Sunday, July 19, 2009

ArtFibers yarn tasting


A local knitter Natalie organized a "yarn tasting" where we got to try yarns from a company called ArtFibers. It was held on a sunny day at a local park. We knit swatches, choosing from many yarn colors, textures, and fibers. After a few hours of knitting, our swatches got to come home with us - that's mine above. Following are some more details on the yarns that I tried (click on pictures to makes them bigger).

From top to bottom, the above includes: Pacino 7 (merino wool, nylon), Satori (silk, mohair, wool), Ming 11 (silk, merino wool), Pacino 6 (merino wool, nylon), Udon 4 (merino wool, nylon), Zoftig 4 (merino wool, nylon).


Continuing from top to bottom, these are: Casanova 18 (silk, mohair), Zoftig 13 (wool, nylon), Chanteuse (wool, nylon), Kyoto 20 (silk, mohair, wool), Kyoto 23 (silk, mohair, wool).

All yarns were beautiful... but as for my favorites... the colors of Kyoto were stunning, but I think I overall liked the Pacino/Zoftig 85% merino 15% nylon best - for ease of knitting, texture, and colors.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Another water bottle holder




A lot of steps for this simple water bottle holder. First unraveled the yarn from the Tasmanian sweater posted previously. Then dyed it into self-striping green and maroon colors (actually was trying to get blue and pink, but that's another story). Then knit into a generic water bottle shape with strap, using a feather and fan pattern to make the stripes curvy. Finally felted the whole thing by hand. Voila another water bottle holder for the collection - I use them a lot.