Winding a Centre-Pull Yarn by Hand

Posted on February 6, 2012 by fats

If you have yarn in hanks, you’ll need to wind them into balls of yarn before you can use them for your crocheting.

From TheHomeMaker, I found this really sweet video – a simple but most useful video-tutorial. And as you can see, a hank of yarn can easily turn into a tangled mess, so be very careful! TheHomeMaker just puts the hank over her knees and winds it up into a ball.

I’ve used the back of a chair, and another time put the hank over the back and one arm of the chair, to work with a hank of yarn and it has worked fine with sport, DK, fingering weight yarn.

Silky camel yarn on my homemade swift.

But I have had to deal with lace (2-ply) yarn that’s over a kilometer long. I figured that will surely become a mess without a swift. So I had a swift made quickly out of scraps of wood, as described in an earlier blogpost.

A hank of silk-camel - 1,600 meters/100 grams.

The truly difficult part here is placing the hank on the swift in such a way that the strands don’t overlap so much that they would tangle when you start pulling. With 1,600 meters of fine yarn, that’s not easy. Luckily, the hank is tied in at least three places and in three sections. This way it was easier to see which direction the strands go.

Once on the swift, I untie or cut the ends of the yarn and try to see which end is the easiest to unwind. This is also very tricky. If I could pull the yarn a few feet without tangling, then I work with that end of the yarn with some confidence.

Then winding into a ball can begin.

Leave a long tail across your palm then start winding around your fingers in figure 8, maybe a dozen or so times.

You must tape the tail end of the yarn onto a small piece of cardboard or paper so that you can find it when it gets buried under all that winding! (Thanks to Lori for this tip!)

Grab where the strands meet and then pull off the yarn from your fingers.

Slip off the yarn and fold in half as shown here.

Start winding around the folded yarn. Wind over your finger so you don't wind too tightly.

Start winding around the folded yarn. In the beginning, wind over your finger so you don't wind too tightly.

I just love doing this. Winding a ball of yarn has a meditative and relaxing effect on me. At night, I find that I sleep easily by imagining that I was winding a ball of yarn – the equivalent of counting sheep!

Talking to the Earth

Posted on February 6, 2012 by fats

While having lunch today, I felt a strong earthquake. Our house – which stands on wooden stilts – shook about and I heard this continuous low booming sound.

Our home in Baclayon

According to reports, the earthquake transpired 2012 February 06 03:49:16 UTC – that’s at 11:49AM here in the Philippines. At Magnitude 6.7, it’s quite strong, with the epicentre in the Cebu-Negros area, some 75 or so kilometers away from where we live.

I went out to check the fish pond near the house just to make sure that what I was feeling was indeed an earthquake. There I saw the water swooshing about and flowing out of the pond.

Earlier, our chickens were making strange noises and several of them kept wanting to go inside the house. Perhaps they knew that there was something about with the earth.

I hope that no one was hurt.

The earth is an amazing living object.

A new bolero in cotton-cashmere – and new works in progress

Posted on February 4, 2012 by fats

Yesterday, I gave the cotton-cashmere motif bolero a roadtest and here are some photos of the finished product. I made this with a 3mm hook and sport weight yarn from Lotus Yarns (Autumn Wind Yarn).

The finished bolero in cotton-cashmere yarn.

At the last moment, I decided to crochet the front of the bolero together since it easily fits over my head anyway. I also didn’t fancy an open front bolero and also didn’t want the bother of making ties (as I’ve done earlier with the modified “Glitter Girl Bolero” here and here) or using a pin.

The back of the bolero is something that I particularly like with its uneven hemline. I did about 3 rows for the sleeves working the last two rows in treble stitches at the cap (just over the shoulders). The seams are sewn with silky camel 2-ply yarn.

Cotton-cashmere yarn is smooth and tends to slip off easily thus weaving in ends took extra work. Also, as with most crochet garments, don't store on hanger like this! This could stretch and ruin the garment! This is just for photo purposes only!

The bolero – worked entirely with a schematic / pattern drawn on paper – fits very well, thank goodness! Now I am using the same paper drawing for the blue silky cashmere bolero that I started earlier. By putting the piece over the drawing, I could easily see how I should be shaping the garment. I think the paper drawing also helps in creating new shapes and designs particularly for the neckline and sleeves.

Work continues on the sliky cashmere bolero. Still using the drawing on newspaper. My newspaper doesn't smudge, but yours might so use craft or Manila paper if you have one!

A new work in progress in the meantime is a (hopefully) bridal purse, taking after the Motifs on a Mesh Purse. I have been thinking of doing some items for weddings but never really got around to working on anything – well, now is the best time, thanks to reminder from Michelle!

Bridal purse a work in progress. Pattern to follow ...

My plan is a little purse that has a satin (or organza) handle, no zipper but rather a drawstring – plus matching crochet jewellery. It is just unfortunate that I wasn’t able to get those beautiful silk and silk blend yarns in my last order with Lotus Yarns! Silk would’ve been perfect! But for now, I must settle for cotton.

And finally, on the drawing board is a crocheted dragon amigurumi for my 10-year old nephew. My inspiration is this amazing dragon I saw in Chungli, Taiwan some seven years ago.

Dragons in Chung Li, Taiwan

February 4 is supposedly the start of the Dragon Year in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. So … Welcome the Dragon Year!

Making a paper pattern

Posted on January 31, 2012 by fats

The other day, I gave the silky cashmere bolero a break and decided to make another bolero to try out a new yarn: Lotus Yarn’s Autumn Wind, a DK/sport weight yarn of cotton (90%) and cashmere (10%).

Autumn Wind - cotton and cashmere yarn from Lotus Yarns.

This time, I made a simple pattern based on my measurements. I drew the pattern on a clean sheet of newspaper. (The newspaper ink didn’t smudge on my yarn, but it may. So it might be better to use craft paper or Manila paper when available).

The first basic shape is a vertical rectangle with a width that’s half my bust measurements and a height that’s from the base of my neck to my waist. I usually add more ease around the arms and bust and less at the waist.

I am assuming that this will be a patter for a top that goes to my waist at the most. If you make a longer rectangle, then it could be a dress.

The bolero pattern as drawn on a newspaper.

The length of the rest of the lines on the pattern are based on my own body measurements, as depicted in the illustration below.

The basic pattern.

Afterwards, I crocheted the motifs and arranged them onto the paper pattern.

I made full motifs and half motifs when necessary.

Then I joined the motifs together using a combination of chain stitches, double crochet, treble crochet and single crochet. What stitches to use and in what number and order really depend on the distances that are being spanned.

Joining the motifs and covering some areas with mesh stitches.

I fasten off and join the yarn to other places to join and to cover, as the motifs are irregular in shape and it isn’t possible to crochet all the motifs together continuously.

Fasten off and start at other parts of the work when needed.

I work the left front, the right front, then the back of the bolero. When done, these parts are to be sewn together at the seams. But remember that before doing any sewing, use some yarn to tie the seams together first and then do a fitting.

The two front sections of the bolero.

Usually I work on the right side of the bolero, sometimes it is necessary to work on the wrong side. It all depends on which direction I need to crochet to join the motifs and to make a good lacy coverage of stitches.

The paper pattern and the bolero - work in progress.

This kind of work may seem daunting but once you have gathered the courage to begin joining the motifs, you will realize that it is fairly easy, especially with dk/sport weight yarn. Doing this kind of work in finer thread is much more difficult. I really recommend thicker yarn like dk/sport weight if you are just beginning to learn free form crochet like this.

A good yarn weight to start learning free form and joining motifs.

The use of a paper pattern has made work much easier for me too. Some people work with a tailor’s dummy. Some people work with dressmaker’s patterns. You can make your own pattern on paper or cheap cloth. You can make separate patterns for the front and the back of the garment.

From a basic pattern, you can easily develop shapes and fittings in crochet.

Exploring silky cashmere

Posted on January 27, 2012 by fats

Silky Cashmere Fingering from Lotus Yarns

Silky Cashmere Fingering
Fibre: 55% Silk/45% Cashmere
Yardage: 400 yards/20oz (365meters/55grams)
Hook: Aluminium crochet hook 4/0 (2.5mm)

The yarn came in hanks, and at fingering weight, can be easily unwound from the hank (either on a swift or the back of a chair) and made into centre-pull balls. Although I haven’t yet managed to make a decent centre-pull ball because the tail end of the yarn was always disappearing into the ball as it gets bigger. Maybe next time.

The yarn is viciously soft and shiny – thanks to the combination of silk and Mongolian cashmere. The yarn also has similar qualities to a thread that I am quite familiar with – rayon. Rayon is artificial silk (viscose) and is quite shiny too. However, Silky Cashmere has resiliency that rayon doesn’t have.

I started using this yarn following a necklace pattern that I designed (originally for cotton) some time ago. Then I enlarged this pattern to make a shrug/scarf. I thought that this was a good way to get to know the yarn better, using only small quantities of the yarn for testing.

Five motifs completed.

Now what I have in mind for this yarn at the moment is a lacy bolero made up of motifs joined together in the free-form way. I completed five motifs following charted patterns in Duplet 112 and Duplet Swimsuit 3.

Motifs from Duplet crochet magazine.

The motifs are then arranged on the table in the order that I intend to join them. I thought of the largest motif going on the upper back of the bolero and the smaller motifs on the shoulder/upper arm and the smallest motifs for the sleeves. The motifs are all different.

The motifs as joined.

Before joining the motifs together, I made a ch-mesh outline around the motifs. I prefer to work the mesh of the type “dc, ch 3, dc.” Then I started joining them beginning along the upper portion of the bolero (the shoulder line). I decided to keep ths line fairly straight so the bottom portion may be irregularly shaped and could be more visually interesting.

Detail of the motif on the right sleeve of the bolero.

The motifs selected for the bolero have strong edges reinforced by sc’s. I need good sturdy motifs and not light ones. I selected flat motifs for the back and shoulders and the last two motifs at the cuffs have 3-dimensional flowers. I wanted to keep the main body of the bolero fairly flat while the ends of sleeves can have a more 3-dimensional design.

Detail of the motif on thee left sleeve of the bolero.

Detail of the motif on the left sleeve of the bolero.

Hopefully, I will be able to make a size and fit that takes advantage of the mild resiliency of silky cashmere fingering yarn. This means a bolero that’s a bit fitting around the arms and shows off the lace design against the skin.

Detail of the motif on the back of the bolero.

I didn’t use any needle joining for the motifs. This time, I used wholly crocheted joins. Work is much faster this way and teaches me to join irregular shaped motifs.