Krokbragt experiments

 I love the look of Scandinavian woven fabrics with their colourful warm appearance and repeat patterns.

I have only a rigid heddle but read it was possible to copy this type of weaving with such a handle.

I set about experimenting with it.

First I had to spin some fleece into an aran weight yarn.

Below is a fleece I had in the attic save from my former flock Texel cross sheep

Next I had to dye the yarn in several colours.

I have acid dyed such a Eurolana and Landscape dyes in the cupboard so choose some primary colours to use.

Also added citric acid:

Used the stove top method.

Got a set of yarns to work with:

Before getting on with an attempt at even a small rug, I set about sampling with lots of different patterns using left-over yarns in different colours.

The idea is produce three sheds - two on the slot/gap warps and one on the hole warps. This means, when the heddle is in the up position (all the holes and their respective warps raised ) the hole warps are accompanied by half of the slot wars and any weft placed in that shed cover just the other half of the shoot warps. Then with he heddle again in the up position, the previously unaided slot warps are also raised and any yarn in the shed formed cover just the other half of the slot wefts. Then the heddle is placed in the down position, all the hole warps are down and all the slot warps are up and any yarn in that shed covers ll the hole warps. A bit of a head wrecker!!

To accomplish this, the heddle is placed down and all the slot warps are up. A pickup stick is placed under every second warp behind the heddle. One can pick up all the other warps with another stick but this will not work while weaving as the second stick will interfere with the first so unless you want to replace the second pickup stick every second pick, a thread heddle is needed.

This is not hard, just fiddly to make all the threads - but quite doable.

Here is my little sampler one behind the heddle.

I didn't bother sticking it down with painters tape as it was such a small one but later, when I set up the full  width of the loom, I certainly did.

Some snaps of the samples I made:

A weight to help with the sewing at the end.

When satisfied with the procedure, I quit and used the samples to make a quiver to hold my weaving sticks:

I love the various patters. but My edged are a bit bad so it is good I had a strip of knitted cord to run all around it.

Now, I set up the whole loom - so had to make 38 strings to loop around a dowel rod and tape in place.

This is the beginning:

And so it will progress - slowly I'm sure and will be updated 

Brenda knitted top

 Having spun some cream coloured soft merino which I bought from Wollknoll.eu,  I  wanted to make a little top or vest.

Found a suitable pattern, Brenda, and knit away.

The front and back are knit the same then the shoulder caps are each knit and a rib added. Then the parts are combined.

I was surprised by how well it came together with such a simple pattern.

I plan to wear it over a long-sliver T-shirt type top in spring.

No suitable tops available at time of photo. nor had I soaked and shaped the top but made do with the striped one in the photo in order to get the photo done before I forget to record it.

It feels better than it looks!

Lockdown spinning knitted

 I knitted several items from the Merino I got from Wollknoll.

I decided to post photos of some of them as it is good for looking them up in the future.

I has a Donegal Tweed pattern book for quite some time without ever knitting any of the jumpers or cards from it. As the lockdown proceeded I thought it might be a good time to tackle on of them using my hands-on.

I got a KG of green Merino from Wollknoll and spun it into an aranweight yarn and commenced the smaller size.

Aa it turned out, I had two problems: I didn't have quite enough to add the collar and I could not make head nor tail of the instructions for the front pieces. So I had to improvise. It turned out quite well despite this.                                                                                                                                                                                    

.

My next item is of a more delicate nature; 

I plied a bright orange with a cream yarn giving spangled/marled effect thinner yarn  - about fingering weight. 

I really like this shawl pattern (will have to root about to find it again - GRR).

The next one is a chunky blend of pink and green knit into a simple shrug to wear as shoulders and short sleeve with a sleeveless dress.

Also chunky is this shawlette with glitter etc  - I like this one a lot. It feels lovely.

Several other things are round the place - some gone to good homes too.

Must find that shawl pattern.

Spinning and knitting was a great distraction in these days.

Bye for now.