Give Yarn

 If you read my blog, I think it is a pretty safe bet that you or someone you know is into fiber. And I don't mean the dietary stuff. You like yarn. You like it a lot! You like to use it, you like to buy it. But even better: you like to get it as a gift. Or maybe you don't! Maybe you stumbled upon this post in search of tips on how to give yarn to a crafty friend. Regardless of the details, if you are looking to do some yarn-gifting/receiving this year, you are in the right place.

For all of you lovelies looking to give nice gifts of yarn this year (and we crafty folk thank you in advance for trying to do something better than stop at Walmart for some Red Heart), read on for some fun tips. For all you sneaky-snakes who want to receive some nice yarn this year, just leave this post opened on your browser until your significant other/mom/cousin/dog/whoever sees it and takes the hint. Or, the less passive aggressive route, just straight up tell your friends and family you want some yarn and send them here for a few tips.

Let's get rolling! Feel free to add your yarn-gifting tips in the comments section! I love hearing creative ideas. Gifting is my love-language, so I am all about gifting tips.

First up: Jimmy Beans

Jimmy Beans is the self-proclaimed "local yarn store online" for all yarn folks. I am personally a HUGE fan of their amazing gifting options. They have all sorts of gift sets at all sorts of different price ranges. A lot of their sets come with patterns or correspond to very popular free patterns. Check out their gift ideas page to see all the options. Here are two of my favorites:

1. Blue Sky Alpaca Gift Boxes

I am kind of an alpaca junkie, so this is naturally something that would attract me. With these gift boxes, you get to choose from a variety of color themes and prices. Most of them are $110, which would certainly make the casual buyer (aka me) balk. There are some (like the one pictured above) that are $75. Keep in mind, you are purchasing a luxury yarn. There is enough yarn in each box to complete a lovely shawl that is available on the website as a free download.

2. Yarn Bouquets

These are MUCH more affordably priced and still oh-so-cute. The yarn bouquets on Jimmy Beans' site come in a wide range of colors. Most of them come with a pattern as well. They range from $40-225 (Yikes! I know). In all honesty, this is a yarn-gifting idea that you could take into your own hands if you are slightly intrepid and have a working knowledge of what the recipient would like in terms of fiber content. These yarn bouquets would be easy enough to make up yourself for that special someone. I won't tell if you get the yarn on sale and make your own arrangement!! Plus, I think they'd be kind of fun to make.

Next: Knit Picks

 Another big-name in the online yarn world, Knit Picks has quite a few giving options that just might suit the lucky yarner in your life. They have tons of patterns on their site, and always offer yarn suggestions to help you pick out the perfect amount for the project at hand. Plus, they have tons of great tools. Here are my top pick from KP:

1. Woodland Winter Mittens Kit

This pattern is actually six patterns in one. You can use their on-site kit builder to customize the type and colors of yarn that come in the kit. How cool?? A lot of their patterns have the option to build your own kit. If you can't find a kit building option for the pattern you want to buy, they have great customer support to help you choose a suitable yarn. Aren't these mitts too cute??

2. Rainbow Crochet Hook Set

This set is actually going bye bye from Knit Pick soon, which makes me really sad. Whether you knit or crochet, you have to admit these rainbow-wood hooks are stunning. They also sell knitting needles of the same wood. A luxurious set is a wonderful gift. You can never have too many hooks or needles! Right? Right. That's what I keep telling myself.

And Finally: DIY ideas

I can't stand just posting pricey options for gifts. The Do-it-yourself spirit in me will not allow it!! So I've come up with some fun ideas on how to give yarn that are a little more DIY friendly.

1. Yarn Bouquet

You saw the picture above of how Jimmy Beans does it, so why not adapt it to be your own? All you need are some nice skeins of yarn, some skewers or knitting needles, a vase, and pretty ribbons. You could even scour Ravelry for some nice free patterns to go with the yarn you chose and print them out on pretty cardstock. Fancy!

2. Gift Card Snowglobe

Some people think gift cards are a cop-out. I disagree! If buying nice yarn for a friend makes you nervous (Will they like it? Will it be the right color?), go for a gift card and make it cute by presenting it in a snowglobe. There's a great tutorial here by The Creative Mama on how to make one.

Photo (c) thecreativemama.com

Where to get a gift card from besides Michael's and Hob-Lob? How about:
-Ravelry (for patterns!)
-Etsy (for hand-dyed options!)
-A Local Yarn Store (for supporting your local economy!)
-KnitPicks (for stuff and things!)
-Their Fave Yarn Company (for yarn!)
-Amazon (for books!)
(Some of these retailers might not have the "card" gift cards required to make the snowglobe)

3. Soap Gift

I know I'm on a soap kick, but why not give your fave yarn-lover a nice, handmade soap like the ones from Besem Natural Scents on Etsy along with a luscious cotton yarn and a cute washcloth pattern? A small, fun, clean gift.

Photo (c) Besem Natural Scents

Some free washcloth patterns from Ravelry (don't forget to print it on colorful cardstock to make it supah fahahahancy):

Washcloth Quartet (knitting)

Washcloth that Holds Soap (knitting)

Shell Stitch Washcloth (crochet)

4. Mug of Yarn

Got a coffee or tea lover? How about scoring a cute mug from the thrift store and popping a ball of wool in it along with some instant coffee/hot cocoa/tea bags? For mega cute points, include a decorative spoon and a pattern for a mug-cozy from Ravelry.

Mug Cozy by Bubble Girl Knit & Crochet (crochet)

Mug Cosy by threebeansinapod (crochet)

Fancy Mug Cozy by Kristen Hipsky (knitting)

5. Baby Yarn

I have a lot of friends who are expecting in the spring. If you know a crafty lady who has a bun in the oven, why not give her something crafty and practical? Pick out some nice baby cotton (or anything soft and washable!) and put it in a sweet little basket. Include Babies R Us giftcards, some little baby toys, and a pattern for an easy baby blanket. Maybe whip up some washcloths from the patterns above and tuck them in there too. I go through washcloths like crazy here.

These patterns are easy, but cute. Great for whiling away the last trimester. Or even working on during early labor! I totally knitted in the delivery room when we first got there.

Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket (crochet)

Chevron Baby Blanket (knitting)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Clean Fun: Lemon Verbena Soap

Since the success of my Coffee Soap endeavors, I have been itching to try out some more soap additives. Because I have an abundance of herbs, the obvious next step was to figure out how to incorporate them into my easy peasey melt-and-pour soap. Good news! It's simple! Just as simple as using coffee grounds.

Select a good, aromatic herb. Preferably one with some delightful medicinal qualities. I chose Lemon Verbena.  It's cleansing, bright, and is known to help boost the immune system. I don't know if you can get that big of a boost from soap, but hey. This stuff smells nice. If you want to know about other good herbs to use in melt and pour soap, this website has an amazing list. The possibilities are endless!!

Crush your herb while you are melting your soap according to the directions on the package. Once the soap is all nicely melted, give it a good stir to remove air bubbles. Mix your herb into the soap and pour into molds. I was loaned these cute molds from a friend. Love how they say "natural" and "homemade"!!

To get a more in-depth discussion of how to do a simple melt-and-pour soap, read my Coffee Soap tutorial. But seriously, I promise, making this soap really is as easy as melting, mixing, pouring, and waiting. Waiting is the hardest part!!

I was really impressed by the great suspension I got from the lemon verbena. I've read that many people have issues getting herbs and other light weight additives to mix evenly through out the soap. Guess I was lucky!!

I did add one tiny drop of lemon bergamont oil to enhance the lemony scent.  I really didn't need to! Lemon verbena has such a strong scent on its own. Perfect for soap making!!

I'll be passing these bars along as gifts. I'm having too much fun with this soap-ification not to share!! Have you made soap before?

Happy Tuesday!
-Carolyn

DIY: Make Your Own Buttons with Sculpey or Shrinky Dinks!

You can make your own buttons??  You heard me right! Trust me, I was just as excited as you are when I made the realization that yes, indeed, you can make your own buttons to adorn whatever project you choose. Think of the possibilities!! You just need a few simple supplies and an oven. Easy peasey. You'll be a button-makin' machine before you can say "whose got the button"!

Buttonbuttonbutton. Don't think I've said 'button' enough yet. Button.

Two weeks ago, my dear friend Becca from Halfway to Hipster came over to hang with me. We had a smashing crafternoon, and I thought I'd share with you all the efforts of our activities! And give you a few instructions so you can jump on the button wagon with us.

You'll need:
-An oven
-Some Sculpey (or other oven-bake clay) in any color you desire (I did white so I can paint them later)
-Some Shrinky Dink plastic
-Sharpies, watercolors, colored pencils, or other art-devices to color on your Shrinky Dinks
-Scissors
-Hole punch
-A toothpick or skewer

Becca got clever and stuck some buttons to a newspaper to lift the ink and get a cool wordy effect

 For Scupley Buttons:
 Pinch off a little nubbin of clay. Work in in your fingers until it gets soft. Form it carefully into a ball, then flatten it onto some wax paper with your thumb. Rub out as many thumbprints as you can (or leave them for a very rustic look) and poke as many holes as you want into your button with a toothpick. Flip the button over and make the holes clean on the other side as well. Follow the direction on the clay package to bake your button, let it cool and admire your work!

You can get really crazy with the size, shape, texture, and hole placement on these buttons. Be wild!

Becca made some cat buttons!!!!

 For Shrinky Dink Buttons:

Trace a circle approximately 2" in diameter. Cut it out , and go nuts with decorating the button. When you are done, punch some holes with your hole puncher (standard size hole punch results in perfect button holes). Bake your Shrinky Dinks according to the directions on your package. I love to act like a small child and sit on the floor of the kitchen to watch them shrink. MAGIC YO.

All my Shrinky Dink buttons I did with watercolors. They turned out so spiffy! I prefer the way they look from the "wrong" (aka, shiny) side of the button once shrunk. So vibrant!

The blue one looks super cool in person, but crappy on my camera

 A quick disclaimer, I have no idea how these buttons stand up in the washing machine. My bet is you should PROBABLY handwash any project you use these on.

Nekkid buttons! Can't wait to paint them.

Are you going to make some buttons??

Yarn to Dye For: How to KoolAid or Tea Dye Yarn

For a long time, I have wanted to play with dyeing yarn. Remember when I saw that dye lab in Minneapolis a million years ago? Yeah, well, that's what I want in my life. But this weekend I was finally pushed over the edge to give in and try dyeing by my dear friend Lizzy, and I have no such amazing laboratory for color science. Luckily, there are a lot of techniques you can do right in your own kitchen! Or, in my case, someone else's kitchen!!

What is cooler than adding another handmade, one-of-a-kind, feature to craft projects? It's like taking handmade to the next level when you color your own materials!! I know you are already just as excited as I am about this, so let's get down to the steps!!!

You will need:
-100% wool (or other animal fiber) yarn
-A sink
-A microwave
-Some tea bags
-KoolAid Packets (there are lots of possible color combos, so do some research and choose what you like!)
-Some big ol' measuring cups that you can put into the microwave
-Water
-Vinegar (which I didn't have so my tea dyed yarn looks like poo)

Start by prepping your yarn. You have to decide how you want your yarn to come out in the end. I decided on looonnng repeats of two colors of tea, and a gradient-effect with KoolAid for my two balls o' yarn.

To achieve long repeats of two colors, you need to wrap your yarn into a big long loop and gently tie it so it won't come undone while dyeing. Then you plunk one end of the loop in one color and the other end in the other color. Tada! Long repeats!

For a gradient effect, wrap your yarn loosely in a ball. The wool at the middle will not absorb as much dye as the stuff on the outside, resulting in a light-to-dark gradient. Just make sure you make enough dye to cover the whole ball!

Before dyeing, fill your sink with warm wahtah and pop your yarn in to soak for about 20 minutes. This allows the yarn to dye faster and more vibrantly. You may need to use some plates to hold the yarn underwater if you are doing long repeats: the loop floats.

Now, prep your dye!! Since I knew my tea dyed yarn was going to take a lot of liquid and messing around, I did it first. As I said before, I made the big mistake of not using vinegar to make the dye acidic. So, my tea-dyed yarn didn't soak as much of the color up. But let that be a lesson, not a discouragement. I promise it works super well if you use vinegar.

Onto the dye-making. I did black tea for one color and green herbal tea for the other. For the black tea I boiled about a quart and a half of water in the microwave. I boiled a little less than a quart for the green tea. I used five teabags of black tea and six of green. I wanted the green to be more intense. When you measure out your liquid, make sure to do a 3 to 1 ratio for water to vinegar. It's gonna be smelly, but it'll look so niiiiceee.

 Let the tea steep for 5-10 minutes, depending on your desired darkness. Don't let it cool off all the way before you put your yarn in it. You want it to be warm still! Just be careful to avoid felting. Haha.

To make the KoolAid dye, I went waaayyyy dark. You don't need vinegar for KoolAid dyeing, because the powder is super acidic already. I boiled about a quart of water for two packets of strawberry KoolAid, half a packet of Crystal Light Strawberry Lemonade, and a packet of Raspberry Iced Tea. I was really messy, so I couldn't get pictures of the dye bath, but lemme tell you, it was blood red.

Now that you have your dye ready, pop your yarn in it and send it for a spin in the microwave. You need to cook it for two minutes, then let it rest for two minutes. Keep doing that until it has cooked for a total of 8ish minutes. Pull it out, and let that baby cool!

Once it is room temp, pull the yarn out and rinse it in cool/warm water. Not too cold or you will shock the fibers. Rinse the yarn until no more dye comes out and the water runs off clear. If you do the gradient effect, you will need to carefully unwind the ball of yarn and wrap it loosely into a loop when rinsing so it can dry better. Some people suggest rinsing with soap at this point, but I didn't. It's up to you.

All that's left is letting your yarn hang to dry overnight, and loving it to bits!!

 My tea dyed wool is going to get a redo once I get some vinegar. The black tea part dyed a little, but not as much as I want. Still, it was fun.

 My KoolAid dyed yarn is soooo pretty. I cannot get over the richness of the colors!!! It is going to be fun to pick a project to use it on.

Roxy (my parent's dog) was very interested

There you have it!! I cannot wait to dye all the things. I already have plans to try some of the techniques Lizzy has played with, as well as the ones Cyprienne at Big Knitting Trouble has been doing. She made a rainbow!! Come on guys. You know you want to tryyyyy.

Happy Monday!!!
Linkin' up at these fine sites!

Free Printables: I Love You More Than Yarn Valentines Card

I have decided to try and make free printables a monthly thing. After all, I am obsessed with them and I love finding fun ones, so why shouldn't I offer some too? This month's freebie is coming at you a little early, but there's a good reason for that which I will explain later.

Happy February!! The month of looovveee. I'm not a big fan of the commercialism surrounding any holiday, so the amount of stuff I already see in the stores for Valentine's Day makes me a little grumpy. But still. I find it to be a fun, light-hearted, happy day amid some of the coldest months of the year. And there is nothing bad about sharing a little lovin' with those you hold dear.

This printable is a spin-off of a valentine's day card I made for Sailor while we were dating. He got a little laugh out of it, and said, "Oh, gee, thaanks. I was really worried," very sarcastically. Little did he understand (after only having been with me for a year) the full compliment of the sentiment I had expressed. I think he is FULLY aware now of my yarn nerdiness, so perhaps this year the card will mean a little more.

Especially considering he has lived with me and my yarn stash for closing in on two years now.

Find the Download Here!!

It prints on a full sheet of paper, so if you want smaller cards, you will have to resize it. It would also be super cute printed on kraft paper or glittery cardstock! Alas, I do not have either of those right now and I am too lazy to do what I normally do in want of kraft paper: cut up a paper grocery bag. But it looks cute on white still.

You could even make banners out of the card!! Too cute right? I love holidays and coordination and cute things.

Speaking of cute things....

Dat Bunny. Check out Tara Lea Photography here!

My sister, the very clever photographer, took some stinkin' cute pictures of Arlo while we were visiting family at Christmas. This is one of my favorites! He was so intrigued by his gift from my parent's dog, Roxy. Spoiler alert: It was a sweater. How cuuuttee is thaattt??

On to the last bit of business before I close out this post: the reason why the free printable for February is a few weeks early. There are some big changes going on here at the Carrot Cottage. Boxes are everywhere I look, and the sound of packing tape cannot be escaped. You know what that means...

We are moving!

I can't give all the details now, but I wanted to post a bit of a disclaimer as to why my posts are going to be pretty sporadic throughout the next two weeks. By February, we should be all settled in to our brand new (albeit still temporary) home. This is not a forever move, but rather a nine month to a year long move. After this...we will begin the adventure of looking for a house to own.

!!!!!!!

I am so excited. Baby Z is on the way, moving is underway, and I am currently in the way. -flees to dodge couches and boxes being moved-

Hopefully I'll sneak in a few more posts before we go, but do not be surprised if I suddenly become silent. This also means that Last in Line Shop on Etsy will be closed in a week or so until we get all set up in the new place.

Happy -early- Valentine's Day! Can't wait to get back in the swing of posting and show your our new home!

-Carolyn
Linkin' up at these fine sites!

DIY Refashion: Men's Shirt to Peplum Dress

 Hey guys! Remember this big old ugly shirt? A week or so before Christmas I set to work chopping this shirt up and designing a snazzy peplum dress out of it. I wore it on Christmas Eve and got asked a few times where I bought the dress! I consider that a successful refashion.

#betterthanstorebought #booyahmozzerellasticks #awyeah #hashtag

Ahem. Enough of that. Let's talk about the dress. I started by properly dissecting the men's shirt and gathering some matching thread and some extra fabric in the event that I needed to add more.

 While I do not have any good pictures from the process, you will have to make do with my turn of phrase and poetic descriptions.

I started by drafting up what I wanted in the dress. It had to feature a princess-seamed bodice. The lines are flattering to every body type, and will hopefully suit me for at least another month or so of Baby Z's growth. Hehe!!

To achieve a well fitting bodice, I was lucky enough to have a princess-seamed dress that fit me quite well. I used that dress as a basis for designing mine. I added a little wiggle room in the bust area (since pregnancy has already left me floundering for tops that fit in that realm) as well as the waist. After drawing up the pattern on cardstock (and making sure to add a seam allowance) and picking which pieces of the shirt would become which parts of the bodice, I set to work cutting.

 After piecing the bodice together with pins, I was shocked and concerned to discover that the bodice was FAR too tight. So, without a moment to lose, I drafted a side panel. Having such limited fabric from the men's shirt, I had to use some sections from a pair of teal old lady trousers I scored a year ago. I also decided to use the teal pants to assemble the peplum ruffles as well so that the side panels did not look out of place.

After the bodice was pieced and sewn, I quickly trimmed up the skirt and edged the peplums. Then, after attaching the skirt to the bodice, all I had to do was finish the neckline and sleeves and WHAMO. One bootiful dress.

Since this dress will hopefully be able to be worn for another month or two of this pregnancy, it is a bit billowy. I pair it with a brown belt to keep some of the girth in check. You can hardly tell that it has got extra belly room!! The shoes are a Goodwill score from a few weeks before Christmas. $3!! Holy schmowzow!! And they are practically new. I love me some fun flats.

There you go friends!! Have you done any spiffy refashions lately??

-Carolyn
Linkin' up at these fine sites!