Skip to main content

Crafty Goodies

Bijou Basin ranch Order!
I'm not sure when the Fourth of July became synonymous with buying a lot of STUFF, but apparently that is a thing now. All last week, I got tons of e-mails for July 4th sales.  Most were deleted, but I couldn't pass up my client's flash sale, which was on the actual holiday only.  I ordered these two skeins of Bijou Bliss to make Ysolda's Hendreary Hat - I would have been crazy to pass up 25% off my entire order! Plus, 10% of all online sales from the beginning of last month til the end of the summer will be donated towards High Park Fire relief efforts.  I'm a sucker for a good sale, and the photos and reports from all of the wild fires burning in Colorado right now are just so awful, I'm glad there is a little something I can do to help.  Bonus: they included a QR Club pin with my order!

I also fell victim to (yet another) irresistible Craftsy deal - this one was for a Westminster Fabrics reusable bag, made from recycled water bottles.  How cool is that?  For $4.50, I snapped up this cute birdie bag... little did I know how awesome it would be.  Check out the interior: it's got a spot for you book or pattern, a few sleeves for a bottle of wine or your beverage of choice, and plenty of space for your project and a snack!


Finally, the recent WEBS catalog that arrived at my house enabled two non-yarn purchases (and gave me a chance to add a few needle tips to my Knitter's Pride Cubics set).  The first is a pom pon maker, which is something I never envisioned myself needing, wanting, or purchasing for that matter.  However, there are some hats in my queue that feature pom pons, and while I used to leave them off because I thought they were goofy, I'm willing to cross over to the dark side and give it a try.  For $7.45, I got this handy little doo-dad that will make the process quick and painless - which is great, because if I had to invest any real effort in making a pom pon DIY-style, I doubt it would ever come to fruition.

The second is the Color Grid by Gail Callahan ($7.95), which is supposed to help me combine colors and plan colorwork projects.  Since I'm totally obsessed with colorwork everything right now, but often shy or, let's face it, completely clueless about what colors to pick for a multicolor project, I thought this would be a good thing to add to my arsenal.  Most of my stash is monochomatic and tending towards the neutral side of things, so hopefully it will also help me expand my color horizons in general.  That's the plan, anyway!

Finally, I've been wanting to pick up a few of these needle tips to add to my Cubics Special Interchangeable set - I've been totally addicted to using it for hat- and cowl-making, but I only have sizes 6-10 in the specially-engineered shorter tips.  Ergo, I added size 4 and 5 Nova tips to my order, and bang zoom! I've got a pretty nice range of sizes to choose from.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

App Review & Giveaway: Stash 2 Go

The developers for a paid Ravelry app for iPad and iPhone called Stash 2 Go contacted me earlier this year to see if I was interested in writing a review or their app on their blog. While I don't own an iPad or iPhone, I was able to gift a download to a knitting friend who had an iPad and was willing to let me play around with it for the purposes of this review! This is the first time I've ever accessed Ravelry via an app (on my Android phone, I typically use the m.ravelry.com site), and I found most of it to be easy to use. Some of the features weren’t intuitive to me at first, but once I got the hang of the idiosyncracies, it was smooth sailing. Stash 2 Go makes the most of API functions Ravelry has opened up to developers (there are still several areas which have yet to be completed in the Ravelry programming interface, so developers can only implement what is available through www.ravelry.com/api ). Most of the app's functionality allows the user to view the ...
1 comment
Read more

Australian Superfine Merino Yarn Review & Giveaway

After more than ten years of knitting, I can still have new experiences - even with well-covered territory such as merino yarn! This recent merino experience actually took me by surprise: I've spun with it, I've dyed it, I've knit with it, and I've even crocheted with it...I was pretty sure I knew all there was to know about merino! Turns out, there are four different classifications of merino fiber, sorted by micron count range . At the bottom of the spectrum is Strong Merino , which ranges from 26-22.9 microns; above that is Fine Merino , which ranges from 20.1-23 microns; next up is Extra Fine Merino, which ranges from 20-15.6 microns; and at the very top of the heap is Superfine Merino Wool , with a micron range of 18.5-15.6. If you're into numbers and wondering how these four classes stack up against other fibers you may be familiar with, here are a few for comparison's sake: BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester) has a micron range of 24-28, Cashmere goat down ...
68 comments
Read more

A Finished Sweater, With Cat Hair

After losing Tilly and Robin within a year of each other, I sure didn't think I'd be finding cat hair in my knitting any time soon. But the universe had other ideas. Over the winter, a white feral cat adopted us. I'd noticed her when we moved into our apartment last summer - I would see her hiding in the bushes or sunning herself in the grass when she thought no one was looking. I assumed she was someone's cat until I realized how skittish she was around humans, plus she had a tipped ear, which is a universal sign that a feral/stray cat has been spayed. Neighbors confirmed that she was a feral kitty (descended from several generations of feral cats, in fact), and that she has survived on her wits and whatever food various residents put out for her.  We had some bitterly cold days over the winter, and I just felt so sorry for this poor kitty! I started offering her treats and slowly gained her trust. She didn't even want to come inside our apartment at first, much le...
Post a Comment
Read more