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.

                                                                                                            

Chubut orange/tan and all spun

 Chubut Orange and Tan Laceweight (12 - 14 WPI)

643 yards/588 meter

187 gms/7 oz

All the Chubut hanks - 

What willl become of them? Don't know but it has been fun spinning them and it is a lovely lovely fibre.

Chubut lace: untwisting

 It became clear with my lace swatch that the pattern amendment I made i.e. SSK every second lace tow did not remove the twisting from the knitted piece;

See, still shows an anticlockwise twist.

However, using YO k 2 tog THROUGH BACK LOOPS every row seems to fix the problem.

So I could continue knitting this to make small neck tie perhaps with a nick pin

BUT

I then decided I din't like to much and changed over to trying a 2X2 rib on 4 mm needles instead.

Much prefer this - for now anyway.

Next up, the orange and tan 2 plys, currently drying on the swift after being set in warm water.

More Chubut Spun

 Fractal spinning was a lot of fun to do especially during lockdown.

The rovings waiting to be spun:

          

Setting up the fibers:

99 gms of each color ; 

each color divided into three

set 1: 33 gms of red (R), black (B), cream(C)

set 2: 16.5 gms of each color X 2 in sequence RBC x2

set 3: 11 gms of each color X 3 in sequence RBC x3

Each tray spun into lace weight singles on 3 spools

3 Plys keep changing colours in strips - which makes spinning interesting;

Fractal 3 ply spun on swift

Chubut fractal WPI around 9

Overall result: 259 gms, 9 wpi, 301 m/330 yards

Soft to the touch fairly even.

This is the loveliest fibre I've experienced. Although very fine (16.6 mic), the fibers are fairly long and easy to spin.

The dying was excellent too - almost no bleed at all when soaked to set in hand-hot water.

A LITTLE MULTICOLOR LACEWEIGHT.

There was a little roving left over from the fractal prep - Red, Black and Cream adding up to 45 grams

This was spin in to a graduated lace weight giving 183 yards/167.3 m 

I've knitted a swatch using 3.25 mm needles first then 4 mm needles and decided on the 4 mm for a little project.

Swatch

I've planned to make a little scare with gr=arter stitch and lace knitting (I've holes) as follows:

C/O 30 

Garter stitch 10 rows

Pattern:

K4 (YO 2 tog) x 11, K4

K4 P 22 K4

K2 (YO SSK) x 13, K2

K2 P26 K2

Repeat this until color change comes up, the Garter stitch 4 rows then begin pattern again.

The swatch showed me that it is important not to use 2 tog all the time as this will lead to skewing the lace to the right. The SSK fixes this although it is a bit annoying to do.

Adding rows of garter stitch tends to keep the pattern straight and underscored the color changes. Hoping to get a bit of satisfaction out of this while planning the next (and last for now) spinning adventure - the autumnal orange and tan 2 ply from the last rovings.

Next post: what twisted the lace knit and how to fix the pattern to suit the handspun.

CHUBUT MIXED COLORS

 Entering second partial lockdown November 2020, I decided to treat myself to some luxury fibre so I could spin something interesting during this time. I've haunted all the walking sports pithing 5 kg of my house and really miss the beaches which are out of bounds.

I ordered from my favorate source, Wolleknoll, Oberot-Neuhausen , Germany. Their web site has an English language version and I get their catalog. I love that it is so easy to distinguish exactly what is on offer with details such as Price/Kg, number of microns clearly indicated on each fibres type. Thecolors are lovely too.

I went for two packs of Chubut assorted colours, 16.5 microns. It is easy to track the order and it arrived in a few days. 

The fibre is very very soft yet easy enough to spin.

I've played around with it without any real end-product in mind other than making lots of different sorts of yarn - with color play, different weights/plys and techniques.

First off, I decided to make a chunky three-ply using pink, light green and grey. The pink is a lovely hot color but I'm not mad about hot pink so I "greyed" it down.

Chunky - 6 wraps per inch.

Soaking in warm water with washing up liquid

In a squidgy nest

189 meters/207 yards            303 grams                average 6 WRI chunky        very soft

Not very even - there are spots that bloom along the way - but this allows the individual colours to make a more definite appearance rather than disappear into the marl.

Approk 18 -19 grams each of the solid ping and green were left over so I plied them on themselves and they might be useful for adding small accents to a piece knitted from the marled yarn.

Next a 2-ply using blue and yellow.

I opened the blue roving using carders to facilitate spinning for this one as I planned to spin a finer yarn

.

Long, silky fibres! Lovely.

I spun these using short forward draw with hands around  6 inches apart . Idid the same with the yellow.

195 grams.        274 meters/300 yards  10 WPI

Next up - a fractal!!!

Using Red (R) , Black (B), Cream (C)

99 Grams of each divided in to 3 ie 33 grams X 3 R, 33 grams B X B, 33 grams C X3

Spool 1: R33g followed by B 33 followed by 33g C. one pattern run

Spool 2: R 16g followed by B 16g followed by C 16g repeated once i.e. 2 pattern runs

Spool 3: R 11g followed by B 11 g followed by C 11g repeated twice i.e. 3 pattern runs

I know the beginning will be solid red blowed by red/black but not sure what exactly will follow in terns of marls and solids - and that's what makes it fun to do!

Here they are lined up ready to spin into singles:

Spinning singles at 24 WPI for each sequence of colours

 Singles lined up for plying 

Spinning in progress

First change of sequence:

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

and so on.

See : More Chubut spun   Novemebr 28 2020