Making Yarn: Tools I Didn't Know I would Need

There are lots of things I used to take for granted when buying ready-made yarn from a store. For example, I never asked how one would figure out the yardage of yarn on a skein, or the weight of the yarn. As long as the yarn came with a label that had this information printed on it, I felt content that I had all the information I needed. Until I started shopping outside of Joann's and Michael's I didn't even know that not all yarn comes in a compact, easy-to use ball or center-pull skein, and that many shops sell it in twisted skeins that need to be wound into a ball!

Since I began spinning my own yarn, I have learned a lot not only about how yarn is made, but also how it is prepared and measured. 

For example, this scale (which you saw a few months ago) is perfect for estimating shipping on tiny items, and for measuring how many grams or ounces of yarn you have!

If you want to transfer your freshly spun yarn from your spindle to a skein, it is helpful to have a niddy-noddy, which is a funny name for a tool that looks like this and makes a nice even skein when you wind your yarn around it. I have yet to aquire a niddy-noddy, so I wrap my skein around the back of a chair, which works okay.

One of my friends gave me an electric yarn ball winder for turning that skein into a ball, once it's all washed and finished. I ordered a swift (that blue thing on the left) from Joann's to assist with the ball-winding process.

When it's done, this ball of yarn looks pretty professional for only my second batch of homespun.

When I bought my yarn in Guatemala, I learned a couple other yarn measuring tricks. For the most part I felt pretty successful at communicating in Spanish, but when I asked the lady who sold me the yarn how much was on the skein, all I was able to understand was that they don't measure in meters. Maybe they use yards, but I assumed they didn't so I didn't learn the word for that. When I returned to los Estados Unidos, lamenting the fact that I had no idea how much yarn was on the skein, one of my friends taught me a neat trick:

1) First, stretch out your skein of yarn, similarly to how it appears in the chair picture above. 

2) Measure the length of the skein from one side to the other.

3) Count the number of strands 

4) Do a little math: (The length of the skein) x (The number of strands) x (2, because the skein was folded in half when you measured it) = The total lenth of yarn on the skein! 

Thanks to this trick, I now know that one of my skeins from Guatemala has about 827 yards on it! 

My friend also taught me a useful trick for measuring the weight of the yarn. I tend to estimate weight by sight a lot but if you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can measure wraps per inch. This means wrapping your yarn around a ruler or other measuring device and counting how many wraps it takes to cover 1 inch. Next, find a chart to tell you how many wraps per inch equals which weight. It frustrates me that every chart seems a little different, but I guess that's why we always check our guage, right?

This yarn took 18 wraps to equal 1 inch. According to this chart on Craftsy that's a thin sportweight, just barely above fingering weight. I'm using it with a pattern that calls for fingering weight and it's working well.

I hope you find some of these tricks and tools useful, I know I have!

-Assunta

Cinderella Doll Pattern

Remember this little beauty?  I first showed her to you in this blog post back in September. She is now living happily every after at my parents' house. My mom even made her a beautiful box to sleep in, which you can see in her blog Laughing Cat Creative Enterprises!

You can now get the pattern for this doll on Etsy and Ravelry. Don't ask me how to make the box, though, you'll have to ask Momma Cat!

-Assunta

Mermaid Shawl Pattern for sale!

I finally finished the pattern for my Lace Mermaid Shawl! This shawl is worked in Solomon’s Knot or Lover’s Knot, giving it an open, netlike feel while the long, shapely tail is reminiscent of a mermaid’s fins. Perfect for a walk on the beach or dreaming of life under the sea! It is available as a pdf download on Etsy and Ravelry. 

The Hook I used was US size K. The yarn is Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable, in the color Echo. This is a one-size-fits most pattern. The dress size of the form shown in the photograph is a size 6. Its height is adjusted for an approximately 5’4” tall person. If desired, you could easily increase or decrease the size by changing the number of repetitions that you begin with.

Back View

Side View

Front View

It's not quite swimming season right now, but this shawl could easily be made in time for spring!

Happy swimming,

Assunta

Steampunk Jewelry

I must apologize for the quick and unpolished post this week. With Halloween coming up on Saturday, my creative efforts have been focused on preparing for this most magical or days. With any luck, I will have several completed Halloween projects to show you next week. For now, I hope you will enjoy a sneak peak of my costume in the form of some steampunk style jewelry that I have made. It includes earrings, an ear cuff, a ring, and a choker.

This ring is made from a cool old-looking button from Joann's (so it's not actually old). 

I can't wait for all the fun Halloween festivities this weekend! My sweetie and I have started watching  scary movies to prepare and our office is having a Halloween potluck tomorrow. 

Are you doing anything fun for Halloween?

-Assunta

Rainbow Hello Kitty Doll Dress

What's better than rainbows and Hello Kitty? I can't think of many things. My mom found this incredibly cute instant-dress fabric at Joann's and made me a shirt out of it while I was visiting Portland a few weeks ago. I even had enough left over to make a little dress for someone special!

This is Puku, my favorite doll since I was about two, and I think this is her original outfit:

I had a piece left over from the gathered top of the fabric. I measured it on Puku to see how much I wanted to leave gathered. 

I decided to leave the first three rows of elastic and take the rest out.

Then I ironed out the gathers on the skirt.

Last I sewed up the back, hemmed the bottom, and added some ribbon straps.

Puku feels very festive and summery in her new dress!

Dreaming of cute fashions and summer colors,

-Assunta

Doll Armature Video Tutorial!

I've finally finished my doll armature video tutorial! This video took a long time to make because I had to re-record the voiceover several times until it sounded okay. I'm not sure if it's my sound equipment of my actual voice, but when I talk naturally I sound to myself like a very little girl talking through a very big stuffy nose and when I attempt the Batman/Rorshcach voice I sound more like a normal person. I still ended up sounding more sad and bored than I should have, but I should get better at this with more practice.

The little tripod was a huge help for getting a better angle on the work while I'm doing it. In the past I just used the built-in webcam on my laptop, meant I had to hold everything up to the screen while I was working on it and my arms got tired! That inexpensive little tripod was definitely worth the small investment!

I've tried my hand at making videos a couple times in the past with "okay" results. I used to try and do the audio and visual stuff all at once, which makes editing nearly impossible and lets in a lot of awkward background noise, like when I accidentally kick a table leg or drop something. This time, I broke the process up into multiple steps that took a lot longer but also yielded much better results:
      1. I filmed the construction process of the project without talking at all.
      2. I plugged my camera into my computer and brought the video into iMovie. Then I separated the audio (just background noise like the clock ticking and me scooting supplies across the table) from the video and deleted all that.
      3. Next I used iMovie to record a voice-over describing the process shown in the video. This made it much easier to edit the sound and video independently of each other, and eliminated any unnecessary background noise because I was able to keep completely still since I didn't need to build the project while talking about it. This also let me easily re-record the audio when I needed and eliminated a lot of stuttering since I am not the best at trying to work and talk at the same time!
      4. Lastly, I added in background music with a title and credits.

Well, that's about it. I hope this helps someone like me who is trying to figure out how to get started on Youtube. Or, if a Youtube expert sees this and has any tips on how I could do better, let me know (nicely, of course)!

Without further ado, here is my new tutorial!

I'll see you next week, with dreams of dolls and video editing!