Charity Squares

I've done 2 squares from yarn given to me at Stitch'n'Bitch.

Thanks to Michelle and Spider_Knit for the yarn for these two. I'm about to start a hat from the yarn Knit Convict has donated.

Oh and they are knit using the method that Ruth suggested!!!!! It works a treat.

Jess Hutchinson free pattern for Small Dolls

Cos I know some people 'round here like her stuff.

And its a nifty free pattern :)

Here it is...

Handy Hint: Wraps per Inch

If you substitute or spin a yarn for a project, you can compare the weight of the yarn to the project yarn by comparing wraps per inch. To do this, wrap your yarn around a ruler for on inch and count the number of wraps. If you have more wraps per inch, your yarn is too thin; fewer wraps per inch, your yarn is too thick.

Taken from: http://www.knittingdaily.com/knittinghelp/techniques.html

Hint for the charity knitters

This hint comes from Ruth (otherwise known as Vicki's Mum).

How to not worry about gauge when knitting charity squares:

use any ply wool

cast on 1 stitch

increase x1 beg each row till 6 inches or a big as you want your square, then decrease x1 beg each row till 1 stitch. Crochet squares together. Nerrida at Zonta last night had a great rug made this way all different muted colours joined with blue crotchet.

I'm definately with the crochet idea. Who would want to sew squares together? Mind you, I'm working on Starsky at the moment (cables driving me bonkers) so no chance of me doing charity knitting of any kind!

The Woolly Apocalypse

Having just moved house, to a place with a whole room I can dedicate to yarn-y pursuits, I decided to hold a yarn warming party this weekend. Unfortunately, it was not to be: I still have a living room full of books and CDs, and also, my stash is in the freezer. That’s right... The unthinkable has happened. Those butterflies of nervous excitement I felt at uncovering my stash turned out to be a fluttering of an entirely different kind:

M-O-T-H-S.

I realised this last week when I blithely cast on for Ysolda’s Matilda Jane cardigan, and half way through a row, my yarn came to an abrupt end. “That’s odd,” I thought. “Maybe I was knitting with the cast-on tail?”... Alas, it was much worse that that. I picked up the ball of wool and unwound it a bit further, intending to cast on again, and the yarn snapped off in my hand. On closer inspection, I saw that the entire skein was riddled with gnawed ends and frayed bits of fluff.
Ever one to clutch at straws, I prayed in vain that perhaps Igor had eaten this particular yarn, in his crazy feline midnight stealth attacks. But a closer inspection of the bag of yarn proved that it was a woolly apocalypse.

I haven’t had the heart to examine all my stash, but I’m hoping that batch was the worst affected. All of my bags and boxes had moth balls in them, and most of my yarn was in plastic bags, but by no means all of it. I am going out tonight to buy a whole bunch of plastic zip loc bags, and I’d suggest you do the same. While prevention may be better than cure, if you DO get a moth infestation, it’s apparently not the end of the world (I keep telling myself this).

The first step is to examine your stash in daylight. While you can salvage some “nibbled” yarn, throw out any balls which have been chewed to pieces— if there are any apparently “untouched” yarns in the same contained as the moth-eaten ones, I’d recommend treating them just in case. Hell, just treat your whole stash. Better safe than sorry.

A badly infested skein may look fine, but will fall into bits when you try to knit with it, as happened with my stash. If you’re checking finished garments for moths, make sure you’re using bright light because the damage will not be immediately obvious, and can look like irregular tension or snagged sections. In woven or felted fabrics, larva will often chew away the fuzzy top surface fluff of the fabric, making it look shiny rather than fuzzy. I’m dreading going through the roving stash for moths because I’m not really sure how you’d tell anyway! I guess I will have to rely on poop to be the tip-off there.

Wool moth larvae poop is also known as frass, which is another clue you should be on the look-out for. I haven’t seen any in my stash yet, but apparently it looks like finely ground coffee. It will usually be a slightly darker colour than whatever yarn the larva was eating, which must be confusing if the larva is eating your lovely rainbow hand dyed alpaca. Check for frass by shaking whatever container your yarn is in, and then examining the bottom of the container. If there's larva poop, examine your yarn for nibbly ends or sections of yarn where one ply is missing or thinner.

The easiest and most effective way to kill the moths and their larvae is to put your stash in the freezer— according to the pest management guidelines provided by the University of California, infested yarns (or completed garments, for that matter) can be frozen at temperatures under –8 degrees Celsius to kill the pests. Leave them in there for at least a couple of days to make sure. 48 hours in the freezer, then 24 hours out, and 72 hours freezing again will kill all the moths regardless of life cycle. Alternatively, if you’re braver than me, you could heat your yarn to a temperature above 60 degrees Celsius for at least 30 minutes.

I’d suggest looking through your entire stash at least once every six months and making sure no little critters have gotten into it... And I’m sure you’ll find yarns you’d forgotten you’d ever bought, as I did.

Onwards and upwards, after this terrible tragedy, I am going to try and think positive. At least I will have room for new yarns!

This is a Public Service Announcement, ripped off my Stitch'n'Bitch Reminder!

Alpaca Alert!!

Mossvale Alpacas Farm open day and annual stock sale

Sunday 24 June
9am Information session, Alpaca care and selection
10am Alpaca sale

for sale, females, wethers and stud males, white, black and brown
rovings and yarn, black, dark brown, sandy brown and white
fleeces ready for spinning

Mark and Helen Jessop
157 Berry Rd Gidgegannup
9574 7280
mossvalealpacas.com.au



just saw the ad in the local paper
michelle

I tag you all!

I made a meme.

You are all tagged. Everyone reading this right now, you're it!

cool pix

taken from http://olgajazzzy.blogspot.com/


screenprint of a knit garment, not actually knit, bizarre!

Three weeks late and two dollars short!

Playing by the rules...

Here's my "seven random things". Anyone who knows me will realise what a tough decision it was, narrowing it down to seven.

Factoid One: My signature isn't my real name, so every time I sign something, I am committing a small act of almost-fraud. I like it that way. Technically, this is legal and therefore not really fraudulent but it still upsets people if they notice. They usually don't.

Factoid Two: It really bugs me when people use hyphens (-) instead of em dashes (—).

Factoid Three: Sometimes I worry that I am unhealthily influenced by Liza Minnelli, circa 1972. As a feminist, this is quite an alarming development.

Factoid Four: I have twenty years of Neighbours plots firmly ensconced in my head. Except I have totally lost the thread of what is happening this year. I am not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved.

Factoid Five: Five years of university life has left me with the following:
- a journalism degree minoring in creative writing (oh, the irony is not lost on me!).
- student debt equal to the amount it would have cost to buy a one bedroom flat, at the start of my degree.
- a perpetual inability to relax and do nothing, for fear that I am supposed to be doing an overdue essay (even eighteen months after graduating).

Factoid Six: If I wear a watch, I become a compulsive time-checker, and have to check the time approximately every three minutes. So I stopped wearing a watch about two years ago to try and break the habit, but now I just check my phone.

Factoid Seven: It's taken me about three weeks to write this in my lunch hours! I can't wait to get the internet at home again... hooray!

Finished objects!

Yay! I finished stuff. Anouk from Knitty, out of Zhivago yarn, in similar colours to the pattern on Knitty. The 'Child's placket-neck pullover' from Last-Minute knitted gifts. I know most of you have seen it, but I only just got around to taking a photo. Finally, my felted slippers, such a quick and easy project. They look like they are different colours because of the variegated yarn - Cleckheaton Vintage Hues from Spotlight.

In even bigger news, I've been working on the seaming for Andy's jumper. It will be finished soon! I'm not allowing myself to start my next two projects until it's done. (Well I might do a bonnet to go with Anouk, but that's only small so it doesn't count) I need to get over the fear that even though I've measured and double checked, this jumper will look terrible and won't fit when I've put it all together.

Since we can't see the Yarn Harlot...

Stupid timezones/long flights/lack of teleportation...

Let's hear it for YouTube.



Stephanie Pearl-Macphee aka Yarn Harlot in action. (short vid of her talking)

yarn and spaghettoi - both long and skinny and delicious.

anyone know anything about making pasta dough at home? Specifically, if I dry out egg pasta dough, how long can I keep it for? I mean, it has raw eggs in it... But then, people do seem to dry it in little nests and keep it...

Not *quite* knitting related, I grant you. But all part of my Martha Stewart campaign to take over the world.

spotlight...

Since spotlight are having that massive yarn clearance and all (you all got that e-mail, right? 500 new kinds of yarn delivered this week and on sale), I was wondering if anyone would be headed to a Spotlight other than Freo this weekend.

I'm rather after Simplicity 3964, and Freo were sold out of the 6-8-10-12 size. I was wondering if anyone could perhaps pick me up a copy (they're on sale for $6 too!) and I'll pay you back on Monday?

If not, I guess I'll be making a trip somewhere far, far away from my desk (and the piles of notes on it) next week.

Knit in Public Day

no one from Perth is signed up.
how sad.

http://wwkipday.com/

michelle