Tip for the day--Frogging two stranded knits

If you have knitted a pair of fingerless gloves and discovered you didn't like them (I really didn't), and you decided to frog them; but they're double stranded. If you've encountered this before I now have a solution.

1. remove all pets, kids and partners from bedroom.
2. have at the ready your favorite lotion for your hands, a beverage of choice, chocolate and a yarn ball winder.

My winder is attached to a small piece of shelve from a cabinet. I hold it on my lap and wind the yarn. If your lucky to have a Knit Pick model (www.knitpicks.com), it have an attached handle.

To explain part 1, you will need space to throw the yarn (not really, but if it gets tangled who knows) on both sides of you. Having the partner in there..well like I said you need space and this would be the time he would want to take a nap and take up half the bed, then slowly creep towards you and take up your half and I'm speaking from experience. And if you have pets especially cats, they will make a bed out of anything that looks comfy, and a pile of yarn is comfy. Having the kids in the room making noise is distracting and if you've ever knitted with a toddler around, it can funny one time and terrible the next. I have knitted with both cats and kids and when the yarn suddenly become damp, and you look up to see your yarn passing through the mouth of either one...the beverage of choice could be a strong one.

On to part 2, the lotion is for your hands to get rid of any dryness that may catch the yarn and if it have a great scent it's aromatherapy too. The chocolate just the hell of it and the ball winder as mention before. Now to frog.

If the said item is small like the fingerless gloves you can hold it between your knees. But should it be larger, then you'll have to get your feet involved. With good lighting and Patience find the beginning if you've already seamed and tucked in the tails (yes I did) and un-seam, pull out the bonded off edge and undo two rows.

Now while sitting in the middle of the bed, take a strand in each hand and pull gently out to arms lengths right and left at the same time. Toss or drop the yarn on the edge of the bed (to find the ends make a slip knot and place a stitch marker or safety pin in the loop). It helps to hold the knitting with your knees or feet, because as you unravel the knitting it will comes to you. Now continue separating the yarn and dropping it on either side until you get to the end. PLEASE DO NOT DROP THE ENDS YET Make another slip knot and place a stitch marker of safety pin in the loop and lay it where you can put your hand on it. Now take on the strands of yarn and place it in the yarn winder and start winding, if you don't have a winder just make a ball. Everything should go smooth of nothing have been disturbed.

Thanks Cindy

I've learned to spin on a spinning wheel. A Babe Fiber Starter. The site link is below:

http://www.babesfibergarden.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=6&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=56&vmcchk=1&Itemid=56



I finally got control of my foot motion so I can treadle in a smooth motion. Once I learned to treadled without the wool, I tried it with the wool roving. Yes there was a mess, but I have learned to live with the mess and I call it my designer yarn, Nothing is thrown away.

I filled two bobbins with single twist of Hand Dyed Blue Faced Leicester Top roving. The Blue Face Leicester is the name of the sheep the wool came from. The colorway is called Atlantis.



After it has rested for a bit I'll ply it into 2ply yarn, set it and knit something.

More on the radiator

Damn,

It was fixed and it still leaks.

What's up?

1) I'm stuck at home without a car. Radiator have a hole in it.

2) I've straighten out my catch all area by my bed. I put my active knitting and spinning in separate grocery bag(the cloth recycled kind...big bags)
3) I plan to knit and spin a little every day until I've finished the knit projects and spun up the roving.

Needle Felted Bunny

Here she is, the pic still isn't as clear as I would like it to be, but you can see it's a bunny holding a carrot. She 2inches tall and 3inches long from nose to tail. I thing I'll make a larger one next time.

New Stuff

I'm still knitting, this time it's my winter set. I've finished the Calmitery, fingerless gloves which have a mitten cover in time. On the needles is a reverable cable scarf. The problem is I read the instuctions and not the chart, so the fist set of cables started on the 18th row instead of the 5th row. Still looks good.

The other new stuff is I made my first skein of yarn and dyed it green with Kool-Aid. In addition to spinning, yarn dyeing and knitting, I've learned to Needle Felt. The first Needle Felted I made is a bunnie holding a carrot. The pics I took are not good, so I will do another photo shoot with her soon. I am so impressed with the method of needle felting it crazy. I went to the blog of feltalive after watching her on Youtube. The link is www.feltalive.com She is awesome and so are her creations.

Well she got one..spinning wheel that is!

It arrived today and she has yet to put it together. I hope to see it this coming weekend, I know it's going to tempt me to gt one or should I just say prompt me to get one. Anywho, the first step is spinning the roving, second step plying it into yarn, third step dyeing it (with kool-aid), fourth and final step knitting the new yarn into something nice. I hope to not get to carried away with the spinning and lose interest in knitting.

My winter set is getting there, I've finished the Calorimetry, and now I on to the fingerless gloves. The hood will be next then the mittens.