floppy yarn

A somewhat floppy ball of yarn with the tangled center for a center-pull ball of yarn.

Closeup of tangled center.

The remains after most of the center has been pulled out.

This yarn was knitted into half a dishcloth, and then I ran out.  It sat as half a dishcloth for a while, but I decided to make it a ball.  You can see the difference than some steam and a bit of tension makes on yarn - the near side is the kinky immediately-post-knitting yarn, and the far side is after holding it over a pot of boiling water and pulling a little.

Fish-shaped crochet dishcloth. You may recognize this yarn from the previous post.

Reverse mitered knit dishcloth.

A somewhat floppy ball of yarn with the tangled center for a center-pull ball of yarn.

Closeup of tangled center.

The remains after most of the center has been pulled out.

This yarn was knitted into half a dishcloth, and then I ran out.  It sat as half a dishcloth for a while, but I decided to make it a ball.  You can see the difference than some steam and a bit of tension makes on yarn - the near side is the kinky immediately-post-knitting yarn, and the far side is after holding it over a pot of boiling water and pulling a little.

Fish-shaped crochet dishcloth. You may recognize this yarn from the previous post.

Reverse mitered knit dishcloth.

The photos for this post are sort of a followup to yesterday's post to illustrate things.

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As I slowly work on sorting/cleaning/tossing/whatevering my stuff from after my apartment fire, I have turned my attention to the large plastic bag in which resides my yarn stash. The soot, it turns out, gets everywhere - including closed drawers, where the yarn was stashed.

I talked to somebody at one of my LYSs*, and have been told how to wash yarn that has inhabited the homes of smokers - and as my yarn has been contaminated by, but not totally coated in, soot, I thought I'd give it a try.

toilet paper rolls

When using a ball of yarn, there are generally two choices - use the yarn from the outside of the ball, so it unwinds from outside-in, or use the yarn from the center of the ball, so it unwinds from inside-out.

When you start from the outside, you have to figure out a way to keep the ball unrolling smoothly and not bounce/roll around all over the place. I'm sure there are other disadvantages as well, since I'm pretty sure at some point that I was told this is the "wrong" way to do it. However, it works, mostly.

the new purple sock

Well. I have been encouraged to start a blog about my newest hobby, knitting. I am currently working on a pair of purple socks, and since I like purple, and I like making socks (except for the fact that one has to make TWO matching socks...), I figured that was a good place to start.