Knitting Goddess #9

Last Chance

This is your last chance to Name! That! Wheel!

Winner gets my first handspun and hand dyed yarn:



Send entries to namethatwheel at stitch-witch dot net by Wednesday to join the fun!

posted by Christina @ 8:15 PM |

Secret Pal Questions!

Not that I've heard anything from anybody about this, but my email has been wonky lately. So yes, if you've been sending me emails, no, I'm not snubbing you, my email is wonky.

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?

I am a yarn snob. But I'm also cheap. No acrylic for me, very few yarn blends (unless it's a cotton blend), but I'm currently knitting a sweater out of TLC cotton plus and it's faaahbulous. I'll use Woolease for projects I don't particularly care about or that need to hold up through the years, but I prefer natural fibers. A lot.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?

I am the proud owner of a new spinning wheel, so yes, I spin. I crochet... sort of. In the way that I can do single crochet necklines. I'd guess I'd like to learn more crochet, but it hasn't been a priority.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)

Hay fever. Really cloying scents tend to give me headaches, too.

4. How long have you been knitting?

Umm... 6 years?

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Amazon wishlist here.

6. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

Rose scents give me a headache/the sneezes. I love the Body Shop's Oceanus, but my SP3 got me a bottle of scent from them that I haven't used. I like pomegranet, mango & lavendar, too.


7. Do you have a sweet tooth?

Give me chocolate and no one will get hurt. I like caramel & marshmallows too (but not together).

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?

It's pretty much all yarn, all the time with me. Spinning, knitting, dyeing, occasional crochet... I'd like to learn how to weave at some point, too.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I love either whiny girl empowerment bands (Dar Williams, Erin McKeown, Aimee Allen, etc...) as well as the emo kind of bands (Dashboard Confessional, Evanescence) and weird rocker bands (The Mountain Goats, The Dresden Dolls, the Hedwig & the Angry Inch soundtrack, etc...) I have really eclectic tastes. But I like pretty much everything in the rock genre. No Britney, no country, no rap. Well, some rap, but nothing about getting down with your bitches and hos. Because dogs and garden tools aren't that interesting.

10. What’s your favorite color? Or–do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can’t stand?

I've gotten my colors done and I am, apparently, a winter. I love wine reds, olive greens and french blues. I hate hate hate yellows and oranges.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I live with my aunt and will until Septemberish. We had a dog, Fred, who is the cutest dog in the entire world.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)

Umm... I haven't been in a place to think about such things. But really, I'd be very happy with a life where I got to do nothing but play with fiber all day and occasionally design sweaters.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?

I use a lot of Cascade 220, Patons Classic Merino, etc... I'm currently working with some elann babysilk that is faaahbulous.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Acrylic or anything that feels harsh. I don't like spinning with mohair or cotton very much - it's hard for me to get a good draft on either.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?

Actually, my current obsession is spinning! Until the novelty of the wheel wears off, it's pretty much going to be all spinning, all the time.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I like working on sweaters, especially with cablework or fair isle.

17. What are you knitting right now?

Heh. A lot of different things. I have a WIP roll call that I'm going to update when I have a minute to get pictures. I have 3 different sweaters on the needles, a bobbin full of ingeo silk, two frogging projects and one sweater that needs sleeves. And then I have a bunch of things I want to start, like the clapotis and a lace shawl, etc...

18. What do you think about ponchos?

Poncho = death.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
Circs. Circs all the way. Circs LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW. Much easier on my already troubled wrists. I have a denise kit, so I'm set for most of them, but for the smaller needles (like 0s, 1s, and 2s), I've been making do with some very old school susan bates. But unless I start knitting with crochet cotton, I'll be fine.


20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Plastic, mostly. I don't particularly like aluminum needles and I've never actually used bamboo.


21. Are you a sock knitter?

Occasionally. I don't like wearing handknit socks (my feet get too hot - I like thinner socks), but I'll knit them for other people.

22. How did you learn to knit?

My mommy taught me. I asked her if she knew how - she said yes, we went to Michaels and bought some gadawful acrylic and that night she had me cast on 70 stitches for a scarf and taught me garter stitch.

My mom knows the basics of how to knit, but I can safely say the student has surpassed the teacher.

I wanted something to keep my hands busy so I wasn't compulsively eating/smoking/playing with my hair. I got an obsession.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?

Oooh... two years old at this point. It was one of my first attempts and designing. It's going to get frogged and probably turned into another design.


24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

Well, I love birds of prey - hawks, kestrels, eagles. I'm a big fan of kitty cats too, large & small.

In terms of animated characters, uh... I like Ein. The dog from Escaflowne. And the Powerpuff girls, sort of. And the Animaniacs. And the Pichus from Slayers.

25. What is your favorite holiday?

Beltane & Imbolc. Both of which have passed, but I enjoy them. Oooh, and Samhain/Halloween!

26. Is there anything that you collect?

Yarn? Books? Clothes that don't fit?

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

None. I haven't had any permanence in my life for a while (in terms of addresses). I want to get a sub to Interweave, though.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?

The Harlot's Book. I keep meaning to buy it and then I keep forgetting.

posted by Christina @ 11:11 AM |

What a nightmare!

This is actually a dream I had last night. I woke up around 6 am, absolutely furious!

I took the pink, laceweight yarn I dyed yesterday to a store and dumped it all out to show the nice people there. I came back the next day to find the yarn for sale! I was mortified. And I explained very nicely to the people that it was my yarn and I'd dyed it and I'd like to get it back now, please.

But the people there had no idea what I was talking about. The yarn had price tags on it, it was being sold to raise money for a good cause, no, I couldn't get it back unless I paid $80+ for it.

But... but... it was old yarn! It was unlabeled, in varying size skeins, with no mention of yardage anywhere. Some of it was in balls, not hanks! How could they arbitrarily slap a price on it and just sell it like that?! It wasn't right! It was MY YARN! I hadn't even bought it, my friend gave it to me! I spent hours dyeing and skeining it! Why would I give it to them to sell and not even make any money for myself!

Then this guy at the counter (in a ratty t-shirt! a big faux-pas in Christina fashion guru land) turns to me and says, "Listen, lady, what's the big deal? It's just yarn and it's going to raise money for a good cause!"

And that's about when I woke up. And I had to remind myself several times that no, the yarn was safe downstairs.

(Yes, I do some charity knitting and no, I don't mind giving things for a good cause. But NOT MY YARNS!!!!)

posted by Christina @ 10:33 AM |

Dye day!

I'm a bad blogger. Libby, k8 and Paula have all blogged about Saturday's dye fest before me.

I do have an excuse. I've been working pretty much nonstop since then. Trials and tribulations of a new job.

First, I'm pretty sure that when spinning, the flyer is not supposed to look like this:


Luckily, I desnagged and plied that sucker to make my first skein of handspun, which I think is about 250 yards of chunkyweight. Then I made a skein of maybe 60 yards of merino worsted-ish weight. Then I ran out to Maryland to partake in dye day.



This makes me happy. Look at all of that yarn drying in the sun. That yarn was once right.

K8 & Paula were trying to get some self patterning yarn, so they ended up having to rewind a hank.



That would be a 20 foot hank. Yes, really.

So, to dye, I dropped some easter egg dye in a bowl and plopped the 1000 yards of laceweight wool I blogged about here in the bowl. Then... what's in the oven?



It would, in fact, be my yarn. The secret to microwave dyeing is about a minute and thirty seconds in the oven, let stand for two minutes. Lather, rinse and repeat until dye is absorbed or until you scream 'I just can't take it anymore!' after an hour and a half.

Guess which way I went? I also tried my first attempt at handpainting yarn, which is simpler than it might seam. Here's what it looks like drying... not that exciting.



But, it looks much better when wound into another hank. Check out everything I made...



That's the laceweight, my first two handspun attempts (which will be going t the winner of the Name That Wheel! contest) and about 900 yards of fisherman's wool which will probably become a Clapotis. Oh, and my brand new niddy noddy, courtesy of k8's hubby. I have a niddy noddy! I'm a real spinner now!

k8's dog Cassie approves!



But Fred wants you to know he's still the cutest dog.



Here's some of woolarina's bounty.



Oh, if I had such a stash! Check out their website and you can make some of it yours!

posted by Christina @ 7:20 PM |

CONTEST!

Meet my new baby!



This is my new Babe Production wheel. It needs a name. So, I ask you, my loyal readers, to Name. That. Wheel!

Please send entries to namethatwheel@NOSPAM.stitch-witch.net. One entry per person. And yes, I've already thought of the name Baby. Preference may be shown to those who give me a good reason why yours is truly the best name.

The winner will get some of my handspun from the new wheel and probably my first attempts at koolaid dyeing. Whee!

Contest closes May 31st.

posted by Christina @ 11:33 PM |

Maryland Sheep & Wool

So, I left my house at 8:15, arrived at Libby's (who just go a blog, say hi!) at 8:45, arrived at Bridget's house at 9:15 after getting coffee, and then finally left Bridget's around quarter to 10. What is it about getting 4 girls moving in the morning that's like herding cats?

But finally, we made it there, just in time for a photo op.



Mad props to Libby's boy, J. It's not every man who will spend 8 hours at a fiber festival... and buy a Denise kit! (Yes ladies, he knits too. And by the way he was staring at the spinning demonstrations, he'll probably start spinning, too)

We arrive as other women are starting to leave with some of those huge push totes full of fleece. Some day, I will be one of those older ladies.



In case you're wondering, that's an angora bunny on that woman's lap. She's literally pulling tufts of fur off of the bunny and spinning it right then and there. Someday, when I can take care of a plant for longer than a week, I will get an angora bunny.



Look, it's like an alpaca lollypop!



One of my friends met a llama. The llama says hello. Someday, a llama will say hello to me.



OK, maybe it's just me, but... I swear, these sheep look like dominatrix (dominatrixes? dominatrices?) sheep. Hand me the flogger baby, I've got a wicked shorning coming up. Some day, I'll end up looking as silly as that. Actually, that's probably already happened.



I think I'll go for a walk! I like to stretch my legs before a group of strangers decides just how pretty I am! Someday (actually, in about 15 minutes), I'll walk a sheep dog like that.

And of course, I spent most of the fair completely ignoring the fiber and checking out all of the wheels and prices. It's odd, but I tend to not shop for yarn unless I have a project in mind. Or it's onsale. Spinning is very different, as is the giant bags of odd lots at great discounts that Knots & Treadles always has. I really wanted to buy a fleece but decided against it. Someday, probably at next year's MS&WF, if I'm still in town, I will buy a fleece. Maybe two fleeces.

Some day, I'll buy a spinning wheel.

Oh wait. That was Saturday. ::bounces about happily::

See the full album here.

posted by Christina @ 9:35 PM |

MS&WF - The Quick Update

I spent all of the month going 'I'm going to buy a wheel at MS&WF!' And then I thought. And then I looked at my credit card bill. And I hemmed. And I hawed. And I looked around the festival. And I thought some more.

And now I have a Babe Production Wheel (double treadle in black - I would have gotten the white, cuz it's cheaper, but they didn't have it). It's currently sitting unassembled in a box in my living room.

I got a small ball of Karakul roving for $5. And the wheel.

It was with great restraint that I didn't buy a fleece.

I just can't buy anything fiber related until a week from never now. And this will be interesting when I run out of wool.

Some great pictures when I can get them uploaded.

posted by Christina @ 12:33 AM |

Destash & Swap

So, on Sunday, I destashed my room.





That's stash before. I've got a whole batch of stuff for charity, some ideas for my other yarns and a whole bunch of stuff that I just. don't. want. anymore.

Click me, make an offer and you can have it! and help me pay for my spinning wheel that I'm buying at MS&WF.

posted by Christina @ 9:01 PM |