Catch Up

You wouldn't know it from my blog, but I have been busy!  I have been working on my new Etsy store, My Handmade Collection, www.etsy.com/your/shops/MyHandmadeCollection.  Notice the slight change in names, from "The" to "My".  I had to drop a letter to fit in the space for an Etsy shop name, so I opted for My Handmade Collection.  Anyway, I have 20 items for sale, and working on some more.

Mostly scarves like the one here, some fiber jewelry too.










Plus, my daughter requested a blanket for the new baby coming in January.  So I've started on that too.

This is decidedly the most un-baby like blanket ever.  It is made with squares of different colored leaf pattern blocks, that will be joined with a band of purple heather all around.  100% wool, so it will be nice and warm for a January baby!

Right now, the squares don't look square, but they will once they are blocked.  I really like it, since I've decided that this baby will be very earthy, compared to his/her sister, who is super glam, at the age of 2!


Besides these projects, I have been working on my knitting machine, getting more proficient on it, and doing lots of landscaping projects around our house, from planting blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, to putting in a stone walkway.  so now I just have to find time to write in my blog!

BIG SCORE!

One of our favorite pastimes is going to garage and yard sales. We have found all sorts of things we need (and some things we don't need) for very cheap prices. Naturally, my ears really pricked up when my husband found a sale that featured a knitting machine and yarn. So off we went at the appointed time and sure enough, there was a Brother Knitting machine, with ribber attachment plus a Knitleader for $100. Plus , we found 3 big boxes of yarn of various colors, 25 pounds altogether, almost all a fingering 100% wool Japanese yarn. In fact, everything is in Japanese; the knitting machine instructions, and the yarn labels! We got it all for $120. Good deal, if you ask me. Now, I just have to figure out how to use this new machine, which looks way more complicated than the Bond that I have. Can't wait to make something!

Sunset Sky

Continuing my color exploration.......
This time it's blues and purples. This combo above reminds me of a purple sunset in a blue sky.









The colors in the skein in the smaller photo also reminds me of some beautiful sunset colors I have seen. This is the only skein that I made of this color combination because I originally dyed it with the skeins you see below, but the lighter pink section did not dye evenly. So I decided to hand-paint in some orange and this is what it came out like.

I Really Like These Colors

Some more of my dyed yarn. these samples are some of my favorite color combinations: pink, orange, and teal, olive green, light brown and lavender.



I am working on softening up this yarn, since it is quite rough. I believe it came from a rug factory. After dyeing the yarn, I wash it, then soak it in fabric softener for about 30 minutes, then rinse. It definitely softens the yarn a bit, but it is still on the rough side. I am experimenting now on felting the fabric. Future posts on that.

Another Toy

In my search for ways to make knitted items faster, I decided to check out a knitting machine. There are quite a few on the market, but my thought was to get an inexpensive one to play around with, in case it became a failed experiment. I checked out Ebay, and found tons of machines, from $20 to over $10,000! The one I chose is a Bond Incredible Sweater Machine, which has a plastic bed and carriage.

It took a little time to get the bugs out of it, but now have it working pretty well. It is very fast to make a simple stockinette stitch, but when you start doing some kind of pattern, you have to hand manipulate the stitches, which takes some time. Still, I think it has some potential for certain things, and the idea of upgrading at some point is not out of the question.


You can see some samples I made here, just playing around.

MORE YARN!

For this batch, I used Teal as the main color, tie-dyeing each skein (2 skeins of 220 yards each).
Once the teal was in the yarn, I untied the scrap yarn that was used to resist areas of the skeins and then hand painted the yarn with Periwinkle and Sapphire Blue. At the very end, I sprinkled a bit of dry Chartreuse over the wet yarn, then heat set the colors.
It's interesting to sprinkle a dry color onto the wet yarn, in this case at least, the chartreuse came out very bright, but since there is not much of it, it doesn't overwhelm. It definitely adds a pop of color, though. I can see using this method when you want to add just a little bit of contrasting color.

It's also interesting that greens are the primary colors, though I also used some pretty dark blues.

Definitely enjoying the process!

THE SEA INSIDE (my yarn)

This color palette makes me think of the ocean, with shades of blue and light green, kind of like an inland bay, with shallow water and new plant growth on the edge.

The colors are a bit pastel, since I didn't use really saturated dye stock. I am pleased with the variety and the play of color throughout the yarn, though I have to say this is not my favorite palette.

More on a Pink Theme

As I did in my last post, I am using the rough wool that I purchased on Ebay, original color of light pink. This time I dyed about 400 yards, (2 200 Yd. skeins). I used the immersion method, half dry, half wet to make a bi-tonal color.

I really like this color, with light and dark tones of the Vermillion Pink. Below you see both finished skeins.

Next I used the same technique with a light grey yarn, also from Ebay, also 2 200 yard skeins.

This time I used a mixture of Lilac and Pink to come up with this very nice purple.





I think this method of half wet/half dry immersion is extremely nice. I am not a huge fan of lots of contrasting colors in a yarn, though I will certainly be trying some of that too. I like the more subtle sift in colors that you get from this method.

Yarn Dyeing Continued

My first dyeing adventure! I started with some 100% wool that I purchased on Ebay, light pink in color. I chose this as a practice yarn because the yarn is quite scratchy, so I figured if I messed it up, it's no great loss. The first step was to soak the yarn in a vinegar bath to allow the wool to accept the dye more readily. (See photo on left.)

Next, I mixed up some vermillion and some pink dye, then soaked sections of the wool in each container for several minutes, moving the yarn so the dye would color different sections with more or less intensity.


The result is show above, with the original yarn show in the cone, and the newly dyed yarn in balls with a small sample of the yarn knitted up. Stay tuned to see more fabulous yarn coming soon!

My New Craft

I've been wanting to do this for a while, and happily, now is the time. This is an excellent book for learning how to dye wool, with lots of beautiful pictures, and easy to understand directions. The author, Gail Callahan, shows you how to set up your studio, what tools you will need, and step by step instructions for dyeing using several methods, and gives you some projects to do as well, if you are so inclined. I'm having a blast! The book is Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece, by Gail Callahan, published by Storey Publishing, 2010. The gorgeous photos are by John Polak.

1000 Little Quilt Pieces: Project #1; Table Runner

The first project made from the little quilt squares...... this one was pretty easy, since the pinwheel squares were already done, all I had to do was come up with a border and sew it all together.

I found some small squares of the perfect fabric, great colors, and they had little bit of sheen, much like the pinwheel squares. And the best part is, I had enough to make a border. I also found enough fabric for the backing, which also matched perfectly.

Now the project is in my Mom's hand, to do her quilting magic, and I am pondering what to do for Item # 2 of the 1000 Little Quilt Squares Project.

1000 Little Quilt Pieces

My Mom has a closet full of material that she used to use for quilting. Now that she's a bit older, she is not so much into sewing the fabric pieces together, but she still likes to do the hand-quilting. This is where I come in.

We were going through her stash, and found tons of different sized fabric squares, from about 1 1/2 inches to about 3 inches, plus she had some quilt squares already made up. She said, "Take the whole thing, I'm sure you can figure out what to do with them." The point is to make something that she can quilt. Soooooo,

I took the whole thing. I started sorting according to color and size, and came up with a bunch of little piles of fabric squares. Then I took a look at some of the finished quilt squares and tried to figure out what I could do with them.

The good news is that I think there are a couple of doable projects using the quilt squares that she already made, plus I think I can do something with all the little fabric squares. It's quite a project, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. Come back in a few days and I'll have something to show you!

Flax Seed Bread

Today was bread-making day. A perfect day for it too, since it's overcast and a bit cool for this time of year. I started making bread again about 5 months ago, after we were unable to find a nice, hearty, healthy loaf at the grocery store. They were mostly too "bunny bread-like", or on the rare occasion that we found something we liked, it was very expensive. So, out came the bread pans, and after a hiatus of probably 25-30 years, I'm back at making bread!

Above are the loaves getting ready to go into the oven. You'll see that I am using glass and ceramic loaf pans, which give you far superior results. To the right, are the loaves just out of the oven. And below, well the photos speak for themselves.

I like making bread by hand, no bread machine for me. A bread machine is nice if you don't have time, but I have lots of time. I enjoy the process of mixing the ingredients, kneading the bread, watching it rise. I enjoy the yeasty smell that permeates the room as the dough starts to rise. And then there is the baking. The aroma is to die for, and that first warm slice, drenched in butter.....you can't get any better that that. Well, maybe a bit of salted caramel is better, but not by much.

This bread is Whole Wheat, Flax and Sesame Seed Bread, derived from a recipe on Allrecipes.com. It's the perfect blend of hearty, but not too dense. And I can say from tasting the first slice, is quite yummy!

Idea for the Day

Yesterday, I went to the movies with my husband, brother and sister in law. We saw Thor in 3-D. Definitely a fun movie to watch, though not a great classic by any means. My hair was bugging me, and I needed something to hold it back out of my face, but I couldn't find any hair bands, so I made one. I found some nice silvery yarn that I got as a sample, (from Yarn of the Month Club, www.yarnofthemonth.com) twisted it and added some big-hole beads (from Fire Mountain Gems). The result was just what I needed. I like the fact that it is is very gentle, and has the advantage that it stays on and doesn't slip off of your head. Normally, hairbands hurt my head after a while, but this one is very comfortable.

It was simple and quick to make, so now I want to find different sorts of novelty yarns and play with some designs. I think that along with hairbands, maybe some novelty jewelry (like necklaces and bracelets) would be fun too.

I'm off to Google to search for supplies!

On The Needles Today

I recently took a trip to Vail, (see previous post), and wanted to take along a project that was small and portable, so I chose a sock project. Small enough to fit in a little zippered bag, ready to pull out whenever I had the opportunity to knit. The sock pattern is half made up, in that I used a toe up sock pattern from Ravelry as a base, and then added my own rib and cable pattern. It's an easy pattern to remember, so I don't always have to go back to any pattern, just knit, knit, knit!

You may notice that the color of the yarn is similar to my Colorado Colors photos from the previous post. As it turns out, I bought this yarn on Ebay, (one of my first Ebay purchases) several weeks ago, long before I saw the willows in Vail. I guess I do really like the colorway of gold, brown, russet.

My socks are about 1/3 of the way done, so there will be more posts as the project approaches the finish line. Stay tuned.