My Bedroom Yarns

I tidy up my room every Saturday morning.  It's part of my weekly cleaning of my house.  But this Saturday morning I got a bit more ambitious and decided to also organize my room.

This didn't take much time, mostly because I don't really have all that much in my room besides comic books, toasty blankets and yarn.  Toasty blanks can be folded and comic books are easy to neatly stack in my night stand.

The yarn however, is another story.

I didn't think that I had very much yarn, but then I piled it all up to take stock and this is what I found...

I know it doesn't look like a very big yarn stash... but then, keep in mind this is just the yarn that I have in one room of my house.  It's just my bedroom yarn.  Which is a sub-section of my upstairs yarn.

 Yes, I have downstairs yarns too.  Those are the yarns that I don't plan on knitting anything with anytime soon.  That's why they are downstairs.  With the monsters and the ghosts.

So, why am I pointing this out?  Well, a few reasons I think....

1) Clearly, I have a little yarn problem.  I thought I would share just in case there are others of you out there who think you might have a yarn problem.  Rest assured.  You are not alone.

2) Really, this yarn problem should not be a surprise... but for some reason, to me, it was.

3) I want to share pictures of the pretty, pretty yarns.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with all of these yarn balls.  I've found some very pretty, and very soft ones that I think will happily knit up into some lovely Christmas gifts.  But until then, I've sorted out the yarns that are not part of works in progress and moved them into the downstairs yarn collection.  And, accordingly, I think that I now have room for more comic books and toasty blankets.

The Perils of Digging for Treasure

I have this nifty little garbage bag I made for my car.  Fits just swell in the glove box.  I took a picture of it and was going to write a blog post about it, but didn't really have anything to say about it... until today.

We decided to go on a fun-filled family outing to the Ancaster fair yesterday.  (I had been really excited about this because BotBot assured me that the petting zoo had lions and tigers and bears.)

(BotBot is a liar)

So we all piled into my tiny and brand new hatchback and off we went.  At some point Hannah began to pick her nose like there was buried treasure in it daintily adjust her nasal aperture.  And of course it started bleeding.

Like a faucet.

I turned around and she's screaming and shaking her head back and forth, blood flying everywhere.  Then Mr. Natty started yelling at her to be quite and put her head back while I started looking for something to plug her nose up.

Naturally there is not a single tissue, napkin, kleenex, or piece of paper.... nothing.  well, except for my single *emergency* panty liner.

So I reached back and stuck it to her face mid scream and told her to put her head back and stop talking.

She keeps talking.  Mr. Natty calmly and in his most non-yell-y voice (which if you know him sounds like any normal person shouting) tells her to stop talking and put her head back.

Hannah:  *rips the panty liner off her face and leans forward*  'Mummy I don't know why I cant stop talking!!!!!'

Mr. Natty : 'STOP TALKING!!!'

Natty:  'Hannah honey just put your head back.'

Hannah: *shakes head*  'Mummy!!! I just keep talking!!! Mummy!!! My nose is bleeding!!!! Mummy Mummy Mummy!!!!!! Why can't I stop talking?'

Mr. Natty: '@$&(^$%^&*!!!!!!!!!'

Did I mention this is a new car?    *sigh* and here I was worried about crumbs.

So we finally pull up at the fair and it looks like the zombie apocalypse has taken place in my back seat, but at least the bleeding seems to have stopped.

I handed Mr. Natty a dried out wet wipe I found at the bottom of my purse and he cleaned the child up as best he could, then pulled both goblins out of the back seat and they wandered off towards the admissions booth.

I took the bloody wet wipe and the panty liner and disposed of them in my super cool car disposal unit (aka fat quarter baggie) while making a mental note to remember to empty it out when I got home.  (seriously the last thing I need is to be driving a friend somewhere and have them find the blood encrusted panty liner in my bag and then have to try to have to convince them that its totally not mine.)

An Evening of Knitting - Interrupted by Cable

No. No. I'm not knitting cables.  I'm knitting while watching cable.  This is a bit of an event for us since we have not had it in about seven years.  (Did you know that there is a show about people who buy storage containers so that they can steal other people's crap and then sell it? I had no idea that was a thing)

I remember that there was never anything on cable... that's why we got rid of it.  But having gotten it again, i have to say that really the worst thing about cable is the incessant flipping between channels.

It is so annoying!

We haven't had cable in the house for 24 hours yet and I'm already set to get rid of it and go back to the 'pick a movie and watch it' method of TV viewing.  Its good background noise for knitting.

But perhaps the constant changing of the channels might be a bit similar to my current project.  It is a pretty cowl/shrug, made with a chunky yarn - wool/alpaca blend - in a beautiful burnt orange that will be just perfect for fall.  I like that the yarn is not a uniform size in the way that it is spun, so it creates an interesting texture to the fabric as it knits up.... it's constantly changing.

 

(You can see the colour and variance in size of the yarn I'm using here)

(I'm posting these next two in black and white because the effect that is created when the yarn is knit up is difficult to see in the colour photo)

 (Here is a close up photo showing how the yarn knits up.  It's so pretty!!)

I have never knit with this kind of a yarn before now, but I quite like it.  I'm already planning to get more in a nice eggplant to make another warm and toasty cowl for the winter time. 

So, what I have learned tonight is this: constant flipping between channels on the TV is not ideal for knitting, and that using yarns that are constantly changing in size leads to a quite interesting look.  (also, Mr. Natty has informed me that I have quite a knack for describing the content of TV shows)

What is Upcycling Anyway?

In my previous post I introduced the concept of upcycling, and gave a bit of an example of what this involves.  Perhaps a more formal definition might be a good starting point for an investigation of this trend.

The term 'upcycle' has been used as early as 1994.  Yet, as a concept, it was best defined by McDonough and Braungart in their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things, (I've just added this to my 'to read' list).  This book suggests that rather than downcycling, when an object reaches the end of it's use, it should be used as materials for something new.  A key part of the process of upcycling is that the object be used to make something that maintains or increases in quality.

A benefit to upcycling is that it doesn't require as many new raw materials, if any.  This means that there is less energy expended, less water and air pollution, and fewer greenhouse emissions released in the process of production.

As a result, upcycled products are often more ecologically friendly than a comparable object made entirely of new materials.

I have an upcycling project I'm working on.  We put new built-in closets into our bedrooms this spring.  Right now they don't have doors on them.  We are collecting pallets to use the wood to make them.  (and also to make the base for a new couch/daybed for my sitting room).

Everything Old is New Again!

When I was a teenager I used to make, and remake, a lot of my clothes.  When I had money to buy fabric I would make something entirely new, and when I didn't I would pull something out of my closet that I didn't really like anymore and find a way to turn it into something awesome.

I think that for probably as long as people have been making things, they have been finding ways to re-imagine and re-purpose those things that are worn out, or no longer useful.  And why not re-purpose things, this is just common sense, frugal use of resources, right?

Well.  Perhaps.  But in a world of fast fashion and mass production, it is often just cheaper to throw old stuff away and get new stuff than it is to invest time and creativity into re-using and re-making what we already have.

We are a culture driven by mass consumption after all.

But this isn't always the case.  Some of you may be aware of a 'trend' or 'movement' in the crafterverse called upcycling. This basically involves taking old items and making them new again by turning them into something else.  There are some very creative, interesting and unique pieces of work being made this way. 

I would like to take some time over the next little while to share with you all some blog posts about upcycling.  I hope that you will keep an eye out for them, and in them find some crafty inspiration!

(This is a garden gnome.  One of the goblins dropped it on its head and broke it.  I use it as a planter now.  I've wanted to post it for a while, but was waiting for a blog post that might be remotely appropriate.  I think that today's post is the winner!)

Lord of the Honeycombs

So, I'm just going to start this post as an aside...  I hate thinking of titles for blog posts.  It's not always easy to think of a clever title that sums up the content, but is also funny.  Sometimes it works really well and I have a real zinger for a title.  Other times it's an epic fail.

Today might be one of those days.  You can judge for yourself.

Moving along....

I bought some new size 4 dpn's the other day (FYI, that means double pointed needles.  They are good for knitting in the round) so that I can begin a knitting project I've wanted to try since forever.  It's called the Beekeeper's Quilt.  It's made by stitching several little honeycomb puffs together to make a blanket.

I had the house to myself this past weekend, so I decided to make some honeycombs while watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

 

Right now it's closer to being hobbit sized than Natty sized.  So I guess I'll have to watch a whole lot more LOTR to get this finished.

Hello Scissors!

So, I'm coming into the 'home stretch' of my thesis writing.

Maybe.

I'm not sure.  I almost have a draft done.... so that must be close, right?

Anyway, Mr. Natty took the goblins camping this weekend and I stayed home so that I could do some writing.  Yay for me! 

I went downstairs into my office/thesis writing dungeon this morning ready to work and realized that I couldn't possibly work in there because it was too messy*.  So I spent a few hours tidying it up.  Now its totally ready for me to start working.

Okay, so I'm really, really ready to get started on writing, but wait!  Just let me tell you all this... today while i was tidying I found my favourite sewing shears.  They are the perfect weight and glide through fabric like nobody's business.  And they've been missing for months. 

I felt that this joyful reunion required immediate celebration.  So here's what I did.  I pulled out some fabrics that I've had sitting around for a few weeks and started sewing.

Hello Kitty pillowcases.  One for each goblin.

Bonding time with my scissors is now done.  Back to work.....

*For those of you thinking of writing a thesis, I am going to warn you now, you will frequently have to tidy up every square inch of your workspace before you can even begin to think about working.  This is just part of the process.  Cleaning your fridge is also part of the process.  Coincidentally, today I have the cleanest fridge in the world.