Funky new Craft for Leftovers

Hello all,

A little while back my wonderful mom, sent me a link with a notation "what to do with the stuff that dosen't sell".  At first I was sorta offended, what me?  Not sell all of my lovely yarns?  What was she thinking???  But then I started looking around, I had bits of yarn EVERYWHERE!  Mini balls of hand spun or hand dyed yarns.  Beautiful bowls full of colorful balls.  And then it hit me, my mom could be right. God help me.

What she had sent me was a link on how to make yarn bowls.  Not the bowls that hold your yarn when knitting, I think I CAN make one of those, but more onthat later, more like bowls made out of yarn.  Lacy or solid, colorful or plain....hmmm could be fun.

This is how it goes.  You take white glue, not all white glues are the same, I found out the hard way, so before you buy in bulk try a small bottle, mixed with a bit of water to loosen.  Now, don't go crazy here, just loosen it, it will take FOREVER to dry if you add in too much water.

Cut (or Don't) the strips of yarn and saturate them with the glue mixture.  Cover SARAN WRAPPED BOWLS. Please don't wrap it tightly, I thought a cleaner single layer would be best but NOPE, its harder to get off, so be messy, lots of layers with wrinkles works best.  Then wrap the yarn around these bowls and let stand to dry.  Takes about a day in warm weather. and you get the coolest bowls.  They are light and sorta fragile but beautiful.

Here is my work box.  The knitted bowl was there to soak with the starch and get it to stand up straight.  Worked wonderfully, while messy, but worked. I'll post a picture another time.

See all the different yarns?  Thick or Thin dosen't matter, you will need a TON of glue tho......and by the way the glue you see did NOT work I had to go get a bunch of good old Elmer's Glue.  Stick with the classics my friend.  ha ha A pun "stick" with the classics....get it? 

This was my first attempt, a commercially dyed and spun Dk weight I got during a yarn crawl 2 years ago, it was a shawl at first but was WAY too small, I repourposed it into this cool bowl.   Pretty huh.  Too me forever to take off the bowl, because I only used one layer of saran wrap.  Almost broke it trying to remove it.

I love how lacy it looks with the sun coming thru it.  The inside isn't as textured, like a true bowl would be.

 This one is a yarn I dyed and had a bit left over.  Again it was glued as a solid bowl, isn't the striping a neat effect?

This was one of the last I did, before I ran out of glue.  Its a commercial spun hand dyed that I was trying to do as a lacy "art bowl"  once I got it off,  I learned WAY too late about multiple layers,  It looks really really cool.

Check out other images of yarn bowls made by the rest of the world

https://www.google.com/search?q=yarn+bowls+craft&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=PEOuUbGyFPS90QG-s4DwCg&sqi=2&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=527

And here are some instructions for those of you who need them:

http://spoonful.com/crafts/spaghetti-yarn-bowl

http://sugarsnips.com/?p=2136

http://www.crafty-crafted.com/festive-crafts/yarn-bowl/

Hope you will think outside the "bowl" with your left over scraps of yarn and enjoy this craft as much as I did.

Happy Crafting,

DD

The Bump to My Grind

Hello All,

Now that the spring show season is over, Jenn and I regroup, relax, and re-stock.  I was able, for the first time, to purchase what is called a "bump" from our fiber supplier.  This is 22 POUNDS of fluffy, soft, wonderfulness.  I chose BFl for my first bump.  Easy to dye, beautiful to spin and well liked by our customers.

I thought I would share my babies, first pictures.....  Here she is fresh from the postman.  I honestly thought it was gonna be a HUGE box, but alas, no it was a normal/average sized container.

See what I mean, it's sitting in the dry sink so it can't run away as I put out its guts, normal in size.  No fork lift needed to drop this guy off.



I started breaking down this bad boy into 4 ounce balls....... After about  5 pounds and not seeing a dent in the box, I stopped for the evening.  The rest of the bump was placed in it's own snug rubbermaid container to wait until I needed more.

I was attempting to clean stuff up in expectation of my new arrival, remember I was thinking this was gonna be HUGE.  Look how tidy and all the empty bins.....  Since this picture was taken I have removed the gray cabinet (left hand side of the picture) and moved it to another room,  to give myself space for another countertop.  Jenn and I are looking at doing some wholesale, and I wanted to make sure I had enough room to dye in bulk.  Sweet huh? 

Thanks for looking at my baby's pictures ;)
Happy Spinning
DD