At The End of My Yarn

I know, I don’t sound much like Burl Ives. I was asked to do some holiday-related pieces for the gallery but I didn’t want anything cheesy.

Ignore the purple, I used that to spread the header. I decided to break out the pickup stick for some interesting visual lines. Measured stripes! Symmetry! Not usually my style, but I chose to mix it up a little.

Ever saw a technique someone else came up with and got a little irritated that it was such a great idea? Thinking, someone went to Smarty School, didn’t they? Graduated top of your class, huh? How dare they have such a good idea? Why didn’t I think of that….

Syne Mitchell in Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom has a section on the use of the pickup stick (used to lift only certain warp threads to create patterns) and how to use one so that you don’t have to remove and replace it every time you want to make a patterned row. I was baffled until I read more about it. You place the pickup stick behind the heddle, and use it to pick up the warp threads that are in the slots, not the holes. Placing it behind the heddle means you can save the pattern.

I kept the image big so you could see what I mean. To use the pickup stick’s pattern, you turn the stick on its side, and the warp threads you picked up pop up, and you weave like normal.

See the shed on the left-hand side after the fabric created by the heddle and modified by the pickup stick? You then just slide your shuttle through, beat back the fabric, turn the pickup stick flat against the warp threads and continue weaving, until it’s time to do another pattern row and you turn the stick again.

Looking at the fabric that’s appearing, I’m going to see what it looks like when I’m done but I’ve starting to think I may use it as something other than a bag. The weft yarn is a loose single ply, and the resulting fabric looks a bit delicate. I used cotton thread as usual for the warp and that combined with the single ply means I can’t beat it down as hard as I usually do to create a weft-faced weave for a tougher fabric. I know I’m pretty hard on my bags, so I don’t want to create something, sew it up as a bag, than tell the buyer they have to be delicate with it.

I’m also in the market for an scale for weighing finished items for shipping. I’m looking for something accurate, but not so accurate and sensitive that I end up on an FBI watch list. Any ideas?

Now that the wedding wrap sweaters are off to their forever home and my time is my own again, I’ve started to weave some small bags to use as simple wallets and coin purses, etc. for my Etsy and the gallery. Heaven forbid I get bored, or else I’ll start clawing the furniture. I got some great new ideas from Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom about using bias tape and ribbon to edge woven pieces with, so I figured I’d warp about five or six feet of crochet cotton and weave separate sections of roughly ten inches each to get multiple bags out of one warp. Add a fabric lining and a zipper and that should be a good little holiday gift, or for whenever. I’m back to my weft-faced stress-relief ways, as it should make a more stable bag. It’s a good way to use up stashed yarns, especially different weights and fibers for some interesting textures. No reason not to go a little crazy, especially on such a small item.

Also working on finishing the Veronica cotton top from Sweater Girls. Just in time for…um…winter. It’ll keep. Using Bamboo Pop from Webs, so it’s a brilliant sheen and color and a joy to knit with but very slippery so if you drop a stitch, if you don’t catch it immediately it drops several rows. Nice change of pace from gray stockinette.

AKA: Stitch n’ Bitch Superstar Knitting

I have to say, there is a value to blocking a sweater in a hotel room with generic hotel shampoo. You have an entire other bed and plenty of real estate to work with. It’s a slightly different story in a 400 square foot house, where you have to carefully fold it like origami (but not too much, you don’t want it to dry weird), drape it like so over the drying rack, you don’t want to use your own bed because you kind of need it….which is why the only half-decent photo I managed to take looks like a gray blob. Having said that, of course it means that both wedding wrap sweaters are done! Next step is to write up the pattern for sale on my Etsy. And on to other things! Like color. I love gray, it’s my favorite color, but how about some stripes? Speaking of which, I’m going to be working on some bags and coin purses, wallets, and that sort of thing for sale on both my Etsy and also at the gallery where I volunteer, the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts. That starts in December, just in time for holiday shopping, which gives me time to build stock.

It seems to be Theme Week on At the End of My Yarn. Stitch n’ Bitch Superstar Knitting! Debbie Stoller wasn’t kidding around when she tells us to go beyond the basics. Much in the same vein as the other books in the series, Superstar Knitting has 41 different patterns curated from other designers. This book focuses on more complex techniques and patterns, so this book assumes you’ve got the basics down. She gets into much more detail, such as ways to make sure the color changes in striped ribbing are clean, double knitting, intarsia, more complicated cables and lace than what you see in her other books, and much more. In this book you’ll see multiple cast on and off methods, different ways to increase and decrease, buttonholes, and other more in-depth sections. There is more about pattern construction, and how to write one (that could come in handy!), so she’s definitely writing for the more experienced knitter.

The patterns themselves are more complex than we saw from her earlier, and most of them use more complicated skills and stitch patterns, like lace panels in a dress and intarsia for a bunny rabbit baby blanket. So, if you’re ready to up your knitting game, or even for beginner who wants to jump in with both feet, take a look at Stitch n’ Bitch Superstar Knitting!

Pick it up on Amazon here…

My rigid heddle loom was the first semi-grown up purchase I made with my first semi-grown up paycheck when I started dispatching. I got it from Halcyon Yarns here and once it came, spent hour after hour trying to put it together. I couldn’t find any videos that were of any help, anything I did find looked like it was shot from outside the house, the loom was so out of focus. Sitting there cursing at it like ‘my bum it’s a ‘beginner’s loom, suitable for children’, this semi-grown up can’t figure it out’. Eventually, I managed it.

Everything was smooth sailing from there, until I moved out of my parent’s house, bought my own place, and managed to lose my warping hook in the process. It’s possible to warp a rigid heddle loom without a hook, but it’s a pain in the bum and I lost the weaving mojo because of it. Finally, I ordered a new one, and the doors of woven fabric were open to me again!!

Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell is a book I wish I’d known about when I started.

Not only does it go into extensive detail on how the loom works, it also takes you through the process of weaving from start to finish. She tells you how to fix the inevitable warp issues when you’re first starting out, and takes you all the way from a basic weave to patterned weaves. Syne gives us advice on color theory and the unique way it applies to weaving, and moves on to practical projects that spotlight her techniques. There is so much in this book that I never even considered could be woven on a little loom like mine, such as wire bracelets, tartan table runners, and even full size blankets! Totally possible, as long as you don’t mind a little sewing at the end. Now, back to those bags from earlier….

Pick it up on Amazon here…

I think I have a definite type when it comes to fiber books. Strong writers who have a natural, informative feel but don’t make it too stuffy and technical to really enjoy. Maggie Righetti’s writing reads like she’s sitting right next to you on the couch, helping you with your design and knitting. Sweater Design in Plain English, first printed in 1990, is a step-by-step manual on designing your own knitting patterns. Similar in tone to Elizabeth Zimmermann’s work (who I know you’ve heard me talk about all too much), Maggie Righetti and Terri Shaw (who helped her with the revised edition that came out in 2011 and is the copy I’m reviewing from) have written a classic.

Starting with ‘What is a Sweater, Anyway?’ which she writes about the basic function of a sweater (other than the obvious), and why certain traditional patterns and designs are the way they are. For example she tells us the traditional pullover was originally considered a man’s garment because women usually wore a shawl over a button-front bodice in order to assist with childcare. “There was often a division of labor defining men’s work and women’s work. Caring for children was women’s work and, therefore, men didn’t need to pick up, hold, or comfort babies.” Keep in mind she’s talking about in the historical sense. That attitude is slowly changing, or I like to think so.

She then writes about overcoming a fear of failure, and makes some very valid points. “There are many critical people in the world. (They might even outnumber the supportive ones.) Depending on the environment you live in and the thought patterns of the people who surround you, you must expect to be criticized for creativity, for solving your problems in a unique way, and for making innovative changes whether or not your efforts are successful.” She tells us that the best way to get over unwanted criticism is to think where the critic is coming from. Is it from jealously that you’ve dared to knit, crochet, or design something they would be too afraid of the unknown to attempt? Righetti tells us that as soon as we understand unwanted criticism’s nature, it won’t matter to us. Easy to apply to things other than knitting, as well.

After the soul-gazing we do in the early chapters, she gets to the of the book. It starts with choosing yarns suited to your idea for a design. Ask yourself, what does this yarn want to be when it grows up? Then she moves into sizing and ways to measure. Maggie Righetti gets into fantastic detail, such as how she thinks its better not to have a double layer of knitted fabric, like for a lapel, because knitted fabric doesn’t behave like woven and the look can be accomplished better with a knit pattern that looks good from either side. Knit patterns don’t need as much ease allowance due to the stretchy behavior of knitwear. She tells us to design with about two inches of negative ease, or two inches smaller than the measurement of the person for whom you’re knitting a garment to get the best fit. There is info on body types and how to write bust darts, etc., into a pattern to accommodate the way a person is shaped.

There is the usual info on the mechanics of knitting, with different stitch patterns like lace, and cables, and intarsia. The second half delves into the patterns themselves. They are basic schematics similar to Knitting in the Old Way but they go into more detail about arrangement and construction. The designs themselves and the sections on specific details like collars and sleeves might seem a little dated, but the information is still very much valid.

Check it out on Amazon here...(also take a look at her books on knitting and crocheting, written in much the same way.