Bamboozled!

I found this beautiful hank of yarn at my local knit shop on Thursday. The yarn is thick and thin and is called "Bamboozle" by King Cole.  The color way is Heathers. This is the only color way they had at the shop. I would like to see this yarn in other colors, but I really like the shades of lavender in Heathers. 

I am making a cowl. I cast on 120 stitches on US size 9 needles. 

I need to stop casting on new projects. The way it is now, I feel as if I never finish anything. 

Happy Knitting!

Reveal: Yarn Bowls are Done

The yarn bowls are done. The owner of Hobby Hut Ceramics took these photos and I am so glad she did. Many of the bowls were already picked up by the time I got to the shop so I was glad to see everyone's completed projects. 

Here are my bowls.  

Yarn Bowl #1 

Before...

And after...

For yarn bowl #1, I used a glaze called Hot Tamale for the first two layers. The third and final layer had little flecks of white in it.

 

Yarn Bowl #2

Before...

 

And after...

 

 

For yarn bowl #2, I used a glaze called Candy Apple Red on the bottom and on the inside of the bowl. The outside of the bowl is a glaze called Peppermint Twist and it had big chunks of "crystals" which burst when the bowl was fired, giving the bowl a great colorful, mottled, almost drippy look.

 

 

I always assumed the holes in the yarn bowl were for yarn, although I prefer to use the "J-shaped" portion for my yarn. The ceramics shop owner, Teri, told me the holes drilled in the bowl is for knitting needles.  Duh!

Watermelon Head

Knit Picks Stroll Hand-Painted Fingering Weight yarn in the Watermelon color way.

Sometimes I just don't know what I had in mind when I pick out some of the yarn I purchase.  This is yarn I bought on line; if I would have seen it in person, I probably would not have purchased it. The colors are less vibrant than I expected. This yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Hand-Dyed in the "Watermelon" color way.  I actually tried the yarn out in a sock pattern and maybe a scarf pattern as well, but I wasn't satisfied.  This yarn is in my stash and it kept bothering me, so I did a Ravelry search for some inspiration.

A cool function on Ravely is that you can select the "yarn" tab at the top of the screen. Type in the yarn you have and see what other folks have made from the very same yarn. Fun, right!?  So when I entered in Knit Picks Stroll Hand-Dyed, I saw that a number of folks used this yarn for a hat called "Sockhead". This is a pattern I've made one time before and I am curious to see how the yarn pools using this hand-dyed yarn.

Like I said, I knit this pattern once before.  I also used Knit Picks striping yarn for his hat.  Here it is:

Today is a rare, super rainy day in Colorado. Great weather for knitting!

Yarn Bowls

 

Yarn Bowl #1 (front view)

 

I made a yarn bowl at a local ceramics shop last year.  The place is called Hobby Hut Ceramics.  My friend, Mrs. W, paints ceramics there a lot and I have been gifted many great things she's made for me at Hobby Hut.  A few other knitter friends got wind of yarn bowls being available at Hobby Hut and were interested, so Mrs. W helped coordinate a Yarn Bowl Day at the ceramics shop.  It was held yesterday.  Turned out a lot of the folks who painted yarn bowls yesterday are folks I also know from my local yarn shop. It was fun to see them and work on a different craft as we chatted away.

 

 

Yarn Bowl #1 (inside view)

 

I ended up painting two yarn bowls. I learned that there is some lag time between layers of glaze when I painted my first yarn bowl a number of months ago, so it was nice to have two projects to work on yesterday.  From the photos above, you cannot tell what the colors will be and I'll keep that a surprise.  When you pick out the finishes or glazes, you get to see what the glaze should look like, but you are only looking a 1" x 1" tile square. It's like looking at paint samples on cardboard strips at your local hardware store.  You just don't know what it's going to look like until you see it on a larger scale.  So I have an idea what I THINK my bowls will look like, but it will be exciting to go pick up the yarn bowls at the shop after they've been fired.  It must be really fun for the shop's owner, Teri, every time she opens up the kiln after a firing.

 

 

Yarn Bowl #2 (front view)

 

For now, I won't give out any clues as to how I think the bowls will look.  It will be really fun in a week or so, after I pick up the bowls, to show side by side BEFORE and AFTER photos.  For now the bowls have to completely dry before they can be fired.

I'll keep you posted!