Is This Gonna Work?
So I thought about it all day yesterday and decided to take Jayme's advice and prewash a skein.
Here's the before and after
It definitely fluffed up. When it came out of the washing machine it was all stuck to itself and I was sure I was going to have to throw it away. But after it dried most of the tangles worked out easily.
I will have to wind it my hand first, and then via the winder. Too many of the strands have stuck to each other and I haven't been able to hand-comb them out very easily.
Has anyone else tried pre-washing linen yarn? After I took it out of the washer I realized I should have put it in a lingerie bag to help with the tangles. I'll give that a try on my next hank.
The New Blog
So, whaddya think? I've had this domain for over two years. Sheer laziness prevented me from doing it sooner.
I've checked it in IE and Firefox and I know that Firefox is missing the gray bar on the right. Otherwise things are looking good. I still need to update the other templates and I'll do that over the next week. I know the comments page needs to be able to take bigger images. Let me know if the main template is behaving badly for you. I'm particularly concerned about Mac browsers because I don't have access to a Mac.
Gallery
I still have to decide what kind of gallery I want to implement. Any suggestions? I could do a separate page on this site, I could add an FO category and just link to that page, or setup a Flickr account. Any others? What have you seen that you really liked?
Updating Your Feeds
If you use newsgator or bloglines you can click the buttons below.
Wow! Great new site. Not sure about the gallery as I don't even have one.
Looks great :) I love the color scheme. I wouldn't know what you should do with your gallery. I think maybe links would work... Personally I don't like the flickr accounts. As I don't have one I don't always get access to people's pics.
I have my own domain too, but don't know how to get a blog on there LOL.
Cheers Eva
sweetpea at sweet - p dot net
Welcome to your new home! It looks great on Firefox!
Good luck with the linen yarn. I've never prewashed, but I do know that after a few wash/dry cycles, the finished product really does soften up.
Nice new layout. I like it. I cannot access Flickr easily.
I have a Mac and use Firefox, and it looks great. Not sure what it's "supposed" to look like, but there's nothing obviously out of place or overlaid weirdly.
I am using safari and the comments seem to go out of the white space. On my computer it is plums and deep purples--but then again I do have color issues with all computers!
Washing yarns
first do the wash in a tub. Put the soap in and keep soaking it until the water comes clean. Like kneading dough, gently sqeeze out the yarn. try to get as much water out of it as possible. Now take the hanks put them into the lingerie bag and put them in the washer machine but on spin only. This will get the excess water out of it and then either lay flat in a room with a fan on it or open windows and let the cool air dry it out. It may take several days. I speak from experience I have been unwinding cones of yarn, washing them, rinsing, spin drying them and laying them out to dry out. good Luck
Patty
I am having the comment issue on Safari, too -- the comments and divider bars go all the way across the white into the purple area to the right. I do love the color scheme you've chosen.
Congrats on your new home. It looks great! I'm glad to discover that I'm not the only one sitting on a domain name being too lazy to move. :D
Wow, everything looks great. So many new changes in your knitting life. First patterns, now your new home at your own domain. I can't wait to see what's to come.
BTW, I have never prewashed a skein before. Sounds scare.
I love the new site. The only problem I see is the one that was mentioned before about the comments going off of the white and into the purple. I use firefox (I checked my ie and it didn't do it there).
About the prewashing, I'm really curious to see how it works out.
What Patty and Jayme said about the comments and and the lack of a grey bar. It's a pretty layout, though, and it does seem like your kind of color.
Love the new digs! Looks great to me.
love the new site!! also, the almost cowl sweater looks really lovely.
Everything looks good. I like the coppermine gallery I use, but flickr works well too.
Great new site...I'll check it tonight on my Mac and let you know of any glitches!
yay for the new site! it looks fabulous. i need to move my site within the next year and was thinking of doing so over the summer when i'd have time to play with it... any advice?
Ah... Home Sweet Home... nice & comfy!!
What gray bar? - says the Firefox user :). Actually now that I'm in the ind. entry template, I see it. Congratulations on your new home, looks great!
I use the Singapore gallery. It's nice and lightweight.
I am viewing this via Safari on a Mac and it looks great!!
Well! Don't you look chic;-)
Check out www.bubbleshare.com . They have a really easy system for galleries and albums. I use both them and flickr. I like flickr for their 'badge,' but I like bubbleshare for linking to albums and photos.
You do some really nice work!
I use Firefox, and I had no problems with the bar on the right. Now about that linen... I dyed and washed mine by hand and it didn't tangle like yours, so maybe you'd want to wash yours by hand. I do recommend washing before knitting, it softens up the fiber and makes it easier on the hands.
I have some hemp yarn that I tried to pre-wash, but I don't have a washing machine. I soaked it, then beat it against the edge of the bathtub (I must have read about this technique somewhere). I haven't finished the sweater yet, so I don't know how much more it will soften when it's really washed in a machine, but I'm not having a hard time knitting with it; it's not too stiff.
Looks great on my mac!