Galveston, Texas 9.13.08
Aftermath of Hurricane Ike, courtesy of American Red Cross
Pay It Forward
For several months, our neighbor’s 18 year old son has been sitting outside every afternoon into the evening using his laptop. I figured he got a computer for graduation, and was using it outside to get away from his 2 young brothers – or just for some privacy.
He sits in his front yard, on a street with plenty of traffic, with the computer either on his lap or on a small table in front of him. I felt bad for him, so desperate to have a “room of his own”.
Until I realized that the reason he is doing this is because he’s using our Wi-Fi.
Oh well.
Pretty, Pretty Yarn
Six months ago I found this great sweater; it’s a lamb’s wool, angora, nylon, cotton blend. I bought it at my secret thrift store, where good sweaters are still $2.00 each, and they sometimes are half-price. Don’t even ask. I won’t tell you where it is.
I used a veterinary syringe with no needle to paint/draw the dye onto the sweater. These are food-grade, non-toxic dyes, so my safety measures were pretty lax, consisting of putting some wax paper under the sweater.
Here it is, fresh out of the oven…well, microwave. I rolled up the sweater and microwaved it, 3 minutes at a time, until there was no more dye in the water.
The picture of it hanging to dry in the backyard revealed too much ‘backyard junk’ to be fit to show the public, so imagine it drying on an old fashioned clothesline, in a thick, grassy yard, surrounded by a white picket fence. The sky is bright blue, with a few lingering, drifting, Simpson’s clouds. The light breeze slowly wafts the sweater dry, as the ice slowly melts, and condensation drips off the pitcher of lemonade/tea/margaritas on the picnic table. Got it? Good.
The sweater was in good condition, which made it easy to deconstruct (unravel). It was a cardigan, so I couldn’t do anything with the front panels, but I couldn’t throw them away either, so they’re in reserve in the scrap crate, awaiting fresh ideas and inspiration.
And here is the final swatch. The cast-off edge in the upper right shows the interesting ‘Ramen’ effect of an unraveled sweater. About the only way to get the crimps out is to respin it, but this yarn came out so great as it was, I didn’t see the need to spin it.
I love the randomness of the whole thing. I painted the colors in sort-of-stripes, but then there is the unravel. The lengths of the original rows come into play here, determining the lengths of the colorways. Then there is the make-up of the fiber itself. The nylon did not take up any dye, and the cotton, just a little pastel tint, while the angora and lambswool took up most of the dye, resulting in the darkest colors. But Angora, the good little fiber it is, continues to throw off, sinfully soft stray hairs, making it’s signature halo, and softening the color of it’s dye. With all of these factors, it would have been impossible to try to force a particular outcome. So I just pick some colors that I like, and rest assure that I will like the outcome. I just love the randomness of the whole process. Did I say that already? Well, I do.
And I’m Back
I’ve really been completing a lot of projects. So many, in fact, that my hold up is photographing them and writing about them. I’m going to try to catch up, in no particular order. First up is my felted French Market Bag by Polly Outhwaite, from Knitty.com.
I wanted it to be summery, so I used Cascade Heather for the yarn. Here it is in action. Very cute action. Remember in the bunny post when I asked ‘what is cuter than a cage full of baby bunnies?’ Well the answer obviously, is a felted bag full of kittens.
And the finished bag, before it was felted.
And the finished, felted bag, before it was put into use.
Easter Gifts Galore
I spent most of Spring Break making Easter presents for my nieces and nephews, and boy there’s a lot of them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to mail them in time, so they are kind of “Surprise! After Easter presents!”
This is for Logan. It’s a little stuffed chair. A place to set your phone or iPod while it’s charging. Or put it on your nightstand so you can read those late nights texts.
This cute little black and white bunny was made specifically for Kyle, with a black and white camo scarf.
This is Ford’s brown bunny with brown camo scarf.
Reid’s black puppy with orange scarf.
This cute black bunny is Ava’s. It has a cute colorful, scrappy scarf, embroidered flowers, eyes, and nose, ‘cuz she’s too tiny cute for buttons.
Avery’s black and bucktoothed bunny in pink and blue.
This is Charli’s pink pastel bunny.
Anna’s green pastel bunny.
And this is Jake’s blue bucktoothed puppy with maroon scarf.
All of these softies were made from gloves. Check out the book Sock and Glove for more ideas.
Happy Post Easter Everyone!
DIY Needle Project
O.k. not exactly, totally DIY. More like a DIY modification. I bought an 11 pair set of straight bamboo needles on eBay, but I didn’t read the listing carefully, because they were 13 inchers. I would have bought the anyway because I got them for so cheap. I need more bamboos b/c I’m flying at the end of the month and I read that bamboo needles are more likely to go through security.
When I unwrapped them, I started to wonder if I could shorten them. So I pulled at the caps of one pair, and with a little bit of work, they came right off.
So I gathered my tools: a tape measure, a pair of PVC pipe cutters, pencil, wood glue, and paper plate.
I measured and marked the needles. Snapped of the excess with the cutters.
Dipped the ends in wood glue and stuck them back on.
Viola! It took all of about 8 minutes, including gathering the supplies and camera. I’m not going to cut them all yet, but wait and see what I need and cut them if needed, as needed.
Thanks to my husband for having all his tools in the dining room, where I could easily find the cutters and wood glue. ; { It made the project go so much faster.
