Short and Sweet Update

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What's that? Oh just some beaded yarn I made, hugging it's twin who happens to be adorned with lovely iridescent lurex. It was just an experiment, so I'll be keeping it. But it's something to think about putting in the shop for special occasions! I'm calling it "Dragonfly Pond."

Also, I'd like to point out that I updated my shop photos on Etsy! 

Happy crafting!

Vermeer Bracelet

Hello everyone! This is the first of several free bracelet patterns I plan to release over the next few months. I often wind up with extra small bits of yarn left over when I unravel sweaters, and once they're plied and dyed, they're just perfect for making small items, like friendship bracelets! There are a ton of different ways to make friendship bracelets- macrame, weaving, crochet, knitting, etc- but since I'm best at knitting, that's the medium in which I'll be designing.

I named this the Vermeer Bracelet because the blue, gray and copper beads reminded me of a few of his paintings. Beads are optional, however-  you can make this as plain or as fancy as you like! Without further ado- the pattern. Enjoy!

MATERIALS:

~5 yards of yarn, any weight- the thinner your yarn, the thinner your bracelet (I used fingering weight)
Needles in a size appropriate for your yarn (I used size 1)
Crochet hook or tapestry needle for weaving in ends
Beads (optional)
Cord, ribbon, or contrasting yarn for tie (optional)

ABBREVIATIONS:
CO: Cast on
K- Knit
P- Purl
Sl1wyif- Slip one stitch with yarn in front
Sl1wyib- Slip one stitch with yarn in back
(NOTE: All stitches are slipped purl-wise)
BO- Bind off

CO 7 stitches.

Row 1: *K1, sl1wyif, rep from * to end, ending with a k1.

Row 2: K1, *p1, sl1wyib, rep from * to last stitch, ending with a k1.

Row 4-6: Repeat rows 1&2.

Hole Rows:

Row 7: K1, sl1wyif, BO 3 sts knit wise, p1, k1.
Row 8: K1, p1, CO 3 sts, p1, k1.

Repeat rows 1-8 three more times, so that you have 4 holes.
Repeat rows 1-6 one more time.
Bind off in pattern. Weave in ends and block, if necessary (I recommend it.)

Cut a length of yarn, ribbon, whatever you decide to use for the cord, and weave it through the holes in the bracelet, starting by going through the top of the first hole. This ensures that both ends will be tucked under the cord when you tie it, and therefore will provide a neater appearance. If you'd like to add beads to the top of the bracelet, add them to the cord as it comes through the second hole and down through the third.

You can see the difference, with and without beads in the above pictures.
The great thing about this bracelet is that you can get as creative with it as you like! You can put studs on it, sew sequins on, whatever tickles your fancy. And because it's knit in linen stitch, it won't curl. Those precious last few yards of your hand spun yarn, or that special yarn you used for that favorite shawl- they can all become something lovely to wear on your wrist- or to give to a friend!

If you have any questions, let me know! I'm always happy to help. And as always, you can find me on Facebook (feel free to post your versions of this bracelet there, I'd love to see them!), Pinterest, and Etsy.

Happy knitting!

I Wasn't Slacking, Part II

In yesterday's post, found here if you'd like a refresher, I mentioned I'd update on the two skeins I dyed before unraveling. The first, Easter Bonnet, started out like this...

...and wound up like this!

Those are both color accurate photos, so the amount of bleeding and spreading that happened while the sweater piece sat soaking in the dye/soda ash is quite remarkable.

The second skein, Pumpkin Spice, had started out looking like this (sorry, I didn't get a shot of it freshly dyed!):

and eventually wound up as a finished skein, looking like this:

Pretty good looking yarn there, if I do say so myself!

I also mentioned yesterday that I was going to talk about a project I'm doing for myself. Last summer, while looking for yarn under the "free" section on Craigslist, I found a very generous lady within walking distance of me, who was looking to get rid of a BIG BAG of yarn originally intended for machine knitting. The selection ranged from cashmere to silk to cotton to wool crepe and rayon, and the bag was so heavy I had to take a cab home! Since then, I've been slowly using the yarns either as is, or dyeing and plying them as necessary for whatever purpose I've decided on.

Well, this one cone of cotton happened to be a super skinny tape sort of yarn. Really skinny and flat, and I swear- the UGLIEST shade of white I've ever seen...as if an egg sat outside on a really smoggy day, not far from a forest fire, and rolled around in some dust. Unbearably ugly. I decided to dye the entire cone, after winding it into 6 skeins. Half of each skein was dyed black, and the other half was dyed rainbow, with the intention that I'd be chain plying it.

I added twist clockwise, and then chain plied counter clockwise...

...and here it is, all finished!

The intention for this yarn is tied into my weight loss goals. I've decided that with each ten pounds I lose, I'll ply another skein, and by the time they're all plied, I'll be down to my goal weight. I estimate it'll be about 3000 yards total, as the one above is 500 yards and they're all pretty much the same size. I'll probably wind up knitting myself a fun little sun dress or something out of it. Whatever it is, it'll be lovely!

And, last but not least- onto the weird sweater I mentioned. Look at this craziness!

It's 64% cotton, 36% polyester blend, so while I have no intention of completely eradicating that awesome highlighter yellow color, I will be able to add some interesting shades and tints to complement the neon glow.

I also unraveled a small, short sleeve pink cotton sweater today, and a GIGANTIC, 2000 lb (I'm not even exaggerating that much) dusty blue cotton sweater. The other blue cotton sweater... I'm mad at myself for, as the sleeve seams are serged all the way around. It's brand new though, I'll probably just re-donate it.

I will be adding free patterns to this blog within the next few weeks, so stay tuned! You can follow me here, or you can find me on Etsy, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. If you're on Ravelry, you can find me under the user name Spookiwaffles.

The Yarn Goddess decrees that thou shalt have a splendid weekend... let it be so <3

I Wasn't Slacking, I Swear!

So I didn't make it back within the "next week" time frame that I said I would, but it wasn't because I had nothing to offer and nothing was happening, or that I was just slacking off this time- it was because I was gathering a WHOLE BUNCH of pictures and stuff! I did a major three day yarn dyeing extravaganza, and it was incredibly exhausting. I really need to get a table to work on. But I've definitely gotten better about remembering to take pictures during the process. Without further ado...

That's a whoooole bunch of yarn, pre dyeing. You'll notice there are two skeins that look as though they've already been dyed and plied- they were. However, they were dyed with RIT, and... yeah. They were really underwhelming. They were much more of a wishy washy mauve sort of color scheme. Bleh.

Action shots of the yarn soaking in the soda ash solution. Slimy, smelly, totally essential soda ash. It gets mixed in with hot water, and then the yarn gets dumped in and mushed about and left to soak for a little while.

Dye bottles, reporting for duty! That reminds me, I have to re-label a few of them. The labels have a tendency to get a bit, um, dirty. And illegible. And sometimes the labels can't take it and they disappear.

I honestly don't remember which skein this was. I think it might have sold already though.

I channeled my inner Pollock for this one. There were two sweater pieces I hadn't yet unraveled from last summer, and the reason I hadn't unraveled them was because the cotton was knit with a REALLY ANNOYING strand of some elastic-nylon-floofy garbage that unraveled at a different rate from the cotton, and made the process needlessly complicated. I decided to finally take the plunge though, and in the process do something I hadn't done before, which was dyeing the yarn before unraveling it. See how concentrated the colors look up there? I'm going to put up an addendum blog post tomorrow, showing how the colors wound up bleeding and fading into pastels as it soaked overnight. The finished yarn doesn't look anything like the colors above!

This is the yarn from the other sweater piece I dyed before unraveling. It's currently drying and will also be featured in tomorrow's part 2.

And, just for fun, here are some progress pictures of a skein I really enjoyed working with.

This is the yarn before adding twist to it. You can see it's just a bunch of tiny strands held together.

This is the yarn after I've added the twist. Radically different, eh?

And this is the yarn, after it's been chain plied. Wound up being 200 yards even. Some soaking and thwacking evened it all out, and it is currently on its way to its new home!

Tomorrow, in addition to an update on the two skeins still drying, I'll also share a bit about a personal project I've got going on, and I'll talk about the sweaters I bought yesterday. One is REALLY bizarre and I won't be able to sell much of the yarn from it as there are many obnoxious knots- but the yarn itself is highlighter yellow and- get this- actually encased in white fishnet (lacy icord, probably)! How could I NOT take home such a technological marvel of fiber?!

As always, you can find me on Etsy, on Pinterest (where I've made new boards and pinned quite a few useful and beautiful things!), on Facebook, and on Instagram.

That's all for now... Yarn Goddess, over and out!

I'm Still Here, I Promise!

Hello everyone!

My apologies for the long absence from the blog- I've been getting used to being more regular on other social media, and as a result, the blog took a back seat. But from now on, I am going to try really hard to commit to at least one post a week, in addition to everything else. Practice makes perfect, and it takes a while to develop new habits and make them stick, so I've just got to keep sticking, or something ;-)

Anyhow, if you've taken a look at the shop lately, you've seen there are NEW YARNS! New lambswool, and new skeins in a silk/viscose/angora blend. The latter two skeins... I could weep, they are so lovely. The glow that emanates from them is nothing short of MAGNIFICENT. The boring, dirty shade of beige that the yarn originally was did nothing to highlight the beauty of the fiber.

LOOK at that freakin' yarn! Can you even, because I can't. 

I learned a few more things during my last sweater acquisition- things about seams. Usually, I just check the seams at the end of the sleeve and the bottom of the sweater, thinking that if those are good, the whole sweater is good. And... I would be wrong. Actually, I'm not even sure what happened with this sweater, because the ENTIRE DAMN THING is serged together. How did I not notice this? I'm gonna blame it on the weird lady who was commenting on the radio show that was playing in the store while I was selecting sweaters. Yeah, it's all her fault!

I have yet to dye the cotton/linen portion (yes, I found some SWEET linen to work with!) from this batch of sweaters, but I anticipate getting it done some time this week. I still have a little of the glorious silk blend left to work with, but I haven't yet decided on my intentions for that. Check out the total haul, though! 

There was also this sweater, which I knew wouldn't over-dye well, having a high acrylic content- but I thought that I could get a few interesting shades on it, at least. Except... for whatever reason, this sweater is impossible to pull apart. I gave up, and I think I'll just keep it for myself to wear. It's a really gorgeous shade of blue, that's for damn sure!

While we're still on the topic of learning, I would like to mention that over the last few months, my spinning and plying, especially with lurex, has VASTLY improved. As I had no one to learn from, no YouTube videos on the subject to pull up, I had to find my own method and improve on it from there. Because of this, I now judge many of my first attempts to be vastly inferior, and somewhat embarrassing, when compared to the more recent skeins I've produced. As a result, I am going to turn these earlier yarns into finished objects to sell, rather than selling them as yarn. I'd feel more comfortable knitting with yarn I deem sub-par, than letting someone else knit with it and be dissatisfied, thinking that ALL my yarn was scorn worthy! This also allows people to see the possibilities for the yarn- once they see how a certain skein works up into a shawl or a hat, for example, they'll be able to visualize other yarn in the shop being worked up into whatever they are interested in making.
(It will also satisfy my grabby hands, greedy desire to knit with all of the yarn I make, even though I know that's terribly naughty of me.)

In the spirit of expanding and diversifying my products, I'm also very interested in making more stitch marker sets. There's a lovely snag free, rose themed set in the shop now, and all the jewelry making supplies I've managed to hoard over the years are waiting to be turned into knitting jewelry as well. In addition to sets, I think I'd like to make a free stitch marker with every order a regular thing. It was initially just for the first ten orders, but I know that as a customer, I'd be pretty excited about a free stitch marker with every order!

I would also like to create more patterns for the shop, and I had a MAJOR fire for designing lit under me for the most part this summer, but then I just kind of lost motivation. I battle bouts of depression from time to time, and I had two this summer that rained on my parade in a big way. Lately, I've been picking up steam in an even bigger way, thankfully. I'm making a few changes in the way my brain and subconscious work, I'm changing old attitudes and programming about money and success, and I'm really optimistic that I will be able to grow my business, reach more people, and create more and more beautiful yarns.

I am also thinking of re-opening my old Etsy shop, Magick Cat Knits. That shop will be for things I've knit that are NOT from recycled yarn. I have so many hats and fingerless gloves that I've knit over the years that I wasn't able to sell in my Storenvy shop. But now that I know how titles and tags and SEO work, I'm confident that I can sell them this time around. They are really well made, unique pieces, so there's no reason why they shouldn't sell!

Ok, I think that's about all I've got to update with for now. As always, you can find me on Facebook, on Etsy, and on Instagram as Magick Cat String Sanctuary.

I hope the rest of your week is full of joy and inspiration!

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age."
- Sophia Loren

Fibrously Yours,

The Yarn Goddess