Yarn, lots and lots of it.

I haven’t done any knitting the last couple of days but I have been playing around with yarn and roving. The first photo shows some rolags that I made using the piece of carding cloth I have that’s waiting to be made into a blending board.

Rollags made from blue and white shetland wool top from Jamieson & Smith.

Fingering weight yarn spun on my Ashford spindle.

Next I brought up an old box of yarn from the basement looking for another project that I’d started but not finished many years ago.

White Buffalo Yarn sweater.

After looking at this project I realized there were some leftover balls of yarn in the same box so I thought that I would try and find some room in my large tote for them. My tote has all my acrylic leftovers in it along with a few whole balls of yarn as well. Mostly it was a mess so I thought that if I wound all the balls into layer cakes I’d make more room for the new/old balls.

Messy yarn.

Bin partially filled with layer cakes. Filled it to the top by the time I’d finished winding the above yarn.

After winding all the yarn in the bin, I discovered that I didn’t have any extra room than before I’d started so all I can say is that I wasted an afternoon but I do have a tidy tote bin full of layer cakes. I just have to find somewhere else to stash the other balls.

Karen

They’re gone…

I’m hosting a ufo (unfinished object) KAL/CAL (Knit along and crochet along) this month in one of my Ravelry groups and the idea is to finish up any projects that have been lying around. Part of the KAL could be ripping out a ufo that’s never going to be finished. I have a couple of ufo’s hanging around waiting to be knit but I also have some that weren’t going to be finished so today I sat down in front of the TV and the ripping out commenced. I have to admit it wasn’t a chore since I used the ball winder to help speed things up.

First up a coat that I knit the back and one front of. I actually have a blog post somewhere way back when on this project but I grew to hate the way the patterns of the yarn came out and then the colour itself.

Sean Sheep – Cairns

The next project was a kit I bought on sale at Chapters and it was supposed to be a crocheted baby dress but I never finished on time so it is now frogged as well.

Lion Brand – Wool Ease.

Now all I have to do is to decide whether or not I want to keep the yarn or give it away. I might try to crochet one square of the multi-coloured and see if it works out otherwise I’ll try and find a home for it.

Karen

Spindle Spinning.

I’ve been having fun playing with the wool top that I bought from Jamieson and Smith and I’ve spun up a few skeins worth – very small skeins worth, lol. This stuff is fantastic and just glides along so it’s possible to get some even singles out of it even for a beginner like me.

Here are some photos:

J&S natural.

Single ply before washing and plying.

Unwinding setup. It didn’t work that well so I made a ball of the two plys but I didn’t like that either so now I just take the toilet paper roll and join the two ends and ply that at the same time.

1st and 2nd skeins. The second skein is thinner spun.

My first true skein with J&S.

Second skein washed.

J&S natural black, actually so dark brown it looks black.

J&S grey top on spindle.

Plied grey J&S skein before washing.

Grey skein after drying. The yarn shrinks a bit and gets crumply/springy.

Starting to soak.

Shrinking in hot water.

Charlie needs a new winter hat so grandma had to try her hand at knitting one so here it is. Hopefully it will fit.

Random worsted weight yarn knit with various 4.5 mm needles.

Merry Christmas 2012 and a Happy New Year

Just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and all the joys and blessings that this time of year brings. I’d also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may you all keep safe and find happiness.

God bless,
Karen

Grandma’s cutie

Took a picture of Charlie in her new dress, lame attempt at a photo but here she is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie’s Dress

It’s been awhile since I’ve last blogged but I’ve been on a real reading jag and haven’t really done much in the way of crafting for the past two months. I decided to make Charlie a couple of dresses so bought two patterns on sale $1.99. Floored me that the regular price is $14.99 because you can almost go out and buy a dress for that price.

Anyhow picked out fabric then realized I needed lining and a zipper then all of a sudden my $1.99 dress had esculated up into the near $30 range and all I could think of was I definitely could have bought maybe two dresses for that price.

Started in on the dress and realized that although the dress didn’t seem that fussy to make it was. Sewing the dress also made me remember how much I hate sewing hence the long time in getting it done. Funny I don’t mind making quilts at all but sewing clothes I don’t really like even though I did it when I was younger. Sad thing is I have one more dress to make but the pattern is larger so I guess I can put that one off untill later.

New Look #6974 view B.

It would have been nice to have a picture with Charlie in it but she’s such a squirmer that I didn’t have the heart to try. Maybe I’ll get one later.

Karen

Baby Quilt.

Just finished the binding on a baby quilt that I’ve been working on for a friend’s first grandchild. The quilt is a familiar one that I’ve done before using turnover precuts. The tutorial is put out by the Missouri Star Quilt company and is their Whack N Stack quilt.

The material I used was “Snippets” by Moda designer American Jane. It’s has a retro 30′s feel to it with some of the fabrics having little paper doll designs on it.

Closeup of pinwheel, machine quilted with hearts in the pinwheel and meandering stitch inbetween pinwheels.

Karen

February’s 12″ CAL Blocks

Nothing really special but here are the next two blocks in the Ravelry crochet Cal.

Morning Glory by Teresa J. Kohlhoff

Center Heart Square by Ginger Badger

Yarn is Paton’s Decor in Country Blue and Sweet Country Variations.

Karen

Sweet Petals

This year I’ve made a resolution to use “The Stash” so I’ve joined several groups on Ravelry to help me with that goal. One of the groups is the 2012 Crochet a Block a Month forum. Each month there are actually three blocks to crochet; one is a 6-inch block and the other two are 12-inch blocks. I’ve decided to go with the two 12-inch blocks so at the end of the year if I keep up I should have an afghan’s worth of blocks to put together.

I’ve had some yarn in my stash for a couple of years now (seems just like yesterday, I swear) that I bought while visiting our friends at their cottage, which just happens to be 10 minutes down the road from the Listowel Yarn Factory. Needless to say I like seeing them at their cottage.

To get the deals you usually have to buy by the bag or in multiples of three. I bought four bags of Paton Decor in Country Blue and Sweet Country Varigation.

Paton’s Decor Country Blue: 75% Acrylic / 25% Wool 100 gram ball, 192m/210yards.

Paton’s Decor Sweet Country Varigation: 75% Acrylic / 25% Wool 100 gram ball, 192m/210yards.

I have 12 balls of the blue and 12 balls of the varigated. I’m wishing I had some matching darker blue to go with it for a focal point but that would mean spending more money and buying more yarn and the idea is to use up yarn not buy more so I’ll stick with what I’ve got for now. I might go with another colour to join the squares we’ll see how it works out.

Anyhow the first 12-inch square is Pretty Petals by Melinda Miller, this is a variation on a square I did myself (quite common square) that I made into a full sized afghan and gave to Jen. Jen’s Afghan

Pretty Petals.

For some reason this square turned out wonky. It’s almost like the spiral effect you get in knitting when you’re knitting a tube. I don’t know why unless I needed to square up the flower petals somehow. The square actually sits perfectly flat and is square if you can avoid thinking it’s off kilter from the colours. Oh well three hours later I’m not ripping it out and it won’t be noticable when put in the afghan anyhow.

One more square and I’m done for the month. I’ve done not to badly to date. I finished Chase another earflap hat exactly the same as the previous one I made him. Apparently Jen says he will not wear anything else so I had left-over yarn so just knit another in a bigger size. 

Today I also managed to get some strips sewn for a quilt I am making for myself so three things in one day is pretty good. Now if I can only be this righteous every day I might get somewhere (or not vbg).

Karen

 

Happy New Year 2012

Tonight is New Year’s Eve in our own small area of the world. Here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year and all the best for the upcoming 2012. I’m hoping to be more productive this year and to use up some of the stash and to try not to buy too much in the coming year.

I’ve joined a stashdown group on Ravelry that has an Excel sheet that tracks purchases going in and yardage going out. The idea being that you end up at year’s end being in the green – in other words knitting more yards than adding to your stash. I have one big project planned for purchase as a birthday gift in February but aside from that wish me luck on restraint, I do so like a bargin.

I’m hoping the idea will carry over for fabric purchases as well. I’ve done well so far by resisting year end sales and some of them were very good ones. I have enough stash that I dare say it could keep me going for a few years and I’ve been having those paranoid thoughts about something happening to me, dying and then I’ve got all this lovely stuff and nothing to show for it so here’s my New Year’s resolution:

USE THE STASH!!!

Karen