Yellowbird Yarn Room

Where are they now? - 2KCBWDAY4

 

Whatever happened to your __________?

For those of you who did not stumble onto this blog thanks to Eskimimi (who may have been reading along just because they know me, or know the shop, or who were simply clicking on things and have no idea how they got here or where the last 37 minutes went), let me just start off by saying that hers is a wonderful blog that I am grateful for discovering and I look forward to reading it on a more regular basis.

I mention this because Eskimimi is the force behind Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, and it is on this page that she gives the topics for each day.  If you scroll down a bit you will find a place where you can click day Four (today) and you will find a lovely few paragraghs expounding on the possible directions this topic may take. 

But I know my direction, and it goes the way of the blankets.

 
Last year's blanket on display during the "wrap-up party" with the kids.

In the interest of full disclosure, I fully admit that I did not knit these blankets myself, per se.  But I did handle my fair share of dropped stitches, random increases, whip stitch most of them together, and crochet a couple of edges.

So it counts.

See, this year is my fourth year teaching after school classes at my sons' elementary, and my second at another.  The kids learn how to knit, and the squares they finish are assembled into a blanket for charity.

The first year, the blanket was donated to the police department's charity which buys Christmas presents for local children who would not get them otherwise.  The officer in charge sold raffle tickets at bingo games.  I'm sorry to say that I've never known who won the blanket, but I am confident it found a good home with someone who appreciated the hard work the kids put into it, and the police department was able to give several more families a Merry Christmas.

The second year, I had just started renting space at River City and thought that the blanket would get more exposure there and we could raise a bit more money for the same charity.  I thought right!  The bonus, too, was that being in charge of the raffle allowed me to know who won the blanket.  Long story short, it is now in the home of the very deserving lady who crocheted the squares together for me along with crocheting the edge. 

The third year's blanket (pictured above) followed the same path as the previous year and was won by my friend, Cynthia, who is an Open Knit regular and retired teacher.  It has found a home in Chincoteague with her daughter, and I am thrilled to know it is there. 

This year, however, there's more! 

We will still be able to have the same raffle at River City with the same size blanket, and this will be from the squares made at my sons' school.  From the other elementary, however, I have enough squares (combined with some I have left over from last year) to finish two smaller blankets.  These blankets, I am very excited to say, will be donated to the county's Children's Services to be put to very good use.

Teaching these classes can, at times, be exhausting.  I could quit now and still be happy in the knowledge that I have done some good in the world and that I have given dozens of children something they can be proud of. 

But I'll tell you what...the rewards are more than worth it, and I will keep this up for just as long as I can!

Tidy mind, tidy stitches - 2KCBWDAY3

 

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

HA!

Ok, so you want to see pictures of my organized side?  Just click on the "YB PICTURES" link up there on the left.  You see?  I have potential.

However, that would be my public side.  At home, it's a whole 'nother story...

I know a lady who used to work at a make-up counter in a department store.  When I first met her (in 1994, to be exact) she asked to see my lipstick.  She said she could tell me a little something about my personality based upon how I wear down the point.

The student of human nature in me could not resist.

She told me a number of things, as well as I remember, and we had some hearty giggles...but there is one thing she told me that I will never forget:  "You like the idea of being organized, but can't seem to stay that way."

HA!

So anyway, I have bags.  Lots of bags. 

There is a rotating supply of handled bags of various shapes and sizes that call the floor under my kitchen table home base during most of the school year.  These bags contain the individual Ziploc bags for the work of each after school student in two different schools, extra skeins so that they may switch colors as they see fit, and the completed squares waiting to either have ends sewn in or borders sewn on before the blanket is assembled.

Then, there is my main knitting bag.  It's the one my parents bought me for Christmas right after I learned how to knit.  I love this bag and it goes with me everywhere, but it's home base is on the floor in front of my nightstand so that I can work while watching tv after the kids go to bed.  Inside this bag are several clear plastic bags with zippers, the kind new sheets and "Learn to Knit" kits come in, to hold all of my supplies and individual projects. 

Then, there are the big bags.  The kind tablecloths and comforters come in.  I have...oh...I don't know...four of them, maybe?  Filled with my stash.  They used to hide out shamefully in my closet, but when I started Yellowbird I found I needed the stash more accessible.  So now they're piled up proudly in a corner of my studio (aka my dining room).

We won't get into the baskets and boxes that have found themselves home for the hastily set-aside projects that got old, or balls of yarn from the tasting, or skeins that had been studied for the promise of particular pattern.

Someday, I will tame my wild sewing machine and whip up the needle case of my dreams.  And I will have that studio/office with the stash proudly displayed in a vintage glass-front cabinet, not only allowing me to see all I have but also keeping it dust-free. 

And who knows.  I might even start wearing lipstick again.

Skill + 1UP – 2KCBWDAY2

 

Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

So I had a spare few minutes while waiting for my turn to say goodnight to the boys and I decided to take a sneak peek at today's topic (unlike yesterday when I didn't really know the topic until it was time to write it).  Look back over the year, eh?  Well, cool, the blog makes that easy...just start clicking on the archives...

Holy cotton, that was just last year?!?!

Now, last year was my first full year of business and blogging and...wow!  I knew that both my knitting speed and skills had been kicked up a notch but I didn't realize how much until I looked back.  To save you all the trouble of reading everything I have written in the past year, this is my brief synopsis of 2010 knitting adventures:

• Mid-February:  started knitting my first ever sock.  Which I decided to make a knee sock.  With a lace pattern found in a friend's lace pattern book.  So increases and decreases had to be improvised.  That one over-industrious sock took me months, but I finshed it and it's lovely!
• Mid-April:  the Recycled Bag Pool Bag Experiment.  A very intruiging experiment that still haunts me as something I reeeally wish had worked, but alas...  It involved fusing plastic grocery bags together into a tube, which was then cut in a spiral to make plarn.  The results will forever keep the beginning of the Yarn Tasting nice and taught!
• Early May:  Plarn Experiment #2 involving non-fused strips looped together and a drill.  Still intruiged, but not enough to progress beyond the tasting at the time.
• End of May:  learned Tunisian Crochet to work on my lack of crochet skills.  Made a mini tablerunner embroidered with fireworks and I really enjoyed the technique, but it sure does eat up the yarn!
• Early September:  my first stuffties!  An owl apiece for my two Harry-Potter-lovin' boys.
• Sometime in September:  ok, don't think I posted about it specificly, but we worked on some granny squares in there somewhere, bumpin' up those crochet skills.
• End of October:  going patternless for my first thumb gusset, paving the way for finally making up a pattern for the ponytail hat that I've had in my head for years.

And those are just the projects that pushed my limits - there were many others mixed in there as well.  Projects for myself, for the shop, and for gifts... 

Whew!

I have to say that I am very grateful for this topic today.  Looking back, I am proud of all I have accomplished in the past year and am very much looking forward to seeing where I am at this time next year.  After all, looking back naturally begs the question "where do I go from here?" 

What else do I want to learn?  What goals do I wish to accomplish?

And here's my answer:  Anywhere. 

Everything.  As many as I can.

A Tale of Two Yarns – 2KCBWDAY1

 

Day One: 28th March. A Tale of Two Yarns.
Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

I know I have mentioned it once or twice (a week) before, but there really is nothing in the world like Granite.  The properties of this yarn just absolutely fascinate me.  It is a light and airy roving with a stitch running down the center of it.  When knit, this yarn folds in on itself and makes a wonderfully soft and...well...plump fabric with fantastic stitch definition.  And being Fine Merino it is just soooo soft!

My only regret with this yarn is the limited color selection.   Cuz here's the thing - for a bulkier yarn it really is a true workhorse. 

There is no better yarn for teaching a beginner, in my opinion, because that stitch down the middle makes it much more difficult (though admittedly not impossible) to split.  That, plus the fact that used with a size 13 needle a beginner can actually see how the stitch is formed, makes it my teaching yarn of choice.

Of course, I've made one or two things with this yarn.  Let's see here...off the top of my head I believe I have made 2 hot pads, 2 pairs of fingerless mitts, 1 neckwarmer, 4 Christmas ornaments, 2 balls that were meant to be Christmas ornaments but turned into toys for my boys, and 3 ponytail hats.

 
My test hat post-felting.  More on that another day.

Then, there's the felting magic!!!  I have not yet encountered another yarn that felts quite the way Granite does.  The first hot pad I made went into the washer three times (I usually throw things I want to felt in with my permanent press and on warm so that I have better contol over how much they shrink). 

 

It was still soft, floppy, and stretchy!!!  And that's what makes it perfect for my hat design.  When felted, it's firm enough to hold the shape for the buttons, but still stretchy enough to fit nicely.

But this is a Tale of Two Yarns... 

I'm sorry to say that I have not knit more than a bit of the Yarn Tasting and the beginnings of a guage swatch with my second yarn, but I have plans.  Ohhh, do I have plans...

When I saw Dyeabolical's 2-ply sock yarn in the 70's Dress Shirt colorway, I fell in love!  

 
Tasting of 70's Dress Shirt.

I looked at those colors and I could almost see the shirt this yarn could represent!  A shiny, fitted dress shirt with a big collar.  And paisley.  There must be paisley.  It makes me want to knit socks again, and even to finish a whole pair!  I believe it will make a very nice pair of warm dress socks.

But it needs a pattern that will really accentuate that 70's flair. 

I've been wanting to knit the Magic Mirror socks (Ravelry link) for a while now and I think that the busy-ness of the pattern will give the feeling I'm looking for.  Of course, if anyone knows of a sock pattern involving paisley, let me know!

One extreme to the other

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me, juggling home and work and the kids' school and after school and a sick little man...and I'm sorry to say that the blog has suffered.  I mean, two weeks?!  I have never gone that long without writing, and it has nagged at me something fierce.

I planned on updating tomorrow, I really did.  I actually have a day with nowhere to go until late afternoon.  Except the grocery store because I haven't done that much recently.  I need to go buy ingredients with which to cook.  Because I haven't done that much recently, either.  And then there's the laundry to do.  And dishes.  And...and...and...

Anyway.....

So, I'm doing a quick Facebook scan this morning and see that Yarn Market News Magazine posted about Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, an interesting little blog challenge from Eskimimi of Eskimimi Knits.  This challenge involves writing every day for a week on a given topic.  This is apparently the second year of the challenge and approximately 200 bloggers participated last year.

Well, me-thinks me-needs me a challenge. 

I spend far too much time thinking about what to post, and far too much time thinking about the verbage when I write, and I have been far too neglectful of updating.  So I'm going to give it a shot!  I cannot guarantee I will get it in there every day (the oldest is likely having his birthday sleepover at the end there, so I may be a bit loopy by that point), but I will certainly do my best.

Wish me luck!    

One more way to find me

One of the other crafters at River City (a wonderful lady by the name of Lois who makes really sweet clothing and jewelry for American Girl Dolls) has been working hard on the website for River City.  She's been cleaning up, re-organizing, and updating the whole affair.  The most monumental portion of this task has only just begun but I'm just so excited that I have to tell you about it right now!

River City now has a Crafter page where you will be able to learn more about what you can expect to find at the shops! 

Woo-hoo! 

This page is broken down into categories, under which are listed the names of the appropriate crafters.  Lois is working on creating a page for each of the crafters which will be linked to their name on this page, complete with pictures and brief description of what they have to offer.

Did I say monumental?  There are currently over 65 crafters between the two buildings. 

Whew!

As this is still early stages there are only a couple of us done right now, so be sure and keep checking in on Lois' progress.  You just never know what you may find!

I have pictures!

In honor of my newly-improved computing capabilities, please allow me to present you with a pictorial review of how my ponytail hat looked straight off the needles a few weeks back (pre-felting).

 
See that happy (though regrettably make-up-free) face?  I'm thinking the hat needs only a few minor tweeks to the design, maybe one more row of seed stitch before the stockinette and one less stitch in the button band, and it will be perfect!

 
Let's just turn a bit, though, shall we?  Get a better view of that button band...  Something's not looking quite right...

 
Ach!!!  Look at that pulling!!!  Not good!

Okay, moving on to the ponytail aspect...

 
Now this, I like.  Cute!

 
Nice little opening for the ponytail there.  Still like!

 
Yep.  I'm on the right track here.

So, all in all I'm very happy with the progress I made at this point.  I just need to make the button bands stronger without changing the overall size of the hat.  While it felt right size-wise when I was wearing it, it looks barely big enough (for what I want) in these pictures.  

Of course, changing the number of seed stitch rows and number of stitches might solve the size problem, while felting might solve the pulling.  Hmmm...