Jananas

At the Queen West Art Crawl I found a woman selling necklaces made of buttons. I asked if she’d sell me buttons on their own, as she had a lovely selection and it can be difficult to find nice buttons to finish up knitting projects. I selected a handful of nice, old wood buttons and she charged me $2 (super score).

Saturday I ended up over at the Knit Cafe to spend a couple of hours working on Christmas projects (I finished a lovely pair of warm, woolen socks for Jason’s dad). Their sale bin has been calling my name for a while and I picked up three skeins of yarn for $10 each. One in a lovely bright blue/purple handspun and two in a lovely, bulkier Sheep Shop Yarn#2 in camouflage colours. That evening I cast on to knit a hat and didn’t like the way that the bulky yarn was knitting up. I frogged it and sat there contemplating it for a bit before I was inspired by these awesome, bulky cowls that Caitlin crochets up. So I made one and my roommate Caroline sewed the buttons on for me. [As an aside, these are all available for sale so drop me a line if you'd like to purchase one]

This first one is very definitely asymmetrical. I like how structural it is as a piece.

Today I’ve made two more and made a good dent in a third. No wonder my hand is a little sore! In good news, I don’t feel nearly as bad about buying three more skeins of yarn when they are finished up within 36 hours! The second one I crocheted up can be worn either straight or slightly asymmetrical (although this one is not as severe of an angle as the one pictured above). The second is narrower for those who don’t want quite as much bulk. I really like how well the old wood buttons work with these cowls.

After I’d finished up my newly purchased yarn, I started digging through my stash. I came across some Cascade yarn that I’m not 100% sold on. But looking at it in a new light (doubled up & crocheted) it seemed way more appealing. I wound it up into lovely little yarn cakes (Jase, the tweaked swift is awesome. thank you.) and got to work.

This one will be finished up tomorrow morning, have no fear!

I’m thinking that when we’re back from traveling, I’ll re-open my Etsy store. I know that lots of people are selling handmade knit/crochet items. I’m not looking for this to pay my bills, but if I could sell a couple of hats a month I’d help pay for my yarn habit.