Breaking out the knitting machine

A wonderful resource has been lying in a box under my bed for the last three years: my knitting machine. I purchased it a little over three years ago, set it up, starting learning how to operate the thing, made one shawl, and then had to pack it up in preparation for a move that took over a year to occur. And it's been in that box all this time. With a little nudge from my husband (who cleared off his desk for me to set it up - thank you, Bob!), it has emerged from the dust bunnies and has now taken up residence in my bedroom, waiting to zip up some fab creations.

In preparation for it's use, I've gone back to some of my stash items, such as the pale yellow and pale pink 100% silk yarns harvested from two J. Jill sweaters I purchased at a yard sale for 75 cents each. Remember these?

They are ideal for my Studio/Singer/Silver Reed SK-700 standard gauge machine. They're either heavy lace or sock weight, and there's plenty of yardage. Just how much yardage, though, was in question. In addition, they still are very wavy from being unraveled. So, I decided to quit putting off the inevitable and start preparing these beauties for their makeover.

First, I needed to get them straightened out. I dug out my long-forgotten niddy-noddy and got to work. I also got to use my beautiful but neglected yarn bowl!

Starting with the pink yarn, I used the niddy-noddy to transform the little "cakes" of yarn into hanks, measuring them as I went along.

After noting the yardage for each hank,

I gave each a dunking into some cool water and then hung them with some weight to straighten them out.

And now they look like this!

Success!

Step 1 accomplished. Tomorrow I'll wind them back into cakes to prepare them for use on the knitting machine and I'll settle on some patterns to try. It's so exciting!



Collar done - finally!

At long last, I finished the Irish Lace Collar.

It turned out larger than I thought it would be, but I really love it. This has been a true educational project for me in learning to interpret vaguely-written patterns and trying to understand the intention of the designer. It took me longer than I would have wished, but it was totally worth it.

Here's a closeup of one of the scalloped areas:

I blocked it last night and persuaded all those little triple picots to behave themselves and line up straight.

So, that's Project #3 finally done.

Last week, I also started and finished Project #10, my first chemo cap to donate to Crochet for Cancer. It allowed me to use up some of the ivory colored eyelash yarn, as well as take up some more of the ivory Silk-Bamboo. The original pattern is called Faux Fur by Nancy Brown and I found it in the book 100 Hats to Knit & Crochet. I like to call it my Phyllis Diller Hat:

Now, I'm off to have fun at The Knitting Closet! Be back later for more destashing projects.

Getting back to my stash

With all the projects I had going, it's been a while since I've checked into my stash to continue logging. So yesterday I dove in again. I thought I had recorded all my commercial yarns, but I found two more that had slipped by me.

First up is about a half skein of Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends in a color called Tundra.

One-and-a-half skeins of this bulky yarn was used to make a cute slouchy hat for my daughter back in February, and I have this half-skein leftover. Haven't decided yet what I'll do with it.

Next up is a lovely 3-ply 100% alpaca handspun yarn that I purchased when we lived in Connecticut. It was my first purchase of handspun from a local fair, shortly after I began my fiber fanaticism.

 

 

The color is hard to make out in this photo, but is' a soft, heathery oatmeal color, achieved by plying 3 different colored singles: natural (off white), dark brown, and a fawn color. I made a scarf for my husband with the bulk of it, and have about 267 yards of this remaining. Again, no ideas yet, but at least it's measured and logged. :)

Reaching deep into one of my stash bins, I pulled out a couple of bags with yarns from unraveled sweaters. I absolutely love obtaining yarn this way. Both of these sweaters were FREE from the "clothing closet" event a local church puts on about three times a year. I bring them our hand-me-down clothes, and then I "shop" for used garments for our family.

For the past several years, this has been a wonderful way to harvest free yarn, as well. I'd look for sweaters made from fabulous fibers that either had holes or stains in the garment, and then I'd take them to see if the yarn was salvageable. Sometimes, the garments were not fully finished, and once the seams were ripped, I was left with a mess of short pieces of yarn. That was disappointing (though it provided us with free stuffing for my daughter's handmade pillows!)

More often than not, however, when you get a sweater made with great fibers, it's well constructed too and allows for perfect unraveling. Talk about gratification! I would keep the labels and care instructions, and put all the yarn from one sweater into a single ziplock bag. Unfortunately, I never measured it, so I'm having to do that now. And I can't find my niddy noddy. Phooey. Out comes the yardstick.

Over the years, I've used some of my gleanings for market bags, scrubbies, and even a lovely capelet! There are still bags and bags left in my closet, though, so now is the time to get them all in order.

One bag had a bulky, deep wine-colored tape yarn made with 65% ramie and 35% cotton. The sweater was from The Limited and allegedly handmade.

The color is actually deeper than I could capture today. This flat yarn is strong and sturdy and will work well for things like hobo and market bags. It also reminds me of purple linguini (oops, my Italian is showing). It measured 575 yards, and I've decided to offer it to my crochet class students in the fall.

Another tape yarn was from a J. Jill sweater. It's a smaller (narrow) tape than the purple, and it's made from 77% cotton and 23% nylon, which gives it a nice elasticity.

The color is interesting, too. The tape is primarily a soft, powder blue which is "outlined" in a dark blue, giving the finished product a heathery effect.

I haven't figured the weight yet, so I'm swatching with it before I can find a project for it.

More stash organizing to come, along with a newly discovered opportunity to put a good use to all this yarn! Hooray!