Thursday, September 1, 2011

Pumpkin Seed Hat


The Pumpkin Seed Hat is now live on Ravelry and will soon be available on The Apple Orchard on Hyenacart. Please feel free to leave me comments either here or on Ravelry.com. 

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Why Wool?

Following up on my last blog entry, I thought that I'd discuss the reasons WHY wool garments are worth the expense.  "Why?" you might ask, is it worth up to $400 in time expenditure to create a wool sweater or longies for a child who will  undoubtedly destroy it or outgrow it in just a few months?

Let's start with the "they'll destroy it" argument.  My children have actually never ruined a wool garment.  Never.  Granted, I'm conscious of their activities and change them into scrubby clothes when needed, but even with near-daily use, they've never destroyed anything I've knit for them.  I have destroyed a few pairs through pure laundry stupidity, but the kids haven't.  Yes, I've had to sew up a hole where the carseat buckle got stuck on the yarn and Daddy pulled a bit too hard to get the child loose, and sure, kids get grubby here and there, usually on the knees or butt.  However, as long as I keep food, paint, and mud away from the woolies, we're good for whatever the day throws at us.

In fact, I have many pairs of longies that both of my children wore.  Here, for example, are both girls in a pair of longies made from an old sweater. You'll want to notice that while my first daughter is only 2 months old when wearing this pair of longies, my second daughter is 8 months old.







Now, the "they'll outgrow it" argument against wool for children.  Let's look first at wool pants, or longies, as they're called.  You'd be surprised to learn that when you cloth diaper a child, their hip circumference and rise measurements don't change as much from early infancy through toddlerhood as you might think.   In the early months, the all-liquid diet of an infant ensures that your diapers will be bulked up enough to fill an 18-19" hip measurement with only a little slack.  By the time your child is potty-training, you'll find that their hip measurement, over those training pants, is STILL 18-19"! So the longies your young infant wore as pants the winter they were born:

  
Are still going to fit them as a toddler, 2 years later.


Sure, your child may be a summer baby and a winter toddler, but there will me multiseason overlap in their wardrobe if you invest in some capris or longies.  

As for sweaters and multiseasonal use, you may be surprised to find that my 2 year old, who wears a size 2T, has a 20" chest where my 4 year old, who wears a size 5T, has a 21" chest. Here is the same sweater on both girls, who at the time of the pictures, were wore size 5T and 18 mos, respectively. 
 So if I knit up a short-sleeve, or sleeveless sweater, such as in my previous post, I can count on my duaghter to fit into it for at least 2 winters, maybe even three!  The biggest difference is the length from neck to waist.  In this case, the sweater can be knit long for the toddler and be just a tad short for the pre-schooler, OR I can be smart, save the leftover yarn, and simply undo the hem and knit on a few extra inches when the growth spurts come! Three seasons of wear for only $30 in yarn is NOT bad!  And if you remember from my last post, that $30 of yarn actually provided enough yardage for TWO Ivyanna sweaters, so that's two children and 2-3 seasons per sweater, all for $30.  This does assume, however, that I knit it myself and not pay someone else to knit it.
Personally, I knit, so my only investment in woolen garments for my children is the yarn and my time.  If I look at really cheap yarn, the stuff that's only $6 for 4oz at your local craft store, you can make a pair of medium-sized longies for only $8 worth of yarn.  A lot of people don't like cheap yarns, but personally, the fact that they felt in the crotch and bum never bothered me since it adds to the ability of the garment to contain diaper blow-outs.  Cheap yarn isn't as soft and it often pills more than expensive yarns.  I have found, though, that after a few rounds of washing and lanolizing, even cheap wool feels pretty nice on the skin.  And as for pilling, I own a sweater shaver and for the once or twice a month that I have to use it, I actually find I enjoy the process.  The kids even fight over the honor of being allowed to run the sweater shaver.  

That doesn't mean that I don't have many woolen garments for my children that are made from expensive yarns. I do.  For the most common expensive yarns used in children's clothing, it would cost me about $30-60 for the yarn for the garment.  "Yikes!" you say.  But let's remember that the child will wear the longies for up to 3 years.  The yearly cost of that item is now $10-20.  My child has non-woolen garments that cost me that much per season's use.  Also remember that longies, shorties, capris, and skirties will double as diaper covers during the first two years (or more!) of your child's life.  This means that one pair of $30 longies can replace 3 diaper covers which would have cost me $45.  

And let's not forget resale value!  Used woolen garments can often be resold online to other cloth-diapering families.  Often, you'll find that you can resell the used garments for at least the cost of your yarn.  So, in the end, a pair of longies that may have cost me $30 in yarn to knit, will save me $15 in diaper cover cost, and sell for $30 when I'm done with them.  Essentially, the longies have just paid me $15 to use them for 3 years.  Do you have any other clothing items that PAY YOU to use them?  I don't!

The final component to why I would encourage you to use woolen garments on your children is the "easily recycled" nature of wool yarn.  I can knit a pair of longies for my daughter, have her wear them for 3 years, and then simply take them apart, wash the yarn, and knit her something new!  Maybe I'll knit her a hat and mitten set, maybe a sweater vest, maybe a pair of slippers... the possibilities are endless.  Fro example, my youngest daughter has in her wardrobe a pair of longies that she wore from late winter to early summer last year and will wear again from fall to spring this year. I have been eying the yarn in those pants with a great deal of longing since they arrived nearly 9 months ago, just waiting for her to outgrow them so that I can have a new winter hat and mitten set!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

What Does a Sweater Cost?

After a recent discussion on one of my knitting forums about the costs of handmade clothing, I thought I would sit down and write up a "ledger" for the cost, in time, of a hand-knit sweater.  Before I start detailing exactly how much time goes into knitting a sweater, I want to state for the record that I am, in fact, a fast knitter.  My estimates for the knitting section of the process are likely more conservative than those of the average knitter.

Every sweater begins with an idea.  It must begin with either a picture in my head of what style of sweater I want to make or an idea of what type of yarn I want to use.  Sometimes I already have the yarn on-hand and it's only a matter of finding the right pattern.  Sometimes I have the pattern all picked out and need to find a yarn to use.  There's usually some sort of spark or inspiration and I move forward from there.  To flesh out the idea, I usually spend time on www.ravelry.com, searching their pattern database for patterns that suit my needs.  If I already have the pattern picked out, I will take the time to look through the finished sweaters that have been made from that pattern, looking for helpful tips and pointers that will make the knitting go faster.  I will also look for color combinations, yarn choice, modifications that people have tried.   Assuming that I already have either pattern or yarn on-hand, the rest of this process takes about 60 minutes.  For this article, I had the pattern on-hand and had knit from it before.  The pattern is the Ivyanna sweater, shown here on my older daughter.



If I have to obtain yarn for the project, I have to decide if I want to buy something from an online store, from a local yarn shop, from an online resale forum, etc.  I have to decide if I want to buy yarn that has been dyed already or if I want to buy undyed and apply my own palette.  Generally, I have some undyed yarn on-hand because I know that there will be a project that I won't be able to find what I'm looking for online or a project that would cost too much to buy the yarn I want predyed.  In the case of this example, I had leftover yarn that I had dyed for a previous project, so I did not have to shop for yarn.  However, when I initially dyed the yarn, it took me about 6 hours, not including drying time.  If I purchase yarn, it will cost me about 30 minutes, not including any driving or shipping time.


Once the yarn arrives, I have to check it to see if it needs to be washed.  Often, yarn suppliers will skein or cake their yarn tightly to allow more yards of yarn to take up less space in shipping packages and storage.  In order to make the best use of the yarn, I will have to loosen up the yarn again and either allow it extra time to relax and fluff up on its own or I will have to wash it and allow it to airdry.  Either process will allow the yarn to bloom and regain its elasticity and regularity.  I generally opt to wash the yarn as the washing not only improves the yarn but also helps clear away any dirt or debris that may have come along with the wool.  I also find the pre-washing the yarn tells me if the dye is fully set or if I will have to worry about bleeding when washing the finished sweater.  Lastly, I prewash because I enjoy the experience of knitting with yarn that has been scented by my wool wash.  Who wants to open a project bag to be hit in the face with a faceful of mildew, dust, sheep odors, dye outgassing, etc.  Washing takes about 20 minutes plus drying time.  Most of that isn't active work, though, unless I have to rewind from cakes to skeins. 


Three days later, I get to wind my dried yarn into cakes. I do this by hand because I find that ball-winders put too much tension on the yarn.  This leads to shrinking,, twisting, and distorting when the tight sections loosen up over time and end up contracting the fabric.  This takes another 30 minutes if I have to do 2-3 skeins.

Buttons can also be another time expenditure.  In this case, I chose to sculpt my own decorative and functional buttons after the craft store didn't yield anything appropriate in the right size.  This takes about 45 minutes, including baking.

We are now ready to begin knitting.  In this case, I do not need to do a gauge swatch as I have knit with this yarn base before at the required gauge and know which size needles I need.  Normally, a 4" by 4" swatch would need to be knit one or more times to refine exactly which needle size will produce the correct number of stitches per inch.  If I were to be off by as little as 1/2 stitch per inch, the sweater would be 2 or more sizes too big or too small.  Knitting a test swatch takes about 15 minutes and if I were to guess wrong on needle size would need to be redone to ensure that the second selection of needle size is correct.  I assume 30 minutes for gauge swatching if I'm using a new yarn.

This particular pattern is a quick and easy knit.  It only requires about 5 oz of yarn to complete the size 2T sweater. If it had arms and a hood, it would take about twice as long to knit.  This sweater took me about 8 hours to knit.  A full sweater would have taken me around 16 hours. That's continuous knitting time, not from the date I started until the day I finished the work. I spread that work out over 2-4 weeks generally because I have a job, a family, and other responsibilities.  I include in this the time it takes to weave in the typical number of loose yarn ends and attach the buttons.

 Once the sweater is knit it must be washed and blocked.  No, it's not dirty, but until it has soaked and been arranged to dry, there will be uneven stitches here and there and perhaps some curling of edges.  Also, if a lace pattern has been used, blocking allows the lace to open up and become more beautiful.  Washing and blocking add another 20-30 minutes of active attention and 3 days of drying.

Once it is dry, I like to take photographs for my portfolio.  If the weather is good and the children are otherwise engaged, this process only takes 15 minutes including uploading time.

If I were knitting this for sale on the internet, rather than for my children or a custom order, I would need to invest additional time in photography, listing it online, and monitoring the listing and any follow up emails with a customer.  This would cost another 60 minutes or so.



So, where are we on total time invested?  If I buy yarn and don't sell online, it costs me 20.3 hours.  If I dye my own yarn, it costs me 25.8 hours.  What would that translate into if I were paid by the hour?  Well, most artists, in any media, charge $20 an hour for custom work. 

Assuming $20 an hour, purchased yarn: $406.67

Assuming $5 an hour, purchased yarn: $101.50

Even at $5 an hour, there is no way I can really recoup my costs when knitting for customers.  Who will pay me $100 for just the work, not the yarn?  So please, remember this when you are purchasing and caring for hand-knit items. You have a sweater because someone either loves you or loves knitting enough to give away their time for peanuts.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Back to Basics: the RoPo (RosiePosey) Fold for Flat Diapers, Modified

It's been a while since I've posted anything diaper-related, but as my friends get ready for the birth of their first child, I find myself sharing more diaper information.  So, here is is, the Modified RoPo fold for flat diapers:


Start with your flat diaper laid out neatly.  I like to fold my flats into quarters when warm from the drier and then go back later to fold them up for use. You could do this straight from the drier, though.


Fold in the sides towards the center.  For a smaller baby, fold all the way in or even overlap if you need to.  For a larger baby, leave a gap as shown.


Fold the bottom up to create a rectangle the correct LENGTH for your baby.  This would be the "rise" of the diaper.  I like to add my doubler here so that it ends up somewhat wrapped in the flat.


Fold one side towards the center.  This is a slightly less than 1/3 of the width fold. 

Turn out one corner.  The exact point of the turn out is not critical as this fold will shift when you put the diaper on the baby.


Repeat the previous steps with the other side.




Place the baby on the diaper with the open side at their hips.  I like to pinch the "wad" of the diaper at the crotch before bringing the front up.  This reduces the bulk a bit.


Spread out the front corners of the diaper across the baby's hips.

Tug on the corner of one of the wings behind the hips.  The goal is to loosen the part under the buttcheek so that the fabric will create a pocket to catch poo.  Go ahead and tug pretty hard, you can't pull too much out on accident.




Wrap the wing over the front and secure with a pin.  You could, potentially, use a snappi depending on the diaper fabric.  Personally, I like pins for flats.


Repeat for side 2.







This is how it should fit.  You can create a pretty low-slung diaper for an older baby or a higher-rise for the Poo-Master newbie.  This truly is an all-sizes fold as it is customizable for width, length, and absorption.