The Fiber Fairy

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October 22, 2004

Knitting like crazy!

When you read my blog updates, please just imagine the sentence "Gah, another two weeks went by without updating this dratted blog.? This will save me a lot of time. I have been knitting; in fact my butt is actually numb. I finished the eyelash bag for my sister and it is just gorgeous. It took three trips through the washer (our jeans have never been THIS clean) before I was happy enough with the felting. Cascade felts mahvelously but when you have two inch long eyelash in the way, it takes a couple of times to pull all the little hairs out of the way enough for the wool to felt (or full as the term is more appropriate). It still has way more stitch definition than I usually like but it is a nice dense fabric. The eyelash (Bernat Eyelash Noveau) was super soft prior to washing but afterwards not-so-soft. Part of the reason is that you can't use fabric softener. I am going to rub it really well with a dryer sheet to see if that helps. Anyway, I have already taken a picture but haven't turned on my home computer in over a week in order to post anything. I also designed a surprise purse/wallet thingy to go with her purse that turned out so cute that I am actually not going to show it on this blog because I am going to submit it to Knitty for the Spring edition. At the same time, I designed another purse that also turned out very nice. I am going to submit that one too! If they don't get accepted, I will put them up here as a free pattern.

So thousands of miles of i-cord later, I am now done with felting purses for a while and have cast on the first of the four pairs of "socks-that-must-be-made". My secret pal in Norway sent this really neat sock yarn that results in a great camo pattern that is sure to please the guys. I was supposed to be learning how to do the "socks soar on two circs" method but (insert whining voice) it looks way too complicated for my knitted-out brain at the moment. I also found a free pattern for two socks on two circs (the book I just mentioned only lets you do one sock at a time for some reason), but again, it really looks complicated (I know it isn't). Not to mention the fact that I actually LOVE my Brittany Birch DPN's!

Oh, I almost forgot, about the little wallet I made. I found a really, really fast way to make cord - fifty times faster than the idiot cord method. I wanted a really skinny cord but you can't go less than three stitches with the i-cord. So it occurred to me that I could probably crochet a chain and try felting it. Works fantastically well and since crochet is my first language, I am exceptionally fast at it. I am going to try single crocheting three or four strands together to see if it matches the gauge of the five-stitch idiot cord. Aside from that, to anyone out there that wants to send me a Christmas present, one of those i-cord makers would be the bomb.

Update on the stitch markers that my sister is working on: She is trying to save some money to buy her own kiln but in the meantime, she found a place, about 4 hours south of her that will anneal them for a small charge. So she sent the stitch markers that I gave back to her and also the new sheep that she made for Lisa Joy down to this place in Orlando. They mailed them back a few days ago and my sister found that nearly half of them were broken on the way back (AFTER annealing, which is supposed to make them sturdier!). My sister knows that they made it through the annealing process without breaking because she talked to the woman that owns the shop just before she mailed them back. ARGH! The fee for annealing the beads is about 1/50th of what they are worth so what is my sister supposed to do? They cannot be replaced without my sister actually remaking them. My sister was crushed, but because she has a good relationship with this shop (they teach classes too), she doesn't want to say anything. She also feels that since the woman was doing her a favor and that the fee is nominal anyway, that there isn't really any recourse. I told her that she should to at least tell the woman that her packaging of the beads caused them to break. Now that I think about it, maybe there is something wrong with the way she annealed the beads also. They shouldn't be THAT breakable. These beads traveled, unbroken, from Florida to Sicily, Sicily to Illinois and Illinois to Florida before they were sent to Orlando for Maude?s sake! I think I am going to go roll up my coin jar and buy her that kiln for Christmas. SHHHH, don't tell her.

p.s. If anyone is feeling generous and wants to donate some money for the "Kim's Kiln Fund" via PayPal, you can click on the button over on the side of this blog.
p.p.s. My sister may just kill me over the donation thingy.

Posted by DebC at October 22, 2004 01:43 PM

Comments

Posted by: DebC at November 3, 2004 09:43 AM