24 September 2010

Yarn porn

To counter the depressing message I left earlier this week, here's some yarn porn. It cheered me up!

Remember that I told you that my fairy-grand-godmother gave me a huge bag of yarn when I told her I was learning myself to crochet over a year ago? No? Oh. Well, my fairy-grand-godmother (she's not really my grandmother, although I certainly think she is, and she certainly considers us her grandkids) gave me 2 bags full of yarny leftovers and goodness when I told her I had picked up crochet and brought my first pair of fingerless mitts to show her. She was impressed, she said, although when looking at them now and then, I think she said that to be nice. (it's because she's just such a nice lady, I think.) A short while after that, a friend gave me a giant bag of yarn with leftovers and balls of acrylic somethings because she didn't use it anymore. In other words: I got a whole bunch of leftovers, which I unceremoniously dumped into plastic bins and stuffed away to search through later to see what it all was, exactly. I picked at it a few times, opened the bins, browsed a bit, but put it away quickly when I saw how much work sorting all of it would be.

Well, now that my thesis is on hold until my supervisor emails me back (which, by the way, he hasn't done yet), I had some time to spare and I decided to use this time to dig through those bins and throw out what I couldn't use anymore and sort out the rest.
I found treasures. Lots of treasures.

Here's the blue batch. All odds and ends, some balls larger than the others, but some were really so gorgeous, I wished I had a mountain of it. Look!

That colour! Isn't it gorgeous?!

I wasn't able to capture how shiney this yarn really is, but it's silky, and smooth, and pretty...

Similar colour, different texture, but squishy and pretty!

Another one of those little balls that I wished was a ginormous skein. Don't mind the little.. thing.. on the tail. I don't know what it is. But I know a pair of scissors that would love to get more acquainted with it, soon.


And then there were reds. Lots of little balls of reds. I never knew there were so many different hues of red.


Oh, and orange, too.

Different types of orange, even. This reminds me of pumpkin pie, even though I never had pumpkin pie in my life. Must have been the weather.

And there was...

One of the few balls that actually still had the band on. See what it says? See? 15% wool, 15% mohair. OoooOOOOoooo! Soooo... soooft... I can remember grandma had a sweater in this colour that was really really squishy and soft and kind of tickled when you gave her a hug.

And then I found something truly.. horrific. It changed how I thought about my lovely, neat, sweet little grandma forever.
Grandma! This is almost like hearing you swear! I never knew you could be so messy! One big clump of knotted, brown, thin yarn. I'm guessing this was supposed to be a sweater of some sorts, since I found these too:

Which I'm guessing is cuffs of some sort.

And then there were the natural colours, which I'm guessing is all either undyed wool or some sort of blend.

Light colours...

And dark colours.

This one looks like it came straight off the sheep. There were three balls of this, actually, but as you can see in the group-shot above, I only kept two and threw one out. It was a jumbled mess of a lot of things, but I'm pretty sure a lot of that wasn't actually meant to be in there.

That's it! I threw a lot out, too. Balls of acrylic that crunched when you so much as looked at it, balls of leftovers that were so twisted up into itself that trying to untie it would take me at least three days, non-stop. I tried, with one of the red balls, because it looked like some sort of cotton twist (almost rope-like) and seemed interesting. And smooth enough to allow me to undo all the knots that it twisted itself in. There were colours that were so hideous, I couldn't think of anything that would make them more appealing. And yes, I thought of dyeing it. I don't think it would work. Plus, this saves me room for more yarn that doesn't look like ass.

I also found a bag of my first ever crochet projects, many of which were never finished, but I think I'll dedicate a new post to that, one of these days.

7 comments:

  1. Lucky, lucky lady!! I love those different yarns sorted by color group. Would love to see more, if you have time to share! I freely confess to my yarn voyeurism addiction.

    I clearly do not hold acquaintance with the right people. NO ONE ever gives me any yarn, leftover or brand-new or anything! Of course, I'm the first person in my family to crochet or knit in GENERATIONS. I'm sure my great-grandmothers may have done so, but no one else has. Ah well - at least my daughter and future grandchildren can look forward to tons of yarn from me someday. Oh, how they'll look forward to it. (Ha!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel very lucky ;) I just have no idea what to do with all of it. I think I should dedicate some time to measuring all of it, labelling it, and trying to find out what type of yarn it all is. There's stuff in there that feels like wool, but could just as well be a blend or not even wool at all.. But I might need to find an expert for that first.

    Ha, you know, if she's not happy with it, you should just make sure you finish all of your stash! (ha, who am I kidding? there's no such thing as finishing off every last strand of your stash!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. you know, I crocheted a GREAT scrappy scarf last year that i just LOVE! I just started with one colour and when I ran out I tied it off and made a little knot then started with another colour! You can check it out on ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Nalamienea/scrap-happy-scarf

    It was TONS of fun and I love wearing it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh! That looks so cosy! Did you only use yarn that was the same thickness, or is this literally any scrap you could find?

    I think I just have to throw some scarves and shawls out if I make this one, though. With the scarf I found yesterday that I intend to finish, this would mean I have about 18 scarves and shawls lying around the house...

    ReplyDelete
  5. what a nice haul! :) i love your pictures, they look professional! :) and your description of the brown yarn is hilarious:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love how you grouped all the yarns by color, smart. BTW Have you crocheted something for your grandma? It may be time!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks! My 'professional' pictures are made with the help of this nifty tutorial by Eskimimi: http://eskimimiknits.com/2009/08/photography-tutorial-faq-part-i/ Genius. Pure genius. And simple, too!

    And I may just have something in mind that she might get from me :) But I'm still in the process of making it. I might post some pictures soon.

    ReplyDelete