Tips

On By CarynIn Craft

I was struggling with the sides of my twined weaving coming in and not staying straight. My neighbor, who is an accomplished Cherokee weaver, and who taught me how to twine bags, suggested that I flip the work for each row. I had been working from just one side, going right to left, then left to right. For my rose fiber swatch I followed her advice.

Photo description: left twined weaving made with hand spun mint infused cellulose, right side twined weaving hand spun rose fiber

Flipping the fabric worked, the sides of my swatch are better than my previous attempts. They aren’t perfect, but my skills are improving. It is those little tips and insights that make learning from accomplished crafters so valuable. YouTube is great for general knowledge and diving down rabbit holes, but the knowledge we can gain when working with another crafter is invaluable.

Crochet cables

On By CarynIn Craft

Crochet cables are an entirely different beast than knit cables. Rather than just switching the order of a few stitches, it involves at minimum three different stitches, and different placement. I ripped out my swatch twice trying to get my brain wrapped around the technique. I finally made myself a rough chart, which helped, and religiously counted stitches on each row.

Photo description: hand drawn crochet chart with non standard symbols, a size G (4.0mm) crochet hook, and the cabled swatch made with hand spun two ply rose fiber yarn

I used a combination of single crochet, double crochet in the front post, and treble crochet in the front post. I have not puzzled out how to reverse the cable twist, although I suspect it involves some pretzel like moves.

Knit Cables

On By CarynIn Craft

When I went to swatch my hand spun rose fiber yarn I had an urge to cable, so I did. Cables in knitting look fancy but are not technically difficult. The stitches get a little tight in the twist, so take a little longer, but the concept is just to put one side of the cable on a cable needle, put the extra needle to the front or back, knit the other side of the cable, put the first side back on the knitting needle, then knit them. Honestly the words took longer to type. There are brave souls who can cable without the extra needle to hold the loose stitches, but I haven’t worked up the courage yet.

Photo description: two ply hand spun rose fiber yarn knitted swatch with two cables of opposite twist on a garter stitch background using a size 4 Prym circular needle

The direction of twist depends on if the skipped stitches are moved to the front or back of the work. Since I was swatching, I did one of each.

It doesn’t need to be fancy

On By CarynIn Craft

If you don’t have a swift or a nostepinne (or don’t want to go upstairs then get them), the back of a chair and a roll of paper work fine to take yarn from skein to ball form.

Photo description: skein of hand spun cotton hung on the back of a wood chair, and center pull ball of yarn started on a roll of card stock, black dog looking on in the background

I rolled up two skeins of hand spun cotton this way. This is the cotton that I spun from raw bolls then three plied two ways: crepe and chain ply.

Photo description: two nostepinne style balls of cotton yarn, chain ply on the left, crepe on the right

I’m most interested in how these two preparations knit up. Yes, I’m looking forward to swatching. I’m weird like that.

Cold in Texas

On By CarynIn chickens

We do get some cold in Texas. I went to clean the chicken water and found large ice crystals growing inside.

Photo description: edge of an empty chicken water container with large ice crystals on the side

I have had the large container freeze solid, but haven’t seen these slow growth crystals before, which was neat. I also have a heated water bowl, so the chickens always have thawed water, even when everything else is frozen.