Variegated Yarn made from Felted Scraps

After last week when I tried my first felted join, I then wondered if it would be worth while to make variegated yarn from felted scraps. I have been keeping all of my wool scraps to felt at some time in future, so I decided to start trying it out to see if it was worth the effort.

scraps of pure wool no shorter than 3 inches

At first, I sorted my scraps of pure wool. I decided I would try some of the luxury 8 ply from Bendigo, pieces shorter than 3 inches were obviously going to be too fiddly, so I started with ones from that size up. It was quite time consuming, so the mix of colours should make the extra effort worth while. The pink, green and white was coming up quite nicely. I then spun it using the drop spindle my father-in-law made for me, because some of the ply were unravelling when I was felting the pieces together.

hand-spun felted variegated yarn made from wool scraps

I was short on time, so I only tried a small length of variegated felted yarn, just enough to make a 5 petal flower. I really should have just done a few colours, like white, pink and green, and not the one piece of purple, because one petal is purple while the other four are pink. I then gave the flower an extra felting treatment, to see if it helped the finish. I think when felting flowers in future I'll need to be more vigorous, so will probably pop them into the washing machine.

5 petal flower made with variegated felted yarn

variegated flower after extra felting

There was a small pile of tiny single ply scraps left over from making the felted yarn. These were the 1 inch lengths that I cut to thin the wool to make a place to join. I gave making a pair of tiny felted beads a go, they required a bit of elbow grease and still need more work, but I now have the general idea. I hope my mum can help make them  into a pair of earrings.

tiny 1 inch scraps of wool left over from making felted joins

I just love how I can make things from the tiny scraps of wool left over from other work. This is yet another reason why I like working with this natural fibre. It's more expensive than acrylic, but not a single strand is wasted!

a pair of tiny felted beads to make into earrings

Best 2nd Anniversary Present Ever

I am sooo excited about this present David has given me early for our 2nd wedding anniversary! The traditional gift to give for the 2nd wedding anniversary is cotton, and last night I was talking about how I needed some cotton seeds that I could grow organically.

the best present ever arrived in the mail and cost less than $5

David got a weird look on his face, went to the car to get a package he had to sign for from the post office that afternoon. He decided he should give me it early in case I started looking for seeds myself! These Upland cotton seeds are the most thoughtful present I could get from my husband! I was so impressed tears came to my eyes and my skin got goose pimples! And, it only cost $3.50. I'm easy pleased, aren't I?

fluffy Upland cotton seeds I will try and grow organically in pots

I can't wait to plant these, we will do more research but it sounds like we could have a crop in 6 months, even if we plant them into pots! The reason I was thinking about growing cotton is because we are reconsidering our decision to be renters. Our rent is going up in the new year, and there are some very cheap houses for sale near where his factory is moving to, so hopefully there will be more to say on this in the next few months. We shall see ...

The best way to join yarns

It's satisfying to learn new techniques that help me improve my work. Knotting a new yarn onto the next produces a bump and ends in the work which can be unsightly. I just learnt a new way to join natural fibres, called the felted join.

here is my first felted join, perfect for working with natural fibres like this grey wool mohair blend

I had an opportunity to make a felted join right away (instructions are at Lion Brand), while working with this lovely grey mohair wool blend which I bought last week on special at Lincraft. Another join I learnt a little while ago was the Russian join. I liked that so much, I was using it all the time, but now I will only use it  when working with acrylic yarns that don't felt. My work just improved a little bit more, Yay!

My first real customer

Up until now, my only customers have been people I know in real life. Yesterday I completed an order for my first 'real' customer, a person I don't know who found my page from a recommendation by a busy fellow crocheter.

my new stash of Cleckheaton 'Perfect day'

One lesson I've learned is that I need to insist on a deposit before beginning work. I have two packages here waiting to be posted to two different ladies who have promised to pay but haven't, and their work was finished months ago. These two ladies are people I know from Facebook. But two other orders have paid in advance, including this one. Rachel has a Facebook page called Babee Blocks where she sews handmade gifts for children and babies. She's paid in advance for these crochet embellishments to add to her work, I do hope she likes them!

6 pink flowers to use as embellishments using 8 ply acrylic yarn and a 4mm hook

One of Rachel's customers wants organic natural fibres on a baby's cloth book, so we decided to use Cleckheaton's 'perfect day', an 8 ply Australian wool and alpaca blend that uses no dyes. Its colours are based on the natural colours of the animals wool. It was beautiful to work with, I'm hoping to make something nice from the left overs when I get a chance. The other shapes are made from scraps of acrylic my mother gave me that she found in second op shops and flea markets.

6 red hearts using pattern at Suzei's Stuff

Acrylic yarn is not exactly "eco-friendly", although I have bought Australian made acrylic baby yarn for a bunny rug I've made. But I do think acrylic fits the 'eco' bill if its second-hand. Its a salvaged product that would otherwise go to waste. I did buy a bunch of Chinese acrylic when it was on special at Lincraft but I'm not using that in my work, only to make things for Thomas.

wool shapes drying flat on a towel, made with undyed Australian alpaca wool blend

The wool shapes didn't sit quite flat so I washed them in Earth Choice wool wash, squeeze them gently and eased them into shape to dry flat on a towel. These have come up beautifully and are very soft to touch. I think they're going to make a beautiful embellishment on Rachel's work.

How to steam block acrylic

For some reason I assumed that I could block acrylic projects the same way I block those made from wool. But when I tried it, it didn't work! To my surprise I found the acrylic yarn holds it's unblocked shape.

curly acrylic bunting triangles before steam blocking

I did a search on how to block acrylic and found that you should steam block it. So I decided to practice on some rainbow bunting I've been making for Thomas. The bunting triangles were very curled, they will just not work as bunting like that. I had tried blocking them by washing and pinning to a large piece of foam, but when they were dry and I removed them, the triangles were still curled! So I then steam blocked them, or rather, I simply ironed and steamed them on a low heat. I put my iron on the very low synthetic heat and ironed the back side. I gently steamed them as was suggested and they flattened straight away.

acrylic bunting triangles after steam blocking

I did these before steam blocking the delicate spiral bunny rug I made for a custom order. I spent so much time on that, I couldn't bear for it to melt it, while these triangles were just a quick fun project for myself that I could risk. But after these triangles, I gently steam blocked the bunny rug and it turned out just fine. So now I know how to block acrylic!

The difference between acrylic and wool

I just learnt how to tell the difference between acrylic and natural fibres like wool. This is important because you don't want to mix them together in one project, especially because they have different washing instructions.

my stash of 4 ply cotton

After finishing a rush of projects I had to finish by birthday deadlines, I did a stock take of all my yarns to decide what I would make next. I realised I still hadn't sorted all of my yarns into acrylic and wool, although my cotton is all separate. I've already made a couple of scrap rugs out of unidentified yarns, now I know that wasn't a good idea because some of it could be wool, while most is probably acrylic. I will have to wash those rugs as if it is all wool. I still had left a big bag of yarns that I assumed was acrylic, but I wasn't sure. How could I tell what was wool, and what wasn't?

I asked Google, and found on a site called Yarn Yak that one way to tell is to burn a small section of yarn. Here is the direct quote from that site "take a tiny snip of yarn, light it with a match. If it smells like burning hair, it's wool. If it smells like plastic, it's acrylic"

the reclaimed wool from a big pile of unidentified yarns

David and I couldn't tell the difference by just the smell of the yarn burning. We burnt lots of tiny sections of yarns that I knew were either acrylic or wool to learn the difference. What we found was the acrylics will melt, the ends becoming hard like melted plastic. The wools and cottons will ash, the burnt part falling away when you touched it. We blew on the burnt yarn to cool it then felt the end.

Burn a tiny section of unidentified yarn.

If the burnt end is hard and melted like plastic, it is acrylic. 

If the ash falls away, it is a natural fibre like wool.

Hoorah! I have now properly sorted my stash of yarns! Now ... what shall I make next???