Permanent Pleats on the Loom

I’m doing a study of rigid-heddle fabric this year and my current project is playing around with the permanent-pleating possibilities of polyester.  This is what’s currently on the loom.

polyester yarn

The warp is a singles silk/wool, and the weft is a polyester yarn.  I’m putting in shots of monk’s belt to pull it up like you would for shibori, but I’m planning to steam and pleat the fabric instead of over-dyeing it for color.

This is thin yarn, and it’s taking a bit to weave through the five or so yards I enthusiastically put on the loom, so let’s take a tour of some other fun things while we’re waiting for me to weave this off…

Kristine (of Curious Creek Fibers) and her husband Phil swung by for a visit.  I’d met Kristine at GGFI and we’d hit it off, so when she mentioned that she’d be in the Seattle area for a night, I invited her and her husband to stay at our house.  We had a great time.  Phil is as big a fan of Legos as Kai is, and they built a number of intriguing things while Kristine and I hung out in my studio and discussed weaving, dyeing and other things fiber.  Eric cooked us a fabulous dinner.  Twas great fun.

She gave me two squishable lovely skeins as a hostess gift.  I think they were meant to be socks, but I’m thinking warp!

The cone in the background is a little something that I pulled from my stash that I’m planning to use as weft.  Though anyone who’s taken my beginner class knows that I “audition” wefts before I settle on the right one, so I may well end up using something entirely different.

Here are two more finished items from the glass blowing class.  One great thing about glass: no UFOs.  You have either a finished object at the end of a working session, or a pile of broken glass to recycle.  There’s no in-between.  Glass is a harsh mistress.

glass bowl

This is a bowl where I “broke the rules” and dipped in two different mixes of frit between layers.  I was supposed to stick with just one to avoid “mud” since glass colors interact in strange ways.  For example, topaz and orange make black.  I got lucky in my choices, however, and instead it had the wonderful effect of making the bowl primarily blues on the outside and primarily greens on the inside.  The asymmetry of its shaping was a throwing error, but one I find quite lovely.  I’m thrilled with it.

Below is what happened when Eric and I finished before the other set of students and were given the instruction to “go play with glass.”  I’d seen the instructor sculpting a rose  before class and decided to give it a go.  It’s not as lovely or large as his, but definitely recognizable as a rose and way much better than my first floral attempts.  I never thought of myself as the kind of gal who’d be tickled with a glass flower, but I am.

glass rose

And that ball of yarn with sticks in.  It’s been turned into a finished object, that I’m calling “Eric’s Viking Coffee Cozy” because everyone knows that strong coffee is absolutely essential for getting ferocious vikings up and going in the morning.

Eric's Present

Why does it look a lot like a wrapped present?  Because it’s a surprise for Eric’s birthday, and he reads this blog.  I’ll share it after he’s opened it.  Don’t want to spoil the surprise.

As a last detail.  Doti asked for the Stupid-Simple Wash Cloth pattern.  So here goes:

Stupid-Simple Wash Cloth Pattern

1. Cast on 4 stitches.
2. Knit 1, yarn over, knit to the end.

Repeat row 2 until the wash cloth is as wide as you want it to be, or you’re halfway through your yarn.

3. Knit 1, yarn over, SSK, knit to within four stitches from the end, k2tog, knit two.

Repeat row 3 until you have only six stitches left on the needle.

4. Knit 1, SSK, K2tog, Knit 1.
5. Bind off 4 stitches and weave in ends.

Taa-daa!

This pattern is so simple that it’s all over the knitting world in various forms.  This variant was un-vented by me when I was trying to recall the wash cloth pattern I’d knit years before and got it slightly wrong but it worked anyway and I hadn’t realized it was different than the one in Complete Idiot’s Guide To Knitting & Crocheting (1) until I’d knit eight or so.  As Laura Fry would say, if you can’t be perfect, be consistent.

(1) And yes, it is embarrassing to admit this is one of my go-to knitting references.

Please share your thoughts: I enjoy your comments and feedback!