Showing posts with label crochet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crochet. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Hank, Skein, Cake, Ball




I know some people use hank and skein interchangeably, but the above is what I learned the different terms to mean.

If you buy yarn in a hank, you'll want to wind it up before working with it, otherwise you may end up with a huge tangled mess that will take hours and hours and hours to untangle - ask me how I know!

A swift and ball winder are useful, although not necessary.  If you wind the yarn with a winder, you get a cake; if you use your hands, you'll get a ball.

In place of a swift, you can drape the hank over the back of a chair, your knees, your feet, or talk someone into holding it for you on their hands.

You can wind a center pull ball with a toilet paper tube or paper towel tube cut in half, here is a video.



Thursday, July 31, 2014

Yarn Giveaway!




Not so long ago, (October 2013 to be exact) I set up shop on Storenvy to sell my hand dyed yarn.  I hoped and prayed people would like my yarn, but I never dreamed I would get the response I have had.  So many of you have purchased my yarn, and you keep coming back!  I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be able to share my passion for not only dyeing yarn, but knitting as well.    I love "talking" with you all on Facebook, and I love to see pictures of the projects you have completed using my yarn!

So, to say THANK YOU, I am giving away a lovely Vera Bradley bag, some beautiful glass beads, a cute flower highlighter, a few mini packets of SOAK, and of course - yarn!  There is some fingering/sock weight, DK, worsted, and chunky weight yarn.

This is open to those in the US only, 18+ please, and will run through midnight August 31, 2014 EST.

Just use Rafflecopter below to enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Knots in Yarn

Knots in yarn are inevitable. It happens with both expensive and cheap yarns.  It happens with both commercially spun and hand spun yarns.  I am not talking about a tangled wad of yarn barf.  I am talking about the place in a skein of yarn where two ends are tied together.

When I first started knitting, I got very frustrated when I found a knot (or two, or three) in my yarn.  First I thought it was just because I was using cheap acrylic yarn.  As I got into more expensive and natural fiber yarns, I continued to find knots!  I thought, how can there be knots in this $25 silk yarn?  It was maddening to find these knots and I didn't understand why.

I spend a good deal of time on knitting forums, and have seen many people ranting and raving and swearing to never purchase yarn from this or that particular brand ever again because of knots.  I've also read blogs or seen videos where people say you should not ever find knots in your yarn, and yarn with knots is poor quality.  It is nice to have knot free skeins, but to expect to have one long perfect strand of yarn each and every time I think is a little unreasonable.

I've realized over the years that just because yarn is expensive, it doesn't mean that at some point, the manufacturer didn't have to join a new strand of yarn to complete the skein of yarn.  Or perhaps, as the fiber is zipping through the machines, it breaks.  Enter the KNOT.  Often the two ends are just tied together; some yarn that I have knit with has had the two ends joined with the little bits trimmed off so the joins aren't so noticeable.

Knots happen, and it isn't worth getting so upset over.  When I come across a knot, I simply untie it if possible, and then continue on with my knitting.  If I can't untie the knot, I just cut it out.  The joins that have been neatly trimmed by the manufacturer I don't bother to do anything at all with, I just knit right past them.  I no longer get frustrated or angry and accuse my yarn of being cheap garbage - to a point.

Generally, I don't mind finding four or so knots in my yarn.  More than that, I do get a little annoyed at having to stop knitting to deal with it, but I try to not let it get to me too much.  Sometimes I do think when there is a particularly bad skein with knots every few yards, those should be discounted.  I don't know what happens, but on occasion the whole shebang comes out screwy.  I pity the poor person who buys a large quantity from that batch; I suspect those are the folks doing much of the ranting and raving.

I've said before that it would be nice to know beforehand if a particular skein has knots, but I guess we, as crafters, are supposed to be aware that such things can happen.  OK, I am aware that knots happen - I'd still like to know beforehand. Selling my own hand dyed yarns, I do try to catch these things and make note so people know what to expect.  I think that is only fair.

If you purchase yarn that comes in hanks, you know that you must wind them before using them; this is when you will find any knots in the yarn so you won't be surprised.  If you typically purchase yarn that is ready to knit from, you won't discover the knots until you come to them, or you can rewind the yarn to check for knots.  That may seem like a hassle, but if you don't want to be surprised, it is time well spent to rewind.

Above I mentioned how I deal with knots when knitting.  If you crochet, here is a post with some helpful info.

What do you do about knots in your yarn?  Leave me a comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

New yarn!

I wanted to share a few pictures of some of the new yarns I have.  Check out my shop for more!

I've got a 100% Merino Wool worsted weight.  This is a NON superwash, so it will felt.  Perfect if you want to make a felted bag!  There will be three colors available: Red Velvet Cake, Neon Butterfly, and Blue Yonder.  Blue Yonder is available now, Red Velvet Cake and Neon Butterfly will be available soon!

I don't have a picture yet of Red Velvet Cake, but here is Blue Yonder and Neon Butterfly.




I've also got a Superwash Aran weight base - this yarn is so soft and fluffy and smooshy!  There will be two colors available - one is dyed and drying and the other is almost done with the dyeing process.  Keep an eye on my Facebook page, I post updates on the yarn regularly!  I haven't decided on any names yet, but here is a picture of the Aran yarn that is almost ready.





I've also added some Fingering weight yarn that I call Shimmer because it has silver stellina in it.  Two colors available now, Gold Dust and Mardi Gras!  Gorgeous!



Sunday, February 12, 2012

Pittsburgh 2012 Knit and Crochet Festival

I had a great time yesterday!  So glad I was able to go.  I got some beautiful yarn that I can't wait to use.  I also got two Japanese Stitch books that I have been drooling over for quite some time now.  If you'd like to see pictures of the show and yarn I got, go here to my FaceBook page.  (There are other pictures in this album, for some reason I keep getting an error when I try to move them to the Knitting album)