I’m a little surprised these gloves didn’t make the post list back in January of 2019. Hm. I knit them with merino wool fingering weight yarn and embroidered with white wool. I planned the embroidered swoops by laying down yarn scraps on the unsewn glove and taking a picture.
Winter is looking over the horizon, and I’m hoping I didn’t give away all these gloves. I’ll look in the cedar lined hope chest soon where I stash my winter gear.
Just to brush up on my basic Granny Square skills, I made a quick square with scrap yarn. To get it the right 7×9 inch size for Warm Up America I added two rows of double crochet on one end, and one row on the other. A little unconventional, but functional.
I did another 7×9 inch swatch to test joins for Tunisian crochet using the honey comb stitch pattern. I first crocheted a narrow strip with three different colors, then I crocheted a second strip, joining the rows to the first strip at the end of the forward pass. I tried three methods: joining using the front loop, back loop, and back loop and bump behind the back loop. I like the last method best because there was no discernible gap and the patterns matched up better.
I’m still working on best practice for me for weaving in ends.
I’m renewing my acquaintance with Tunisian crochet. Making the 7×9 inch rectangles for Warm Up America is not only a great way to use up scrap yarn, but also to explore new techniques or to polish up old skills. My Tunisian crochet skills were definitely dusty. I ripped out around two rectangles worth remembering where to start and end my rows and on finding a fabric that doesn’t curl. The simple Tunisian stitch curls almost as badly as stockinette knitting, which I don’t want for my rectangles. I rediscovered my favorite (so far) Tunisian stitch, the honeycomb. This is like a moss stitch in knitting, alternating simple and purl Tunisian stitches both across the row and on the next row. It makes a nice flat fabric with a honeycomb-like pattern on one side and a luscious bumpy texture on the back.
I also discovered a new-to-me kind of crochet hook.
I like the balance of the wood crochet hook with cord and how it feels in my hand much better than the long aluminum hook.
The shuttle I designed for my new inkle loom wasn’t working as well as I hoped. In Adobe Illustrator I designed a new one based on a weaving stick that I found digging through my weaving tools. I used my laser cutter to engrave a ruler and decoration and cut it out of 1/8” birch plywood. I then sanded the points and bottom edge to make a bevel so it was easier to slide it through the warp shed.
I finished the shuttle with butcher block conditioner and let it dry overnight.
I think the design needs some more refining. The upper part of the circles that hold the yarn also catch on the warp threads if I’m not careful. The holes are sized the way they are so the shuttle can hang on an inkle loom post when not in use. I’m not sure that functionality is worth the irritation of catching threads.
