Alpaca Weekend

Just a few pics from the farm we visited this weekend. They had about 60 alpacas. We were able to talk to the owner and learned a lot about alpacas! I really hope someday we can invest in some and start our own little farm. =]

Sleeping babies. =]

Bella and her baby. =]

How Close Can I Cut This?

So I recently decided I wanted to make a pink, girly soaker for my little one. (See post below this one.) I grabbed a hank of pink Cascade 220 at my local yarn shop and set to it. It came out adorable, but I had quite a bit of pink leftover. So I thought to myself, "Hey, I think I could buy a hank of brown and make some cute striped longies!" So (about a week later) I went back to the yarn shop and bought a hank of brown Cascade 220. The total of these 2 items (including tax) was $13.86. I set to work on a pair of 3-6 month size longies and they came out adorable. But I still had a little bit of each color left. Braving the odds, I was able to knit up a pair of newborn sized longies with *just* enough yarn. When I had finished the rise and split for the legs, I cut my yarn and measured how much I had left. I then split it up so that each leg got 27yds of pink and 15yds of brown. The picture below shows what I had left over.


Talk about cutting it close!! And below are my finished projects! I'm so proud! Sooo... $13.86/3 = $4.62!! I feel so blessed and happy to know that I can provide comfy, woolie goodness for my child and not have to pay $25+ for each item online! (Disclaimer: I am in NO WAY implying that the ladies who get this money don't deserve it, it's hard work and time consuming!!) I'm just happy that I can provide for my child and save our family money. =]

Recent Knitting Projects

So I made a pretty darn cute soaker yesterday. I'm so excited to put it on her!! =]

And here are 3 of my sweater pieces being blocked. I'm hoping to get the whole thing put together this weekend so that I can say I made it in less than 2 weeks. =] Lol.

Wordless Wednesday

Help?

Sooo yesterday DH and I discovered this neat little walking path in the woods (about a 5 min drive from our place) and one of the trails leads down to the riverbank which is covered in driftwood. I'd really like to go collect some and make something out of it! I haven't done a ton of googling, but I did find a coat rack and a shelf. I need more ideas! Leave me comments if you can think of anything! =]

Babylegs!

Here's a cute project that takes a total of say, 5 minutes? I had these socks already so I made them into babylegs! I followed this tutorial, but they are so super easy, you probably don't really need a tutuorial. http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2008/01/21/make-your-own-baby-leg-warmers/

If you aren't familiar with babylegs they are basically legwarmers for babies. Since my little one can't quite wear hers yet, here's a picture of a cute kid wearing some.

I got this picture from cottonbabies.com, where their babylegs sell for $12. Mine were uhh... free? Check! Also, as the tutorial states, you can buy womens' knee high socks for as little as $1. I think I'll be making more in the future!

Wool Dryer Balls

When I found out about wool dryer balls, I thought they were a fabulous idea! You use them instead of dryer sheets or fabric softener, which can leech chemicals. I was excited to buy some to save money and be more green! Then I thought to myself, "I bet I can make these, and it would save even more money!" So I googled. =]http://goodmama.typepad.com/goodmama/2008/05/make-your-own-wool-dryer-balls.html I found a tutorial that seemed super easy and set to work.

First I had to find some scraps of wool in my yarn stash. I didn't have much trouble in that department! =] The picture below are the cores. They are about 6 inches in circumference.

Next I put the cores into a dress sock, with acrylic yarn tied between each core. (You don't want to use wool to tie, because it will felt, then you'll have trouble getting your cores out of the sock!) Once you have them all tied in, just throw them in with a load of laundry. I put mine in with my towels, because they are the only laundry I wash on hot, and that will help the felting process. I learned that you need to tie the yarn in a couple knots or it will come off. I had some twist ties in my laundry room so I replaced the yarn that came untied with those and then threw my core-filled sock into the dryer with my towels.

Here they are after felting. I feel like they could use a bit more felting, because they really didn't shrink up much, but the next felting should help to firm them up. The turtorial says you can skip the first felting if you want, but recommends that you don't if you want a firmer dryer ball. Otherwise the core would still be kind of squishy.

After this I wrapped them with more wool yarn and they're ready for their second felting. As the turtorial states, commercial dryer balls are about 9 inches in circumference, so to account for felting, you probabaly want to wrap them until they are about 10-10.5 inches. I only had enough yarn (I snagged some scraps from my sister too!) to wrap them until they were about 7.5, so they'll be a bit smaller. But that's okay, because you can really make them any size you want!

Here they are after the second wrapping... (The purple one looks alot bigger than the pink/yellow one in this picture, but it was just closer to the camera.)

And then back into the sock they went, and in with another load of towels! Here they are after the second felting! They shrunk down to about 7 inches in circumference, but I think it's a nice size. =]

I just love this kind of stuff so much!! I feel so accomplished when I can make something at home to save us money and help the planet! Now I'll just have to report back on how they're doing in the dryer!!

Mmm yum!

The beef stew was in the crockpot this AM before 8. It cooked on low all day and it was DELISH! I also love that I used the meat from a previous meal so tonight's dinner cost basically nothing. =] It's things like this that make me feel like a very accomplished housewife. And getting like 10 things done on my to do list before 1pm. =]