Me-ow...

I got all inspired by my daughter's love (love!) of Hello Kitty to spin some cat fur. If you are stuck in a Hello Kitty Nightmare, check of this great site, Hello Kitty Hell. The guy who writes it is hilarious.

At least it's better than Dora! Anything to get a smidgen of relief from that madness.

By the way, if you are making novelty yarn with giant flower buttons, make sure that they fit through the oriface of your spinning wheel before you spend twenty minutes stringing them on the base yarn. Trust me on this one.

Letter to Santa, Give Mama Some Yarn

I don't know how to rotate videos on Blogger. If anyone knows how, please leave a comment.

Angel Hair and Baby's Breath

I'm having a lot of fun remixing old yarns with new handspun.

I plied a handspun wool single with vintage "Opalesce" yarn from Reynolds (45% Viscose/ 21% Wool/ 15% Acrylic/ 12% Mohair). The result is lofty, silky, fluffy, shiny...

As long as my house is a foster home for abandoned yarns, I'm going to find them new lives.

(Don't Eat) Yellow Snow

Here is a new novelty yarn for the shop. I used one skein of vintage "Fluffy" yarn from Unger, 4 strands (2 skeins) of vintage "Nevada" yarn from Flits, and two plies of my handspun targhee. I spun the whole yarn two strands at a time, crisscrossing the strands over each other after each spinning. Then I overdyed the whole skein with bright, happy yellow Jacquard dye to perk of the 70's look of the yellow faux mohair. I ended up with about almost 70 yards of bulky weight fun.

I like combining old with new, serious with funky, and wild with sedate. I'm working on some more yarn remixes this week.

Clown Vomit Cloche

Per my darling Auntie Jay's request, I have started the Clown Vomit Winter Set. Aunt Jay teaches special ed kindergarten and likes bright colors. They call her the "Pink Lady" because she wears bright pink every day. (At least that's her story and she's sticking to it...)

The yarn is my own bulky 2-ply handspun carded wool. I love spinning rolags. I am holding a single strand of vintage faux mohair for fluff. I'm going to full it a bit to close up the crochet gaps. The convertable mittens are going to be knit with the same bright flowers on the wrists.

I hope this thing shrinks enough to be a hat.

Handsome, Version 2.0

I finished my grandfather's sweater vest. It turned out better than I thought it would. I made it in his favorite color and it's machine washable.

Nothing makes me happier than making something for my family.

Caron Simply Soft Solids, 3 skeins held doubled

Size 10 needles

My own pattern

I can't wait to give it to him!

Handsome!

Want to make an instant dog sweater? Cut the sleeve off of a sweater and hem it. Cut two slits for arms and hem those. I used a women's medium wool sweater from the thrift store and hemmed it all by hand with a single ply of 4 ply worsted wool yarn. (Cut a 24" length of yarn and separate the plys like embroidery floss.)

The Stache Hat

The Stache Hat, originally uploaded by Ginga.

Some people have all of the good ideas...

Too bad David's balaclava has to be plain old black.

When will I learn?

I have a 6" triangle left to finish Clapotis and I'm out of yarn. Of course I don't remember the dye recipe for the color I'm using.

Now I have green fingernails and a somewhat matching 30 yard mini skein drying.

I'm leaving you with some lovely pictures of crocheted undies from the Charles M. Russell Museum. We visited last weekend to celebrate a Victorian Christmas. Miss Isabel had a blast.

Christmas Tea Clapotis Shawl

ravelry 005, originally uploaded by alexcateye.

I'm making a door prize for a Women's Tea at my church. It's Clapotis from Knitty.com.

The yarn is my own handspun/dyed.

They are rioting at Ravelry about this pattern. I guess it's overdone. This is my first time knitting it and I'm having a blast. It's like knitting a waltz. One, two, three...one, two three... Kate Gilbert is a genius!

Cloudy Cowl

cloudy 004, originally uploaded by alexcateye.

My sweater finished blocking. It's hard to see from the picture, but it has about 2 inches of ease. I love it. I took all of the leftovers I had and made a quick easy cowl.

I cast on 50 stitches with a size 11 needle using a provisional cast on and smooth linen waste yarn.

I knit every row until I had 5 feet left.

I picked out the cast on, put the stitches on a spare circular needle, twisted the work 1/2 of a turn, and grafted. Easy.

Grafting is easier than people say it is. Just ignore the directions and use your tapestry needle to make an imaginary row of stitches in between the two needles. When people tell you how to do it, they just mess you up.

Half-Tatted Feathered Fishing Fly Bracelet

This is my Whip Up Whiplash entry. CLICK for more info.

My stepdaughter is in the Fishing Club in school. I wanted to make her a little frippery to show that some fisherman are, in fact, pretty girls.

If you choose to make a feathered bracelet for yourself, it will be a great introduction to the motion of tatting. The entire bracelet is made with one half of the double stitch repeated. Remember hair wraps from the '90's? This is even easier.

I began by sketching out a couple of tatting shuttle shaped pieces on cardboard. I cut them out and loaded them each with a different color of Orlon fly tying thread. If you don't have any available, lace weight yarn, embroidery floss, or woolly nylon would make fine substitutes.

I chose a sturdy scrap yarn for the base. I tied a slip knit halfway down the 36 inch length and hung it from a doorknob. It would be just as easy to loop the knot over the arm of a chair. The point is that you'll want tension to keep the work straight and even.

I attached the first shuttle with another slip knot.

The stitch is simple. Make the thread look like the letter C. Slide the shuttle between the base yarn and the shuttle yarn. Repeat.

Give some slack. Make a loop. Dive the shuttle between the base yarn and the loop you just made.

Every ten knots or so, push your work towards the end with your thumbnail to keep it tight and neat.

When you're ready to add a feather, pinch it in place with your free hand and wrap the shuttle 360 degrees around a few times to hold it still. Then start your knots. Leave as much or as little of the feather free as you like.

If you'd like to add a second color, hide the end under a feather.

Tie the second shuttle on. Let the first shuttle dangle. Work all of the second color on top of the base yarn and the first shuttle's thread. Easy.

Continue adding feathers and changing colors until piece measures desired length.

Cut ends 1/2" longer than finished length and overlap.

Wrap shuttle 360 degrees around join until all base yarn is hidden, then finish with 3 or 4 knots.

Trim ends to feather height.

Alternately, any type of jewelry clasp could be sewn on instead. Because this will be worn by a teenager, I know it will be worn constantly until it disintegrates and a clasp would be unnecessary.