A trip to a silk weaving mill

This weekend I visited the Whitchurch Silk Mill in Hampshire, a working weaving mill whose history goes back to Victorian times. The mill is situated along the River Test, and still has a working water wheel.

In its glory days, the mill used to have over 100 employees. They used to produce the linings for Burberry raincoats, and later judges' gowns, and now they weave cloth to order for clients such as the television program Downton Abbey (which is filmed not far away at Highclere Castle).

We went on a Sunday, so the mill proper was closed, but we got to see the exterior as well as the gift shop, which had a number of things woven at the mill. There was also a lovely pond full of ducks which were thrilled to see us. :)


I got a few souvenirs - I've been keeping an eye out for little keepsakes to pass out to family & friends when I visit the states in a few months.

I think a keychain with a little square of fabric woven at the mill is a pretty neat thing to bring back to my family! I also got a little French Knitting loom (aka, i-cord maker... aka, a tube of wood with nails driven into it).

I think the coolest thing they had at the shop was a display of pirns of silk thread. Pirns are what hold the weft thread or yarn on the shuttle as you weave it, similar to bobbins. I picked out a nearly full one with this brilliant green. It's far too thin to knit with, but I might try plying it with some very fine handspun.

~Joyuna

Dyeing cotton-blend yarn with Jacquard iDye

I ordered a sweater's worth of Knit Picks Shine Worsted in the color Citrine last month, for the Primrose Path sweater from Twist Collective. Unfortunately, when the yarn arrived, it was totally not my color. I could barely stand it. Of course, that's a risk one takes when ordering yarn online without seeing it in real life, and I knew that before I ordered. I had a choice: ditch the yarn, or dye it.
I've done a bit of dyeing before, but Shine is a cotton/modal blend - I've only ever dyed animal fibers before.

Cotton doesn't dye the same way that wool does, so I needed a different type of dye to do it. On wool or other animal fibers, I would just dye with food coloring and some lemon juice, or similar - but that wouldn't work on cotton, so I went to the craft store and got some Jacquard iDye. iDye is a fiber-reactive dye that works on all natural fibers and rayon. Since modal is a type of rayon, iDye will dye both the fibers in Knit Picks Shine. For polyester and nylon, there is a special formulation, iDye Poly.

I picked up the iDye because it was on sale and it looked particularly easy to use - you can dye in the washing machine! Here's the step-by-step dyeing process.

I started with 14 balls of Shine in Citrine.

First, I wound those balls by hand into center-pull balls, for ease of skein-winding.

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Evening Out Gloves - elegant, simple, and classic

Looking for something simple, but beautiful, and most of all practical? Sometimes you just don't want to knit something complex and frustrating. Sometimes you just want to whip out your needles and yarn, sit down for a few hours each night, and make something beautiful. That's where the Evening Out Gloves pattern comes in.

I wrote the pattern for the oucasts' Reworking the Old & the New booklet, celebrating Reading Heritage and particularly Jackson's, Reading's oldest department store. They have a fantastic wool department staffed by helpful ladies, which is where the silver grey Stylecraft Life 4-ply yarn comes from.

These gloves were inspired by the glamorous ladies of the past. I've seen photos of my grandmother in the 30s and 40s... she was gorgeous. It seemed like she never left the house with a single hair out of place. And she wore beautiful, thin, elegant gloves like these. These gloves don't require a lot of concentration - they're stockinette with a few details to maintain interest, such as a buttoned cuff and purl ridges along the top of the hand. The pattern is ideal for a luxurious half-skein of sock yarn you've been stashing (you need less than 50g of yarn), or a few tiny precious buttons you've found.
for $4.00

Yarn: 230 yds of fingering/4-ply weight yarn (Shown: Stylecraft Life 4-ply, less than 1/2 ball)
Needles: US 4 / 3.5mm
Special Techniques: Knitting in the round

~Joyuna

Heritage Weekend at Jacksons

If you happen to be in Reading, Berkshire, England this weekend (Friday or Saturday), do stop in to the historic Jacksons department store. It's Reading Heritage Weekeend, and some members of my knitting group, the Outcasts, will be there to answer everyone's knitting questions and give any advice.

You can also purchase the pattern booklet we put together, Reworking the Old and the New. There are so many beautiful patterns in there from my fellow knitters! I've also got a pattern in the booklet, the Evening Out Gloves - a classy but simple pair of gloves with a buttoned cuff and purl detail at the top of the hand. Right now it's exclusive to the booklet, but it will be up on Ravelry in time.

~Joyuna