Organic Cotton Shrug

This is a shrug i mentioned in last post. It's about 60 cm now. The pattern is arranged from Flower Power Shrug ( Interweave knits summer 2005). As i always felt the need for such shrug to cover shoulders and arms at air-conditioned subway, shops or restaurant, It'll be my best companion for going out this summer.

I also made a pretty crocheted flower on the shrug from the pattern i found by fortune, i think it is very easy yet cute. I've already made 3 roses in different yarns although i have no purpose for use. Maybe i'll give them away. It made as a long tape and then rolled. This rolling process is really fun. I always try at least several times for best shape. Here is the link (http://megan.kiwi.gen.nz/StripMethodRose/).

Boiling yarn

Here is another collection of organic cotton yarn. They came from US. Very fine and tightly twisted. The most interesting thing about these yarn is that their color change after wash. As they are grown in the color, the color will not fade after wash but will get more DARK and rich. The note came with yarn says "It will continue to deepen and darken for up to 10 washings.... For the deepest color and color setting, boil the yarn for 20-40 minutes." Wow, boiling the yarn? I made small skeins of each color and boiled for 20 minutes and colors really changed. Amazing.
The boiled yarn is shown on top of its original cone in the above picture. Especially, green one got very deep.

As they are not soft enough for wearing, i will make some lacy edging to add on towel or crochet motif project with the other organic cotton i showed last post, which was very soft and in ecru color.
My needlework theme for coming season will be "Organic cotton yarn."
I have started knitting a shrug with the ecru yarn. I'll show her in next post.

organic cotton

I got some fine organic cotton yarn last week, and very busy with plying them into useful weight. I have to gather at least 8 string to knit with the needle i usually use, around 2 or 3 mm. As it is fine as sewing thread and always twist when it sag, plying all 8 at once is too hard to handle. So i made two 4 ply 25g balls then winded them together into 8ply 50g ball and added twist with drop spindle. I hesitated to use drop spindle as such manual process takes a lot time for me, but i have no way other than it. I first tried knitting with just plied yarn without twist but the knitted fabric was not square at all, tilt 45 degree. I checked if this tilt occurs in other stitch pattern. Garter and rib and moss was OK but i don't like to knit in pattern with those stitch only. So i have to use drop spindle to enjoy stockinette stitches. Of course i tried iron steam but nothing changed.

Although I have normal size spindle, i prefer small one i made before to spin fine thread, and used it for first ball. The thin stick was too hard for my fingers to work with and i looked around for something more thick and smooth surface and find this works quite nicely! This is a needle that was provided at knit out event held in tokyo last autumn. I will make some more balls enough for knitting or crochet or dyeing. Although I like natural ecru color, it must be fun to knit in color, too.

You see the tilt in even small swatch.

The flower behind in first picture is geranium. My son played around our flat with his new bike after we got home, and he came back with it saying "I found this flower fallen on the ground. Put her in a vase." It must fallen for its own weight as it has so many petal for a stem. He has a funny talent - he often finds fallen off flowers on the ground, that is still in bloom. He has found cherry blossom twig with some flower on it after windy day, and also found pretty yellow carnation left on street that seemed someone bought a lot bunch of flower at flower shop but one of them fell out. It might be happen when using bicycle or motorbike.

Summer bag

This is the bag just finished. As the yarn was very thick and hard, it stands by itself on the floor! I had to hold the hook like when you do with a rod to keep tension.

I finished all project in "Andalia" series and i think i enjoyed enough. Above all i proud myself on that i used up all the balls i bought and made what i meant. That's rarely happens. Now I feel i want to back to normal yarn.