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. 🍂

 

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. 🌿