Cozy on Up!

I'm one of those people who HATES to throw anything away. Rubber bands? i'm gonna need those some day. one inch scraps of yarn? DUDE! That could come in handy!

But the one item i save the most from the trash has to be glass jars.

I love jars. I love using them for storage in the fridge or in the cupboard. I love using them for flower vases or keeping my parsley and cilantro fresh. And i love to use them for drinks.

At the coffee shop, I see alot of kids reusing glass jars for coffee and tea. And let me tell you, my hands have gotten used to handling alot of hot things, but a hot glass jar is a difficult thing to hold. But I have a solution.

Jar Cozies! Hand knitted by moi! (actually , my very first ever thought-out, worked-out, written-down design! These are pretty great; not only do they prevent you from burning your fing-ghee's, but they also keep hot drinks hotter for longer. :)

I like to use these with iced drinks too. The cozy soaks up the condensation on the outside of the glass. Sooooooo, no puddle when you're enjoying your refreshing iced beverage.

Right now I'm just making them for friends, but I'm trying to work on a marketing plan. More on that later.

Toodles, al

mmm...Handspun.

Look at all that handspun! All done by me, with MY hands and my top whorl spindle.

We'll start with the boring practice fiber, super wash wool. That'll be the purple and white in the photo above. Their not that great, but I'm learning.

Here is my latest and favorite work. Single-ply, half wool and half soy silk Karaoke in Calico from Louet. I really enjoyed spinning this stuff. It was a much needed departure from what I was spinning before.

Currently, I'm spinning up some cream-colored cotton. Gotta say, cotton is really difficult and I am not finding it as fun as the wool. But cotton is a whole other kind of fiber beast and it'll just take some getting used to. The other sad part about the cotton is that it will be harder to dye this stuff than the wool because i can't use my Kool aid.

That's right. I said Kool-Aid. Remember those blond girls from school who would come to class one day with cherry red hair? Well, that was because of the wonderful acidic properties of Koo -Aid powder.

The bright food coloring paired with the citric acid in Kool-Aid makes it the easiest method of dyeing yarn and fiber, as long as that yarn and fiber consists of animal protein (i.e. fiber from sheep, rabbits, camels, worms(silk), yak, even human. Cotton is a plant fiber, thus Kool-Aid not very effective.)

This week was fun with Kool-Aid and the white and purple handspun got a makeover.

The purple got a wash of grape/pink lemonade. It has a hint of burgundy running through it.

The white was blasted with Black Cherry and a hint of strawberry and the result was this bright tomato color. I have christened it as a "Heinz" colorway. I'm thinking some kind of Valentine's knit. We'll see.