Yarny Goodness

For those who celebrate, I hope you all had a nice Easter.  As I am Greek Orthodox, our celebration is not until next month.  Orthodox Christians have Pascha (Easter) after Passover.

I want to show you some things in the works.....a crocheted bud scarf pattern using Lion Brands Landscapes....

a simple cowl.  US size 8 16" circular needle.  Cast on 96.  Knit a 2x2 rib for one inch, knit until you like the size, do a 2x2 rib for one inch and bind off.  I purchased this Cascade Yarns Pinwheel on Craftsy.  Huge skein of 440 yards in Hearts and Spades!  You can get quite a few cowls out of that much yardage.

I bought two, because at $5.97 a skein is just too good to pass up!

 

I have a spring garden scarf pattern in the works using the gorgeous Cloudborn Fibers yarn, also from Craftsy.

I'm adding an orange and yellow to the mix, instead of the magenta and purple in the above photo above.  I'll design something else with those.  Maybe a knitted scarf for fall.

 

Here's the orange and yellow, plus, I picked up a 3 color gradient in gray which I think I'll add some color to when I decide on a pattern.

Have a great week,

sheila

Purls of Wisdom:

Kinky circs?  Just run the cable under hot water until it straightens out!

A Nice Substitute

I did a post a few weeks back about mill ends yarns.  It's made by plying together random mill ends of yarns and they make these wacky color combinations.  They are not always easy to come by on line or in your local yarn shop.  We have a new Hobby Lobby store that just opened in my neighborhood!  Weeeee!

I set off to see if I could find anything resembling mill end yarn during their grand opening.  What I found was Yarn Bee Dazzling, by Hobby Lobby, for $5.99.  Two ply yarn with a metallic thread added for subtle sparkle, which you can't see in the photos at all, I'm sorry to say.  

I picked a lovely skein called Pastels fully expecting a rather babyish color way.  I was most pleasantly surprised to find that that was not the case.

 The yarn is super soft, 3.5 oz 256 yards and the label reads (4) medium worsted weight.  It's more like a DK (3) weight to me.

Beautiful shades of soft blue, white, grey and turquoise.  

Here you can see a bit of the iridescent thread.

I knit this one to measure 12" from cast on edge to bind off edge, but could have easily gone to 16" before casting off.

The other skein is called Tropics.

I  did a rolled hem edging on the cast on as well as the bind off.  With the tail I did a simple whip stitch around the rolled edge and gave it a little tug to cinch it up.   The picture doesn't do it justice.  It's actually really pretty.

Here's the purple(ish) metallic thread in the Tropics skein.

I'm sorry my photos are not the best.  It's snowing heavily in Nebraska without the sun.

Shades of emerald green, red, dark purple and turquoise are perfect for Mardi Gras!  Hobby Lobby had a few other colors that I'm going back for now that I have tried it!

 

I used Stacy Trocks free pattern on her Fresh Stitches site.  You can find that here.  Scroll down and you will find the pattern.  You can also purchase some mill end yarn from her while you're there.

If you try out this yarn and Stacy's pattern, I'd love to see them!

Best,

Sheila

Purls of Wisdom:

Think out of the box....I found these Christmas ornament hangers in the 75% off bin.  That's about $.62 for 100.  I'm going to use them as removable stitch markers.

Free Pattern - Mill Ends Cowl

I've been on a mill ends yarn kick lately!  I first found out about them from Stacey over at Freshstitches.  It's made by plying together random mill ends of yarns.  What a great way to recycle yarn that would normally end up in the trash.  They work up into this wacky combination of colors.

If you pop over to Stacey's blog, you can download a free cowl pattern.

It's so much fun to knit these up.  Super easy knitting in the round, and a very affordable gift as well.  One skein makes one cowl.

I like a snug fit, so I cast on 96.  I knit some with a 2 x 2 rib on the cast on and bind off edges.  I knit a seed stitch edge on some and a simple rolled edge on others.

To change it up a bit on some, I added an eyelet row when the yarn changes color. When you get to the place where the colors change, add a stitch marker to the right needle, then *yarn over, knit 2 together (repeat from *) for one round.  Remove your stitch marker, then just keep knitting until the next color change.

I think Stacey is on vacation for awhile, but she might have some skeins left if you hurry over there.

My local yarn shop Personal Threads had some on hand.  You can see here what they look like in hank form.  

Thanks for stopping by,

Sheila

Purls of Wisdom:

I use snap barrettes to keep yarn tails in check!