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!

Working in White

Since learning about the Crochet for Cancer project, I'm looking at this challenge and my stash with new eyes, excited to have a worthy purpose for all that yarn instead of just trying to think of projects to get rid of it. A good deal of my yarn is soft and quite suitable, and so I will be knitting hats for some time, I think. :)

In the meantime, I made up a baby cap which I have labeled Project 9: The Little Boy Blue Ribbed Baby Hat, a sweet little pattern by Tonya Wagner over at The Shiznit site. Of course, she did her hat in blue - thus the title - while mine is white, as I am attempting to whittle away at that Cottontots yarn that just never seems to get used up!

I did this cap up for a newborn, and it is so soft! The darning needle beside it is there for size perspective and, as you can see, this is quite a tiny little fellow. I will probably use up the rest of the yellow and white Cottontots by making up as many of these as I can, and then will donate them to Pregnancy Resources, a wonderful organization here in Brevard County for pregnant women in crisis.

And an update on the Irish Lace Collar, the project that seems like it will never be done! After more stitching and ripping, I'm slowly making headway. As the directions suggested, I gave the collar a light pressing to help organize the placement of all those little triple picots and to help them lie flat so I could do the final rows.

This really is a lovely pattern, although it's more like a faux-Irish Lace. A true Irish Lace, I believe, is all about the motifs, which are quite dense and detailed, and then joined in an amazingly creative way on the lace ground. The "crown" design in this piece gives a nod to those detailed motifs, and the triple picots imitate the look of the lace ground.

Remember the trouble I was having with those picots? Well, the whole idea of a right and wrong side and working into the back of those little buggers creates the illusion of the picots being somehow suspended above the lace chains behind them. Very interesting!

It's not a difficult project at all, but between all the other projects I've been juggling and my difficulty in grasping the idea behind how this collar is constructed, this baby has dragged out way too long. I've enjoyed the challenge, but I will be happy when it's done. And I think all of Ireland should be grateful that they didn't have to depend on me to see them through the potato famine. At the rate I'm working, they would have starved. Erin go Braugh!

Baby sweater set complete

I went ahead with my plan to knit up the sweater to match the baby hat I finished for Project 6. The Ripple Eyelet Baby Sweater is so sweet.

The original photo shows a solid color sweater under the garter ridge for the lacy part, and then a coordinating color for the yoke, but I didn't like this color-block idea. In the matching hat, I had done a single white stripe, so I decided I wanted to do white piping on the sweater. It took a little thought, but I love the finished product. The designer, Jeannie Leech, gives instructions for flat or circular sleeves, and since I hate seaming, I opted for the circular. I also chose to omit the ribbed neckline and opted for a garter edging at the neck, in keeping with the garter edging throughout the rest of the sweater. I couldn't be happier with the results.

Now, I'll have a nice gift set for little Jessica. :)

Unbelievably, there is still quite a bit of both colors of this Cottontots yarn left! This yarn just never ends! However, I've figured out what to do with the rest. My LYS, The Knitting Closet in Palm Bay, is sponsoring Crochet for Cancer and serving as a drop-off site for anyone wanting to help knit or crochet caps for anyone - child, teen, or adult - going through chemotherapy. The soft Cottontots yarn would be perfect (as is much of the yarn in my stash!), so I'll be using up as much as I can to make some caps.

If you live in the Brevard County area, please consider knitting or crocheting a chemo cap or two. Even if you don't knit or crochet, you can come into the shop, purchase some yarn, and donate it for one of our knitters to make on your behalf. Instructions are on The Knitting Closet's Facebook page.

Baby, baby, baby, oh!

Okay, I'll admit that those three words are the only thing I know about Justin Bieber, but they seemed appropriate today because of all the BABY stuff I've been doing!

First up, Project 1, the Zig Zag Baby Blanket blocked beautifully.

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. And it looks so pretty with Project 6, the Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat, that I've decided they're going to be a gift for a little girl named Jessica Jade who is due in a couple of weeks.

This hat is really more for an older infant, though, and I wanted to have a newborn hat for her, as well. I found this gorgeous pattern called the Ava Lynne Baby Hat, and couldn't wait to try it. The designer's name is Jenny Sorensen, and I am so impressed with the beauty of this pattern. It worked up fairly quickly with some of my leftover white Bernat Cottontots and is sooooooo soft!

In keeping with the yellow-white color scheme, I wanted to add a little flower applique and found a Tropical Flower pattern by Jessica Zeltner on her blog, Living the Craft Life. This sweet little flower worked up in minutes, using a small amount of my pale yellow Size 10 crochet thread.

Isn't that pretty? And it looks so cute on the hat.

 

So there's Project 7. I'm so excited to give these items to my sweet young friend awaiting her baby girl. If I have enough of the yellow and white Cottontots yarn left, I may attempt a beautiful little sweater designed by Jeannie Leech to match the Ripple Eyelet hat. That would made a perfect set.

Quick Fill-In Projects

I took a little time out from Projects 1 & 3 to whip up a little gift for a dear lady who blessed me this week. I wanted to make something lovely but not too personal. When she saw me crocheting the Irish Lace Collar, she made some very kind comments and bemoaned the "lost art." Perfect. I decided it would be some crocheted lace and searched through some patterns online and in my library. Then I remembered the delicate Undercover Bookmarker I had done several years ago as thank-you gifts for some of my children's homeschool co-op instructors.

It's a quick project, which I finished in about an hour and a half. A gentle touch with a steamy iron is all that's needed to set it straight, unless you want to pin open all those little loops to block it properly. Not surprisingly, I took the shortcut.

Kathryn A. White is the designer of this little gem, and let me tell you, this lady is a creative genius with crocheted lace. I can't wait to try more of her patterns, especially because I have SO MUCH COTTON THREAD!!!

I really do.

I've finished the Zig Zag Baby Blanket, and it's being blocked as I type. Unfortunately, it didn't use up all the yarn as I'd hoped it would. In looking for other baby items I could make to get through the remainder of the Bernat Cottontots, I found a very sweet pattern on Ravelry called the Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat, designed by Bonnie Brann. It's a knitted hat that has a similar pattern to the blanket! How cool is that?

The pattern is written as a flat piece to be seamed up at the end, but I hate seaming and so decided to work it in the round using circular needles and the magic loop method. I love using magic loop, particularly for pieces that will decrease in diameter, as it overrides the need for using double-pointed needles. You just keep working, using the same long cable, and voila!

I knitted most of it during my son's District track meet yesterday, and finished it up when I got home. We don't have any more babies in my home, nor any large dolls, so blocking is always tricky when I've made a baby hat. My solution? A large vase turned upside down covered with a clean towel and some plastic bags stuffed into the crown. Hehe. Looks silly, but I think it's working:

Time to tally up: Projects 1 and 2 are now complete. I'm still laboring over Project 3 - crocheting, ripping, crocheting, ripping, ad infinitum. I will count the Victorian Egg Covers as Project 4, the Undercover Bookmarker as Project 5 and the Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat as Project 6, since they all helped reduce my stash, however little.

What's next? The Asymmetrical Top didn't work out as planned. The 100% silk I harvested from the unraveled J.Jill sweater is just not soft enough (versus Paton's Silk & Bamboo, which my sister is using). So I think I'll save that yarn and attempt some lace shawls. I'm not sure there is any yarn in my stash suitable for the Top, however. That idea may have to simmer on the back burner a while.

Today will be a search-the-stash-and-plan-more-projects kind of day. Can't wait!

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.

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.