Mother Bear Project

As soon as I get paid again for something I'm going to send for a knitting teddy bear pattern for the Mother Bear Project. They've given nearly 50,000 teddy bears to children with HIV/Aids in Africa and other places. All bears are made from the same pattern, and either knit or crocheted. I'm just ordering the pattern because I already have yarn and needles. Just the pattern is $5.00. If you need a whole kit, it's $20.00. If you are near Anaheim CA it would be great to have a group gathering for bears. What do you say? http://www.motherbearproject.org/

More Reasons to Knit

Lucky me, I was going through some old magazines, and I just happened upon a Vogue Knitting from winter 2007 that's full of Valentine's Day ideas. So I started straight away knitting a heart motif in black yarn that I will probably put on a T-shirt and let the shirt show through the lace part. And I got that idea from the TV show http://knitandcrochettoday.com/ rerun where they featured circular crocheted motifs around the neckline of a t-shirt. My imagination grabs things like that and just runs to the knitting needle organizer.

In other news, just before Christmas I started knitting my daughter a baby cocoon and a few days ago she called to say she's pregnant with her first child. Now I definitely have to finish that cocoon because they work best for baby photography when the baby is 0 to 3 months old. And I never told her I was making it so it will be a surprise for sure. (Unless she reads my blog). But she's far too busy right now for blog reading.

Drop Spindle Dyeing Wool

I dyed some wool in Kool-Aid and I'm amazed at how vivid the color is. It is harder to spin though. A spinner on Etsy said that when you dye yarn it can compact and be harder to spin. So I think I'm going to spin first and then dye. Does anyone else have thoughts on that?

Drop Spindle Making Yarn

I got to work with the drop spindle I made from a toy car wheel and a dowel. The video I saw on youtube gave me some useful tips, so I was able to make better yarn than I have in the past. I had less breakage and a more consistant size than I used to have when I was using trial and error. And now I know how to ply it and wet it and hang a weight on it to dry, so I can eventually even knit with it. That's where I was stuck. Once I had a bobbin full of single ply yarn that would go to pieces if I let the tension off, I had no idea what to do next. Thanks to all you out there that are making free tutorials for people like me.

This spindle is a top whorl  job. But I also made a bobbin whorl to try next. Then I can dye some roving to make my plied yarn more interesting. Sooner or later I'm going to be able to knit with this stuff. I'm looking forward to that.

Maize Bonnet

First thing this morning I worked on a bonnet I'm knitting. It is a maize colored yarn for the background with a little Fair Isle work on the surface. The white yarn is a bamboo and acrylic blend, and it's been too soft and fussy. I won't try that again. Not all yarns play well together. Used by itself though, it will make the softest pair of baby booties or a baby cocoon. I've been wanting to try a baby cocoon on the Knifty Knitter loom. But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I need to finish a few other hats I already have started.