Knitted Things

In keeping with my GOAL, I have finished a hat I started aaaaaages ago. This counts for my hat this week. It's made with "Freedom Spirit" by Twilleys of Stamford (no link because I can only find distributors, no Twilleys website), which is a nice light DK single in 100% wool. "Essence" colourway; I love this yarn for its self-stripey-ness!

Gosh, Cassie is super cute.

I'm also making some pink spiral armwarmers!

I'm making the pattern up as I go, but I'm taking the time to write it down properly! So both armwarmers will *match* and I can make more, and/or try selling the pattern! Which would be nice...I'm actually reasonably pleased with how they're turning out so far. The yarn is a decent choice, it's chained soft acrylic, though it has a tendency to split apart, which is a little annoying.

Today in class I noticed that I have lost most of my ability to spell. Which usually isn't a problem, thanks to computorz, but ...yeah.

I dyed a bunch of yarn at craft night yesterday, here's a picture of how the top turned out:

It was the first time I've dyed top, so I think it maaaay have felted a little, but I'm pretty sure it's still spinnable? (Maybe part of the reason I can't spell anymore is that I make up words so much of the time!) There's two pieces here, I only did little bits in case I fucked up. I really like the colours of both, but the stuff on the right is my favourite. They still smell like vinegar because I didn't want to rinse them too much, but I figure I'll get that out after spinning, when I full it.

Finally, I made a spindle! For the first time! Out of a skewer, a plastic gear, and hot glue. It is very light and feels extremely breakable, so I'm not entirely comfortable with it yet.

Hopefully I won't sit on it.

CakeFAIL and Tasty Yarn

Oh man. This is the worst cake I have ever made. Possibly I just forgot to oil the pan, but I used a fancy bunt cake pan thing (because it was clean) so I couldn't get it out without destroying it. Witness this fact:

My cake is a terrible, godless lie.

The yarn turned out pretty well though! The storebought stuff (on the left) is a really nice intense green-y blue, heat-set in the microwave. More of a uniform colour than I'd anticipated, but I love the colour, and there's enough variegation to keep me interested. Obviously I should stick to crafts and never cook again.



Two of the handspun skeins (on the right) didn't get as much dye. I can't decide if I want to do another immersion dye intensify the colour...I really like the colour right now, and I like how it blends, but I also love intense colours! The third skein turned out intensely yellow (below), and I was going to ply it with two dark-ish blue.green skeins, but with the two blue.green skeins dyed as they are, the yellow would just overpower them and it would not look the best. But I really like how the blue.green skeins turned out, the colour is slightly more blended on one, and slightly patchier on the other, so hopefully they would look neat if I plied them? I'm leaning towards this option, I can always spin more yarn to ply with the bright yellow single if need be.

I finally finished a kandi order for etsy...I haven't really posted m/any pictures of kandi on here, but yes I make kandi! The packs of ten singles are what sell best in my store, actually. I don't trade it as much as I used to, partly because I don't go to quite as many raves, but mostly because I have other crafts (and trades!) to focus on, so I don't have a gazillion bracelets ready for trade at all times.

There are 12 bracelets here because I was late shipping...eep!

I am quite angry at my roommate, who told me she was moving out August 3rd, but now is not moving out for another "week and a bit." I'm moving into her room, but (obviously) I can't do that till she's gone, and I can't go on holiday until I've moved (because people need to move into my room while I'm gone).

Angst!

Vacation will be difficult, because I will not be able to check my mail. Plus I probably can't organise lots more swaps! I do need to work on doing less swaps, though, since I'm doing more classes in the fall. Sigh. I'd rather swap than learn. Though! A friend is going to give me acrylic painting lessons! Which is exciting, I've never had painting lessons before!

This has turned into a very chatty post, but it's around 4am, so I guess it's just that time of night. Also, sorry for the particularly terrible pictures! My (other) roommate is asleep in my room, which is where my good light is.

Here's a knitted lace swatch made from a tiny bit of re-spun yarn! The pattern's not that clear because the yarn ended up a little overspun and bumpy. But I like it! Trying to decide if I want to (a) keep it (b) art with it (c) yarnbomb with it.

Dyed Yarn and Beads!

So far I've dyed two of the skeins I got a few days ago! Both are dip-dyed with food colouring, and steam-set in the microwave. I'm really happy with how they turned out!


This one reminds me of this gum.



The first one I re-skeined after dying it on a slightly smaller niddy-noddy, which is why the different colours are all mixed up together; the second one I just twisted into a hank. Which do you think looks better? I'm not sure which I prefer.


I got inspired by this person's photos to play with polymer clay again! I made some beads and mushroom pendants. I forgot they were in the oven, so they got a liiiiiittle overcooked. Heh, oh well.



I threaded them into sets and attached them to little cards because I'm going to take them to Rare Funk. I've got an assignment account there, but I haven't really used it, only taken some hats there aaaages ago. I have some armwarmers I knitted that I might take there - I made up the pattern so it's legal for me to sell them. Ftw!

I'm kind of annoyed at Canada Post, I wasn't home when they delivered a package, so I have to pick it up, which is fine, but it is not at the post office that is LITERALLY around the corner from me, or at the one which is a 5 minute walk away, or the one that's a 10 minute walk away. It's actually not that far away, but there are THREE post offices that are closer than the one I have to go to! Bah.

Also, for some reason I got 407 views on my flickr two days ago - waaay more than usual. No idea what's up with that.

Yarn forms

I've realised that skeined yarn is the prettiest way for yarn to be stored. I skeined a ball of the white yarn I bought this morning (on my DIY niddy-noddy!) in preparation for dying, and for some reason it looks so much more appealing than when it was in a centre-pull ball. They are both Paton's classic wool in Winter White.



Maybe it's because the yarn isn't all criss-crossed, or because fancier yarn is usually skeined, or because it looks like a sugar twist, or because it's harder to use in a skein. I just don't know! I have actually noticed that most variegated yarn looks better before it's knitted/crocheted. Which is sad, because I really really like variegated yarn, but then am always disappointed once I've knitted/crocheted it. Self-striping is SUPER satisfying though, oh man. Especially Noro. Mmmmmm, Noro.

I also spun about 116m of yarn, and it's ready for dying too! I'm going to use this for plying, so I'm trying to decide if I want to dye it now, or wait until I've made a second skein. I've only got a drop spindle, so I'm only going to attempt 2-ply for now. I'm leaning towards doing separate initial dyebaths for some spotty colours, then one big dyebath with both of them for overall colour.

Speaking of dying, I read Hand-Dying Yarn and Fleece the other day. It was interesting, definitely had some useful information for a beginning dyer (is dyer the word I want?). I've been baking my yarn to dye it, guessing at the time and temperature, based on vague instructions from the lady at the knitting store. This books deals with using a stovetop or microwave, so I don't know if I've been doing it wrong (probably). Anyway, the basic instructions are useful, and she has some interesting alternative methods, but there's a lot of repetition in the instructions, to the point that I feel like a bunch of different methods could really have been one set of instructions, with a "try these alternatives" section. So yes, worth reading, but I'm glad I got it out of the library.

Is two blog posts in one day excessive? What is your favourite way for yarn to be stored? Should I go eat bacon?

Pressing questions.

ALL THE YARN

I am proud to announce I can now go into Len's Mill without attempting to buy ALL THE YARN. I think it's because I'm now a total yarn snob, and want to save my yarn money for buying gorgeous fancy yarn.

Anyway, I got some white 100% wool yarn because I want to practice dying yarn! I'm only using food colouring for now, since I can get it locally, it makes bright colours, and I can still use the dishes I dye in afterwards. I've only dyed yarn I've spun so far, but spinning takes quite a while, and I'd like to be able to practise on yarn I didn't put tons of effort into.

Here's the skein of yarn I spun + dyed most recently:



100% "organic fibre" from Louet (I'm not sure what "organic fibre" means). Hand spun with a drop spindle. Single ply. Hand dyed with food colouring. Approx 200m, 145g, DK weight. There's a bit of slub in this, but not as much as previous yarn I've spun!