Tag Archives: yarn

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone who reads my Cherished Moments blog!  I truly love each and every one of the people who have helped cheer me on, laughed with me, cried with me and been an inspiration to me over the past year.  Have a great one!

Design
I know it's been a while since I last posted, but I'm having a blast getting Midwest Yarn up and running.  The tentative website launch date is February 27th and with the way things are slow to arrive, it looks like that was a good date to pick.

Katya Rose
Size 6-12 months
In between website building and Peanut entertaining, I've been working on a few new projects.  I published another pattern on Ravelry.com called the "Katya Rose". 

It's a jumper and pant set featuring picot edging.  It ranges in size from 0-3 months to 18-24 months.  I love working with merino wool and this project was no exception.  I picked out the colors Fuschia and Snow from Millamia, purchased at Ruhama's, my favorite LYS.  I also crocheted a flower and put it on the jumper to decorate it for the picture and for sale on Etsy.

I always feel self-conscious about the photos I take because we have a small, poorly lit condo, and I can only get semi-descent pictures in a few areas of the house and at specific times of the day.  Being that we're in Wisconsin and in the middle of winter, sunny days are also few and far between.

Knitting Madness
I've been feverishly knitting in the few minutes I get in my spare time as well.  I knit a scarf out of Noro Kureyon Sock, using a pattern from Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders.  I figure, since I have so much sock yarn in my stash, I might as well work through the book a little bit to bring down that stash, if that's even possible.  If I have time, I might even do Sock Madness through the Ravelry.com group (and that's a real big IF, but I missed last year's because I never had knit a sock before).  Now that I've learned/mastered a lot of new techniques over the last year, I'm hoping that I can stand a chance to even keep up with the sock pros.

Yea, I've been knitting for over 20 years, but I'm a young one compared to a lot of my knit/crochet counterparts.  I just want to prove that I can do it, even if I only make it through the first round.  I'm a slow knitter.

Coming Soon
Midwest Yarn's launch and more pattern designs.  On deck for a pattern: sweater vest.

Three Special Skeins

Susan recently did a trunk show at A Good Yarn in Sarasota, and brought me back some beautiful yarn as a present. I can’t wait to use them!

The coolest thing is, though, that these yarns are in colorways exclusive to A Good Yarn. I didn’t know that was possible! They are, from top to bottom:

Once I get back in the sock-knitting mood, these will be the first I turn to. Thank you, Susan!

 


A Bunch o’ Stuff

So I guess I have hit an official blogging slump. I have been doing things, at least I think I have, but most of them are not things I take pictures of. And the creative stuff has been mostly long-term projects -- not the kind of things I want to keep posting updates on as it would probably bore everybody to tears.

But I have a few little things to share. First off, some yarn dyeing, Or overdyeing if you want to be accurate.

all of them - just out of the pots

One of many wonderful Ravelry friends had some leftover Juniper Moon Farm yarns that she was willing to swap to me so I could put them toward my Log Cabin Blanket.

They were all lovely, but not quite bold enough next to my other colors, so I decided to dye them a little darker.

The green was a very pale mint green to start,

green before

green after - wet

and became sort of a brown and green mossy color when it was done.

green after - side of cake

The red was very pink-y/magenta-y,

red before

red after - wet

so I oranged it up a bit.

red after - side of cake

The blue was so pale that it was not even as blue in person as it appears in this photo.

blue before

blue after - wet

I am pretty proud of this one. :)

blue after - side of cakes

So that's that for yarn dyeing adventures for the time being. I'd love to do more, but I absolutely cannot take on another hobby at this point in time.

A cool thing was this suitcase that the boys and I found by the side of the road when we were out walking the other day.

fun decal

have to try to preserve this sticker

I gave it a good shake to make sure it wasn't filled with anything (believe me, my mind was going over all the terrible possibilities of what might be hiding inside a locked suitcase on the side of the road). When it felt empty, I decided to go for it and we carried it home.

good sturdy handle

The locks were easy to pick, thank goodness.

classy

And the verdict is: a million dollars in unmarked bills!

Sorry, no, that's my fantasy version. In real life, it was empty as can be, but in excellent condition!

clean and really nice inside!

No smells or anything, so we are good to go. Now to decide what to use it for!

Other recent acquisitions include some very special baby clothes.

This dress (actually a toddler size, rather than a baby size) was made for my mother, for a wedding she was in when she was about four years old.

a dress my mother wore around the age of 4

dress detail

Needs a cleaning and has a small stain, but it will make a little girl very happy someday I am sure.

This sweater and matching bonnet were made for me when I was a 6-9 month sized person and will be perfect for Liddy's first winter!

another one of my baby sweaters

yoke detail

And THIS sweater.

a sweater I wore as a newborn

Newborn sized, lightweight, covered in these little gathers that remind me of little daisies,

gather detail

perfect for a May baby! I think if I can make a matching hat, Lydia might wear it home from the hospital.

Now a super quick update on the ever growing Log Cabin:

progress and next colors planned

I am OBSESSED I tell you. Love this project so much.

can't stop staring

A sort of recent project that is not especially pretty but is inherently useful is this set of cast iron skillet handle covers I made.

I sandwiched layers of plain and printed vintage feedsack over some vintage wool batting I took out of a dry rotted lap quilt, and put pieces of an unwanted pot holder in the middles for added protection.

short handle snap-on cover

The feminine hygiene product looking ones are for the short handles. As you can see, they wrap around

wrapped around

and snap securely in place.

snapped

For the long handles, I layered some some longer rectangles the same way, but sewed them together into tubes then so they can just slip on and off.

long handle sleeves

They work SO WELL! I snap them on before I start cooking and they stay cool to the touch and do not burst into flames the whole time the meal is being made!

now safe and easy to handle

They even work on a skillet that has been baking in the oven (but obviously I do not keep them on the handles during the baking...)

Anyway. Finishing up a very lengthy post with some love.

Love item #1: I joined Pinterest.

HOLY COW I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Seriously, it is what I always dreamed of in a site for categorizing and sharing my favorite things. Love, love, love.

Look me up over there, if you are so inclined. (Link above) I will be busy filling up my boards and spamming the crap out of my followers with pictures captioned with such descriptive gems as, "WANT!" and "COLORS!" and "GARDEN LOVE!"

Love item #2: The other morning, Ethan magneted a message on our refrigerator to remind us to "go out and love people."

Ethan's reminder to go out and love people

A few hours later, I came across Love item #3: a tiny flour heart on the bottom of my hotdog bun at lunch.

random heart on a hot dog bun

(And yeah, I checked first to make sure it was flour and not mold. Either way, it was still a tiny heart.)

I think that's all for now. I am exploding with ideas but finding myself with little motivation to actually do much other than knit and sit in front of the computer. But I have a few things lined up for when I have those bursts of productivity...

What We’ll Carry

We're right on schedule to go live by the end of February!

I'm happy to report that our yarn and knitting needle orders have been made!  Some of the yarns I ordered are newer, meaning new lines or new colors so they will take longer to be stocked in the online shop.  Once we get a decent amount of stock in, we will go live!  But here's what you can expect to see coming soon:
  • Noro - Silk Garden and Silk Garden Lite (newer colors, so will take some time to get in).  Noro is a one-of-a-kind type of yarn.  Its lines have unique color combinations, making finished items like a work of art.
  • Louisa Harding - Ondine, Nerissa (new line), Grace Hand Dyed and Grace Silk & Wool. 
  • Sirdar - Baby Bamboo and Smiley Stripes.
  • Juniper Moon Farm - Findley Dappled and Sabine (both are new yarn lines).
  • Ella Rae - Classic Wool and Lace Merino.
  • Debbie Bliss - Rialto Aran.
We'll be sure to carry some of the books that support the yarn lines that we have coming in. 

The knitting needles are Clover.  All needles, including the circulars are bamboo.  The dpns are Takumi Velvet, an excellent bamboo dpn (have a set and LOVE them).  We'll be ordering crochet hooks soon, can't forget you crocheters out there!

I'm also starting what I call the "Wish List".  It'll be a list of the yarn lines I'd like to carry as we grow.  You can always leave comment on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, or Ravelry group for lines to add to the wishlist, which will be kept on the blog and updated as we get recommendations.

Check out Knitting Fever's website for free patterns and for a preview of what we'll have available (or to add items to the wish list).

Five Years’ Time: Endpaper Mitts

I think it can be fun to look back and talk about what I was knitting a long time ago. I consider five years to be an acceptable buffer zone of embarrassment (both in knitting and in most other things) and so, like last month, I think I’ll show you what I was working on five years ago, in the winter of 2007.

I had recently gotten very excited about knitting after discovering Eunny Jang’s fantastic blog. I seriously don’t think I would have remained a knitter if I hadn’t found it– I knew about Knitty, but not yet about Ravelry, and, although I didn’t know it, was looking for someone to talk to me intelligently about knitting: technique, design, materials, the whole thing.

In (weirdly) my very first college all-nighter, I read the entire backlog of her blog (…while listening to The Earth is Not A Cold Dead Place on loop? Remember what I said about 5 years erasing all shame?). My memory has crystallized the whole experience into a sort of magical movie-montage that, to quote Michael Chabon, does indeed glisten with epiphanic dew. It was absolutely transformative. I don’t think I’ve ever read another blog that’s enchanted me as much, save Kate’s, which I think I found two years later.

All of which is to say, I was thoroughly enticed by the Endpaper Mitts, and so rode my bike down to Yarns Etc (it was still in Carrboro!) and looked around. I found 4 prim balls of Rowan Wool Cotton (not exactly suited to the task at hand, but what did I know?) and took them home.

These mitts have been my winter companions for the past five years, and I think it’s time to let them go. For one thing– and this is the main thing– they’re not particularly warm, thanks to the cotton. Therefore, they’ve biased me against mitts as a rule. I know I may well be wrong about them, and so am asking– are mitts actually warm? I’m always reading that they’re practical, and the woolen ones I’ve made and given as gifts have seen years of use, but I am still unconvinced (and know there’s only one way to remedy this). They also, again thanks to the cotton, are very drying and inelastic– not exactly something one wants to jam onto cold hands.

I think the only reason I’ve held on to them for so long is that they’re very beautiful. Which is certainly the case.


Yarn, Yarn Everywhere…

Design
I guess online yarn shops are somewhat taboo in the LYS industry.  I knew that, but I'm still plunging forward with the Midwest Yarn project.  I keep telling myself, "You're not WEBS, not Yarn Market, you're Midwest Yarn.  You're online to raise capital for the brick-and-mortar shop."  I'm hoping that this mantra will help me through the Grand Opening jitters.  This is a HUGE investment and I don't want to fail.  Small business profits go to feeding families, not paying for undeserved bonuses or padding the bank account.

I'll still be knitting, I'll still be designing, and at some point, maybe I'll be able to hire an assistant or bring on a business partner to allow me to be more involved in the industry.  My mission is to promote the longevity of needlecrafts like ours.  I don't want to step on any toes, I want to bring people my age and younger on board. 

When at the indoor playground with Peanut, I was asked by one little boy, "WHAT are you doing?!"  Of course, he saw me working on a bright pink pair of knit merino pants.  Another mom, who looked to be about my age, said she admired people who could knit and crochet and wished she had the time to learn.  C'MON knitters, let's do it!  Let's get my generation and the next into the mix!


In the meantime, I'll be promoting the heck out of Midwest Yarn's products (*wink* NORO) and website (*wink* Juniper Moon Farm).  You can also check out Midwest Yarn's blog for updates and if you follow the blog, the Ravelry group, Facebook page or Twitter (@midwestyarn), you'll get a discount.  We're still set to open within the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Yarn, Yarn Everywhere…

Design
I guess online yarn shops are somewhat taboo in the LYS industry.  I knew that, but I'm still plunging forward with the Midwest Yarn project.  I keep telling myself, "You're not WEBS, not Yarn Market, you're Midwest Yarn.  You're online to raise capital for the brick-and-mortar shop."  I'm hoping that this mantra will help me through the Grand Opening jitters.  This is a HUGE investment and I don't want to fail.  Small business profits go to feeding families, not paying for undeserved bonuses or padding the bank account.

I'll still be knitting, I'll still be designing, and at some point, maybe I'll be able to hire an assistant or bring on a business partner to allow me to be more involved in the industry.  My mission is to promote the longevity of needlecrafts like ours.  I don't want to step on any toes, I want to bring people my age and younger on board. 

When at the indoor playground with Peanut, I was asked by one little boy, "WHAT are you doing?!"  Of course, he saw me working on a bright pink pair of knit merino pants.  Another mom, who looked to be about my age, said she admired people who could knit and crochet and wished she had the time to learn.  C'MON knitters, let's do it!  Let's get my generation and the next into the mix!


In the meantime, I'll be promoting the heck out of Midwest Yarn's products (*wink* NORO) and website (*wink* Juniper Moon Farm).  You can also check out Midwest Yarn's blog for updates and if you follow the blog, the Ravelry group, Facebook page or Twitter (@midwestyarn), you'll get a discount.  We're still set to open within the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Welcome to Midwest Yarn!


We will post when our website is set to go live.  It should be up and running by mid to late February.  Until then our Ravelry ads will point you to the blog.
Welcome to the Midwest Yarn blog!  Midwest Yarn, a Cherished Moments company, is a small business operated out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My name is Melina and I am the proud owner of this wonderful yarn shop.  Over the past few years, I have been operating Cherished Moments, dreaming about the many different options available for needle artists when it comes to yarn.  And then it hit me, OPEN A YARN STORE!

Our goal is to provide the highest quality yarn to knitters and crocheters alike.  There's nothing like proudly wearing a handmade garment and feeling how soft and luxurious the yarn is.  We carefully select our yarns to make sure that we only stock lines made from natural fibers. Silks, wools, cotton, and their blends make wonderful fibers to work with. 

You may not see yarns from nylon, acrylic, or polyester, but you will see high end brands like Noro, Debbie Bliss, and more. We will also carry yarn made from organic fibers and are working to find spinners and dyers who would like to sell their natural fiber yarns as well.
 
To start we will carry some great new yarns and some favorites like:
  • Noro
  • Louisa Harding
  • Sirdar
  • Juniper Moon Farm
  • Ella Rae
  • Debbie Bliss 
We will do everything we can to provide excellent customer service, support for your projects, and a welcoming environment for yarn lovers everywhere. All the comforts of your local yarn shop without having to leave your home.

If you do love the atmosphere of your local yarn shop, don't worry!  My goal for Midwest Yarn is to also open a brick-and-mortar shop as soon as possible.  Until we reach that goal, check out what we have to offer and let us know how we're doing.

I will be using this blog to support other knitters and their projects, keep you updated with what's going on with our store, and offer you special deals.  For now, make sure you follow our blog.  Ravelry group (Friends of Midwest Yarn), blog, Facebook page, or Twitter (@midwestyarn) followers receive a 10% discount - more details to follow.

GRAND OPENING SPECIAL:


Enjoy 20% off your first order using the coupon code WELCOME20 at checkout. 

Otherwise, any order over $50 shipped in the US will receive free shipping.

Tinder

Yesterday, I went to the DMV to get my Virginian driver’s license, car title, license plates, and voter registration. Because I am one of those people who finds a deep satisfaction in doing the right thing, and doing it in the right way (which probably says horrible Jasager things about me), I was pretty excited at the prospect. Knowing full well the godawful wait that, well, awaited, I was also feeling pretty clever that I’d brought my knitting.

However, it wasn’t to be. Two rows in, my number was called, and I was up at the counter, handing over every piece of Important Paper I own. I left, satisfied, with everything I’d come for. I am now an official Virginian– the best part of which is BORROWING PRIVILEGES from the UVA Library system (I’ve been in torment without easy access to a university library. The parking for the library may be a fresh torment, but at least I don’t have an excuse anymore to Not Read Books.).

The knitting I was so excited about is the Jared Flood pattern, Tinder, which I’ve admired since the BT Fall collection was released back in September. I’m making it as a present for someone, and, somehow, I’ve ended up in an inadvertent knitalong with Zac’s mom. She’s going to beat me to the finish. I’m sure of it. It’s not a race.

I’m working in Sabine, which is exactly as described– the yarn that will steal your heart. As a sworn cotton-hater, I was prepared to dislike it. And, of course, I love it. It has all the lightness of cotton, but none of its harshness, dry feel, or inelasticity. It has a beautiful hand, and perfect drape. I’ve worked with it before, test knitting a garment for Marie Grace’s beautiful collection, and knew then that I wanted to use it again. It may end up being my go-to worsted this spring.

This is the 4th big knitting project I’ve taken on this spring– wish me luck and speed (and smaller requests)!


Beatnik & Updates!