THWACK!

So, I checked in at the Mason-Dixon Knitalong blog, where I've been loving both reading about everyone's MDK projects and posting about my own, and lo and behold, the following Important Message was posted today:

IMPORTANT MESSAGE ~ 2 ~

Please be conservative with the pictures you choose to post on this site.

We can only allow ONE picture of EACH project per POST.

This means:

1. We love to see your progress, but we don't need to see 3 different pictures documenting various stages of knitting project.

2. Please choose the best version of your photographed item.....we don't need to see washrags posing in various parts of the house or kitchen or bathroom. As much as we love to see these....we need to conserve our bandwidth.

3. No more pictures of piles of yarn that you will eventually knit up.

These are all fun pictures - trust me, I like looking at them just as much as you do....but we all must do our parts to conserve bandwidth.

ANY POSTS THAT DON'T KEEP THESE RULES IN MIND WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE DELETED.

*************
Now, I can certainly appreciate the need to conserve bandwidth. I don't mind posting only one project photo per post. I can post only photos of projects and not yarn-that-will-become-projects. There is nothing at all unreasonable about any of the requests in that post.



But, is it me or could the message have been worded just a bit more nicely?

Maybe I'm just oversensitive since I'm one of those who just posted not only two photos of the same project but one of the photos also included a pile of yarn. Yikes! In my defense, I really do like my knitted bathmats, and I was REALLY excited to get a ton of Sugar n Cream yarn on sale at Michael's for a buck a skein.



I feel like I've just been thwacked on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Unfortunately, now I'm rather hesitant to post on that blog again, not because I have any doubt that I can follow the instructions, but more because I feel chided -- unfairly scolded for doing something that wasn't wrong (or, at least, hadn't been labeled as wrong) at the time I did it.

Bad timing, too. I just started a Ballband Bathmat (adapted from the Ballband Warshrag pattern) and I'm really pleased with how it's coming out. Will post photos here once a few more rows are done.

In other news, I've been trying my hand at twice-knit knitting, a particular technique that produces a thick, textured fabric that won't run when it's cut. Can you say "sweaters with steeks"??? Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the darn thing to knit up straight -- it keeps biasing. See??

I'm following the tutorial exactly, and I even wrote Megan, the woman who created the tutorial, and she said it sounds like I'm doing all the right things. Will have to start experimenting with this...and then sweaters in the round, here I come!

One of Those Days

Today was the day for none of my fibery experiences to go right. First I tried my hand at twice-knit knitting, and not once but twice did my piece come out on the bias instead of straight. Then on the way home from work I stopped at Gotta Knit, where all summer yarns were on sale for 30% off, and found that the one skein of bulky silk I'd been fondling lovingly and which I had found clearly set out on the "sale" shelf was, in fact, not on sale. Finally, I began my ballband bathmat tonight only to find -- after completing three lengthy rows -- that I'd miscalculated my cast-on and needed to pull the whole things out. To top it off, I really didn't care for the way that bathmat was looking in the ballband pattern, which means I'll either need to keep tweaking it until I hit something I like (IF I hit something I like) or simply abandon the idea.

*sigh* I should have expected it. I spent all last night knitting happily away, listening to Pride and Prejudice on Librivox without a care in the world. I finished my project, wove in all the ends, didn't run out of yarn or find I'd dropped a stitch waaaaay back where I'd have to go crazy to fix it...all in all, a great fiber night.

Yep. I should've expected it -- the universe is simply restoring balance. It's a good thing I didn't try to work on anything complicated today...who knows what might have happened?

Doing Battle

Found another moth today, this time in the guest bathroom. At least DH managed to squish the thing. He swears it wasn't a clothes moth; I swear he's just trying to make me feel better.

So, just in case, I've decided to take things to the next level:

Nestled comfortably between the butter and the frozen blueberries is one plastic storage tub's worth of wool. Freezing for 72 hours is supposed to kill moth larvae, and that's exactly what I intend to do. And people said I was crazy to buy a giant chest freezer for just my husband and me!

In other news, poor M is sick. She woke us up at nearly 5am, covered in her own vomit. She'd eaten craisins and blueberries yesterday among other things, so it was quite the shocking sight. No work for me today -- it'll be the doctor's office instead. M is certainly looking better now than she did four hours ago -- she's eaten a few Cheerios and is happily tossing the remainder to the dogs as I write -- but she's been a bit "off" since Sunday (low-grade fever, diarrhea), so I want to get her checked out. Don't know how much, if any, knitting I'll be able to get done in the waiting room, but I'll bring my m-i-l's yak/merino scarf with me just in case.

The Public Has Spoken....

The wonderful knitters at the Mason-Dixon Knitalong have chimed in on my MDK baby kimonos, and the consensus seems to be that either colorway is fine for a boy or a girl...as long as the parents are OK with it.

As the mother of a 15 month old girl, I can attest to the fact that it's pretty easy to OD on pink and purple gifts from well-meaning friends/family. Personally, I think it's good to shake things up a bit. But some other people...well, not so much.

I recently had a discussion about this with DH, shortly after I brought home a Little People garbage truck toy for my daughter. I remarked to DH that, forward-thinking as I like to believe myself to be, I still found myself debating over whether I should buy M the toy because it was -- well, it was a friggin' garbage truck. What kind of "girl toy" was that?

Of course, as soon as the thought crossed my mind (as I stood at the toy table in the community center fundraising tag sale with this brand-new, still-in-the-box-with-the-tags-on toy marked at only $3 in my hot little hand), I chided myself for being ridiculous. What child, boy or girl, wouldn't like a bright-green truck with eyes for headlights that made chomping, burping, crashing noises at the pull of a handle and had not one but TWO pieces -- a short, squat garbage man and a silver garbage can overflowing with plastic "trash" -- to take off and play with.

Needless to say, I bought the truck. I'm happy to report, it's one of M's favorite toys.

But back to my discussion with DH. I told him of my hesitation at the toy sale, and he said that it was perfectly fine for his daughter to play with toy trucks if she wanted to. "But," he added, "No son of mine is going to play with an Easy-Bake Oven."

Now, how ridiculous is that? First of all, if there's any toy that any kid, boy or girl, should go crazy over, it's one that gives out junk food just for playing with it. Do you see GI Joe handing out brownies at the end of a rousing game of "bayonet the enemy soldiers"?

I thought not.

Similarly, when I was pregnant, a girlfriend gave me bags and bags of baby clothes -- all in pinks and purples -- that her young daughter had grown out of. She had just had a second baby herself, a boy, and so got rid of the "girl's" wardrobe and replaced it with clothes in "boy colors."

I was more than happy to accept my friend's generous gift, and as I sat delightedly sorting through tiny outfits, my husband commented on how sweet a gift it had been. Then he added, "But what if we wind up having a boy?"

"He'll wear pink until he outgrows these clothes," I replied, not missing a beat.

When my husband began to go on about the dire psychological results that dressing an infant boy in pink could engender, I pointed out that if that's the worst thing our child has to hash over in therapy one day, then he will have had a very fine life indeed.

Anyway, you see what I'm saying.

Color, gender, stereotypes of all kinds.... It's amazing that these are even still issues in today's society.

Remind me to write about how my favorite toy growing up was, of all things, a big, black machine gun. I kid you not -- I loved that thing. And the person who gave it to me was...my mother.

P. S.

Today I gave the warshrag that I finished yesterday to Karen as a thank-you for picking up my farm co-op veggies this past month while I worked. She really liked it. I'm glad -- the colors are rather bright compared to what she usually goes for, but I think that's part of the fun.

I have another ballband idea that I can't wait to try out. Will have to finish my current Absorba the Great Bathmat project before casting on any new projects, though. I won't post any details now, but as soon as I get it on the needles I'll snap some pics and post.

Kimono Love

How cool is ombre yarn yarn? You just knit, knit, knit and beautiful, random patterns appear as if by magic. You gotta love that.

Still working on catching up my blog to my FOs -- what a nice change from scrambling to complete projects in order to have something finished to photograph! These two kimonos -- finished except for seaming and attaching ribbons -- are destined for Amy's and Lisa's babies, both due in October. Amy knows she's having a boy; Lisa won't find out till the baby is born. So, I need some opinions: Can I give the orange/yellow/sorta pinkish kimono to Lisa even if she has a boy? Or should I knit up something in a more "boyish" color just in case?

From Mason-Dixon Knitting....

Boy, do I LOVE this book! This is my first "warshrag," and I must admit I like it far better than the usual "start with 3 stitches, yo to increase at each end until it's halfway big enough then decrease back down to 3 stitches" dishrag I'm used to seeing. While this is far from my first MDK project (I've finished 2 baby kimonos -- OK, finished all except for seaming up the sides and sewing on the ribbons -- a baby bib, a burp cloth and more than one Absorba the Great Bathmat), it's one of the most fun. I especially love the super-bright colors -- they go with absolutely nothing in my (or anyone else's...?) kitchen, but they're pure fun. I can't wait to knit some more! :)))))

Shortly after casting on this morning....
















And this evening, finished and waiting to be gift-wrapped.
















Talk about instant gratification!

FO - Felt!

Inspired by the fabulous Simply Felt, I decided way back in April to try some "true" felting, meaning that instead of knitting up a giant, oversized item and shrinking it down in the wash, I would take loose fiber and turn it directly into felt. With my m-i-l watching the baby and hubby at work, I took an afternoon and played with fiber and water, winding up with a nice, rectangular-shaped piece of felt about the size of a placemat. I decided that as soon as it dried, I would blanket-stitch around the edge. Naturally, as soon as it dried, I put it away in the closet and didn't look at it again (except with the occasional pang of guilt)...until last night. As hubby napped through Man on the Moon (how anyone can sleep through Jim Carrey playing Andy Kaufman is beyond me), I finally dug out the yarn and needle and blanket-stitched my felt.

Here's what it looks like:


And here's what I've decided to do with it:


Strictly speaking, my lamp doesn't really need its own oversized coaster. But, what else should I do with a single placemat-sized piece of blanket-stitched felt? And I do love the way it turned out so very much that I couldn't bear to just tuck it away again.

Why I Should Not Be Allowed into Yarn Stores


See that? It's Mango Moon yarn, beautiful handspun from Nepal. Reminds me a lot of the sari silk I bought online awhile back (and just finished packing away from the evil m-o-t-h-s...more on that a little later). 100% viscose, which I've discovered is "a viscous organic liquid used to make rayon and cellophane." First manufactured in 1891 and used to coat fabrics, viscose was eventually developed into a thread which largely replaced cotton and wool in stockings and underwear (or so says wikipedia).

Whatever. I was a bit hesitant to buy something so far from a natural fiber (yes, its origin is plant-based, but it's a far cry from a cotton, silk or lovely pure wool), but I absolutely fell in love with the colors AND it was on sale - 30% off for a total of $14/skein. So, my spending cash for the rest of the month went on the vibrant, enticing, irresistible skeins you see above.

I brought them home, took a quick photo and promptly sealed them up in plastic because today I found...you guessed it...another *shudder* MOTH.

This time it flew out of -- can you believe it?? -- my closet, right off the shelf where some of my yarn was waiting to be tagged, bagged and stored among cedar balls, safe in baggies from the chewing mouths of moths. At least I now have my stash safely stashed away, all except the wool I've actively got on the spinning wheel and spindles. I hope I won't find out down the line I stashed away some nasty little larvae along with the wool.

I think I've heard that if you freeze your yarn, it kills any potential moth larvae. Might be worth filling up the freezer tomorrow....

WIP


One of my longest-running Works in Progress: a silk stole for my mother. The design is my own -- Madiera Mesh lace pattern for the body (from Martha Waterman's fabulous Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls book) and a pointed edging the source of which I'd better remember before I get to the other end or I'm screwed. The photo doesn't really do the colorway justice; it's a steel-grey with just a swirl of pale plum. Stunning, really. The skein cost me enough and it's taking me long enough to knit, but I started it back in January specifically because I knew it would take me a good year to finish. The skein is finally quite a bit smaller than when I first started. Maybe this WIP is finally on its way to becoming an FO.

The "M" Word

There I was, innocently emptying some yarn out of a box, when I saw it...the bane of every natural-fiber aficionado's existence, that four-letter M word: a MOTH.

And -- here's the really sad part -- I didn't manage to catch the darn thing.

I kicked myself for being so foolish. I'd planned to put my fiber into sealed plastic bags. Some of it was already there. But, much of it wasn't. So this morning instead of going to the bank or the supermarket or the dry cleaner like I'd planned, I spent two hours in a volcanically hot upstairs room packing wool into giant ziplock bags.

I have, as it turns out, a lot of wool. Here's some of it:
















And here's some more:

















And even more:
















And lest you think the madness ends here, what these photos don't show are the second chest of drawers, the storage stepstool, the spinning basket and the four shelves in my bedroom closet, all packed with wool.

Oh, and the stuff in the in-progress projects bags. Those don't count, right?

So, I've been thinking of my blog lately....

Maybe it has to do with my reading Yarn Harlot's blog or the Mason-Dixon blog. Maybe it's just because I've finished a bunch of really neat projects and I want to have a place to record them. Whatever the reason, I find myself wanting to update my blog and at the same time being VERY wary of the time I know it will take, especially the taking and posting photos part.

So, I'll start slow. No photos tonight seeing as it's near midnight and I'm not about to get up out of bed to start snapping pics. Just a list of FOs, with photos to come.

1. Absorba the Great Bathmat. I LOVE this pattern!! It's from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book, which is my current fave knitting book. I've made 2 already and have a 3rd under way. I think this will be my Christmas gift to family this year: a bathmat, 2 ballband washcloths and 2 ballband hand towels, all in coordinating neutrals. It'll be the Absorba the Great Bath Set.

2. Baby bibs, burp cloths and kimonos. Amy's pregnant. Lisa's Liz is pregnant. Cathal's Michelle is pregnant. One of these days I may very well get pregnant again. What better to have on hand than a supply of handmade baby gifts. Again, Mason-Dixon to the rescue. These three patterns are easy, quick and painless, but look absolutely adorable. I've already sent a matching bib/burp cloth set off to Cathal and Michelle. I've now got one kimono all knitted (just need to seam it) and a second on the needles. Boy, do I love this variegated Peache & Creme cotton!

3. The big 'un: A feather-and-fan shawl (titled, unfortunately IMHO, "The Dawn of the Cape" -- what an awful, 2001 A Space Odyssey image that conjures up!) from the Knitters' Dozen Ponchos and Wraps book. I did it in record time (six weeks start to finish) to wear to a wedding last night -- nothing like a deadline to get me moving. I love the Knitpicks variegated alpaca/merino/silk yarn I used, even though it was a tad heavy to wear in July. I think I'll convert the two swatches I made into wristlets as well.

More to come....

Making Felt

As if I didn't have enough projects going, today I just HAD to stop in The Strand on my way home and find (and buy) a copy of Simply Felt. Ah, inspiration, thy name is felt! No knitting up a piece and tossing it in the wash, either; no, this book teaches the traditional art of feltmaking, fiber to felt using only water, soap and good ol' handpower. For a non-sewer like me, feltmaking is an amazing way to both use up fiber stash and create clothing without having to sew a stitch. I have a three-pound bag of white and brown roving that I didn't quite know what do with...until today, that is. I quickly tested its feltability by making a felted oatmeal soap -- lo and behold, the fiber doth felt! Now I just need to decide what I want to make first. Maybe a small felted throw rug for under my spinning wheel and chair (since my loom isn't yet free to start my woven fleece rug)...or maybe a felt poncho for GiGi...or a felt cap for DH. Whatever I try, though, will have to wait till I have a stretch of free time (aka, someone else is watching the baby) during which I can get soapy and messy and not have to worry about stopping in the middle to do something else.

We'll see if THAT happens sometime this century!

Second Scarf

Well, I pulled out the spinning wheel again last night and even though I'm not thrilled with what I spun up at least I'm not as frustrated as I was before. I'm so used to spinning worsted style that spinning woolen is going to take plenty of practice. At least I've been reading up on it in a couple of spinning books, and my friend L has generously offered to give me a lesson the next time we get together.

In the meantime, I'm still working on my second woven scarf. This is the scarf that will match the hat I machine knitted for K in January. It's taking a long time because the weft is so narrow, but I really like the way it looks:


Once I finish this I think my next project will be to weave a small fleece rug out of the grey/green spinning bells I bought from The Sheep Shed Studio.

Frustration!

Tonight I tried to spin up some beautiful Brown Sheep roving mill ends in white with thin caramel stripes. What a disappointment! Not with the fiber -- with my skill (or, rather, lack thereof). I started by trying to do a long draw, which Lucinda kindly showed me the last time she was here spinning on her Journey Wheel. What spun out so effortlessly in her hands became a snarl of twisted lumps in mine. To add insult to injury, when I tried to go back to the usual way I spin, I couldn't get that to work properly, either. I kept trying to get an even, 2-ply yarn, and what I got was...well, not what I was looking for, that's for sure.

*sigh*

At least my weaving is going well. I finished the purple scarf and started on a rust/olive/magenta stripe with black weft. It's for K in Sweden, to go along with the rust/olive/magenta hat I machine knitted for her in January. After my spinning debacle, I spent the rest of the evening weaving on that. I still have quite a bit to go, but it's coming out nicely. Once it's finished, I think I'll try a rectangular shawl for myself using a simple black weft and super-bulky, ultra-soft Bohemian yarn for the warp. When I finally manage to get my selvedges under control, I'll attempt a shawl for myself using the pricey but oh-so-lovely bamboo yarn in the autumn colorway that I picked up at the Yarn Swift in Poughkeepsie.

So many projects, so little time....

Blogger Does Not Like Me...

...or my photos...or my weaving...or SOMETHING because it keeps refusing to post my photos and screwing up my formatting (and, of course, this isn't a case of the error occuring between the keyboard and the seat, as DH would say, it really IS Blogger's fault, not mine).

In any event, this is what my loom -- my wonderful, glorious loom! -- looks like with some real live weaving on it:

The colors are rather washed out -- too much flash, not enough skill on my part to keep it from glaring off the yarn -- but here's a closeup of what, with any luck, will turn out to be a beautiful handwoven scarf, a Christmas gift (nothing like starting early!) for my friend who loves purple:

On The Loom

This Spring Break, I decided to finally put together the 32" Beka rigid heddle loom I bought a few months back and learn how to weave on it. After much help from DH, here's the loom all assembled:



I decided to use a microfiber yarn in purple as my warp; in retrospect, it's probably far stretchier than I should have picked for a first project, but too late now...and I LOVE how it looks with the ribbon yarn weft (you can see it in the photo, above,wrapped on my humungo-sized shuttle).


Here's how the loom looks all warped up and ready to weave:

Spindlers Spring Fling Exchange

My package from my Spring Fling partner arrived, and boy was it fun to open! Amy N in South Dakota sent me:

• an assortment of different teas
• Hershey's kisses (plain and caramel-filled, which DH and I promptly devoured)
• purple Peeps (yuck! I'm not a Peeps person and neither is DH, so those will go to the kids in the family at Easter)
• Japanese jelly candies
  
• colored pens
• three skeins of novelty yarn, including a full skein of raspberry-colored Divine, which is the exact yarn I'm using in my ruana (score!)
• a very nicely-made wooden toy car wheel spindle
• four small samples of luxury fibers: angora, camel down, Chinese yak down, and raw quivit

I was especially surprised by the quivit. I have no idea of what to do with all those fibers, especially the quivit, which looks like it still has guard hairs in it. Maybe I'll spin some up for one of the Spin Off "Our Yarns" segments. Wouldn't that be cool, getting a sample of my yarn in Spin Off?

Mystery Spindles a Mystery No More!

Well, based on the responses I got on the Spindlers listserv, I think I've got the following spindles:

Mystery Spindle #1 = a Hatchtown Farms Kaari spindle. That's pretty cool since those spindles are pricey ($40+) and well-liked by a lot of spindlers. I haven't yet spun anything on it (the cop in the photo was made by the prior owner), but I'm looking forward to giving it a try soon.

Mystery Spindle #2 = a toy car wheel spindle. Wish I knew more about the name and date, but the shoddy construction does scream homemade. Still, it's never a bad thing to have some cheap, homemade spindles, even if only to have on hand for curious kids to play around with.

Mystery Spindle #3 = a Kokovoko. The shape looks right, but most of the Kokovokos I found photos of online were top whorls, not bottom. Still, I know that Kokovoko does make a bottom whorl spindle, and this so closely resembles the top whorls that I can't imagine it being anything else.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions!

Mystery Spindles

OK, I need some help here. I just received 4 spindles as part of an assortment of fiber, equipment and books I bought through the Spinners' and Weavers' Housecleaning Pages. One is a Louet top whorl, but the other three are mysteries to me. The woman I bought the spindles from couldn't remember any details about where they came from, so I'm wondering if anyone recognizes these:

Mystery Spindle #1

Mystery Spindle #1 looks to me like it might be a Hatchtown Farms spindle, but since I've only seen them in photos online and never in person I can't be sure. It's about 7 inches long from hook to end of shaft and fairly lightweight. The whorl isn't notched.

Mystery Spindle #2

Mystery Spindle #2 looks to me like it has the whorl of a Simple Market Farms spindle. However, the shaft is clearly a roughly-cut dowel with a cheap cup hook screwed in off-center on one end, and the whorl is clumsily glued onto it. The fascinating thing about this spindle is that it's signed and dated. It says:

"Kick n' Spin"
1997

And there's a signature on the whorl also that I can't read but that seems to be two words, the first beginning with S and ending with R (maybe only 3 or so letters long) and the second really more of a signature scribble than having any well-defined letters. There is also a hand drawing of a sheep (done in the same black ink as the rest of the writing) on the outer edge of the whorl. Unfortunately, my camera wouldn't take any clear photos of the writing. If this were just a homemade toy car wheel spindle, I can't imagine why someone would name, date and autograph it. Does anyone have any ideas about this?

Mystery Spindle #3

Mystery Spindle #3 is a real boat anchor, but I love the way it spins forever on a single twirl. I think this will turn out to be a wonderful plying spindle. It's a bottom whorl, about 10 inches long, and weighs about 3.5 ounces. There's no hook, but it does have an interesting "double notch" (for lack of a better word). The end is shaped like a shallowly-cut crochet hook, and the center of the hooked end is deeply cut. It looks like the hook is there for a half-hitch to wrap around and the notch is there for the end of the thread to fit into. Sound familiar to anyone?

I'd love to hear any ideas about what these three spindles may be. I got the deal of the century on them (all three plus the Louet for $10!), so I certainly can't complain no matter what the provenance. Still, I'd be interested to know more about these if anyone can enlighten me.