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Thursday, February 11, 2016

Little miss rainbow

Another little cardigan for little H



Top down really easy, 



Nicely stripped



I decided to add strippes on the pocket too


Dyed my own yarn, kit only avaible in Europe


Main color was Dharma Sand Dune
Yarn De Rerum Natura Gilliat

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Little sunny dress

For my little H


Pattern Sunny Lou dress by Annie Rowden











Yarn Wool2dye4 bfl merino SW sport weight
Color Irish green, Jade Dharma dye



Sunday, February 7, 2016

Making recycled yarn new again

Once we get yarn from our sweater, the challenge is to entangle it





I used a steam technique to make the yarn new again


I put each skein in the vegetable basket of my giant pot
Put some water to steam inside the pot
Steam reach the yarn in the basket
Left the yarn there 3 times 20 minutes, letting the steam reaching all area of the yarn
Put yarn to dry around the umbrella to straight it out
Then put back in skein


Yarn is magically untangled and like new again



Friday, February 5, 2016

Dyeing recycled yarn

Got a few samples of the yarn for the 2 sewater, enough to play around with dye










Now I am experimenting with dye not nowing how the yarn will appear after dyeing


With the light grey yarn



With the off white yarn

Well it is interesting colors are not the same as indicated on the label


On the right the original color from label
On the left the color with the grey yarn


On the right the original color from label
On the left the color with the off white yarn

Well now let's untangle the unravelled yarn

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

2 sweaters into plenty of yarn to unravel, dye and knit again

Went shopping and brough back 2 very large sweaters, none of them I would even wear.
WHAT!!!!

Yes, I don't buy any sweater any more, only if I can reuse the yarn later.
I like to buy sweaters from expensive stores at 80% off and unravel the yarn.


I look for 
- good quality sweaters
- dk weight yarn are my favorite 
- no surger finish, like in this picture otherwise it will be a torture to unravel
- merino blend, 100% is the best but it is hard to find so the highest % is the best


Once you have the right sweater, you just have to find the right threat and pull. 
It will easily separate all parts of the sweater



Once you have your sweater in a few pieces, you can star to unravel
Note thar you usually start to unravel at the top of each pieces not at the ribbing





Little by little make it into a ball


And soon you will a few balls of great yarn

Next we will see how to color, untangle and finally knit it in a new project...



Monday, February 1, 2016

Dec 31, along Pacific Coast Highway...

Time to drive back home, leaving San Diego and taking route 1 from Laguna beach to Oxnard


First stop, a dream comes true, one of my favorite yarn store from NYC 
and I don't have to fly to go there


I couldn't leave without some Liberty!!
Last Christmas gift of 2015


Laguna beach, post card perfect Cali town









Last sunset of 2015 from Manhattan Beach one of my favorite spot






Best New year celebration



Hope this little trip pleased you, I know I had a lot of fun
next won't be until this summer, somewhere new for me...



Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Dec 30, one last day in San Diego

Enjoying our last day in San Diego


Coronado bridge 


Visiting seaport village and running into new year festivity and mini marathon


Driving along the coast and having lunch in Encinitas



Then a little history


Quiet funky place to visit





One last stop in one of the best Italian area in the US


Sunset on the San Diego bay

Tomorrow is New year eve, time to go home...