Yarn

Another Yarn Purchase – Mulberry Silk!

Today, I am about to make a yarn purchase.
I know, I said no yarn purchase for a year but somehow excuses always find a way to butt in and make me seemingly believe it is reasonable enough to spend some more to the items that make me a little bit more cheerful than I already am.

I love yarns. I really do. I think the amount of these stuffs in my room ultimately describe how much I love them.

I have no other reasons to justify myself why I have to do another purchase, in my case, I do not want to reason it with because I have another project or so. It is just that the yarns I am going to buy, I never had them and I am just as happy that my husband who seemingly spoils me with anything I want always says OK. Go! Top it with some friends who indulge me into just digging in and enjoy.

And I will Hopefully the yarns arrive by next month

Diadem Fingering Yarn from KnitPicks.com

The yarns would be coming from KnitPicks. I have been wanting mulberry silk, and this is like a dream come true.

The new crowning achievement of your yarn stash! Diadem is an ultra-luxe single ply fingering weight yarn with a very subtle differences in thickness – all while combining the plush softness of baby alpaca with the dazzling sheen of silk. Inspired by prized jewels and gemstones, these precious fibers are dyed in an eye-catching array of subtle semi-solid tonals, producing one-of-a-kind treasures that are rich with texture and depth. – KnitPicks.com

Yarns for Moira

This is long overdue. Every time I think of the yarns I will give to Moira, I cannot help but be poetic. Her name conveys allusion to something blissful yet strong and firm, or so I just feel that way. So I looked up the meaning of “Moira”
and found that it means:

From the classical world, the name Moira stems from the Greek word for fate, also meaning ‘doom’, ‘destiny’ and ‘lot’. In Scotland, Ireland and England, the name Moira is said to mean ‘bitter’.

source: http://wiki.name.com/en/Moira

The name alone conveys two definition almost unrelated to each other :P.

Anyway.. I want to show the yarns I was able to wind by hand, as she requested for “a little bit of everything”:

Yarns for Moira

and here is the poem I am able to write because the phrase “Yarns for Moira” keeps singing in my head

Yarns for Moira

Happiness is best enjoyed when shared.
‘Tis a bundle of joy in each ball of thread.
Wound as dense as a tightly clasped fist.
Gift to a friend who crochets using plastic

From one ball of thread

I have this superfine thread from www.iceyarns.com. The yardage is 50g worth of 600m thread, which is quite long compared to my usual ball of yarns.

50g ball 600m – Picture taken from www.iceyarns.com

And I am excitedly using it for “currently unknown” project. While crocheting with the yarn, my poetic mind keeps using the words ” from one ball of thread ” and i just have to write the words down.

From one ball of thread

When there is more love to give…

Yes, sometimes you just feel like there is more love to give. Here, love means yarns.

When you know deep within you that the yarn you are holding for the longest time would feel more used and more loved with other people, you just have to share them, lest, you end up with more stash you can handle.

Do not misunderstand me, i do not want to let go of all of my yarns. Sometimes, you just know when it’s not about letting go, but sharing. When blessing just comes your way, share them. So there are more to receive. Last Sunday, the priest told us, Love begets love. sure it is. When you give love, sooner or later you end up getting some, and sometimes more from what you have given.

Here are the latest from what I have (bought) that will soon be given away:

Five balls of yarns of varying texture and color

As usual, let me share you the story of where these yarns came from:

Ball of yarn from Dreamshoppe

This yarn was among my last purchase from Dreasmshoppe, around three to four years ago. I tried several times to make a project out of this, but failed. Call me anything, I love making wearables and these type of yarns just don’t suit my need. I got attracted on buying this, hence it’s been sitting on my stash for the longest time. This yarn costs around Php200 a ball. I think it’s a wool blend something.. hehehe, forgive me for not remembering.

The color is variegated blue to dark gray and light gray.

Pink variegated yarn from Indonesia

This is one of my last purchase of yarns from www.craftandme.com. I have used the yarn as accent to a bolero I made for a friend. This is not easy to use since it’s a bubble type yarn. But the color is very pretty.

Acrylic yarn from baguio

I think, this yarn belongs to one of my earliest purchases of yarns from Baguio. I have incorporated this yarn in a number of projects, still the yarns resist to disappear. I think the original ball was very big, because I have made two shrugs from this (from what I remember). I have made so much use of this yarn already, it is time to serve another master. The color is orange, red and maroon in one ply. as compared to other acrylic yarns from Baguio, this one is not loosely plied so it is really nice to use in any project.

Green Mohair Yarn from Indonesia

This yarn belongs to the lot I purchased along with the bubble yarn. I was so interested on different yarn types, so I included this on my purchase. It’s very thin but when crocheted, it gives anything a fuller look. so do not be mistaken in achieving a very lightweight project.

Big ball of woolen yarn

I have a friend who sold me a lot of yarns she purchased somewhere. This big ball of yarn is one of them.. It’s so big and thick and I got like so many balls of them. so many that i gave one big ball to my friend who owns a cat. because cats love yarns. and it’s so woolen like those balls of yarns that is being played with cats. I think the cat would love it. and he sure did. I even made the cat a blanket so he would feel more loved.

Now this yarn is thick and wooly but would be very nice for a project. I used this to test my weaving skills and it gave a nice finish. but i would never want to use this for crochet. since i like crocheting using thinner yarns

So there they are. I hope the recipient would love them as much as I did, or more.

[Post Updated]

After finding more about the identity of my recipient, I feel a bit proud that she dropped by my site to say hello, more that she was able to chat with me for some time to chat and share. I found out she is an artist who needs different materials for her upcoming project, and that due to time constraint, she is unable to wait for incoming yarns she would receive come may. I got curious about her identity that, when I googled her name and saw her works, I was amazed and awed. I knew it was asking too much to go through the yarns I could give away, (not to mention i still promised someone more yarns from my stash). My question is what can i give? That would not really hurt me much? You see, when you are attached to the yarns you have kept for so long, you feel a connection, so that is why when i give a piece from my stash, i try to share the story of that item before letting go, so i could still remember.

I added a few more yarns to give away

here are the stories of the added yarns:

Ribbon Yarn

This is an experiment from “recycling yarns”. I managed to obtain a very good looking knitted top from a thrift shop. The yarn is a ribbon type, silky and soft. How I never managed to create something from this, I wonder. I guess, it’s because, “recycling” was never for impatient people like me. I think I threw away the knitted top I can never manage to defrog properly.

Plastic Raffia

This plastic raffia, is another purchase from Indonesia. It is a left over for my attempt to crochet a bag. Unsuccessful though. It is not easy crocheting with plastic and more, you can never rewind this yarn into a ball again, because it’s too slippery, but I think, “she” mentioned that she likes this, so here it is.

Mako Cotton Yarn from Turkey

Yes, i think I have given two of this last time, and I am giving another one. I figured, I would never purchase another ribbon yarn again because I would find it hard to form it into lacy kind of clothing. I knew my husband won’t be happy seeing half of this lot going to other people i do not even know. But I was thinking like, they like it this much, maybe, in some way it can have more use than what i was planning for them? True enough, I do not feel so much affinity with this yarn because they have been purchased just recently.

Boucle Yarns from Rosario Pasig

This yarn is a forgotten yarn. I was trying to rummage at old boxes to see if i would still have the soft fluffy yarn she was eyeing for but couldn’t find any, and then I saw this big leftover (from what my friend gina, made a beret) boucle yarn from Rosario, Pasig. And I was amazed. this yarn was waiting to be discovered so it could get a new master!

Green Yarn from Baguio

I thought I have given all of these yarns from the last year’s giveaway, but again I discovered that I still have one more small ball left to give.

Whew, so that’s it. To you, I hope if you receive these yarns, (though not much) would help you in a way, to create something wonderful

Visualizing my craft room

I have yet to clean up my room. It has gotten really, really messy. I have been trying to visualize the craft room I will ask my husband to create for our new house, hence it has been my struggle to come up with a design I want. With this, I have to clean up my yarn stash and come up with an organizational schema that is both visually appealing and functional so I can decide on what kind of shelves we will put up.

I have visualized the working area of my room:

It will have a small corner sofa near the entrance, and a small round coffee table (to serve as my working area) with a (probably green – or orange – or pink) carpet underneath. The nearest image I was able to search for the idea is this kitchen nook from http://houzz.com, the only item missing is the carpet beneath the table.

Image taken from www.houzz.com

Now my struggle is the area where the shelves or cabinets or drawers will be put. I cannot decide what kind of storage furniture I will use. And I have been eyeing, cute woven baskets lined with fabric.

Image from http://houzz.com

And the cubes for the shelves, to indiviudally hold the yarns.

My room would have three parts, the craft work area, the storage area, and the other part would be my office, which i would not want to discuss in detail here. It will just have an l-shaped working table to hold a number of computers I am using for my work. Yes, come the end of this project, I will be using probably 5 monitors, two for my windows machine, two for a mac, and one space enough to hold my laptop.

Now, my struggle is, my husband wants me to decide so that he can finally draw the layout of my room. But I cannot decide til I am able to organize my yarn stash, (my clays, my beads, my fabrics!) , hence the struggle.

Recently, I have decided to give up on woven baskets, because they are too expensive and I want to try something out, asap. So to help me, my mom purchased these racks: (rack costs P250)

Rack full of yarns

So I immediately emptied my boxes to try to organize them in the racks (in vain). Everything still looked messy.

My husband’s cousin who is also an Interior Decorator talked me out of giving up organizing my yarns by “brand”/source and shift to “by color”. The reason I was insisting on “source” is because of the shape of the yarns. If it would be by color, it would be more difficult to pile them up.

Yes. Piling up is the only way I can go with this kind of storage. If i would go by color, i would need a more decent shelf, and the yarns should have approximately the same shape.

Hence, I bought another kind of rack. And I have to wind my yarns into balls using a winder, specially the yarns that has been used.

Green yarns in rack

Now, I have these more decent looking racks with shades of green. The plastic racks (costs Php88 each) are stackables so I can put one rack on top of another or we can put plywood on walls as shelves and have these racks lined up. This way, my yarn stash is more organized. What’s more, they look nicer and prettier too.

I have more to wind and I have more racks to buy, unless I can find more enthusiasm in making my own baskets.

See:

Yarns by color

Yarn Hoarding – not good when you have just woken up

After my first yarn frenzy at https://facebook.com/onlineyarnstore, I told myself I would not do it again, but I am really curious about the other yarns. One time, while browsing her page, I saw a post that tells she would be posting new yars for sale!!!! And yes, I did wait for the yarns to come, until I was overcome by sleepiness. When I woke up, the novelty cottons and basic cotton I was expecting to get are already taken but these bulky acrylic still had loads of left overs. Disappointment plus excitement lead me to a whopping P1,900 worth of Yarn Purchase.

I immediately concluded – YARN HOARDING. Not Good, when you have just woken up. The problems of facebook online buyers and the frenzy over getting the items first (without having the chance to browse first then decide later) leads to not able to afford what you bought, or more of you did not expect you have bought that much! With no shopping cart to indicate your shopping expense progress and no (remove this item) from your list because you respect their regulations of “touch move”, I ended up not knowing what I actually purchased, if I have hoarded too many of the same colors or if you are still within reasonable amount of spending.

Yummy Pinks!

Good thing two friends came to the rescue. Gina, who willingly bought part of my stash (I told her to get anything she likes so long as my bill will go down) and Ian, who is too willing to buy yarns for me as birthday gift (which was last year, mind you). Hence, I ended up not paying anything. The last part of my stash would be paid by the seller, herself as our agreement for the images I will be doing for her.

And though I immediately regretted my action during that morning, I am super duper happy for the yarns that have arrived on my doorstep today! Yippee!!! Thanks to my friend, Ian.. I promise to make a bonnet for him 😀 hehe.. but look at the colors I’ve gotten?! Would he like a fuschia bonnet? hehehe..

Hooray for today – thank you Yarn Source Manila

I received the yarns from Yarn Source Manila. She was very happy with the image she requested, and I was more than willing to do it! 😀

Hooray for today!

Hooray for mornings and things that make them good
Hooray for beaming smiles that make my day
Hooray for stops and gos
Hooray for colors and quick hellos
Hooray for surprises that walk my way
Hooray for friends I’ll make, oh hey…hey!
Hooray for treats that make me smile,
Like magic stripes that fill the sky
Hooray for days that make me say,
Oh Hooray for today!

[Theme song McDonald’s commercial]

My mom is currently inspecting each yarn

Then she decided, she likes the yarns

Louie discovered the commotion and is taking his pick

Will he choose the black one?

My mom picks up a yarn for him

Nope, he likes colorful yarns

Yarns take up space.

Yarns take up space. In my case, it’s worth one whole room.

One messy room full of yarns

I recently made some sinful purchases despite the pledge to lessen them. My excuse? I am now going to sell and I need materials. Pardon me for being this eager beaver, but since I am focusing on bags, I just have to have these wonderful bag handles!

Faux Leather Bag Handle

Bamboo circular handles

Metal Bag Handle and Frame

Bag Metal Frame

Metal Bag Frame

and so I told myself, I have to make sure I can sell something!

But before I can make something, I have to have the yarns to use. And I made a recent discovery. These yarns are awesome for bags. They are strong and durable. Though crocheting them is very painful for my hands, but I love them!!!!

Nature Cotton Yarn

I have two incoming bags made from these yarns and I haven’t used the bag handles I bought from www.aliexpress.com

I have to repeat my bag hack because I ran out of yarn.

Miu miu Bag Hack Round Two

And then this other bag, which I designed myself ( I do love the design, mind you) is almost done! but I cannot move a finger to finish this. I’m sick of doing dc’s!!! hehehe..

Incoming Ginantsilyo Bag

The handles and the base are made from the Nature Cotton Yarn:

Mercerized Cotton – (bought in Saudi Arabia)

But the body is made from wool, which makes the whole thing quite expensive.

Anyway, back to the room. I have to tidy this one more time, which will lead me to another purchase – a decent shelf.

Yarn Source “outsourced”!

This week, I got contacted by the owner of “Yarn Source Manila“, an online seller of yarns of different kinds. Remember that before 2012 ends, she launched a photo contest worth a bagful of yarns? Well I did not win, but I was informed that she really liked my photo entry. Anyway, so she contacted me to ask if she can use my photo as a “sold out” photo. She uses this to indicate that an album containing items being sold are already “sold out”. Hence, a bad news breaker for a buyer like me. But! This is the good news, she asked me to revise it in exchange for a bagful of yarns!!!!!!!!! OH WOW! I’ll do it right away!!! 😀 hehe.. so i edited my earlier entry and came up with something like this:

sold out logo for yarn source manila

I got a reply from her telling me she really liked the image I made. This actually brightened my day (and the days ahead).

Yipee for Yarn Source Manila!

Btw, I did buy a few balls of yarns from the site and lo and behold! when I received my basic crochet cotton yarns (Just two big balls of same color)

White Cotton Yarn from Baguio being sold by Yarn Source Manila

I was really, really happy! This is the kind of yarn I have been looking and wanting. This is the same yarn I used for this crocheted blouse:

Coined from Rachel’s Daisy Square

Soft to touch and thin, just the way I like it.

It’s so lacy!

Handmade lace

I just hope the next time the items i want to buy won’t be sold out. Happy crocheting everyone!

YarnSourceManila is giving away bagful of yarns for new year!

Whoa! I heard that our local yarn (online) store – YarnSourceManila, set up a contest on her facebook page.

Here is the details of the contest:

Now, let’s welcome 2013 with a photo contest! I will give a bagful of assorted yarns to the winner. just post your entry on the timeline or wall of this fanpage – facebook.com/onlineyarnstore. Remember – the theme is the NEW YEAR. Just make sure that YARN SOURCE MANILA will be placed somewhere in the photo. The winning photo will be used as a cover photo for this facebook fanpage.

Deadline of entries is January 1st, winner will be announced on January second Happy new year everyone!

Let us all join guys!

I actually joined the contest and I want to share my entry:

YarnSourceManila New Year Cover Photo Contest – Ginantsilyo’s entry

I do hope I will win the contest. Hooray for Filipinos for sharing their love and passion!

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Yarns for Moira

Let us all join guys!