Category: Textiles

Making a warp for testing out my countermarch loom

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, creativity, making, Textiles, weaving, Woven textilesLeave a comment

It’s taken me a while, but I have finally made the warp which I will use for testing out my new (to me) countermarch loom.

It’s taken me a while as we have building work going on in the house so I am moving from room to room to escape the chaos. I finally ran out of places to go, so ended up in the conservatory which is HOT. Lots of short breaks needed.

I am in two minds about what to weave. My heart says a fleece rug – I have two in bags in the shed, but my mind says ‘ do you need a rug,?’ What I really need is more tea towels, since my son burned a hole in one of my hand woven ones.

The loom has got an 8 dent reed and I am using a thickish cotton and making a sectional warp because my warping board pegs won’t take more than 80 ends of this. I’ll thread it up as a twill and let myself be guided by the spirit of the day I start to weave.

Winding the warp of the warping board onto a kite stick, as recommended by Peggy Osterkamp

The loom waiting for the warp. I know I’ll be whining about back ache quite soon…

Making the most of the sunshine

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, creativity, fibre, hand spinning, hand spun, mindfulness, spinning, Spinning wheels, Textiles, WoolLeave a comment

How often do we have such gorgeous weather in May in the UK?

So I decided to take advantage of it by having a swim and then sitting down with my spinning wheel to spin up some Jacob’s rolags I’d carded last night. What more perfect way of spending on Friday afternoon.

Ok the garden needs attention and I’ve got plants to plant out and I should be writing and all sorts of things, but sitting in the sun and spinning just seemed undeniable.

See more about machine and hand knitting and hand spinning on my ‘Vikkikit’ YouTube channel.

Reforming ribs on a knitting machine

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, Creative machine knitting, creativity, Knitted textiles, knitting, knitting machine, knitwear, Machine knitting, Machine knitting; knitmaster;silver reed; knitting, making, Textiles, Translating between hand and machine knitting, WorkshopLeave a comment

Reformin, or ‘latching-up’ single bed stitches into a rib structure is sometimes seen as far too time-consuming for a ‘fast’ activity like machine knitting. However, I quite enjoy the process and have written about it and made a ‘workshop’ video of working a 2×2 reformed rib here. I hope you find it of interest and useful.

Cover of Singel and Double Bed Machine Knitting: the Designer's Guide

How to meet my readers…?

On By vikkihaffendenIn book, books, craft, Creative machine knitting, creativity, Knitted textiles, knitting, knitting books, knitting machine, Machine knitting, Machine knitting; knitmaster;silver reed; knitting, making, Passap, Textiles, Translating between hand and machine knitting, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hello there. I am keen to know my readers, and meet people who own a copy of either of my knitting books, ‘Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting’ or ‘Single and Double Bed Machine Knitting; the Designer’s Guide’. Obviously meeting people in person might be tricky, so I have been wracking my brains about how to do this and settled on trying to set up an image gallery of people who own a copy of one of both of these books.

It would be wonderful if you could post a photo of yourself holding your copy, and with your knitting machine as well if it works for you. If you prefer not to be in the photo yourself, a photo of your copy of the book sitting on top of your knitting machine would be lovely, and a piece of your knitting as well maybe? Please also add a brief review if you have time, its always useful to get an insight into how readers see what I have written and feedback helps me develop my approach for future books.

I can only think of Facebook or Instagram, but I’m sure you will have other favourite places to post. It would be good if you could add the hashtags shown below so that I can find your posts. I will start the ball rolling on Instagram.

Hashtags   #vikkihaffenden, #TBHMK, #SDBMK, #vikkiknit, #crowoodpress, #machineknitting

When you post a photo, do feel free to leave me a message pointing to it on this page.

Postcard from the Coat of Hopes

On By vikkihaffendenIn Textiles, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today I received this card following up my contribution of a patch to the Coat of Hopes.

Patches were created by so many people who feel strongly about our climate health and future. Into each patch the maker wove their, “griefs, remembrances, prayers and hopes for the place they call home”.

The coat was worn on a walk designed to coincide with COP26 which took place between August and October 2021 from Lewes in Sussex to Glasgow. The coat is still on an ongoing journey through the UK. See more on the Coat of Hopes website.

A ‘wow’ review of ‘Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting’

On By vikkihaffendenIn book, books, craft, Creative machine knitting, hand knitting, Knitted textiles, knitting, knitting books, knitting machine, Machine knitting; knitmaster;silver reed; knitting, Textiles, Translating between hand and machine knittingLeave a comment

I found this review on Facebook ‘Machine Knitting’ group, and have to share it. I was so thrilled that this reviewer ‘got’ the book so thoroughly.

Book Review:
Translating Between Hand and Machine Knitting by Vikki Haffenden
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 10:10
“This book ought to be mandatory reading for every new machine knitter!” -me
“This book needs to be on every machine knitter’s manuals shelf, in pride of place, no matter if you use Silver Reed or Brother!” -me
“Where was this book when I was desperately trying to learn how to design lace/translate lace cards between Brother and Silver Reed?!?!” -me

This book is absolutely essential equipment as far as I am concerned! It starts out covering and comparing materials and equipment for knitting, both hand and machine versions. The pictures will blow you away and they only get better. Please, at this point, re-read the title. It does not state ‘pattern’ in the title.
Next it goes into stitch construction and compares hand and machine and final product of each. This book give equal time to both! It goes into yarn fiber types, yarn construction(spinning), yarn types (boucle vrs worsted). The details are absolutely in depth and extremely easy to understand with stupendously clear focused pin-pointed and highlighted photography and exemplary diagrams that compare every aspect of stitches, fabric, mechanics, of hand and machine knitting. It breaks down differences between brands when there are differences, and does not favor either. There are some references to Toyota and Passap, but the main info concerns Silver Reed and Brother. This covers every type of cast-on and cast-off that I could remember!! It isn’t a how-to… it compares them and shows some GREAT visuals of them on and off the needles. Refer to your manual for specifics on how-to cast-on and cast-off. Basically, this book compiled most of the answers to questions I have asked in the past, questions I have hunted down answers to, and questions that I hadn’t even thought to ask. It is utterly fantastic. Only the very last chapter goes into translating PATTERNS between hand and machine…

Buy it! Buy it NOW!
I can not say enough how much you need this book! How much I needed this book… now if I can just convince her to write one on Passap…
No! I have no affiliation with the author… I wish I could say I know her.

Since reading it I have replied, so let’s hope we can converse about knitting I the future.

Twiddling with twill

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, weaving, Woven textilesLeave a comment

I am so lucky, I have been given Anne Dixon’s 4 shaft weaving book and am blown away by the number of possibilities with a simple 1, 2, 3, 4 threading. My first two attempts are very rewarding, but messy edges. I was to excited putting the warp on and forgot to pack the edges and add floating selvedges. I tried rethreading the 4 edge heddles but it’s not a brilliant finish. Still it’s only a short ‘test’ warp, and I will do better next time!

Before receiving the book I had worked out how to do herringbone and combine this with stripes. I liked this, especially with a marl hand spun between commercial yarn.

Herringbone and stripes

After getting the book I realised I could work with two treadles at a time and two shuttles.

I love this neater weave using 2 treadles

Now I am playing with colours and have added an extra pick to the pattern. Working this additional pick in thicker yarn increases the surface texture. And although it’s not clear on the photo, both blue yarns are mercerised so make a contrast to the woollier yarns.

Louet W70 loom

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, Textiles, weaving, Woven textilesLeave a comment

I have just bought a Louet W70 loom to expand my skills. It is a 4 shaft and has a stand. From my internet searches I understand this look to be the earliest version of the Louet Kombo Loom, that then became the Jane. It’s very sturdy and U think I am going to have fun with it!

On the dining room table, the stand is still in pieces…

I mentioned that it would be great if I could pedal the shafts. My son took one look at it and was determined to add those pedals!

Today we spent a lot of time trawling the internet for old instruction manuals and seeing what other people had done when converting table looks to treadle ones. There is one video on Facebook that we found very informative, and so we started. He has so far designed a direct tie-up method for lifting the shafts and is now working on designing the treadles. Meanwhile I have ordered Texsolv cord and clips to make the tie-up easier and so that the pedals can be disconnected to enable folding the loom away.

Testing out the first, makeshift pedal. The dog was not part of the experiment.

Update

The loom is now working. It has four direct threaded treadles and I’m working on it with a short, narrow test warp using some wool/acrylic and a 10epi reed.

It’s taking over the living room, but will be moved soon