Scarves

Right before I packed up and moved from Brooklyn, I had an insane urge to make a few bulky-yarn projects in order to:

1. Use up the bulky-yarn stash. I think all new knitters go through a phase where the answer is "bulky yarn" to all their yarn questions. It's fast all right. But damn, if you could get something to look flattering on something other than a waif, you deserve an award.

2. Justify my use of knitting time as making visual progress at a time when I felt like I was getting no where and spending my days on endless hold-music calls. Most of these things were all knitted in the course of an afternoon, and in one case, in the time it took for AT&T to dick me around and not resolve anything at all, even though I was asking nicely.

First up: a handspun cowl. It started out as a braid of Corriedale/Alpaca blend from Spunky Eclectic in the "Thunderstorm" colorway.

Great colors...nice and moody.

Spun it up as a chunky 2-ply.

Then I learned a fantastic new technique...the Mobius cowl.

It's a little tricky to get started, but it's simple once you do it. Randomly altering your knit and purl rows makes for interesting texture, and there are tons of different ways to make this your own.

I loved it so much, I went ahead and dug up bags of scarps of some Rowan Biggy Print (which may or may not have been in my stash for more than 7 years) and made a stripy, ultra bulky one on size 17 needles.

It's enormously warm, and I love the texture that the thick-and-thin yarn produced. I randomly alternated the two colors I had until I ran out of yarn, and poof! it's magic! Really, it would have been pushing it if I invested two hours in this.

So I kept on rolling with the Biggy Print, and made a mistake-rib scarf with what I had left:

The pattern (if you could call it that) is Franciose from "French Girl Knits". Mine came out short, so a pin or a button might be added at some point.

One more:

A VERY GLITZY alpaca batt from Loop!

I bought this ages ago, when I first started spindle-spinning. 2006 or '07. I spun it up pretty quickly, but then the yarn just sat in a bin for all these years. Shameful!

Spun up and plied, I only had 74 yards.

So I made a wee necktie out of it, based on this pattern (which called for laceweight yarn).

It does need a good blocking, but it used up all my yarn. Mission accomplished.

I felt clean and purged when that was done. No more odd skeins of overweight yarn to slow me down! Overly warm neckware to the rescue.

The Goods- on Sale

I have some pretty hard-core packing to do. I have been given a minuscule weight limit of goods to bring with me, and quite a generous amount of long-term storage. I try not to get attached or sentimental about objects and belongings, but I fail miserably. The thoughts of my couch, and my dining room table, and my pots and pans boxed up and unused and unloved in a warehouse in New Jersey makes me shutter.

Same with my crafty stuff. I can't take it all with me.

I'm clearing out my bins of stock that comprise my Etsy Store. For this week only, everything is 50% off. The sad fate of the storage locker should not befall these goods:

Superfine Merino blended with kid mohair.




Batts. I have a whole bin of batts left, all of them comprised of luxury fiber.




And here's some really gorgeous sock yarn that I dyed up with natural dyes- Eucalyptus and onion skins.



I also have lots and lots of jewlery left. Get it while it lasts! http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnotMyDayJob

To get the 50% off, use the code "AUREVOIR" at checkout.

FO- Handspun Artyarn Snail Hat

I've been admiring this pattern from E-Z for years now. I've had a few friends make them, but I loved my friend Knithound Brooklyn's the best.



She used her fabulous handspun and I just loved the colors.

I decided to take the artyarn plunge and use my corespun yarn for this pattern.



I've never knit with corespun, so I wasn't quite sure what I was in for. I ended up being better suited for something that needs a lot of drape. It had no real structure, so it probably wasn't the best choice for a hat that I wanted to have a pointy top.



Oh, that weird bump? Not a giant tumor. It's my hair- I had it pulled up in a high bun. Shoving my hair into the top of the hat is the only way I could get it from flopping over.



It's not bad. The yarn is kind of on the thin side for this pattern, and it's a bit too busy to see the swirls really clearly. I really want to make this hat again with a big, downy chunky yarn to do it justice.

It did knit up very fast- I think I started it while I was getting a pedicure and had it halfway done by the time my nails were dry. It might have taken a bit over 2 hours total. I can't wait to make another one. It's very easy on the yardage and it's super cute. This particular one isn't especially warm, but with the right yarn it could be.

The specs: I used size 10 needles and about 90 yards of my aran-ish weight handspun from a Butterfly Girl Batt. More about the corespun yarn I made back in October here. It's part of my A-Z stashdown challenge as well.

FO- Hurricaine Hat

I spent a lot of time last week on the subway going to various events and parties. Taking the subway means 1. I might get a strange new disease and end up in a medical textbook and 2. I can finish a hat in two days without breaking a sweat.

Well, not quite two days. This did start out life as a fibery beast.



3.8 oz of handcarded batt from Butterfly Girl. It was a blend of 67% bamboo, 25% merino and 8% glitz. Very sparkly. It sat in my spinning stash for a couple years, and then I dug it out as part of my spinning stash bust in October.

I spun it up and made a DK weight 2-ply. I got about 154 yards from 3.4 oz of fiber. The colorway is "Curtain Dress", which makes me happy.



I loved the swirly-whirly look, so I knitted up the Hurricaine Hat.



The mostly-bamboo content means this isn't terribly warm, but it does have nice drape. It will be a really usefull hat to have around come the not-so-bitter spring if it doesn't get nabbed by someone before then. I always like to have a handful of fun little hats on hand to give as gifts.



I wish I would have stepped into direct sunlight for the pictures. This looks like a disco ball in the right light. It was really fast and an easy knit.

Handspun Yarn: The Curtain Dress

In my constant effort to use up my entire stash, I recently spun this gem up:



It's another bat from Butterfly Girl Designs. The color is called "Curtain Dress", and it's a rather dazzling blend of 67% bamboo, 25% merino and 8% firestar. I tore the batt into strips and let it spin up as it wanted to, with no real drafting and letting it lump and bump where it wanted to. This is a lot of fun sometimes if you can learn to give the control up and just let the yarn happen. Coming down after spinning from a sweater (lots of controlled spinning to get the yarn perfect and consistent) makes me okay with just letting this art batt become what it wants.



From 3.8 oz of batt, I ended up with 155 yards of a heavy aran-weight 2-ply.



I'm not quite sure what this will be yet- maybe a simple pair of mitts.