Catch up post: featuring FOs and dying

At the end of March, there were a couple more birthdays, and here is what I sent.

For my Dad, there was another Claude the Cactus.  This one was made with Lion Brand Jiffy in Avocado and  Fun Fur.  The fun fur I used on the first  Claude was probably 5 years old, and it seems that the product has changed somewhat.  The new Fun Fur seems to be a single thread sticking out, where as the old stuff had 2 or three threads twisted together.  This means that the new stuff is much finer and higher density, which hides the green.  To counteract this, I gave Claude II a haircut.  I trimmed ~1/4 to 3/8″ of fur off all over his body to make sure the green could be seen, and I trimmed even more around the eyes.

I also found some novelty yarn at AC Moore that worked perfectly for gravel and freestyled a pot for him out of some TLC acrylic, as well.  I put a little bit of stuffing between gravel and pot bottom, but not much.

For my Grandpa Z, I knit a teddy bear from the Prima website.  I used Lion Brand Fisherman’s wool for the body and some green mystery yarn I got at my Market class at Stitches East in Baltimore last October for the sweater.  The only modification I made was to lengthen the legs.  Where the pattern says to knit 9 rows of reverse stockinette, I knit 13.  I used a 30 mm doll joint to connect the head to the body so that it would turn, and I string jointed the arms and legs with yarn.  Eyes are onyx beads and nose is embroidery thread.  I dreaded sewing the pieces together by hand enough that I stitched the head and body pieces together on the sewing machine.  In retrospect, back stitching with yarn isn’t so bad, and I could have done the whole thing without too much trouble.

More recently, I tried dying yarn with Kool-Aid.  I had about 67 yards of Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Natural from a project I can’t blog about until June, and I decided to experiment with dying.  I read a little about dying with Kool-Aid, and when I went to the laundromat, I stopped into the grocery store nearby to buy some Kool-Aid to play with.  The flavors were limited, so I got Tropical Punch, Cherry and Grape.  I wrapped the yarn around the dining table and chairs to make a really long loop.  I then soaked the yarn for a while in a bath of woolwash and water for about 15 minutes.

I set up my 3 plastic tubs with 2 packets of kool-aid each and distributed the skein between the three.  After  4  two minute heat cycles in the microwave (with ~ 10 to 15 minute breaks between) all the color was absorbed and it looked like this:

( clockwise from left: grape, cherry, tropical punch)

I then let it cool, hung the skein on the curtain rod to dry, and then wrapped it into a skein around my swift.

Still not sure what I will do with the yarn, but it was a fun experiment.

Last Thursday, I went to our Twisted Stitcher’s Meetup  where we had our quarterly yarn swap.  I didn’t take very much in, but I did bring a bunch home.  One was this intriguing DK weight yarn of unknown composition that belonged to someone’s mother.  I had no good way of knowing how much was there, so I decided I would knit a shrug.  I swatched some fancier lace patterns, but they got lost in the coloring of the yarn, so I ended up choosing a simple eyelet pattern from the Barbara Walker Treasury, book 1.  It is Quatrefoil Eyelet (pg 171) and I used the Lace Rib (pg 48) pattern for the edging.  I used standard raglan shaping  ( knit in front and back on either side of stitch marker on every knit row).

I haven’t blocked it yet, but I’m afraid it is going to grow.  I probably should have separated the sleeves earlier, but it looks okay right now.  I will post new pictures after I block it, but I couldn’t help wearing it today.  It was 67 and beautiful outside, so Scott took these pictures.

Without posting about the project I’ve been working on as a gift for a friend, I think this about catches up my fiber endeavors.

A little bit of..

It has been a little while since I have posted, and I don’t have finished objects to show for it, but I will fill you in on what I have been up to.

I have been doing a little of this:

Making another Elefuffle to verify the pattern and take pictures of the steps.

and this:

Knitting swatches from the Barbara Walker Treasuries ( with my very fuzzy bookmark near by)

and using this

To make a new knit jacket (wip)

and this:

Prototyping a messenger bag for knitting. I made my first zipper pocket in the lining of this bag using this tutorial.

and this:

Dancing in a NYC club for Valentino’s birthday party ( he’s the one on the right). Valentino is Scott’s office mate and his wife really surprised him for his birthday. She had a Decoy party on Friday night to make him think that his birthday celebration was over. Then she managed to get him to the club where all of us were waiting. Not a very good picture, but it was 2 am, after all. We had a hotel downtown NYC for Sat. night, so we danced until about 2:30 and took a cab home. I could have danced ’til dawn, but Scott made a little too much use of the open bar in the first hour to last that long.

I also saw Larissa after her trip to AZ and she brought me this:

Yin and Yang Yarn from Southwest Trading company. Ideas are marinating in my brain on the best way to use these. Until then, into my stash they go.

As you can see, I’ve been occupying my time with a variety of things, but haven’t had the determination to finish any of them.

I will finish them eventually, but until then,

Ciao.