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March 31, 2006
All is right with the world.
Honeys! There is NO NEED TO PANIC! The world is not coming to an end. Just because I say I might be bored with knitting socks, please, everything is A-OK. Actually, The Wise One hit the nail on the head. It's not that I'm bored with socks, per se, it's that I honestly can't see me needing to wear any until, oh I don't know, Socktoberfest? And really, one of the things that kept me knitting them so fast was that I couldn't wait to wear them! The natural state, though, of my tootsies is barefoot and if that's possible, we're gong nakid! Besides, why would you want to knit socks when you can be doing this?
It was WONDERFUL! My bare feet on the pedals, a nice breeze, the late afternoon sun on my face and hands. I don't have an IPOD, but I downloaded and burned to a CD the first episode of Cast-On (figured I should start at the beginning.) I've never listened to a podcast before and it was nice!
When Ann was taking me for the tour of her house, I commented that if I were her, I'd be spinning all spring and summer long outside on her expansive deck. HOW RELAXING! Just so nice. She said we should have a great big SPIN-IN in Central Park and all kinds of spinners could come and wouldn't that be fun. Ann gets all the credit for this fabulous idea because really I was just the YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! girl.
SPIN ON SPIN IN SPIN OUT!
Saturday, June 24th, 11AM
Central Park
(exact location TBD)
Are you in? Bring your wheels! Bring your spindles! Don't know how to spin? Bring your knitting! Want to learn to spin? Come for the FUN! How very cool will this be? TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS!!!
Please RSVP here, in this post. We'd like to keep track of how many people are interested, just in case it gets huge, and we need to look into permits or something. And anyone who knows the ins and outs of the park, please! HELP!
Once we gauge the interest, more information will come. Thanks so much! YAY FOR SPINNERS AND KNITTERS!
UPDATE! I've applied for a Parks Permit - so we should be all legal and everything and get this! I've been contacted by Spin-Off/Interweave Press! They'll be sending some prizes for the day! HOW GREAT IS THAT! Thanks Amanda and everyone at Spin-Off/Interweave Press!
PS - Feel free to swipe the button AND the idea! Have a SPIN OUT in your neighborhood! How cool would that be - spinners and knitters around the world UNITE. June 24th. Be there or be square.
Posted by Cara at 09:56 AM | Comments (40)
March 30, 2006
Random? Umm. How about aimless? Desultory? Haphazard? Hit or miss?
My left eyelid has been twitching on and off for a week. That means I'm dying right? Or I've got some terrible neurological disease? How long does it have to twitch before I need to see someone? It doesn't hurt. My eye doesn't shut. It's just the corner (farthest from my nose) won't stop twitching.
Last night I didn't spin or knit but I thought about it. I was kind of in a mood, shall we say, and I didn't feel like anything but I didn't feel like nothing either. Makes sense, right? So I climbed into bed and read my book. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. Our favorite Bookish Girl kept telling me to read it and I picked it up way back when and I've been reading like half a page before I fall asleep every night. There is nothing better than falling asleep while you're reading. Seriously. It's the best sleep. Anyway, I noticed the other day when I opened the book that my marker was on page 500 and something. I thought oh I stuck in there and fell asleep. Reading half a paragraph a day CANNOT get you that far into a book. But I was that far. I'd say that's a testament to the story. I must really like it to have read so much. It's a good story.
I LOVE Turbo Tax. LOVE IT! We used to have our taxes done by a friend and then I decided I wanted to do them myself. We don't have lots of fancy stuff to do - I mean my business is really just a Schedule C, nothing too complicated, but TT gets you through it all. And we usually end up with a nice chunk of change in the end. I know that the experts say you're supposed to work it out so that you break even at the end of the year - owe nothing, get nothing back - so that you're money is your own, but we like to think of the IRS as a kind of savings plan. The money in our paychecks would just be shit away anyway. So when we get that nice check in the Spring we can take a vacation. Pay some bills. You know. It's like a present. ;-)
Yesterday I started doing the taxes. I used TT last year so it saved A LOT of time. They just transfered over all the stuff from last year's return and I just have to fill in this year's numbers. Voila! They need to be done by this weekend. I've got company coming next week. I think. YAY!
I also sent out a job yesterday and my Project Spectrum Postcard swap stuff that is very, very late. I hope though, that my pal, Kelly, will get it before the end of the month. You know. When pink/red is over. I suck. I'm really hoping to do better next month. I promise.
My sister and the kids get back from vacation tomorrow! They've been gone FOREVER! YAY! I miss them so much. Not this weekend, but the next weekend, is the baby's FIRST BIRTHDAY! Can you believe it? He's such a sweetie pie. Ooooh! I miss them all I just want to eat them up!
Thanks for all the ghost stories. I haven't picked a winner yet - I haven't had a good read through them yet. Although when I read Jen's comment I didnt' realize how long I had been in my office, that has no windows, and when I got up and walked into the hallway the house was pitch black. Every light in the house was on in like seconds. I'm just saying.
I miss my Beaded Diamond Fantasy Shawl.
I think I'm bored with socks. And I think I can't do my sock pals socks two on two circulars. I tried to work it out in my mind and it just feels uncomfortable. And I don't want to do magic loop. I'd love to cast on for them, but I don't know how many stitches and what needle size and I don't feel like figuring it out. Blah.
I need to start running again.
Posted by Cara at 08:18 AM | Comments (34)
March 29, 2006
Do you see dead people?
Limited Edition Sericel from Hanna-Barbera Studios
I've got no knitting or spinning (Well I did spin last night and let's say I was underwhelmed at best. One step up and two steps back.) so I'm going to talk about something else. I can't give all the details because it's a client, but a new project has come to me that deals with the supernatural. This person has written their life story detailing their adventures with the "other side." I may have alluded in my re-cap post about my weekend at Ann's that I'm scared shitless of this stuff - basically because I guess I believe it. I hate scary movies. I've never had my fortune read and won't. There was that unfortunate incident with the Ouija Board that said I'd die in like October '88 but I've since decided that it was my so-called girlfriends fucking with me. Basically because I lived. ;-) My problem tends to be the fact that I have an extraordinary imagination. And not always in a good way. So nothing is really outside the realm of possibility for me because if I can imagine it, it can be true. (My shrink has often remarked I'm stuck in the magical thinking stage so characteristic of five year olds. You know, the idea that if you think something you can cause it. Like a kid may wish a parent dead, then think it could actually happen.) This contributes a lot to my anxiety as you can imagine. I can think up some pretty horrific things. ;-)
But I'd also like to think I have a healthy dose of skepticism and rationality in me. For instance, I'm skeptical of EVERYTHING our current government says. I'm often extremely logical and rational.
I've personally never seen a ghost. There was that one instance with my dead grandfather when I was a preteen, but I was in bed reading Go Ask Alice and I probably thought I was high or something and made the whole thing up. More likely, though, I will dream about dead relatives (mainly my great aunts and grandmother) and when I wake from the dream I usually have a feeling that they came to tell me that everything will be all right. It's not only happened to me, but my sister and my mother as well. And they've all had this same reassuring feeling afterward. Nothing scary. Just peace. When I'm feeling bad or uncertain I often wish to dream about them, but it doesn't happen like that.
Anyway, in the last few days I've spent a decent amount of time talking to this person who I'm going to be working with and I have to say, I believe everything they say. They're earnest, honest, exasperated a little bit and more than anything, they've been burdened with this ability to a certain extent. Besides the "supernatural element," this project is about writing the story of coming to terms with something in your life that you don't really want - that you didn't ask for - but has stuck around nonetheless. I could immediately relate to her. My anxiety will not go away, but it's much more manageable now that I've accepted it into my life instead of fighting it and being afraid of it. The person I'll be working with is a medium, but has been terrified of it since childhood. I don't know the whole story yet, but it seems that in the last ten years they've made a conscious effort to learn about it and explore it so as not to be afraid. To be accepting and open and hopefully have a content life.
I've been talking to G about this and while he gets just as freaked out as I am, I've tried to explain why I believe what this person is telling me. I suffer from anxiety and panic, which is basically the fight or flight instinct gone awry. My shrink, when he's not admonishing me about my magical thinking tendencies, likes to joke that I would've been GREAT in the time of the dinosaurs. You know when that anxiety mechanism kept you alive instead of making you think you're crazy? Well who's to say that at that same time, humans needed to be able to communicate with people who might have passed before them in order to survive? How many of you can say that you've never known something was going to happen before it happened? Or had a feeling about something that you couldn't shake, and only later found out what that feeling meant? Everyone has anxiety. Some of us are lucky enough to have some kind of mix-up in our brains where that anxiety switch is set WAY TOO HIGH. So what's to prevent someone from having that extrasensory switch set WAY TOO HIGH? In my mind it's the same type of thing.
I often remark to myself how extraordinarily powerful the mind is - I see it all the time with the convoluted shit I come up with - so it's not out of the realm for me that these things can and do happen. What do you think?
Here's a little game we'll play. I've been feeling pretty calm since my talks with this person - like I'm not so terrified of the whole ghost thing anymore. I'm trying to inure myself to all this ghost talk - I mean how am I going to deal with this project if I can't sleep at night - so tell me your scariest (but TRUE!) ghost story! The person who succeeds in making me run screaming from my house will win a skein of STR Prove It All Night. Gather round the campfire, kids. We're gonna tell ghost stories!
PS - Does anyone remember that really freaky deaky scene in Three Men and A Baby where you can see the kid behind the curtain in the window? OHMYGOD that was so SCARY! (And apparently false. What do you think?)
Posted by Cara at 09:12 AM | Comments (54)
March 28, 2006
The following preview may not be suitable for all audiences.
I'm giving you this preview of future projects because the ones I have going on right now are either, stalled, boring or in a time out. And really, all I want to do is spin, but I can't because I have work to do and I'm procrastinating. I tried to work on the collar for short rows yesterday and it looks awful. Really awful. Did I ever tell you Claire's inspired idea? You know the whole "should I stripe it or not" question? Well, Claire suggested I stripe the FRONT, but not the back. Great idea, no? I liked it anyway. So I started it and the thing needs to be ripped. I love the sweater so much and I think the knitting is really done well (if I don't say so myself) and I refuse to fuck up the sweater with a shitty collar so I'm putting it aside for the time being. Maybe for Maryland, instead of Passover? We'll see. I might need some help on it, and luckily help is coming soon. Current socks are boring. YAAAWN. BDFS is ready for action, but all I want to do is spin. See a pattern? But deadlines loom. Like this one:
Here we have my choices for my Sockapalooza Socks! That's HOT FLASH Socks That Rock and the Simply Lovely Lace Socks from the current IK. My pal likes bright colors and ankle socks, so I'm pretty sure these fit the bill. I'm a little concerned about sizing though, as she wears a full size (or more) bigger than me and I've never knit for someone different than my size. The pattern says cast on 60 stitches on size 0 needles, but I plan on knitting with size 1s. It's a six stitch repeat - do you think 66 stitches will be too much? She said she's a bigger girl, so that's why she wears ankle or crew socks. The best part? I know the person who made her SockapalTWOza socks, so I sent off an email this morning. Hopefully I'll get some good advice. Of course I want these socks to be perfect. I'm going to try something new with them as well - two socks on two circulars! This way I can also be in the Cirque Du Socks KAL!
Neat, huh? You need to knit socks on two circulars, but if you've done that before, then try something new. So I'll be casting on soon - 2circs2socks style!
Here's another preview:
Thinking ahead to April's Project Spectrum spinning! (Even though I've still got like 12oz of March spinning left to do. Did I mention all I want to do is spin? ;-) ) This fine fiber is from AmyBoogie. It's her Almost Solid series in Corriedale, Sunflower and Marigold colorways. I saw some of the Sunflower spun up over at Marnie's, and even though I have some batts on order from Graton Fibers, I couldn't resist. I LOVE Amy's fibers. LOVE LOVE! And her dyes are wonderful too. Look what else I got from her:
It's Amy's Handpainted Tahiti biffle and if I had all the time in the world to spin, it would be a nice transition fiber from March to April - it's got yellow, orange, pink, reds - just a whole lot of sunshiney goodness. YAY!
Posted by Cara at 12:46 PM | Comments (28)
March 27, 2006
Just can't quitch ya.
My house is too damn quiet. Don't tell Ann (or god forbid my husband) but I think I might miss the chaos of the dogs and the cat and the screaming and the whip and the laughing. Oh my god the laughing. I don't think I drew breath once the entire weekend we laughed so freaking hard - my stomach still hurts. My anticipatory anxiety evaporated as soon as I saw the elegant racing stripes of Onslow and we were off. Guess I'm not as crazy as I like to think I am, or, more likely, Ann and her wonderful family and friends are so welcoming and comfortable, craziness is the only way to keep up. I can't thank them enough for embracing me with such love and laughter. Seriously. They are all the real deal.
I'm finding it very difficult to blog about the weekend. You know how some adventures are meant to be blogged? And some are just friends getting together and you say oh yeah I stayed with Ann over the weekend and we had a blast? And that's all? It's kind of like that. We'd go places and we'd have our fun and then one of us would say - we forgot to take pictures. Oh well. We were IN the moment. Blogging is a very conscious act. It's deliberate. And I'd like to think that most of my life is just lived. You know?
There was some blog fodder though. On Friday, Ann drove me out to the lake for my spinning class. Ann and some of her friends (Hi Peggy! Hi Ricki!) have been taking classes with Peggy E. for about five weeks now. Ann's been documenting it over at her site and she and Peggy E. were nice enough to carve out a HUGE block of time for me. We're talking a FIVE HOUR spinning lesson. When we left the lesson Ann and I were exhausted. Like could barely move exhausted. We went home, scarfed some homemade spaghetti and meatballs, crawled into our pajamas and took up our chairs in front of the TV (think Archie and Edith - guess who I am?) and knit the rest of the night. And laughed. Can't forget the laughing.
Anyway, the spinning lesson was a dream. My one real concern was plying. I felt like my last attempt was really awful (I know now A LOT of that had to do with my spinning, not my plying) and I was anxious to learn. I had some of the gorgeous pink stuff spun up on two bobbins so Peggy E had me start plying that.
It was really great; I learned some fabulous tricks and I really hope I can continue it with my own spinning and plying. To say I was thrilled with the final product doesn't even scratch the surface. I may have teared up. This is the most beautiful yarn I've ever seen in my life.
And look how fantastic it looks next to my skin!
Ann loves to tell the story that the first time we spun together I stomped around because I was petulant and frustrated and couldn't spin for shit. I hope she continues on to tell the story of the jig I danced because I was so deliriously happy with my spinning. Delirious. Out of my mind. Thank you Ann! I'm glad you were there for both experiences.
There was lots of knitting this weekend, but it's boring. Or not mine. I'm to the gusset on two socks, a jaywalker and the embossed leaves sock and they both look fine. I'm happy with them. I asked no fewer than a 100 people (the kids in McDonald's were surely confused!) about the sleeves on my Short Rows. I will be back with a schematic and a question for all you experts out there. Ann's FANFUCKINGTASTIC friend Claire (I LOVE YOU FLAIRE!) came over on Friday night and we talked until 1AM. (Of course I made Ann stay up another hour with me until I was dead tired because they insisted on telling ghost stories and it was either that or make her sleep with me because I hate ghost stories. I believe them and they freak me out and then I can't sleep.) I was helping Claire out with a project, this baby sweater that's got one of the most convoluted constructions I've ever seen. So I was working on that with her Friday night and then when Ann and I had our yarn crawl Saturday we came across the sample sweater and I realized we were doing it all wrong. When we went to Claire's on Saturday to see the not one but TWO cemeteries on her property (cooler than cool is allowed to be, by the way) and then stayed around to visit with Claire's friend Nancy Christie and read Claire's autograph books from elementary school (which, Claire, should become your one woman masterpiece. I see you in a darkened theater, alone on the stage, spotlighted, reading the entries and telling your stories. I'd buy a ticket every fucking night.) I worked on the sweater for her. I wanted to be knitting, but I was bored with my own stuff so it was a nice fit to be working out someone else's knitting. Ann said I was enabling, but if you can't enable a little, what's life worth anyway?
I had one of those really surreal in the moment, but looking in from the outside experiences while sitting in Claire's (literally) 300 year old parlor. There were four women there, telling our stories, knitting, laughing more that people should really be allowed to laugh - one in her 60s, one in her 50s, one in her 40s, one in her 30s - and yet we were all the same and completely different. It was really quite extraordinary. I'm not sure if the other women were conscious of it at all and it might have been one of those moments that I romantacize to death but it was a true feeling for me and I was so glad to be a part of it. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
No weekend on Lawn Guyland would be complete without a trip to GRANNY'S! Granny was fantastic. A find. A treasure and it was great to see Kathleen again, although our time was short. I will be back! I promise!
Once again, I'd like to thank Ann's family - her husband, her daughter, her friends, her pets - for putting up with our silliness this weekend. It was my immense pleasure to meet you all and I hope to see you again soon. And to my dear real-life friend Ann. I just can't quitch ya. Thank you.
Posted by Cara at 10:02 AM | Comments (32)
March 24, 2006
Don't tell her cause I don't want to hurt her feelings, but
OMG - Ann is wearing me out!
Posted by Cara at 04:41 PM | Comments (13)
March 23, 2006
Adventures in Babysitting
Because I am like a wee child who can't be alone at night (even though I have my blankie to keep me company), my wheel and I are off to visit our favorite purling swine. She's still on board even after I cried to her this morning that I am an anxious mess and likely not to eat, sleep or be drug-free this weekend. Now that's love. Jen was kind enough to put me up last night even though I ran out of her house this morning like a bat out of hell at 7:30AM. No offense Jen, Xavi and Oscar! I'm just Crazy Aunt Cara!
You all have a good weekend. I'll see you back here Monday. Same bat time, same bat channel. Pass the Xanax.
Posted by Cara at 12:00 PM | Comments (10)
F is for
[Swiss] Francs
G left yesterday for Switzerland and before he left he tossed some currency on the bed to show me. I was IMMEDIATELY inspired and said to him, "Do you know if there are any words that mean money and start with F?" He laughed and said, "Uh, Francs?" I was overjoyed! I had my F! (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this ABC-a-long?) I had about an hour before he left for the airport so I set to work.
This is the 8th Series of Swiss Franc banknotes and they have no less than 9 safety features to guard against counterfeiting. They were designed around the theme of the arts: The 10 Franc Note is Le Corbusier; the 20 Franc Note is Arthur Honegger; and the 50 Franc Note is Sophie Taeuber-Arp. I'm embarrassed to say that I was so taken with the faces on the bills, so overwhelmed by the beauty of the colors, I never turned the banknotes over to see the backs. Isn't that ridiculous? I only realized my faux-pas when I clicked on the banknotes here - the site flips them over for you. I encourage you to click on the photographs above - they will take you to a larger than usual version of the picture. I tried to get very close - they reminded me so much of Chuck Close's work.
I hope you enjoy the photographs. Thanks for stopping.
Posted by Cara at 11:19 AM | Comments (21)
March 22, 2006
Aunti Meme!
Those Knotty Girls are at it again! They've sent us all on a Wild Goose Chase. Have you done it? Here are the rules:
-Your finds must come from knit blogs.
-You may not use a blog for more than one item-all items must come from different sources.
-Finds can come from current entries or archives.
-You must post your answers with the title of the blogs they were found on and a link to the blog/item (permalinks where appropriate) on your blog. If no permalink is available, give us the post date.
-Do not steal anyone’s bandwidth-which means you should not hotlink pictures.
-You need to comment [on their site] and let us know when you have completed this meme.
And here are my finds:
1. A blog which you think people have not discovered.
Kimberly's blog The Giving Flower - I think she's very creative.
2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, it’s all relative.
Jen from Two Purls. A better friend you could not find and she's like fifteen minutes away. With no traffic. On the other side of the river I'm going with Mason Dixon Kay because I could technically be at her house in like 20 minutes. You know. With no traffic. And Kay is superfantastic cool.
3. An unusual or weird animal picture.
Any picture of my favorite Internet Dog, Petey. He's always trying on stuff for his hot mama, and sometimes he's trying to kill her. Or escape. One or the other but either way he's the best dog on the Internets.
4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family or co-workers.
Well, I'm generally reading blogs by myself at home so no one looks at me funny. At least I hope there's no one looking at me funny. But here are two entries that kicked my funny bone's ass: A shout out to Jenifleur - STASH WARS was the funniest fucking thing ever. And to my favorite PB Ann for giving us the knitting term Skank. The funniest part of this post for me was that in my mind I could hear Ann tell it - and that made it like a 1000x funnier.
5. An idea you wish you’d thought of.
The ABC-A-Long. One of my favorite things in a long time. It's been a great challenge for me. Still need to find a kick-ass F.
6. Something you’d like to knit. (Links are to the knits and knitters that have inspired me.)
Am Kamin for sure. The Peacock Shawl. Seraphim. Ingeborg. Pomwhatever Socks.
7. A picture of something you consider beautiful
I think Amanda takes really beautiful photographs, like here and here and here.
8. A blog whose author you’d like to one day meet in person
That's easy. Margene.
9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.
I've been very lucky to have met many, many knitbloggers in person. So hard to choose, but I'm going with Vicki as she's been on my mind a lot lately. And Bookish Wendy because I love her so and now that she's famous I hope she remembers me.
JenLa tagged the world. DO NOT DISAPPOINT THEM PEOPLE! Meme on.
Posted by Cara at 12:29 AM | Comments (15)
March 21, 2006
PS: I love PINK!
Who knew?! I'm not a girly girl by any stretch of the imagination. I wear comfortable shoes. I don't wear make-up. I really couldn't care less about my clothes as long as they aren't binding and don't make me look much fatter than I already am. The only thing I spend money on appearance wise is my hair, which I cut and color regularly and have for years.
So what's the fascination with PINK? I don't know but I've been loving it lately. I have a few pink shirts and a great pair of pink courderoys that I love to wear and lots of pink in my socks.
You can imagine how happy I am with this month's Project Spectrum color. SO. HAPPY. I told you all how I was going to use this particular a-long to concentrate on my spinning and man am I glad I did! I was sort of in a panic and didn't get my roving in time for the start of the month, but I'm making up for it now. I called my favorite intrepid dyer, Tina, and asked her to bail me out. She sent me 8oz of HOT FLASH Biffle (and I've got another 8oz on the way!)
Oh my god this stuff is GORGEOUS! (Photographing it, though, is very difficult. Reds and pinks by extension get very very constrasty and your exposure has to be spot on and even then lightening or darkening even a little bit is very difficult and the colors never seem true. This is the best I could do.) Predrafting it has been a DREAM.
On the left is a third of the big hank. Then split in two. Then the final draft of the middle strand. Predrafting, it turns out, is key to spinning, thank you very much. Essential. This was by far the best spinning experience I've had so far. My last attempts taught me much about tension and the revolutions of the wheel and spin and this time out I paid very close attention to the feel of the yarn beneath my fingers. I set the drive band on the second whorl and therefore was able to treadle at my usual slow-ish pace but still get a really nice spin to the yarn. I felt the spin travel down the fiber under my fingertips and for the first time I think I really, really got it.
I made yarn. Every now and again I did the Claudia test and pulled it out from the bobbin to test it's sturdiness. Yup. I made yarn. I'd like to think that 99% of this bobbin is actual yarn and will not pull apart when I go to ply it. I now know that in all my previous attempts I was NOT getting enough spin on the wheel - therefore there wasn't enough spin in the yarn. It was falling apart all over the place.
Besides figuring out what SPIN actually is in the yarn - feeling it - really feeling it for the first time it seemed, this Biffle drafts like freaking butter. This is the most even yarn I've spun. And even then I was deliberate about it - pulling it back if it was thin in places and breaking off and rejoining the fiber to thicken it up, or pulling it out and respinning thicker parts. I wasn't successful all the time, but I tried to be conscious of what I was doing. And I think it shows.
I had the MOST FUN last night. Just a blast. Thanks Tina and thank you Lolly for the inspiration of Project Spectrum! Tina sent me some beautiful Red Biffle as well, but I don't think I'll be able to spin it up before the end of the month - especially since I'm going to try to get the whole pound of this pink stuff spun up. It's too good! I ordered some batts from Grafton Fibers today for next month's challenge too. I can't wait!
Posted by Cara at 12:43 PM | Comments (27)
To stripe or not to stripe....
 |  |
It's not the best, but I think it gives a good idea. What do you think?
Thanks to Urraca for the link to the picture!
Posted by Cara at 12:42 PM | Comments (51)
March 20, 2006
Where Diamonds are STILL a Girl's Best Friend
First, let's get Short Rows news out of the way.
I joined three of the four raglan shoulder areas, as the pattern instructed, and now I'm at an impasse. The pattern says when knitting the collar to continue the stripe sequence for the front and back and the main color for the area over the sleeves. You know, because knitting a million short rows isn't enough. When you're so close to the end you need to add intarsia to the mix. Striped intarsia. Where the colors change every freaking row. Margene has told me a few times that I'm crazy and I should just knit the collar in the main color as a nice contrast but I was all like I've come this far I'm going to do the insane intarsia collar and guess what? I'm completely confused. The pattern says continue in the stripe sequence. Well, the stripe sequence for the back and the front is different. The back comes up higher than the front, duh, and while the teeny tiny tips at the raglan shaping on the front may match up with the back, the mini scoop doesn't. So if I follow in the stripe sequence it's all going to be off anyway. I'm thinking a solid collar is the way to go and then I don't have to really think about it. (Ann had a brilliant suggestion - that I photoshop a solid collar onto the picture from the magazine. I was going to post it but the picture I have on my site is somehow corrupted and I can't find another picture on the web and I can't find the magazine either. Maybe tomorrow.) And the pattern also has you knitting in stockinette then switching to garter stitch then folding down the collar for a hem and the ends of the sleeves and bottom of the body are all in seed stitch. Should I knit the end of the collar in seed stitch to match? Since I'm doing it all in one color? It's all kind of mute at this point because I don't have a circular needle to work. I have to look because I should have one - I mean I have 5 different size 7 addi circulars in like 3 different lengths, it seems kind of ridiculous that I only have one 6. Oh and I pseudo tried it on. I think it will be fine - if anything it will be a bit short, but hopefully not. I'm not thinking about it anymore so as not to torture myself. That's that - MOVING ON!
Black Diamond
I am so freaking EXCITED about this project!!! It's going to be really, really hard to photograph, but I hope you can get a sense of it. You may remember that last summer I made the Diamond Fantasy Shawl from Sivia Harding. Possibly the most beautiful item I've ever knit, it sits on my couch, all laid out, in a place of honor. I just like to look at the perfect diamonds and crisp border points and well, I love it. I really do. Anyway, as soon as I finished it I was thinking about the NEXT one I would knit because it's such an amazing pattern NOT to knit it again would be a sin and the idea I had was for a very elegant black shawl with beads at the center of each diamond! Completely and utterly impractical but oh my god it would be gorgeous! It was in the back of my mind all the time, and finally! An excuse to make it!
G and I were invited to a wedding at the end of April - it's an old friend and one of those situations where even if I looked like Halle Berry I'd still feel a little bit ugly and self-conscious and fat. You know what I mean? So I'm thinking if I'm wrapped in handknit luxury I will feel a little bit better. And c'mon - who else there will have a fabulous handknit shawl? I'm thinking I'll wear it with a simple little black dress - or even if I decide to go with a color - it will look fabulous.
The yarn is from Sundara and man is she a pleasure to work with! I sent her an email telling her about my project and what I wanted it to be and she gave me suggestions on color and yarn. This is her sport weight superwash merino dyed in an ULTRA black. Like blackblackblack. For that superfantastic black feel. I give Sundara three thumbs up for service and product and expecially her enthusiasm for MY project. She's a great cheerleader. Kay helped me pick out my beads last week. All together they seem like a nice gunmetal color that would compliment the black, without being too bright against it. Perfect! Ends up the beads are actually transluscent and when I stopped into another bead store looking to see if I could find anything else, the guy there told me that my beads are actually glass - not seed beads like I thought. In retrospect, it may be the shape that makes them not seed beads, not the glass.) I think they are the bomb!
I'm putting a bead at the second stitch in from the end on the row before you bind off for the points on the border, and I'm putting one on the stitch you slip in the s1-k2tog-psso sequence that lands you square in the middle of the diamond. The beads end up being a bit off the right of center, but they're all in the same place and when it's all blocked out and gorgeous all you'll see is beauty, not wonkiness. I'm already three repeats in - I absolutely ADORE this pattern. I would encourage everyone and anyone to make it - it's not that difficult at all - and use stitch markers! They make things a lot easier!
Oh yeah and I got a package from the girls at Blue Moon. Click on the extended entry if you want a peak. ;-)
My first sock club package! Yarn in the new Rainforest Jasper colorway, my binder (with all kinds of goodies inside), my pattern (Cedar Creek Socks), my emergency sock yarn key ring, my bumper sticker, my pin - it's a SOCKS THAT ROCK EXTRAVAGANZA! I'm so proud of Tina and Kaci and the whole crew over at Blue Moon. They've been working night and day to get out the first installment of the sock club and I think they did a stellar job! ROCK ON!
This may seem obvious, but my favorite part of the sock club is definitely going to be the yarn. But not necessarily in the way you think. What I'm looking forward to is ~GASP~ having no control over what I get. It keeps me from buying the same colors over and over again and I know no matter what they send I will at the least be intrigued. Tina is a color genius and she hasn't let me down yet - even with some yarns I was kind of iffy about. I can't wait for the next installment! Thanks girls!
Posted by Cara at 01:21 PM | Comments (51)
March 17, 2006
I'm looking over a Four Leaf Clover....
Can I just tell you? I'm so NOT a fan of St. Patrick's Day. There isn't an ounce of irish blood in me or my husband, I'm not a drinker, and I'm not so into green. Add to that I used to live on the same block as McSorley's, where people would literally line up around the block to get in on St. Pat's Day. The street would be lined with Porta-Potties and still there was a river of puke and piss. I also worked a few blocks from Fifth Avenue in the 50s (around the corner from St. Patrick's Cathedral) for many years and basically you couldn't leave the office on March 17th. BUT today. Well today I am as Irish as they come. All for my friend Vicki! She sent out the bat signal yesterday and I'm here to respond. It's been a tough month over at Vick's and I want you all to go on over and wish her brother Michael a happy birthday and send a big ol' pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for him. He's got some surgery going on today and all my wishes and hopes and prayers are with the Knitorious family! I LOVE YOU VICKI! (And don't forget - tell Vicki and Ann congrats on their YEAR QUIT DATE!!!! I'm so PROUD of both of them! YAY!)
What's that you ask? Why I'd be happy to tell you!
You know, I thought I was the proudest ever when I completed the first back of Short Rows. Then I thought I was the TOTAL SHIT when I finished REKNITTING the back because of gauge issues and FINISHED the front. When I finished the sleeves, well, let me tell you baby it was going to be all ends all the time at Chez January One. Yeah. Right.
NOTHING. None of my other knitting accomplishments, with this project, or any other project, prepared me for the elation I felt when I did this:
I DID IT!!!! I WOVE IN EVERY SINGLE FREAKING END! Now, in case you're not suitably impressed, we're talking 1,472,039 ends. Literally. That is no exaggeration. Want a reminder?
Click to see it bigger so you can actually count the ends.
Yeah. I thought so. I'm SO HAPPY I didn't take any shortcuts! I'm so freaking happy. Who cares if I never sew it up and give it a collar and ever wear it. I WOVE IN THE ENDS! Sigh. It's the little things in life, right?
Don't worry all you short row freaks out there. I will sew it up and I will knit the collar and I will wear it. Although I have to say I'm really really really nervous about it. I mean, what if I put it on and it doesn't fit? Or I put it on and someone splashes spaghetti sauce on me? Or I just eat normally and get crap all over it? What if I sweat in it (I'm a bad perspirer) and I get all kinds of deodorant stains on it and then it's ruined forever? What if it doesn't ohmygod fit? So see, if I procrastinate a little bit it's only because I'm afraid that if I actually finish it I might have to wear it and then I might ruin it and it's been a year since I started this and it will be my greatest knitting accomplishment and is that pathetic because maybe this project isn't as great I thought it once was and it's like a pullover with some stripes easy peasy and who will care? And what if it doesn't FUCKING FIT?
Posted by Cara at 11:39 AM | Comments (33)
March 16, 2006
Closer...closer....
If all goes as planned, the blocking rug will be out tonight. And that's all I'm going to say about that. Jinx buy me a beer.
Want to see what we had for dinner last night?
Yeah. Delicious! We order from this place once a week and without fail, if the owner guy answers, the order gets screwed up somehow. WITHOUT FAIL. It's very strange. Anyone else and the order is delivered fast, hot and yummy. This guy? Not so much. So we were prepared for the slop that greeted us at the door. No worries - they delivered a new one ASAP and wanted the old one back. Good thing I snapped a picture before hand.
Pizza is my transition home meal. When I told G I wanted pizza for dinner he was like of course you do - in a very nice way. Apparently I always have pizza my first dinner home from being away. Maybe because it's easy and I usually have leftovers for lunch the next day? Maybe because pizza outside of the NYC metro area sucks ass? Hmmm. Not sure, but he's right. You can never go wrong with pizza. Ever never.
So I'm back home but my home is driving me crazy. It's actually kind of depressing. We've been living in squalor (as we like to say affectionately) and it has to end. Last night G came home to find me crawling around on the floor picking up all the trash. Do you do this? Whenever I'm switching bags or the crap in my current bag gets to be too much I dump it on the carpet and start over. I'm usually running out of the house at the time and can't sit and go through everything so on the floor it goes. And I can't just dump it over the trash because there are receipts I need to keep in there. Or at least that's what I tell myself. So I was crawling around trolling for trash making neat little piles everywhere of things that don't get thrown out. And finding stitchmarkers. And yarn. Everywhere. I was also procrastinating because I have work to do. I'm out of the work loop so I don't feel like doing it and yet it needs to be done because another job is coming this weekend. I'm grateful for work - don't get me wrong - but there are so many things to help me procrastinate! I'm trying to look at it in a glass half full kind of way. At least I picked up the trash on the floor, right?
Today I'm going to get shrunk and then meet the FAMOUS AUTHOR Kay to buy some stuff I need for a new project. I'm SO excited about this project! So excited! But you'll have to wait. Hopefully not too long as I'm waiting with you, but soon my pretties. Very, very soon.
Have a great day!
Posted by Cara at 10:39 AM | Comments (19)
March 15, 2006
Dosh...or...Jonna...anything but RONNA!
Have I mentioned how much I love my DVR? I mean really really really really really love it? I've have just wound and rewound and re-freaking-round the KISS!!!! OH MY GOD FINALLY MY FANTASIES HAVE BEEN FULFILLED!
And while I'm on the subject of TV, can I just say that THIS is the way a series is supposed to end? Everyone wants Josh and Donna together, so now that the series is ending, we can put them together. And they can ride off into the sunset. UNLIKE Gilmore Girls - that show should've ended with Luke and Lorelei kissing and Kirk running out of the inn naked. C'mon. You SO know what I'm talking about. And you know I'm right.
Posted by Cara at 06:01 PM | Comments (14)
Frantic
Hi! Let me introduce myself. My name is Cara and I used to blog. A lot. Oh god how I miss it. I'm home again folks and I can only hope you missed me as much as I've missed you. And miss you I did! I'm SO out of the loop. I forgot not one but TWO birthdays: two of my best blog buds Margene and Wendy. How awful am I? I pride myself on being an excellent friend - I work hard at it - and I totally dropped the ball. So much so Margene sent ME a present for HER birthday! How ridiculous is she and how much do I suck?
Bunnycrack from Kim! Awesome, no? That Margene. She rocks. Happy happy birthday to you! And a FANTABULOUS birthday to the BOOKISH Girl! Sorry guys. Next year I'll do better. I promise.
So G and I had our homecoming last year night (But oh man it felt like a year! Being at my sister's - no matter how much I love her, the kids, spending time with them - is NOT a vacation. I work hard. This time there was lots of work and lots of sick so I'm happy to be home.) and it wasn't what I had anticipated to say the least. I'm on the train coming up from Philly and I get a call from G-Love. He had arrived home a couple of hours earlier and when he finally got home from the airport he realized a mistake had been made! Right out of our favorite movie, G had picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport!!!! Now, before you start snickering and think to yourself WOW! She bagged a winner! I saw the suitcase he picked up and it was identical to his bag. And to make matters worse, the bag itself is very different and easily identifiable. Georgie is the last person on earth (I guess, now, one of two) to NOT have a roller bag. Know what I'm talking about? He carries a soft suitcase (not a duffel) and it's got this bright orange/yellow trim and the word LUCAS on it. So here comes the same bag on the baggage carousel and right next to it - TOUCHING it - is his other bag. He was on the phone arguing with the car service guy about where to meet and I was ringing in on the other line and he just picked up his bags and left. It wasn't until he got home that he realized he had the wrong bag. When he called me I was all like OH MY GOD it's FRANTIC and what if there are drugs in the bag?! Apparently only an I-POD, ten pairs of sneakers and some condoms. Somebody had fun in Miami.
When G called me I was like no biggie - pick me up at the train station and we'll head over to the airport. I always come into Newark Penn Station and the airport's like ten minutes from there. One problem though - G flew into La Guardia. Nothing like a midnight run to LGA. While we were going through the tunnel we got a call from American Airlines informing us they had his bag. Whew. We got to the airport with a little detour (missed a sign) switched out bags and headed home. Thank god we made that little detour because we took the BQE home and there was like a ten mile back up going TOWARDS the airport. Which we would've been stuck in. Maybe until today. Sometimes there is such a thing as luck.
So we're home. Safe and sound. I miss the kids terribly - I've spent A LOT of time with them this month and now they're off on a fabulous family vacation. The baby and I had some great bonding time. As sad as it is, it's a great ego boost when the little guy cries every time you're out of his line of sight. Awwww.
Knitting was sporadic. I found that weaving in ends on Short Rows was a great nap filler. I'm almost done, believe it or not. I have another new goal for this sweater - I want it done by Passover. And I have a FANASTIC new project on the horizon - details later in the week I hope. I need it for an event at the end of April so I have to start it soon, but it's something I've been dreaming about for awhile and I think it will be phenomenal if I can pull it off.
Socks, socks, socks! I finished a jaywalker and cast on for a mate (not this sock's mate - but you know how I like to switch socks up.) And the embossed leaves saga continues!
Looks like I haven't made any progress, doesn't it? Uh uh uh! Looks can be deceiving! No sillies! It's not the second sock or anything as ambitious as that - it's still the first sock. Only a brand new incarnation! I got to the turning of the heel, believe it or not, and decided it wasn't right. I had done about 15 rows of ribbing and the 3.5 pattern repeats called for and, well, it looked short. So I ripped back to row 12 of ribbing and started knitting the pattern on size 2 Addis. I continued on 2s for two repeats, then switched to 1s. Right now I've got about 3.5 repeats done and I'm planning on doing 4.5 and then starting the heel. Everything's going along pretty well now. I'm happy with it.
Anyway. I'm back. And I hope to be back for good - for a while at least. There's still a lot of running around this month and now it's extending into April and May but, it's okay. I'll deal.
Hope you're having a GREAT day!
L, C
Posted by Cara at 02:18 PM | Comments (24)
March 10, 2006
E is for
Eggs
G was such a sport for this photoshoot - I sent him out find me some roe. The yellow is whitefish roe in its natural state and the red is whitefish roe colored with beets and saffron. YAY G! Otherwise, I'm just playing around with the incredible edible egg.
Thanks for all the well wishes. I'm still not eating much but I slept good last night and I haven't puked in a while. My stomach is not completely back to normal and the cold I originally thought I was getting is still working its way through me. Tomorrow I'm back at my sister's until Tuesday. This month I feel like I will barely be home - G's traveling a lot which means I'm traveling a lot. I hate to sleep alone. I'm by myself all day long, mostly, and I just can't stand to extend that to the nights. I need company. So I go to my sister's. But in a couple of weeks G goes away again and my sister will be on vacation so I have to find somewhere else to stay. Luckily I've got great friends who are more than willing to take me in.
Have a great weekend!
L, C
The staging area.
Posted by Cara at 04:13 PM | Comments (32)
March 09, 2006
I've ruined Junior Caramels forever....
Sigh. The love affair is over and it's all my fault. Let me announce to friend and foe alike: I AM AN ASS. That's about as plain as I can state it.
So I was down at my sister's helping out - she has a big project to finish up which is kind of impossible with an eleven month old who can now climb the stairs. On Monday, when all three kids were home, she got some kind of stomach virus. It lasted a day - literally - but she felt like crap and I tried to help as best I could. I feel like I didn't do enough though. The big(ger) kids went to school Tuesday and Wednesday and I was on baby patrol. Tuesday night I started to feel like I was getting a cold - scratchy throat, start of a runny nose - Wednesday I felt kind of crappy all day and I went home Wednesday night. I started to feel nauseated five minutes before we left for the train station - but then it went away on the train so I thought I was okay. G and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought all kinds of stuff completely inappropriate for a stomach virus. Get home, find out Max threw up as soon as my sister got the kids in the door - his first time since a big kid. Completely freaked himself out. I'm still feeling okay stomach wise so I don't eat any dinner but proceed to finish the box of Junior Caramels I left on my nightstand before I left.
Do I need to go on? Really?
At about 3AM we're talking PuKeFeSt 2006. There is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, I hate more than throwing up. Control issues? Check. Throwing up equals complete loss of control? Check. Junior Caramels? Yeah. It will be a long, long, LONG time before I eat any more of those.
I'm not puking anymore, but I'm having really awful stomach pains that I can't seem to make go away. G stayed home with me this morning, but he's about to leave for the office, so I'm on my own. I hate being sick. If you sent an email and I didn't get back to you, I'm so sorry. I've been computer-less for the week and now I don't even feel like looking at the computer let alone reading anything on it. I hope you're all feeling excellent. My advice for the day - if there's any chance you might be sick - stay far away from your favorite candy. Learn from my mistakes.
Thanks.
L, C
Posted by Cara at 12:38 PM | Comments (54)
March 06, 2006
I'd like to thank the Academy....
I'm blaming it on PMS, otherwise I'm a big ass cornball, but I totally lost it during Reese Witherspoon's acceptance speech. She was so poised and beautiful and yet still retained her spunk. I feel like Ryan Phillipe isn't good enough for her - you know? And despite myself I like George Clooney. He's so Cary Grant, except not as effete.
Hi everybody! That's from Max, my nephew. He's sitting with me while I'm writing on my website. He wants to know when he can get his own website. We told him when he's ten.
y y h,ugyhhm M,MNJMM. (That's from Baby Eli! (Who's actually a big boy these days crawling up the stairs and standing by himself!))
I ripped the Embossed Leaves socks and started them over. This time I did a regular long tail cast on and simple 1x1 rib and they're so much better. The ribbing is nice and stretchy (on size 2 Addis) and I did the pattern on 1s, but it's all good. Most people say the Koigu stretches a lot so I thought sticking with 1s on the cuff was the best move. I've gone through 2 repeats and it's all good. I'm happy with them. It was the cast on and twisted knit ribbing that I didn't like - way too tight.
Thanks for all the good wishes about this weekend. I go by the "imagine the absolute WORST possible thing to happen then be pleasantly surprised" way of life. A lot of the time it works great and this weekend was no exception. It's still not an ideal situation - but it could be much, much worse. I'm down here until Thursday. I may be on everyday, but I may not. Thanks for reading. Pictures when I get back.
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Posted by Cara at 12:46 PM | Comments (22)
March 05, 2006
Backyard Greetings
For Becky - the view from my balcony:
Posted by Cara at 12:03 AM | Comments (16)
March 04, 2006
Embossed Leaves
God I just LOVE jumping on someone ELSE's bandwagon. Love it! So I'm making these pretty socks from the Winter 2006 IK in Koigu #P704. I've decided that the spackly spotty Koigus are my favorites. What a surprise to knit! Every now and again such a shocking color rolls past my needle - something I'd never expect and seems so out of place - that I have to laugh. Very nice. (Although for the record, STR is MUCH softer than Koigu. Surprisingly so.)
Okay - so the socks. I LOVE the pattern. So much so I'm planning on knitting 8 million versions of this sock as well. There is a problem though. I followed the cast-on directions (even though they don't really seem like what I thought a tubular cast on was supposed to be) and I did the ribbing on size 2 Addis (3mm) and then after fifteen rows of twisted knit ribs, I started the pattern on size 1 Addis (2.5mm). Now I'm thinking I should've done the whole thing on 2s. Or even start over and do the ribbing on 3s and the body on 2s. They seem too tight. All you embossed leaves knitters out there - what say you? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do a gauge swatch. They're socks. Do you really swatch for socks? Isn't it just easier to rip out and start over? Thanks for the thoughts.
I washed my yarn and hung it to dry and you were all right. It seems a lot better. Thank you all so much for your advice and encouragement (and offers for a good home for the yarn. The yarn appreciates it, but I think I'll keep it.) I think my problem was I really thought my spinning was improving by leaps and bounds (and I still believe this) but when I went to ply and was reminded of those bits of the spinning where I HADN'T improved - I was disappointed. It's a one step up and two steps back kind of thing. I'll get there. I know I will and I can't wait to spin some more.
Unfortunately though there won't be much spinning this month. Although I'm going to kick ass to get the Project Spectrum Spinning in. It seems I'll be on the road a lot this month - G's away a few weekends in a row and I'm on my way to Philly today. We've got some family stuff going on this weekend that I don't really want to talk about, but I will absolutely appreciate any good vibes you can send my way. I'm awfully open on the blog - but only when it comes to me and me alone. Stuff that affects my larger family I like to keep pretty quiet and it hasn't been the best of times for us lately. Tomorrow is just another chapter in the continuing changes that we're all still struggling to get used to. Blah. Let's all sing together: It's just another Xanax Sunday la, la! (Apologies to The Bangles.)
I be back home on Thursday, so I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging between then and now. I'm on kid duty a lot - I'm actually going to help out my sister - so my computer time might be kind of scarce. Look for late night shout outs. Have a great weekend! See you soon!
L, C
Posted by Cara at 08:44 AM | Comments (45)
March 03, 2006
Peace. Love. Natural Fibers.
Click to read the creed.
Yesterday I had an ultra fabulous lunch with the ultra fabulous Yankee Half of Mason Dixon Knitting. Kay has often introduced me to the finer corners of NYC -- cool places where suave European men make me blush as they sip Espressos at the coffee bar with their little pinkies sticking out -- so I thought I'd return the favor by taking her to a chic hip downtown Japanese Noodle place that G-Love recommended. Say what you will about my husband - he gives good restaurant. After our bellies were satisfied and full of homemade Soba noodles and green tea ice cream, Kay took out the book I had been begging to see for weeks.
First off, I should say that I LOVE Kay and Ann and have been lucky enough to photograph them for an author picture that didn't make it into the book (damn those cute ass woodcuts!) and half of their children (Kay has me booked through the last grandchild's wedding!) All that relationship stuff aside - their book ROCKS!
The book is part memoir, part pattern guide, part humor - 100% INSPIRATION. Whether they're talking about dishclothes, felted boxes, or log cabin blankets, the main idea of everything is to be FREE within the confines of a pattern. There's a great passage where Kay talks about making a mitred square blanket and how she gave herself rules to follow when choosing colors for the squares. Once she made these rules for herself, she was free to choose what she wanted, but not TOO free to be stymied by the choices. Know what I mean? Lolly made a comment on my blog the other day about this same thing (at least I read it that way.) I had said all of my Project Spectrum projects would revolve around my spinning, and she said, and I quote, "That kind of focus is going to open up so much creativity...." That's exactly how I feel about Ann and Kay's book. They give you boundaries in which to go crazy! For starters, as soon as I see one of those log cabin blankets my mind goes nuts with the possibilities - but it's true - if you give yourself some rules (only choose purple colors or no center square block), whatever they may be, you can actually open your mind up to even more possibilities than you thought you had - but you still don't overwhelm the project. How many of us have opened up a Barbara Walker book or Harmony Guide or whatever and been excited for like five minutes and then sigh because there's too much to choose from? Well Kay and Ann's book is a great place to start - whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro - just enough guidance and a whole lot of vision.
The book is an explosion of color as well. Everything is beautifully photographed (by Steve Gross and Sue Daley) and yet everything is still accessible. You can see these knits in your bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens. It's an incredibly comfortable book.
Of course, what makes it so comfortable are Kay and Ann. They infuse the pages with their humor and their humility. They make you feel like YOU CAN DO IT! They've done it and sure they've mucked things up here and there along the way but they came out STRONGER and their knits came out BETTER FOR THE MUCK UP! Literally, though, the best part of the book for me is that there's something on every page - some morsel - you have to read closely. Have you ever read any Maira Kalman books? I love her. When you read her books you need to read every word on the page because god forbid you should miss even one thing. Mason-Dixon Knitting : The Curious Knitters' Guide: Stories, Patterns, Advice, Opinions, Questions, Answers, Jokes, and Pictures is just like that. You don't want to miss even one thing.
Posted by Cara at 08:10 AM | Comments (18)
March 02, 2006
Fat Thursday
Lisa Souza Biffle
approximately 380 yds.
It looks so pretty right? Well looks can be deceiving. Check out the back side of the skein. It's positively skanky. (Click on it for a bigger look. I'm not sure what's going on because some of the ugliest parts seemed to have plied well. Is it just that I need to set the twist?)
Let this be a lesson to you: DON'T FUCK WITH YARMA*. Yesterday I made the beyond beginner's mistake over at Rock Chick's by mentioning that I thought plying was easy. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Yarma! That cruel bitch laughs at me and then makes me stay up until 2AM skeining and re-skeining and damn it took me like five hours to ply this crap! I bow to you YARMA! You are my queen! (And I was even spinning in front of the exorcised yarn cabinet. A lot of good practically setting my house on fire did for me!)
Anyway, before you all tell me how great it looks - it looks so sloppy to me! I was so excited about my nice even singles and when I said yesteray that the more you spin the more it covers up all the shit on the bobbins I was RIGHT! Maybe I just really do suck at plying? Could it be that the skein is too large and I should break it up into two smaller skeins? I haven't set the twist yet because as I said I was up until after 2 dealing with this and this morning I wanted to take pictures which actually suck because it's snowing today and there's like no light in the apartment and I refuse to use a flash. And I got that 380 yds number by measuring the niddy noddy length (17") and then counting how many strands there were on one side(203) then multiplying the number by 4 then by 17 then dividing by 36. Right?
Back to my yarn. I thought it would be so much nicer. I might not like the colors so much, that's true, but I really thought it was going to be better this time. It seems just like the last stuff I plied and yes I was all happy about that stuff, but that's because it was the first stuff I ever made. I wanted to feel like I made progress.
Ugly
Pretty
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
*Yarma: Last night I was talking to my brother and telling him about the whole Ikea debacle and I told him about the exorcism and I said I didn't want bad Yarn Karma and he said, "Yeah. Yarma."
Good Yarma: Anybody who participates in this or this has it in spades.
Bad Yarma: What happens to you when you don't kiss the knit goddess's ASS. "Oh that's easy! I can [knit/spin/crochet/put your fiber related activity here] that with my eyes closed!"
Posted by Cara at 09:53 AM | Comments (29)
March 01, 2006
Project Spin
I know I said I was going to work on Short Rows, but really, that's about weaving in ends so any distraction is welcome. Luckily, procrastination projects are close at hand as this is the first day of
the brain child of superfantastic librarian/historian extraordinaire, Lolly. As soon as I heard about Lolly's idea to concentrate on certain colors during each month, I KNEW it would be about spinning for me. One of the main reasons I got into spinning was because of all the color possibilities - mixing colors in fibers, making my own barberpole yarns, dyeing even, maybe?
Last night I got out the old wheel. (Yeah, yeah. I know it's brand spanking new. Don't think that its lily whiteness doesn't remind of my newbie status at every turn. I'm a dink-ass nub.) I've missed the ol' girl. I took her up to Boston, but she got barely a workout.
Enough, though, that Claudia was able to give me some excellent advice which I incorporated into my spinning routine right away. She noticed that I was spinning, but I wasn't actually making yarn. Which, in retrospect, I knew all along. She suggested that I move the drive band lower on the Mother of All so that I could treadle at the same speed, but have the wheel make more revolutions. Yes?
Things were a bit funky at first, but the beauty of spinning is that the more yarn you make, the faster it covers up the icky stuff with lovely, evenly spun yarn.
I know it's not pink or red, but I love the yarn. And as I mentioned yesterday, Jan sent me more of this great Lisa Souza Biffle (Mardi Gras colorway) which I plan on diving into later today. Have I told you lately that I LOVE spinning? It's been a while since I sat down at the wheel for some extended spinning and last night I spun up around 4 oz. and it was heavenly. The best part - G loves when I spin too. He loves to watch my feet treadle and he loves the whir the wheel makes as it goes round and round. He's been pretty crazy at work, so it's a nice break for him and me. Perfect!
Back to Project Spectrum. As I said, my goal is to spin yarn in the colors assigned to the month. I was behind in figuring things out fiber wise - I want to try some Grafton Fiber batts because I hear so much about their goodness, but they won't get here in time so that will have to be for next month. In the meantime, my friend Tina is special dyeing some Biffle for me! Yay! I can hardly wait for the pink and red goodness.
So that I can start the month off right, here are a couple of pink and red pictures. (I know - the sky picture's been getting a workout lately, but I just love it so much!) Enjoy!
Posted by Cara at 01:41 PM | Comments (24)