One of my recent projects is a knitted lace jewelry holder. I came across the pattern/project on Ravelry and thought it would be a fun project. I've already completed the knitted part. I found this frame at the dollar store (yay!) and had some fun mixing up some of my craft paints to get the dark bluey-green color.





I want to add some kind of shimmer and then a glossy overcoat before attaching the lace to it. *sigh* Can I have a vacation from work just to have some full-on crafty fun?

Ooo, and my first Granny Square! I finally had a small chance to get my edumacation on while learning the strings (haha, get it? *slaps knee* ...I know, I know.) of being a ~Happy Hooker.~


haha, this yarn is some variegated acrylic that I aquired yeeeeeeeeeeeeaars ago. I think there's some braided Beanie Babies leashes I made out of it floating around in our attic...

I finally got a job about a month ago (yay and boo at the same time). I haven't had a lot of time to knit or bead. :( But I was able to buy a few fun items that I've been longing for with my new (and extremely limited) income!

Before knitting I used to "crochet." Well, for years I thought I was crocheting (self-taught after watching someone else one time who could actually crochet), but long story short, I then found out that what I was doing was sooo different from what actual crocheters do. lol, it really was a major bummer. I decided to opt for buying Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker since her other notoriously titled book was the first knitting instruction that I came across that actually helped me learn to knit after failing for 10 years. I also got the Art of Bead Embroidery since I've been longing for it ever since I started toying around with the art form. I love the pictures in the book.

I also bought some #3 circular needles and crochet hook at JoAnn's a few days ago. Oy, I won't even begin on the story about thinking I had #3 circulars...but now I finally have them (which is fantastic since a lot of projects I want to work on will require me to use 'em). And the #3 crochet hook will allow me to work on a project I so desperately want to create from the Happy Hooker book, yayness.

I also hit up my fave. thrift store and bought a few sweaters for a-fa-rogging. I think I did quite well with the fiber content of one of 'em in particular, hehe. But I'm exhausted now so I'll just end this post here. :)

I'm trying to revamp this blog and keep it updated. We'll see how well that goes...haha.

I went on a sweater hunt (a.k.a. treasure hunt) the other day at my favorite thrift store. I had some colors in mind and found the perfect sky blue and lavender and that I was hoping I'd find. I also had in mind to try to get "nicer" fibers than the usual cotton sweaters I tend to buy. These were 50% off so I spent less than $4 on them. :)

This gem is a silk, nylon, angora blend. I'm in love with the yarn that's being unraveled from this sweater! It's incredible soft and just oh-so-nice!

This one is made of angora and wool. It's soft... Though I'm a little iffy about the yarn from this one. It tends to break too easily for my liking. I've never really had an issue with yarn breaking and the fact that I'm able to break this while tugging at it a little more than usual worries me since I'm a weakling to begin with. I've never worked with angora or wool before so I'm not sure if it's the nature of this fiber or if the strands in this particular sweater are just weak due to a possible variety of reasons. My original reason for wanting this sweater was so that I could make a shawl but I'd hate for it to tear and break. I may experiment with felting instead, or maybe I'll knit with several strands together to give it some strength.

Here's a little bit about the method I use when harvesting yarn from sweaters.

I'm not sure what happened to all the wire hangers that we used to have in this house...they've just mysteriously vanished over the years! Because of that, I have only been able to find one wire hanger in recent history so it is put to use quite a bit (and due to it's demand, it makes my process even slower). Yeah, so point being, a bent hanger is very important to me.

Once I take the sweater apart and get the frogging started, I like to wrap the yarn around the hanger. Sometimes it's enjoyable, other times it is not! Onward, we go! Then I like to take my yarn adorn hanger and go to the sink. I get the yarn nice and wet and then I take shampoo, lather, rinse...and on some occassions I repeat. If the weathers nice, I'll hang the hanger outside and let it dry out there during the day. Otherwise I let it drip dry over the bath tub, or if it's no longer dripping it gets hung in an area of my room. Then I wind it by hand (blah!) into balls (or in most cases eggs). Ah, but the important thing is that I now know that the yarn is all nice & clean and kink-free! And then I have fun knitting as much as my defect wrist will allow.

The weaver's knot is going to be my new best friend. It's nearly invisible when used to join the cotton yarn (from the frogged sweaters!) that I've been using for my lace projects.