Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year

Well, it has been a crazy busy month!  I hope you had a good holiday season, and either gave, or received, lots of fiber goodness!

I still have some sewing posts to show from as far back as the early fall!  As for knitting...not much has been finished...and what I did finish, I forgot to take a picture before giving!

Like many people, I'm starting the new year off saying I'm not buying new yarns, fabric, or patterns.  Since Christmas Day, I have actually used up some yarn!  I'm going to keep track, although some times it's difficult.  I'm not always starting with full balls, and sometimes I will have a bit leftover.  But here's the rundown so far:

1) Pink mohair narrow scarf; I think it's an OLD Paton's mohair blend.  Used the entire ball (don't think it was a full ball).
2) White mohair scarf; might be the same yarn.  Larger ball, used it all up. 
3) Green scarf, two balls Red Heart Shetland Chunky, Heather Forest.  Each ball was a different dye lot, so I did random stripes.  Sort of looks like marble!  I do have a picture and will post later.
For these three, I used the free pattern from Machine Knitting Fun.  Super easy.

4) "Lyndee Sock Monkey".  Not sure if I have the link on this computer, it's a free pattern for a machine knit sock monkey.  I can't find it on Ravelry, but perhaps a Google search will work.  I used up nearly one ball of Paton's Decor in dark grey (Not quite a new ball probably).

5) "Blankie Skirt".  A wool skirt/diaper cover in a huge size (for Meg, nighttime).  Base yarn of LionBrand Fisherman Wool in dark brown tweed (used up most of the ball, still enough left for something small), and used up (or nearly used up) several small balls of left over yarns like Headwaters Wool, Briggs & Little, and Patons Classic Wool.  I will have a picture of these later too.

So, how do I count balls?  The three scarves did use up 4 balls, sock monkey makes it 5; blankie skirt...lets call that two balls.  So, that's 7 balls of yarn in less than one week!  I'm going to make another blankie skirt with a different punch card, and that will use up even more of the small balls.

I'm still working on two shawls, a pair of duck booties, the "all in one sweater" I made at the machine knitting group, a pair of Noro socks in "clown barf"....

Friday, December 02, 2011

Some Good, Some Bad

It's been one of those weeks.  I'm working on wool longies on the Singer 155.  Nothing is going smoothly.

I love the Kroy Stretch socks that I've made.  Unfortunately, one got a hole!  It's not like a worn out spot, but a real hole.  I'm sure I can mend it, but because they're mostly not wool, it might be tricky to make sure it stays.  Don't let it stop you from trying this yarn if you haven't yet.

Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned a machine knitting workshop in next May?  The date has been changed to the week before since that weekend was Mother's Day.  Mmmm....seemed like a nice way to spend Mother's Day to me!  However, this works even better for me since my concert band is doing a concert on the May 12/13 weekend.  They also want to move it up a week, but I hope that doesn't happen.  I already had to miss a concert in October, I'd feel really, really bad missing another one, LOL.

I washed two shawls this week, and blocked them out.  The first one, the Moonlight Sonata shawl seemed a little bigger, and "crisper" (not as in, feeling crunchy, but just more defined).  I see that the first time, I couldn't stretch the sides enough to get the bottom edge stretched out.  I didn't remember that as I blocked it this time, and I seemed to have no trouble with the bottom edge.  I'm loving it even more now.  The other shawl was the Sweet Lily Shawl.  I don't know how I did it, but I got it stretched out more this time, and now the points reach my elbows!  It's still not a wrap it around shawl, but I'm much happier now.  Although, it doesn't seem as warm, LOL.  I don't think of dark brown as a summer colour, but I think the lightness of this shawl would make it ideal in the summer for those air conditioned places, and also for blocking the sun on bare shoulders.

The magic of wool.