day 10: my triumphant return!

so, i've recovered from my dissapointing blog posting experience yesterday....don't you just hate when you spend so much time typing out a post somewhere and then something malfunctions and you just lose it all? i think i'm going to start copying my posts before posting now just incase xD

Tour de Fleece days 17 & 18:

{day 17 progress - navajo plying}

i decided i'd post my progress pic from yesterday so you could see the navajo plying in action. this is my first time trying out this plying method and i have to say it is REALLY hard when you're just learning it. basically it's a technique where you take a single ply of spun yarn and make these really long crochet chains. you allow the chains to twist in on themselves and the result is a 3ply thickness from a single ply of yarn.

sound confusing? well thats cuz it is :P i'll be needing a lot more practice with this technique before i get comfortable with it.

{day 18 progress - 1 finished cake of navajo ply yarn, and the beginning of the 2nd half of fibre on the spindle}

initially, i had broken this 4oz braid of fibre in half and was going to attempt to ply 2 singles together. this is another technique i have yet to try, but i decided that i wanted to try navajo plying instead.


and since this DID start out as a knitting blog i've vowed to start posting more pics of my knitting WIP's. my latest is these adorable maryjane style cabled slippers:




i found this pattern doing a random search for cables on ravelry while looking for something to knit for Herbology this month in the HPKCHC. i thought they'd be a quick easy knit...boy was i wrong! as it turns out, the soles are double padded, so instead of knitting just 2 sole peices i have to knit 4 -_-

{cabled slippers in progress}

so here's my progress pic so far. i've got 1 full sole peice done and about 3/4 of a 2nd one. i guess all in all it really won't take THAT long to knit 4 sole peices, but i swear i thought it was a typo when i first saw it xD

well th-th-th-that's all for today folks. it's been so nice and cool around here lately, i hope everyone is having the same luck with the weather!

peace&love

~Carla

Tawashi!!!!!

i've taken a little break from my WIP busting to work on a few other quick and painless projects with some of my new yarns. i recieved a shipment from Pierrot Yarns today, and wasted no time working with the Zakka Acrylic yarn i ordered.

this little beauty is what the Japanese call a "tawashi" which, as i'm sure you can guess by the word "wash" in the name, is like a little dish scrubby. but of course the Japanese are not content with the same plain old circular scrubbies we americans use, they have to do oragami with yarn and create these wonderfully interesting, yet simple patterns for their tawashi.



i must say that i love love LOVE Pierrot Yarns. the pattern for this tawashi and literally hundreds of other free patterns can be found on their website; everything from shawls to sweaters to home projects which they call "Zakka." and although right now most of their patterns are in Japanese, they're currently working on translating some of them into English. last i checked they had 8 English patterns up and they say they will be adding a few more each month.


this was my first time attempting a Japanese pattern, but i have to say it was really easy. Japanese patterns are always charted out, whether they be knitting or crochet, so it's easy for non Japanese speaking crafters to follow them. i'm not sure yet but i like the colors so much i'm thinking of entering this lil guy into the Pierrot Yarns contest. the deadline is only 5 weeks away aned there were other things i wanted to enter but i'm not sure i'll have the time to get them done. you're allowed up to 3 entries, so if i can't get my other projects done in time i'll definItely enter the tawashi.


and speaking of which, the other quick project i've been working on for the Pierrot contest is a Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher. this is a really well written pattern that is meant to be customized to your exact measurements. i can tell Kelly really put a lot of time and effort into this pattern and i'm so impressed with how simple it is to knit, despite how complex it looks.

{© Kelly Maher}

i'm using Pierrot Cotton Neat which is a super soft 100% cotton yarn. i wasn't sure if i was going to have enough to complete the project, since i'm making it a bit bigger than the original version, so i didn't save my swatch or block it. i'll do a full review of the yarn once i've washed and blocked my FO.

{my Ribbed Lace Bolero progress so far}

i just started this 3 days ago and i'm already about 75% done so it will probably get done this weekend.

and speaking of weekends, i hope everyone has a great one, i'm off to get some serious work done on this bolero because the weather has been so lovely lately i can't wait to wear it!

ttfn

~Carla