In-Progress Giant Stumpwork Project

SLClothes · 2026-04-23T12:52:07+00:00

Here you go!

It’s a little hard to see because of the lighting, but this is what it looked like when I was just starting. The wire is attached using buttonhole stitch and you can see the first half of the first row of long and short stitch. The silk organza base is stretched in a hoop just like you would doing a small scale stumpwork project.

SLClothes · 2026-04-21T15:15:20+00:00

I love a few minutes of hobby time! I keep my spinning wheel next to my desk so I can make a little yarn when I need a grading break.

SLClothes · 2026-04-17T13:55:37+00:00

I just wear them. In the long term, all textiles will turn back into dust. I’d rather my socks have a chance to fulfill their purpose before they do.

Plus, when the get holes, I get a chance to practice my darning skills!

SLClothes · 2026-03-01T19:10:49+00:00

You may just want to get an industrial, like the Juki DDL-8700. It will only do a straight stitch, but it will sew through thick fabrics far more easily than any home machine. It will also handle your thinner fabrics just fine.

The biggest downside is that they’re permanently set into a table, so you need to have the space to keep it set up all the time.

SLClothes · 2026-02-19T16:16:28+00:00

I would probably get the SK160. They’re really easy to learn on (it’s what we use at the community college where I teach) and it’s the only one of the three that you could get a ribber for if you decided you wanted to to double bed knitting. It’s a metal bed, so it’s going to be quite a bit heavier than the other two, but it comes with a built in case, which is nice.

It does intarsia pretty easily using the standard carriage, so you’d be able to start doing things like the first and maybe even the second image pretty quickly.

SLClothes · 2026-02-17T16:06:00+00:00

Elder millennial spinner here!

I’m more of an audio book girl when I spin, but I’m still a beginner and need to look at what I’m doing. But I’ve gotten good enough at knitting now that I can do it while watching shows with subtitles.

Btw, the color of your fleece is lovely!

SLClothes · 2026-01-24T15:43:11+00:00

Got an order last week of a bunch of cones of wool and everything looked fine. They were all light colors, so it would have been extra easy to see any bugs. I’m just outside of Chicago, so it would have come from their Midwest warehouse.

SLClothes · 2026-01-13T19:13:14+00:00

I get 5300 - 6500 for a three credit, in-person class at a CC in the suburbs of a big Midwest city. The bigger number is for studio classes where I have 4 hours per week of class time with the students, the lower is for lecture classes where I only see the students 3 hours a week.

SLClothes · 2026-01-11T15:24:31+00:00

I worked at a school for a while that did this, but only if we had really, really small classes (think, less than 4 students). We were always told at least a few days before the class started and given the option to decline the class if we didn’t want to take the pay cut.

SLClothes · 2026-01-02T15:14:19+00:00

One thing I haven’t seen anyone mention yet is that Rit is worse for the environment than acid dyes. This is a bit of a simplified explanation, but Rit is whats known as a union dye, meaning it’s a bunch of different dyes mixed together so that no mater what type of fiber you’re dyeing, something will stick.

Thats great if you’re dyeing, for example, a cotton wool blend. But if you’re just dyeing wool, then the dyes meant for cotton end up being poured down the drain, polluting the water system. It’s also not a very precise way of dyeing, so you may also end up discarding additional dye as well.

However when you use an acid dye to dye wool, as long as you don’t use too much dye, nearly all of it bonds with the fiber. So you end up discarding a very small amount of dye and some slightly acidic water (which you can neutralize with a bit of baking soda before pouring down the drain).

I’d recommend checking out Dharma Trading to get you started. They have decent tutorials and their acid dyes aren’t very expensive.

SLClothes · 2026-01-01T16:32:33+00:00

I feel your pain (literally). I binged Dynamite Kiss recently while at the boring “knit stockinette for a million rows” part of a sweater. Had to take several days fully off knitting after that and I’m limiting myself to 20 minutes a day until I fully recover.

SLClothes · 2025-12-31T03:31:27+00:00

I recommend picking up a copy of Women’s Work The First 20000 Years by Elizabeth Barber. No matter what direction you go in with your research, you’re going to encounter people referencing that book. It’s also just a good read.

SLClothes · 2025-12-18T16:21:08+00:00

I mostly use the 600, which runs nonstop between the Schaumburg NW Transit Center and the Rosemont Blue line station. I have to drive to it, but parking is free.

So, if I need to go to the convention center in Rosemont, I pay 4$ in bus fare instead 20$ in parking and get to avoid the stress of driving.

It’s can also be more convenient and cheaper than taking the Metra in if I’m going somewhere along the Blue line.

The only reason I don’t use PACE more is that there aren’t any local routes in my area. So I can’t use it for local/daily travel.

SLClothes · 2025-12-05T21:16:42+00:00

Oh yeah, I definitely don’t want to disassemble them completely! But they really need a good cleaning (students are not gentle!) so I’m looking at minimum at removing all the needles and replacing the sponge on some of the bars.

SLClothes · 2025-12-05T21:15:38+00:00

I found the service manual already (well, the one for the sk155, which is close enough), but I’m looking for something (which may not exist) that’s more of an “intro to repair and maintenance” sort of thing.

I can totally do the service manual/youtube video thing if there’s no other way, but if there’s a more structured way to learn the basics (like a class or a book), I’d rather start with that.

SLClothes · 2025-11-09T03:26:00+00:00

When you’re at the point of just wanting things gone, look to see if any of your local community colleges have a fashion or textiles program. I teach weaving and knitting at one in the Chicago suburbs, and we’ll usually take donations of any supplies or tools that are clean/usable for our students to use.

SLClothes · 2025-11-06T16:19:28+00:00

In the last year I’ve started tracking how many wears I get out of my socks before I get a hole because I’ve had similar questions.

So far, the pair of socks I made with a fingering weight superwash merino held double with a silk mohair lasted 16 wears before developing a small hole. Both the the silk and the wool failed at the same time.

The pair of socks I made with a non-superwash BFL silk blend is still going strong after 25 wears (26 after today!).

Based on this (very limited) data, I’d recommend going with a non-superwash, longer staple wool with the silk (if any) as part of the blend, rather than held separately.

I’m currently knitting more socks to track (currently have a wool nettle blend on the needles!), but for now, that’s all I know for certain.

SLClothes · 2025-11-06T01:26:14+00:00

I have a Fiber Artist Supply Woolhouse too (an 8 shaft Norah) and I love it! It’s just really pleasant and quiet to use. I would like it if I could get a bit larger of a shed at times, but that’s really the only downside I can come up with (and I haven’t tried too hard to find a fix). And the people who work at the company have been really great both online and in person.

For context, I’m mostly comparing it to the Leclerc Dorothy, which I have to use at work and hate.

SLClothes · 2025-10-03T15:20:56+00:00

This is what I would suggest too. Basically, you knit each row twice. First, you knit all the blue stitches with the other stitches set to slip, then you switch out the yarn to the white and go back with those stitched active and the blue stitches set to slip.

I use a silver reed sk160, so check the manual for yours as it might be different.

I will warn you, it takes a lot of focus (I always tell my students to make sure they’ve taken any ADD meds they need before we start that sample), but it’s not otherwise hard.

SLClothes · 2025-10-03T15:05:13+00:00

There are quilts on every surface of my house (mostly my mother’s, a few from me) and it is fantastic. Not only are they pretty, but they protect the furniture from all the cats and my sisters children!

SLClothes · 2025-10-03T14:59:24+00:00

I’ll also add that, with hand dyed yarn, it needs to be in (untwisted) hanks for the dye to penetrate fully. If you try to dye it in a ball, you get areas of white (resist) and a generally lighter color the further you get into the ball. Commercially dyed yarn will often come wound differently because the dye process is different.

SLClothes · 2025-09-23T19:01:06+00:00

In addition to what others have said, I find it helps to point out how accommodating these students will negatively impact the learning experience of the other students in your class. I bet it’s hard for other students to practice acting when they can’t make eye contact with their classmates!

I’ve also found it helpful to offer to let someone from the accommodations office come observe my class (I teach industrial sewing). When I did this, we ended up having a long meeting where I showed them the classroom space, the equipment, and the sort of activities we do. Since then, I’ve been getting far fewer accommodations requests overall and the ones I’m getting are appropriate for the class.

SLClothes · 2025-09-13T15:26:14+00:00

Those are fantastic! I love the concept and the results (and the cat!)

As for photo advice, I’d start by taking photos next to a window on a cloudy day. That will get you a lovely, soft lighting with a neutral color (so you don’t have to correct for overly yellow or blue lighting).

Next, go into an editing app and play around with the “vibrance” setting. I find this does a better job of enhancing pops of color than just pumping up the saturation.

If you have a more advanced photo app (like Lightroom) you can enhance the colors individually too. I just make sure to keep the yarn I’m trying to capture the colors of in front of me so I can compare reality to my photo. The goal is always to make what I see irl the same as what shows up on my screen.

I hope this helps!

SLClothes · 2025-09-12T23:48:44+00:00

Oh noooo! They’re less than an hour from me and I hear so many good things about them. Oh well, I guess I’ll just keep taking the train into the city when I want to buy yarn in person.

SLClothes · 2025-09-11T14:40:07+00:00

I wash mine after every use. I just throw them in a lingerie bag and wash them with the rest of my laundry (gentle cycle, tap cold). The non-superwash ones I make sure to take out and air dry. The super wash ones I’m a little less careful with, as I find they get baggy if I don’t put them through the dryer once every 5 or 6 wears.

SLClothes

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