5K - I may not be ready

The KnitGirllls Stach Dash has been going on and I really haven't knitted much. So far I have finished a Holden shawlette out of some pretty

York Boutique Mohair-Kid mohair. I used 2 balls that were 100m each, so that gives me 218.7 yards. I finished it with less than a foot of yarn, talk about close.

Then I finished a pair of Wolkistchens socks out of Regia 4-fach haltbar that has 210 m or 459.3 yards. I have yarn left over, so I need to weight it and figure out the yardage acutally used. (something like 320yds) I don't think I will come anywhere close to the 5K for it to really matter.:(

This was my first After Thought Heel. It was easy to do too. Give it a try. It is a must for self-striping yarn.

My yardage so far: 538.7 yards, so 4,461.3 yards to go! And I have until, what, Aug 6th? Maybe I should spin/knit something that counts as double.

Make yourself happy, knit!

Recycle

I enjoy a good deal. I use to hoard up the Walmart $1 a yard material, then the stopped carrying it. That was OK, I found the Goodwill had clothes for sale on Sun/Mon for 50 cents. A much better deal, right? How about getting 1,000 plus yards of wool yarn for $1. I found a pullover vest that was very pretty, but not a style/size I could wear. All it took was a little unraveling on my part. I must warn you though, the nitty noddy is not as easy as you would think.

In this pic, it appears I am winding properly; but when it was time to take it all off I had a problem. Maybe I started out right and got twisted up somewhere. I spent 2 hours last night with the yarn wrapped around 2 chairs as I reapplied it to the nitty noddy. I am happy to say, it is soaking in the sink dekinking. :^) Here is a link for Tim Horcher, general manager of New Voyager Trading, talks about the niddy noddy and demonstrates how it is used to make a skein of yarn.

The yarn has 5 strands: 2 green, 2 purple & 1 navy. I haven't burn tested it yet, but I believe it is a wool blend. Super soft. I think it wants to be a shawlette next.

I Got Squared

Happy day! My first swap square found its way to me and I am so excited. Thank you so much, Crafty Pancakes, I love it.
1st swap, April/May from The Knitgirllls Afgan Square Swap

* Checkered Blocks Square, 3 seed packets, 2 lavender sachets from her old gardenin cute yarn material, Fireside Smashing S'omores candy, Laguna Beach, CA post card with a nice note, Organic Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar, Note book, pad & note cards with cable stitches on the cover & last, but not least, a Ravelry Button!

I'm a California girl too. It's fun finding out where people are from and realizing you actually know of the place. I have to say, Ravelry has been so much fun for me. I tend to lurk, checking out this and that. It helps me feel as though I belong and on Ravelry, I do. It is made for me and I bet you too. You run across people/personalities really that are fun, interesting or just full of life & information and you want to know them a little more. You spend time with them during the week and they are familliar.

We are friends that share a passion (obsession)for all things fiber.

Toasty Dad Reversable Mittens

It is so hard to find something to knit for the guys in our lives. You offer one project after another and all you hear from them is 'no'. Well, I am happy to say that I knit the Urban Necessity Gloves by Colleen Michele Meagher for my Dad's birthday. My husband didn't even give me grief when I asked him to try them on. :^)

Knit in Bamboo Ewe by Stitch Nation-Debbie Stroller. 2 grey, 1 Twilight and 1 Perewinkle. This will felt a bit, so hand wash/fry flat.


Even with all the fingers knit seperately, this was a fun and easy pattern to understand. I am going to make a pair for my Mom switching the colors around for her, she loves blue. Oh, and you know who said that he may even wear them!

I would change to smaller needles when making the flap ribbing. It was a bit loose and would be better if it had more elasticity. I have also seen where a button is added on the top of the hand by the ribbing to secure the flap when kept open. I may do that for my next pair.

Square Swap Fun

I am having lots of fun getting envolved with TheKnitGirllls Ravelry group. I finished up my square for April/May. I used Honeycomb Cable Square by Fiona Robertson-Clark with a few changes to get a 12" square block. Cast on 78 stitches for a 9 pattern repeat and used size 6 needles for cast on and borders & size 8 for cables. Yes, I did frog this (rip it) about 4 times to get the sizing right. What a great learning experience for me, I picture myself as a designer somewhere in the future. We all should have goals!

It was made for Debbilynn42 Since she is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, I had to include some Louisiana fun stuff.

The stitch markers were made from neat stuff picked up at Michaels with a 50% off sale on the beads. I will cover them on another blog. I also include a package of Red Beans & Rice mix, the flavor of Louisiana had to be included, right? A postcard with instructions for Crawfish Boil, some plastic crawfish & a aligator, Mini bottle of Tobasco and tiny Tony Chachere seasoning packet.

Pick out a block/dishcloth to try in a hard looking pattern. It is small and once you get going, you realize everything is K & P!

Fun Tams for Everyone

I had a lot of fun last year making Fair Isle Tam by Patons.  When choosing the colors, it is best to keep in 2 contrasting accent colors and dk, med, lt of another color.     Ravelry is a great place to see what others have done.  Have fun with your choices.

#2 Spinning

I was so excited about the spinning I did, it didn't take long for me to order more fiber.  I looked around on Etsy and purchased 4oz of superwash BFL in Sedona  colorway from Spincerely.  I started spinning it and had very good control, consistantly spinning thin.  I think the BFL is good for beginner.  I split it in half, then each half again for quarters.  Predrafting a little to open it up. 

I got throught half and thought I should ply it before continuing on to the rest.  Oh the things we learn as we go.  I thought I would be able to wind it off using a ball winder.  That didn't work.  I think the spin was wrong for the direction I was cranking the ball winder.  The yarn was falling apart as I went and made a mess.  At least I caught it pretty early.  Okay, I told myself, just wind it by hand onto a cardboard toilet paper roll and you will be able to ply from both ends and make a nice 2-ply that may be fingering wt.  Yuck!! I have a disaster on my hands now.  I was able to roll it onto the tube, but when I pulled it out to be able to use the inside end, the energy was extreme and it came out in a curly mess, yarn throwup.  I now have to spend the time cleaning up this mess since I didn't stop right away, but plied a few yards before I realized how long it would take for me to untangle each time I needed more available yarn to ply. 

After going online, I found that I am going to use Tammy Rizzo's Navaho Ply-on-the-Fly method.  I will do better spinning a little, ply, then spin some more...  It may take me a while to remember which way to twist between spinning & plying, but it will be done when the end is reached.