Bottle cap coasters
Rettocamme
$24.
Super Mario Perle beads
lostmitten
$22.
Screenprinted
summersville
$24.95
Recycled skateboards
2revert
$40
Felt floppy disks
thegeekery
$28
Block printed bingo
1girl1boy
$22.
A continuation from Part I – some of my favorite self striping sock yarns
The last two of my favorite self-stripers hold their own with creative color combos that always look good to me.
Photo courtesy of flickr user Wannabeknittin’
Take sknitches for example. Yes, I am clearly a fan of blue and brown, but don’t these socks look so good? Sknitches also has a wide array of non-striping yarn in beautiful colorways, so if you order from her site, you can get a great mix of sock yarns in fabulous colors.
Photo by Flickr user Wooly interlude
Some of the first handmade self-striping yarn that I ever heard about was Vesper sock yarn. As a spinner, the shop’s curator also has a beautiful assortment of hand-dyed roving. It can still be kind of a challenge to snag the sock yarn, but it seems like there are shop updates many Wednesdays, and the Ravelry Group can a be a useful guide to shop stalking.
Speaking of ravelry groups…. a long time ago I started a Ravelry group for those that love stripes – Better with stripes. Pop on over and say ‘Hi’ if self-striping yarn is your sort of thing.
Another socktober is upon us… Last year I didn’t do too much sock knitting during Socktober… but at least I thought about socks a lot. There is the slim possibility that I will cast on for sock this month. I can guarantee that I am not going to finish one sock, let alone a pair. So I’ll just have to write about socks.
Through the wonders of the internet, an intrepid knitter has at his/her needletips an amazing selection of sock yarns. The indie dyeing community is expanding everyday with beautiful new color combinations and dyeing techniques. I do a little dyeing myself, and I am usually on a tight budget. This makes justifying yarn purchase a difficult task. If I spring for a $20 pair of socks (that might spend a very long time as yarn) it has to be something good. I have two favorites that I can justify purchasing at almost any time: Socks that Rock and indie-dyed self-striping yarn. You have probably already heard about Socks that rock, so let’s talk about some of my favorite indie-stripers.
Lovestick’s yarn makes an awesome striping pattern using three colors… Two colors make wide stripes separated by a thin stripe of a third color. Here – just look:
Photo from Flickr user Sock-a-holic
And my favorite thing about her shop… she has Sport-weight yarn. Perfect for a quick pair of socks.
Ravelry Yarn Page
I first found Twisted on etsy, but she has since graduated to her own site. There is always a wide variety of base yarns available from sport weight SW merino to merino/bamboo or merino/tencel blends. I like nearly every colorway that Meg has produced, and I don’t think there is anything else like her subtle striping effect. Now she even has coordinating mini-skeins of heel and toe yarn available with come of her colorways.
Photo from flickr user Meg of Twisted
I use the Twisted Ravelry group to stay in the loop about shop updates and fiber clubs.
Ravelry Yarn Page
i have too many favorites for one post, so stay tuned for one more installment
I can’t believe that I have waited this long to tell you… There is going to be another Color: A Fiber Festival in just a few weeks. It is at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley CA on Saturday October 18. If you didn’t make it last time, and you are in SF Bay area and have any interest in yarny or fibery pursuits, you have to stop by. There will be a few local vendors (including me!) so you can pet before you buy… Uh, I mean pet the fiber, not the vendors. There is also quite an assortment of very affordable classes from drop spindling to weaving on hand looms. What’s that you say? Tell you more about weaving on hand looms – sure thing!! I taught a similar class at the last Color, in the spring. I think everyone had a good time learning how to weave on some of my vintage weave-its.
Picture from flickr user Mrs. Knitwit
This year it is still just an intro to weaving, and students will get some practice, pointers, and a list of helpful resources. Students are welcome to borrow my looms for the duration of the class. BUT this year I will also have looms available to purchase. I have a few Hazel Rose Multilooms (readily available perfect substitute for weave-its and weavettes) and I will be letting go of a few of my vintage weave-it looms.
Sign up for any of the classes through the webpage, or check out the Ravelry Color group for more info (the ravelers are planning a potluck!).
Okay.. enough about fiber. Let’s talk about junk. It’s here… My favorite garage sale of the year. The El Cerrito city-wide garage sale. It is THIS Saturday, October 11 from 9 am to 3 p.m. A participant list will be posted on the City of El Cerrito webpage so that you can plan your shopping strategies. Keep in mind that you have to pay a small fee to be published on the map, so those are the serious garage-salers. Many more houses have sales and just don’t bother to pay to get n the map. This year, the neighboring city of Albany is having a sale on the same day, too. That’s a lot of shopping. Here is some of my loot from a few years ago. This year I am hoping to find an ice cream maker and a set of small bowls… And any random pyrex would be an awesome find. What are you gonna look for?
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, hands down. With the arrival of October, I can’t stop looking forward the last day of the month. I have hopes to finish up a long-standing and halloween-appropriate Secret Project but I can’t make any promises. In the mean time, I can remind you that almost everyone you know is in need of a Monster Finger Chapstick cozy. 
I am pretty sure that Moon’s Creations is a big fan of Halloween, too. Just like last year, each day in October will mark the debut of a one-of-a-kind halooween-themed amigurumi bunny.
Freddy Kreuger MoonBun Photo from flickr user Moons_creations
And the best part… they are available for purchase from her Etsy shop. I am the proud owner of the Bride of Frankenstein from last year’s series, and I have my eye out for a friend for her this year.
I have been unhappy with my ripple afghan for a while now.
I haven’t ripped it out since I didn’t know quite what I would do instead.
Now I have an idea… Inspired by the multitudes of fantastic hexagon blankets on Ravelry (
) and in the Hexagon love flickr pool, I want to make one too.
I’ve got the book, so I gave it a try…
I think I am going to rip out the ripples and proceed with the hexagons. I am not going to aim as high as a queen sized blanket – more of a throw. And if I change my mind, I can easily add more hexes to the end and/or sides.
But, what do you think?
Loading ...You know the fiddlehead mittens I mentioned in this earlier post? I really want to make a pair. Adrian (of Hello Yarn) made quite a splash by selling mitten kits – a pattern and a set of beautifully colored hand dyed yarns in a luscious 70% merino 30% mohair blend. The first day she sold them in her shop, all of the shoppers trying to load the page crashed her website. Needless to say, I don’t have the time to stalk the site to score a set, so I gave up hope pretty quickly. Then I became really frustrated that I couldn’t find a suitable colorful sport weight mohair/wool substitute. I decided I could dye my own yarn, but didn’t even really commit to finding a appropriate white base yarn to dye. I jumped ahead and bought some Welsh wool roving to dye and spin.
I am kinda on a scratchy wool kick right now. Is this something that typically happens in your evolution as a spinner? I mean I know there is that early stage where you spin big fat thick and thin, wishing you spin a fine yarn. Then you can spin a VERY fine yarn and yearn for the thick and thin days, and then you have to actually teach yourself what you are doing…. And stuggle back to thick yarn. Seems like with the fibers for a long time I was on a quest for something ever softer and finer, and more challenging to spin. The yak and silk and camel satiated that desire, and now I just want to try all manner of scratchy crazy wools.
The Welsh roving has big fat hairs that pop up every once in a while (not unlike the California red). It is kind of a challenge to not let it all fall out when I am spinning it. It is pretty suited to worsted spinning (shoving the fiber at the wheel), but I am a long draw addict and was determined to make it work. So we are getting along. While I am spinning test yarns to decide if I can get away with a single ply yarn for the mitten project, I started on the dyeing.
I did between 2 and 3 ounces of each color (the brown is natural), and I hope it is enough…. Now I am really excited.
After nearly a month of not blogging, i thought i should let you know that I am still around.
I’ve done a little knitting
A little spinning
California Red locks from A Verb for Keeping Warm Raverly page
and…. i adopted a kitty! Introducing… Bean!
She’s mouthy (like me). This last picture is a video…. Click through to hear Bean!
insane number of kitty pics in my flickr stream.
Mark my words, mittens are going to be huge soon. As a knitting project, they have all of the versatility and satisfying features as socks. Colorwork, textures, a variety of increase and decrease methods, thumb shaping (analogous to heel of toe shaping)…. And you can use them to try to make a dent in your sock yarn stash.
Patterns I have been eyeing (Most links are Ravelry links – sorry. The waiting list is only 2 days long – hurry up and join):
- Anything from the Selbuvotter book ($24.95)
For example, NHM #9:
Or NHM #10:
Order this directly from the author like I did. It arrives quickly!
-Okka By from Randi K. Design ($7)
Her chart for a tiny little knitting village in Norway captures an amazing amount of detail. I am also impressed with the little crab that pops up on the other side…
All of her designs are amazing, so be sure to check out her etsy shop.
- Baske by Nicole Hindes ($6)
Simple enough for a beginner, but truly gorgeous! I love the yellow color that she chose.
- Hello Yarn’s amazing fiddlehead mittens. ($5.95)
I saved this for last cause I have big plans for this one. Adrian makes kits of hand-dyed yarn to go with the knitting pattern. As far as I can tell, it would be impossible for me to ever score one of those rare gems. I love her suggestion of using something for the outside that is durable and has a little mohair in it… So I am challenging myself to dye and spin all of the yarn that I will need for this project. Truly ambitious, I know, but I give myself until this winter to get it done. Wish me luck!
Following a hot tip (tweet, actually) from sockpr0n, I was able to snap up this little fella for not too much dough.
It is an 8 inch wide Clemes and Clemes drum carder. I am particularly enamored by the fact that Clemes and Clemes is literally up the street from me, so it is like the drum carder is coming back home. It is certainly well loved, and it arrived with one of the wooden gears cracked and broken. I was able to not only wood glue that back together, but eventually replace it with a stronger acrylic piece and get down to business…
I have been very satisfied with the batts I have purchased from Hobbledehoy and Stickyfingers on etsy. But in general I want a batt to have a blend of different types of fibers and not contain any sparkle and/or angelina. I’m not in it just for the colors; I have some specific textures in mind. Because of this I have been coveting drum carders for some time now (in fact nearly exactly one year), but they just haven’t been in my budget. So as soon as my little carder was running, I made a tiny batt of merino and mohair that resulted in this:
It was pure fun to spin…..
Next, I was FINALLY able to add camel down to some merino (I have had this camel down lying in wait for YEARS).
I am also excited to use it to process some of the fleeces I have piling up. It has done an awesome job with all of the Romney that I fed it:
More fun blends to come – I am ready to try a little colored fiber experimentation…
