Coaster

This may be the most practical thing I've made so far, mostly because it's replacing this coaster on my desk at work. I'm lucky that I work in a place where people take such things humorously, but it's still a bit less than professional (though better than tea-stains on the desk).

Please note Lee Meredith's patterns are awesome and you should all go to her site and pick out something to knit right now.

This still needs to be damp-stretched; I steamed it in hopes that it would open up enough to fit my mug, but no dice. Hopefully this yarn has enough wool to hold a block...

Triple Hairband

Another hairband. What can I say? They look good with a bob and the yardage is right.

Actually, the yardage on this one was just short, so there's a little uneven place in the back where I didn't have enough yarn to finish the last row. It'll be our secret, right?

Early October Yarns

October's samples are split up; the last two are supposed to come later as part of a "new direction" for elann.com. Mysterious!

elann.com "Peruvian Sierra Aran" / Crystal Palace Yarns "Shambala" / elann.com "Peruvian Highland Chunky"

Book Thong

This pattern has actually been on my "someday" list for a while. The slice of rock at the end is a little odd, but it was a great color-match to the yarn!

Tassels also eat yarn, but not as much as pom-poms.

Spiral Bangle

The month of purple continues...

This yarn happens to be the exact same purple as a short-sleeved purple-and-black-patterned dress I have. I realized I have no purple jewelry at all, so bangle it is.

Flower Hair Tie

Hair ties are another great use for small scraps, but since mine is short I'm not usually inspired to make them. Purple hair ties, however, make great gifts for your long-haired purple-loving niece, should you also happen to have one.

"Fancy up your hair tie" in Silken Merino

Tiny Pouch

This was meant to hold a tea bag, but try as I might I was not going to get a tea-bag-sized pouch out of ten yards of this yarn. Methinks some people on Ravelry have magical yarn-extending powers...

September Yarns

The month of purple!

Knit One Crochet Too "Paint Box" / Fiddlesticks Knitting "Exquisite" / Permin "Estelle" / Fiddlesticks Knitting "Silken Merino"

Luxe Mouse

So, I had this cute idea that I would make the teeny-tiniest boot liners ever, so that I could match my brown oxford booties with my black-and-brown bouclé tweed jacket. I got one out of the skein. No go.

The obvious thing to make with ten yards of yarn is a cat toy, but I keep thinking to myself that the sample yarns are not in the "pet toy" class. Who gives alpaca/silk to a cat?

Apparently I need to get over it. The cats freaking love this:

Modified from the Korkmauser pattern. Cats got to it before I could even get the photo.

Black Jeans Bracelet

Something about this yarn reminds me of jeans. It might be that I got a bluejeans color of the Lace Sensation last month, and black this month. But it's also got a faded, soft quality to it that seems denim-y. I don't have any black bracelets, so I got some appropriately jean-rivet-colored beads and made this simple wraparound.

My beads are proportionally smaller so the look is a bit different, but I'm happy with it overall. I did have to fudge the button loop to cover that the bracelet came out too short. I measured it before completing the edging, which shortened it by almost an inch once it was applied. Since the elongated loop passes nicely under the overlapping layer of bracelet, I'm going to consider it a design feature. The button is a vintage one from the button jar.

Chenille Lace Hairband

Another hairband—what can I say? I have short hair and they're practical.

This is the first time I've used the little hairpin lace loom I picked up for $2 on clearance. It's actually quite fast once you get the hang of it. There may be a Klimt in my future...

The pattern is quite simple and refers you to Stitch Diva's hairpin lace tutorial for the technique to make the lace strip. I made mine a little bit narrower, since my yarn seemed less bulky than that in the pattern photo. I also left the long edges of my strip unfinished, as in the pattern, though it has a tendency to twist that might be reduced if the edge were finished. But the hairband as it is now took over seven yards, so it will stay unedged.

The chenille texture of Pile makes it easier to hide the tail ends in a piece like this without much weaving-in space. I've heard chenille can "worm" around though, so I snuck in a few knots just to be safe, and they barely show either.

Cat Bait

I had only five yards of Chunky Mochi to work with, so I decided to keep it simple with this cat teaser. I knew I wouldn't have enough yarn to knit it as written, so I marked off three yards, knit the body until I reached the marker, and then started the tail and knit to the end of the ball.

 The care instructions on my sample card said this was machine washable yarn, but it really looked like it wanted to felt, so I decided to try it (my cats are efficient destroyers of knitted toys). I used a bowl of hot water with dishsoap and a bowl of ice water, alternating between them while rubbing the fabric with textured dish gloves. My fish felted nicely in about ten minutes.

Before felting I wove some nylon crochet thread into the body of the fish.  I found excellent instructions for a "Non-Slip Mono Knot" at Animated Knots by Grog™, which I used to make a fixed loop at the end of the thread so we can attach the fish to a pole toy that we already own.

August Yarns

Oh dear... three of these skeins are bulky weights, and two are black! Finding good patterns for these could be quite a challenge.

Fiddlesticks Knitting "Silk Sensation" / Crystal Palace Yarns "Chunky Mochi" / Ornaghi Filati "Pile" / Plymouth Yarn "Nazca Wind"

Pretty, Simple Hairband

I had been thinking about making some covered buttons with this blue skein of Lace Sensation, but after last week's headband failure I changed my mind. Also I kept forgetting to buy the button kit.

Pretty, Simple Hairband

Materials

• approximately 10yd laceweight yarn
• Size 2 (2.75mm) double-pointed needles
• 1 bead with opening just large enough for 2 strands of i-cord (the bead should not slide easily, but should stay in place unless purposely moved)
• Elastic bobbin thread
• Darning needle

Instructions

1. CO 4 using the backward-loop method.
2. Knit i-cord until you have enough to make a test (overhand) knot. Measure how much cord the test knot uses, then unknot.
3. Continue to knit until the cord's length, slightly stretched, equals your head circumference plus (2 x test knot length) plus (2 x depth of bead).
4. To bind off, k2tog twice, then pass first k2tog over second.  Pull tail through and tighten.
5. Using darning needle, thread a double-thickness of elastic thread through the center of the i-cord. "Massage" the i-cord until the elastic is as relaxed as possible inside.
6. Secure the elastic at each end (I knotted mine onto the yarn tails).
7. On one end only, draw tails inside the cord. Tie one overhand knot at that end. Make it very firm and as close to the end as is possible without it coming undone.
8. Thread the unknotted end left-to-right through the bead, and pull through partway. Then thread the same end through again, still left-to-right through the bead. You may need to use the needle and pull the tails through first. Be careful not to catch the already threaded cord with the needle.
9. Repeat step 5 with the unknotted end. Snug the knots up against the bead.

Wadder Scrunchie

A "wadder" is what you get when you've sewn a garment and it's come out so badly you just want to wad it up and toss it. This was supposed to be a cover for a plastic headband, but I underestimated the required yardage and ran out of yarn just over halfway through. I was pretty annoyed by this, and the only thing I could think of to do with it was to put some elastic in it and make a scrunchie (which was not super appealing either, since I have short hair). After I sewed the ends of the elastic together, I realized I'd twisted it. So, wadder.

The yarn is elann.com Limited Edition Tarantella, which comes in very pretty colorways but is a bit splitty. (Splittiness seems to be exacerbated when the project is so small!)  The color in the photo is really bad and does not look like the actual yarn at all.

Pin Onion

Isn't it cute?!

He came out a bit smaller than I thought based on the picture with the pattern. I also made a hollow core by working several six-stitch rounds at the bottom to form a tube. This lets me sit the onion on a spool pin.

I'm not a big fan of the ViSilk... it seems nice at first, soft and shiny, but I found that it fuzzed up and pilled as I worked, plus the many plies kept separating and getting caught places they shouldn't. I would be annoyed if I had worked a whole garment in this.

Striped Owl

This was one of the first patterns I saved while compiling my list of little things I might make with ten yards of yarn. My sample of Geologee was an appropriately owlly color, so here he is! I love how the stripes ended up with a yellow stripe highlighting the face—pure luck!

I only had enough to make the front panel, so I used wool felt from my stash for the backing. I also used a scrap of black t-shirt to underline the knitted front panel to keep the stuffing from showing. He is stuffed with scrap yarn and his beak is made of pearl cotton, both also from the stash. I did have to purchase the eyes, but they really make the whole thing! They're from 6060 on Etsy; I ordered several pairs of handpainted eyes and they're all just gorgeous.

Independence Day Star

The obvious thing to make today is International Cat Hat: USA, but sadly, that takes at least twenty yards. Neither were any of my sample yarns a suitably loud color for a firecracker, so a star was the next best option.

I decided to make this with my sample of Albero since it seemed like it would hold up best to being worked firmly. It also turned out to have great stitch definition. The coin (1976 bicentennial quarter, of course) is held by two crocheted rings, and the points are from this pattern, modified as follows:

Inner Ring (make 2):

• Set up: Ch 10, join with sl st.
• Row 1: Ch 1, 2 sc in each ch, join with sl st to first sc.

Hold inner rings with ws together, treating as one, and follow rnd 3 of star pattern. Slide coin between rings before completing last point of star.

July Yarns

The first batch! The middle skein is a cotton/Lenpur blend (Lenpur is a rayon-type fiber derived from wood). This is the first Lenpur yarn or fabric I've handled, and it seems quite nice—kind of cottony but softer.

Fiddlesticks Knitting "Lace Sensation" / elann.com "Limited Edition Tarantella" / Louisa Harding "Albero" / elsebeth lavold "ViSilk" / Knit One Crochet Too "Geologee"

Covered Beads

Meh.

These few beads were inspired by this necklace, though somehow just the three beads by themselves don't seem to have the same charm as the complete piece. Or maybe it's the variegated colorway that interrupts the effect, or there's too much contrast between the yarn and the underlying bead. In any case, it bothers me enough that I haven't put a clasp on it yet, though I'll still call it finished—the knitting is finished, and that's all we care about, right?

But—silver lining!—for this project I figured out how to make a tube on two straight needles by double-knitting. It turned out to be not so difficult once I got a few rows in, and certainly easier than trying to manipulate a twelve-stitch tube on seven-inch dpns. I used the *k1, s1p (yif)* method and got a pretty good rhythm going as I went on. I expect I'll get plenty of chance to exercise this skill on future Sample Skein projects.

Yarn is a bit of leftover Kid Merino, the rest of which made a delightful lace beret.

French Lace Bracelet

This used exactly ten yards of thread.  I even worked the button tab using a long tail left at the beginning, to avoid using up yarn starting and ending again.

I got this little ball of J&P Coats Pearl Cotton 5 from my great aunt before she passed; so far this is the only thing I have made from it.  This particular thread is no longer made, but it seems to be almost exactly like the DMC pearl cotton available everywhere.

The pattern (available here) is in French, but it includes a chart, and I had reasonable success with the text after machine translation.  There are also several projects with photos on Ravelry that show what you should be aiming for.

Zipper Guard

I made something like this a while back while experimenting with different Tunisian crochet stitch patterns. Depending on the gauge and stitch pattern, Tunisian can have a strong tendency to curl. At some point I worked a very tight, very curled little swatchlet, and in a stroke of inspiration used it as a zipper guard for knitting with a ball of yarn in my bag. But since the original was made out of fuzzy acrylic yarn, it would snag on the yarn passing through, and eventually I stopped using it. King Tut is a very smooth, mercerized cotton yarn, much less likely to snag, so it is better suited for this use.

This pattern turns the advice for avoiding curl right on its head. It uses a relatively small hook (G/4mm) and a stitch (Tunisian Knit Stitch) with more bulk in the back then front. This causes it to roll into a tube, which you can then slide your working yarn into from the side.

To make it, I started with 8 chains, picked up Tunisian Purl Stitches in the back bump of the chain, then after the first return pass made one more row of TPS + return. (I wanted the very first bit to be flat to provide some structure to the tube.) After that I firmly worked rows of Tunisian Knit Stitch until the fabric was long enough to roll over into a tube. I finished with a "bind off" of *TSS (Tunisian Simple Stitch), yo, pull through both loops* across, then worked regular crochet slip stiches along the top and right sides to add a little more firmness. I also added two lines of slip stitch on the back, to make a space for the zipper to slot into. This used about six yards of yarn in total.

If you don't want your Tunisian crochet to curl, here are a few articles on keeping things flat:

• Why Tunisian Crochet Curls and How to Get Rid of It
• How do I stop the curling when working in Tunisian crochet/afghan stitch?
• Tunisian Crochet: How to Reduce the Curl

Pencil Top Duster

I very much wanted to make something useful out of this five-yard scrap of Vanna's Choice. Since the purpose of this project is to use up the Sample Skeins, I think it's a little unsporting to just make a series of appliqués or similar, which would sit unused in a box somewhere. A pile of yarn flowers tucked into a drawer is no improvement over a similar pile of swatches or skeins. Still, this particular scrap was a bit challenging; five yards is barely any yarn, and the colorway is not something I like well enough to make a bracelet or something for me to wear.

In the end I made this pom-pom pencil topper, a miniature version of a duster meant to go on top of a broom handle. If I put it next to my office plant, which is frighteningly dusty, I can call it a useful object. So there.

To make it pencil-sized, I reduced the stitch count of the tube from twelve to four. This is very snug, so it should certainly stay on the pencil.

That's at least three yards of yarn in that pom-pom, and it's still pretty skimpy. Pom-poms eat yarn!

June Yarns

I've started this blog to help me use up a Sample Skeins subscription from Elann.com.  Since the subscription doesn't begin until next month, June's yarns all come from my scrap pile.

Top to bottom: J&P Coats "Pearl Cotton (Size 5)" / Knitting Fever "King Tut" / Lion Brand "Vanna's Choice" / Crystal Palace Yarns "Kid Merino"