I think this the first picture of my boobs on tumblr ever. Really, I just wanted to show off the very first knitting project I ever completed. I finished in April but I never got around to posting it. I figured I’d get a better picture eventually, but that never happened, so here it is!

I crocheted a tiny bike! It’s only 3 1/2” long! I used this pattern, if you’re interested. I had to take a break from the knitting. 

Sorry I haven’t updated you guys on my life lately. I’ve been pretty stressed out so I haven’t really been in the mood. It’s just a bunch of little stuff but after a while, the little stuff starts piling up, you know?

Guys. I want this yarn. It’s calling me. I love this white color so much. It reminds me of antique wedding dresses. The other colors are gorgeous too. They’re so pretty, I don’t think I could pick just one to buy. The worst (best?) part about this hand dyed silk yarn is that it’s only $16 a skein and you get 185 yards of it so it’s not so out of my price range that I can blow it off. It’s just close enough to how much I would spend on super fancy yarn that I can’t help but dream of the day I can drop $16/skein on it and not regret it. It’s called Peau de Soie Silk Yarn too. How great of a name is that? It literally translates to ‘skin of silk’ in french. 

I would love to make a wedding shawl out of that white silk. Or some sort of fancy blouse/sweater out of the peridot or cherry pop colors. They look like they need to be worn to a high class club that serves champagne instead of 2 for 1 well drinks. I can see wearing a skirt made out of sage by the ocean (well, the lake because I don’t have an ocean here). 

Just look at these colors and tell me you don’t see the same thing:

The pattern is up on Ravelry and Craftsy! I’m going to be adding it to my etsy store right now, so give me 15 minutes and you can buy it there instead, if you want.

This is it guys! My very first crochet/amigurumi pattern! Notice it has a black stopper too! (That was harder than the flask!) Ok, it’s not the patten technically because I haven’t typed it up yet but I’m about to do that right now. I only have one problem… Flat Bottomed Boiling Flask Amigurumi doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I can’t think of anything to name it though. I kind of wanted to keep the name within the description of what it is, instead of naming it something like Joe… Do you guys have a better name?

This is the still wet yarn I got out of the sweater and then dyed. It looked great when I pulled it out of that dye bath but now that it’s drying, I can see some parts of it didn’t get enough color, especially where I tied the loops up so they wouldn’t come unraveled. Sucky. 

I think I’m going to dye it again tonight, but this time orange. Maybe I’ll get a fire effect. I wasn’t kidding when I said I got a lot of yarn out of that sweater!

I made an impromptu yarn swift yesterday to gather all the yarn from the sweater. See how ugly the color was?! The swift worked pretty well for as long as I needed it to (about a skeins worth because that chunk of yarn got all knotted when Eric tried to help me wrap it) but towards the end, the stress of the yarn pulling on the jars which were hot glued to the lazy susan pulled them all off. I put a paint stick in one of the jars so it was easier to spin. Eric plans on making me a swift by drilling holes into the lazy susan  big enough for dowels to be put in, which will be awesome because I’m not spending $40 on one. That’s just insane to me.

The dye bath I used when I dyed the yarn tonight.

I decided I wanted to learn how to spin my own yarn because I was too cheap/poor to keep buying nice yarn for my projects even though I’m kind of yarn snob. I have a ton of wool sitting in a bag next to my desk but I haven’t really touched it yet. I always put off trying new techniques because it freaks me out and I hate failing.

So anyway, in attempt to procrastinate a little longer, Evie and I took a trip to the thrift store yesterday and I bought a bunch of sweaters to unravel. That’s how I came across the cashmere sweater (which will be staying in sweater form). So last night and today was spent unraveling a men’s extra large sweater. I can’t remember the brand but it was a good one. The sweater was probably sold for at least $50 when it was new and I grabbed it for four bucks. 

I passed over a lot of sweaters because I didn’t like the colors and it wasn’t until a half hour ago that I realized I had RIT dye and a lot (a LOT) of brownish/tan yarn and that the two would go together swimmingly. (Most of the sweaters there were made out of cotton, which is cool with me because I love cotton but it’s way harder to dye than animal fibers.) So now, I’m sitting in my bathroom, stirring a five gallon bucket of yarn and dye. I don’t even know how much yarn I got out of this sweater but it’s a stupid amount. Hundreds and hundreds of yards. 

And it’s going to be red and beautiful. 

Back to the subject: spinning. I think I’m going to be done with spinning for a while after the batch of wool I have now is used up. (Unless spinning the wool gives me something super amazing.) Ripping apart $4 sweaters and ending up with at least $50 worth of yarn is totally more my style. I get to customize it and I’m upcycling something that would have either sat in a thrift store for years or ended up in a landfill somewhere. Plus, the money I spend at the thrift store goes to charity. I get to be cheap and green (and probably a little red because I didn’t have gloves to wear.)

I’ll post pictures of the yarn when it’s all done. It’s going to be awesome.

I have a lot of wool. Now I just have to learn how to turn it into yarn and I’ll be in business. 

Fellow crocheters! Anyone have any idea what kind of stitch this is? It kind of looks like a spike stitch but I’m not sure. I can’t find it and it’s going to bug me if I can’t figure it out!