Tag Archives: knitting

Surprise package

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A few weeks ago I commented on Wool and Chocolate’s blog about not ever having seen, felt, smelled, or touched Malabrigo yarns.  Much to my dismay, my local yarn shop (LYS) does not carry it.  Mrs. Woolandchocolate sent me a message back saying she would see what she could do about that.

Do I know this lovely woman personally?  No.  Only through the blogging world.  In fact she lives on the opposite side of the continent.

Yesterday when I got home from work, I was greeted with this package.

 

Malabrigo worsted in Velvet Grapes.  My photo does not do this justice.  The colors are beautiful and more varied.  The yarn is squishy, soft, and smells great!

Thank you Shelly!  Knitters are the BEST!

New header with pipes

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We have the day off today so I thought I’d do some sprucing up around the house and the blog.  I was tired of looking at those fingerless mitts in my header so I changed it for the current project.  It will be felted so those wonky stitches will disappear.

I’m also knitting a swatch to see how it will felt since this is stockinette stitch using two colors.  I like it so far and hope it will felt up nicely.

My son and family will be here for Easter and I need to get the dust bunnies under control.  Before that happens though, the bagpipes need to be shipped to my cousin.

Bagpipes?

Yes.  They were originally my uncle’s pipes, my cousin’s father.  I acquired them after my uncle got married.  I took lessons when I was 15-16 years old and played them in a Scottish drill team as well as in our high school production of Brigadoon.  I was not as dedicated as I should have been so I didn’t practice often.  Like right before my lesson kind of practice.  As with any instrument practice makes perfect.

In 2002 the bag was replaced as the original one had many, many pinholes in it and was not able to be played.  The reeds were also replaced.  I fully intended to pick them back up and relearn to play them again.  My goal was to play Amazing Grace perfectly.  That didn’t happen and it only took me 10 years to realize it was never going to happen.  I still hate to practice.  Plus Mr. Aitch is not a fan of bagpipes.

So my cousin has graciously decided to take them off my hands.  I hope she and her family learn to play and love them.

Now where are those dust bunny traps?

Restart #4

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I bought my yarn last Saturday and cast on for my iPad cover.  I opted for muted colors.  Cascade 220 in lemon yellow and celery heather.  The celery is a bit more muted than this photo.

Cascade 220 4147 lemon yellow

Cascade 9407 220 celery heather

I’ve started and ripped this out four times.  Maybe I’ll be happy with these results.  I decided on a houndstooth pattern…for now.

Will this work out for me?  Or will there be a fifth beginning?  (Or the beginning of another fifth!?  Myers’s Dark Rum® and Coke®.  Yum!)

It’s felted

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I cast on for my first CCM hat on Saturday, March 17 and finished the knitting on Wednesday, March 21.  I would have finished it sooner but I miscalculated my yarn amount and ran out of yarn.  By about a yard or so.  I ripped it back to the row before the decreases and all was well.

The yarn is a llama and wool blend and sheds like crazy!  We have a septic system and I was afraid it would clog things up so I decided  to felt it by hand with a 5-gallon bucket, hot water and new plunger.

I should have taken pictures but I did this in the bathtub Thursday evening.  It was unseasonably hot and I was working up a sweat.  The lighting was bad.  Trust me the pictures wouldn’t have been good.

I added about 4-5 inches of hot tap water to the bucket, threw in the hat and started plunging.  I changed the water every 15-20 minutes and filter out the loose fibers before letting the water go down the drain.  After an hour (yes, an HOUR) of plunging, I had gotten pretty far but the hat was still too big for my head.  I got my exercise that night!

I have a small head.

I put the hat in a mesh bag, tossed it into the washer with some old jeans and ran it through one wash cycle on hot.  When I pulled it out of the washer, it was fairly dry.  I shaped the hat and let it dry overnight.

It was lumpy and had some thicker spots.  I emailed Carrie and she suggested I re-wet the hat and reshape it.  I filled the bathroom sink with hot tap water and dunked the hat in.  Bingo!  It finally occurred to me that the hat wasn’t dripping wet when I took it out of the washer and that’s when I realized it had gone through the spin cycle.  That’s why my hat was lumpy and thick in spots.  I worked with the dripping wet hat to get the lumps and bumps out and now it’s better.  Much better.

I went to my LYS (local yarn shop) on Saturday afternoon and bought a cotton/rayon blend to embroider a design on the brim.  Not sure what I’m doing just yet but Carrie’s gallery inspires me.  I love leafy and spirally things.

Stay tuned for the embroidery surprise!