Need more yarn!

It's been hell the past couple of weeks at work. Knitting has saved many lives this week. It really did keep me from killing stupid people.

How can I possibly want more yarn when I have more than any sane person should have? I admit to having a fibre stash, yarn stash, fabric stash, button stash, paper stash. Basically, it's a you-name-it-I-probably-have-it stash.

We have a friend who visits regularly. He flies in from Toronto on business about 4 or 5 times a year and usually spends a night or two at our house. We usually get advance warning and I clear out the room just enough for an inflatable mattress plus a bit of wiggle room. This week, he came unannounced (2 days warning) and I had no time to clear out the room. He was stunned at how much stuff was in the room. He had no idea how much fibre & crap I keep in that room!

The Silky Wool was going to be a scarf but my heart was not in it. I started the scarf several times but finally decided on a hat. But I kept thinking of Kelly's idea of making socks with this yarn. I can see it would make wonderful socks. I have yarn left over from the hat. In order to use up this leftover yarn, I need to buy more yarn to make socks. That makes sense...buy more yarn just to use up the remainder.

Tammy, you don't want to hear about how wonderful this stuff is! :D

I stopped by a LYS to pick up the Paton's Street Smart pattern booklet. I love the Urban Aran sweater and seen that a few people have made it into a cardigan. The pattern looks like it should be easily converted to a zippered cardigan.

Good thing I wasn't on any kind of yarn diet. A couple balls of sock yarns and two skeins of Elizabeth Lavold's silky wool came home with me. The idea was to make myself a hat with silky wool. I don't know why becuase I don't wear hats. I think they must put something in the air at the store because, for the life of me, I really don't know why that idea came to mind. Anyhow, there's enough to do a scarf. Most likely, it will just go into the stash for a few years.

Another reply to Gillian

Yeah, that's the one thing I don't like about Blogger is that they don't let me reply to comments diretly. You can always email me at thymeformomAThotmailDOTcom.

I was at the local garden centre (Art Knapps) today and asked about the paperwhites. Apparently, there are different types. Some are more fragrant than others. She showed me one that had bigger flowers but really didn't smell all that pleasant. Unfortunately, I don't know which variety I had.

Raised binding

There's not a lot of knitting happening in my life at the moment.

That's not quite true...it's more like re-knitting or un-knitting. The Mucking-Out-The-Barn sweater is now going to be a cowl. After finishing the back, I finally admitted to myself that it would be a waste to make this yarn into a sweater. The yarn is very soft with bits of silk waste blended in and loosely spun. It was pilling even as I knit. By finish, it would be one giant ball of pill. I un-knitted it and thought it would be much better off as a cowl. As for the BPT hoodie, it's a bit harder. I have two options - re-knit in a larger size or lose 25 pounds. Knowing myself, it would be faster and easier to re-knit but I can't bring myself to pull it apart. That project will sit a while longer.

The sewing frame worked really well but it will take a bit of practice to use it. I kept banging into the top bar as I sewed. It took a bit to get used to not being able to constantly turn the book while sewing. The first attempt came out ok - the tension was a bit uneven but I'm hoping that will improve with practice.

The holes in the covers were punched out with a die cutter and the threads were looped through and tied off. The knots were dabbed with glue to keep them from unraveling.

Book Specs:
24 lb bond acid free sheets - 25% cotton, watermarked
Cotton yarn ties
Green waxed linen thread

In reply to Gillian re: Paperwhites

I'm not sure about why your paperwhites "stunk". I hope I'm not insulting you by asking if you've checked to make sure the bulbs are really paperwhite bulbs. It's possible that you may just not like the scent of them. Kinda like not everyone appreciates the smell of coffee. Me, that's one of the best smell in the world but I know people who gag if they catch a whiff of brewing coffee. The bulbs for this year were planted in dirt but I've forced them in just water before and have not noticed any difference in the scent.

This is Vancouver, for Pete's Sakes!

Trying hard to remember when was the last time we had 3 major snowfalls in one winter! This is the view from the driveway, down the street this morning. I love snow but then, I wasn't one of the ones skidding on the icy roads yesterday.

Paperwhites are the most amazing flowers ever! The bulbs were started indoors back in October. The flowers bloomed just in time for Christmas and have been going strong since. The fragrance is wonderful! A cross between jasmine & orange, I think.

There's a million things you can use 30 foam brushes for. The local Michael's was having a Dollar Day sale and the brushes were only 10 for $1.00. I use them mostly for gluing. At this price, I'm not going to sweat it if I forget once in a while to wash them before the glue dries. The poor cashier had to ring them in one at a time.

Life is Bizarre

For those of you who know where I work and what's been happening, I'm ok. I was still on holidays. No one was hurt, thank God!!

Sometimes I'm such an idiot!!

I knew today is Wednesday yesterday. But for some reason, I kept thinking it's only Tuesday today. I blame the garbage men. They usually pick up on Tuesday but because of New Year's Day, they picked up today...Wednesday. So all day long, I thought it was Tuesday. And being that I'm still on vacation, I'm all turned around.

I had a nice quiet day puttering around, working on my sewing frame. My wood working skills really does leave a lot to be desired but this will do until I make a better one. Better than paying $109 US plus shipping. I won't show the close up pics of the toothpicks jammed in with the posts to keep them straight. Total cost: $10.00 for the hardware. The wood was odds & ends from the garage...and that was free stuff I got from work. Not fancy but it'll do the job. The plans are in the Keith Smith books but I didn't follow the exact measurements. I just used whatever wood bits found in the garage. I only had to make one cut. The less cuts made, the less chances of me cutting my fingers off.

We drove out to North Vancouver & stopped off at Centennial Bookbinding for a few things. I picked up some watered silk end papers. Really nice. Also made a quick stop at Capilano Rock & Gem and picked up more amber chips for incense. We decided to stay out there and have dinner before heading home. And now I remembered it's not Tuesday and I missed my Wednesday night spinning group. Darn!

This is my new friend - a mix of silk waste & shetland. Ever since I saw Susan Forsythe's "garbage batt" sweater, I've been saving my fibre odds & ends. Most of the silk was supplemented by the silk waste from Treenway Silks. This is batt #3, fresh off the drum carder. I have a total of 18 to blend.

Meet batts #1 & 2 - destined to become a cardigan of some type. Nothing special - cast on a whole bunch of stitches, knit to where the armhole should go, cast off a couple of stitches for armhole shaping, knit to shoulders & shape neck. For the front, cast on half the back stitches for each of the front, knit to where the armholes should go, etc.

I'll write it all down later but just wanted to knit this yarn NOW! I didn't set the twist on this yarn so I'm hoping that I won't be surprised later. It seems pretty nicely balance right now. Anyhow, it's going to be another barn sweater...the kind I would wear to muck out the barn if I had one.

Fish Book

I really liked the fish print cotton. I had originally used this print in another hardbound book but thought it should be used for something with a more natural look to it. The exposed spine gives the book a more organic feel and the fish print seems to suit it well. The signatures inside are covered with the kozo/banana paper. The end papers are made with a different colour kozo/banana paper and the deckled edges extend to attach to the first chapter. This seems to work well because it gives the book more stabilty like a hardbound book but still will open flat.

Specs:
140 pages
7 signatures
4 1/2" x 5 3/4"
Cover - cotton print fabric and black bookbinding cloth
Paper - unbleached 30% recycled paper, Thai Kozo w/banana fibre inclusions
Bindings - black waxed linen thread, linen tape

New Year's Resolution

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Learn how to shear sheep. Get your resolution here.

I'm not one for making resolutions for the New Year but this one caught my eye. Heh! For the wishy-washy ones like me, you can get your resolutions made for you.

We'll see about the sheep shearing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!

How to Make Your Own Lip Balm & Recipe

Making your own lip balm is incredibly easy and fast.

1 part unbleached beeswax
1 part carnuba wax
5 parts liquid oil

essential oils (optional) - teatree, lavender, orange, peppermint
Vitamin E oil (optional)

First thing to do is put a small metal spoon in the fridge - you'll see why.

Microwave method
Measure out the carnuba wax into a microwavable container. I like using glass Pyrex measuring cups. They're easy to clean up after. Measure out your preferred oil. I like jojoba oil because it's a liquid wax and it keeps longer without your product going rancid. Sweet almond oil and avacado oils are really nice in lip balms as well. You can use olive oil or any cooking oil. Keep in mind that some cooking oils have a stronger oil scent.

Microwave on medium for short burst of time (20 secs each) until the carnuba wax is almost completely melted. Stir between microwaving. Add in the beeswax and microwave the same way. You don't have to microwave the container until all the wax is melted because the rest of the wax will melt as you stir. Carnuba is a harder wax and takes longer than beeswax to melt.

Bainmarie method
Measure everything into a heatproof container and heat over a hotwater bath until everything has melted. Stir gently as not to get water in your mixture.

The rest...
Take the metal spoon out of the fridge. To test your lip balm's consistency, gently touch the mixture with the bottom of the spoon. You'll see how hard or soft your lip balm will be. At this point, you can adjust by adding more wax or liquid oil. If you're using lip balm containers, you'll want a softer consistency. For lipstick tubes, you want something a bit harder but not hard enough to rip your skin off. Adding more carnuba wax will make your mixture really hard. I like adding beeswax instead.

Once everything has melted and mixed, you can add in a few drops of your favourite essential oils. Teatree oil has great antiviral properties and great for winter use. Lavender is really soothing for chapped lips.

One excellent combination is a few drops of sweet orange and a bit of cocoa powder. The only drawback to this combination was that it made me hungry all the time.

Vitamin E can be added at this point for extra moisturizing properties. Make sure you get the real stuff (100% alpha-tocopherol) & not the synthetic stuff (d-alpha-...).

You can also leave the balm plain and enjoy the nice honey scent. That one is my favourite lip balm.

Once all the extras have been added, pour into lipstick tubes. Those can be found online if you do a search. Cranberry Lane sells them locally and online. Magestic Mountain Sage is another good place.

I usually make a large-ish batch and fill only two or three tubes at a time. If you let the mixture cool, you can keep it in the fridge for later use if you store it in an airtight container. Just remelt the balm the same way and pour into your clean tubes. You can reuse the tubes if you clean and sterilize them beforehand.

Clean up
Cleaning up is easy. Wipe your utensils and containers with a paper towel to remove excess balm. Wash with dishwashing soap and water. Your stuff will still be food safe. You're not using anything that you haven't eaten before.

Last bit of fruitcake

This is the last of the fruitcake. Martha Stewart came through - the cake was delicious! I've always wondered if the people who make fruitcake jokes ever tried REAL fruitcake? Not the quasi stuff with the red and green plastic fruits. But the ones made with REAL dried currents, raisins, dried apricots, figs, dried bing cherries, and real candied ginger? I believe in garbage in, garbage out. Despite my misgivings about making this cake so late, it turned out really well. I've been dousing it with my vanilla rum about once a week and you can really taste the vanilla flavour.

Ah! Time to think of the Challenge project!

Presents have all been opened, lots of good food and drink consumed and now it's back to business...knitting & crafty stuff.

This year was a book year. Lots of books & a few odds & ends. No fibre. That's ok because I ordered all my fibre stuff before the holidays so I'll have lots of new stuff to play with. And it's not like I don't already have loads of fibre anyway.

As usual, I refused all offers from my sister to join her in Boxing Day shopping. I think it takes an insane person to wake up at 5am to line up at Future Shop for the 6am opening. There is nothing - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - I want from Future Shop that will make me do that. Not sure I would do that for yarn either but it really depends on how good the sale is (Lorna's Laces at 80% off would be an enticement).

Challenge Stuff



It's not sunny outside but certainly much brighter than the last two weeks have been. Bright enough to take pictures outside anyway. This is the first chance I've had to take a good close look at the yarn. I liked the colour of the batt but not the yarn. I thought the colour was grey and drabby until I looked at it outside. It's a nice pale mauve with specks of colours. Sorry...can't tell you the yardage. I "misplaced" the little piece of paper I wrote the info on. I really should start using one of my books to keep track of things.

I had no idea what to do with this skein until I flipped through the latest issue of Spin-Off. The idea of crocheting bobble yarn intrigues me. This yarn is thicker than what those women used but it might be interesting to try.

As Ms. Frizzle always say - "Take chances, get messy, make mistakes!"

So, bobble yarn is next!

Edited to add the pithy details...
Spun long draw & then plyed back on itself to make 2-ply. I haven't set the twist yet.

Banananananana Book!

This book is made with unbleached recycled paper ~ 136 pages. The signatures are separated with the same paper as the covers - Thai kozo with banana fibre inclusions. It's machine made but really is a beautiful paper. I used the deckle edges on the inside so the paper blended in with the outer covers. I used cream coloured waxed linen thread to go with the linen tapes. I'm quite pleased with the cuts this time. I punched them with the chisel from the inside and it gave the outer covers a much smoother look, without exposing the inner board. The cuts are just a tad smaller than the width of the tapes. The linen tapes were definitely much easier to glue down than the grosgraine ribbon from the first book.

I think this may be my favourite book so far. The coptic binding allows the book to lay nice and flat when opened. Not only does the spine fatteners separates each signatures nicely, it gives the outer spine a nice uniform look to show off the binding.

Fleece On Earth

*photo courtesy of Geek Philosopher

Fleece On Earth

and

Good Wool Towards Men!

Things are starting to get pretty busy here. I wanted to wish everyone all the best for the season - whatever you celebrate. Stay safe and hope Santa will bring you lots of fibre goodness.

Hugs!
Lavender

Not that I'm counting...

...but I have 11 days, 15 hours, and 29 minutes to go until my next holidays. Christmas! I have my request signed and returned and I have 2 weeks off over the Christmas break! Jackpot!

This weekend was one of those "stop & think" ones. We have presents - roomful of presents, a warm house, a fridge & pantry overflowing with food for the holidays, and family and friends all around us. The only thing we didn't have is the tree. We went to look and was appalled by the cost of getting a decent tree. Not a pencil sharpened tree but a REAL tree. One can pay $100 or more easily for a decent looking tree. It just felt so wrong to buy a tree, put it up for two weeks and then send it to the chippper. Seems like such a waste. So we took a vote and decided to donate the tree money to the local Food bank. That felt so right.

My husband had a brilliant idea of us making our own tree (translated to ME making the tree). A search on the internet provided a few interesting ideas like these (not sure about the feather tree, though). Some were mildly odd like this tree made from baby food jars. And some where downright bizarre like this tree made from Mountain Dew cans.

Fibre Challenge

I spent the last month or so looking at the fibres we got in our Fibre Challenge bag. It really is a mix bag of different stuff. I had all sorts of ideas but nothing definite.

My first thought had been to blend EVERYTHING together to see what the results would be. But I wasn't sure how the brown alpaca would go with all the other colours. In the end, I took a chance & everything went on the carder. I love it! I have to admit, I never thought the results would be this nice.

I was going to take the batt to show everyone on Wednesday but I'm so tempted to start spinning it to see what it will look like. In case I give in to temptation, here's a picture...



It was really difficult to take a good picture of this batt. The silk gave the batt a silvery sheen and reflected the light. The actual colour of the batt is more silver-mauve than the purplish colour in the picture. This had gone through the drumcarder twice. The first round left a lot of streaks of colours. I did like the effects of that blending but decided to go for the second carding.

Can I just submit my batt as my fibre challenge project?

Another ARRGH!!

The knitting portion of the BPT is finished but not blocked and no zipper yet. The bad news is that it's a bit snug on me. It just fits but I don't like sweaters that fits like a second skin. I was pretty sure I got gauge on this one but just remembered that I did the swatch using straight needles and knitted the sweater with circulars. I was in too much of a hurry to start the sweater. The good news is that I'm pretty sure it will fit my niece. The other bad news is that I got my sister to discreetly show her the picture of the BPT over at Knitty to see what she thinks of the sweater. Her reaction was less than favourable. She thinks it looks like an old granny sweater. Huh?! Whatever.

So now I have two options -
1. Block the sweater and hope it fits.
2. Reknit the sweater in larger size. This won't be the first time I've reknitted a sweater at the last minute. Probably won't be the last, either.

For now, I think the best thing to do is to put it away until after Christmas.

No more room in my brain...

Ack! If I don't get this out of my head, I won't be able to sleep tonight! I just got a great idea for an advent calendar tree. Inspired by the little stuff button tree at WhipUp (btw, she has a link to a PDF template for the tree) and the Shrinky Dink pins at Wee Wonderfuls.

The idea is to make the little stuff tree and then make the ornaments with Shrinky Dink pins. You can number the ornaments and poke one on your tree everyday. And if you have kids, they can help you make the shrinky dink ornaments. It's so simple and quick!

Ok. Now that it's out of my head, I'm off to sleep now. Sometimes I have so many things running around in my brain that if I don't write it down somewhere, I'll forget things. Sometimes writing things down doesn't help either because I'll forget where I've jotted things down. I guess I could use one my books for that. :D

More sewn bindings

I can't help myself!

I'm expanding my bookbinding skills and have been trying different ways of attaching the covers. Cailun.info has lots of great tips on using the tapes as hinges. He made it sound so easy. Ok...it really wasn't that hard but I did made a few mistakes.

I used my carving chisel to set the holes. It does give a nice straight cut, as Dennis suggested but I cut my line just a bit longer than my ribbon. This gave the ribbon too much wiggle room. Next time, I'll cut the line just a tad smaller and cut from inside to outside. The bevelled cuts exposed the inside board. Also, I didn't plan my stations well. I had to double back a few times to keep the pattern consistent. It made some of the signatures a bit bulkier than the others. The ribbon is a polyester grosgraine and it does not hold glue well at all. In order to attach the inside paper, I used a bit of book binding tape over the ribbon so the glue would have something to grab onto.

Here's the book for the Duulan contest...



I wanted to create a journal that knitters can use. Something small that you can toss in your knitting bag. The finished size is roughly 4 3/4" x 5 3/4". There's 160 lavender graph pages inside so you can jot down schematics as well write notes on your knitting. The sheets are acid free and contains 30% recycled wood product.

The coptic binding allows the book to open flat, making easier to make notes while knitting. The thread is red waxed linen. There will also be a ribbon closure on the outside but the ribbon I had planned on using didn't match the cover. I'll have to head over to the fabric store in the morning.

Measuring the speed of Meme

In the name of science...

Measuring the speed of Meme

The knit bloggers are starting to find their way there.

Fibre, Books, & Fruitcake

Fibre Stuff

I'm spinning the rest of my merino/silk fibre from Mud River Angora. I love it! The yarn is so soft! It will be perfect for chemo hats. I used the skein of the McKenzie fibre to knit something for the gift exchange but I want to keep it for myself!

Book Stuff

I think I understand the Coptic stitch now. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, it wasn't so bad attaching the covers on at the same time. I've been pulling tight - it should be snug but not overly tight. The trick is to snug up the stitches inside the signatures but not pull too tight on the chains.

I have another two sets of signatures prepared and ready to be sewn. That was the plan for Friday but now I have to clean up my workroom. Unfortunately, that room doubles as our guest room and we have an overnight guest on Friday. I just spent most of this week sewing, knitting, and general crafting stuff! The room looks like a tornado has hit it! It's a good thing that he's not fussy...all I have to do is to clear a place for him to sleep. :D

Other Stuff

I have a weakness for fruitcakes. I love them! The best fruitcake I ever had was made by Robert Clothier (he played Relic on the old TV show Beachcombers). At Christmas time, he would bring in a huge fruitcake to where I used to work. No one else liked fruitcake so I always end up taking the whole thing home. He made the cakes from scratch and they were delicious! Usually, I start my fruitcakes late September or early October. This year I'm very late...just made mine today. The recipe (I think it came from a TV Guide - ETA - it came from a Martha Stewart recipe) makes a nice small loaf, unlike most recipes that makes 50 pounds of this stuff. This fruitcake is very very rich. Tomorrow, it will be wrapped up in cheesecloth and doused with vanilla rum until eaten. I'm not sure how it will taste, with having so little time to sit, but I'm looking forward to this.