One of my favorite things as a young kid was having presents wrapped in the Sunday Comics.  Color me simple, I just enjoyed getting to read the funnies a second time.  I have no idea if my parents were doing this for economic or ecological reasons, but it didn’t diminish the simple joy of the funnies.

Then, as I got a chance to take on elf duties as an older child, I very much preferred the “pre-cut” funny papers to anything I had to measure out.  Given that we were a family of 8 you can see where expediency was of interest to a teenage girl.

Much later, Hubby and I had two kids… and went through that baby/toddler phase of cheap and plentiful toys (all educational, of course).  I must have wrapped one too many presents in that phase because I started thinking it wasn’t fun anymore.

I didn’t enjoy feeling I was spending more time on the presents than the people.  And, I really didn’t enjoy planning in advance for bin space… knowing there would be a glut of paper going out in the recycling.

My goal this year was to wrap presents in a cute, EASY, and ecological way.

Starting with this book and some inexpensive remnants of fabric…

I finished of the edging with just a straight stitch and some pinking shears (pay no attention to the wobbles)…

Following the instructions in the book I came up with this little gem for Hubby…

Here you can see the same size cloth on two different presents done Furoshiki style…

Courtesy of some volunteer work at My New Red Shoes, I learned how to make some quick gift bags as well.  Here I’m playing with two different top edgings…

Then came the embellishing.  Firstly I simply re-used some ribbon from years past.  This is the no-frills way to go.

Here are the embellishments that make my heart go pitter pat.  I scored this crocheted snow flake at a mom’s night out gift exchange last year.  I was three sheets to the wind but still managed to coherently trade for it.  I also acquired a model for this picture.  Cricket is usually so terribly camera-shy, but she insisted on being in this photo for some odd reason.  Maybe it’s a sign that there is some crocheting in my near future.

It’s a lot of work and it might get spread out over a couple of years, but I’m seriously looking forward to using a lot less paper… and enjoying more time to drink hot, spiked cider while snuggled up next to Hubby.

Happy Holidays to You and Yours!!!

Despite these beauties, my smugness is gone.

I used to get all superior when either my dad, brother or husband said, “This is an easy (computer) problem to fix.  It’ll take just a few minutes”.  I’d roll my eyes and continue about my business, knowing in my heart they’d still be scratching their heads for at least another couple of hours.

I found an easy tutorial for these super cute mitts online, bought my fleece and jumped right in thinking it would be a quick, instant gratification project.

What would likely take the average beginner just a bit of time took me a smidge longer, and here’s why:

• Make pattern, no problem.
• Cut fabric, no problem.
• Get excited because everything is on a roll.
• I may have (cough) even taken a few moments to show off here.
• Start stitching, realize zigzag is not quite right.
• After about 3rd time of stitching, finally realize the basic zigzag was just fine and I really shouldn’t have been scrolling through the fancy schmancy options on my machine.
• Check the finished mitt and realize it won’t fit anyone in my family.
• Say a few curse words.
• Get up and walk away.
• Double check the directions and realize should have used 1/4 inch seams instead of 1/2 inch.
• “Think” on it for a couple of days.
• Rip it all out in the presence of others so I stay civilized about it.
• Finish it up, again.
• Check the newly finished mitt and realize it fits the one person in the family who has the most narrow hands.
• Sew up second narrow mitt so said family member can at least have a pair.  (Bless his heart, he’s worn them nearly every day for about a week now.  Love that boy!!!)
• Screw up courage a few days later and make 3rd mitt (with some minor adjustments for size).
• Realize I needed to only increase the fabric in most but not all areas.  Whaaaat?!  I have a custom hand?!  Sheesh!
• Stew for another couple of days.
• Rip back the area that now needs decreasing.  (This step is becoming disturbingly easy now.)
• Re-stitch.
• Check sizing.
• Score!!!
• Make second mitt.
• Admire its super cuteness… 7 days later.

So, these same mitts my daughter wants me to make for her in sunny yellow really should take about 10 minutes now, right?  Right?!  (Give or take a couple of days?)

I’m a new spinner.  As such, the idea of using my hand spun for actual knitting or weaving is a bit daunting.  I want things to look good and not scream “homemade”.  Lumpy, bumpy hand spun… uummmmm.  However, like any stash, spun yarn seems to reproduce itself in the closet and needs using up to maintain any organizational order.

I started with Romi’s Taygete Shawl back on 5/15/12

My hand spun is a wee bit under spun… as in not enough twist in the ply.  This means my Taygete shawl could end up being a little fragile in the long run.  But, it means that I also know more what under spun yarn looks like… just by knitting with it with it.  And, if it starts falling apart I know that my washing machine felts things VERY well.  It can then become fabric that I cut and turn into something else entirely.

The hand spun has some subtle striping both in the body and in the lace.  It draws you in to find all of the delicate color combinations.  What amazed me a bit was realizing that your eye tricks you into smoothing out the yarn visually.  If you were to knit with this yarn, you would see and feel that there is quite a bit of variation from one inch to the next… but you don’t see it when you look at the shawl as a whole.  It’s kind of like pointillism in that regard.  Very cool.

In the beginning I was nervous using the home spun.  There were a lot of hours put into just the spinning and I had no clue if the yardage was sufficient.  But, how beautiful is it stuck in a box somewhere?  And really, why not play with your fiber?  I was very surprised and pleased with the results.  The yarn worked structurally and visually.

If you spin, what did you make with your some of your first hand spun?  Was there anything about the process that surprised you?

Reblogged from Fiberdazed:

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Reid Dennis left and Mark Binion right of the Mark Reid Band 2010

What does art, craft, music, volunteering and fun have to do with fiber? Well, directly, not much. But because it has a whole lot to do with me, and what’s going on in my life right now, it has everything to do with Ms. Fiberdazed.

June 16th & 17th is coming up quick and that is when our annual La Honda Fair and Music Festival happens.

Read more… 451 more words

Miss E playing secretly with my phone camera. Chuckle…

I had an hour block of time today.  For the last two weeks, time has been a bit of a rarity, so I was tickled to bits.

I planned to finish off some fiber I had spun in Judith’s MacKenzie’s amazing colored sock yarn class at CNCH 2012.  I started with 2 small single plies of multicolored fiber that Judith taught us how to prepare in several different ways.

Using a combination of the Andean plying technique + my spinning wheel, I twisted each ply onto itself to create 2 short double ply yarns.  (The hot pink was an outlier on the end of one bobbin, so I snipped it off.  I’m citing artistic license on that one.)

I then took these two double ply yarns and twisted them together yet again to create a 4 ply yarn.

The idea is that you can use some pretty wild colors.  But, blended so thoroughly like this, you can end up with a yarn that’s tame enough for a man’s sock.  (I still think hubby is thanking me for ripping out the hot pink.)

What surprised me is that with all this plying and spinning, I halfway expected a yarn that was pretty stiff.  Not so (assuming I’ve done it correctly).  I’ve found it to be a nice cushy yarn that I would be thrilled to have gracing my delicate size 11′s.  What a lovely way to spend a blustery afternoon.  Happy sigh.

My new to me little darling Cricket spent most of the day yesterday at the vet’s office.  It would seem that her, ah, new to the doggy scene owner mistakenly gave her unrestricted access to a rawhide chew.  The result was a gluey rawhide mass in her tummy and a $500+ vet bill.

To deal with my anxiety (and guilt) while waiting for the vet’s call I opted for a “drop everything emergency knit”.  My poor little darling needed a sweater and I hadn’t knit one yet.  This was the time!  I selected a straightforward little number by Brian Herzog for speed and efficiency.

She practically jumped into the sweater, so it’s terribly funny to me that she’s looking so underwhelmed in these photos.  Maybe it’s because her bit of knitted love is not in purple.  Guess that means I’ll have to knit another!

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.”
by Louis Pasteur

I warped my 10 inch Cricket loom with rug warp and started to prepare the plastic bags.  I snagged my cutting mat, rotary cutter and see through ruler.  There are tons of tutorials out there, so feel free to research how to prepare bags for knitting to see what variation might be a best fit for you.

I flattened my bag.

I folded it once length wise.  And then a second time (not shown).  The goal was to cut 1/2 inch tube strips.

After having folded it twice total lengthwise, I grabbed my see through ruler and rotary cutter.  There are 4 openings in the ruler that are equally spaced 1/2 inch apart.  I lined one of them up as close to the bottom edge as possible, then cut the bottom strip off.  While still holding the ruler in place, I can quickly cut 3 more tube strips.  With the bag still in place, I would then move the ruler to the left, cutting 3 more strips each time until I reached the bottom of the handles.

The strips open out like the one below.  The leftover handles might become a wreath.  There is also a pile of leftover bits that might find their way to becoming packaging material.

I slipped the loops over my left hand (as I’m right handed) and let them hang from my arm.  If you’ve ever played with hooking rubber bands together, you’ll know just what is in store for you.  This lovely You Tube video by wingsrising shows you how to very quickly hook the loops together.  One caution if you are creating 1/2 strips like me instead of the usual 1 inch strips, is that they are fairly delicate.  If you hit a snag, be sure to tease and not pull.  (Ask me how I know this!)

Here’s my plastic bag yarn after winding it on the ball winder.

I tend to keep this in a plastic zip sandwich bag with only 1 inch open for the yarn end.  This stuff is like the slipperiest nylon novelty yarn!!

And for a coaster teaser…

Somewhere in my very first pound of spinning fiber I spun a lovely little 4 oz. of lime green, sock weight yarn.  It was my first 3 ply yarn and I spun it with a “z” twist to see if I would notice a difference while knitting continental style.  But… it was lime green and only 4 oz. of fiber.  I knew I would either have to knit something small or pair the yarn up with something else.  Lime green meant it lingered.

Just in the last week, I finished up this lovely turquoise yarn.  It is in an “s” twist and spun as a two ply.  I was thinking as a two ply, it would make a nice lace yarn.  The color is beautiful and the photos do not do it justice.  I was pondering the Haruni shawl, but I was concerned I would not quite have enough yardage.  I decided to risk it and went in search of the pattern in my stash as well as some yarn that could pair up with it if the worst happened.

While I was looking for the Haruni pattern in my binder, I ran across another pattern I had already knit up twice already.  What can I say, it’s a great pattern.  It was Romi’s Taygete shawl.  I knit it once in purples as a gift.  I followed that with one made of lovely tans + pale, sky blue.  The second was done up in a couple of sock yarns that had too much bounce to them.  I practically stood on the iron trying to flatten the thing out, to no avail.  (It is in a pile to be “frogged”.  Ribbit, ribbit, rip it).

Then I noticed the colors on the Taygete pattern picture were nearly the same as the two yarns I had sitting right next to it.  Huh!!  I very rarely choose the same colors as what is written in a pattern, but this seemed a little too odd.  It was like my subconscious taking the driver seat.  The decision was made… or it found me… I’m not entirely sure which.

My handspuns are not bouncy sock yarns, just worsted spun merino, so hopefully my curling issue will be a thing of the past.  I’m not sure how the “z” twist, “s” twist and ply variations will play out, but given the structure of the shawl (mostly garter), I think it will be balanced enough not to misbehave.  I may have to use a slightly larger needle for the lace section to compensate for the lighter weight yarn by itself in a larger area, but it should work.  And, I will get to showcase my handspun turquoise yarn in the lace.  Whoohoo!

The project begins.

I am a recent convert to spinning after at least a year of abject refusal.  There were a few simple reasons for this.

It’s another fiber hobby, with the accompanying need of yet another set of tools and supplies.

It looks a bit like wrestling an octopus… and not in a friendly way.

It’s slow.  For those of use who usually dive into a new craft like it’s a full body contact sport, it really doesn’t seem like a logical fun step to have to suspend gratification.

Cue the martinis; two of them.  Two of them and some gentle persuasion by @cupcakefaerie and friendly encouragement from @cheekyattitude and I was happily taking home a borrowed drop spindle and some fiber just to “try out”.  Not too long after that I was buying my drop spindle from @meshuggeknitter and trying to get my hands on any prepared roving I could from @ilikecake’s destash.

Then @cupcakefaerie let me try out her lovely spinning wheel.  All resistance was gone after that.

So yes, it’s another fiber hobby and has another expense.

And yes, it really is like wrestling an octopus at first, until you find this delicious rhythm that is like a balm to the soul after a long day.  More than one curious spectator has remarked on how soothing it looks and sounds.

And yes, it is slower and takes longer to dive into knitting and weaving… but then maybe it’s a bit like “slow food”.  Maybe the sum of some wholesome parts makes for a more satisfying end result.  Part of that sum would be the lovely support from those around me.

Thank you, ladies!

(But, I’m not going to prep my own fleece.  Really.  I mean it this time.)