Playing with Plying

fiber: merino/silk blend with shetland lock inclusions

added between the plies

granny stacked and wrapped

stretching my boundaries

playing with plying

Sewing, Socializing & Spinning

I go through spurts.

Spurts of

baking, blogging, book reading

dabbling, drawing, dyeing

sewing, socializing, spinning

This week I conquered the three S's

[ess's?]

sewing:

Made a stack of newborn fitted diapers with the EZdipe pattern. Tried production line style sewing and it worked out really well. Cut one day, Sew the next, Turn and Topstitch the next. Now they just need snaps!

socializing:

I had my first zoo experience this week with my sister-in-laws and their kids. Caught these two little animals banging on the bongos!

spinning:

"Yarn of my Dreams" Take III - 200 yards of worsted to bulky 2ply, alpaca, merino, shetland, latte silk, banana silk, & tencel neps. Soon to be an Oslo Anorak sweater for my little one.

xoxo

Unravelled // Yarn

My need to create has lingered into...

Knitting?

Sure, I've always knit. I use super chunky yarn, making up the pattern as I go.

But now... you can find me scouring the internet for cute baby knits, adding patterns to my new fangled Pinterest board, and increasing my "to knit" list in my Ravelry queue.

I'm new to this world of patterns and commercial yarns, and as much as I can swoon over a particularly soft skein of something pretty at a yarn store, it's so far out of my budget right now. So my love for knitting and my love for thrifting have come together!

Here's my mission: unravel a bunch of lovely/ugly thrifted sweaters, dye, and to fulfill a huge baby-garb-knitting urge. So I'm taking this sweater apart (merino/angora blend, yum) and SURPRISE! It's not one continuous strand, it's two. What a pain! I've disected quite a few sweaters by now and this is the first to be knit with two strands, alternating rows. How interesting!

  

This was a super chunky sweater (4th one down in the top picture). I got four skeins, approximately 560 yards total... for $3? Now that's my kind of yarn score.

   

Over-dyed to create lovely heathered hues and one vibrant purple. The second and fourth hanks were pleasant surprises as I was trying for brown. Over-dyeing is certainly tricky!

xoxo