Random #3: Experimental Crafting!

Howdy!  Now it's really, truly, officially spring!  I planted my bargain bin daffodils purchased late last year (it was too late to plant in fall).  With these and the ones I planted last year, I may finally have enough to make a small bouquet this year!  It's been too long since I've had a bunch of daffodils in the house so I'm really excited for them.

First up in the crafty world, it's time for the winner announcement!  I'm glad each pattern has had a few people like it each time. This past giveaway was a Calico Crossroads design called Furever. It had two people enter and the random number generator chose number one!

image found through Google search

Mini, you are the winner~  I know you will be moving soon, so if you want me to hold onto the pattern until you get settled down, I don't mind.

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cozy comfort

I did manage to finish the cover for the hot water bottle!  And it has already been put to use... nightly.  The propane for our furnace is very low and it's so expensive to restock this time of year, eep.  So, we've been rationing which leads to some cold feet at night.  Hooray for hot water bottles (and my husband, the disbeliever that he was, loves it)!  And hooray for Banana Berry colorways!  I still have a healthy amount of this yarn left too.

My gauge was a little off since I used size 10½ needles.  10 would've been better, I think.  I just adjusted the increases and decreases to fit my bottle. I used Jeny's super stretchy bind off for the cuff which was an interesting experience.  It really is stretchy, thank goodness, but I feel like the sewn bind off would've been moreso.  This cover is a little awkward to use as-is.  The bottle has to be empty to slip in/out of the cover.  I have to be a bit more careful when filling/emptying it or the cover would get wet from splashes.

Technical Details

• "All You Need - A Classic" freebie pattern by LondonLeo can be found here (ravelry).
• My ravelry project page found here.
• Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver acrylic in colorway banana berry. ♥♥♥♥
• Needles: 10½ (6.5mm) short tips and 16" cable.
• Started February 17, 2019, finished March 10, 2019; unknown hours.

All in all, this is such a simple pattern!  And hugely customizable since it includes all the math with the pattern.  I'm glad I made this useful and pretty little thing!  I love that folks over the puddle call these "hotties".  They're just "hot water bottles" here.  What're they know as for you?

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vintage stash!

I occasionally tease myself with looking things up on eBay but I couldn't pass up this lot of (mostly) vintage craft booklets, especially when it wound up being about $0.50 per booklet.  The Priscilla Irish Crochet Book is a reproduction but it's nicely done.  There were lots(!) of different edging books in this lot which are always so fun to go through and think of the dainty trims to put on everything.  It's also kind of fun to see my collection so far on the "shelves" of Ravelry! (That link may only work for those who have an account; I'm not sure.)

make everything

Here are some of my favorites of the lot, partly because of the beautiful patterns, partly because of the fun covers!  I'm really interested in the two needle mittens.  I think this will be a great way to practice seaming for a future sweater.  Speaking of sweaters...

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start with an older sweater

This is a new-to-me attempt at being thrifty, possibly thrifty to the extreme.  I've often seen people take apart sweaters to reclaim the yarn but have never braved it myself.  I picked a sweater with a somewhat nice fiber content, but was too big for me, and also wasn't quite my style.  This sweater cost a terrible $0.87 at a thrift store and net 9oz (255g) over 4 hanks of wool.  I learned what sort of construction to watch for so I didn't wind up with 20 billion tiny pieces of yarn.

looks remarkably like ramen noodles

Unraveling the sweater was sort of cathartic.  It took quite a long time too, with the unpicking of the seams, unraveling, and winding the yarn onto the back of a chair to make the hanks.  I would guess I spent around 10 hours total undoing everything.

a gentle bath

I had to be quite careful washing the yarn or else it would felt into an unusable mess.  I soaked it in cold water with a small amount of a gentle soap.  No swishing around!  It was more like... smooshing.  Then it was rolled in a towel to remove excess wetness and then hung to dry.  Washing it like this helped get rid of some of the ramen-noodliness.  I'm sure I could've weighted it down some to stretch it out more, but I was afraid of over-stretching it.

a healthy weight

It's not very fancy yarn, but it is 45% angora, 40% wool, and 15% nylon.  I'll probably never afford true angora wool unless it appears by luck but I can certainly buy sweaters in thrift stores (I'm watching for a pretty cashmere next)!  I estimate it to be somewhere between a light fingering/heavy lace weight so maybe about 1,000-1,200 yards?  While undoing the sweater, the yarn seemed to be whispering that it would like to become a shawl in its next life.  I've picked out (and even printed so you know it's serious) the pattern I'd like to attempt.

It will be a lot of firsts!  First reclaimed wool.  First knit lace.  First beading (oh my!).  First nupps which I've never even heard of before this pattern.  I'm a little anxious to see how the yarn will work up since it was reclaimed plus I have very little experience using actual wool fibers.  I hope the shawl will be wonderful and maybe make me feel like a princess instead of my usual tomboy self.  :)

yes, they are in a small daffodil glass

:D