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. 🍂

 

Saturday Thoughts: Social Media, Personal Brands, and Connection

Happy Saturday, everyone! 

It's certainly starting to feel more like fall here, and all I want to do is craft and cook and clean.

I have a robust weaving post coming out in just a few days, but for now I'd like to share some thoughts I've been compiling in this draft throughout the week.

Social media and content platforms skew heavily toward single-facet content. 

We see pattern designers modeling knitwear in picturesque locations, sometimes cautiously alluding to other parts of their lives, but keeping a fair distance from anything not knitting-related. We see makers post nothing but makes, artists post nothing but art, writers post nothing but aesthetically pleasing text blocks.

This is what it means to make a brand, to be a brand, and there's nothing inherently wrong with it. There's a lot of benefit to it, in reality. People know what to expect from your posts, and they're almost always met with something along the lines of what they expect.

It's familiar, it's comfortable, and if you're lucky it's profitable.

But it's not whole.

 

I have a feeling there are plenty of folks out there who want to share other facets of their hobbies and lives, but are afraid to do so due to the algorithm—especially if they're running a business.

Frankly, I want to see your garden, your baking experiments, your houseplants, and all your new crafts and hobbies outside your main shtick, but I understand why you might not want to post them to your grid.

 

So, when you're someone who wants to create for the community but also retain your sense of self—without maintaining two Instagram accounts—what do you do? 

I've landed firmly in the realm of using Instagram posts and stories as a sort of split stream: posts largely pertain to makes and shop updates, while stories are where I share posts from makers and artists I admire, create short videos to share bits of my life, and promote blog posts.

For a short second, I contemplated adding grid posts for new blog content, but I'll tell you why I'm not going to do that. My blog content is more personal than what you see on Instagram, and I think it demands a slightly different audience. At the same time, grid posts are highly visual, and get far more click engagement than written engagement. 

With grid posts, people like, share, comment, etc., and it's largely a short interaction. People want to scroll through pretties and click hearts.

With stories, people like and maybe share, but when they "comment," it's a direct message. It's more personal. It's direct-to-inbox. Could that get overwhelming at some point? Absolutely. But right now, it's the closest thing I see to commenting on the blog itself, and it invites connection and discussion.

I'm here for that. 

At least for me, I know that I pause for a moment before commenting on someone's story. Is what I have to say positive? Is it important enough to send directly to the person's inbox? Maybe more importantly, If I were on the receiving end, would I want to see this message?

Many of us have lost our local communities, or moved, or drifted away from connecting with others in general. I've lived here for over year and have had local folks to meet up with since I put feet on the sand, and I still haven't done that. I've made it to exactly one knitting group, one singular Saturday morning.

I have my little Twitch broadcast when I'm feeling it, and I do enjoy that outlet and community—most of it, anyway. My Twitch community is responsible for me feeling even remotely qualified to write this very blog, and they've been with me since 2018. That's big!

But I can't help feeling like I should try to shape the community a bit better, by tying together my video content (whether it be Twitch, YouTube, or a brand new platform), social media, and blogging.

I guess some of that is to say that I'm not going anywhere, even though I've taken a few weeks off from streaming to get my mojo back and do some troubleshooting—both technology and craft-related. I continue to iterate on what I want this overall space to look like, and how to get there, and I'm happy you're here with me.

Next post will be very happy and exciting weaving updates! I'd like to get a little further along and take some daylight photos before I share the trials and tribulations of the point twill project I started at least a month ago.

But what a story it will be. You have no idea. 😂 

 

Full transparency: I don't have any stream updates right now. I've been enjoying having my crafting mojo back, but I'm not feeling good about the Twitch space right this second, and I've been very sleepy this week. 

I'll see you when I see you. Post some passion projects to your IG stories this weekend if that's your thing, and take care. 💛

Baking, Weaving, Living

The wheel turns, and suddenly it's autumn.

Happy October; frog and cranberries it must be fall! 

 

 

For me, fall brings about an urge to reset things, cook, clean, rearrange, close old chapters, and open new ones.

As such, I decided to take a couple weeks away from the streaming space and spend some time just being and doing.

Last weekend, I cleaned my desk, disassembled and cleaned my mechanical keyboard, put away some drying lemon leaves and rosemary, baked my first loaf of sourdough bread, and enjoyed some cooler morning weather here in Las Vegas.

The Second Loaf™

Back up to the weekend before last, when I mixed up some sourdough starter and managed to feed it regularly all week. Come last Friday, things were very bubbly and ready to make some bread. (I was hopeful but not terribly confident, after my last loaf of regular yeast-based bread didn't rise enough and came out pretty dense, although tasty.) After an overnight rise, the sourdough loaf didn't look much different than it had when I popped it into the pan, and I was worried. 

Within ten minutes in the oven, the loaf had magically sprung up to perfect loaf size and started browning. It came out brown, squishy, crusty but not tough, and tasty—the perfect sandwich loaf. As I'm writing this on Friday, September 30, I have another batch of dough on its first rise downstairs in the kitchen, and a jar of starter discard in the fridge waiting to make crackers tomorrow. 

 

Coffee on the back patio is one of my life's small pleasures, and I'm happy to report that mornings are now lovely and cool enough to draw myself and my mug outside to sit with the breeze and the birds. I need to restock the seed feeder, and the hummingbird feeder isn't getting much action (probably due to hanging it so late in the season), but there are always a few visitors nonetheless. Friendly finches, handsome hummers, and pudgy pigeons for the most part.

After my husband pruned our lemon tree, I realized the leaves had a very similar scent to makrut lime leaves that used in Thai cooking. After some swift googling, I found out that lemon leaves (all citrus leaves, really) can be used in place of lime leaves, and I plucked all the healthy leaves I could find on the pruned branches and set them aside to dry.

One of the beauties of living in the desert is that I can set things out just about anywhere to dry and not worry about anything molding or keeping moisture for too long. Now I have a bag of lemon leaves in my pantry, ready for curry-making. They also smell great. Additionally, I have a jar of dried lemon peels and a separate, small jar of sliced, immature lemon slices to use in potpourri/simmer pots later on.

 

 

In crafting news, I started a point twill weaving project a couple weeks back. The warp is made up of a bunch of handspun scraps, with some sock yarn leftovers thrown in to beef up the width. 

It's going well, though I haven't worked on it in about a week because I've been trying to find a solution for adding a set of single heddle blocks behind the double heddle blocks in the front. The idea when I ordered the double set was to have space for three heddles, for projects such as these. It turns out, however, that there isn't enough clearance between blocks for the second and third heddles to move.

With a pencil and a small hacksaw, I've been slowly working to take a chunk out of each single heddle block, in order to slide them over the back support beam. When this project comes to fruition, I will be happy to share photos and a how-to with you all. Until then, not a lot of weaving is happening, because I'm having to hold up or push down that third heddle manually every time I need to use it. To add insult to injury, there are a couple of warp threads that aren't playing nicely, and I have to manipulate them by hand, which is difficult when I have only one hand free!

 

It's going to be a beautiful scarf, and a labor of love, for my well-deserving husband. 

They're all learning experiences, aren't they?

I made him a pretty cool hat, too.

I had big plans this year to wrap up my WIPs and start several new projects. As expected, many of those projects are still sitting in the queue, a WIP from this year is still on the needles, and my oldest WIP is about to reach its birthday on October 17. Life happens that way sometimes. I've learned more about myself and how I like to spend my time, I've done some pretty cool projects in between, and I'm still working toward future goals.

Once the scarf is off the loom, I have loose plans to make items for the long-awaited shop re-opening. I could look at this as motivation and/or pressure to get on with things and get going, but instead I'm choosing to look at it as a fresh start of sorts. I have the outline, and I'll fill in the blanks as I go.

What's for sale will be completely different from the Freckled Fiberworks we all knew in 2020, and I think that's exactly what I need. I'm 31, I have more stability in my life than ever, and I can take the time to make things I truly enjoy, and to share them with you all.

I'll leave you with a prompt I'm still reflecting on. My Co-Star app—as skeptical as I am about astrology—has been very good for self-reflection prompts over the past several months. 

 

"What do you want from this journey?" 

 

Feel free to comment below if you have any thoughts you'd like to share; I'll reply to every single one, and I'll share my thoughts in my next post. 🧡

 

Until next time, stay cozy, stay crafty, and make time for you. Happy Autumn! 🍂

Some Notes on Project Choice and Mental Space

Recently, I've come to a realization that my developed affinity for simple projects (stockinette and garter knitting, single and double crochet, plain weave) is a response to more than I originally thought. It's not uncommon for me to sing the praises of plain pieces when working with handspun yarn, since much of my handspun is striped or variegated and can get lost in a pattern, or the pattern can get lost in the yarn, but there's another factor.

I can lose myself in the work when it doesn't take all my attention, and I can use that attention to, for instance, listen to an audiobook or podcast. I can talk to my mother on the phone and not have to pause to count stitches in a lace repeat, or make sure I'm crossing that eight-stitch cable the right way. Barring all that, I can let my mind wander off to think about future projects, do mundane planning, consider uses for leftovers from the project at hand, etc. 

If we're talking about my garter stitch blanket, I could read a blog post or a book with how little I have to look at that project. Four edge stitches, knit all the way across, four edge stitches. Even if I miss pulling a stitch all the way through, I'll catch it on the way back; ask me how I know.

This realization comes at a time that I've leapt back into reading both print and audiobooks. Just last week, I finished Jenna Woginrich's Barnheart, in ebook form, and I've recently finished Roots, Branches, and Spirits, by H. Byron Ballard, as an audiobook. Spending time reading and listening to published words rather than social media drivel has been excellent for my well-being, and if you've been away from reading as a pastime for too long (as I was), I cannot recommend enough to give it another shot.

This post came about because I've had an insatiable urge to crochet for the past several months. You might remember my simple, single crochet shawl from back in March (yikes, that was March?!), that I finished in about three weeks while juggling some other projects. Every other crochet project I've cast on since has been frogged, because I'm just not feeling it, but I want to crochet. 

Last weekend, I set out during my Twitch broadcast to find a new crochet project. I searched my library and favorites on Ravelry for an hour, couldn't find yarn for what I originally thought I wanted, and settled on starting a fairly simple pocket shawl pattern. I cast on 156 stitches, did a row of double crochet, admired my work, continued with a row of front/back post double crochet ribbing, and immediately ripped it out.

The f/bpdc stitches were aggravating me, and I preferred the look of the plain old double crochet row.

I want to crochet, and I want relatively mindless crochet. That shawl linked above was perfect; it started out as a mosaic crochet project, but the yarn didn't work out for that, and I continued on with my handspun until I ran out. It's a triangular shawl where the yarn does all the work and the stitches just tell the yarn where to land. 

Something I've noticed—and I'm not sure if it's just because I'm drawn to the aesthetic or because it's more popular—is that among those who sell their handmade goods, plain items with just a little bit of flair are the bread and butter of the operation. Rustic woven table runners with a contrast stripe here and there, but all plain weave. Gorgeous, colorful guitar straps, but mostly plain weave (and of course the ones that aren't are significantly more expensive). Large, gradient shawls, generally in a single and/or double crochet pattern with the occasional accent. Knitted hats, either stockinette or ribbed.

Part of that is going to be the ease and speed with which one can crank out those items, which makes them far more profitable, but I can't help but consider that allowance for brain space, for thought, for listening, for planning. Once those physical tasks are put on near-autopilot, you've just freed up a lot of time for your mind to wander.

With that, I'm trying to slow down a little, work on what feels right, and keep things simple as much as I can. The complex projects will come as inspiration allows, but there's no need to complicate things unnecessarily.

No photos this week, but I encourage you to get outside if you can (or get comfy-cozy inside if you can't), bring a simple project, and just be with it. Check out that nice park you never go to, or just enjoy your own patio or porch.

Feel free to let me know what you're reading and/or working on, in the comments here or in my Discord server.

I'll be around in the morning with some kind of craft and coffee.

While I want to weave, it might not be the right time yet. 

Be gentle with yourselves, and enjoy your weekend. 💛

 

Argil & Road Trip

I feel like I owe y'all an apology.

There's a post that's been sitting in my drafts since the end of June, about a project I've really been enjoying! I posted a little about it in my old haunt on Ravelry, and I tossed a very early photo into my Discord server, but it hasn't graced Instagram or the blog. 

I'll throw the original unfinished post here between page breaks, and then discuss further after:

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(from ~17 June)

With the crochet baby blanket completed and the Umaro/Mayan Blanket/Lunar Crossings frogged (🙃), I'm excited to say I've casted on a new, somewhat portable project: Argil by Clare Lakewood.

Argil was released in Pom Pom Quarterly in summer 2019, and it's been in my queue since I picked up the magazine. Honestly, it's a great magazine and, while I'm never going to like every pattern published, I consistently like several patterns in each issue. I might consider subscribing in the future, but right now I have a hefty library of patterns I like to shop through when choosing a new project.

As a sidenote, my Habitation Throw is still on the needles, and juuuuuust about halfway finished. It lives on the couch as my TV knitting because it's getting to be quite large to tote around.  

For Argil, I'm using Less Traveled Yarn's Tweed Me base in the Merlot colorway as my main color, and leftover Knit Picks Stroll Tweed in Oyster Heather for my contrast color. The result should be a very wearable top to pair with a skirt or jeans!

While my WIPs have been dwindling down, I've been thinking more and more about working through my stash. I'm keeping my fiber subscription, but I really want to get through some of this yarn, especially what's been in stash for years. While it's tempting to lean on crochet or weaving to eat up yardage, and I do want to set aside some time to plan out my next large weaving project, the truth of the matter is that I need to actually work on things and continue on my quest to stare at my phone less.

So, here I am, casting on again but not feeling overwhelmed by WIPs.

That was the goal, wasn't it?

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How's Argil doing an entire month later? Good!

Porch knitting, best knitting.

Well, mostly good. I ran out of my contrast color, so it's on hold for a minute.

Otherwise, it's been a very fun, very potato chippy knit. There's a contrast stripe after every six stockinette rows, and that really keeps things moving and makes it easy to measure progress.

I took Argil along on our 1,600-mile (each way) road trip to see our family in the Midwest a couple weeks ago, and it was also a great car knitting project. With only two colors, it fits in a small project bag easily and without too much tangling. We split the drive in half every day with me driving in the morning and my spouse driving in the afternoon, so swapping to the passenger seat after lunch and getting my project out was a super easy transition. I didn't work on it every day, but having the option was great.

Some afternoons I just stared out the window.

I really, really don't get tired of this view.

Currently, Argil is about 75 percent finished, and I'm happy to work on something else until I have the yarn to finish it. I've reached out to folks in my Discord server to see if they have any leftovers, but I'm also not fussed about buying a new skein. It's not an expensive yarn, and I can't imagine having a leftover bit of cream-colored tweed yarn in my stash would be detrimental.

That's about it for Argil right now, but if you'd like to hear a little more about our trip, I'll add some more tidbits below!

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We stayed in cabins most of the trip out and back, and split our time back home between a cute little cottage and tent camping (joke's on us; we didn't book early enough to get the cottage over the holiday weekend). 

It was hot and humid, so having the air conditioned cottage most of the time was great. We also had some adorable trash panda visitors (parent and three littles) by our campfire, lots of birds to watch, and groundhogs galore. I could occupy myself for an entire week just watching the wildlife. 🦝

Hey there, bud.
(click to enlarge)

We also got really lucky over the weekend that we were tent camping because it rained that Friday night, and temperatures stayed cooler over the weekend. Family came out to barbecue, and everyone had a good time. We did have a skunk visitor in the tent camping area, but everyone kept their distance and avoided a spraying incident. 🦨

In any case, I'm going to have a hard time topping this morning view.

 Until next time, be safe, stay cool, and keep crafting. 💕

Making, Doing, Mending

Hi folks, and happy almost-June! I'm still here, and I'm still making, so I thought I'd post an update to sum up the past few weeks.

As we approach the halfway point of the year, it seems as though I've come to the conclusion of 2022's Acquire All The Tools effort. Since the beginning of the year, I have added a Minstrel inkle loom from Windhaven Fiber Tools, a set of short Dreamz interchangeable needles from Knitters Pride, and an Electric Eel Wheel 6 (as well as a yarn measuring device) from Dreaming Robots. 

Minstrel inkle loom

Left: Electric Eel Wheel 5, Right: Electric Eel Wheel 6

 

EEW Yarn Counter and very magenta handspun

While I haven't done a whole lot with the loom yet, I did make a plainweave band (see above) with some self-striping yarn to get myself acquainted. It's very easy to use, and I can see some custom shoelaces in my future. I also did a short bit of card weaving, though I want to revisit that in the future as I wasn't enjoying this one a ton and cut it off the loom early. I still have enough to make a bracelet or key fob.

 

Purple tablet woven band

Additionally, I subscribed to a hand-dyed fiber subscription from Oink Pigments back in February, and I have no regrets. The goal with the subscription is to have a constant flow in and out of fiber and yarn, and to allow myself to use the good stuff without feeling too precious about it. Fiber in, yarn out, use in project.

 

Oink Pigments club colorways: March (Marsh Madness), April (Rainbow? Sure, Bert), and May (That's My Jam)

I haven't spun any of the three braids I have so far. They're just glorious and I can't wait to dig into them!

However!

I have been working to clear my plate, as I've been talking about since the first post on this blog, and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. For an update from my previous post, the Rad Radish socks are finished! Getting back into colorwork was a bit slow and cumbersome on the first sock, but the second one really zipped by. Spouse is over the moon about them, and I'm very pleased. The sparkly Fondant Fibre spin is also finished and on the shelf for a future project. It's not terribly consistent (one end is much thinner than the other) so I likely won't try to use it for socks, but at 502 yards it can easily be a shawl. I've also made quite a few more crochet squares with the yarn I dyed last fall, and they're sitting on the shelf until I finish the others and take stock of what I have. 

Rad Radish socks

Handspun yarn from Fondant Fibre Spangle Top

I also spun up about 50 grams of bright as heck magenta Blue-faced Leicester that I dyed last year (I think). The singles were spun on my Woolmakers Bliss and plied on the new EEW6. It came out beautiful and tonal and even, and I'm very happy with it. As far as spinning projects go, that leaves me with the orange Lincoln-Leicester-Romney that's on the Bliss right now. It's a coarse blend and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with the final yarn yet, maybe autumn housewares of some sort. There's also the ongoing spindle project, which is a collection of small bits of fiber that I take with me when I want a spinning project on the go. 

Campsite spinning with a deconstructed batt from my old shop stock and my trusty cross-arm from Snyder Spindles

Yesterday morning I got out my Habitation throw project for the first time in several weeks. We had a bit of a coffee date at a nearby shop, and I remembered what good coffee shop knitting garter stitch is. Much less chance of messing up!

While we were enjoying our coffee time, there was a large table of friends (or maybe some kind of local group) nearby, and it reminded me how much I miss having a knit night/morning to go to. I might start looking a bit harder at finding one to join or starting one of my own, depending on time and location. The animated conversation and sense of community just can't be replicated in a virtual space, and I think many of us need it more than we realize.

More on this in a future post.

Working on the Habitation Throw with Tosh Light Holo Glitter (and also the largest almond danish I've ever seen)

I also frogged the Umaro blanket. Whoops.

I just wasn't loving the process, and I've since started a crochet blanket with it. Okay, I started a different crochet blanket first and frogged that too. Sometimes it be that way. The current iteration isn't really photographing well, so I'll spare you until it's finished and blocked. I've even considered frogging this one a few times, but I don't know if the yarn can take another round of ripping, and I really do love this yarn! It's so soft and squishy, and I'd hate to ruin a whole project.

So, for now, it's in time out while I work on the Habitation throw. 

To sum things up as far as projects go, I guess I'd say that I'm not feeling overwhelmed by WIPs anymore. I only feel like I have one long-term project (Habitation), one faster project (crochet blanket), and one spin (orange LLR). Two of those I can see being finished within the next week or so, and that will either give me a chance to focus on Habitation and finish it or allow myself to cast on something new that I'm excited about. 

There's a lot I'm excited about, too! I have big plans to work through much of my stash and to continue teaching myself that it's okay to use up the good stuff. That's what it's for. 

Am I repeating myself? Probably. Is it necessary to remind ourselves of things we're working toward? Absolutely.

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A thing I'm struggling with right now is constantly wanting to be working on something other than the project I have going. Not so much with the Habitation throw, thank goodness, but with any other project I've had on the go recently. While I haven't come to a solid conclusion on the underlying reason, I suspect it's due to feeling obligated to make a thing because I said I would, or because I owe it to someone, or because it's been in my queue for a long time. Looking back on my makes, it seems like the ones I cast on spontaneously or planned out and then immediately started are the ones I've been the happiest making.

Because of that, I'm even more excited to wipe out my WIPs and get on to something new. But for the same reason, I'm going to take a good look at my queue and see what really sticks out to me as an enjoyable project and choose that, or something that's not in my queue at all if none of them fit the bill. That way I'm not just going through the motions.

It's not all bad; I'm just learning more and more about myself and how I like to operate, what I enjoy spending time doing, and what I don't enjoy. Know thyself and all that. I'm getting where I want to go, slowly.

So that's where I'm at, creatively.

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I'll talk more in a future post about moving away from Twitch for good as well as some of my reasons behind that for those who are interested. To those who have supported me behind the scenes while I waffled and whined and questioned myself, thank you.

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I'm mourning the passing of the weekend, so I'll leave you with some parting words before finding a pleasant way to spend my last remaining afternoon:

Use the good yarn.

If you're not enjoying it, frog it.

Don't "should" yourself.

Take care, and I'll talk to you soon. 🌿

 

Thoughts, Makes, and a KAL

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links denoted by asterisks (*). That means 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 I have personally used and would recommend.

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Good morning!

Let me preface this by saying I'm aware that I'm doing a lot of navel-gazing lately. At the end of the day this blog is for me, and it's a bonus that anyone reads it. If you're one of those people, thank you for following along.

Continuing on with this year's theme of self-reflection and discovery, I've been thinking less about the kind of content I want to put out and more about what I want to spend my time doing. We returned from our weekend camp last Sunday, and by mid-week my husband was already making noises about the next.

Let the record show that this makes me so, so happy. I am always afraid that I'm the overzealous outdoorswoman dragging her spouse along, and that is so incredibly not the case here.

My happy camper mind is at peace.

We're finding that as soon as we're home again, we miss being away from it all: Discord and Slack servers, constant news, constant content, scrolling YouTube and Instagram for hours, milling around aimlessly, bored. Too much choice, so we do a lot of nothing. Not wanting to go out because it's busy and crowded, so we stay home.

Please don't misunderstand; I love having a handful of near-constant connections and a dedicated space to talk to our community. I have been blessed with a fair few friendships that I haven't let completely fall off the radar, as well as those who I talk to every day, and some that are Column A at times and Column B at other times. 

Friends, I love you, and I hope to create and/or resume in-the-flesh connections with many of you.

We have home comforts that we enjoy, especially our kitchen and hobby spaces, but there's something about having only a few things with you, and having to take some extra steps to cook or make coffee. Everything slows down when we pack it all out for the weekend, and it feels like we gain so much time — time to think, to chat, to listen, to be quiet.

Listen, I talk a lot. I always have, but I'm learning to be still and quiet with my own thoughts. I don't have to speak everything out loud, and I've learned (or one would think I've learned) that some ideas need to stay in my head for me to grow them to fruition. They're not ready until they're ready, and often that means I need to keep quiet and start the project on my own without telling anyone. I'm going to need to go dark sometimes and just make things.

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So, what do I want to spend my time doing?

I want to go all-in on my makes, start to finish. I want to finish what's on my plate, and then pursue one passion project at a time and see where that takes me. I'll still have a side project that's portable when applicable, but I largely want to try to keep my WIP count low. 

I still want to work through my project queue by the end of the year. That's going to take some planning and dedication, but I know I can do it.

I want to spend less time staring at screens and more time staring at books, playing music, and making things with my hands. That one is going to require making some changes that aren't going to feel very comfortable right away. 

I'm currently streaming roughly every other Saturday and, aside from a couple of really solid, exciting broadcasts, I've been feeling pretty exhausted by the whole thing. I try to be honest with my community, but I also don't like to say I'm going to do something and then do the opposite, or jump too quickly to taking time off when I might be really jazzed to stream in two weeks.

As it stands right now, I'm going to announce when I'll be live rather than when I won't be. I think that'll give me the freedom I need to take time and figure out where I'm going with all of this, get my shop up and running again, try some new things, and run a little experiment that requires me to hush a bit.

When you see me going live again, it'll be because I have exciting things to share!

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Speaking of exciting things, we have a little community knit-along starting on Saturday, April 16! I won't be streaming, but I'll be sharing video clips, photos, and community members' projects on my Instagram throughout the KAL. 

We'll be making Stone Knits' Rad Radish Socks, and if you're reading this the day it was posted then there's a pattern giveaway happening in my Discord server! (If you're not in the server and would like to be, please reach out to me; it's not behind a paywall.)

I purchased some Knit Picks Stroll* and Stroll Tweed* for this pattern and will be using some indie dyed yarn from my stash to make the radishes.

There are no other prizes, but that's okay because the real prize is the socks we'll make along the way.

I'll see myself out.

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I'll give a quick update on my own makes, and then I think I'll wrap this up.

Spin: The Fondant Fibre Merino/nylon/sparkle blend is about halfway through chain plying.

Knit: Habitation Throw still in progress, haven't worked on it in about a week. Umaro blanket still in progress, worked on it last weekend. 

Weave: Purple/Rainbow wrap is finished and will have its own finished object post Soon™. Loom is empty.

Crochet: I started some simple double crochet blanket squares with the Patons Classic Wool Worsted that I dyed last fall. I'm pairing it with the remaining undyed yarn and we'll see how many squares I can make. I'm happy to buy more to fill it out to blanket size

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That's where I'm at this week, and I'll keep posting updates here as they arise!

Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you when I see you. 💟

Cast On and Bound Off: Single Crochet Shawl

I never did quite get to a cast-on report for the crochet shawl I started three weeks ago.

Whoops!

I had intended to use Sylwia Kawczyńska's Carina Mosaic Shawl pattern to pair a 516-yard skein of fingering weight handspun with two skeins of indie dyed sock yarn in a complementary color.

They do look lovely together!

When I started the mosaic section, I noticed that my work seemed loose. I'm fairly new to mosaic crochet and thought I'd keep going and see if the pattern made itself clear about halfway through. While the pattern did show, I decided that the fabric was too loose for my liking and that the handspun skein would be better suited to a plain single crochet project to really showcase the yarn without worrying about any patterning.

Determined to continue on, I sat down on the studio floor and slowly ripped back row by row until the contrasting skein was whole again and I was left with a small single crochet triangle. 

Technically, I continued using the Carina pattern — just one line of it. Increasing by four stitches each row, I settled back into the single crochet rhythm. This might be my most enjoyable crochet project to date, if I'm honest.

Since the single-row pattern was easily memorized, I enjoyed a lot of quiet contemplation during this project. We've had some beautiful weather these past few days, so much of my time has been spent out on the patio working on projects and watching the local birds discover our feeder. 

"What, is there something on my beak?"

I found myself daydreaming about future projects, simple projects, where the yarn does most of the work. This was one of those projects once I made the decision to ditch the pattern, and it was very enjoyable. There's something to be said for simple patterns and letting the yarn speak — especially handspun.

And then, Sunday afternoon, the shawl was suddenly finished! It's currently blocking on mats behind me and came out to an astonishing 59" wingspan. That's far larger than I was expecting from a single skein crochet project! 

I'm very pleased with it, and I hope it blocks well so I can grab some good photos this week.

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Before I jump too terribly far down that simple projects rabbit hole, I do have the current WIPs to finish. Two of them land in the realm of simple, anyway.

For those keeping score at home, On the needles I still have the Umaro blanket, the Habitation Throw, and on the loom I have my my purple/rainbow handspun stole/yardage/fabric — I don't know what to call the damn weaving project, okay?

I think I'll just call it the purple yardage so we can move on with our lives. It's very pretty, and I say that as someone who is convinced that I may choose the yarn a put it on the loom, but it becoming fabric is magic all of its own.

Umaro is coming along well, if slowly. It will likely be what I dive into next until it's finished.

I'll admit that the larger needles I have to use on Umaro are a little harder on my hands, but that's mostly a reminder that I don't need to be fast.

The Habitation Throw will fall back into place as my mindless project now that the shawl is finished, and it often brightens up my morning work table as well. 

Once I run out of the three yarns I'm working with, I'll have to decide whether to proceed with one solid or make more stripes in different colors. I'm trying to source a single ply black or charcoal with some sparkle to match the other half, but I'm not having a lot of luck except in the very expensive indie dyed realm. 

(There's no HDR on that photo, my phone camera just doesn't know what to do with the bright, saturated colors when the sunlight hits them.)

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I have some ideas about what I want the shop to look like when I open again, and I think the picture is slowly becoming whole. 

While I don't want to spoil any new products at this point in time, I would like to say that the idea of using part of my shop as a gallery for larger finished accessories is really scratching an itch for me. After knitting for a decade, I have my favorite shawls, scarves, and hats. But I want to keep making those things. I enjoy learning new techniques, putting the pieces of a new pattern together, and seeing how my handspun yarn takes shape.

Listing those items for sale gives me hope that those pieces will find homes, even if it takes a while. That way, I can keep making what I love and sharing it with you all.

You're not likely to see socks in the shop, though. We'll always need new socks, as long as we keep wearing through them! 

I currently have two shawls I'd like to list when the time comes, and I'm deep into daydreaming about putting that loom to good use for housewares large and small! 

A major goal of mine is to have a broad range of price points for items I sell, that way everyone can afford something. As someone who admires many artists, makers, and creators, it's wonderful to be able to support someone in a small way rather than being priced out by luxury goods. At the same time, there is a market for those luxury goods! 

Something about everything in moderation.

I'll leave it there for now, before I run down into more vague babbling. 

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This week I'm hoping to work out some more repeatable shop items and make progress on my WIPs!

I'll see you Saturday morning on Twitch for coffee and crafts!

As always, thanks for reading. Take care, and have a lovely week. 💚

Onward, Forward, and Outward

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links denoted by asterisks (*). That means 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, and I have not chosen them due to any commission I may receive.

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Hi again. It's been a few weeks!

I put the crock pots away, and it feels good.

I feel like I can move forward, and I have been moving forward since I made the decision to stop dyeing. I ordered an inkle loom, and I subscribed to a monthly fiber club for the first time since 2018. I've been ogling and sharing other dyers' work – a thing that I felt like I wasn't allowed to do if I was dyeing fiber myself.

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I've signed on as a Knit Picks affiliate as well, and I'm hoping to use some of their value packs for future projects to share with all of you. When I was kitting myself out for Sock Madness in 2019, snagging a discounted Hawthorne Value Pack* really took some of the heavy thinking out of my yarn choices. Since then, they've introduced new shades and have a glorious range of colorways for anything from socks to shawls to sweaters (and the packs can easily get you a sweater quantity).

As much as I love hand-dyed yarn, I have a really tough time shelling out for a full blanket or sweater quantity of the stuff. I'm much more likely to buy commercial yarn for larger projects, and that's just the way it goes. Likewise, I talked about the Kaleidoscope Hexagons (Ravelry) blanket pattern back in my first post of the year, and I'm starting to plan that out to work with one of the three Palette Box* color schemes.

As stated at the top of this post, if you choose to purchase anything from Knit Picks through one of my affiliate links, I will receive a small commission based on the sale. I've chosen Knit Picks because I've used their products for years, and it's a way for me to earn a small kickback for mentioning products I would be using anyway. 

If you do ever use my links, thank you!

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In feeling free to move forward, I've found myself getting more excited about projects and tools and adventures. 

Sunday morning, I took myself out for a solo hike, and it couldn't have been better. I brought nothing but myself, my phone, and my water bottle. I set out with the intention of doing a specific trail, but veered off onto another, unsure of how long it was. Worst case, I thought, I'll get 2.5 miles in and turn around.

Fortunately, it turned out to be a 4.5-mile loop, so I continued on and found some burros who acted like they'd never seen a human before. 

Just getting away from town, from noise, from screens, for an hour and a half was beautiful, and I plan to do more of it. We make and consume all of this complexity, and all it does is give us stress and anxiety.

Sometimes it really ain't that deep.

Go outside.

Be calm.

Exist.

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Edit: The sliding flyer hooks did not end up working out for me on my Bliss. I have a wobbly axle, and changing the balance of the flyer exacerbated the problem, causing a lot of vibration and shaking. If you don't have that problem, the sliders may work, but please keep in mind that they might not work out for you! I've returned to the original fixed metal hooks.

In crafting news, I'm pleased as punch about finally ordering some Kromski Fantasia sliding flyer hooks for my Woolmakers Bliss wheel.

That was a mouthful, so let me explain. 

Woolmakers, creator of the Bliss spinning wheel, started shipping new wheels with sliding flyer hooks back in December (from what I can tell by searching the #woolmakersbliss tag on Instagram). Intrigued, I went to look at their website to see if they're selling the hook set. 

No mention of it. 

Now, Aleks of @spindlesandstitches has been in contact with Woolmakers, and they've confirmed that the new guides will be added to the store – but we don't yet know when.

Additionally, Woolmakers is located in the Netherlands and, while their wheels ship free internationally, I'd imagine many of us US-based Bliss owners aren't going to want to pay international shipping on four small pieces of metal. 

The Kromski Fantasia spinning wheel has flyer arms similar in shape to the Bliss, and I've wondered in the past if their sliding hooks would fit. I could have tested this two years ago, but at the time I balked at $7 shipping on a $10 item (and to be honest, I still do, but now I'm more impulsive).

The new sliders arrived on Saturday, and I immediately set out to see if they would work.

I went over my first impressions in this Instagram post, but the basics are that the sliders are a tight fit, but they work! Once installed, they slide pretty easily and I'm able to load my bobbin much more evenly. 

 

On the underside, you can see how the guides flex to fit the flyer arm. They don't seem to be under too much stress, so I think this is going to work out long-term. 

Because of the rounded ends of the Bliss flyer arms, it's pretty easy to accidentally slide a guide off the end. Since I mainly use the guides on the right side of the flyer, I've replaced the end hook underneath the guide to act as a stopper (in that last hole of the above photo, I just hadn't done it yet). If you plan on using both sides, you could probably use a small rubber band or O-ring instead. 

All in all, I'm very happy with my new guides, and I'd recommend others to try them out, especially if you're planning on buying anything else from your Kromski supplier of choice (mine is the Woolery) to make the shipping charge worth it.

A nice bonus is that they come in bright blue, yellow, or magenta! I chose the pink to go with the decals on my wheel. (Paradise Fibers seems to have them in black if you prefer a more classic look.)

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In blogging news, I'm still struggling to not feel guilty for extended periods of silence, but I'm reminding myself that it's all part of the process.

I'll leave you with some things I keep saying to myself. Maybe you need to hear them, too.

Rest is good.

Consume less to create more.

It's okay to leave behind the things that aren't serving you.

Until next time, thanks for being here. 💕

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Next Twitch stream: Saturday, March 26