quote:Originally posted by Katarain: I made my first Book Thong last night. It's so pretty. There are some flaws, though, so I'll be keeping that one for myself. I thought that's the way it would go anyway, since it was my first try. I have enough beads and string to make at LEAST 10 of them.
I stood perplexed in Wal-Mart for a long time yesterday, though. The Lion brand yarn that's recommended (because it's a Lion website, of course), is nearly $5 a skein! And at 6 skeins a throw, that's $30 for each one I'm making. Not my idea of saving money for Christmas.
Do any of you know places I can look for cheaper yarn? I couldn't find any generic or other brands like the Lion Homespun . About $2 a skein would be acceptable. It's a "fluffy" yarn, so I don't think the throw would come out right if I used a non-fluffy type.
Kat, the book thongs I own are made with DMC embroidery floss. Lots more colors, lots less bulk, and LOTS LOTS less expensive! Of course, you'll want beads with smaller holes than what you'd string on worsted weight yarn...
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Enigmatic, I've watched firefly, but don't know what Jayne's hats look like, link his pic here, and I'll look into it (could be a bit over my head but probably not)
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I think the hat is only in one episode, The Message, but Baldwin also wears it in the DVD easter egg where he sings the Ballad of Jayne. When I went looking for pics I found knitting instructions for the hat!
The actual pic of Jayne on that link is pretty small, but it talks about re-creating the hat. In the episode it was a present from his mom, and it's just so wonderfully silly-looking on the tough guy Jayne.
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I could make that hat! I'll have to wait a little while, have a lot to do right now, but if I get it made, it's yours (would those be the colors you'd want?)
Belle, I have some questions for you. With those dyes you linked, when doing salt painting on the silk skarves you linked, are the dyes ready to use or would I need to do something to them (I know you've mentioned soda ash and urea in past things, but not sure what dyes and that sort of thing)? Do you just dye one side of the fabric? And how do you finish it, the website says steaming but I'm having issues finding good techniques on this. Do you think 3 or 4 bottles of dye (different colors) would be enough for 12 skarves, most would be two or three colors each. Lastly, would the same dyes and just brushing them on with foam brushes work for the Devore Satin skarves listed on the silk skarf page? I've always loved fabric dying and wanted to try stuff like this.
KQ thanks for linking the lipbalm and ornament resipees, but that lipbalm isn't the same as the one I have (i've used two but only like one), I'll type the other one tommorow, it's at home and i'm not.
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Goody Scrivener, I made the book thong with crochet thread. Size 10. The thicker yarn would be for the throws.
I'm pretty disappointed, I will admit that yarn is so expensive...well, the nice stuff anyway. How did the store manage to sell the soft throw I have for $12? I doubt it was selling for less than cost.. maybe wholesale is just a bunch cheaper?
I'm not giving up, though. Yet.
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quote:I'm pretty disappointed, I will admit that yarn is so expensive...well, the nice stuff anyway. How did the store manage to sell the soft throw I have for $12? I doubt it was selling for less than cost.. maybe wholesale is just a bunch cheaper?
Either cheap foreign labor or machines doing the work. I've been eyeing a knitting machine that I keep seeing at Hobby Lobby - "knit a sweater in one evening!!" - but so far I've resisted. Maybe this Christmas...
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I know... machines or cheap labor lower the price. But raw material MUST be costing them something. I'm doing the work myself, so that cost shouldn't be in the yarn. Where are they getting the yarn is my question...
I am checking e-bay. I've never bought anything from e-bay...but there sure is a lot of yarn available there.
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Our walmart has another yarn sort of similar to homespun that I think is a teeny bit less (not as cheap as 2 a roll though) called light and lofty or something like that.
I don't do big projects because buying multiple balls of a yarn just seems so expensive. So I mostly do hats, they also knit up really really fast and people wear them a lot.
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They have the kind of yarn I want on e-bay--I probably could even get a good price. But I would rather not buy it there if I have a choice.
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I know what you mean, but the price you're looking at seems to me to be hard to find at stores, at least I never have.
Brinestone I assume (though I'll need to reread it) using a litttle marker thing that's basically a ring going on to your needle, so you can see how far you've gone, I really don't like working circular needles, so I just sew my hats up when I'm done, it doesn't look quite as perfectly manufactured, but if worn with that in the back, it's fine.
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I'm so much better at knitting than crocheting or any sort of embroidry but I didn't have a teacher, just used a kids knitting book (the klutz one actually made sense to me), a friend had asked me to knit him a hat, even though I didn't know how, so I just figured it out and started to like it, if I've needed help with anything I go to my grandma (who I visit every couple of months anyway), and she figures something out. So I guess if I can you probably can.
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breyerchic, thank you very much for the offer! But I think I've just guilted Krabbypatty into knitting me a hat in time for the Serenity premier. When I posted that I want a jayne hat, I didn't mean or expect anyone to offer to make me one, just that it's something cool that fans of the show would want. I really do appreciate the offer though, very nice of you!
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katarain, I don't want to rain on the parade here, so please don't take offense. It's just that I've gotten myself in over my head often with gift projects, and I'd hate to see that happen to you.
I would seriously rethink the idea of making a big throw for both your mother and mother-in-law. In addition to being costly (as you've noticed) it's gonna take A LOT of time if you are an inexperienced crocheter. If you haven't crocheted a lot before your hands will get sore (mine *still* do) so now matter how much you *want* to spend all day crocheting, you might only be able to do a bit at a time. It takes quite a bit of time for me just to finish a baby blanket, and I crochet pretty quickly. Also, Homespun yarn is much more difficult to work with than something like worsted or baby weight yarn. Because it's so fuzzy it's difficult to see your stitches, which makes things go slower.
How about buying some nice cotton yarn and crocheting each mom a few nice washcloths, and include them in a little basket along with those fizzy bath bombs? Washcloths work up really quickly and are really simple. Plus, it will be cheap!
I hope you don't think I'm trying to be discouraging. I'm just trying to give a bit of advice based on my experience with crochet. Take it or leave it; I'm sure all your gifts will be great no matter what you end up making.
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Gah...I forgot to ask: does anyone have any good handmade gift ideas for boys? Boy Opera is 10, and I just can't seem to think of anything for him. I don't want him to feel left out as I'm making stuff for both Operaetta and the baby for Christmas. Thanks!
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I was broke last Christmas, so I wen't to the Multimedia Center in the local college library (it's open to the public) and transferred old videotapes (mostly home videos) to DVDs and gave them to my family as gifts. They were some of the best presents I ever gave, and only cost me time plus a few bucks for the blank discs.
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I still think I'll make a Jayne hat, I know someone it would be perfect for, he's already sure he is Jayne.
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A friend of mine did a mason jar project last year. She put popurii (I don't think that's spelled right) into a mason jar along with a string of clear christmas lights. Then she let the plug trail out the top and put a lacy fabric for the top with a ribbon and hot glued it down. It's really pretty and it makes the room smell nice. Just make sure you don't give them to people who are alergic to perfumes. Posts: 1214 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Boon
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Not to be a downer, but that's a serious fire hazard. Just sayin'.
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not as long as you don't leave it plugged in for hours at a time. It's pretty even without the lights on.
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Boon
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That's not a chance I'd be willing to take with anyone I cared about. If it's pretty without the lights, why not leave them out?
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hey dude I didn't make the thing. but if you turn the lights on long enough to warm the jar, it increases the scent.
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Boon
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I just wouldn't want someone to see that idea and try it without realizing the risk involved. If it weren't dangerous, I wouldn't have said anything. Please don't take my words as a personal attack; they were not meant to be.
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You can do glass bricks with christmas lights, and it's not a fire hazard because nothing goes inside the bricks except the lights. That would be cool even for a boy, you could use superhero images or something like that on the bricks.
The basic premise is find some graphics or imagery to put on the outside of the glass, drill a small hole, feed through a small string of Christmas lights, and there you go. The only difficult part about this project is drilling the holes, I'd imagine. I've been wanting to try it but don't have a diamond bit for my drill, which is necessary. Also, this is a gift for someone close by, shipping it would be pretty high because of the weight.
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And I wanted to say that this is possibly my favorite hatrack thread ever.
I've got on my list to make for Christmas: fizzy bath bombs and book thongs, and I love the idea of putting together the washcloths and bath bombs in a small basket. Since I don't crochet, I might instead buy washcloths and use my embroidery machine to put a monogram on them.
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quote:Not to be a downer, but that's a serious fire hazard. Just sayin'.
Yep. I know someone who had a fire in the bathroom because of an arrangement someone gave them like that.
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So*. I finally decided what I'm making this year (last year it was fleece blankets.) Most of the women in my family are getting scented bath salts. I found pretty containers (reusable!) at the dollar store. I'm adding to that chocolate lip balm (in little containers from Michael's) and some yummy-smelling lotion (also from the dollar store-- they have some really nice name-brand lotions there! Nothing absurdly expensive, but I probably cut about $2 to $2.50 off the price tag of each bottle by buying them there.) I'll pack it all up in cellophane and I think they'll like it. Total cost per gift is less than $4.50, even with expensive ingredients like Vitamin E and pure cocoa butter and essential oils, plus the containers and store-bought lotion. I'm making a dozen!
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Pure cocoa butter for a couple of bucks?! Are you serious? Like cocoa butter and nothin' but the cocoa butter? We can't even get cocoa butter here, and it's probably the best stuff for my sensitive skin. I'm sooooo jealous... Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Awwww. We get it here for $1.59 an oz. That's more expensive than the adulterated stuff, but I figured since it's going on lips-- and knowing me and my family, will be licked into mouths -- I should spring for the pure kind. My husband was a bit irritated that I bought 4 ounces at that price. The cocoa butter was more than half as much as the epsom salts, and I bought 4 gallons of that.
The dollar store had had some essential oils, but ran out. I should have got them when they had them, now I'm going to have to pay more at Michael's or a health food store if there's one convenient to where we're going to be and it's cheaper (this is the part of shopping where I call ahead.) You would not believe the trouble I had finding little containers for the lip balm, though, I finally called Michael's as a last resort and discovered that they have, like, four different products that might suit my needs. *sigh* I need to learn to think of these things before the week before everything has to be done. If I had really thought ahead, my mom could even have gotten Vitamin E for me at the Kaiser pharmacy with her employee discount.
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Where are you finding your sea salts? I can only find them in grocery stores, and they're more expensive then I think they should be. I found a small package (around 28-34 ounces or something like that) for 3.99 at Ingles, then found one almost that big at Publix for 1.98 (or thereabouts.) So it was cheaper at Publix, but more than I wanted to spend.
I'm already out of sea salts, and I still have more to make. And are you finding gallon sizes of epsom salts??
Help??
On a related note... I have been using food coloring instead of soap dyes because a lot of the recipes I found use food coloring. Anyway, when I tried to make purple, it didn't work so well. I finally discovered it was because of the baking powder in the mix. For some reason, it was changing purple to blue. And that was when I was using purple dye. Previously, I tried to mix red and blue, and that turned into a greenish brown mess. When I did some experimenting, I figured out that if I left out the baking powder, the colors stayed true. (The blue turned out blue, though.. with or without baking powder.) And the salts still felt nice without the powder.
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I use just epsom salts, not sea salts. Although if I were going to use sea salt, I'd check Whole Foods, kosher markets, Smart and Final, and Asian markets to see if one of them had a better price. Yes, I can get gallons of epsom salts at Rite Aid-- although for some obscure reason, they're labeled "four quarts", not "one gallon". Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Did anyone here decide to try the fizzie bath bomb things? Even though I added extra oil, mine crumbled... : Posts: 74 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I was going to, but ran out of time. My sister made them once and she says you have to pack them REALLY tightly.
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Very harried-- we have 2 more gifts to buy that we know what they are, 6 that we have no clue about, and I have a whole bunch to finish making. All this by Christmas eve, while packing and preparing to leave (going to Richardson) the day after Christmas. Aaaah!
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Oh, it's okay. And it's worth it to have a real family Christmas with both my mom and my dad's family. My husband's family wised up, and we draw names and only buy for one of the siblings, so the only gifts on their side of the family are small things for his parents, something for our neice, and a gift for each of the people whose names we got. That's 5 as opposed to 8 or more-- much better!
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Well, they decided to institute it when everyone started getting engaged, figuring that soon enough we'd be buying presents for all the kids as well, and it would get expensive. Sure enough, 4 years later, two kids already and another on the way...
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If you go to Michael's or Joann's, check out the clearance section--the ones near me have had some essential oils there (although they may not be the scents you want).
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Joann's where we are had NO essential oils. And their clearance was pretty much non-existent, except for Christmas fabric (which I was tempted to buy-- 70% off-- but did not, yay me!)
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Wow...I'm surprised they didn't have any oils at all; surely soap/candle-making isn't more popular in Texas than California? Posts: 74 | Registered: Apr 2005
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They had soap scents and liquid potpourri, which I could use in a pinch, but I prefer the more natural stuff. Especially since my family is getting these and we tend to be really sensitive. It's a small Joann's, and not the best stocked; the one in Pasadena probably carries them, but seeing as they're almost always the most expensive place to go, I'm going to try Michael's instead (although I should remember to call Whole Foods.)
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Gotcha. They did have actual essential oils at the one I went to (the Joann's--I can't remember about the Michael's). You're right about the more natural ones being better. Now that I've smelled the therapy-grade stuff, I can hardly stand the cheapo kind.
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There are some flaws, though, so I'll be keeping that one for myself. I thought that's the way it would go anyway, since it was my first try. I have enough beads and string to make at LEAST 10 of them. 
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-- I should spring for the pure kind. My husband was a bit irritated that I bought 4 ounces at that price. The cocoa butter was more than half as much as the epsom salts, and I bought 4 gallons of that.![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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