Friday, January 15, 2010

Possum yarn and Destash

I finished the possum hat - took only 1 ball of DK yarn to make the modified Coronet Hat. I say modified because the first one I made from Camel and did not pick up from the bottom of the cable band inside before decreasing for the crown. I just knit the cable strip and picked up and knit to the crown. I wasn't sure I'd have enough camel yarn. I had just enough in the 1 ball which was about 100yds.

The possum hat was also about 100 yds, so not quite a full ball.

After putting it in the wash on warm (in a lingerie bag), and letting it dry, it fluffed up and it turned out to be very furry and so so soft. The drawback is that the hat is not quite as warm as my camel one. I think that's the merino-possum mix.

Possum Cable Hat Back

It's January and my only resolutions are to get out more, and to be more abundant. I've started walking again at lunch, and I'm still unpacking, but separating things to keep, from donations, and things for sale. Speaking of such, I'm starting my destash with some yarn, and books. Check out my destash page on rav and let me know if you're interested in anything. I will consider reasonable offers too.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Happy New Year 2010

I had a great Christmas and my recipients enjoyed my newly woven scarves very much. I just made two - the rest I've kept as lessons, or they're waiting for new homes.

One was for my mom - a simple two-colour scarf in Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk in Peacock (Teal) and Black. One edge was black, teal, black, and the other teal, black teal so she could have either colour as the edging on the outside. Although she initially wasn't as fond of it as another I'd picked for her - an Alpaca-Acrylic combo I'd picked up at a local Craft show, she thinks she'll end up using the one I wove as it's softer, and lighter. Yay!

Mom's Teal Scarf 1

Mom's Teal Woven Scarf pic 2

The second was one I'd woven for a friend, Marilyn. She had gifted me a big bag of cotton yarn on Christmas eve, and I offered to weave her a scarf, with a keyhole so she could loop the scarf around and tuck it in. Turns out, the scarf was a big hit. It was combination of blues - dark, light, teal, and purple with various fibers - her cotton and also angora in a navy, and a blue-purple variegated from louisa harding, also the matching LH ribbon in blue-purple, and a thin teal silk ribbon I'd had from years ago. Add a touch of copper from the Drops vicose, and a bit of copper metallic. It was a hit, and it looked great on her. The photo doesn't do it justice - looks like my camera was having an off day-

Marilyn's Keyhole 2

I just may make a few more keyholes for fun.

Just before Christmas I renewed the loom again until the end of January. This is getting to be a bit addictive, I'd say, but still fun. I did take one small knitting detour just after Christmas. Due to the Beehive's Inventory Sale- I sprung for some possum yarn (60% merino; 40% possum) - I tell you - you have no idea how long I've been literally yearning for possum yarn - years. Way back a couple of years, one of my friends from guild showed me a beautiful blue hat she'd felted. It was made of possum. At the time, Cherry Tree Hill had just discontinued their possum yarns, and most recently, they had been merino with superwash wool. Since hers had been felted, I was curious to find the possum yarn again with the non-superwash wool. I sprung for 2 skeins of the 01 Natural, as they had a ribbed scarf on display and it was very soft. I am half way through another coronet hat, just decreasing at the crown, and hope to have this baby in the wash soon so I can try it out.

Other than the Rimu Possum yarn, I also picked some Handmaiden - casbah, a favorite and also a skein of the sea mountain sock, which is superwash sock and seacell together. Should be fun. Perhaps sock, perhaps a woven scarf, we'll see.

black friday

I've updated the sale page with some key sales for Black Friday. I'm not doing a lot of yarn buying these days, so these are the on...