Felt Like Knitting

The Best Trip Ever! (Part 1: Yarn)

      

Steve and I just got back from a trip to Asheville, North Carolina.  He arranged it as a special treat for our 25th wedding anniversary.  It was the best trip ever and we had a fabulous time!

When I travel, I like to buy local yarn or yarn that I haven't seen before.  My LYS has a lovely selection of yarn so it's sometimes hard for me to find something new.  Asheville has four (yes - four!) yarn stores in or near downtown and I made it to three of them.

Yarn Paradise is located in Bilmore Village, the historic village near the entrance to George Vanderbilt's Biltmore.  Parking was easy to find and there was a bench nearby for Steve.  The people in the shop were friendly and helpful.  I bought Claudia Hand Painted Linen Lace in the Boot Camp colorway (above right).  Identical colorways in the sport weight and lace weight yarns were very different.  This yarn will most likely become a shawl for me since the colors complement many of my t-shirts.

Earth Guild was a very large store downtown that featured supplies for many different arts and crafts.  There were local yarns that I considered but when I saw the colors of the Manos Silk Blend, I decided to splurge on that instead.  I think this will become a Summer Flies shawl.

While I was in Earth Guild, Steve found the third yarn store for me:  Purl's Yarn Emporium.  This store is tucked away on a little one-way street.  They had some very nice yarns but there was nothing that called out to me, especially since I had already spent plenty of money on yarn.  But I would definitely visit again.

The store I didn't visit is the one I really wanted to see, Asheville, NC Home~Crafts.  Somehow I never printed out information before we left so I ended up visiting the stores that came up first on the Google search on my phone.  Then we ran out of time.  But I have to have something to do the next time I go back, right?  :)  Many of the yarns in this store are supplied by local artisans, so I'm sure it's an interesting store.

Next up:  the food!

 

Clothes Moths 101

Wow!  There is so much information available online about clothes moths and how to disinfest them!  Here is what I've found out.  Hopefully I'll never have to refer to this again and neither will you!

Damage can come from webbing clothes moths, casemaking clothes moths, and carpet beetles.  This fact sheet from Colorado State University has great photos for identification. Here are some other helpful articles (and the one from the other day just to have this all in the same place).

There are several ways to get rid of moths.  The fact sheets have similar methods but differ on temperatures and lengths of time.  (Note:  I didn't investigate pesticides or traps.  You may want to look into these methods if you have a moth problem.)  Here is what I'm doing:

Freezing

I'm putting my wool (and other animal) yarn and fleece into Ziploc freezer bags and squeezing out any extra air.  These bags are going into my chest freezer which is set at or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  The bags will stay for at least 72 hours.  Since freezing doesn't affects the eggs, the the bags will be brought to room temperature and remain there for at least 21 days to allow any eggs to hatch.  The yarn will then be frozen again for 72 hours.

Heating

I'm going to heat my cotton yarn in the oven for 4 hours at 120 degrees F.  Moth larvae won't eat the cotton yarn but they may lay their eggs there.  

Washing

I'm washing all of my fabric in hot water and drying it on high heat.  Again, the moths aren't in it but could be laying their eggs there.

Sunshine

Any fabric that is too sensitive to heat or too large to fit in the washer will be taken out in the sunshine and brushed off. (Moths hate sunlight.)  I also did this with my loom bag.  I turned it inside out and brushed it all out.

Cleaning

As I moved things from my sewing room, I washed the baseboards and vacuumed under them, paying special attention to the corners.  All fabric and yarn was removed from the dark closet and will be stored in the sunnier room.  

Storage

My wool was already in plastic bins but apparently that didn't help or the yarn went in after it was already infested.  My yarn will now be stored in sealed Ziploc bags with extra air removed.

Prevention

The curtains will be open more often in my sewing room to keep it nice and bright in there.  The floors will be swept more often and the furniture will periodically be moved away from the walls for vacuuming at the baseboards.  Any new yarn will be inspected and stored in its own plastic bag.

And I will be sorting through my stash to remove yarn I don't use.  I've found a group that needs yarn and embroidery floss.  After I'm sure any moths are removed from the yarn, I'm going to donate a bunch to them. 

Then I get to move on to the master bedroom because my husband says he saw a small moth flying around in there a couple of months ago!  Hands off my knitted shawls and sweaters, moths!!!

Monday, Monday

Hey there!  Today really feels like a Monday since Christmas and New Year's are over.  I am having lots of trouble getting back into a routine.  I've always had difficulty with that - once I get a break I want more break!

We had a fairly quiet weekend.  On New Year's night, I cast on for my January projects - a Palindrome scarf for OFA, a charity hat, and a pair of mitts for my SIL's Christmas gift.  I was so pleased with myself and went to bed feeling pretty good about my progress and organization.  The next day I ripped apart much of my sewing room to relocate my yarn stash.  I found lots of UFOs that I had forgotten about, including twelve felted bags that need to be lined or finished in some way.  Ugh!  More about all of that later in the week...

At least now all the fabric is in the closet and my yarn is out in the room where I can see it.  But I'm embarrassed by how much yarn I have.  (In my defense, two cubbies full of yarn were given to me.)  I need to knit faster, don't you think?  Even though I have already set my goals for 2010, I think emptying at least two cubbies worth of yarn is something else for which to strive.

Another thing I have a lot of is thread.  Left from the days when I sewed a lot (I seem to have tons of pink thread from when Emma was little!) or purchased for current projects...well, I shouldn't have to buy thread for a while either.  But now it's better organized and easier to get to.

You may have noticed that I still have the mural on the walls in here.  It's from when the room was a nursery.  At first I wanted to leave it because I thought it might help us sell the house someday.  But now I'm not so sure about that and I'd like to repaint it.  What do you think?

I hope each of you had a great weekend and are off to a good start in 2010!

Take a look

Rachel at Have You Any Wool hosted a contest in which participants guessed which two projects she had recently finished.  And I won!  How exciting!  Well, what's even more exciting is that her prize was some hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn.  It's beautiful!  The pictures don't do it justice so I'll have to take more later.  Okay, I'll shut up and show you the pictures now...

               

Isn't it beautiful?!  And it feels so soft and smells so good.  (I kind of hate to admit this, but I keep sticking my nose in it.)  This will soon be a lovely pair of socks.  (I'll post more about those later - I'm making progress this time!  And I'm loving knitting with this yarn!)  Rachel also included a little sock blocker key chain - with a cute little sock on it!  Thank you, thank you, Rachel, for your very generous gift!  I am so thrilled with this yarn you created!  (Rachel may notice that something is missing from the picture on the left.  She sent me some chocolate and it was eaten before I even thought to take a picture of it!)

There is more joy to show you!

         

I participated in the Special Swap again, which had a garden theme this time.  My swap partner, Carole, really spoiled me with her great themed package.  When I opened the package, the delightful smell of lavender arose.  It was from soap made by Blessed Juno.  This soap smells so wonderful!  Right now it's in my sewing room and the room smells great whenever I walk in there.  I know I should be using it as soap, but I love the smell of lavender and I want to make this last a while!

Carole included a stunning shawl pattern.  The Hidcote Garden Shawl pattern reads:  This shawl is named after the garden at Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire, England. The garden was layed out in the 1920’s by Lawrence Johnston. The Hidcote Garden is characterized by its wild abundant plantings bounded within structured, geometric beds. Hidcote Garden is also famous for it’s lavender varieties.  (Are you seeing the theme?  :) )

And look at the beautiful lavender laceweight yarn!  This is my first laceweight yarn and I'm really excited about it!  This shawl will be wonderful!  The yarn is so soft, too.  And I have to mention the terrific sock yarn in the Spring Rain colorway!  All lavender needs spring rain!  :)

To complete the garden theme, Carole included seeds (cosmos, aster, and zinnia), a cute tulip notepad, a knitted flower washcloth, and chocolate.  The washcloth is so soft.  I just love the green!  (Thank you for knitting it for me, Carole!)  She wrote in her nice note that chocolate didn't really match the theme, but she wanted to include some since I love it.  (Thank you!)  I think that it fits the theme very well, because the garden is a great place to eat chocolate!  Thank you, Carole, so much for a great package!  It was really fun swapping with you!

          

Pushing the envelope

Do you ever see something on a blog and say to yourself "Gee, I wish I could do something like that?"  What stops you from actually making something innovative or cool or out-of-the-ordinary?  For me, it's that I don't feel that I'm creative enough.  Or I remind myself that I didn't go to school for art/graphic design/fashion design.  Or I tell myself I don't have an eye for color or pattern combinations.  Sometimes I try something and it doesn't come naturally to me, so I quit.

But you know, I'm tired of that.  I think at least some of this can be learned.  Sure, we can't all be an Amy Butler, a Lily Chin, or a Heather Bailey.  But, we can "push the envelope" for ourselves and do more than we are currently doing.  How does a person reach beyond her comfort zone?

Does it start by imitating other people's designs by using patterns and ideas that one sees in books and magazines?  Take this felted PDA case from AlterKnits.  Embroidery is something I don't usually do, but the pattern shows it and I decided to add some to this project.  The flower pattern from the book could have been traced onto the case, but I made myself come up with my own.  Now my design isn't perfect and I realized after two or three petals that it would have been better to use a solid colored floss.  But, I'm happy that I tried it and I know that I can improve the next time.  There just has to be a next time so I can push beyond my usual projects.

Or does enhanced creativity come from making oneself use materials not used before?  A fellow swim team mom told me tonight that when she goes to the bead store, she shops from the sale bin.  She feels that shopping from the bin of odds and ends forces her to be more creative and try different things.  This really hit home.  Just yesterday I thought about choosing three things from my sewing room and making myself create something from those items. 

Maybe creativity comes from looking at the world in a different way.  What do clouds really look like?  How would the colors of the food on my dinner plate look as the yarn colors in my next felted bag?  Would the curlicues in the scrapbooking magazine spread look good as embroidery or needle felting?  Could the design of a quilt work as a texture in our knitted fabrics?

How do you expand your creative horizons?  What inspires you? Let's have a little fun with this.  Leave a comment here by Wednesday, June 27 at 8:00 AM Eastern time.  That morning, I'll randomly select a winner.  And I'll see what kind of creative prize I can come up with.  :)  So, tell me how you stretch creatively or what you've recently done that has taken you to a different level in your craft.  I'm sure that all of you creative bloggers out there will have some great ideas!

Rising Fawn Fiber Studio

The other day I mentioned that we stopped by a place called Rising Fawn Fiber Studio.  (The owner, Brenda McKaig, said that she is working on changing her website.  It appears to be up, but not quite functional yet.)  It was a really cute place, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the house or the sheep. 

From the street, the first thing you see of Rising Fawn Fiber Studio is the pasture.  When we drove by the first day, the sheep were in the pasture.  On the day we stopped in, I didn't see them.  But, I sure heard them when we got close to the house!  They were by the fence and were talking to us.  Brenda said they think they should have feed from anybody that comes up the sidewalk.  Between the house and the pasture is a picket fence with a picnic table on the other side.  It looked like an inviting place to watch the sheep, but I was on a mission for yarn.

The sidewalk is flanked by hostas and other plants and leads to a cute little house with a nice front porch.  As I walked into the front room, I thought "This is my kind of yarn store!"  The room was filled with yarn, but not so much that it was hard to see everything.  It wasn't too big, it wasn't too small, it was just right.  :)  There were several kinds of wool and cotton from which to choose plus there was a nice variety of Rising Fawn Fiber yarns from which to choose. 

And there wasn't just yarn.  Brenda had a nice selection of books, wool wash, needles, decorative sheep, needle felting kits, various weaving looms - the list goes on.  Seriously, there was something for almost every fiber enthusiast. 

The second room contained a weaving loom, spinning wheel, and the computer/cash register.  (Bring cash or your checkbook because credit cards aren't accepted.)  I also noticed a basket of clearance yarn, but my wallet was already in serious trouble, so I didn't give in and look.

                         

I bought the Lamb's Pride for a felted bag.  And I bought the cute little needle felting kit because I've really been wanting to try that.  I'm also going to try the wool wash because it was much cheaper than Eucalan.  My favorite part of all is the yarn spun and dyed by Brenda.  It's called Fawn Silks and has 10% silk/20% mohair/70% wool.  I love it!  (The colors aren't accurate in the first picture and they are too dark in the second.)  I love the subtle way the blue changes and how it is flecked with bits of green.  It reminds me of ocean water.  I'm knitting it into the Spiral Rib Bag from One Skein.  I'm really enjoying this project!

Hours are by appointment and Brenda offers classes, Summer Spin-in Saturdays (6/9, 7/14, 8/25), and Stay N Stitch Tuesdays (6/12, 6/26, 7/17, 7/31).  And there will be a Shearing Day Fest in November.

I suppose this might seem like an advertisement, but I just really enjoyed my visit to this studio.  One hour wasn't enough and I hope to go back again.  But, if I don't make it, Brenda does ship yarn!  :)

Thoughts II: The Sequel

I mentioned the other day that I have photos to share.  Let's start there:

Simple Sparrow recently had a contest to mark her 200th blog post.  I was one of the lucky winners!  She sent me one of her beautiful handmade pincushions, some fabric and vintage buttons for a project (I'm thinking of making one of those cute needle books.), and some candy from across the Pacific.  Thanks so much, Toni!  If you haven't checked out Simple Sparrow yet, stop in when you have a chance.  There is always a lot of inspiration and beautiful photography.

I've been on a bit of a felted bowl kick lately.  I had big plans for green felted bowls with chocolate truffle Easter eggs tucked inside.  That's not going to happen, but I do have some bowls to show for my idea.  :)  I used the One Skein bowl pattern, but altered it for the dark pink one to get the shape I wanted.

Two more Christmas dishcloths are finished.  I really like the pattern for the Garter Slip Stitch dishcloth on the left.  I'm currently knitting my second one with blue as the dominant color and white as the accent.  I like that color combination, too.

Recently, Rachel recently had a stash sale.  I bought this sock yarn from her.  There were actually two skeins of the blue Knit Picks yarn, but one skein was already in use when I took the picture.  I'm thinking of using the hand-dyed yarn for a lace scarf or small shawl.  Thanks, Rachel!

Now, for the nice gifts I should have mentioned before and didn't.  Last fall, Trek sent me a braiding tool to make Kumihimo braids.  I had big plans to make a beautiful braid right away and to post a picture of the tool and my braid.  Unfortunately, I am just now trying my hand at braiding and it's taking more tries than I thought it would.  :)  So, no great pictures yet.  But, I am feeling bad about not publicly acknowledging this nice gift.  Thanks, Trek!

And in December, Caitlyn offered me her copy of Spindle Spinning.  Again, I thought I'd spin some and show my progress, so I didn't post about it right away.  I recently started reading the book and I got my spindle back out.  "Thunk!" - it hit the ground.  I guess I should read more of the book before I try more spinning.  :)  Thanks, Caitlyn, for your generosity in sending me this book.  It's full of great information and it will help a lot!

What I was forgetting the other day is that we are leaning toward California for our trip.  We're thinking of San Fransisco, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, and possibly the Napa Valley.  Thanks to everyone that gave me their opinion about the two locations.  Both would be great trips!

One last thing...  Royal Yarns rocks!!!  They had the Nashua book in stock for the KAL with Katie, Keri, and possibly Emily.  That alone was great because I had trouble finding it.  But, the best part is that I ordered the book and a skein of Touche on Monday and I received it yesterday!  So, today I was able to start swatching.  If you want to join us, the web site shows that Royal Yarns has more books in stock.  :)

Yarny, knitty weekend

I did make it to the LYS anniversary sale on Saturday to exchange the Bengali yarn.  What came home with me was some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrahkan for scarves, two colors of Cascade 220 for slippers for E and me, and a hank of Malabrigo Merino for My So Called Scarf.  (I'm not personally wild about the Malabrigo colorway, but it was the best one they had in stock.  It might look just great knitted up.)  Aside from the Cascade 220, these yarns are soft, soft, soft!  As you can tell, Phoebe likes them, too.  You should have seen her when I first put the yarn on the floor.  Her nose was buried in the alpaca silk on the right. 

Yesterday I got to meet a knit blogger in "real life!"  Restless Knitter and I met up at a local bookstore's coffee shop for knitting and chatting.  R.K. is a lovely lady and I enjoyed meeting her very much.  She brought along her new copy of Victorian Lace Today.  What a beautiful book!  Meeting a fellow knit blogger for the first time was almost like going on a blind date.  "What should I wear?  Will she like me?  What will we talk about?  Will she still read my blog now that she's met me?!"  I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone!

Remember that dizzy spell I had a while back?  I had another one this morning.  Fortunately, this one wasn't as bad, but I still missed school.  I guess I should go to the doctor to figure this out.  I've told her before that I sometimes feel dizzy, but these two episodes are beyond what I was experiencing before.

Are you in the mood for Thanksgiving yet?  Once November hits, I can hardly wait to start cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  Do you have any special family favorites that you like to cook?  I'm making my menu and I'd like to try at least one new dish.  Mmmm...wish I had some mashed potatoes and gravy right now.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Are you wearing a teapot cozy on your head?!

Do you remember Lynda's project to give hand knitted Christmas gifts to homeless people in LA?  Yesterday I finished a hat, but I'm a little concerned about it.  I made two mistakes: I didn't bother with a gauge swatch because this doesn't have to fit a particular person and I cast on for the largest size.  This hat is large!  Now a big hat wouldn't normally be a problem because a lot of people probably have big heads.  But this hat is pink so now only women with big heads can wear it.  Like me.  I'm sad to say that it fits me.  Now, that is a smallish teapot, but this is still a big, big hat that fits my big, big head.  I hope someone will be able to use it.  I'm going to knit something else, too, so I won't be so embarrassed when I send it.  :)

Give me some Benadryl.  My neck is so itchy!

This is a friendly warning to anyone that is tempted to buy Bengali yarn for a scarf.  This wool/acrylic blend feels very soft...until you knit it.  I'm knitting this scarf for a Christmas gift and I finally figured out what pattern to use so the blue section would fall in stripes.  After I knit some, I put it up to my neck.  Yikes!  How can yarn that feels good in the ball/hank/skein feel so itchy when it's knit up?   I'm disappointed because I like the way it looks and it took my whole evening to work on swatches for a scarf that I can't even finish.  Maybe I'll make some wrist warmers with it instead.

Every cloud has a silver lining...

Fortunately, my LYS has a return policy which will allow me to return/exchange the other balls of Bengali.  And today just happens to be their anniversary sale.  Hmmm...  I guess I should make a list.  :)  Yesterday Debby asked her readers what would be on their knitting wish lists.  I mentioned that I'd buy some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool.  I'd like to use this for a Branching Out scarf, but now I'm a bit leery that it would be itchy.  Are there any tips for figuring out what a yarn will feel like once it's knit up?

Finding yarn money

The other day I shared that my husband has a rather lengthy "to do" list.  Another thing that he likes to keep track of is the household budget. (Are you surprised?)  When I started knitting more and more and my yarn spending got out of control I began to enjoy trying different yarns, I realized I'd need to find some more money to supplement the "Beth, Hobbies" category.  So, I started clipping coupons.

I had played around with this in the past, but this time it really worked.  I found two websites:  The Coupon Mom and The Grocery Game.  I'll let you read all about their systems on their sites, but here is the basic explanation of how it works:

Wait for things to go on sale.  Buy them with the coupons you've been collecting.  Buy as much as you can and stockpile it.  Add to your stockpile the next time the item is on sale and you have a coupon.  Sometimes you buy at the sale price without a coupon because it's a great deal at the sale price.  Try not to buy when the item is not on sale.

I know there are negatives to this system (like maybe spending a little more at the beginning as you grow your stockpile), but it has really been working for us.  For example, I have a stockpile of Dial bar soap (probably about 20 bars).  About 10 of those bars were free and the others cost about 40 cents for a 3-pack.  I don't have to buy soap until I see another great deal and hopefully I'll never have to buy it at full price.  After grocery shopping the other day, I calculated our savings.  I saved 38% on my groceries that day.

Each of the websites I listed above offers something different.  The Coupon Mom is free and has items listed as good charity items.  (I read somewhere that she started this with the hope that people would buy items and donate them to local charities.)  The Grocery Game is a subscription service and they tell you if a "sale" item is really at its lowest price.  Both sites list the sale items at a particular store and let you know what coupon to use.  (Update:  I forgot to say that both sites allow you to select the items you want to buy and print out a shopping list.  Handy!)

How do you know which coupon to use?  There are two types of weekly coupon fliers:  SmartSource and Valassis.  Each of these is dated on the fold of the flyer.  When the web site list says "10-22 S" you know to look in the SmartSource flyer from 10-22.  Or you can clip everything at once and file by category (cereal, frozen foods, canned foods, etc.).

I haven't learned all there is to "couponing," but I know I have saved money.  And I've certainly learned a lot of tips.  Here are three you may find helpful:

1)  Walgreen's has some incredible deals.  They have an Easy Saver booklet each month that features coupons and rebates.  If you choose to have your rebate put on a Walgreen's gift card, they give you extra money back.  The rebates are great:  Buy $10 worth of _______ and get a $10 rebate. 

2)  Publix has a mystery coupon in our Sunday paper.  If you buy $10 worth of merchandise on Sunday or Monday and use the coupon, you can get the Mystery Item for 1 cent.  It's usually a Publix brand item, but we've liked most of the things we've tried.  If it's something we don't use, we pass it on to charity.

3)  Speaking of charity, this has been a great way to help people out without spending a lot of money.  I just took some things to church last night and here's what it cost:

Four boxes of pasta (40 cents each)

Two tubes of toothpaste (free)

Two cans of Rotel tomatoes and chilies (free)

One jar of peanut butter (1 cent)

Two bottles of Fantastic cleaner ( about 50 cents each)

Okay, I've probably lost half my "audience" by now, but I get pretty excited about this sometimes.  I hope you can use some of the information to find some more yarn money for yourself!