Crafty Andy

Today was a day for fun pictures. I needed some pictures for a group I belong to and I decided to be playful  and enjoy myself. I really have taken a break from crafting and it feels good. Photography is a hobby that I embraced since the early 1980's, I bought my first camera, a Minolta, at the Military Base in Fort Lewis, Washington. Rene, who became my best friend, helped me select one. Rene was the first person I came out to in my life and he helped me a lot while we were in the military.  We were good friends always. Even thou he is no longer among us his friendship always brings a smile to my face. He was a really good friend, I will never forget him nor his friendship. So going back to photography, Rene and I will do photo shoots with each other.  We got dressed up with coats and shirts, ties and just had a lot of make believe fun.  What a fun thing photography is, when you can realize that a picture sometimes speaks more than actual words. I truly enjoy photography and try…

I have to say that this was a very interesting knit project to felt.  I was very happy to see that my dye job was perfect no bleeding after it got felted.
There is nothing like Alpaca to make a felted bag, it is very easy to felt and responds well to front loader washers. The Pockets came out nice,  I really like the idea of having felted pockets as well..
Is a little bit big on one side on the joining band, but it will be fine. This is due to a home spun jacob alpaca blend that had too much twist .  I try to take as much twist out of it as possible, and in the end it came out better than expected.   I have a front loader washer and it was perfect for this. I definitely recommend this pattern for people that want to see what felting is like.  Below is the before felting look hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

There are men knitters that I find very inspiring for different reasons, Stephen West is very inspiring for pushing the envelopes on shawls and twisted stitches and adding colors that make you say wow.  The pattern you see above is the Sun Satchel.  I am sure that is related to the "Old Forge" in some way.   The pattern is very easy, yet you need to have an idea of how to make felted items.  I want a new bag so this is the right project for me.  The most difficult part of this project is selecting the sequence of colors,  I hope I can finish this project by the weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.

The Old Forge has been finished. What a great knit. Since I am a loose knitter I should have foreseen the need of an extra skein, but it did not matter much. Once the ends are weaved, you may use an iron to steamed block the blanket.  You hover the iron over the blanket on the wrong side.  It stretched naturally to 6 feet across easily.


The greatness of this blanket is that it is easy to make, even at 600 stitches, lol. I found that I was very entertained.  You definitely should use stitch markers.  The stitch markers were a highly valued tool with this blanket. Whenever I made a mistake I knew I was within a section and I discovered it within the section.  The garter stitch border is ingeniously the perfect way to bind off by knitting the 600 stitches.  I grafted the end with a kitchener stitch and presto. I have to say that this is a fantastic gift idea and at under $150  in materials, not a bad deal. It took me 17 days to knit this guy and if I was going to sell it, is $500 to  $10…

I just wanted to share the picture of the Old Forge as I am working on the blanket.  I will have a full review and report about the journey of this blanket in the next posting as it is finished. Thanks for stopping by!

I am almost finished with the Old Forge. This is one of the most delightful knits I have done in a long time. My gauge have kind of become a little loose. A lesson to learn is to always order more yarn lol. As I was making the garter stitch border I decided to do a mathematical equation to how much yarn I have left and how much yarn I still need to complete the project. I was going to be short, so I had some options. First option was to use the Crimson and the yarn left in alternating sections. There are 600 Stitches, so I had choices. My calculations reported back to me that I would need about 50 grams of yarn finish it. I would order more,but I thought I had some yarn that had the same kind of color, You bet, I have some Alpaca , homespun by me in a Rose Grey colorway and that is exactly the color this other yarn is. It is a heathered grayish brown with a rosy hue. To the left of the orange stitch market  on the garter stitch market is the new yarn, is a bit fuzzy and spun more…

The Skeins of yarn from Beaverslide have some manufacturer's knots on them, but not a big deal. It actually irritates me a lot, but it talks to the fact that the yarn is manufacture less mechanical than not. The knots are kind of soft knotted, so you can open up the knot easily.YOU can fuse your wool in few simple steps. I am hoping a set of pictures is worth a thousand words.


You get some water, unless you want to spit fuse.
You look at the yarn that needs to be fused, there is a knot, you undo it.
it may look like this or completely two separate yarn ends to fuse.
You then put it in the water like this.

Now your yarn is wet and you set the ends on your yarn almost ready for fusing.
You rub the yarn between the palm of your hands briskly.
 Presto your yarn is safely fused.

I hope the pictures were worth a thousand words. Thanks for stopping by!

What a beautiful Sunday it was as we embarked n a journey to the Vulcan Embassy in Sausalito. We actually rented some bikes and did something we have never done on a bicycle. What was that? We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on Bicycles and were able to return. Michael and I have never done that. Living in the City by the Bay, Sarfleet Headquarters no less, can be lots of fun. Our bikes were 21 speed, and I can say that even though I would not buy the specific bike that I was using, I got to test the bikes on slopes. The video is a bit noisy and shaky, but It is amazing what you can on a bicycle while driving safely and not falling down or hitting anyone!

On the home front and with the yarn I just got and some of my kettle dye yarn. I am making progress on this "Old Forge", a pattern by Stephen West. This is a blanket that it is worth making, lots of knitting, but I believe is going to be beautiful . It is not something for the faint of heart , it is a lot of knitting, …

So what can I say I have Stephen West fever.  This is a bag that will be felted, I have to make two of this.  I am trying to use some homespun and create as much as possible a mirror image for the two pieces. I will keep you up to date as I make this beauty come to life.  Thanks for stopping by!

I have wanted to make this blanket, since the first time I saw it on the net. Westknits is a very inspiring guy. I decided to get the dark wool from the same place he got it from. It is a place called Beaverslide Dry Goods and the wool is on the way. I did dye some really deep cherry red wool for the contrasting color. I started doing the Emily Ocker crochet cast on, then on dpns until I got to a point that I decided it was time for two circulars.

The two circulars will make it easier to work . I am going to be making a lot of Westknits projects in the next few weeks, while I am testing some of my patterns ready to publish. This month there is a Teddy Bear Pattern that will make it's debut. in the meantime here we go to a fun blanket. Thanks for stopping by!