Crafty Girly

Current projects

I seriously hate that I've been too busy to blog.  I hate even more that I just finished spinning to bobbins of yarn that I started something like 5 months ago!  That's right people I said five months ago!  Another thing I hate is that with all my enthusiasm to rip back the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl and start all over again so my pattern would not be skewed - of which  I fully intended to have it completed by this time - I am still only working on the 5th lace repeat for chart 2 of 3 and have picked it it up only sporadically to knit on it over the past 7 months.  This project really does seem like the never ending project.  We are going on something like 5 or 6 years that I started this shawl, and I just can't seem to get it completed!  Maybe since I know it's for me I'm not in a rush, but I know that if it was for someone else, I would be sweating and stressing over it and it would have been completed a long time ago.  

So I just wanted to update everyone with pictures of my current work.  The bobbins below, the brown one is natural Jacob's Fleece and the other one is a Wool Blend in Neopolitan colorway.   

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Happy Thanksgiving

I hope all of my friends out there and those are not yet my friends have an enjoyable and memorable Thanksgiving this year. Even in this political and economic climate, there is still a lot to be thankful for.

This time for me is a time for reflection on past events and people and to look forward to the future. I hope all of you will have the opportunity to spend this holiday with those you love the most and safely.

I did a BAD thing...

I have a huge collection of knit socks.  Huge.  And even though I have a huge collection of knit socks, there was one pair that was my absolute favorite.   My Knee High to a Grasshopper socks from the Blue Moon Fibers Rockin Sock club were my favorite.  The fabric was super soft and silky, the socks fit me just right - better than any of the other socks I've knit - and they were my perfect cold weather socks because they not only kept my feet warm, they also kept my calves warm.  They were perfect.

I say were because, I did a bad thing.  I used them recently on a camping trip.  I usually take them along because of their amazing warming capabilities, and at this point they've become more of a comfort (like a teddy bear) than anything else.  Well, when I got back from the camping trip, a really wet trip I might add, I naturally had a boat-load of laundry to do, so I did laundry.  I haven't had time to put all of said laundry away - I admit - so some of it has been sitting in the laundry basket in my room.  Today I started going through it and I found my socks.

With my whites.  

About 1/4 of the size they originally were.  

I apparently washed them all together without thinking about it and felted my favorite socks.  I'm in tears.  I feel like some mean little kid ripped the head off my favorite teddy bear in the playground.  

Be Back Soon!

I've been working on some things lately that has not allowed me to knit or spin lately, but things should start to calm down some within the next week or two.  Will blog more than.

I love Knit Picks!

I love Knit Picks and here is the reason why.

The other day I was knitting with my US10 Harmony options when the wooden needle separated from the metal base.

As you could imagine, I panicked.  I just about started crying, I was upset, my beautiful harmony had broken.  I purchased the set in 2009 (after some research I found this out) and I hardly ever knit with needles so big.  I'm a sock and lace knitter, which means that I use the smaller sizes.  At most I'll use a US7, but US10?  Hardly ever.  I contacted Knit Picks and let them know of what happened to the needle.  And they said they would take care of it.  This was on Wednesday or Thursday of last week.  Today, I got this in the mail:

I contacted them to find out the best way to repair the needle without damaging the quality, and they sent me a whole new set!  Who does this anymore?  I have purchased a lot of things from Knit Picks because their prices are right, their quality is good, their shipping is fast, and now adding to this list, their customer service is excellent!  They stand by their products, and if there is a problem, they fix it for you, even if it was purchased 3 years ago!  

And the winner is...

Everyone who commented on the blog post was entered for the Shades of Green book.  I placed your names, emails, and blog addresses in an Excel file and were therefore assigend a number that way.

Random.org has given me the following number.

Congratulations to Rose!  I will be emailing her the code for the book on Ravelry and I hope you enjoy!!!  Thank you everyone for participating in this little contest, and head on over to A Craftsteaders Journal to congratulate Rose for her win.

Review - Shades of Green & Giveaway!

I seriously can't think of a better way of breaking in the Fall Equinox than to review this amazing ebook.  The Shades of Green by Erica Jackofsky is not only visually stunning, with the the gorgeous pictures of the patterns within, but throughout the entire book Erica has included little tidbits about all things green.  Things like the different names for the different shades of greens, the names of green gemstones, where the meaning of the word green comes from, and all kinds of very interesting facts.  

As for the patterns themselves, they are written for any kind of knitter - those who like to work with charts will have very easy to read charts, or those who do not understand charts, the patterns have been written out row by row.  These are very easy to follow patterns and there is a little bit of everything here from sweaters, shawls, to a coffee cup cozy, and it's perfect for the novice knitter and an expert knitter alike.  If you're not sure how to work a certain stitch, or what the abbreviation means, she's included a guide int he back to follow and even step-by-step instructions for how to do the kitchener stitch, which is perfect for me because even though I've done it a million times on several different pairs of socks, I always like to have the instructions in front of me so I could be sure I'm following it correctly.  Most patterns/books/etc. do not include it, which means I have to Google it so I can have it up on the screen while I kitchener.  The fact that it's included as part of the book is so thoughtful and just makes it that much easier to finish off your knitting without having to scour the internet looking for the instructions.

The Peridot Tunic is a pretty versatile top that I think can work for any body type and is a good sweater to knit as a beginner sweater or even someone who has never done lace.  It's a very simple lace pattern, and the sweater construction is also fairly simple.  It's knit in the round, so there is no seaming and the finished product looks anything but simple.

My personal favorite from the book from the book is the Cutting Ferns Shawl.  Firstly, I love shawls, I have a few knit already and one on the needles that I'm trying to finish within a decent amount of time.  This one I would knit as well, even though, like I said, I have enough shawls to get me through the cold season for a long time.  It is absolutely gorgeous and I have it queued in Ravelry and ready to go, once I cut down on some of my other projects that are already on the needles.

All the patterns are nature inspired patterns, which is why I feel a review of them the day before the Fall Equinox is perfect! Take a look at all the available patterns within this book on Ravelry.  If you would like to win a copy of the book, leave me a comment on my blog by next Friday, September 30th to enter to win a copy of your own.  I will pull a winner using a random number generator and will email the winner a Ravelry code provided by Erica.

Finished Sweater & Something New

I have actual finished items to report about, which if you follow me on Ravelry or Google+ you already know about it, but I still felt that I should share my somewhat newly finished item here as well.  I actually finished about a week or two ago, but I've been mighty busy lately so it's taken a while for me to report it here.  

 

It's the Bijou Sweater by Marnie MacLean and it was published at Twist Collective in the Winter 2008 issue. I really love this sweater because it has the perfect amount of warmth to it, but is still pretty breezy.  Perfect for fall weather in Miami, so long as it's not 90 degrees or more out.  Also, it a pretty flexible pattern that I think looks good on any body type.  I'm not the thinest girl around, and I know this, so I'm pretty self-conscious about how certain items look on me, but this really isn't so bad.

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After I finished this sweater, I decided to try my hand at designing one of my own.  I thougth of a nice breezy design with some cabling down the center.  I'm using Kidsilk Haze for it on size 5 needles and taking some of what I learned from the Bijou pattern to create this one.  Here's what I have so far.

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I have certain design elements in mind that I still need to work through - like do I want V-neck or scoop? Cap sleeves, tank or long sleeves?  Should I make it like an empire waist interrupting the cabling pattern right under the breasts or should I continue it up and split the cables so that I moves up on either side of the V/scoop neck?  If I decide on V neck, how do I continue the cable pattern on the back section of the sweater?

 

As you can see, there are still a lot of questions and there will be a bit of a learning curve for my very first design.

 

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There has also been a shop update!  The above yarn is up on my Etsy site.  It's hand dyed knit picks bare yarn and would make an amazing pair of socks!  It's 463 yards, so it should be more than enough to make a regular sized pair of socks.  Beyond the hand dyed yarn, there is still a lot of handspun.  

 

 

Scour Day

I have been putting it off for too long, and yesterday I decided to day would be the day.  Of course, today it decides to rain some, but I'm hoping the weather will hold out for me.  I will be working with this today,

...this gorgeous, mostly white, Icelandic fleece;  58 oz of it.  It easily has a 6-8 inch staple length, and although it is a very dirty sheep, like it smelt like the farm was in my yard kinda dirty, after a quick skirt, it was nicely shorn, and only had two really big mats that needed to be removed because there was no way I was going to be able to get it back to normal.  

I would say that about 80% of the fleece looks like what I'm holding above.  I seriously can't wait to start working with this, because I already see it as being a dream to spin up.  

I'm also finally scouring the chocolate part of the Jacob's fleece I've had laying around.  This is the fun part of my dilema, because I had no idea what I was going to scour all this wool in.  The sink in the backyard really isn't big enough for all of this, and I would hate to be dragging all this wet wool from the bathroom to the backyard to lay out and dry.  I also don't have a top loading washer, so it had to be done in basins in the backyard, that really is the best solution.  So I went out to my backyard this morning and I looked around for something that would make a good scouring basin, and I found my cooler.  It was like a light bulb went off in my head.  The cooler is would be perfect!  It's the perfect size to soak a lot of wool, it would keep heat in and it has a nifty little drain plug at the bottom so I could empty it without too much effort!  

The other problem I ran into was that I wanted to keep the two fleece separate and I only had one big cooler to work with, so I continued to search the yard and all my storage places, and I found some big rubbermaid storage bins.  Perfect!  It's not as good as the cooler, but for what I needed, it would do.  The cooler was large enough for the Jacob's fleece, and the Rubbermaid bin was large enough for the Icelandic!  So I filled up the bins with really hot water and Dawn detergent and in they went.

 

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 The dirty sheep are getting their much needed baths today.  After their second pass, they're starting to look a lot better. 

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 And finally they are soaking up some sun to dry out.  I think the Icelandic could use another pass with dawn, but I want to dry it out, fluff it some to get some of the debris out of the locks, and soak it some more because it's just really dirty.  It is looking much better, and it's definitely smelling much better, but I think it could use one more soak.  I may be wrong, we'll see once it's dry, but as of right now, I feel there may be a lot of "stuff" still in it.

 

 

To Re-Dye or Not

Yesterday's yarn soup came out looking like this, and I'm not sure if I should redye to fill in the white spots or leave it as is.  It kind of reminds me of acid washed jeans, but is it something that transfers nicely unto yarn or not?

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The yarn itself is handspun, single-ply BFL at 14wpi, which is roughly a sport weight yarn, so this would make a nice sweater, shawl, scarf, hat, etc.  Something that doesn't require a whole lot of bulk or strength like a sock would.  

What do you all think: should I re-dye or leave it as is?