Rachael from Yarn-a-Go-Go had the good sense, which I did not, to bring a camera to our Stitch-n-Bitch last night. Here is a picture of the knitters.
In a related story, many thanks to Rachael for bringing her knitsters up the street to knit with us after their little party at the New Zealander. Two knitting groups in Alameda on the same night? On the same street? Who would've thunk it? The New Zealander thing was apparently just a one-time deal, though, so hopefully some of those gals will come back to join us next week.
Some of the ladies o' the Mel-O-Dee are also coming next week -- hooray!! -- and have a special plan to blend in with the resident pirates.....
In other news, at knitting tonight I learned that Gen and Karrie are much more accomplished spinners than I am, and by now have basically spun an entire sheep. I'm chalking my spinning slackerdom up to having been sick all week and not gone near Suzie until Saturday night. I have two real spinning needs/goals:
(1) learn how to draft more consistently: I'm trying to do the whole drafting triangle thing, but occasionally (and sometimes, a lot) I let too big a blob slip through and then it doesn't become yarn -- just fluff that tears apart. And I can't even do any kind of drafting besides over-the-fold. I dont' understand how you keep the spin out of the whole roving source.
(2) figure out the wheel tensioning thing: I feel like when I move the drive band to a slower speed the whorl doesn't turn consistently. I don't think Majacraft wheels are supposed to need oil, but I guess that's one possibility. I can't tell what's happening. I may try to kidnap Karrie briefly on Saturday so that she can check it out.
Once I've worked on those things, I'm going to try dyeing. I think I have about 2 decent skeins of the merino superwash. I'd like to spin the rest of what I have and then dye it. The thing is that I've been so crazily busy lately that I need to find time to do it. (I'm used to having no social life, so this is all a big shock to my system.) Friday night will definitely be a spinning night. Maybe by Sunday I'll be ready to dye...!
We had quite a turn-out for our first official (e.g. post-advertising) meeting. There were about 15 folks -- from brand new knitters to ... well ... Anne. I'm so excited! I didn't get much work done on my sweater because I was trying to teach Rebecca and Joanne how to knit. I think I'm a better knitter than I am a teacher. I guess we'll see next week!
In family news, it looks like the much-hoped-for Alaska move isn't going to happen. So Terry and I remain anchored down away from Anchorage. Disappointing but not unexpected.
Fortunately I have lots of knitting and spinning to distract me. Have I mentioned how excited I am about Stitches? But terrified, too -- I already spent all my money on a spinning wheel. How will I be able to resist the siren call of the Stitches Marketplace...?
I'm finally crawling out from under my nasty cold. I was so sick last week that I had absolutely no desire to knit. How crazy is that? I'm definitely on the mend -- Saturday I spent some quality time with Suzie (a.k.a. my new wheel), and yesterday I made serious progress on the black alpaca sweater. I got past the point where you set aside stitches for the arms, which means I'm done with the counting and the increases. Now it's just knit in the round until it's sweater length.
This is especially good news because tonight is knitting night in Alameda! Janis at Yarn! put up one of our posters, and said she might stop by. I've had a few other folks ask about it, too, so who knows....?
Anyway, now that I'm mostly over being sick as a dog, I need to go redeem myself at work. Soon, hopefully, I'll have some knitting & spinning photos.
... but the fun has just begun! After 2 very helpful and encouraging emails from Morgaine, I've tweaked some of the things on my wheel that I was having a hard time with. I'm still having some ongoing problems but, as Karrie reminded me, "that just means you need to practice -- and practicing is fun!" Hooray.
I think I'm going to focus on the white merino superwash because I really want to try dyeing it. Karrie's turned out really well, and I'm excited to see the colors I got, which were really different from hers (mine are shades of rust & pumpkin; hers are blue/black/grey).
In other news, I've now gotten 2 emails from new folks about joining our fledgling SNB. My new upstairs neighbor has also asked me to teach her to knit, so we may pick up another new knitter. As for the SNB, we've decided to stick with Mondays at Coffee for Thought -- pirates and all -- but I can't promise I won't be spiking my coffee until John & Jen get their beer & wine license. :-)
Speaking of knitting circles, another reason I'm glad to be done with the class is that now I can spend more time on Tuesdays at the Mel-O-Dee! I've missed hanging out with the ladies of the post-modern knitting circle. Last night Martin made me a hot toddy which really helped my sore throat. He's very excited that my Knit Lit story mentions the Mel-O-Dee (it's in the title) but he claims he's mad that it doesn't mention him by name. Ah well....
Happily, tonight is the first night in about 2 weeks that I haven't had some kind of commitment. I'm exhausted. I'm really looking forward to coming home, going to the gym (if I'm not feeling too crappy) and then working on my spinning (at my own pace -- imagine that!). I'm going to try to take spinning photos tonight, too!
Karrie, Gen and I have the collective personal restraint of ... well ... something with no personal restraint. The good news, though, is that we are now proud owners of spinning wheels!!! We spent most of yesterday afternoon at Carolina Homespun in San Francisco, where the infinitely patient Morgaine let us try out lots of wheels, rifle though lots of fiber and ask lots and lots of questions. What an amazing place!
So I am now the proud if somewhat impoverished owner of a majacraft suzie. Thus far, it is wonderful. I probably spun 8 oz of yarn last night/this a.m.. It's so much easier to use than the Ashford Traditional. There are definitely some things I'm confused about -- the majacraft design is a little different from the other wheels I've used (all 2 of them) so I'm still trying to figure out exactly how tensioning works on this thing.
But the yard I've made thus far is actually turning out really well. I got 2 lbs of free fiber with the wheel, so I got 2lbs of this rust-colored "continental" wool. It's really pretty and it's very easy to spin, but it's coarser/stiffer than I would have imagined. It would make good mittens. I'm making a hat right now b/c I want to have something to bring to class tomorrow. But I'll probably wind up lining the hat eventually. (Maybe I'll make felted things with the rest of it...)
While we were at Carolina Homespun I also picked up 1lb of undyed merino superwash, plus 3 colors of dye -- all rust/orange/pumpkin colored, which should turn out really nice. And I picked up 8 oz. of already dyed merino, really pretty -- blue/slate grey/green. Last night/today I spun 3 bobbins of the rust wool, 1 bobbin of the undyed merino, 1 bobbin of the purple stuff from Claudia (merino/tencel?) and 1/2 bobbin of the blue/green merino. I may try to make something in stripes using the purple and the blue -- they look nice together.
The real problem I'm having, though, is that I can't ever get the bobbins to fill up. I always get to a point when I can't figure out how to adjust the tension to get the yarn to keep going onto the bobbin. So I've just been winding up the yarn I've made at that point. Maybe I'll try to go to class early tomorrow and ask Claudia. I should also get a majacraft book if they make such a thing. (And as soon as I get paid again...!)
I'm charging my digital camera batteries so I'll have pics soon...
Last night I started spinning the colored roving I bought after class on Tuesday. It took awhile to get the hang of it. It has a different staple length so I had a hard time figuring out how much I needed to break off. I also think I had the bobbin on backwards at first. Which is why I couldn't get the yarn to go on in the right direction. Which is why I really need my order from Amazon to arrive. Thank goodness for 3-day weekends!
On Sunday Karrie, Gen and I are going spinning-wheel shopping at Carolina Homespun. I'm very afraid that I won't be able to resist the temptation to buy a wheel. I'm becoming quite enamored of the Majacraft Rose and Suzie. They look like they have a lot of great features. Plus www.thespinnery.com has a really good deal on them. Hmmmmmmm.
My only real problem here (besides the fact that I want a spinning wheel that costs $645) is that the wool I'm spinning is giving me bad asthma attacks. I'm going to try washing it well in whatever stuff you're supposed to wash yarn in; hopefully that will help calm down whatever it is that's irritating my lungs so much. Right now I'm knitting with an unwashed ball right off the bobbin. Karrie has promised me a PVC knitty knotty, so soon I will be winding and then washing skeins. And hopefully by then they will even be less lumpy and absurd with what's on the ball I'm using right now....
First off, let's stop and reflect again on the Knit Lit thing. HOOOOOOBOY am I excited. Wow!
Okay, onto other stuff. First of all, the innaugural meeting of the Alameda SNB was last night and was attended by three lovely ladies: Kristie, Anne and me. Much fun was had by all. Kristie is a (very) new knitter and Anne knows lots of great knitting tricks, so that worked out well. Now we only need to figure out what night to really hold this thing. The current thought is to move it to Monday nights. As I see it, there are (at least) two locale options, each of which has its drawbacks.
Coffee for Thought:
Pros: comfy chairs, great owners, nice decor, cozy
Cons: closes early (10:00), no liquor.
Biggest Con: Monday night is also home to the "sea shanty sing-a-long." ALthough we could sit in the backroom.
McGraths:
Pros: Liquor. Open later. 1 block from my house. ;-)
Cons: less-comfy chairs.
Music issue: Monday night at McGrath's is "Bluegrass Jam" night. (Wow - Alameda is such a great community for live music!). Personally, I love bluegrass, I've been told that the musicians who go to this thing are really good, and the place is big enough to hold both things at the same time. If we don't mind talking over/under the music, and the musicians don't mind the same.
There may be some other venue I haven't thought of. I'd like to keep it on the West side of town because (1) some of the interested folks are coming from Oakland, Berkeley and (if I can talk them into it) El-Cerrito; plus (2) it's good to support the local businesses on this side of town. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
I'm going knitting tonight at Coffee for Thought. I'm going to go after I go swimming, so I'll be there around 7:30 or 8:00. I know that Kristie is coming, and my coworker Anne said she would try to come as well. Hopefully some other knitters will come by. For the future, though, we're considering doing this on Wednesday nights instead. The bad thing is that would conflict with the open knit night at Yarn! But apparently it fits people's schedules much better. So ... we'll see.
In other news, this week's spinning class was just as frustrating as last week's, but for different reasons. I don't know why I can't ever get anything to work when I'm there. It works okay at home... This week was complicated by the fact that I was trying out a new wheel during class. So I spent most of the class trying to figure out how that particular wheel worked. Grumble grumble.
I took Gen's advice and ordered a couple of books from Amazon that I'm hoping will help me figure this stuff out and also help me decide what kind of wheel to buy. I'm very conflicted about that (wheel-selection, that is). My main dilemna is whether to get one with a double treadle. I used Claudia's at the shop and liked the way it felt, but that was only for a minute. I need to figure out what will work best in terms of my height and a good sitting position. And then I need to figure out how much money I can justify spending on this thing....
In the meantime, I started knitting with the first yarn I spun. It's pretty bad -- beyond lumpy. It might look okay when it gets longer (I figured a scarf was the best vehicle for making the yarn's variations look like variations and not tons of knitting mistakes!) But the yarn makes me cough like crazy -- it smells very sheepy -- so I think I need to start washing it after I spin it.
I wish I'd paid attention to that discussion in class this week. Too bad I was instead just trying to figure out how to thread the wheel I was using....
I've decided it's time to start an Alameda Stitch-n-Bitch. I'm thinking Thursday nights at Coffee for Thought. I wonder if anyone will come. I'm going to be there this Thursday knitting with my friend Kristie, but maybe next week we'll actually publicize it a little (like at Yarn!)....
Oh boy a lot has happened since I last wrote. Let's see: I figured out how to spin, but then I figured out that spinning was causing even more severe coughing fits than I usually have. So Terry suggested I try the absurd but surprisingly functionaly spinning-while-wearing-dust-mask. Actually it was ever more absurd than that: I was wearing the respirator he uses for sanding. Whatever -- it worked, I spun, and I didn't have to sleep on the couch. So that's been exciting. Class # 2 is tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. Especially since we're supposed to finally learn the "easy" way to spin. Mine is still pretty touch and go. So it'll be good to get back to the pros.
In other news, I also had my first experience with teaching someone to knit. I think it went okay. Boy is it hard to explain some of this stuff. Talk about muscle-memory....
Oh, and in non-knitting news, I joined a gym today. And I learned that yoga is a lot harder than it was before, say, I had shoulder surgery. Ouch.
Well I had my first spinning class (along with Karrie, Gen and Megan) on Tuesday. Like shopping on EBAY, spinning is something you shouldn't try with a bad cold. It is very frustrating at first, so the class was pretty discouraging. It seemed like everyone else was sort of getting it -- at least, they were at least managing to get something to show up on their bobbin (is that the right word?). Whereas I couldn't get anything at all to happen except for all of my fiber to get completely twisted and snap in two. It was very, very sad.
But we got to bring our wheels home to practice during the week, and last night I sort of caught on. It was very exciting! I still don't know how to get the yarn thickness to stay remotely constant -- mine really fluctuates between dental floss and super-chunky. But I'm just excited that something is happening at all!
Now the only problem is that I've had huge asthmatic coughing fits at night for the last two days, and I don't know if it's because of the spinning (e.g. because of the loose sheepy fibers flying around my house). Or maybe it's just because of my cold....
Okay, I'm not sure if I've done something dumb. Well, it was definitely dumb, but possibly it will work okay anyway. I'm in love with my new turbo needles, so I bid on E-Bay for a set of 15 Addi circulars. Dreamy -- sixes 0-15!! And I won the auction. But then I looked more closely at the picture and realized that I've now purchased 15 pairs of Addi "Premium" circulars, which are the bamboo needles. grumble grumble. I got a good deal and bamboo needles are nice, so maybe I'll be happy with it. But that just goes to show that you shouldn't spend too much time on E-Bay when you've got a head cold. I'm such a dumbass sometimes! Nothing to do now but sit back and wait for my package to arrive.... :-)
Boy it's been a long time since I wrote anything. We went to Phoenix for the holiday. Much fun was had by all and I got some but not much knitting done.
I finished the alpaca sweater on Christmas Eve -- I thought I had done more on the second sleeve before we left, but when I got there I realized that I had only done about an inch. So there was much furious knitting to get it done. It's done and Terry has barely taken it off since he got it. Maybe that's because our house is unheated, but who am I to judge?
I gave my mom and sister their felted bags but don't know if they like them. My mom used hers while I was there, but that might've just been to be nice. Ah well.
I got two exciting knitting-related presents: Terry gave me the yarn to make myself the same alpaca sweater in black. I'm going to start today. And the wonderful judge that I work for gave me a gift certificate to big sky luxury yarns. Hooray! I'll have to wait a little while before I buy more yarn, though.
Anyway, today is New Year's Day and I've been feeling icky for the last several days, so I plan to stay in my pajamas all day and work on the sweater. Merry 2005!