I Bought Yarn!

 Where'd August go? 

Oh yeah, it's 2020. My niece came to stay for a bit. It was suggested to us as "a few days" but turned into two and a half weeks, minus "a few days" in the middle when we sent her back to her mother because of behaviour. Interesting. 

Then we went to a cottage for two weeks. I thought I'd get lots of blog updating done there, but the internet was not that great with all of us trying to use it. 

Before going to the cottage, I bought yarn. I started this idea when I went on the Florida road trip. Buy a large skein (340gr) of Bernat "Handicrafter" in a colour that will remind me of the trip, and knit only dishcloths on the trip. No more "What should I pack to work on" dilemmas. Oh, I still take another small project, but my main focus is on the dishcloths. Small, no pattern, can work in the dark. Perfect. 

This year, for the cottage, I chose "Junebug".  I didn't look at the name, I just picked the colours. The only other option at Wal-Mart was shades of brown. Not inspiring. The neat thing was, this yarn perfectly matched the cushions in the screened in porch, where I spent most of my time. 

The porch became the puzzle room in the second week. Much hilarity ensued as puzzle building was turned into a competition sport.

I actually didn't get the cloths finished until after I got home. Two weeks should have been plenty of time, but I also had the little baby hats. I got 12 from the big skein, which was about $10.

My recipe for dishcloths:

Cast on 3 sts with 5.5mm needles.  I knit them a bit loose so when they shrink, they're still flexible.

Every row: K1, Yarn Over, knit to end of row.

Repeat until there are 20 eyelets up each side.

Every row: K1, Yarn Over, slip 1 stitch, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over the k2tog.

Repeat until there's about 4 stitches left. Then I wing it to decrease down to one stitch (like, k1, YO, k3tog; next row, k2tog and pull yarn through). 

I pull the big ball through the last loop and tightened. Leave a long length (8-10"?) and start again without cutting the first one off. After I do about 4 or 5, I will cut them off. Weave in ends.

(According to Blogger, this is in the center....will have to see....)

I also bought some more baby yarn for the newborn hats. I really have very little left for baby hats (suitable for hospital handout--I have lots of gorgeous yarns for custom hats when I can share care instructions). Three skeins of Loops & Threads "Snuggly" (141gr each). It was actually difficult to find a DK weight yarn suitable at Michaels. I could have gone thinner, but didn't find any suitable. I'd love to use sock yarn, but not for donations. I might try with some ends of balls I have. It is machine washable.

It was hard to find a perfect spot outdoors to knit. No lounge furniture on the deck, just dining furniture. Chairs on the patio/firepit level but it was pretty sunny. This part of the deck was usually shady, but it was often quite windy down here, and a little noisy with boats and jet skis. 

We ran into Giant Tiger to get more "Magic Fire" powder. They had some of those "1lb Unknown Fiber" bags of yarn. Grabbed a few worsted weight bags; 908gr, for  $17.99 (with tax).

And then, the best find of the year. While leaving Sobey's in Gravenhurst, I looked at the Community Bulletin Board. I saw a poster for "Shelridge Yarns"!!  How had I forgotten about this great business? Years ago, pre-blog (I started in August 2006) I found out about them. At the time, they were a farm in Ariss, ON, near Guelph. I visited it and bought some sock yarn. I have blogged about those socks, maybe 2007 or 2008. Then, they sold the yarn business to the women from Cabin Fever patterns and yarn. The business moved to Orillia at some point, I moved to Whitby and lost touch with the "indie" yarn companies as there weren't any fiber shows out here. So, imagine my surprise when I saw that they were alive and well and right there in the town we were staying near!

Walking in, I think I heard angels singing. It was delightful. So much yarn, so many colours! It's really nice yarn, and the great thing is colours are consistent between yarn weights. And not  just six colours per yarn type. No...more like six shades of just green. Their Instagram page has some photos. It's so beautiful to see all these "basic" yarns, rather than the hodgepodge of textures and fibers that fill the rows at Michaels. 

I started talking to Lyn, I think it was. I asked about some yarns I had seen on the website but couldn't recall the name of the group....something strange...."Strange Brew"! She told me about how she was trying tonal dyeing. Handpainted yarns have been very popular the last 15-20 years. While gorgeous, I find they can often be hard to work with. Often the colours are very distinct and different in the skein but when you knit them up, things get muddled and muted. With tonal dyeing, the colours blend more subtly. Some of the colours reminded me of the wools my aunt would dye from natural dyes we would collect (walnut shells, onion peels, etc). Lyn pointed out this worsted weight pile and my heart exploded. I mean--I was even wearing a turquoise top! The yarn was so new, it didn't have a tag or a colour name. I called it Curacao, as it reminded me of our southern Caribbean cruise almost 3 years ago. It is going to become either a hat or mitts. I have to sort through my bin and see what I need. (100gr, $28.25)

Total weight in....1771gr! Wow. That's like, half of what I bought all year, just in August. But.....almost twice what I spent up till now LOL. Still, less than 50cents a day on yarn. Not bad. However, have I told you about my other new hobby?  Stay tuned. 

Yarn In:  3344gr + 1771gr= 5115gr
Yarn Out:   6631gr + 340gr = 6971gr
Balance: 1856 gr more OUT than in!
Costs: $73.34 + $42.35= $115.68/248 days = $0.47 per day