on the Structo Artcraft loom is more dense than the reeds I have for my other looms. It seems to be in working condition, with a rag rug in progress.

I am not interested in making a rag rug at this time, and I do not have the right materials to finish the one partway done on the loom. I had intended on cutting the rug off and re warping the loom with a different project. Then it occurred to me that I could just stop weaving the rug weft rows, and start weaving weft rows with some other yarn that I have, in order to try the loom and not waste the warp yarn.

From the side, the front handle is missing

One concern is that the handle to turn the front beam is missing, as shown in the photo above. On my floor loom there is one handle that is used for both the front and back beam. It is easy to move it back and forth as needed. On this Structo Artcraft loom the handle on the back beam is firmly attached, and I have seen photos of other Structo looms with two handles.

The yarn warped on the loom is something like 8/4 rug warp cotton, and not threaded through every slot in the reed. Instead there are two yarn ends together in a slot, followed by two empty slots. The weft “yarn” for the rug is a series of stretchy strips of fabric joined in a chain. The large space between warp yarns is needed for the thick rug weft “yarn”.

Warp yarns through the slots in the reed

I found a couple of options for weft yarn in my stash. For my first attempt at weaving on this loom I chose some green Peaches & Creme 100% cotton yarn. It is not nearly as thick as the rug “yarn”, but it seemed like it would work. I wove a couple of rows, packing them close together, which resulted in a “weft faced” look where the weft yarn is dominant, like the rug.

First rows of weaving with Peaches & Creme yarn packed tightly

After talking to Torri, my weaving mentor, I started to place the weft rows farther apart in order to achieve a more “balanced” weave. This was all experimentation, a good opportunity to try some different things.

More rows Peaches & Creme yarn packed for a more balanced weave

After using up the green cotton warp yarn on the shuttle, I was ready to try something else. I had some Berroco Espresso yarn that is thicker than the Peaches & Creme cotton. It is a 50% cotton / 50% polyester chain type (rather than plied) yarn. The colors went well with the various colors of warp yarn and the texture of the yarn made it more interesting.

Next section with Berroco Espresso chain plied yarn

I got around the problem of the missing handle by using a pair of pliers on the piece of metal sticking out where the handle would be attached, so I could turn the front beam. However my husband pointed out that would strip the grooves on the piece of metal that maybe were needed to hold the handle on, if there was one. After that I used my hands to roll the completed weaving onto the front beam.

After I ran out of the Berroco yarn I wove with two strands together of 8/4 cotton, one green and one white, which I believe is about the same thickness as the warp yarn. It is quite open, although it will shrink some when I wash it.

End of the Berroco weft yarn, beginning of weaving with 2 strands of 8/4 cotton

Following is a closeup photo of the three different weft yarns I tried (Peaches & Creme cotton, Berroco cotton/polyester, two strands of 8/4 cotton).

Three different yarns used for sections of weft rows

I was very interested in getting a better look at the loom once I got to the end of the warp yarn. The next photo shows the back of the loom after I had woven as much warp yarn as I could. A flat metal bar is tied on to the back beam. The warp yarn is wrapped around a length of square wood dowel, that is tied on to the flat piece of metal.

Warp yarn ends tied on at the back of the loom

After examining what was going on at the back of the loom, I cut the warp yarns and unwound the completed weaving from the front beam. Following is a photo showing the beginning of the project where it was tied on at the front of the loom. The front beam is a thick round piece of wood that is warped. As on the back, there is a flat piece of metal tied on to the front beam that is warped and bent out of shape. A wood dowel bar is tied on to the flat piece of metal. The beginning of the rug is lashed on to the wood dowel.

Warp yarn lashed on to the front of the loom

Close up of warp yarn lashed on to the front of the loom

It looks like the person who started this rug was also experimenting with different warp yarns. There are some rows of two different colors of some kind of flat shiny “yarn”, followed by a couple of rows of purple worsted weight cotton (something like Peaches & Creme yarn), followed by the thick stretchy rag rug “yarn”.

My sections of weaving are shown below, as they came off the loom. First there are rows of the green Peaches & Creme cotton, and then the Berroco variegated color chain type yarn, followed by the green and white strands of 8/4 cotton together.

Berroco Espresso cotton/polyester blend warp yarn

Close up of the Berroco Espresso weft yarn rows

Larger section with 2 strands of 8/4 cotton warp yarn

I was able to remove some screws and take off a strip of wood at the top of the reed, which allowed me to remove the reed from the loom. The reed is very rusty, but it looks like the same size as replacements available from the Schacht company.

Identification stamped on the side of the reed

I communicated with a woman on the Structo Loom Owners – Repair & Refurb Facebook group regarding the date that my loom might have been made. She has a list of serial numbers with their associated production dates. Between the serial number stamped on my loom and the number stamped on the reed, she is pretty sure my loom was manufactured in 1971.

705 is at the beginning of the serial number which should indicate the model number. However information I found online indicates that it is more likely a model 740, which is an eight shaft version of the model 705. My loom currently has only four shafts but there are spaces for four more. 740 is what you get when you multiply the ends per inch of the reed by two ends per inch by the weaving width, for the maximum number of threads you could have in a warp (15 x 2 x 25 = 740).

The next photo taken from the top shows the four harnesses, and some empty slots for two more. There are spaces for two more in between the harnesses on the loom, that you cannot see given the angle of the photo.

From the top you can see spaces for more harnesses. There are slots for a total of eight harnesses.

I wove in the loose ends and washed the individual sections of weaving (except for the rug at the beginning). As expected, they shrunk some, ending up with a slightly more dense weave, but still on the loose side. I think the large section of all 8/4 cotton could be used as a towel.

Section with two strands of 8/4 cotton yarn, after washing and shrinking

I was not expecting to have any usable final product from weaving off the rest of the warp yarn that came on this vintage loom. However I did end up a table runner of sorts, and a string bag! The section woven with the Berroco weft yarn works as a runner on my dining room table, adorned with the ceramic turtle bowl and lid that my mom made. My four harness floor loom is in the background waiting for another project.

The section with Berroco yarn works as a table runner

The shorter section woven with Peaches & Creme cotton could have been a loosely woven narrow towel, but I was inspired to make it into a small string bag.

Smaller section woven with Peache & Creme cotton yarn

String bag made out of the small section with Peaches & Creme yarn

Now that the Structo loom is free of a project, I plan on cleaning it and fixing it up as much as I can before using it again. That will include wiping it down with some wood conditioner, trying to figure out a replacement handle for the front beam, replacing the dowels that warp yarn is tied to at the front and back, and ordering a new reed.

Sometime in the next couple of months, we will be replacing the flooring in our living / dining area. I dread having to move all the furniture, including emptying out and moving my mom’s large china cabinet. Once that is all happening, my floor loom will be folded up and moved out of the way. My next weaving project will be on the floor loom, while it is still accessible and before the flooring chaos starts.

Gold Canyon 2024

We are back home in West Central Minnesota now. Some snowbirders stay in Arizona (or wherever they go) for as long as 6 months. I am starting to miss home before the end of our three month reservation at Gold Canyon RV & Golf Resort.

This winter of 2023/2024 was a non event in Minnesota with record warm temperatures, hardly any snow, open water on the lakes at Christmas, and one of the earliest ice-outs on record in March. On the other hand, there were more than average cooler and wetter days than normal in the Phoenix area. The many days with temperatures in the 60’s were great for hiking or biking, going on outings, or generally walking around outside without winter coats, so I am not complaining. The rainy days working on knitting or weaving projects and listening to the rain patter on the roof of the RV were quite cozy.

This year I took advantage of some exercise classes and even learned a few line dances. I spent time on my blog and on my part time “job” of being the treasurer for our extended family cabin LLC. We got to know some of our neighbors. I knit a pair of socks, and wove shoelaces and a scarf. I worked on a counted cross stitch project that is very slow going, and that I won’t be able to write about for months.

We spent time with Wayne’s sister and brother-in-law who were there for two months, and with friends and family visitors including our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. The time goes fast.

Outings included Boyce Thompson Arboretum, about 20 miles east of Gold Canyon, and the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. We bought a membership at Boyce Thompson, and then realized it is good at many arboretums around the country, including the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum west of Minneapolis. There was a fun collection of giant colorful art cacti at Boyce Thompson, created by Oliverio Balcells to celebrate 100 years of the arboretum.

Outdoor art at Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, AZ

Cacti at the The Desert Botanical Garden were adorned with foam cups to protect against freezing when we went there in January.

I experienced the Mesa Market, otherwise known as the Swap Meet, a place with hundreds of stalls for vendors selling all kinds of things including clothing, yard art, household goods, golf equipment, and you name it. I am not into shopping, but I braved the giant parking lot and crowded maze of hallways at this place once to buy an Arizona theme sweatshirt. At a block party on our street at the resort, we talked to a woman we had not met before. When asked what she liked to do, she said she goes to the Swap Meet on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, every weekend. Oh my. Then she said they had only been at the resort for a couple of weeks and she was buying gifts for people back home, so it made a little more sense.

We went on a day trip with Wayne’s sister and brother-in-law, Marlene and Steve, to see Cliff Dwellings at Tonto National Monument, about 1 1/2 hours away near Roosevelt Lake. After the long drive and time in the visitor center, there was a hike to get up to the Cliff Dwellings. The site is amazing and the view is beautiful.

Cliff Dwellings at Tonto National Monument with view of Roosevelt Lake

Gold Canyon is east of Apache Junction, on the far east side of the Phoenix metro. It has a very wild west vibe, where you might see a trailer with a horse in it at the nice grocery store parking lot.

Horse in a trailer in the grocery store parking lot

The Superstition Mountain Museum in Apache Junction was worthy of several outings. Click here for a link to the website for this attraction that includes a historical museum, assorted old west buildings, some old Mining machinery, and a cool model train. We attended a couple of events there including “Western Cowboy Day” where we watched a fake old west shoot out, and cowboy “Teton Ken” flirted with Marlene.

Posing with more cowboys from the fake shootout

We also went to the Native American Arts Festival at the Superstition Mountain Museum, where we saw hoop dancing by the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers. It was hard to get a good photo, so following is a picture from the brochure. Click here for a link to info about the talented Duncan family. Click here for a video of champion dancer Tony Duncan.

Members of the Duncan family at the Native American Arts Festival

From1960 to 2004 there was an 1800 acre old west town movie set in Gold Canyon called Apacheland Movie Ranch. Classic western movies and TV shows were filmed there, including Bonanza, Death Valley Days, Gunfight at the OK Corral, and Charro. A fire in 2004 burned down most of the buildings, but the barn, chapel, and gallows were saved and moved to the site of the Superstition Mountain Museum. No visit to Gold Canyon is complete without a stop at the Elvis Chapel.

The Elvis Chapel at the Superstition Mountain Museum, originally from the Apache Land Movie Ranch

There is a large display of photos and memorabilia from the Apacheland Movie Ranch inside the barn, including photos of Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, Elvis Presley and many movie stars who were before my time.

Barn relocated from Apache Land Movie Ranch to the Superstition Mountain Museum

The following collage was on display in a local restaurant.

There are a couple of saloons in Apache Junction where locals arrive on their horse and tie it on a rail while partaking of happy hour. Our granddaughter got to see her first horse up close at the Hitching Post Saloon.

First in person encounter with a horse at the Hitching Post Saloon, Apache Junction

Gold Field Ghost Town is another activity in Apache Junction that is on the list of places to take visitors. It is a very touristy 1890’s old west town, and the other place with a real saloon where locals arrive on their horse. There is outdoor seating in the back of the Mammoth Steakhouse and Saloon with a great view of the Superstition Mountains. Note that if you are vegetarian or vegan, find a different place for dinner!

Behind the Mammoth Steakhouse & Saloon at Goldfield Ghost Town

The Apache Trail Scenic Drive starts in Apache Junction near Goldfield Ghost Town, and goes on for 40 miles of beautiful scenery. We did this outing twice. The road was constructed in the early 1900’s to connect Apache Junction with Roosevelt Lake. Before that it was an Apache Indian trail, and then a Stage Coach route. If you are not familiar with this area, you do not think of lakes in Arizona, but there are a couple of them east of Phoenix. The Apache Trail goes past Canyon Lake, which you can see in the background at the scenic overlook in the next photo. There is camping, as well as a marina and restaurant at Canyon Lake.

Bringing my knitting on the Apache Trail Scenic drive

Tortilla Flat is the next stop after Canyon Lake on the Apache Trail. Tortilla Flat is a one block long “town” with a population of six. There are a couple of touristy buildings including a saloon and gift shop, and an outdoor space with bar food and live music every afternoon. The ladies room has some unique art on the stall doors.

Stall doors in the ladies room at Tortilla Flat

A few miles after Tortilla Flat the road is no longer paved, and becomes very windy, narrow and scary. There is an overlook at a Fish Creek Hill that looks like a mini Grand Canyon. At this point you cannot go any further due the road being washed out. If you could continue on, or if they fix the road, you would be able to continue on to Roosevelt Lake and Roosevelt Dam. The next photo was taken at the Fish Creek overlook. If this looks familiar, I already used it in a previous blog post. If it does not look familiar, then you are not really reading my posts. LOL.

Fish Creek Overlook on the Apache Trail Scenic Drive

Continuing with the “wild west” theme, I have a photo of my granddaughter wearing our friend’s western hat, while we visited at the pool.

And then there is a photo of the repurposed cowboy boot bag that I bought at an art fair, that I also used in a previous post.

Following are random hiking photos from this year.

The Hieroglyphics trail, Superstition Mountains

The Hieroglyphics trail with my friend Kris from back home

Photo from a hike in the Superstition Mountains

I am glad we have the opportunity to get away from winter, and take advantage of all the things to do in Arizona that we can’t do in Minnesota. It is nice to be able to be outside a lot, and also have minimal chores living in our 5th Wheel Trailer. But by the end of our time there I am ready for my normal routine at home, and maybe the RV is starting to feel a little too cozy.

After being home for over a week, I am finally starting to feel like my life is back in order here. The taxes are done, but I still have to put the Christmas decorations away. We moved them all down to the basement bedroom in late December. Out of sight, out of mind. Going for a walk around here is not quite as dramatic as hiking in the Superstition Mountains, but the rolling hills and lakes of Otter Tail County are beautiful too.

Rigid Heddle Scarf

Like most knitters, I have many random skeins of yarn that I love, but don’t know what to do with. Some I spun myself, some I bought while on vacation, some I bought on sale, others I thought I was going to use but never made that project. They look beautiful sitting in baskets. They fill up plastic tubs. I try to think of ways to use the yarn that are worthy of their quality and beauty.

I looked through my stash in December while planning for our Arizona trip this winter. I found two skeins of yarn that worked well together for a woven scarf on my Rigid Heddle Loom. For the warp I had some Berroco Ultra Alpaca 50% Alpaca / 50% Wool leftover from a sweater, very smooth and squishy. For the weft I had a skein of Cascade Yarns Melilla 45% Silk / 35% Wool / 20% Nylon. It has a more inconsistent texture with nubs.

Warp and weft yarn from my stash for a woven scarf

I wove a small sample with eight ends per inch to get an idea what they would look like together. The Melilla yarn for the weft has multiple colors that do not show up on the photo of the sample. I happened to get a section of the weft yarn that was close to the same color as the warp yarn. The woven sample was soft and I love the colors separately and together.

This is the weaving project I mentioned in my last post that involved wasting an hour and a half of time. I wanted to get this scarf warped on my rigid heddle loom, and figured it would go quickly. I took my loom and supplies over to a room in the community building at the RV Resort, where there was enough space for direct warping. After getting about 2/3 of the warp yarn on the loom the ball of yarn ran out, so I looked in my bag to get the other ball. I was swearing in my head when I saw that the other ball of yarn was not a ball of yarn. It was warp yarn that I had already measured out on my warping board at home, so that I could warp the project indirectly in the RV, without reserving a community room at the Resort. AAAHHHH. This meant that I had to remove the yarn that I had just warped on to the loom and start over.

The warp yarn was one long thread going in and out of the reed on the loom. I could have cut it off easily, but that would have ruined the yarn. Instead I pulled it out one slot at a time which took longer than it took to get it on there. I should have taken a photo of this laborious process, but I was not sure I wanted to admit I had been so dumb. After finishing that and being really disgusted with myself, I packed up all my stuff and went back to the RV. I was back to square one. It was already close to dinner time, so best to save this project for another day when I could start fresh. It was a waste of that time, but nothing else was lost.

Following is a photo of the bundle of warp yarn (“warp chain”) that I had measured at home, ready to go on the loom.

The “warp chain” that I measured out at home on my warping board

I may have warped my rigid heddle loom indirectly once before, but I wanted to review the process before starting to avoid any more dumb mistakes. As with everything, there are many sources of instruction online with many variations of steps to warp directly and indirectly. I re-watched the section from the School of Sweet Georgia class on Rigid Heddle Weaving Basics that was specifically about indirect warping.

The School of Sweet Georgia instructions suggested using lease sticks to keep the yarn ends in order, the same as when using a floor loom. That is not the only way to do it, but I decided to try their method. It was also suggested to put the yarn ends loops around the back bar instead of tying the ends on, which is essentially how it would be if I had threaded it directly. The rest of the process was similar to direct warping.

Following is a photo of the front of the loom with the yarn ends going through some makeshift lease sticks and then through the slots of the reed.

The next photo is the back of the loom, showing the loops of yarn from my warp bundle wrapped around the back bar.

The School of Sweet Georgia method recommends holding the length of warp yarn across the loom from the front to the back, creating even tension as you wind the yarn on.

After winding the warp yarn on to the back, moving one yarn end from each slot to the adjacent hole, and tying the ends on to the front apron bar, I was ready to weave. The beginning of my weft yarn was a pretty dark violet color, very different from what my small sample looks like.

I did not measure the weaving as I went, so I didn’t know how long it was when I got to the end of the warp. When I got to the end of the weft yarn on the shuttle there were a few more inches of warp available. I wanted to make sure the scarf was not too short.

The weft yarn was variegated with different colors of blue and purple. The result was different than I expected, more Ombre than stripes. For some reason I don’t remember, I had unwound a few yards of blue at the beginning of the skein of weft yarn and set it aside. The weft yarn was purple when I got to the end of what was on the shuttle. After the purple, in order to made sure the scarf was long enough, I added the blue that I had separated off at the beginning. I worked the hem stitch so I could remove the weaving from the loom and see how long it was. Following are two photos of the weaving at the end of the loom with the extra blue yarn added after the purple.

Blue added abruptly after purple at the end of the scarf

The scarf turned out to be very long, and the abrupt transition from purple to blue did not look right, compared to the more gradual changes of color in the rest of the scarf. After seeing it off the loom, it was clear the scarf would have been plenty long and look better without the extra couple of inches of blue. I decided to remove the extra blue rows.

I worked some hem stitch at the end of the purple, and then removed the blue that did not look right. The next two photos are the entire scarf with the hem stitch added after the purple, but before I removed all of the blue.

The entire scarf off the loom, with hem stitch added between the purple and blue

Close up of hem stitch added after the purple

Following is a photo after the extra blue had all been removed, and I had trimmed the warp yarn evenly for fringe.

Leaving the loose warp yarn at the ends was an option, but instead I started working twisted fringe by hand.

After gently soaking the scarf in warm water with a bit of dish soap and then rinsing, I squeezed out the extra water with a towel and laid it flat to try on the picnic table outside our RV. It was a warm day, so the scarf dried fast in the very dry Arizona conditions. Not including the fringe, the scarf is 98″ long (2.7 yards) and 6 1/2″ wide.

Drying outside on a towel after gently washing

The next day I went over to the laundromat at the RV park and used the ironing board and iron to gently steam and press the scarf, using a linen kitchen towel for a pressing cloth.

After steaming with an iron and pressing cloth

The scarf is long enough to wrap around my neck twice. Ombre is not my favorite, but when wound and bunched up, you just notice the pretty colors.

Our time in Arizona is over for this year. The weather has been inconsistent with more rain than usual. One day last week we wore shorts and tee shirts while bike riding. The next day a sweatshirt with the new scarf was comfortable.

After being here for three months, I am ready to go home. I am even a little disappointed that we missed the winter storm that happened last week in Minnesota. As long as I do not have to go anywhere, I love working on a project in the house while watching a storm outside.

Last winter there was a lot of snow in Minnesota. When we got home in April the side of the driveway where we park the RV was piled high with a big snowbank. This year there was hardly any snow until now. The report from back home is that we got almost 10″ of snow from the recent storm, but likely it will melt by the time we get there. I would not be surprised or disappointed if there is another late season snowstorm in April, giving me an opportunity to sit inside knitting and watching the weather outside.

Socks Re-Do

I made this pair of socks two years ago when we were in Arizona (click here for blog post). They looked great but they did not fit right. The pattern was complicated, they took forever to complete, there were too few stitches around, and the cable pattern made them even tighter. I used a new heel pattern that I started in the wrong place. They ended up being too long and too narrow.

I considered re-doing the toes to make them shorter, and giving them to my aunt who is very petite. I assumed her feet would be small. It turned out they were not that much smaller than mine, so they would not fit her either.

After a year of pondering this problem, I decided to “frog” (rip out) the socks and start over. The Madelinetosh Twist Light yarn is good quality and I really like it, so better to have a pair of socks I can actually wear. Following is a photo of the original skein of yarn.

One of the things I like about knitting is that if, or rather when, you make a mistake, you can unravel that section and do it over again. Or even frog an entire finished object and reuse the yarn. I used to sew clothes back in the day. Once you cut the pattern pieces out of the fabric, there is only so much you can do if you make a mistake. You can’t get the original length of fabric back. I have read about people who want to knit with good quality yarn, but do not have the budget for it. They find really nice sweaters at thrift shops, unravel them, and use the yarn for something else. There are many tips online about how to pick out sweaters that will work best for this.

Unraveled yarn is very kinky, as the wool remembers the state it has been in. It is OK to knit with kinky yarn, but I thought it would be distracting. Instead of rolling the yarn into a ball as I unraveled it, I wound it into skeins on the back of a chair, so it would be ready for washing to remove the kinks.

After tying the skeins and removing from the chair, they bunched up into funny looking blobs like big kitchen scrubbers. I do not know why one of the skeins looks smaller. As far as I know the two socks were the same size. I might have wrapped the one on the left of the photo tighter around the chair as it relaxed into a smaller blob than the other one.

I was recently reading about sock blanks on the School of Sweet Georgia web site. A sock blank is sock yarn that has been machine knitted flat or into a tube. White sock blanks are dyed for self striping yarn. They can be purchased white or already dyed. You start at one end and knit directly with the yarn as you unravel it, in which case it will be kinky like my yarn above.

Following is a photo of a sock blank from Sweet Georgia Yarns. You can see how colors have been added in gradations for self striping socks.

Following is a photo of my unraveled sock yarn soaking with some hand knit socks.

The yarn looked good, and was ready for a new project after drying flat. One of the skeins looks a bit smaller. The two original socks should have been the same, but maybe they weren’t.

I don’t have my ball winder in the RV, so I rolled the two skeins of yarn into balls the old fashioned way by hand and I was ready to begin. I liked the School of Sweet Georgia pattern “Custom Toe Up Socks” that I used for the green socks I knit recently, so I used it again for this pair.

I have never been much of a swatch maker. The pattern (click here for the link) includes making a “faux circular swatch”, so it seemed like a good exercise to follow the pattern and make the swatch. The faux swatch instructions are also available as a stand alone module (click here for the link). Knitting stockinette stitch in the round will get you a slightly different gauge than knitting stockinette flat back and forth. The faux circular swatch is knit flat on double pointed or circular needles so you can slide the yarn across to the other side after each row, creating a long loop on the back where the working yarn is carried across. Sort of messy looking but resulting in a more accurate gauge. Sometime I will knit a regular plain old swatch AND a faux circular swatch with the same yarn to see how different they are. The next photos are the front and back of my faux circular swatch.

I measured my gauge using the swatch, and then using my foot length and circumference, I filled in the worksheet for the School of Sweet Georgia toe up socks pattern. I was pretty sure I would want to have 60 stitches around based on the other socks I have made using the same yarn, so luckily that is what the worksheet came up with.

The pattern suggests using Judy’s Magic Cast-On for the stitches at the beginning of the toe. I have used this before, but it had been awhile. The School of Sweet Georgia pattern has video showing how to do it in detail, and there are other videos online. It is a good cast-on for toe up socks but I find it a bit mind bending. I watched the video multiple times and started over more than once before I got it right and felt comfortable. The toe is easy once you get the stitches cast on. I ripped out the swatch and wound that yarn back on the ball since I needed all of it for the second sock. That yarn was kinky, but I went ahead and knit with it that way.

The two balls of yarn I was using for the socks re-do came from the original two socks, which began as one skein of yarn. The two new socks started out with one lighter in color and one slightly bigger than the other. One of the balls is bigger, so now I am wondering if the bigger blob of kinky yarn (pictured above) is due to the yarn being different rather than the way I wound it on the chair. The differences in color and weight are a mystery. The kinky looking yarn on the smaller and lighter ball is due to being unwound from the swatch.

One ball of yarn is lighter in color and smaller

I worked on sock knitting feverishly over a period of several days, including bringing the project in the car on some outings. We went on the Apache Trail Scenic drive (north and east of Phoenix) when Wayne’s brother was visiting. We have done this multiple times, but it is always a great outing with visitors. We took a photo at a scenic overlook, and then later I kicked myself because I should have been holding the sock knitting project.

Scenic overlook on the Apache Trail, the socks project is in the car

At the end of our scenic drive we ate dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Apache Junction. I got a photo with my knitting there, sitting next to my sister-in-law Marlene.

I was worried about running out of yarn, after I realized that I was using it up faster for this pair than the original pair I ripped out due to having more stitches around. It was a relief when I finished the Fish Lips Kiss heels and there was plenty of yarn left for cuffs.

I was not sure how long the remaining yarn would last. Shorter cuffs would stay up better with K1P1 ribbing, so I went with that. Following is a photo of the socks with several inches of cuff in K1P1 ribbing. Hmmm, it is OK but not my favorite look.

As it turned out there was plenty of yarn for the cuffs. These socks seem boring compared to the original pair I ripped out, and to “fancy” socks I have seen other people knit. I have to remember not to compare myself with other people as far as knitting, and also anything else in life. Each day is different. Sometimes we barely make it through the day. Other days we are up for more challenging tasks. Each person is on their own journey.

After getting toward the end of the yarn with the K1P1 ribbing, I was not liking it, and it seemed a little bit tight at the point where the ribbing started. I considered doing a picot bind-off to make it more interesting. I had that dreaded decision of “should I just keep going and it will be fine” versus “rip back the part that isn’t quite right and do it over”.

The “Up North Socks” I knit last fall fit very well and have a similar gauge, so I looked at my notes for how many stitches I had at different points in the sock. Without going into too much detail for the non knitters (I probably lost them a long time ago) the ribbing had more stitches than the foot. If the only problem was the style of ribbing, I might have just left it, but it seemed worth it to adjust the fit also. Soooooo I ripped the ribbing and a few more rows out until I had the right number of stitches around for a cuff that would fit me better. On the same day I also wasted an hour and a half on a weaving project, but that will be a story for another post.

Following is another photo after re-knitting the cuff in K2P2 ribbing, with a couple of more stitches around. I like the look better, and more importantly, they fit me better.

Socks with K2P2 ribbing, instead of K1P1

Meanwhile I saw an ad from Twice Sheared Sheep for “Tip Ties”, an ingenious version of knitting needle tip protectors. I have tried to use old fashioned needle tip protectors to keep my knitting from falling off, but they do not stay on. This product is a flexible tube that you stick on the ends of your needles. They stay on, keep the knitting from coming off, and also keep the needles from poking through my fabric project bag.

Needle tip protectors from Twice Sheared Sheep

Tip protectors on my circular needles needles

As I got to the end of the yarn, I wanted to use up as much as I could, without running out in the middle of binding off. I unwound and measured the remaining yarn, adding some markers so I could see how much was used up knitting one round. After some math, I estimated that I could knit for another inch or so before binding off.

After binding off the first half of the stitches on both socks, there was not enough yarn to bind off the second half of one sock, and lots of yarn left on the other sock. I don’t know how I could have knit more rows on one sock when knitting two at a time. And it is consistent with one of the balls of yarn being bigger at the beginning. Maybe one of the original socks was bigger. I used some of the yarn from the sock that had extra to finish binding off the other one. When I was all done I had about five inches of ribbing and a total of one yard of yarn leftover.

After hand washing and laying out flat to dry, the socks were done.

My husband is a big fisherman. We have all seen photos of people with their fish held way out towards the camera to make them look bigger. I saw some photos of a woman showing off her hand knit socks like they were a fish, so I copied the idea.

The socks fit well and I like them. No fancy pattern or bling. They are boring, but I guess I like boring and functional.

Towels with Hand Dyed Linen Yarn

I brought my rigid heddle loom with me to Arizona, along with yarn for several weaving and knitting projects. I always think I am going to get more done than is realistic, but better to be prepared with extra supplies than not enough.

I have been looking forward to using the 100% linen yarn that I hand dyed at Fiber Day. After I finished the tablet weaving shoelace project (link to blog post here), my loom was freed up and I was ready to weave some hand towels using the linen with two other yarns.

I dyed commercially purchased linen yarn two different times at Fiber Day at the Ellison’s sheep farm in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. They have all the supplies there and people who know what to do. I published a blog post about it the first time that you can read here. The next photo shows jars of yellow, red, and purple dye with the linen yarn from the second time.

I used my swift and ball winder at home to make a ball out of the red linen yarn to bring to Arizona.

Following is a photo of most of the yarn I assembled to bring to Arizona for weaving towels. The tubes of off white and blue yarn are 100% 8/4 cotton. The rest is the hand dyed 100% linen in several colors.

The linen is harder to work with than cotton because it has no elasticity. It is recommended to use for weft only. It is stiff but softens up after being washed. I made a small sample of plain weave with the natural color cotton warp and red linen weft, to see how I would like the feel and the interaction of the colors.

With the tiny sample loom I have a hard time packing the weft rows so they are not too tight or too loose, and not either drawing in too much on the sides or not enough. As expected it shrunk and tightened up after washing. It felt nice, but I thought maybe it needed some vertical stripes.

The red linen was not good for warp stripes, but I had some Gist Duet cotton/linen blend yarn in a different shade of red. In order to figure out if the colors worked OK together, I made another sample using some of the Duet yarn in the warp. The Duet has some elasticity due having cotton blended with linen. I used it for vertical stripes placed evenly throughout the warp, but not on the edges. I only put in enough rows in the sample to get an idea what it would look like, so it is quite small. The weft yarn is too loose on the sides, but I did not try very hard to get it right as I just wanted to see how to colors worked together.

My very small sample was 3 1/2″ by 1 1/2″ before washing. I did not have any laundry to wash the sample with, so I just swished it in some hot soapy water, dried it with a towel and a blow dryer. After washing and drying it was even smaller, but it was enough to know that I could use this combination of yarns for my towel project.

Red Duet cotton/linen yarn, off white cotton yarn, red linen yarn with my small sample

I reserved a common room in the community building at our RV Resort, so I would have enough space for warping the towels project. My sister-in-law Marlene, and our friend Jane, worked on painting projects while I worked on warping my loom. Following is a photo of the yarn for my project, in front of the beginning of Marlene’s painting. Marlene is a good artist. I am comfortable with knitting and weaving, but not painting. How do you know when a painting is done? The painting in the photo below could be done if you wanted an abstract look, but it was only the beginning done in water color. Marlene had brought pastels to add to the painting.

Getting ready to warp the loom. My yarn looks nice next to the beginning of Marlene’s painting

In the following photo, Marlene is working on her painting using a photo as a guide, but making it her own.

Jane started out working on a watercolor painting, but gave up and instead worked on a crochet hair tie.

Following is me warping my rigid heddle loom with the natural cotton and red Duet cotton/linen blend.

Ready to roll the warp yarn around the back beam

I am pretty comfortable using my rigid heddle loom, having learned from my weaving mentor in Fergus Falls, Torri Hanna. There are many online sources of instruction, patterns, and tips for improving your weaving results. Before working on this current project, I watched a 12 lesson School of Sweet Georgia class called Rigid Heddle Weaving Basics. I was not sure if I would learn anything new, but I did and am very glad I watched the class.

Ready to tie the front warp ends to the apron bar

After the project was warped on the loom, I could work on the weaving part back in our RV. I used the red linen for every weft row.

I had been stressing about the different shades of red yarn for this project. It ended up looking good, partly because the red linen has periodic bits of natural and lighter red where the skein of yarn was tied together during the dying process.

The sections of red linen weft yarn with variations of color, or lack of color, are evident in the following photo.

There was not enough of the red linen yarn to make the second towel the same (so I thought), so I decided to go with weft stripes of natural cotton alternating with the red linen. After about 12 inches of weaving the second towel, I could see the end of the warp. WHAT? I thought I measured out enough warp yarn for two 28″ towels. After reviewing my notes I realized that I calculated the total warp length needed for only one towel.

I ran out of warp yarn after 12″ of the second towel

Following is a photo of both towels after removing them from the loom, but before washing.

I was concerned about the red from my hand dyed yarn bleeding all over my laundry if I washed it with a regular load, like I usually do. I rinsed the two towels out in the sink with some hot water and soap first, which did result in red dye rinsing out. After I did not see any more red in the water, I washed and dried them in the washing machine and dryer. It looks a bit like some of the red dye changed the color of the off white to a slight pink color on the towel with vertical stripes, but it might be just the way the colors interact together.

After weaving in ends, washing, drying and ironing, the towels looked and felt nice. I like the texture. I like the plaid pattern better, so bummer it is so small. It will have to be a napkin or fingertip towel.

People compliment me on my knitting and weaving skill, and ability to work on very detailed projects. However there was a time when I was knitting garter stitch scarves just like all beginning knitters. And I was very intimidated by weaving before I actually tried it. It has taken a long time to progress gradually to where I am now, and there are many people who are much more advanced in their skill in spinning, knitting, and weaving. If you want to learn these crafts, please do not give up. You can do it! On the other hand, it is a good thing that there are people who can paint or do other activities that are not in my skill set. We need what everyone has to offer. Marlene’s painting of the Superstition Mountains near our RV Resort turned out beautifully! I am going to get a print of it for our house.

Painting of the Superstition Mountains by Marlene Maloney

And lastly is a close up photo of the completed woven towels. I am going to make another set with the blue, yellow and white cotton and hand dyed linen yarns. I will make sure to measure the warp length correctly!

Tablet Woven Shoelaces

I have more knitting, spinning and weaving project ideas in my head than I can keep up with. The possibilities are infinite, there is always something new to learn or try.

I had heard of something called tablet weaving or card weaving. It had not sparked my interest…until I saw a photo and pattern for shoelaces made with tablet weaving. After that I was intrigued and wanted to try it. They looked practical and unique, and something you could give as a gift. Who doesn’t want a hand woven pair of shoelaces to match their shoes? I decided it would be a fun thing to try and a good project to work on in Arizona.

Tablet weaving is a very old craft where a set of cards with holes in them are used to weave bands and straps. It goes back thousands of years and has been practiced in many parts of the world including China, Turkey, Africa, Burma, Bulgaria, Yogoslavia, Greece, Iceland, Persia, France, and Scandinavia. Although not hard to learn, it can produce complex patterns. Following are some photos of old tablet weaving finds, from the book “Card Weaving” by Candace Crockett. The first one is of a “complete loom with fifty-two wooden tablets, found in the tomb of Queen Asa….part of the Oseberg ship find from A.D. 850 (Norway)”.

The next photos shows sections of a tablet woven band from sixth century Snartemo, Norway.

Last historical photo from the same book is of a “French ecclesiastical card weaving from the twelfth century”.

I liked the fact that tablet weaving can be done with minimal investment. The only mandatory tools needed are the cards and some yarn. You can make a set of cards yourself using supplies you probably have on hand, so it is possible to experiment without spending any money. Ideally you also have a small shuttle for weaving the weft yarn back and forth, but you can make one with cardboard, or just make a figure 8 with warp yarn and not use a shuttle at all. The shuttle is also used to beat the weft yarn, but if you do not have a shuttle you can use a ruler or the rounded edge of a table knife.

I like to have the right equipment, but I also did not want to spend very much money just to try tablet weaving. I bought a set of cards, a small used shuttle, and a book, which would be enough to get me started without a big investment.

As with all types of weaving, the warp yarn must be under tension while you are working. There are small looms designed for tablet weaving, or other ways to anchor both ends of the weaving. Blackstrap weaving works well for this, where one end is tied to a doorknob or something stationary, and the end you are working on is tied to your waist. I also thought I could use my rigid heddle loom with the reed removed. It would not be too hard to make card weaving loom yourself using information online.

I watched quite a few videos on You Tube and read the detailed instructions in the book until I understood the basic idea. The instructions said to number the cards with a pencil to keep them in the right order. OK then why don’t the cards come with numbers already printed on them? I guess you might want to use card number one in a different position on the different project.

Following is a copy of the free shoelace pattern I came across online, probably on Pinterest. I have since learned that John Mullarkey is an expert in tablet weaving. He teaches and has published books on the subject.

I started this adventure with a practice project using 30″ long waste warp yarn ends from my cottolin towels project (click here for that post), so I could figure out how it works before beginning the shoelaces. After threading the yarn ends through the cards I tied one end on to a ring and made a knot in the other end, to prepare for weaving using the backstrap method.

I put the ring over the warping peg from my rigid heddle loom, connected the other end to a belt on my waist, and I was ready to go.

Tablet weaving with the backstrap method

Not surprisingly I made some mistakes when trying to follow the pattern, so I was glad I did not jump right in with the shoelace yarn. It is not a hard pattern, but I was trying to think about many new things and also getting distracted. You can see in the photo below where some of the rows near the beginning are different than the rest after that. None of it matches the photo on the pattern and it is too wide for a shoelace. The rubber band is used to keep the cards in the right order and orientation when taking a break from the project.

My first inches of tablet weaving had mistakes and did not look like the pattern

After awhile I figured out that the second half of the cards were threaded from the wrong direction. That resulted in the pattern that I was getting, rather than the one I was trying to make. Due to the short warp threads it was easy to re-thread the cards the right direction, and then I got the pattern that looked like the photo on the directions. My finished work got narrower towards the end as I pulled the weft threads tighter, and then I ran out of yarn. Not too bad for a first try by myself.

The weaving is warp faced, which means that the pattern you see is all warp yarn, other than at the sides. You actually cannot see the weft yarn at all except at the edges. The pattern is formed by the warp yarns getting twisted around each other as the cards are turned forwards or backwards. The weaving is very dense so when you have to start a new length of weft yarn you can overlap it in the same shed, and then just cut off the ends even with the edge. This is great as I do not enjoy weaving in ends.

After weaving the sample, I felt comfortable what I was doing. For the real shoelaces project I had two colors of 10/2 mercerized cotton in 1.5 ounce cones from Lunatic Fringe Yarns. Most of the places where I saw this yarn sold it only came in larger quantities, so I was happy to find these smaller cones. I had measured out the yarn for one pair of shoelaces at home, and packed it in with my supplies for Arizona.

After threading the warp yarn through the cards (correctly this time) I tied the ends of the warp yarn on to the back of my rigid heddle loom, to see how that would work as opposed to the backstrap method. There are ways to keep the long lengths of warp yarn orderly but I did not do any of them, so my yarn was a mess. The double pointed knitting needle through the cards was another way to keep them in order while I worked getting everything set up.

It took awhile to untangle the warp yarn, allowing the cards to slide freely.

After the yarn was in order I would it around the back beam with paper, and then tied the other ends to the front apron bar. The cards were in the middle where the reed would normally be for a rigid heddle weaving project.

Warped and ready to begin card weaving project

The pattern is formed as the cards are rotated forward or backwards as a group, twisting the warp yarns around each other. Each time you rotate the cards, the warp yarns are twisted at the back too. The pattern I was making had four rotations forward causing the yarn at the back to be all twisted up, followed by four rotations backward, untwisting the yarns at the back. Following is a photo of the back beam after the four forward turns. If you kept on rotating forward without any backward turns, it would keep getting more and more twisted. If necessary it would be possible to unwind the threads at the back and untwist them.

Yarn twisted behind the weaving after four turns in the same direction

I used a post-it note to keep track of where I was in the pattern.

After a few inches of weaving while pulling the weft yarn tight on each pass across, the width was the way it was supposed to be.

Following are photos at the end of the weaving, with the completed part at the beginning rolled up on the front apron bar and the other end completely unwound.

After weaving as much as I could, I cut it off the loom.

I had to start a new weft yarn once, but no weaving in of ends! It is packed so tight the ends can be cut off flush with the side. There are two spots where a warp yarn is crossed over, I must have put the weft yarn through from the wrong direction.

Section of weaving where I started a new length of warp yarn, and showing 2 weft yarn mistakes

The finished usable length of the first shoelace was 64”. My sneakers shoelaces are 45″ long including the tips. If had measured my shoelaces before I started the project, I could have woven a shorter length but oh well.

Weaving shoelaces is like knitting socks one at a time. After finishing the first shoelace, I had to start over and make the other one. I wonder if you could make two at a time. The second one went faster and came out a bit longer at 67″.

This pattern could also be used for making a lanyard or eyeglasses strap, a bracelet, or a necklace to hold a chunky pendant.

The shoelaces need “aglets” on the ends, the tips that allow the lace to fit through the holes. Real ones are available for sale online, or the end can be wrapped with tape. Being that I was trying to minimize expenses on this project, I decided to make my own aglets with packing tape. I found the following article online with instructions https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Aglets.

I had 16″ and 13″ long pieces left after cutting off what I did not need for the shoelaces. It could be used for a keychain, a bracelet, or something else. I liked using my rigid heddle loom better than the backstrap method, the weaving stayed in place more effectively.

I was very pleased with the result after threading the new shoelaces on my sneakers. Everyone says “wow, the colors look good with your shoes”. Yes, I specifically picked out the colors because they match my shoes!

Not sure when I will do another tablet weaving project. I am already on to my next rigid heddle weaving project of dish towels using cotton, cotton/linen blend yarn, and 100% linen yarn that I dyed myself.