The Anniversary Cowl

So this one has a good story behind it.

I had originally gotten this yarn from a swap partner who had no idea what to do with it. "Its slubby" she said, and "wool" so I can't use it, it "itches" and such.

So I boldly said I shall take it! And make it into something nice!

I tried it on my looms. It didn't look good. In fact, it looked so bad I rolled it back up again and stuck it in my stash.

It then went to a garage sale my mother had two years ago. Everyone looked at it - "too itchy" "too slubby" "too...something".

So it went back home to Illinois from the garage sale in Minnesota. Mind you, this yarn has went through three states of moving now from its home to me to the garage sale and back to me.

The colors were right for Relay for Life. Kind of a silver, a purple and a white, I thought to myself that this just might be something unique. It didn't feel that scratchy, now that I'm more used to what wool feels like. And it didn't look "that" bad.

I tried the "Peasy Scarf" pattern. Didn't work. I tried crocheting with it. Didn't work. I tried a drop stitch scarf pattern with it. Not quite it, either.

Then it hit me. I could knit it larger than suggested, to make something that would account for the largest slubs while accentuating the laciness of the smallest slubs.

So I made a simple pattern - knit, purl, knit with 2 wraps, knit and drop the extra wraps, and purl. And I sew it together into a cowl. Perfect for just one skein of this very unique yarn.

And guess what? It was the first thing I sold at the RFL, and for the most, too.

And it went to a friend of mine for his dear mother for her wedding anniversary, whom I know will take beautiful care of it and keep it looking great!

Pattern:

Materials:
Approximately 50 grams of thick and thin yarn. This pattern would be great for handspun since it can be so wonderfully textured!
Appropriately sized needles. For this example, I used size 13
Yarn needle

START BY SWATCHING!!!! Take your yarn and find the ideal needle size. For Darice Sweet Sensations, they suggest a size 11.

Then go one or two sizes up - more if you're a tight knitter.

I went up one since my tension is fairly relaxed.

Cast on 18 stitches.

Knit row.
Purl row.
Knit row, but add a wrap to each stitch as you knit it.
Knit row, but keep your tension loose, and drop the extra wrap as you knit.
Purl row.

Use three needle bindoff, and sew in ends.

Voila!

Argh!

Okay, so this is more about righteous indignation, or something like that.

I love Ravelry. Its no secret. But sometimes the forums drive me nuts. I'm not going to name any names, but there was a post on corn fiber yarn and a person from another country used it to try and snub the US for providing GM foods. I played it off, but after thinking about it, well, it's frying my eggs.

Now, do I like the idea of genetically modified anything? No. I don't want my kid to be allergic to shellfish someday and not be able to eat tomatoes becaus they have fish genes in them to tolerate cold better. Nor do I think we need a corn that has double the amount of sugar in it. Americans are fat enough without having to worry about the carbs we eat doubling due to genetic modification (myself included).

But, I don't like the idea that people from other countries just try to jab that remark in whenever someone talks about an alternative fiber yarn - like corn, soy, hemp, milk, rice, whatever.

There are lots of other countries providing GM foods to the world. Brazil is a huge producer of GM soy and GM corn. India is a huge producer of GM cotton. China produces GM corn and is working on GM rice. Its not just the US at fault here. GM's even shown up in Mexico as blow-over from the US and as corn prices rise there.

Recently I read that Monsanto and other companies were promising that they could "double" the yield of corn and soy crops and more countries were falling prey to the GM promise. Let's think about this. Did they "double" yields in the last twelve years? Did the products live up to their promise? Further, did these companies cause some of the price rate jackings because they patented corns and soybeans and made them more expensive to acquire?

The last article I read about the topic explained that the GM contingent was moving into China to give them GM corn so they could boost their yields. Have anyone ever stopped to think that maybe that it was a good idea they weren't using GM product? That we are supporting a world population that is nearing unbearable?

More important are the people who insist that using wool is sustainable and GM free. How can that possibly be? Are they monitoring the diets of the sheep they get their wool from? Are they only buying from farms that have food logs to make sure no GM foods get into the sheep diet?

Further, does wearing a fiber made from a GM food give you side effects? Does the turning of corn from non-resistance to resistance of BT mean you're going to turn green? Does anyone know the safety of this?

Ugh. This whole topic just fries my eggs. There's just not enough known about it to be spouting off on Internet forums. Personally, I'll take what I can get, recycle my yarns from the thrift store, drink my soy milk in the morning, stay away from corn (it upsets my stomach anyway) and try to live in the world the best I can.

I'm more concerned with what the product is made from. If its removing food from the system, I'm not interested. Something made with unusable byproducts is much more sustainable in my mind - using product that would normally get thrown away. Now that's ingenuity! And not using as many chemicals to do it - another ingenious idea! Or not using as much energy to make, releasing as much greenhouse gas, etc.

And bringing it back to what I was originally writing about, this isn't just about the US anymore. This is about the whole world. No one should be tossing in remarks when their country could just as easily be part of the problem.

Salt Lake City Climb4Life

I am deathly afraid of those kinds of heights, but I encourage everyone else to have a good time in Salt Lake City this September.

Climb4Life

Some of the Ravelers pointed this awesome project out, so I'm sure there's going to be a large contingent of knitters and crocheters there.

Maybe I can talk my husband into climbing. Anyone know if an AMA or MotoGP race is there in September ;-P

Hi everyone, I am testing...

Hi everyone, I am testing out a new service. This is from Jott.com where I can say things over my cell phone and they gonna put them in my blog. Talk to you later. listen

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Busy, Busy, Busy (did I mention busy?), new tunes

I've been working up a storm lately. First for Hiawatha, then Canstruction, and its going to start up again next week with 4 submittals due.

But while that means it sucks in regards to my time, it means my music intake has expanded exponentially!

Here's my new faves:

Ladytron - Ghosts

Katy Perry - I kissed a Girl

The Spill Canvas - All over you

Sandrine - Where do we go?

South - Wasted