26 posts tagged “yarn ho”

Latest yarn purchase just came rolling in: 1 skein of Malabrigo worsted in Stonechat, and two skeins each of Tonalita in colors Flower and Stone & Ash from Yarn Country.

I have a skein of Pearl Malabrigo to go with that Stonechat, and I'm going to be turning them into a Center Square before long. (This year, I seem to have a thing for hats... Especially since the Tonalita are both slated to become Short-Row hats.  .. Minus the little i-cord at the top, but. Same pattern.)

Other good things: Also purchased some Noro Silk Garden, but traded it to a knitter friend for some sock-size circular needles -- She says she has the better end of the deal, which is probably true. The colors were fabulous, but the yarn didn't have enough softness for me to know what to do with it -- I'd rather it found a new home where it won't languish in the stash for eternity,after all. (And, I'm used to working with witchy little DPNs, so the circulars should be just fine for me.)

Now, confession time: These hats-to-be are Christmas presents. So my stash enhancement is really more for selection of gifts.

Lastly, I miss my spinning wheel. I really need to finish putting the finish on the thing, but the humidity this summer's been leaving me in despair: I suspect I'll have to re-sand the parts, which is really very disheartening, but I also can't put the varnish on in this weather because it'll never dry in the muggy wet conditions. (Big, big sigh.)
And I have all this roving lying around, begging to be turned into something, and all I've got are my handspindles.

... My handspindles are lovely, don't get me wrong. I'm just still not entirely sure I've got the talent to make more than fifty or a hundred yards of yarn. (And not all on one spindle, either. Aw.) Plus, those are singles, and I'm still kind of erratic, and... Whine, whine, complain, mope, you get the idea. ;) Which probably means I should be handspindling, darn it, because then I'd get better at it.

Another Christmas project this year: Socks.
I haven't really tackled socks recently, and it's frustrating to me: I was having fun with my two-at-once socks, but that project seems to have fallen out of my knitting bag and took my favorite sock double-point needles with it. (Grumble.) It's high time I tried them again, especially with as many socks as I have in my Ravelry queue.

Time's moving a little too quickly for me these days, it seems: I thought about posting my recent Etsy finds -- two weeks ago, not realizing how much time had actually slipped away.

Hoo boy.

So, I'll be backposting my finds for Saint Patrick's, and I'll just try to be better in the future. :}

First off: I recently joined a fiber and spindle club, from Etsy's Butterfly Girl Designs.
I originally found Butterfly Girl Designs thanks to the Winter 2008 edition of Knitty's Cool Stuff: She's featured in the lower third of the page, if you want to take a look, but it doesn't tell you a single thing about how very cool a person this seller is.  She didn't get irked when I went all bouncy-like and excited about the fiber club that I'd just missed buying -- and she did indeed let me know when the fiber club opened again.
(Also, she writes occasionally to comment on the other spindles I've found on Etsy; it turns out she was giving serious consideration to the Time Flies spindle, too -- though she said she was glad it'd found a good home.)  :)

So, a week ago, my first fiber/spindle club order came in, and this was the result:

Temptation is a blend of cashmere, silk, camel, and merino: And yes, it really is tempting. I'm almost half a mind to asking her to just send more of that so I can spin up a sweater's worth -- but then I'd miss out on all her other lovely possibilities. (And I know they're lovely, since I've bought Blue Morpho, Blackbird, and Tuscany, all merino/bamboo blends  -- with the latter two including firestar for glitz.)

And the Italian Resin spindle is just a happy, lovely coincidence, since I've recently decided square whorl spindles are pretty nifty. :)

And speaking of the Time Flies spindle -- Yorkieslave's another Etsy spindle seller that I can't seem to find enough good things to say to give you the full picture of how very awesome she is. She's actually taken a commission from me, because she had some really interesting Cheetah and Cougar spindles -- but no tigers. (I have a great love for tigers.)

Spindle in Progress, by Yorkieslave

I'm in awe.
Also, yes, that is a very large spindle: I wanted it that way, since my current largest spindle is a little on the difficult side. (No hook. And no, it's not a supported spindle.)

Also, her fiber batts are very creative color-wise, and so, so soft: I bought more of her colorway of Alice,  which is the mini-batt that came with my Tempus Fugit spindle -- mostly because I am a lover of yarns, and soft roving and batts are just an extension of that. :)

So, since I've been more active on Ravelry recently, I'm making use of my Fuji FinePix S700 and taking pictures of everything -- trying to drag out the projects I still have in my possession, snap pictures, and so on. (I'm still desperately sorry that all I have is a really wonky picture of my Jayne hat, back before I had a better camera.) 

And now I've moved on to my stash.
Which is crazy.

See, I've been very good at putting in what I remembered from my stash -- but oh my lord, I've forgotten so many. I didn't include my Malabrigo worsted in Pearl -- I promise, Malabrigo, I still love you!  And then there was the accidental discovery of two skeins of robin's egg Debbie Mumm Traditions yarn, back when its center core was still black. And so many other things.

I'm having a lot of fun taking pictures and rediscovering my stash -- so far, there's only two skeins where I'm going, "Uh, what exactly was this again?"

Guess my memory is better than I thought. ;)

Current Project:  The Tilted Duster, from Interweave Knits (Fall 2007).
I've been working on this thing off and on since the 16th of January -- more off than on, lately, since work's been crazy busy. So, beginning week 3 here, and I'm about half done. (I'm also contemplating hacking the pattern a little bit since I haven't knit up the sleeves yet, and I really, truly hate seaming sleeves -- I may just pick up stitches and work my way down, see how that works out for me. Honestly, as long as I've been doing it, you'd think I might have more patience with finishing than I do.)

But once that's finished, I'm thinking about diving into another sweater -- well. I still have to make my husband's Space Invaders sweater, and that's going to involve getting his feedback on whether he wants me to do little invaders or big invaders, and there's nothing saying I can't make two sweaters at once, right?
I really, really want to make Elann.com's Pinwheel sweater. I want to make it in a kid size for a friend of mine, though that can wait a little while yet: I want to make a larger one in harvest colors for me, me, meee.  (... I am a greedy knitter.)
And perhaps coincidentally, Webs recently threw a clearance sale on their stock of Di.Ve' Zenith. Which is a very soft yarn that appeals to my inner yarn ho, no doubt because of the whole merino wool aspect. So I went and pounced merrily on the sale, picking out the autumn colors I wanted.

Naturally, there had to be a problem.
When I finished picking colors and made the order at Webs, I didn't notice that they only had one skein of the red (color 33086) left in stock before I placed the order... And I needed a total of five.

I've managed to get my grubby lil' paws on three more skeins thanks to eBay: As well,  Avery on Ravelry is about one of my favorite people ever right now since she had the presumably last single skein of 33086 I could find on the web, and she was willing to sell it to me. (Actually, the only reason I pinged her about it was because she'd marked it as willing to sell or trade: She wanted to de-stash a little, and I wanted the yarn. I believe/hope we both got what we wanted.)

Friended a few more people I know on Ravelry, added and adjusted pictures on my stash and my projects -- all in all, the past couple days have been productive on that site, and it makes me smile a little.

Next up: Unravelling the Askew I made a year or so ago and have never worn to recover the yarn for other things...

... Well, only a partial enhancement, anyway.

I'm going to let you in on a secret.
I love super-soft yarn. And that puts yarns like Trendsetter's Tonalita and Di.Ve' Autumno high on my list.
If I can get the softness of those with machine washable? I am all over it -- which is why I was both elated and distressed to find Di.Ve' Zenith. Soft superwash wool! Oh my goodness!

Since Webs is having a clearance sale on Zenith and I cannot find a reliable source of it anywhere else, I suspect it's been discontinued... Which breaks my poor yarn harlot-y heart.

I need four skeins of Zenith in the red (33086) shade.
Why? Well, I want to make this Pinwheel sweater that Elann has as a free pattern, and I've already got this great spectrum of warm colors... and only one skein of the red when I need five total for the spiral and the arms.

Can anyone help me out, parchance?

Much like GLaDOS, I'm not quite lying down and saying die just yet.

On the contrary, I've been trying to get with it and actually get around to using my Ravelry and LibraryThing accounts to actually (gasp!) track my yarn stash, open projects, and shelf invasion book collection (respectively).  I've had the accounts for a good while, after all, best to start making use of them.

Time really got away with me after the wedding in June, and life hasn't really slowed down since: Work this, car trouble that, and parents/family the other thing. Life. It happens when you have other plans, or so I've heard.

I am pleased to announce that my first ever attempt at candy making was a smash, even if I did end up burning myself on a 300°F pot full of candy -- literally just the pot and not the hot molten sugar, or else I would probably not be quite as blase about it.  Still, the recipe that I originally found on Serious Eats' Photograzing section (and now can't, naturally) made it sound really simple -- and it was, and everyone that got some for Christmas seemed to be happy with it.

Anyway. 2008 had some definite high and low points: I can only hope that 2009 treats me as well, all things considered.

Been a long time since I've written: Mea culpa, mea culpa. Life tends to grab me and run away at top speed.

This past week, I got my hands on a yarn winder for half price at JoAnn.com, and I've been using it with my umbrella swift to wind up any and all hanks of yarn I have lying about the house.
This also means that I finally had the tools to frog my Malabrigo merino poncho and ball it up for a new project.

I loved my poncho: It was my first big project, the first larger-than-a-scarf garment I was actually able to wear, and the Malabrigo meant it was insanely soft and cuddly. I'd been looking at it lately, though, and finding some amateurish mistakes: Parts where the stitches were seriously uneven, parts where the pick-up for the hood gapped and pulled and left holes, parts where I'd dropped stitches and never noticed. That poncho was always warm and something I was incredibly happy to wear, but I knew the longer I wore it, the more it would come apart and eventually fall apart irreparably.
So I took it apart and salvaged the yarn, frogging the six to seven skeins by winding it onto the swift, and then wound it up into a center-pull cake on the winder. (Which prompted the fiance -- who had patiently helped me with the project by playing engine to keep the swift rotating while I frogged lengths of yarn free -- to comment that the night's work sure looked pointless now.  ... I then grinned at him and reminded him that all the hanks of yarn I get require winding into balls, and the balls are then knit into projects, and that's all part of the process rather than wasted effort -- and that seemed to leave him a little more gratified.)

I'm now halfway through the back of a modified Roam -- I'm opting out on the seed stitch, since my left wrist started hurting when I was working up a Roam as written (in the shade redwood forest of fingering-weight Memories), and because the Malabrigo is decidedly heavier than DK weight, I've had to do a little math to keep it sized appropriately. I'm having fun doing it at any rate, and I'm getting to intermittently cuddle my Malabrigo again.

Honestly, I love that wool. If only it weren't so expensive, I swear I'd use it to the exclusion of all other yarns... Excepting for the friends of mine that are wool sensitives, of course, but for me? I'd live in the stuff, especially since they seem to now offer it in both lace and chunky weights, and I'm pretty much hopelessly in love with all things merino.

I'm rather fixated on the current pseudo-Roam I've got going, though, so with any luck I'll have pictures of a finished hoodie in the next couple of weeks.

... I'll admit to increasing the stash by a cone of cobweb-weight cashmere, but that serves a purpose otherwise known as the veil I'm knitting for my wedding. But. Even that had a purpose, and it wasn't a "Well, I want to knit this for myself just because. Present time, happy unbirthday to me!!" project.
I've been designing my freakin' wedding dress, for goodness' sake. I can see it in my head, and I should really be picking up my needles and the appropriate cones to start up on that.

So what happens instead?
The Fall Knitty comes out, and I go and fall head-over-needles for Roam.

'No,' I tell myself. 'If you're going to focus on a pattern from there, put down the lace section of the Stitchionary and look at Muir. That's something that could work for the wedding, right?'
So my knitting Id largely shushes, but simmers and grumbles.

'No, I'm not making Roam,' I tell my noisy little Id.
'No, I'm not adding to the stash.'
'No, I can't find the recommended Great Big Sea yarn. Yes, I've looked. Everywhere. All right, I'll prove it, you pushy little underbrain.'

So I search, and today? Today, I see this, written a couple days-ish after my last hunt.

Well, feck.
Now she's pointed out substitutions, and I actually have ten skeins of the now-discontinued Memories from Knitpicks -- which is a fingering weight uber-soft merino that I originally bought in three shades to make Thermal, and would fit the looser gauge for more drape requirement.
I keep having images of the red, brown and black yarn in a drawer in my bedroom, neatly balled up for my use.
It would be a perfect Roam, you know.

... Pardon me.
I have to go cast on and make my inner yarn ho shut up.

I'd meant to do this earlier, but then Six Apart had a power failure and I forgot to sit down and type this up. Mea culpa.

Since I'm still new to dyeing yarn, I admit I shy away from dyes that are less ingestion-friendly than, say, Kool-Aid. (I have cats. One of them was once both smart and stupid enough to get into a closed room and drink bleach: A trip to the Pet Emergency Room and $500 later, I learned not to keep things that could poison my cat in the house.)
This means that I've been having fun figuring out palettes with food coloring.

For my original No Sheep buddy, I finished dyeing a skein of raw silk in variegated shades of orange: I did end up using the dip-dye method after having blathered on about it for months a good while, and I think I like the results. There's an interesting little yellow-orange splatter on the natural section, though: I forgot why I usually use latex gloves to handle the yarn. One, keeps my hands clean. Two, the ridges in my fingerprints seem to be a really good hiding place for dye after I've wiped it off. Oops.

I ended up picking up three one-ounce bottles of Kroger food coloring from the local Food for Less, along with a gallon of white vinegar so I knew I'd have enough: Two red and one yellow.
I used my Rival steamer as the yarn cooking pot, as I've personally found the thing to be useless for actually cooking food: I miss my late '70s, early '80s Rival steamer that I inherited from my Mom when she found it. (Old Christmas or anniversary present, I think it was -- and it worked fabulously, up until the seals gave out. I'm still looking for replacement parts, because that thing was WORTH saving.)

I digress.
Using my newer Rival, I set up the water and vinegar: I was perhaps a little careless with the 8 cups water to 1 cup white vinegar, but it didn't seem to hurt (and, remembering not to put the vinegar in the water for the overnight soak was helpful, too) -- and then in went one bottle each of the red and yellow.  I let the steamer come up to heat and then put all but the last eight to ten inches of yarn in the basin, swished it around, and left the white end hanging out over a bowl. Twenty minutes, tug out another six-ish inches, and set the timer for another 30.
Repeat until I've done this three times, and then add the last bottle of red food color, stirring to mix, and then continue until you're down to the last of the yarn in the pot.

At this point, to make sure all the colors set, I dumped the basin, put in fresh water, and also inserted the steamer basket: Coiled the long hank up in the basket with the darkest part on the bottom and covered it, letting the whole thing steam about 30 minutes. ...This would also be the point where my fingerprints added 'interest' to the white end of the yarn. ;)

Anyway. Currently avoiding putting the thing back on the umbrella swift to wind it into something presentable, but that's only because I'm being lazy: I may also still be remembering my last dye experiment, and the Nick-cat deciding that he'd help with the yarn... By playing with it!
I just remember stepping out of the room for a minute and coming back -- pit stop or something, I forget -- to find Nick in a little nest of blue and green and pink, with the world's most innocent "What? What did I do, Mom?" look on his face.

Felines.
But that's why I'll be setting up the swift outside where he can't assist me this time. ;)

Awww. Swap's over for me. ;)

Juni: Thank you! The Summer Linen you sent over arrived safely yesterday, and I'm quietly going mad trying to decide what to do with it -- since, as you know, I've never used linen yarn before (and I was curious about it).
I'm also endlessly amused at the term 'muggle blog' -- I'm going to have to steal that one from you.
Thank you for all your work as my upstream pal -- It's been a really fun experience for my first skein swap. (And also, one more thank you for the birthday wishes -- It's been a blast so far.)

... But, I still have one more package coming for each of my downstream pals.
I've picked up the dye needed for Pal 1's massive skein of raw silk, and now I just need to un- and rewind the hank into sections a little longer than 4' around. (I'm going with the dip-dye method and depending on how pleased I am with the results, may over-dye the whole thing with a lighter color... but if I'm going dip-dye, I think a little more length in the skein keeps things interesting.)
Pal 2's last package is just waiting on some non-wool roving I picked out for her to show up on my doorstep: She's a spinner, I asked if she wanted non-wool roving, and I am also including some yarn, so. She's getting lots o' love through the mail in the next week or two.

I've discovered that I apparently spoil my downstream pals. Another of my knitty friends once told me she's guilty of the same thing: I laughed at her at the time, but I think I know where she's coming from. I tend to overbuy and grab more than one thing for my pals as I want to make sure they've got the thing they want -- I suppose I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to giving gifts. ;)

I'm really glad to have gotten to know a few individuals in this swap... And perhaps that was the point? :)