It’s been another busy week of crafting! Spending the entire weekend doing demos helped in that regard. I worked slower than usual, since I was chatting with Festival attendees and regularly leaving my work aside to show an interested person how to weave on the floor loom, but I was there for so many hours that I got a lot done despite the frequent interruptions.
Super Secret Shawl
I only got 1/2 of a repeat done this week. I will be bringing this project with me as travel knitting next week, and expect to get a great deal more finished.
Cormo Spinning
I spent most of Saturday spinning. Three hours at my weekly spinning group followed by 5 hours spinning at the Festival of the Arts was enough time to spin at least half of the bobbin that is on my wheel (2.5 to 3 ounces).
Woven Doctor Who Scarf
On Saturday night, I tied this scarf on to my rigid heddle loom. This evening I finished weaving it and it is currently soaking for wet finishing.
This past weekend was the St. Johns River Festival of the Arts, held annually in Sanford, Florida on the first weekend of May. The Festival was held Saturday from 10-6 and Sunday from 10-5. More than 125 artists had booths and expected attendance was 30,000 – 40,000. The Weavers of Orlando guild had a booth and we set up to do spinning and weaving demonstrations. I was in the booth helping with the demos on Saturday from 12-6 and the entire day on Sunday. The weather was spectacular. Mid-70s to low-80s, with a breeze blowing off the lake and little humidity is perfect weather for an outdoor art fair. It was a wonderful weekend!
The Weavers of Orlando Booth
The view looking out from our booth. The sky looked liked this the entire weekend.
We actually had two booth spaces — 52 and 53 — and they were right in the middle of a street.
We had a stand displaying woven items made by guild members.
We taught Kumihimo braiding to kids. We had 160 Kumihimo disks made by guild members for demo purposes; we gave out the last ones about 3:00 pm on Sunday (the guild goes through more than 1,000 Kumihimo disks in a year).
WoO members Nancy (foreground) and Bev teaching Kumihimo braiding to Festival attendees on Saturday.
We brought the 4-shaft Dorset floor loom and any attendee who wanted to try it out got a chance. We had a 3 yard warp on the loom, and by about 4:00 pm on Sunday, the entire length was finished! One attendee, a 12-year-old girl, will be sewing bags from the finished fabric.
WoO member Marilyn encouraging a first-time weaver.
We also had a couple of table looms and members wove on those throughout the day. On Saturday we had three or four people spinning. I was one of the spinners on Saturday, and I got almost 2 ounces of Cormo spun. On Saturday evening, when I got home, I warped my rigid heddle loom so that I could bring it with me on Sunday. I brought my wheel on Sunday also, but I spent most of my time weaving on the rigid heddle. I got about 60″ of weaving done!
Around the Fair
On Sunday, I took an hour or so to stroll around the fair. Many Festival goers brought their dogs with them. I didn’t get any dog pictures, but I get a picture of this unusual pet:
The parrot’s owner told us that he is a rescue bird. His wings are clipped so he can’t fly. He likes to sit on the handlebar of her bike and spread his wings out while she rides, maybe to get the sensation of flying.
I also saw another unusual pet walking around: a bunny rabbit in a harness and on a leash, but I didn’t get a picture of it!
On Saturday, this stilt walker was part of the festival entertainment, strolling along the street and interacting with crowds. The head is a puppet controlled by the walker, and she did a wonderful job of making that head interact in a way that made it seem alive. More than one child gave the bird a drink from a bottle of water! When it was time to distribute ribbons to artists, the stilt walker was along for the ceremony. I didn’t get close enough to see for sure, but I think the puppet head was taking ribbons out of a basket and handing them to the artists! We found out from a Festival organizer that this stilt walker is a Disney employee and the Festival contracted with Disney to have her at the Festival.
Artists
I bought pieces from four artists.
Nicola Barsaleau
Nicola Barsaleau is a Gainesville, Florida-based printmaker. She creates her work using a methodology which has been used for centuries. She starts by drawing onto printmaking linoleum with graphite. By using graphite, she can erase and change until she is satisfied with the image. Once the drawing is complete, she uses a curved tool to carve out sections of the image to make the block. She then applies an oil-based ink to the block and presses it onto paper to make prints. I bought two pieces from her:
Six in the Morning is a limited edition print and a Father’s Day / Birthday gift for my birdwatching father. The untitled work is for me. I loved the image of the bee and the reminder of how necessary bees are for pollination. I also love the round mandala-like shape, which will blend with another piece I have from a different local artist: a mandala created by manipulating a photo of an endangered gopher tortoise. The untitled work is not a limited edition; Nicola told me she loves this particular piece so much that she wants to be able to print as many as possible.
What the FORK?
The next piece I bought is a pendant from Oswego, New York-based What the FORK (website, Facebook). All of their pieces are made from old silverware, which is welded and hand-manipulated into new shapes. I bought an octopus pendant because I have a wee bit of an obsession with octopi. This piece is not pictured on their website, so here’s a picture I took myself:
Kirk Dodd Photography
Kirk Dodd is a Merritt Island, Florida-based photographer. Most of his work is High Dynamic Range photography, a technique in which multiple images are taken with different settings, then layered to create a final image. The piece I bought is not on his website, and it seems strange to take a picture of a picture, so you don’t get to see it. Sorry! It’s a stunning image, taking at a Florida beach of heart-shaped lightning over the ocean. The image is take at an angle at the point where water is breaking on the beach, so the beach is on the right / lower edge and the ocean is to the left / upper edge and the lightning is in the middle. It’s beautiful.
Touch of Key West Photography
Mark Weeter is a Florida Keys-based photographer who specializes in underwater photography. Smaller pieces (up to about 16″x20″) are printed on aluminum. I really love this technique because it seems to bring a luster to photos that you don’t get any other way. Larger pieces are standard photographic prints. He and his wife frame the pictures themselves, using wood reclaimed from old lobster pots. The frames are pretty cool, some with barnacles still attached. He had a larger black and white photo of a sponge that I just loved, but after my other shopping it was more than I could spend. I settled on a smaller piece, an 8″x8″ image of a jelly fish, shot from below. This image isn’t on his website.
In Conclusion
I had a wonderful time at the St. Johns River Festival of the Arts. Since it is always on the first weekend of May, that means it is always the same weekend as Maryland Sheep and Wool. I’m not sure how often I’ll go to MDSW in the future; any time I’m not going to MDSW, I’ll definitely plan to be at the St. Johns River Festival of the Arts!
We finished the warping board three weeks ago, but I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. I was waiting to blog about it so that I could have a picture of warp measuring in progress, but it looks like it’ll be another week before I get to measuring out the warp, so I decided to go ahead and blog the process of making the warping board!
Designing the Warping Board
At the beginning of March, I went to a beginning weaving class at the home of one of the Guild members. Part of the materials for the class included written instructions on how to use a warping board (we got a demo also). When the instructor learned that my husband was going to build me a warping board, she gave me an extra sheet on how to build one. Those instructions were for a 14-yard warping board that you would hang on the wall or put on an easel or otherwise prop up in order to use. I knew that wasn’t what I wanted, but that sheet provided my starting point. I used it mostly to determine the size and placement of the dowels. When I designed my warping board, I knew I wanted:
The ability to make long warps
To easily disassemble the board for storage and reassemble it for use
Built in support while it was in use (no hanging on doors or walls)
The warping board to be at the height that was most comfortable for me to use — I’m only 5’2″, and I didn’t want to have to raise my arms so high that I was quickly fatigued while wrapping long and wide warps.
The cross formed on the vertical posts, not the horizontal posts
According to the instructor at the beginning weaving class, it is more comfortable to use the warping board in this orientation, and it is easier to see if you make a mistake.
Provides greater flexibility in the length of warp the board can accomodate.
While contemplating these characteristics, I remembered the blocking frame my husband built me for my birthday several years ago. This is a large frame, with nails driven in every inch or so. You use it by wrapping cotton yarn around the nails and through the perimeter of your lace, adjusting tension before tying off.
Sorry about the kind of crappy picture — it was taken at least 5 years ago, with my old flip phone! The beautiful shawl on the blocker was crocheted by my friend Stacy.
This frame is huge, and I considered using it as a warping board. Since it wasn’t intended as a warping board, it has some features that make it difficult to use it for that purpose. The length isn’t measured out for warping, the nails are too short and have a head on them that will make it difficult to get a warp off, and there’s no measured area for a cross. It does however, come apart for storage, and it has feet. The feet have slots in them and the vertical post slide into those slots for when the blocker is in use and out of the slots for storage.
The vertical piece in the back part of the slot is the support leg for the warping board. There’s a shim in front of it to make sure that it is tight and won’t wobble back and forth when in use. It is tricky to make a wood piece that fits snugly but is still easy to take out!
As long as the vertical posts of the warping board were the same dimensions as the vertical posts on the blocker, we could use the feet interchangeably. Coincidentally, the size of the frame on the warping board instructions I was given, was exactly the same as the size of the vertical posts on the blocker. Voila! Support problem solved.
To determine the overall height of the warping board, I pretended I was holding a strand of yarn and held my arm at the lowest level I could comfortably reach. I measured the distance from the floor to my hand. I then reached up as high as I could comfortably reach and measured the distance from the floor to my hand. The difference between the two was more than the 36″ distance that I wanted between the top and bottom of the warping board. I decided to use the bottom as the starting point rather than the top, just in case my ability to reach up is ever impaired. Once I had those two measurements, I was able to combine that information with the information in the instructions I was given, and provide my husband with a drawing of the warping board.
There was more than one false start, though only one is pictured here! The note on the very bottom of the page — 28″ x 1/4″ x 2″ refers to the dimensions of my lease sticks, and has nothing to do with the warping board.
It’s not a work of art, but it was sufficient for the purpose! I didn’t realize until it was finished that I forgot to account for the height of the feet when determining the length of the vertical supports. As a result, the finished warping board is 2″ taller than I expected. This is easy enough to fix, if it turns out to be a problem. I want to use the warping board once before I decide to trim 2″ off the bottom of the vertical posts.
Materials & Cost
1 – 2″ x 4″ x 8′ board. If you want to make feet like I have, you’ll need a second 2×4 (US$2.50 each)
7 – 5/8″ x 4′ dowels. (US$2.50 each)
scrap piece of 1″ x 8″ board. Our scrap piece was about 18″ long (free, since it was just hanging out in our garage, leftover from another project)
8 – 5/16″ 18 thread brass wood insert nuts (idk if these come in various lengths; the ones we used were about 1/2″ long) (US$0.24 each)
8 – 5/16″ 18 thread 2″ long hex bolts (US$0.22 each plus tax = $1.89 total).
8 – 5/16″ washers (approximately US$0.90; we bought a box of 50 for US$5.58, so about US$0.11 / washer)
NOTE: Using regular bolts, like we did, means that the warping board will be assembled and disassembled with a wrench. The big box hardware stores did not have any handles or knobs attached to an appropriately sized bolt. However, such things do exist and can be found at specialty woodworking supply shops, or maybe online. Our local woodworking supply is 1/2 hour away and we weren’t heading that direction for any other reason. We decided to use regular bolts now, but I will probably switch those out for a knob or handle next time we are at the woodworking shop. Then I will be able to assemble and disassemble the warping board with just my hand!
NOTE 2: Since the feet were made as part of another project, this blog post does not include instructions on how to make them or include the materials on the list. If you plan to make the feet, you will need another 2 x 4 and a few screws. You can use the pictures and dimensions above to figure out how to make them.
Total cost was about US$20; another 2 x 4 and screws for the feet will cost you another US$5 or less.
Building the Warping Board
The frame of the warping board is made with 1″ x 2″ lumber, so the first thing Chris did was rip the 2″ x 4″ into four 1″ x 2″ x 8′ pieces.
One 2″ x 4″ was exactly the right size; we were left with one long wood shaving!
Each 1″ x 2″ piece was then cut to the appropriate length. The leg pieces are each 67″ long and the horizontal pieces are each 63″ long. Before cutting the holes for the pegs, Chris had to figure out the placement of the screws and bolts that hold the warping board together. Unfortunately, I do not have good pictures of this part of the process. Since I wanted to be able to disassemble the warping board for storage, we couldn’t just screw the horizontal and vertical pieces together. Instead, we used triangular supports in the corners. These triangular supports were cut from the scrap piece of 1″ x 8″ wood that is listed in the materials section.
The supports are permanently screwed into the horizontal pieces, but bolted to the vertical pieces. Chris had to determine the placement of the screws and pegs before cutting the holes for the pegs because we didn’t want to cut a peg hole at the spot where the screw or bolt goes into the board. He drilled the holes for the screws, but did not actually screw the triangular support piece onto the horizontal board until later. While he was at it, he drilled the holes for the bolts. The bolts go all the way through the vertical support and screw into the brass wood insert nuts, which are in the triangular support piece. To get the brass wood insert nuts into the triangular support piece, Chris drilled holes slightly smaller than the nuts and then screwed the nuts into the hole. There’s different styles of insert nuts. Some are hammered in rather than screwing, but Chris says he prefers the kind that screw in because they seem stronger.
Pre-drilling the holes for the screws.
Once he got it all marked, Chris used the drill press to cut the holes for the pegs. These holes are not cut all the way through the board; they are about 1/2″ deep. While this process could be done with a hand drill rather than a drill press, the drill press has settings to assure that each hole is the same depth. On the horizontal pieces, the pegs are placed on 3″ centers (measuring from the center of one peg to the center of the adjacent peg is 3″). On the vertical pieces, there’s only 3 pegs, placed on 6″ centers, so that you can do a cross on either side if you wish. On each side, one peg is placed so that it is halfway (18″) between the two horizontal rows of pegs. On one side the other two pegs are placed upwards from the central peg; on the other side, the two pegs are placed downwards from the central peg.
While Chris was drilling the peg holes, I sanded the dowel rods that we used for the pegs. I sanded them all by hand. I think it’s easier to sand the dowel rods before you cut them into pegs because you can get a better grip on the 48″ dowel rod than on the 6″ peg! After the peg holes were drilled, I sanded the boards smooth. I sanded both sides of the boards — no random roughness around the yarn!
While I was sanding, Chris cut the dowel rods into 6″ lengths. The dowel rods are 48″ long, but you only get 7 pegs from one rod, not 8. This is because cutting transforms a portion of the dowel rod into sawdust, leaving the 8th peg too short. I neglected to account for this, and assumed that we would get 8 pegs from each dowel rod. We ended up having to run back to Home Depot to get another one!
The cut ends of the dowel rods get a little splintery, so I hand sanded one end of each peg after they were cut. It’s not necessary to do both ends, since one end will be glued into a hole and have no contact with the yarn.
Splinters and yarn do not go together!
Chris assembled the frame while I was sanding the ends of the pegs. It’s looking good!
We needed to lay the warping board flat in order to glue the pegs into the holes, so we brought it inside and laid it on our well-protected living room floor.
I glued all the pegs into the holes. Put just enough wood glue in to cover the bottom surface of the hole. Insert the peg and push down to make sure it is all the way in the hole. Most of the time, I had excess glue that pushed up and I wiped it away with a damp paper towel. Wood glue starts to set quickly. You can’t lay down glue along the entire row then go back and put in the pegs. You might be able to put glue in two or three holes at a time, depending on how fast you are! When I was putting in the pegs, we discovered that about half of them were too wide to get into the hole. I had to sand down the ends a little bit. At first I did this by hand, but I ended up using the belt sander to finish them because it was taking too long by hand.
I used the paintbrush to spread glue evenly across the bottom of the hole and up the sides of each peg. I used a paintbrush that wasn’t in great shape in case I had to toss it after this, but I was able to wash the glue out with plain water, immediately upon finishing the gluing while the glue was still wet in the brush.
And that was it! A finished warping board!
We did not apply any finish to the warping board. You have to be careful about finishing. Do not use a varnish, which will quickly develop grooves when yarn is held under tension against it. Some people choose to finish warping boards with oil, like you would with a spinning wheel. This seemed to me like more work than it was worth, and I elected to leave the warping board unfinished.
I’m home from India, but continuing to work on the same two projects! I’m also starting to work on the TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level 1.
Super Secret Shawl
I’ve now completed 3 repeats of the pattern.
Splash Socks
I hoped to finish these while traveling, but while in India I spent most of my knitting time on the shawl, leaving these socks for the flights. The trip home involved 20+ hours actually on planes, with little to no time on layovers. I dozed off and on throughout the trip home, leaving less time for knitting than I had planned. Still, I got 5 stripes done on the trip home. Since I hadn’t brought appropriate waste yarn to mark the heels, I just kept knitting. I’m going to steek for heels — the first time I’ve ever done that!
TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level 1
I purchased the Master Hand Knitting Level 1 at the end of February and blogged about it in mid-March. When I discovered that we were going to India, I decided I wouldn’t work on the program until I returned. However, before we left, I did make myself a detailed checklist, breaking down each step of the project. Now that I’m back from the trip, I want to focus on finishing Level 1. I have an extremely ambitious goal: mail off the Level 1 binder by the first week of June. The reason for this ambitious goal is that I will be attending the TKGA Conference in San Diego July 21-26. If I can get Level 1 mailed off by the first week in June, it’s possible (though tight) that I might get the reviewed binder back before I go to the conference. Since I’m attending the Master’s Day program on July 21 and taking a workshop with Arenda Holladay, I’ll have the opportunity to ask any questions I have regarding necessary corrections for Level 1.
My personal approach to Level 1 is to research all the questions relevant to a swatch and write draft answers prior to knitting the swatch. Then I knit and block the swatch and edit the answer based on the experience of knitting and blocking. Yesterday, I did the research for the blocking report and wrote a draft that includes all the information other than how I blocked the swatches. Today I did the research for the first question and wrote a draft answer. As I write, I am compiling the References sheet that is one component of the binder. Every time I use a new source, I add it to the References section immediately. I expect to take significant time to edit the written work after all the swatching is complete. Proceeding in the manner I described makes that easier because I won’t have to switch back and forth between writing and editing. Switching back and forth slows me down considerably!
My single biggest worry about the swatches is that there will be cat hair all over them. The directions specifically say that the swatches should be free of pet hair. This seems like an impossible standard in my house. We’ve got three very cuddly cats in varying colors that mean no matter what you are wearing, the cat hair stands out from a mile away. Since we got back from India, they are even more cuddly than usual. They were well cared for while we were away, but they obviously missed us!
Love in Every Stitch: Stories of Knitting and Healingarrived at my house a week before I left on the trip to India. I brought it with me and read it while I was away. When I preordered this book, I had never heard of the author and expected lighthearted, fun stories. From the very beginning, it became clear that ‘lighthearted’ is not the best descriptor of this book. These are stories of redemption and survival, and the circumstances that challenge us are never lighthearted!
Lee Gant (website, Facebook, Ravelry) is a knitwear designer and instructor. She’s also a recovering addict. A few chapters of the book share parts of her own story and the ways that knitting helped her as she struggled to overcome her addictions. The remainder of the 29 chapters share the stories of other knitters whom Ms. Gant has met, mostly while working in various yarn shops. The chapters are divided into 9 themes — changing, overcoming, grieving, mending, giving, discovering, living, sharing, and ending — with three or four stories in each category. The knitters and crocheters in this book ply their craft through addiction, abuse, death of close family members, or illness. Each story emphasizes how knitting or crocheting helped the storyteller to survive and, eventually, thrive. We also learn more about Ms. Gant’s story, through the dialogues in various chapters.
Once I better understood the angle of this book, I was concerned that the stories would be trite or manipulative. I did not find that to be case. For the most part, Ms. Gant writes beautifully and honestly. She doesn’t try to wrap up every story with a neat bow (though there’s a couple that are) or imply that everything will be okay. Crafting is a life raft that helps each person to continue taking the next step. And the next. And the next.
My biggest annoyance with the book was that Ms. Gant awkwardly inserted her reactions and parts of her own story into the middle of other stories. The majority of the stories are written from her perspective. The stories usually start with a brief set up of how Ms. Gant met the storyteller and at some point shift into long blocks of first-person dialogue from the perspective of the storyteller. This worked for me as a way of getting into the story. However, in many of the chapters, the first-person dialogue is interrupted with Ms. Gant’s own inner or outer thoughts. At times, these transitions did not feel like a natural conversation, and pulled me out of the story of the chapter. I was also left with a sense that the book was disjointed because we are getting Ms. Gant’s life story in bits and pieces.
Despite these problems, I loved the book. From the first sentence (“I spent many troubled years standing in front of the mirror with my face pressed close to the glass, peering into each pull, trying to see all the way into myself.”), I was drawn into the book and did not want to put it down. Part of the reason I was so drawn in is because I could write a story suitable for inclusion in the book — knitting kept me grounded through the deaths of 14 family members in 19 months, and the radical rearrangement of my life as a result of that time. While I may not have faced the same challenges as the storytellers in this book, I understand how the repetitive, meditative, and social aspects of knitting can carry you through them. I was inspired by the reminder, and by the fortitude of each storyteller.
