Thursday, August 2, 2012

New vintage finds!

Finally sharing the vintage goodies I found at an estate sale when we were up north!


Above:
Blue Gingham metal tray
Silhouette picture in frame
2 cards, Birthday and Mother's Day (the back has a sweet note from "Mildred")
Photo
Above:
A collection of magazines & small books (Open page in the center right)
Singer Home Decorators Guide & 2 Insurance Receipt books (1940's - open pages on bottom right)
Half circle table (thankfully it was so small and light it fit in the car for the drive home! I haven't decided if it will get a coat of paint yet)
2 School Books (Speller and History, on top of table)

All this for $25.00!

Just realized I forgot to take a photo of one other item, but I'll post a pic as soon as I get it framed and hung. It's a marriage license, and so pretty!

(And on a side note...I am so excited to finally know how to make a photo collage! I don't know what I was so nervous about...using Picasa it was so easy! Maybe one of these days I'll finally figure out all of these blogging tricks! ha ha!)

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Frogging project

So a while ago I took this, a plain cotton sweater from the local thrift store:


Took it apart and unraveled it in a process called "frogging" (apparently because of the "rrrrrip" sound you get when you pull the yarn apart - lol).

I then wound the yarn into many of these:



And tonight, it's turning into this:


A new dishcloth!

I LOVE these dishcloths, and have knit a few for myself over the years. They are so easy to make, and when it comes to a heavy duty, all purpose, non abrasive scrubber, nothing beats them. This is a classic dishcloth pattern called Grandmother's Favorite and can be found for free all over the internet. When I was reteaching myself to knit a few years ago (my grandmother taught me when I was a girl, but didn't really keep up with it so I forgot many of the things she taught me), I bought a book called "Knitting Pretty". It's been a great book for me, and it really helped me remember the basics. The pattern in the book is a bit different than some of the patterns I've seen online, calling for a K3 then YO, rather than K2, YO and it goes until you have 50 stitches on the needles before beginning a decrease, but that's what so great about classic basic patterns like this, you really can vary it anyway you want. And no purling - woohoo!

This is the first one I've made using reclaimed yarn,but since it's 100% cotton like the yarn I've purchased from the craft store I think it should work up the same as before. And with all the yarn I collected from a sweater that cost me $2.00, it's super economical.

If you're interesting in Frogging yarn, here are a few links to sites I've used as reference that you may find helpful:
Rewind Yarn - some good videos