Tag: yarn

Knitting

Last Minute Gifts to Knit

Iris Rose

I have kind of hit a blank on what to blog about this week.  I have been working on new patterns and did promise them for the end of November but, I can tell you right now, that ain’t gonna happen.

I have been designing a poncho in a really pretty gradient yarn and, having reached the point where both the front and back pieces were finished, I sewed one side together so that I could knit the neck piece.  A look in the mirror had me laughing my tush off!  It was the most ridiculous looking piece of work that I have ever created.  The cable is beautiful and the yarn shading is very, very pretty but the style, not so much.  Fortunately, I do have a sense of humour or I would have been either in tears or throwing the darn thing through the window.  I will have the pattern ready for January; Christmas season is interfering with my spare time. 

I have also been working on a crocheted shawl that I am excited about.  I am just not excited enough about it to finish it.  I really don’t like the yarn that I chose and want to restart in something that I enjoy working with.  I am going to put my work ethic (huh!) in gear and get that done first so, tada, there will now be two new patterns in January instead of November.  Good things are worth waiting for though, right?

While I procrastinate and you are waiting for me to reveal these patterns, how is your gift knitting or crocheting coming along?  I have a number of free patterns on Ravelry that are speedy knits with very little investment in yarn required.  Cheap and fast, what more can you ask for?  Seriously though, if you are short on time and need an inexpensive handmade gift, have a look at my store.

My favourites are first, the Simple Shawl which you can whip up in about four hours on big needles with 150m of a fancy textured or self striping bulky yarn.  Next is the Quick and Easy Garter Stitch Cowl which, again, you can whip up in a couple of hours and, using a thick, pretty yarn, makes a great gift.  Third choice would be the Latte Scarf.  It takes a little longer to make but, using one cake only of Caron Cakes, is a fancier gift that won’t break the bank.  Use a second cake and make this one wider for a pretty wrap.

If you can both knit and crochet, the Combo Hat pattern is very pretty and doable in an evening.

Make your simple gifts with fancy textured, striping or fuzzy yarn and let the yarn be the star.  I have a few other patterns that you might like; have a look and make this a handmade holiday!  You still have plenty of time.

Knitting

Oh, I’ve Started Another One

Iris Rose

I usually have a topic in mind when I sit down to write my blog post but today, not so much.  It is raining and starting to really look like fall which is really not my favourite time of the year.  I know, I know, it is a great time to be crafting.  All of those great yarns calling your name and all of those lovely patterns just begging to be made or at least bought and saved or printed and placed in the pile.  Sound familiar?  See you are just like the rest of us!

I have ventured into a couple of new projects and thought you might like to see them.  I went yarn looking (okay really yarn shopping, that road to hell is paved with I won’t buy any more yarn) on Saturday of last weekend with DD1 and came across this new, at least to me, lovely gradient yarn in a worsted weight, 200g, 500m cake.  Oh, I thought, that will make a gorgeous poncho.  But wait, 500m won’t be enough to knit a poncho in the round and to start a second cake part way through will spoil the beauty of the gradient colour changes.  I am now knitting a poncho in two pieces front and back and will seam it.  I am making notes as I go of course so, if it looks as good as I think it will, there is a new pattern in the works.

The yarn is a product of Germany called Gala.  I have seen a few free patterns on Ravelry this week so I am assuming that it a new to North America yarn.  It is, as I said, a generous 500m in a 200g cake.  It comes in six colour ranges, is composed of eighty percent wool and twenty percent nylon, and is a very nice yarn to work with.  It looks fragile but is surprisingly strong.  I can’t wait to finish my poncho; I have been neglecting my other projects in favour of this one.

I did pick up a couple of other skeins to try and will fill you in on what I thought of those when I start to work with them.  I also stepped into Michaels, that centre of temptation, and found a no name bag of fine boucle with long colour changes.  A project for that one is cooking but not quite done and ready to come to life.

I have finished the vest that I started some time ago with another clearance no name yarn that I still haven’t identified.  I thought that it was Bernat Maker but, after seeing that yarn close up, I am now sure that it is not.  In any case the vest turned out better than expected and is awaiting a zipper to finish it.

If you are in the Calgary/Okotoks area on Saturday, stop by the Etsy Made in Canada sale at the Crescent Point Regional Field House in Okotoks at 125 Field House Dr East.  I’d love to say hello in person.  I will be selling from my Etsy store, Iris Rose Crafts.

Knitting

The 3F’s of Project Mangement

Iris Rose

Every couple of months (okay six months, okay, okay, every year or two) I find myself surrounded by unfinished projects that I have started, in some cases, who knows why, and really have the urge to clean up.  This usually happens when I can’t find a single available 5mm needle when I know that I have several or when I can’t see my table top.  Sometimes the avalanche when I open the closet door is an incentive as well.

When any of these things happen, and sometimes all of them happen at once, I have a 3F day or maybe two days, okay a week.  Finish, frog, or fro out.  I know that fro is not used this way but I like the rhyme.  It also reminds me of two year olds cleaning up and right before the tantrum which describes me to a tee on 3F day.

Finish is, of course, the best action for an almost complete project.  Projects do not go in the finish pile if: they are ugly and will never fit anyone and that’s why they are not finished, they are so old that the style has already come and gone a second time so waiting another forty years is just foolish, or I just plain hate working with the yarn in question.  Anything that is not in one of the categories above is placed into a bin.  Every time I want to start a new project (which is every minute of every day) I force myself to finish one from the bin.  This method works most of time although once in a while I change the finish status of the UFO to frog just so that I can start something new!  The only one who really cares is me and I like crafting too much to work on something I hate.

Frog is next on the to do list.  All of the projects that I can’t bring myself to finish are set aside so that I can rip out, rewind and reuse the yarn.  This goes for the too old if the yarn is still nice, the ugly and will never fit anyone, again if the yarn is still nice and the I hate working with the yarn if it is because the yarn didn’t suit the pattern.  Maybe it just needs a larger or smaller needle or hook or to be paired with a contrast to dilute the impact.  I usually set aside an evening or two to accomplish restashing these never to be finished projects.

Fro is a hard one.  I, like any yarnie worth their salt, hate to throw away “good yarn” but have learned the hard way (remember I mentioned an avalanche?) that you just can’t keep everything.  Try throwing away a truly unlikeable project that you know you will never finish made with yarn that you will never like.  It is freeing in a way that you can’t imagine!  I have reached the point now where, when I look through my stash and wonder why I ever kept all of those ten metre or less pieces or even those part skeins of so-so yarn, I can gather them up and put them in the garbage can.  Yes, (and I can hear the response to wasting yarn) it is great to donate to charity groups but, if the yarn is too old or really awful to work with, why inflict it on someone else to work with or wear.

Get over the guilt and try your own purge and you will find that you may have some really lovely finished things, some really lovely recycled yarn and a great big space where all of the uglies lived!

New pattern alert: I have published a paid cardigan pattern on Ravelry this week.  It is lace and stocking stitch in multiple sizes.  Have a look!   http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/roses-and-lace-cardigan