FO Friday 16

It's nice to be back home and participating in FO Friday instead of scheduling it way in advance. I have a few FOs to share, and hope to have even more next week! YAY! I've decided I want to most of the project I'm working on before starting something new (except for the purse I still have to make for Christmas of course).

Here are my FOs this week! Sorry for the dark pictures, but I finished 2 of the 3 projects tonight and it's crazy dark in my house right now, and the only light I have is very yellow. I hope to take better pics today with sunlight.

Here it is! The bamboo bar cloth I made for my husband for part of his Christmas gifts. If it wasn't going to get wet and washed all the time, I probably would block it, but it seems like there is no point since it would need to be blocked every time it is washed, correct? Anyway, I love how it turned out, and so did Kurt!

Materials used:

7 US needles
Lily's Sugar'n Cream (Sage)
Yarn needle




And another dishcloth/washcloth. LOL, are you tired of them yet? I love them because they are practical (I used the dragonfly one on our trip since I can't use hotel towels due to my crazy sensitive skin and it was AWESOME), there are so many great free patterns out there, I can practice my knitting with different techniques and they are quick small projects that I can finish pretty quickly. I really love the way this one turned out. I bought the yarn, as I mentioned previously, on a whim when I was ordering cotton on Cyber Monday from Joanns. I just thought it was pretty but had NO clue what to do with it until I saw this pattern. It was perfect!

Materials used:

8 US needles
Lily's Sugar'n Cream (Painted Desert)
Yarn needle






My fingerless gloves are finished! I love the second one, but am not crazy about the first one because I did it with a smaller needle and also bound it off tightly. I have some of my hand-dyed yarn left, so I may knit a third glove with the bigger needle like I did the second. The first one fits, they're just not as comfortable. That being said, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who suggested a stretchier cast off. I used this one and it was AMAZING. It is such a great way to do it. Easy, yet very very stretchy. I'm stoked! Anyway, I'm going to call these done, and contemplate making the 3rd. I want to be happy and use them, you know? They I did use them to go out to dinner tonight, just because I wanted to try them out. :)


Materials used:

6 & 7 US needles
Lion's Brand Fisherman's Wool (Hand dyed- Berry)
Yarn needle

Share your FOs with me!

Weekend Fun

First off, I wanted to thank everyone for the amazing suggestions/ideas on what to work on for my next knitting project. You are all awesome and I knew you'd come through for me. I didn't want you to have to wait holding your breath (because really, who isn't? I mean, isn't the project I pick like the biggest thing ever...umm, yeah, I know. No one probably cares. LOL) until Wednesday, so I thought I would share with you what I decided.

I decided to work on something flat before jumping into the in the round train. Autumngeisha suggested the Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves. After looking at the pattern, I thought it was the perfect project to move onto. It was a new stitch that I had yet to use, but a quick and easy project. I also knew just the yarn to use. I decided to go with my kettle dyed (by me) Lion Brand Fisherman's wool that you can see here. Since it was a huge skein split up, I had no clue how much I had, but once I wound it into a ball, I realized that I would have enough for at least a pair of the fingerless gloves. Perfect! I started right away, despite Christmas looming (I know, how dumb can I be?). I'm happy to report, it's going great and I should be finished with the first gloves today! I don't want to share a picture, since WIPW is right around the corner, so you'll just have to wait. :p

That all being said, my next knitting project will be a hat in the round and I can't wait! I think I'll be using this pattern, because it looks pretty simple, but still cute. It might be the perfect project for this yarn or this one. What do you think?

On to my weekend fun!

My neighbor asked me to watch her cat this week, so she showed me where everything is, etc. When walking to the door, I saw a set of knitting needles. I couldn't believe it! I asked if she knit, and she pulled me back inside and showed me what she's working on (about three different projects), as well as ones she had recently finished. I had NO clue she knit, not at all. You could imagine my surprise! She was showing me a few different yarns (some very expensive...around $32 a skein) and it was all beautiful. She told me I could ask her any questions and she could help me out. I'm so excited to have someone close by that can help when needed. She didn't know about Ravelry, so I was sure to tell her about it and make sure she signed up.

Lastly, I was able to go to a LYS in a town about an hour and a half away from where I live. My husband needed to pick up a piece he had framed there (shipping was going to be insanely expensive, so it was much easier to make a trip out of it) and we decided to make it a day. We weren't able to leave yesterday until about 2 hours before the LYS closed, so we would definitely be cutting it close. Speaking of which, why do LYS close SO early on Sundays, if they're open at all? This one closed at 4pm, which I found a little odd, but then another one I also looked up in the area closed at the same time. If I owned a shop like that, I would stay open until at least 5pm, especially since they open at noon. So odd. Anyway, we made it in time, despite getting a little lost.

Since I'll be starting a yarn diet January 1st (more details to come in a later post), I had an idea of what I wanted to buy. I realized recently I don't have much chunky yarn, so to make sure I had enough to do a simple projects which may call for it, I wanted at least 2 skeins of something in that weight. I have also been dying to try Malabrigo, and from the store's website, I knew they sold it. Sure enough, not only did they carry Malabrigo, they carried Malabrigo Chunky! It fit both categories I was looking for in one swoop. Here is the colorway I chose. Isn't it pretty?



I continued to wander the store. I didn't want to buy too much, as I'm trying not to buy things for myself right now. Also, we'll be going on a trip up the coast of California between Christmas and New Year's and I knew we would be stopping at a few shops along the way. I was content with my Malabrigo Chunky...and then I saw this. Cascade Eco Duo. OH. MY. GOD. Now, I previously didn't think I really liked Cascade. I'd never used it, but the only lines I had come in contact with were crazy scratchy and I would never been able to use (like Cascade 220). This was different...WAY DIFFERENT. I couldn't stop hugging and petting it. I was instantly in love. My husband could see the gleam in my eye, and knew we would be coming home with at least one skein. Now, normally, when it's an impulse buy like this one, I buy one skein and call it good. But wait! What if I wanted to do a larger project with it, and I AM going on a yarn diet in about 2 weeks. What's another skein going to hurt, other than my bank account? You guessed it...I came home with 2 skeins of it. Here it is:



Amazing, no? I mean, it doesn't look like much, but if you could only feel it. I wish I could just sleep with it. LOL I think this is the first yarn I've felt this way. It's 70% undyed baby alpaca and 30% undyed Merino. Can't you just imagine the heavenly feel of it? Have any of you worked with it yet? The lady at the store mentioned it's one of Cascade's newer lines. I see a lot of this yarn in my future, and in fact, I think it's soft enough that once I start making sweaters, I would be able to wear it without any discomfort. I think this yarn will be calling my name until I made something from it.

So that was my weekend, how was yours?

Randomness of the Week

Today's post is going to be full of random stuff, but it seemed silly to make several posts about a bunch of little things.

As a few of you found out due to my Ravelry page, last Wednesday was my birthday. I decided that I would buy myself something in honor of turning 31. I'd wanted to make an order to Knitpicks for awhile now, and what a better time!

Right away, I knew I wanted a ball winder after the mess I had after dyeing the Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool. I've also been buying yarn that comes into hanks rather than skeins. One of my LYSs will wind the yarn for you when you purchase it there, but I didn't want to have to rely on that. So, I noticed the Knitpicks ball winder is only $19.99, so I couldn't pass it up. I have yet to use it (as I got it yesterday), but I'm sure it is going to be a HUGE help!

Here is the yarn I also decided to purchase. I didn't want to get a lot, since this was my first time ordering and I'm always leery of not being able to see/feel the yarn.



1 ball of Blaze Heather Andean Treasure (It was on sale and I wanted to see what it felt like)
1 skein of Silver Sage Shine Sport (It was on sale and I wanted to see what it felt like)
3 hanks of Frog Prince Imagination (for socks for my husband. He actually picked out this yarn)
1 Natural Bare Superwash/Nylon Fingering (for dyeing)
1 Natural Bare Superwash Worsted (for dyeing)

Speaking of my birthday, despite my husband already getting me my present, my sewing machine, he said I needed a gift to open on the night of my birthday. I had no clue he was coming home with a gift, let alone Thai for dinner (YUM!) and a pumpkin cupcake! Here is what he bought me! He got the white cotton for me to dye!



My mother-in-law sent money to buy something for my birthday that I wanted. Of course, more yarn! Weirdly, I had yet to visit any of my LYSs in San Diego, so I thought it was as good a time as any. We headed to a great one I found out about through Ravelry, Two Sisters and Ewe. They had a great selection of yarns, most I hadn't seen before. It was so hard to decide what I wanted. I had $50 to spend, and knew I didn't want to go over that. Unfortunately, the yarn I loved a ton was a little over my price range, $20-30 a hank/ball/skein. They had an amazing selection of hand-dyed yarns I couldn't help but fondle. The ladies were very friends and they even put my hanks into balls for me. When I came into the shop, one of employees was even helping a customer with one of her knitting projects! I thought that was awesome.



Here's the yarn I bought:

Berocco Vintage in (the green was in the 25% off bin!)
Knit One, Crochet Two Ty-Dy Sock yarn (Also in the 25% off bin. I couldn't pass it up because it would normally be too much money for me)
Kraemer finger weight (for dyeing)

We then headed to another LYS not too far from the first (these are both about 15-17 miles from my house), Needleworks. The weirdest thing about this shop was the culture shock. It's next to a Hooters restaurant and it was Sunday, so the outside and parking lot was full of smoking and drinking football fans. Totally weird to then walk into a crochet shop. They had a group knitting, but their yarn selection wasn't too big. They also sell stuff for needlepoint, so the store was divided. I did get a skein of Berocco Sock yarn, which I had yet to see in the stores.


I recently received Amazon gift certificates from credit card bonus rewards (don't you love those?) and wanted to get a few craft books along with a graphic novel and a novel. Here is what I ended up getting on the craft side of things.



I showed you my first small skein of hand-dyed yarn, but haven't shared my second batch. I've been waiting to share my second when we have some better light. It's been raining here and just totally gloomy. I used Kool-aid for this skein and then over-dyed with teal Wilton's Icing Dye.

To Dye or Not To Dye

I've been dying to dye yarn for awhile now, and yesterday I decided to take the plunge. On Saturday, I bought some Kool-aid packs, as well as a 12 color kit of Wilton's Icing Dye. I didn't know what color(s) to pick, so my husband told me to pick a number and he assigned each color a number. I ended up picking Kelly Green and Royal Blue Wilton's Dye. I searched the web, reading a few tutorials, as well as a few threads on the Ravelry group, What a Kool Way to Dye. Below are pictures of my process, which I did in the Crock Pot.

First, I made a Swifter, from these directions found online. I don't have the money to spend on a professionally made one, and this worked just as good. I bought most of the items at the 99 cent store, the only one I didn't was the lazy susan (from Walmart) and the coffee cup. I had the hangers, but those could be bought at the 99 cent store as well.

Top down of the homemade swifter

This is the yarn I decided to dye from my stash.

The whole skein on my homemade swifter

This is the whole skein- 465 yards. I realized it was too much, so decided to separate it into smaller hanks.

This is the amount I decided to use at first. I have no clue how much it is, but not a large amount.

The yarn in the Crock Pot, waiting for me to fill with water and vinegar. Put just enough to cover the yarn.

I soaked the yarn in a mix of water and vinegar. Then, I mixed the dyes in a cup of boiling water, and poured it in. The green on the right, blue on the left though it kind of merged into one.

After the dyeing process is over, I pulled the yarn out of the Crock Pot (with tongs) and laid it into the clean sink

A close-up of the yarn in the sink straight out of the Crock Pot

This is the yarn after cooling and squishing the water out with a towel.



A close-up of the yarn, wet but not dripping

In this picture, you can see the variation of the skein. It has areas of green, blue and lighter areas the dye didn't hit.

This is my attempt at twisting the yarn into a hank.

Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out. There are darker and lighter areas I'm not crazy about, but for my first time, you can't go wrong. I'm currently dyeing another section of the skein, which I'll share in a post later this week.