Frida’s flower blanket

Because, why not add another craft to the arsenal? Jane Crowfoot’s blankets are so beautiful, I just could not resist!

The design is inspired by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and as I was lucky enough to visit Mexico City and the area where Diego and Frida’s Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo House Studio (now a museum) is, I could not resist taking pictures of the blanket unfurled in front of it.

My crocheting was close to non-existent before tackling this beautiful blanket, to the point that I had even completely forgotten the names of the stitches, but why not? And so I got started. This was originally run as a CAL (Crochet Along) in 2016, the pattern is available for free from the Stylecraft website (UK crochet terms, US crochet terms, German version, Dutch version). Obviously the suggested yarn is Stylecraft, and having tried their organic cotton I have to say it is a lovely yarn which I will most definitely use, but I was fixated on using a mercerised cotton, so after extensive search and discovering many lovely cotton yarns on which I’ll report later, I settled for one offering a good balance between a wide range of colours, looks, quality and price (since I found it heavily discounted), Rico Design Essentials cotton. I tried to stay close to the original colour scheme, but my overall palette is brighter.

My chosen yarn
Yarn contrast

As I already mentioned, I swatched like there’s no tomorrow!

Overall, a very enjoyable project: the difficulty increases gradually with each CAL instalment, but the pattern is full of pictures and easy to follow – I did stumble every so often, but google is our friend – below some notes on specific issues I encountered, and how I solved them, in case it is useful to anyone coming across this blog. A crochet reference book is also handy, I have both of Jane Crowfoot’s “textbooks”, the Ultimate Crochet Bible and the newer, more compact The Complete Crochet Handbook, which seems actually done for a crochet along, as it is organised in the natural order for making pieces and putting them together. I am rather pleased with both of these!

Also, for general tips, I found Jane’s own “tips for working in the round” very useful.

Notes to self on execution

As mentioned already, the blocks in the blanket are presented in the CAL in order of increasing difficulty, which however means that by the time you get to blocks three or four, even as an absolute beginner like me you shouldn’t find issues. The real trick really is to read the instructions carefully, as the patter really is very clear. So the notes below are for the bits that I found particularly obscure mostly due to my inexperience, and for this reason only for the (easier) beginning blocks. Since they may puzzle the absolute beginner as they did me, I report them below.

  • Block 2, Dahlia’s bud: to close round five, ss the last 3ch into the second stitch at the beginning of the round, i.e. the first real treble (this mimics the decrease at the beginning of this round. It was really useful for me to have confirmation that this was the correct interpretation by watching this video (go to minute 21:03):
  • Block 6, Ring of Roses: the bullion stitch I had to redo. It was a mess the first time around, you can see the before and after below. The bullion stitches have to go over the posts, and not in the space, making sure you have exactly 12. Since there are 24 posts, every other one will be covered by a bullion stitch. While I discovered it afterwards (and I worked my own bullion stitch differently), this video is very useful. However just read Jane’s instructions carefully, as they are very clear, just pay attention to each and every single word.
  • Joining the pieces: this is straightforward, again just follow the instructions, bearing in mind that you will have to go several times through the same corner stitch, for all the pieces are joined corner to corner. Each side has 20 stitches (3 for the corner + 17 more), so when joining corner to corner you will be working 21 sts , starting from the centre stitch in each 3sts corner group, and ending in the centre stitch of the following corner. I found it helpful to mark out the central stitch in each corner with a scrap of yarn in contrasting colour.
Blocks ready for assembly
Blocks pieced together
during assembly
The corner stitches
Closeup of a join of three pieces

  • Border: I was really worried about working the border along the base of the half blocks. First off, note that there is I think a typo in the instructions, for it seems to suggest to start at the left corner, while you really want the right corner of the zig-zag edge, as you will be crocheting right side up, going from right to left and starting with that zigzag edge. It is indeed tricky to crochet those stitches along the half blocks, I found this video by TheSupijas useful. Some additional tips here. In the poppy round (the one after the foundation round), I found that on the zig zag edges I only had to skip a single stitch every time, going from 3dc tip to 3dc tip always in the “1ch, skip 1 sts, 1dc” pattern. On the straight edges I use the front part of each ss (the instructions do not specify which of the two legs to use).

And finally, here it is, finished!

Some additional useful resources

Here are some written resources I found useful (click to expand

Frida’s Flowers blogs
Frida’s Flowers videos
Here are some video resources I found useful (click to expand).
  • CAL on Janie Crow’s own blog (scroll by going into “Previous Posts”). In essence this is what has been collected into the
  • TheSupijas’s videos: not the best of quality as they are a bit old, but really useful – I haven’t seen them all, but for what I have seen she is following the pattern to the letter.
  • Magic Dina’s videos: these I’ve watched even less, so make of them what you will, but she has crocheted a 99 blocks version, so worth watching even if just to see the magnificent size of her blanket.
  • CAL by Toma Crochet (in Arabic)
  • Bullion stitch tutorial by Crafts Adore
  • Crochetingwithrosa‘s videos (in Turkish): not all the blocks yet, but this is recent at the time of writing, so it is quite possible that other videos will come to complete the whole blanket.

Pin Loom Weaving

My loom herd now includes some very nice pin looms, mostly the fault of discovering via crocheting blankets that there is a lot one can do piecing shapes together in a modular way.

Anyhow, my first problem was: “zoom” style or standard pin looms? By “zoom style” pin loom I intend those that are in the style of Schacht’s Zoom loom (see picture), where you have a gap between each group of three pins.

The main distinguishing feature of these looms is that they are warped in three layers, as shown very clearly by the always excellent Amy McKnight here:

However the second, middle layer is in effect a layer of weft threads, which gets sandwiched by two “true” warp layer. The piece comes together in a fourth “pass”, in which by weaving the weft pulling up and passing below the bottom layer and going over the top layer, the standard plain weave interlocking is created.

The fast “zoom” aspect of this loom is that it is much faster to loop the middle weft thread around the pins than to weave it through the warp threads, hence you basically get away weaving a square by only weaving half of the weft threads, for the other half was part of the “warping” process.

Put it differently, the first and third warp layers give you the odd and even numbered warp threads, respectivley; while the second “warp” layer gives you every other weft thread, which will have to weave plain weae.

Once this is clear, it is also clear that whatever you can do on a zoom loom, you can do on a standard (i.e. no needs for pins in groups of three) pin loom, and frankly a standard pin loom is more versatile – this is the reason why I used Amy McKnight’s video, where pins are highlighted by colour, but you still have no gaps between them, which fits my definition of “standard” pin loom.

Having said that, and with the caveat that every other weft will have to ground your cloth, a bit like in overshot, there are lots of patterns that you can weave on the pin loom: a great array of these are in Sue Burton’s website.

Warping in the traditional way, as you would a frame loom (as for instance explained here) enables you to weave whatever pattern you like, if you are patient enough, exactly as with a frame loom, with the only difference that you have pins on the side, so that rather than bothering with selvages, you will go around the pins at each weft.

For completeness, if you are interested in the Schacht instructions for warping their Zoom loom, they are here.

Weaving the same yarn on the same loom standard style and zoom style

To see the differences between the two styles, I wove a plain weave square on the same loom in the two styles. The zoom style is warped as in the pictures, with blue indicating the first layer (bottom warp), red indicating the second layer (middle weft), purple indicating the third layer (third warp), and green indicating the fourth pass, which is the weft. The green and black dots denote the peg colours in the same structure as in Amy McKnight’s video, only my loom has 17 pins rather than 20.

In both cases I used the same DK weight yarn, West Yorkshire Spinners Illustrious (Garnet colourway), a bouncy 70-30 wool-alpaca yarn. The pin distance on this 10cm/4″ square Dales loom is 6mm.

As you can see, the weave is far denser in the standard weave than in the zoom style weave; so you’d use thicker yarn for the zoom style weave. Also, you definitely need a beater/fork for the standard weave, while this wasn’t necessary for the zoom style for there was plenty of space, and the weave did not tighten as much as for the standard weave.

To calculate the weft, I went around the loom four times for the zoom style weave, and 9 for the standard weave – 8.5 times would have been enough, but as towards the end it gets tight, I do not mind having some extra yarn. To finish off the weave you weave in the ends as normal (with each end doubling onto its own direction, that is a warp end would be woven in vertically, and a weft end horizontally).

What about weaving on the bias? for the standard loom warping use 17 times the perimeter with twill.

Some pin loom resources

  1. How to make a pin loom out of cardboard, foam or wood, again from Amy McKnight:

If you’d rather buy, I can vouch for Dales Looms pin looms, which are gorgeous – their site also has warping instructions for straight and on the bias weaving, for both square pin looms and hexagonal pin looms.

2. Eloom nation: this is a website packed full with drafts and information on pin looms in different styles.

3. Sue Burton aka Windswept “adventures in Pin Loom weaving” site: this is full of patterns and instructional material for the zoom style warping.

4. Margaret Stump’s Pinloomweaving website: she is the author of one of the most popular books in pin weaving. The website is full of patterns, ideas and instructional materials.

5. Pin looms manufacturers: as I said, mine are from Dales Loom or handmade by me. Here however I list other UK based sites which sell pin looms – for some I only know that they exist, but I’ve never bought from, and this is indicated. This list will be updated as I find more. The usual weaving supply independent shops also stock Hazel Rose pin looms, Turtle Looms and Schacht’s Zoom Loom.

  • Dales Looms: any of Jon’s looms tried so far is just a lovely piece of craftsmanship, in addition to being a great loom. Delivers worldwide.
  • Edwoodlincs: wood turner. I’ve never bought anything here.
  • CreamTeaCraftsUK: Etsy shop that sells plastic looms in various shapes – the nice thing is that they come with lids, which adds to portability.

On making yarn from a long single – or how to use the EEW yarn counter to switch the EEW spinning wheel off

Well, I have to share this, as it is pretty exciting! A while back, the ever excellent Maurice Ribble of Dreaming Robots fame shared a video on how to interface the EEW yarn counter with other devices. The Yarncounter has a hole on its side that can accommodate a jack. This hole is actually a port, and it can be used to switch off a device connected to this port upon reaching a target length that can be set on the yarn counter.

In particular, you can use the yarn counter to tell the EEW 6.1 to shut down! The wheel too has a useful port, the one controlled by the foot pedal: hence it is possible to connect the Yarncounter and spinning wheel using a cable with 3.5mm jack on one and and a 1/4 inch jack on the other end, and use the yarncounter to tell the wheel to stop at a target length.

The jacks – see port on the side of the yarn counter

Why would you want to do that? For instance because you want to split a single into three equal length to ply, which is what I do. And it works a treat! All is needed is to:

  1. take the flyer off the wheel;
  2. put a bearing in the maiden closest to the motor pulley;
  3. skewer a bobbin with a (thick) knitting needle;
  4. rest the needle on the maidens, making sure it goes through the bearing and that the pulley disk of the bobbin is the other way around;
  5. slot the motor’s drive belt into the grove on the bobbin’s pulley disk, see the picture below.
Setting up the wheel to transfer yarn

To measure yarn, put the full bobbin onto a lazy Kate (mine is, again, an EEW tensioned lazy Kate), and pull the yarn from the lazy Kate to the wheel going through the yarn counter. Just to be sure, ,measure it twice, switching bobbins, and make sure you tension the lazy Kate lightly, for especially with elastic yarn if you pull too much you may stretch the yarn and overestimate the true length.

Once you know how long the single is, just divide by the number of plies you want, set that target length on the yarn counter, and now (with the yarn counter and the wheel connected with a cable), wind again your single on the wheel. Upon reaching the target length, it will stop! And it really does stop with no momentum left, possibly because of the friction from the motor belt. Magic!

The video is a short demonstration – not expecting to win an Oscar for it, but hopefully it gives the idea – note that I cut the bit in the middle, and also note how the bobbin on the wheel (top right corner) stops immediately as soon as the yarn counter reaches the target length (99m). Brilliant!

Comparing 5 standard crochet hook series – Addi Duett, Clover Amour, Furls Streamline Metal, KnitPro Oasis, Tulip Etimo

While I am sure one can crochet/weave/spin/knit/you name it with make-do items, having nice and comfortable tools adds to the pleasure of crafting, or so I like to think. So having spent some times with crochet hooks, here’s a summary of my thoughts on the different brands I have. For all I refer to the 4mm hook version. For each brand/model I provide information about what is available at the time of writing – and just to be sure, these are just my purchased hooks, it isn’t an affiliated nor sponsored post.

brand/ modelinlinegripmaterialhook lengthcolour coded sizesizes available (mm)notes
addiDuettnonone- straight, all metalAluminium15cmyes2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6pointed end tip. No thumb rest.
Clover Amour nonon slip elastomer rubbersteel up to and including 1.75mm. Aluminium for larger sizes.14cmyes (handle)0.6, 0.75, 0.9, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.25, 2.5, 2.75, 3, 3.25, 3.5, 3.7, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15latex free handle. Also available as sets (though not necessarily all sizes).
Furls Streamline Metal yesnone – all metal (but ergonomic)aluminium17cmno3.50,3.75, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 9, 10ergonomic
KnitPro Oasis yeswoodaluminium14cmno2, 2.5,3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 9, 10interchangeable hooks. Handle available in two colours (Grey Onyx and Rose). Comes as a set (sizes 2-5mm inclusive).
Tulip Etimonodark: elastomeric rubbersteel up to and including 1.75mm. Aluminium for larger sizes.14-15cm
yes (handle)0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.75, 0.8, 0.9, 1, 1.2, 1.25, 1.75, 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.25, 2.5, 2.75, 3, 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5 Also available as sets with carry case and accessories. Sizes available differ by range.
summary comparison

addiDuett (tapered)

These are similar to your standard, old fashioned, aluminium crochet hooks, but with two twists: first, they have a pointed tip; and secondly, each size comes in a different colour. These are the longest in my collection – the pointed bottom is great both to ease the way for the hook to get into a tight space, and also to fix any running stitch in knitting. Indeed I got these in many sizes well before starting crocheting seriously, as an aid to my knitting. The other thing to note is that the head is well pointed, which again helps a lot in tight spaces.

These are tapered hooks, meaning that the throat/neck is tapered and smaller than the shaft, so to make sure you form your stitch properly, you have to push it well onto the shaft.

The colour won’t chip with year of use, and I can also still read the hook size very clearly on each hook (printed on the shaft). They glide well and are quite nice to use, and they are the longest I have found. However those who prefer a thumb rest or a soft grip handle will be disappointed. The pointed tip is a winner for me.

ProsConsTalking point
agileno thumb restpointed end
limited size range (between 2-6mm only)
addiDuett

More info from Addi’s website.

Clover Amour (tapered)

These do have a handle/thumb rest, which is colour coded so that you can tell the various sizes apart. As you can see from the picture, the shaft length is shorter than for any of the other hook brands in this comparison. The handle is soft and comfortable, though I prefer the Etimo’s grip marginally better. Since the shaft is longer in the Etimo, I only have 4 Clover hooks, which I tend to use more as backup (also because I do not use larger sized hooks, unavailable in the Etimo range). The Amour are perfectly functional, though depending on whether you have a pencil or knife grip these may result less or more comfortable.

The hooks’ handle colours differ by size; the size, both in metric and US term, is engraved on the hook handle, but because the engraving isn’t inked, it may be not immediate to read. The big plus for me is the very extensive size range: though not as finely tuned as the Etimo in the lace sizes (i.e. up to 2mm), the Amour come in a very large range of sizes, so they may be the only ones available for larger hook sizes. Clover hooks are also available as sets: these generally work out cheaper than buying the same hooks individually. At this point in time there aren’t set options with cases and accessories.

ProsConsTalking point
ergonomic and comfortable to holdshort shaftlooks and handle
extensive size rangehook size difficult to read (but colour coded)
Clover Amour

More info on Clover’s webpage.

Furls streamline metal (inline)

The Ferrari of crochet hooks, at least based on price and looks, Furls are inline hooks, meaning that the throat of the hook is the same size as the shaft, and not tapered as in most of the brands available in the UK, apart from KnitPro Oasis. The characterising and most evident aspect of these crochet hooks is the ergonomic handle. They are not that dissimilar (head apart!) from Cantù lace bobbins, and I can confirm that they are indeed very nice and comfortable to hold. Unlike standard inline hooks though, the neck widens into the ergonomic handle, hence the part of the shaft with uniform diameter is relatively short.

The head is not at all as pointed as the KnitPro, indeed it is rather smooth; and it is also smaller, indeed putting the two side by side they seem of a different size, even if comparing the same size – in the pictures below you see two 4mm/G hooks, front and side view. You can see how different the shape is, the KnitPro is definitely bulkier, and it does feel as much when crocheting, the Furls streamline does flow really well. However you can see that the usable shafts length is greater for the KnitPro than for the Furls.

The metal series comes in various colours: some are limited editions, and when they are gone, they are gone. These crochet hooks do not have any size smaller than 3.5mm, which is a pity. The other obvious drawback is, obviously, price; but I must admit, they are rather beautiful.

I bought these directly from Furls in the US. Furls are running a reward scheme, whereby you accumulate store credit not just with purchases, but also with referrals – so if you sign up for an account using this link, you get an additional $10 credit (you get $5 for creating an account), and I get the same amount, too, if and when you make your first purchase.

In summary:

ProsConsTalking point
ergonomic and comfortable to holdexpensivelooks and handle
gorgeouslimited size range
Furls Streamline metal

More information on Furls crochet webpage.

KnitPro Oasis (inline)

These hooks are also inline. While the head has a very pointy tip, the angle on the head is wide, so I found that getting into tight spaces isn’t the easiest to do with these hooks. The most striking aspect is that they are interchangeable, which is quite convenient. The aluminium of the hooks is a nice blush gold colour – this won’t chip. The hook size is printed on the hook, but it isn’t the easiest to read, as it is in a pale colour.


Hooks screw onto the handle – so far this seems to work well, in that once in place the hook does not come unscrewed, though there isn’t any particular blocking mechanism.

These crochet hooks are also available to buy as a set with a travel case – the set is a foam filled case which comes with a pair of scissors, a grip for the handles, and a tape measure. There are two sets, one for larger hooks, one for the smaller sizes. The handle is of a different colour in each set, meaning that by getting both sets one gets the entire range of hooks and handles. The cases are also in different colours depending on the set. Both sets contain a measuring tape, a grip and a pair of scissors. The grip is definitely useful to unscrew the hooks – I got them in the set, and I do not know whether grips are included when buying single hook tips.

In summary:

ProsConsTalking point
long shaftno lace sizesinterchangeable hooks
choice of handlesnot the best for tight spaces
hook size not easily recognised
KnitPro Oasis

More information on KnitPro’s website.

Tulip Etimo (tapered)

These are at the moment all in all my favourite hooks. The handle is soft and comfortable, the range of sizes is extensive, and while not as extensive as the Clover, it has a lot of fine grain tuning in the lace sizes. Really I can’t fault these hooks! The handles of the rose series is colour coded with the intensity of rose tint, but regardless of that the size is printed in large, contrasting colour on each handle, so you can’t really miss it.

They are also available as sets with matching case. I have the Lavender steel set (for lace – there is another lavender set for larger hook sizes), and the 10 hook Rose set (there is also a smaller Rose set). Each set includes, in addition to hooks, a case, a pair of scissors, and two blunt, large eye needles, which are smaller for the lace set (Lavender) than for the Rose set. In addition the lavender set also includes a ruler. The Rose set has a zippered case, the lavender set is a button up one. Both cases are available to buy separately (and there are other cases one could buy). Both cases come with a small pocket for accessories; the striped, buttoned case has space for 9 hooks (in 9 plastic pockets), the pink zippered case has space for 10 hooks (10 elastic bands).

ProsConsTalking point
long shaftno large sizes (6mm max)Comes in a range of colours and
pretty and comfortable to hold
wide range of lace size
size easy to read/recognise
0.5mm hook
Tulip Etimo

More information on Tulip’s Etimo website.

Further notes

Head: from pointiest to flattest, I’d put and KnitPro Oasis first, though it is also the broadest.

Shaft length: From longest to shortest Furls, addiDuett, KnitPro, Tulip Etimo, Clover Amour.

Range: Clover Amour come in the largest range, followed by Tulip, which has a finer range in the lace sizes, and is the only brand among these currently producing 0.5mm hooks. Next is KnitPro, then Furls streamline metal, then addiDuett.

Conclusions

All in all, I think these are all pretty good – for me personally, if I had to save only one set for a desert island, I’d most likely stick with Tulip Etimo, in that I prefer smaller sizes, and the handle of Tulip for me just edges over that of the Clover Amour. But frankly each of these hooks has its use, and I find myself rotating among all of them!

Autumn on the blending board

There is this tree that I can see from my kitchen that every October fires up in a blaze – it isn’t my tree, as I don’t have a garden, but is still there in all its fieriness for me to enjoy, and every October I look forward to the spectacle, and every October without fail, this most normal of trees delivers its impeccable performance. This is my little homage to this humble, generous tree.

Fibre is from Shetland sheep, which I bought from Adelaide Walker; the names of the colourways are Claret, Satsuma, Pollen and Grass. I distributed these in sections, approximately 12g each, and dizzed off.

I will probably repeat the process in further sections to obtain a fractal yarn, to warm and lighten the winter days ahead.

Colour and weave Huck lace on the rigid heddle loom

(Thank you Fiona Cowan for taking the picture of the finished piece!)

After a very long hiatus, partly due to my getting excited about weaving on my 8 shaft table loom, I have pulled out the RHL for some easier weaving, as frankly warping up a rigid heddle loom directly is really quick, and I was looking forward having some fun playing with three heddles.

I settled on Huck lace – this requires at least four shafts, and can be realised on a rigid heddle loom by using three heddles. I have three rigid heddles, though I could have use a heddle rod, or pick up sticks – I do find the rigid heddles infinitely more enjoyable and practical, as sheds can be obtained by pushing down, which you can’t quite do with a heddle rod. I have blogged about using three heddles for four shaft weaving here.

I really like Huck Lace – you can have weft floats, warp floats, or both, which is what I decided to go for. And I wanted to play around with colour and weave, creating a colour transition in my piece.

The lace aspect is produced because, in the words of G. H. Oelsner:

Groups of three or more warp or filling threads are interlaced ni such a way that the threads of each
group can come together easily in one bunch, while they are separated from hte adjacent groups by rea- son of the last thread of one group and the first thread of the next group being interlaced in directly opposite order. Such an intersection prevents the two threads from coming together and causes an opening at this point.

(from p.166 in “A Handbook of Weaves“, 1915, translated by Samuel S. Dale)

Some sources on Huck lace I found useful:

  1. Huck lace specific:
    • an introductory article by Anne Dixon, contained in a free pdf by Handwoven Magazine with three patterns (I suspect this link may break at some point);
    • an introductory article on huck lace written by Laura Fry;
    • Madelyn van der Hoogt “The Best of Weavers: Huck Lace”, 2000 (hard copy goes for silly prices, but electronic version is cheap);
    • Tom Knisely, “Huck Lace Weaving Patterns with Color and Weave Effects”, 2019
  2. Generic weaving references that also treat huck lace:
    • Madelyn van der Hoogt “The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers”, 1993: this is great for everything and anything, but there is a chapter on Huck Lace.
    • Anne Dixon “Handweaver’s Pattern Directory”, 1973: again, “the” book for anything and everything on four shaft weaving, including, of course, huck lace.

There are various ways to thread the Huck Lace blocks, here is the one I used:

(I’ve blogged about how to read a weaving draft here) – I explain the sequence of lifts necessary to weave this further below.

One thing worth pointing out here though: since weaving would go from the bottom, in order to obtain the cloth as in the picture, I’ve got to flip over the order: that is I have to start weaving with the purple, and not the orange, if I want to make sure that the finished cloth appears with the orange section in the top right corner. Hence the actual weaving will proceed according to the following:

Threading to obtain the cloth as in the drawdown.

Being huck lace, the sett is more relaxed than plain weave, and rather than beating you place the weft: it is really important to keep a consistent beat, so I kept a small ruler handy (where I got it I really can’t remember), and checked my ppi obsessively: aiming for 12ppi with 12.5epi.

I have used a fairly soft and stretchy crochet cotton, DMC Petra, which I have also used successfully for my inkle woven band. This is a very lovely cotton yarn, more expensive than weaving yarn, but for instance perfect for a garment, and has great drape (when woven with the correct sett). The shades I used are 550 (purple, you may find it as 5550, with the first “5” indicating the crochet thread size) and 722 (or 57220, which is a light orange. The idea was to get the orange fading into purple going from the top right to the bottom left corners.

As ever, winding a warp on the rigid heddle loom is quick – here I separated the various groups of threads to keep tabs on the different sections of colour and weave that I had to thread.

Winding the warp – so quick on the RHL!

Possibly it wasn’t that necessary in this case, but as this is now a (good?) habit, I crocheted a chain to keep the warp threads in place at the back before starting winding on. You crochet from above, holding the thread below, catching a top thread and a bottom thread in the chain, as in the pictures.

Crocheting a chain
Pulling the tread up
the finished crochet chain

After winding on, it is time to thread – threading three heddles can be a bit fiddly, so I like to do it while sitting in a comfortable position, as it takes hours (here not too bad, with 150 threads, + two floating selvedges). I wanted a flat base so that the third heddle would stay put (as it does not have a holder, and “floats” at the front of the loom).

Position of the three heddles while threading
Threading the heddles

The scheme I followed to thread the heddles is below – colour coded with heddle number three being the one at the back, and heddle number one being the one at the front: any thread that needs to go into the hole of a heddle will, as usual, go through slots in the other heddles; I find it worthwhile thinking of the path threads need to take so that I maintain the desired sett. “Heddle 4” means that the thread will go through through a slot in each of the three actual heddles.

Threading scheme

Then it was just a matter of tying up and get ready to weave!

Almost ready to get weaving

I could have added some areas of plain weave to my draft (in addition to those arising , but really wanted to study the interplay of the colour and weave effect between adjacent areas.

For the actual weaving the repetitions are as follows: 
Each repetition is a sequence of 10 movements, in two blocks of five:

  1. First block
    • I & III up
    • II & III up
    • I & III up
    • II & III up
    • I & III up
  2. Second block
    • I & III down (i.e. II & IV up)
    • II & III down (i.e. I & IV up)
    • I & III down
    • II & III down
    • I & III down

I was aiming at 30cm with of fabric, and ended up with 30cm width, art of living dangerously! I really have to improve on that draw in!

SUMMARY (oops, forgot to take all of the measurements) 
Yarn: 150 ends +2 floating selvedges, each approximately 160cm long; 76 orange ends and 76 purple ends
Sett: 12.5 epi, 12 ppi 
Width in reed: (should be 12.5in based on draft)
Weft shrink percentage: 9.8% (3/30.5cm)  

Crochet tension – the Goldilocks approach!

Crochet is one of those crafts that I only use as a “side hustle”, for instance as aid to knitting (seaming pieces of a garment, reinforcing a seam, catching a runaway stitch, steeking, and so on) or aid to warping on a rigid heddle loom – but then I fell in love with Janie Crow’s blankets, so had to up my game!

And so I was that I had another opportunity to be true to my nickname – apart from crocheting a ton of tension swatches, which came out perfectly sized, when starting to work the pieces the tension was off, possibly because when you start working flat but around a circle, you have to follow the tangent.

There is a lot to say about tension in crochet, but one rather compact and very reliable source I think is Janie Crow’s (aka Jane Crowfoot) own blog entry on the topic.

Anyhow, I ended up therefore embarked in large scale swatching, making three different motifs, with three different sets of hooks (the UK treble crochet part is worked with a hook that is 0.5mm thinner than the one used for the UK double crochet flower in the middle).

I started working with the 3.5 mm hook as per pattern, but the resulting hexagon was way too floppy – so I went down a number, and crocheted another hexagon with a 3mm hook: this one looked pretty tidy, but it felt quite stiff. Looks are of course important, but so is drape, especially for a blanket; hence I crocheted the third hexagon with a 3.25mm hook – this was just right!

White cosmo blocks, Frida’s flowers crochet blanket

In case you are curious, these blocks are the White Cosmos block from Frida’s Flowers crochet blanket – this was a CAL a few years back, and the pattern is available for free to download from Stylecraft’s website. The yarn I am using is a rather lovely mercerised cotton yarn, Rico Designs Essentials Cotton DK. The crochet hooks in the pictures are also rather lovely Tulip Etimo ones, pink and red.

Jane Crowfoot (aka Janie Crow)’s whole YouTube channel is a treasure trove, but especially when getting started, I found this short and sharp video extremely useful:

Talking of which, please do pay attention to how she works the UK treble: go to min 10:13, and slow playback speed right down to 0.25. By the time she pulls the yarn over through the stitch, she is already quite a bit of the way up:

Still from Janie Crow’s video linked above

Unquestionably she is a pro, so I couldn’t quite square this with all the discussions and videos about the “golden loop”, as e.g. in the video below, which incidentally I got to from a link from Jane:

Yet if you compare Jane working the treble with this video, it doesn’t match up – and this is, I venture, because in the golden loop videos talking about the matter they seem to discount the tension with which you wrap the yarn over: if you pull as Jane does (which I follow religiously), you pull tight the yarn over, which is left loose in the golden loop video:

Still from golden loop video: the middle yarn over loop is rather loose

So my guess is that there is more control if you keep the yarn well tensioned and pull up the crochet hook about 2/3 to 3/4 up the way of the final stitch height when pulling the third yarn loop up, and then close the stitch. I am only a beginner and it could very well be that this reasoning is wrong, but as it works for me, and I could replicate Jane’s tension exactly when using the yarn she uses, I’ll stick to that!

My first inkle woven band

I had originally planned my bolster lace pillow bag to have hand woven straps, but in the end I was so eager to get it finished that I went for fabric straps.

But with two more bolsters needing their bag, I thought I’d do it properly this time, hence let me introduce you my very first inkle strap!

My patterned fabric has some puffins on it, so I drafted a pattern that I am hoping does suggest puffins on rocks in the sea – I think I succeeded at least in part, and at the very least it matches the fabric, whether or not you see puffin faces in the straps!

I’ve talked about band weaving already, though that post was largely based on theory, and did not consider much the details of band weaving on an inkle loom – and in the end I preferred not to try to weave on the rigid heddle loom as I read horror stories of the band tension warping the loom’s beams… plus the inkle I opted for is incredibly versatile and portable… but I’ll say more on the loom further below.

I drafted my pattern using the SeiZenn software, basing the number of warps on wishing to obtain roughly a 3cm wide band using DMC Petra 5 cotton. If you are curious, I used shades 5310 (black), 4459 (off white), 1697 (gray), 5799 (blue) and 5722 (orange) – below you have the warping order. PPI are 11 on the loom under tension, 3.5cm width on the loom.

The draft as from the pattern generator – simple plain weave.

Before committing to the warp, I sampled using a hairpick, a tip I got from Annie MacHale’s blog, here. My yarn must be thinner than hers, for I think I have the same hairpick but my sample is less dense – anyhow it is a very useful way to check whether the idea in your head will work, and here’s what I got:

Sampling for the band

You may notice that in the final draft I’ve made the grey and blue bands and the edges “fatter” than in the sample.

I warped the loom full length – I really like this loom, I chose it for portability and capacity, and it delivered, since I could fit both bands, each 1.28cm long, plus some to spare.

Loom ready to go!

And then I was ready to weave! Some tips I followed that are useful:

  1. I started with the tension peg as far “out” as possible;
  2. I used weft in the same colour as the edge warp;
  3. I wove in/back the weft both at the beginning and the end (check this video by clicking on the picture);
  4. I used one rubber O-rings (same inner diameter as the posts) on either side of each post to avoid the warp being trapped between the frame and the posts (on the inside), or drop out of the frame (if outside);
  5. I wove about 10cm before advancing the warp;
  6. I released the tension in between weaves;
  7. I wove with white piece of card underneath the warp I was warping to see the (black) selvedges even;
  8. I spent quite a bit of time unweaving to correct uneven selvedges;
  9. I enjoyed every moment of it!

I wove until the shed became too hard to open (maybe I could have put in another couple of cm/an inch or so), but anyhow I had already accommodated the two straps and four more pieces to make tabs for closing the bag.

The end of the weaving!

And here it is, finished – the “tab” on the right is already cut with the ends glued so that they won’t fray once trimmed. they will be trimmed. They will become tabs for the opening of the bag the band is designed for.

A few words on the loom

My needs: as small as loom as possible, that can accommodate as wide a band as possible, and that can be easy to transport and fit into cabin baggage. The small inkle loom by Dales Looms ticked all the boxes! This has a “small” footprint (roughly between the standard Ashford and the Ashford inklette), but can accommodate a very long warp (I put 3.4 metres on) with the additional pegs. Pegs are removable, and can be put wherever you like. The tension peg has a lot of room, so even with the full warp there is no risk of running out of space to adjust tension. The owner/maker is super hel/ful, and will allow customisation – so while these pegs come at 3″/7.5cm width as standard, I got mine 4″/10cm wide. He’d also provide 5″ pegs, which is always an option when wishing to upgrade. There is also a (separate) tool to aid unscrewing the wing nuts that hold the posts in place, so that tightening the post shouldn’t be a problem even for those with no longer young hands. Since the stand swivels to sit flush under the frame, it is possible to dismantle the loom flat for transport and storage.

Last but not least, the removable pegs mean that you can weave with tablets easily by removing the top peg in the central arm of the frame, and have more room for your cards, so no need for small cards unless you want them for other reasons.

I am super happy with this loom – and just to be clear I have no connection with the maker, I am just an extremely satisfied customer!

Padded carrying bag for bolster bobbin lace pillow (“borsa portatombolo”)

How to make a practical and efficient bag to carry a bobbin lace bolster and accessories, with pockets, quilted carrying straps and proteprotective padding.
Come fare una borsa portatombolo.

I have been wanting this one for a long time – something simple and not too voluminous to carry my bolster and some accessories around.

There are some lovely designs out there, and small bolster can even be made to fit a backpack! But alas Cantù bolster, with their 24-25cm diameter, aren’t quite suited to that.

Since this is not a new problem, unsurprisingly there is a very effective solution: a rectangle of fabric that wraps around the pillow, with handles. It doubles up as cloth to put on the trestle for working, though since you want some kind of attrition on the trestle to hold the pillow still, while some leave the bag on the trestle and use the “tapparella” over it, others prefer to remove it. You can see the typical setup when transporting pillow and work in the two videos below (click on the picture to access the videos). In the first one, setup is in the first few minutes – in first view you have the simplest of bags:

Setting up to work from carrying bag – click on the image for full video (opens in new tab)

In this other video (again, click on the picture to watch it) you have more elaborate bags (you have to skip to minute 8:45 to see one setup in full view, at the beginning of the video there is one lacemaker with the bag on the trestle, but is mostly covered by the two people speaking in the foreground). From minute 8:45 on you can see three ladies with three different styles of bags, some have strings to attach the various flaps of the opened bag to the trestle.

A setup with the carry bag in place on its trestle – you can see the handles hanging below (click on the image for full video, opens in new tab).

In short, to discharge its basic function, a simple rectangle of fabric with string cords at the ends would do – still, if you have to carry it for longer stretches, and/or you wish to protect your work, or “just because”, why not make a more elaborate one, and maybe add space and pockets for bits and pieces?

I have seen some really nice examples of handmade bags, which I took inspiration from to sew up mine, especially here and here

I used the following:

  1. cotton batting (or wadding, or padding – same thing)
  2. very light fabric to sandwich the batting as I did not want to quilt the bag. So I took some ivory cotton popeline to fix/trap the batting;
  3. a printed fabric and a matching plain colour fabric – both quilting cotton;
  4. some cord.
  5. All of the above (fabric, batting, cord) used are 100% cotton.

The design is really simple – I cut:

  • five identical rectangles of batting (x1), printed fabric (x1), plain fabric (x1), popeline (x2) for the main body of the bag. These measured 118cm by 44.5cm (I was aiming to be able to accommodate a bolster up to 40cm wide).
  • two lined pockets to fix to the inside body
  • four identical rectangles for the drawstring sides, in printed (x2) and plain (x2) fabric; these measured 99cm by 20cm.
  • two strips of batting for the handles, and corresponding plain fabric strips (twice the width of the batting, and same length – my batting was 3cm wide, thence he fabric was 12cm wide), 120cm long (to obtain a 115cm finished strap).

For assembly, I followed these steps:

  1. sandwich the batting between the poplin strips;
  2. made the pockets and sew them on the plain fabric lining;
  3. made the drawstring sides (sew three sides with right side facing, then turn inside out, making sure you leave about 1cm opening on the short sides, just below the long side, for the cord to go through);
  4. made the handles and fixed them to the outer, printed fabric and the quilted padding (so the stitches won’t show in the internal lining). Obviously the fabric must lie with the right side up, and sit on top of the padding
  5. stitched through both long sides and a short side of following layers (from bottom to top): quilted padding, side panels, printed/outer fabric (right side up), plain/lining fabric (wrong side up).
  6. turn inside out (or rather, “outside in’), hand stitch the short side, pull the cords, and it is done.
the padding sandwich
one of the two internal pockets
a side
A side opened up
Tidying the ends of the padded straps

Cantù lace small flower (“Fiorellino” or “Rosellina”)

English speaking countries and continental Europe are well versed in so called “Milanese lace”, thanks to the work carried out by Vera Cockuyt, Barbara Corbet, Christine Mirecki and Pat Read, to cite but a few, and there are very many modern designers in this style, from Claire Bonito to Sandy Wood just to name two.

But as I have written already, so called “Milanese Lace” is only one set of stitches from the much larger family that make up Cantù lace. I won’t go into that anymore, (though you can check my previous post to read and see more Cantù lace), since I want to show you one of the prettiest elements, I think, of this beautiful type of lace, the “little flower”, called Fiorellino, Fiorellino con seme, or Rosellina (and I am sure there are other variations). The name can vary, and so can the way the characteristic little holes in each petal are worked, but the look is one and only.

While there used to be a school for the teaching Cantù lace, sadly this is no more, and so it ins’t that straightforward to figure out the exact standard. There aren’t many written text either, and on top there is no guarantee that a written text will report any technique correctly, and with folk art it isn’t even clear what “correct” means – as far as I am concerned, I’ll try as much as possible to go by what I think is the standard that the Accademia De Amicis wanted to teach – but there too I am shooting mostly in the dark, and so take this with a pinch of salt. But I am going to give you all variations that I am aware of. Reassuringly, the outcome is similar (with some important caveat) independently of the methodology used.

First off, what should a nicely worked “fiorellino” look like? As far as I can tell (and again, I am no authority, just reporting on my research on this topic) the characteristics to look out for are:

  • flat petals;
  • clearly visible separation of the petals
  • clearly visible hole at the centre of each petal;
  • cut threads invisible from the front.

So, how to work it? I am going to share what I’ve found from four sources, describing how it could be worked. There are many variations, and to keep it easier to follow, I am going to label the petal pinholes, so that there won’t be any ambiguity when I refer to “first” pin, “last” pin, and so on.

In this pricking the number of pins varies. Suggested number of pairs is 7 wound with cotton #40.

My sources

There is a (surprising to me) number of ways to work this little flower! I have come across four of them from the following sources:

  1. Il Giardino dei Punti – this flower’s technique is the one according to Elena Arienti. In general this School refers to the teachings of the Accademia de Amicis
  2. Speciale Scuole Mani di Fata – issue 1. These were yearly booklets accompanying the September issue of this magazine, which always contained a handful of lace prickings. The booklet provided guidance on how to execute the lace, so the various elements depend on which designs were present in each September issue. These are hard to find in hard copy, but it is possible to purchase almost all the issues at the link above.
  3. Emanuele Bonaglia/The Lacemaker Diary. Issue 4 of his booklets deals with the “fiorellino”. He also has four free videos on how to work it, slightly differently, so I’ll follow the booklet version.
  4. Civiltà Canturina – “Passo Passo verso il Pizzo di Cantù”, issue 1.

Starting the flower – the seed (seme)

You begin by working the little circle in the centre. While all methods work a braid (repetition of TC) to go around the central “seme” (seed) and sew the innermost pair to the initial pin to close the circle, there are variations:

a. (Il Giardino dei Punti): start with three pairs. CTC though the first pair going from right to left, abandon right pair, CTC with third pair, then make a braid between these two. The braid goes clockwise around the pins around the central seme. Close by sewing in the initial pin. Now the pair that you had abandoned originally becomes the worker pair.

b. (Speciale Scuole Mani di Fata). Start with two pairs, make a braid counterclockwise, sew in initial pinhole. Then hang the other pairs you need for the flower, and use the second pair from the right as worker (the first pair is for the footside)

c. (Lacemaker Diary/Emanuele Bonaglia): make the braid counterclockwise with two pairs and sew into the first pinhole. Use the innermost pair as the worker.

d. (Civiltà Canturina): make the braid (also clockwise) with two pairs and sew into the first pinhole. Use the rightmost of these braid pairs as worker, and CTC through the other pairs you have added, place the external pin and abandon this worker, which will then be used for the footside. Now take the second pair that had worked the braid, and use it as worker.

What could possibly go wrong? Second attempt, what isn’t working

Adding the remaining pairs

a. (Il Giardino dei Punti). Add two pins along the line of separation between two petals, one in the middle and one on what would be the last pin. Hang half of the necessary additional pairs in one, and half in the other.

b. (Speciale Scuole Mani di Fata). Place three pins along the separation line, with the remaining number of pairs shared over these. At least two pairs on the most external pin, with one pair becoming the worker.

c. (Lacemaker Diary/Emanuele Bonaglia): as in b.

d. (Civiltà Canturina): Place as many pins as additional pairs along the separation line, and hang one pair to each pin. One of the pairs that worked the braid at the centre becomes the worker.

Working the hole in each petal.

In the first three cases you start working the hole coming from the outside towards the centre. And here they are:

a. (Il Giardino dei Punti): work a “doppio punto (CTC CTC)” with the third-to-last pair, go back towards the outside, pin and work the footside, come back in and repeat a “doppio punto” with the same third-to-last- pair, lift it out of the way, continue working towards the centre, hook up the centre stem, then work your way back to the outside, this time working all pairs (pulling back one the one you had pulled out)

b. (Speciale Scuole Mani di Fata) work a “punto e mezzo (CTC TC) with the third-to-last pair, and with the second-to-last pair, work the last pair in cloth stitch as normal, hook the stem. Coming back, work the first pair from the left in cloth stitch, and the second pair in “punto e mezzo”, then abandon these three pairs. Now pick up the next pair (the first to be worked as “punto e mezzo” in the previous round) and use it as worker for the other pairs proceeding in an outwardly direction. This set of pairs on the right hand side keep working independently until the external curve of the petal is shaped, always working the “last” pair in the middle with a “punto e mezzo”. The number of rounds will depend on how big the petal is, it could be once or twice. Once the external curve of the petal is shaped, the two central workers are worked together in a “punto e mezzo”, and either of the two workers can be selected as the only worker to continue working normally in cloth stitch, depending on whether you wish to work towards the inside or towards the outside of the petal (typically you’d work towards the inside, which has been worked less)

c. (Lacemaker Diary/Emanuele Bonaglia): work a “punto e mezzo (CTC TC) with the third-to-last pair, come back toward the outside of the petal, pin to do the footside, and go back working all pairs as normal.

d. (Civiltà Canturina): Start working the hole when the worker is travelling outwards – once you get to the centre of the petal, twist the worker twice, then continue as normal working the remaining pairs in cloth stitch. Coming back in, work the pairs in cloth stitch until you get to the last passive pair before where you twisted the worker, and make an half stitch with this one; now come back out, working as normal, pin the footside, and in the next row work all pairs before the twist in cloth stitch, twist the worker twice, twist the first passive pair after the hole twice, and then continue as normal.

Separating the petals

The separations between petals are also worked differently:

a. (Il Giardino dei Punti): make a row at Punto St Anna/attorcigliato (TTCTC), two twists to make it show better.

b. (Speciale Scuole Mani di Fata): twist the worker once before working cloth stitch with the passive pairs.

c. (Lacemaker Diary/Emanuele Bonaglia): work a row in half stitch (TC)

d. (Civiltà Canturina): for this one directions are less clear, but you make a cordon by twisting the worker repeatedly, so that it covers the whole space between the last external pinhole and the centre of the flower, and twist each passive first on itself, and then once around the worker (so there are no stitches made in this case, only the twisting around).

How to close the work

Again, each one is different:

a. (Il Giardino dei Punti): You start closing before working the second to last pin (so after hooking the worker into the centre of the flower). This last phase consists in working three rows. Start by throwing out the two passive bobbins that lie above the work and are closest to the centre – these will be knotted and cut. Work in cloth stitch to the second to last pin, come back, and sew the worker into the centre (this way you have removed the chance that the thrown out pair creates a hole). Now you start the closing proper. Twist the central pair twice (or same number of times as for the separation between petals), and sew into the central pin where you hung the pairs at the beginning. Then twist twice and sew the pair(s) to the left through the cloth stitch between the central pair and the centre of the flower. Do the same for the pairs on the right, apart from the abandoned pair for the footside, that is sewn through the footside pinhole. Finally go back to the worker, and work a “punto e mezzo” (CTC TC) with all pairs

b. (Speciale Scuole Mani di Fata): not specified – I guess approach 1 would work just fine, but they do not explain how the cordon would be closed.

c. (Lacemaker Diary/Emanuele Bonaglia): work from out going in the separation row and sew the worker in the centre. The proceeding from the footside going towards the centre, sew in all pairs (not specified how, I guess as under a)

d. (Civiltà Canturina): This will be a hybrid of a. and b., for there aren’t as many pins as pairs, so at least one pair will have to be sewn into the cloth stitch.

My attempts

Note: in the prickings I am using, each petal can have either 5, 6 or 7 pinholes (counting as in the first picture).

First three “fiorellini”, the right side. Not great, but I see an improvement from the very first, on the left, to the third one, on the right. If only I had closed better, the third one would have been passable!

I think I’ve settled on the following “optimal” places where to start the petal hole (when using the first method):

  • for petals with 5 or 6 pinholes, start working the hole after placing pinhole number 2;
  • for petals with 7 pinholes, start working the hole after placing pinhole number 3.
  • work the St Anna stitch on the return leg after placing the second to last pin, on your way to the last pinhole for that petal.

In the very first attempt I failed at all but one of these. There’s hope! Here recording the variations:

Flower 1: 8 pairs, 30/3 cotton thread (white, “Il Giardino dei Punti” brand), 2 armspans of thread on each bobbin (way too much thread, was left with more than a span and three quarters on each bobbin).

Flower 2: 7 pairs, 40/3 cotton thread (ecru, “Il Giardino dei Punti” brand), 1 arm span of thread on each pair of bobbins (this also leaves more than half the thread on the bobbins, but at least you can move comfortably when doing the sewings at the end).

Flower 3: 7 pairs, 40/3 cotton thread (white, old, out of production Coats Filato per Tombolo, sadly no longer manufactured, an excellent thread if you can source it), 1 arm span of thread on each pair of bobbins.

My very first “fiorellini” – this is the wrong side, with the tying off well visible.
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