Ingredient of the Week & Yarny Sunday- on Hiatus

Well it’s Tuesday and here I am behind in blogging again. So I am going to put my weekend blogs- Ingredient of the Week and Yarny Sunday on hiatus for at least a few months. I have shows almost every weekend till the end of the year and so many of them set up on Saturday, making it a long, long day that the last thing I feel like doing is blogging. It is also the time of year that the only thing I seem to knit is washcloths and bath mitts, pretty boring stuff. And since I am trying to knit from my stash and not buy and new yarn, well, I don’t even have cool new yarn to blog about. So thanks for understanding and hopefully this reduce a little stress over the next few hectic months and I’ll get back to them soon!

Yarny Sunday

So this week I have primarily been knitting for the business. That means lots of washcloths and bath mitts. I use only natural fibers and although cotton is cheapest, I do use soy, bamboo, flax, linen, and even corn when I can get them and afford them. This year I have started keeping a book of all the yarns I find and use, as well as their prices and yardage, so when I find a sale I have a good idea if it is a good sale or not. I have over 50 different yarns that I have worked with so far this year alone.

So to keep with this weeks yarny theme I am reviewing a few of my favorites and linking to a few places to get them if I can.

So first up are the good ol’ staples of Sugar & Cream and Peaches & Cream. They are a great cotton yarn, wash well, and seem to hold their colors well too. I put a few others in this same category, Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, and Village Yarn Craft Cotton. To me they all feel the same; the colors seem similar, for all I know they are all made by the same place, just packaged different. So I tend to pick these up when they are on sale at my local AC Moore, Michaels, or Joanne Fabrics, but online I like Herrschners and Elmore-Pisgah.

One of my favorite that is still reasonable priced, and usually I can get three washcloths from a ball, is Reynolds’s Saucy. I get it at my local yarn shop, The Needle Arts Studio in Emmaus, PA, and I have also found it lots of other places. Since I typically don’t buy it online I have no link for ya, sorry.

And lastly, the yarn that I would make all my washcloths with, if I could afford to… Plymouth Yarn Royal Bamboo. Soft and delicate it just feels so luxurious. Unfortunately, I could never make a profit if I made everything from this, so I watch for sales (sorry to admit but typically yarn shop going out of business sales are best) and pick up all I can when I can afford it. You can go right to the Plymouth Yarn web site and search for a store in your area that carries it. It would cost a fortune, but I have a deep desire to knit a long sleeved night shirt from this, its that soft…

Yarny Sunday

So I think it was last week that I introduced you to Fun With Yarn. Well I had purchased some yarn with my birthday money and started working on a sweater. In fact I was knitting the Basic Pullover in Sally Melville's The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch. A few weeks ago, I finished everything but the collar (it needs to be assembled before finishing the collar). And then it sat here... waiting to be blocked...have I ever told you how much I despise the finishing process? Well I do, and this would be my first time ever blocking a sweater, as well as my first time knitting a sweater, as well as my first time using yarn that was so darn expensive... Needless to say I have some stress going on about finishing this project because I know that good finishing can be the difference between a beautiful sweater, and one that looks, well handmade (in a bad way)...

So my first objective was to buy a blocking board. I know you can cheaply make one, but honestly, having all the measurements printed on it already made me smile, so I bounced around the blog sphere and found a few references to the Sew E-Z Board. I finally received it on Friday and was very impressed with the workmanship, the size, and how easy it was to carry. In a burst of excitement I traveled down to Joann Fabrics as soon as I could leave my house and bought some T-pins (and a bunch of yarn on sale as well, I claim its for mom, but it may never leave).
Saturday I started blocking. The first photo is an arm before blocking.You can see how the stockinette stitch is all curled up and it barely looks like anything you could fit on your arm.
Next is a picture of the arms- one during blocking and one after. The nice thing about the pattern I was using is that the blocking dimensions are given ad easy to understand, no figuring on gauge needed, which was good for me because 1) I hate to gauge and 2) the math in this project was hard enough and I was given most of the measurements I needed.
And a few more pics of the front and back in progress. I put them outside in the sun so they dried quickly. And now today I need to go to my local yarn shop and look for something I can assemble this with because I don't have enough yarn left to put it together and to finish the collar.. I also don't think this yarn is the best for assembly as it is thick and pulls apart. I'll have to see what my local yarn guru has to offer.

Maybe next week I'll have this assembled...

Yarny Sunday

Happy Sunday! This is so often typically the day that if I don’t have a craft show, I sit and watch the NASCAR race and knit, knit, knit… but the race was on last night, and I woke up with a monster headache today (and not a drop of alcohol to blame for it either!), and when I do get this headache to go away C and need to start to empty the house so the floor refinisher can come next week and redo my 50 year old wood floors. Whoo Hoo!

So the knitting post will be short today….

Here is a link to my favorite yarn in the world. FUN WITH YARN. Michele is just a wonder. You must join her mailing list so you can learn when she updates her site, because her creations go fast. I used my birthday money from my mom, and some from my grammie, to buy myself enough to knit a sweater. I’d post pictures, but since it still needs to be blocked, right now it just looks like a rolled up mess. Hopefully my new blocking board will arrive soon and I can get it finished.

For all of you Harry Potter fans like myself, here is a link to buy CHARMED KNITS, patterns inspired by the books and movies. I can’t wait to add this to my shelves, even if it is just for the scarf; I love thick, warm, real scarves.

And finally a link to my next project…SOCKS. I had started a pair using a pattern that I wasn’t too happy with and have stopped knitting just a few inches in because I am dreading starting the second sock already. So after finding this I am ripping out what I have and starting again because this pattern seems much simpler and more like what I am looking for in a sock.

Of course I will start the socks after I finish B’s afghan (just needs to be put together), after I finish my knitted hedgehogs (they need to be stuffed, put together, and have their eyeballs sewn on), finish blocking and assembling my awesome sweater, and finish knitting, blocking, and assembling a vest that I am working on (and praying I don’t run out of yarn… it will be close).

Hopefully soon I can post pictures, we need a new digital camera and I think C will be getting one soon!