Last night, after I thought about it a while, I decided to go ahead and order a number of skeins of Lion Brand’s new made in the USA wool yarn. I’ve been working on something marketable, but I need wool yarn, and I need it to be naturally white and ready to dye … and the right price. This new yarn is exactly what I have been looking for.

I went to the Lion Brand’s web site, the only place to get said yarn at the moment, and tried to order four skeins. Ordering four skeins was the best way to make the shipping costs be reasonable, as ordering less increased the cost too much thanks to the shipping charges. It’s completely stupid to only order small amounts of yarn when shipping is involved. Anyway, there was exactly one skein left, and while I was trying to decide what to do about that (maybe order some of their other acceptable yarn products or some needles I have been wanting) even that single skein sold.

On the one hand … awesome! People want it, people are buying it, and Lion Brand will keep it around for a while. On the other hand … I didn’t get any before it sold out, and who knows when they’ll have more. So it looks like I’ll have to put my project on the back burner a while longer, but at least I know what yarn I want now and where to get it eventually.

Lion Brand Yarn has introduced a new line of yarn, and I suppose they have redeemed themselves for the Fisherman’s Wool being made in China.

LB Collection Pure Wool Yarn

Part of our line of affordable, luxury fibers, this 100% undyed wool roving yarn, is spun in the USA, from fiber from American-raised sheep. This natural yarn with great texture is perfect for hand-dyeing, as well as felting.

At $4 for a 182 yd skein of worsted weight wool, it’s totally in my preferred price range for dying and felting projects. I will be ordering some as soon as I have some spare cash!

Kudos to Lion Brand.

Everything in its place, plus a little room for future additions! This project took a lot longer than I thought it would, even though I really just threw it together slap-dash without much thought. It’s certainly not my best sewing work –if I ever make another one, I’ll do some thing differently– but it’s very sturdy and will no doubt last a lifetime (or two).

And here’s what it looks like all rolled up:

“I know what you are doing. You’re looking for things you can take apart and knit into other things.”

That’s not really what I was doing last night. OK, it wasn’t the only thing I was doing. My mission was so organize my knitting tools and yarn into one large plastic storage bin and my big Black and Decker toolbox. I am desperately trying to eliminate the need to have those ugly, wobbly, poorly built shelves in the living room. The cats, they still need a cat tree, and those shelves are sitting in the only location truly suitable for the placement of said future cat tree.

I got the yarn separated into My Favorite Yarns (in the bottom of the toolbox) and Yarns I Dislike But Will Use (in the storage bin). I located all my needles, and while they aren’t quite yet organized, they are all at least in the same location(s) (a bag in the bin and in the top of the toolbox — according to how often I tend to use them). There’s still some knitting stuff not in a box or bin, but I’ll be doing something about that this morning … by stuffing it into the storage bin willy-nilly. I’m so close to having those shelves empty (and then gone).

After I’d gotten the yarn and needles organized, I started looking through my old knitting projects. I was, in fact, assessing whether or not they needed to remain knitting or whether they needed to be taken apart and rolled into balls for other uses. Most of these projects were made that first year I was knitting, and while the work is well done and the various scarves, gloves, hats, shawls, and sweaters have all seen use and were loved and worn by me, my knitting skills have improved ten-fold in the last year, and I could do so much more with some of the yarns (many of which were quite pricey). There are several things which will likely see themselves returned to raw materials soon.

Today’s missions, should I choose to accept them:

To make a needle roll to tame my needles once and for all.

To remove the last of the knitting and craft crud from those shelves.

To move said shelves to the bedroom.

To take apart a few old knitting projects.

To go buy a new set of size 7 double pointed needles (maybe).

That’s the plan, anyway. Of course, all that work will only take care of the knitting stuff that has invaded the living room. That isn’t, of course, the only location containing knitting stuff. There’s another large plastic storage bin full of yarn exclusively from New Zealand, and at least one large bag of yarn in the bedroom closet. I won’t be attempting to get that organized just yet, but eventually something will have to be done with it. First I’d like to convince Lin the large and broken TV in the bedroom that is taking up space and making it a nightmare to get into the closet has to go away. I know we paid a lot for the TV. I know he could fix it. It’s been sitting there taking up space and being a pain in my butt for a couple of years now, and I want it gone. Not moved elsewhere in the house. GONE. Then I’ll worry about all the crap in that closet (and in the bedroom in general).

Time to go drink some liquid motivation in the form of my second cup of coffee, get out my box of favorite calico fabrics, and get to work on that needle roll.

You know I totally put that canvas on the kitchen table just so Tora would have a comfy spot to snooze. It has to be much nicer to sleep on that the hard wooden table.

OK, so I left the knitted prototype object in the washer for the rinse cycle, seeing as the damage had already been done (and I am too lazy to rinse it by hand). When I went to move everything to the dryer, I decided not to make matters any worse and to dry the woolen thing out in the blazing sunlight we have today.

While pulling around on it to get it into a pleasing shape (also known as blocking), I realized the oops wasn’t as bad as it had first seemed. In fact … I love it, and I can’t wait to show it off! Though I will admit to some trepidation about showing it off publicly on my blog, because I think I might want to make some of these to sell (and maybe even sell a pattern for it at some point). I do hate to have my brilliant ideas stolen before I get to benefit from them, and while I hate to brag, I do think this idea is somewhat awesome.

Oh, you know I won’t be able to resist showing it off eventually, but maybe I’ll wait until I have a few ready for sale before I do … if I can resist for that long.

I finished a prototype for a knitting pattern (for a scarf/necklace/accessory thing), and gleefully tossed it in the washer with some jeans, just to felt it a little. Two minutes into the agitation cycle I checked on it, and it was already felted far too much, and all the extremely twisted cabling I had done was almost invisible. Grrrr. It’s still going to be cool, and it is just a prototype, so now I know … felt it by hand (at least with that particular yarn).

My hands have declared I have knitted enough for right now, so it’s onward to the dishes and getting the stew for tonight started.

And onward to moping about how I spent a lot of time doing some fairly intricate stitching that is now barely evident in the almost finished work. Double Grrrr.

As I near completion on yet another commissioned knitting project, I am finding myself not at all happy with the results. Oh the work is fine, the object looks fine, the quality of product would be rated good and acceptable by most people’s standards, but … I have never liked the way stranded color-work looks and acts on stretchy knits like hats or gloves (or even sweaters). There are only two ways to do this kind of color-work though, and I chose the method I had done before. I am having second thoughts about that now, because I am really not happy with the way it looks and feels.

Therefore, I will be taking the thing apart again and starting over from scratch for the third time. Over the years, I have found that projects I end up being most pleased with always end up being made three times before officially being declared finished. Not that they totally suck in earlier incarnations, but for me three seems to be the magic number for knitting happiness. It’s time consuming and annoying, but being proud and happy with the finished product at the end of it all makes it worth the extra work (at least I tell myself that is true).

With that said, I think I’ll have a really early lunch and then go spend the afternoon knitting the same damn thing for the third time.

Attention all knitters, crocheters, and other needlework nerds:

Check out The TikkunTree Project.

The Concept: To create a communally-produced peace tree, by suspending countless knitted (or crocheted, or embroidered) leaves, olives, and doves, from a knitted tree trunk structure. The project will also include a hand-made candle-light vigil to surround the tree.

My bangs have grown out so long, they are at that frustrating stage where I find them constantly tickling my nose, poking my eyes, and getting in my mouth. All of the many and varied headbands I have give me headaches, for one reason or another, and I despise bobby pins and barrettes. I needed a solution that would keep the stupid bangs from annoying the hell out of me while simultaneously being comfortable, so tonight while watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I knit myself a simple garter stitch headband out of scrap yarn.

The yarn itself totally sucks, though it may get softer and less itchy after I wash it, but the headband works perfectly. My hair is out of my face, and I am not getting a headache. So … yippee!

I think I’ll make bunches of these out of every scrap of yarn I have. Even if I do eventually work up the guts to get my hair cut (back into my long-favored heavily-banged bob), they’d still be cute and comfy. Though I think I’ll make them a little fancier than this utilitarian one.

Time to veg and then go to bed. It’s been a longish day.

Not the greatest photo of me (oi, my eyes are all puffy from the allergies - ugh), but look at the sweater! I love it! Of course, seeing as it was in the mid-90’s here today, I probably won’t get to wear it much for a while, but still … it’s done!

Microworld by Licht. More of Paul’s macro droplet shots can be seen at his Flickr gallery and others’ macro droplet shots in the Refractions in Liquid Drops group pool.

By the way, Village of Joy is a really nifty web site full of eye candy. Be sure to look around while you are there!

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“It’s OK, as an artist, to put aside the thing you have been doing forever and begin doing something you have never done before.”

“In fact, I strongly suggest it.”
–Orb