Granny Squares By The Dozen

 There is a fiber arts festival in Wadesboro, NC tomorrow. Well, it is today and tomorrow but I am going tomorrow.  When I first learned about it I noted that the sponsors called for anyone who could make a granny square might donate it for a charitable purpose they have up their sleeve. Immediately I made one—a month or six weeks ago—then this week decided to make more since I had misplaced the first one.

Here are my offerings:

These were crocheted with a 9.00 mm hook holding a strand of Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn together with a strand of Ice brand yarn—definitely NOT loved by me. I loved the color way-Picasso- but the yarn by itself was impossible for me to use…thus two strands together project.  I do love how colorful the squares turned out.

It would be interesting to see the sponsor’s project made up. I myself have contributed squares that are five different sizes…

This reminds me of a time many years ago when we invited sisters to each knit a square for a blanket our Relief Society wanted to donate to the homeless shelter nearby. First we needed to teach the ladies to knit. When they all contributed their squares we had squares of many many sizes and shapes…not the even 7” squares we had hoped for. Since it was my crackpot idea I felt I needed to put them together. Imagine how much work that was going to be!! 

Fortunately Heavenly Father made a suggestion to me when I was in that state between sleeping and waking: get a knitting machine and turn them into strips.  I got up and sent a message to Freecycle. The next day someone offered me a  Bond knitting machine. I had to drive more than an hour each way but that saved me weeks of knitting by hand. After I passed the learning curve on the Bond, I was able to make strips of squares then knitted them together. It was a win-win since we were able to use all the squares and I did not lose my mind!  How good is that?!!

First Avocado Dyeing of Wool Yarn

Multiple very kind people saved avocado skins and pits for me to use to attempt another color of natural dye. This time I was hoping for pink.  This is what I obtained;

 The is Lion Brand Roving 100% Wool.  This started out as their natural white colorway. 

To prepare the dye bath I put all the seeds and skins in a large dye pot  and covered them with a lot of water. After bringing the pot to a boil, I let it boil for about fifteen minutes then dropped the heat to a simmer for about two hours, turned off the heat and let it sit overnight.

A while ago I saw a man natural dyeing with his yarn rolled into balls instead of in hanks.  Seemed like a great idea…so I left this yarn in the put up as I purchased it. In a hot water  and  dish soap bath I soaked the yarn for a couple of hours then rinsed and put in the dye pot—after taking the avocado parts out of the  dye bath.  I brought the water to a simmer and let it go for about an hour then took off the heat and let it sit.  The next day I remembered I wanted to dye some of the Canadian fiber so I put a handful of white fiber in, brought up the heat again briefly then took off heat again and let sit until another day.

Finally I poured the whole ness through a strainer and let the wool drain. The next day I rinsed and set the wool to drain for real.

By now you may be wondering about the color. To me it looks more beige than pink. No problem. It is all an experiment.

At the same time I had thrown in a light gray ball of yarn hoping to over dye it. Don’t think it did anything.  It would have been wise to wind off a tiny bit of yarn to see where we started.

When I get to the project for this ‘pink’ yarn I will share it.

The Witch Is Back!!

 

The people in our neighborhood are gearing up for Halloween. There are many decorations. Since we had this wreath upstairs, I thought I would hang it out. The pumpkins are knitted and very easy to make. I have forgotten how I made the purple cat, but I like it!

The pumpkin pattern is on Ravelry and us called Pumpkin Party.  If you want it and can’t find it, email me and I will write it up for you. 

Test Knit Sweater: Knitting is Finished!

 Hallelujah! Today I finished the test knitting. I love the sweater. The extra yarn came yesterday so I finished knitting last night and today. 

Here is a picture—as you can probably see: I knitted the wrong size.

Having said that, let me also say that I love this sweater and if you have known me long, like since childhood which was a VERY LONG time ago: I like loose-fitting clothes despite the fact that I actually look better in closer-fitting garments. Looking good has never been high on my priority list. Clean and covered are the look I go for, and even that is sometimes on a sliding scale depending on life circumstances.

So what did I learn while knitting this sweater for Cori of Irocknits? (Looks up her podcast on YouTube. She is a lot of  fun and so hardworking.)  What I learned: one should ALWAYS take measurements before starting any big knitting project. In the past year I have lost ten pounds. Big deal. What is ten pounds when one needs to let go of 150 pounds?! So I did not measure since I have a very strong memory of the ugly numbers from the last time I measured a year or more ago.

When the body and sleeves were nearly complete-enough so I could try on the sweater I noticed that the sweater that was scheduled to have 2-4 inches of positive ease seemed to have way more ease than that. Seemed like  good time to get out the tape measure. WELL!!!! I was surprised to find that the full bust measurement was down 3-4 inches!!! Another thing I heard recently is that sweater sizes should be taken from the high bust measurement. So…I should have knit at least two sizes smaller.  Well, since I measured myself the numbers could be wrong. I will not knit the sweater again now but next time I start to knit I will have someone else measure me and will verify that one is supposed to choose the size based on high bust.

Even so, I do love the sweater. And in all honesty, it is not really done:

There are a zillion ends to weave in. I sort of enjoy that, just not today or probably any day soon. 

NOTE: in case you wonder about the strange black shape in the first picture, well, I did not notice a hanging piece of yarn. I know I said I don’t care so much about my appearance but THAT was something I just could not abide. I just hope it actually disappeared. Yes, I could just ask Dear One to take another photo but I am just too worn down at the moment…

So one project done, so many more to complete.  I think I will go to Ravelry and organize my queue so I can get things finished(or started) in a timely fashion….

Marigold Wool Fiber Carded

 Here is a look at the marigold-dyed fiber after I hand carded it.  It makes a nice fluffy pile!

As it happens I am not a good enough spinner to easily  spin these soft little rolags. The fiber is mostly little tiny bits of fluff as opposed to several inches or more long fibers.  In retrospect, I believe this fiber was meant for felting SO I have been researching wet felting and needle felting. We shall see.  I do have a lot of it! Soon I will use the avocados for dyeing pink fiber and the lichen for dyeing purple fiber. So I should be able to felt a lot of pink and purple flowers. Maybe even some sunflowers.

As I said before: we shall see. No other projects, though, until I finish the sweater test knit. Update on that: tonight I am knitting the neckline ribbing so I can try the sweater on and check for length. There is at least one more 16-round pattern repeat , probably two, maybe three, before I can knit the bottom ribbing then go to the sleeves.