Badan Body and Triton

 

 So I have not written in a while about much.  I have been working like crazy.  My new job with the State of California is very interesting.  I have made new friends and new acquaintances.  There are two or more people that I hope friendship  is our gift on the long run.   So I decided to pamper myself with  products from  WWW.BadanBody.com  The products that you see above are extraordinary.  The Body Ghee actually disappears in from of your eyes.  It leaves a low sheen on your skin, but NO GREASY FEELING!!!!  The sandalwood perfume is fantastic and exactly what I was hoping for.  The soap scent is not overwhelming, but t is present.  I  will give a review once I have used one.  I used the cologne aka perfume and the ghee.  I will be getting more in the future 

 
   

Now to the Triton Hat which I am making with Rylie, a yarn by Skacel.  Is 50 % alpaca, 25 % linen and 25 % silk . The yarn is very soft and is kind of drapey, blame it on the linen.  So I will be coming back again, not to worry.  My work has given me a lot of motivation to come back and blog.  I will be working on a new scarf and a new hat in the near future. Thanks for stopping by!

It is a Lace WIP 2013

No I have not disappeared with the new year.  I have been working very hard in many things.  I am making this Evenstar Shawl as a wedding Veil for a gift.  It takes about 4 hours or so a day 4-6 days a week, whenever I have the chance.  I am using lifelines , I am learning a lot about myself.  I am learning a lot about how I knit and to pay attention as always to my work.  This is one of the most exciting projects I have made in my life.  I has a border with beads as well.  I am on Round 56 of 71 Rounds, this is on the Third Chart and thus the last Chart before the beaded border.  This pattern is exquisite and if you want a challenge, this will be a fantastic challenge.  I am making this pattern with 100 %  Aimsha Silk Lace yarn. I got  a 1 Pound Cone from http://www.aurorasilk.com/  .  The Yarn is beautifully made and it is worth the money you pay for it. This is how big  the half of the shawl is without really stretching it. 

I am able to do some quick things once in a while and I will be posting more often.  There comes Stitches West around the corner, and that is always fun.  I am also going to be making a Man's Shawl with Malabrigo yarns, I am awaiting the yarn and will be crochet.  I am hoping it will be some kind of triangular shawl, but you never know what kind of trouble Crafty Andy will get into. 

This year I am also going back to school , because I am hoping to go back to work some time in the near future, hopefully 2014.  I am a Computer Analyst with a lot of Networking experience.  At any rate, lots of fun coming along, just wanted to take a pick and say hi to all of you.  Happy 2013 and may this be another great year.  Thanks for stopping by!

Silk Bells Hand Dyed

I was able to order some inexpensive silk caps r bells, because I wanted to hand dye them with natural dyes.  I can tell you is not an easy task, it takes time.  I had these bells, which were cream colored, soaking in alum and cream of tartar for at least 12 hours.  I made the Lac (burgundy color),  Cutch (golden brown), longwood Grey (dark grey), Osage Orange, the light yellow to orange color,  I have registered to take a class some time this month and I hope I learn a lot.  This is probably easier if I knew exactly what it is expected to be done and to have the same results constantly.  Thanks for stopping by!

Silken Road to Wonderland

The end of March and the Beginning of April is finding me spinning.  I do have so much fiber that I bought or was given to me by someone, that I have decided that I am going to spin all of it.  On my wheel  my favorite fiber to spin is silk as of today, silk is very easy to handle and it is very  easy to join.  Silk can be very thin and still keep a lot of strength. Silk needs a lot of twist, so I have spun these singles on my fast flyer on the fastest ratio at 18:1. Here is my latest which I am going to play later tonight and then set the twist.  I am hoping to dedicate this month to spinning with the wheel.  I have bamboo, milk, different kinds of sheep wools, I really did not like spinning camel down on the wheel, I think I would have prefer to spin on a drop spindle. 



If you don't spin a particular fiber you won't know if you like to spin it or not. Practice, practice and more practice, and the plying is as much fun as spinning. I hope to offer you more of my spinning in the week to come. Thanks for stopping by!

SILK Road to Kobol WIP

SILKRoadtoKobolWIP (2)
Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy

I have been making these babies during the weekend besides other projects. Diamond Back Mitts by West Knits. This pattern is clver, intelligent and fantastic to make. I changed it a little bit to fancy me of course, but otherwise this pattern rocks by itsel. Mr. West has made a wonderful pattern and taught me a thing or two about slip stitches. This is a fantastic pattern if you want to try and test slip stitches along with cables. I will be making some more of these in the near future. These are being made with Noro SIlk Garden i.e. the SIlk Road to Kobol name, and Lamb's Pride worsted weight. If you are interested in this pattern here is the LINK Below. Thanks for stopping by.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/diamondback-mitts

Colonial Cell Caddy

CCCC
Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy

This is not all the yarn that I will be using, I will be using a wool-mohair combo that I homespun before. I will be overdyeing the silk - wool blend with some cherry Kool Aid so that it is Cylon Worthy and in combination with the cylon colors. My old caddy has seen a better day and I am in need of making a new caddy for my communications device aka Cell phone. I am actually trying to make it full a bit by agitating it. Anyway this is a quick crochet project, I hope to be done by the end of the day and have pictures of the dry FO tomorrow or so. Below is the wool-mohair combo I will be using to make this project a better fit for this covert COlonial Mission.  Thanks for stopping by.

Spinning to Dye

Spinning and Dyeing are lots of fun, specially if you are dyeing with Kool Aid.  The First Picture that you see is 100% silk roving turned into yarn and dyed with grape flavor Kool Aid. Even though is food coloring you need to be careful and wear a mask.  Kool Aid is not meant to be aspired lol!

This other blend that you see above is a combination of silk and wool.  The silk is the shinny yarn ply.  The other ply was plain wool and it was red, so over dyeing it with the grape color was a no problem situation.

Here you have a blend of 50/50 Camel - Silk, it was first dyed with some natural dye, but let me tell you that I did not like the way the carded this roving.  It did not look blended and it was not blended. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is a choice and one I am not going to be making in the future.  The fiber felt gummy and tacky to the hands as I was trying to spin.  I spun some on the spindles , then I spun the rest on the wheel.  I over dyed this with the grape kool aid and some of it turned dark brown and some has a purplish hue, deeper than before, but the yarn is not soft, maybe after I condition it with hair conditioner , it may change. Long story short it was a waste of my money, but I learned that whenever I see this kind of mixture that feels like this one did, not to buy at all.

This was mixture of blue Kool Aid ply with a white ply, regular wool, corriedale by the way.  I wanted to see how Lemonade yellow Kool Aid will over dye the blue and what would happen to the white.  No surprises there.  I really enjoy spinning and dyeing yarn and hope to teach it some day. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.  Stay tune as I am almost ready to have my blue Kool Aid Yarn singles plied next day or so and when I get to set the twist, I will be over dyeing it with some yellow and orange kool aid, what will happen?  You will have to come back to see. Thanks for stopping by!

Silk Garden Wollen Mutsen

This is the combo of the Noro Silk Garden.  I am very proud of the way it came out as I did not know what would the hat really look like.  The hat was fast crochet project. I would say this is one of my favorite projects and it looks so nice.

If I was going to make the hat again I would take two skeins of the same colorway and work from two directions for this hat.  Nevertheless I had two colorways that were not the same, which kind of assured me that there were not going to be color clashes or repeats.  I like the last idea better, the skeins were very complementary. It took me less than a day to crochet this hat.  I used the Tapestry Crochet Technique to be able to make a nice kind of woven fabric. I went up to a size G or 4.00 mm and I have about 6 to 8 yards left, the hat weighs in at 92 grams and that is with a reversed single crochet edging.  If Noro could keep the vegetable matter off it would have made for a more pleasant crochet experience.

 What is with those knots that I found, people this yarn is not cheap, the least I expect is to have a complete skein without a knot.  Well at least the second skein was without knots. Even with the knot I fused the yarn, who wants a knot in their wool hat.As with the previous Wollen Mutsens this hat is Reversible as well, maybe later on I will have pictures of the reverse side.  The pattern is on the Side Bar and if you are on Ravelry look it up, it is an easy fun pattern to get your Tapestry Crochet techniques Started. In the meantime thanks for stopping by!

You spin me round round Baby

Here what you see is some silk roving that has been hand dyed by me with food coloring. It is different than wool the material is very light and needs to soak and sink by itself. You can help it a bit. I am excited as this is my first time dyeing pure silk and then spinning some which I will have pictures some other day. At this time the silk is drying.

Here is just some of the wool roving I like to paint in my favorite colors. I find that this makes a great combination when plied together.
Here is a video of me spinning and showing you some other stuff that I have shared with you before.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hera's Hope Lace Scarf WIP

I am making this scarf in a bigger size with a bigger hook. I am also changing the way I am making the squares. The squares are completed with a sc row, one sc for each chain and or stitch. By doing this I have the square already set up for joining without to think about it much

What I like about this yarn is that is a bit rough so it grabs unto itself, great for this kind of lace crochet project. This yarn still under scrutiny for knitting, I would not buy it for a knit project because they have at least one or two knots in the skein which for a crochet square is no problem ans crochet can hide a multitude of sins. This is a quick project and it is for my mother's birthday . Thanks for stopping by.

Kara's Lace Crochet Scarf Fringed

This was one of the fastest crochet projects that I have made. I am also using a dk weight yarn with an H hook which is a bit big, but works out great. You can see the great detail this scarf has it is in all truth called An Inspirational scarf. I just renamed it because it reminds me of Kara Trace aka Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica.
The fringe was easy as I used my New Swift to wrap the yarn around. I made a little knot at the end of each strand so that it won't frill. I soaked it in Eucalan Soap and Vinegar so that it's color is fastened and finally I microwaved it for two minutes. Welcome to the 21st century.

I want to thank you for allowing me to share this quick and gratifying project that is my mother's gift for mother's day, if she really likes it I can make her one in gold for her birthday! Thanks for stopping by!

Kara's Lace Crochet Scarf

I am still working on this Scarf that can be found HERE. The author cautions you that you need to have the exact amount of stitches to make this work. I say it is possible to have something different and still get a great looking scarf.
This scarf has the ends as in the pattern, but I found it impossible to guaranteed that I will come up with exactly 530 stitches counting the sides. So here is how I did it. This scarf has 10 squares which I made.

1. I sc around each square the same amount of stitches.
2. I joined all squares together.
3. I sc around the whole pattern once.
4. I double crochet around the whole pattern with 3 dc on each corner.
5. I made the ends as in the pattern 3 fans on each end.
6. After I made one side, I made sure that each fan match on the other side.

You don't have to worry that you need a certain amount of fans on each side as long as both sides match and you end your work at the beginning stitch. Sometimes that meant that I will add an extra skipped stitched to match the other side, or take it away. In the end I have the same amount of fans on the left and on the right, on the top and on the bottom. I was inspired by this pattern, but if you say that this is the same as the pattern link, I will say no. I still need to weave the ends and post another picture. I forgot how beautiful crochet can be when it simulates a lace pattern that is usually made in some other form. This wool/silk combo is not good for something else as it is of good quality, but has many splits. I am not buying from this Ebayer again, well at least not this kind of yarn. They offer to replace it, but I rather not . I bought 10 or 12 skeins sunset and black and both had knots in them, only two skeins form each set was good. I was going to knit this , but this was the only option I had, thank the Gods of Kobol for Crochet!!! Thanks for stopping by.

More Yarn Porn Mar 09

This is some old yarn, but I believe I have not shown it by itself in it's glorious shine for each skein and my review of what I like about it. Yarn has to be touched otherwise it is just eye candy right!
Joann Sensations Kashmira is not a bad looking yarn and it feels soft, but it has nothing extraordinary besides,that. It is a great price and it is wool. It has many colors.
Noro is another story, Kureyon Sock yarn is a beautiful yarn to make hats, scarves (brioche!!!!) and socks. I have washed and dried socks made out of this yarn in my house and they require nothing more. No felting, no shrinking, this is a great yarn for socks if you want them to be washable, imagine if you just dry them flat and handwash the? Beautiful isn't it?
I got four skeins of this yarn for the holidays, 2 of each colorway S182 and S185. I would buy Noro anytime. The only thing it has pieces of mother nature in it, it twirls a lot and it is rough for the first 3 or 4 washings, maybe if we condition it like hair, with a good shampoo and conditioner it may have a different behavior.
Icelandic wool is one of my favorite wools, I was lucky to run into this one at the Men Who Knit Retreat on the West Coast. I am planning to dye this skein, some beautiful green or multicolor.
Fortissima is a yarn that I will have the opportunity to make socks with soon, there is a great pattern from Skacel that was given to us with these skeins of yarn, two white and one black skein.
I prefer the black skein more than the white skein , it is probably because It has a lot of specks of color s in it.
Briar Rose Fibers Sonoma yarns are sensuous and have a great feeling. There is a lot of yarn on this skein to be able to make a hat and a pair of gloves. There may be one of my projects for next winter.
This is one of the most beautiful skeins from perchance to knit. 65 merino, 35 bamboo, very soft and it feels springy, it is a lot of skein enough to make a pair of socks.

So here it is Sunday, I have uploaded 100's of pictures to flickr and there are more to come, have to go to knit on my scarf and hat made with the Loro Barranquero from Malabrigo. Thanks for stopping by!

Ebay Yarn Porn Mar 09

As of Apr 06/2009 I decided to use the yarn I bought from this Ebay Store, the Black Yarn that I bought at the same time I bought this one is no good. One of the skeins has five knots in it, not very happy, I wonder if the second one will be the same "THE GOLDEN ONE". I wrote the seller to let them know. I solved the situation by fusing it, but I would not buy this kind of yarn from this seller again. Will keep you updated

The Yarn-Barn Ebay Store

50% Merino Wool 50% Silk Blend Yarn
6 skeins - 100 Yds each (all are one lot)
Light Sport Wgt /Heavy Finger Wgt - WPI 18
Suggested Needle 3 / Hook D
600 yds total - Approx. 6oz
Sunset (Golden Orange tone)

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Nothing better than to start the month with some new Yarn. This economy has put me on a yarn diet, but it has made me more picky. I am actually buying yarn for possible projects. I think you should go and check this store out, I liked the ran that I got from them is not ultra soft, but it feels like good quality and the store's feedback speaks for itself. I order another one of this in black, well, I actually went into an auction. Still they do have some nice lots of wool for Buy it Now prices, This is all for today, thanks for stopping by!

Some Prime Rib and a New Hat

So here I am making a knitted scarf from the Malabrigo Loro Barranquero, I love Malabrigo and the names they come up with. It is made in the Brioche Stitch and let me tell you that I had the hardest of time to get this stitch right. This pattern in particular is called the Berlin Scarf, but let me tell you there is something not quite correct about the pattern, mainly the instructions. I had made and remade this little portion of the scarf about 10 times. It took the help of a fellow Crocheter , namely Cloudy Crochet and she explains it well, nothing cloudy about her. You can find her Brioche Explained HERE. I am in my way to my second inch of a good looking Brioche Scarf. There are no yarn overs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This that you see in green is my newest hat and there is a pattern for the hat, not the color pattern, but how to make the exact shape. This will allow you to take advantage of the hat's make-up to create your own design. I have added some beautiful soft yarn to the bottom of the hat, but you will not see this until a day or two. Thanks for stopping by!