An Etsy Store To Admire

I know there are a million beautiful things on Etsy.com and I can get lost in that site and not see daylight for days at a time! I bumped in to one though after surfing through from a Ravelry user's profile that I thought I would really like to share! She has super cute things and 100% of the proceeds go to help her local charity, The Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program (www.borp.org) . Her prices aren't bad either!

$35.00


$30.00

Find her etsy store here: Yarn Wranglers

Who needs more excuses to shop, right? :)

I've declared today a KNIT day!

After a week of getting almost no knitting done in favour of projects more new and exciting, I've declared today a day for knitting. Hopefully I'll get a good chunk of my tank top done, and maybe even finish off that gray and burgundy hat.

Before doing that, though, I had to wind that newest recycled yarn in to balls so that it wouldn't get knotted and tangled. I've learned this the hard way having had to throw out a ton of that cotton yarn that I frogged from the sweater. Here is the rest, looking lonely and forlorn:


If there is anyone reading this who owns a winder and thinks they can make heads or tails of this bag, they are welcome to it. All 1600 yards of 100% cotton lace-weight yarn! Yours to keep! :)

Here's the first 3 center pull balls I've made per these instructions (near the bottom of the page) on Knittinghelp.com made from the bulky angora blend that I am so excited about.

I have these three, plus two more 50-yard skeins drying, and one more sleeve plus a half back to go on the unraveling, so I'm thinking I'll have maybe 450 yards or so! I've decided it is destined to be this pullover:

I'll have enough yarn for one of these in a my size, a medium, and I think the natural colour will actually suit the design very well, negating the need to continue experimenting with the dyeing process. I think I need some time to recuperate from that one! I did cast on a swatch using the dyed yarn and my size 15 needles though, shown here:


My gauge is a tad off. There are too much stitches for ever 10cm. That usually means I should use a bigger needle, right? What do you do if this is the biggest needle you have? Should I just use the stitch measurements for size Large and that will give me a size M? It's not TOO far off, only 1 stitch.

Must... not... cast on... another... project. Must... resist... the temptation!

Attempt #1: Epic Failure

I suppose it was bound to happen eventually, right? I've been trying so many new crafts lately and, mostly successful with these endeavors, so I was totally due to fall flat on my face at something.

So I tried the KoolAid dyeing this morning, with much trepidation, on my newly frogged (recycled) yarn angora/wool/nylon blend from this sweater:


If you can tell it's terribly fuzzy but it's oh so soft! It's also got a tan strand and a white strand that runs all the way through the yarn, which I was hoping would make for an interesting colour variation. So here's what I started with:


So I did my reserach on Ravelry with the help of some very knowledgeable women, then got to work. At first I poured both packets of Orange koolaid in to the bowl, decided that was way too much, dumped out 2/3 of the bowl and added more water, THEN dunked in the yarn. This was my first result:



Soooo... I was thinking that the Nylon probably wouldn't absorb as much of it, right? And well maybe by only doing 4 rounds of 2 minutes in the microwave it won't soak in quite so much. Ummm... not so much. Traffic Cone Orange wasn't my goal. So I decided I would try to put the red over the top to make it more... oh I dunno... reddy-orange like a fall colour. Here's my second result:


Better, right? But still NEON. I guess I"ll have to find some green dye if I want to muddy it up some? Or you know... just knit it as my swatch piece for gauge and be DONE with it. LOL Oh, and I totally didn't use gloves either! Hehehe! I'm typing this post with some very red finger tips!


So now I'm at an impasse. Do I use more of this soft cuddly yarn to keep experimenting with? Or do I just knit it up in it's boring white/tan colour way? I'm thinking it's bulky enough and that I'll have enough of it (about 600 yards?) that I can knit something pretty nice.

I would really appreciate any feed back from the more experienced dyers! What the heck did I do wrong and how do I do it right next time? LOL

I was featured over at SKnitter!

Hi! I was featured on my first blog, how cool is that?? Check me out, all getting too big for my britches! hehe http://sknitter.com/2009/07/some-knitting-blog-love/

I promise I'll have a real post today too! :)

I'm Having So Much Fun!

I can not be the only one who absolutely LOVES getting packages in the mail, can I? Living in a super small town, if what I want isn't at Walmart, I pretty much have to order it online. This makes for a lot of packages being delivered.

Today, there were two on my front porch! My recent Ebay acquisitions have arrived! I'm happy to welcome to my stash, 4 new acrylic/wool blends for me to play around with:


I haven't knit with wool yet at all, but I had heard a lot of Lion Brand's Ease line, so I thought these might be fun to play with. The Encore yarns you see there actually have a slightly higher percent of wool in them. They seem kinda scratchy, so maybe not a knit for against the skin. Anyone have any ideas? I like the maroon and the gray together, but the blue may end up finding another home. I won the auction for all 4 with a bid of $7.50! and it had Free Shipping! These were all tossed in to my Stash Bin, after logging them in to my Ravelry account of course!

I also managed to take care of my lack of circular needles with this recent Ebay auction. I don't think this gentleman knew what he had when he sold me all these for $12 including shipping. lol


Most of them are metal, larger sizes (ranged from US 4-13) and between 29" and 36" inches long, which makes me very happy. I think the pullover vest I'll be making for my dad is done in the round, so they'll get broken in soon. And these things are bloody expensive when bought new! I bought my metal one at a Local Yarn Store for like $15!! I feel very good about this purchase! Now... on the hunt for some double pointed needles. hehe!

I've also begun dabbling with the idea of making stitch markers. You see, about a year back I was kinda getting in to making jewelry and I have quite an impressive yet very random stash of beads laying around. These stitch markers were a few of my first forays in to the crafting.



The first ones are made of wood beads and the second ones are made of a glass and some kind of natural stone. I didn't label my beads back then, so I couldn't tell you exactly. lol I have a few questions for those knitters out there that like decorative stitch markers: How many matching ones do you normally need? Do you buy sets of 4? 5? 8? Also, how big are they normally? These here are made to fit up to a size 10.5 (top) and size 7 (bottom). Also, is it important for the ring at the top to come all the way closed, or is partially open okay?

Also, in case you haven't noticed (hehe) I'm trying harder at making my blog photos pretty. My good friend over at Ponder & Stitch has been giving me some tips. What do you think? I've kinda become obsessed with this blog thing. lol In fact, between the recycling yarn and making stitch markers, organizing my stash, and blogging about it all, I really haven't got a whole lot of KNITTING done. LOL! What am I going to do once school starts back up?

Oh, and speaking of my recycling yarn, I think it's coming along nicely. They really haven't un-kinked though, which apparently hanging dry was supposed to be able to accomplish. Here's my pull so far, drying out in my carport in the sun:


I sorta made the rookie mistake of making one of the skeins WAY too big, like 650 yards. LOL Oops! So it's taking a LONG time to dry. (duh) I think I'm going to rewind them on the new niddy-noddy that hubby made me from pvc piping! I'm not sure if it's absolutely necessary to rewind the smaller ones or not if they're already in circles like this. Also, I think I'd like to print labels for them that look kind of nice. Does anyone have a favourite site that has templates?

What do you think about trying to over-dye some of these skeins? I'm probably going to have about 10 200 yard skeins, enough to play around with the colour a bit if I want. I was thinking of trying out the Kool Aid method. Do any of you more knowledgeable dyers have any suggestions as to the colour or strength of colour to use? I'm scared it'll just be hideous. lol Maybe a little bit of green added in would be nice?

Man oh man, I'm just so excited about everything I have going on. I've even started looking in to spinning tutorials, but I really don't think I'm ready for that yet. I wish I had someone closer to me who did this kind of stuff so I could learn by watching. That's always so much easier than trying to read instructions!

Hope you all have a happy Monday!

The Stash: Episode 1

Today, my new friends, is a special day. I have begun to assemble a stash! I bought a big blue tub to start putting all the yarn that's left over or that is being kept for future projects, along with any odd and ends that are knitting related. See it here in all it's glory!


What you are seeing in the box is mostly junk acrylic yarn my grandma gave me to learn with except for the three skeins of brown worsted weight that will be my dad's pull over for Christmas. I'll let you guys know when I start that one. I was thinking it was going to be next on the needles, but with all this garter stitch overload from my tank I may want to do the lace scarf first. lol

You also will see, tucked in to the corner, a drawstring christmas bag that Grandma gave me to put my first project in, and the knitting book that I bought 8 years later to RE-teach myself how to knit. Well... it was really just a brush up, right? hehe

In other Stash-related news, I've decided to start reclaiming yarn from used sweaters! I'm so excited about this, but was sooo nervous that it would be a ton of work, difficult, or not worth the effort! Let me tell you now: It is SO easy! And SO Fun!! Here's a picture of my first's afternoon's haul of about 1300 yards, and I still have 1/2 of the back of the sweater and another sleeve to do!!


I'm estimating in the ballpark of 2000 yards when I'm done. A similar 3-ply, 100% cotton yarn averages at about $6.00 per 400 yards. I only paid $3.50 for this sweater, and I'll probably get about $30 worth of yarn out of it! I chose this 100% cotton for my first project for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's abundant at the thrift store and I wanted to know if it was going to be any good to use. Secondly, I wasn't going to be deeply hurt if I managed to ruin this whole process in my first go at it. And last, I liked the colour of this yarn, and there was plenty of it in this men's XL sweater. I know it's harder to see in this picture but it's a three ply with one strand a golden colour, one copper and then one a kind of pewter almost. Pretty cool. Here's more of a closeup:




These beauties spent last night soaking in a luke-warm bath in my washing machine along with a bit of shampoo, so hopefully this morning they'll be okay to be squeezed out and hung up to dry. I'm HOPING it's going to relax it a bit to get rid of all of the kinkiness to the yarn.

What might I possibly use this yarn for, you ask? I've given it some thought. I could make this shawl and still have half of the stash from yesterday left over.


Or if I double over the yarn, I could attempt this cardigan, which even though it's *totally* my style and I would LOVE to own it, is probably over my head right now. But you know, for in the future, once I'm good at this. hehe



I'm also pondering sending a bunch of it to my mom for christmas so she can make a market bag that she's had her eyes on. I'll let you guys know later today how the yarn comes out after hanging. And Ooo! I've also started to make stitch markers for my first ever Ravelry SWAP! I'll post those later too! I think I've become obsessed with my blog! Thank you so much to my first 4 followers!! :)

Buttons?

I think I need these button. I don't know why. Or what I'll need them for.



Any good ideas? I just need one good reason to buy these off etsy!


In other news, I'm half finished my tank top! YAY!


I'm happy with how neat and tidy my knitting is, but I'm not so sure about the stripey yarn. I liked all the colours together on the skein, it's just how it knit up as a fabric that looks funny. Does that make sense? Is there another way to knit this yarn so that it doesn't get this effect? I am proud of the shaping that I put in (not even in the pattern, thank ya!). Now I need to figure out where I put them in so I can do the back the same. lol And of course it will need to be blocked because it's curling on ALL sides. Today I'll go to Walmart and see if they have anything I can use to block it. :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I have a lot of cleaning ahead of me today. *HIDES!*