Yarns from the Lake

Silk Hankies and a Scarf

Last summer there was a Fiber Arts Festival in Fargo. I did not need any more knitting, spinning or weaving yarn, supplies, or accessories, and it was an hour drive one way to get there. Of course I wanted to go. A knitter friend visiting that weekend was more than happy to join me. There were the usual assortment of vendors with hand spun yarn, commercial yarn, fleeces, roving, baskets, knitting patterns, knitting accessories, and many other related products. I had seen some of the vendors before at other fiber fairs, many were new to me.

After circling around the large room twice to check out all the offerings and watch some demonstrations, I decided on two things to buy. I fell in love with some silk/wool/linen blend Malabrigo yarn in a muted dark purple shade. I didn’t know what I would do with it at the time, but being only one skein it would likely be part of a project with multiple yarns.

I also bought some hand dyed silk hankies. One silk hankie is actual silk from a silk cocoon flattened out into a very thin square. They are usually sold in layers of multiple hankies hand dyed together. I bought two “stacks” of hankies in different colorways. One was darker with purple and some blues and greens and a bit of yellow. The other one was lighter with some purple and more yellow and lighter blues. I thought the two colorways looked good together. I was planning on spinning them into yarn, but they can also be used in felting projects. To use the silk hankies a single layer, or a couple of layers, are separated from the rest. Following is a photo of the two stacks of silk hankies I bought, along with one layer from the lighter colorway stretched out ready to spin.

You can see in the next photo that the outside edge of each layer has a sort of ridge to hold on to in order to peel it apart from the rest.

In the following photo one layer of the lighter colorway is separated from the rest. Or it might be two layers. An individual layer is very very thin.

One or two layers separated from the rest

I worked on spinning the silk hankies at Fall Fiber Day at Northcroft Farm in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. To spin a hankie, a layer (or more then one) is separated from the rest, a hole is poked in the middle, and then it is stretched out until it is the width desired for your yarn. The silk can be knit like that, but I wanted to spin it.

I did not get any photos of the actual spinning, but following are the two bobbins of singles yarn I got, one from each colorway of the silk hankies.

One bobbin from each silk hankie colorway

I plied the two singles together. The bobbin with the darker color had more length than the other one so part of it did not get plied. I went ahead and wound it all into a skein including the two ply yarn and the singles yarn.

One skein of silk hankie yarn with both plied and singles yarn

While here in Arizona I did an excellent virtual School of Sweet Georgia class on spinning (click here to check it out). Even though I do not have my spinning wheel here, I learned a lot, including a couple of ways of plying that can be done with one length of singles yarn (as opposed to my usual method of having two bobbins). If I had had that information when I was still at home with my spinning wheel, I might have plied that extra length of dark purple singles into two play yarn. When I get back home I plan to watch the School of Sweet Georgia spinning class again when I can practice on my spinning wheel what is being presented.

As it turns out, I decided to use the silk hankie singles yarn in a project here in Arizona, so I separated the plied silk yarn from the singles part and then rolled them into balls.

The two ply yarn silk yarn separated from the singles yarn

The singles and plied silk hankie yarn rolled into balls

When we were in the Bay Area of California over Thanksgiving I bought a skein of 100% Mulberry Silk Malabrigo brand yarn. I knew it would go nicely with the darker Malabrigo yarn I had bought at the Fiber Fair over the summer.

In December when we were preparing for our three months in Arizona, one of my tasks was figuring out what projects I wanted to work on there, and accordingly what yarn and patterns to bring. I had an idea for a scarf using a hybrid of two patterns with the purplish yarns including the two Malabrigo yarns and the silk hankie yarn.

The first pattern, Scarf in Sunset, is a shallow triangle with increases at each end every row. It is available for free on Ravelry, click here for the pattern.

The second pattern that I got from my mother’s cousin Mary Turak is called a “Slide Scarf”, using two different yarns. It is a good pattern if you have a limited amount of some handspun yarn that is not enough by itself to make something. The copy I have is in her handwriting, so I don’t know if she made it up or where she got it from. It starts like a basic scarf knitting every row flat on circular needles, but two yarns are alternated every row. When you get to the end of every other row the working yarn is at the other end, so you “slide” the yarn across to the other end of the circular needle and knit from there. The result is it looks like you are alternating stockinette stitch with garter stitch. It looks best if a larger needle size is used than you might normally use for the yarn, but it can be whatever you want as far as how wide and how loose.

I assembled the purplish merino, linen and silk yarns that I wanted to use in the project, including the two Malabrigo yarns and the small amount of the silk hankie singles that I had spun. I did not use the plied silk hankie yarn. I followed the shallow triangle pattern with the increases at the end of every row, but also alternated between two yarns every row, sliding the yarn when needed. I held the silk hankie singles yarn together with the darker merino/linen/silk yarn for the first yarn, and used the 100% silk Malabrigo yarn for the second yarn.

I cast on for the scarf using size five needles, which was bigger than recommended for both of the commercial yarns. After a few rows it seemed too dense, so I started over with size six. After getting about as far as in the photo below, I decided that was still too dense. I did not feel like starting over again, but I changed to size eight and continued on.

In the middle of this project we went to an art fair in Gold Canyon, Arizona, where I bought an up-cycled cowboy boot bag. Most of the cowboy boot bags were narrower and taller, the right size for a wine bottle carrier. I liked the wider shape of the one I bought for use as a knitting project bag. It is a functional wild west conversation piece!

Upcycled cowboy boot bag from an art fair

The scarf knitting went pretty fast, and I had to change to a longer cord after a short time as the scarf got wider. You can tell where I used the smaller needles at the beginning. Ideally I would have started over rather than changing needle size mid project, but I don’t think it will be noticeable when the scarf is on my neck and all bunched up.

I liked this project because it was easy enough to work on while watching TV, or while listening to a School of Sweet Georgia class, which I have been doing a lot of. I also loved the blending of different colors in the yarns that varied with each stitch.

Watching a School of Sweet Georgia class while knitting

After a few inches I realized I was going to run out of the silk hankie yarn way before the end of the scarf, although that was obvious even before I started knitting. It would look funny if it just stopped in the middle of the scarf, so I started using it every other time I knitted with the darker yarn for a few inches, then even less often. I am not sure anyone will even be able to tell it is there at all due to the variegated colors in the yarns. Even the darker yarn that seems like all one color actually has some variation that I noticed as I was knitting with it.

The next photo shows the project up close after completing a row using the silk hankie singles yarn held together with the Malabrigo merino/silk/linen yarn.

Closeup showing the silk hankie yarn held together with the commercial yarn

After it seemed big enough for what I had in mind I cast off the long edge, although there was enough yarn to make it larger. The two sides of the triangle looked different and raggedy, so I did a single crochet border all the way around that gave it some shape and consistency.

Crocheting a border around the entire edge

I blocked the scarf by steaming it gently, using an iron with a linen dish towel for a pressing cloth, in the laundry room of the RV Resort.

Blocked with steam using a pressing cloth and an iron

Following is a photo of the completed scarf rolled up like a Crescent, with the leftover yarn.

The scarf can be worn multiple ways. It can be wrapped with the tails tucked in like a cowl, or with the tails hanging down. It could also have the tails hanging one in the front and one in the back, or however one wants.

It would be interesting to compare a woven scarf using the same yarns to the knitted scarf, but alas there is not enough yarn. The leftover yarn may end up combined with something else in a woven scarf in the future.

School of Sweet Georgia Socks

I started knitting a pair of socks in December, to bring on our post holiday road trip to Arizona. It was so unseasonably mild at that time in Minnesota that it barely felt like winter. It was 55 degrees on Christmas Day. Some of the bigger lakes in Minneapolis were open water over the holidays which is unheard of. I saw an article on my google feed describing “Five Lakes in Minnesota that Freeze Over in the Winter”, or something like that. Hello, in a normal winter ALL of the 10,000 lakes freeze over solid. This year has been very strange.

I used Valley Yarns Huntington 75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon yarn in the colorway North Sea for this pair of socks. I thought it was thicker than the Up North Yarn used in my last sock project. Note to self, always knit a swatch before starting a project.

I cast on the green socks and knitted the toe with size 2 magic loop needles, increasing until I got to 60 stitches, the same as the Up North Yarn socks but with one size bigger needles. Although the Up North socks fit very well they are straining a bit at the heel diagonal. For that pair I had added a few stitches before working the Fish Lips Kiss short row heel in order to increase the heel diagonal, but not in any scientific way. I had figured that if the green yarn was a bit thicker, knitted with the same number of stitches on size 2 instead of size 1 needles, the socks would be just a little bigger around.

The gauge for the green yarn is a mystery. After completing the toe and knitting a few inches of foot they seemed the same circumference as the last pair that were on smaller needles. I do not get how that can be. The label on the green yarn says that the 50 gram ball is 218 yards. I realized that The Up North Yarn was also a 50 gram ball, with 219 yards. That would imply it is very similar, so not sure why the the larger needle size and fewer stitches per inch is suggested for the green yarn.

After a week in the Twin Cities over the holidays, we had only two days before leaving for Arizona. That included putting some Christmas decorations back in the basement, because I did not want to see them all over the main floor when we got back home in April. I had done a lot of preparation earlier, so it was doable. On the day of departure Wayne backed the truck up and connected to the RV hitch on the first try. Woohoo! It was a pretty morning about 25 degrees. The first time we did this in January 2022 it was zero degrees, there were many attempts, and it took a long time.

Getting ready to back the truck up to the RV

If we are in our car on a road trip I do some of the driving. When we are towing the RV Wayne does all the driving. That is fine with me as I have more time for knitting. I continued working on the sock foot while we were on the road.

In recent months I had been following social media posts and watching YouTube videos from Sweet Georgia Yarns (a hand dyed yarn company) and the School of Sweet Georgia (a membership based school and community for multicraftual makers). They have online learning for knitting, weaving, spinning, dying, and other related crafts, patterns, and ways for members to share their projects, questions, ideas and journey. I saw a Sweet Georgia video about Circular Sock Knitting Machines. I have been intrigued by vintage circular sock machines for a long time, but now my eyes were opened to a world of new machines that are amazing things. There are people who get together to “crank”. Haha that is what it is called. I really want one of these machines but they cost anywhere from $800 to multiple thousands of dollars and they have a steep learning curve.

I am continuing to enjoy knitting socks and learning different patterns and methods of making them fit better. I would like to be able to make more pairs of socks for gifts but it takes me forever to knit the foot and the cuff. I like the idea of cranking out a pair of socks in one hour! There are ways to make the entire sock using the machine, or you can just crank a tube and knit the sock and heel manually. I have so many questions about how it works and how you can customize sock sizes. I cannot justify buying a CSM now (or probably ever), plus I do not have the bandwidth to learn another thing right now. There are “crank-ins” where people get together to crank, so I may try to find a group of “crankers” in my area to observe and learn. Following is a photo of a CSM from the website of Dean & Bean’s sock machine company.

Circular Sock Knitting Machine from Dean & Bean’s (photo from their website)

In December there was a promotion from the School of Sweet Georgia for a two week membership for $1.00. The timing was not ideal since it was the last two weeks of 2023 when I was busy with the holidays and packing for Arizona, but I decided to go for it. I downloaded some patterns that were available to members, and reviewed the list of virtual classes offered.

I found a School of Sweet Georgia class on knitting custom sized toe up socks that included a PDF workbook and videos (click here for a link to the course). I had not gotten very far on the green socks so it was a good opportunity to take advantage of their instructions. I have knitted socks using a similar pattern with a short row heel but this one had a worksheet with calculations using measurements for your foot, along with the specific row and stitch gauge for your yarn. This info is used to determine when to start increases so that the heel diagonal is the right size, how many increases to make, when to start the short row heel, etc.

Continuing the mystery of the green yarn, the measurements and instructions said I should have 64 stitches around for my sock. I had started the socks with 60 stitches, so I went ahead and increased to 64 after already knitting a couple of inches of the foot. On the Up North Socks I had increased 8 stitches near the short row heel to make the heel diagonal wider. That was probably not enough, but this pattern had me increase 20 stitches which sounded like way too many. Note that most patterns using a short row heel or afterthought heel do not include any increases for the heel diagonal.

Following is a photo of the sock instep (the top part) with the increases.

Sock instep (top) with 20 stitches increased before starting the heel

We spent New Year’s Eve on the road in a hotel room watching the Minnesota Vikings football team get creamed by their arch rival, the Green Bay Packers. I should say Wayne watched the game, I worked on the sock project. When traveling with the RV we must eat dinner within walking distance of the hotel, to avoid towing the RV to a crowded restaurant parking lot. In this case there was only one option, Popeyes chicken. We got take out fried chicken and ate it in front of the TV. Not something I would normally choose but at least they had a healthy side choice of rice and beans.

New Year’s Eve take out fried chicken in a hotel room

In order to knit the heel, I transferred one of the socks to double pointed needles so I could knit one heel at a time on the magic loop needles. This pattern uses a short row method with yarnovers. The instructions are very detailed and helpful but there was one place where I was unsure what to do, so I googled to see if there were some tips or help online. When doing short rows you turn your knitting around in the middle of a row, causing your working yarn to be on the left needle instead of the right. The instructions said to do a “reverse yarn over” at this point with the working yarn on the left needle. If you are a knitter you might know what this would look like, but in any case it is an awkward thing to do. I found a conversation online where another person was trying to figure this out too, beginning with “what fresh hell is this?” Haha I understood where she was coming from but I figured it out.

When I got almost done with the first half of the first heel on the magic loop needles, I could tell that something was wrong. I went ahead and knit the heel for the second sock on the double pointed needles. That one came out correctly, so I ripped out the first heel and started over. The next photo shows one heel in progress.

We arrived at the RV park on the far east side of the Phoenix metro on the first of January. This is our fifth Snowbird adventure at Gold Canyon RV & Golf Resort, the third time in our fifth wheel trailer. As usual there were some swear words as Wayne got the RV leveled and utilities connected, but it all worked out OK and after a few days everything was organized inside the trailer.

I continued knitting on the socks after we were all settled. After finishing the second heel, I transferred that sock back to the magic loop needles. The next step was decrease rows to get back to the original number of stitches for the cuff.

After the initial two weeks for $1.00 the School of Sweet Georgia charged me $24 for the next month. Wayne has already spent about $250 on golf in the three weeks since we have been here so I guess it is OK for me to spend $24 on a whole month of information and support related to my main activity. The following photo shows the green socks with the cuff in progress.

The School of Sweet Georgia pattern uses a type of bind off that I have not used for socks before. It involves knitting two stitches together, and then knitting the next two stitches together, etc. It is considered to be a stretchy bind off which is what you want for socks. I liked it and will use it again.

After I finished the knitting and woven in the ends, I put the green socks in a tub of water to soak with a bit of dish soap along with two other pairs of socks that needed to be hand washed. I also put in some yarn that will be featured in a future post.

Completed green socks in with some other hand washing

This yarn is very soft and fuzzy. It also split regularly and pills a lot. The socks are a little bigger and looser than the Up North Yarn socks. I should have done a sample with a size 1 needle. The fact that the yarn label suggested size 2 or 3 needle threw me off. That is why you are supposed to knit a swatch. Despite all that the finished green socks looked pretty good after laying out flat to dry.

Socks complete using School of Sweet Georgia pattern

The School of Sweet Georgia pattern was very detailed with both video and written instructions. The section with abbreviations had mini instructions for exactly how to do each thing. I really liked the suggested bind off method. There was even detailed information and video on weaving in the ends. Even though my socks came out a bit loose, I will use the pattern again with adjustments for how I like my socks to fit. I recommend checking out the School of Sweet Georgia if you are looking for instruction and community related to knitting, spinning, weaving, etc. The classes are all very thorough and include written transcripts you can download, as well as video instruction, and also forums for discussions and questions. Click here if you want to check it out.

We have had some cool weather here, even getting down to freezing a couple of nights, but we did not complain. At the same time the high temperature back home in west central Minnesota was minus 10. The next photo is me modeling the socks in front of our RV, ready for a bike ride in Gold Canyon.

I could keep the socks for myself despite the generous fit, but instead I will give them to my daughter. Her feet are the same length as mine but wider and I know she will be happy to have them.

Knitted Baby Shoes

Many years ago I came across a book called “50 baby bootees to knit” by Zoe Mellor. I had to have it. I did not have any babies to knit for at the time, but the booties were just so cute and I liked the idea of a project that would not take too long or use very much yarn. I knit one pair for a shower gift, and then the book when on a shelf for about 15 years.

One problem with knitting pattern books is that usually there are only a couple of patterns that I would actually make. In this case, in addition to the many booties in the book I would not make, I realized that I generally don’t like projects that involve more time on assembly than actual knitting. Nowadays I get most of my patterns on Ravelry. Almost all knitting and crochet patterns are available there, it is easy to search for a pattern when you have something in mind, you can see photos of things people made with each pattern, and you can buy the specific pattern you want. Many patterns offered for free.

In the fall of 2022 after I found out that we would be having a grandchild, I dug the book out again and picked out a pattern to work on in Arizona last winter. I had some Rowen 4-ply cotton yarn in my stash. Many of the booties in the book are variations of one basic pattern that is knitted flat, as you can see in the photo below. The two sides of the heel are joined, and then the upper part of the bootie is sewed on to the sole, with some gathering at the toe. It did not take very long, but had too much assembling for my taste.

The next photo shows the sole of the booties after sewing the top on to the bottom.

I don’t remember what size I made, but I believe it was not the smallest or largest size. I had no concept of what size a baby’s feet are. I did not know how old the grandchild would be when they fit her. They are like tiny Mary Jane shoes.

Following are photos of the knitted shoes on our granddaughter Blair’s feet in November, when she was about five months old. They were the right width, but too long.

When I was a baby my mom knitted and sewed clothes for me. I have a few of these items, including a purple dress with a yoke that she smocked herself. When our daughter Britta was an infant, I remember wanting to get a picture of her wearing the purple dress, but I don’t think it happened or in any case I cannot find a photo.

Dress my mom sewed and smocked for me when I was a baby

When Britta was a baby, Wayne’s sister and brother-in-law gave us a small wooden rocking chair with her initials, BEH, carved in it. Wayne found the chair this fall and noticed that if he filled in the bottom of the “E”, changing it to an “F”, it would now have Blair’s initials. We brought the chair with us to St. Paul to our son and daughter-in-law’s house for Christmas. Their dog immediately chewed on one of the armrests.

Chair with the middle initial changed from E to F

Blair was pretty proud of herself sitting in the little rocking chair.

While we were there at Christmastime I also got a photo of Blair wearing the purple dress and the booties, while sitting in the rocking chair. The wet spot on one side is where she stuffed a wad of dress in her mouth. Usually Blair is wearing something more practical, and everything is so casual these days, I don’t know if she will ever wear the dress again.

I am glad I got some photos, but also a little sad that my mom is no longer with us to see her great granddaughter wearing the dress she made about 65 years ago.

Knitted Holiday Ornaments

We had a week of quality time with family in the Bay Area of California over Thanksgiving. Wayne’s sister Yvonne, and brother-in-law Gayle, were very generous hosting us at their home in Alameda. Our son and daughter-in-law, James and Kelsey, came too, bringing their five month old daughter on her first plane ride. It was a full house with our niece and her boyfriend home for the holiday. We were able to spend quite a bit of time with our daughter Britta, and her boyfriend Isaac, who live nearby in Oakland. It was a good blend of fun outings and just hanging out.

My project for this trip was a set of knitted Christmas ornaments. I used a pattern called “Fancy Balls Ornaments” from Tin Can Knits. The link for the pattern on Ravelry is here. They are similar to the Arne & Carlos knitted balls (see my blog post here), but work up faster due to fewer stitches around and less complicated designs.

I had some Norwegian Rauma Finullgarn fingering weight wool yarn in my stash that was perfect for this project.

Norwegian wool yarn for knitted ornaments

I started the first ornament while on the flight from Minneapolis. The pattern has you start by casting on four stitches in the round. That is very slippery and it is hard to keep the double pointed needles facing the right way and not sliding out. I was trying very hard not to drop a needle on the floor of the airplane in which case I might never find it. The man sitting across the aisle was surprised that the airline let me take the knitting needles through security. I almost always bring a knitting project on a plane trip, and so far it has never been a problem.

I got about 2/3 done with one ornament on the plane, when you are supposed to turn it inside out to weave in the ends and then put in some stuffing. I did not have anything to stuff it with so I had to stop.

Ornament 2/3 done, turned inside out to weave in ends before adding stuffing

Later when we were at Yvonne and Gayle’s house, Yvonne had a big wad of dryer lint from a new cotton blanket that she had washed. I was able to use that and finish the ornament at their house.

The pattern has equal numbers of increases at the beginning to the number of decreases at the end, but for some reason it came out pointier on the top half. Wayne said it was shaped like one of the holiday gnomes that are all over these days. The gnome in the photo below with my completed ornament belonged to my mother-in-law. Yvonne refurbished it and has it on display in her house.

I started a second ornament, but I did not really do much knitting on this trip, so I did not finish it until we got back home. My goal when bringing a knitting project on a trip is to make sure that when there is some down time I have something to do, not necessarily to get a lot done.

Instead of knitting, other things I did on this trip included walks through the neighborhood, watching football games, working on a puzzle, and hiking with our kids on the Tennessee Valley Trail to a beach. No we were not in Tennessee. You can click here for a link to the Tennessee Valley area of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Following is a photo of Isaac, Britta, Kelsey with Blair, and James at the beach we hiked to.

We had an afternoon adventure with Britta and Isaac driving south to Santa Cruz. As we were driving along the coast we saw massively big waves. Isaac has lived in Oakland most of his life and said he had never seen waves that big. We ended up pulling over to a place where we could park and get out of the car. Britta and Isaac walked way out on some rocks which of course made us very nervous. A park ranger came by to warn us about “Sleeper Waves”, which are random even bigger waves. In Santa Cruz we went on a scenic walk along a path high up above the coast, ate tacos for lunch, and got ice cream cones before it was time to drive back to Alameda. Following is a photo of the giant waves crashing again the rocks, with Britta and Isaac getting a little too far out for our comfort.

Another activity we did was go to Reboot Float and Cryo Spa where our daughter works. We are not normally “spa” kind of people, but we decided to try the float tank. Normally it costs about $60 to $100, but we got the “parents” price of “free”. Our son James also tried it. There are “pods” with warm water and tons of salt. The large amount of salt causes you to float. You lay in the pod for about an hour with music and light on or off as you choose. You do not have to close the lid, but most people do. You are supposed to get completely relaxed and in a state of sensory deprivation. I thought it would be claustrophobic with the lid closed, but it wasn’t. There was a sort of optical illusion so it felt like you were in a bigger space. Wayne loved it and would do this regularly if money were no object. My son and I were both glad we tried it, but are not interested in doing it again.

James and Kelsey are very experienced travelers, but were not sure how it would go with a five month old baby. Kelsey had a work trip right before the Thanksgiving trip, so traveled from Mississippi to St Paul, and then on to San Francisco all on the same day. They were able to see some friends who live in Oakland, and enjoyed walking in the neighborhood as well as the outings and time with family. James was in the bedroom with Blair during the Thanksgiving meal. Other people offered to relieve him, but he declined. I think maybe he needed a quiet break himself, and was ready to be back home. Later I asked Kelsey if their experience on this trip affected their thoughts about possible upcoming trips, like coming to see us in Arizona. She was very positive and talked about visiting her sister in LA in January, visiting us in Arizona in February, and going to see a friend in Texas in March. OK then.

We had five pies for Thanksgiving, with several people contributing their labor. My daughter made her first apple pie, using apples from the neighbor’s tree. My niece made pumpkin pie. Gayle’s cousin was asked to bring a pecan pie but instead brought home made cinnamon rolls. That is not traditional but oh well. We bought a pecan pie from the freezer section of the grocery store instead, since the freshly made pies were sold out on the day we went shopping.

I made French Silk Pie. Wayne complained that that is not traditional for Thanksgiving, but everyone requested it. French Silk Pie has raw eggs and is not baked, so you are supposed to use pasteurized eggs. I used to be able to buy a carton of pasteurized eggs at the grocery store, but have not been able to find them for years. Last year I decided at the last minute to make this pie, and after researching options, decided to try using liquid eggs which are pasteurized but also they are only egg whites. The texture did not come out right. This year I had a new recipe that takes care of the egg problem by cooking the eggs with the sugar to 160 degrees F. The chocolate has to be melted and then cooled, so the butter does not melt. The chocolate was not melted enough, so there were big chunks in the final completed pie. As I was mixing the ingredients together it seemed too buttery. I thought it was due to the pieces of un melted chocolate that were not blended in. I squirted in some Hershey’s syrup, and then melted and added more chocolate I found in my SIL’s cupboard. Later I realized that I accidentally put in double the amount of butter. I was worried that it would taste like we were eating solid butter, but actually it was OK. I knew it was not right, but no one else would have noticed if I had not pointed it out.

My brother-in-law Gayle and their son Jason always make lemon meringue pie for Thanksgiving, using lemons from their tree. Jason was not home this year, so Gayle made it by himself. The pie looked amazing, but it was pretty sour. No one was sure if he did not use enough sugar or if the lemons were more sour than normal. Despite the problems with the French Silk and Lemon Meringue pies, no one complained about the variety and quality of dessert options!

There was one free afternoon at the end of the week after all the adult children had gone home and the guys were golfing. I googled places to go for a hike that were also near a yarn shop. I found an area where we could do this about 10 miles away in Berkeley. At home I have to drive 12 miles to get from our house out in the country to the grocery store in Fergus Falls, so I drive that far all the time. But this 10 mile drive involved going on highways and driving through densely populated, congested and possibly unsafe areas. Yvonne was hesitant about venturing out that way, but we went and it worked out fine. There was a parking place on the street directly in front of the The Black Squirrel yarn shop.

I bought some long magic loop needles so I could make the Christmas ornaments with magic loop instead of double pointed needles. I also bought a skein of luscious 100% silk yarn. I have an idea for what I am going to do with this yarn, but that could change.

By the time we got done at the yarn shop it was getting late in the afternoon. We decided to skip the hike and head back to Yvonne’s house, cutting through the cute commercial area of Berkeley. I would have enjoyed walking around there, but we will have to do that another time. Following is a photo of the second ornament after I moved it onto the new magic loop needles.

Our flights were direct on Delta between MSP and San Francisco. The Oakland airport is a lot closer to Alameda but all the flights to that airport from Minneapolis have at least one stop. We did not want to ask Gayle to drive us to the San Francisco airport in rush hour traffic. Instead he dropped us off at the BART station near their house. We had to transfer once, but it was easy. The train stopped right at the departure entrance of the airport.

After we were back home I finished the second ornament and made a third one. I went rogue and did not follow the designs for the third one, but instead knitted alternate rows of red and white. I crocheted some chain stitch for loops to hang the ornaments.

Lengths of crochet chain for ornament handles

I actually like the red and white striped one the best. I swear it has the same number of stitches as the others, so I don’t know why it came out fatter. Maybe the colorwork on the other two caused the stitches to be closer together. They are all about five to six inches tall.

Following is a photo of the three “Fancy Balls” ornaments on our tree, along with a round shaped Arne & Carlos ornament you can see on the far left (that I did not make), a needle felted gnome that my other niece made, and my favorite wool sheep ornament.

I hope everyone has a safe and peaceful holiday season, whoever you are with and however you celebrate.

Cottolin Towels

After weaving towels I loved using Gist Duet cotton/linen blend yarn, I was excited to try weaving with Cottolin, another cotton/linen blend yarn that is thinner and has a larger percentage of cotton. I bought some tubes online at yarn.com, and later when I was in Minneapolis I bought more at the Weavers Guild store. Pictured below is a small cloth I made for my daughter using red Duet yarn for the weft.

Fermenting jar cover made with Duet cotton/linen blend weft yarn

I had not paid much attention to the Weaver’s Guild in the past when it was located in the Textile Center in Minneapolis. When we lived in the Twin Cities, before I started weaving, I had been to the Textile center a number of times to see exhibits at the Gallery, visit the gift shop, use the dye lab and generally explore.

Meanwhile the Weaver’s Guild moved to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts building, also in Minneapolis. I went there this summer with my artist sister-in-law with the goal of buying some Cottolin yarn in person, so I could see the colors in person, and not have to pay shipping. We both enjoyed walking around inside the building and checking out all the interesting exhibits and offerings there, including Gallery space, a book store, classes and workshops related to book making, space for events and book talks, and a coffee shop. The Weaver’s Guild has looms, weaving yarn and supplies for sale, as well as space for weaving classes in the building. Following is a photo of yarn for sale at the Weaver’s Guild store.

Weaving yarn for sale at the Weavers Guild store in Minneapolis

Cottolin is thinner than any other yarn I have worked with, so I did some research on how many ends per inch I should use for warping a set of dish towels. There is a range depending on your pattern and how dense you want it to be. I decided to buy a set of three tiny sample looms so I could weave up small pieces of fabric with two different densities. They are small wood frames about five inches wide with notches across the top and bottom, the right distance apart for eight, ten, or twelve ends per inch.

Set of tiny sample looms, five inches wide each

This project of making samples sounded easy and quick but it wasn’t. For one thing I was deciding between 20 and 24 ends per inch. That requires putting two ends in each slot of the ten or twelve end per inch mini loom. Winding the yarn on to the loom was not hard, but it was tricky to weave the weft yarn through the warp with a needle.

The first sample I made was plain weave at 20 ends per inch. I used a comb that I normally use with my drum carder to pack each row. It was hard to keep the sides from drawing in, and hard to keep the tension even.

Following is the first sample with hem stitching at each end, before washing.

I made the second sample with 24 ends per inch, and with twill instead of plain weave. The twill (over two under one) with so many ends made it hard to get the needle in and out of the right warp yarns. It was slow and frustrating and I made a lot of mistakes. I did not bother to weave in the ends or fix the mistakes. It was an interesting exercise but probably not worth the hassle. I decided to use 24 ends per inch for my towel project, which is what Torri, my weaving mentor, recommended from the beginning. Following is a photo of the two samples after washing. They are wrinkly, even after ironing.

Tiny weaving samples with plain weave and twill, 20 and 24 ends per inch

I picked out colors of the Cottolin yarn to use for my set of four towels, which are shown in the next photos. The warp yarn is the natural. The blue in the first photo is a pretty periwinkle color. I like the way the yarns coordinate with the painted tile my aunt made of our family cabin years ago. For the forth towel I used a different color of blue, leaning more towards turquoise. The second photo shows the two blue yarns next to each other.

Two different colors of blue used in this project

Once I had decided to go with 24 ends per inch, and selected patterns from my weaving pattern book, it was time to warp the loom. This was by far the largest number of warp ends I had used in any project. My towels were 20″ wide on the loom, with 24 ends per inch, plus 1 extra one each side. That is a total of 482 yarn ends. I used my warping board to measure out the warp yarn in three groups, but I did not take a photo.

Warping the loom is the most time consuming part of weaving. First you put each yarn end through a slot in the reed from the front. In this case I needed two yarn ends in each slot in order to get 24 ends per inch. I did not take a photo of this step. The next part is putting the yarn ends through the heddles. The pattern tells you in what order to thread the yarn ends through the heddles on each harness. I will not try to explain that this time….just go with it or skip on. I made myself a chart to follow as I was threading. It took me a few projects to understand that the patterns read right to left, but since you are sitting at the back of the loom when threading the heddles, you read the pattern from left to right. My pattern had a repeat of 20. In my chart the rows from 1 to 4 are the heddles, with 1 being in the front and 4 being in the back.

The chart I made for threading the heddles with the pattern I was using

The next two photos show about half of the yarn ends threaded through the heddles and tied on to the bar at the back, from two different angles.

About half way through threading the heddles

Close up of yarn ends threaded through the heddles and tied on the back rod

I realized far into the process that I had gotten got mixed up when preparing for threading the heddles. I had pushed too many off to the left of the working area, so that when I got to the end of threading I was going to run out of heddles before I ran out of ends to thread. The next photo shows the remaining heddles at the right side, which are less than the number I needed.

Torri recommended that I undo the bars that hold the heddles on, slide off the number that I needed from the left, and slide them back on at the right side. This was easier than it sounded. I used a knitting stitch holder to make sure the heddles all stayed in the same direction when I took them off and put them back on the other side.

Sliding a number of heddles off of the left so could put them back on the right side

After all the measuring of warp yarn (not pictured), “sleying the reed” (also not pictured) and threading all the yarn ends through the heddles, I was finally ready to weave. I started with some dark blue header rows (that would later be removed), and then wove three plain weave rows of the periwinkle blue Cottolin for the hem stitch at the beginning of the first towel.

Hem stitch at the beginning of the first towel

The first towel was a herringbone pattern.

After doing hem stitch at the end of the first periwinkle towel, I wove a bunch of plain rows in the dark blue as filler between the first and second towel. Later those rows of weft yarn were removed and the warp yarn became fringe. The beginning of the second towel is shown below, using yellow with a different weave pattern forming diamonds. You can see the pattern better if you squint.

End of first blue towel, beginning of the second yellow towel

Following is a photo showing more of the yellow pattern of diamond shapes.

The third towel had a more complicated treadling pattern, in green weft yarn. I was not sure how much I liked it based on the photo in the pattern book, but I like it a lot after seeing it in a real project with more rows than could be shown in small sample photo in the book. This pattern has a repeat of 20 rows. I taped a post it note on the loom with a tape flag so I could keep track of which row I was on. I also put a pin in the weaving at the beginning of a repeat, so if something did not look right or I made a mistake, I could find where to start over that section. After awhile it was easier to make sense of the pattern and to see when it looked right or not.

My post it note with the treadling pattern for the third towel

For this towel I decided to do a rolled him instead of hemstitch and fringe. For the rolled hem I wove some plain weave rows on each end. Following is a photo showing the plain weave for the hem of the green towel, and the first repeat of the pattern, after the end of the yellow towel, with some spacer rows in dark blue.

Next is a photo showing a bigger section of the green pattern.

I was trying to finish this project before our Thanksgiving trip to California, so I could give one of the towels to my sister-in-law as a hostess gift. When I got to towel number four, I thought maybe I would just do plain weave for the entire towel instead of one of the more complicated patterns. Because of the threading for my patterns, plain weave is a little different and looked kind of interesting. The following photo shows the plain weave at the beginning of the forth blue towel, after the plain weave rows for the hem of the third green towel. It is hard to tell the difference in the two blue yarns I used in these photos, but the first one was very periwinkle, and one for the forth towel was leaning toward turquoise.

End of third green towel, beginning of forth blue towel

I added some yellow stripes to make the plain blue towel look a little more interesting. After getting a ways along I did not like it and had to make a decision. Keep going and finish it faster but not like it that much? Or undo what I had done and start over. I decided it was better to love the outcome, and that I was not in that much of a rush. Following is a photo of the blue plain weave with yellow stripes that I ended up undoing.

I started over again with blue using the same pattern as for the green, with some plain weave at the beginning for a rolled hem again, instead of fringe.

Take two of the forth towel in blue, with the same pretty pattern used in towel three

When I was done with the weaving, I removed the whole thing from the loom and zig zagged on my sewing machine each plain weave end on the last two towels, so it would not come undone when I cut the towels apart.

There is always waste warp yarn at the end of a project. After cutting the towel project off the loom, I had about 30″ of warp yarn left on the loom. With 482 ends at 30 ” long each, that is about 400 yards of yarn!!

482 yarn ends of waste warp yarn, 30” long each

After cutting the four towels apart, I washed the first two towels with fringe just in time to pack the periwinkle blue herringbone towel in my suitcase for the Thanksgiving trip. I kind of randomly picked that towel to give my sister-in-law, but it turned out to be the perfect choice.

After I gave my sister-in-law her towel, she hung it up in their main floor bathroom which happens to be painted periwinkle blue! I had not remembered that. Also displayed there was the orange towel I have her last Thanksgiving.

Towels I gave my SIL this year and last year, in her bathroom

After we got back from the Thanksgiving trip I hemmed and washed the third and forth towels.

Not washed yet, hemmed and waiting to be hemmed

The next photo shows the first two towels, both made with hemstitch and fringe, after washing (before I gave the blue one away).

Before this project, my favorite towel that I had made was the yellow wonky towel (see blog post about that here). It was made with cotton warp and Duet cotton/linen blend weft using a zig zag pattern. The earlier yellow towel is heavier and the zig zags are going the other direction. I love the feel and weight of the Cottolin towels, but I really like the bigger scale of the zig zags on the yellow towel. I could figure out how to get that look with the Cottolin if I put my mind to it. You can see these two zig zag towels side by side below.

Two zig zag towels, one I just made with cottolin, one I made earlier with thicker 100% cotton

Three towels from the Cottolin project are shown below (the forth one is in California), hanging up on my stove handle. They will all likely end up as gifts too. I love these towels. They turned out well, look and feel nice, and will dry dishes beautifully.

Due to the pattern and number of yarn ends, I needed to use my floor loom with multiple heddles for this project. I will make more Cottolin towels for sure, when I have time to weave again on my floor loom. Before that happens, I will be working on rigid heddle weaving projects and other things NOT using my floor loom while we are in Arizona over the winter.

Up North Socks

I went to the LYS (Local Yarn Store) Leelanau Fibers in Suttons Bay, near Traverse City, Michigan, when I was on vacation with friends in July 2022. I wrote about that fun trip in a post you can read here. Many brick and mortar yarn stores have gone out of business. When you do come across an independent yarn store with unique products that you can’t buy in a big online store, it is a treat to browse. I have always loved taking in all the colors and textures in a yarn store. And of course I cannot leave the store without buying something, whether I need it or not. At Leelanau Fibers I bought some sock yarn from a local business called “Up North Yarns”.

I cast on a pair of socks with the Up North yarn in the spring of 2023, with both socks on a magic loop needle. The background in the next couple of photos look like the floor of our RV, so it must have been at the end of March or beginning of April.

The color of the yarn is called “Petoskey Stones”. The Petoskey stone is Michigan’s state stone. I found a photo online of some Petoskey stones, which you can see below, and which look very much like the colors in the yarn.

Petoskey Stones, the Michigan state stone

I had a busy summer and got side tracked with other activities, so the sock project sat in a basket for months. Finally in the fall I make some progress on the feet.

When knitting socks from the toe up, it is a little tricky to figure out when the foot is the right length to start the heel. I measured with my sock ruler and compared to another sock that I had knit. I thought it was the right time. I prefer to knit the heel with only one sock on the magic loop needle, so I took one sock off and put the stitches on double pointed needles to get them out of the way. I added a stitch on each side to make sure the heel would be deep enough, and knitted the first heel using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern. When the heel was done I slipped the sock on my foot to make sure it was right. It was not right at all. It was clearly straining in every direction, being both too short and too narrow. I compared it to the other completed sock and found it was narrower. It was wide enough to slip over my narrow foot, but more width and length were needed to make it fit the rest of my foot. ARGGG. I ripped out the heel stitches and reminded myself it is about the process, not a race to finish the project.

After knitting another half inch or so on to the foot, I added another stitch on each side to make it a bit wider and knit the heel again. With the extra length and additional stitches, it seemed right. I moved the sock with the completed heel to the double pointed needles, and moved the other sock back on to the magic loop needle to work that heel in the same way. For the record you can knit the heels of both socks while they are both on the magic needle, but I prefer to do the heels one at a time.

One heel complete, working on the second one

After completing the second heel, I put both socks back on the magic loop needle, added yet another stitch on each corner of each sock, and then knitted another half inch before starting the cuff.

I was a little worried that the cuff might be too big around since I had added six stitches to each sock. But because the cuff is ribbing, it bunches together and fits the shape of your foot.

I worked on knitting the cuff while we were in St Paul recently at our son’s house. He is on paternity leave until the end of the year. We were happy to help take care of our granddaughter while our daughter-in-law was on a work trip. Blair has many board books. At almost five months old she enjoys sitting on our lap and looking at the pages as we read to her and talk about what is going on with the illustrations. There is one children’s book showing a range of activities that grandmothers might do with their grandchild, such as baking, riding bikes, having a picnic, painting, etc. One of the drawings is attempting to show the grandmother knitting, or at least I cannot think of what else they might be trying to portray. Apparently the author, illustrator and editors had no idea what knitting looks like. Anyone who has learned how to knit, or paid any attention to how knitting works, will notice several things wrong with the drawing below from the book.

Drawing from a children’s book, attempting to show someone knitting

It looks like the grandmother is holding chopsticks. This is not how you hold knitting needles. And there are no stitches on the needle. And there are yarn ends coming from the project to both needles. I am tempted to write a letter to the author to point out these errors. I think they should have the illustrator draw a new accurate drawing of the grandmother knitting.

I finished the socks after we were back home. The yarn is so soft and they fit beautifully. The color looks good with my sneakers and with my hiking shoes. I will think about the trip with my friends and the Traverse City area every time I wear these socks.

Scarf Repair OR Crazy Cat Lady

A friend from Minneapolis asked me if it was possible to repair a hand knit scarf she had made that one of her cats had gotten into. Shelley showed me a photo with a chunk out of the middle of the side. She is not an experienced knitter, and did not have any leftover yarn or did not know where it was.

I offered to undo the damaged part and then graft together the remaining rows for her. Shelley was happy with that idea, so I picked up the scarf from her during our next trip to the cities.

In addition to the ruined section on the side, there was a place where a piece of yarn was still attached but had gotten pulled way out. You can see that in the next photo.

A chunk out of the scarf, and a loose length of yarn

My friend is not someone you would think of as a Crazy Cat Lady, but there is a back story about the cat situation she finds herself in now. In the summer of 2021 Shelley was included in a ladies weekend at our family cabin with some friends from high school. During that time a stray cat was hanging around the cabin. We do not normally see cats outside in our neighborhood so it was unusual. This cat was very thin and looking for food and attention. We first noticed it when it climbed up the outside of the cabin and was looking in the kitchen window. I did not want to encourage the cat to stay, so we did not offer it any food, knowing there were plenty of mice and other options outside for a cat.

The stray cat looking inside our house from the deck

I like cats. We had a Siamese cat when I was growing up, and as an adult our family had two cats for many years. But I had visions of the time when I was in middle school and my family went camping. A stray cat hung around our campsite and that time we did give it some food. Later the cat wanted to come inside the tent. It must have been very cute and persistent, because we let it in. During the night the cat threw up all over our sleeping bags. I don’t remember the rest, but I am sure my mom was not a happy camper.

Back to the time with my friends in 2021, the stray cat kept coming around, visiting cabins and homes all along our side of the lake. The next day my group of friends was having dinner at our house about a third of a mile from the cabin. We were enjoying time on the deck which is above a walkout basement. The cat climbed the lattice from the ground level up and on to the deck. My husband Wayne was there standing in the doorway from the deck to the living room, with the door open, telling us to make sure the cat did not go in the house. The cat slipped inside the house as he was saying this. Everyone laughed and laughed. My daughter happened to be home at the time and she was easily able to pick the cat up and bring it back outside. Shelley was very concerned that someone was neglecting this cat, or more likely it was a stray, and she wanted to bring it home with her. The other people in the group all thought that we needed to make sure it did not belong to someone. After the friends all went back home, I made inquiries over the next few days.

Meanwhile, Wayne noticed that there were two kittens with the cat. They were very skittish and would not let him get close. A few days later there was only one kitten. Two weeks later we had not identified an owner and Shelley still wanted the cat. We were able to lure the mother cat into the garage easily, and the one remaining kitten followed her in. We got the two cats in a carrier and a box, and I took them to the humane society so they could check for a chip and make sure the kitten was old enough to separate from the mother. They did not have a chip (not surprisingly) as they were probably barn cats. I left the kitten there and Shelley drove three hours from the Cities and got the mother cat.

The stray cat on top of the snowmobile in our garage

Shelley was in for a surprise about six weeks later when the mother cat had four kittens in her house! Her daughters said they would take two of the cats but that never happened, and other offers to take a kitten also fell through. To this day she still has all five of the cats.

Four surprise kittens born in Shelley’s house

The four kittens after a number of weeks

One of the these five cats ate Shelley’s scarf, probably the one that also likes to shred up toilet paper. Fixing the scarf was pretty easy. I ripped out about three rows rows of knitting that were damaged, and then grafted the two halves of the scarf back together using kitchener stitch. I had done kitchener stitch before, but on something that was knit in stockinette stitch (knit one row purl one row). This scarf was knit with garter stitch (knit every row). I was not sure if kitchener stitch was the same for garter stitch, but I found several youtube videos showing what to do. It was slightly different, so I am glad I checked.

The two halves of the scarf after removing the damaged rows

I put the live stitches on needles with the purl bumps facing me and laid the two halves together, according to the instructions.

Kitchener stitch is worked with a yarn needle and length of yarn, weaving the yarn in and out of the live stitches following a pattern that mimics what happens when you are knitting. In the next photo I have joined about one third of the stitches, moving from right to left.

The following photo shows the rows completely joined. I put a stitch marker on the joined row so I could identify where it was. If you did not know, you probably would not be able to find it.

A marker showing which rows have been joined together

I also gently picked at the yarn on each side of the loop of yarn that had gotten pulled out until it was close to back the way it was supposed to be. The next photo (sorry for the poor lighting) shows the scarf back in good shape.

The scarf repaired, with a marker showing where the damaged row had been

Sometimes I have a hard time thinking of what to write or getting a blog post to come together. Other times like this one the words flow out of my head faster than I can type them. I was happy give Shelley’s scarf a second life, and it was fun to reminisce about that summer cabin time with my friends. I wish all blog posts were that easy!

Basket Weaving Class

I have always loved baskets. Every basket is functional, but a handmade basket is also a beautiful work of art. Over 30 years ago my sister-in-law Marlene and I made baskets at the home of her cousin, Karen, who organized the get together. Karen invited an experienced basket maker to come and lead the afternoon session to a group of friends and family. All the materials were provided for a minimal fee of $10.00. We had a fun time and I came home with a basket that has been sitting in front of our fireplace ever since then. Sometime later when my sister lived in North Carolina, I collected giant pinecones from her yard that ended up in the basket. We have pine cones in Minnesota, but not that big!

The basket I made over 30 years ago, still on display in the living room

I have another basket that my grandmother passed down to my mom. There is a notecard inside the basket that says it was purchased by my great grandmother, Mary Chase Laramie, from Native Americans (likely Ojibwe Indians) near Lake of the Woods in the early 20th century. Lake of the Woods is a large irregularly shaped lake, about 70 miles long by 60 miles wide, on the border between Minnesota and Canada. It is the 6th largest lake in the United States, after the Great Lakes, and known for excellent fishing.

Mary Chase had been an independent unmarried woman with a thriving homemade cosmetics business. After moving from Wisconsin to Crookston in northwestern Minnesota, she met John Laramie, a railroad engineer with four children whose wife had died. Mary was not keen on marriage but felt the children needed a mother. She married John and they went on to have four daughters together, including my grandmother. Mary and John owned a farm near Warroad, a small town on the Canadian border near Lake of the Woods. People in Minnesota know it as Hockeytown USA due to it’s strong hockey tradition and number of high school championship teams, as well as multiple Olympic and NHL team players, despite having a population of less than 2000. More importantly for this anecdote, Warroad was once one of the largest Ojibwe villages on Lake of the Woods (according to Wikipedia).

Basket made by Ojibwe indians at the beginning of the 20th century

Once when I was watching Antiques Roadshow they talked about people bringing in items they thought had belonged to a famous person, with a story of how it came to be in their family and been passed down through multiple generations. But after examination, the Antiques Roadshow expert would determine that the item could not have belonged to the famous person due to materials or processes used much later than the person had lived. In the case of the Ojibwe basket, I am going to stick with my story given the time and place where my great grandma lived and the history of that area.

Following are photos of two more baskets I have (that I did NOT make). I use both of them for storing yarn, roving for spinning, spinning wheel bobbins, knitting projects in process, and whatever other random fiber related thing I don’t know where else to put. The contents change regularly. Sometimes I empty one of the baskets out and use it to bring things to an event.

Two baskets I did not make but love and use

I have been watching for the right opportunity to make another basket for years now. There are plenty of places that offer basket weaving classes, but other activities have had higher priority. Recently I became aware of a weekend basketmaking class offered in Fergus Falls. The first time I saw the information I dismissed it, thinking I did not have time. Later I saw another reference to the class and I decided to go for it. There would not be a more convenient opportunity to make another basket.

The class was offered through the Kaddatz Galleries, a non-profit organization that offers art education and gallery space. The teacher was Martha Bird, an artist and nurse from Minneapolis. Click here to see her web site. There was a full day of instruction on Saturday, and another half day session on Sunday. Each of the 5 students in the class received a kit with all the necessary materials for a fee of $85 (much less than retail value), plus the use of other accessories needed, such as a bucket, scissors, tape measure, clothespins, etc. Following is a photo showing the bucket with supplies, before anything was unpacked.

Inside the plastic bag were more than enough rattan reeds in three different sizes, plus a wooden rounded handle attached to a base. The first step was to cut 21 pieces of 5/8″ wide reed 29″ long. The strips of reed (called “stakes”) were then soaked in the bucket with water just enough so they would be able to bend without breaking, about one or two minutes.

The bottom of the basket was made by weaving the 5/8″ “stakes” over and under each other and around the handle base. Eleven stakes were needed going perpendicular to the handle base.

We used five on each side going the other way to make a square basket. You could have used less and had a more rectangular basket.

The reeds have a smooth “good” side and a “bad” side that is more prone to shredding. The bad side was supposed to be on the inside, but it was not always easy to tell them apart and some reeds seemed to have two bad sides. I ended up with some bad sides on the outside. After the base was finished, it was time to spray it with some water so the stakes could be bent up for the sides. The sides were made of 1/2″ rattan “weavers”. We cut a total of 11 weavers measuring from 45″ to 48″. The longer ones were used at the top of the basket where it was wider. The rows at the bottom were the hardest to weave in, it got easier as you went up.

Clothespins were used to hold the reeds in place as we were working, especially closer to the bottom.

You could make your basket shorter by weaving in fewer rows, but we all had 11 which left enough of the sides sticking up to finish off the top properly. The reeds sticking up on the outside were folded over, trimmed and tucked in. The alternate reeds sticking up on the inside were cut off level with the top. The next photo shows the outside reeds folded over and held in place by clothespins before I trimmed and tucked. The photo after that shows the basket after all the trimming, tucking and cutting.

Every other vertical reed folded over and held down with a clothespin

The folded over reeds have been trimmed and tucked in. The alternating reeds have been cut level with the top

I did not get a good photo of the last part in progress when we wrapped some of the 3/4″ reed around both the outside and the inside at the top, and lashed it on with a long piece of narrow reed.

Everyone in the class had the exact same materials, but each basket came out a little differently. Mine was wider at the top. Some were more square. Each one had its’ own style. The finished size of my basket was 15″ x 13″ at the widest part of the top, and 10″ x 9 1/2″ at the bottom, and 6″ tall.

One of the women in the class did some extra credit. After learning the technique at the class on Saturday, she and her seven year old son collected cattail reeds Sunday morning and made a five inch square basket using rope for lashing and a handle at the top. It turned out amazingly, as you can see in the photo below.

Small basket made with cattail reeds the day after the first session by classmate’s son

After completing the market basket on Saturday, there were enough materials to make a another smaller basket during the half day session on Sunday. We all decided to make napkin baskets that would be square, lower, and not have a handle. The beginning was the same except without the handle. We used nine reeds each direction which turned out kind of big for napkins when we were all done.

The bottom of the second basket, with no handle

Skipping ahead to the last step that I did not photograph on the first basket, the following photo shows the strips of reed getting lashed on at the top of my second basket. One of the students brought a length of old rope from her garage, so I added some at the top of my basket.

The finished size of my smaller basket is 8″ x 8″ at the base, 10″ x 10″ at the top, and 4″ high. It is too big for the everyday napkins we use, but could work for larger entertaining paper napkins, or does not have to be for napkins at all. Following is a photo of the completed second basket. On the second row from the bottom at the back in the photo you can see a mistake where I missed weaving behind one of the vertical “stakes”. I did not notice it until it was too late to fix. Oh well.

I was very happy with how both baskets came out, despite a few imperfections.

Everyone in the class had a good experience interacting with each other and working together learning a new skill. Martha was a wonderful teacher, explaining all the detailed steps in ways we could follow, and patiently giving individual help as needed. I could have found plenty of other things to do over the weekend, but I am so glad I decided to take this class.

Hot pads and Scrubbies

There is a big range of skill and interest and complexity in the fiber world. There are crafters and makers and artists. There is fiber craft and fiber art. There are people working on crafts with inexpensive materials, people creating simple or complicated items using more expensive natural fibers. Fiber projects can be functional things like clothing or dish towels, or art pieces such as a wet-felted “painting”, or they can include both function and art.

One of the things I love about fiber art and craft is the variety of materials and infinite possibilities of what you can do with them. I love all the colors and textures. There is always something new to learn.

Once I visited the home of a woman who knit exclusively cotton dish cloths. She had stacks and stacks of them. On the other end of the creative spectrum, people make one of a kind fiber art pieces that do not fit in any category. My friend pointed out that someone could take stacks of dishcloths and make an artistic statement out of them, so then it would be art. There are no rules, you can do or make what you want based on your skill and interest and budget.

I tend to make things that are on the more practical end of the range, but they can be creative and beautiful, even if they are not “art”. I like to have a mindless knitting project going that I can work on while watching TV. Usually I also have something else in progress involving more skill and creativity.

I participated in an outdoor Craft Fair (click the link to read my blog post about it) in March of 2021 at Gold Canyon Golf & RV Resort in Arizona, when the regular gift shop was closed due to Covid. I had not planned ahead for this or prepared products that were likely to sell. I offered knitted hats and other wool items I had for sale in my ETSY shop at the time, because I had them with me in a box. There was not much interest in wool items there, although I sold one hat. Someone asked if I had any kitchen scrubbies for sale. I didn’t, but I told her I would make some if she brought me the yarn. I found a crochet pattern for Kitchen Scrubbies and made a bunch of them for her and to sell. They were easy and quick to finish. After the craft fair was over I put the extra kitchen scrubbies in a bag where they have been ever since. Following is a photo of the scrubbies that I had left from March of 2021.

Another practical item I have made are potholders on a potholder loom. These basic looms are marketed to children, but adults use them too. You can make a potholder while watching TV or while in the car. There is some creativity deciding how to arrange the colors of stretchy loops, and the result is a useful product that makes a good gift. I published a blog post, Weaving on a Potholder Loom, in April of 2022. I made a few more this fall.

Late this summer I saw a pattern for a knitted Double Thick Potholder that would work using Peaches & Creme cotton yarn I had on hand. It looked like another easy project that would result in something practical. This pattern is very clever but hard to visualize how it is going to work until you actually knit it up. You knit a tube with a circular needle, then divide the stitches on to two needles and do a three needle bind off. That gives you a double thick rectangle with the top sewed shut and the bottom open. You then fold it so that the open end is re-arranged diagonally and whip stitch it shut. I made a couple of mistakes on my first try at this pattern, and my whip stitching did not look great.

After understanding how the pattern worked, I thought of a variation that would come out looking better and I made another one. Instead of a normal cast on, I used a provisional cast on so that there were live stitches at the beginning of the tube. When I got to the last step, instead of whip stitching the open end shut, I arranged them as if I was going to do that, but instead I put the live stitches on needles and did another three needle bind off.

Following is a photo taken while riding in Wayne’s fishing boat, when I was near the beginning of the second potholder. Not a bad place to work on my knitting.

Starting a knitted potholder on the boat

After the right number of rows, I rearranged the stitches on to two needles. The next photo shows the second potholder as I was ready to work the three needle bind off at the top. You can see the live stitches from the cast on at the bottom, being held with waste yarn.

The three needle bind off is about 1/2 way done in the next photo.

After binding off the top edge, it was time for the clever tricky part that is hard to visualize. You take the open end and rearrange it diagonally.

After arranging the stitches it magically becomes a square. If I had followed the pattern the second time, the live stitches you see would be normal cast on stitches from the beginning that would be whip stitched shut. Instead, I put my live stitches on two needles and removed the waste yarn.

After doing a three needle bind-off on the original live cast on stitches and weaving in the ends, the potholder was finished. Voila!

I did not take any photos of the first potholder as it was in progress. Following is a photo of the completed first potholder next to the more successful second potholder. You can see what a bad job I did with the whip stitching on the first one. I made a few other mistakes that I did not bother to fix. I am pleased with the second potholder. It is plenty thick for using on hot pans and a good size at about 7″ x 7″.

First and second attempt at a knitted double thick potholder

The knitted potholder takes longer to make than kitchen scrubbies or potholders using the potholder loom. I will not be knitting any more potholders for now as I am on to other projects. I started knitting a pair of socks months ago, I am working on weaving some kitchen towels on the floor loom, and I have two different spinning projects going. Stay tuned.

Woven Baby Blanket – Same Yarn

After I finished knitting a cotton baby blanket for our granddaughter there were two skeins of yarn left. I thought it would be fun to weave a blanket with the remaining yarn, which would result in a different look and feel, with a flatter texture and the colors interacting in a different way.

There wasn’t quite enough so I ordered three more skeins of the same yarn in a solid color instead of the variegated colorway I used for the knitted blanket. I thought I was ordering lavender, but it turned out to be more pink than I was expecting. This is often a problem when ordering yarn online. Colors can look different depending on the lighting and what device you using. My photos of the yarn and project in this post vary from pink to lavender.

Universal Cotton Supreme yarn for woven baby blanket in plain and variegated

There are options for how to use the plain and variegated yarn to get various looks in a woven product. I could alternate sections of the solid and the variegated in the warp for stripes. If I did that for the warp but also alternated sections of plain and variegated in the weft I would have plaid. I decided to keep it simple and warped the loom with the solid color (the long way), and wove the weft (back and forth) with the variegated multicolor yarn. Since the variegated yarn changes color at random intervals, I got random horizontal stripes.

I also had to decide how many ends per inch to use, which would determine the density. Torri, my weaving friend and mentor, recommended 12 ends per inch. Research from different sources indicated that 8 or 10 ends per inch might be appropriate for this yarn. Torri suggested weaving a small sample and washing it in order to see what the final product would be. Since she was suggesting 12 ends per inch I made a sample with that. There is not a right or wrong answer, it depends on what result you want.

I found some instruction online for making a cardboard sample loom. Later Torri told me I could have used a five inch square of cardboard and less yarn, but oh well.

Making a sample using a cardboard mini loom

Following is the sample after washing. It is only finished enough so the ends would not come unraveled in the washing machine.

My swatch was pretty dense. It was a valid option to make the baby blanket with this density. I had in mind something a little looser, so I decided to go with 10 ends per inch instead of 12, which also meant it would not use as much yarn. Given the tension problems I had with my last weaving project of crooked towels, I decided to start measuring out the solid color yarn for the warp in town at Tangles to Treasures where Torri could supervise. She gave me some good tips as usual, and then I finished at home. This time I propped the warping board on a chair at my house. It worked but I am still looking for the perfect spot for this step.

I made three bundles of warp yarn (a “warp chain”) instead of one big one, to avoid having some of the ends longer than others. The next photo shows the warp yarn ready to be threaded on to the reed (“sleying the reed”).

I invited Torri to come out to my house on a Sunday when her store is closed to help me wind the warp on to the back beam. It seems hard to get this part right and after the problems I had the last time I needed some reassurance. I had all the ends “sleyed” through the reed and heddles and tied on to the back by the time she came, so it was ready to wind the warp ends around the back beam.

The first thing we did was some checking to make sure all the yarn ends were in the right places. We found one yarn end that was threaded through a heddle on the wrong harness. Torri showed me how fix this problem by putting a temporary heddle using a piece of string in the right place on the correct harness. You can see the white string in the middle of the next photo amongst the metal heddles.

White string heddle added in to fix a mistake

You can also see the white string heddle in the next photo, near the left side, taken from the back of the loom. This project is the widest by far of anything I have made at 32″. My loom has a maximum weaving width of 36″ but I was worried about trying to use every inch.

After all the setup was complete and I finally got started with the actual weaving it went fast. The variegated yarn for the weft caused random stripes going across.

My goal was to have the blanket be about 36″ long. I cut a piece of string that long that I looped on the side about every four inches, so I would know when I had woven that much. What is always hard to remember is how much less you end up with than what you started with due to “take up” and because the warp yarn is under tension. By the time I got to the end of the string, I barely had enough warp yarn left. I should have allowed for more waste by measuring out my ends longer than I did. I had trouble weaving the last couple of inches because the ends were too close to the harnesses. In the photo below you can see the end of the completed weaving on the left, and the other end of the yarn tied to the back very close to the harnesses.

Following is the weaving straight off the loom. It measured about 32 inches long, even though I got close to the end of my 36″ long piece of string. I think that is because the weaving was under tension on the loom, but relaxed when I took if off.

Off the loom before securing the ends or washing

Instead of hem stitching the ends, I took groups of four ends and tied an overhand knot.

I trimmed the fringe to about 1 1/4″. After washing, the blanket was about 28″ x 28″. I love the way this project turned out. It is soft and has a nice weight and can work as either a small blanket or a baby bath towel.

Knotted fringe on the woven blanket, looking too pink

My daughter-in-law sent me photos of the baby on the two blankets. The first photo is on the woven blanket. The next two are on the knitted blanket. Their dog Winnie is checking out the baby and the blanket, and then Winnie has taken over on the blanket.

There was yarn leftover after I finished weaving the blanket. It is kind of like when your leftovers are not quite enough for dinner, so you cook more food, and then there are leftovers again after that. There was still enough yarn to weave two hand towels on my 15″ rigid heddle loom. This time I used the variegated yarn for the warp and the plain yarn for the weft. The next photo shows the completed hand towels, with the stripes going the long way instead of the short way for a different look.

Two woven hand towels using leftover yarn

After finishing the hand towels, there was STILL some yarn left. I knit a washcloth with half plain yarn and half variegated yarn. This pattern is all knitting with some yarnovers, but no purl stitches. Somehow I got one purl stitch in the middle that I fixed by undoing all the stitches in that column and re-doing them back up with a crochet hook.

Following is the finished wash cloth, next to the remaining unused yarn.

There is probably enough yarn left for another wash cloth. I noticed that the solid color yarn is on sale….noooo I will not buy any more. I think I have had enough of this yarn for now.