What am I up to today?

This is just a short update as I am currently working through a rather intimidating to-do list.  North Carolina was lovely, hopefully I'll be crafting there in the very near future!

If I may direct your attention to the right-hand sidebar, I've decided to try something a little new. "What am I up to today?" is another way for me to document my projects in progress.  My plan is to upload a new fiber craft-related photo to my handy new Flickr stream almost every day.

This idea came about because of my love for seeing what other people are doing.  I follow a few blogs where the authors have committed to daily updates, such as Sara from A Year at the Wheel and KT at Creating Me.  As a result, I find myself more invested and excited about their projects because I get to check in with them every day (not to mention, they are fabulous and fascinating human beings!).

Anyways, if you are ever curious about what I'm up to, please take a look!

Dyeing Yarn for Colorwork

One of my more lofty Fiber Goals for 2012 is to Complete a colorwork sweater. After a bit of thought I have found the perfect pattern: Velvet Morning from Knitty, Winter 2011.  From the very beginning I decided that I wanted to dye the secondary color yarns myself for a special touch (I'm going to buy the yarn for the primary color).

So, I broke out my acid dyes and got to work dying some Cascade 220 Superwash:

I'm not sure why, but Cascade superwash is a lot of fun to dye.  I'm not sure how to describe it, it's just a friendly yarn to dye with.  It always looks great and doesn't felt, but it is fairly pricey.

My favorite one is the gray for sure.  It has this wonderful frosted look to it.

I have to run by Webs to buy the yarn I need for the primary color before I can cast on.  I almost cannot wait, I'm so excited to cast on!

Adventures With Upcycled Yarn

One day I woke up and decided that I really wanted to unravel a thrift store sweater, just for the fun of it.  So, I went down to Goodwill, found a sweater, and got to work.

I ended up following directions from Neauveau fiber arts blog, which helped me avert complete disaster.

--> Note #1:  I would really like to add is that the author of the tutorial mentions that it doesn't really matter if you cut the seams like a crazy person.  Well, as I found out later, it does matter, a lot.  If you cut one little strand then you have breaks in the yarn in two places and it causes extra work later and crappier results.  So, please for the love of yarn, cut carefully!

--> Note #2: If you plan on dyeing the upcycled yarn later.  Do not settle for anything with acrylic content unless you love a huge dye mess and strange pastel colors.  Also to defend this decision, I just wanted to see what would happen, it just didn't turn out well...

--> Note #3: Please do not use a sweater made of a yarn that is just made up of thread sized strands, because it will likely look horrible no matter what you do (see later pictures of yarn carnage).

A wool/acrylic blend sweater from Gap for purchased from Goodwill for $3.99.

Here's my sweater unraveled and wound into haphazard balls. That is a lot of yarn for $4!

I then skeined this rather splitty yarn up and attempted to dye it with my Jacquard acid dyes, which turned out to be a terrible plan (see Note #2).  The yarn did not want to take up even half of the dye (and strangely only certain pigments) and most of the color washed out when rinsed later with differing results.  I am suspecting that the garment tag was lying about the 50% wool content.

After two disastrous dyeing sessions I gave up with coloring the yarn, even though I dislike white for clothing.  All and all, I finished with a fairly large amount of yarn in two different weights (worsted and bulky).

In conclusion, I would not count this project among one of my fiber successes, but it was a learning experience and a very inexpensive mistake.  My purpose in attempting this was to see if I could take an unloved sweater in the thrift store and attempt to give it a new life by unraveling it, dyeing it, and knitting it up into something new while saving money and being sustainable.

Despite my challenges with this particular project, I think that the next time I try I'll end up with much better results. Also, I would certainly not disuade anyone from trying this kind of project, it was a lot of fun.

Drowning in Scraps!

Yesterday I was sorting through this sack I have hidden in a corner of my dorm room.  Mentally I refer to this as the "scrap sack" where I put all of my half used skeins and such that I swear I'm going to use one day.  As I dug through this bag, it became apparent that I never actually use them for anything.  About a year ago I donated a bunch of scraps to a "how to knit" night some friends and I hosted, but since then it has become a problem.  I've been thinking of ways to use these scraps that aren't useless and there are some options such as scrap socks or the ever popular Beekeepers Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits.

I started thinking about it, this is not revolutionary or anything it has been done before I'm sure, and I came up with this:

I-cord bracelets.  They look really different and are really quick and easy to make.  It is also a good way of practicing the I-cord which can be a really useful knitting technique to know (such as the I-cord bind on).  My favorite tutorial on how to do the stitch is this one here from Stitch Diva.

The green one was made with some of my earlier handspun and this is a fun way of showcasing it.  My favorite fiber is alpaca and this might sound kind of strange, but sometimes I just want to feel some alpaca.  Well that certainly is easier when I can wear it (the brown one).

I could have stitched the ends together, but I like being able to quickly adjust the size, especially if I want to randomly give one to someone who likes them, so I chose not to.

So, this is one of the ways I can enjoyed using up small scraps of yarn and practiced my i-cord at the same time.  Enjoy!