Video: Moving My Epic Stash

 

We are in the process of buying a house, and as such I have had to come face to face with the enormity that is my fabric and yarn stash. If you want to see just how much we are talking about, click through and watch this week's video :)

Temu Yarn: Is It What They Say It Is?

Like many people, I've given into the lure of Temu cheap yarn. At first, buying things there was just to satisfy my own curiosity. Was this yarn any good? Are the descriptions accurate? Or are they just taking advantage of unsuspecting people excited to get a good deal on their hobby? I felt it was worth investigating myself since none of the comments on the listings seemed to be anything mentioning what particular knitters like me would want to know - things like fiber content and gauge. So after reading through the little descriptions available, I made a few selections for us to analyze. 

My biggest tip with buying yarn from any company based in China is to read the description and examine the photos carefully. The main complaints I see are from people who bought a yarn that was called "Milk Cotton", but it turned out to be polyester. Sorry but those people didn't read the description - or even the label in this case. Milk Cotton was just the name of the yarn translated into English as close as they could. If those buyers had read the description, they would have seen it was 100% acrylic or polyester. I bought 2 skeins of this knowing they were acrylic, but they are fingering weight and I knew I could use them for something. At $3.50 for 2 skeins, I'm happy with this one.

This yarn was sold as Gradient Wool. The label (using google translate) says its 75% animal fiber and 25% nylon, so this is sock yarn. After a burn test, I agree with the label. This one cost me $5.29, so again - I'm fine with the price for what I got. The only discrepancy I had is that the yarn is less vibrant than the photo they showed (I have dulled it down in my stash to show the real color).

I got a bug to try out some mohair after watching several knitting podcasters talk about it. I'm very untrendy (in case you haven't noticed), so I had no idea holding mohair with another yarn was a ~thing~ but I've been kind of intrigued ever since. I decided to get a few from Temu just to see if I like it or if it makes things too hot for Florida. I grabbed there 3 different listings: The pale peach color was a 10 pack (250 grams total) of 95% acrylic with 5% wool for $10.79; the single skein of pink was sold as acrylic at $2.19; the gray was a 2 pack of acrylic for $1.88. All of these were so cheap that I'm totally cool with what I received. I plan on using the pale peach in a sweater sometime.

This listing is actually what first caught my eye and made me want to buy yarn from Temu, lol. This listing was for 8 balls of Mink Wool Cashmere Yarn for $25.59. This yarn is super fine - definitely lace weight - but it really is so soft. When I translate the ball band it says: 50% animal fiber, 20% Australian wool, 20% viscose, 10% nylon. To be honest the burn test on this made me a bit skeptical. This yarn lit up like a candle. It did have a hair like smell when burning, but it went so fast it's hard to say. I wouldn't have expected that from something that was 70% animal hair, but viscose and nylon do burn quick, so I'm choosing to believe the label since they did list the fiber content. There's no denying that the yarn is incredibly soft - definitely a real hair type feel. This pack also included thinner thread for sewing your creation together as well as little packets of wool wash, which was a nice touch. This is so thin that at first I thought I would have to hold it with something else like the mohair, but I'm toying around with using it on my knitting machine. If it goes well, I would definitely buy this again in another color. My only complaint is that there is a distinct petroleum type smell to the yarn - I'm just hoping I can wash that out and it will be great.

These last few listings are the only true yarn brand item I've bought, but I can say with confidence this one is 100% legit. This is Lotus Yarns Swan Lake, which you can look up online and even on Ravelry. It's a 50 gram skein of 50%Cashmere/40%Wool/10%Angora blend and it is just heavenly soft. This was actually an extra deal to entice me to make a purchase - they usually list it for $5.39 per skein and offered me one at $1.79, so of course I bought it. It had to be this color and only one skein to get the deal, but I'm fine with that for such a nice yarn. This one came in a hank with an all English label and everything. This same yarn sells on Amazon for $11.99 per skein, so that's a pretty great savings even at the full Temu price. I liked this one so much that I ordered 2 other colors and I plan on using it in a shawl soon.

This one is sold as mink cashmere yarn, and it turns out to be Lotus Yarns Mimi Plus, which has been discontinued. These were sold in packs of 3 for $15, which again feels like a great price. The yarn is 37% Mink/ 33% Rayon/ 18% Cashmere/ 12% Wool in a lace weight and this really does feel dreamy. I got enough to make a sweater of this as well.

And finally this lovely bright green linen yarn. This is another from Lotus Yarns - it's called Linen 100 here. The yarn is 100% linen in a lace weight, so this is another candidate for my knitting machine. I just couldn't resist the color and the idea of knitting a linen shirt. These sold for $5 each on Temu, but on Amazon they sell for $11.99 per skein. Again - I'm thrilled with the savings on such a nice yarn.

So my verdict is that Temu can be a great place to buy yarn as long as you pay attention to what you are buying and don't just see the price and get too excited. Anything that sells with the Lotus Yarns labels is definitely good stuff and they are almost all half price of what you can buy it for on Amazon or from other yarn shops. I have several of their yarns in my wishlist  to possibly pick up in the future sometime. Most of the other yarns seem to come in much thinner than you would think compared to American acrylic yarns, but that's not a bad thing. I'm glad to have a source for fingering weight acrylic yarn on the cheap, personally. As long as you make sure you know what you are buying, you can find some really great deals with Temu's yarn :)

If you would like to try any of Temu's yarn, you can use my referral code afd76596 to get a special bonus - right now you can get a $100 coupon bundle AND 50% off your first purchase!

*I have included affiliate links above that give me a percentage of your sale if you make a purchase. All these items were bought with my own money and with no agreement to post - I just wanted to share what I've learned.

Craftsy Best Sellers Sale (and My Latest Stash Additions)

It's been a while since I posted anything about my sponsors to the right of my blog (especially given the overall feel for sponsored posts in the blogging community lately), but I really wanted to share what I know is a great deal to be had on Craftsy. Before I launch into the actual sale info, I wanted to prove how much I feel it's a good deal by showing you what I recently bought, lol. This is Show and Tell Meg, after all :)

Craftsy can be a fantastic source for great prices on really nice quality crafting supplies. I have made many purchases from their supplies section over the years. About a week ago they had a sale that I just couldn't say no to and I came away with these:

They had this Cascade 220 Superwash Quatro on sale for $3.85 per skein - yes, you read that right! This yarn is up on yarn.com right now for $6.79 per skein. The yarn has been discontinued by Cascade, so lots of places are running sales on it, but seriously $3.85 each for superwash 100% wool? That's just crazy. I grabbed 6 skeins of the Lupin colorway which has a great purple/fuchsia twist to it.

See? It's about like this photo in real life - a nice bright magenta/purple. I grabbed enough to make the Agatha cardigan with it, plus one extra for good measure. It's so pretty and squishy and soft. I just love it!

I also couldn't resist this fantastic deal - Lion Brand Cotton-Ease for 3.08 per skein! I've always wanted to use this yarn for a white sweater, but I've never felt like paying $6.50 per skein for it from Joann's. Even on sale at Joann's I never see it cheaper than $5.24 each, so $3.08 was an absolute no brainer. I'm not entirely sure what sweater I will make with this, but I grabbed 5 skeins so I should be good for most of the designs I had my eye on.

Just to dispel any thoughts of me telling you all this for my own gain, I paid for all of this out of my own pocket. I'm not being compensated by Craftsy at all for posting it here. It was just such a great deal I wanted to share.

All that being said, I wanted to also let you know about their Best of 2014 Sale. This sale is the "get what you really want for Christmas" sale, lol. All of their classes will be $19.99 or less, as well as some great deals on their supplies (this includes yarn, fabric, kits and more). The sale starts today (12/20/14) and runs until Midnight of Christmas Day (12/25/14). I haven't even seen what the prices are no the supplies, but if they are anything like what you saw I already got, I may need to snag a few deals myself :)

So check out the sale here and see if there is anything you can't live without! (P.S. You can still get express shipping and have it by Christmas if need be! Keep that in mind!) Have fun :)

Happy Yarns-day!

So, this past two weeks has seen a myriad of fantastic sales in the crafting world. I'm proud to say I was very well behaved, but there was one sale that was just too good to pass up and I'm really glad I took advantage of - Knit Picks.

I've always been curious to try Knit Picks yarn, but having no local yarn store to feel around in, I always have to go by other peoples' experience when I buy a new yarn online. I have several patterns I want to make up that suggest Knit Picks yarn, but what if it's not as soft as I would like? This is a constant concern for me, and while their yarns aren't ridiculously expensive, I just never took the plunge for fear of wasting money on something I wouldn't 100% love (which has certainly happened to me before with online yarn purchases). Enter the fantastic Knit Picks sale and I finally felt it was worth the minimal investment to try them out - man, am I glad I did :) Not only was the yarn a great price, but I am pleasantly surprised by the colors and feel of what I chose. So, here is what I picked up:

First on the list was Wool of the Andes Sport in the Mai Tai Heather color way. I almost bought this back in May, but restrained myself. I had plans to make up an Audrey In Unst cardigan with it, which has been on my list forever. At only a little over $12 for all I needed 8 skeins), I was excited to hand over my money. The color is a bit less pink than it seemed online, but I still like it :) Believe it or not, I've never worked with sport weight yarn before, so it will be a learning experience all round. I'm really impressed with the feel of this wool - it's much softer than Cascade 220 (which seems to be it's online counterpart in the inexpensive 100% wool category). I'm excited to get working on this :)

While I was paying for the shipping, I figured I might as well grab a few skeins of other yarns I've been curious to try, right? I got 2 skeins of Stroll Sock yarn in Blue Topaz. I got this color because it was the only one left on sale, and I got 2 skeins because that's how much you need for a pair if socks. This yarn is Superwash Merino/Nylon and it feels amazing - so soft and smooth! I had this yarn in mind for a sweater, but I like that I can try it on some socks first. I'm pretty sure I'll live it though - plus these 2 skeins cost me $5.00 :)

I also have a zillion patterns that suggest Palette - it seems to be the go-to yarn for fingering weight color work. Since most colors were half their normal price, I grabbed a few skeins. There was no rhyme or reason to what colors I picked - I just chose some color ways I wanted to see in person to decide if I liked them for bigger projects, which I'm so glad I did! My favorites turned out to be much different than I thought when looking at them online. The best (in my opinion) is the almost black one in the front here - it's called Midnight Heather and it's the most amazing black with flecks of blue and green in it. I will absolutely be making a sweater in this color in the future (though I will wait for the next sale to grab more yarn, lol). The other favorites are Fairy Tale (kind of a deep fuchsia) and Macaw (my perfect bright green). I also grabbed a skein of Silver, Pistachio and Blue Note Heather - the last being the only one I'm sort of disappointed by. It looked so much more vibrant online than in person. I'm sure I will still use it though :)

So that was my little but of excitement in the mail this week, and the extent if my cyber sale week fun. I only spent $31.00 including shipping ... for 16 skeins of yarn! And they are all real wool! I know for a fact I've spent more than that on cheapy acrylics from Joann's before, so I am thrilled to get such a steal on this much nicer yarn. I can't wait for their next sale so I can buy more, and I would definitely say Knit Picks yarn is all it is reputed to be :)

The Great Sweater Unravel

So, I've read about other people re-purposing old sweaters they find in thrift stores, but I never thought it was something I'd be able to do. This isn't because I don't have the desire to, oh I so do, but ... I live in Florida. I don't think I've seen a single hand-knit sweater in all the years I've been thrifting, probably because you just flat out don't need them here. It occurred to me that I could possibly use a non-hand-knit sweater though, so I would look inside any that I came across. 

One day, the craziest thing happened. A nice lady came in the jewelry store to find a silver shawl pin for a wrap she was knitting. She had the knitting with her and let me take a look - it was a nice drapey yarn that variegated from pink to purple to gray and it had a metallic strand running through. She happened to have the yarn label, and showed me it was Blue Heron Rayon Metallic yarn. Of course when she left the shop, I had to look this stuff up - it's just what you do as a fellow knitter - and I discovered that this yarn is $46.00 per skein! Yikes! I had that big price on the brain when I went by my favorite thrift store on my lunch break, and I came across this:

Dudes, this was so kismet. I'd never even felt a rayon yarn before that day, and here was my second experience with an almost identical fiber in my grasp. And it was only $1.50. This Lauren by Ralph Lauren sweater was a size petite small - both designations I do not fit into at all - but it was 68% Rayon/22% Polyester/10% Metallic and it seemed to be about a DK or Worsted weight. AND it was made in such a way that I could unravel it. MUAHA HA HA! (that's my evil laugh, by the way) The way you can tell if you can unravel it or not is simple - look at the seams. If the seams inside are serged together, you're out of luck; but if the seams are "seamed" together - like you would if you had knit the sweater yourself - you can take it all apart :) That picture above and on the right shows the inside of the seam has yarn sewn back and forth - that's what you want.

Since fate was completely on my side with this endeavor, I also ended up buying an unopened seam ripper for 25¢, which enabled me to start ripping this baby apart as soon as I got back to work, lol. I basically went about this in the reverse order of how it would have been knitted - starting with the sleeves, then the neck band, then the back and front. The sleeves came off so easily! I just slid the seam ripper in the seam and picked a few stitches out. Once the seam was opened a bit, I was able to just pull on the seaming yarn and it came completely undone. I did the side seams next, giving me a rather hilarious sparkly poncho to torture my nephew with. Good times. After that, I had to get back to actual work, but I was quick to work on it more on my day off.

Once in my sewing room, I was able to really make a big mess give the project more room. The yarn was being ... a bit persnickity. When I first began the unraveling, I thought that maybe it was fingering weight yarn held in double, but when I really got going on it back at home I could see that the yarn had 4 plys and they were all unraveling separate from each other. It turns out that rayon yarn is just as slick as rayon fabric - the synthetic fibers don't have any barbs to hold them to each other, thus the squiggly mess of plys. This was annoying, but not impossible to deal with. Eventually I just decided to hook it up to my yarn winder and wind it straight on. I weighed the sweater itself down and turned the crank. I kept enough tension to get the kink out of the yarn on the ball, but I had to be careful not to drop that tension - the yarn would quickly spring back off and get all kinky again. Just for the record, the "correct" way of doing this would be to wind the yarn on a swift or something else that you could make a hank with, then wash it to remove the kinks. That just wasn't going to happen with this crazy, splitty yarn, so I just went with it. I've re-wound wool before and it lost the kinks just from the tension of the winding, so I'm hoping for the best here.

Since the yarn was so crazy splitty, I did have many instances where I had to cut the yarn, remove a knot, then tie it back and keep going. Also, the neck band was so all over the place that I could never get it to unravel. When it was all over, I had 390 grams of yarn in balls. and 32 grams of crazy kinky mess that I couldn't use. I'm really not that worried about it. So, if we compare this to the Blue Heron Rayon Metallic, which comes in a 227 gram ball for $46.00, that would make this 390 grams cost $79.00 ... and I paid $1.50 for it. Sure it took about an hour to unwind it all, but Hello! Check out that price difference! Well worth an hour of my time :) I still have absolutely no idea what I will make with 3990 grams of sparkly gold metallic yarn, but it is now an option if I want it, lol.

I was so elated by my success with the gold sweater, that I dug into my stash for these babies. I bought these two 100% cashmere sweaters in the same thrift store about a year ago with the intent of taking them apart, but at the time I didn't have the equipment of the know how, so they've sat in a pile ever since. Personally, I would never wear these sweaters as-is (I would die of heat stroke for one), plus I'm just not a big fan of cream or baby blue. Since these sweaters are 100% cashmere, it would be no problem at all to die them whatever color I want :) These are also Ralph Lauren sweaters as fate would have it, and they are also seamed together so I could take them apart :) Yippee!

I started with the cream sweater, and again with the sleeves. At first, I was getting a little worried about the outcome of this project - the yarn is fingering weight, and all that tugging to unravel was causing a lot of breaks on such a soft fiber. Also, the yarn in actually was held in double - creating 2 strands that I had to pull out and not tangle with each other. On the first sleeve, I would pull it out by hand and wrap each strand around an embroidery frame I had to keep them separated. The original plan was to wind them onto the swift to get a hank for dying - but it was splitting so much and taking so long that I said bump that and I hooked it up to the yarn winder again, lol. I held the embroidery frame with my feet and wound it directly onto the yarn winder from there - I'll make it dye-able later when I'm ready. For the second sleeve, I wised up and hooked one strand straight into the yarn winder, and the other onto the swift. I would unwind it by hand to a certain length, then spin the swift and the yarn winder to wind up the yarn I had unraveled. It took forever as well, but it was better than wrapping the yarn by hand onto that frame.

Each sleeve took me about an hour to undo, so I didn't finish the rest of the sweater yet. I ended up with 108 grams in two balls of yarn afterward. I did the math on on the yarn that was wound on the swift (i.e. measure the swift circumference, multiply by how many strands are wrapped around it) and I estimated 350 yards in that one skein, so I'm confident saying I have about 700 yards so far of this yarn. I know this will be really useful for making all kinds of things in the future :) I'll have enough for a sweater for myself along with countless gifts - I mean, who doesn't love cashmere?! These sweaters cost me $3 each, and I still have the body of the cream one along with the entire blue one left to unravel. One of these days, I'll finish this up.

So, that was my first ever experience recycling yarn from a thrift store sweater :) I love that I've got some really expensive fibers now that I paid almost nothing for - sure it took a ton more work than just clicking the "checkout" button online, but I feel it's worth it since my budget would have never paid for these types of yarns otherwise. I can tell you right now, this will not be my last time unraveling sweaters. I can't wait to find more!

Happy YarnsDay!

I've made a few yarn related purchases in the last few days, but the excitement is always renewed when the fresh new skeins show up in the mail!

Occasionally, WEBS (yarn.com) runs Facebook Follower only specials on specific skeins of yarn. They will post about it on their wall that a certain yarn will ring up at a certain price when you use a certain code (that sounds so ridiculous, lol). I've seen them post a few of these deals, but I hadn't decided to pounce on until last Thursday. They were offering Cascade Sierra Quatro yarn for only $3.99! I'm making my Miette cardigan out of Cascade Sierra, so I knew I would like it. The only difference between what I already had and the Quatro is that Quatro is a twisted/multi-colored version. Normally I'm not a big fan of variegated or multi-colored yarns, but luckily Cascade makes Sierra Quatro in multi-tonal too :) So I snagged 6 skeins of Chili Pepper colorway to make a sweater with. I don't have a red sweater yet, so I figured it would fill a nice gap at a nice price. I have yet to officially decide on a pattern to use this on - I'm thinking maybe the Hey, Teach! Cardigan, which is a free pattern on Knitty.com, or maybe even another Miette if I end up loving the one I'm currently making. We'll see :)

Also today I received a skein of Prism Kid Silque yarn in Deep Purple. I was given this skein by Marina who blogs over at One Big Thing. She had listed it up for grabs in the Stash Diet Swap Flickr Group and was kind enough to send it to me :) It's such a rich and pretty color! You can't see it in the photo, but it's very silky and fuzzy. I'm thinking it will make a lovely scarf - just a simple straight knitted one that shows off the beautiful yarn. Thank you so much, Marina! It's prettier in person than I thought and I can't wait to make it up.

I also got to make a few fun purchases while on my anniversary vacation this weekend :) A trip to Joann's AND a trip to Hobby Lobby - that's a vacation to me, lol. So my stash has increased yet again. I'm now set up for plenty of projects in the next few months, even a few gifts are set to go :) I'll definitely be quelling my yarn buying for a while, but it sure was fun. I can't wait to make some of these up!

Yarn Winder - Where Have You Been All My Yarn Life?

I made an awesome score on yarn at my favorite local thrift store the other day, and one of the skeins was crazy loose and coming apart in a big twisted mess. Since I really couldn't do much with it in its original state, I decided to let it be the inaugural skein for my new yarn winder :)

I've always loved how balls wound by these babies look, and they seem so easy to manage, so I set to work. I spent a good amount of time unwinding the original skein with one hand (what a pain in the butt, ya'll) while spinning the crank on the winder with the other hand. I also had to support the little guide bar with my left hand while I cranked to keep it up - is this normal, yarn winder aficionados? Or is this just because I have a cheap Chinese one? - but eventually I made it to the end of the skein and came away with 2 neat and tidy balls:

Ah, looks at those nicely wound balls :) Isn't it a lovely sight? After the relatively quick success I had with this skein, a thought came into my head - remember my yarn washing fiasco back in September? You can see the whole gruesome tale here, but as a quick recap I followed some advise I found on Pinterest to wash some yicky looking yarn I got at a thrift store and ended up with this:

A crazed yellow nightmare, right? Well, it's looked exactly like that but been shuffled to various unused surfaces in our office ever since. Until last night! I had a wild hair to wind this up and officially make it usable again (I know, I have the most exciting Friday nights ever). I would unwind/untangle as much as I could until a true knot was found, cut the yarn, untangle the knot, tie it together with a square knot, clip the excess, and continue winding. I repeated this process for about an hour all together (yikes!), but I soldiered on and ended up with this:

Ah, what a beautiful sight! This yarn is certainly not high quality - it's some kind of scratchy acrylic - but I went through the trouble of cleaning it and it came out very bright and fun. I'm so glad I didn't just throw it away when it tangled in the wash! The 4 original skeins ended up weighing 442 grams and it seems to be a heavy worsted weight. By the last few skeins, I don't think I had to cut it at all, just untangle and wind :) I honestly don't know what I will do with all of it, but I originally bought it thinking it would make a cute amigurumi duck, so I will at least stick to that plan.

So what is the point of this post other than to show off my freshly wound former messes of yarn? To go on the record saying that you need a yarn winder! I put this purchase off for far too long and wound several skeins by hand (my back hurts just remembering it). Mine was purchased through ebay for $16 from Hong Kong - not a bad price for such wonderful satisfaction :) Also it was amazingly cheaper than any winders I could find from craft and yarn stores in the US. Anyway, if you've thought about buying one but thought it was frivolous like I did, just stop it right now and do yourself a fantastic favor by buying one. You will not regret it! I was able to take a ridiculous mess and turn it into not only usable yarn, but yarn that pulls from the center and sits flat and wont' roll around as I pull - fantastic!

Now I'm off to wind more yarn balls :)

Craftsy Supplies Sale: Up To 85% Off (And My Own Deals)

This morning I woke up to find Craftsy is having a big sale on their supplies. They have their usual discounted prices even lower and some yarns are as low as 85% off! I took this great opportunity to grab a few new yarns for some projects I've planned and snagged a new project too :)

The first thing I grabbed was the Blue Angel Shawl Knit-Along :) This is a pretty shawl pattern that comes with the yarn to make it and it is marked down 75%. The yarn is Cascade Heritage in Como Blue and with the discount you get the pattern and the yarn for less than just a skein of the yarn would cost. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me :) 

I'm on a bit of a shawl kick now that I finished my Hope Shawlette. Shawls are pretty and add a nice touch of luxury to you day (at least I feel that way). I've been watching the Mastering Lace Shawls class on Craftsy lately and it has me very excited to knit the patterns that came with the class. I have quite a big yarn stash, but it doesn't include much lace or fingering weight yarn and the little it does is just cheapo stuff. Since shawls take a big chunk of time for me to make and they will touch my face and neck, I wanted to get some "fancy" yarn to make my class projects with. This sale was a great opportunity for that :) I grabbed 2 skeins of FIlatura di Crosa Nirvana yarn in the Cove Grey colorway for $5.36 each. This yarn is 100% merino wool that is mercerized, so not only is it soft like cashmere but it has a nice sheen too :) One skein wouldn't be quite enough for a shawl, so I got two just to be sure.

I also grabbed 2 skeins of Cascade Alpaca Lace for $4.68 each. This yarn is 100% baby alpaca - I've never worked with alpaca before, but this yarn is very highly rated by Ravelry users so I'm excited to give it a try. I got one skein in the Provence colorway (which is the burnt orange color) and one skein in Black.

I'm still not sure which shawl will be which color yet, but I'm excited to have some options now :) If you want to grab some nice yarns at a great price, head over here and look around. They have some yarns as low as $1.49 each! And let me know what you get!

Weekly Pinspirations: How NOT To Clean Yarn

I bought a bag of yarn at a thrift store a few weeks ago for $1 - it was yellow with a white twist in it from what I could see through the bag (it was tied closed), so I bought it and went on my merry way. When I got it home and opened the bag, I was not quite so thrilled with my find ...

It was moldy! Gross! At least it was only $1, but I really want to salvage what I could. I had come across a link on Pinterest that looked like it could help me out:

I saw this pin and figured that if you could wash the yarn to "soften it", it would be ok following the same process to actually wash it. So, I put my yarn into lingerie bags:

I put 3 into one bag and 1 in a bag by itself because it couldn't fit them all into the one. I put them in the wash on a small load on cold water with some detergent and a downy ball with vinegar in it - why not soften the yarn at the same time, right? So, I let the washer do its thing and I came back to find this:

Oh. My. Gosh. Right? It looked like someone had spilled noodles in the bottom of my machine. I was quite bummed to say the least. I hoped that even though the skeins had come undone that they would have still stayed somewhat together so I could separate the 3 in the one bag.

Yeah, that didn't happen. There are a few blobs that are bigger than others and one skein that still looks somewhat like a skein, but they are all seriously tangled together. I couldn't separate them. So, I just left them like that to dry on the dryer. I will say, they are definitely devoid of mold, but now completely unusable for a different reason all together. I shoved the yarn in a bag and that is where it will sit until I feel ambitious enough to try and untangle it - let's face it, it will probably stay all knotted like that for eternity, lol.

So, this pin is absolutely busted. If you need to clean your yarn, I suggest you try this idea instead:

Granted, the description of this pin is on how to make your own wool dryer balls, but the idea is fantastic - put the skein in a nylon and then wash it. This is what I will try next time - I'm hoping I never have to do it again though.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF YARN, DO NOT "WASH" YOUR YARN IN A LINGERIE BAG! Save your sanity and just don't believe pinterest. lol Learn from my misfortune.

Latest Acquisitions - Awesome Yarn and Needles!

I've had a few projects planned that needed specific colors or types of yarn to complete. I've been putting off finding them, but as the time is fast approaching for at least one project deadline, I decided to take the plunge and buy some yarn. Big sacrifice, I know lol. Since I was making an online order already, I had to look at the clearance yarn too, right? These are the latest additions to my stash!

This first set came from WEBS (yarn.com). I have always looked around on their site and longed for their beautiful yarns, but never actually made an order til now. I am really happy with them :) I received the yarn within just a few days and their customer service was great - I highly recommend trying them out. Even better than all that were their prices. When looking through their clearance yarns I came across a few I just had to snag.

• The purple and beige yarns are SMC Northern Worsted with Wool. These are 100g balls that are 75% acrylic and 25% wool. I grabbed 2 skeins in lilac (for an upcoming project) and 2 skeins in Taupe for only $2.79 each. The taupe was a bit of a gamble - I was hoping it was more of a skin color that I could make a baby doll with. It's a little darker than I wanted, but it will still work. 
• The 2 coral skeins are Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. They are 50 gram balls of a merino wool and cashmere blend and they were $4.79 each because this is a discontinued color. I've always wanted to try this stuff out and I do love coral right now, so it was just meant to be. This stuff is so wonderfully soft! I'm not 100% sure if I will make a scarf or a hat or something, but I'm leaning toward the scarf so it's nice and soft on my neck and face. 
• The last thing I have in this photo is a nice pile of Cascade Sierra. I noticed that the Sierra was super on sale because it has been discontinued - it must have happened recently because WEBS still has a ton of colors left. I knew one of the sweaters I liked from Andi Satterlund recommended using this yarn, so I looked through her patterns only to find out it is the Miette which has been on my to-make list pretty much since I learned to knit. I very rarely use the recommended yarn with the pattern because it's generally very expensive and I just don't have the funds, but in this case it is only $5.49 per hank! That's almost half price which is a huge discount for such a quality yarn. Since it was so marked down, I was able to get 5 skeins (enough to make my own Miette) in the Water Lily colorway. I am seriously so excited about the minty color of this yarn. It was one of those colors that looked like it might have been a bit more blue, but I was hoping for a true mint green and that's exactly what I got. This is 80% pima cotton and 20% wool and I'm looking forward to knitting with it. My only other experience with cotton has been in crocheting and I wasn't a big fan then, but people really seem to love it in knitting so hopefully this will come out fun and pretty. Also since it's cotton it should be a little cooler to wear than the wool, meaning I would get more wear out of it here in Florida.

This next order contains the real reason (a.k.a. justification) for shopping online at all. I'm making a cute baby hat and the recipient specifically requested it be in the same colors as the pattern example photo, which meant needed Cascade 220 Superwash in Strawberry Pink and Salmon to make it. I looked on WEBS for this first, but they didn't have these colorways and I was worried my monitor wasn't calibrated correctly and I would pick the wrong colors if they were under different names. So, I turned to the next online yarn shop I could think of: Jimmy Bean's Wool. This is my first time ordering through this site as well and I am again extremely pleased. The order came in without a hitch and it only took a couple of days to arrive - how great is that?! They had both colors I needed and then I had to glance through their clearance yarn :) Here is what I got:

• The two pink skeins are Cascade 220 Superwash in Salmon (the lighter color) and Strawberry Pink. These are just lovely as always - I really love this yarn, for real. I just want to squish the skeins all the time :)
• The other 4 skeins are all Stitch Nation's Bamboo Ewe. This whole line has been discontinued so there is a very limited amount of colors left and Jimmy Bean's is the only online source you can still get any from. I've never worked with it, but I felt it back when Hobby Lobby carried it and I knew it was nice and soft. The red is called Geranium and the blue is Periwinkle and they cost $3.43 each. These are 100g skeins that are 55% bamboo viscose and 45% wool. I'm not completely sure what I want to make with them, but I'm excited to entertain ideas!

I've been on a toy/baby knitting roll lately. This means I've been using a lot of patterns that call for smaller double pointed needles. I have quite a few sets of metal dpns that my friend Tara got at a yard sale, but lately the holes in my collection have been showing themselves. For example, the Itty-Bitty Giraffe was knit on size 7 dpns - 3 that were 7" long and 1 that was 10" long because I didn't have a full set of 4 that were the same length. That doesn't sound like too big a deal, but if you've ever tried this you will understand how annoying it is. It made the toy take longer a lot than it would have otherwise. I've been eyeing these Stitchberry needle sets on Amazon for a few months now and finally decided it was time to buy some. Stitchberry makes bamboo knitting needles and they actually make all kinds - dpns, straight and circular. They sell their needles in complete sets, as in all sizes come together for one price. 

I have really grown to love the shorter needles for all the small toy pieces I've been making, so I opted for the 6" set of dpns and it was only $19.99 for 15 sets of 5 needles each! That's an incredible price considering that Clover Takumi bamboo needles sell for $6 and up for each individual set! I read the reviews thoroughly before buying these because the price makes them seem a little too good to be true. The reviews were mixed, but most of the average ones said they were great for the money but not always so sharp. The best reviews also included that you could just sand them down at the tip to make them sharper and then rub them with wax paper - done and done! I'm really happy with my set. I noticed a few needles that had some bumpy spots, but seriously a few swipes with a fine grade sand paper and you would never know they weren't always perfect. I used these to make my latest toy (to be revealed tomorrow!) and I am really happy :) Now I have a complete set of 6" dpns for any and all my toy making adventures!

So, thanks for letting me brag about my latest buys :) If you want to grab any of these deals yourself, just follow the links in my post and look around. I can't wait to make beautiful items with all these fantastic yarns - here's hoping I can do them justice!

Fun New Acquisitions

Over the weekend I received a few fun packages that I wanted to brag about show :) My husband got me lots of little items for my birthday and one of them arrived a few days late. I already revealed my latest creation using these, but check out my haul:

He got me a 50 pack of rattles! Yay! Now I have plenty to make fun animals with. Also on my birthday, Craftsy happened to be having a crazy sale for their previous customers - an additional 40% off their already reduced yarn! I couldn't help myself - I had to take a look around and I used a little of my Etsy store money to buy myself an awesome present:

I snagged 3 different yarns - Cascade 220 Superwash (in Aran and Ruby) and Cascade 220 Superwash Paints in Sapphire Seas. I got 2 skeins of the Aran colorway - they are for a specific project. Isn't that blue color fantastic! It's a beautiful deep blue and purple mix. The best part is that I didn't just get one skein ...

It's a 10 pack! Yahoo! I got sweet deals on all of these too, which makes them even better. I will definitely be making at least 1 sweater in the sapphire seas color - I certainly have enough yarn! 

This is my "fancy yarn drawer" in the closet of my sewing room. I had to take a picture - it's a complete rainbow! lol

So that's it! Have you gotten anything fun lately?

Crochet Update: Meet Norman the Giant Squid!

I am so excited to show you my latest new friend! I started this guy about a week ago, made his eyes and wing-triangle-things and then set it aside because I felt guilty I wasn't getting any housework done - ha ha. So, last night the husband and I were just hanging out watching tv and I decided to work on it more. Well, we were so engrossed in Hemlock Grove (weird freakin' show, ya'll) that I stayed up until almost 3am and finished it! Take a look!

This is Norman the Giant Squid! My husband came up with the name - and Norman is the name of a character on the show - yeah, he's original, my guy :) I used the Sandford the Giant Squid pattern from FreshStitches. I made him up in Vanna's Choice yarn in Cranberry with Everyday Worsted yarn in black and white for the eyes. No joke - I used 1.3 skeins of the cranberry yarn! This guy is big!

I just love his eyes :) They are so big! Also his little tentacles are so cute. The dangling little pieces add a really different (and fairly realistic) touch.

This is the largest diameter animal I've made so far. I love how big he is - so nice and squishable. But my favorite thing to do with him is this:

lol He swims! Sorry for my stupid video, but I just had to show him in action.

This is such a fun pattern - I highly recommend it. It wasn't difficult at all to make and oddly enough I was able to make him up in a few hours, so much less time than I thought it would take. I may or may not have future plans to make one in white and black to be a Mario Bros style squid. We shall see...