Inventory Reduction Sale

INVENTORY REDUCTION SALE 

at 

THE PURLED EWE ETSY SHOP

15% OFF an order of $15.00 or more through February 1st with Coupon Code JAN2014 (to be used at checkout)

Handspun, Hand dyed, Merino Silk Wool Yarn, "Longing for the Beach", 362 yards

Japanese Knot Wristlet Knitting/Crochet Bag, 100% Cotton, 

"French Vintage"

Fans of The Purled Ewe on Facebook have already known about this sale for two days.  Don't get left behind on sale notifications and shop updates.  If you aren't a fan of The Purled Ewe on Facebook, LIKE US HERE!

Yarnie Gifts, Traveling, and Knitting Plans

Given the bitter, Arctic cold here in Ohio, I've been in hibernation mode this week.  Staying inside has given me some time to organize my fiber tools, to go through the items I received for Christmas, and to think ahead to my future knitting projects.  

My friend, Jessica, gave me such a fun, creative, and interesting gift that I unwrapped yesterday.  I received this ball of yarn, and peaking out of it, were little surprises that she had wrapped inside!  I had no idea what I would find by unwrapping this yarn ball, and I have to admit, there was a lot of "oohing!" and "giggling" as I unwound it.

The yarn is Knit One Crochet Too Seda Rustica, 70% silk and 30% baby llama.  OMG it's so soft!!!  It's also enough to make a pair of mittens.  Perfect!

As I unwound the yarn, items started popping out at me!  Candies, knitting items, tea bags, all sorts of goodies!  

It was quite amazing how many items she was able to fit into this ball of yarn!  

Candies, sheep ruler, lip balm, row counter, chocolate, teas, and stitch markers!

THANKS JESSICA!  Now to pick out which mitten pattern I want to make!  :)

While traveling to DC, I met up with Jessica and went to Looped Yarn Works.  It's a small yarn shop that was in walking distance from one of the conference hotels.  They did have space for knitters to sit, which was nice, and they had quite a selection of yarns from all over!  I couldn't pass up buying some new yarns and needles while there.  

I bought two skeins of The Fibre Company Road to China Silken Jewels yarn. 65% Bay Alpaca, 15% Silk, 10% Camel, and 10% Cashmere.  SUPER SOFT and lovely!  I think these two are also going to become a pair of mittens.

I needed some longer size 5 needles while on our trip, so I thought I would try some Knitter's Pride Karbonz circulars.  At first, I thought they were really weird to knit with, and I regretted spending $15 on it.  After knitting for a while, though, I changed my mind, got use to them, and now I'm really enjoying them!  

While on our trip, I started a new shawl.  It's my very first Stephen West pattern called "Pogona".  Very simple pattern that is just repetitive enough to not have to look at the pattern constantly.  I'm using the lovely Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn that my friend Beth gave me for Christmas.  60% merino wool, 25% mohair, 15% nylon.  I've never knit with mohair before, and I'm not sure how my skin will like it, but I'm loving how it knits up!

Another thing I did yesterday was count up the hexipuffs I made last year.  I threw them into  a basket and just smiled as I looked at all the colorful, squishy puffs!  How many do you think are in here?  (answer below)

77 total!  Not enough for a quilt yet, but it does renew my motivation to make more!  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR from The Purled Ewe!

2013 has come and gone in quite a hurry, or so it feels that way to me.  Now we are in 2014...a New Year for knitting, spinning, and dyeing adventures!

I've been in the process of writing this post for over a week now.  We have been super busy with traveling for the holidays and this past weekend, we were in DC for my husband's work conference.  Now we're home, and I can take a deep breath, organize my thoughts (and my new stash items) and plan for the new year.  

I pulled up the post I wrote last year on the knitting goals I wanted to accomplish in 2013 to see if I accomplished everything.  

*Master Brioche Stitch:  CHECK!  It was fun learning this new stitch and though I only got around to making one cowl, I can now use this stitch for future projects.  

*Do more color work knitting:  CHECK!  My Christmas gifts to my family this year was all about color work!  

*Master socks:  Mini CHECK on this one.  I did make a few pairs this year, but still do not feel I have mastered the heels.  Will continue to work on this goal.

*Stash Bust:  CHECK!  I did make some lovely items this year from my hand spun yarn!

Time to make new goals for 2014!  These goals are not just about knitting...but also include spinning, dyeing, and sewing.  

1.  Continue enhancing my skills with color work knitting.  For Christmas, I was gifted the Knit Picks Lofoten sweater pattern and all the yarns and items to complete this project.  I don't have the exact colors shown in this picture, but pretty close to it.  I've never made a fair isle sweater before, so looking forward to this challenge!  

2.  Spin my own yarn and knit it into a pair of socks.

3.  Get Holiday knitting done PRIOR to November!  This year I made the mistake of doing all my holiday knitting in the month of December.  That was just crazy to say the least!  So this year, my goal is to think ahead and start things EARLY.

4.  Get back on the Hexipuff wagon!  I have been so busy with other things that I haven't made a hexipuff in MONTHS!  I would love to be able to put all my hexipuffs together by the end of the year to make my Beekeeper's Quilt.  Now, to calculate how many I have and how many I need to make per month to finish this project.

5.  Learn to use a drop spindle.  I so enjoy spinning on my wheel, but there are some fibers that would do better on a drop spindle (like the camel fiber I have).  I got a starter drop spindle for Christmas that is so much lighter and less wonky than the one I have already.  

6.  Learn how to work with the silk hankies I have.  I now have 3 silk hankies that have been gifted to me and I have been trying to decide if I want to try knitting directly from them, or spin them, or continue to stare at them and think "my these are pretty!"  OK, the third idea isn't really the best option.  ;)  

7.  Write my very own lace shawl pattern!  My MIL gifted me a Craftsy course on how to design my own lace shawl pattern.  I have been wanting to learn how to do this for some time, so this year, I'm going to do it!  It would be great to be able to offer my own patterns and shawls in my Etsy shop.

8.  Continue enhancing my sewing skills.  There are so many projects I'd like to do this year!

9.  Continue creating new and fabulous yarn and fiber color ways using Kool Aid, Wilton's, Greener Shades Dyes, and natural dye sources.  I've really enjoyed doing more dyeing lately and this year, I will do even more!

10.  Ok, might as well make this an even 10 for this list.  Maybe I'm going overboard here?  My final goal for the year will be...hmmm....what have I not covered here in my list.  OH!  I remember now!  Learn how to knit 2 socks with one being inside the other as you knit.  My friend, Jeni, came across this idea online and shared it with me.  I just need to find the link to be able explain to you how to do this.  

What are your goals for 2014?

Check out my Kool Yarns!

I spent most of last week at my dye pots playing with Kool Aid and Wilton's food coloring recipes.  Some of the recipes were given to me by my good friend, Beth, and others were happy accidents or new creations by me.  It's quite amazing the depth of color and range of color you can get simply with food coloring and Kool Aid packets.  I have learned much in this week and wanted to share my latest creations as well as some tips.

The above picture is one of my creations.  I call this "Forest Nymph."  This one was dyed using a combination of different Wilton's food colorings.  The brown food coloring broke a bit, which is why you can see a bit of red in the brown sections.  I like the effect and it makes it more of a chestnut colored brown.  This is super wash merino and nylon yarn, fingering weight, and a whopping 462 yards!  You can find it in my shop, HERE.  

Meet "Red Brick Schoolhouse" my lovely red color way I created with a recipe of Kool Aid I created.  The yarn is a soft twist merino fingering weight, 400 yards.  You can find it in my shop HERE.  

TIP:  When dyeing with Kool Aid, I HIGHLY recommend using Kool Aid packets and NOT the canisters.  Yes, buying the canisters is less expensive overall, but the ingredients are not the same.  The company puts sugar into the canisters while the packets are unsweetened.  In dye attempts using grape from canisters, I found that the grape color isn't nearly as dark and vibrant as it is when using the packets.  The sugar also lends to making the yarn stickier and can cause issues with burning (I haven't had this happen, but read it on a forum).  Unsweetened Kool Aid packets or even generic packets like they sell at Kroger are your best bet.

My friend Beth passed on a recipe to me for the above color way.  She named it "Moody" and was sweet enough to let me keep the name.  The first attempt I did of this here at home came out very dull in color, especially the purple parts.  Of course, I was using grape Kool Aid from a canister so I wasn't getting the color result I wanted.  I over dyed this skein with grape Kool Aid packets.  I LOVE IT!  It's so soft and squishy too.  Super wash merino/nylon yarn, 462 yards, fingering weight.  CLICK  HERE to see it in the shop.  

This is "Blue Ice"  on soft twist merino yarn.  This is based off a recipe from my friend Beth.  It's a vibrant blue with a few hints of purple and white in it.  You can find it in my shop, HERE.

OK, back to holiday crafting!  :)

Dye Experiment: What water works best?

I posted a few weeks back about visiting my friend, Beth, and dyeing some yarn with her.  I was so surprised by the color differences I got with dyeing at her house compared with the colors I got by using the same formulas at home.  It could have been the wool difference...we used BFL at her house and I used merino wool at mine.  Different wools will absorb dyes differently which makes sense given they have different fiber characteristics.  Beyond the wool difference, I felt that maybe my tap water also had something to do with it.  Where I live, we have extremely hard water!  Since we don't have a water softener, we have to buy drinking water, use shower filters, and filter our tap water.  

I decided to do an experiment with four kinds of water to see what would happen when I dyed mini-skeins with Kool Aid.  

The four kinds of water to test were:
1.  Tap water
2.  Pur filtered water
3.  Distilled water
4.  Reverse osmosis drinking water purchased at Earth Fare grocery

The first thing to do, was to create mini-skeins.  I used some Lion Brand Fisherman's wool for this experiment since it is too rough for me to knit with it.  I made four, 10 gram mini-skeins by wrapping the yarn around a sock book and then measuring on my scale.  

After labeling the jars, I put the mini-skeins into each jar, and put 2 cups of the appropriate water into the four jars.  I let the yarn soak in the water for an hour or more to help it absorb the color quicker when the time came to add the Kool Aid. 

Before adding the color, I removed the soak water and squeezed out the excess water in the mini-skeins.  Next, I dissolved 2 tsp of cherry Kool Aid in 2 cups of water, and added it to the first jar.  I continued to do this, making sure to put only the designated type of water into each.  I then put the four jars into my large canning pot onto the stove.  Using tap water, and being sure not to get the water into the jars, I added enough water to cover the jars (just 1 1/2 inches below the rim of the jars).  Then I turned on the heat to medium high, and let it cook.  

I made sure to put the jars in the canning pot in order of where I have my sticky notes since I didn't know how to label the jars before putting them into the water pot.  

Cooking the yarn!  I let the water get to a rolling boil, then turned the heat down to medium for 10 min, covered the pot, and turned it off.  I didn't open the pot back up until many hours later.  Once cooled, I was able to remove the yarn from the jars.  

The color absorbed the quickest in the reverse osmosis and the distilled jars.  Here's a picture of the tap water jar.  You can see that it has not fully exhausted.  I could have put it back on to cook, or put it into the microwave to absorb, but since it was 11pm at night, and I was tired, I decided to let it go.  This is an experiment anyways...if it didn't fully stick to the yarn, it doesn't matter.  

Here is a picture of the reverse osmosis water jar.  The water fully exhausted!  

The distilled jar also fully exhausted.  The Pur filtered water (no pic of it here) did not fully exhaust.  Showing that the tap and Pur filtered water needed more heat and time than the reverse osmosis and distilled waters.

I hung the mini-skeins on my drying rack and kept the labels by each one.  They dried overnight.  

When looking at the final mini-skeins, it's hard to distinguish each one based on color alone.  I tried to capture the difference with my camera, but it's so subtle, I think you can only see it in person.  The reverse osmosis and distilled water skeins are slightly darker than the tap and Pur filtered skeins.  If I were to wash them now, I'm pretty sure that the tap and Pur filtered would run color given that they did not fully exhaust in the dye bath.  The reverse osmosis and the distilled water skeins exhausted completely, and should be colorfast now. 

Now, I'm not a chemist, but my husband (also not a chemist) and talked this through, and here's what we came up with....

I think that by washing them in my tap water, even the colorfast ones, some dye will come out.  I have washed commercially dyed fibers before with our tap water, and some color always runs for me.  It has to be the hard water!  The calcium in the water would affect the pH level, and therefore mess with the acidity of the colors.  When dyeing with Kool Aid, the citric acid in the Kool Aid packet is the acid needed to make the color stick to the yarn.  When you add hard water (which has calcium as a base in it), it will neutralize the pH of the citric acid, making it harder for the color to absorb.  If I had added more citric acid, or even vinegar, to increase the acidity, the color probably would have exhausted completely in the tap and Pur filtered water jars.  

I'd love to hear from you if you have any thoughts or knowledge on this topic!  

This has been a very interesting experiment, and I've decided to start using distilled or reverse osmosis water when dyeing instead of our tap water or Pur filtered water.  I would like to redo the experiment sometime with a pH monitor (something I don't currently own).

Bags for projects and gift giving!

I've been crafting like a mad woman lately!  I would love to be able to show you everything I'm working on...but some of the projects are holiday gifts so I won't be able to show you those until they have been given.  

I can show you some wonderful new bags I've made for my shop!

"Who Stole Christmas?" is a Japanese knot wristlet bag.  Features the famous Grinch from Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"  You can view this shop listing by CLICKING HERE.  I also have a MADE TO ORDER option for a bag using this fabric.  You can decide what kind of pocket you would like or no pocket at all.  

I've had requests from customers for project bags that are big enough for sweater sized knitting/crochet projects.  I took those requests and came up with a few new bag creations! 

"Winter Wonderland" is a large drawstring bag that can definitely fit a sweater sized project in it!  I also love how these bags could be used not only to carry your favorite crafting project, but also as reusable, eco-friendly gift bags!  I'm all for less waste during the holidays, and I could see these bags being perfect gift bags to be used for years to come!  For more info on this bag, CLICK HERE.  

Speaking of eco-friendly, this bag is all about "Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle!"  This bag is smaller than "Winter Wonderland," but can still fit a shawl sized project in it.  For more info on "Eco Love," CLICK HERE.

"Christmas Owls" is another Japanese knot bag that I created for the holiday season.  The owls are just too cute!  CLICK HERE for more details. 

"Norwegian Birds" is a fun Japanese knot bag featuring beautifully bright and happy colors along with cute birds.  The inside fabric is teal with golden swirls that matches with the teal swirls and flowers on the outside of the bag.  For more info, CLICK HERE.  

I'm going to be shipping for the holiday season until December 20th before I put my shop on vacation mode.  Since I have no control over shipping, I can't guarantee if you order on the 20th, that your items will arrive for Christmas, but I do my best to ship out the day I receive your order, so ordering prior to Dec 20th is recommended.  

I am hoping to get a few more bags listed in the coming week if possible.  :)  I always list new items on my Facebook page first, so if you haven't liked The Purled Ewe on Facebook yet, please do so in order to see new listings first!  

CYBER MONDAY SALE on December 2nd!

The Purled Ewe will be having a 

CYBER MONDAY sale on December 2nd!  

10% OFF any purchase of $20.00 and up.

15% OFF any purchase over $40.00

Use coupon code CYBERMON10 for 10% off and 

CYBERMON15 for 15% off at checkout to get your discount.  

Visit The Purled Ewe by clicking HERE 

or on the mini-store on the Right Hand side of this blog.