Free Yarn!!!

At a meeting at the public library the other night I heard those two words and practically salivated until I could find out what it meant. Turns out a local business (Perfect Fit Industries, I think it is) was giving away free yarn. The date, today, the time, 8-1.

I got there at about 8:05 or 8:10, and had to walk a long way from the parking spot I found, to join a line of about 150 to 200 people. I don't think that is an exaggeration, either. This is what I got:


Twelve cones all together, each cone about 10 inches tall, mostly of a worsted type weight and bulky weight. This is the stuff they machine knit with, so it doesn't have a lot of stretch to it. (I've had stuff like this before.) The biggest rolls will be enough for an afghan each, if not more.

I lugged a Bean bag, a basket thing, and two tote bags back up the hill to my car. People were taking the boxes that had been emptied and dragging them along behind them as they looked for more. It was a bit crazy, but people were pretty polite. A lot of the bigger or more colorful stuff was gone shortly after I made it in, but they were taking more out of the warehouse, too. I left, figuring I have more than enough to last me quite awhile, and to let some others have a chance. I promised myself that I wouldn't go crazy and take home a bunch of stuff I wouldn't use just because it was free. There is only one that I wish I had more of, because I love the bluish-green color, but that's ok.

I left there at 8:50, and unless they had loads and loads more in the warehouse, I bet it was all gone by 9:15. I don't think they realized how quickly it would all go! Although, there was a lot of very thin, almost threadlike stuff that would probably still be left. Unless you had a very fine knitting machine or could ply them together on a spinning wheel or something, it would be tough to use. It's too bad, because they had some pretty colors of it.

It was fun, worth getting up a bit early for, and now I have plenty to keep me busy for a fair amount of time to come!

Scarf and Shawl

I have a bunch of yarn I picked up at a thrift store, plus some yarn that I think had been my grandmother's. I like to try to use those up. Plus, it gives me something to work with when I don't have money to buy more yarn! A lot of the yarn is just one skein or maybe two, which leaves me in the same quandary as in the previous post.

I had two skeins of a wool/nylon mix in blue, and two skeins of the same yarn in a mauve color. Originally I was going to use them both to make a triangular shaped shawl, but I got half way done with it and didn't like how the colors looked together. So I ripped it all out. Since I couldn't find a pattern for that amount of yarn, I just used one of the stitches out of this book:

The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet. It is awesome. Great pictures of different stitches, with the directions in written and graph form. It's terrific. (There is a knit version, too, but I've not looked through that one). So I picked out a stitch I liked and that I thought wouldn't take up too much yarn, and here it is:

And another view. It's not really all that long, but enough to drape over your shoulders. Not sure if I'll keep it like this or not.

Maybe I'll pull it all out and make something else, if I think it's too short. Here's a close up of the stitch:

I have the mauve one almost finished as well. I think it might even end up a bit shorter, because I made that one a bit wider, but maybe one of the skeins I had had been partially used or something. We'll see.

I also had a skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease, and figured I could make a scarf out of that. I found the pattern on Ravelry here. It's a very simple stitch pattern, and it works up super quickly.

I wish I had made it a bit wider. You start with a chain, and because of that would have ended up with one end that was scalloped and one that was straight, so I went back at the end and added a scallop to the other end. You can kind of tell that was what I did on the left hand end, but it looks better than it would have otherwise. Next time I'll try doing the little shell stitch into different holes to make it look a little more like the other end. Still, a pretty little scarf.

Felted Bag

I love buying yarn from the people who spin it themselves (someday I'll learn), but I am also frequently unsure of how much to buy. So I often have a couple of stray hanks of yarn around that I'm not sure what to do with. I have a couple books with patterns for one skein (One Skein Wonders), but inevitably I have the wrong weight of yarn, or not enough yardage.

One pretty skein I bought at the Deerfield Fair, though, I had enough of to make a felted bag. I got the instructions from One-Skein Wonders: 101 Yarn Shop Favorites. It's the Quick Felted Bag on page 27. Except, me being me, I thought I might make it a slightly different size. Not good, when you're dealing with a process like felting. You never really know what you're going to get as a finished project. I decided to make it a bit wider, but that meant that it wasn't as tall. This is what it looked like before felting, if I can find the picture. Nope, can't find it. Must be on the old digital camera, which means I have to find some batteries....anyway....

Then I threw it in the washing machine with hot water and let chemistry do its thing. This is what I ended up with:


This was all done sometime last year, before we sold the house and moved. The bag hung on the knob to my closet door for several months, looking a bit forlorn. I think my husband was wondering what its purpose was, but being the great guy he is, he doesn't ask too many questions about works in progress unless they get in his way or make the house look too messy.

I had been thinking for some time that the bag needed a lining, something to give it some body. Right now it's a bit floppy. I like a bag that stands up on its own. Also, anything you put in this was going to come out linty. The colors are lovely, but the felt is quite fuzzy. I'm not sure if I should shave it a bit, give it a haircut or something.

Several years ago, the women's group I belong to (Circle of Home and Family) made bags for the local public library. In Lisbon Falls, Maine, there was a factory outlet, and sometimes you could get great deals on beautiful blankets, fabric, etc.(It's in Brunswick, now, Maine Woolens, but they don't seem to have a website)

I bought a huge roll of upholstery weight fabric that we used to make the bags. (I also bought fabric there which I used to make a cover for the futon we used to have, and huge pillows for it, and some to reupholster the couch we used to have) It's a deep purple color. When I was looking through my fabric yesterday to find something to line the bag with, I found some of this purple stuff and thought it would be perfect - a good weight to give the bag the body I wanted.


Strangely, both ends of the piece I had left was hemmed. I am pretty sure we did not do this, so it must have been on the original roll of fabric or something. But it was handy, as I made sure the pieces I cut were right on that edge, which mean less work for me!

So I measured carefully, was glad I knew how to add fractions when figuring out what size to cut the lining pieces, etc. and cut. Once I had cut two pieces, I realized that the lining was a bit short, and wouldn't come up high enough on the inside sides of the bag. (or so I thought) So I remeasured and cut a piece a bit wider, sewed the whole lining together and pinned it up to hand sew into the bag. I pinned the lining on the outside of the bag, which made it very easy to whipstitch into the bag. It also gave me a false sense of security though!


Once I had finished sewing it into the bag, I turned the whole thing right side out. And discovered that I would have been better off to use the original piece I had cut. For some reason, the lining was too big for the inside of the bag.

So then I had to spend an hour fiddling with the lining, sewing a couple tucks into it, etc, in order to get it to fit right. *Sigh*. In the end, it's not quite as nice as I would have liked, but it does work.



I even managed to get a pocket inside! I used the original what-I-thought-was-too-small-but-would-have-been-perfect piece I had cut to cut out a pocket.



The bag stands up nicely on it's own. it's only about 7 inches tall, and about 10 or 11 inches long, but it will be big enough for a small knitting or crochet project in progress. Because, you know, I need another one of those. Kind of pretty.

To Quilt or Not To Quilt

So another of those projects that I started a few years ago and never completed reared its not-so-ugly head last week. I had bought, washed, pressed, cut into strips, and sewn the fabric for a quilt I intended to make and keep for my husband and I, to have on our bed. The pattern was like THIS. (As an aside, I don't know who the person is who posted the picture. Is it ok to link to them like that? I should probably ask.....).

There is only one block for this pattern, and you make it from two colors, a light and a dark. Mine are white with blue flowers, and a blue-on-blue flowered print. I had all these strips sewn together, and a whole bunch of triangles cut out, which you then sew together to make bigger triangles, which you then sew together to make squares...and so on and so on. The block is made so that the dark fabric makes a cross in the middle. Then when you put the blocks together, you get a secondary pattern of light crosses. Pretty cool.

Last week I went through all the pieces I had already cut, and tacked the one finished block I had on the bulletin board above my desk/sewing table as inspiration. Then I got to work sewing the triangles and squares together and ended up with a bunch of finished blocks. There were 22 of them. While I was putting them together, however, I noticed that they had some problems. Well, one problem really: wonkiness. If that isn't a word, it should be. The blocks were wonky. Most of the seams lined up the way they were supposed to, but each new triangle or square didn't look quite right. I was trying to be careful not to distort the triangles, as that bias edge can be a bit tricky, but they still weren't right. The squares weren't square, and the triangles weren't quite triangles. Here's one of the blocks:



I don't know if you can tell, but it's not exactly square...

So what did I do? I kept sewing them up, of course! I mean, they were already all cut out, what else was I going to do with them? When I was finished sewing together all the triangles that were already cut out, I pressed all the strips I had, trying to decide what to do. I laid them out on the floor trying to see if I should sew them all together side by side.



Or maybe put sashing in between each block?



Nah. If you do that, you lose the secondary pattern of the light crosses.

At this point, I thought I might try making up another block, being careful to cut the triangles so they were true right triangles. Maybe I could make up a less wonky block, and then decide what to do from there? I seem to have discarded the book I got the original pattern from, but I had tape on my acrylic ruler to show the size of the triangle to cut. I used another acrylic ruler, a triangle one, to cut new triangles that were what I thought was the right size, judging from the way I had cut the previous triangles. Then I sewed that one block up. What did I end up with? A still slightly wonky block that was a half inch smaller than all the other blocks!!! Big sigh.

I spent a day or so cogitating on what I was going to do. Chuck it all back into a cabinet and let it fester for another few years? Take all the blocks apart and try to recut them in the smaller size of the new block I made? Heck, there was NO way I was going to do that. I mean, I'm not adverse to ripping back knitting or crochet if I've made a mistake that needs to be fixed (provided it is obvious or will make something else obvious), nor am I adverse to whipping out the seam ripper to take apart a project that isn't going well. But take apart all those blocks, recut them and then sew them back together? No way.

So, I counted up the number of squares I had (22) and realized I had to make three more if I wanted to put them together and have something that was square. A lap quilt maybe or a tablecloth had become my aim. I cut a bunch more triangles, sewed them all up, and ended up with 25 finished blocks. I laid them all out on the floor side by side, much like in the picture above, and tried to decide what to do. The next day I sewed them all into rows of 5 blocks each, aiming to sew those rows into a large square. I haven't sewn the rows together yet, but that is my plan.

But what do I do with it then? I've done the best I could to line things up so that the corners that are supposed to meet actually meet, and so forth. There are a couple spots where there are obvious misses, but most of them actually look ok. Not that I would want anyone to look too closely, but still, not too bad looking. This is what they look like sewn into rows:



Once I get the rows sewn together I figure I have a couple of choices. I could sew on a border or two, back it, and leave it as a tablecloth. I could sew on some borders, add some batting and backing and make a lap quilt. Or I could make it a much bigger quilt in some other way.

The large square, once the rows are sewn together, will be about 56 inches square. If I want a quilt big enough for our queen size bed, I will have to add quite a bit. And I am not going to make anymore wonky blocks. I know that much. Whatever is added will have to be borders of other things. Plain borders, then some pieced borders? I just don't know. What I do know is that I have this:



All these strips sewn together. Forty something of them, all the width of the fabric. And I have checked them - they were not the problem with the previous blocks. They are as straight as I can make them, no waviness or anything. I want to use them, but how? I could cut and sew some more and make some nine-patch blocks with 4-patch corners and middles. Or make a checkerboard border with them. My husband said I should just make it into a twin size quilt for one of the kids, but it's not really my daughter's style, and it's a bit too flowery for my son. Plus, I still really love the fabric and color. If I make a bunch of borders, some pieced and some not, it's going to take some planning, and I am not sure if I am a a good enough quilter to make it all come out right. I could fudge enough to get these blocks sewn into rows, but adding pieced borders is a whole different thing. Plus, I will need more fabric, which I can't buy right now.

So that is where I am, trying to decide what to do next. And working on some other unfinished projects in the mean time, and sometimes starting something new.

One Day project

I bought this kit at last fall's Wool Day at Canterbury Shaker Village. I enjoyed the little sheep rug hooking project from the kit from Harrisville (from my previous post), but I didn't really want to do a big project, so I picked this up. I love sheep. Can you tell? And it's not because I love yarn, I've just always liked them!



This little sheep is about 8 inches by 6 inches, and is made up as a little mat. It's on the coffee table for now. I'm not quite sure what to do with him. I could open up one of the seams and make it into a pillow, but as I've just finished the other three pillows shown in my last post, I'm not sure what I'd do with another one. Maybe this little guy should be a trivet/hot mat? Hmm...

I love Canterbury Shaker Village, but Wool Day is especially fun. They have people demonstrating tons of things: rug hooking, knitting, crocheting, sewing with wool, lace making (that was neat - hadn't seen that in person before), spinning, weaving, felting/fulling, and more. I'm not sure if they had someone doing braided rugs or not. They also had the woman that makes the Shaker cloaks for dolls and women, and she showed me all the steps of the lovely work she does. The Shakers used to make them for sale, and wealthy ladies in the city would buy them for opera cloaks.

Plus, they have vendors at Wool Day where you can buy finished products or supplies to make your own items! I bought a drop spindle there to try my hand at spinning some yarn, and will post about that sometime soon. There was lots of yarn to choose from, but I don't think I actually came home with any last year. I came home with the kit for this rug hooked sheep instead. This year's Wool Day is Saturday, September 25th.

The museum store is terrific, as well, with some crafty type kits for adults and children (the basket I made and featured on in early post I got as a kit at the museum store at Canterbury Shaker Village). They also have lots of beautiful hand made items like furniture, Shaker boxes and peg boards, as well as books and so forth. You don't have to pay admission to the Village in order to go into the store, so it's worth a stop.

Rug hooking is one of those things that I am glad I know how to do, but I don't presently see myself doing a full sized rug for the floor any time soon. Plus, I'd almost hate to step on something like that! :-) Although, I am working on something that will become a rug, but more on that another time.

Finishitis. I've got it.

This is the first needlepoint I ever did. I finished it a couple years ago, but hadn't gotten around to making it up into a pillow. It is done with embroidery floss, not yarn. I wasn't sure how it would turn out with the extra border around it, but I'm pleased with the results. :-) I like that it was a relatively small project, and made me feel successful in a shortish time. I had gotten the canvas from Michael's, but they don't carry those anymore, more's the pity.




This is the first rug hooking project I ever did. I had seen the kit to make it at the Manchester Millyard Museum gift shop (I love museum gift shops!) several years ago, a kit designed for children, and told my husband it would be a good Christmas gift idea. It didn't take me too long to make, really, but then it sat in a box for a year or two, also waiting to be made up. I made it up as a little pillow, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I kind of like how it looks against the old books, though.



This is the needlepoint I just finished. I bought the kit (also done with embroidery thread) online, after obsessing over exactly what I wanted, to bring with me to England. Four years ago. I had visions of me spending the hours on the plane working on this. Yeah, not so much. I worked on it off and on after that, and got finishitis a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty pleased at how it came out, though I wish I had had fabric that better matched it for the back of the pillow. I thought DH didn't pay too much attention to what I made, but the day after I finished it he said, "Did you put your name or initials on that anywhere? Don't you think you should?!" Very gratifying.



Last year sometime I bought another needlepoint kit, this one with yarn, at a second hand/antique store in Dover. It was super cheap, as these kinds of things go, and I did a bit of work on it in the next week or so. Then I put it away, feeling that I should work on the one I already had going before I started that. So now that I finished with the piece above, I can really dig into the next one.

Soon I'll make a real foray into the abyss of my craft stuff downstairs and see what else I have that is unfinished. Plus, my aunt just told me she had found a needlepoint project my grandmother had started at some point and never finished, so she's going to send that my way. That'll be cool.