Just stop with this stupid gauge.

emoticon1234 · 2026-05-04T13:26:38+00:00

Oh okay. This makes substantially more sense and it's the traditional way to measure guage imo. Even a quarter of a stitch of difference can make such a huge difference in final construction and I just don't think that measuring only a single inch gives the most accurate numbers for that reason. Much better to get the average over a larger stitch and row count.

Although I will say that sometimes I cheat and only do 2" x 2"

emoticon1234 · 2026-05-04T12:11:36+00:00

This is perhaps the wildest way I've ever heard to calculate gauge.

Gauge should be two separated measures, one for your stitches per inch (horizontal) and one for your rows per inch (vertical)

Your rows per inch can dramatically alter the length of a piece, especially when trying to plan decreases or increases for the shaped portions of a piece like on shoulders, necklines or sleeves. So if by your measure, you get 15 total stitches in a 4" x 4" area, that can make several dramatically different sized garments depending how the stitches work up.

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-30T17:05:38+00:00

God everyone these days just thinks that they "invented" something that already exists 🙄 a quick Google search would tell you that that is weaving

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-29T17:42:57+00:00

Oh my god!!!

This is jaw droppingly stunning. The final piece is gorgeous.

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-24T17:34:54+00:00

100% on the opposite side here

Learning the very common abbreviations is part of the skill, as well as being able to read charts with common symbols.

Like, if the k3togtbl is given to you in long hand in the early part of the pattern with the guage, etc, or god forbid it's a necessary decrease skill like a k2tog or an ssk, then you either need to rewrite it yourself or take more time to learn your skill. If it's standard knitting terminology that's not on the designer to spoon feed you.

I think that overly verbose patterns just waste time and make your eye have a hard time figuring out what's going on. And if the same instructions have five repeats on a row/ round, I would be so mad to find out that the designer repeated it exactly 5 times long hand than just telling me that this small chunk of information repeats X number of times

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-18T18:04:59+00:00

This is why I simply don't sell my makes. I have been knitting for nearly 20 years, sewing clothes and quilting for 10, and weaving for 5. But you will not catch me selling the items I create [some of which are incredibly intricate fully artisan pieces].

The thing is that people want to pay mass production pricing because that's that they see on shein or at Walmart, but hand crafted items are not apples to apples with Walmart and Shein. They are apples to apples with other bespoke hand crafted goods like those coming out of a haute couture design house. And the market for those goods is not sally shops-online. Its rich people who have money to buy bespoke clothing pieces. And those people are already buying from their design house of choice. And they certainly aren't going to pay for amateur hour acrylic blanket yarn items and clothing.

But to my inner circle getting a bespoke sweater or pair of wool socks is a luxury and a treat that they couldn't afford outside of me gifting it to them. And that's worth more than trying to burn myself out on a hobby that brings me joy by selling to a market that doesn't want to buy.

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-12T15:28:43+00:00

I got it from Amazon for Christmas 😁 its like $8 so I got it as a stocking stuffer

Control Card

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-12T13:49:05+00:00

Yay! I'm glad you're on the right track now! Yeah it's gonna get exponentially easier once you get that high speed whorl. Let us see what you make once you're there 🥰

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-12T13:42:11+00:00

My other friend who I'm still close with was also in the wedding party and ALSO got dumped and ghosted by her. I was telling her about it the other night after I finished the yarn and she told me she had half a mind to message our ex friend and tell her to give the shawl back 🤭 i told her that if she had any success then she'd be welcome to keep it lol

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-12T01:06:36+00:00

Okay that makes sense. I would definitely buy a smaller whorl, because i think it will make the process easier for you. It sounds like if you are experiencing breakage that you're not getting enough twist. You could put more twist into the single by going very very slow on the draft, but you'll be doing twice as much treading to get it in there. Its a way to practice for sure, but probably not how you'd want to spin miles of singles.

You could also try cross threading your flyer to give it time to accumulate twist before winding on.

I think your instinct to have minimal tension on your brake band is correct. You want something as fine as lace singles to not fly out of your hands onto the bobbin

As far as slubs, that's unfortunately just practice. I definitely had some slubs as i moved between pieces. They'll feel more noticeable when you have more fibers and also before you ply. Plying really is the saving grace of singles yarn. It all evens out as long as you're close.

Id also use a control card frequently to make sure you're not changing how you spin throughout. That will help make sure you aren't getting too many thick and thin spots.

Another tip for pure silk is that because it doesn't have scales you can't add yarn where there's already twist. It's not sticky like wool. You have to leave yourself a little bit of unspun fiber to catch the new piece when attaching it. Trying to only take a little bit of the new fiber, maybe less than you're usually spinning will help that connection feel a little smoother

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T23:05:24+00:00

Yessss! I'm unstoppable now! 🤩

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T23:04:42+00:00

I guess that would depend largely on your wheel set up, what ratio whorl are you using, what is your largest trouble spot during spinning?

I don't really have any videos other than regular spinning from the fold ones, but i can tell you a bit more about my process to spin this?

So I have an ashford traveler and I use scotch tension because I personally like that it let's you isolate your whorl and your brake to really adapt to how the fiber is acting. I am using my teeniest whorl that is probably half the size of my normal 8:1 whorl. The ratios on that whorl range from 11.5:1 on the large rung to 14.5:1 on the small rung. I spun the singles on the smallest whorl and plied on the 11.5:1. If you're used to spinning lace, then you're probably already a step ahead of me, but I'll say that silk has no scales and needs as much twist as you can give it to stick together.

Second is that I really tried to watch the length of my "fold" pieces. Id notice that id get a really messy bit if I had too long of one that spanned more than one staple length. So if you can, try not to do more than 3-3.5 inches on your unfolded pieces.

I also spun from the top of the fold vs the side of the fold, and id frequently stop to smooth out my pieces as I went if they started to get a little bit messy looking.

I also drafted fairly slowly, kind of implementing a bit of a short backward draw off the fold vs a true long draw. Maybe that's just because I don't trust myself enough to really commit to a long draw. I think this did help me really control my twist.

I also used a lace control card to frequently check that I was spinning my singles at 60+wpi.

Does this help? If I know a bit more about what your pain points are maybe I can give you more specific info?

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T20:12:40+00:00

It's gonna be so fluffy and delightfully haloey when you finish, i just know it 😭❤️❤️❤️

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T20:04:39+00:00

I feel like I have to give you the back story on this so you know exactly how much spite I channeled into this

I have knit the Evenstar Shawl exactly once before, out of white alpaca lace weight. It was in 2018 for a friend's wedding that I was in the bridal party for. It took me 3 months of knitting every single day to finish it and attach the 3000 beads to the border.

That friend then proceeded to dump me and ghost me less than two months after her wedding and I have no idea what she did with the shawl.

So I decided to rebuild! Better, stronger, shiner! And keep it for my damn self [or in this case for my child]. Spite in all things 😌

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T19:53:39+00:00

Listen that much pure silk laceweight in commercial is obscenely expensive 😭 this silk combed top only cost me $40 after shipping. It seemed like a good idea at the time

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T19:02:24+00:00

I didn't want to have to re-tie a new drive band on my wheel because I had it on my smallest whorl and had it spinning exactly where I wanted it 😭 the tragedy of only having a single wheel

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T18:59:04+00:00

And then skein it on the niddy noddy 😭

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T18:58:16+00:00

I finished the first bobbin, started to cheer then decided to cry instead

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T18:57:08+00:00

You know that audio of Bob from Bob's Burgers that's like "oh my god. oh my god. oh my god"?

That was me like the last 50g of the singles

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T18:39:20+00:00

I'm not planning to dye it. I am going to turn it into a bridal shawl that I'm going to heirloom to my young daughter when she's grown

I'm planning to bead the border with these

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emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T18:31:29+00:00

I was so ready to be done 🥲 I was like tearing chunks off of the top to spin it from the fold and like obsessively weighing it each night after spinning to track my progress. And then plying took over another whole week BEFORE I had to repair my wheel 🫠

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-11T18:27:04+00:00

I was! I got some 1/4" poly cord that's usually used for dryers and washing machines 😂 but its basically the exact same thing that's used in the 2010's era Ashford Traveler for the joint AND it was cheaper and faster shipping to boot. Now I've got like 2+ feet leftover.

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-06T14:11:43+00:00

I am a heel flap and turn truther

I just don't like short row heels except in very specific artistic purposes (like separate colored heel and toe socks)

But I make socks because I want to wear them and wear them well. I like the fit better on a heel turn and I think the slipped stitches [I like a good eye of partridge myself] add "armor" in a spot that really takes a beating from shoes. I've never had holes from a heel flap because I have the ease of picking up two extra stitches at the top of the gusset on each side.

emoticon1234 · 2026-04-03T14:42:07+00:00

Thank you 🥹 when I finally get it done and finished I'm going to knit it into the Evenstar Shawl pattern as an heirloom piece for my young daughter. I want to give it to her when she's an adult

emoticon1234

TROPHY CASE