Blog Archives

Yarn-Give-Away!

15/9/2014

Today is the day!!
The day a new yarn-baby has been pushed out into this great big world for us to caress and to love.... the Maai Yarn of Shibui has just been released!!!!

Shibui Maai give-away on knittingtherapy by Rililie

I am considering myself extremely lucky to be one of the few that had the opportunity to try this baby out before... I got a very generous sample by post and couldn't resist in casting on immediately for a new project (the hat from my last post), leaving my overflowing to-do list completely untouched.
It is this soft and beautiful!

Shibui Maai - on knittingtherapy by Rililie

The Maai is made in a fine and soft chain construction out of 70% super baby alpaca and 30% merino. When knitted up the chain becomes invisible, but it allows the yarn to stay soft and springy, while the entrapped air in the chain provides even more warmth than the alpace/merino mix would give you in a traditional twisted yarn construction.

In the same generous bag I got some other beautiful samples... Here you can see an array of different yarn bases in the same gorgeous colour "mineral" - I really want to use them all together in a project to showcase their differences and subtle variations.
The idea of mixing yarn bases is very popular with Shibui and by looking at all the different hues and textures that one gets in the same colour, I totally understand why!

Shibui Yarn Selection - on knittingtherapy by Rililie

...Of course I had to order some yarn for my next dream projects, too! I am afraid that only by looking at the incredible pictures on the Shibui site one can't help but wanting all of the lovely beauties they have on offer...

Shibui Pebble - on knittingtherapy by Rililie

Pebble in "pollen", "blueprint" and "ash"

Shibui Staccato - on knittingtherapy by Rililie

Staccato in "mineral" and "fjord"

But back to the main idea for this post... I wanted you guys to see and feel for yourself the beauty that is called Maai and I thought that a give-away of a skein of this little wonder is in order: 3 persons that comment on this post will get one skein send to them by post.
A little present from me and Shibui!

To make the whole thing a little more fun I thought of a little game: You just need to continue the sentence of the one person that commented before you. It can be completely irrelevant or stupid, whatever you like. Hopefully we get one extra long ridiculous sentence written by all of us in the end...
... and 2 skeins in the colour "Poppy" and one skein in the colour "Blueprint" will be sent out to three different destinations each, when the time is up.

The winners will be drawn by a random generator 2 days after this post goes live and I will announce the winner at the bottom of this little article when the moment has come!
(I will also write an email to the winners to ask about postal addresses - which can be anywhere in the world - no restrictions!).

Maai in blueprint wants a new home.

Maai in Poppy want's one, too!

So... let's start the game!
Who will be the first to start the sentence???

Update on 17th September:
The three winners have been drawn!!!!
(I used a random generator for this difficult task... )

Virginia

Adam

ByGab's

CONGRATS to the lucky winners!!!
Thank you everybody for playing!!!
The long sentence you guys wrote is really fun, sometimes very poetic and quite dreamy... with unicorns and elephants making unexpected appearances!
I loved reading through it and every new comment made me smile!!!!
I couldn't wish for more inspired readers!!!!!
:)
I will write an email to each of the winners right now, to ask about where to send the yarn!!!

Comments

After Your Hat Is Done

5/9/2014

Comments

...or how to have a good excuse for playing around with balloons as an adult!

I just finished my new hat yesterday and thought I'd try out this trick I remember reading about somewhere. It allows you to block out stitch patterns on a hat, without getting folding lines at the sides (something that usually happens when laying it on a flat surface to dry after washing).
Entrance....
The balloon!

So you find yourself one of these (I bought mine at the supermarket) and start blowing it up just a little bit, so that you can easily fit your hat onto the balloon.
Then, with the ballon already inside, you continue blowing it up until it's filling out the whole hat - you might need to adjust the position of the hat by sliding it deeper into the balloon: The point is to have the top of the hat opened up without distorting the stitches too much!

Tie a knot into the mouth-piece, but don't tie it up too tightly! Being overzealous, I had overfilled my balloon and then needed to open it up again to let some air out and make it much smaller (and it's not easy to re-open a wet balloon, believe me!). In my giant balloon, I noticed that not only the stitch pattern got too lacy for my taste, but the whole hat would have been huge in the end if it stayed on there to dry.

To continue with the actual blocking, go and get one of those water-spritzy-thingies, like the one pictured on the right!

And now the real fun begins! Wet the hat up until it's completely soaked in water!!!

And then, just let it dry in a shady, well aired spot.

Find some bowl that allows the balloon to stand upright, without the hat touching the ground.
Especially if you have a pom-pom attached to the hat you don't want it to lie down on one side and have a flat part at some spot, after blocking. Besides, it will dry quicker this way with all the water flowing away from the pom-pom...
Try to leave the ribbing hanging freely at the bottom, so that it won't get too stretched out.
(in the picture on the left you can see that I already had taken out some of the air to make the balloon much smaller in size).

After the wool is completely dry, fluff the badly treated pom-pom up a little bit with your fingers before taking the air out of the balloon.... And then admire your hard work: Bloomed stitches and a neatly blocked out hat without folding lines!!!!

The hat is worked in Shibui yarn (Maai) and will probably become a pattern soon...
The pom-pom was made by following my latest tutorial crush in this youtube video.
The balloon on the other hand has been thrown away quite unceremoniously...