Brambled Sheep

Yet More

2006-12-20T10:55:00.000-05:00

Two more scans peeps. Although this may be it for a while, Christmas and whatnot.

Greeting

Like the color on this but it makes my forehead look baldie. I'm not, I swear!

Grasping

Spooky zombie hand; what's not to like?

Speaking of holidaze - I still have to hang these super-cute ornaments. I think the wire hanger thingies are in the attic; I trip over boxes of christmas stuff all year and finally store them just in time to get them out again. Sigh.

And P. sent out Xmas cards with his trademark sticker and stamp artwork which I got to scan in.

Cat. Grass. Cute!

Can we say.... cute??

And now for something more surreal.. the burger tree series.

Mmmm.. trees with fruits and candies on them?! And treasures underneath!! And of course we have happy burgers and hot dogs and pizzas on top. Comfort food.. we love comfort food.

And then we have the subatomic nuclear destroyer tree. Don't try to think about it too hard. It hurts us, precious.

2006-12-17T02:22:00.000-05:00

Did I say I was going to put my face in the scanner? Well, I did. I scanned my face, and then the side of my head. And immediately regretted it. The bright light in my eyes for seemingly an eternity - the vibrations - the vrrrrrrrr noise in my ear - mmm instant headache. And eye strain. Ooooo dunno if I will do it again, unless it's at a lower (and faster) resolution. Lots of pictures of people scanning their eyes on flickr - but it can't be good for them, right?

Oblique

I feel sort of blah about this one but salvaged a cool crop:

Brambles

Fun or what? Unfortunately these bitty crops can't be blown up or they show pixellization. I suppose if I did 10-minute long scans I could get super resolution - but oh yeah! Not so keen on holding my face on a vibrating scanner until the mountains fall into the sea. Not to mention the sweaty-palms fear that someone will walk in and see me with my face sandwiched into a machine.

So - thus begins the Landscape series - where I turn shots of my face into gritty sand and storm-blown vignettes.

Bonfire

Overprocessed? Maybe. I never said I was a pro!

Nightstorm

And we can't log off without showing the front scan, yes?

i-eye

Grotesque? There's a couple of eyeballs in there, if you feel like playing Where's Waldo.

Scan This

2006-12-15T10:23:00.000-05:00

Christmas socks are almost done except for kitchening the last sock. I'm saving this for an especially brilliant mood since.. well since I can. Hat is not quite finished. I'm really, really tired of knitting it even though I love the yarn. It's gotten big enough to start sliding off of the needles so I've jammed point protectors on the ends. Which of course pop off at every given opportunity. If this is a funny size I am absolutely not ripping it back. If too small, I will try to block it bigger. If too big, I will maybe felt it a bit. I'm pretty clueless as to how to make sure things fit except to eyeball it and hope something magic happens. Hey, it works so well with.. scarves.

In other news, I have acquired a scanner. We have two already but they are shoved into a closet and god knows where the software or cables are. So we probably didn't need a third one, but free is a darn good price.

And, oh yeah? Scanners are fun.

Handy

This was my first and only try at this so far and I'm surprised at how well it came out. I just moved my hand around while it scanned. I was expecting clean clut slices but the boundaries are much more organic and variable than that. I also got some interesting crops from it.

Fingers

Pachyderm

At Your Finger Tips

Faultlines

I've even gone and given them names all pretentious-like, right? If you're especially unlucky, I'll put my face in.

Darn It

2006-12-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, I really do have a hole in my sock.

It wasn't there when I washed it. I've worn the socks several times, but hardly every day. They've been sitting in my drawer, patiently awaiting winter and it was with great anticipation that I finally pulled them out and stretched them over my feet this year. (although whether the weather these past few months is 'winter' is highly debatable.)

They seemed to be holding up quite well except for a small amount of gruddiness on the soles of them. Well, they are socks, after all. The colors there seemed especially prone to fading.

However, after peeling them off recently, I noticed a huge honking hole in the toe. Do I have sharp toes?? My toenails are not needing attention. I can only guess that at some point in the past my nail must have had a sharp edge and done some preliminary damage.

So, this hole. It goes down six or eight rows. Several stitches across. It came out of nowhere and blew up fast. I have another ball of the same yarn that I had planned for another pair of socks someday; but it seems I will need to darn my socks. Forever, and ever and EVER.

Oh yeah, how the hell do you darn a sock?

I knew this sock yarn was not the best for socks from the start. It is soft, and single ply, when sock yarn should be two or three ply, and firmly twisted, and the sock itself should be knit at a tight gauge. And it's even better to include some nylon, silk, or mohair in the toe and heel; and then you will have a sock that will last practically forever. As a matter of fact - here is an excellent post from FiberLife with more than you ever wanted to know about sock yarn and increasing it's durability.

My sock has none of these things. And I knew it. And I didn't care. I abso-had to have it - soft wool and bright magically pooling colors and it came with its own pattern. I resolved never to wear the socks with shoes or on walks - strictly in bed and around the house (which generally involves me sitting on the couch or in front of the computer with short jaunts to the fridge). I was being such a good sock steward. WHY GOD WHY.

In other news, I am officially tired of the Tiger hat. It has gotten big enough so that it doesn't fit comfortably on the double points; I searched for a circular I could move it to but my circular collection is muy small. Someday I may get one of those snap-together kits that you can make any size and length circular from. For now, the hat is crowded on the double points and progress is slow.

So I started another project. Naturally! And it's zipping right along in thicker yarn.

I've decided to make another pair of these:

out of the same Araucania Atacama alpaca yarn. Although the plies are prone to splitting the yarn is smooth and soft and a joy to work with. The colors are gorgeous, hand-dyed and each skein wildly different. I could never have predicted the blues and browns smashing together with bits of green and silken white. Oh yeah; did I say my needle collection was small? Is it possibly because all of my needles are jammed into 2000 projects in bags and purses around the house? Did I steal these needles from such a project? Yes!!

This gave me an excuse to head to the new A.C. Moore, land of aisles and aisles of yarn and home to Atacama yarn. Which I found hardly any of, bins nearly emptied.

It's on CLEARANCE.

WHY GOD WHY.

Actually, out of all of their yarn, this is pretty much the only stuff I like. It's virtually the only yarn that looks hand-made in any sense of the word; most everything else is plastic and spit out by machine. Even the wools are way too smooth for my taste. Boring, boring machine-made yarn! Boo!

As far as I can tell, the yarn is still being made. I did see a few vendors with it at Stitches. But I loaded up on it anyway. A few pink skeins for my own socks; yeah, someday a pair for me too. Alpaca for feet! Mmmm.

That's the trouble with yarn; here today, gone tomorrow. It's not totally paranoid to buy every skein in sight, is it? I do wish the yarn market behaved less like the fashion market; but I guess you wouldn't go to the fabric store and expect the same prints from year to year? I do so despise change; do we need 500 varieties of Oreo cookies and 100 calorie snack packs? I miss whatever cookies used to be on the shelves before all of the brand flattening.

Bring back alpaca yarn and variety!

Socknapping

2006-11-30T10:49:00.000-05:00

Last night as I lay in bed counting sheep I heard a scuffle, a sort of dragging and then a clank.

Silence.

I rose and found a scene of murder most foul:

Not only was my poor sock dragged into the dirt, but also mutilated - stitches slit and threads dead!

But wait - this is a pair of socks! One is missing!

It's been - horrors! socknapped!

A clear case of Sockholm Syndrome

BlogThingy

2006-11-29T12:22:00.000-05:00

Your Monster Profile

Death Strangler

You Feast On: Grass

You Lurk Around In: The Ocean

You Especially Like to Torment: Groupies

What's Your Monster Name?

Death Strangler - how cute!

Mmmmmmmmmm

2006-11-28T10:47:00.001-05:00

Okay, it's finally time to update my blog template. Erk, flickr is having burps so I can't do much more. Wahh.

Hmm I just noticed my first post was Nov. 7 of 2005 which means I've been blogging for over a year now. Am I the only one that thinks the word 'blogiversary' is kind of icky sounding somehow? I look back at the posts from a year ago: still haven't washed the rest of that Icelandic fleece (ick); I can't believe I was frogging all of those sweaters that are now hogging enormous space in my crafts room (hmm maybe I can felt them instead); I still need to graduate from Kool-Aid dyeing; I still need to use the alpaca fair isle pattern I devised. I may never spindle again; I need to finish 97 knitting projects that have been abandoned; pysanky-making will likely be restricted to easter-time; I still want to sell dyed rovings or handspun yarns on etsy. I learned what poison sumac looks like and I still (!) have red marks on my leg that may never go away. Oh yeah, I still don't have a job. Whoops.

Yeah, I'm getting pretty nervous about it. I just realized I have enough money for one more month than I thought; I can pay two more rents and not one. So December and January are covered. Phew! I've been keeping an eye on Craig's list; I'm sure I can get something but I really am holding out for something different. I'm so sick of office jobs and retail and customer service, which is 99.9999% of jobs around these parts. It would be nice to do something with my hands, something outdoors, something where I don't have to wear a big sack of a uniform and yah, I really want a boss that is supportive and not a sadist, yes I said it a sadist!

The story of my previous job in a nutshell: The boss made everyone's job a living hell for over 3 years. It took us a while to figure out what was going on. Everyone was always gossiping about everyone else, bickering about who was or wasn't doing their job, bickering about whose job it was to do such and such, on and on. In a customer-service situation one gets enough flak from the general public without your coworkers flakking out as well. Turns out that the boss (it so often turns out that the shit flows downhill, doesn't it?) was talking behind everyone's back and starting rumours the entire time. She also loved to hire people that weren't qualified or weren't 'team players'. There's really much more to it but (sigh) it's just not appropriate here. Finally everyone realized what the problem was and it became a game of cat and mouse; at least everyone knew their roles now when playing Who Moved My Cheese. It seems the manager was trying to tame the business owner somehow, constantly telling him what to do or not do; no one could ever believe if what she said was true or not; everyone agreed she was just trying to break the business and at last, she demanded that employees truck back and forth between the two offices, and work 6 days a week every other week, by themselves, which is basically the job of two people. This other office is probably 20-30 minutes from my house, not a big commute for most people, but I loathe driving and suck terribly at it, especially at 6:30-7 in the morning for god's sake in my broken-down little 1990 car. So Boss Lady knew I could never do it, and just wanted everyone to quit, after having fired half of the staff already. So I quit.

And then a week later..

the boss quits.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I gave my one week's notice, well I always give two weeks but then I would have had to work a week in the far office and that just wasn't feasible. The nurse quit. Then the business owner must have realized something was up. Not sure what finally put the fire under him, guess having 2 people fired for no real reason and 2 others quit got his attention? He passed out a survey to everyone, didn't say not to tell the manager. So she finds some that have been filled out, guess what. They are all about her. Big meeting, after I am gone already. Then she hands in her letter, really nasty one too from what we hear.

So the last remaining back office staffer calls in P.'s mom. She worked there previously and pulled me in to work originally. Then she was canned about 6 months ago for.. ehh who knows what. So now she is back in the game, at least for now. Thing is, it's not necessarily a fun job even without Bosszilla.

Aaaaahhhh, I miss the money but not the job. Here I am at home, with my coffee, my cat in my lap, it's 11:30, neighborhood is quiet. My time is my own. I can knit, clean, do laundry, play games, yah, I have high-speed internet and I use it to play text MUDs. Hah! So Ancient Anguish is a text MUD, fantasy gaming where you slaughter stuff and solve quests. I play a ranger so I can spend most of my time foraging for herbs and making clothing out of furry animals. Sounds barbaric, doesn't it? I guess it fulfills a fantasy of total self-sufficiency, I really don't even need money on the game. I can make my own admittedly crappy weapons and armour, but when you are killing skunks they suffice.

Blah blah blah, ok flickr is working so I can show you my hat. P's mom liked the green hat so much she commissioned one for her sister for Xmas.

from this yarn, I believe it's 'Tiger' colorway from Fleece Artist. I'm glad to have found a use for it, blue faced leicester is so soft and I'm betting it will be a crayzee hat. It's nice to have all this yarn around, nicer still to knit with my handspun and see how it works up. I think it makes good feedback, cause while the skeins can be very pretty, in theory, they will be used someday. And maybe, if I am satisfied with my progress, I can start sending them out into the world. Fly! Be free!

Boot Call

2006-11-23T20:08:00.000-05:00

Single Wool/Silk Blend Sock Seeks Solemate

Me: Youthful, outgoing, embraces diversity. Works for medium-sized firm in important support position.

Prefers: Red wine, slow food, autumn, sunsets on the water, a soft touch.

Laissez-faire yet worldy. Loves adventure but also enjoys nesting. Not afraid to admit that the simple things in life and the finer things in life are often the same!

You: Same.

Together: We can knock the boots. Call me.

Oh Sock, How Do I Hate Thee?

2006-11-22T01:03:00.000-05:00

I have lost all will to ~~live~~ knit.

Exhibit A:

One: mostly finished hand-knitted sock.

Next to: One rapidly shrinking ball of yarn, causing rapidly inflating doubts of yarn quantity sufficient for second sock.

Using my super-scientific method of weighing the yarn as I go, I find that the ball now weighs less than half of what it did to begin with. Which means, I lack the yarn necessary to finish this sock, and knit an entire second one. Mind that the ball isn't nearly as big as it appears in the photo.

Now I realize I was taking this risk when I started. I really haven't anyone to blame but myself. But I consoled myself with the thought that I could simply order another braid of roving from.. umm. Who the hell did I buy this from at Stitches anyway?? Crap. I now remember balancing my checkbook and tossing all of my receipts. Oi.

I went to the websites of the businesses that show up on my credit card statement. No luck. I've no record now of cash purchases. Phooey. Browsed through the Stitches brochure and pulled up names that seemed familiar, focusing in particular on the section of the vendor map where I seem to recall buying it. Forget it.

Now to the Fleece Artist website. I find that the colorway most resembling my roving/sliver/wooly stuff is 'Hercules'. Close enough. Now to find the silk wool sliver 65% wool, 35% silk.

The silk wool sliver on their website, and every website I can find that sells it, is 50% wool, 50% silk.

Ummm.. WHAT.

I thought about emailing them, but it seems kind of pointless. Clearly, this is a discontinued or obsolete version of the silk wool sliver, and unless I can figure out where I bought it from, and they still have some somehow..

I'm kind of ******.

I wouldn't have minded so much having the other sock be a slightly different colorway, or at this point, a completely different one. But the same colorway, in a different fiber?? Not sure that 15% would make a difference... well, ok, I am sure of it. Now I'm not certain how I feel about finishing the sock; it seems rather pointless. I guess if I ever break my leg I can wear it on my uncasted limb. Maybe I should take up skiing. (Does anyone know any amputees who would like a hand-knitted sock??)

Thinking about finishing it for crap's sake and nailing it to the wall as a monument to my colossal fiber hubris. Or maybe I'll be really brave, cut off most of the cuff, finish the second sock from that, and knit up an edging for the first sock. Casting off on the cuff? Icky.

Or maybe I'll clog the garbage disposal with it.

Draw This Turtle And Go To Art School

2006-11-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

Couldn't hold out any longer and gave the green hat to P.'s mother after they took me on a spending spree for long-sleeved tees and thermal tops. She certainly seemed to like it because it went right on her head. I bet I will get some more hits if I write 'meathead' somewhere in every post.

Making good progress on the sock. Unlike the Yarn Harlot, I'm not quite up to whipping out A SOCK A FREAKING DAY. I suppose I could crank it out faster, but ribbing takes much longer for me. Pull the yarn to the front, pull it to the back. I have to take extra time because my ribbing tends to look like crap cuz I can't purl for a damn.

I'm also enjoying every stitch. I've never knit such smooth, silky yarn. It's not that I did such an awesome job spinning it but the material itself has a gorgeous luster. And of course I'm eagerly anticipating every color change. I kept the roving in one piece lengthwise when I split it, but I connected them willy-nilly while spinning so the color progression could go either way throughout the yarn.

I'm also anxious about the quantity. I weighed my other handknit socks and they are 1 3/4 ounces. This silky yarn ball also weighed.. 1 3/4 ounces. Very scientifically, that means I have just enough to make one sock and run out of yarn on the toe of the second. I forgot to count the yardage which is ok since I have no idea how many I would need. I'm going to make the cuff maybe an inch shorter on inch and pray to whatever yarn god there may be in fiber heaven.

Mmm now I could go for a whole sweater from this stuff. Not too economical since this ball cost $9. Waaaaah.

And I promise not to take a picture of every inch of progress. Unless I do.

Silky Socks Started

2006-11-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

Silky yarn finished, skeined, and washed.

Silky yarn rapidly becoming socks. News update at 11.

Battle of the Pointy Hats

2006-11-13T20:30:00.000-05:00

It's time for the monthly post, people! Seriously, how do people find the time to blog every day. Even without a job, I don't have a spare moment to write between all of the.. umm.. sleeping in, rolling over, yawn, hmm, it's 10:30, that's really early still. Okay, 11:45, guess that coffee won't make itself. At least my cats have the courtesy to wait until my feet hit the floor to start begging for their breakfast.. lunch.. um feeding.

Then it's time to check my email on my SUPER-FAST new fiberoptic internet connection. That's right, baby's got a brand new internet service; no more dial-up for ole stick in the mud behind-the-times B.S. (Couldn't have picked a better name?) Mmmmm.. free time, fast internet connection.. mm just like a crack addict scoring a big old rock. For some reason there is no DSL service in my neighborhood which is beyond retarded because Northern Virginia? Supposed to be the home of the internet. Or so I hear.

Reading my last post of a month ago.. HAHAHAH. I always think of how much I will do on my time off.. and my time off disappears into a black hole, and pretty much nothing to show for it. I am mildly more inclined to cook or clean than I was while working; but not significantly. Guess I suck at the housewife biz!

I have been fibering more; a lil spinning, lil dyeing, lil knitting, lil balling up my skeins of yarn and reskeining them again just to feel it running through my fingers. Certainly wouldn't want to make anything with it, cuz then it would be a lousy scarf or hat and not lervly YARN!

Speaking of hats, pointly lil hats are taking over the world! They are called MEATHEADS and appear virtually identical to my funny lil hats except they seem to be knit bottom up instead of top down. Which would make mine clearly superior.

(Why do they call them meatheads?)

So this is my newest un-meathead, in mossy colors as requested, soon to be gifted to P.'s mom at Xmas time.

So remember this?

Oh wait, you don't.

I never posted about my Stitches loot. Basically, I went to Stitches East in Baltimore and bought a shameful amount of yarn and fiber. Even though I still have a shitload from the sheepie wool fest. Hey! Being unemployed has nothing to do with fiber consumption, got it? (Oh yah, job hunting, pretty much not happening. I peep on Craig's list every nowzandthen and call it a day. I might go back to my old job, mebbez. But that is another freaking post.)

So this was spun from the two rightmost braids above. Blue faced leicester, fleece artist roving, soft and sheeny. I'm calling it November. Because yarn is supposed to have names, apparently.

But yet more soft, and SHEENY, (and smooth!) is this:

Wool/Silk blend, the middle braid from above, also fleece artist. It spins and drafts like BUTTAH! So smooth, so easy, I had to stop and take a picture. You really should click it to see the sheen and color intensity; then imagine the picture being crap and the yarn being so much better in life.

It's MINE.

Seriously, I had qualms about this roving, seems silk/wool blend, especially silk/merino (which is the blue and yellow roving on the left above) gets a bad rep for being difficult to spin. Actually, almost anything is hard to spin, according to whom you ask. I find that quality of spinning depends more on my mindset than on the material of roving. I decided to start with the plain wool/silk combo and try the merino/silk later; I may be hooked on silk and wool... mmm. Okay, enough talk, must spin silk!

Free Time

2006-10-14T20:52:00.000-05:00

The day I gave my notice, I started this.

I've been itching to do an Icelandic sweater. This sort of natural color cardigan is the sort my mother wears and epitomises the style for me. The pattern is in size 6 (!) needle until the yoke when it switches to size 10. The pattern gives gauge for the size 10 portion, but not the 6.. which is odd given most of the sweater is knit with size 6 needles. Needless to say, even using the largest size directions, it is going to be way too small for me.

Now I'm going to have to use this bitty part as a swatch and do some bigger needle swatches.. and do some sort of mathy thing to jigger a fit. Icky!

I was so proud to be past the two and three color knitting too. It was a royal pain knitting with the too small needles and it was pretty obvious that they were too small for the yarn.

So I am officially unemployed. Yeah, Snoop-Dogg, I know you are calling and emailing me. I am always so busy it seems. It's a good feeling, like school is out for summer. I have been working non-stop since the middle of high school, with just little weeks off here and there. I'm really hoping to stretch it out for a month or two. Really just need to cover my half of rent and P. just got a substantial raise which should help. Then what? Who knows? Part-time, temping. Don't know if I can go full-time again, unless it's something I really enjoy. (Ha!)

What to do with my time off? Ooooo, so many things. House needs cleaning, top to bottom. I feel bad for my kitties, they are so close to the ground, where all the dust floats and settles and dust bunnies run like the wind. Piles of paper to sort and file; books to organize and take an honest assessment of the ones I will never read. Clothes I will never fit into again and are too silly to sew into a quilt or something. Corners to declog and furniture to donate. Dishwasher and fridge to wipe out; stacks of VHS tapes rendered redundant by DVD. Boxes of detritus to dump out and toss or stash away. Drawers of clothing to poke through. Bathroom and kitchen cabinets and drawers exploding with junk. Bathtub grouting to demold once and for all.

And oh yes, all of the other stuff. Basically, I want to reboot my life. I have horrid habits of stress eating. Stress rules my activities. I come home from work frazzled and reach for whatever food is handiest. I pretty much never have energy to cook, never mind trying to think of what to cook. Lots of eating out, ordering in, junky fattening foods.

Now I want to be able to cook more things from scratch. Bake my own bread. I got a little cookbook of onion recipes and another for bread today. Saw a magazine article about incorporating seeds into your cooking, flaxseed and flax oil, sesame seed and sesame oil, pumpkin seed. It had a yummy one about dipping pita into flax or sesame oil and then into a mix of crushed seeds and herbs. Also one about slicing fruits and dipping them into a mix of spices, like apples dipped into cinnamon. Simple stuff that I must be too brain damaged to think of on my own. I also got to smell some dill seeds that were were growing on the public garden plot. They smelled just like licorice and I really really must grow some dill next year. Seeds are loaded with nutrients and add such great crunchy flavor to breads and stir fry dishes. I really must remember to add them and use my alfalfa sprouts too.

I'm thinking of writing down meal ideas into a little notebook and flipping through it when it's time to plan meals. I just stink at coming up with ideas on the spot.

So more salads, soups, fruits, veggies. Cut back on sodas and sugary fatty foods. Use up or toss the packaged and canned foods that are hogging so much room on the shelves. If I keep moving, it'll be good exercise, too. Something else I need to get into the habit to doing. Hopefully with all of this time on my hands I will have the energy to form good habits, get my recipes sorted, brush my cats more, all of the things that don't get done at all now. Then, maybe, I can think about going to work. I really hope I have enough time for a good start.

Echoes

2006-10-07T16:10:00.000-05:00

Woot, time flies by, innit? I tried to pull up my blog to see when my last post was and blogger couldn't find the url. I had to republish to bring it back up. Gave me a fright fright but it wasn't deleted.

Just recently rebitten by the fiber bug after a prolonged loss of interest. I've whipped out a squarish cat bed, three funny little hats, and dyed some yarn, hopefully greenish. Hmm, mass guilt over missing 3 or 6 months (years?) of blogreading. Have $100 Amazon gift certificate waiting for me; think I might pick me up a digital camera. Which means I have to learn stuff about digital cameras. Oh yeah, I have to find a new freaking job.

edit: The following has been edited to remove numerous work-related mental spasms that are probably not fit for public consumption. Have fun. Fill in the blanks. Pretend this is your job. Okay? Let's begin.

The NOUN went totally ADJECTIVE. We NOUN have always tried just to stay on the down low. Now we are officially cannon fodder in the battle royale between NOUN and NOUN. Why doesn't the NOUN just VERB the NOUN? Because.. drum roll.. PUNCH LINE! Hahhahah! Details of said skirmish are way too tedious for me to recount. Essentially PERSONAL PRONOUN is changing everyone's NOUN around in order TO VERB and make us VERB. Well guess what, it worked. PERSONAL PRONOUN is VERBing on Monday. My new NOUN involves me VERB between two locations; one close by, one not. I would have to work NUMBER days a week, NUMBER times a month. HahahahahHAHHAHA! And five millions NOUN and NOUN over the last NUMBER+ years. It is finally time to remove myself from a ADJECTIVE and ADJECTIVE situation. So now I am looking for anything pretty much that involves not working there.

Summary: I quit.

Seriously considering becoming a medical transcriptionist. It would theoretically allow me to work from home. I would get to learn lots and lots of vocabulary too; I love to learn words, even though I will never actually use them. So I would take classes online for 6 to 18 months and then start applying for jobs. Of course, that doesn't help me much NOW. Yugh. Here's some pics of funny little hats. Made up a hat pattern, basically using four double point needles, cast on 12, so you have 4 on each of three needles. Every other round, increase one at the end of each needle. Keep going til it fits on your big head. Knit til it's long enough. Bind off loosely.

There It Is

2006-08-17T19:20:00.000-05:00

Okay, okay, it's only been a millenium or so since I've posted. What have I been doing? I don't know. Eating, sleeping, going to work. Gardening. Cooking. Watching my house accumulate dirt. Sounds depressing? I'm just washed up in events, I guess. I have a week's vacation soon. I hope to clean major house then. Not go anywhere, no flying or Amtraking (yech) out to the west coast, as much as I love me some Pacific coast.

I still (!) have a small wound where the worst of the poison sumac struck. I'm almost hoping it leaves a scar. I don't have enough scars.

Lady cat has made an awesome comeback and now strolls around the neighborhood again. I'm guessing she wouldn't stop by my garden as much if I didn't bribe her with treats but I am very happy to see her every day. It's unclear whether surgery will be helpful or necessary for her slipped discs. But she gets around pretty darn well. She hesitates about going up or down steps. She runs from dogs. Commotions of any sort startle her. But 99% of the time, she can be seen plodding in her usual odd gait, patrolling the block, cadging food and love. It is obvious from her poise and expressions that she doesn't seem to be in any serious chronic pain, which was a big fear for me. It seems that P. must really have saved her life that day, when he scared that dog off.

I have the opportunity to till a community garden plot, which was a big surprise for me. But that is a story for another day, when I can remember to take pictures. Mmkay?

Now for lady cat pictures!

Cute or what?

Garden of Evil

2006-07-04T14:16:00.000-05:00

I have never gotten poison ivy rash. I must confess harboring a snobbish pride about it; nature girl is way too smart to traipse about in the woods rubbing against glossy leaves of three. Better yet, I am immune to it! Yes, that must be it. I am in tune with nature!

So I am completely baffled as to why I have what seems like poison ivy rash on what used to be my lower leg. I've not been on any hikes or shortcuts through the woods. My garden is too small to harbor any unnoticed poison ivy.

It is, however, just the right size for this pot of volunteer plants. Notice the cute litte tree that I didn't weed out. It's so cute! Maybe when it gets bigger I will find a spot for it in the yard.

Today I take a closer look at it.

It looks suspicious.

Oh shit.. it's poison sumac.

Update

2006-06-27T16:13:00.000-05:00

Whoa! It's been a week already since my last post. All day when I am doing, well whatever it is I do all day, I have great ideas for what to post and then when I get home, poof! It's time for bed or couch potatoing or whatever.

So on to Lady. I have not heard anything for a few days but last report was that Lady was home and under kitty drugs, antibiotics and pain relief. She has puncture wounds that need healing and attention. She has great pain in her legs, which shows that her spine is functioning on some level. She also seems to retain bladder control which is wonderful. Her owner have been real troopers and seem to take great care of her. She was allowed to visit with neighbors several days ago; they couldn't take her out of her kitty crate though because she will get into the dirt and roll around trying to move. It's still up in the air what kind of recovery she will make but it seems her pet humans are giving her as much as they can. I was glad to see her and rub her head through the cage; I could tell she was irritated at being cooped up but glad to not be alone either.

Thanks for your kind comments, Natasha (yay! a blog reader). I know I am godless but I give thanks to Bastet for my cats as weird as that sounds. I have to give gratitude to someone for making such great animules (wherever did that word come from?) And yah, animal stories make me cry too more than people stories. I guess because people are supposed to be more conscious and have more control over their lives and animals are subject our whims for the most part. Okay, they're just better than people. And yah I've been meaning to link to your bloggie but this whole thing is out of date.

Speaking of which, I haven't been spinning so much lately. I'm mad for gardening right now. Cooking and gardening aren't considered crafts but I really think they are. Taking carrots and curry and frozen Boca burger and whatever stuff is in the bottom of the fridge crisper and making something out of is genius. Not that I can do that mind you. Taking garbage and turning it into compost and slopping it onto soil to grow vegetables is magical. Not that I am composting, haha. Anyone who thinks gardening is easy should watch four days of rain flood out of the gutter and shred your plants haha. At least I am somehow attracting praying mantises now, little baby ones. And I potted up a strawberry pot with bits of sedums and mosses and coleus and things. My tomatoes have escaped their cages and are obstructing my little yard. It is just a jungle with the overgrowth and humid rain.

So my spinning project, which is going on a month now hardee har, is spinning two thinnish white singles, dye them separately and then ply together. Which involves taking the yarn from the bobbin, dyeing, then back onto the bobbin, then plying. It seems like a retarded amount of work which is why I've been stalling. I have only a niddy and no skein winder so perhaps tisn't such a good idea. Maybe I'll do one that way and the other skein I will ply then dye and compare results. I have four bobbins of equal weight spun up sitting now.

I have been in a funk for a week or so, not wanting to spin or do anything at all. No blogging, not even looking at yarn pictures or reading blogs so my bloglines has 400 posts backed up. Something about being 30 posts behind on someone's blog, ack! Even when they are good to read. Not enough time! No pics today, I have garden crap on flickr right now, I am getting too lazy to post them here. Food is calling!

Lady

2006-06-20T20:08:00.000-05:00

I previously posted about Lady, known also as Marley and Miss Kitty, an abandoned kitty who slept cold wintry nights in a wooly-sweater filled cardboard box in my yard. I would have taken her in but I've three cats already and didn't want to pack her off to a shelter and risk her being euthanized. She was finally taken in by newlyweds that I'd not met before today, and under horrific circumstance.

She remained an outdoors cat who was granted access to their home when she desired and also entered the homes of others who held her in regard. I don't allow my cats outdoors because of obvious risk but Lady was a savvy cat, never tempted traffic nor caused trouble except to neighborhood chipmunks. Okay, chipmunk offerings to her friend J. aren't exactly a mark in her favor, but let's move past that, 'kay?

I should say the following is a graphic telling of a horrific incident and those who are sensitive should be warned.

I already missed her plodding gait today as I weeded; she had a little bit of a herky-jerk to her rhythm that I'd never seen in a cat before, creeping and quiet but very ladylike. She'd creep up and beg for food quietly, not a sound, just look up at me with moist eyes. Soft as a mouse, grey fur, polite; she'd gobble her food in times past but now with a real home and many friends who feed her she likes to take a tiny bite and move on; see what's on the menu somewhere else. I never rated chipmunk-offering status but she invariably showed when I stepped from car or house; she'd stroll through the garden, never too overtly affectionate but let me know with her presence that she acknowledged me, and could I maybe find something better for her to eat than the crummy veterinarian food for god's sake.

Now you perhaps have noticed I speak of her sometimes in present and sometimes in past tense. Truth to be told, her future hangs in the balance. A pit bull mix escaped from his owner early this morning and grabbed her in his jaws and shook her like a whip, I am told. I had left five minutes previously and glad of it, I think I would have carried that image in my mind for far longer than is healthy. Long-suffering boyfriend P. was not so fortunate, he often leaves a tad later than me and was already in his hatchback with motor running when he spied the scuffle. I cannot say how I might have reacted but P. has a hair-trigger temper, he rarely but dangerously snaps and in this case I hope it may have save Lady's life. He calmly exited his car and approached the goddamn shitdog and bellowed 'NO! NO!' which gave it pause long enough to drop the cat and the owner to catch up and subdue it. The cat's hind legs were paralyzed and she used her front paws to haul herself under a car. The cat's owner was luckily home and scooped her up in a towel. More than this I did not learn for a long time as I was at work and not too good at keeping my shit together at the news. I was worried for a long time as I knew Lady was a recent adoption to her family and I had never met them; thus I could not gauge their commitment to her. I know many people would rather just put down a sick animal and get a new one, like a broken car or something.

Apparently Lady is now at the vet and under observation and sedation. Her spine is swollen and they cannot tell yet if the damage is permanent. Her hind legs do not work at this time. The dog's owner was recalcitrant and agreed to pay vet costs, I hope he realizes it could be $10s of thousands and will freaking pay, and it won't stop me from trying to get his name and reporting him to the fucking animal control people if I can find his name, despite the neighbor's reluctance in identifying him. I don't care how 'nice' he is, or if it was a rescue dog, you freaking know if your pet has aggression like that, and the fact that he got scraped the shit up when his dog escaped and went to ER for it doesn't make me sorry for him at all. It is only a matter of time before it happens again, my cat escapes sometimes as hard as we try to keep her in, sometimes you have an armload of crap or are distracted and don't even see her get out until two hours later when you can't find her for god's sake and the thought of her in the jaws of that stupid animal really.. really pisses me off but good and I promise to end this run-on sentence now.

I wish I could say to hold her in prayers but I am agnostic. Times like this I truly envy theists that can put their trust and faith in god/gods/something at all and say it's all for the best, have something to hold to besides this stupid beer in my hand. All I can do is sit and stare at the wall with this apple in my throat, and wait for news. It's not even my cat you could say, but this just reminds me of how this society thinks of animals as property and if her owners want to put her to sleep I would simply never see her again. Just like that, animals don't have their own lives. Admittedly it's not easy to get an informed decision from a non-english speaking cat but still, just to kill an animal because you don't have the money to fix it. They seemed like reasonable owners but I will have to wait til tomorrow to see. And hope that P. saved her life and she can have pain-free spoiled life again. He could have been mauled by that stupid dog, apparently it was very large and P. acted before reason set in, fight or flight, this time it worked favorably; but the dog's leash was stuck under a tire, what might have happened otherwise?

I will leave you with an admittedly shitty flashy picture of Frankie so that you're not completely depressed by my recounting. I am totally glad my 3 cats are as okay as they are, and I have to work extra hard to keep Frankie from escaping. I know it totally sucks to be caged in a house for your whole life but with cars and crazy people and dogs she just wouldn't make it outside either. I just hope Lady's owners make good decisions; I would love to help them pay for whatever it takes to get her going again, even get a crazy catwheelchair if she can't walk, but I just don't have mad cash. I really hope to get good news tomorrow but am expecting the worst. I'm surprised at how much I miss her already, the neighborhood seems empty and it just isn't as much fun in the garden by myself. Just hollow.

Frankie, with the elixir of life

Thistle

2006-06-05T20:07:00.000-05:00

Aphids, right. Let's just say they're eating everything. Fat juicy bugs that give live birth to more aphids right before your eyes. Really keen.

Finished the Thistle colorway merino skein. Two singles of neverending laceweight plied together to make.. hmm I've lost my wraps per inch gauge thingie but it's still pretty thin, sock weight maybe? I wanted to match the size of the first plied yarn and was rather surprised to notice it is actually thinner. Whoops! At least it seems consistent, both in size and plying. It's not as sproingy as the other skein, maybe because it's thinner?

The Animals - They Rebel

2006-06-01T16:36:00.000-05:00

It’s a good thing we don’t rely on my farming skillz for sustenance because my mastery of the animal and plant kingdoms – never happening.

Today was the first full-blown Animal Rebellion.

First Strike: The Cat

My cat ran under the bed.

My cat never hides from me.

Okay, minor league. But not a good start.

Second Strike: The Squirrel Gang

I popped out into the back yard to eyeball the garden. Mostly checking for squirrel damage. I suppose it’s possible that rabid chipmunks or cats are responsible for digging holes in my pots, overturning them, ripping up seedlings, breaking my bean plants and ripping branches (!!) from my baby grape cane.. but I kinda doubt it. (Never mind the sunflower seeds I tried to plant.. that was begging for trouble.) I’ve pondered whether feeding the squirrels will help but judging from the peanuts that spring up buried in my yard they are already being fed..yeah, I kinda doubt it.

As I’m inspecting my defenseless garden I hear a tremendous commotion overhead. Squirrel 1 of The Dirty Rotten Bastard Squirrel Gang is rapidly approaching down from the tree canopy and stops, facing downward, facing me, possibly ten feet up. And just looks at me.

If you do not believe squirrels make facial expressions, believe me when I say this squirrel had an attitude problem. There was no clucking, no tail flicking, just The Stare. Followed by another squirrel erupting from the gutter. And another from the neighbor’s tree. Three of them. All dirty rotten bastards.

Suddenly I felt that this was not the time to make a stand. Um.. time to go to work!

Third Strike: Garbage Armageddon

Ah, trash. The obsession of a nation. We must love it or we wouldn’t make so much of it. Thursday is trash day and like many of our neighbors we put it out the night before. We used to put it out in the mornings before work as we could rely on the trash guys to show up in their leisurely good time, often late in the afternoon. Suddenly, we started awaking to the clank of the trash truck a good while before the morning alarm. We love running after the trash truck in our robes!

Shortly we discovered that the trash guys find it too much bother to return the garbage cans to the upright position in which they are found. Or even close to the house in front of which they were found. The lid flies that way. The can rolls this way. Gravity and wind have their way for eight hours until we return home from work and begin the scavenger hunt. The lid a half block down. The can in someone’s parking spot (usually mine) necessitating parking in the street. Getting out. Moving the can. Getting in. Reparking. Getting out. Oh yeah.

So being very clever folks we decided to put the trash bags out sans can. Right on the sidewalk. Gravy!

For the squirrels. Every so often we awake to a pilfered bag and mess on the ground. We always thought it was cats. Did the cats pull out the stale tortillas and take bites? Did they rake huge slashes in the bag? Did they install a huge ant farm in the bag overnight?

The tortillas did not improve the mood of the Dirty Rotten Bastard Squirrel Gang. No feeding from me, you nasty varmints!

Tomorrow: Fourth Strike: The Cat Boxer Rebellion and Fifth Strike: The Aphids.

Double-Ply

2006-05-30T19:46:00.000-05:00

I've found a new fascination with double-ply (hmm I guess it's two-ply, isn't it? Double-ply sounds like toilet paper) yarn. This pic is a single and a plied merino wool from sheepfest roving. It took a week of spinning what must be laceweight, or damn close to it, singles. The merino is a dream to spin; I can get frighteningly thin yarn from it without fear of breaking. The only problem is the increasingly warm weather; my sticky fingers want to stick to the roving. And I very clearly need to work on toughening my fingertips against the thread running through them.

I'm constantly surprised by how much variety one can get from the same colorway depending on how it's divided and plied. This same roving shows it's entire range well as a bulky single; predominant reds and whites make space for yellows, blues, purples. Plied together, the reds and whites obliterate them. This must be the 'mud' people fear so.

Plying itself is still problematic without tensioning on the lazy kate. I'll probably try to rig something so the bobbins don't spin backwards and jerk up the yarn into a mess. The yarns drifted apart two or three times either because of underspinning or plying mishaps. So there are some knots and funny parts in the yarn that I will have to take out when washing and reskeining. But it's entirely worth it; the finished skein has a sproing and bounciness that none of my singles have yet had. So now I find myself halfway through the other merino colorway:

I'd divided the wool into two 1.25 oz piles. One of them is now on the bobbin. I was a bit flabbergasted to see how much more compact wool gets once it's spun.

One advantage to spinning thin plied yarns is that it extends the life of your fiber stash. I've broken into or used up quite a lot of sheepfest loot as it is. Seeing as I've hardly posted in the interim, I'll just post pics to catch up.

Colonial wool roving from Brush Creek Woolworks with extra glitz! I don't normally name my yarns but as I was spinning this I was inspired with a story snippet.

Eva's Sweet Revenge
In which Eva is spurned by her lover and goes to the ball in her best red silks and emerald jewels..

More colonial roving.

And my first foray into beads - little red rounds and 5 red hearts. Not many beads for a whole skein but what the heck.

And for non-fiberfest wool -

Food coloring mill ends single and plied - fun with fun fur.

Food coloring mill ends single and plied; with glitz.

Some peachy stuff I tried to ply before I realized the singles weren't spun enough.

Thistle colorway merino roving from The Drafting Zone (what I'm spinning right now) with glitz and mill end food coloring dyed wool.

Yummy single and plied food coloring mill end wool.

Oh yes, and I'm sick again. Something about being sick over a holiday weekend: just. not. charming.

What's On The Bobbin

2006-05-16T20:25:00.000-05:00

Not too much to report here. Just getting by day to day. I try to spin a little every day. Even if I can't put any yarn on the bobbin I like to treadle a bit for a few minutes. The whirring slows me down, puts me in a different state of mind. It reminds me of another time; a time filled with jars of jellies and tomatoes, pickled everythings, milking cows, neighbors. A fantasy? Yes. But it gets me through. Past the creep at work who complains about my web surfing. All of the yarns look the same, she says. Sigh.

Through my very exacting calculations I estimate I need to spin 4 bajillion skeins of yarn every day to make a living. This is what I have so far:

A bit short so far. But still impressive, no? I can't help but fondle them. The thought of trying to sell them (I keep telling myself I will sell them to recoup some of the five million dollars I have lost to my fiber habit thus far) upsets me. I am attached to them. They have memories in them. In each fiber. Oh yes, I said it. Fiber. The nights I spent dunking them into kettles of dye. The hours pulling and shaping them into a long, long thread. Splashing into the bucket of shampooey water. And then into the warm spring sun to dangle and drip and dry. Twisted into a skein. Lovingly labeled with tags that were punched and stamped and snipped into shapes. Oh no, they are mine, you hear me? Mine.

Loot

2006-05-07T19:25:00.000-05:00

So now I will afford myself the opportunity to show my loot from the fiber fest; the sheer size of which seemed to take many by surprise. As we waited to park we heard a stray comment from the car next to us:

"Oh my god, it's a tour bus."

Boy scouts and their leaders volunteered to direct parking and I overheard one say he’d been doing this for seven years and it seems to get bigger every year. It always seemed to me growing up that Boy Scouts got the better end of the deal than Girl Scouts and this didn’t disabuse me of that notion. They always seemed to be camping and learning to tie knots. Our one camping trip was filled with gossip and Bon Jovi music. My memories of scout meetings consist of Red Rover and friendship bracelets. Robbed, yes?

Although I will admit that Girl Scout cookies kick the pants off of Boy Scout popcorn any time.

By chance the first barn we stumbled into contained Susan's Fiber Shop, where I ~~may have gone berserk~~ found many of the items on my list. I didn't get a lazy kate or any dye. Carrying a kate around all day was a bit much and the dye selection was overwhelming. I'm going to have to do some thinking as to which brand I want and what colors. I did score a small niddy and some bobbins.

P. saw many novice spinners picking out their first spindles; I was in some sort of fiber-induced psychosis and didn't even notice. However as I stood in line for the bathroom (inevitably much longer than for the men's) I overheard some ladies behind me conversing.

"So, do you spin, knit or weave?"

The other lady says, "Yes."

Also purchased were handmade soaps. The anise-scented one is so strong that all of my fiber now smells of licorice. I'm actually a little scared of it.

I didn't get to pet any alpacas since the few that were present huddled in the middle of their pens apprehensively. I sure wouldn't want to be poked and gawked at all day either.

The food lines were long especially for lamb products. That stands to reason since lamb isn't usually easy to find in stores. The sheer force of the cooking produced so much smoke that it drove us to the other side of the street at times. We waited til late afternoon when lines where shorter and I grabbed a funnel cake. I always have to get an elephant ear or funnel cake. I was too chicken to try the infamous deep-fried Twinkie.

Okay, there it is. Everytime I felt a ~~major~~ mild panic that I was buying Entirely Too Much Shit I reminded myself that this would be lasting me the whole year until the next fiberfest. Right.

And then I would see someone with a cart, or a rolling suitcase, or a HUGE GARBAGE BAG of fleece.. and I would feel right as rain. Which makes me wonder.. with so many thousands and thousands of fiberpersons, where can they be hiding in the daylight? I can only imagine that after the festival ended, they slunk back to their ~~dumpsters, sewers, abandoned warehouses~~ day jobs in locales near and far. It's strange to find that this craft is so underground by day, yet practiced by so many.

All right, the inventory. A pink braid of Corriedale X, two bags of colorful Colonial roving, two batts of supersoft angora/silk/wool, 3 merino/tencels in blue berry tones, two luscious merino rovings, a huge gray alpaca top, a bag of dreamy cashmere/silk blend, 2 Noros just because, and two cutecute sheep pins made by genuine child labour. The stall where I bought the pins sold soap. The change for the soap purchase was 50 cents and their boy was selling lemonade. Can you guess the price? Very clever.

Truth to be told I am nervous to try spinning some of these fibers. So silky and smooth, I will definitely have try something different. That spinning from the fold thing. Although I have read it reduces the shininess. For now I am content to just pet them and imagine what kind of yarn they want to be.

I Came, I Saw, I Spent Money

2006-05-06T21:44:00.000-05:00

Leaving the fiberfest today I was exhausted but exhilarated. I was surprised to find the journey only took about an hour and a half each way. My wallet was empty and long-suffering P.'s backpack and arms were full of goodies. By the time we got home the light was fading so I couldn't get any pics of the prizes. I also didn't take a whole lot at the fair mostly because I was too excited to think about it.

I did snap some super cute sheeps. Don't ask what breed they are.

This guy was really huge. As big as a pony huge. But he was an expert at cadging head scratches from passersby simply by expecting them.

Needs no caption. Cute!

Tomorrow: The loot. Lots of it.

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2006

2006-05-05T22:40:00.000-05:00

Needless to say I am hitting the fiber fest tomorrow. I have been excited about it for months and now I find myself a little unprepared. With sweaty palms I find it's almost midnight and I must plan a route and what time I want to get there and all of that stuff. Luckily I am about a few hours away and will get my chauffeur P. to drive.

Shopping list:

More bobbins. Four bobbins don't go as far as you might think. When you ply, you are pulling from two bobbins onto a third. I've been letting the singles rest for a day before plying and that tends to hog the bobbins. Phooey!

Dyes. Real dyes. Food colorings and Kool-aid mixes are fun but don't get you nice rich colors unless you use half a bottle on a small amount of roving.

A smaller niddy for those bitty skeins.

And oh yah. Raw materials. I'm wanting to feel up more luxurious materials; angora, silk, merino, mohair, alpaca. But I'm going to try to hold back unless I see something kinda cheap.

And a tensioned lazy kate.

And umm.. I'm going to pet some alpacas. More than that is rather fuzzy.

Chaos

2006-05-02T20:58:00.000-05:00

Did I say there would be an update "tomorrow"? That is subjective, isn't it?

It's hard to categorize the last few weeks. I'd have liked to have blogged more often but it seems to be one of the many things that slip by until it's too late. I'm getting more of a feel for the wheel. I'm still trying to figure out how to sit at it. How close, at what angle. I know I'm twisting my torso too much away from the wheel as I draft. Or perhaps I'm just a big wuss.

I now know how the drive band tension knob works. Before I put the wheel together I couldn't fathom how it affected anything since nothing was connected to it. After slipping the drive band around the wheel and flyer I had an aha! moment. The knob tilts the maiden bar away from the wheel thus stretching the drive band and increasing tension. So simple!

There are many subtleties I am still picking up. I didn't know that one should decrease the drive band tension while the wheel is not in use to keep it from stretching. I did have to shorten and retie the band after a few days since I had made it too long to start off with.

I also didn't realize that the yarn should go through all of the flyer hooks on its way to the orifice instead of just one to wind on. My spinning lesson was on a wheel with a Woolee Winder, a magical doohickey that obviates the need for flyer hooks, so I hadn't bothered with them before. After I realized this things went much more smoothly. No more incidents of yarn exploding from the ends of the bobbin and winding around the flyer shaft and hook and every conceivable crevice. (Well, far fewer incidents.)

Then there's plying.

Ah, plying. I now see the usefulness of tensioned lazy kates. I have the cheapo one that comes with the wheel, which is actually kind of useless. Without tension the yarns explode from the bobbins and tangle together. (See? Explosions. Again.) Most of the skeins I have plied look pretty but fail miserably at the hang test. Theoretically a balanced yarn will hang straight and not twist when dangled. Mine will practically skein themselves when dangled. I can't say how important it really is to have a balanced yarn. There are loads of novelty/luxury yarns on the intarweb that are complex and frothy and I imagine many of them would fail this test as well. It's going to take loads of practice to make sure the strands are all evenly spun to make a good plied yarn. Whatever that means.

And then there's dyeing. Who would have thought how far one can stretch Easter egg dye tablets, food coloring and Kool-aid?

I went from this:

to this:

Skeined:

And reskeined to mix the colors:

I have noticed that my yarns seem to shrink after dyeing and washing. They don't seem felted so perhaps I am just stretching too much when I niddy. Eh.

Bitty rovings that I felted a bit in the dyepot. Whoops.

And oh yes, more. Leftmost and rightmost are plied mill ends. Second from left is leftover Kool-aid yarn and then the fiery one is a mix of mill ends and predyed yellow and orange wool.

I'm always feeling I'm not getting enough time to spin each day but after posting all these pics I'm actually a bit exhausted. But exhilarated.

We will not speak of the Maryland Sheep and Wool. We musn't.

The Big Update

2006-04-27T17:56:00.000-05:00

It's safe to say that the "dead leaves as mulch" look is officially out this season at Chez Brambled Sheep as the front yard was finally mucked of winter's debris (oh heck, fall's debris) and dotted with all sorts of new fleurs. Fall's bulbs are mostly flowered and gone and it was time to freshen things up.

The funky invasive ground cover by the front door was ripped out and replaced by yummy succulents (my favorite, probably because their leaves are so much fun to squeeze). I know the plants will keep invading, forever and ever, from next door. Wouldn't want it to be boring, would I?

Next went in some plants called Stepables, little mosses and succulents and fernie-looking plants that can take some amount of trampling. The plastic marker even tells you how many times a day they can be tramped upon. Frankly, I'm not thinking these succulent types would look very good after a good stamping. But since they look good pre-trampling they went under the holly bush. Hopefully they won't be too offended by the clayey soil and permashade and spread! Spread!

I also removed a shattered brick and planted these bitty mosses. They look hardy enough to bear some traffic and maybe they'll even fill into the little cracks between bricks.

Of course it's rather hard to compete with the neighbor's azalea:

Gorgeous, huh?

Now the back is another story. I've never grown anything resembling food until last year when someone foisted a tomato plant on me. I stuck it in the front and ignored it until it surprised me by growing a number of small tomatoes. Shocker, huh? Now I've been severely bitten by the bug and am determined to grow veggies despite my itty scraps of yard. Last fall (entirely too late in the season) I planted a variety of carrots, parsley, broccolis, parsnips, and something called Hamburg parsley which has an edible parsnip-like root. I'm not entirely certain why I chose those last two since I've never had parsnips but there they grow, day after day. For the most part they struggled through the winter under cover of snow and leaves and have rebounded in warmer days.

Here we have loose-leaf lettuces, cukes and nasturtiums creeping up. Ever since our trip last fall to Cannon Beach, Oregon where they seemed endemic I've coveted nasturtiums. Their orange blossoms and bottom-stemmed leaves fascinate me. Recently planted are tomatoes, bell peppers, and beans. I guess I can't explain why I've gone veggie crazy since I scarcely ever eat them. I'm hoping the fact that I've grown them will entice me to eat them.

Both front and back yards are fairly shady so it's even odds how well things will go. Which hasn't stopped me from going herb-crazy as well.

Horseradish, catnip, oregano, chives, peppermint, rosemary, basil, cilantro and (I may have gone totally crazy) blueberry, raspberry, grape. Maybe I'll get a cheapo trellis and stick it against the fence for the grapes.

If I ever get a real yard I might be dangerous.

Tomorrow: wool update. Yarns spun, skeins dyed; craziness ensues.

Wheelie

2006-04-18T20:11:00.000-05:00

Lookee what came in the mail! The Ashford US distributor, to their everlasting credit, sent this off late Friday afternoon and it sped here all the way from Washington state in record time. (It actually arrived yesterday.) The missing crankshaft, and three screws, all just what I needed. Actually two of the screws seemed to be extra parts; which is odd since there aren't any other extra parts in the whole kit. Upon assembling the last bits of the wheel I discover that I have the drive band for single drive and not double drive which means it's only half as long as it needs to be. Luckily I also have the maintenance kit with a spare drive band which serves. Of course I could have just used a piece of yarn or something. Despite all of the weirdness with mismatching and missing parts I finally am the proud owner of:

One fully assembled Ashford Traditional Double Drive, thankyouverymuch.

I normally love assembling things, models, puzzles and such, but this was a royal pain and I am thoroughly glad it's finished. As far as I can tell it seems to be a solid and sturdy wheelie and I hope we can make great yarns together.

Speaking of which, yesterday the fiber also came. Four pounds and a bonus 4 oz. pack of woolie rovings - mill ends and very affordable. If four pounds of wool doesn't sound like much,

it is. One pound of light, one of medium brown, one of dark brown, and one grab bag. Something like that. The grab bag is full of somewhat felted and clumped looking bits of wool; if I had a drum carder I could send them through that to sort them better. I'll have to work on them at some point.

I started on the easy stuff. Creamy smooth light roving with dark veins through it. Having only used a wheel a couple of times, it was rough going. I treadled for a while and then tried to draft. Every time I moved my hand my legs would stop. Start the legs again. Move the hand. Legs stopping, usually with the wheel in a bad spot to start again. I finally got the legs and the hands to move at the same time. I had to treadle much faster than I wanted to keep the wheel moving. I really wanted to go slow... slow.. slow to keep track of the roving. Even on the slow ratio I had to keep that wheel moving. I couldn't draft too much; I had to keep letting the wheel suck the yarn up. Oh yes, this is much faster than spindling.

As I was making the yarn, it looked very horrible. Slubby, thick, thin, way too thin, clumpy, overtwisted, undertwisted. Strangely enough, when I skeined it up a lot of the inconsistencies seemed to even out so it looks much better. The whole thing seems pretty underspun; guess I should let more twist in and not let the wheel suck it in so fast. Keeping that in mind the gray skein from today fared much better and I only broke the yarn a couple of times and had fewer problems with the yarn wrapping around the flyer rod. The first skein was a whopping 3+ ounces and the next about 1.5 or so. They took hardly any time at all! I haven't figured out how I want to draft just yet; sometimes one hand is drafting against the other and then the other is drafting. It's going to take a spot of time to get acquainted, my wheelie and me.

Knitted my cats a few cat toys over Easter. I guess I overstuffed this one since the stitches are gaping open and Frankie is busy extricating a piece of catnip. Well, there's plenty more where that came from.

Easter

2006-04-16T00:58:00.000-05:00

Because you're never too old for Easter baskets.

More Eggs

2006-04-15T20:46:00.000-05:00

Designing pysanky is rather more difficult than I'd thought. I could easily copy a pattern from another egg but what fun would that be? I suppose I could compile a list of motifs that I could slap together easily. P. doesn't seem to have this problem. The black egg in the front, easily the best, is his. This is the problem I have learning new skills; I always try to do much more than a beginner can handle. I'm trying to think of simple eggs to do but it seems like a waste of time. I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet.

Cranked Up

2006-04-15T00:31:00.000-05:00

My wheel came today after several days of impatient waiting. I hesitated before opening the box due to a creeping dread that I finally had to ignore. I had a strong image of Schroedinger's cat in my mind; some sort of physics clap trap regarding an unfortunate cat in a box. As long as the box remains closed it is impossible to determine whether it is alive or not. As soon as it is opened then it can be observed whether it lives. So somehow the cat exists in some limbo while the box remains closed. Which seems to beg questions of philosophy rather than physics. Does a tree fall in the forest? Do physicists possess a hostility towards cats?

As long as I did not open the box, then the mystery brown color would be fine and and the wheel would be gorgeous. But open it I did, and yes, I found it to be a gorgeous color. The finish wasn't shiny like I thought, which just means I will have to polish it, or wax it, or whatever it is you do with woody stuff. The wood took up the finish with dramatic variation; leaving some parts dark, some light, and stripes and mottles everywhere. They even finished the lazy kate and niddy to match. But heck, I am coming to like the color(s). A lot.

Those of you who are very clever will notice that the wheel is not actually attached to the base. These is possibly due to a missing crank shaft. Oh yes, I looked through the packing paper (again), the little fiddly parts, the box. No crank shaft. It is not even on the parts list, mysteriously. The nice lady at the Ashford distributor says it is normally rubber banded to the double leg support. Which it wasn't. I can guess that it had to be removed during the finishing and ehm.. well that's the mystery isn't it? Also a few screws were missing. I could get those from the hardware store, but the crank shaft.. phooey! They are being sent out today. I guess it's all good, though. My fiber still hasn't come. Soon, soon. I've been making pysanky eggies in the meantime.

Eggstra

2006-04-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

My pysanky kit came today. I wasted no time tearing it open and dropping eggs onto hard surfaces. Suffice it to say, this is harder than it looks.

I had to choose among 16 colors and went with basic black. I figured the first egg should be simple and use only one color. I perused an online symbols dictionary and chose this one:

This comes from Ghana and means: Sesa woruban - I change or transform my life.

In terms of appearance of the symbol and interpretation you can hardly top that.

For the other side I threw on a number 13, always a favorite of mine. This number supposedly brings bad luck to many but also represents the divine, the unpredictable, the wild card that breaks through static and brings needed change. According to Wikipedia, left-handers sometimes consider '13' to be lucky, perhaps in response to their bass-ackwards approach to life. I suppose sinistrals are attracted to the sinister; how else could it be?

I thought it would be simpler to have just one color; however waxing in that huge expanse of white was a royal pain. Pysanky design is more complex than line drawing; it's more like painting. Every color must be planned in advance as each color dyed must be darker than the last.

The process itself was not as simple as I'd expected. The wax blobbed and globbed. The templates for drawing circles on the eggs wouldn't sit straight and I found it easier to just draw them by hand. When holding the egg to the candle to melt the wax for removal it took forever for it to melt. Then it would solidify too quickly for me to wipe it away. It seems impossible to remove it completely. The process of removing the egg goop inside was actually not too bad. Then the inside must be rinsed; a messy procedure that made the dye run and fade. Of course I forgot to wax the bottom which would have helped.

P. is already drawing on his egg; it already looks far more well-thought out than mine. Perhaps I'll expand my palette beyond the monochromatic soon.

Pysanky-Panky

2006-04-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

Through the magic of flickr I have rediscovered the craft of pysanky. I'm not entirely certain how I am going to find time for (another) hobby but I know this: I must have pysanky!

(Click on photos to make them bigger and to see the artists' other eggs. No, really. They're all gorgeous.)

Pysanky is the Ukrainian craft of dyeing eggs with beeswax and dyes. (Pysanka is one egg. Pysanky is the plural.) A design is penciled onto a whole uncooked egg. A stylus called kistka is then used to hold wax bits over a candle flame until they melt. The wax is then transferred to the egg to cover all of the parts which need to remain undyed. Then the egg goes plop! Into the prepared dye bath. The dyes work much more quickly than the wimpy easter egg food coloring dyes. These are serious dyes and are produce very intense colors. Let's say you have now turned the egg yellow. The parts under the wax are still white. After the dye has dried you will now wax the egg parts that need to stay yellow. And so on and so forth through all of the colors.

Finally when the egg is dry you use the candle to melt away the wax. Then a small hole is made in the egg to remove the contents. After cleaning and drying the egg will last practically forever with proper care.

There's a great series of photos here that demonstrates the process.

I remember doing this once in class as a kid. I've been wanting to try it again but couldn't figure out how to try it or what it might be called. A search of the Michael's and A.C.Moore's websites didn't turn up anything useful which is rather disappointing. I didn't figure the brick and mortar stores would be more productive. Craft stores, huh.

So I got the super duper deluxe kit from All Things Ukrainian. Maybe it will even make it by Easter.

I Did It

2006-04-04T18:41:00.000-05:00

I did it. I took the plunge. I've been thinking about it for months and I've been trying to wait patiently until my credit card was finally paid off (so close and yet so far) and I finally caved in.

I bought this from thewoolery.com. They seem to be the logical choice since they offer free shipping on wheels, plus mine came with a choice of freebies, most of which seemed to consist of a niddy and something else. I already had a niddy so it was difficult to choose, but I finally went with a niddy and the Ashford Book of Spinning. The wheel comes with a lazy kate and 4 bobbins already. I also opted for a polycord turbo kit and a maintenance kit, cuz you know, you need to maintain that thang! The polycord drive band apparently gives a different friction to the process and I figured it would be best to have that option.

I went with single treadle. I really don't get the whole double treadle thing. If you've got arthritis or something I can completely understand if it helps, but otherwise, why use two legs when you can do the job with one? I've briefly tried both styles and I can say I definitely prefer the single.

Double drive finally won out over scotch tension when I found out that the Ashford Traditional double drive also has scotch, so why not?

Then there was the issue of the finish. I really didn't want to get into finishing it myself and risking getting varnish into something that really needed to be finish-free. The Woolery offers clear, walnut, and cherry varnishes. I wasn't entirely sure exactly what colors 'walnut' and 'cherry' were supposed to be and couldn't find any examples on the web. It seems every Traddie is a nice smooth blonde color. A google image search of furniture seemed to imply that walnut was a blondish color and cherry a rich mahogany. A phone call to D. at the Woolery quickly disabused me of that notion; apparently it's more or less the other way around. She stated that walnut was a sort of chocolate color, and also that it "wasn't very good looking." I suppose I could have taken her at her word but I have this crisp image in my head of a rich red chocolatey color (okay, it's going to just chocolate it seems) and if the wheel turns out to be a poopy brown color, I can't blame anyone for it but myself.

So hmm, by late next week It should arrive. I say It, because I simply can't find myself wanting to name It, which seems to be tradition. Unless I should just call It It, which is actually a possibility.

There are downloadable instructions on wheel assembly from the Ashford site (guess I can't wait!). There are very few words; they are completely pictographic. I appreciate that they are accomodating the larger non-English speaking world, but what exactly is this all about?

It seems obvious that they want you to hold the screws against the paper. After putting the paper down for a day and coming back to it it dawned on me that the pictures are life size representations of the screws and this is how you pick the right size screw for that step.

I think.

Oh yes, the land of happy faces. The directions are filled with little smilies and frownies to indicate what you should and shouldn't be doing. This much is certain. Less obvious at first was the meaning behind the little stars. They seem to signify a clicking sound, when parts are snapped together correctly. But when I first saw them, I thought they were more of a frownie significance. You know, like the stars that appear around Jughead's crown after Betty has brained him for telling her that he saw Archie with his hand down Veronica's shirt.

Actually for the most part the directions are fairly intelligible and rather fun to interpret, like one of those learning activities that is supposed to stretch your gray matter in fun new directions. But this... this!

Those are very clearly scissors. Scissors. Look, when scissors get involved I need details. How much to cut. Where. What I am cutting, especially. I'm guessing it's to make sure that this one wire is exactly 14 3/4 inches but hey, maybe this is the step where I'm supposed to take the scissors and instructions and cut out little people-holding-hands.

Sorry for the crummy pics. I really don't think there is a light in my house bright enough for my camera. Guess I need to buy a spotlight or something.

Now a wheel just isn't any good without fiber. These people have been in business for scarcely 3 months and currently are reselling mill end rovings from Brown Sheep Company. Now at $6.00 to $7.50 a pound you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal anywhere else. Of course since they are mill ends, what you are getting is a grab bag. You get some choice between grays/blacks, white, and browns, and can probably call them to see if they have odd colors laying around. But it's basically a big surprise and I'm certainly not going to divulge how much I may, or may not, have ordered. I didn't buy any, I swear! *fingers crossed behind back*

Two weeks until the poopy It-wheel arrives!

Filler

2006-03-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Once again, I find that I am going for long periods of time without blogging. I suppose it's because I'm in sort of a fiber funk, and it's difficult for me to talk about the projects that I'm not.. doing. Mostly I'm surfing the web and fantasizing about my spinning wheel, which I really hope that I don't come to hate if I ever get one.

It seems a lot of blogs are promoting this site which sells knitted lace patterns (okay, I know there's knitted lace and lace knitting and they are different things but I can't be arsed to figure it out just yet) and yarn. Most popular seems to be this Wedding Ring Shawl, which to be sure is quite beautiful and no doubt a great challenge to knit. But frankly I can't see myself wearing it. Much more of interest to me is the Cora shawl, which would take about $50 worth of Merino wool, and um, is such a pretty girly pink, or alternately, a pretty girly purple. How did I come to like pretty girly colors? And would I actually wear them?

I also have been cruising the Berroco site, purveyor of more patterns and yarn. (Okay, I haven't got a yarn store particularly close and I'm feeling deprived. I may also be way behind the times with this stuff.) It seems they sell five hundred million kinds of yarn, a significant portion of which is novelty yarn, you know, that funky "man-made" (their own words) stuff. I have to say I find their natural fiber blends to be most attractive. Foliage, (go ahead! click on the pictures and shade card.) and Ultra Alpaca, a yummilicous alpaca-wool blend. Also of interest are free patterns, such as this interesting bag, not really my style but I still likes it. It definitely does not look like your standard knitted/felted catbarf purse and totally redeems fake yarn. More fitting is this snazzy number. Also yummy is this softly undulating scarf which I love because of its color changing goodness and this crazy braided scarf (braided yarn? wild! maybe too wild but mads props for creative genius).

Free patterns are the good. I haven't checked out all the patterns yet but it's always fun to find a new source of FREEBIES.

Sweet

2006-03-23T21:28:00.000-05:00

Finally found my tax info after searching for oh.. a month or so. Serendipitously in a stack of knitting papers. After doing my federal return I see that I am owed $358. Which is very nearly the cost of a spinning wheel. Specifically an Ashford Traditional single treadle. I was set on double drive, but am no longer certain. Tax refund, you will be mine!

Hit and Miss

2006-03-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

The soap from several posts back is finished curing. Basically, we've gone from this:

To this:

Um, oops. Guess there was too much water in the mix. If I ever feel I need more punishment I'll boil it down more and let it cure as one big piece, then slice it up. It seemed too easy to be true.

Luckily other things are easier. Like carrots. I planted some veggies in containers last fall and it turned out to be too late for harvesting. I concocted a genius system where I numbered the six containers and wrote down what was in each one, then promptly lost the paper. So I'm not sure what is what. Looks like carrots and umm.. parsley or something overwintered well and there is even a broccoli in there somewhere. Now that it is spring they are taking off and it is time to start thinning. Pulled up a couple carrots and they were absolutely crisp and sweet and mild. No trace of bitterness which plagues supermarket carrots. I can't wait to have a real yard and plant acres and acres of carrots. Okay, rows and rows of them anyway.

While summer is bringing on veggie bounty, it also bums me out. I'm still wanting to make gloves and hats and sweaters, which are utterly useless at this time of year. I actually despise the heat and humidity and can't wait to move to a more temperate clime. Where it might actually rain.

I found a round basket that was the perfect size for the recycled sweater kitty pi. It has turned out to be a big hit, along with the original pi and a third one I made out the pistachio almond yarn I am using for my cabled tote bag. (Which I promise to finish within my natural life span.) It feels really good to see my works being used, (cats are oh so fickle, you know) and even the boyfriend socks see a lot of use. Strangely I don't mind handwashing my knitted socks.
Last but not least, I caved in a bought a medium-sized niddy-noddy. I really wished I'd splurged on one beforehand; it was only about $20 and beats the holy heck out of using a cookie sheet to wind skeins. Slowly but surely I am acquiring the tools of the trade instead of just making do. I am seriously considering buying a spinning wheel, if I can ever get my credit card paid off. I've gotten a little frustrated with how little a drop spindle holds and I also would love to get both of my hands involved in spinning and let my foot do the work.

After having been sick for so long yesterday was the first day I did anything fibery in over a week. I dyed some recycled merino yarn from a sweater using an easter egg dye kit, 6 ounces of wool altogether. This was my first time making multi-colored skeins and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Even after 5 skeins there was still plenty of dye left and I stashed it away for another time. Not to mention there is still the entire front and back of the sweater to frog. Can't wait for the post-Easter egg dye kit sale!

Yuck

2006-03-19T10:03:00.000-05:00

I haven't died. I haven't given up on the blog.

I've had the flu. Or what I can only guess is the flu. For SEVEN FRICKING DAYS now. The doctor (that I work for) looked at me and said, "You're fine. Well, you're not fine, but you know.." Which hasn't stopped me from spending every possible moment of the last seven days lying in bed, or on the couch, staring at the ceiling and hoping my Robitussin lasts.

I never realized the human body could produce so much mucus. Or that my nose would get so chapped and that I wouldn't even care. I haven't had the characteristic aches and pains of the flu, but I have been exhausted beyond imagining and had hot spells and chills. I suppose I might have had a fever but we've lost our thermometer. Without the constant good food from my in-laws we might have just starved to death. On the positive side I did lose 5 pounds (although I might have preferred to do it differently, given the choice). Today is the first day I've had enough energy to consider writing something so I'm taking advantage. Sometime soon I'll post pics of my weekend trip to West Virginia.

Use Your Noggin

2006-03-06T20:20:00.000-05:00

The Pi is as finished as it's ever going to be. After fruitlessly sending it through the washer and dryer and even plopping it into scalding hot water and mashing it about, it won't felt. After the bother I experienced when I failed to felt the previous Pi I just couldn't muster more than a half-hearted effort. Bah humbug. I must say that felting is my absolute least favorite of the sundry fiber arts.

More entertaining is this online snowflake toy. Anything that gives me ideas for abstract patterns gets the thumbs up. Which brings me to knitPro, a sort of thingie that will turn your image into a tile-like knittable pdf graph. It doesn't have an option for making the image black and white although you can just do it before feeding in the graphic. Too much fun.

Chococat Kitty Pi

2006-03-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

I need a break from all the fussiness of sock knitting. Especially the fussiness of too-many strand sock knitting. I wanted something mindless and lazy. After my cat peered at me grouchily through narrowed eyes from my first kitty pi (which has been mostly appropriated by my other cat) I realized I am still two kitty pis short of Maximum Kitty Pi Saturation. Perfect!

Wool is recycled from a thrift store sweater. I don't think I took a picture of it. Just imagine a purpley-brown bulky sweater out of maximum chunky four-strand yarn with jumbo vertical cables out of bluey-brown and beigey-brown yarn. Ooh yah, sounds right sexy, doesn't it? Luckily cats don't complain about color schemes. Or funny smells. That's right, all of that maximum bulky yarn absorbed extra of that mysterious Thrift Store Smell. What comprises the Thrift Store Smell? It's hard to say. It is reminiscent of oily car trunks; cold drafty garages; houses that have been lived in rather too long by the same people. Dusty closet shelves; sickeningly sweet cacophany of perfumes and powders. Discarded gifts; forgotten people; forgotten lives. But oddly I have found that the Smell is largely the same from store to store.

I tried washing some of the skeins in shampoo which has served me well with previous sweaters. The water actually seemed to activate the Smell which rapidly filled the bathroom. After two shampoos and Dawn dish detergent I found that their fragrances seemed to mask and merge with the Smell so it was completely impossible to tell if they were actually destroying it or just combining forces. At this point I gave up and set the skeins up to dry and hoped like heck that time and air would serve. After a few days the smell did in fact largely dissipate, not only for the washed yarn but for the unwashed as well. Who would have thought? After the kitty pi is washed and felted (please, let this pi felt this time) that should also help. Good news is, cats love funky Thrift Store Smell. It seems to bring out their primal urge to.. well.. lie on things. Like new thrift stuff. So it's pretty much win-win here.

Slight Progress

2006-03-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

I've made it to the sock heel. I'm doing 1x1 corrugated slip-stitch ribbing (which might be completely insane) and it involves lots of twisting and dropping the yarn, picking up the yarn, untwisting the balls of yarn.. it might be more complicated than is really necessary. Supposedly one can knit with two colors by holding one yarn in each hand. Yeah. Sounds easy! So this could take.. umm. a while. The middle part is where the join was and all of the loose ends are. It's kinda sloppy which is why I made it the heel side. No one will look at that, right?

The green doesn't pop as much as I'd hoped. But I'm pretty satisfied with the designs so far. Here are some doodles I've graphed out as potential for the rest of the sock (yeah, I'm kinda making it up one part at a time as I come to it):

I'm thinking of putting the wavy one in around the insole in contrasting color purl stitches. It's pretty easy to plot out the pattern on that part; I'm guessing it'll be around 60 stitches, like the cuff. I'll probably fill in the gusset with simple spreckles of color and.. I'm not going to worry about the toe decreases yet. I'm not!

Soap Opera

2006-02-26T17:50:00.000-05:00

I've been saving up my soap scraps because I'm too stingy to throw them out. I finally decided to try melting them together into bigger pieces following the rather vague directions here. It doesn't say how much water to use vs. how much soap scrap so I'm just sort of muddling through. It seems too little water won't dissolve the soap; but it's difficult to tell how much water is too much. I've been using extra water and then letting it simmer down to a thicker sludge.

Yum! I'm guessing this custardy crap is a good consistency. Next I pour it into cupcake molds.

These were done yesterday. You can see how soft they are from the fork marks. I'm guessing it's going to take a long.. long time for them to harden. Like weeks, even.

My cats like to sleep on backgrounds that camouflage them. Go figure.

And, oh yeah.. knitting stuff.

I decided that the lavender yarn from my latest thrift sweater suited the variegated purple alpaca better than the original pink yarn I had picked out (which is lurking in the background along with some green yarn). So I've officially started the Berry Explosion Socks. The cuff is corrugated ribbing, which is two colors twisted around each other in knit two purl two pattern. It is firmer and less elastic than regular ribbing so I had to make extra sure that it would fit over my heel. I'm thinking of ways to incorporate the other two colors into the pattern somehow. Something crazy like these socks.

Blog Jam

2006-02-24T23:56:00.000-05:00

Socks! Finished. Feet! Covered.

Cat! Lurking. (Valentine's Day present! Late.)

Thrift store sweaters! Acquired. (Yes, even more.)

It occurred to me that many thrift stores store away their sweater stock during the summer season. So I had to stock up. Two big bags worth of mostly wool sweaters for about $40. Which is about what you would pay for one new sweater at a department store. Or one visit to a yarn store, for that matter. So I don't feel particularly ripped off. Acquired: great lavender, greens, grays, brown, and more colors. A crazy vest that I plan to cut the squirrels out of and frame. More natural wools to dye. (Um, someday.) I suppose ripping up sweaters for fun is a bit odd. But it gives me something to do in the car. (Do you know how much time is wasted sitting in cars?) Rip, rip.

Most interestingly was this sweater. I can't say I would be caught dead wearing it but as a sampler for out of the box knitting stitches it excels. (Can a knit sweater be Post-Modern?) What appears to be vertical cables or welts are wads of extra stockinette stitches that roll up. Slipped stitches well up to cover entire sections of pattern only to recede again. The whole thing is composed of vertical elements that refuse to stay in their confines, slopping over and under and on top of their neighbors. I'm not at all certain how much of it is constructed. What really boggles my mind is the shear variety of stitches and patterning that vary across the entire garment. I have to wonder what it might look like with better colors and with fewer of those caterpillar welt wads.

Lost

2006-02-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

I realized yesterday that a recent post had disappeared. I remembered writing it. But it was nowhere to be found, either on my blog or in my post-editing page. So probably no one ever saw it. But when I looked it up in Google search by keyword, it showed up. It is on my blog. But not on it. At least I could copy and paste the source code for the post to restore it to visible status.

Here it is.

Needless to say, I have now backed up all of my posts and photos.

Snow Day

2006-02-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

It's snowing. Which is no surprise to those of us on the east coast. It is supposed to snow eight to twelve inches. Which is fine with me. I like the quiet. Snow drives everyone indoors. It silences the hubbub. Now there is just the quiet ssss of snow hitting trees, hitting sidewalks, smothering cars.

We took Frankie out on the leash; it's nice to finally have a cat who likes to be walked (or walk us). This is her second snowfall and she still hasn't figured out what to make of it. I'm glad it's the weekend; now I won't have to worry about cleaning the car off at an ungodly hour, or driving in horrid conditions just to get to work.

I finished the first seaweed sock and started the next. It's a bit short for P.'s foot but I'm guessing it will just have to stretch out a bit. The gusset is much more pronounced in the bulkier yarn. I'm thinking I will try out different sock patterns soon, different ways of turning the heel and all that good stuff.
Which leads me to my next project. The more I worked with the green alpaca the more I liked it. It's not nearly as rough as I first thought. It actually has a nice silky feel and sheen to it. So I got myself some. Pinks, purples, reds, and blues all jumbled together in a berry explosion of color. I'm plotting to combine it with the pink sweater yarn in various nefarious ways. I'm going to have to start swatching it out; I want to twist the two yarns so that the ribbing on the cuff has one color on the purls and the other on the knits. I'm not certain whether the cuff will still be stretchy enough to stay up. Then the body of the sock will have stripes of alternating yarns with slip stitching to form little bricky shapes, kind of like on the scarf from a few posts back. The toe and heel I want to have a contrasting color too. Rather complex, actually. I'm excited.

Snow!

Loot

2006-02-05T19:45:00.000-05:00

Started off yesterday by hitting estate sales and coming back with these:

of which the pink one (yum!) is already reduced to wool-blend skeins washed and drying. As if that weren't enough I also hit the newly opened AC Moore's in the area.

I am never going to Michael's again.

Suffice to say that while I find AC Moore's yarn selection only marginally more interesting than Michael's, their selection of needles was mind-bogglingly diverse. They had Clover, plastic, metal, all different brands, circular, straight, long, short, double-pointed, knitting looms, and every kind of point protector, needle and knitting gauge, counter and doodad you could imagine. Translucent rainbow colored crochet hooks that I coveted even though I don't crochet. Magazines. Books. While they certainly aren't the End All and Be All of knitting nirvana, it certainly is a vast improvement to this yarn-store impaired locale. And without further ado this is the damage:

Alpaca yarn which was a bit rough feeling probably because of the dye. Only time will tell if washing will soften it up. Boyfriend picked out the color; so begins the Seaweed Socks. A cool counter. Two mags. And a book on modular knitting. And a sort of knitting essay compilation book that came from Border's. Yeah. We went shopping all right.

Giving The Slip

2006-02-03T23:39:00.000-05:00

I've been fascinated with slip-stitch knitting of late and continue to be amazed at all of the ways that it can change the texture and color of otherwise plain knitting. I first got a taste for it on the heel of my socks, where the slipped stitches are twice as big as the normal ones next to them giving an interesting ridgey texture.

But what I didn't realize was it's potential for integrating different colors, heck even completely different yarns into the same row without fussing with two yarns at the same time.
Now we can see on the magazine cover above (let's move right past the funky yarn and just focus on the stitch pattern, ok?) that two different yarns are slip-stitched together to form a boxy sort of ladder pattern. So I decided to swatch it out and see what would happen.

Ok, the bottom part is actually just reverse stockinette with a few stripes of knit thrown in. I'm a sucker for collecting interesting stitches and sometimes simplicity goes a long way. I started slipping the knit stitches towards the grey yarn and you can see what a difference in size that makes.

Strange how it looks like plain stockinette from the front! This is where I threw in some funky handspun grey llama wool I got from eBay a million years ago. When I first got this yarn I really thought it was great stuff; it had that handspun look and I couldn't figure out what the heck to do with it. Now after spinning for a while I can see that the yarn is actually crap. It's way overspun, uneven in tension and thickness, and filled with weed crap. Not just little bits that I can totally understand not being picked out. Huge stuff, like that debris in the picture below that the needle is pointing to. I have to laugh at myself because I thought it was so great when I got it. At least I have more idea of what to do it. I'll probably ply it on itself; that will remove some of the overtwisting, even it out and fluff it up a bit. In theory.

Using little bits of it at a time also helps. The pictures don't show at all how well the colors and textures of the red wool and grey llama yarns complement each other. The slipping creates little boxes that I find pretty interesting. Below we can see how the grey yarn is stretched over the red rows to rejoin the knitting above. That is slipping; passing the yarn loop from the left to the right needle without actually knitting or purling it.

I like the reversibility of this pattern (until the funky llama yarn hits anyway) and I haven't yet decided whether to turn this swatch into a scarf or not.

We Now Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Knitting

2006-02-02T17:41:00.000-05:00

Finally got back to finishing up the tote bag. I just have to knit the two endless straps in seed stitch and concoct a way to connect them without leaving a scar. Unfortunately every time I bring the bag out to work on it

this happens.

I'm guessing I've found the yarn to make my next kitty pi out of.

Update and Stuffs

2006-02-01T20:33:00.000-05:00

More knitting lessons on the way soon. I've taken some photos but haven't the energy to get all texty with them today.

The alpaca shrug thingie is sitting in a bag somewhere. Suffice to say, I fought mightily with the binding off on the first side of the shrug. I always bind off too tightly and the more elasticity a yarn has, the tighter the bind off becomes. Isn't that kind of backwards? The cast on is always nice and stretchy; why can't someone invent a bind off that is just as elastic? None of my books seems to give many options. Even when using a different cast off with a needle three (3!) sizes bigger, the top edge always puckers into a little scar. Finally I used a crochet hook to basically crochet across the top which duplicates the usual cast off, more or less. This gave the best results and I figured I would try that with an even bigger hook. Instead of undoing the top edge stitch by stitch I figured I would be very clever and just frog a row or two and then pick up the stitches. Oi vey.

Apparently my alpaca yarn is very slippery and doesn't have the same stitch memory as wool. Generally you can frog wool and the stitches tend to stay together in a nice cuddly way. All the way across my shrug the stitches drooped and fell apart and dropped. I figured I would frog some more to get some older stitches and it didn't help. So not only did I lose several rows of work but I also must go stitch by stitch, repairing each one, fixing the dropped stitches.

And then bind off.

Having had enough of knitting for a while I returned to my Kool-Aid dyed rovings from way back when turning this

into this. Socks maybe? Maybe I will ply it against itself just to see what happens. I may even dye some more roving some time. Apparently when you dye medium gray or brown wool it turns a luscious deeper color.

How to Knit In Five Million Easy Lessons

2006-01-31T20:34:00.000-05:00

Can it be? Am I really insane enough to try to demonstrate how to knit? Yes, by golly, or Al Gore didn't invent the Intarweb.

Okay, first thing. You need two sharp sticks and some sheep hair. Or some of that cheap ass machine-spun plastic stuff. Acrylic, right? Right.

First thing you need to do is Cast On. There are a multitude of ways to do this. I am going to demonstrate the Long-Tail Cast On. Because it's the only one I know.

I am going to warn you that I am left-handed and while most knitting is fairly ambidextrous this may or may not impact how confusing you find these pictures. By the way, clicking on these photos will enlarge them in a new window. To maximize the confusion.

First you will need to make a slip knot. I do this by making a pretzel shape with the yarn and laying it on the table. Note that the short tail end is to the left and actually does not go through the loop but stays under it. How long the tail needs to be depends on your pattern but is usually about three times the length of the cast on edge. It won't be as short as in this photo.

Now take your needle and pick up the part of the tail that is under the loop. Since your tail should be longer than mine, you shouldn't risk pulling it through the loop.

Now tug on both ends of the yarn to snug the knot up against the needle. The circle part will shrink. Keep this part to the bottom of the needle so there is just one piece of yarn on the top. Don't make it tight!

This works best when your hands are really, really pink.

And here is your first loop on the needle. This is a good time to take a break.

Okay, break's over. If you have any brains you will have congratulated yourself with a tall shot of something cool and frosty. And alcoholic. Because this part's more complicated and if you're not a visual person, you're hosed.

I mean, let's get to it!

Hold the needle in your right hand. Any old which way. It's the left hand doing all the work here. All you righties are SOL.

Grab both ends of the yarn in your left hand. Make sure the tail end is the closer end from the needle at all times. While holding both ends in your palm, insert your thumb and forefinger between the two ends and spread them apart. The tail end is on the left.

Basically, you will use the needle to weave through the loop on the left, scoop up the yarn on the right, and bring it back through to form a loop on the needle. You will then have two loops on your needle.

I hope you're still holding those yarns apart. Because now you will bring the needle down, towards yourself, then underneath, then upwards, with the yarn on your thumb. Just like the photo above.

Now this photo even confuses me a bit. I know it's blurry enlarged but I'm reliant on my boyf to take photos while I pretend to knit. (Love ya Boots!)

The needle is still through the thumb loop. Bring it up towards the left leg of the loop on the forefinger. It goes over, under, and back towards yourself.

Now see this nifty loop on your thumb that connects right to the needle? You will bring the needle down and towards yourself, through that loop. And now.. slip that loop from your left thumb. You still have the two ends in your palm, though, (you do, don't you?) and now tug on those two ends and snug the loop up against the needle just like you did with the slip knot.

Now you have two loops on your needle and your fingers are spreading the two strands apart just like in the first step. Guess what? You get to do it again until you have however many stitches on the needle that the pattern calls for. This lays the foundation for your knitted item. It sounds like a pain in the ass and it is until you get the hang of it. If you get tired of it you can always go to Target and buy a scarf instead. No one will ever know.

Remember that tall frosty (alcoholic) drink? This is your chance to polish it off. Because next time, you will be exposed to the magic of Knitting and Purling. So bring your drinking caps.

Honeymoon in Aruba

2006-01-28T18:38:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged much lately.

The novelty has worn off of posting and it is turning into actual work. I am not entirely certain whether it is just the blogging or blogging and knitting that are wearing on me. I burn through hobbies pretty quickly and I can never tell whether the next hobby will be one that intrigues me for life or is just a passing phase. I suspect it is not the fiber art part of it (yet) since there are any number of aspects to spinning, weaving, dyeing, knitting, crocheting, pattern design etc. that can be explored. I really think it could take a lifetime to explore them.

The next few weeks will determine whether Brambled Sheep lives or dies. The honeymoon is over. Do I pitch it over the boat to drown?

It seems clear to me that this blog needs to be revamped, amped up, streamlined, repurposed, stripped down, repainted if it is to maintain my interest.

It kind of needs a mission statement.

I suppose I could showcase the inch by inch progress of my knitting (sometimes it seems like millimeters) but really.. even I don’t want to see that.

The question is: what do I want to see?

The blogs I enjoy reading are ones that employ a fair balance of good photos and funny smart writing. The photos are the easy part, naturally.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to sharpen my writing skills which have dulled both through a reduction in writing and reading. I have devolved from reading entire books and novels to mere web browsing and magazine articles to simply watching DVDs. Not really a good workout for the ol’ brain cells.

Of course one can’t simply write without topics. Or “content”, if you will. Should I write about my life? (I can only knit so fast, you know.) This brings forth a number of prickly dilemmas.

I am a very private person.

This blog is an extension of myself: public, undefended, available for anyone to stumble into at any time, unbeknownst to me, even as I sleep. It is a little more than I can stand as it is. The thought of exposing little bits and pieces of my brain and being gives me the heebs. I certainly couldn’t think of putting actual pictures of myself in the profile or anywhere else, for that matter.

But if it bothers me so much, then why bother at all? Because one can’t live one’s life in a storage locker. It’s comfy and dark and quiet here in my little hole in the ground, but one doesn’t get far in life without making connections and interacting with other people. You’ll never hear about that job, or that great house for sale down the block, or that great hidden store on the other side of town. Or, um, make friends for that matter.

So I have been sticking my toes into the public realm, bit by bit, with the easy things, blurbs about socks and yarns and cats and crap. But it’s time for my blog to grow up, to branch out, expand… or it’s going to end up like all of those blogs with two month’s worth of entries that ended in December 2002.

Do I want that commitment? Do I risk exposing myself to strangers and acquaintances, risk letting something slip I don't want my coworkers or neighbors to know? Does anyone want to hear about my stupid little life and do I even find it interesting enough to share? Can I even muster the energy for it?

I’m going to make a stab at it. Blogging encourages me to keep knitting, day after day; to seek out new techniques and patterns; to keep on crafting and making things.

Because getting my craft on makes me feel like more than just your average consumer droid. It gives me that little bit of character that makes me want to get out of bed and do something with my life instead of just watching taillights on the way to and from work. It gives me another option besides taking freaking phone calls all day and playing futile computer games and buying prepackaged crap made by a machine in Hong Kong.

And now the obligatory photo of knitting progress to maintain the balance of photo/babble:

Something About Socks

2006-01-22T12:41:00.000-05:00

The socks are finally finished. They fit pretty well considering this is my first fitted sock pattern. I weighed out the remaining yarn versus the socks themselves and there is actually enough left for another pair of socks if I shorten the cuffs a wee bit.

I am rather enamored of the slip-stitching on the heel. I love how it breaks up the colors into little chunks. I am strongly tempted to see what an entire sock would look like this way. I think this would use up more yarn than plain knitting, though. The only way I can foresee stretching the yarn out adequately would be to evenly divide the yarn into two balls, use the two circulars method, and start from the toe.

How hard could it be? (shifty glances)

Update La-la

2006-01-21T18:14:00.000-05:00

It seems harder for me to blog lately. I guess concentrating on trying to finish one project at a time instead of doing a million things concurrently doesn't lead to much blogability for me. Luckily I have now accumulated enough stuff so here goes.

Still haven't finished the socks. I am making creeping creeping progess to the toe. Four inches of stockinette seem like four miles right now. And the double pointed needles are starting to bug the shit out of me. I don't normally have so many issues with them but they keep sticking out every which way and poking into my sweater sleeves. I think it is because they are a smaller size than normal. I guess. My next pair of socks I swear to try the two socks on two circulars technique again so that I may make both socks at the same time.

So to distract myself from the neverending socks I have cast on for a new project. I have this gorgeous softer than fluff alpaca yarn from the Maryland Sheep and Wool that I haven't found a worthy project for. The January 2006 issue of Creative Knitting features this Silky Tie Wrap that I will try to use for the alpaca. Unfortunately it does not show the back of the item so it is difficult for me to gauge how big it needs to be. It seems to be a triangular back with squares for the shoulders and tie in front. This will be the most "fitted" thing I have yet knit so I hope it turns out okay.

Above is the beginning of the wrap with a ball of the yarn. It definitely will need to be blocked so it may look more like the picture below. I have never blocked anything before, nevermind blocking alpaca so this should prove.. interesting.

I can't really seem to keep Frankie out of these pictures.

I also charted a bit of pattern for fair isle (look at me! trying to learn blocking and fair isle in the same week. I guess I am too ambitious for my own good) with pine trees and alpacas. You say pine trees and alpacas don't belong in the same biome? I have no idea whether evergreens exist in the Andes but they sure do in the Pacific Northwest and there are lots of alpaca farms in that area and that's good enough for me.

Okay, maybe they don't really look like alpacas but they have four legs and... that's good enough for me too. Maybe I will put this onto some socks or something. Speaking of which..

I picked up these goodies from the bookstore. Now that I've gotten my toes wet (as it were) in the sock knitting universe I think I have gotten the bug. Haven't had a chance to look at "The Twisted Sisters Socks Workbook" in depth because it seems so chock full of useful information that I get too excited for my own good. These guys seem to have a real feel for color and there are hardly any photos in the book that aren't lusciously gorgeous.

These two socks in the "Socks Socks Socks" book really got my eye. Normally lace socks seem too drafty for me to take seriously but this pair really has something going for it.

Ever feel like there isn't enough time in the world to do all of the things you want to do? Guess I'd better get back to it then!

Socksess

2006-01-15T18:02:00.000-05:00

Sock one is now finished. After the gusset was through the colors started pooling pleasingly then began to band again. So I had to cheat and fiddle with the tension as I knit to get the colors to line up properly. Things were going fine until

some animal bit through the yarn, causing a color scheme scar towards the toe. Hence I now rechristen these socks the Frankie Bite Socks.

I learned kitchener stitch to properly finish the toe which inspired me to finish my previous tube sock endeavor. I can see how much more comfortable a fitted sock is and I'm guessing I've graduated forever from tube sock land. Bizarrely, after only a couple day's wear they have gotten pilly beyond belief. Wa wa wa.

Hope you're still working on that scarf, Snoo!

Insert Pun About Heels

2006-01-11T23:22:00.000-05:00

The vest has been completely frogged. Every row that I pulled out brought pangs of guilt that I hadn't expected. Even though I will never know who knitted this darn thing I kept sneaking furtive glances as though I would be caught destroying someone's handknit efforts for god's sake. I tried to dehumanize the vest and distance myself emotionally from it (y'know, like the serial killers do) but only had partial success. I kept telling myself that it was ugly, that it deserved to ripped up and made into something better that someone might actually wear and not shove into the thrift store drop box like an orphan - but the sad little rows kept staring at me with their precise firm stitching and purity of pattern long after the point of no return. Oh, handknit vest, what have I done?

The most peculiar thing about the vest was the fact that it wasn't actually knit from yarn. It was actually knit from what looks like pencil roving which was pretty much impossible to tell from just looking at it. There is completely no spin at all to it which made it difficult at best to frog. The wool was also dry feeling and brittle. I'm not certain if it is from age or just the quality of the wool. After shampooing and conditioning some samples (well it is hair after all) the roving did recover quite a bit and was actually draftable once more. So now I must wash and spin the rest of it. Spinning, hah! I never thought I would have to spin wool after reclaiming it from a garment. Only then will it became available for dyeing. At least I don't have to draft it. I can just spin it right up. My spinning has become rather thin with time and I haven't had success trying to spin bulky yarn so this will be a big help.

The sock is taking forever to knit. I'm already dreading the second sock. I do very much want to learn to knit two socks on two circulars at the same time. Someday. Right after I play with mosaic knitting, fair isle, slip stitching, and oh, a hundred other things. I am enjoying watching the colors do their thing, the striping, the puddling; oh yes my precious, it looks like it may actually puddle the way it is supposed to.

I was very surprised at how easy it was to get this far. I wasn't certain how typical this sock pattern was so I compared to some on the interweb and it seems pretty normal. I avoided sock knitting thus far because it seemed so very Complicated and Mysterious, like trying to make a souffle or one of those Japanese swords that is folded two hundred times. But it wasn't hard at all. I now know what a heel flap and a gusset are and how to ssk and slip stitch properly. Now it's just 7 and a half inches of round and round knitting and on to the toe.

And then, the other sock.

But we won't talk about that in front of the kids.

I May Be Totally Crazy

2006-01-07T20:23:00.000-05:00

I went to the yarn store today. Again. And I went to the thrift store yesterday and bought 9 (yes, 9) sweaters with interesting yarn that I want to frog. I may, in fact, be crazy. I have more clothes to frog, more fiber to spin, more projects to knit than I could possibly deal with in a rational manner in my natural lifespan. Yes, I realize there is an acronym for this syndrome.

How could I be expected to resist this yarn? I wanted it the first moment I saw it, all of those weeks ago. It really isn't my fault if it was still there in the yarn shop today, waiting to prey on my weak moral fiber.

I didn't just say fiber.

Now of all of my thrift store acquisitions this may be the most interesting. I really hate to pick on another fiber artist's work. But if your handknitted gift ends up in the thrift store, something is wrong. Was it all of the VM? For all of you non-knitterly types VM is vegetable matter. Weeds, seeds and other misdeeds that end up in a sheep's wool. The kind you are supposed to pick out when fiber arting. Everyone loves little grass bits in their clothes. Which is why all of the spring lines of clothing feature it prominently. Or maybe it's just that the vest is kinda, well, fugly. The shoulders point prominently when worn making it a nice blocky sort of garment. The kind of garment that is normally worn by the backwards aliens on Star Trek or Babylon 5 that would rather let their kid die than accept medical help from the demonic sky demons with future technology.

I'm going to be honest. When I saw this vest I saw 14 ounces of uncolored wool for $3.99 begging to be unraveled and dyed. It's death row for you, unloved handknitted gift.

Cable Guy

2006-01-05T23:21:00.000-05:00

Making good time on the tote bag. This is the first project I have knitted that wasn't made in one piece; the panels are single crocheted together. I had to relearn how to crochet. Crochet and I don't speak much anymore since it accused me of only using its hooks to pick up dropped knit stitches. Lies, I tell you.

This is giving me the chops I need to move on to bigger better projects. I may actually have the confidence to try a sweater soon. There, I said it! A SWEATER (sweaty palms). I have this big box of Icelandic Lopi yarn sitting there flaunting it's natural color goodness (grays! cream! chocolatey brown!) and taunting me. Taunting and flaunting, no less. It wants to be an Icelandic sweater, I promise you. This project makes me nervous because I have Icelandic heritage, and a part of me wants to Do This Right Dammit. I suppose I shall have to go pattern hunting.

I promise you this is the last kitty pi picture. I have run out of cats.

Stop taking my picture!

Krayzee Socks

2006-01-04T23:34:00.000-05:00

More Kitty Pi action.

I also finished the fan and feathers baby blanket. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get a decent picture of the whole thing. My camera doesn't seem to be able to take clear pictures of anything larger than a mouse. The blanket was rather smaller than I would have liked but it feels really good to have it off the needles. It was my last project for Another Person. Now I just have glorious time; time to knit for myself, whatever I want, whenever I want. No pressure. Just happy happy knitting spinning playing in the fields time.

I have started up on the cable tote bag again. Plus I got the krayzee sock yarn and pattern in the mail. It calls for a size needle which I don't have (of course). Which can only mean a Friday yarn store-hopping spree while hubby is at work! Shhh.

Humble Pi

2006-01-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

I think I have made peace with the circular needles. After an initial period of adjustment, I blasted this project off the needles in record time. No turning the needles, no dropped stitches, just non-stop brainless enjoyable knitting. I made the sides higher than the pattern calls for but I think I was a bit overzealous.

The yarn was a joy to work with. See the pretty flecks?

I spent more time yesterday trying to felt this than I care to admit. After two rounds through the washer the pi pilled and fuzzed but did not shrink. At this point I remembered that the washer does not get hot water for some reason. Hey, it still gets my clothes clean. I would complain to the landlord but our agent absolutely despises us and won't return calls unless the house is on fire. Honestly, perhaps not even then.

I tried felting it by hand by running hot water over it and then plunging it into cold water to shock it. I swirled it about as viciously as I could manage, trying to agitate and rub it into submission. It shrunk about an inch and that's when I called it quits.

Seeing as the sides are never going to stand up straight the way I had hoped they would I decided to fold them over. But for some reason my cast off edge is always way too tight. I tried to stretch it looser by jamming it over this cat tower after the pi came out of the wash. Since it was wet the yarn was more pliant. Until it snapped. Whoops! Hey, now the edge is just right!

I sent the pi through the dryer a few times to try and shrink it to no avail. I threw in the towel and presented it to the Board of Approval.

I'm not sitting in it.

Seriously. I won't do it.

You're not looking, right?

Kitty Pi

2005-12-30T17:49:00.000-05:00

I got this way awesome self-patterning sock yarn from ebay. I've never tried sock yarn before because the color schemes and striping/blotching usually look blechy to me but this rainbow handspun yarn WANTS ME. I can't wait to see the color changing as I knit it. And oh yeah, it comes with it's OWN SOCK PATTERN. Does it get any better than this?

I knitted the green fuzzy yarn into a swatch. It's always exciting to see what my yarn will look like when it is made into a fabric. It is actually quite soft and fuzzy. I imagine it would make something very warm. Well, if I had a whole lot more of it.

I have been wanting to make the infamous kitty pi bed for some time now. Now that I am nearing completion on the blanket I decided to get serious and print out the pattern. It calls for two skeins of Noro Big Kureyon, which I actually happened to have already. I got them on our trip to Portland, Oregon (the Pacific Northwest is my favorite area in the whole wide world) when I was determined to bring home some yarn at any cost. I hit a few yarn stores without luck until I found one on the side of the road (I don't remember the name) and found these cute little skeins with the most gorgeous colors. It was the fact that they had so much black in them that really appealed to me. It doesn't seem that many yarns embrace the power of black so I couldn't resist. I had no idea what I would do with them but now they have a purpose!

Not bad for one night's work. This is my first time seriously using circular needles and I don't think I prefer them. They are rather awkward and slow going. The yarn is a joy to work with though. I would love to learn to spin this thick and consistent!

Leapfrog

2005-12-28T23:23:00.000-05:00

More melony yarn.

I've been spending the last few days frogging old clothes that don't fit anymore. Well, they were actually clothing that never fit to begin with so the yarn is still new. Here is a nifty tutorial on how to dismember and commit wondrous acts of violence against hapless sweaters.

Why bother? Well, partly just to see if I can. And it's free raw material, which you won't get from the yarn store. And oh yeah, there really isn't a yarn store close by. Ok, there are Michael's stores about, but I am afraid of the scrapbooking and plastic plant parts of them. Which is about 95% of the store, people. (What on earth do plastic plants have to do with 'craft'?!)

You can get pretty much infinite yarn from a sweater coat. From that and other bits of clothing I got a bazillion balls of black boucle-ish acrylic, lots of red cotton and a few bits of other colors of cotton, and fuzzy green and pink acrylic. You might ask, What the heck does one do with a bunch of green fuzzy crap? This, my friend. This.

Knittin' Pretty

2005-12-27T12:22:00.000-05:00

Okay Susan, I can see from my webstats that you are checkin' out my blog wondering when I am going to post the pics from Christmas time so HERE THEY ARE.

So this is my friend Susan whom my mother and I gave knitting lessons to over Christmas holidays. You can tell she is a Serious Knitter by the way she tucks her extra needle behind her ear instead of in her mouth. (Why didn't I think of that?) She learned the Serious Art of Double-Tail Cast-on, Binding Off, and oh yeah, the Knit Stitch. If she has not completely forgotten these Arts by the time we next meet, I may grace her with the knowledge of the Purl Stitch (which my boyfriend has not mastered; may I publically remind him of his orphaned scarf of two year's labor, hoo hoo hoo!) She may someday even learn how to Spin.

And here is the lucky recipient of my first baby blanket, Katerina Rose, Susan's baby girl of only four months. Okay, it is cheesy to take a digital photo of actual photos but there you go. It is not obvious from these two photos but the blanket and her fuzzy wuzzy suit are the exact same color (the photo on the right is closer to the true color.)

I did not know they made babies like this because the entire Christmas Eve evening she did not cry once nor even make a sour face. She played quite happily on her travel blanket and practiced rolling onto her stomach which she would be able to do quite readily if it weren't for her stubborn arm which refuses to move out of the way. As a matter of fact, Katra is so well behaved that I heartily recommend that other humans be banned from making babies and that we simply clone her and pass her out at Easter time.

I discovered a dropped stitch on my current blanket. Several repeats down. Maddeningly, I have the correct number of stitches. Is it possible that I dropped a stitch and somehow added a stitch at the same time? Apparently the odds of this happening are 100% in this particular instance.

And now for my Christmas loot:

Oh yes, I am a lucky girl. Here's to you, Dad! And oh yes, I gave the Boyfriend Scarf to the Boyfriend for Christmas (for all of you who are wondering about it.) Although I can't guarantee I will keep my mitts off of it. Is that a scarf in my bag? Shhh.

Ba-Da Bum

2005-12-22T20:30:00.000-05:00

The second scarf is now finished. It is much lighter than the first one which weighs in at a whopping 9 ounces. (Is it normal for a scarf to weigh half a pound?) The new one is about 2.5 ounces. Each bag of roving is 8 oz and ranges from about $8 to $12. So the cost of the first scarf is about $11 and the second scarf $3. Not bad for woolly goodness I should say.

My favorite part of the scarf is this bit with the clouds. It actually reminds me of Oreo cookie ice cream. I am strongly tempted to try to replicate this effect across an entire skein. That is one reason I consider these scarves to be a success; their variety of patterning serves as a sampler to inspire me in my next projects. Speaking of which, would it be utter folly to try to unravel this glove and ply this fuzzy yarn against some wool? Hmmm.. Fuzzy..

Taste the Rainbow

2005-12-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

Tired of hearing about Kool-Aid yet? No? Good! Now observe how:

is transmuted into:

I have been trying to spin bulkier yarn with little success. At least I have lots and lots of yummy flavors- I mean colors to practice with.

Incense and Peppermints

2005-12-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is the peppermint yarn all grown up.

And the same yarn, now plied against itself. For my second plying attempt on the drop spindle, not bad! It's hard to tell from the photos but it has lovely pinks and whites and cherryrific red all colliding together.

And because I may be insane, I dyed more roving.

Finally I have yellow. And green. And more shades of yummy red and pink. Black Cherry is such a potent flavor that I used the dye bath three(!) times. When all of these rovings are dry, there will be chaos my friends. Chaos.

Dyeing to Spin

2005-12-16T22:11:00.000-05:00

This evening was happily spent dyeing lovely white roving with Kool-aid. As much as I enjoy, enjoy, enjoy working with natural colors I felt I was finally ready to branch out into the world of rainbow brights.

These three rovings above were dry since I dyed them previously. I spun a bit from this yummy trio and I'll post a pic when the yarn is dry.

I dyed eight mini-batches with various colors. The colors are brighter than I could capture with my digital camera. I am not so sure I am fond of the Grape purpley color in this photo. Grape Kool-aid is actually red and blue dye together and it shows. It looks suspiciously like dryer lint.

After pulling the first roving out of the dye bath each time I would put in a second piece into the used dye bath to achieve a softer color. Surprisingly, the second round of Orange yielded not yellow but a luscious apricot color (in the photo below on the right). The second round of Grape gave a powdery blue color with purple tinges here and there. The Orange and Watermelon green gave bright cheery results and are probably my favorites. Unfortunately I ended up with several versions of teal, my least favorite color in the universe. Perhaps I shall overdye them and see what happens.

It is sheer torture waiting for them to dry. I can't wait to see the cherry red and watermelon green together, as well as the pink, grape and cherry. Apricot and orange work well together also.

Good progress is being made on the scarf. I spun what should be the last skein for it. I also am even working on the baby blanket again. Who knew?

ChocoPumpkin

2005-12-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

Living with Frankie can be a trial. Just in the last week she has, among other things, ripped a hole in my curtain with her teeth and carried my contact lens case cover downstairs in her mouth and hidden it under the stove. They say that spaying your animal can even it's temper. Oh wait, I already did that.

I rolled up a skein of 70's chocopumpkin yarn. I haven't a clue what to do with it. I may have to do another that is 50% brown and 25% each of the yellow and orange.

I am making good progress at knitting up the crinkle scarf. My spinning must be improving because the scarf is much more even and square than my previous scarf. The ribbing looks funky because my ribbing always does. I suppose my tension must go wonky when I am moving back and forth between knit and purl. My seed stitch and stockinette usually look fine, it's just the ribbing for some reason.

I had hoped that the stripes would be much smaller. I can see that it is going to take a lot of practice to predict how often to change colors when spinning to get a desired result in the knitted project. That's one thing I like about spinning. It's not just twisting little fiber bits into a yarn; it's also planning the texture, color, and thickness of the end result. (Although a nice yarn is gorgeous on it's own.)

PS

My package came today. I didn't realize it is actually a Corriedale CROSS and not just plain Corriedale. It has a rougher texture, more like my Coopworth. And there were little samples of Merino and dyed Corrie! So now I have lots and lots of brown fluff to play with. I do believe brown is becoming my favorite natural color. Mmmm, brown.

Spinning Goodness

2005-12-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

The baby shower has officially been scheduled for January 6, which makes me very happy. Now I know I will have enough time to make the blanket a reasonable length; which is kind of important since it is pretty narrow. Gauge and planning? What's that?

My order of brown Corriedale roving still isn't here which is making me nervous. I don't mind it taking a while; I am just paranoid that it has disappeared from my doorstep while I am at work. I can just imagine the neighborhood brats tearing into the box expectantly and finding a huge wad of dark linty stuff and then tossing big puffs of brown wool to the four winds.

I tried to wait for it to arrive before playing with my orange and yellow Corrie but I finally gave in to the dark side and used my fresh stock of brown Coopworth. Now you might think, You've seen one wool, you've seen them all. No, my friends, just because you think you've mastered the nice soft Coopworth roving that you are the spinning Yoda. Now arrives the slick and slippery Corriedale on the scene to give you NICE FAT SLUBS slipping through your clumsy fingers. I can just tell people it's the handspun look, right? Every time I imagine trying to sell a nice fat hank of freshly spun yarn I get a little crinkly part in my yarn where it is way too thin and becomes a little hard piece of thread. Whoops!

So these are my enemies:
1. NICE FAT SLUBS.
2. Little crinkly thread parts.
3. Parts that aren't spun enough and drift apart while unwinding the spindle.

I shouldn't be bored any time soon.

But I am getting the hang of the Corrie somewhat. I actually saw a picture of someone's yarn and thought, I bet that's got Corriedale in it! And it did. Which is actually kind of creepy. I probably should stop obsessing over spinning for a while.

Oh heck, who are we fooling? The yarn in the middle is what I imagined my 70's flashback yarn to look like. I suppose I could toss some avocado green in there for authenticity, but honestly, that would be a little grody. The other two yarns are the result of little experiments in carding and slapping different rovings together. I really don't know what I am doing with the darn handcards. I know you're not supposed to scrape the teeth together but I don't see how else to card the wool out.

It's amazing how much possibility there is even with a limited palette of colors. I also have some white Blue Faced Leicester and Coop to play with at some point and maybe even dye. Hey! I don't have enough projects here, people.

Here is the yarn from the last post all balled up and ready to go. The yarn is much finer this time and after a few false starts I noticed that even with size 3 needles the stitches were still a bit gappy seeming. I am trying a 2x2 rib so that the scarf crinkles together a bit to see if that makes it a tad warmer. So far it does not seem to be curling or pulling together too much. Not too sure what that says about my yarn.

The Secret Santa made an early delivery with my blanket. It does not appear to have been well received. Shame, really.

Whew! This must be my longest post. Part of the purpose of this blog is to sharpen my writing skills and I can see room to improve.

So these are my enemies:
1. Run-on sentences.
2. Sentences that start or append with "but", "which", "now" or such.
3. Not being able to formulate my thoughts clearly enough so that I can express myself adequately or just forgetting half of the crap I wanted to write.

Okay, I promise to shut up now. Temporarily.

P.S.

(Cats + Yarn) + Inattentiveness =

Inactivity

2005-12-06T16:42:00.000-05:00

Not really inactive here, folks, just trying not to fill the blog with meaningless trivia. The toe on the second sock has fought me wretchedly, tangling it's loops together and forcing frog after frog until the poor yarn is now shredding. The baby blanket lost a stitch forcing a frog of two day's work. But I did manage to spin up the start of hubby's scarf. This should have been one skein but I spun too loosely in a couple of places. Guess I shouldn't get impatient. If the second box of my eBay purchases ever arrives I can post a pic of my new goodies. Oh, joy!

Secret Santa

2005-11-30T12:42:00.000-05:00

I was tricked into joining the Secret Santa pool at work and my coworker A. drew her friend S.'s name. She then told S. that I was her secret Santa prompting S. to demand a knitted blanket. Well, I would hate to disappoint my dear friend S. so here it is.

Now with a cat paw, purely for scale of course.

Shrimp Boat Captain

2005-11-28T21:33:00.001-05:00

I totally forgot to take a picture of the swatch I knit from this before I ripped it out. My boyfriend said it looked like shrimp - gray with lots of little veins in it. I couldn't argue with him so now it is Shrimp. The swatch did not look like I thought it would at all. The little red thread veins mostly hid and only peeked out on a small portion of the stitches. I had read that plying removes 50% of the twist in a yarn and now I can see just how much fluffier and loose this yarn is after it was plied. It is also a royal pain to ply on a spindle but I imagine that using two yarns would be easier than using a yarn and a thread together. I cannot say I am dissatisfied with the result; I can completely see this as a bulky yummy hat.

Here is the progress on the baby blanket. It really is annoying that I cannot take it to work to knit at lunch; when I am at home I am too easily distracted by my own handspun yarns. Thus we have the miracle two day sock and his cousin, the newborn sock cuff:

It is just a simple tube sock; I tried to find a toe-up pattern but I, hrm, couldn't get past the toe. The sight of these shabby socks incited interested in a coworker (who once seized my needles from my hands to show me just how fast she could knit) who is going to show me - goshdarnit - just how she knits a sock. Someday I will knit a pair of "real" socks, but I've knit these before, and hey, they fit me just fine.

Also, rather naughtily, I have started spinning for my boyfriend's scarf. I am able to spin much finer yarn now and while it takes a whole lot longer, his scarf just might be a whole lot more pliant and cozy than mine. D'ya think he would notice if I passed off my old one to him instead?

I am starting to reach the bottom of my fiber stash (fingers twitching). I suppose I will have to get serious about washing the rest of my fleece. It being winter and all, it takes forever to dry. Meanwhile I, rather naughtily, (again) snagged some things on eBay. There really aren't any good fiber stores particularly close to my area despite the fact that I live in one of the (if not the) most expensive places in the US.
Yum Yum and Yum!
I am going to make retro-70's yarn from this. Word up.

I have proof. Frankie is not always a monster. Sometimes, she sleeps. In other cat news, Lady the stray has been spotted in the vicinity with a collar. She is reputed to have overthrown a cat-friendly household in the neighborhood. I have disassembled, with some regret, the boxhouse in the front yard. While I am sad to be seeing a lot less of her, I am happy that she has found a new sponsor.

Scarf Finito

2005-11-24T00:19:00.004-05:00

I realize I ought to be working on the baby blanket since the baby shower could be any freaking day now and I have about, mmm, 2 inches done. But I was so darn close to finishing my very first handspun project that I just threw all caution to the wind. I had some difficulty photographing the scarf at first since I let my boyfriend try it on and it was some time before he relinquished control of it. If I didn't promise to make him one for Christmas I might have never seen it again. As you can see it is rather stiff and bulky but hey! Your neck won't get cold. And that's the point, right?

Guess which end I started with!

And in other news I spun up some bulkyish white yarn...

and figured I would try my first plying experiment, trying to make a sort of spirally thing with red thread. Twas really hard to do on a drop spindle and twas really hard to photograph the result. Now to set it and see what happens..

Loot

2005-11-20T22:23:00.002-05:00

Didn't score any fiber at the fiber store but I did pick up a couple of books and a pair of hand cards and promptly pretended to know how to card my Icelandic fleece. See the little rolags? See the little happy spindle with a bitty bit of yarn on it? It actually seems harder to spin from the rolags than from the plain old locks, but hey, what do I know?

Apparently enough to have spun my very first whole skein of yarn! It seems to be about 148 yards judging from my handy skein-wrapping oven pan as pictured above. Although the yardage would seem to vary considerably depending on how tightly the yarn is wrapped. I bet I could use this to make a pair of kicking seed-stitch socks..

The Ripper

2005-11-17T19:19:00.000-05:00

Partway through the second repeat on the feather and fans blanket I had to frog it. Because I have trouble counting to six. Seriously.

These are some fingerless Lopi gloves I have been working on. Actually it has been some time since I worked on them. The ball of yarn was scored from an estate sale for 10 cents. I just have to pick up the stitches and finish the thumb on the right glove. Someday.

I'm adding percent bars from Yarn Tomato. Because I can.

Edit: Actually I'm trying this for my percentage bars. Go me!

Superwash

2005-11-16T22:15:00.000-05:00

I learned how to do thinner yarn. Just split the roving stuff into thinner strands! Much easier on the drafting. Although it is harder to keep the roving from breaking when it passes over my wrist. Wa wa. Hopefully I will be able to ply this. My boyfriend's job has an annual craft fair of sorts and I am hoping to have at least a couple of skeins of crumbum wool to offer. Although I haven't a clue how soon it is.

I got a fleece from eBay and have been attempting to wash it bit by bit. The fleece seems especially vegetated but I have never seen a fleece before so I really couldn't say if it is "normal". I suppose it was kinda silly to buy a whole fleece before learning to spin or scour wool but I just got kinda carried away! So today I tore a few big hunks off the fleece and tossed it into the tub filled with 120 degree water and a few splashes of dish soap. The tub turned an opaque brown color as the wool soaked and floated around. I was hoping some of the muddy bits would disintegrate but I'm afraid this sort of sheep mud just won't melt. Frankie tried to lend a paw as usual; I guess you'll be seeing a whole lot more of her as it is pretty much impossible to keep her out of anything I'm doing.

After a few washes and a rinse I tossed the hunks into a salad spinner especially purchased for this purpose. It's actually kind of fun spinning the water out of the wool and watching it fluff up again.

Then I spread it out to dry. It's still pretty spotty with debris; next time 'round I'll try to pick some out beforehand and remove some of the more soiled locks. If it isn't totally obvious, I haven't much clue what I am doing. Don't try this at home, folks.

Here are some fluffy locks from a previous wash. I actually spun a little slubby yarn from a few bits of this. Even without being carded or having the bits picked out it felt really nice in my hands, much smoother hairs than the Coopworth I have been using. I hope to check out Springwater Fiber in DC this weekend for some cards and fiber. It's official: I am addicted.

I Lied

2005-11-15T17:20:00.000-05:00

I said I wouldn't do another baby blanket. Especially not a ripple afghan, which is a style that I detest. So I can't quite explain why I have this on the needles, from one of those generic afghan books from the craft store.

After finishing the first blanket I suddenly realized something: I missed the mindless knitting. Knitting in the car, in line at the store, on my lunch break, walking around the office building (yeah, I bet that looks weird, me wandering around with my scarf and yarn trailing behind me; better get used to it, folks!) I know my scarf won't last very long, I'm not in the mood to try to finish an old project, and I'm not about to start trying to spin during those empty moments outside of the home. So here is another easy project, not too mindless though. Can't explain the ripples away, I guess it isn't too ripply for my taste.

And here is a nice cynical blog celebrating the worst of knit.

Baby Blanket Finito

2005-11-13T00:58:00.000-05:00

The baby blanket is finished. It took almost a month to make. Which seems like a really long time. It sure seems like many knitbloggers out there can crank out 27 sweaters, 14 hats, 5 afghans, 234 scarves, 4 kitty beds, 2 couch covers, 3 dog sweaters and 43 assorted baby items in, well, a month. I realized I was about eighty percent done with this project and literally have sat in front of the tv watching vampire schlock for the last several days and just knit my little fingers off. Now my hands hurt like the devil.

Strangely enough, the only thing I really want to do now is knit on my scarf. And watch more vampire crap. God, am I twisted.

The blankie has received approval from at least one party.

I was going to turn this yarn into a baby blanket for a coworker due in January. But I am pretty sure I am baby blankied out right now. Maybe a cabled button up cardigan or something? It would be my first real article of clothing (tube socks, scarves and hats notwithstanding).

Lady In Waiting

2005-11-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

This is Lady. (This is not her real name, but this is the name I call her. I believe that cats have as many names as they need.)

She currently lives in a box on my front patio.

Apparently she has lived in the neighborhood for quite some time now without an owner proper. There is some crazy lady who claims to own her but is obviously not taking care of her, since this is seems to be the best place Lady can find to sleep. It is currently hitting around 35-40 degrees in these parts. I have dolled up the box as best as I can, with a fuzzy towel folded up under the box and a blankie smooshed inside, with a felted wool sweater on top of that. Don't throw away your ruined wool sweaters, folks, they make excellent cat beds.

The neighborhood has been grasping for a way to better accommodate Lady. Several people feed her and Lady has particularly bonded with one woman who walks her dog and socializes with the other neighbors often (hey, let's just say it, she's outside all the time). She was supposed to have been adopted by a honeymoon couple in the 'hood on Monday, but it is now Saturday, and Lady continues to snuggle up in her little box night after night. I would love to let Lady in, because heck, I'm a cat person, but I already have three cats, two of them rescues as well, and you have to draw the line somewhere or you end up one of those cat hoarders that are in the news so much of late.

Lady has a sweet personality and gets along well with strange cats and dogs. Despite having to live the thug life for so long, she is thoroughly domesticated and a real charmer.

I am going to have to bug that neighbor again.

What Else Is On The Needles

2005-11-11T16:48:00.000-05:00

Some mo' handspun yarn. The scarf is growing by leaps and bounds. (So is the baby blanket. I swear.)
And here is another project I am working on. You didn't think I was one of those knitters that only works on one thing at a time, did you? It is a cable and seed stitch satchel tote bag thing from Spring/Summer 2004 EasyKnitting. It is also my first cable project; cabling is actually pretty easy, y'all.

Now, about this yarn I'm using. I actually got this stuff from Ebay. I ought to know by now that the act of taking a digital photo of an object for sale magically increases the attractiveness of said object many fold. (Except when it is my digital camera in which case I am lucky to get a crisp image.) Needless to say the actual color of the yarn did not match my expectations. (Let us forget for now that the yarn is called Pistachio Almond and this should have been a great big red flag that screamed "This yarn is older than you are!") So after having been shoved into the corner of a closet in a cardboard box this yarn has been resurrected and is finally being put to use. Now what to do with the other five skeins..

What's On The Needles Today

2005-11-08T21:05:00.001-05:00

This is my current project for a baby that's already born and which is about two-thirds finished. It's simply acrylic yarn with a basketweave pattern and a seed stitch border. It is also the biggest project I have done to date and I absolutely promise that I am not going bonkers trying to finish it. I may, however, be going bonkers spinning yarn and knitting a scarf with that new nubby yarn in an effort to avoid working on the blanket. But I would never admit it.

Here is a detail:

This blanket is more of a lilac-lavender color than is depicted.

Spinning Straw Into Gold

2005-11-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

This is my first spun yarn, tricolor Coopworth wool. I learned to spin Saturday from a nice man, we'll call him Bob, (because that is his name) at Hunt Country Yarns. I have to say that I find the process of turning soft fluzzy wool into yarn to be a mysterious and magical process and I guess I'll just have to let these pictures speak for themselves.

This is my pathetic attempt at setting the twist, which didn't really do much.

But I didn't let it stop me.