Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Yarn Crush May 2016

May's box, made me so happy, it put two of my favourite things in one box, yarn and beads. It never even occurred to me to knit a necklace but they look stunning, so I plan on trying to the best of my ability to create just about all of them. Who knows when hopefully in June. Just look at those colours??? Lime green and fuchsia, this is a happy girl.




















So, I spent the majority of May untangling my April yarn from Yarn Crush. Seriously, how do yarn dyers do it? My yarn looks like it was hacked up by a cat. Life is so cruel. Sadly I did not get very far with Aprils box due to this, but I did manage to get about halfway which was in my opinion AMAZING.
These are my two cakes, sadly the yarn frayed and snapped into two, thereby leaving me with two cakes, but it all works out.

 This shows you a bit of the colour variation of my dyeing experiment, and just how lovely the shawl (cape) will turn out. I am super happy with the results.

And here it is halfway to completion, with the beads and everything. Just so pretty, and the yarn is 1000% softer being used to knit than it was during untangling.

Beaded knitting skill acquired.

All in all I am happy with my accomplishments and feel great about how much I plan on finishing in June.

Wednesday, 18 May 2016

May 2015

What will April bring?

Knitting I have on the go:
  1. Dragon Stole: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dragon-stole
  2. Illuminated Lines Blanket: Thank you Knit Picks
    1. I looked the other day and this blanket has been in the works since 2013. So it is my goal to finish this!!! Very soon. 
      1. I have about 22 pieces of 50, so I will keep knitting as though my life depended on it. 
  3. Circlet Cardigan: Thank you Knit Picks - so pretty! I cannot wait to see this finished.

  4. Feather and Fan Blanket
  5. Mitered Square blanket in Parrot...I was crocheting this into something, but I did not like it, I still don't really like it but it will happen 
  6. Banana Bunches - Eager to finish this sucker! about 50% complete
  7. Hue shift in 5 colours not 10 - 35% complete

    Crocheting:
    1. Corner to corner blanket in red, black, and white - 55% complete right now. 
    Books:
      1. Pride and Prejudice
      2. Moll Flanders
      3. Moloka'i

      Tuesday, 17 May 2016

      Sea Turtle Fiber Arts Stash Enhancing

      The lovely Sarah, I think is going to cause me to become broke, but then again there are worse problems.
      Look at all my lovely yarn that I just got!!!!

      For most of this I have a plan, the rest I have no plan at all. But hey that is part of the fun. I got some minis, and then I also got a boat load of other items that are stunning. Cannot wait to figure out what I am going to use it for. Kind of just want to sit and look at it right now really. I do have plans for the twilight, so at least I have some semblance of a plan.

      But LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY YARN!




      Sunday, 8 May 2016

      The Stash 2016 - and a question

      Today's subject. Vast quantities of yarn, and what to do with them.

      Cleaned out my stash again on the weekend, and despite my best efforts and knitting as though my life depended on it, my stash has grown. GRRR! I can now probably knit for the next 2 years without having to leave the house. That being said it does not look like I have enough of any one type of yarn to actually finish anything. But how does one know what one will knit when buying the yarn? Or does one buy yarn after one knows what one is knitting? I feel  like one needs to inspire the other and the one does not really lead to another.


      In this bin there is a lot of DK weight, then bulky, some sock weight, and a few skeins of lace yarn, and there in the right hand corner you can see the two knitting machines. I have never really talked about those on here, let's just leave it that way for a bit.





       Then here we have the makings of another hue shift afghan. Why did I ever go down this slippery slope? I think it was because I truly enjoyed knitting the first one, and it does look incredible. This will still happen. I wonder if I could knit it on the knitting machine....mmmmm something to consider that is for sure. PLAY TIME! Guess I might be doing that coming up. And that will use up some of my spare gross yarn that I really have no intention of using for anything.





      I do not even know where to begin with this one. Fingering weight, and then a few skeins of bulky chunky stuff that I might just hold together and knit with giant needles turn into some easy scarves, they are bad colours though, but they did have a plan in the beginning. I was going to knit an intarsia blanket and have David Tennant's or Matt Smith's face in the middle, but it drove me crazy before about 20 rows in and I thought NO, just NO. I don't want to. Might just break out the HUGE (vampire slaying) needles, and see if I can do a say 10 stitch wide by however many rows long scarf and then see who wants it.

      My cashmere yarn is in there too, so soft and squishy I want it all.




      And then this crate, it is a lot of the yarn I use for the crochet corner to corner baby blankets that I work on when I am travelling, or when my brain has exceeded its otherwise normal operating power. Also the LOVELY skeins of Red Heart Unforgettable are in here as well, I love these yarns, they are so beautiful and I just love them. I think when I get my illuminated lines blankets done I will do a few small baby sized ones with these, as the black really helps to set off the colour in them rather than just using them on their own, which can look okay. I did a scarf on the knitting machine with the burgundy and it was beautiful.


      Must come up with a new system of some type or other. Knit picks offers a wonderful kit building system telling one how much yarn one needs. Okay so let us start there, and then see what projects I want to make the yarn that they require and how much I will need! And make a blog post for each one as a starting place, or a Ravelry page for each one, then I will know more about all the things I am trying to accomplish.

      Looking at it I should have written down what it was for in the first place instead of just piling it in the corner....I will endeavour to change this in the future.

      Tuesday, 3 May 2016

      Lotion Candles

      This weekend proved an interesting change for me. I made Lotion Candles. I do not plan on doing this project ever again, or I might who knows.
      • 7 tablespoons of soy wax flakes
      • 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil
        • These two items were melted in a plastic pot in the microwave for about two minutes, stirred, then left too cool a bit before adding the essential oils. 
      • drops of essential oil
      • wooden wicks cut into three
      This recipe made enough for 1 of my little Petite Pots, look out for these at a grocery store, it is a new yogurt line being sold in a little glass jar, they are super cute and can then be revamped into so many different things. 

      I also decorated the petite pots using twine, masking tape, gold leaf, and copper wire. I think they are so cute, and the fact that they are dual purpose is also awesome. I hope you like them.



      What else you could use your Petite Pots for:
      1. Candles
      2. Sugar scrub
      3. Lotion
      4. Veggie and dip
      5. Chocolate Mousse desserts
      6. Mini Shrimp Cocktail
      7. Snack pot for: Granola, Muesli, Trail Mix
      Do what you want and make it your own, and have fun with your creativity.

      Only I could make a candle that cannot burn.....at least I can use them to keep my hands soft. 

      -A

      Sunday, 1 May 2016

      April 2016

      What has April brought?

      Well.... I just looked at my Ravelry account and in both places there are a significant amount of missing pictures, not quite sure how that has gone by the wayside, and it is dreadful of me to keep creating these things and never knowing what they look like. I could also be in denial about the fact that they are finished, as in off the needles, but the ends are not woven in so the term 'finished' is used quite loosely in my world. 

      In other news one weekend in April I decided to put aside my knitting for about an hour and I made some stitch markers. I had never thought of making stitch markers before, but beading working, pliers, jump rings, and lobster clasps and I was a stitch marker making fool. So now I have some very pretty gemstone stitch markers, a set of keys, and a tea service set, all tucked away in a round container. I also made 3 progress trackers consisting of a tiara, a lock, and a 'teapot' (I use this term loosely as it does not really look like a tea pot, but it came with cups, saucers, and tea spoons. 

      I also used my vintage never before used teapot this month while knitting one Saturday. 

      And if you look closely you can see in the background the progress that has been made on the circlet cardigan, well not really, but it was a better backdrop for my tea pot than what I was watching. 






      FO's of April:
      1. A mist of Glitz
        1. Yarn-Crush B box pattern and yarn, this is going surprisingly well, I CO 04/04/2016 and did 8 rows in an evening, but that was of the edging, the rest may not go as quickly or might go faster. 
      2. Drop stitch Prayer shawl for Jennifer
        1. I am assisting her in knitting two of these in the month of April, not sure how I get myself into these things, and it is the first prayer shawl I will have done....but anything to help a friend as it will come back in spades to me, and make me feel like I have done something for someone. And it has a strict deadline
      3. Grammy's Mitts
      4. Orthoganal Mitts
                   




      Knitting I have on the go:
      1. Illuminated Lines Blanket: Thank you Knit Picks
          1. I have about 22 pieces of 50, so I will keep knitting as though my life depended on it. 
      2. Circlet Cardigan: Thank you Knit Picks - so pretty! I cannot wait to see this finished.
        1. 60 rows to go on the body
      3. Feather and Fan Blanket - This really is if I am desperate for a change.
      4. Mitered Square blanket in Parrot...I was crocheting this into something, but I did not like it, I still don't really like it but it will happen. 
        1. this was frogged. Good bye kind friend. 
      5. Banana Bunches - Eager to finish this sucker! about 50% complete
      6. Hue shift in 5 colours not 10 - 35% complete
      7. Dragon Stole: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dragon-stole.
      Crocheting:
      1. Corner to corner blanket in red, black, and white - 55% complete right now. 
      Books:
      1. Pride and Prejudice
      2. Moll Flanders
      3. Moloka'i
      4. Soulless Manga part 1
        1. Very quick little read, but it is nice to have an accomplishment, so I decided a nice short little easy book was just the ticket to make me feel like I had made some sort of progress. 
      5. Soulless Manga part 2
      Look over here!
      A box of left overs from my various projects. Some may say these are not left overs but  do not keep anything that is much shorter anything less than about 3 feet goes to our friend the garbage bag, as I cannot contemplate why anyone would want to stitch them into something. Who knows I might start, I might not, really just do not encourage me.