The Giant Blue Crochet Basket

A large, floppy, and oddly shaped crochet basket made with tweedy navy blue yarn.

I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole a couple of weeks ago - a big blue crocheted one at that. Crochet baskets have been popping up a lot recently on my various feeds, YouTube binging, and algorithms. This time, instead of filing the idea away for later, I really had to make one. When I had an opportunity to go stash diving for yarns to make a giant, scrappy basket, I pulled out enough yarn to make four! All different sized baskets, of course. And I might have bought a skein of puffy cotton yarn and some wood basket bottoms to try something completely new to me.

A large, floppy, and oddly shaped crochet basket made with tweedy navy blue yarn.

I very loosely followed along with a pattern in a video so I could figure out what I was doing. The basket turned out looking like an upside down chef’s hat instead of a cylinder, but I was eyeballing most of it and wanted to try something new. I also didn’t feel like ripping back hours of work spent with this dark navy blue yarn. The upside is that I know how to do a better job on the next one. Plus, this giant, blue thing is weird and I love it. Making it helped me get reacquainted with the movements of crochet - making chains and so much single crochet - which was one of my main goals when I started. I’m also thrilled that I was able to use over 1,000 yds of yarn that I wasn’t sure what to do with until a few weeks ago. Now I’m looking at my yarn stash in a whole new light.

A large, floppy, and oddly shaped crochet basket made with tweedy navy blue yarn.

Somehow, making this giant wasn’t enough. All of my current knitting WIP’s need a bit of work to get back to easy, autopilot status and I’m not up for that at the moment. So I grabbed a hook and another skein of of yarn - a much smaller one - and got going. I’ll show that basket and at least one more off in my next post.

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Knitting Goals for 2023: Update

2023 is swiftly chugging along, and so are my knitting and crafty goals. Well, some of them are. The rest I haven’t touched yet and that’s okay.

1. Knit fun stuff for me, not just others.

3 repeats into the Candy Mountain Cowl and still very much at the beginning. An orange stripe, Dark Grey Stripe, and A light Blue Stripe with Taupe as the Main Color.

So far this year I’ve started a pair of socks, more on those later, and the Candy Mountain Cowl (<- Ravelry link) just for me! It’s nice to have a big project and a small to switch between.

2. Knit with new yarn while it’s exciting.

The Bearded One got me a mini skein kit from Hazel Knits for Christmas. Instead of putting the yarn on a shelf to admire while I worked on other things, I paired it a full skein in light, neutral taupe. I love how it’s working up in the Candy Mountain Cowl so far.

3. Knit with really old stash.

Haven’t had to dig deep down for anything just yet.

4. Just knit - not every day, but most days.

I set up a daily tracker in my planner to track all sort of random things - like if I knit that day. So far I’ve knit on 33 days of the past two-ish months. Not bad.

5. Mend holey socks.

Still the same amount of holey socks around here.

6. Finish lingering WIP’s.

A look in my project basket showing the eight Snowflake ornaments I’ve knit so far and yarn to make more.

I picked up this lingering WIP I started at the beginning of 2022. It’s definitely scratching that itch to knit color work.

7. Knit a blanket for a friend.

All the upfront planning is done, and I’ve got the first few pieces knit and blocked. Haven’t knit on it in the past few weeks though because I’ve been busy trying to finish gift knits with more pressing deadlines.

8. Try knitting different sock heels.

A toe-up sock on the needles laying on top of a halloween themed project bag.

So far, I’ve paired the shadow wrap short row heel with a mini gusset (looking forward to trying it again) and I’m in the middle of knitting a strong heel toe-up. I’m trying to follow the Vanilla Reversed Socks (here’s a Payhip link too) but my row gauge and the pattern row gauge are very different. Figuring out how to tweak the directions for a heel construction I’ve never knit before has been a struggle. I’m not giving up on it though.

I also picked up Andrea Mowry’s DRK Everyday Socks to give the Fleegle Heel another try. The last time I knit that particular heel was when I was just learning to knit socks. Seems fair to give the construction another try now that I have a better idea of what I’m doing.

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As for my non-knitting but still creative goals, I’ve got a few I’d like to share here too.

• Get my spinning wheel out of storage, clean it up, and spin some yarn. As of 2/21/23: It’s still waiting on me.

A pair of purple fingerless mitts laying on top of a log.

• Publish three knitting patterns. I even know which three I’m going to work on.

  As of 2/21/23: Think I’m going to modify this goal a bit. Instead of published three patterns, I’m going to design three patterns and maybe publish them. This change in thinking is courtesy of a pair of fingerless mitts I had the pleasure of designing from scratch as a gift. I might publish it. I might not. Haven’t decided yet.

• Set up a shop on Ko-Fi to as a Ravelry alternative. You can download all of my knitting patterns here on WithWool, but it’s not a shop. Ko-if makes it easy to pay what you want, and I’d like to give it a try.

  As of 2/21/23: Waiting on that first new/updated pattern for this to really be a priority.

• Blog more by focusing on shorter posts instead of saving everything up for one long post that I’ll never get around to publishing.

  As of 2/21/23: I’d say I’ve been doing better at blogging this year thanks to keeping things short. This is my 4th post of 2023, when I only published 11 times in all 2022.

I feel pretty good about what knitting and crafty goals I’ve accomplished so far while also keeping up with the day-to-day and my other projects. Think I can keep this up too which is good news for the rest of 2023. How are your crafty goals and projects for the year turning out?

Knitting Goals for 2023

I’ve got so many plans and goals for this year, that I could fill a Bullet Journal keeping track of them all. And I intend too, but we’re here to talk knitting. So, here are my knitting goals for 2023:

1. Knit fun stuff for me, not just others.

This goal is pretty self-explanatory. Don’t worry, I’ve got a list filled with color work (Cowls, mitts, and hats! Oh my!), cute socks, complicated shawls, and a sweater or two to keep me busy.

2. Knit with new yarn while it’s exciting.

I have the irritating habit of buying yarn for a project and then not knitting with it because I feel obligated to finish lingering WIP’s. By the time I’m done, that new yarn/project just isn’t as exciting. Just once I’d like to jump in for the fun of it.

3. Knit with really old stash.

4. Just knit - not every day, but most days.

I set myself the Challenge to knit every day in November. When I accomplished that goal, I did it again in December. It was nice knitting, actually finishing stuff, and spending less time on my phone. I’d love to do more of that this year, whether I challenge myself to knit every day for a month or not.

5. Mend holey socks.

6. Finish lingering WIP’s.

7. Knit a blanket for a friend.

I finally found the perfect pattern after years of looking. I’ve got most of the yarn too, though now I’m on the search for a few more skeins to make it truly large and in charge. Not sure if I’ll finish it this year, but I’d like it to be mostly done.

8. Try knitting different sock heels.

The gusset and heel flap is a tried and true favorite for me. The construction fits everyone I knit socks for, and I can pretty much do it in my sleep. Same with afterthought heels. But I want to branch out and learn something new. It’s time to figure out how to make short row heels fit me. I also want to try out the strong heel and give the sweet tomato heel another shot. Plus, I’m sure there’s more heel types that I haven’t heard of, and I might want to give them a try too.

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As for my non-knitting but still creative goals, I’ve got a few I’d like to share here too.

• Get my spinning wheel out of storage, clean it up, and spin some yarn.

• Publish three knitting patterns. I even know which three I’m going to work on.

• Set up a shop on Ko-Fi to as a Ravelry alternative. You can download all of my knitting patterns here on WithWool, but it’s not a shop. Ko-if makes it easy to pay what you want, and I’d like to give it a try.

• Blog more by focusing on shorter posts instead of saving everything up for one long post that I’ll never get around to publishing.

Whelp, that turned out to be about as long of a list as I expected. Sure, there’s a lot on it, but I think it’s doable in bits and pieces all year long. Is your list of 2023 crafty goals as long as mine or are you skipping the whole goal thing this year?

Adventures In Tie-Dyeing Yarn

A bare ball of cotton yarn sitting next to bottles of dye on a plastic work surface.

I’ve been slowly scribbling out a Summer Bucket List for the past few weeks. There’s a few of the usual things - making popsicles, going to the pool, having a picnic at the park - and tackling some tie-dye. The kiddo was all in when I suggested the idea, and helped pick out a few things cover in bright neons. There were bags, shirts, a dress, and yarn of course. I dug through the stash and pulled two balls of dishcloth cotton and the last few grams of cotton from a giant cone. Spoiler alert: I could have pulled out an extra ball or two.

I kept the yarn prep pretty minimal. I skeined the yarn from the cone and kept the balls as they were. My only attempt to keep the balls from tangling was to put a rubber band around the middle. Then everything got a soak in some warm water and Eucalan to wash off the leftover oils from the spinning process. That soak probably lasted about 45 minutes because I got distracted. So all the yarn was good and damp when I got to work on it.

Next came the fun part: dyeing! I used a Tulip One Step Tie-Dye Kit in Ultimate. I saved the yarn for last so I could use up any leftover dye.

A skein of cotton yarn dyed with blue, pink, and purple.

I swirled up the skein into a loose spiral before drizzling the dye over the top. Pink in the middle with purple and blue on opposite sides. Coiling it up ended up creating a lot of short sections of color which will look super cool in a washcloth.

A ball of cotton yarn dyed with green, blue, purple, and pink sitting next to a teal paper towel soaked with extra dye.

Another ball of cotton dyed with blue, green, pink, and purple.

The other two balls I drenched in dye. One half of a ball got a big chunk of color while the other half got smaller sections of different colors. I tried to get as much dye as I could in the center of the balls. Probably over did it with one because dye started pouring out when I picked up the ball. At least it was a pretty color. When I was done, each bundle of yarn went into its own bag.

A third ball of cotton dyed with blue, green, and yellow dyes that were several days old.

There was still a little bit of dye left, but I was out of yarn. I made a second trip to the stash a day or two later and prepped one more ball of cotton the same as the others. This ball did not get as thoroughly saturated with dye as the other balls, and I’m really curious to see how it turns out.

Washing the excess dye from the ball in the sink.

After the dye sat for about 24 hours - way more than the recommended 8 - I rinsed out as much of the excess dye as I could under cold water. The water was still running purple, blue, pink, and green after rinsing and and lots of squishing. So they got two baths with Eucualan. The first cold and the second hot.

The first soak with all the dyed yarn turned the cold water purple.

The water in this first cold bath was purple. And the bottom ball of yarn was just barely holding together. The second bath, and the third, were blue. Washing the third ball did exactly the same thing. In all the videos I watched about tie-dyeing yarn, no one mentioned how long or how hard it would be to rinse out the excess dye, especially when working with a yarn cake/ball. The general advice was rinse and skein the yarn to dry. That’s it. So, I had to experiment a bit to find something that worked.

Step 1: Drying the yarn. I so did not want to put a bunch of wet, dye-bleeding yarn on my swift. Thankfully, there was another option. I have a rack for the inside of my dryer that lets me dry stuff flat without tumbling it around. So, the yarn, even balls that were falling apart, went on the rack in the dryer. They didn’t get perfectly dry, but dry enough to not stain my wood swift when I wound them into skeins.

Step 2: Winding skeins. The only bit of yarn I dyed in a skein, was the only bit of yarn that wasn’t constantly bleeding more dye after multiple rinses. So, all the balls of yarn are getting turned into skeins of yarn.

The outer strands (top) and inner strands (bottom) of one of the dyed yarn balls.

This was my first chance to see how the inside of the yarn balls took up the dye! The outer most strands are on top with the inner strands on the bottom. As expected, the yarn from the outside of the ball has a deeper, more saturated color. The inner strands are more pastel, and remind me of a tie-dyed Easter egg. I’m not sure if this difference is because less dye reached the center or because the pre-soak wasn’t able to wash out as much of the spinning oils. Maybe a little of both? This gradient effect occurred across all three of the balls I dyed, no matter how much dye I used.

Step 3: One more rinse with the right soap. When I realized that just rinsing it with my usual soap wasn’t going to cut it, I ordered a bottle of Synthrapol, a special soap that catches any excess dye from yarn/fabric and suspends it in the rinse water.

By the time I got to washing and rinsing the yarn with Synthrapol a week later, I was wondering if I was being a little too cautious. Maybe the regular soap had washed the dye out already. Turns out, the extra steps were totally necessary. This is what the water looked like after soaking the yarn for 40 minutes in hot water.

All dyed yarn in a hot water rinse with Synthrapol. The water turned slightly blue.

This time, the water ran clear during a rinse with cold water.

Step 4: Hang it up to dry. Since I wasn’t worried about the yarn staining everything around it blue and purple, it went on drying rack. I rolled the yarn up in a towel and stomped on it a few times to squish out as much water was possible first, but that was all the special treatment it got this time around.

All four dyed yarns washed, dried, and put up in hanks.

The finished yarn looks like it’ll be fun to work with. The colors aren’t as eye-searingly bright and saturated as they looked before washing and rinsing which I’m actually really happy with. The muted (by comparison) tones are much more my jam. I’m also curious to see how well the color holds up after multiple trips through the wash.

Now that there are 4 finished skeins in front of me, would I use a tie-dye kit to dye yarn again? Yeah. I even have a second kit in a darker color palette when I’m ready to give it a go.

Will I dye yarn again in balls? Probably not. The yarn dyed as a skein was way easier to wash and finish than the yarn balls. The skeined yarn also had a more consistent color. I had hoped for a more even color through the whole ball - just with more blank spots in the middle - which was not what happened. The ombré effect is cool, sure, but not enough of a reason for me to go through the extra steps and hassle.

The other thing I would do differently next time is prep more yarn, even if there were a few skeins that didn’t get dyed. The yarn dyed with fresh dye has a deeper color than the yarn I dyed two days later at the end of the dyes’ life span. I’d also wash the yarn with Synthrapol from the first rinse and save a lot of time and water.

Dyeing yarn with a tie-dye kit was a fun experiment. It’s been a long time since I’ve dyed yarn, and it was nice to scratch that itch after so many years. Now I’m excited to knit all this up and make some cool new kitchen towels and washcloths.

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2022 Goals

The start of March is a great time to write about goals and projects for 2022. Yeah? Yeah, I think so.

I didn’t really give my crafty goals any thought in November and December 2021. It wasn’t until mid-January that the idea of goals for this year even started to percolate. In February, some of them even sounded doable. Now that it’s March, I’m ready to get started.

My first big goal is the recurring, perennial aim of finishing up the big, lingering projects and the small, lingering projects too. There’s spinning long-overdue handspun for a friend. There’s ripping out a sock because I knit it too long and need the yarn for sock #2. There’s even a sock-monkey without a head kicking around. I want them all done and not taking up space in my WIP pile. There’s plenty more I’m forgetting too, but their time will come.

A stack of yellow and black yarn cakes being held in front of a painted brick wall.

My second goal is to make more stuff for me. I’ve made plenty of gifts for others, but my stuff usually gets pushed to the back burner. There’s a long list of mitts, shawls, socks, and sweaters that I’ve wanted to make for years. The yarns are wound, and the patterns are bought, but the needles are still empty.

Hand dyed spinning fiber is shades of blue and maroon.

The third goal is to spin some yarn, any yarn. My spinning wheel has been packed away for I can’t even remember how long. We miss each other. Now that the kiddo is a little older, I might be able to keep it out where I can use it (and maybe get her interested in spinning too).

My other crafty goals have nothing to do with yarn. I want to learn Inkscape and figure out how to make vector art and my own cut files for my Cricut. I want to blog more and get used to writing shorter, more frequent posts. I want to bind books, make cards again, and play with paper.

This is a pretty short list overall, but I know it’ll keep me busy all year.

Time For Some Wooly Spring Cleaning

Close up details of the unwashed wool blanket with plenty of lanolin and veggie matter to go around.

Warmer Spring weather has kicked up in fits and spurts over the past few weeks. So, it’s time for that giant box of fiber that’s been sitting on a shelf in the garage to finally get some time in the sun and the tub.

My dad sent me a 16” x 16” x 17” box last year. I poked at it a little bit, but wasn’t quite ready to jump into washing it just then. I wanted to do a little practice first and had a much smaller chunk of alpaca that would be a good start to learn how to wash raw fiber. I chronicled that learning attempt here, and it went really well. With a little experience and confidence under my belt, I was ready to get started…eventually.

One of the two bags from the box and absolutely stuffed full of a skirted wool fleece.

I opened this box and dug in before I could change my mind or the weather changed my plans for me. The box was packed with two bags that each contained a full skirted fleece! I only had the time and bags to work with one of the bags, so I left the second fleece in the box for later. Maybe this summer? Hopefully this summer.

A small sample of the wool from this fleece.

A close up of one of the wool locks.

Anyway, I don’t have any details about what kind of wool this, just that it’s wool. The fleece wasn’t dirty and dusty like alpaca, but a little bit greasy and yellow from the lanolin. There was a fair amount of veggie matter and some second cuts - both of which I pulled out much of what I could. While the locks don’t have much in the way of a tight crimp, it is strong with a 4-5” staple length. After pulling out the dirtiest sections (spoiler alert: I should have pulled out more), I divided the fleece into 7 bags for easier washing.

7 mesh bags full of wool fleece ready for a wash in a utility sink.

My original plan was to wash the fleece in a big tub in the back yard, but that was before I had a utility sink. Washing a big chunk of wool seemed like the perfect thing to really break that sink in. I grabbed the 4 of the 7 bags to get started because I only have so much drying room. Then I filled up the tub with the hottest water I could get, 120 F, and added my soap. I’m using Mrs Meyers Clean Day Dish Soap (<- affiliate link) which is sulfate free (and what I used to wash the alpaca fiber). This batch got two soaks in soapy water (so much dirt!) and two soaks without soap. Then I laid them flat to dry. It was so hard not to poke the bags every hour to see if they were dry yet.

A handful of washed fleece showing off the lock structure and a little bit of veggie matter.

When all the wool was finally dry, I was afraid that I’d felted it in the wash! I didn’t - whew! - but the wool was compacted. It takes a little effort, but I can still pull it apart and tease out the individual fibers. Now that the wool was clean I could finally get a good look at it. Most of the fiber is a bright white and only a few of the tips stayed yellow. It is also very soft and fine. I’d say that I lucked out with this fleece. Thank you, Dad!

Of course, I couldn’t resist seeing what would happen after the wool took a trip through the drum carder. This was a learning experience on all fronts. The wool (because it was compacted from the wash), took a chunk of work to get ready to feed into the drums. Then all the veggie matter I hoped would come out with drum carding, didn’t. So I spent way more time picking out grass and hay that I’d skipped over in the beginning. Bah. I also learned that this particular wool is very fine and two passes through the carder is the most it can take. Anything more will tangle the fiber into neps which would be a complete waste of some really beautiful wool.

I was also reminded of a few absolutely key points:

• Don’t wear all black when working with white fiber.

• An apron to wipe your hands and hold tools would be really helpful.

• Save outside drum carding for less windy days.

• Keep your hands moisturized so the fiber doesn’t just cling to your fingers for the fun of it.

• Find all the tools you’re going to need before you start working with the carder.

• Toddlers don’t care about drum carding. Toddlers care about being pushed on the swings. (This one is the most important.)

The first finished batt from the washed wool fleece ready to come off the drum carder.

The fluffy and flighty wool batt after pulling it up to come off the drum carder.

Close up view of the underside of the batt as it comes of the drum carder.

The finished batt is just shy of 2 ounces and only a small fraction of what I washed. The drum carder wasn’t cleaned after my last carding projects so there’s bits of green wool and cinnamon alpaca in there. Still, it looks really good even if it does have more veggie matter in there than I’d like. I’m looking forward to spinning up a few samples of 2 and 3 ply yarns. It’ll certainly help me decide what to make with the finished yarn when I have a better idea of how much fiber I actually have.

The drum carder after removing the batt. The drums are still covered wool stuck down at the base of the cloth.

Now I have to go pick all the stray fibers out of my drum carder before I can card the next batch.

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Adventures in Washing Alpaca Fiber

Thanks to the kindness and generosity of family and friends, I have accumulated a fair bit of alpaca fleece in a few different colors. The most recent addition was a 16” x 16” x 17” box from my Dad packed full of beautiful grey and black locks. It’s still sitting in the box too because it has a distinct aroma. Now that warmer temps are here to stay for a few more months, I’m ready to give washing and prepping alpaca fleece a try.

So far, the bulk of my fiber processing experience has been with wool and alpaca that’s already been washed and dyed. The lone exception was this alpaca handspun I made a few years ago. That yarn started as fiber that I turned into batts with a drum carder. But I didn’t wash the fiber before hand, because the general consensus from what I’d read was that you didn’t have too since alpaca don’t produce lanolin. Yeah…no. The finished yarn was wonderful but spinning it left dirt everywhere - my hands, the drum carder, my lap, kitchen table, etc. So all of this new stuff definitely needs a wash.

Before digging into that box and committing to a massive washing project, I’m starting small with 7 oz of cinnamon brown alpaca from a friend. It smells pretty clean, but there’s a lot of vegetable matter and my hands definitely feel a little grimy after digging around in the fiber. A lot of my researching and learning about how other people wash alpaca has shown me that there are a lot of different methods. What’s been the same is this:

• don’t agitate the water - let the fiber soak

• use warm to hot water

• gentle dish soap works really well

• mesh bags are a must

• if you’re going to use a machine machine, it has to be a top loader

So, keeping all that stuff in mind, here’s what my set up involves:

• A big flexible tub to soak and wash the fleece outside my washing machine is a front loader

• Mild dish soap - I’m using Mrs Meyers dish soap which is sulfate free

• Lots of mesh bags

• An old towel

• My patio table

One more important note before getting into the grit of it, I’m washing stuff outside because I don’t want to clean the tub more than I have too. Let’s get started.

The first step is shoving all the alpaca in bags. I ended up splitting the 7 oz into 2 bags so it’d have room to loose dirt. I also picked out a few bits of bigger veggie matter and removed any second cuts I happened to find.

Now for the tub. I filled it up with water from the hose which is definitely on the cooler side. To warm things up I used an electric kettle to boil some water. It didn’t get anywhere near as hot as I expected but it was warm. Then I added a few tablespoons of soap and smooshed the bags under the water until they stayed completely submerged.

This is what the water looked like after 20 minutes. I could not see the bottom of the tub even a little.

I pulled the bags, rolled them up to squeeze out some water, and emptied the tub. Then I refilled the tub with the same amount of hot and cold water for a rinse without soap. The bags went back in and I set another timer.

The bags sat in this water for closer to 30 minutes because I had other stuff to do. This time I could almost see the bottom of the tub.

Decided to do one more soak in soapy water. I didn’t have to add any hot water this time because the hose sat in the sun long enough to heat things up.

After another 30 minutes (took a lunch break), the water was clear and I could see the bottom. Plus, the water I squeezed out of the fiber was only slightly cloudy. Looked good enough to me so I gave them one last soak in plain water to rinse out the soap. After taking the bags out of the tub, I rolled them up in a towel and gave them a good squeeze.

Here’s what the still very wet alpaca looks like. The larger VM is still there and I’ll probably have to pick it out by hand, but the dust and dirt is gone. Yay! One step closer to spinning this up.

I left the fiber in the bags so it wouldn’t blow away while it dries on the patio table. I did arrange it into a more even layer so it would dry faster. The day’s weather was hot and arid, but it still took the rest of the night inside to dry.

What did I end up with after a morning’s worth of work and a day’s drying time? Much cleaner fiber. The larger bits of VM are still there, but the dust and grit are gone. Doesn’t feel like I stuck my hand in a bucket of dust after touching the stuff. The fiber isn’t felted and I was able to pull apart some of the locks to get a better look at what I have to work with.

It’s definitely going to be work getting the rest of the fiber to this point, but I’m looking forward to getting this on the drum carder.

On the whole, washing this batch of alpaca fiber went pretty well. There’s not much I’d do differently. Hotter water will probably be a requirement for dirtier fleece so I’ll add 2 kettles worth of hot water for the big batch. Gloves might also have to be a thing for the really dirty stuff. I also wish the bags I have were a bigger mesh to let larger chunks out, but these still work fine. There’s still a few more things I want to try before digging into that massive box - like picking out more of the veggie matter and sending this fiber through the drum carder - but that shouldn’t hold me up too long.

References

This video from Jillian Eve gave me a good idea of what needed to be picked out before stuffing the fiber into mesh bags for cleaning. Might help you too if you’re using a washing machine to wash the alpaca.

This video focuses on tumbling and hand washing alpaca. Really makes me wish I had a double basin utility sink.

A short and to the point list about how to wash alpaca.

#the100DayProject 2020

I thought up a few different ideas for 2020’s #the100DayProject. Drawing every day. Learning to play the ukulele. Daily journaling. Consistent pattern design work. Recommitting to my other preexisting daily projects. In the end, I decided to go with the very first idea I had: making yarn everyday.

Spinning has been sorely neglected around here. I spun my most recent skein of yarn in 2018 for Tour de Fleece. I’m writing up the first draft of this post in the lull of cooking cauliflower for dinner and can’t remember if that skein ever made it off the bobbin to set the twist. Ugh. So, April 7th is the day I start spinning again.

But not on my wheel, on my spindles. I need a project for during the day that I can do around the kiddo. I need to be able to pick it up and put it down quickly. It needs to fit in a bag that can go on a shelf out of her reach. So the spindle wins over the wheel. Plus, kiddo needs to see mom doing something that isn’t staring at her phone/screens and that thing should be something mom likes to do.

There was one other big deciding factor as well. There’s not enough time during naps or after she goes to bed for another project. Those hours are full, and I do have to sleep sometime. It’s also a big help that I already have the tools and materials too.

So I’ve picked out my favorite spindle, a 33g Jenkins Turkish Swan, and a few bumps of fiber that have caught my eye. First up is 5 oz of organic Polworth that I picked up at the Handweavers of Boulder Guild Show and Sale last year (I think it was last year). Looks like the second project will be 4 oz of heathered BFL from Greenwood Fiber Arts.

Aside from making yarn everyday, I haven’t attached many constraints to this project. I’m not spinning for a project (at least right now), and I’m not using it clear the stash (though it will). Mostly, I’m just hoping to make spinning a part of my routine again and refresh my muscle memory. As for the posting every day on Instagram part of #the100DayProject, nope. I’m thinking about doing a weekly check in to hold myself accountable and show off my progress. Something simple so that it doesn't feel like a chore.

I took the opportunity on Saturday to prep my fiber and spindle. So I am ready. Are you tackling the project this year? It not too late to join or start, even if it’s way past April 7th when you’re reading this and social distancing is wearing thin.

2016 Gift Tag Round-Up

It's almost time to put all those knitted, crocheted, and handmade goodies under the tree. So, I'm rounding up a few of my favorite printable gift tags to make wrapping faster and easier. Anything to get a few more minutes of knitting time is a good thing!   

And here's the last gift tag round up with even more goodies!

I love the simplicity of this lovely gift tags from puresweetjoy.com.

Looking for something cute and colorful? foxandhazel.com has beautiful gift tag printables with a Scandinavian twist. 

Need a little snark to go with your handmade gift? smallfriendly.com has you covered. 

Want a vintage touch to your tags? Here are some simple, cuties from Sew DIY. 

Simple and straight to the point gift tags are great too. Get this free tag from masondixonknitting.com.

Looking Back At 2015

I’m usually not sentimental about the start of a new year, and the beginning of 2016 is no different. But I do like look back over the past year to see what I've accomplished, what to do in the new year, and what to be grateful for. 

 With Wool

I’ve kept a fairly consistent schedule writing, photographing, and designing for With Wool, but I wasn’t very dedicated. I frequently waited until the last minute or just hoped that an idea for something to write about would just fall into my lap - didn’t happen often. It was until October that I finally got serious and made the work a regular part of my routine. My goal was to spend 2 hours a day working on With Wool - be it designing patterns, writing tutorials, editing photos, putting together the newsletter, brainstorming, or learning about social media. Those 2 hours were occasionally hard to fill though they could expand to take up an entire day, like when I was releasing the Mosaic Sisters.

What about the numbers? In 2015, I self-published 2 patterns: The Cuddly Chevron Blanket in January and The Mosaic Sisters in December. Not a bad pair of end caps for this year. Behind the scenes, I also worked on a few others patterns that I’m looking forward to showing you in 2016. Hats! Socks! Color work! Oh my!

I wrote 51 blog posts, including this one. My favorite is How To Knit And Block A Giant Blanket In 47 Easy Steps. 19 posts were tutorials for knitting or spinning. I'm proudest of Mosaic Knitting 101 and of the long-tail cast on video tutorial. In total, I’m only 1 post short of managing 1 blog post for every week this year which sounds like an awesome goal to aim for next year.

2015 was also the year I got serious about sending out the With Wool Weekly newsletter every week. I’ve really come to enjoy putting it together and seeing it grow as the year progressed. Tomorrow, I’m sending out the 50th newsletter of the year, but it’s also the 54th newsletter since I started sending them out. Looking forward to seeing how to grows and changes. You can sign up here or through the sidebar to the right. 

#YearOfMaking

#yearofmaking was success! I made something on 352 days of 2015. Looking Back At 2015 - withwool.com

#YearOfMaking was my other major project this year. My only intention was to make something everyday, and post a photo of my progress to Instagram. I haven’t kept up with the photos lately, but I have kept making for the entire year. Some days, the only thing I made was dinner, but dinner still counts. There were times when I was sick, tired, or stuck on planes all day. I am proud to write that I only skipped 13 days. If I finish the year strong and I intend to, I’ll have made something 352 days this year which is nothing to sneeze at. 

During those 352 days, I’ve done more and learned more than I would have otherwise. I finished knitting my first sweater and finished my extra large Norma Blanket. I spun yarn for Tour de Fleece and Spinzilla. I spun my first sock yarn and gained the confidence attempt spinning cashmere. I spent a month drawing. I built cairns in the Arizona desert. I’ve hauled my camera all over San Francisco to practice photography. 

Deciding to do a #yearofmaking was a great last minute decision which is why I’m doing it again. While I’m glad I did a lot over the past year, I have one complaint. A lot of the time I felt like I was just going through the motions. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I want to spend this year learning and improving my skills. That’s why, I’m picking one thing focus on this time around.  2016 is about making art - not with yarn or fiber, but with pencils, ink, and markers. Maybe I’ll even learn to paint. There’s still going to plenty of yarn, but the urge to draw and make art everyday is something I can’t deny any longer.  

Looking back, 2015 has been a great year on all fronts. Here’s hoping that 2016 is even better! What are your plans for the new year? 

I-Cord Necklace How To

While I was shopping for beads for an upcoming project, I found a cute turtle pendant that ended up in my digital cart. It was still cute once I had it in hand, but I didn’t have a way to wear it. I knew if I put it away in drawer that I’d forget about it so it stayed on the table. My kitchen table, AKA my desk, is a jumble of books, yarn, knitting needles, spinning fiber, and tech. It wasn’t long before the pendant and the right yarn ended up next to each other. It be much easier to make a necklace for the pendant instead of forgetting to ever buy one. 

Materials

2-3 yds Sport Weight Yarn

2 2.75 mm double pointed needles OR a short circular needle

A pendant, charm, or bead

Tapestry needle

Knitting The Cord

 Cast on 3 stitches and slide them to the right tip of the needle. 

Pull the working end of the yarn behind the stitches from left to right. Knit the 3 stitches and slide them back to the right hand tip of the needle. This method allows you to work flat but still get a closed, round cord when you’re done. 

Repeat until the i-cord is 19” long or the length you want plus 2” to tie the knots. I decided how long to make my i-cord by comparing it the length of one of my favorite necklaces. 

Bind off the 3 stitches and cut the working yarn. Weave in the ends by pushing the needle and thread through the center of the cord for an inch before pushing the needle out and cutting the thread. If your pendant has a small bail or opening, wait to weave in one of the ends. 

While not strictly necessary, blocking the i-cord will help even out the stitches and create a nicer looking necklace. To block, soak the i-cord in cool water for 15 minutes. Wrap it in a towel and squeeze out the excess water without wringing. Lay it flat to dry. 

Tying the Stopper Knot

It might take a few attempts to get the knots in the right spot or looking just so. Keep the tapestry needle ready because it’s a big help unpicking the knots. I re-tied each several times to get the right tension and placement.

Make a loop with one end of the cord. 

Bring the end of the cord behind both strands of the loop…

then pull it around the first loop and into the space between the loop and the wrapping end of the cord.

Pull the end through the first loop from behind and tighten the knot. 

If the photos aren’t helping, check out this animation of how to tie the Stopper Knot. 

Before tying the next knot, string the pendant. If the bail is small, pull the unwoven end through the bail first and use it to pull the cord through. Weave in the end. 

Tying the Slip Knot

Make a loop with the opposite end of the cord.

Bring the end over the legs of the first loop and make a second loop. 

Wrap the end around the first loop’s two legs twice and bring the end out through the second loop. Tighten the knot leaving the first loop open at the end. Done correctly, you’ll be able to shrink or grow the loop as needed. I like the pull the slip knot tight after pulling the stopper knot through to keep the necklace in place.  

If the photos aren’t helping, check out this animation of how to tie the Slip Knot. 

Done! Enjoy your new necklace!

Lessons from 31 Days of #DrawingAugust

There’s been plenty of knitting going around here. I finished a sweater, put a few feet on a scarf, and worked on a few designs. While it feels great to have made progress and crossed a few things off my knitting list, August’s main project was #DrawingAugust. #DrawingAugust is pretty simple - draw every day and show your work. Thanks to the previous habit-building 212 days of #yearofmaking, drawing everyday was pretty easy. When I missed a day, I caught up on the next day which means I have 31 drawings tucked away in my sketch book. 

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The hard part of this challenge wasn’t the drawing. It was showing my work. There were a few sketches that I was really proud of, and I couldn’t wait to post them to Instagram. But there were also a few that I would have rather hidden away. I’m a firm believer that once something goes online, it’s always online. The possibility that someone’s first impression of my work might not be the “perfect” one I want is rattling. Even though I’ve posted the less than perfect sketches this month, it didn’t get any easier. Here’s the thing though: I’d didn’t start #DrawingAugust with the intention of creating perfection. There’s no way I could have finished 31 sketches or even started the first if I had. #DrawingAugust was about the process, about learning, and about doing the work. I wasn’t chasing perfection; I was just trying to get better at drawing. 

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31 days later I’m happy to say that my drawing skills did improve. I’m certainly more confident with a pen. I’ve also gotten past the idea that all of my sketches had to 100% accurate. That rule had been floating around in my head for years, and it wasn’t until I let it go that I realized how much it held me back. I knew I couldn’t accurately reproduce an object so there was no reason to try. Beginner or not, the idea that you have to chase perfection and achieve it every day can be the biggest stumbling block. You have to give yourself permission to fail so that you can keep trying day after day. 

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Also, 20 - 30 minutes every day adds up. The bulk of my sketches took about 20 minutes from start to finish. Some might have only taken 5 and some might have take 45, but 20 minutes was the norm. 20 minutes a day might not seem like much, but that’s over 10 hours of work spread across the month. It’s time well spent.  

Now that it’s September, I’m moving on to a different daily project, but I’m not packing away the sketchbook. I was getting bored doing straight line drawing so I’m going to experiment and try different techniques and styles. Maybe I’ll have a full sketchbook by the end of the year.

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223 Days of #YearOfMaking

Read more: Lessons from 50 Days of #YearOfMaking

Way back on January 1st when I started #yearofmaking, my goals were simple. I wanted to make something every day, learn new things, and improve my skills. To keep myself accountable, I’d post a photo of the day’s work to Instagram. Day 223 looks a lot different than Day 1. 

Over the past 7+ months, I’ve spun yarn, knit a lot, cooked many dinners, taken photos, written thousands of words, made videos, baked cakes, and doodled. I have photos and logs tracking everything I’ve made. Seeing those chains grow has helped me keep going. Sure, there are days that I didn’t make anything, but those days are rare. 

Making something every day is now a habit and I get a little fidgety if I haven’t done something by the end of the day. That’s not to say that I’m finishing something everyday. There’s no way I could keep up the pace if a project had to be complete by the time I went to bed. If I only knit 2 rows on sock, it counts. Building the habit of making is what was important. 

I’ve gotten a lot of good from #yearofmaking but it was starting to feeling like I was just going through the motions in June and July. Then Tour de Fleece happened. To get ready I set goals and picked a skill to focus on. After 3 dedicated weeks of spinning, my forward draft and handspun were much improved. I was even able to check “make sock yarn” off my spinning bucket list! Seeing that improvement put the excitement back into daily making. 

When Tour de Fleece ended, I went looking for something else to focus on. When I read about #DrawingAugust I knew I’d found my next goal. I’m now drawing every day and keeping the sketches simple so I can finish them in 15 - 30 minutes. Some drawings I’m really proud of and others I’m embarrassed to show, but they all go up. It’ll be nice to see how I’ve improved at the end of the month. Plus, this project has also been a good kick in the butt to finally watch all those online classes I’ve bought and never gotten around to watching. 

Instead of being separate projects, Tour de Fleece and #DrawingAugust brought intention back to #yearofmaking for me. At first, just making something every day was enough because I was building the habit. Once that intention was “complete”, I was still making things but I wasn’t learning or improving my skills. I needed a new intention to keep going or I was going to find reasons about why playing video games was a perfect use of all my free time. This month, improving my drawing is my motivation. These smaller goals are what’s going to keep me making to the end of the year.  

My Kitchen Table Is My Studio

Abby Glassenberg posted a photo of her work space, her kitchen table covered with legal pads and her laptop. The shot was taken at night and wasn’t styled to be “Pinterest perfect”. The first comment asked, “Where is your inspiration?” Her response and thoughts on the imagined requirement of inspiring studio space are worth a read. What stuck with me most from the entire piece was her closing statement: 

“If [you] believe you need inspiration, or a beautiful space, or just the right environment in order to make creative work, you’ll never begin.”

I often imagine my perfect studio. The room is always well lit and bright thanks to big windows with a lovely view. There are shelves and cupboards for yarn, fiber, books, and every possible tool. There’s a desk for writing/getting lost on the internet and a drawing table with a parallel bar. The remaining wall space is covered in art, including this Alpacalypse! print I’ve already squirreled away. I’ve got the space for every creative thing, both work and hobby, that I could ever want to do. 

Here’s the thing though, it’ll be years before I have anything remotely like the space in my imagination. That Alpacalypse! print is rolled up in a tube waiting for a place on an imaginary studio wall. Like Abby, I do most of my work at the kitchen table. It’s covered in yarn, notions, paper, and notebooks by the end of the day. My supplies are stashed wherever there’s room for them. As much as I want that studio because I have the far-flung idea that it’ll just make working so much easier, I don’t have the luxury of waiting. I have to make and do and challenge myself now for my own sanity. If I don’t, that far off in the future studio won’t need to exist at all. 

There's a bike in my spinning nook too.

While churning out these words, some of which came easier than others, I’ve realized how silly it is to put a print away for a studio wall that hasn’t been built. I’m getting it out, putting it in a frame, and finding a spot for it now. Also, while that imagined studio would be amazing, all I really need is somewhere to keep my supplies in one easily accessible spot. Wandering the apartment and shuffling boxes to look for one specific thing is already old. I can get shelves and keep working from the kitchen table. 

Lessons From 50 Days Of #YearOfMaking

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During the last few months of 2014, I started hearing about #yearofmaking from Kim Werker. As I become familiar with the one rule behind the project - just make something everyday - I started seriously considering taking on the 365 day project. The only thing holding me back was my previous attempts at a daily projects. I’ve tried daily drawing and photography projects that topped out at 31 days but rarely kept up. 

So, why commit to 365 days of making then? Besides from reading about Kim Werker’s creative adventures, I also read about Crystal Moody’s. Her blog, documenting her daily attempts at drawing and making art, was the only one that I went back through the archives and read from the first post. Over 2014, I saw her art steadily improve and her thoughts about making art mature. I wanted to gain similar improvements for myself. I also just wanted to make stuff since I spent way too much of 2014 distracted by video games and stuff on the internet. I needed to knit, to spin, to draw, to make, and to learn again. 

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On January 1st, 2015 the only rules I set for myself were to make something every day and post of a photo of to Instagram to keep myself accountable. I could make anything I wanted. On Day 1, I blocked a shawl. Day 4 saw me stacking cairns at a park in Arizona. Over the past 50 days I’ve knit socks, added inches to a cabled scarf, started doodling again, made lots of tasty food, practiced photography, and spun yarn. I haven’t missed a day so far, not even while I was sick, and it’s been an amazing part of my year.

Besides from making stuff, I also wanted to learn new things. So, what have I learned?

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• Making stuff is awesome and I rather like it. Simple? Yes, but I forgot during the funk that was 2014.

• Accountability is key. If I wasn’t tracking my progress with Instagram and my Bullet Journal, I’m sure I would have slacked off and skipped a day here and there. Since I’m creating that record and making it public, I’m always thinking about what I’m going to be making which has been liberating instead of stifling. I’m not waiting for inspiration to find me, I’m going looking for it.

• Variety is the spice of life. Looking through my photos, there are long streaks where I just knit on a pair of socks for a week at a time before getting bored. I don’t feel tied to any one project or craft. When I was bored of the socks, I switched over to spinning and got some lovely alpaca handspun when I finished. A few days ago, I felt like pulling out my sketchbook and doodling so that exactly what I did. Not tying myself to a specific craft is why I’m going to be able to make something 365+ days in a row. 

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• Keep learning. Once finished, that new pair of striped hand knit socks is going to be great. I’m also rather fond of the meditative process involved in knitting ribbing for that long but I’m not learning anything new. After the sock knitting excitement wore off, it felt like I was just calling it in. Tired? Don’t want to do anything? Knit on the sock, post a photo, done. Sometimes you need that but it gets boring day after day. Push yourself to try a new technique or a new skill. Doesn’t matter if that day’s making isn’t perfect. You still tried, made, and learned something new. 

• Making is more than you do with your hands. Most of what I see when I search for the #yearofmaking and #yearofcreativehabits tags are physical items. There’s painting, knitting, soap making, scrapbooking, dinner, crochet, pottery, and the list goes on. What I don’t see are word counts for essays & stories, photography practice, or other less physical things. Are those things lacking because they’re harder to photograph? Is it because there’s a different group of people doing them? Is there a hashtag I haven’t heard about? I don’t know. What I do know is that making is an intention and a thought process. While the end result is different, whether I’m spinning alpaca or fiddling with the ISO and aperture on my camera, the creative drive is the same.

What am I going to learn in the next 50 days of #yearofmaking? No idea, but that’s what makes it exciting. 

2015 is the #YearOfMaking + Resources

I started seriously thinking about what my theme/word would be in 2015 last week. I can stick to a theme/word much better than I can to individual resolutions. (Learn more about the word idea here.) A few weeks ago I was pretty sure that 2015 would be the Year of Handspun but I wanted to do more than spin yarn, fun as it is. I also want to write, draw, knit, take photographs, and whatever else comes to mind. I want to become a better photographer. I want to learn and use my hands. 

One word just didn’t seem like enough to cover all of those things. I was wrong though because the perfect word, MAKE, snuck up and smacked me upside the head. Make will let me write, draw, spin, knit, or whatever. It’ll let me do things with my hands. It will help me research and learn. It will prod me get stuff done. It’ll make me happy. Mix all of that together and MAKE is a wonderful thing.

In order to get myself making January 1st and keep on going through December 31st, I’m going to do the #yearofmaking challenge. The only rule is to make something everyday whether it’s cooking a tasty dinner or updating my site or knitting a single row on a scarf. All are perfectly valid. To keep myself accountable, I’ll be posting a photo of the day’s progress to Instagram. Please call me out if I don’t post anything! There will also be the occasional blog post and, #yearofmaking will be the first thing on my to-do list. 

Resources To Start Your Own Year Of Making

#yearofmaking didn’t come from nothing. It’s been something that I’ve been thinking about for months since I came across Year of Creative Habits by Crystal Moody. Everyday she made something and everyday she posted it to her blog. I looked forward to reading about her journey and seeing her art so much that I went back to start from the very beginning. Her thoughts and questions on creativity and daily making are thought provoking and worth reading. 

Another resource that helped me make the final leap was Kim Werker’s new ebook, Year of Making. Werker recounts her own reasons for doing a Year of Making in 2014 and gives tips for starting and maintaining the making habit. Also included are several worksheets to help you figure out what your passions are, what you want to do during the year, and what you want to try. She also details an example spreadsheet to track your progress which I’ll definitely be using.

Shoot for progress, not perfection. - Elise Blaha

I also picked up this wonderful progress tracker from Elise Blaha which will give me get the pleasure of crossing out boxes and seeing a year’s worth of daily progress at a glance.

MAKE in 2015! 

Relaunch!

Good news! The radio silence is over. I’m back with a new site and a new name, With Wool. I’ve got lots of new things - patterns, reviews, tutorials, you name it - planned for 2015. One of those new things is a weekly newsletter about knitting, spinning, interesting links, and plenty of wooly goodness. Sign up below!

With the new name, I’m taking the opportunity to take this site in a slightly different direction. Don’t worry. There’s still going to be knitting, spinning, and more wool than you can shake a knitting needle (or crochet hook) at. Over the 5 years (!) I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve wanted to talk about playing and about enjoying the process of making be it wooly or not. Most importantly though, I wanted to focus on kicking the fear of failure to the curb; of making and starting something even if you don’t know how to do it perfectly the first time. I’m not sure how well that’s shown through during the past few years but it’s coming to the forefront now.  

If you follow my posts through an RSS reader, click on over on check out the new site (the feed shouldn’t be affected by the switch). Let me know what you think!

Take A Stab At Needle Felting

One of the local yarn shops is closing down and having quite the clearance sale. Looking through was little was left, I found some felting needles. My first stab at the craft was over a year ago. That first project was a heart and it even looked like a heart, but not the cute puffy heart, like these, that I imagined. The disappointment of not being immediately good at needle felting has faded and I’m ready to try again. 

I have wool and enough needles to last me though several projects. The only thing I don’t have to a foam mat to work on so I don’t destroy my fingers or the kitchen table. While I gather up the rest of my supplies, I can’t help thinking of what I want to make. The only wool I’m willing to sacrifice to the learning process is a combination of blue, yellow, and green. Besides from felted balls, fish seemed like the only thing that would look good with that mottled combination. My mind went blank after fish. To the internet! 

After much searching through the halls of the internet, I’m still not sure what else to make with that wool but I do have plenty of ideas for other projects. Tutorials were easy to find and the best ones were usually videos. They made it easy to see just how to wrap the wool and where to stab it to make the right shapes. They showed how and where to join different pieces to make larger pieces. Watching the tutorials and seeing people actually make something got rid of a lot of the mystery of needle felting. 

The following videos are three of my favorites because of how informative and just plain cute the finished pieces are. 

A nice overview of how to make different shapes and how to combine them to make sculptural pieces.

Simple tutorial for making a cute little felted mushroom. Seems like a good beginner project.

Another simple project that combines a sphere and some logs to make a cute little bunny.

Pom-Pom Gone Wrong

This isn’t what it looks like. It’s a disheveled pom-pom that doesn’t quite look like a house. Okay, so it is what it looks like. Let me explain. I saw a tutorial for these adorable little house pom-poms over on the Mr Printables blog. Seemed like an awesome idea to make a few as Christmas ornaments. 

Before I committed myself to making 5+ of the things, I decided to whip one up as a test. The wrapping diagrams were pretty easy to follow and the step-by-step photos answered the rest of my questions. Once the pom-pom form was loaded with yarn, out came the scissors. The resulting pom-pom looked nothing like a house. Since I spent at least 10 minutes cutting the thing open, it was abundantly clear that my scissors just weren’t sharp enough to trim it to shape. So, I cut my loses and chucked it across the room. It doesn’t make much of a house but it does make a cushy projectile. 

With the right yarn, sharp scissors, and some practice, I think these pom-poms would actually look like a house. When I have all 3 of those things and a complete lack of mailing deadlines, I’ll try again. 

Occasionally, I can see the house that it was supposed to be but, most of the time, all I see is a balding cyclops.

What did work surprisingly well was the DIY pom-pom maker also from Mr Printables. I cut it out from a cardboard box and held everything together with rubber bands instead of alligator clips. If you can’t get your hands on an actual pom-pom maker, this version will definitely work in a pinch.  

Marble Dyeing

The second Saturday of April came and went while I spent the morning at my favorite fiber guild, The Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild. This month we played around with marble dyeing silk handkerchiefs. I’ve never tried marble dyeing before and was looking forward to learning something new. To dye the cloth, we dropped dye on water thickened with methylcel and then swirled the colors before laying the handkerchief on top. The treated water had the consistency and feel of slime so everything floated.

The process was pretty fun and there were some great results after a bit of troubleshooting. Sometimes the dye wouldn’t spread and just fell to the bottom of the pan. Sometimes the dye spread too much. Other times the dye wouldn’t stick to the cloth at all. The secret to marble dyeing might be holding your jaw just right. 

My first attempt came out pretty well even if it doesn’t look like traditional marbling. I’m going with surrealist peacock feather. The second try was only half successful since only one of the colors really shows. Stare at it long enough and you’ll start to see things. I’ve noticed a few faces, an alien, and an epic fish. What do you see?

Now to figure out what to do with two silk handkerchiefs and stare at marbled paper with new found appreciation.