Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

The experiment with Jacquard acid dyes taught me one thing quite clearly — acid dyes are not great on Texsolv. I should have known this already, as I know acid dyes work on animal fibers (wool, silk) but not on plant fibers (cotton, linen). While acid dyes work on nylon (think sock yarn), they aren't great on polyester. Texsolv heddles and cords are polyester. So, maybe the answer was to find a dye that works on polyester? Of course, I started by looking at The Woolery, Paradise Fibers, Yarn Barn of Kansas, Susan's Fiber Shop, Earth Guild, and other usual suspects. Not a lot of luck. It turns out, the answer was almost in my own backyard about three miles away at Hobby Lobby and WalMart. Let me preface this by saying I rarely go in either of these stores. In particular, I probably hadn't been in that super WalMart in close to a decade. I'm almost surprised the bank didn't call to ask if my debit card had been stolen after I shopped in both places the same week. They...

As the change tsunami rolled through my life last year, it washed away many old things, but also washed in some new things. One of those is a 16-shaft 32-inch-wide Ashford table loom. When I first started weaving, I quickly realized what intrigued me was the complex structures. I am particularly fond of doubleweave and advancing twills. Complex twills are shaft-greedy structures. I soon upgraded my four-shaft table loom with an 8-shaft expansion kit. Then I discovered I always seemed to want to weave something slightly wider than 24-inches. So I bought the 32-inch loom and sold my 24-inch loom. But I still had only eight shafts. I even wrote to Ashford and asked if they ever made the 16-shaft model in the wider width. I only ever saw it offered in the 24-inch width. Well, apparently Ashford made a run of 16-shaft looms in the wider width in early 2018. And I, somehow, did not get the memo. By the time I learned about it, they were all gone. And then representatives from Ashford w...

Dressed loom from the work side. Back in the summer, I bought a loom. I'd been looking at weaving for awhile. Getting into weaving is a little difficult, because looms are expensive and there are a lot of loom manufacturers. (The same could be said of buying a spinning wheel.) I ended up with an Ashford table loom. This is a rather nice little loom, in that it folds and can be slid under a bed or stacked along the back wall of a closet. This also means it can be easily transported to workshops. And the 24-inch/60cm width is just right for a folding card table. Dressed loom from the back side. The loom sat in my home from mid-summer to mid-autumn. In November, I decided that it needed to at least be put together. So I did that. After another two or three weeks, I bought some Kauni yarn, put a warp on the loom, and wove. Sampler This is just a basic sampler. I used a straight threading (i.e. shafts 1-2-3-4 in order left to right front to back). As you are looking at it ...