yarny goodness

I have been knitting lately, here are a couple of finished projects, and
what I am currently working on!
First up is Brian's hat. Not quite finished yet- I need to weave in the ends and put a tassle on the top, but I think that it turned out pretty good. I alternated knit stripes with stockingette stripes. In hind-site, this was a bad idea, as stockingette takes more yarn than had I just done the alternating stripes in perl. Oh, well.
The next picture is a pair of longies for Ellie for the fall. They are super long, I think that the inseam before the cuff is about 8 inches, then the cuff adds another two inches, so a 10 inch inseam in all. But, since the cuff will keep the legs up, she will be able to wear them for a long time! They do, however, have an uncanny resemblance to hammer pants! Love love love this yarn, though! Once again, it is from my friend at Mamazluv creations on Hyena Cart. Seriously, she does great things. I think that she is also opening a second shop just for her yarn, called Anticipation!
Lastly is my current work in progress. Another pair of longies for the fall, this yarn is Horton from Bugsnuggers yarn, also on Hyena Cart. I just started these yesterday, so only have the waist and a little of the body done so far. I am liking the colorway, though for some reason it isn't exactly what I was expecting. It looks a little patriotic to me, though in a sorta girly, pink way! Not a bad thing, just not what I was expecting. We will see how it goes, pooling wise. I have two balls of this, so I can always alternate rows if I need to.

how to wind yarn

I have had a couple people ask me, why do I need to wind yarn into a ball? Doesn't it just come ready to knit? Well, some yarn does. Most of the yarn that one buys in a craft store is wound into a center-pull ball, so that you only need to find that center strand (often harder than it looks!) and go from there. But, if you purchase hand-dyed or higher end yarns from a local yarn store, then most likely the yarn will come in a skein, which is a fancy name for a big loop of yarn twisted up on itself to look pretty and display the colorway.
So, in picture form, here is what the yarn swift is for:
This is a skein. See how it looks sort of braided? In this skein, then ends are actually tied together, and have to be untied or cut before winding into a ball. (I will show this later) As well, there are several other points where the yarn is tied. This holds the yarn together during dying.
This is a purewool colorway called diante.

On the right, you can see a skein of yarn as compared to a center-pull ball that I previously wound, using the awesome yarn winder and swift. Bri built the swift, the yarn winder came from Knitpicks. As far as I have seen, they have the best price on yarn winders. However, they do seem limited to winding a ball of about 6 oz. Much bigger than this and the ball sort-of loses its neatness and is prone to tangling. I don't know if using a more spendy winder would solve this issue.

Here is the skein un-wound into a giant loop. You can see the places where the yarn is tied to hold it together. If I didn't have a swift, then I have to find something else to loop the yarn around in order to wind it up. Spinny office chairs work well, as do baby gates, as you can adjust the width to fit the yarn. A husband's arms, or your own knees, work, but less well, as there will be a tendency to get tired in the time that it takes to manually wind yarn.
Here is the yarn all stretched out on the swift. The swift has a bolt in the center which allows it to spin freely, so the yarn can be easily pulled off. The TV tray is too small for the swift, so I used bungee cords to keep the swift from falling over. For reference, this loop of yarn is almost two feet in diamiter!
I did not take pictures of the actual winding process (perhaps a later post?) But basically once you find the end of the yarn and cut all the ties that hold the yarn together, you grab the end of the yarn, attach it to the winder, and turn a crank. The yarn winder looks very much like a fishing reel- in fact I wonder if a winder could be made from a reel- it would be cheaper if you could find one at a garage sale! I have seen winders made from legos, tinker toys, electric drills, and electric mixers as well.
Hopefully you found this helpful!

yarn swift!

My wonderful hubby made me a yarn swift, so I can take skeins and wind them into center-pull balls. You can see my learning curve in the various yarn balls I wound last night. But, even with some untangling and unwinding, it was still way faster than winding skeins by hand, and it definitely saved my fingers from falling asleep when I wind yarn into balls around the palm of my hand. You can see all the skeins I still have to do in the background... in fact, I probably have more than that floating around the house...

Current Projects

I have been knitting quite a bit lately- here are a few pics of what I have been working on.

Here are my first pair of capris that I made- These were made with Donnegal wool (which, ironically, was spun in the US from wool

that came from South America) These were really a first try at usin

g this pattern, and I think they turned out nicely. I learned a lot from this

project, including how NOT to graft knitting together! Overall, the colorway is OK, but not my favorite. I really don't like the patterning of mass-dyed yarns. The seed stitch cuffs took me forever (having never used the stitch before) but I am

really proud of them!

I am currently working on these, which will fit Ellie in the fall

(hopefully, she is such a tiny thing!) I love this wool, it is hand-dyed licorice twist, I got it from Mamaz Luv Creations on Hyenacart, Shirley is a great mama to work with and dyes the prettiest yarns. I have another colorway of hers that I will work up soon! This one is called Sunset, the other one that I have is Gumdrops.

The grafting went much better on this set, and I am loving how the yarn is working up. Licorice Twist is a really soft yarn, it is made using four plys, one of which is a different type of yarn, so it takes the color differently than the other three. I have been knitting this straight off the ball, and not alternating skeins or anything. No pooling at all! Like I said, this is great stuff! Though it is a worsted weight yarn, it is a fairly light worsted, I would say, and is a little lighter than other stuff I have worked with.

Here is an up-close pic of the licorice twist. This one is the gumdrops yarn.

This has got to be one of my favorite yarns, I am seriously considering using it to make a hat for myself instead of longies for Ellie. I might have enough to do both, though!