Wanted: Felted projects using eyelash yarn

Another find in my stash included several balls of eyelash yarn. They're all Lion Brand Fun Fur yarns, although a couple of them were missing their labels. There are three fulls balls of the Ivory color, and one each of the Confetti (center) and Cotton Candy (bottom).

I used eyelash yarns years ago to decorate my daughter's flip-flops and for trim on some chemo caps a group of teens and I once made to bring to the local American Cancer Center offices. But I'm not really into the eyelash stuff for myself.

However, I have seen felted bags and such using eyelash yarn, so I'm going to start looking for these kinds of patterns. Here's a website that had good info: http://www.knittingonthenet.com/felt.htm. My closet has plenty of raw wool that I've spun myself and also some from sweaters I've unraveled. As soon as I settle on some definite projects, they'll go into my Ravelry queue.

As for the Zig Zag Baby Blanet and the Cozy Striped Kerchief, they are both coming along splendidly! Never has cleaning, organizing and purging been such a joyful task!

On first projects and recycled yarn

In yesterday's post, I forgot to talk about the first project in my challenge - the Zig Zag Baby Blanket. I found the free pattern for this blanket on Ravelry, offered by http://www.knitculture.com/. Using the Sunshine (yellow) and Wonder White Bernat Cottontots yarn in my stash, I started on this blanket right away, and here's how it's looking so far:

Isn't it pretty? The yellow and white are so cheerful together. Thank you, Knit Culture, for the lovely pattern!

As for the second project, last night I had an idea. The pattern for the Cozy Striped Kerchief indicates - obviously - that there are stripes in the finished product. I had originally thought I'd just do the whole thing as a solid color using the Silk & Bamboo paired with the CityLife ladder yarn. However, the idea of a contrasting stripe began to appeal to me, and I thought about what I could use.

Wait! I remembered something! While going through the stash over the last five days, I ran across a ziplog bag full of little brown balls of yarn. Oh yeah, I was unraveling a sweater I had picked up A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO at a local clothing swap. The unraveling was almost finished and, for some reason, I put it down, never to think of it again. Sheesh!

The fiber on this sweater was gorgeous. It had a heathery brown/bronze look, and it consisted of 70% tussah silk and 30% cotton. This was perfect for the kerchief since it was comparable to the fiber content in the silk/bamboo yarn.The sweater itself had a fraying hole in it too severe to repair, so I took it with joy. It felt like I was rescuing that beautiful yarn!

Upon unraveling, it revealed itself to be a 2-ply laceweight yarn made of one strand of brown and one of tan, thus the heathery result.

I knew I couldn't use it as is, but then I tried putting four of those 2-ply strands together, gave them a twist in the opposite direction, and realized I would have an 8-ply DK weight yarn right there. Yippee! I asked my daughter to dig out my long-neglected drop spindle and got to work.

Ta-da! You know, God is so good. He gives us so many little things that bring us joy. This brings me joy. :) I used the brown on the garter ridge, as indicated in the pattern, and I really like the way it looks.

I haven't decided yet if I'll use it on every garter ridge, although it will help extend the kerchief a bit. I'm not sure how long the one skein of ladder yarn will hold out and I'm committed to not purchasing anything else to complete any of these projects. So, I'll wing it and get as much out of each of these three yarns as possible to be able to make the kerchief its intended size.

By the way, keeping these two projects going at once has revealed something to me. In the past, I would begin a project, work on it for a while, get bored, put it down, and then forget about it. Then I'd stumble upon another fascinating project and repeat the cycle. It's no wonder there were so many unfinished projects in my house!

However, keeping two or three projects going at once seems to detour this problem. If one project becomes tedious, I can set it down, pick up another, and keep going. In this way, I have been finishing more projects than ever. Thanks again, God, for those little mercies.

A good start

What a fun and interesting week this has been. I dove into the task of identifying, organizing, and documenting my stash, but I was in for a few surprises. For instance, on the first day, I went into the bottom bin of my craft drawers and found a bag from WEBS with four balls of beautiful sock yarn.

Good golly. Really? I had completely forgotten that I bought these last year when I began my sock craze. It was closeout yarn at great prices, and I had very good intentions, but once in the drawer they were out of my mind. The skeins in the top photo are called Ocala Beach and the ones on bottom are called Hickory. They are both Classic Elite Yarns' Summer Sox made of 40% merino wool, 40% cotton and 20% nylon. So beautiful and soft! It beats me what I was planning to do with them, so I won't worry about it now. Maybe socks, maybe a scarf or wristlet or shawl. We'll see.

Another happy surprise was the Paton's Silk & Bamboo DK yarn in Almond. I knew I had leftover yarn from a scarf I had made my mother years ago, but I didn't realize how much of it I had left; almost an entire ball, for some reason all cut up into separate balls. ????? Who knows.

Now, here's the best part. Last week, I met a lady making a lovely kerchief/scarf using one strand of this yarn along with one strand of a ladder yarn. Well, wouldn't you know it? I had a skein of Premier Yarn's CityLife ladder yarn that I had purchased last month, thinking I would make some kind of jewelry from it. Pshaw! Forget the jewelry. I decided to start the Cozy Striped Kerchief  (a free pattern from Patons) using these two yarns. The CityLife color is called Feline, and it combines silver with squares of light blue, brown, tan, and black:

 

 

So, I started the Kerchief on 2/21, and here's what it looks like so far:



 

 

 

 

 

I love it!

 

 



 



Let's begin....

I never wanted to start a blog. I had no desire for it. I've encouraged many of my friends to blog, knowing that it would help their businesses, and I've followed blogs that I've found interesting or helpful. But why would I blog? What would I say? Who would care?

Since adolescence, I've never kept a diary or a journal for more than a couple of weeks. Each time I'd try, in the back of my mind there was always one nagging thought: Anne Frank.

It's ridiculous, I know, but I couldn't help it. With each word I wrote, I could't stop thinking, "What happens if someone finds this? How will this sound?" And without fail, I'd find myself writing melodramatic silliness. Inevitably, I'd just quit. What's the use of keeping a journal if you're not going to be honest?

So why am I doing a blog?

Well, I'm telling myself, it's not a journal. It's not a diary. It's a log.

Isn't that the same thing?

No. This has nothing to do with my innermost thoughts and feelings. No drama-queen drivel allowed here. This is all about keeping a record. I like the sound of that.

Here's what's behind all this. I have set a challenge for myself.

Confession time: There is a great deal of yarn in my closet. A lot of yarn. Scads of yarn. How much is a scad? Let's put it this way: I have more yarn in my closet than I have clothes and shoes. Over the last 8 years, it has begun to infiltrate my husband's side. And - in my best Anthony LaPaglia voice - "He's not happy."

I have collected yarn for many years. Some of it has been purchased. Some of it has been spun (and that's another subject altogether). A great deal of it I have obtained at no cost at all. I seem to be the go-to girl when friends, relatives, and countrymen want to dump their yarn and needles and hooks. The rest of the free stuff was obtained by picking up ripped or stained sweaters made from beautiful fibers from a local church's Clothing Closet event and unraveling them. Yay! Free yarn! And it is beautiful stuff, but I never gave a thought for that yarn's future.

I love to knit and crochet. I just love it! No secret there for anyone who knows me. Strangely enough, though, every new project seemed to require new yarn.

The Challenge? To use up my entire stash of yarn by this time next year.

And that means no more yarn comes into this house until the stash is gone!

My progress so far: I've begun recording my stash on my Ravelry page, so that will help me keep my projects organized. I'm not sure how I'll list the unraveled-sweater yarns, yet, but I'll figure it out. Ravelry also offers a "Queue" page on which I can list any future projects I'd like to make and the yarn I'll use for it. This way, I'll be able to link each project with the stashed yarn. Hurrah for getting organized and setting goals!

(As for all the unspun fiber in plastic bins up on my closet shelves.... well, no need to overwhelm myself. One challenge at a time. Yikes.)

Let the knitting begin. First up: A pretty baby blanket to use up 6 skeins (3 yellow/3 white) of Bernat Cottontots worsted weight. Not sure where it will go when finished, but I'll be praying about that while I knit.