Project bag, Pink Prototype, Phat Fiber June Pattern finished. Phew!

I bought the Johnny Cupcake bag, it's now my new knitting bag. Featured with it is a Pink Prototype on ChiaoGoo Stainless Steel Size 10 32" circulars and my stitch markers http://www.etsy.com/listing/37289388/plastic-elastic-metallic-adjustable.

I will give away the secret to making these stitch markers - a barrel cord lock from

http://www.strapworks.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=cord+locks&gclid=CJWto-rD_qgCFSFl7AodFGwTXQ

and a loop of gift elastic from http://www.giftsintl.com/stretchloop.php

The Pink Prototype is my knitting doodling for the Phat Fiber Sampler Box pattern for November. I was trying to make something different, but serendipity moves in mysterious ways and I realized that this was my November pattern.

My June Phat Fiber Sampler Box pattern is ready. Many, many thanks to my fiber partner Funhouse Fibers, http://www.funhousefibers.com/shop/ :













Three yarns- Funhouse Fibers "Slither Silk" Hand painted yarn fingering weight, 437 yards, 50/50 Superwash Merino/Silk, Cascade Yarns handpaints, and 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel 420 yards from WC Mercantile, dyed by me. Each shawl uses one skein of fingering weight yarn, approx 420 - 430 yards:



Plymouth Yarn Mushishi 95% Wool 5% Silk, purchased from WC Mercantile. This version is larger, knit on Size 10 needles, I used every inch of the skein. It's a generous 250 grams and 491 yards. It makes a lovely prayer shawl. The tassels help to keep the shawl on the crook of the elbow.




The theme for the June Phat Fiber Sampler Box is "Science Fiction". My inspiration for the shawl was Robert A. Heinlein's novel Time Enough for Love.

The pattern is for sale on Ravelry - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dorable
for $1. The pattern includes instructions for 2 sizes. The smaller uses one skein of Funhouse Fibers yarn (or equivalent), the larger uses one skein of Plymouth Yarn Mushishi (or equivalent).

Take care and keep your yarn dry.

Online fraud, lightening strike, meeting a Rav buddy IRL and prom

The week ended on a great note:





DD's prom dress finished just as we needed to leave to meet her date for dinner. Date's mother and I said in unison "They look so cute together". They were adorable.

Waiting to drive them to prom, we stopped into a cheap food place for a bite. We saw a woman with this logo on her t shirt:

http://shop.johnnycupcakes.com/shop/Details.aspx?ProdID=375

This is a Johnny Cupcake logo. I thought it was an Eddie Izzard reference - Cake or death. Turns out the lady was the caterer for desserts for the prom. She described the spread of desserts she prepared. I texted DD to not eat dessert at the restaurant.

The prom dress almost wasn't finished in time. We had a big lightening strike on Wednesday that took out computers, modem, network cards, phone lines, our hot water air pot, several electrical outlets and made the TV look really weird. Many $$$ later, we are back to almost normal. The printer still doesn't work right and the network sometimes goes all wonky.

On Monday last, I found a lovely person had stolen my credit card to get him or herself some computer equipment from newegg.com. I informed them, the bank and the police. A fun couple of days working through that.

I'm almost finished with my June Phat Fiber Sample Box pattern. The theme is Science Fiction and I took my inspiration from Robert A. Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love". Here is an early prototype of the pattern:



I'm working with Miki of Funhouse Fibers http://www.funhousefibers.com/shop/ on the June pattern. She created some beautiful colorways just for the design.

I met up with Leilani, a fellow Phat Fiber Sampler Box contributor and Ravelry buddy, on Thursday. Geekery ensued as she, myself, DH and Katie of WC Mercantile compared movie quotes and talked about our favorite SF TV shows, movies, books, actors, etc. Leilani volunteered her little dog, Snip for this costume:



Yes, it is a doggie Crane Costume. Everyone had a great time with the Crane of Holding, pictures soon. Some yarn from WC Mercantile had to come home with me. That happens a lot.

Take care and keep your yarn dry.

No April Showers, but here's some flowers

Howdy from the new Dust Bowl, we're enduring 7 of the driest months on record for our part of Texas. Last summer was brutal, followed by a colder than normal winter. There was snow! Lots of trees died and now all the area around us is tinder dry. And people still flick their cigarette butts out the window.

We have a chance of rain later in the week. I hope it does not pass us by.

To make up for the lack of rain, here are some knit flowers:



Sakura inspired toe rings - great for toe separation when painting your toe nails.



Sakura flowers with shorter back loops for attaching to ponytail holders or barrettes. Put thumbtack in the back and it makes a great bulletin board decoration.





The Sakura flowers were inspired by the crochet pattern "Sakura Motif" by Yoko Johnston. Both her pattern and mine raise money for Japan Relief.

Various sports weight yarns were used for the Sakura Flowers.


Some soothing chamomile flowers:




The yarn used for the Chamomile flowers was created by Sheeps of Egyptian Cotton, sheepsegyptiancotton.etsy.com.

Both patterns are available on ravelry.com for $1 each, search under "Gari Lynn". Proceeds of the Sakura go to Japan Relief.

Thanks for looking.

Take care and keep your yarn dry.

Swirly Scrubbie

I have admired the crocheted version of the swirly dish cloth for some time. I came up with a knitted version that is worked in one piece in the round of worsted weight acrylic on size 8 16" circular needles, with the I cord hanging loop worked from the cast on & off tails. At 4 1/2", it fits nicely in the palm. Knit of 100% acrylic, it holds up well to dish duty. ( You can use cotton, linen, hemp or whatever fiber tickles your fancy. )The mesh pattern allows the Swirly scrubbie to dry quickly.

As a set, the Alabama Relief Dishcloth and Swirly Scrubbie make a great gift.

Pattern $1 on ravelry.com.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/swirly-scrubbie

Take care and keep your yarn dry.

Alambama Relief fund raising pattern

The tornados in Alabama and the aftermath are heartbreaking. I designed a quick knit dishcloth pattern that I'm selling on Ravelry for $1, with the proceeds going to Alabama Relief.

Knit of light worsted to worsted weight cotton, bordered on all sides with I cord that is knit on as you work, in a 1 row lacy mesh pattern. I like cotton dishcloths that dry quickly, they seem to stay fresher longer in our lovely hot, humid Texas weather, so my preference is for dishcloths in an open, airy knit.












THE MODELS:

Red - Knit One, Crochet, Too 2^nd Time Cotton single strand for size 6 needles, doubled for size 10. Purchased at WC Mercantile, wcmercantile.com

Pink - Knit One, Crochet, Too Cotonade double stranded size 10 needles. Purchased at WC Mercantile wcmercantile.com. This yarn is discontinued, but you can find it at Webs:

http://www.yarn.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/categoryID/0E7837F8-67A3-4034-8552-6B1759C47B15/productID/40E0F373-7CC9-4743-BC7F-D584ADAF566B/?green=842337141

Lilac – Lily Sugar N Cream, double stranded

Blues – Hobby Lobby I love this cotton, double stranded

I made all of these on Saturday, having purchased 2 of the skeins at WC Mercantile's Spring Spin In where a wonderful time was had by all!

Take care and keep your yarn dry.

Kumihimo - Marudai bucket style

New crafts present the problem of new materials, new tools and finding another space to store them. There is also the money issue, usually more than my budget will allow.

I read about kumihimo (Japanese braiding) and wanted to try it. The tools were a bit pricey for a beginner. So I improvised with the plastic lids from pint sized ice cream. I made several braids using cotton embroidery floss on embroidery floss bobbins. Not pretty, but it worked.

I wanted to make a really long braid that I would use as a component in other crafts. Starting with nylon thread on 16 bobbins that I made with dowels and wooden toy wheels:



My marudai is a knitting loom on a 5 gallon pickle bucket on a lazy susan:



I've made quite a bit of braid so far:



Mostly this will be used as drawstrings, straps and piping on sewn bags.

Take care and keep your yarn dry.

I'm in an etsy treasury

I am always thrilled to be included in a treasury:



www.etsy.com/treasury/4da4009216288eef9548c205/mother-may-i

Featuring my "Blossom" knitting pattern from the May 2010 "Blossom and Bark"Phat Fiber Sampler Box.







Yarn credit to Sheeps Egyptian Cotton (http://www.etsy.com/shop/SheepsEgyptianCotton) for the hand dyed cotton yarns and WC Mercantile (http://www.etsy.com/shop/wcmercantile) for the lovely commercial cotton yarns.

I also wrote about using Pecan shells to make a nice pink yarn:

… and Bark

A rank amateur's fumbling first attempt at natural dyeing with some help from an expert

Thanks to Mama Jude for the help! Visit her at mamajudes.etsy.com

This month's theme was very educational for me. My husband creates large bags of osage sawdust, I thought I might explore dyeing and send samples of osage sawdust. Some google searching led to a claim that pecan shells will produce pink dye. I live in Texas and there is a pecan grower about 10 miles away. I called and they had 15 pounds of pecan shells I could have free! Free is my favorite flavor, so 20 minutes later, I had my pecan shells. I researched a bit, mostly finding information on walnut shells. I asked Phellow Phattie Mama Jude (mamajudes.etsy.com) for her opinion on dyeing with shells. She was very patient answering all my questions. (Check out her shop, you'll love her work.) The shells sat soaking for 3 days because life got in the way of completing the experiment, but they did not ferment.

The part of the pecan fruit, called a drupe, that I am using is the hard shell. The fruit grows on the tree encased in green hulls which turn brown (see picture) as the fruit matures. Most of the searches turned up information on dyeing with the hulls. The shells I obtained were leavings from the shell cracking machine, so some nut meat was still in the shells. I removed this as best I could, leaving the nut meat for our squirrels.

Dyeing ingredients:

4 oz raw 10+ year old Corriedale fiber, picked over for VM, soaked to remove dust and larger boulders, water changed several times, washed with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Locks left mostly intact.

4 oz Pecan shells, sorted to remove nut meat, coarsely crush in muslin bag with large hammer, finely ground in coffee grinder that might not live through the experience, soaked in 1 qt water for 3 days, strained to remove shell grit. Nice dark brown with rose notes. I re-read the google site about the dyer that got a pink out of pecan shells. I missed that she used the WHOLE nut. Maybe next time I have stale pecans I will try that method.

Process:

Place wet wool (I did not use a mordant) in oval crockpot. Discover that 4 oz of wet wool just about fills 5 qt oval crockpot. Dither for a moment and then decide that a slow heating will distribute color, so there is no need for room. Cross fingers on this point. Realize that I only have 2 electrical outlets and coffee has not been brewed yet. Brew coffee, pour a cup, sigh, resolve to dedicate a counter to dyeing in the future and plug in crockpot. Turn to low setting and try to forget it so I won't be tempted to raise the lid every two minutes. Let it sit on low for about 6 hours, turning about every 2 hours or so. Removed small amount of fiber to check. Nice rosey light brown, not what I was expecting, but still in early stages. Left the rest of the fiber overnight. Turned a nice, mellow, unmistakable pink!

(End of article)

I'll be working with Sheeps Egyptian Cotton again for the May 2011 Phat Fiber Sampler Box. I just got a lovely set of custom dyed cotton yarn for the pattern.

Blossom pattern available at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/blossom---flower-scour-power.

If you have not heard about Phat Fiber Sampler Box, check it out http://phatfiber.com/

Take care and keep your yarn dry.