Using random skeins of yarn, crochet rug, need to organise my life + Vlogmas plans

Welcome to the republic of me.

My name is Ivana and this is a channel about slow living and making things… with focus on fiber arts like knitting and spinning, as well as painting, growing a garden and living on an island in the Mediterranean.

website: https://www.therepublicofme.com/
instagram: the.republic.of.me
https://www.instagram.com/the.republic.of.me/

00:00 November garden
01:30 Catch-up & plans
08:52 Reclaiming yarn
13:17 Knitting hot water bottle covers
17:58 My stepson started knitting
19:44 Crochet rug
27:40 Need to organise my life
29:50 December & Vlogmas plans
33:10 Teaching Tommy how to knit

P.O.Box 52774
Limassol 4067
Cyprus

music: Epidemic Sound
https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/44cdzf

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#crochetrug #crochetcarpet #mohairrug #intentionalliving #mediterraneanlifestyle #slowliving #slowlivingvlog #slowlifestyle #crochet #knitting #handspunyarn #vlogmas #vlogmas2025

[Music] Wish that I could stay in this moment forever so I and hold you in my arms. I will carry you on my shoulders as long as I’m able. Scare the monsters under your bed. Deepen abiding. Liking for you is all I need. Until my heart gets in. I will do everything I can for you. Look at this flower. This is going to open sometime tomorrow, I believe. Then it’s going to close and then open again and close for the night. It just stays open for a couple of hours, but the flower lasts about 3 days. It’s not fully formed yet. So I think tomorrow we are going to have it open. So the weather did definitely change today and yesterday. It’s not cold. I can’t say that it’s cold, but uh you there is a little bit of a chill in the air. And yesterday we got this heavy torrential rains. It was supposed to be Thursday, but uh but we got it got it yesterday. And I love those rains. So, uh, yeah, I I got my um I don’t even know how how it’s called, a shrug, a cardigan that, uh, I knitted I don’t know, two years ago or something like that. There is a video about it of how how I knitted it. But I do like this thing, especially for for those moments and when I kind of like cozy up like this. Uh so as the weather is changing uh what I want to do with the garden is I want to go and uh I’m not going to do that today but I want to go to a garden center and buy some of the seedlings for um the greens for the salad greens that we have because uh sometimes I plant them from seed but I found that when I get the seedlings uh it’s much easier because of the cats. Well, now it’s the cat because uh we only have one now. Jake uh passed away uh earlier this year. So, I’m going to get some seedlings because normally if it’s too hot and uh it doesn’t have to be even too hot, just a little bit hot, they bolt. So, now I think that the weather is changing. So, I can get the seedlings and then plant them so we can have salad throughout the winter. And that’s going to be good. Although, I’m not going to go today. What I want to do today is uh h let me show you the triangle shaw that I’ve been working on and it’s progressing. I I’m really not in a hurry to to finish it to have uh to have a finished project. However, it’s just a pleasure to uh to work with this yarn. It’s my handspun yarn. It’s a asymmetric triangle shaw. And the yarn is I said it in the previous vlog. So it’s a mixture of marino and alpaca and silk and camel and cashmere. I think it’s really really beautiful. That’s why I really wanted to to work with this yarn. And I didn’t really have an idea of what I want to make. The whole point was just for me to work with it. And that’s why I decided to cast on this triangle shaw and I’m enjoying working on it ever since I finished uh the the rug for for my sister. But however, what I want to do today is that last night I uh realized when I was making a list for Christmas gifts, I normally make a list earlier in the year and I tick them off throughout the year as I make them or as I buy them. So by the time that Christmas comes, I already have all the gifts that I need. This year I didn’t do that and I already have quite a few gifts. However, uh I realized that there are definitely some that are missing. And uh the ones I realized that I’m going to well, I’m going to want to make a few more hot water bottle covers. This time I’m not going to be making it from fingering weight yarn. Uh I’m going to be using because I want to make a few and they’re small one liter bottles. This is kind of a DK weight yarn that uh I’m using. And I’m I’m pairing these two yarns together. So, I already knitted a hot water ball cover out of this yarn held with Mohare. And this is the one that I bought. It’s 80% acrylic and 20% wool. This is wool uh that I bought two months ago in one of the local shops. It was just an impulse purchase because it was really, really inexpensive. I don’t remember the price now, but it was really inexpensive. And I had like uh six or bowls or of 100 g of it. So, I’m holding these two together. And I’m working on 3 and 1/2 mm needle. I could have used four, but I like this dense fabric that that it’s creating. And I think it’s going to have a slight shift in the shading because this yarn is uh kind of self striping. So I’m going to I only have this ball left. But what I want to do today is I started couple of months ago this uh garter wrap. I’m all tangled. Garter wrap uh wrap uh garter stitch wrap. And uh and I was going to use that self striping yarn mixed with some of this beautiful fuzzy gray. I don’t actually know what uh what uh wool is that. And I was going to change those uh like alternate those colors and make make a wrap, but I don’t have enough of this uh self striping yarn. So most of it would be gray. And what I realized that when I started knitting the gray one, even though the same is the same thickness, it does go inside like the the the gauge is smaller or bigger. I’m not sure, but it would kind of like cinch in. And if it was only one stripe of gray, then I could easily block that out. But since most of the shaw would be done in gray and with only occasional stripes of this, then I would have to basically block and adjust the the width of the shaw of the wrap throughout the the whole project. So, I thought I’m not going to do that. And I I put it on hold. And now that I see that I want to use this uh other yarn for hot water bottle covers, I’m going to unravel this, which is not a problem at all considering that I have only this little bit uh done. Otherwise, it would be really nice if I had much more of this yarn and then just a few stripes of gray. However, I don’t and I I don’t think that I’m going to buy it again. I don’t even know where I had it, where I got it from. Was it a gift? So maybe if I come across it, but so far I don’t have anymore. So I’m going to unravel this and separate a few skes that I have, random skes like that in one bowl and just start using those up for hot water bottle covers and just so I can have them as those gifts that I feel that I’m missing. So that’s the plan for today. [Music] You will grow up in the blink of an eye and move out and be on your own. But no matter what comes your way, I will stay right here beside you to catch you if you fall. deep and divided. Liking for you is all I need until my heart g in. I will do everything I can for you. [Music] A deep divided liking for you is all I need until my heart gets sin. I will do everything I can for you. [Music] So, look, it took me almost uh I’m almost done here. I’m just going to start decreasing here and here and uh and I’m going to finish the the whole cover. I was going to finish it yesterday because it really didn’t take long at all, but then I started working on the computer and just forgot about this. Otherwise, it could have been easily done in just one night. So, I think a few decreases, maybe every other round here and here, and then just seaming it the way that I see. Maybe one one or two rounds more for like one more centimeter and then just decreasing and then seaming it up. But it’s looking good. Looks pretty like a like a jumper. Yeah, I got the broken ones. I asked the lady there if uh she needed them. And uh try not to get a splinter. Yeah. Try not to get a splinter and don’t scratch the car, which is more important, funny. Oh, thank you. Thanks, guys. Sorry. Thanks, Alex. Good morning, Baguette. Good morning. I didn’t record anything yesterday, but I do want to show you something that I was showing you yesterday. And here it is. It opened. How pretty it is. Compare them into the size of the cactus. Look at the size of the flower. I need to add some more soil. You see some of the roots are being exposed. But let’s just admire the flower. And then it closes after a couple of hours, opens again, and it’s like that for about 3 days. Dies out and the new one takes its place. And we have like two or three flowers one after the other. and then next year again. I’ve been slacking a lot for the past couple of days and I haven’t uh actually been recording for for the channel at all and I can’t say that I’ve been slacking off because I’ve been so busy. I’ve been working with uh sorry uh with the other things. I had a lot of other work to do. However, it’s very difficult to kind of shift from uh one work which is completely different to this channel to to the channel when I’m recording daily. So, I haven’t recorded anything for a couple of days, but I just made a list of the things that I want to talk to you about so I can slowly get back on track. Uh what I did finish is the hot water bottle uh covers. In fact, I did two. So the first one that I was making is uh this one when I was combining because I have these random yarns and these are these type of random yarns and also it’s over there I’m not going to bring now some that I bought uh from a local shop that I’m not going to be using for for much uh for much else. And I have some random yarns, probably more than this, but this is the example. Beautiful colors, beautiful yarns, but just a little bit of each one. And um what I would like to do is kind of go through my stash and find some of those random yarns that I’m not going to be buying again, that I don’t even know where they came from. And if I can sort them out per weight for uh like the same weight, then I can use them up in whatever projects I’m going to use them. But uh just so I don’t have them necessarily lying around. And if they match like a because I think these are a little bit thinner than fingering weight. If I can use them as fingering weight, then uh I can use them for like some color work in the socks but not the bottom part where you need the stronger yarn, just maybe around the cuff or some details in in other projects. But what I would like to do is uh to to start getting organized. And I think that seems to be the word for me lately. I really do want to get organized in in a lot of areas of my life starting with my with my house. But let me show you the hot water bottle cover. So this is the one that I did and I like this thickness because the first one that I made is this one and I used 3 mm needle. This is the first one that I made and it’s really pretty. However, I really like the thickness of uh this one. And this was 3.5 mm needle. And I used like this yarn held with the navy blue yarn also like a thin fingering weight. So I think from now on I’m going to be making them like in DK weight yarn. Maybe thicker yarn would be too much to too too thick. So I think for now I’m going to be sticking with these. and they they go so much faster. So I did that one and then what I did is because I unraveled that uh beginning of that shaw that I was making that wrap and I wanted to use this yarn that I had but because it already had mohare with it very thin mohare then but so it was in the between it was in between sport weight but not and deck not quite decay. I held it with another strand of that mohare because that mohare that I used is thinner than the usual ones and I made this one also with 3.5. So kind of the same thickness with uh with this one. And if you can see the difference, this one obviously shows more stripey and it looks prettier, but I do like the thickness of this yarn better. So, I have these ones, actually all three, as gifts now for Christmas. And I’ve bought a few more extra bottles, so I can make if I need lastm minute gifts, but I really think that this is uh a perfect option now for the for the coming season. Okay, so that’s done. What’s next? Ah um my um my stepson was asking me to teach him how to knit. So I started doing that and I cast on on wooden needles for him uh just 30 30 something stitches. He wanted to knit himself a scarf. So he started to do that and I just cast him on I cast on 30 something stitches on 8 mm needle. I’m using Style Craft. Um, it’s a acrylic wool blend, but I wanted him to have like a thicker yarn so he can practice the knit stitch. And uh, and he’s going I taught him how to do the knit stitch. And he’s going and I told him, don’t worry about the tension. Don’t worry about the neat edges. You know, it’s going to look boho. It’s going to look bohemian. So, don’t worry about that. Just work that knit stitch. The only thing is make sure that you always have the same amount of stitches on the needles that you don’t lose stitches because then it then we have we have a problem that you don’t lose the stitches. So he’s been going he’s been learning and uh he got a hang of it. I tried to first I gave him the metal needles and they were a bit too slippery for him. So transferred to to the wooden ones just until he kind of gets this into the muscle memory. Is he going to stay with it? I don’t know. But so far he he’s uh going. Sorry, that’s uh Sunny. Um and so far he’s going and I’m really really happy. I’m really excited. Like now, you know, I have some somebody to talk to about uh about knitting. The other thing that I wanted to talk to you about ah before I before I give the rug away that uh that I’m that I made for my sister and my brother-in-law, I wanted to give you the details of the rug and uh how I made it just because if I give it away, I’m going to Sorry, let me just let Sunny out. Well, I opened the back door because I closed it earlier because there were there were there was some noise outside. So, I closed it earlier, but I saw her walking up and down and I thought maybe she wants to go out. However, she’s still chilling in the kitchen. So, I want to show you about the rug because after I give it away, I won’t be able to show it to you. And I am I do want one for myself. And somebody wrote in the comments he you said uh oh, you you’re definitely going to want want one for yourself. And I do. And based on my calculations of how much it took of what yarn, I think I’m going to have enough yarn to make one for myself. So the rug now uh I don’t know exactly how many stitches I did, how many uh because I didn’t measure. I cast on. Not cast on because it’s crochet. I don’t know how you call it. But about this length, I think it was about 90 cm wide. However, it shrank uh after felting it and it’s about 2 m long before felting it. Now, I don’t know this looks about 70 cm wide now. So, from 90 to 70 shrunk and I don’t know exactly how much in the length. It’s beautiful. So soft. I showed you in the last episode. I love it. And I have to do the I have to get this um possibly shelf liners that I’m going to uh either sew at the back those non-slip things. So either I’m going to sew at the back or just give them the rolls so they can just put on the floor and put the rag on top because obviously it would be slippery on a wooden floor especially. Now the what I did is I combined just as a recap a strand of fisherman’s wool by uh Lion Brand and this it says that it’s worsted but I think it’s more of a thicker DK and I combined it with a strand of DK moleh hair and I used 4 and 1/2 mm crochet hook. Now, normally you would use a larger hook if you were crocheting that kind of weight of yarn, but because I wanted the the fabric to be tighter. I use four and I’m also a loose knitter and a loose uh like relaxed crocheter as well, it worked for me with the 4 and 1/2 mm crochet hook. So, I use these two yarns combined and I just work single crochet and that was it. So, it doesn’t have too many gaps, especially with a mo hair. It just fills it out. And I use single crochet all the way through the way that I do my blankets. And the fabric, I’ll show you one more time. I really like the fabric that I got. And this is how I’m going to be doing them in the future as well, probably. Now, when I felted it, I felted it in the dryer with two towels. I washed them. I washed the rug in the washing machine on the wall setting with a two or three towels. Uh, and uh, so it can take all the water out on the centrifug. And then I put it in the dryer and in one I was taking it out every 15 minutes or so so I can see the progress. And but it took like one cycle of the dryer to felt it. Now there was hair everywhere. The towels were full of hair. And then after she heard that that was Sunny and Baguette. Okay. So uh the towels they were full of hair. And then afterwards when I wanted to wash the towels with the clothes, especially the dark clothes, that hair got everywhere, the kids were saying, “Mom,” because all their black t-shirts, they just had mo hair everywhere. So just have in mind if you ever do something like that, have in mind that uh maybe those towels, they will need to go through the wash one more time on their own after you you felt it or to be felting with something else that you’re not going to be using in normal um usage. You know that you you don’t need to wash with normal clothes. However, it really came out beautiful. And I wrote down now I measured uh how much yarn of what it uh it took. And from what I see here, this rug it took um so the whole rug is about 1 kilo and 400 g. Mohare it took 650 g approximately. uh and wool about 750 g. So now looking at what I have left from Mohare because I have this. I have this which is about 400 g but I have more on another cone which is enough for another rug and I have also another four four of these which are let me see how many it’s 227 g of fisherman’s wool. from Lion Brand. So, if I make it a bit thinner or a bit shorter, I’m going to have enough of this yarn, both mo hair and both this wool to make one for myself and uh and then finish with uh this yarn, this mo hair and this wool. Again, coming back to the organizing part and to use up, but not use up in a sense that, oh, let’s just make anything just so we can use up the wool. No, it’s just using it as a palette to make specific projects that I that are perfect for that kind of yarn. I I don’t want to use it up just to use it up, but it makes me happy when when I do use everything that I have. And uh and since I know that I’m not necessarily going to be buying any more of this mo hair, I might later on, but definitely not for now because it’s too thick for normal projects. So these kind of projects are perfect. And I’m making another very thick blanket. So whatever I have left over, I’m going to put that in a blanket that is like a really warm, thick blanket. It’s upstairs now, so I’m not going to show you. But I’m going to use these yarns and so I don’t have any more leftovers anymore. And I can use as much as I have until the last drop of yarn. As I’m saying, basically, like even this little bit of the of the fisherman’s wool and uh and not have any left over and just get it out of my stash, but creating something beautiful and uh that is going to end up on on my floor. The plan, as I said, is I really want to start I have the need to start organizing things because I feel like I’m drowning in stuff. I feel like I’m drowning in yarn, in boxes, in clothes that are all over the place. And I know that that’s my fault. But somehow I whenever I’m busy, I just let it get away from me. and and without realizing like I have a chair next to my bed and uh that chair was not full. It was just there to put some clothes, you know, in the night, you know, when I when I take them off, when I put my pajama on to put them on the side. And before I know it, that pile of clothes was just getting bigger and bigger. And yesterday, it fell over. And then when I saw how many things I had in there on there, didn’t even realize it was just piling up, piling up, piling up. And that’s just one example. And the same with these these yarns and run random things. I have no problem with having stash. In fact, I love having stash, but I would like to my stash to represent like like a palette, like when I’m painting, to know which yarns I like, to know which colors I like, and to have them always in stock. So, whenever I need that color, like a palette in painting, like with my old paints, I tend to use the same colors and just kind of uh take it out wherever I need it. But all these bits and pieces of some of them that I’m not going to to use again, I would like to use those up. And as far as variety, I do definitely have variety, which are sweater quantities. And also with my handspun, I always get variety and I always create something new. So, so don’t think like, oh, you know, just I’m going to stick with one type of yarn. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I’m just thinking out loud. I’m going to stick with one yarn type of yarn and a few colors. Now, I do get variety, but I do want to start using up for some nice projects these random bits and pieces and also kind of getting ready for the winter. Winter, I’m saying winter, but the thing is that today it’s been 29° and you really wouldn’t think that for November. 29° uh I don’t know what date it is today 20th 21st 22nd I’m not sure of no end of November anyway 29° but I kind of want to get ready for for the winter and I did most of if not all of my Christmas shopping maybe there is a few things that I would like some smaller things that I would like to make but nothing that would take too long and I would like uh to buy a coffee machine because our big one broke and we were using we borrowed from my parents uh I think the espresso or something like that. We borrowed that one but I would like to buy a coffee machine and I bought my teas for winter. The ones that I that I like to use. I’ll show them to you in uh in in another episode. I need to do one painting for my mother-in-law which is way overdue. She asked me a couple of years ago and it’s just sitting I feel like it’s sitting on my head and I’m but I’m going to do it in resin. That’s that’s the idea that I have and that needs to take priority because her birthday is at the end of the month. But saying all that, uh I’m also thinking to do Vlogmas. However, it’s going to be a different kind of Vlogmas, more of um more of a very gentle December because there is so much pressure on us at the moment. The world is a show. You know it. You’re all experiencing it. Most of you are experiencing it. And I don’t want to have my December like that or run up to Christmas or holidays, what whatever. Um, I don’t want to have it like that. I want to have a very gentle December where I can just enjoy my winter, enjoy whatever the temperature it is, just enjoy little things daily. And uh and hopefully you are going to like um a little bit relaxed pace of that pace of uh of that. But I also have to plan for that because I will need to start a few days earlier. So so I don’t feel the pressure of every day just a few days earlier. So so I can give myself uh some grace. Okay. I thought that I’m just going to come on here and just chat with you uh for a couple of minutes and then continue recording continue recording a vlog. However, I just ended up uh talking and probably I’m going to finish the vlog here. Okay, thank you for watching and uh if I don’t see you one more time before Vlogmas, then I will see you hopefully December 1st. And if not, maybe I’ll see you one more time before before then. Thank you for watching and bye for now here. But not like this at the back. I think that’s how I did it last time. Like this at the back. Cuz I was doing I was like something’s not right. So not like this at the back. Like this. Like this at the back. So you see, you can have the actual stitches that look the same. Yeah. Yeah. Now, if you want uh if the first stitch is giving you a bit of an issue, there is a way that you just slip the first stitch. You don’t knit it, you slip it only like that. That will actually give you more even stitches, the more even edges. So that way you get the yarn on this one how you I taught you that you knit. So you slip the first stitch. So you have the yarn here at the back. So the stitch looks exactly like all the other ones because like this it wouldn’t look the same. So it looks the same like the other. Just grab it. I transfer it. You take it. You know the the actual stitch. So the stitch is only this thing that is on the needle. Nothing below. You slip it and then you do the it through. Grab the thread and pull it through. And then take it off. through. Grab it. Pull it through and off. Yeah. All right. See, now it’s all simpler. So, okay. I started doing it myself. I swear I did something wrong and I was too scared to continue. It’s okay. Uh, this usually will be on your left. Yeah. Yeah. Is there any reason for that? Well, yeah, because the yarn he’s holding it in the left hand. Yeah. Yeah. Hello. And if it’s easier for you, you bunch up the fabric a bit on the needles so it’s not too stretched. Look at you go a bit more now, isn’t it? Huh? Look at you go. It’s getting faster. Yeah. Looser, huh? Yeah. No, it’s just so so it’s easier for you. Yeah, exactly. It It was easier to do it also because looser now. Mom, just do this 500 more times and I got a scarf.