Crafty Herbal Knitter

I stumbled upon this blog today as I was feeling very quilty and down for sort of neglecting my blog this month. I couldn’t have stumbled upon it at a better time! I don’t feel quite so bad now. And the more I think about it the more and more I like it.

I found this post about blogging without obligation. Why I never thought about it like the way this post puts it I really don’t know. I mean really, what a novel idea, not feeling quilty about random posts. The more I think about it the more I agree on how to post for the sake of frequent posting really does effect the content of what I may blog about. I would much rather have really interesting infrequent postings than dull and rather pointless regular postings. Not to say that I plan on going months on end without a post but now I feel a little better about going a week or two (or gasp, three) weeks without writing anything.

I take what I write about seriously and want to have strong content in each and every post. So, from this day forward I plan on B.W.O. Thanks so much for understanding.

Now, on a side note: my poor knitting has slooooowed down. I am almost embarrassed to admit how many projects are just sitting right now. In fact the striped sweater and the striped cardigan for Princess A are both finished knitting, have been for weeks now, and just need to have their seams sewn. Ditto for the halter top. I can’t seem to get my butt around to blocking them and sewing them up (I never have liked sewing up seams in the first place which might be part of the problem). And this might sound a little nuts but this is how my brain works, I have several other patterns I am wanting to begin but I keep not letting myself because I tell myself I can’t until I finish the seams on those previously stated three! Oh, and the green garter lace shawl I am in the middle of is just sitting right now cause I am bored with it….

I am working on a new dyeing experiment that I plan on completeing this week and hopefully I can get some good pictures and will blog about it.

One last thing: I am so happy this week marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring! I am sick of rain! :-} 

Filed under: Knitting, Ramblings on March 19th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Recently I was searching for some more unusual types of yarn and came across Cornucopia by Kollage. It really got my attention because it is made from corn. Never would I have thought to make yarn from corn! I just couldn’t imagine what that might look like let alone feel like. I imagined it to be rough.I ended up researching that particular yarn a bit and read a pretty good review about it at Knitter’s Review that can be found here. The review got me even more intrigued so I ended up ordering 3 skeins of it from Paradise Fibers. I thought it was a bit pricey being $7.99 a skein and one skein being only 100 yards. That is why I ordered only 3 of it. Plus I found the perfect pattern to try it out on that would only require about 300 yards.

This particular pattern comes from yet another library book I checked out (I swear one day I need to write a post titled “Ode to my public library”). This book is called Easy Knits for Kids by Family Circle. The pattern I found out of it is for a really cute little halter top that I wanted to make for Princess A. The pattern calls for a cotton acrylic blend so I figured I could probably easily substitute the corn yarn for the yarn the pattern called for. I took a picture of the pattern that is in the book so I can still see what the finished results are suppose to look like once the book has been turned in. (A picture of a picture, how crazy is that :-) ?!)

I just cast on the back of the halter last night. So far I really like the yarn. I have not had any problems with my needle poking through like the article at Knitter’s Review mentions. Although I am also using my circular bamboo needles that are rather blunt so maybe that has something to do with it?  The yarn is surprisingly very soft; it’s going to feel really nice in the summer which is what I am making it for. I am curious to see how it feels after several washings since it is both machine washable and dryable. I wonder if it will get softer after use. It really does feel nice. I actually wish I had ordered another skein or two because I think it would make some nice washcloths for the bath as well.

I will be sure to post more updates on this interesting yarn…..

Filed under: Knitting, Recommended Books, Yarns on February 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

 Now that I finally got my posts about the red cabbage yarn and socks re-posted after I thought they were lost for good, I can post an update on them. In a previous post I explained how I was curious to see if they would fade after being washed since I have read that red cabbage used as a dye is really more of a stain then a dye.

They both went through their first washing together. I washed them on cold to help slow down any fading that might happen. When they came out of the wash I was shocked.  The pretty pale lilac color that I had achieved from the dye mixed with vinegar was now a muddy purple and the soft sage green that came from the baking soda mix turned a more yellowy green. I was not expecting those kinds of results at all! I was expecting some fading but instead I got total color changes. That tells me there is something up with my tap water since I had used rainwater to make the red cabbage dye. I am a little frustrated with that! Obviously my tap water ph is whacked or full of something that affected the yarn. If I dye something with rainwater how am I suppose to wash it when it gets dirty? Use rainwater?! I had previously checked my tap water’s ph by using those little test strips but I think they were no good because they wouldn’t change or show any kind of reading. Now I am wondering what exactly my tap water ph is for the yarn to change so dramatically.

A few years back I used to have a fresh water fish tank and I would test the water to make sure it was healthy for the fish. I had this little kit that would tell you how to read the results and what to do if your water was too high in ammonia or the ph wasn’t quite right. I’m thinking I might try one of those kits to test my tap water. They are easily found at any pet store and I know I’ll get decent results to tell me what might be making my yarn change color like it did.

The socks don’t look all that bad. Although I did like the colors better before they were washed. They are not as bright now. The pictures I am including in this post are before being washed and after. The pictures don’t show the color change in the green as well as but they do give the general impression of the change in the purple.

Filed under: Dyeing, Finished Objects, Knitting, Natural Dyes on February 19th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

There is a very nice fellow knitter and blogger out there that so graciously sent me the text from my lost posts. I can’t thank you enough Jill P. (Be sure to check out her blog and the fun to read blog that she shares with fellow knitter Jill B.) I am now in the process of getting those lost posts ready to be re-posted. The dates might be a little off from when they were originally posted. I have to reattach pictures to some of them so it might take a few days to finish them all but they will be back up in no time.

And to all you fellow bloggers out there, heed my warning and backup your backups! I learned the hard way that you can never have too many backups….

Filed under: Knitting, Ramblings on February 12th, 2008 | No Comments »

 This may not be very original but it is something that I have been up to lately in attempts to get myself a little more organized in the knitting department. I am notorious for probing the internet looking for knitting patterns and then printing them out and leaving them in various locations such as favorite knitting books, magazines, or even with my yarn stashed away in a closet. I finally had enough with trying to remember where I had put a particular pattern when it came time to needing it. Or even worse, I would forget about the pattern entirely. So, about a month or so ago, I came up with a system to help me wrangle up all of these stray patterns.

I bought a pretty simple 3 ring binder, some dividers, and some page protectors. I them proceeded to categorize all the different patterns into groups such as lace, socks, sweaters, diaper soakers, etc. Each category got its own divider and all the patterns went into their own separate page protectors. I like having the patterns in their own page protector because it keeps them nice and it is great for when I use the pattern. I just take the pattern out page protector and all and it doesn’t get coffee spilt on it or crumbled up accidently, you get the idea.  A few patterns are ones that I had purchased online that are PDF files. These are pretty nice patterns and I am thinking of printing them out on cardstock and them putting them in a page protector. I think that would be a great way of keeping them nice.

Like I had said, probably not very original of me, but I am rather pleased with it!

And because it’s just not as much fun without a picture, here is a picture of a view from my house a couple days back.

Filed under: Knitting, Ramblings on February 11th, 2008 | No Comments »

 Well, I finally have this blog back up and running again. About two weeks ago some major errors occurred and unfortunately they just kept spreading and spreading like some kind of raging computer fire. Don’t worry; I won’t bore everyone with all the details. Let’s just say it got pretty gosh darn ugly. I’ve been able to correct most of the problems thankfully. However, I am very upset to say this, in fact I don’t even want to admit it, but the last two months worth of posts and comments have been lost for good.

I keep telling myself that it is not that bad. After all it is only two months worth of work and not something like two years worth. But still, I am pretty upset. I feel some of my best posts were during those two months. And now they are completely gone. I could re-write them I suppose but how much fun is that?! Not too mention how sad. Like adding insult to injury.

I am now trying to pick up the pieces that are left and put them all back together. Now that the blog is up and running again I hope to pick up on things where I had left off. There are still a few more things I need to re-do, such as my progress bars, but that will come with time. I have several knitting/dyeing/ herbal tidbits running through my head that I want to blog about as well as some updates. So, be on the lookout for those here in the next few weeks.

Thanks to everyone for being so patient and understanding while I sorted all of this mess out. Things have been very busy in our household these past few weeks and I am struggling to divide my time up amongst everything going on. My intentions are to have new posts up on this blog ASAP; starting with this one!

Filed under: Knitting, Ramblings on February 8th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

I know in my last post I said it had been quite a week but it has actually been quite a month. 2008 is starting with a bang for us. It has been one thing after another in our house. Thankfully it seems everyone is starting to feel a little better.

My blog and knitting/yarn dyeing have been somewhat neglected while I was busy attending to everything else. But, I am happy to report that I finally finished knitting the second pair of toddler socks out of the Cabbage Yarn last night! I didn’t think I was ever going to get those darn socks finished! It was frustrating me to death, after all, they are only little baby socks. I should be able to knock those out super fast but, it has been quite a month and I was lucky if I could get one or two rounds completed on them a day. I kept thinking, Princess A is going to outgrow these before she even gets to try them on! At least I was able to finish them. Now I feel like I can move on to the other patterns and yarn I am itching to get my fingers on. Those socks were guilt tripping me all over the place. I would pick up one of my other works in progress and feel a wave of guilt and hear a little voice say, “you know what you should really be working on, those little socks, not this.” I kept feeling like I had to work on them because: a) I didn’t want her to outgrow them before they were even completed and b) I really want to get her wearing them so I can wash them a few times and see what happens to the color. Will it fade or not? I have read in more than one place that yarn dyed with red cabbage is not very colorfast. I want to see for myself and I needed to finish knitting those socks in order to find out.

They haven’t gone through any washings yet but once they do I will be sure to post the results here for those that might be interested.

I think the socks themselves turned out pretty cute. I just love the colors I got from the red cabbage. The green is a very soft color and looks really good up against the lavender. I am very interested to see how the colors hold up after being washed a few times.

Now that those are done I can finally move on to some new projects! Well, I still have to finish the striped cardigan and the striped pullover for Princess A. Now those are probably going to start guilt tripping me next. After all, I have got to finish them before the weather decides to warm up and she will no longer need sweaters.

Filed under: Dyeing, Finished Objects, Natural Dyes on January 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

 This week I had fun experimenting with dyeing some superwash yarn. I wanted to try out a few things with dyeing the yarn with red cabbage. I have read in several places that red cabbage is not a dye but a stain like beets. But then other places I read do not mention it being a stain and talk about it being a dye. So, I wanted to find out for myself. I dyed two separate skeins of the superwash yarn with red cabbage. Both these skeins I plan on knitting into pairs of baby socks for Princess A. They are bound to go through lots of washings if I knit them for her! Each time they are washed I plan on taking note on if the dye fades out or not.I also played around with the ph of this dye. To begin I started with a whole head of red cabbage which I chopped up and placed in my dye pot. To this I added rainwater to cover it. I brought this “cabbage soup” slowly to simmer. I tried to keep the temperature under 200° F for an hour. I then allowed it to cool for one hour before I strained it. After straining it, I divided the dye in half. To one half, I mixed in some vinegar to make the bath more acidic. It was pretty cool because the dye immediately changed from being an eggplant purple to a cranberry red. Chemistry can be fun! 

This picture shows the color change. The cup on the left shows the before vinegar and the cup on the right is after vinegar was added.

To the cranberry red dye I added a skein of yarn that I had mordanted with alum. I brought it once again to a simmer and kept it around 190° F for one hour. I then left it to cool over night.

For the second half of the red cabbage dye, I dissolved some baking soda in warm water and added it to the dye. Now instead of being acidic this dye bath was more alkaline.  The baking soda turned the dye an almost turquoise like blue-green. I followed the same procedure with this dye as I did with the previous one: I used superwash yarn that I had mordanted with alum and brought it slowly to a simmer. The only difference was I simmered it for 45 minutes instead of one hour. I wish I simmered it even less then that though because I actually liked the color better after it had been in simmering for about 30 minutes instead of the color it achieved after 45 minutes.

One funny side note about this dye: my house smelt like sauerkraut for quite a while after adding the vinegar to the first dye bath! Not too bad if you like that smell….but it was starting to make me feel a little sick!

So, the final results after being rinsed, dried, and re-skeined? The first skein, the one with the vinegar, turned a really pretty, pale lilac color. The baking soda skein ended up a soft sage green color.

They are both such soft colors and look really nice together. I am very curious to see what happens to them after several washings.

I am hoping to be able to cast on some socks out of them this weekend. So, be on the look out for future updates on these two yarns!

Filed under: Dyeing, Natural Dyes on January 4th, 2008 | No Comments »

I recently requested some knitting books from my local library. I just love the library but I will save those ramblings for another post…..

One of the books that I just picked up is amazing. I am not surprised though because I have another book by the same author that is equally as good as this one. I am talking about Knitting Never Felt Better by Nicky Epstein. I own the book Knitting on the Edge that is a great reference book for knitters. This library book, Knitting Never Felt Better, would be a great reference book on felting. It has great information on getting started with felting and shows excellent pictures of various yarns felted. What I really love though is it shows all sorts of stitch patterns and what they look like before and after felting. Things like felted cables are shown, something I never would have thought to try felting. Unless of course by accident! Equally intriguing are the before and after pictures of something called dimensional felting. This is where you take various objects like marbles and attach them around your knitting with rubber bands prior to felting. When you remove the marbles after felting you are left with the imprint of the marble. It sort of looks like the felted piece has bubbles. The pictures really inspired me. So much so that I think after Christmas I might give the dimensional felting a try.

I would love to give it a shot right now but I foolishly piled more work on myself by deciding this weekend that I want to give two people in my family a pair of knitted socks for Christmas. What was I thinking?! They live in another state so I have about a week to knock out two pairs of socks and get them in the mail so they can make it to their destination in time for Christmas. Sometimes I think I must like working under pressure since I always seem to do this to myself…..

Now if you will excuse me I really need to go get some socks knitted!

Filed under: Felting, Knitting, Recommended Books on December 11th, 2007 | No Comments »

It is Friday, so it is time for my next holiday recipe. It is now less than 3 weeks till Christmas and I am in complete disbelief by how quickly it is approaching. At least I have gotten a lot of the shopping done that I need to do….

I have made this recipe for roasted nuts on and off for Christmas for about 10 years now. Some recipes I make every single year. Some family members would be in an uproar if I did not make them one year for some reason or another. This particular recipe however, gets made when the need or urge to have them on hand strikes me. They are so easy and really good. I like to have them out on Christmas Eve and Christmas day for everyone to snack on. They would also make a nice gift for the nut lover. I happen to have several of them in the family!

The recipe is pretty adaptable. You can change the herb used in it to something that suits your taste or you can leave out the cayenne all together if you do not like hot and spicy foods. Or you may love spicy foods so much that you can double the amount of cayenne called for and serve them with a warning label!

In the above picture, I used only pecans (mostly because that is what I had on hand) but you could do a mixture of whatever you like such as pecans, cashews, walnuts, etc.

Now for the recipe:

Spicy-Herb Roasted Nuts

    *  3 cups nuts of your choice

    *  2 tablespoons butter, melted

    *  1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

    *  1/2 teaspoon ground thyme

    *  1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less depending on your taste)

    *  1 teaspoon salt

    *  Freshly ground black pepper, optional (sometimes I use it sometimes I don’t)

Toss all ingredients together until well coated. Spread out in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet. Place in oven and bake at 350° F for about 10- 15 minutes or until fragrant. Stir every 5 minutes. It is important to keep an eye on them because they can suddenly burn if you are not careful.

Happy Holidays!

Filed under: Herbs, Holidays, Recipes on December 8th, 2007 | No Comments »