Urania Sky

Thrifted Gold!

2012-01-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

So I've been thrift crawling for most of my adult life, and I've found some amazing bargains and amazing items. But I jut can't get over this bag of yarn I found for $5. Not at the Sally Bland or the Goodspill, but at a generic but always busy Thrift Store on Gratiot near Mt. Clemens.

Can you SEE those prices?

Can you FEEL those textures?

All I can think is that some lovely, classy older lady passed away and her bachelor, ungrateful son (ungrateful because he didn't cherish his mother's yarn stash which most likely kept his head and neck warm for years!) bagged them up and shipped them off. I mean, who willingly gives away Noro?

Jiffy Pop Hat

2012-01-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

I did do some Christmas knitting, but I had to give them all away pre-photo, so a quicky description will suffice: four cotton star dishcloths. Two yellow, one red, and one green and white. They were fun and useful!

On to my Thrift Store find of the year: over $120 worth of yarn for $4. All in one bag. All nice yarn, including this $20 skein of Noro nadeshiko yarn...on which I quickly went to town. I wanted a hat for church renovating weather. Church renovating weather means icy cold wind alternating with propane heated jets of smelly warmth. I had a picture in my mind, and I wanted a cable band. I wanted it to be full and warm, and to fit around whatever silly thing I was doing with my long hair that day. Usually braids or bun, sometimes ponytail.

Here's what I came up with:

Lacey Shawl, at last!

2011-12-23T06:34:00.000-08:00

Yes, I made a wispy shawl for to furl and curl around me as I walk on a misty beach.

I finished it in the summer time, and just now got around to showing it. It's been a busy fall: Teaching day job at HS and night job at college, couple of other side projects, and of course, sleeping and eating. And now: a Church! White Church Gallery, Grindstone City, MI. Coming soon!

Rag Rug

2011-07-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

That sounds like "red-rum" but other than bloody fingers from sewing a gazillion stitches, no harm came from the making of this thrift store corduroy rug.

I love our cottage in Port Austin, MI. Love love love. Everything about it is cute, even the unfinished-ness of some of it.

Husband was having bro-friends for a long weekend so we purchased a bunk bed for one of the two diminutive bedrooms. It had mostly been used for storage: in other words it was a junk room. The transformation to usable room included some kind of floor covering. Before, it was the remnant of the bathroom carpet. After, it was a small but cushy corduroy braided rug. Hand braided, hand sewn by me. In two days.

Let me explain. Day one: cutting the rug (tee hee)

I bought these pants long ago at the Bad Axe thrift store for a song. They were plush and large. And I liked the colors. I had six pairs of corduroys- three of them were of similar rusty color, and the others were velvety contrasting colors.

Next day: I went about braiding them. Now, in hindsight, I was pretty sloppy. I've had long hair my whole life so I feel like my braiding skills are above average, but the way I cut the strips left some dangling edges and unevenness that had to all be braided in.

I figured I could fix it all when I sewed it all up.

Sewing it all up- now that was the real project.

As the sun lowered, I kept at it till my fingers were bloody. I kept pricking myself. I used fishing line and a simple if somewhat erratic stitch. I used a LOT of fishing line, and a LOT of stitches. It took all day. But what fun!
I was blocking the rug in the pre-sewing stage.

Finished product:
It's dinky! But dang- what a lot of work! It's soft and kind of matches the thrown together decor. And I'm sure the bro-friends won't have a clue, but for all you thrift-store crafty souls out there, Yay for us!

Crafty!

2011-07-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

I am knitting, but it's a lace shawl and I don't always have the steady nerves or fearless demeanor it takes to knit row upon row of lace.

So to keep the craft-on, I made my Ma an apron out of a thrift store sun dress. (Before you scream "Why did she cut up a perfectly nice dress for an APRON??" it was 1. too large and 2. didn't have a belt. )

Here's what I did: I took this pretty cotton dress, and cut it in half. Then I took some of the black trim from the back and made the background for the belt of it. As you see, Little One was very helpful overseeing my work and holding it down with his silken paws.

I dutifully pinned and then sewed. I thought the white thread was a nice contrast.

As you see, Iggy said nothing on the issue of the straightness of my stitching. He's so polite, he just silently looked on. Then I put the green grosgrain I had purchased (by far the most expensive part of this project- $7 for almost three yards, but I had to have it- green is Ma's fave color!)

Ouch!
Ack! Yuck! Where's my seam ripper????

At this point I should mention I'm a highly sporadic sewer- can't remember the last thing I used my Kenmore for, so my sewing is very organic- I had a vague plan but I let the dress tell me what to do. Right then it was screaming..."BLACK THREAD, GIRL!"

Ok I can live with this.
Next came the neck closures. The existing strap already had button holes, so I modified the structure and sewed on some new buttons. Now, I dug through my collection and found Rhinestones and Pearls. If it were for me: rhinestones, no brainer. But Ma...she'll get the pearls.
So here is the first draft. Nice, but it has a built in padded bra-type of thing going on, and it gaped. Drag. So... I used some grosgrain to put little buttresses on either side of the strap- I realized the error of design- aprons generally are triangular on top- so I fudged it with grosgrain. Then I made a little grosgrain flowery thing to frost the cake a little. After all, it was a birthday gift!
Happy Birthday Mamma Mia!

Gahuge!

2010-08-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

That's my new morphed word of huge and gauge, 'cause that's indeed what I have. It's like discovering I have an eleventh finger or that my belly button goes all the way through. (I don't and it doesn't,) but if I did...there's not much to be done except giggle an embarrassed giggle and deal with it.

So I rrrrripped out the satchell after my first encounter with the great ladies of my new knitting circle at my LYS. But not before I compared my loosey goosey gauge with an actual SWATCH (yes I SWATCHED.) (That was like discovering a whole new continent!) (Looks like it's time to invest in a new camera. The old one's been dropped a million times and the liquid crystal display has a green fractal looking slash across it.) So I went to a needle diameter HALF of what was called for. Half. I pick, I don't throw. And I don't wrap the yarn around my fingers to guide it- I don't like that much friction. So I guess it's kind of loose, but it feels comfortable to me.

Cats don't mind friction.

I spent a few days at the cottage to decompress from the stress of knitting a swatch, and I enjoyed a night of cooking up a batch of homemade polenta covered with homegrown sauteed kale, tomatoes, and store bought olives. With a little spice, glass o vino and a stack of knitting magazines, the decompression was complete. So I found an intriquing drop stitch for a scarf, found some purple yarn and went to town. Will show after I give it as the gift it is meant to be. Fun!

Weekend Scarf

2010-08-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

I recently made a surprise visit home for Mom's birthday, and she indicated that she'd love to knit something besides the garter stitch, doubled-up yarn (featuring a polyester yarn paired with lion brand fun fur) scarves. I was very happy at the news, but stymied at what to suggest. Requirements: simple, only knit stitch (mom's a beginner) but fun and different. So I showed her a simple lace knit pattern: cast on 25, knit 5, yarn over, knit two together, knit, knit. Repeat the yo, K2T, K,K till you reach the end. Turn and repeat. The only new things were the YO and the K2T which she was able to accomplish with a little tutorial from me. Poor mom has a somewhat awkward grip and I tried to show her my continental method, but someone had already showed her the "other way" and it was a skirmish I chose not to engage in, since she was doing fine. I gave her a little tune to remember the pattern with- some random notes I put to "yarn over, knit two together, knit, knit.

So when I got home and went to my bags full of prospective projects, I couldn't get that dang tune out of my head. So here it is. One skein of variegated wool - I think it was a Lion's Brand, though the label is long gone. Something I had lying around.

Was fun and quick, and useful since nearly as soon as I finished it, I gave it away as a gift. An elderly neighbor couple did me a favor and since the sweet neighbor lady is rarely seen without long sleeves or a jacket even in the summer, I didn't feel too odd giving her a wool scarf in July.

In other news, my thrift store hunting has shifted up a few gears. I've had a great and fun summer of collecting outfits. But at the last 5 for $5 day at the Salvation Army I scored this Large Man's PEACH sweater- 100% cotton.Somebody must have loved it.

Now it looks like this: It's so very much yarn. It was way fun taking it apart. I had tried this before, but I never got far enough to where it unraveled easily- it always ended up in knots or just tangled hopelessly. So the yarn is kinked and it's actually doubled, and I decided that trying to take it apart was another skirmish that could get bloody very quickly, so I'll use it as is. I mean- it was about a million grams of yarn for a dollar, so I'm already ahead in the entertainment it has provided me and the cats.

Astroknitting

2010-07-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

So there are a bunch of people who are astronomers who knit.

I'll call them Astronitters. I guess you could pronounce it "as-TRON-itters" to make it sound sciency and official. I guess I'm one.

Knitting space.

And then there is Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin, 1900-1979 who, among other things, was described as "...an inspired seamstress, an inventive knitter, and a voracious reader." That and, "Discovered the chemical composition of stars and, in particular, that hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in star and, therefore, in the universe."

Not bad.

Contemplatin'

2010-07-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

What to do?

I'm almost quiet enough to think about knitting. Summer so far has been full of bustle, and there are still events ahead, but I think I can pull off a week of low activity so that I'll have time to play with wool and alpaca and cotton and cat fur...

So... spin, knit or pet...
Hmm- I need to get my needles into this
satchell...it will probably end up enormous because 1. I seem to have an enormous gauge and 2. it's a cotton blend and cotton always ends up enormous. But if it is giant, I can put all my other UFOs in it. (See below)

So maybe I'll work on this "belt" I started because, and I'm not kidding, I thought I needed a very pink belt made of suede and novelty yarn. I can't recall which outfit I thought I needed it to "tie together." I'm doubtful if I can pull off the outfit, but I could probably pull off finishing it in an afternoon. The why's can come later...

And then there's the hot, sticky and very hairy red mohair scarf- started last summer about this time, completely frogged since and reworked into a narrower version. Still pretty fat, but no longer bath-towel dimensions.

Or maybe...I decided a month or so ago that I needed to enter the world of socks. So I got me some sticks and some pretty thin string and went to work. I had a blast until I realized that sooner or later I'd have to start bending the thing around the actual body part. So...that still needs to be tackled...

I don't even know where to go with this. All I know is that I stuffed 8 skeins of this in a brown paper lunch bag and gave the nice lady $10. I'm a sucker for bag sales...

And then I cannot fail to mention the whole ocean of spinning and home spun in whose tidal pools I am wriggling my toes.

And that takes me back to the age-old dilemma: knit, spin, or pet.

Knittin'

2009-07-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

I had to come back, to revive the muse of astronomy to have her oversee my knitting, cause, well, if I start one more lace project that is unfinishable I think I will go find a black hole to fall into. Spaghettification sounds pretty good right now.

Aeolian caught my eye, but the tiny yarn and the counting hasn't fit into my summer "decompress from stressful day job" plans. So I tried another shawl, cause I madly want a nice lacy shawl, to blow about me and curl amongst my limbs as I walk the beach...Same yarn, different tactic.

Now I don't wanna touch it.

My backup "stress reliever" is the green leafy scarf intended for a present- but I hand wrote the pattern and it's crumpled in the bottom of my knitting bag -it's a graphite mess now.

So...what to knit....hmm, how's about we get four 35 oz. skeins of blood red, shaggy English mohair and knit a wide lace scarf with it. Sounds like an awesome summer project! And let's get experienced with the unfamiliar language of the Rebecca patterns while we're at it. Stress reliever x 10! Did I mention my day job was teaching science to girls in juvie?

Apparently I like a challenge.

Oh, I also bought three skeins of white mohair, just cause I had to. You know the urge. So, as I'm knitting on the second pattern repeat, I'm doing the math in my head and it occurs that I don't have nearly enough yarn to make the luxurious, wide and hairy bath towel of a shawl I intended, at least not with the red. So do I frog mohair and make it narrower?("NO!" shouts Urania) Or do I see how far I get before I run out and then just abruptly start knitting with the white? In my present mood I will do the latter. And it will look like hell and I'll stop knitting it. But maybe not, because I'm getting a very distinctive and pungent pleasure from knitting blood red hairy mohair in the sunny July afternoons, so maybe I'll just keep knitting the hairy hot bloody thing and see what happens. I like mohair. It surprises me.

I also like my gardens. My lavendar is my prize, I beat back the mint when it tries to intimidate, and planting the tomatoes against the stark white south facing wall of the garage was a brilliant stroke.