I was sick of looking at the sleeves all cut up and in a pile and thinking that I would love some variety in my cloth diapering these days so I decided to make up two pairs of longies. Both are from merino wool sweaters. Sorry for all of the open area around Charmie's pic but it's really hard to get a two year old to stand still to pose. I was chasing him around on the bike snapping pictures of the pants and this one was the best one.
and here they are. I love these little things. I am going to want to make many many more of these. I guess I will be able to because I have plenty of scraps. I used 2 short washes in my front loader and then manually felted them another 30% at the kitchen sink with some good old hot/cold water and lots of rubbing. I am glad that I did this extra step, but honestly I wouldn't have if the balls would have felted equally with the different sections. It's interesting to me to see how different yarn felts. Both the orange section facing and the 2 sections to the right with multi colored yarn were yarns that I got in natural color and dyed myself and both didn't felt as well as the other yarn that was purchased already dyed. Note to self, those yarns don't felt so good.
Speaking of handpainted yarn. I can't wait for my hanks to finish drying so that I can see them wound into balls and start a project with them!
I've had this pattern from Knits for Baby for some time to knit felted wool balls flat with two needles and I've wanted to do it but I've been immersed in other projects. I'm still immersed in other projects but for some reason this one was shouting my name, "DOREEN, COME AND KNIT US, THE BOY'S NEED US!!!!!" So I got out my bag of wool scraps and started these. I didn't have an uninterrupted time, for crying out loud, I'm a mother of 2 little boys, ages one and two! But I'd estimate that these took maybe an hour to an hour and a half and an equally suprisingly small amount of yarn. Now I just need to felt them and stuff and close them. I have a blocks pattern that is also screaming at me. I'm trying to decide if I ignore it or knit it. Too many choices. . .
I'm starting to think that if I delve into the blocks that I'll open up a door to making knitted toys and where will it end. Last night as we took our family walk around the neighborhood I knitted the first ball as we walked. I threatened to knit a steering wheel cover for Charmie's Power Wheel's jeep! Rocky and my neighbors quickly reminded me that that would not be a macho addition to his pimped out ride but it seemed perfectly acceptable to me! Mind you this was after he had done something very unusual and driven it into a curb without his seatbelt and his face hit the wheel. My motherly instinct was kicking in. . . how can I protect my baby. Of course after their admonision I didn't have the courage to admit that I was planning in my mind a matching cover for the roll cage.
I've had these two hanks of yarn for some time. . . undyed. . . sitting there calling my name until a couple of days ago when I decided that they deserved to be colored. I used both food coloring liquid and kool aide to get these combinations. I still want to achieve darker more rich colors. I have to figure out if I need to soak the wool longer in the color bath or what. These will have to do for now!
I've been frequenting a Habitat for Humantiy store in a local town after finding out that the LYS in that town was collecting yarn from it's patrons to donate in exchange for customer credit towards store purchases. After dropping off my 18 lbs for destashing I hurried over to the Habitat store and scored these great deals.
100% wool tapestry yarn for 10 cents for the little skeins and 20 cents for the two large ones.
A basket of yarn ranging in price from 35 cents to $1.00 per ball. They had so much more but I have been mostly concentrating on feltable wool or wool blends and a I only have so much room to store it all!
Here are some shots from the Cabarrus County fair.
And here are some from the Cumberland County Fair.
And finally I have a completed coat! I was looking for something unusual so when I couldn't find the buttons I wanted I made my own bead buttons from glass beads. I love how these button like closures turned out and I think I even have enough beads left over to make a piece of jewlery!
I used 2 different kind of beads for each bibeadton. A smaller round bead and an elongated tube bead. I passed the anchor thread from the back to the front of the coat, through the round bead then through the tube bead and back into the round bead then through the coat front to back, two times per bead. I had to use pliers a couple of times because the needle wouldn't pass through the bead with it's width and all of that yarn. It makes a glass toggle like button from two beads, i've never seen them before elswhere so I will call them bibeadtons!
Here's the detail of my bibeadtons
Ever since I've started regularly blogging here I don't think I've gone this long without making a blog post. The few that regularly frequent my blog have been asking me what've I've been up to so har'tis!
I have several UFO's (un finished objects).
Six or Seven wool soaker pants and matching bags from recycled wool sweaters for the boys
Unbiased sari silk bag
My own design sari silk bag that I have ben contemplating froging and adding more sari silk and reinventing into a knit across jacket.
Peek a boob nursing top out of sinfonia 100% sportweight cotton
And the pièce de résistance my einstein coat that just needs buttons at this point.
I don't know where the button search will lead or how it will end up. I need 6 and I like unusual. Maybe I'll delve into wood carving or polymer clay and make my own. I just have to go on a search and figure it out.
I've taken pictures of it all but I think I'd rather just post the FO's.
I've been struggling to get this stuff done. For some reason it seems like I'm working in slow motion lately maybe because I have so many going, I can't get far on any one of them, lol. Despite this I am planning some new projects:
Sweater sampler
Another sweater for me with suri merino wool.
A Sweater or vest for Rocky
Helmet hats for the boys
Mits for the boys
A lace weight shawl
And some sewing stuff too, but I'm not holding out for that happening anytime soon with my schedule and the age of the boys. Knitting and crochet is much easier.
