Fiber Fridays: Holey Cashmere

Both my husband and I love wearing cashmere. Most of our cashmere sweaters come from various thrift stores for cheap, and almost all have developed little holes over time. I'm mostly okay with holey sweaters, holey thrift store sweaters, that is. I'm not as okay with finding my favorite "purchased new from Macy's as a Christmas present from my husband" sweaters with moth holes in them. Cedar has been installed in the closet, let me tell you!

So, a few little holes is okay.... but one of my husband's sweaters is more holes than sweater at this point... and this isn't the worst one:

I have some plans on fixing my holey sweaters with some cute felted or stitched patterns: picture little applique felted stars stitched over the hole, or just stitching along the border of the hole to make 'cute' holes. That's not so cool for a man's sweater though, so it is my goal to attempt 'darning.' I SHOULD go tot he yarn shop and try to find some fine wool yarn to use, but instead i just spun some that isn't quite fine enough and is pretty close in color to most of our sweaters.

I've never darned before, but upon reading in a super cool knitter's magazine that i wanted but couldn't afford, i think i have a good idea on how to do it. Wish me luck!

Any tips, ideas, advice on how to reclaim/ re-purpose holey cashmere?

I Felted a Hat!

My friends were looking at me REALLY funny as i crocheted this giant "hat." I mean giant. Huge. Really massive, indeed! This, in fact is what it looked like when i tried it on:

No wonder they thought i was a nutcase. But i'm not a nutcase at all! (well, actually i kind of am, but that is beside the point) This giant hat was destined to be felted down to a normal hat size... and it almost worked. This was my very first felted hat experiement. I followed a pattern i found on Ravelry.com, and mostly did it right. The resultant hat is way thick, still a bit large and will definitely keep me warm and dry on even the soggiest camping nights. I wanted a rain hat, and i got one --- just maybe a bit thicker than i had anticipated. (Apologies for the blurry camera phone pics)

After wash #1

After wash #2

After wash cycle #3: we've got it!

Here's the original pattern:

Copyright Eleanor Howe

 My hat:

Not a total success, as you can see. It's kind of cute, and very warm... but also kind of huge still. Or as my darling husband would say "helmut-esque". Grr. I'm not sure if the yarn was too thick, my crochet hook was too big, i didn't felt it enough, or what... I wish the pattern maker would post pics of the hat BEFORE it's crocheted.  This was a great learning experience though, and 3 wash cycles later i have myself a decent, albeit REALLY warm hat to wear when i'm out tending the future sheep. Next time, i think i'll use lighter weight yarn. ;) In fact, i'm about to get spinning with some gray roving that will be destined for my second try... i hope it's a winner!

Have you ever felted a garment? Did you do it on purpose or was it a "laundry mistake"?

Felt and Fun

That's pretty awesome, isn't it? Ages ago i hosted a blog swap and sent some lovely Nude Soap to Bohemian Beetnik in exchange for her beet based lip stain, and a box of random goodies from my various workshops to Marigold of Hideous!Dreadful!Stinky in exchange for this rockin' pin-chicken. It's about time my lovely friends got some props: I'm not a huge lip coloring person, but the product is pretty cool and i think i'll use it next time i feel like dressing up. The pin cushion is obviously a new 'must stay on sewing desk' feature, and gets along great with my chicken tape dispenser that i received as a christmas present from one of my best friends. Swapping is fun :)
Thank you ladies! I hope you enjoyed my stuffy stuff.