The Executive is Functioning + Wool Gathering 2026

A couple weeks ago, I missed a therapy appointment. 

It was the second time in three months, after a year of perfect attendance, and I was displeased. I beat myself up about it for a while, and then continued packing for the trip I was taking the following day, which was the whole reason I forgot about the appointment in the first place.

This month, I had a fabulous opportunity to spend the weekend with two of my closest friends, finally introduce them to each other in the flesh, and meet a whole gaggle of incredible new friends. The Wool Gathering weekend has certainly earned its place in my 2026 highlight reel. You'll get fiber festival haul photos, but first I just want to pay my respect to how good it is to share space with a group of truly supportive humans who make me want to better myself without guilt being the driving factor.

I don't think I realized how much connection I was missing until I had it again, and now I know it's something I need to work on. There's a big part of me that hasn't prioritized making new friends on anything but a surface level because we're not staying here forever. I go to my craft group, hang out, and go home. I get uncomfortable when folks overshare, and I don't want to hang out with anyone outside of the group. It seems inconvenient. I have stuff to do. I'm not for everyone, and not everyone's for me, so I figured I just haven't found the person (or people) to override my default settings.

I still believe that, but I also think I'm not letting myself make real friends because I don't want to be sad when I leave here.

At any rate, since I came back home and recovered from traveling, I feel like my brain has been reconfigured. I'm fixing my hair, taking my fiber supplement, wearing decent clothes, knocking tasks off of my to-do list, finishing projects, deleting phone games, and getting rid of stuff. Inspiration slapped me in the face with a new project, and I did most of it within the first day. (It just needs some finishing work and another inch of ribbing, and it'll be done by the end of the week.)

The executive is functioning, and I'm going to keep feeding it as long as I can. 

I like this person. She's simultaneously less bored, less overwhelmed, and less tired. She can listen to music with lyrics and write a blog post at the same time. Who is she? Where has she been all this time? I remember her, but from a long time ago.

But she's me, the same person who has missed two therapy appointments in three months and has struggled to finish projects for who knows how long. I don't pretend to think my lack of discipline is fixed, but something has clearly changed (temporarily or otherwise). My hope is that I can harness this new (old) power and start working toward some of my larger goals: consistently writing for the blog, answering calls for submissions to magazines, and balancing life better than I have in recent memory.

Oh, and the next appointment? I begrudgingly started using my digital calendar and set myself reminders. 😑  

Anyway, that's me lately, but you want to see the Wool Gathering spoils. 

We started with a trip to Fiber Optic Yarns, and I picked up a high-speed bobbin and whorl for my Schacht Matchless, as well as a second set of US1 (2.25mm) double-pointed needles for knitting tandem socks, so some of those are pictured in the group photo of tools. Along with the Fiber Optic purchases, at the festival I picked up a magnetic sewing needle case, a reeling pin (that I'm using as a miniature nostepinne), and a dew drop. The dew drop is new to me, and it's a nifty little spinning wheel accessory meant to keep your double-drive band under tension while you're changing bobbins, so the band doesn't fall off your drive wheel. Smart! 

 

 

 

Next came fiber. My first purchase was some bagged gray Shetland wool, very clean, very soft. Then I found the Gwen Erin booth and couldn't stop shouting "They're just so FAT!" about the massive 8-ounce braids hanging up, so of course one came with me. It's a blend of Rambouillet, Merino, sari silk, and gold stellina. The other two pictured below were picked up on the second day of the festival, and boy howdy do I love buying fiber directly from the person who raised the sheep. The brown is a luxuriously soft Cormo/Romney blend, and the gray is straight Cormo.

 

  

 

And then yarn. Did I find the Shirsty Cat booth? You bet your ass I did, and Kelly wears the best cat-eye glasses I've ever seen in my life. I spent zero time making choices in this stall because I'd have been there for an hour. Instead, I picked up two glorious skeins that sang to my heart, and...set them aside to come pay for later when the wifi wasn't being a shit. I did come back for them though; both Electric Slide and Heart of the Giant are safe and sound. Someone pointed out a new-to-me dyer, Bewitched Pigments, and I just about fell over when the first skein I picked up was called Swamp Witch. No fuss, no muss, here's my credit card, thank you, goodbye. Excellent choice. And lastly for this gang, Fresh Lotus Design got me with their 100% tussah silk lace yarn after I cooed over their oh-so-soft handwoven garment display.

Wait, no. That's not last. What are those in the top left corner? I had never even heard of McMullin Fiber Co., and I stumbled face-first into their sample sweater knit with this Merino/cashmere/nylon blend paired with a Suri alpaca lace yarn. It's one of those garments you can't stop touching because it's so soft. Sadly, living in Las Vegas, I will die if I add a fuzzy laceweight to any sweater, so I left the Suri yarn behind and snagged the last three skeins (a sweater quantity) of the MCN yarn. It's glorious. It will be a sweater. I will wear it until it falls apart.

 

 

 

I don't know/remember what these are. Romney, maybe? I don't actually think they're all the same. Some of them are soft, and some of them are coarse. But they were $10 a ball, and they're fun as hell. On the first day, I bought the confetti ball and used part of it to teach two friends to spindle spin, and on the second day I said why not four more? 

Because why not four more?

So I'm, uh, set for a while. I have plenty of fun options to keep me busy in the coming months, and it'll be nice to be able to shop my stash when I want to make something. In the meantime, I finally have the brain to wipe the slate clean, and that's way more exciting than I can describe. I'm going to go watch a movie and finish a sweater, and I'll talk to you all in two weeks. 

P.S. Tomorrow is October, the best month. Use it well. 🎃 

 

My Kingdom for an Electric Eel Wheel Fold

Ye. Gods.

I didn't starting writing a draft last week because I was too riled up about what arrived in my mailbox on August 3 instead of my Electric Eel Wheel (EEW) Fold.

I do not know, and I will never know, whether it fell off a truck and was run over, or whether it met the wrong end of a sorting machine. What I do know is that the corner of a shipping box was delivered to me with a label reading "RECEIVED" and three ticked checkboxes: "UNSEALED," "WITHOUT CONTENTS," and "IN DAMAGED CONDITION."

Now, this was not a shipment from Dreaming Robots. A friend of mine backed the EEW Fold on Kickstarter and chose to get two. I bought one off of her, so when she received hers, she sent the second box along to me. The insurance claim is in progress, and as anyone who has had to file a claim with the U.S. Postal Service knows, it's a pain in the ass, but it's being taken care of.

In the meantime, I went ahead and ordered a replacement before they sell out. Thankfully, that package arrived yesterday unscathed.

It's lovely, and I'm glad I went with the teal color (the other option was classic black). The EEW Fold will spin up to 3,000 rpm with a 15-volt power supply, but it turns out my usual spinning speed is somewhere between 750 and 900 rpm, so I'm fine to use the old 12-volt battery pack that I kept when I sold my EEW 6.0. 

Note: In the photo, you'll see an Anker battery pack, and that will supply 15 volts, but I bought it for something else and just wanted to make sure it works if I need it. 

Anyway, I admittedly don't have a lot for you today! In addition to the new espinner, I have a beautiful secondhand support spindle I need to get acquainted with, and I've made a bunch of progress with supported spinning in general, so I think I'll do a spindle roundup post soon. Maybe next time. Other than that, I've been sewing, knitting, piecing woven squares together, and playing Project Zomboid. 

And now I'm going to go eat some tacos. (Did I have tacos the last time I posted?)

Take care, and I should be in much better spirits the next time I post! 

"Should" is a Lie

I've got finite hours in a day, but it's so easy to lie to myself about what I can reasonably accomplish. 

Take sewing, for example:
I'm a novice sewist, but I have this notion that I should be able to start a project on a Saturday morning and have it finished before bed Saturday night. I have craft group on Saturday morning, which I've been attending regularly for several years now. I do not have a Saturday morning to work on sewing. At best, I have Saturday from around 1 p.m. until bedtime. 

If it doesn't get finished on Saturday, it's not getting finished on Sunday because my Sundays consist of sleeping in, laundry, cooking, spouse time, and whatever crafting I can do from the couch. This is the way of things. This is my ideal Sunday. I sometimes deviate from my Sunday plans for an hour or two, but then I return to my regularly scheduled programming.

What I'm getting at here is that I really do myself a disservice by insisting that I "should" be able to start and finish a project in a single day. The result is sadness and disappointment that I wasn't able to accomplish what I set out to do, which isn't helpful to my goal of enjoying sewing, is it?

Anyway, I was going to share a lovely flannel robe this week, but in order to do so I need to actually sew the pieces together. For once, though, I'm not upset that I didn't finish it on Saturday. I cut out all of the pieces without incident. I made efficient use of my fabric yardage. I didn't fuss, cuss, or throw anything. And all of those things are markers of success along the way toward my goal.

I feel hopeful about sewing, and that's the main thing.

In the meantime, I've been spinning and knitting! I've been experimenting with using support spindles for worsted spinning by using a half hitch to spin suspended while maintaining the spinning tip's contact with the bowl. It's a really great solution to wanting to spin in my lap but not wanting to spin woolen or use a temporary cop. I'll expand on this in a future post. 

I also took some time to work on spinning a thicker single, both on a heavy spindle and on a wheel. It's not as thick as I wanted (I was trying to mimic a worsted weight Noro yarn, but my combed prep wouldn't have made that happen anyway), but I like the result. Spinning thick is difficult for those of us who spend hours upon hours spinning laceweight singles for fingering weight plied yarns!  

 

 

Since then, all of my spindle spins have been moved over to the wheels to clear out projects while I wait for my EEW Fold and my Ashford Elizabeth 30" to arrive. I'll still continue plying my in-progress chain ply on a spindle because I really prefer a spindle for that. My loop joins are so much less noticeable, and I can make nice long chain links. Otherwise, the spindle army is put to rest for a little while.  

On the knitting front, my Threshold sweater is past the armholes now and joined in the round. The yarn I'm using is lovely with this pattern, and it's enjoyable to knit (even if I haven't been able to memorize the cable pattern). I just transferred it to a shorter cable, and it's unfortunately not easy to photograph at the moment.

I also cast on for TUNE, a laceweight tunic that I may or may not shorten into a tee. I'm using handspun for this: a light fingering weight, two-ply Merino in a purple-to-black gradient. It's going to take eighty-four years to knit, and I'm fine with that because it's very soothing to work on.

That's about it for this update. Works are in progress, and I have some tacos with homemade tortillas to get to eating. That's a new low (or high, if you think about it) for me in terms of avoiding going to the grocery store. 😉  

Midyear Update

It's been a wild ride these past few months, and I have a lot to share!

I've continued the obsession with all things square. Since January's post, my spouse 3D printed a 4" pin loom for me, and I finished the reclaimed 18" version.

Noro Rikka is the perfect yarn for bias weaving at this density, and I'm thrilled with how it works up. The resulting fabric is going to be a mini throw pillow because, for the record, an 18" loom doesn't really net an 18" pillow cover! (Also the loom is more like 17.5" but who wants to say that all the time?)

 

I had to get a little creative with where to hang the loom so I could stand while working, and it turns out that one of the crossbeams on my Glimakra Standard is just about the right height to hang it.  

In March, we took our annual trip out to Death Valley for some camping and wildflower viewing, and I brought the 4" loom along as a downtime activity. These little squares take about 15 minutes each, so they're not much of a time commitment. 

After the trip, I did some experimenting with the 7" fine sett loom and discovered that it can easily be used for multi-layer weaving by skipping every fourth pin to recreate the gaps in the three-pin setup (like the 4" loom). The sett becomes almost identical to the regular three-pin sett, so this opens up weaving with DK and worsted weight yarns.

I have quite the little collection going.

 [six weeks pass, Tour de Fleece starts, and my therapist asks if I've been writing...😂]

Hello. I cleaned my house to company-ready status last weekend, and now I magically have a brain to write with again. Weird.

Instead of putting the two Noro Rikka panels together and making one pillow without a mate, I dug up some deeply stashed Donegal Yarns Aran Tweed to make solid back panels for two matching pillows. Weaving on this big square is such a meditative practice. If you're at all handy, I highly recommend scrapping a stretched canvas frame and making one of these.

Otherwise, I've been spinning since before the beginning of July. Finishing spins, starting new ones, cooing over quite possibly the softest, squishiest yarn I've ever spun. I think I'll do a roundup post of recent spins after the month is over.

Also in early July, I turned 35. I keep saying that this is my one-third-life crisis year because I bought a little old pickup truck and ordered a brand new spinning wheel for the first time since I started wheel spinning in 2016 on my Woolmakers Bliss, which is now on its second life in Canada, in case you didn't know. 

 

Unless the world implodes or explodes, next month I'll be receiving an Ashford Elizabeth 30. She's a big, beautiful lady, and I am quite excited. They've already sent me the lazy kate and extra bobbins I ordered, and while the bobbins are sitting cold and lonely in their shipping box, I've already put the lazy kate to good use with my vintage Ashford Traditional.

 

Spinning so much lately really has me daydreaming about handspun knitting again, which had really taken a back burner to weaving for a while! Now, I have a couple of small weaving projects in the planning stages, and I'm thinking about what to do with this lovely skein and its deep, dark, in-progress mate that you will just have to wait to see. 

 

I want to talk to y'all once every couple of weeks, okay? It's good to be here, and it's good to have an uncluttered mind, so I'd like to keep it that way. 

 

Drop me a line here in the comments or on Tumblr if you're interested in boosting the activity in my Discord server, because I'm real bad at it! I've largely shunned the other social media options, and I don't care because I don't want your money unless I write a book someday or you need editorial assistance with your book. I should probably make an email account for that, shouldn't I?

 

See you in two weeks, pals! 

  

Keep Going

It's Tuesday evening around bedtime, and I'm weaving on my 7" square pin loom. To be honest, I've been working on it off and on all day, which means I still have no idea how long it takes me to weave a square.

But I'm finding so much joy in small and modular projects these days. There's the ever-present box of crocheted squares, a 5¼" square cross stitch kit, and a couple mini skeins of handspun (one of which is on the pin loom right now). 

Next up is a 3D printed 4" pin loom of the three-pin variety, though it's clearly possible to do multi-layer weaving on an evenly spaced pin loom as well. I bought this 7" loom intending to do bias weaving, but I've really become smitten with the multi-layer technique. And yes, there's still an unfinished 18" square in the garage. I'm going to make some fun pillow covers with it. 

I just wanted to pop in tonight and say hello!

I'm ever reminding myself that I can just come here and do that.

So hello, and I hope you're well. I hope you're making. I hope you're hopeful.  

I hope you keep going. ♥
 

The Wealth of Slowing Down

Clarity is an odd and fleeting thing.

It’s the reason I often go months without posting. I have that spark of clarity, that five minutes of knowing exactly what I want to say, and if I don’t—or worse, can’t—take action in those precious moments, it’s gone. It comes when I’m driving, when I’m working, and in the middle of the night.

It stays long enough to leave an impression I can move forward with, but it doesn’t always leave its words. So this time I tried to write it down for later, and now it’s later.

What if we slow down?

We’re makers. We make. It’s what we do. But what if we didn’t feel like we had to constantly be finishing things and starting new ones? What if savoring a project for six months, or even a year, wasn’t something we looked at with judgment and guilt? We keep having these conversations about how the making, learning, enjoyment, etc. are the reasons we do this, but are we listening to our own advice?

For most of this year, I've been on a mission to "finish all the things," and I still am, but I noticed a theme. In the spring and summer, I kept making plans to sprint through finishing WIPs, and then when the deadline came I'd kick myself for not getting it all done. Guess what? That feels bad, and it doesn't make me want to work on the projects. I'm still whittling down my projects, but now I'm looking at it from a different perspective.

I'll work on what I feel called to, because this season of my life is about savoring the process. Earlier this year, for weeks, all I wanted to do was spin. Anything else I picked up wasn't doing it for me, and forcing myself to work on other projects didn't result in any kind of joy. When the spinning flap was over, it was replaced by weaving for several weeks. Now, I haven't touched the pink scarf on the big loom for a month, and all I've wanted to do lately is crochet squares and spin. 

It.
    All.
        Comes.
                Back. 

Here's the thing. I'm not making anything for anyone else, so why should I create meaningless deadlines? I craft because I enjoy the process. I write because I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts, so why don't I place my focus where I want to spend my time? That's exactly what I intend to do from here. I'm not in a hurry about anything, and that's incredibly freeing.

I started out this year talking about writing and making, and then a temporary lapse in employment brought me back to streaming in May. While I don't regret coming back to Twitch, and I had a great time being in front of the camera again this summer, I do regret that I wasn't honest with myself or my audience about how unsustainable streaming would be once I went back to working full-time. Frankly, I can't do it, and I don't want to.

The difference is that I no longer feel guilty about that. I don't love how wishy-washy I've been about this whole thing over the years, but I'm done allowing myself to feel bad about my priorities changing as my life changes. It all became abundantly clear over the past few weeks that my path forward is to revive my little corner of the internet, not on a social writing platform, and to continue making things that make my heart and hands happy. 

I don’t want to create "content." I want to bask the joy of making and writing. I want to take six months to finish a spindle spin because I’m paying attention to the feeling of the wool between my fingers. I want to knit sweaters that take as long as they take, and weave fabric that I may not use for months. 

I want to read books. Oh, goodness, the books! I love an audiobook, but I want to read books, on paper, with my eyes again! I want sitting down with a book to no longer feel like an unproductive waste of time.

Doesn't that hurt to think about? 

These thoughts come at a time when residents of the United States are losing access to the smorgasbord of wool breeds we’ve become accustomed to. I urge you to read Fossil Fibers’ blog post on this matter, as well as the Slate article from a couple weeks ago, and any other information you can get your hands/eyes/ears on. We don’t have a lot of domestic wool processing facilities, especially for combed top, and it shows. Much of the wool we grow here is shipped elsewhere for processing, and even if it were, we don’t have enough fleece sheep to meet the demand for wool in this country.

Things are about to get more expensive and more difficult to get (some already have), and that’s terrifying for the small businesses that supply us as fiber artists. I think it might even close the casket on some of the larger suppliers. Higher prices, fewer sales, less stock, and longer backorder waiting times do not a successful business make. 

I think we need to look at the warnings we’re seeing about the wool industry and ask ourselves if slowing down could make it less panic-inducing. We're not going to fix this ourselves, but we can continue to support businesses we care about when we can, even if their stock is far more limited. We can use those beautifully handcrafted supplies; we can talk about them; we can write about them; we can allow ourselves to feel joy in making. Don't just hoard your stash because you're afraid you'll never be able to get that special yarn or fiber again. Even if you can't, what good does it do to save the good china?

I have so much to say, and I’m so tired of not saying it, so welcome back.

I hope it's nicer and quieter here. I couldn't take the noise anymore. 

🌿-Liz 

Weaving to Sew

I shouldn't be surprised to find that I'm a "let the fabric do the work" kind of weaver-sewist. My sewing skills are rudimentary at best, and I'm a big fan of straight lines.

It was an unexpected joy to browse the web last week and find beautiful garments made from simple shapes. Simple tees take only a handful of seams and finishing work to make from relatively narrow handwoven yardage, and larger items can be created by thoughtful piecing.

This revelation has been brought on by completing the finishing work on my plaid and huck lace project—the first project made on my floor loom. While I started, wove, and finished my next project, the plaid sat and languished, awaiting fringe twisting and a final destination. Last weekend I finished the fringe and washed and dried the piece, and made the final call that it was just too long to be a single wrap. 

It needed a new life, to become something else.

I folded it in half and clipped the edges together in a couple places, and I tossed it over my head and shoulders. Suddenly it dawned on me that there was enough fabric here to make a shirt, or a poncho, or some kind of garment. 

I could talk all day about my distaste for Pinterest, and how half of the images don't link to an original source, but even I have to admit that it's really good for one thing: creating image boards. I searched for handwoven tops and Pinterest delivered. Had I been searching for handwoven top sewing patterns, I would have been sorely disappointed, but that's what a regular web search is for.

There are tees, ponchos, jackets, knee-length coats, dresses, and any other kind of top-half covering you could think of. Fiber artists of all sorts are out there making beautiful pieces, whether for the joy of it or to sell, and it's very inspiring. I found a very simple tee that I fell in love with, and it has me thinking about weaving a lightweight cotton and/or linen piece to make summer shirts with. 

First, I thought about using that tee image as a guide to make a top, but the plaid stripes on the handwoven yardage don't evenly match up due to beating my weft inconsistently throughout the project. Oops! Instead, I found a triangular poncho tutorial that I nipped a couple ideas from, and then modified it to meet my needs.

A few zigzag stitches, two cuts, two seams, and topstitching later, a finished poncho appeared!

(Okay, fine, I added a little bit of shoulder shaping after the fact, but it was still a very simple project.)

 

This project has been very exciting for me, because I'm finally getting to a point where I can see myself putting something like this in the shop. The fabric does 95 percent of the work, and I make a couple cuts and careful seams to make a project that looks and feels truly solid and finished. What a wonderful outcome!

I've been a bit under the weather for the past couple days, but things are looking up and I'm happy to be back here on the blog, and thinking about my upcoming projects (which I can't wait to share with you all).

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My next Twitch stream is scheduled for Saturday, March 4 at 9am PST, and I'm working on getting the blog schedule under control as well as adding a newsletter to go alongside the blog. The good news is that both cameras are working again, so I can do show and tell much more easily now.

Once a month streams and blog posts are doable at the moment, but I definitely have a stretch goal of twice monthly for both by the middle to end of the year. Getting back into the swing of things has been great for my mental health, productivity, and allowing myself to rest. I really do thrive on routine, so doing a little every day allows me to not burn out by spending long days working on things.

At the heart of this all is the fact that the more I'm making, the more I have to talk about, and that's a beautiful thing.

Until next time, take care! 🌸

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Note: You may have noticed a few changes with the design and web hosting of this blog; there may be a few tweaks here and there going forward as well. Behind the scenes, I'm working on streamlining where all of my content lives, and part of that process was securing a new domain name as an all-encompassing location to host my work. 

You'll always be able to get to this blog at freckledfiber.blogspot.com, but you'll notice that the URL will automatically change in your address bar to be blog.freckledfiber.art instead, and that's how I'll be promoting this space going forward.

Additionally, website and hosting changes often take a little while to appear for everyone. If something isn't working, feel free to bring it to my attention, but know that the answer might be "please check again in 24-48 hours!"

Ringing in the New Year with Intention

Welcome to 2023!

This marks the beginning of my fifth year creating crafting content to put out into the world, and I'd like to pause and reflect on some things I've learned, as well as things I still hope to learn and accomplish.

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A Look Back (and Forward)

In January 2018, I began my journey into the crafting content world by going live on Twitch for the very first time. I had a single camera, perched precariously on top of an upended shoebox, to show my knitting work. I had no lights, no face camera, no "production quality." By summer, I was streaming fairly regularly, and slowly gained a second camera, photography lights, and a better sense for setup.

The small community that joined me then is largely still the same today, with additions of course. In December 2018, I was incredibly surprised to see a larger turnout than expected for my holiday jar candle stream—something I had never attempted before, that wasn't in my standard wheelhouse, and that had lots of hiccups and mishaps!

In 2019, we uprooted and undertook a large move. While looking for work, I focused on building up my Twitch channel and the small webshop I had opened. By September, I was dyeing fiber and blending batts for sale. The community helped me choose names for colorways, and was very supportive while I found my way.

Toward the end of 2019, I purchased a rigid heddle loom and started getting more serious about weaving. Soon after, we realized we would be moving for work again in the late spring. Streaming, dyeing, and weaving all took the back burner while we packed, prepped, and stressed. My new job required travel, and I couldn't see a way to keep the shop open while I was away from home for half the year, so I didn't. Everything went on hiatus, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have lots of feelings about it, though I don't love dyeing the way I once did.

2020 came and went, with moving into an apartment sight unseen during the pandemic, starting a new job, traveling, and never really feeling truly settled in at home. 

2021 started much the same, though we were already looking for our next step. I continued traveling for work, and in the middle of a trip, I got word that my husband was selected for his dream job. We would be moving just five weeks after I returned home, and after our road trip across the country, stopping to see family, and settling in, I'd be off again in another three weeks. In an absolute whirlwind of August and September, we made the move and traded our tiny apartment for a real house.

I set off again, and while away I applied, interviewed, and was selected for a new job. Returning home just a couple days before Christmas, it took some time to settle into really feeling at home. It's a difficult thing to come and go so often, because just as you feel sort of settled and at peace, you're off to the races again. It was probably February 2022, when I officially started my new job, that it felt real that I was home for good.

2022 has brought good fortune as well as challenges, and I'm thankful to be in the position we are now. We're secure in our jobs, in our sense of self, and in the hobbies we share as well as those we keep for ourselves. We were finally able to start going camping on a regular basis again, and hiking, and biking, and taking day trips. Even so, when it came time this winter to purchase a floor loom for myself, the thought still crept up that "this is going to be a pain to move when we leave this house." And it will be, but that won't be for several years if we can help it.

This isn't the end goal, but it's a long layover while we work toward it.

A few days ago, we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, which roughly coincides with my tenth knitting anniversary. My husband has been such a beacon of support over the years, and we've truly grown into the couple I always hoped to be. We've come such a long way from both questioning if I would really use the spinning wheel I pined after in 2016 to him fully encouraging my purchase of a floor loom just a few weeks ago—and honestly being just as excited about it as I am. Growing together has been a joy no one could have ever prepared me for.

We spent the morning of our anniversary at our favorite local coffee shop, with books and knitting.

Being part of the larger crafting community for ten years is something special. I've made so many friends, connections, successes, and mistakes. I've learned all about tools, techniques, and skills, and taken up adjacent crafts I never thought possible for myself. If anyone had told me in 2010 that I'd be a weaver in 2022, I'd have been very confused.

I hope to be more active in the larger community in 2023, and to not be so afraid of reaching out to others, and joining events, alongs, and classes. I've signed up for the School of SweetGeorgia in order to advance my skills this year, as well as to meet an entirely new community of folks.

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2023 Goals

In my own corner, I've been working out some goals and ideas for the 2023 crafting year. Here are a few things I keep coming back to:

• Working from stash
• Spin neutral fibers (white, gray, brown) into yarn to use as solid weaving warps.
• Pair loud or dark colors in stash with the neutrals to create high-contrast projects.
• Creating with intention
• Avoid starting a new project just because you're bored with a current WIP or feel like you "should" be making something.
• Sit with your goals—Are you wanting to learn a new technique? Do you want the finished product? What is the goal of the process or end result?
• Resist the fear of missing out; if a project isn't appealing to you, don't start it.
• Do the thing
• Stop trying to do the thing, and instead just do it.
• If you fail, you've still learned something.
• And what if you succeed?

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Project Plans

Note: This section contains affiliate links denoted by asterisks (*). If a purchase is made through an affiliate link, I will receive a commission based on the sale at no extra cost to you. The products I have chosen are ones I have personally used and would recommend.

I did not finish my Archange sweater (partially seen above, with the weaving book) before the new year, but it won't be long until it's finished since it's stockinette from here on out. I'm very much looking forward to wearing this sweater. The pattern was chosen based on a sweater I brought home from my great-grandmother's closet just before she passed away over the summer. That sweater became my cozy house sweater, and I absolutely live in it on cold days. Archange isn't an exact duplicate, but it's close enough that I know I'll love wearing it.

My New Year's Eve cast-on wasn't really a cast-on, but rather a spinning start. I chose to begin my first-ever fully white spinning project, 9 ounces of undyed white alpaca fiber (which is already shedding all over my black shirt). This falls into the working from stash category twofold, as it will also become a neutral background color for a future weaving project.

My next weaving project has been chosen, and I plan to use what was originally a handspun sweater quantity of yarn to make a throw blanket for our living room sofa. This will be my first double-width weaving project, and I haven't yet decided if it's going to be plain weave or twill, but it will have stripes along the warp and will be woven in a single weft color.

I also have plans to choose or design a weaving project using a Knit Picks Hawthorne Value Pack* this year. I have long loved Hawthorne, and the colors chosen for the value packs take all the guesswork out of choosing multiple colors that coordinate—something I often struggle with. I would like this project to be workable on a rigid heddle loom, and it might very well be the project I warp up and take with me when we go camping this spring. Currently I'm eyeing up this Green Gradient* set because it's springy and green, and far outside the past year's default range of purples and burgundies and blues.

Instead of starting the year off with a full knitting queue like last year, I've cleared out my Ravelry queue and started keeping a notebook and planner with project ideas and plans in it. I hardly got around to any of my queue last year, and I think it was just too overwhelming and didn't leave enough room for new ideas as the year progressed.

If the method doesn't work, try something new!

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Content Plans

In addition to my 2023 crafting goals, I have some thoughts about content creation for the year. As many of you know, this is something I continue to be conflicted about in various ways, and it often leaves me feeling vulnerable, guilty, or incapable. I feel that being open is the way forward and hope that I will look back after jumping the hurdles in front of me and see that they were smaller than they initially appeared.

I have learned over the years that the Twitch content that fulfills me most as a creator is catching up with the community over coffee and crafting, without the pressure of making sure the project is consistently in view or trying to teach technical ideas.

Detail photos and tutorial or timelapse videos are better shown on Instagram (for short-form) and YouTube (for long-form). I'm looking forward to improving my photography and filming of projects to share in these places, and putting less pressure on myself to show every step of the process when I'm live. When I'm truly focused on making, I don't do much talking, and the process becomes very rhythmic and relaxing. I love the idea of showcasing the crafting process, and this is a way I can pursue doing that.

Along the same lines, this very blog gives me a fantastic outlet for discussing plans, parts of the crafting process that don't lend themselves to visual depictions, and general thoughts. The other beauty of photos, videos, and blog posts is that they stick around to look back at and reference.

Taking these things into consideration, my rough plans for the year include regular monthly or semi-monthly Twitch catch-up streams, regular Instagram posts and reels, and a slow progression into YouTube videos as I learn more about videography and video editing. Blog posts will continue as projects arise, progress, and conclude.

All of the above really plays into the "stop trying to do the thing, and just do the thing" part of my goals. I spend a lot of time thinking about doing things, realizing they're difficult, and psyching myself out. The idea here is to make what I want to make, film and photograph as best I can along the way, and make the content I want to see. The first cuts are going to be rough, and that's how we learn and improve!

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All in all, I'm thrilled to be ringing in the new year with our community as well as those I've long been a part of. Self-discipline and reflection are going to be integral to my own goals, and I'm looking forward to what 2023 has in store for all of us.

Take care, be at peace, and aim for enjoyment of your craft.

Cheers,
💕 Liz

Making Room...for a Loom

A few weeks ago, I woke up with a thought buzzing in my brain.

"Check the Warped Weavers Marketplace."

"It's 6:30 in the morning."

"Check the Warped Weavers Marketplace."

"Fine. Why?"

"Don't worry about it."

 

I hadn't looked at the used equipment boards on Ravelry in a while, so I was met with several new "for sale" posts, and found myself looking at a couple of used Macomber looms—both in Maryland. One was for pickup only, and the other would ship. I sat back for a moment, realizing I knew next to nothing about floor loom brands, features, or types. And I wasn't even in the market for a floor loom!

But the bug had bitten me.

I had been admiring the work of several weavers over on Instagram, especially Kate Kilgus, who weaves on a Leclerc Nilus II. Recently, I completed a 2/2 point twill project on my 24-inch rigid heddle loom and, while part of me was content with the slow but rhythmically steady pace of weaving twill that way, I was also thinking a bit about how much more efficient a treadle loom would be for production weaving.

Production weaving is something I've wanted to pursue for a little while now. I want to be able to make runs of useful items, finish them, and put them up for sale in my webshop—and eventually at in-person shows. While I still have a lot of learning to do, I am also comfortable enough with simple designs to feel good selling a finished product.

With these ideas in mind, I broached the subject with my spouse. While we're very much a "you don't need my permission" household, we do like to discuss expensive items, and new floor looms with the features I'm looking for can range anywhere from $3,250 to $5,000. 

Not. Cheap.

Thankfully, he's very supportive of my hobbies and general well-being, so it quickly became clear that this wouldn't be an "if" but rather a "when," and I set off to compare looms.

Well, a day and a half later, I had made myself a spreadsheet. It's not perfect, but you're welcome to peek at it! (Click on the image to open in a new tab and view at original size.)

 

The chart includes only 8-harness, 10-treadle floor looms, because those are the parameters I was specifically looking for.

To be perfectly honest, I spent a long time waffling between various looms. The only one that was never a strong contender was the Schacht Standard, due to sheer cost. I spent a couple hours trying to find the difference between the Leclerc Artisat and the Nilus II, and discovered that the Artisat folds up from both the front and back beams, and the Nilus II folds only from the back beam. Likewise, the Nilus II is heavier and sturdier. The Harrisville with added studio equipment package from Eugene Textile Center (ETC) is incredibly attractive (it even includes a bench!), but the Harrisville is also the lightest weight loom on the chart, and if you're interested in rugs or anything requiring a heavy beat, it won't be the loom for you. However, if portability is high on your list and you're not looking to make such items, it's a strong contender!

It's all give and take, cost and features, portability and stability. When I started the spreadsheet, I had only five looms listed, but as I researched I was reminded about the Harrisville and Ashford options.

If you're in the market, don't let my final selection color your opinions. Seek out information, watch videos, and feel free to use or build off of my chart. If you'd like an Excel copy, I'm happy to send you one.

At the end of my search, I decided on the Ashford Jack Loom. It's a sturdy loom with removable back and front beams for easy threading, its back beam folds in to save space when not in use, it comes standard with Texsolv heddles, it has a built-in raddle, and if purchased from Pacific Wool and Fiber it comes with a free add-on item (I'm choosing the large warping board). There's a great video from Kate Sherratt at Ashford on YouTube if you're interested in how this specific loom works.

We're working on our budget and figuring out when I'll be able to order a new loom, if a used one in good condition doesn't show up in the meantime. (Being closer to the West Coast, used looms are harder to come by.)

Since deciding to take the plunge, I've been watching a lot of weaving videos, mostly from Felicia at SweetGeorgia, who has a wonderful way of explaining things and being relatable and trying to make things as accessible as possible for folks. I feel like I've learned a ton, but I'm also itching to learn hands-on. I'm poking through my stash and thinking about the possibilities to come.

So, this weekend I went ahead and rearranged the craft room to make space. While I don't know when a floor loom will grace this floor, I do know that rearranging furniture now and building a loom later is a better option than doing both back to back. I also took the opportunity to open up the room so I have better access to the windows and easy access to everything else. 

While not the tidiest-looking, I did accomplish a bit of cable management on my PC and set up the desk perpendicular to the bookshelves that hold nearly all of my fiber and yarn stash, as well as reference books.

 

 

The real accomplishment was opening up this space in front of the window for the future loom. With the space to the left and the work table to the right, it should shape up to be a nice, accessible workspace. The rug is 62 inches wide, and the loom will be just over 45 inches wide, so there's plenty of room for the drawers on the right to open as well.

 

 

I'll keep you all posted about the new loom, and in the meantime I'll be finishing my WIPs and getting ready to start 2023 off strong with intentional, useful, and wearable makes to share with you all!

Last night's WIP was the beautiful burgundy Merino/yak/silk blend I started spinning over the summer and let languish on the shelf these past few months. It's great to be back at it, and I'm looking forward to knitting and weaving with more handspun in the future.

If you have a loom you love, stories about how you ended up with yours, or a loom you've been dreaming of for years, feel free to comment! I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Until next time, stay cozy, stay crafty, and don't be a stranger. 💗

Adventures in Point Twill

Back in 2019, I purchased a secondhand Kromski Harp Forte 24-inch rigid heddle loom.

I assembled it, marveled at its structure, especially after weaving on a DIY loom for over a year, and immediately got to making things complicated by weaving twill for the first time. I wove a simple 3/1 twill, with two heddles and a pick-up stick, and I have very little photographic proof of this teeny tiny project because it got ruined by a leaky bottle of sesame oil in our cross-country move.

Bummer, that. It was a cute little coaster. 

Since then, the loom has sat on a shelf or its stand for longer than I care to admit, but hardly a day has gone by that I haven't thought about weaving. We've moved twice since it came to live with me, and space was An Issue for nearly a year and a half.

But now...

I'll be honest, I really like this weaving spot.

 

Okay, okay, I did one rigid heddle project earlier this year, too.

"Yes, yes, we get it. The purple scarf is very nice." – everyone, probably

 

While I'm positively tickled about this point twill project, it took a minute to get to get here.

You might want a beverage and a comfortable chair for this one.  

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Over a month ago, I started picking through my leftovers bowl. I wanted to weave a scrappy project but was increasingly frustrated that none of the scraps seemed to go together. I pulled out most of the handspun balls, and started to see a few things coming together: dark purple, gray/pink, white/blue/purple/sparkle, blue/teal/pink, hazy black.

It looked like a reasonable amount of warp, which makes no sense because I hadn't even picked a project. What the hell is a reasonable amount of warp when you don't have a project in mind?

I dug out my warping pegs, and flipped my loom upside down on its stand to wind my warp. This is a really useful feature of many rigid heddle looms, and I'm learning to take better advantage of it rather than direct warping all the time.

I'd be lying if I told you I remembered how long the warp is. It's a good length, I think just over 3 yards? I checked when I put the pegs on the warping board, and then I didn't promptly write it down so it's gone forever.  

It wasn't enough warp width for anything more than a belt. So, I went back to the bowl and pulled out the remaining purple handspun I used for the weft in the scarf above, and a little under 40 grams of leftover blue-gray BFL/silk/cashmere sock yarn.

I got to work threading my three heddles (one on each set of heddle blocks, and one floating in the middle) according to Meilindis' blog post, took a break to make and eat dinner with my husband, and went back to it. Once things were tied on and looking even, he came in to admire my work. I told him I wasn't sure yet what I wanted to make, but that I had a pretty good length of warp—much longer than I really needed for even a scarf. I thought about table runners, placemats, etc., but he ran he hand across the newly-tensioned warp and gently mentioned that he would love a scarf—if and only if I needed a reason to weave.

I had been meaning to make him a scarf for a while now, and he had picked out some yarn, but he really seemed to like the blues and purples in this warp. I showed him the navy blue weft, and the weave structure I was planning to use, and he was thrilled.

After spacing my warp, I got started weaving a bit of tabby to even things out. It was kind of fussy, so I only wove about eight picks of it. Then I started on the real draft, and ... it wasn't any better. 

 

It was gorgeous, but I was struggling to get an even, open shed while having to hold a second heddle up or down manually and pass the shuttle through with my one free hand. Something about part of my tension was strange as well, and in a handful of the slots housing two warp ends, the yarns were fighting to pass by each other.

With just one hand to work on everything, the weaving process slowed to a crawl, and I was frustrated. So, I did what I intended to do last year. I ordered a set of double heddle blocks for the loom, and I ignored the project for a bit.

Once the heddle blocks arrived, I took the loom off its stand, laid it on the floor, and started undoing bolts. This was all well and good, except it quickly became clear to me that the double heddle block did not fit next to the single heddle block. Well, it fit, but when loaded with heddles, there was no space between them to move said heddles. I was flabbergasted, annoyed, pissed, to be honest. I spent $40 on a couple hunks of wood and couldn't even use them as intended.

Welp.

I thought about just starting over in plain weave, or powering through the project until I could find a way to alter one of the old sets of single blocks to fit over the back support beam, to allow more space between the blocks for the heddles to move. I got my hacksaw out and cut a chunk out of an old heddle block. No dice.

This was about as fun as it looks like it was.

A couple weeks went by, and I really didn't know where to begin, but I got that furrowed brow, that notion of "I'm going to figure it out or it can't be done."

I pulled the loom back off the stand and set it on my work table. I inspected where the heddles were bolted on, and the holes on the opposite side of the loom. I could rearrange the blocks, but then one set would be too far forward and impede my weaving space. 

Sigh.

I remembered reading somewhere that assembling the loom backwards could cause catastrophic failure, but... how? If this loom wasn't meant to be used forward or backward, why on earth were there reversed heddle block holes on the opposite side?

I measured the space between the two sets of holes on the opposite side. They were the same anyway; it didn't matter.

But they looked different. Why did they look different?

I thought about folding the loom up, and how the bottom support beams, where the feet attach, don't line up perfectly so that the feet don't crash into each other when the loom is folded up. 

THAT'S IT.

I measured and confirmed, the holes on the front of the loom at the same distance from each other but overall further away from the beam. What that means is that I had room to put the double heddle block near the beam, and the single heddle block in front, and everything would fit.

And so it was, and there was much rejoicing.

Look at all that space!

The rejoicing was only mildly tempered by the fact that the front of the loom was now the back of the loom, and not only did I need to turn the loom around, but I also needed to roll the entire length of the warp from the cloth beam (formerly the warp beam) to the warp beam (formerly the cloth beam), re-tie my ends with better tension, and maybe even re-thread the heddles—all three of them.

Do you see?

I wasn't going to risk losing momentum, so I stuck my earbuds in and got to work, pausing only briefly for another Cooking Together segment.

In the end, I did choose to re-thread the heddles. Some ends had gotten twisted the first time around, and I wasn't completely sure I didn't mess things up in another way. Better safe than sorry, right? Additionally, I took more care in tying on with even tension, using smaller bundles of warp ends this time around. 

 

To each heddle, its own block.

 

I spaced my warp, and I started again. This time I forgot to start with tabby weave, but paused several picks in to do my hemstitching, and it looks reasonably fine so I'm not fussing over it. I just wanted to get on with it and get going and make sure everything worked. 

And it does!

 

I'm having only very mild issues with those same few problem ends getting stuck up or down and having to manipulate them every two picks, but with both hands free it's much more pleasant, and much faster. I'm beating more evenly, leaving space for the fabric to bloom later on, and the work is so much more enjoyable.

Now I can truly say I'm absolutely thrilled to be working on this point twill scarf, and it's been great for catching up on podcasts. I'm still not very far along with it, but this weekend should give me some quality weaving time.

Kromski, you've made a very versatile loom, and I'll keep my toes crossed that the loom gods don't choose to curse me with a catastrophic failure. 

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Some of you might have noticed a new accessory in the last couple of photos. One downside(ish) to this modification is that I can't use my loom stand now unless I get longer bolts. I say (ish) because, honestly, I prefer weaving at the work table. Because of this, I needed to figure out how to hold my roll of packing paper that keeps the layers of my warp as well as my cloth separate and evenly tensioned. 

Well, lo and behold, we had a yardstick laying around that came with the house, so I tied it up to the front support beam with some scrap yarn and stuck the whole roll on it. Works like a charm, and you could just as easily use it on the stand if you were so inclined.

 

It feels great to be successfully weaving again. I'm excited to continue working on this scarf, and I hope to get some shop items on the loom shortly after it's finished. My stash is calling me to throw things together and see what happens. That's been the beauty of weaving for me. Colors play together so differently than they do in knitting or crochet. It's a whole different world.

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next time. 🍂