So It's The End of February

For all it's a short month, it will be an expensive one. Last summer we found that our AC unit was rusting from the inside. We were told it had about 5 more seasons so we figured we could replace it at our leisure. Well, last week we realized that our 2 stage furnace wasn't kicking into the second stage. Out comes the repairman who gives us a new thermostat thinking that was the problem. It wasn't. He comes out again and says that the repair/replace of the bad board will be $1100. The furnace is 20 years old. The Husband and I decided to replace the furnace and AC. Can we say $9000? Yep. That hurts. I asked if they can throw in an installed whole hose humidifier too. We got the whole thing installed a day before the sub-zero weather hit us. It was excellent timing!

I've been making more donation quilts. I use up pieces and bits of batting for these. When I use a whole batting in a quilt I save the plastic bag. Then when I trim the quilt, I put the trimmed pieces in the bag. When there are enough there I make frankenbatts. For the most part I use an 80/20 batting but I will occasionally use 100% cotton or wool. That is why I save the bag: I can tell at a glance what batting the pieces are from. This batch of quilts has a frankenbatt, two polyester battings (ugh, not a fan) and one has two layers of washed flannel sheets.

For hand work I've been knitting a border onto the blanket made from leftover sock yarn. It's tedious because the black yarn and my eyesight are not a good combo. I have been staying quite warm under this as I knit. It is lightweight because of the sock yarn, but it is also warm because the sock yarn has a lot of wool in it. When the furnace was down, this was the perfect thing to work on.

On The Needles - August 24, 2012

It's been several weeks since I've done one of these and the pointy sticks have been flying at super sonic speed. Firstly, I will show you the completed works and then the OTN. All of these are for Wool-Aid, btw.

The Fake Isle Hat. Made with Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted.

A stack of hats made with leftovers of Lion Brand Amazing Yarn and Wool Ease.

A Keep-Me-Warm vest using doubled unknown wool yarn purchased at Goodwill Thrift Store.
I still need to weave the ends.

Another Keep-Me-Warm vest using doubled yarn.
This yarn is by Caron and was also purchased at Goodwill Thrift Store.

Please visit JudyL at Patchwork Times for more On The Needles projects.

Stunt Knitting

I recently volunteered to knit a Christmas Stocking for Libby over at Plain and Simple. Here it is before felting. I am going to let Libby do the felting so it matches up in size with the other stockings she has. This is just too cute! And it was a very quick knit.

Want the pattern? You can find it here.

Using up Wool Yarn

The vest shown is a before dyeing and after dyeing with blue kool-aid.

In the sewing room shake up, a lot of forgotten wool yarn was exposed. A lot. I've been knitting away on items for Wool-aid.  Here is their mission statement:  

Wool-Aid is a community of knitters and crocheters who create warm woolen garments for children who live in the coldest climates and have the least access to resources.

Our mission is to provide the very neediest children with wool socks, sweaters, vests, mittens, and hats, as well as wool baby blankets for newborns.

We work with organizations that have a focus on helping children and that are not religion-based. These organizations distribute the warm woolen garments handcrafted by Wool-Aid volunteers to children who would otherwise suffer from extreme cold

Because the request is for THICK woolen items I have been doubling the yarn. Boy, Howdy! is this a great stash buster. To date I have finished:

• 4 vests 
• 3 pairs of socks 
• 4 pairs of mittens 
• 6 hats 
• 1 baby blanket

Now to box them up and ship them out.

This and That

Using Bonnie Hunter's method of Leaders and Enders has resulted in lots and lots of 4-patches, some with white squares and some with off-white squares. I thought it was time to use some of them so I searched some downloaded patterns and came up with this one. It is a Mystery Quilt from Judy Hopkins called Golden Oldie that uses the Buckeye Beauty block. It is a perfect project for this and will result in a 45" x 60" donation quilt.

The weather here has improved so much and we are looking at a week of warm temps that has the melting snow turning the dirt road into a muddy mess.  There are streams of water running down the road and cutting ruts into it. I guess when everything dries out, it will be time to hire a road grader to come in and smooth it down.

The sewing room is still being modified. Do you know those plastic milk crates like this one? I had three of them under the fabric shelves just packed with yarn. Now there are none. Yahoo! Where did the yarn go? Wool-aid; I'll be blogging more about that later.

CarGuy and I sold our pop-up camper that fits into the bed of the pickup. We bought a sweet little 18 foot fully contained camping trailer. The only thing I don't like about the new one is the southwestern vinyl graphics on the outside. Lizards and spirals and suns -- O My! Those will be removed with patience and a heat gun. After a thorough cleaning inside and out I will try my hand at pin striping. No caffeine for this girl when she has a tiny little paint brush in hand. No siree!

An Adventure in Recycling Sweaters

A recent shopping trip to various thrift stores resulted in 9 knitted wool sweaters costing a total of $10.00. One sweater was questionable and another was partially felted. Both went into a washing machine and when pulled out, the questionable one was thrown away because of animal hair and holes. The partially felted one is now completely felted and will make a very thick pair of mittens and hat. As for the rest of the sweaters, another has been put back into a donate pile because a fiber content tag was finally located and the content is 70% wool/30% acrylic.

When thrifting for wool sweaters there are clues I watch for:
• fiber content -- which for me is 100% wool
• labels that indicate it is hand knit or hand loomed
• a close look at the seams: a serged seam will indicate the possibility the item will contain only short pieces of yarn but a seam that has been chain stitched with matching yarn will indicate that the piece was knit back and forth with no break in the yarn. If there are no seams, even better, because the piece was knit in the round. The sweater pictured below has serged seams in the arms but the body was knit in the round.

Once the sweaters are home, it is time to clean them. Even though a thrift store requests a clean item, it does not mean it is truly clean. Most people do not want to go to the time and trouble of hand washing a nice wool sweater and will send it to a dry cleaner. I believe that the cleaning solutions the dry cleaners use are deposited in the wool and will remain there until the item is washed. I make a soaking solution of 1/4 cup Oxyclean and warm water in a 5 gallon bucket, stir well to dissolve the granules completely and then stuff the sweater into the water. Using a stick, I poke the sweater under the water and gently agitate it until it is completely wet. Then it sits overnight. I sometimes have to do this 2-3 times per sweater until the water rinses clear or dye is starting to release, then I know the wool is clean. Dry the sweater flat.

Now for the fun part, but if you have a cat make sure to lock it out of the room because, remember, you are working with yarn. Carefully pick apart the seams. I usually start by removing the arms, then the collar if there is one. Most sweaters are knit from the bottom up, so you will want to look at the neck edge or the shoulder edge of the arm for the end of the yarn. Sometimes you can pick apart the knot other times just snip it with a pair of scissors. Once you find the end start winding the yarn into a ball as you unravel the sweater. This sounds easier than it is, because wool yarn will stick to itself and be a bit cantankerous to unravel. Trust me, you do not want to unravel and then try to wind into a ball because you will end up with a snarled mass of kinky yarn. Here is the brown sweater again and you can see the bits of yarn at the edges of the arm seam. The arms and the upper portion of the body will end up being felted in the washing machine because I didn't want to have ALL those ends to weave in, ugh.

You can leave the crinkled yarn in the balls and just knit from there but I go one step further. Using a swift, I wind the yarn into hanks, but if you don't have a swift some ladder backed chairs work well or, in a time honored tradition, use an extra pair of hands. Once you have the yarn wound into hanks soak it in water, put it onto a hanger and put another hanger at the bottom. Yarn has a memory and as it dries the crinkles will, for the most part, be removed. Once the yarn is dry you can rewind it into balls or cakes and knit.

One of the sweaters from this batch was made from a hand spun yarn in New Zealand which resulted in 450gr of a DK weight yarn. Now to find a proper pattern to knit up.

Barn Raising

Normally thought of as a setting for a log cabin quilt, this is the name for some knitted squares. A basket full of yarn balls ranging in size from a bit larger than a golf ball up to tennis ball size necessitated finding a use for the leftover sock yarn.

Self striping sock yarn results in a barn raising pattern when knit into a square. After knitting and blocking (a really good use for a June Tailor Cut 'n Press board, BTW) the resultant square is 7.5 inches square.

This afghan, which is a very long term project, will result in a visual history of all the socks I've knitted. How kewl is that?

For blocking wires I went to my local hardware store and bought some brass acetylene welding rod in the smallest diameter. It is small enough to weave in and out of this square and as an added bonus, it does not rust. I picked up four 12" long pieces for under $5.00

Woolies

Remember the remark I made in a previous post about going into the Wool Basket? The Wool Basket sells felted wool, hand-dyed felted wool and wool felt along with all the miscellaneous items one needs to work with wool.

The purchase of a fat eight of a pink and a white felted wool resulted in these two sweet items. The pattern for the pincushion hat has lanquished in the To Be Made file for several years and then sighting on the internets brought it to the forefront again. I had held off making this because I did not want to start stashing wool.


Then I found this adorable pattern for a sewing caddy. And after all the hand work on Frances, I realized I needed something better and prettier to use than sticking the needles in the arm of the sofa.

Resistance was futile.

Thank you, Friend

I was in the Wool Basket this past Tuesday; the reason I was there is fodder for another post. Stopping to admire a small Christmas tree decorated with primitive wool ornaments, I fingered one and commented on how adorable it was but that I would probably never have one as I do not have a wool stash.

When I got home from work yesterday, there among the rest of the mail, was an envelope from Libby. Inside the envelope was an adorable wool wreath just like the one at the Wool Basket. Libby, how did you know? It is just so sweet and now I have one of my own.

Friend Libby, I thank you and will think of you each time I see this wreath.