ultimate stashbuster scarf

I had so much fun making the Waterfall felted scarf, and still had more ladder yarn and assorted scraps, so I decided to do another one, this time with a springtime flower garden color scheme.

It occurs to me that this type of scarf is The Ultimate Stashbuster -- just a couple of hours and multiple balls of random leftovers can be turned into something pretty and useful! As requested, I'll give some more details of how I did it here, but there are better tutorials elsewhere on the Web -- just Google nuno felting tutorial and you'll get some more specifics. There are also plenty of books, probably available at your library, with felting info.

Here's what I started with:

I cleared off a long span of my kitchen counter and laid out a long piece of this plastic foam packing stuff that I have lots of (another option: bubble wrap). Leaving space clear at each end for the fringe (which I didn't want to felt), I laid out wisps of Firestar fiber for a bit of sheen, then wisps of well-drafted roving, then strand after strand of yarn, then roving, then Firestar. I ultimately made it about twice a dense as you see here, scooting everything a little closer together.

Covered the whole thing with a piece of nylon screen, wet it down with slightly sudsy water, and gently rubbed in circles so the fibers could mash together. Carefully lifted the screen so the fibers don't felt through it, tucked loose wisps under around the edges, replaced the screen and did a bit more light rubbing in circles. Removed the screen and carefully rolled the whole thing, including the plastic foam stuff, around a foam noodle (you know, those fun floaty things for use in a swimming pool) and tied the bundle in place with strips of fabric from an old t-shirt.

Next, I opened a beer and turned on some good rockin' tunes. Yes, this is a required step for all feltmaking and soapmaking fun 'round here. :-)

I rolled the bundle back and forth on the counter about 100 times ("50...glug glug - ahh...50...glug glug - ahh"), then turned the bundle around and rolled in the other direction, same amount. Opened it up to see how it's doing. The fibers were starting to felt together, as determined by pinching a bit and lifting to see if it's all attached. I put another layer of the foam stuff over top and folded it in half, then in quarters, then rolled it around the noodle perpendicularly to the previous time. Repeated the rolling, glugging, flipping, rolling process.

When it was all well adhered and could be picked up as a single item, I removed it from the plastic foam, folded it up, and dunked it in hot water. Squeezed out, placed in open plastic bag and gently dropped on the counter a few times. Repeat the dunks in hot water, squeeze out, place in bag, and thwack on counter a bunch more times for it to shrink and felt together more firmly.

Hang to dry and wear with a smile.

bleh

I'm not feeling very well (bronchitis -- thank you, airplane air) and I'm not getting very much work done and everything and everyone is irritating the crap out of me. I was sick enough that I didn't even want to knit last night. Gasp -- the end is surely near!

Luckily, the rest of the family is healthy and keeps on keepin' on. Scott got some borosilicate glass and made his first buttons...

Ooh, I like 'em and I'd even use these humble beginner efforts on my cardigan-in-progress. You probably can't tell it from the picture, but that middle one has some gorgeous sparkly blue in it and the purply ones have wisps of metallic purple sparkle in them, with lots of depth and an ethereal quality. In general I'm not a fan of yellow in any shade, but even the caramel-and-green ones are okay by me.

Leah also finished knitting a pair of socks.

The first sock was knit by our friend Jean, who then decided she wasn't too fond of the Sockotta yarn. At a knit gathering a few weeks ago, she asked if anybody wanted to finish the pair. Leah jumped for them, finished the first one that day and had about 3" of the second sock knit by the next morning. I guess it didn't bother her that they were on DPNs and she had never used DPNs before! It ends up that Leah feels the same way about Sockotta yarn as Jean did (and also as I do, although I never said it to Leah), so she has proclaimed these as "just practice socks." I'm not sure what that means for their future, but they were definitely a good launch into using DPNs.

And now, since I'm grumpy anyway, I'm going to rummage around in the basement and find more stuff to give away. I did this in a big way yesterday and felt much better afterward, so hopefully it'll have the same effect today before I succumb to the call of the couch and the warm blankies.

bits and pieces

There are plenty of projects going on around here, as always, but I have nothing major to show you today. Thought for a moment that I didn't even have anything to say, but I was wrong. :-) In no particular order, highlights of this week's projects:

Scott is making square buttons now. I like 'em a lot. These are cobalt with silver wisps. The cobalt looks almost black when there's not light shining through, but there's a place for black and silver buttons too. They'd look great on a gray cardigan.

We spent an evening with Kathy Goldner of Knitting Out Loud audiobook company on Monday. I've been working in a client's office this week and thoroughly enjoying the No Idle Hands audiobook during my rides.

Bren's gloves fit her well. I reached the halfway point on Undulating Waves scarf #2 (haven't taken a pic of that one yet) after dinner on their deck on Tuesday. This scarf, like its predecessor, is a people magnet. I had fantastic knitting/stitching conversations with two people while waiting to donate blood on Monday and one person while waiting for Jesse on Tuesday.

I scored a free cedar chest recently and transferred the stash to it. Since the stash is currently of a size that means it'll be around for a while, keeping it safe from moths is a good thing. Rummaging through it all in the transfer process was fun too!

Leah finished a neckwarmer this week and cast on for the February Lady Sweater yesterday.

Ravelry projects pages (livnletlrn and cottonhollow) have been updated. The Goob's knitting has come a long way in the past year or so. It's great to see how many folks have already left comments on her work or added her projects to their favorites. Big boosts for a young knitter!

Not fiber- or glass-related, but creative nonetheless: Jesse has been designing an air-powered pvc gun for a while and finally was able to put it all together yesterday. It works very well and he's psyched!

Okay, off to client's office. At least I've managed to get one swath of the scarf pattern repeat done while in the office each day.

shrink that shank

While getting ready for CT Sheep and Wool last weekend, we came across a set of buttons that Scott made way back at the beginning of his buttonmaking.

Left: Early button, mega shank.
Right: More recent button, shrunk shank!

Look at 'dat big wonky square shank! The newer ones are so much nicer. Nothing wrong with the old ones, which are perfectly functional for a thicker knit item, but we decided we couldn't offer them for sale, since they're not consistent with his current skills and level of quality.

But we have seven of these otherwise-quite-awesome buttons, so what to do with them? Hmmm...sounds like time for a giveaway!

Here's what the whole set looks like -- seven borosilicate (pyrex = strong) glass buttons, 21 mm diameter, flat surface, amber purple glass with wisps of aubergine, amber, and gray-green, all handmade by Glastonbury Glassworks. If you think you can put some/all of them to use and don't mind that the shanks are a little on the chunky side, send an email to Scott with:

1. a picture of the project that you'd like to use the buttons on
2. number of buttons you'd need for that project.
On May 10, we'll choose the recipient(s) of the buttons. If the first winner only needs a button or two, for instance, we'll then choose another winner, and so on, until all buttons in the set have been distributed.

the braiding bug

Leah's been playing with kumihimo, a braiding technique. There are lots of fancy and expensive supplies available for kumihimo, but, as usual, we decided to dive right in by making the most of what we had. This video, some scrap cardboard, and colors from our massive embroidery floss collection (much of which was received as a prize when Scott's cross stitch won Best of Show at the Eastern States Exposition) got Leah off to a good start.

She has since finished that braid, which will be a necklace with one of Scott's beads on it, I think, and chosen a new group of colors to try a different braid. It's easy, fun, portable, and its techniques and potential uses leave lots of room for exploration, so kumihimo gets an enthusiastic two thumbs up around here.

She's also sewing doll clothes lately, with the help of Two-Hour Dolls' Clothes, borrowed from the library.

Stitched entirely by hand and embellished with ribbon and beads, her designs are taking much longer than two hours, but that's by choice. Her idea is that as she gets better with making doll clothes, she'll be better at making her own clothes. I think she's already doing a pretty good job on sewing her own clothes, but it still sounds like good practice and she's enjoying it.

I knit barely a stitch last week, but between hanging with assorted knitters at the farmers' market yesterday and then watching a movie last night, I was able to finish the Habitat hat. Pics to come when it's done blocking, but one thing I wanted to mention is how unimpressed I am with the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn that I used for it. This merino, microfiber, cashmere blend is a beautiful deep, rich red. Unfortunately, there are wisps of undyed fiber spun into the yarn throughout the skeins. The instance above is the biggest I noticed - most weren't such a thick wisp, nor did they continue for 5 twists - but there were many throughout these skeins. They were easily picked out, but at $8/90 meters, I should not have to deconstruct the yarn as I'm knitting it in order to get the glaring white bits out of a deep red hat! The yarn is wonderfully soft, to be sure, but I'll steer clear of Debbie Bliss products in the future.

Hmm...I just checked the Debbie Bliss website because I was going to send a comment about this problem, but there is no Contact link. So then I figured I could at least let other knitters know by leaving a warning comment at this yarn's entry on Ravelry. Sheesh, if I had only read the comments there first! There are MANY others with similar problems with this yarn. This is clearly not a fluke and I will definitely not buy any more Debbie Bliss yarn.

waterfall

Inspired by now & ZEN's scarves, 2 balls of blue-green ribbon yarn scored at the stash swap a couple of weeks ago, and leftover bits of teal/blue/green/aqua yarn from other projects,

I laid out all these water-colored wisps of roving, many strands of yarn, and just the slightest bit of sparkly Angelina.

Made the whole thing wet and slightly soapy, then rolled it a couple hundred times, until it all felted together.

And watched a certain someone promptly claim it as her own. :-)

the evil plan, she is working

Ah yes, you wouldn't know it from the blog entries this week, but the creative stuff continues. I made a felted bag on Tuesday. Leah's 2/3 of the way done with Bren's knit scarf. Jesse has wisps of smoke coming out of his ears as he's building all sorts of inventions with his new, fully functional steam engine model. The art of sheetrocking continues to be practiced in this ol' house, so now the upstairs hall is ready for paint. And I have a couple of pairs of socks that are heading for the finish line.

The Steelers banner is hanging in its new location, an old folks' home in Pittsburgh, not far down the road from Gram and Pap's old house. Mom's in the 'burgh for the game right now and it's been fantastic to hear from so many old friends who are thinking of my dad (as are we) and cheering for the Steelers today!

A biggie here this week was yesterday's Nutmeg Spinners Guild meeting. This was Leah's first time there and she was treated like royalty. There are probably 75-100 folks at the meetings and they're all enablers! She was showered with compliments, encouragement, kindness, and goodies -- including a handknit vest, a shawl pin that doubles as a hair ornament, a fistful of knitting needles, some llama fiber, and a big ball of angora/cashmere roving to spin! Oh, and then there's all the yummy fiber we bought -- handpainted Autumn Maples, a pound of natural Montdale to dye, handpainted Springtime, and a reference book about spinning. And also a pile o' magazines borrowed from the group's lending library. Wowza! And on top of all that, we also ran into some folks we know from the Newington SnB, Madley Spinners in Colchester, and Adams Farm, plus met some new people, so all in all it was like a big happy fibery party. Proclaimed "best day ever" by the little Goob, who makes such proclamations about once a week, but really, it was an incredible day for any fiber fanatic.

So then we came home last night and everybody was excitedly sharing the stories of their day (Scott and Jesse equally had a blast of a day, romping with Rich McDonald and his kids and then going fishing) when Scott piped up with the words I've been waiting to hear: "I guess I better learn how to spin, huh?" Yes, dear, that's a fine idea. :-) So off to the new spinning wheel we went for a quick demonstration and he set to work on the Springtime roving. He stuck with it until time to make dinner, then came back again after dinner and spun until bedtime. Leah critiqued his first yarn as overspun, but we all know that's totally to be expected, and he does seem up to the challenge of mastering this little contraption, so....bwahahaha...methinks we'll have some fresh Daddy handspun in the stash soon! 

felt good

Spent yesterday evening with a group of feltmaking friends at Roz's studio. Had fun with show-and-tell, strip felting, and general talk about all things wooly and felted. The picture at left is a not very flattering image of my favorite of our nuno felt scarves. Scott made this one and the curly locks at the ends are a gorgeous combination of colors that feel oh so fun to wear. The felted areas on the remainder of the silk add just enough texture and warmth, while remaining light and drapey. The works-in-progress and recently finished items shown by the other feltmakers were great to see too. I need to add some more wisps of wool to the strip felted piece I started yesterday and then roll the heck out of it to make the wool turn to felt and shirr the fabric strips. Also need to finish fulling the felted wall hanging for our bathroom, which was started before xmas.

Stopped in at West Hartford library on the way home to pick up a book on some of the new techniques I'll be trying on my Philosopher's Wool sweater. I am nuts about all of their patterns, so I might as well get comfortable with the techniques. Picked up an Alice Starmore pattern book while there too. :-)

Kids are romping with all their pals at ice skating, scouts, and archery today, so I better get to work and take advantage of this peace and quiet! But I'd rather be knitting...