This blog covers many aspects of textiles, but its main focus is on knitting; both hand and machine. You will find discussions on Creative Machine Knitting along with instructions for using machines, machine accessories, repairs, tips and techniques. As the blog has grown it has embraced other aspects of textiles.
Amongst my personal interest in textiles, I am also involved in ongoing, textile-related academic research.
If you would like to contact me, please use the form at the bottom of the page.
Update – May 2023
I have had several messages saying that people are having trouble purchasing a copy of ‘Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting’. I understand from the publishers that a new print run that has been delayed in shipping will be available shortly, and I apologise for the delay which is unfortunately outside of my control.
The good news is that ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide‘ should be on sale in a few weeks. All good things are worth waiting for!
This was taken at Traditions in the Making, a Heritage Craft event at Stanmer Park, Brighton. With lots of volunteers from local community textile group Woolly Umbrella, alongside the CSM there were demonstrations of flax processing, lace making, weaving, inkle looms, wool fibre preparation (hand and drum carding), embroidery and wool and flax spinning.
The CSM is an Imperia with an 84 slot cylinder and gm here I am knitting a sock in traditional 3ply sock wool; no nylon. This was the nearest we could get that was most like the wool probably used originally on the machine. Although I have knitted on it with hand spun I felt that demonstrating required enough concentration without the worry of irregular yarn!
Two types of socks in the 3 ply yarn, fake rib and true rib.
In a brave, but foolish, moment I decided to try a toe-up sock at one point. It wasn’t too bad at all, and I am quite pleased with the result.
I’ve just spent about an hour fiddling with the battery pack that came with my E-Spinner. The E-spinner was secondhand and was still unassembled and the battery never been used – the battery pack is not an Ashford one. I thought the details of the battery pack might be useful for anyone looking to buy one of these for their E-Spinner 3.
Super Rechargeable Li-ion Battery, YSN-N12V
Input: 12.5VDC
Output: 12VDC 3800mAh, (this is the DCin/out outlet, a round plug that leads to the E SPinner power plug when being run on battery).
Other output is: 5VDC 6800mAh – (the usb outlet).
Super Rechargeable Li-ion Battery, YSN-N12V
In my excitement I charged it rather haphazardly, but it has been working fine with the spinner. When I came to recharge it I found that it was not indicating charging as explained in the manual. However, a useful review on YouTube enabled me to understand what was going on. There is another lead with the battery, a round pin on one end (that is the same size as the outlet, and a much thinner pin on the other end – no idea what that is for). The lead from the battery to the E-spinner has the same sized pin on each end. It may have been purchased separately from the battery pack?
Basically the instructions were confusing about the charging process. The led on the plug the goes into the wall outlet is supposed to be red when the unit is plugged in to charge, and turn green when it is charged. The unit also must be switched on at its own on/off switch whilst charging, (if you leave it switched on when not in use it will discharge). The battery pack has five green lights on the top, one to show the pack is charged and four others labelled 100%, 75%, 50% and 25%. Nothing is said in the instructions about these, but trial and error showed that pressing the unlabelled button on the left side of the unit indicates the amount of power remaining in the unit using these lights.
I couldn’t find the battery pack on eBay or Amazon but did find it on AliExpress.
I have used the battery for about 4-5 hours spinning before it needs recharging, so am really pleased with the unit. I have also bought the cigarette lighter plug connection so that I can use it on the 12v in our caravan. May be overkill as the battery is working well so far. The battery takes about 8 hours to charge.
This is on an Ashford Knitter’s loom, 20” width. Hemp/cotton warp, 5epi heddle.
My first Rya knots in place
I am weaving with Shetland and Devon fleece locks. The Shetland is a bit soft, but not good enough for spinning, so ideal for a practise run on the rigid heddle loom.
I am putting 8 picks of rug yarn between each line of knots. Its growing fast now, but I have just made a mistake so have to rip some back- very disheartening.
I am now part way through proofreading my latest book. It’s a lot knottier checking double bed as well as single bed instructions!
The book covers, without stating the obvious, single and double bed machine knitting techniques and design. Brother, Silver reed/Knitmaster are the main machines, but Passap machines are also included in some sections.
Step by step instructions are illustrated as well as explained in the text and at the end of each chapter there is a Design Studio exploring how to develop the techniques discussed in the first part of the chapter.
It’s got to be done before Christmas, so early mornings and late nights are the order of the day. I’m baking mince pies when taking a rest from the screen.
If you enjoyed Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting, or are looking for the definitive book on machine knitting I think to will want this book. You will be able to pre-order soon so keep an eye out.
‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting’; The Designer’s Guide‘ will be published in Spring 2023. Yippee.
I haven’t really woven on a loom since I was a student at college. I have a Spears toy loom which I used for one project but the width is limited and the heddle is quite fiddly to work with. What I really wanted to do was to find a technique that uses up my small bits of handspun yarn my experiments and my texted handspun that I don’t think looks very good in knitting.
The Spears loom is actually quite good, and is very much like using a rigid heddle loom but with the shortcomings mentioned earlier. So I was really pleased when a friend offered to lend me 15 inch rigid heddle loom that she had in her attic. This now gives me the extra width and also the heddle is much easier to manipulate.
And so my weaving adventure has begun. Kindly she put a viscose thread warp on it for me to get me going and I’ve used this to practise using some acrylic DK yarn I had to hand.
Playing with acrylic yarn to get the feel of the loom.My first handspun effort
Having acquired a Devon/Cornwall fleece that is quite similar to a Romney in feel and quality, I thought I’d dye some for blending. This fine will be great to comb for a semi-worsted spun yarn.
One of my favourite methods for safely dyeing fleece without matting the fibres is to use a slow cooker. I have a large family sized one that will dye 100g comfortably and 150g at a pinch, and a single-person one that does 20g for samples etc.
Using a pre-mixed colour I’ve used before I did a blue first. However, on this fleece it came out darker than I anticipated, but will probably lighten up once combed or carded and spun.
From the remains of the dyebath I got a pretty light turquoise.
The blue at the back, turquoise at the front
I have combed these colours as shown in this video.
Note that in this video I talk about ‘roving, but technically I am making ‘tops’. Roving is a similar narrow length of fibres drawn off a drum carder (usually, but can be hand carders) and has a slight twist added to keep the fibres together. After combing, both colours have come out as I hoped.
I also wanted an olive green, and have a recipe that worked perfectly on a Dorset fleece last year. I must have made a mistake somewhere, because I got a dark green instead. Maybe it is the different fleece, but I think I got my proportions wrong!
Pretty enough, but not olive green!
Once again they was some colour left in the bath, so in went 100g of Dorset fleece. OMG, the colour was bright! No idea what I did wrong, but it makes me blink.
The only compensation is that the fleece has not called at all due to using the slow cooker method.
That bright green total exhausted the dye – no surprise really! I will probably card this as the staples of the Dorset fleece are short and it is a soft fibre. Great for soft woollen spun yarn.
If you are interested in discovering the difference between different terms such as roving, tops etc, click here to read Abby Franquemont on Spin Off.
This blog covers many aspects of textiles, but its main focus is on knitting; both hand and machine. You will find discussions on Creative Machine Knitting along with instructions for using machines, machine accessories, repairs, tips and techniques. As the blog has grown it has embraced other aspects of textiles.
Vikki Haffenden 