So, here’s an interesting recent Goodwill acquisition – four nearly-new Mason jars full of eyelash/novelty yarn – each jar has a full ball, plus at least a partial second – these are quart-sized jars! Each of these was 99 cents. I figured that was worth investing in.
I’ve got about 70 irons in the fire today, so I’d best get back to them – have a great day, y’all!
I took a break from it in the past few days, but until very recently I’ve been obsessed with Granny Squares. It’s been good practice, and also a great way to use up old stash – specifically bag lots of yarn from Goodwill. I had a whole bunch of scraps from sources like this. So I’ve made a nice start on a granny square throw. This is what I have so far:
Last I counted, there were 29 there. I hope to get back to adding to them this evening – it’d be fun to get enough done for a throw before Thanksgiving. There are a lot of weird colors I’m trying to use little bits of, and some of my combinations are questionable, I’m sure, but I’m trying to not exactly duplicate any square. Those that you see below that look the same are all from different but similar yarns – I think the previous owner had a penchant for acrylic baby blanket making. The odd ball is that little tiny scrap of hot pink – I found that wrapped *inside* another ball of yarn from that stash and felt like I should use it up, which I did.
The I’ve noticed that that previous owner was also sloppy with her instant coffee. Some of this yarn was gross enough when I bought it that it needed a run through the wash on delicate. I keep finding little imperfections inside the yarn balls I’m using, which is a shame. I hate to waste the yarn, so I go ahead and use it, but now I have a couple of squares with little spots like this:
(pardon the shoddy picture – the camera is getting a bit…worn out. ;P)
And this:
I really want to use up this yarn – it seems wrong to not be frugal, to avoid wasting a resource, but I’m worried this isn’t going to come out. Suggestions anyone?
I have to say, as I approach my first Holiday Season as a crocheter and proto-knitter, I’m struggling a bit with veganism and yarn. I’ve been a vegan for more than 4 years, and I don’t buy wool – with the *possible* exception of second hand. However I really do like a good wool yarn. I don’t know if that’s a side effect of having a mom who knitted with wool when I was a kid or what. Maybe so.
There are a lot of synthetics out there, but then I worry about the environmental impact their creation makes. On the other hand, cotton is a very water intensive crop for most farmers. It can be done “dry” but then one is looking at organic yarn, which is a bit beyond my budget at the moment. Actually, a lot of better yarns are beyond my budget at the moment. o.0 So I’m mostly stuck *wanting* to get fancy vegan yarns (bamboo, soy, etc.) but actually purchasing affordable synthetics.
Today I’m going hunting for affordable yarn I can use to create the Delicate Web Wrap from Hooked Throws. You can see the pattern at Lion Yarn (it’s free) or at Ravelry. (I was a bit freaked out to see errata at the Lion site – hope that’s not par for the course for my chosen projects from this book!!) I have some ideas, and I hope I can find what I need – I’m hoping to make this for a relative for Christmas! Wish me luck! ^_^
Just a quickie – swamped by RL, as usual:
That’s it for me for now – hope you’re having a fantastic day and the rest of it goes even better!!!!! ^_^
I had to go into town, so while I was there I hit up Tuesday Morning and Wally-World looking for budget-friendly yarn. I’m still a newbie, so I wasn’t looking for anything fine, just workable and practical yarn for a beginner.
Tuesday Morning was mostly a bust, ‘though there were two small packets of Bernat Organic Cotton. I didn’t think it was a good enough deal at the time (three balls for $4.99) so I didn’t get it. In retrospect, looking at the Herrschner’s Yarn Sale, I guess it was a decent deal. Ah well. The Lion Brand Homespun *definitely* wasn’t at a good enough price. Actually, I wasn’t hugely impressed by the whole store – the prices weren’t what I’d call…a bargain.
I dropped by Wal-Mart’s craft section while I was out – I got 2 skeins of Caron’s Simply Soft Eco in White and one in Natural, as well as two Red-Heart Super-Savers, one in Dark Sage, and one in Claret – all for a dollar a piece. The latter two I view as practice yarn more than anything else – a bit scratchy, but good for practice scarves, hats, etc. The Caron yarn I love – I had already bought a skein of Ocean on sale ($2) for my middle son – he wanted a “lovey” blanket to cuddle under, which I did make – I didn’t think to photograph it, though – guess I should. Their Simply Soft Eco line is really soft, though a bit friable – hard to keep from separating strands, sometimes. The fun thing is – it’s partially made of recycled plastic bottles.
Found this browsing the web – looks to be a fabulous resource with pics, links, and more! ^_^ Woot!
My First Yarn Ball ^_^ -- Berrocco Comfort
Well, at least a little bit. While both the yarn skeins I bought the other day were center-pull, I decided to roll up the Comfort one for practice, using this post over at Ariadne’s weblog as a guide. (I hear congratulations are in order over there, ya know.^_^) I had tremendous luck rolling my first ever yarn ball – I even took a picture, haha!
However, after that, I tried a variety of suggestions, both online and from two books. Now the online one worked out fine, but my skein management failed miserably. I went from a nice neat skein, to a tangled mess. I tried advice from the Klutz books I got recently, as well as Stitch n’ Bitch. Now the suggestion from the Klutz books is to drap a skein over a chair edge. I can see that – just not the way it is portrayed in the Crochet book. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I was finally able to figure out that my husband’s top desk drawer was wide enough to keep my skein from slipping off and tangling, so all of my skein’s from the Klutz books are now properly rolled. Now to actually dive deep into the actual practice of knitting and crochet.
Well, I finally got around to going to my first yarn shop in a very, very long time last week. Meant to blog about it between here and there, but life’s been busy….
Anyhoo, got a little late birthday pin money from my MIL, so off I went to hunt down my very own LYS:
Destin Yarn Shop
And there it is! ^_^ I am *almost* too embarrassed to mention how excited I was when I realized I’d found it. And what fun it was – lots of colors and textures…
LYS Goodies
Anyway, I controlled myself and bought some size 9 needles and two types of yarn. Gonna make a potato chip scarf, a free pattern from owner Carol Williams that I’m sure most have you have seen before. It’s supposed to be easy. Guess we’ll see, lol.
So – next step – finding vegan fibers to work with. I’m guessing I need to stick to synthetic stuff like acrylic to begin with? I’ve fund a bunch of lovely handmade fiber for sale on the net, but nothing that a noob like me such probably touch for a while. As I understand it, the natural fibers in vegan yarn are less flexible and forgiving? Hmm….
Anyway, I’ve been looking for resources lately. There’s Etsy, of course. I found an old blog called Vegan Yarn that has a collection of links, but it’s not current. Any suggestions, y’all?
