Lost and found

Some times you put things in storage and forget about them. It wasn't until today I was made aware of some such things that I had forgotten about. The reason for those bags my sis found was forgotten was one many probably are familiar with: moving. When I first moved out at age 18 to go to uni, I took loads of unnecessary things with me to fill my small student flat. Other things stayed behind, such as a bunch of repurposed knitting yarns I never used after becoming old enough for find finger knitting to be too childish. One thing I took with me was a bag of fabrics and yarns.

Some of the fabrics are leftovers from stuff we made in school (the blue, floral bag with my name on it was the one we used in syslöjden to store our WIPs, pincushions etc in) or scraps I bought way back in the early 90's with my pocket money. I can even remember exactly when and where I got some of them! There's one cat fabric I found after digging through a huge pile of scraps in a fabric shop. There are even a few pieces from the fabric I sewed my ball gown in when we were having the end of school ball in 9th grade (=last mandatory year in the swedish school system and last year in högstadiet). The crochet yarns are remants from a time when I was fond of crochet as a kid. Some are yarn I bought, but most of the stash are yarns I got from mom and a few are old yarns that's been lying on a shelf in the house since my grandma and aunt died in the 70's.

When moving back after uni to attend another uni closer to home, a lot of stuff just stayed in the moving boxes and bags as it wasn't my plan to stay for long. I wanted to have another flat of my own, as any young adult would want, but with the housing situation around Lund being what it was and what with being able to save a lot of money by living at home and commute to uni I stayed. Then I found it hard to get a job and was forced to stay as there was no choice. Still, most of the stuff stayed in the boxes and bags as I either didn't need them (no need for an additional set of drinking glasses and cutlery) or still nurtured a hope to move out soon, making unpacking a waste of time. The bags and boxes where stuffed away here and there. In fact, it wasn't until my sis found the bag of fabric and yarn today that I knew some of the bags were put away in that particular storage space where she eventually found it as part of the big clean out.

It's a big nostalgic, finding many scraps of fabric that I bought 20 years ago. After finding some of my old stash in my personal storage, I sort of thought that was all I had left. Despite still missing the blue bag (see above), which I sort of knew still was filled with fabric or yarn, it seems like I accepted that what I'd found was everything. That the rest was somehow just dreamt up or that I forgot using it for sometimes years ago.

But now it's all here, out in the open and accounted for. It's really high time to use them now. Surely they can't just go back in storage another 10 or 20 years! Ok, some fabrics are no longer to my taste, but others are still as good as when first bought. Can't wait to come up with an idea for them...

I've been wanting to do a rag rug for some time now and because of that lamented not having enough rags. Well, it looks like I can find some more rags now. Not the cat fabric, of cause, and there are other nice, large pieces of fabric that are too good to be torn into rags, but there seems to be scraps I could sacrifice for a rug.

My main reason for doing a rag rug isn't my green background, actually -- nor that I've found some inspiring rag rugs online. It's simply that I want to make a rug or two for my bedroom, but with all the cats that treat rugs like the perfect place to barf -- or, worse, pee or poo in protest of the sub-par litter box cleaning -- I don't want to spend much money on it. None, really. And making my own rag rugs could both a fun and economical option.

Just need to find enough useful rags -- and pick a techniques as there are many fun ones to choose between: crochet, knotting, weaving, locker hooking, tambour, braiding etc.

To bead soup party or not bead soup party...

Lori recently posted the dates for this year's Bead Soup Blog Party and just as last year I'm going back and forth on whether to sign up or not. Of cause I love making a bead soup and I enjoy getting a bead soup and the challenge of using it. I love seein what others get and what they do with their soups.

It's just... Not so much the cost of shipping or of the soup (big stash, can find good things to send without shopping) even if I can't deny money is tight as always. It's stil worth it. The big issue is that, especially as the BSBP has grown, I feel overwhelmed and stressed out by the blog hopping. I know no one will dislike me for not comment on all 500+ blogs (that's how many participants there were last year, I think) and I know there's no time limit for how soon I have to get around to visiting other participants, but even a tenth of that can feel like a lot and I feel bad if I don't hop much as the hop is an essential part of the event.

Still, despite my hesitations it's hard to resist signing up. Maybe I should just be better at making friends to swap with privately or join a swap group instead. But BSBP is still a bit special as I've joined several times (no all parties, but many), there's so much eye candy to see as so many participate and just generally, it's a fun way to find someone you've never met before to swap goodies with.

Sign ups aren't until next sunday so I still have a little time to think it over, make up my mind about whether the pros outweigh the cons. I'm always very tempted and find it hard to resist -- and always feel all out of energy when it's time to blog hop. But swapping is fun and seeing what others make for the BSBP is fun... It's hard to choose...

More loom knit swatches

Ok, I'll soon stop posting loom knitted pieces as they'll not that exciting. Promise more jewellery, cats, flower and landscape photos etc soon, you know, the stuff the blog's supposed to be about. It's about every craft I try too, of cause, but it's jewellery, cats and photos that I enjoy the most personally -- and I feel like I've been away from jewellery making and beading a little too long now. (Just too bad I'm fascinated by dried flower jewellery right now and it's totally the wrong season to find any good materials in the garden or forest -- and I want to make it more personal by using material from the farm.)

The main reason I'm mostly playing with the knit loom now is that first I needed a scarf and in researching loom knitting techniques I got hooked, had to find out how many different stitches there were etc. It's also about convenience: it's even easier to loom knit than bead or embroidery sitting in bed, being all cozy under two thick blankets and with a bunch of cats surrounding me. Perfect place to be when it's cold and windy outside! (Also, with no kittens and lazy adult cats who are more or less hibernating during winter, there's no problem with yarn chases or cats jumping on your work etc.)

And so that's why I made this piece, which is just a square of chenille yarn. Same yarn as this, but instead of the usual e wraps, I used the figure 8 stitch this time. Or, at least half of the time as I was working back and forth and couldn't make the stitch work when going from right to left. So every other row is e wraps.

The swatch is made on my large loom. Yes, the one that looks like this right now. I just started this piece on top of the half-made cushion and it worked for me, the other knitting wasn't in the way at all when just making a smaller piece like this.

My plans for tonight is probably just feed the cats and get back into the warm bed and find something to do there. Perhaps start the only thing on my loom knit to-do list right now: a pair of matching wrist warmers matching my scarf. Just need to calcute if I have enough yarn left. Or "calculate", it's more measuring the yarn, loom until I have used half the yarn see how far it'll get me. Knitting doesn't get more casual than that.

Bicoloured loom knit sampler -- part 2

I've made a new sampler while figuring out if it'll be possible to get yarn to finish my cushion (see last post) or if I need to add another colourway (that doesn't match). Did the same mistake as last time by working late at night and thinking I'll remember exactly how I did the different stitches... Some tests didn't work out so I'm just going to show the parts that were successful, not the whole sampler.

 First of all, I learned the figure 8 stitch. Above you can see it done in orange yarn to the left and mixed orange and purple yarn to the right.

 I also made a variation making a row of figure 8 stitch (orange) followed by a row of basic knit stitch (e wrap, purple).

 I then made yet another variation of basic knit stitch (e wrapped). Let's see if I remember... I made a row of orange and then added purple to every other peg (odd numbers) followed by a row of purple with orange on half the pegs (even numbers). At its best, it gives you a fun pattern as the one you can see on the left side.

 The last thing I tried was making some sort of lacy pattern. I'd seen a YT video about eyelet stitch, but couldn't remember how it was made. So I just made up something, inspired by something faintly remembered from another loom knit video, trying to create a pattern making alternately big and small gaps. You can see the pattern a bit better when stretching out the knitting a bit, like below.

 Personally, I prefer the wrong side of it.

And, yes, I'm doing this without a basic knowledge of knitting vocabulary -- something I realised could be a problem when finding a beginner-intermediate knit loom pattern using knitting abbreviations and when learning that stockinette stitch means slätstickning, which I've of cause heard of but just barely knew what it was. So far, however, my knitting analphabetism isn't a problem, I'm just playing around and don't worry too much about advanced patterns or learning about yarn weights or anything. It's fun, it's easy -- and I'm not that interested in learning to knit as I'm content knowing how to crochet and french knit, so that's enough for me.

A minor case of yarn shortage

Well, getting the knit loom out turns out to perhaps be one of my more successful attempts at stash busting. Unfortunately, I've already run out of yarn. Or, well, I've run out of a yarn, sitting here with what's supposed to be half a soft throw cushion. The yarn ran out before getting half way.

You see, I mostly use my yarn stash for jewellery making and embroidery, projects where I rarely use more than a few metres. Even when I was a kid doing crochet, calculating how much yarn was needed wasn't an issue: either I made tiny doilies using thin crochet thread that lasted forever or I made granny squares, happily mixing whatever yarn leftovers I could find. So the idea of calculating how many skeins of yarn you need for a project and buy that amount (and check for dye lot numbers to avoid colour issues) is pretty unknown to me. Add to that the fact I don't usually use such bulky yarn, making it even harder for me to estimate how long it would last.

In this case, I used a cheap yarn that I bought solely for its softness. It wasn't bought with any specific project in mind, nor did I even glance at how much yarn each skein contained. And because of that I'll now have a WIP attached to my knit loom until I can get another skein of that yarn. Not even sure if they still sell it, at least in this colourway, but that's plan A. Plan B will be to finish it with another yarn of the same type, but in a not exactly matching colourway, that's in the stash. Fingers crossed plan A will work. And that soon as I can't start a new project using the loom until the first one is finished.

Bicoloured loom knit sampler

Ever since I finished my (almost Radiant Orchid) scarf, I've wanted to play more with my knit looms. Just wish I had a couple in a different size or at least a straight one too, but they're a tad expensive for just some plastic (bought mine on sale, 50 % off) so I might have to give it a go with some sort of DIY solution. Or maybe try and find someone who's tired of her looms and want to give them away?

As I don't need more scarves, nor really any more wristwarmers, and I'm not sure I need a new hat, I ended up focusing on just learning new stitches or variations on the basic stitch instead. Don't know how others feel about it, but personally I think making samplers is fun. (And as with doodling, you don't have to make up a design nor focus on creating a finished result as it's just all about learning and enjoying the process.)

One of the things I wanted to try was alternating between two colours and so I picked up two cheap acrylic yarns from my stash and make this sampler. The yarns aren't exactly the same weight (=thickness), but they work well together. The purple yarn is a solid colour while the thicker, autumnal orange yarn is variegated.

In hindsight, a smart idea would've been to add little tags for each section while still remembering the different variations I tried. Didn't do that as I went through the sampler a couple of times last night and had no problem remembering. That was, however, at close to 2 AM so my judgement may have been a bit clouded and now I'm slightly uncertain about a few of the rows, but I will still try my best a walk you through the variations tried last night. As it was mostly just playing around with the basic knit stitch, I'm not sure if the stitches have any official names. I will just call them by how they're done -- if you know a real name for any of the stitches, please feel free to mention so in a comment below.

 Now, let's look at the whole sample from the beginning. Note that you can click on the two photos of the sampler (the pics with numbers on them) for a close up.

1. First thing I wanted to try was vertical stripes, which you create by alternating between two yarns: every other peg purple and inbetween that orange. Tried two versions, but you can't really see a difference between them in the finished piece.

2. Over to simple horizontal stripes. Just simple one row of purple followed by a row of orange and so on.

3. 1 over 2 variation. Still alternating between the two colours for every row.

4. As above, but 1 over 3.

5. Knitting with doubled thread. Basic knit stitches.

1. Double thread.

2. Horizontal rows with 2 rows of purple followed by 2 rows of orange. First I tried a basic stitch (left) and then 1 over 2 (right) as it was easier to remember which colour to use for the new row.

3. Orange with purple accents made by adding additional loops of purple yarns on every second or third peg on every other row. Hard to see as the orange yarn sometimes almost fully cover the purple yarn (see photo below).

4. Checkered made by doing vertical stripes using basic stitches, but after two rows changing the colours (orange yarn on "purple" pegs and vice versa).

5. Checkered 2x2 as above, but using 1 over 2 stitch. Again, easier to remember when to change colour when always having two loops on each peg when starting a new row.

6. Checkered like in 5, but changing colours every row instead of every other row.

7. Basic knit stitch, but skipping every other peg so a lacy pattern is made.

Just a close-up of the part with purple accents where you better can see the purple stitches blended into the orange knitting.

The last checkered pattern might at first glance look similar to the horizontal stripes (1over 2), but when looking closer you can see that the stitches are offset in the checkered pattern. But there is also a difference you can't really see in the photos: the checkered pattern is slightly thicker as there's more yarn on the back (or, in the case of tubes like this, the inside).

So what's next? I was tempted to try three colours last night, but opted to focus on just two first. So three colour variations might be the next step. I also want to learn a few other stitches -- after all I've never done something as simple as making a purpl stitch! Should probably abandon my tactic to watch a how-to YT video, believe it seemed easy and I now know how to do it, just to go to another room (and house), pick up my loom and realise I forgot a crucial step... Don't like to sit and work in the computer room and I guess I'm more of a book person anyway...

As for the sampler, I'll just hang on to it and use it as a reference, perhaps adding the aforementioned tags. My sis wondered if I made a snake, but I think knitted snakes look better when just changing colours/yarns and not when mixing stitches as the width varies so it'd look like a snake digesting an oddly shaped prey.

Accidental soundtracks

Do you ever do something while listening to the radio and it keeps repeating one song so much it sort of becomes your personal soundtrack for a specific thing. I associate the online/computer game Peggle with Fullmetal Alchemist and more precisely with the third intro (featuring the song Undo by Cool Joke) as I was watching the anime -- fell so in love with it! -- while being hooked on Peggle. Send someone away by José Gonzales feat. Embee is a song that makes me thing of another little online game I got addicted to (but can no longer find). Many of the current top hits are something I associate with a theme or activity online. And right now, somehow, the song Counting Stars (by One Republic) is repeated so often on P3 Star that it's become the soundtrack for my research/wanderings into mori kei. There's no objective reason to link the two, really, but in my mind the two are for ever intertwined now.

Sometimes the only stars you can count are the ones you put up yourself indoors. Though my string lights doesn't feel that romantic or mori (in my mind, I'm no mori kei expert). I'd like something like below in the window -- cute, simple and poetic. But then I remember the cats...

More dreamy lights from my Candlelight and light ideas pinboard:

What can I say? I love string lights...