Preparing

This past week, I did a little tour around my house and collected samples that I'll use for teaching my class on how to make and use recycled yarns.  It was a good opportunity to give beloved household items a good wash and airing!

Remember, if you're interested in taking this class on Friday at the Manitoba Fibre Festival, please register here!

These are only some of my supplies, but a short summary...the baskets.  These knitted baskets were taken directly out of household use.  The flowered one is used to hold medicines and odds and ends on a high up shelf in a kids' bedroom.  The white one sits in a hallway, usually filled with dog toys.

(We are still helping Sadie the dog realize that she can also return toys to this bin as well as distribute them around the house!)
This braided rug usually lives in the guest room.  It is made entirely of old clothing and is aging very well.  I recognized most of the clothing from around 1995-7 or so.  I made this rug for our first home in Durham, North Carolina, around the time we got married.

I wove this rag rug on a floor loom for an outdoor exhibit at the Forks in 2010, I think.  When it came home (a little worse for wear), I washed it, it cleaned up nicely and it became a rug in my guest bathroom.

Part of the reason it was easy to gather all this?  The professor and my kids have been working to paint our guest room recently.  It was an ugly brown color...we inherited it this from the last owner.  When we had our house insulated in June, the workers decided they could not insulate the house on the third floor from the outside.  (too high up, too hard to drill into the stucco to shoot the insulation in the walls.)  So, they drilled inside, and we've had a lot of chaos in cleaning up from this.  Because of the big bore holes, it was a good time to repaint...and we chose a cheery pistachio green shade.  The guest room is mostly reassembled now and looks so much better.  I feel relieved every time I see the new color!

Last but not least, I had an article come out recently in the Vancouver Jewish Independent about the start of the new school year and what we share when trying to connect with others.
That's the news from here!

Sale & Freestyle

This fall has been intense--lots of stuff on the homefront to sort out and fix.  This past week, Sally the dog (now, age 14!) had a bad tummy ache and we were worried things were all over for her.  She seems to be on the mend...with a lot of antibiotics, anti-nausea pills, and more.  Meanwhile, things haven't been quiet elsewhere either.

I wrote about some of it in this article that came out last Friday:
Sorting out playground fights

The short version is that untangling what's happening in my twins' lives can take a while. Lots of appointments and drama. Sometimes, it's a lot easier to fix a sweater!  Stripe Freestyle had a major blow-out this past weekend.  This is one of the cuffs, and suddenly, I saw my kid's thumb going through the cuff like a thumb hole...where I hadn't made one when designing the sweater!

He loves this sweater.

So, first I got it off his body. (not easy, actually.)
I waited until all seven year olds were asleep....
I put a piece of white paper behind the enormous hole so I could really see it.

I picked up stitches substantially below the beginning of the hole, using a double pointed needle one size below what's called for in the pattern.  Then, I began recreating the cuff, picking up whatever weak stitches and edges I could on either side of the hole.
When I was finished, it did not look perfect or untouched.  In fact, I even took a tapestry needle and stitched over many weak stitches I'd spied around the hole--after this was knit up.

And making this, and RE-making this, felt good.  He loves this sweater and has worn it just about every other day for the last year, and I have no intention of trying to either knit a whole new one or shop for anything right now.  Instead, I fixed what I'd made previously, and that was the kind of "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra that I'd like to have more of in my life.

After the big mending job, it needed a bath, and then it dried on a towel on the radiator over night, and is now good to go.  I am, however, encouraging my lovely boy to consider rotating his sweaters a bit more, because this one will not last forever.

THE SALE
If you too are a "maker" sort?
I'd like to invite you to download a pattern from Ravelry, at 25% off, with this coupon code:
Making

The sale lasts until midnight, CT, on November 30th.  Please share this "Making Sale" with friends!

Stay warm.  Happy knitting, cooking, reading, resting on the couch, and enjoying this hibernating season. :)

Making knitting needles

When I went with my family and friends to that Arts Center in Alexandra, VA in May (the one that does art with recycled materials)  I scored something unusual.  They had a jar of unfinished knitting needles in rare woods in all sorts of sizes.  This used to be someone's business, I think she was turning knitting needles on a lathe in ebony, rosewood, etc. but then she retired...and donated her leftovers.  I got 2 sets of straight needles at $3 a piece.  I could have bought a ton, but in truth, I don't really need more needles.  I do use size #6 and 7 (4 mm and 4.5mm) pretty often though.  None of the needles were marked, and none had ends yet.  So, I eyeballed, bought two, and flew home to Winnipeg.

I have a weird collection of beads in many sizes.  I always thought I might get into beading, although honestly, it has never been my thing.  I've made beaded yarns, knitted beads into garments, and in the end, I find it a bit too fiddly and the end result was too girly for my personal taste.  However, I just happened to have some wooden beads...that would work well on these needles.

I did this in a low tech way.  I grabbed some of my kids' glue, some newspaper, and set things up on the front porch.  I didn't measure or get overly particular about details.  I put glue inside the beads, slid them onto the ends of the needles, and left it to dry.

Once dry, the needles look good to go.  I have knit on straight or double pointed needles without anything on the end, and while I can manage it in a pinch, I like a firm cap on the end so stitches don't fall off when I race off to chase a dog or kid.  These will fit the bill.  If for some reason the glue does not stick, I have more wooden beads and I can use fancier glue later.  I started with easily accessible non-toxic glue from the kids' art shelf.

If you are handy, you can easily sharpen dowels and make knitting needles.  I have also knit with pencils in a pinch.  Sometimes you need to knit and supplies aren't close at hand.  If you're not into sharpening dowels, consider visiting some thrift shops and secondhand stores to get needles affordably.  This is how I built up my big collection of needles when I first got married and moved away from my mom's stash of needles.  This also helps you learn to knit with a variety of needles.  I learned not to be overly picky about wood/metal/plastic but to enjoy knitting with tools that were well-loved by those knitters who came before me.