Tag: cozy

Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

The Addi Egg is Fun!

Iris Rose

Well, I am back. I’m still hacking and sniffling but much better than last week.

This week I am featuring a new to me Addi mini knitter called the Egg. It is available on eBay and has been nagging me to buy it for a long while now. I broke down right before the holidays and, because it was right before the holidays, was delivered in mid-January. The shipping time was actually not bad as it was sent from Germany.

The price was reasonable, about forty-six dollars Canadian, plus free shipping.

This little knitter is fun to use, really fun to use. I own an Embellishknit that I use for Icord and have not been really happy with the difficulty I have with getting the darn thing to start knitting. The Egg was super easy to thread up and cast on. The cord that it produces is six stitches so larger than the other Icord and not suitable as a replacement for four stitch Icord.

I used DK yarn in this sample and, after about five minutes work, ended up with a long piece (I couldn’t stop turning the handle!) that was about 2cm or 1 ½” wide when flattened. I can picture using it as a bag handle, maybe with a cord threaded through it for reinforcement. I am going to play with using it as an applied trim on a sweater.

I will report back when I have used the trim in an actual garment or accessory. Maybe I will get something done next week?

I knit a little sweater with Caron Cakes Latte yarn which very quickly appeared and disappeared from Michaels stores. I bought two cakes, both the same colour number and both the same dye or production lot. I needed the second cake only for one of the sleeves.

I like to rewind any skeins or cakes before I start work in order to avoid the surprise of a knot in an unfortunate place. The first cake was great, the second had a knot at a colour change which I could work around. The problem that I ran into with the knotted yarn was that the grey, although in the correct sequence of colour change, was not the same grey as the first cake. It was hidden inside of the cake. I tried using the grey on the outside of the cake to make the sleeves match, but that length was not long enough.

The sweater turned out to be quite cute and I think that I am likely the only one that will notice the off colour (more brown than grey like the front, but I like things to match! Not just okay but really seriously match as the fronts and backs do.  The bottom edge is crocheted and will be redone with a smaller hook to eliminate the waves.  I am already working on it.

No more Latte, yarn that is, for me even if I could find it.

Happy week to you all and I wish you kindness and tangle free yarn in all of your crafting.

PS: for those of you who use Windows 10, check out the yarn and knitting theme for your desktop wallpaper. It is free in the theme store.

Knitting

New Year, New Projects

Iris Rose

Happy New Year to you all! If you are like me, you pretend that you don’t make any New Year’s resolution but secretly, you know that you do.

Mine for the last few Januarys has been to keep track of the projects completed throughout the year. You thought I was going to write that I would work only from stash or not buy any more yarn didn’t you. Heck no, where is the fun in collecting then? Back to the project resolution, I still haven’t kept it proving my humanness once again.  Maybe this will be the year (or not).

I did start last year (really late) by trying to photograph everything that I made and then loading it up to my Ravelry projects page. Who knew that you would have to fill in so many details? I got very quickly bored with that as you can see from my project list. I need a quick, quick, quick way to keep track, any suggestions? I have tried a journal in the past also but with the same result. I think that I may be a lost cause as I resent the time cataloguing when I could be crafting.

Yay, my yoke is done! It desperately needs blocking, but the sweater fits and I have already picked up the stitches for the bottom garter band and knit two rows. This has been one of those projects that haunts you. I know how I wanted it to look (not the way it does) but will be satisfied once it is done, I am sure. How many times can you frog a hand knit yoke? My answer to that is seven!

Just because you are working on one thing doesn’t mean that you can’t start another, does it? I am planning on a series of machine knit yoke sweaters in kid sizes for my sales and Etsy store and began the first today. I hope that the yoke sweater trend lasts another season!

Finally, I have finished the tunic that I featured last week. Only three frogs on this neck treatment so no new records broken.

Thanks for reading and may happiness and kindness follow you this week and all your yarn be tangle free!

Knitting

A Dearth of UFO’s

Iris Rose

They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but I beg to differ. I believe that this road is paved with all of the grand schemes and unfinished projects that I have lying around in my craft space and (quietly) in other areas of our home.  And, before you assume that I have a reasonable stash, this is only the part that is allowed out in public.

I told myself: “Self, you are going to get all of this mess cleaned up before the New Year starts!” to which I replied: “Good luck with that, honey!” I did try my best, with a little procrastinating of course, to get all of the odds and ends cleaned up in the last couple of weeks but with Christmas, vacation, and any other excuse I could find, it didn’t get done. This is what I have left, and I have no illusions about getting it all done at this point.

 

My yoke sweater that I started goodness knows when is back. This has been one of those projects that stalled due to anger at my miscalculations and then lack of interest over the warm months. I have made good progress over the last week and am going to keep on going until it is done. I plan on a Latvian Braid up both front edges with a black folded stocking stitch band (buttoned) and ribbing at the neck, bottom and cuffs in black as I ran out of the grey. I think that it will work and be closer to what I imagined at the start of this than the mess that I began with.

Next, I am almost finished a little tunic, machine knit, with crocheted trim and hand knit neck ribbing, yet to be done. This one turned out just as I envisioned and is a prototype for a new pattern, another thing that I have been ignoring.

Then there is the SHAWL. DD1 gifted me with a couple of Tea Cakes in the spring. I went ahead and sketched out a shawl, started work on it and realized that two cakes would not be enough. Of course, by that time, Tea Cakes were gone from Michaels. I finally tracked some down in the Wool Warehouse online and am ready to go ahead with the rest of the shawl, combining knitting and crochet. This is another pattern that should be forthcoming in the New Year.

I still have all of the toys that I worked up on vacation, but these will definitely wait until all of the above are done to finish these up.  And, there may be a hat or two lying in wait as well!

Have a happy week with lots of crafting time!

Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

Still Away But Crafting

Iris Rose

Lucky, lucky me, I am still vacationing in paradise! Just because I am away from home though doesn’t mean that I don’t still have the bug to create. I lasted about three days before I brought out the knitting.

I always try to bring small projects when I am away. Knitting or crocheting something large in the heat is just not my cup of tea. I packed a few, okay six, balls of cotton blend yarn that I had purchased to make soft dollies for my craft store. I am working on number five of the expected six that I hoped to make and may be able to squeeze a couple of more out of the yarn that I brought to fill in the few days that we have left.

I will happily craft anywhere. As long as there is enough light and a clean bag to hold the yarn, I am content. I was knitting on the beach a couple of days ago and was getting some looks from the lady a short space over. She got up and left her lounger returning ten minutes later with a bag from which she pulled out her knitting! We didn’t speak the same language, but I believe that crafting is universal and we share the same need to create. She was knitting a beautiful aran sweater with a honeycomb and cable pattern. The yarn she was using looked like alpaca or a similar blend, just lovely but it must have been hot to work with in the 29C heat.

I wrote a few posts ago about a cake of Twister from Hobbii that I was crocheting into a poncho and how unhappy I was with the abrupt colour changes that were happening instead of the gradient that I expected. I put the project aside until I stopped being mad at it and went ahead and finished a child size poncho without using the whole cake in order to minimize the striped effect. Here is what I ended up with and, although I still don’t like the colour changes, it looks better than I expected.

This is a free pattern that I found on Ravelry called 123 Shawl and Poncho.  It is really hard to follow if you have never worked with C2C but Youtube came to the rescue for me. I used a 3.5mm hook to accommodate the finer yarn that I used and added a button and buttonhole band. I would like to try this one again in a thick and fuzzy yarn as it really is an easy and pretty make.

Have restful week and may all of your Christmas knitting and crocheting be done before the big day!

Travel, Yarn, Knitting and Crochet

Kananaskis And A Crafty Week

Iris Rose

I had a great week, how about you? The weekend craft sale was great but very tiring. I don’t handle the stress of anticipating what, if anything, will sell so I am glad that I have this one under my belt.

Before I show you last weekend though, I forgot to post last week about DD1’s birthday weekend away to Kananaskis in the Rockies. It was a special birthday so we all got together at a lovely hotel and had a great time in the pools and just generally enjoying the fresh air and great beauty of the province that we live in.

I was at the Springbank Art Club craft sale last weekend and really was very gratified by all of the lovely comments on my work. Sales were good and I have a clearer mind on what I need to focus on for the future. I should know better than to say something like that. It is always a curse!

I didn’t make any of my critter hats for the sale as I was restricted from competing with other vendors that also make hats. I did have my grandkids visit wearing the hats that I featured last week and had a really strong response so I have been busy this week making more for my next sale, Etsy Foothills, in Okotoks on November 24th.

And now for a whine, just a caution for those Canadians who order yarn from Europe and the UK that is shipped through DHL. I paid for courier shipping from the Wool Warehouse (great online store and great customer service) and was dismayed to be told by DHL that before they would deliver my parcel, I had to pay $18.45 to clear customs on top of the fee I had already paid for shipping. The value of my yarn was $58.00CAD, shipping was $21.00. When I have had parcels of greater value delivered by Canada Post, there is no custom clearance fee or duty. I suspect that DHL is charging a blanket fee whether there is duty to be collected or not, holding your parcel hostage.

I won’t be ordering from Europe or the UK anytime soon if this is how shipping is handled. Regular post is an option but I waited nine weeks for an order shipped this way from England to Canada. It is too bad that one giant company can ruin the business of smaller ones in this way.  Thanks for listening and I am off the soap box.

Have a happy week with lots of pretty yarn on your needles and hooks!