It's no longer a stash

It's starting to look like inventory for a yarn shop. I just received four more skeins of yarn which brings my total inventory up to 24 skeins.


I guess this means I need to hurry up and start knitting socks and scarves again.

Doesn't look like a bear, does it?

But these are all the parts finally knitted to make a small one. I still haven't made it to Hobby Lobby yet to see if they have safety eyes and joints. I don't know when that will happen so I don't know when there will be a completed bear. Today is such a miserable day I don't feel much like going outside.

Still a disaster

Well, I tried dying the yarn again with purple Kool-Aid, and it still turned out a disaster. See for yourselves . . .




Don't let what looks like color in the photos fool you. The overall color of the yarn seems to be a vaguely purplish muddy sort of brown with kind of a yellow tinge. I may give this one more shot before I call it quits, but I'm going to need a fresh batch of yarn to experiment on.

We'll see.

Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my!

Would you believe this little bit of yarn is going to be a teddy bear? Doesn't look like much, does it?


I had already had half the body done and set aside when I realized I'd made a serious mistake on it. I frogged the piece and that little ball of yarn is how much half the body took. I'm almost done with the other half.

This is just a test to see how complicated knitting a bear is. I suspect the knitting part will be easy and the construction part will be . . . well . . . pardon the pun . . . a bear. I have no idea whether the local Hobby Lobby or even WalMart carry the safety eyes for stuffed animals or the joints to give them movable parts. I will probably find that out tomorrow. If I can't find any of that stuff locally, it may be a while before a finished bear wanders in and makes himself at home.

The pattern for the bear comes from this book:

The Knitted Teddy Bear, Sandra Polley

Ever vigilant

Heru sitting guard over the four additions to my yarn stash that arrived today. As always, the picture doesn't do the yarn justice.


The yarn on the far left is varied and brilliant shades of teal blue and turquoise. The yarn next to it is a lovely pastel mix of blues and lavenders. The next is very lovely soft purples. And the last looks very much like camouflage. Couldn't tell, could you?

It was a disaster

The dye job, that is. It turned out very, very badly. The biggest problem was the instructions I found did not mention how much Kool-Aid was required to get a 'saturated' color. I also had to use cream colored yarn since I couldn't find any white wool in town. I have since found better instructions and I will try the dye job one more time. I'm not going for anything fancy. I just want one solid color to see how it turns out.

I'll keep you posted on what happens, though I won't really have time to try the second test until this weekend.

Wish me (better) luck!

And in other news . . .

I've only managed to add about three rows of stitching to the butterfly fairy this week so I haven't bothered to take a picture. Quite honestly, three more rows of white on white pretty much looks like it did when there were three less rows of white on white.

I did manage to put one more pattern iteration on the Bird's Nest scarf, but I'm just feeling too lazy to dig it out and photograph it right now. I may do that later.

It's a sunny cold day today and I feel like reading. I think that's what I'm going to go do in a bit when I'm done computing.

Desperate measures

It's getting harder and harder to win the eBay bids on the yarn I like to hoard, so, in a fit of quiet desperation, I've looked up dying yarn with Kool-Aid (why do they spell it 'aid' instead of 'ade'?) and I'm going to try my hand at coloring one skein of cheap wool just to see what happens. I may or may not show the results of my experiment. It all depends on how hideous the results are. I also may or may not repeat the experiment, again depending on the results.

And speaking of yarn to hoard, kbrece has opened an Etsy shop - Kindred Spirits Yarn - to sell her wares.

Do I use a hoop or a frame?

I was asked if I use a hoop or a frame for my cross stitching.

No, I don't use either. I find hoops and frames to be cumbersome. The only needlework I use a hoop for is embroidery. And I haven't done any of that in more years than I can remember. I just never bothered with a hoop when I started cross stitching . . . oh . . . 15 - 20 years ago, and I've never really noticed the lack.

Puddle of green

And I thought I'd start this scarf update with a very glamorous, sexy puddle shot. It took a bit of smooth talking, but I finally convinced her to pose au naturel.




I'm 22 rows into the third iteration of the pattern.

Lunacy

Yes, this is an update of the butterfly fairy. I've done nothing but work on the moon, the white on white part of the moon. Thus, the lunacy.

Last week's progress . . .



And this week's progress . . .


I propped the needle against the last row I stitched so you could actually see how much - or little - I've gotten done this week.

And it grows some more

My yarn stash, that is. Three more skeins arrived today. One is blues (the one that looks green), one in reds, and one in blues and pinks.