Old adventures in DMC

I don't know if I ever mentioned that I was part of the DMC corporation's Designer Bank back in the 80's and 90's. I don't know if you can apply for membership, or if they just choose you (they chose me), but as part of the Designer Bank, I could design any sort of needlework I wanted (using DMC products of course), and send it to them, they'd buy it from me, and then place it in a magazine, either as an ad or as an article. Designs could also be used a promotional giveaways. They paid well, and I never had to worry about submitting projects to individual venues. They weren't so great about notifications, so I don't know how many of my designs ever saw light of day, but that was fine too.

The best part of being in the Designer Bank was the freebies. Not only could I have any DMC product (in any amount) that I requested, I continually got freebies. They were great at putting together promotional goodies for designers and retailers, so every few months, I'd get an amazing gift in the mail. Sometimes the promo things would be new products, sometimes reminders of old things- no matter what was featured, presentation was always amazing.

For the most part, I left the freebies intact and ordered additional supplies for my designs, but now that I'm doing needlepoint with embroidery floss, I figured I might as well use what I have on hand (still Stash Busting, you see), because I have plenty on hand. Here are some of the goodies:

 This incredibly cool hatbox has old maps on it.

 Inside was the entire (at the time) line of Rayon embroidery floss. I learned pretty quickly already that Rayon embroidery floss is not so good for needlepoint, but it's still gorgeous.

 Underneath the embroidery floss, was a layer of Rayon Perle *cotton* for Hardanger work. I must have bought a few of the skeins (they have Ben Franklin tags), but the rest was all promo freebies.

 This cotton case has an Aida cloth band on the front for embroidery. I have no idea why I shot the back side... sigh...

 Inside were all of the new (at the time) cotton floss colors. It's a pretty snazzy case, with room for a project and all of the flosses and a chart.

 This padded cloth pouch has a satin lining. You can tell how old it is by the colors... and the dust...

 Inside was a full set of their cotton Flower Thread (single strand embroidery floss). DMC also had a line of wool Flower Thread, but I actually used a lot of that for design work, including this sampler.

 But I saved the best for last- this little wooden trunk

 carried every single DMC embroidery floss color that they sold. All 378 of them- a full set. Think of that. And until now, I'd never used any. In fact, I mostly forgot that I had them at all.

I'm glad I remembered- I have more than enough colors to do this design justice. Now to see if my skill can keep up.

BTW, I have no idea if I am still part of the Designer Bank. When I started writing fiction, I stopped designing individual projects, and I haven't done any embroidery designing for a really long time because I've concentrated on knitting. I haven't gotten any shipments for a long time, so I'm *inactive* at the very least. I wouldn't ask for more freebies for personal use, but I am sure going to have fun using what they sent me already.

Who you gonna call? Stashbusters!

I ain't afraid of no yarn...

Sorry, I'm a little punchy- much to do today (including writing chapter of the YA I'm working on), and much to do tomorrow, before we take off Wednesday for a week in SoCal. I'll blog the trip, of course.

But in the meantime, I'm maintaining my vow to buy no yarn or fiber until I make a dent in what I already own. To wit:

This yarn became

These socks, which are

heavy boot socks for winter, which is coming, today's high temps and sticky air  and *enhanced* tornado watch notwithstanding. I had to try a couple of times to get the right stitch count and gauge- I ended up using size 6 needles and 40 sts. The socks didn't eat up all of the yarn, however. I still had enough left to knit

most of this hat. The lighter stripes on the crown came from a pair of thinner handspun yarns that I held together.

So now I have 2 more partial balls of yarn to use up. But I'm gaining on it, I tell you. Gaining.

Sparkly Socks, and Stashbusting

I am on a stashbusting mission- there is yarn in every room of my house, except for the bathroom (and some days, there's yarn in there too). I need to use up some of the yarn I already have, before I buy more.

To that end, I have been knitting with leftovers (the Hitchcock Sweater), and stuff that I bought but forgot, including these wonderful yarns that I picked up last summer in Portland, at Yarnia.

Yarnia is a unique store- it's crammed top to bottom with fine yarns on cones in all colors, sizes and fiber contents. You choose the colors and blends you like, and the folks there will wind them together for you on a cone. The combinations are endless, and the colors are intoxicating, and the yarn is cheap (I don't think either of the above cones cost more than $10, and both have/had enough yarn to knit a pair of socks).

This yarn consists of 5 strands of very fine yarn- ice blue, darker blue, green, yellow, and metallic green sparkle (I'm a sucker for The Sparkly). The combined strands look like they're slightly heavier than heavy fingering weight, but they knit up like worsted weight. I used my general worsted weight sock formula (size 5 needles, 48 sts), and a simple texture (K 3 rnds, next rnd: K3, P1 around) to make the sparkle pop.

This yarn feels slightly thinner than the green above. It's 3 strands: cream wool, peach wool, green metallic sparkle (as I said, sucker for the sparkles). But it blooms nicely, and I'm knitting it with the same pattern as the green sparkle socks.

One caveat about this yarn- it's the definition of *splitty*. It's very easy to lose a strand, especially the metallic one. And no matter how carefully you unwind, one of the strands will eventually end up either being too short or too long. It's not a major problem (either cut the other strands and tie them on again, or cut the long one and do the same), but it does happen at regular intervals (say, every 3" in the knitted fabric).

And- I didn't write down the fiber content of these yarn combos, which  means that while they might be totally superwash, I can't vouch for it, so the socks will have to be hand washed.

Here's another stashbuster- a doll sweater using only leftover sock yarn bits and pieces (and despite the way it looks in the pic- the bottom front edges do line up properly. The buttonholes stretch the ribbing out). (Note to Self: next time, make fewer buttonholes). You wouldn't think so, but one of these sweaters (knit on size 3 needles) takes more yarn, and more time than a sock. But it's oh so cute, and more than worth the time and effort.

See- they do line up...  (once again, note the sparkle)