Category Archives: wool

Knitting toe socks!

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I have a customer who really likes toe socks, otherwise known by the brand name, Injinji. I’ve been knitting them for him in every color he can think of. They do take a while to dye up the yarn and knit them, but it’s very peaceful work.

His first order was for 1 pair of orange crew length toe socks and 1 pair ankle length toe socks.

orangetoesock3 orangetoesock2 orangetoesock1

His second order was for the same, but in a bright turquoise blue.

ankle length toe socks crew length toe socks finished ankle length toe socks wet finishing 2 pairs of toe socks

Now, I’m knitting him 2 pairs in a blend of green apple/lime green color!

Dyeing yarn for socks Yarn ready to be wound into yarn cake Toe socks - crew length Finished toe socks - crew length

Happy knitting and get out your dyepots!!

TLD

 

Rainy Day

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I have a love-hate relationship with rainy days. I know they’re necessary so that everything has water without us paying for it, but I dislike them when they’re cold and dreary. When they’re dreary, I need things to pull me out of any funk they can sometimes throw me into. When they’re dreary, I crave COLOR!! Lots of bright and bold COLORS!!

I started my work today by finishing these dryer balls in my natural colored wool offering.

Stormy gray dryer balls

While they’re pretty, they just weren’t pretty on a rainy day. These got me going on the dyepot with some wonderful Blue Faced Leicester roving and some Jacquard #735 Kelly Green. A most definite improvement and a needed staple for making dryer balls!

BFL in dyepot

More color improvement came with the blocking of my latest square I knit up, with some merino that I experimented on, from TinCanKnits pattern called Vivid. The colors are canary yellow and sienna. I think I should most definitely experiment some more! Right now, I’m knitting 3 squares of each color from my own hand spun, hand dyed yarn.

latest square The first 6 squares

To top off the adding of COLOR into today’s dreariness, I received a package from my good friend, Jeff Mueller (aka Computer Art Man). He sent this beautiful metal print because I mentioned something in a tweet to him (follow him @computerartman on twitter) about a week ago!

Bright Light Big City by Computer Art Man

Jeff is my favorite digital artist because his work is absolutely amazing!! I now own two pieces of his fabulous artwork. The other piece I own, I bought a few years ago and it’s a gorgeous canvas piece of Marlena Dietrich from a still scene from “Shanghai Express”!!

Now, get out there and DO something!

TLD

This is how my dryer balls are made…

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A lot of people have brought it to my attention that my dryer balls are ‘too bouncy’ to be 100% wool. If you were to say this to me in person, I’d invite you to cut one in half and see for yourself. I would also consider it to be a waste of the hard work I put into my dryer balls. The halved ball, on the other hand, I would be able to recycle into new dryer balls.

I don’t like to share anything about my process or the processes my art or craft goes through to get from point a to point b. This time, I will share my process. I find that it’s necessary for a dryer ball to have some bounce in it to bounce its way around the clothes dryer. It’s this bouncing action that is what actually softens the clothes as they’re being propelled around the inside of the clothes dryer.

The washed wool

I start out with about a 1/2 ounce of washed wool. I prefer to work with loose, washed wool because it’s easier to compress by hand than a carded batt of wool.

My beautiful picture My beautiful picture

I compress or squeeze the wool tightly in my hand until it’s firm enough to start a binding yarn. The binding yarn will aid in holding the wool together as you wrap the yarn around it while squeezing the ball tighter.

My beautiful picture My beautiful picture

I keep adding more wool until the ball is almost 2.25 inches in diameter. I begin by pushing the needle felting tool into the wool ball and keep doing this while I rotate the ball around and around.  I continue to needle felt it into a nice, firm, round ball until it meets my expectations for bounce and…..

My beautiful picture My beautiful picture

VOILA!! A dryer ball ready to be dressed up (covered with dyed wool, silk and/or decorative wool)!

My beautiful picture

I’ve not bought any dryer sheets or fabric softeners for the past 4 years. Considering that I used to go through a box of 120 count dryer sheets every 3 months, I’d say that I’ve saved roughly $55 over the past 4 years and that’s not bad for a really small family.

(On a side note: dryer balls are strictly fabric softeners. They do nothing to remove static electricity. Only a dehumidifier can do that properly, unless you live where there is high humidity.)

Save some money and buy a set of dryer balls for your dryer today at my Etsy shop!!

Yes, I do make custom dryer balls!

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While I’m not really into painting with wool, I do make custom design dryer balls for those who ask. I shipped out an order for custom designed dryer balls this past Wednesday. I love how they turned out. There are 4 to 5 hearts on each ball.

yellowheart2  purpleheart3 purpleheart2 purpleheart1 pinkheart1  orangeheart1 greenheart2 greenheart1 blueheart2 blueheart1 All of the heart balls

I enjoy making them and I never want to ship any of them because I love how they all look. I think a decorator bowl, full of dryer balls, would look really awesome on your coffee table. I would put a bowl full on mine, but I don’t have one.

Get some fiber to play with. You’ll love it.

My Etsy shop!

Facebook can lead to fun and simple lace knitting….

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It always starts like this: I do my morning prayers, log onto my laptop and let it do its thing, get a cup of coffee, review my orders that need to be shipped/created for the day, then I venture onto Facebook. This is where it takes me awhile to drag myself away to the work that needs doing (yes, this can include housework, too). Sometimes, I have to set a timer and only allow myself 15 minutes of perusal time. Sometimes I’m able to walk away without the timer because I have TONS of work that needs doing. Sometimes I find things worth reading and end up digging around for more info. That’s when I need the timer.

Last week, I found a picture on Facebook that led me to some random photos on Pinterest, that led me to ravelry, where I found a link to this pattern written by tin can knits, called Vivid. While mine isn’t so very vivid, I love how it turned out and will be making quite a few of these to piece together into a nice shawl or wrap (I’ll add pictures to this post when I’ve got that part figured out.).

Here is the result of me seeing, liking and hunting it all down:

unblockedfirstsquare1 unblockedfirstsquare2

I love this quick, easy and very well written pattern so much that I started a second one right away. I’m using U.S. size 2 circular knitting needles with my hand dyed (Debra Ahrens Suffolk fleece and lime Kool-Aid), hand spun yarn.

Here is what the first square looks like when it’s blocked:

firstsquareblocked1 A pink one

Get on over to Ravelry and buy this pattern quickly before it disappears!

Go read her blog, too!! http://tincanknits.com/pattern-HUK-vivid.html

Oh! and don’t forget her nifty, neato tutorial for doing a pinhole cast-on (yes, it was my first time and I loved learning something new).

 

A case of mysterious yarn!

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BerrocoYarn2

My dear loving husband, Mark, bought me a skein of fantastic yarn for Christmas. I removed its label, hid the label so I wouldn’t be tempted by it and wound the yarn into a nice ball. I set it aside until I knew (or thought I knew) what I was going to create from it.

BerrocoYarn1

I cast on 3 stitches and started what I imagined might become a felted hot pad. As I knit up the yarn, I discovered I liked handle of it and how it felt as it worked through my fingers. I fell in LOVE with all of the bright colors and muted color blends in it. I knew I was in trouble. I had to find the label. The label is long-lost in the mess I call my office.

I posted it on facebook, but no one seemed to know what it was so I went online and searched and searched. I thought I’d found it a few nights ago at yarn.com. I believed it was Berroco Boboli yarn in the dappled shade colorway. Wonderful! 5 skeins remaining and it’s being closed out. Click add to cart, click to pay, login to paypal to pay, paypal failed due to an unknown cause. I learned that the unknown cause was caused by another party buying up the last 5 skeins I could acquire for the great price of $7.99 per skein!

It turns out that I was wrong about it being Berroco. I’m glad I have a lot of friends with really good eyes and told me to go hang out at Craftsy for a while (it also helps that I found the missing Plymouth Yarn label). I bought 5 skeins of Plymouth Europa yarn in colorway Multi. I will now take what looks like a nice start to a good, warm babushka and set it aside until the yarn arrives.

PlymouthYarn3

If it turns out I’m mistaken, I’ll simply and carefull frog what I’ve knit up and start over with the matching skeins working what I have into it for a nice, subtle striped effect. It will still be a good babushka!