The Knitter's Book of Yarn

I tend to be someone who likes to know the technical details behind whatever I am doing.  When it comes to knitting I like to know the whys for a procedure as well as the hows.

For instance, to knit means, to me, to pull the loop toward me while to purl means to push it away from me.  For others its all about front loops and back loops which is incomprehensible to me.
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While browsing through the new Kingwood Branch library I found the Knitter's Book of Yarn and I have fallen in love with it.

Every other book for knitters seems to concentrate on the weight of the yarn....fingering, worsted, chunky etc.  and gives you ideas on how to use these weights of yarn in different projects.

This book  concentrates on how the yarn is made, the number of plys and how the construction of the yarn itelf makes it suitable for different projects.

For instance, a single ply yarn can be any weight from lace to chunky but is unsuitable for projects that will get a lot of wear and tear as it is relatively fragile.  More plys means more strength.


Imagine light bulbs going off every where.

Success in a project is not only dependent on the skill of the knitter but on the weight and number of plys of the yarn.

I have only sampled the contents but I am already intrigued and can't wait to get my own copy.

I see that the author has another book just on wool.  I am sure that it as fascinating as her first book and I intend to get my order into Amazon as soon as possible.

If you would like to sample the Book of Yarn and you live in Kingwood, I will be returning it to the library this weekend so it should be available to you on Monday.

New Spring Clothes

Not for me but for Alex and the Girls. 

The harnesses I bought last Fall for them were getting pretty ratty.  I decided to use the old harnesses as a pattern for making new ones from some sweet Japanese fabric I purchased recently at Sew Crafty Houston.

Aren't they cute?

Alex's has little trucks on it.

Kelis's has cupcakes

and Kimora's has chocolate hearts.

I did learn a couple of things while making these.

First off, although I hate big box stores, a 24 hour WalMart, that still carries sewing supplies, is a godsend at midnight when you run out of pre-made bias binding.  Kimora nearly did not have a harness for this morning's walk when I realized that what I thought was bias binding tape was actually hem tape.

Secondly, all Vecro is not alike.  I used the extra soft kind for these harnesses while the originals have extra-strong Velcro on them.  There really is a difference in holding power and, although I have not had any troubles keeping the harnesses on them (yet!), I will probably have to replace the wimpy stuff before too long.

Thirdly, those little screws that hold you presser plate on your sewing machine can get lost in the workings of your machine.  Even though you pick it up, turn it upside down and shake it for all it is worth the screws will not fall back out.  Fortunately I had a couple of another machine that had screws that fit.

Note to self:  buy more screws for the next time this happens.

This whole project cost me about $12.00  as most of the supplies were stash items and I re-used the fittings from the old harnesses. 

Next up... new leashes.

Until then, have a good weekend!

A Creative Tale

I was wondering around JoAnn's last year and noticed that the upholstery fabrics were on sale so I decided to take a look.

I saw some wonderful braided curtain tie backs in cream and black and some coordinating buttons.

Not anything I could use until I saw a wonderful black and cream plaid mid-weight fabric from JoAnn's Christopher Lowell line.

A light bulb went off that the tie-backs, buttons and fabric would make an elegant tote.

The whole purchase was less than $10.00 so I was feeling pretty smug until these purchases got bruied under some quilting projects.

Fast forward until a couple of weeks ago when these purchases finally saw the light of day from many months ago.

Instead of burying them again, I bit the bullet and made this:

Pretty elegant, even if I do say so myself.

Further validation is that the Girls really seemed to like it as well.

Just goes to show every female knows a good bag when they see one. 

I am especailly proud that the outside pocket is almost invisible on the ouside as I actually matched up the plaids.

What was Alex doing while the Girls and I were admiring my handiwork?  Eatiing the sticky weeds in my lawn!

Before and After

BEFORE

AFTER

Anything else you need to know?

Stray Sock Creatures

One the joys of collecting others discards for the quilt guild Fish Pond next year is that I get a chance to see all the books and magazines that others don't need anymore.  One of the books I have  been intrigued by is Stray Sock Sewing: Making One of a Kind Creatures from Socks.

Daniel (just Daniel), the author, explains in great detail how to use socks, new or used, to create some really cute little critters.  While his socks are perfect for each application, I found some good substitutes at Target the other day for $0.25 a pair.

Here are the two I made while clearing out the Tivo this evening:

The one on the left is a long eared imaginary animal while the other is sort of a cat.

I think I need to work the faces before I consider giving similar toys to any small children.

Until then I think Alex will enjoy them when I stop admiring my handwork....some time tomorrow.

I hope your week has gone well and that you have lots of fun stuff planned for your weekend.  My weekend is over-planned right now and I am trying to figure out what to delete.

Wish me luck!

Cross Stitch Scarf

I bought some super fluffy acrylic yarn at Twisted Yarns just because I liked it.  I had no idea what I was going to use it for but while cruising the One Skein Wonders books (101 Designer One-Skein Wonders: A world of possibilities inspired by just one skein and One-Skein Wonders) I found a wonderful scarf of multi colored yarn knitted using something called a cross stitch.

Here's how it came out:

Although it was my original intention to make this for myself it just might make it into the Orphan Foundation's Red Scarf Project for later this year.

Yes, I know it is not red but they have begun to accept scarves of any color and I think some guy would realy enjoy the colors of this one.

BTW - all that fringe happened because I became bored with the pattern after seven feet of it so I used the balance of the yarn to make fringe.  There is no more yarn left and lots and lots of fringe!

Sew Crafty Houston Craft Swap

Look at all this loot!

Need I say more?

Sock Club #2

The April entry in this year's Twisted Yarns' Sock Club are a pair of DK weight socks celebrating spring and our favorite provider of natural yarns...sheep!

I picked the kit up on Saturday the 10th and finished them on Monday the 12th.

Yup, I was obessed about them.

The obsession comes not from the actual product but because these socks contained a couple of things I have never used in socks.

One was the heavier wieght of yarn from traditional sock yarn.  I actually had to give up my size 0 needles for some size 3s... it felt like I was using baseball bats.  In addition, the duplicate stitched sheep added some bulk on the sides of the legs which I thought would feel weird but doesn't.

Here's how they turned out:

The designer is Lisa Carnahan of Lisa Knits and the yarn is Rowan's Cashsoft which is 10% Cashmire.  I just machine washed them and they seemed to felt up a bit but are still wearable and comfortable.

I am knitting up a second pair usng the same weight of yarn without the duplicate stitch embellishment just to see if I can make a wearble pair of DK weight socks a second time.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Vietnamese Bib

My younger brother's work in South Korea is almost over. 

I have really benefited with him being there with the wonderful textiles bits he brought me last Summer. 

Recently he and a friend made a grand tour of other Asian countries and sent me this wonderfully hand-crafted bib from Viet Nam.

The white design is handwork while the red braid appears to be machine made.  The shiny neck bit has little bells hanging on it while the two rectangular pieces are sewn to the bib only on one side.

I see a baby wearing this bib and being entertained all day chewing on the neck bit, jiggling the bells and trying the tear off the rectangular pieces.

I do not see a child wearing this while eating! 

I currently have it hanging in Sweet Sadie's and several customers have asked about it agreed that it would distract a baby for many moments.

Disappearing Nine Patch

The Saturday Strippers met a couple of weeks ago and worked on disappearing nine patch blocks.

This is a very simple block if you follow the directions. 

First you create a square nine patch block using high contrast fabrics either by color or design.. 

Press it flat then cut it apart into four even squares by slicing down the middle both horizonitally and vertically. 

Flip the resulting squares around any way you want and this is what you can get: 

Aren't these amazing?

My effort was not as successful.

First I did not use high contrast fabrics so the resulting peice looked muddy.

Then I cut the horizontal and vertical lines incorrectly.  I forgot to double check my measurements so instead of ending up with four 6 1/4" squares I ended up with more rectangular pieces.

Not a successful project for me but a process I will experiment with in future.

If you like the look of the above quilts here are a couple of links to some sites that have had fun with this in the past.

http://www.popularpatchwork.com/news/article.asp?a=5294

http://justpurelovely.typepad.com/justpurelovely/2008/02/project-a-tutor.html

http://quiltsatcs.blogspot.com/2007/04/disappearing-9-patch-tutorial.html