Dreaming of [a] home

I like to daydream that I own a house and that I have impeccable decorating sense. My latest dream is to make a thick shag rug from recycled t-shirt strips similar to the amazing ones by talkingsquid. How fantastic does that look on the wooden floor? There is a tutorial on the Craftzine blog. As near as I can tell, all you need is a large enough piece of mesh rug canvas, some cut up t-shirt strips, and a latch hook.

Shalom Cardigan

The Shalom Cardigan pattern is now available as a free PDF download.  Please enjoy!

Download Shalom Cardigan Pattern (english)

New sweater

I finally finished seaming a sweater that I knit this summer. This yarn was supposed to make a lovely vintage sweater, but it wasn't the right gauge, and the variegation looked a bit too busy for a lacy knit. I decided to knit up an easy turtleneck without a pattern instead. I made the neck pretty loose, since close-fitting necks make me uncomfortable. It's very basic, and warm. I think it will serve me well on cold, casual winter days. The yarn is Shamrock from knitpicks. It's nothing fancy, but it's cheap.
Of course, now that I finished all my ongoing knitting projects, I had to choose a new one (or three...) I'll start with the "Demi" sweater from the Rowan Vintage Knits book. I'm planning to use some Brown Sheep wool that has already been a part of two previous sweaters. Neither sweater was quite up to par, but I have high hopes for Demi. I've seen a lot of great finished sweaters from other knitters.

I consider myself somewhat of an idealist, and love all things frugal and recycled. I came across this great article on recycling yarn from sweaters about a year ago. I have yet to find good thrift store sweaters to do this with (mostly due to lack of time to search), but here's a look at what I did with recycling one of my hand knit sweaters:


The unraveled yarn bears a strong resemblance to ramen noodles when taken apart. I wanted to relax the kinks with a little moisture, but I needed a place to put the yarn while it dried and straightened. Nothing that might stain it, cause it to knot or felt together...I finally realized that my dresser would be perfect:


I think it adds a nice touch to my bedroom decor.