I Love Recycled Stuff!

It provides me with so much more materials to work with than I might otherwise have! One of my old school friends, Leanne asked if I could make a bag for her using the same owl pattern I used in an small bag I made my daughter. Didn't seem like a hard ask so I went and plunged into my stash!

It's kind of difficult because most of the wool I have is deliberately treated so it doesn't felt and the stuff I know will felt I don't really have enough to make the bag. But finally I dug out the yarn from two jumpers I'd bought from an op shop and unravelled. A pale green and a blueberry purple. They were quite fine yarn so I held 4 strands together to make a bulkier yarn. Then I drew up the pattern in those colours and prepared to begin!

Once started I really sped along! I love with stranded work how you can watch the pattern appear row by row. Finally, at 12.40am I cast off the garter edge top.

Next morning (or rather, when I got up after sleeping in because I stayed up until a ridiculous time of night!) I knit the two straps in I-cord and crocheted the loop for the button closure at the top. Then I sewed up the bottom, attached the straps and loop and then stood back and briefly admired my  work!

Pre-felting it looked pretty good but Post-felting...

...it looked even better!

So tonight I'm waiting for it to dry before sewing a lining for it, attaching it, sewing on the button and then,  Ta Da!!

It'll be all finished!

Happy Knitting :)

Return of the Felting Foray

Just to give myself a change from threading beads (Sooo over that!) and knitting large projects like jumpers I decided to give smaller projects a burl. But, since that would be far too simple, I thought I'd add felting to the mix. You know because finishing a project in a day just isn't fun unless you have to wait until the washing machines finished with it to see whether it's been a success or not!
So since I was still desperately seeking a slipper pattern that I really like that stays on my foot without me having to adjust it after felting I downloaded a pattern off Ravelry called "Duffer". With a name like that, how could I resist? Very quick knit, easy directions and quite pleasing appearance even before felting.

But after felting and drying on a pair of shoe airers it's superiority to every slipper pattern I have thus far tried became evident.
They stay on my foot without ANY adjustment!!
What more need I say?



But while trawling around on Ravelry I found this lovely chart for a barn owl and a few elements came together in my mind. Darling Daughter and The Boy kind of collect owlish things, (The beginning of this particular theme has become hopelessly obscure and includes some line he keeps repeating at times which is simply "Hoot Hoot.") and I have some pieces of various naturally coloured spun wool not to mention a ball of beautiful mohair that I spun myself but have been unable to use since if it touches any part of my skin besides my palms it makes me itchy! So, with no preparation or forethought I dragged out the wool and cast on. It only took me about 3 hours to finish but by then it was past midnight so I sewed up the sides and made myself go to bed without putting it into the washing machine yet.

But first thing in the morning in the machine it went! And after it came out I nearly made myself late for work by sewing it onto a cutting board to block it and putting it outside to dry. Was very pleased with the finished result and it feels like heaven when you run your hand over it! The mohair and wool are so lovely, silky and warm it's like having a small rectangular pet on your lap! I attached two felted loops and two large wooden buttons and Behold! a bag!

Yes! A bag! For holding all those important things like...a waterbottle?
A slightly large but not too large book?
A Netbook maybe?
Okay, it's a kind of strange size, 23cm wide and 27cms long, not really big enough to be a useful bag but not small enough to be a purse. But it is gorgeous!!
I don't care, I'm proud and I'm sure Daughter will love it being that she's in Canberra, the chilblain capital of Australia!
Keep on Knitting :)

Finished a New Celtic Tote!

Over the Christmas break my brother's fiancee admired the Celtic Tote bag I'd made. I asked if she'd like me to make her one and she said she'd love that, her only requirement was no brown.
Okay, with those provisos in place, I embarked on the project!
In the end, wasn't as straight forward as I'd hoped. The yarn I bought didn't come in very interesting colour ranges and I couldn't find a contrast yarn that I really liked. So I had to do some thinking.

I ended up using the blue and knitting the first side. Wasn't coming out as big as the first one but didn't worry about that too much. My big problem was trying to come up with a contrast colour I liked because I wanted to make one of the cables a feature, doing it entirely in the contrast colour.

In the end I pulled something out of my stash. I had some spun and dyed corriedale wool that would felt nicely and I thought the colours were lively enough to be eyecatching.

So, when I began the second side, they became the feature cable!

But I was still really unhappy with the colour and finally decided the only thing would be to dye the whole thing! Decided on red since it really made the contrast yarn pop but my first attempt wasn't very successful because I didn't have a whole packet. It came out a sort of wishy-washy purply-colour.

So I decided to let it dry, press the pieces and sew them all together and dye them like that since I had to wait until I could buy more dye! But the bag did look lovely all sewn together.

Finally I got the dye and once that was done I threw it into the washing machine and felted the daylights out of it! I knew it was going to come out much smaller than the first one but I was a little concerned with just how small it came out.

But still a very usable size, much more like a handbag. So I got the lining material I'd bought (which now the bag had been dyed went with it much better than it had before!) sewed it all up, attached the button and Viola! A very beautiful little Celtic Tote!

I'm very happy with the end result, especially the colour! The feature cable was horribly fiddly to knit and although I'll never do it again! I think it really makes the bag its own individual and extra special. Now all I have to do is get it to recipient. That could take a while too :)
Hope you like this. Happy Knitting :)

So What have I done this Week?

Laundry done? Nope. Although I did wash a load of towels but didn't manage to put them on the line. Hey, it's drizzling out there...on and off...when I look out the window...
Ironing started? Eh, negatori!
Floors swept? Carpets vacuumed? No and...nope.
But I have been knitting! Look, all the nice pretty things I've been making!
I made this lovely cat-ornament-cat-thing...

...and then I knit these really great felted slippers from a great magazine I bought when I was in Albany last...with wool that I also bought in Albany...even though I have an obscene amount of wool at home that I could have probably practiced with...but I digress!

The backs with the buttons are how the heels ended up because my feet are so ridiculously small that even felted the slippers were HUGE! But aren't they cute!!

Still knitting the Blush Vest and don't have a nice picture and we went to Albany for dinner with newly returned In-Laws (They've been to New Zealand, lucky hobbits!) so took slipper pattern and wool I'd spun and dyed and knit up another pair of slippers over the course of the night and even managed to felt them when I got home! And they turned out so well!!!

Aren't they pretty? The heels are different again to the first pair. I wanted to put a button detail on them again but they didn't fold over the way the first ones did and I didn't like how the heel kind of hung out. So I sewed them up to about 2cms short of the heel and then gathered the heel up so it made a nice circle where you heel goes. Hey, it makes sense to me! And they fit! What more could I want?

Well, I think that's about it. I've done a bit of dyeing acrylic yarns...not sure I want to do that again. It smells funny for starters! But I now have some interesting coloured yarn that I'm not sure what to do with, one of them so acrylic-y that it squeaks! I think that one may find its way to being a market bag or something.

This boring pink fluffy became this almost elmo-oh-my-god red fluffy stuff


And this was the Acrylic then...and now. Better colour, just as squeaky!

A most productive week...of a kind. Hey, the house I will always have with me but inspiration comes only now and then, or sometimes more often...depending on the yarn available...or the patterns that crop up...but definitely not as often as housework anyway!

I'll have to give serious thought this weekend though to vacuuming, laundry and ironing otherwise the Hubbie will begin to remonstrate. And I've got to have a look at Chapter Nine of Raven of Arlon before another week flies by. Sigh. Why can't I get paid by the quota of Creative energy I generate.
Oh well....
Happy Knitting :)

Sometime it pays to think before you do something!

Finally dyed all the base yarn I wanted and the house REEKS of vinegar. So, in a fit of amazing obtuseness I put it all into two delicates bags, toss it in the washing machine, added eucalytus wool wash and fabric softener and...
PUT IT ON A NORMAL WASH CYCLE!!!
What was I thinking???
...And here's the result :(

Bugger!
But all is not lost! I figured out that it hadn't destroyed it so much as felted the fibres together so if I put each hank back onto my Swift I could wind them back onto my NiddyNoddy and reskein them up again.
So, after a big, deep, cleansing sigh...that's what I did.

It seemed to take FOREVER!
But now I have a lovely selection of colours where before I had this boring kind of blue/lavender thing. Definitely think I'll try a shawl with this. Probably the pattern I'm doing at the moment in the mohair and lambswool.
I hate mohair! It's itchy!!
This stuff, on the other hand, isn't. It's soft and cosy and I chose the colours all myself!

I've also cleaned out Walpoles IGA of all it's white vinegar and my fingers are slowly losing that green tinge. I'm all out of the dylon powder so that's probably just as well although I'm practising with food dyes and vinegar now. I think I've created a monster :)

But at least it's a fun, pretty coloured monster! Got to get back to knitting though.
Happy Knitting :)

Let's try a little Dyeing (as in changing things colours, not the other...well, you get the idea!)

I've been wanting to try a little dyeing for awhile but nothing huge so I decided I'd experiment with a small skein of wool I'd spun from the bag I got with the Traveller Wheel.
I bought two sachets of Dylon powder dye in Vert Olive and Fuschia. I filled two glass jars with water, added a quarter teaspoon of each dye to one jar and added a quarter teaspoon of salt and gave them a stir.
Then I added the wool.

What I'd forgotten was I'd rushed washing this skein and it still had a bit of lanolin in it. Didn't realize it would mean the dye would have a hard time getting into all the fibres.

So...the first hour...... And the four hours later......

Then just before I went to bed for the night.....and in the morning!
Was a bit disappointed that it wasn't more vibrant but I thought, well, it's an experiment and just carried on!

So I took it out of the jars and gave it a good cold rinse, worried that the whole thing was going to wash out but very pleased when it didn't! I actually quite liked the more muted shades of the pink, green and white.
I washed in warm water next and washed it properly so all the lanolin was out. I didn't lose any of the colour which I was also pleased with and got this beautiful soft skein of delicately coloured wool!

Then I knit it on 5mm needles with 45 stitches into a rectangle, felted it a little in an ordinary cold rinse with some teatowels and Hey Presto!

I have the softest, cutest little coin purse I have ever possessed!! I'm going to look for a small pink zip to sew into the opening when next I'm in town. For now though, I just pick it up and rub it on my face. SOoooo soft!
I'm going to dye as much of this wool like this as I can spin and then make something epic with it. It deserves the royal treatment :)

Can you tell I'm a little chuffed?
Happy Knitting :)

Spinning, spinning...

I have been having a lovely time with my new Traveller Spinning Wheel!
Have spun up some experiments, all navajo plied (I haven't really had the patience to wait long enough to spin up two bobbins).

These two were the very first I spun. The blue had been a single on one of the bobbins that came with the Wheel and the red is some roving I bought when a local craft store closed down. The red is a lot softer than the blue.

Next I started to make my way through the bag of fleece I got with the Wheel. It is pretty dirty but still so soft! It's been quite a long time since I've had to card my own wool since I've spun mostly from rovings of late. I'd forgotten how unpleasant it can be! Bits of skin off my knuckles from the flick brush and sore hands and wrists! But in the end, all worth it. I'd washed the fleece bits before spinning but they were still a bit tacky so after I'd spun it up I sprayed it with stain remover that specialises with removing grease and then put it in a warm bath. So much dirt came out of that last wash! Now it's lovely ans, not tacky at all and lovely light cream colour!

I'm very pleased with these three experiments and I'm washing more fleece bit by bit so I can keep carding and have lots of fluffy wool to spin when I have a chance. I'm thinking of maybe knitting with the three and making a felted pouch or bag-thing with them. The blue really isn't wearable and neither is the red, really and there's not enough of any of them to make something substantial.
Oh well, so much fun. I'll just keep knitting the socks, the shawl and whatever else I've got on the go at the moment and quietly make my leisurely way through the whole garbage bag of fleece, confident that there is no real hurry.
Happy Knitting :)