Tag Archives: yarn

April 22, 2015 · 6:00 AM

Continuing randomly…

Those premature daffodils finally fell to some conquering beauties.

I’ve been puttering about the yard, finally paying attention to what is what out there and making plans to move some things around and add more. My research on native deer-resistant plants is just beginning, but I’ve got a decent list so far – at least for this year. The big project is expanding the vegetable garden 4-5 times the size it is now and installing a beefy deer fence… More on that later, I’m sure (after my arms recover from post hole digging, even though N is doing most of it).

My studio/workspace is still a partially unpacked mess, but I’ve run out of storage room, and once I start working on things, it will probably always look like a partially unpacked mess. But I need to clear a table to cut out a few simple patterns for summer clothes I intend to make but likely the seasons will change again before I get around to that…

I wanted some mohair to add to an upcoming knitting project, so I found it in this boxy 1980s bright beauty at a thrift store last year.

Remind me to never, ever, harvest mohair (at least this particular mohair mix) again. I’ve only finished the sleeves, which I think will be enough – especially since I took it an asinine step further and separated the plys to make even more… But perhaps the leftover body parts can be sewn into an enormous baby chick.

Speaking of baby chicks, I keep seeing them in the farm stores and I’ve got some serious baby rabies of the poultry strain…

But not this year – too many things to continue to get in shape and major fortifications would need to be made for some hens – I’m looking at you, you beautiful but murderous fox (and the hawks and raccoon and cats).

I finished that old shale (or feather and fan, but that’s wrong, right?) thing. It was supposed to be a dramatic drapey wide shawl – something that could be whipped around and trailed behind – but I ran out of yarn. It was harvested from an old mohair blend sweater (this one was easy to rip) and an old Shetland one, so there was zero chance of obtaining more, and I wasn’t interested in adding another color, though as I write this, perhaps I will consider adding something more blended with the Shetland at either end…? But more likely, I will turn this into a shrug – somewhat still dramatic with wide scalloped sleeves and a back at a reasonable length – I hate cropped shrugs, at least on me. The problem is, I was planning on selling this, I don’t like the color on me and don’t have the appropriate flowing navy or brown or black outfit with which to pair it. But it fits my weird ape-armed curvy but lanky body, and for many, the sleeves would be too long…. So perhaps I’ll try blocking it wider rather than longer, but I wanted the scalloped ends to pop out more…

And even though I ran out of yarn for the length I wanted, the fiber gods smiled down on me for allowing the finishing to happen with the appropriate number of repeats and bind-off with only 6 inches of yarn to spare… that’s satisfaction.

I finished spinning that beautiful New Mexico cashmere.

But this picture is a lying liar about its tumultuous youth.

Yes, it is beautiful now, finally, but…

…things got a bit kinky for a bit…

I wanted a rustic, bumpy, somewhat thick and thin single. But I still, always, over spin singles. So I had to run it through again to take out twist. But short staple + too thin parts = break, break, breaks!

In the end, it is good – goodly soft – but thin, something from cobweb to light fingering. I haven’t decided on a good pattern for it yet – I want a neck thing, preferably something simple and relatively dense, meaning not much lace if any… Might end up with a simple garter something or other… It’s about 650 yards if anyone has any suggestions?

In the meantime, I dig and dig and dig and now weed too, and get awfully distracted making wreaths out of pruned wisteria vine… I can’t wait for it to bloom to find out if we’ve got the native stuff or the evil import…

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Filed under gardening, home, knitting, recycling, spinning, thrifting

Tagged as cashmere, daffodils, feather and fan, frogging, grape hyacinth, knitting, kromski, old shale, recycled yarn, ripping, spinning, Spring, swift, thrift store sweaters, yarn

March 25, 2015 · 6:00 AM

More things that aren’t what I thought they were or what they started out to be…

I seem to be on an uneasy roll wherein I can no longer trust anything…

Including the season…

Clouds of grackles and redwing blackbirds have been stopping over in the yard, and the hyacinths began to pop up – it’s been grey but warming.

Then more of this – more than I thought was coming (but it didn’t last long).

We’ve been talking about dressing more safely/noticeably when walking on the road to a little trail head nearby and considered buying some of those neon vests construction workers and police officers wear, but then I saw a bag of neon yarn at the big box and thought I could whip up some sort of vest/cowl/bib thing that could be more fabulous than the plastic vest.

Only it turned out to be mesh yarn… So I can make scruffly safety boas instead?

And I ordered what I hoped was the last bit of fabric for curtains for the near future and on impulse added a few yards of a lovely colored plaid flannel to my “cart.” I’d been thinking about making some loose tunic-like shirts in plaid… Only it ended up being this incredibly thick, luscious stuff without the drape of cheapass flannel… What now? PJ bottoms, pillow cases…? Or do I need to sew an actual shirt that fits well and has buttonholes? I don’t feel like paying that much attention to detail now, but this stuff deserves something nice.

I like berets – I have thin hair and berets don’t smash the top front down, so I whipped up a Selbu Modern because it is called a beret. But in the pattern pictures it looks like a floppy hat – whatever those are called – floppy berets? The kind of hat good for dreadlocks or stuffing thick hair? But it looked like some people blocked theirs to look more like a tam sort of beret. But no, even after some intense blocking mine is floppy… it’s fine, I like floppy hats, but I already have enough hair-smashing hats, and still need another that isn’t – especially this time of year.

So I turned to some predictable projects. I picked up this sad little shelf/nightstand/table thing at a thriftstore recently. It had a terrible hack plywood shelf and a crackled paint that may have been intentional, or may have been the result of a fire, or may be evidence of something evil and toxic and brain-robbing. But I love old stuff. And I love that it was $7.00. And I love small light furniture that is still wood and yet it takes little effort to move around.

So I stripped and stripped and stripped (the furniture) and took out the crap shelf, debated about putting in a better one but didn’t, and painted the whole shebang.

I’m still not sure where it’s going to go, and the aqua works in some rooms and not others (I just mixed up some old sample paints) but I’m happy with it – and happy to feel a bit less off-kilter again.

For now, it’s here.

Can you spot the other thing with the Selbu Modern pattern?

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Filed under collecting, home, home decor, knitting, recycling

Tagged as beret, floppy hats, knitting, mesh yarn, painted furniture, plaid flannel, restoring furniture, seasons, sewing, snow, Spring, vintage furniture, wool, yarn

February 18, 2015 · 6:00 AM

Late winter burn out…

I’m just a little bit tired of winter.

Rather, I’m really just tired of the lingering dirty snow and ice and its hazards, and now, a cold snap.

Normally this time of year would have me tearing at my breast and howling with rage at the season, but I’m semi-coping – I think I hate December much more anyway…

The tired snow is showing the well-trod path of our neighborhood deer through the side yard.

And their antics at night in the backyard.

And they’re getting hungry and bold and starting to lurk about during the day as well.

(We just got more snow, and then some more snow, so it’s back to looking fresh and solidly winter again.)

I’m getting antsy to be finished with organizing my crap, but it is slow going… our basement looks like a well-stocked thrift store with 95% cool stuff.

I finally found the missing box of stash yarn.

And it had all possible variations of yarn and notions, so I had to partially undo and redo my massive organizing job of last month. (And I may have done a little cramming, which is how the messes start in the first place). But I found some slipper bottoms I forgot I had too, so those will be put to good use… soon?

I finally finished a pair of gift socks I’d had on the needles for months but only worked on sporadically – I can usually crank socks out at a decent pace, but these took a little longer than I expected – especially at the dash to the finish which usually goes quite speedily, but this time was more slow and steady…

(The color isn’t right, they should be less pink – it’s an older ball of my favorite ONline Supersocke 6-fach yarn, and a reminder that I prefer fraternal twins for socks).

And I made five Botanics (some with fold-over brims, some without) in the last couple of months – really burned out on the pattern, but it’s still an easy and good one.

I sewed a few more curtains, yet five more still need to be hemmed, and four need to be replaced with something more interesting… burned out on those as well.

And our water line froze (but we didn’t know that was the problem at the time) just before the weekend started, so we just had several days without water and went ahead with some sloppy smelly house projects – think I might need to actually burn the clothes we’ve been wearing…

(Don’t worry carolsinspring, I mailed those socks to you when I could still bathe and after I gave them a good soak!)

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Filed under collecting, home, knitting, sewing

Tagged as burnout, deer, February, flash your stash, footprints, hats, knitting, snow, sock yarn, socks, well water, winter blah, wool, yard, yarn

January 21, 2015 · 6:00 AM

Stash flash – the commercial yarn edition

I’m not a huge fan of stash flashing.

Sometimes it just seems like crass showing off, sometimes I think of the world’s starving people, sometimes I think it’s a little funny when a middle age woman poses naked with it in a bathtub*, sometimes it gives me anxiety of having too much, sometimes it gives me anxiety about having too much of one thing but not the needed thing, and sometimes I’ll admit I’m a little jealous.

But we reached a milestone on the house – the floors and walls are done in all of the main rooms – so I’m finally moving into my teeny tiny studio and figuring out how to cram everything in.

And part of that involves taking stock of my yarn stash.

It was in relatively decent storage – a few big plastic tubs – but sock yarn was mixed in with sweater quantities was mixed in with random cones of mystery fiber…

And of course there was yarn shoved into other yarn…

Everything needed to be aired out – there was the odd unfortunate odor of our old apartment’s carpeting trapped inside some of the tubs, and a few lavender sachets lost their pleasant one. But all was well – no evidence of wool-munching crawling or flying f*ckers.

The sock and fingering weight yarns are now separated out into their own bin and I know I don’t need to shop for the stuff possibly ever again. I’d been wanting to make some jolly-colored tights for years now, but I haven’t even considered casting on for them, so maybe it’s okay to just make one pair of socks from one of three skeins, or consider making a blanket. I’d really like to make some pants, but though I’d like wacky tights, I’d rather have more dull pants (trousers to my friends across the pond) though I do adore my wool pants (underwear).

Need I remind you that I got everything really cheap? Yeah, the internet is good for that, as are Italian markets and those newer craft/construction materials thrift shops. I’ve been picking up the odd cone of stuff for a few years – I thought I’d be weaving by now and dying more too… And I do intend to use some of it in spinning…

My old favorite Lamb’s Pride is all in one place now too – this is one of the few yarns I have sweater quantities of – large coat or king-sized afghan quantities… I fell into a brief obsessive love with mosaic knitting several years ago and planned to make a cozy big long coat. I got a billion yards of two shades of green on the cheap online, but the colors weren’t contrasty enough and besides, I never got around to finding or making up a pattern, so it sits and waits…

And the bulky green in the bottom right was, for a short time and twice, an Owls sweater, but I never got the sizing right, so I frogged it and gave up.

I’m in love with that old gold greenish shade “golden mushroom” in the upper left, so it’s high time I cracked it open… I love nearly every shade of green though, so I’ve got some thinking to do…

On the day that I organized this stuff I had one of those disturbing time warps wherein I missed lunch. I never miss lunch. And the day was pretty much shot – I feel a bit guilty overall for “wasting” the time and that I have so much, yet I can’t part with it either. I got some of it up on ravelry, so I may sell some things if asked. But I also don’t really need any more clothes or blankets, so my knitting mojo for anything other than gifts, sales, or a few smaller accessories is pretty flat at the moment.

I’d like to replace a few commercial sweaters with me-knitted ones, but the ones I wear most often are grey. Do you see any grey yarn up there? Nope.

And since I work from home, I need nothing. Absolutely nothing. I don’t get the people who work from home or stay at home and are crazy prolific garment sewers and knitters… where and when do they wear the many, many things that they make?

(And I still have loads of yarn from unraveled sweaters, a nice bunch of that lovely Italian wool, and a smallish (relatively speaking) amount of handspun.)

And though I accomplished a needed organizing job that day, I ultimately failed when I realized that there’s still another box/bag/tub of the stuff somewhere…

*I’ve seen a few of these on ravelry, but sadly can’t find one at the moment for you – and no, I won’t do that.

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Filed under collecting, knitting, thrifting

Tagged as balls, brown sheep, bulky, cone yarn, fingering yarn, green, heywood wakefield, lamb's pride, skeins, sock yarn, stash, wool, worsted, yarn

July 23, 2014 · 7:46 AM

Fried that squash blossom

Good god, this was a long suffering spin.

And I blathered on so much about it…

Last year, I was thrilled to buy the wool – Pigeonroof Studios superwash merino in “zucchini blossom.”

I started to spin it.

I fantasized about pairing it with other yarn from my stash to become some sturdy socks.

I realized I spun the first bobbin backwards, so I got irritated and put it away.

I started spinning it again during last year’s Tour de Fleece.

I cut my thumb.

I blamed the wool and put it away.

I got it out to finally finish for this year’s Tour de Fleece.

I made a three-ply and thought all was fine.

I ran out of one of my three plies.

I am now done.

I have 258 yards of a heavy fingering/light sport wonky 3ply, and 114 yards of a light fingering/fingering wonky 2ply.

(And we won’t speak of this).

And I’ll shut up about now until I have a finished item from it…

if I ever have one at all…

(Incidentally, I did fry up those blossoms and it was a mushy miserable failure, as are most of my neglected zucchini plants which are lousy with stupid male blooms).

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Tagged as butcherblock counters, fiestaware, green, injury, merino, orange, Pigeonroof Studios, roving, spinning, squash blossom, superwash, wool, yarn, zucchini blossom

May 28, 2014 · 8:00 AM

…. — -. . -.– / -.-. — .– .-..

I finished up my second Honey Cowl.

I prefer to call it the Morse Code Cowl.

I like this pattern best in two colors to make the dots and dashes pop.

I haven’t found a good spot to photograph things in the new place yet. And this “chianti” Lamb’s Pride yarn is difficult to capture – it’s more of a cranberryish burgundy. And you’d never know that these walls are either a seemingly sickly nicotine-stained yellowish greyish beige or a depressing cold blue that once in awhile becomes an interesting periwinkle, but usually just stays stand-offish and sullen and needs to be covered up ASAP.

Both sides are right sides (it still needs to be blocked).

This is a big one too – very cozy. The colors aren’t quite right for me (or most of my clothes) either, but I suspect I’ll wear it a lot anyway.

(Morse Code translator found here)

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Tagged as brown sheep, cowl, cozy, dots and dashes, easy patterns, honey cowl, honeycowl, knitting, lamb's pride, loop, manos, morse code, wool, yarn

May 1, 2014 · 9:34 AM

Knight of the Deep

The Noble Hero balaclava pattern by Annie Watts of Wattsolak has just been released!

Last year I test knit this fun to knit, and to wear pattern.

I finished it while on a bizarre early summer week-long vacation in the White Mountains that started off with a snowstorm and ended with temperatures in the high 90Fs, so it was too icy and cold to hike in the beginning, and too hot and humid by the end.

But it gave me more knitting time.

Though it would compliment and complete your awesome new space suit, I thought it also looked like a knight’s chainmail coif:

Or a deep-sea diver’s helmet:

Either way, I really enjoyed knitting the piece, learned a new technique, and N has taken it and enjoys wearing it, so I’ll have to make another for myself!

The pattern is well-written and was very clear even in the testing stage. I had gauge and made no modifications. The only thing I’ll keep in mind for next time is to loosen up on the applied icord, or go up a needle size for it – I learned how to do it on this project and I started out a little too tight.

This was also my first time knitting with Quince & Co., and I liked it – I chose these muted colors because I’d love to have a larger garment made from one of them at some point, and wanted to see the colors in person.

Now to think of colors for a Noble Hero for myself – perhaps handspun…?

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Filed under knitting, travel

Tagged as annie watts, balaclava, chainmail coif, deep sea diver, diving helmet, green, grey, knights, knitting, noble hero, osprey, quince & co., river, space man, spaceman, test knit, trees, wattsolak, white mountains, woods, wool, yarn

March 7, 2014 · 5:06 PM

[Im]patiently waiting…

We’re in a stressful period again, one that involves waiting and hoping and superstition and maybe a little internet stalking on my part… It might feel similar to expecting a baby, or rather perhaps adopting a child, since a great deal of bureaucracy is also involved – or perhaps adopting a juvenile delinquent child since there is also an element of possible destruction.

But it is definitely not about babies. At least human ones.

Or non-human animal ones… yet.

So I haven’t been doing much with my hands lately apart from gnawing on my knuckles and dialing and typing.

I guess most people don’t dial anymore, but I still love my land line and old phones with a good heft, fine audio clarity, and a solid ring.

Although people have been texting me on them, and that doesn’t work out so well…

So in the interest of self-prescribed mind-clearing meditative knitting, I started another Honey Cowl.

(the colors aren’t right – it’s more of a wine shade.)

Yes, it’s the yarn I just bought along with some deeply stashed Lamb’s Pride.

I don’t love the color combo, or maybe the colors in general yet, but it’s giving me enough of a twitch that I can re-direct some of my annoyed and nervous energy to it.

I may come around to like it in the end?

And I also might be able to wear it with that shockingly pink vintage coat that I’ve lacked the balls or tolerance of something so bright so close to my eyes to wear yet…

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Tagged as chianti, cowls, currant, easy knitting, honey cowl, impatience, in the round, knitting, lamb's pride, loops, manos, slip stitches, stress, waiting, wine colored, wool, worsted, yarn

February 1, 2014 · 8:08 AM

Not too busy for a weekend jaunt…

I am busy these days.

I’m working on some knitting that is taking far longer than I’d expected, but must be completed in a certain amount of time, so I’m monogamous with it.

I’ve been work-working more hours. And I’ve been doing some blogging for work that fills up that little writing time and space brain-hole that usually gets stuffed here.

But I’ve also been away due to both work and pleasure. Recently, we had a nice long weekend in my old city visiting our old haunts.

We bought lots of delicious (and cheap) Italian foodstuffs.

Basked in the warmth of radiators (I haven’t yet mentioned how I entirely [and somewhat irrationally] abhor forced-air heat).

Had properly made espresso drinks at our old neighborhood cafe.

Visited the lovely WPA mural in the post office again – it even has a spinner!

And though I didn’t [cannot] visit my old LYS [due to potential uncontrollable purchasing] I did pop in another shop just out of town. It was one of those tiny places where you’re the only one there and suddenly face-to-face with the owner who seems hopeful and maybe slightly desperate, and either way she’s friendly and helpful and you feel obligated to buy a little something.

So I did.

(I’m tempted to make another Honey Cowl with it, but I know it will be an oh-so-soft, but pill-crazy yarn, so I’ll either mix it up with something more durable, felt/full it, or most likely, just sit on it for awhile… The color is more in the forest berries/cranberry range and less purple and pink than it appears – I think the colorway is “currant.”)

And what trip isn’t complete without a thrift store stop?

This is such an entirely uncharacteristic garment for me in terms of color, but it’s a great vintage find.

I bought it to re-sell, but I just might keep it since it fits… winter greys be damned!

(It kinda hurts the eyes though).

(I got it in a small chain of regional thrift stores that absolutely have their heads up their asses when it comes to pricing. Something that is a “better” department store or preppy shop brand will be priced astronomically, while vintage and actual high-quality label things are often a steal – which is often a happy coup, but lousy when you find a holey and felt-able or harvest-able sweater and it’s priced at $19.99 but should be no more than $2.99. The coat above was only $4.99, handmade in wool, in perfect condition, and from a fancy downtown shop that no longer exists…)

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Filed under collecting, spinning, thrifting, travel

Tagged as coats, cured meats, espresso, LYS, murals, neon pink, old things, painting, radiators, spinner, thrifting, thriftscore, travel, vintage coat, weekends, wool, work, WPA mural, yarn

January 18, 2014 · 8:34 AM

Caaaaashmeeeeere…

I had a huge thrifting score a few weeks ago.

I hadn’t been shopping for months because I’m too broke now even for thrift stores, and I already have a decent stash of wearables, frogables, and feltables. But I needed just a few more things to complete or begin a few more things.

While there I found my sweater Shangri-La.

I can’t understand why someone would get rid of this: 100% cashmere, a nice shade of grey, and no issues apart from a few easily removed pills on one side where someone probably carried her purse.

Yes, it’s baggy and shapeless, but holy hell, it is utter bliss to wear. It’s perfect for sleepwear or just lounging about too, so why would someone get rid of it? Even if you lost a ton of weight, it still feels nice to wear, so unless you gained a ton, like an actual ton, or died, I see no reason to be rid of this.

I’m not the sort of shameful woman who does happy dances and squeals and all those sorts of public behaviors that continue to set women back decades, but this was one of the few times I came close as I cracked a faint but noticeable half-smile when I found it and hurriedly shoved it securely down into my cart.

And for $5.99 on the half-off day – it was only $2.99!!!

This also solves my need for a new long thin sweater, though I’m still planning on knitting one eventually.

I picked up another one to wear too – merino & cashmere, in perfect condition, also quite cheap. The tag said it was from Fall 2004, so perhaps someone thought 10 years of ownership was enough? The tag also emphatically stated DRY CLEAN ONLY, but it survived and flourished in its sudsy watery bath.

And even more cashmere!!!

Most of these have some sort of damage or kill-worthy preppyness, so they will be harvested for their yarn or turned into linings for hats and such.

And I found a few sweaters made with good sturdy wool or wool/nylon blends in colors I like which will be harvested for their yarn as well. The one on top is another (misshapen and holey) Shetland – I think I have enough Shetland sweaters to harvest an interesting palette of yarn now. I was intending to make a big Hap shawl out of them, but I love the vintage spencer dresses seen here and here and here and would love to make something similar at some point.

I’m looking forward to making something out of the stripey one on the left too, perhaps along the lines of the scarf I made last year from recycled stripey sweater yarn.

And it has already been reduced to a pile of lovely squiggles.

Then a tower (what were you thinking?) of yarn cakes.

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Filed under collecting, knitting, recycling, thrifting

Tagged as cardigan, cashmere, frogging, grey, knitting, re-use, recycled, recycling, shetland wood, stripes, thrift store, thrifting, thriftscore, wool, yarn

Tag Archives: yarn

Continuing randomly…

More things that aren’t what I thought they were or what they started out to be…

Late winter burn out…

Stash flash – the commercial yarn edition

Fried that squash blossom

…. — -. . -.– / -.-. — .– .-..

Knight of the Deep

[Im]patiently waiting…

Not too busy for a weekend jaunt…

Caaaaashmeeeeere…

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