Monday, September 15, 2025
Yet another interim/progress report
Monday, September 8, 2025
A second weaving post and other progress reports
Weaving on the Tia rigid heddle loom
I've slowly been weaving and have finally reached the end of my first warp on the Tia rigid heddle loom.
It's been sitting until I get ambitious/brave enough to finish the ends and cut it off the loom. Knots? Braids? Twisted cord? Hemstitching? There are more options but I want to keep things relatively simple.
Then I can soak it and all that other post-finishing treatment and see what it really looks like. It's possible that the red will bleed into the white, but I don't care if the white goes a little pinkish.
The above pic is a closeup of what the weaving looks like. It's not too bad for a beginner.
The selvedges aren't too terrible, either. I did a lot of experimenting as I wove -- how tight to pull the yarn, what angle to leave the weft at before beating, that kind of thing. Once I get things figured out, it'll be more about practicing to build consistency.
It's relatively balanced, especially considering that the weft is thinner than the warp. Where it's not balanced, it's slightly warp-faced.
I have no idea what I'll do with the piece of cloth. Maybe a bag?
I also don't know what (or when!) my next weaving project will be.
Appledore-ish gansey project
I did a bit of swatching for the Appledore-inspired sweater I'd like to make, and then today I cast on! I chose my fuzzy gray handspun yarn on 2.5 and 3mm needles, which seems to be knitting up at a fairly shocking 4 st/in because it gets splitty if I use finer needles. Or maybe the fuzz makes the yarn want to knit up at that gauge. Or it's this particular skein and other skeins are finer.
Anyway, it did not go well.
First, I miscounted the number of cast-on stitches and had to re-do part of the cast-on.
Then, I joined and wasn't sufficiently careful not to twist. Yep, twisted.
So I went back a ways and then rejoined.
Twisted again! Argh.
My third attempt succeeded in not being twisted. But after a few rounds, I noticed a section of about 10-20 stitches where the rib was offset. Although I can usually fix those pretty easily, there were a few rounds that would need to be fixed, with some risk of unraveling all the way down into the cast-on. And I wasn't willing to live with it.
I give up.
I took it all out. I will choose a different yarn and see if that works any better. As before, the first step is to swatch. I expect about 4 st/in for the batch of handspun I'm going to try next -- it's somewhere in the worsted-Aran-bulky continuum.
Feather and Fan Hobbit Shawl (aka F&F Travel Shawl)
I'm on the third (of 4) skeins of yarn, as of the middle of row 95. This project may not last long enough to be a proper travel project! That's OK -- it's still a nice shawl (though on the small side) and it gets 200g of yarn out of my stash.
The name of the colorway is Middle Earth, and thus I'm mentally calling this the Hobbit Shawl.
Lavori 07/30
I'm playing with charts to see what the problematic area of hex mesh will need to do in order to behave in a relatively orderly manner for the rest of the pattern. The doily is sitting at round 164, as charted, while I figure things out. I'll be fine for rounds 165, 167, and 169 if I follow the chart for the second rep of the hex mesh (i.e. mentally adding a hex mesh motif for the first part of the chart).
But then things get weird in round 173. The hex mesh has to absorb the leaf tips while staying more or less in pattern. Also, one side of the hex mesh in round 173 has a yarnover between the hex mesh and the next left, and the other doesn't. One of those is wrong, independent of what I end up doing to accommodate the extra hex mesh motif.
I'm sure some people could fix this on the fly. Not me, though. And my confidence was shaken by my carelessness in my first attempt, where I overlooked a critical detail. I'm charting more carefully now. And hopefully I'll have the sense to test my fix before committing to the many many stitches per round of the actual doily.
I want to start knitting on it again, though! I'm starting to get close to the end! Well, at least in number of rounds left to go.
100 posts
Hmm, blogger says that this is post 101 for this blog. At least one of them is a draft that never saw the light of day, so I guess this is really post 100, or if not, then close to it. Yay, me!
I don't really have much to say about it. This blog started as a way to write about doilies and share pics. Then it morphed into a general knitting and spinning blog, though again kind of geared towards an audience. I was a very minor player in the greater doily-knitting and lace-knitting blog ecosystem.
Then the blog went dead for a decade.
Now I'm back. I'm posting again. This is still a general knitting/spinning/yarn-fun blog, though I'm trying to make sure there is regular or at least semi-regular doily content. I've been knitting doilies for all those years even if I wasn't blogging about them, after all! But it's more of a journal for my own use rather than something aimed outwards.
I'm writing more about day-to-day progress. More ruminations that are kind of clueless as I stumble along towards enlightenment. More about plans and ideas and anything else that enters my mind. I'm trying to include more pics even though I still suck as a photographer.
Any readers I once had are long gone, probably. Blogs are a thing of the past, a very minor waypoint in the vast social media universe. Even mailing lists, another formerly active environment for inspiring fiber-related content, are tiny compared to their former glories. So maybe it is a good time to quietly creep back in, with no further ambition than having a place to write boring prose about knitting, spinning, dyeing, and now weaving, for as long as I feel the urge to do so.
We'll see if I make it to 200 posts and if I can do it without another decade-long hiatus.
Friday, September 5, 2025
Lavori 07/30 regress report
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
On arrogance (aka pride goeth before a fall)
I put my fix in place for the Lavori 07/30 doily -- dropping the double-yarnover from round 163, and turning the edge stitches in round 165 also into the double decrease with one yarnover.
The number of stitches matches up for what I need for round 167. (I'll have to move the last stitch of 166 to the beginning of 167, but that's something that the chart didn't note, either, when it disappears from the end of the chart before beginning 169.)
However, even though I have the right number of stitches, I don't think it's set up properly for the hex mesh pattern.
Ugh. I really should have done a little knitted sample to make sure it would work. Why didn't I even notice this earlier while I was charting things out on graph paper?
I guess I'll probably continue kludging my way upward in the pattern until I can get it to align properly. Round 173 is the point where it would be nice to have it match if I can't get it there by round 171.
Part of the problem is how the hex mesh is aligned on each row and how many reps there are (kind of an even/odd/symmetry thing).
I had felt very smug, and now I feel like an idiot. Not the first time, and no doubt not the last. But it's still kind of humbling each time it happens.
Now to figure out what to do for round 167, and its effects on round 169 and then 171. Harumph. I'll take out rounds of knitting if I have to, as far back as necessary, but only if it helps. I'd rather kludge my way forward if possible.
Maybe this is part of why some Niebling patterns are really strange in their hex mesh edge effects.
Ah, well. I'll try to remain humble. No doubt this doily will provide more lessons to remind me.
Monday, September 1, 2025
First baby steps in weaving
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Thinking out loud and counting stitches (Lavori 07/30)
Lavori 07/30 doily progress/discussion
I'm finally playing around with the chart for Lavori 07/30, to figure out what needs to happen in the area with hex mesh, to get from the stitch count of round 163 to the stitch count of round 171.
As discussed in the last post, the chart as written does not work. The first rep of round 165 is consistent with the stitches needed by round 171, but is not consistent with the existing number of stitches from round 163. The second rep of round 165 is the opposite -- it is consistent with the stitches of round 163 but not consistent with what I'll need in round 171. The second charted section has one extra repeat of hex mesh compared to the first charted section.
Both of them need to be the same at this point since the chart already unofficially has 12 pattern repeats per round (2 repeats charted, in the current 6PR/rnd chart) and will officially transition to a chart that is explicitly a 12 PR/rnd chart on round 171.
So I'm counting beginning and ending stitches for that section of rounds 163, 165, 167, 169, and 171. I've knit through round 164, but can do some small stitch adjustments and/or will take out as many rounds as I need to in order to make it work. Yes, all 800+ stitches per round, bleh.
One thing I've noticed from the magazine photos (the cover and page 17) is that the stitches there are very distorted at this point. The outer fans will soon start, the leaf motifs will separate into two (surrounding the fans), and the hex mesh will continue to decrease at both edges. The stacked increases and decreases distort the fabric in ways that mostly enhance the overall aesthetics of the design. They exist whether or not they're aesthetic, of course.
Anyway, this distortion is happening right where the hex mesh is. Which means that any fix I do doesn't need to be perfect. It won't be all that obvious given all the other stuff going on at the moment.
The above photo from page 17 shows the approximate area (circled in red).
And the above shows the photo from the front cover. It's kind of hard for me to see exactly how many repeats of hex mesh there are and whether all of the holes are single or double yarnovers and whether edge decreases are single or double decreases. It's also not at all clear to me what the test knitters did to make the pattern work. Whatever they decided didn't end up in the published charts, apparently!
I'm sure there are people who could look at the photos and see what was going on, but I'm not one of them. Not yet. I do know that doily charts can have a lot of weirdness that is not very noticeable, especially after the doily is finished and blocked, and that's even in areas where the fabric is not distorted.
By round 171 -- the section of hex mesh starts with 14 stitches. (I don't care how it ends because that's not my current problem)
Round 169 (using the first chart, since it's where I need to be for round 171 to work) -- it ends with 14 stiches, check. It starts with 18.
Round 167 -- It ends with 18 stitches. It starts with 22.
Round 165, which is where I am now. The first section ends with 22 stitches. It starts with 24.
Round 163 ends with 28. So I have to do something to get to 14 stitches by round 171, and preferably 22 stitches by the time I start round 167. I essentially need to make one more repeat of hex mesh (4 stitches) go away in a visually unobtrusive way over the next few rounds.
So. Round 163 starts and ends with a double decrease and 2 yarnovers. If I drop one yarnover at each end (which I can do easily, since the slightly loose stitch in round 164 will disappear when being blocked), then I'm down to 26 stitches. (This changes the edge stitches to a single yarnover and a double decrease.)
For round 165, we now have 26 stitches to start the round. The edge stitches for the hex mesh in round 165 are charted as / \ o o / ... \ o o / \. After dumping one of the yarnovers from round 163, it's easy to change the / \ to a double decrease.
However, if I merely change the last couple of stitches to a double decrease, I only get to 24 stitches by the end of the round. I'd like to get all the way to 22 if possible since there isn't a lot of wiggle room in the next few rounds.
If I change the last few stitches of round 165 to a double decrease and 1 yarnover (as I'm doing for round 163), that should get me down to 22 for round 167. And then we're good.
I will probably check this out with a mini-swatch to make sure the numbers work and nothing looks too obviously stupid. I don't know if there was a better way to have done it starting in some earlier round, but I'm obviously working under the constraint of not wanting to take out and re-chart and re-do thousands of stitches.
F&F Shawl -- making progress! I'm on the second of four skeins of yarn, starting at around row 66 or 67 or so. This means the shawl will be roughly 130-ish rounds before binding off. I still like how the variegation is interacting with the pattern. Unless things change, I'm committed to the project, yay!
Sweater -- still in the planning stages, but I'm inching closer. Current plan is Appledore-ish gansey with fuzzy gray handspun. Simple seed or moss or betty martin stitch should show up OK even without really sharp stitch definition. I last knit it at 4.5 st/in, but might do a swatch on smaller needles to see if I can easily get it tighter and if I can, if I like the fabric of the tighter gauge. If I have less of this yarn thank I think I have, I can do 3/4 or shorter sleeves.
Rigid Heddle Loom Weaving
The pic below is the loom as I received it. It's a Northfield Tia Rigid Heddle Loom from the mid-1970s. It has a 20-inch weaving width (about 22 inches overall) and an 8-dent heddle. The sides are plastic.
There's also a rod that came with the loom, notched every 1/2". I have no idea what this is since it didn't come with the original loom (as I can tell from looking at internet photos of etsy and ebay sales of the loom in its box). So it's either from some other loom or weaving equipment entirely, or it was used for some random purpose that isn't obvious. I'm tentatively planning on using it as a stick to hold a string heddle if I want to do any fancy weaving.
None of the original shuttles were still with the loom, but the person from whom I got it threw in a couple of extra stick shuttles that were lying around. Good enough for now!
Dang, weaving has lots of jargon. And dang, I know and understand a lot more of it than I did a few years ago. I'm probably still moderately incorrect at times.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Progress and no-progress reports on various projects
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Lavori 07/30 progress and the next set of chart errors
I'm still slowly making progress on Lavori 07/30. I'm definitely in the section where there are already 12 repeats per round, meaning that the chart (at 6 pattern repeats per round) repeats the same sequence of stitches. This makes it easier to keep track of things and also to spot errors. There are over 800 stitches per round now. The flower is long gone; it's just the hex mesh and leaf motifs now.
Here are the next two chart errors. I could have put them in my previous post but was hoping to wait until the post where I finally did jump to the next chart (at round 171).
Round 159: After the first set of leaves (and the skp, k3, k2t that finishes it off), the stitches at the beginning of the stretch of hex mesh are charted as yo, skp, k2t. This should be symmetric with all the others, and the skp should be a double-decrease (sk2p, left-leaning to preserve symmetry).
Round 163: In the first set of leaves, the last leaf is missing a yarnover. It should be (k4, yo, k-tbl, yo, k4) like all the other leaves.
Now I am on round 165 and have discovered a true chart error. All of the previous ones have been fairly obvious typos, but this one is a little more complex.
The first set of hex mesh motifs shows 5 repeats of the motif, while the second shows 6 repeats. The first set does not match the stitch counts for round 163. The second set does. However, the first set, going upwards through round 169, does match the stitch count needed for round 171. The second set, therefore, does not.
Sigh.
There are decreases at each end of the hex mesh motifs. I believe that if I change them from single to double decreases, that the stitch counts will work out. The first set on the chart will work as charted from then on. The second set will match the first set.
I need to do some charting and very careful stitch counting before I continue. If necessary, I can also involve the edge double-yarnovers that are next to the double decreases in round 163 and change them to single yarnovers by dropping the second yarnover. I'll see what seems to work best to make sure I reach round 171 with the correct number and arrangement of hex-mesh motifs.
I can also see that there is something weird at the end of round 167/169. There's a double decrease at the end of round 167 that just sort of disappears in round 169. There are no move-the-marker symbols on the chart at that point but I suspect that the last stitch of round 167/168 does move to the beginning of round 169. Then, of course, the problem will be moving to round 167 instead of round 169 depending on what I do at the end of round 165 (since I'm probably changing the skp at the end of round 165 to a double decrease).
On the bright side, the leaf motif sections for the next few rounds appear to be charted correctly, no missing yarnovers or anything.
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I did start a new travel project! It is indeed the F&F half-square triangle shawl I mentioned in the last post. Instead of handspun, I'm using a batch of commercial yarn from the stash. It's a smooth variegated light-worsted-weight yarn. I have 4 balls of it, between 450 and 500 yards. I like it so far. I had thought to use this yarn in a Wingspan shawl, but that was a few years ago. I'll be happy to have it out of my stash as long as the yarn and pattern are a good combo, which so far they seem to be.
I'm dithering a bit about sweaters again. This time it's the simple gansey projects I had done some research on a few years ago -- the Appledore gansey and/or Harry Freeman's "seeds and bars" gansey. The Appledore gansey/jersey is a classic gansey in its construction, but the only decoration is on the shoulder straps. Harry Freeman's gansey has several horizontal bands of simple moss or seed stitch patterning, separated by bands of garter or reverse stockinette. The Harry Freeman gansey is a very popular and widespread style with a lot of simple variations, and even Mr. Freeman himself had several slightly different versions in his sweater wardrobe.
There is a pattern given for an Appledore gansey in Rae Compton's book on traditional gansey/jersey knitting. I had adapted it for my size and for a big batch of handspun I wanted to use, and had gotten as far as the armholes when I decided I didn't like how it was turning out. So maybe I'll try again, not following any specific pattern but just kind of winging it. I have several books that discuss ganseys in addition to general sweater construction plus the resources of the internet. I also have several sweater-sized yarn batches, both handspun and commercial, in various yarn weights.
Although I like the seeds and bars patterns, I'm not sure what yarn I'd want to use. Plus I'm not sure it would be flattering on me.
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I still haven't plied the yarn spun on the new rescue wheel. Maybe this afternoon. Then it might be time to clean and warp the rescued rigid heddle loom. I think I've already written about that a bit. I'm still trying to decide if general weaving posts will go on this blog or on another fiber blog.
No photos for this post! Maybe I'll add something later, but chances are that it'll wait to the next post.
Friday, August 15, 2025
The Ides of August (Lavori 7/30 doily progress report)
If not the ides of August, it's close enough.
Progress on my Lavori 7/30 doily has been slow. The stitch count is increasing again, and, well, I often slow down at around this point in a long project. But there is progress, yay! As far as I can tell, the doily now has 12 pattern repeats per round. The chart still shows 6 pattern repeats per round, but that just means that there are 2 repeats charted on each line of the chart. I'm not too far off from where the pattern transitions to the outer fan motifs and the chart really does switch to 12 repeats per round.
I did finish my Touchstone shawl, my travel project for the last few months. It's a boomerang shawl for sure -- longer than I am tall, but not terribly deep (less than 2 feet if I block aggressively). It's more of a scarf than a shawl. I haven't blocked it yet.
The colors are pretty and they harmonize very well with the pattern. I used every last inch of yarn in the skein. I ran out most of the way through the cast-off row, oops, but luckily the crochet-cheat-trick kludge isn't too obvious in spite of the slight tension differences. Also, I wasn't able to finish the entire pattern as written. The final set of eyelets calls for five eyelet bands. I did three. It's not a problem -- it looks fine the way it is.
But this means I have no travel project!!! ACK!!! Plus I'll need one for tomorrow! As a default, I can make acrylic ribbed hats for charity.
I'm thinking of doing another one of Sarah Bradberry's Feather and Fan Comfort Shawls, since it's very hap-shawl-like (it's a half-square triangle shawl with f&f). I have a mish-mash of hand-dyed handspun that I'd like to find a use for. They're all medium gray Romney dyed in various shades (deliberately uneven dyeing to have somewhat variegated roving). A few are barberpoled, while the others are self-plied. Most are 1.5-3 ounces, 100-200 yards each, roughly 1000-1200 yards total. F&F is a pretty reasonable pattern choice for stripes and long variegations.
Or, I could cast on a zillion stitches and do a rectangular piece of F&F, one skein after another, and then end up with a rectangular lap blanket or shawl.
Or I could do a center-out shawl/blanket, either circular/polygonal or square. I'd have to give a little consideration to the cast-off so that things didn't roll, but I've done that before by using a couple of rounds of crochet-cast-off, or by doing a bit of garter or seed stitch on the final rounds. One problem with this is that I'd really be horsing stitches around the needle by the end. Even the half-square triangle tends to get unwieldy by the time it's close to done.
Or I could do something else entirely. I have two or three other batches of yarn I'd like to use up if I can find a reasonable pattern to complement them. Maybe one of them would be better for the F&F half-square triangle pattern. Hmmm.
Plus I'm going to be learning how to weave on a rigid heddle loom soon, and that too can use a lot of my handspun to good effect even though it's not exactly the same thing as a travel knitting project.
Dithering is stressful.
I'm also eyeing a shawl I started long ago. It's been sitting for a while. Do I continue it? Do I unravel it? It's not a difficult pattern but it's not quite calm enough for a travel project. If I do unravel it, what would I do with the yarn? And should I try the pattern again but with a different yarn? The yarn I'm using does suit the pattern, but there's 1000 yards of it, and maybe I'd rather have something smaller.
At least the spinning does not require any decisions currently. I'm doing a 4-oz batch of something not-great as a first project for the most recently rescued wheel. It's going well. Dunno what I'll spin after that, but I'll worry about that when this batch is done. I have to figure out tomorrow's knitting first.
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Musings about spinning wheels -- rehabbing older wheels (CPW)
I don't seem to have a lot of other clear photos of yarn I've spun on this wheel, darn it. But there was more, really and truly!
Sunday, August 3, 2025
Musings about spinning wheels -- my first wheel (Fricke)
Some BFL handpaint, left as singles yarn. I dyed it myself (or a family member dyed it) rather than buying the roving already dyed.
A cowl that I knit with Fricke-spun handspun yarn. I later ended up unraveling it because the proportions ended up not quite right for my needs. I'm glad I took a photo, though, since the fabric is very cute and I like how the pattern stitch interacts with the yarn.
Monday, July 28, 2025
Another July progress post on Lavori 07/30 (with the latest errata, of course)
Saturday, July 12, 2025
The first July progress report on Lavori 07/30
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Probably the final June 2025 progress report on Lavori 07/30
I need to start thinking about the next travel project, since this one won't last much longer.
I have no similar worries about the doily -- I've finished maybe 2/3 of the rounds, so I'm about 1/3 done with the doily. I have lots and lots of knitting left to do. Though if I want to sneak in a few smaller doilies in the meantime, I might do so. Lavori 07/30 is on my 47" long circular needle now, so all the shorter ones are available for use.
Sunday, June 15, 2025
Yet another June 2025 Lavori 07/30 progress report
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Lavori 07/30 progress report -- triple digits and another chart error
Yay! I'm halfway through the rounds, and thus roughly 25% done with the knitting, give or take a bit.
There's another chart error on round 97 -- there is an asymmetry on the outside of the 5-X-5 sequences. The right side has a yarnover while the left side has a double yarnover. The single yarnover is correct for both spots.
I've finished the first part of the flower base, where there are a couple of rounds of garter stitch. I've done the last crossed stitches of the lower leaves (well, second set of leaves; the first set is long finished). The leaves have another few rounds before they finish merging into the background mesh. There are still a LOT of stitches for barely being in the 100s, but so far it's reasonably pleasant knitting.
Things to look forward to -- more development of the flower, yay! And I can see where the next set of leaves gets started. Those will be around until the end of the doily, I believe.
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I can't remember if I've shared a pic of this doily before.
It's Burda 554/15. It's really a square pattern, but I decided to experiment and see what happened if I did 5 pattern repeats instead of 4. It was not fully successful -- I wasn't able to block it flat. I still like how it looks.
This is what it's supposed to look like if one does 4 pattern repeats per round.
This was done early in my doily-knitting career, and it taught me some useful things about stitch counts and increase/decrease locations and the effect of relatively simple changes on the appearance of the doily. I still am interested in those topics!
This might have been one I did simply because (a) it was small, and (b) I could read the chart without having to disassemble the chart pages from the magazine's staples. That was definitely how I chose my first doilies from Burda 554!
Monday, June 2, 2025
First Lavori 07/30 progress report of June 2025
Just what it says...
The last leaves are starting to close and I've started on the flower, yay!
There's a chart error in round 93 -- a missing "1" in the middle of the pattern repeat, in the flower stem. There's a small segment that should be O-1-O-1-O, and that second 1 is missing. It's obvious when you get there.
It looks like a proper crumpled wad of thread. I've done almost half the rounds which means I might be around 20-25% finished. Except that it doesn't, since the stitch counts do all kinds of weird things rather than being a predictable and steady increase rate. Whatever the true percentage of total knitting I've already done, it is clear that there is much (much, much) more to go.
I'm in no rush, luckily.
Onwards!