This blog records my experiments and successes with fabric and fibers, surface design, stitching, weaving, photography and whatever else strikes my fancy. Enjoy ...
I finished this purple pair of socks. It took about a year-and-a-half from start to finish these. I started them on a trip to Idaho to see Janna and usually only worked on them when I was traveling, waiting in airports or on planes ... or it was too cold to be upstairs working on other projects. It's a good thing to do by the fire in the evenings.
The purples don't quite match. I think I knitted 2 balls of wool yarn into 1 tube and then dyed it in the crockpot in the hopes that the color and patterning would match better than it did. Instead, I think there was an inside and an outside to the knitted item, and the outside sucked up more color. Hence the darker and lighter shades for each respective foot. The yarn is Chic Sheep which I bought a few years ago ... It makes a thicker sock -- more like a cabin or a boot sock. Great for slippers, too. They are too thick to wear in my regular shoes.
I used the larger oval sock knitting looms from CinD Wood. It has a few more pegs than the ones I was using previously (These are 1/4 inch with 60? pegs). I thought I might tun out of yarn sooner because of the extra stitches with every round. But it all worked out just fine. They are a little roomier than previous socks, so I'm hoping they will snug up once I do the wet-finishing.
The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold Accordion
There was a Potato Face Blind Man used to play an accordion on the
Main Street corner nearest the postoffice in the Village of
Liver-and-Onions.
Any Ice Today came along and said, "It looks like it used to be
an 18 carat gold accordion with rich pawnshop diamonds in it; it looks
like it used to be a grand accordion once and not so grand now."
"Oh, yes, oh, yes, it was gold all over on the outside," said the Potato Face Blind Man, "and there was a diamond rabbit next to the handles on each side, two diamond rabbits."
"How do you mean diamond rabbits?" Any Ice Today asked.
"Ears, legs, head, feet, ribs, tail, all fixed out in diamonds to
make a nice rabbit with his diamond chin on his diamond toenails. When I
play good pieces so people cry hearing my accordion music, then I put
my fingers over and feel of the rabbit's diamond chin on his diamond
toenails, 'Attaboy, li'l bunny, attaboy, li'l bunny.'"
"Yes I hear you talking but it is like dream talking. I wonder
why your accordion looks like somebody stole it and took it to a
pawnshop and took it out and somebody stole it again and took it to a
pawnshop and took it out and somebody stole it again. And they kept on
stealing it and taking it out of the pawnshop and stealing it again till
the gold wore off so it looks like a used-to-be-yesterday."
"Oh, yes, o-h, y-e-s, you are right. It is not like
the accordion it used to be. It knows more knowledge than it used to
know just the same as this Potato Face Blind Man knows more knowledge
than he used to know."
"Tell me about it," said Any Ice Today.
"It is simple. If a blind man plays an accordion on the street to
make people cry it makes them sad and when they are sad the gold goes
away off the accordion. And if a blind man goes to sleep because his
music is full of sleepy songs like the long wind in a sleepy valley,
then while the blind man is sleeping the diamonds in the diamond rabbit
all go away. I play a sleepy song and go to sleep and I wake up and the
diamond ear of the diamond rabbit is gone. I play another sleepy song
and go to sleep and wake up and the diamond tail of the diamond rabbit
is gone. After a while all the diamond rabbits are gone, even the
diamond chin sitting on the diamond toenails of the rabbits next to the
handles of the accordion, even those are gone."
"Is there anything I can do?" asked Any Ice Today.
"I do it myself," said the Potato Face Blind Man. "If I am too
sorry I just play the sleepy song of the long wind going up the sleepy
valleys. And that carries me away where I have time and money to dream
about the new wonderful accordions and post offices where everybody that
gets a letter and everybody that don't get a letter stops and remembers
the Potato Face Blind Man."
I am nearing the end of knitting another pair of socks, and looking ahead to the next project -- and it occurred to me that I needed to dye some more wool yarn for that.
What colors? Blue and Grape? Black Cherry and Red Wine (Merlot)? Evergreen?
All staple colors for me. but I went with sky blue and evergreen this time.
I am using Procion Dye. You can't use the activator because it will damage the wool, so instead, I use vinegar and heat to make the dye colorfast. Dharma has instructions on their website.
I started with 4 balls of yarn, tied into old onion skin net bags so they will stay a little compacted (not too tight). The bags also keep them from unravelling in the pot and becoming a giant tangle. A trouser sock or nylon sock would also work to hold the ball together, and also act as a partial resist to help with thaqt gradient effect.
I am using my favorite sock yarn wool for dying: Chic Sheep merino wool yarn from my stash. I don't think it's available anymore for purchase, so I'll have to find a substitute in future. These are all the same white / lace colore to start with, even though the lighting and net bags make them all look different in the photo above.
I soaked the white balls of yarn in water ahead of time, as the pots of water were warming up to just below a simmer. This helps the balls to take up the dye more evenly. In actuality, I was looking for a more mottled / gradient look, with some variation through the ball. In that case, I should have just prepared the dye bath and tossed in the dry balls of netted yarn.
To prepare the dye bath:
Heat a pot of water to just below simmering. Because this is wool, you don't want it to boil or you'll have felt.
I was using old Procion dyes. Using Dharma's
instructions for Procion Dye on wool (no soda ash, as it can destroy the
protein fibers). I sized it for roughly 1/2 pound of fiber, or 2
balls of merino wool yarn, each at 100 grams.
In the Dye Pot,
1-1/2 T salt
1/3 cup white vinegar
Enough water to cover / submerge the balls of yarn.
Heat this until it gets just ready to simmer.
For the dye concentrates, I mixed up
1 tsp dye powder with
about 2 cups warm water.
1 put that in a plastic bottle with a tight-fitting cap, so I could shake it up until the dye powder was completely dissolved.
Once the dye pot was hot enough (just ready to simmer, not boil), I removed the yarn balls, I
added the salt and vinegar, then the dye concentrate. Stir that up.
Then add the balls of yarn. Let them simmer until the dye has moved from the water into the yarn.
For the blue, you may need to add more vinegar as that encourages the uptake of the blue dye.
I let them simmer for about 2 hours. Then then turn off the heat, and let
them cool completely. Then I dumped the dye water, squeezed out the balls and
rinsed them in new water, letting them soak overnight. I repeated this
rinse process until the water ran clear.
Then I squeezed out the balls (still in the net bags) and hung them by the fire to dry for a few days. From past experience, it's difficult to unravel a wet ball of yarn, so be patient and let them dry. It may take a few days, but that's ok.
The dry dyed yarn balls -- un-netted.
The next step is to wind the dyed balls onto a niddy-noddy to make skeins.
This allows you to see what you have as far as color gradients, etc.
Notes: Again, it's been a long time since I dyed yarn, so I forgot -- the measurements for dye were a little less because I wanted the mottling. But I forgot that tiny detail, and added a bit more dye,, and dumped in the entire 2 cup bottles, which gave more even coverage of the dye all through the balls of yarn.
36 Anita's Arrow Blocks so far. All done in colorful batik and print scraps.
Pat Saft from Quilt Guild was working on one of these at Quilt Camp a while back, and brought the finished quilt to guild not long after. I was intrigued, and wanted to try it myself ...
There are several tutorials out there showing how to make this block. Some of them are kind of futsy with lots of little pieces to keep track of. I found this one by Susie's Scraps that made it easier in my mind -- not so many little pieces. I can deal with the diagonal seams and cuts. With this method, you get 2 blocks out of 2 10-inch squares.
Here is the block, complete with arrows shooting out of the corners, before it's trimmed.
Here is the tidy and trimmed block.
These are very satisfying to make. I have 36 blocks done so far ... Not sure how many more I'll need to fill out a quilt top ... I may need to get more of the black background fabric.
This one has been in the hopper for a long time. It was the first one I made of this pattern, and I've done several other ones since. Made with a jelly roll and an accent fabric.
The quilting is a simple 2-inch grid using a Sulky Blendable 12-weight thread.
Here is the label to prove that it really is done!
I tied this quilt with a big fluffy wool batt from my friend Laura. I got it done in record time -- I think it only took about 2 hours with the right equipment. It will be a wonderfully warm comforter this winter!
This is the disappearing hour glass 2 pattern that was so much fun to make.
Earlier in the summer, I was watching a quilt frame on FB Marketplace selling for about $25. I was waiting until after July 4th to ask about it ... But then it completely disappeared, not sold, just removed. Perhaps the seller had an arbitrary date in mind to sell it, or they put it in a local rummage sale? Or they trashed it, because no one appeared to be interested. I'm not sure ...
Then I remembered my friend Nancy had one like this in her basement that she said she would never use again. It was made by her ex-husband. She made 2 quilts on it and decided that was enough, so it's been sitting unused ever since. She was willing to give it to me because she knew I'd actually use it. ;-)
The design is very much like the one I was watching on Marketplace. So I asked her if I could have it -- since I have about a dozen quilts waiting to be sandwiched and finished. This will be good for tying quilts with too thick a batt to get under the sewing machine. It will also help to pin baste other quilts.
I used to tie quilts sitting up in bed, but that was fraught because it was always hard to get the done parts out of the way. This is a much better set-up for tying a quilt!
Bonus that you get to see some of my weaving samples hung up on the wall behind me!
I used sturdy T-pins to attach the edges of the quilt to the rails. Then it can be rolled on the rail as you progress through the quilt.
I used wool yarn to tie this quilt. Apparently, though, you can use just about anything -- acrylic, cotton, whatever you have.
I was remembering Oliver's Little Blankie baby quilt made by his Great Aunty Marge. It had wool ties on it that would felt down ... He used to work them off and chew on them. I guess they had a nice mouth feel? Better to go with natural fibers than plastic in that case!
Here are the basic tools:
Needle with a nice big eye to allow the yarn to be threaded. Darning needles don't work so well for this as the points are unbelievably dull. You need a point sharp enough to get through the cotton and wool batting layers. I broke the eye off of 1 needle (I never even knew that was possible!) and had to run to town to buy some more suitable needles.
embroidery scissors
Shelf liner for gription
pliers to pull the needle through when it gets tough
It took me a little while to get started on this one, because I wasn't quite sure where in the pattern of blocks to place the ties, but it just took a little time studying the pattern to figure it out.
In the phot above, I am nearing the end of the quilt. About 2/3 of it is rolled up on the rail, and still isn't too bulky -- even though it's a puffy wool batt.
Still--as I got closer to the other end, it was easier to flip the rails so that the rail with the finished ties was on the far side from me.
I tied them with a surgeon's knot, which is common in weaving, and famous for not easily coming undone -- until you want it to.
Here's the back side, where you can see the puckers of the ties.
How to tie a quilt - I found this old video by Donna Jordan. I kinda wish I'd done it this way, especially for closing the opening for turning. The tying is easy enough.
