Purl, Interrupted

updatey

Various updates:

1. B helped me get started on the socks last Tuesday. All those tiny needles pointing everywhere -- what a hassle. At this point sock # 1 looks like a preemie hat. I've decided that if I ever make another sock, I'll do it on circulars.

2. I finished sleeve # 1 on my sweater last night. I'm going to bring it to SNB tonight to start sleeve # 2 because this has been going on far too long.

3. My big box o' dyes arrived last week from Dharma Trading Co. I don't yet have enough spun white yarn to make a dyeing session worthwhile. I guess I could just dye the roving, which it seems lots of people do, but there's something less appealing about that. Maybe it's the idea of trying to dry wet roving, which sounds like it would be gross.

4. I had to work this weekend, which is pretty rare for me. However, I also took a great jewelry-making class on Saturday at Bead Inspirations in Alameda. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. Which is all great, since I don't have enough expensive craft hobbies.

5. The internal debate about whether to move to Alaska rages on. I was a little distressed to learn that when you do a yahoo search for "spinning yarn Anchorage," my blog is one of the first results. Not very promising.

6. While I still suspect that it IS prohibitvely expensive to run a musk ox farm, the University of Alaska's Large Animal Research Station (a.k.a. the Musk Ox Farm) in Fairbanks claims that "[b]udgets and revenue scenarios indicate that a new muskox enterprise with limited animal numbers is feasible."

7. Now I'm running late for work and need to go grab a bagel or something en route. Where did the weekend go? :-(

signs of a bad day

So I think you can safely say "I've had a terrible day" when, while alone in your car driving home from work, you actually blurt out, "I wonder if it's expensive to run a Musk Ox farm."

ply me

the lazy kate still isn't finished, but today karrie taught me how to navajo ply. it is so cool. now i am a plying machine. of course, this means i now have a while lot of bulky yarn. i plied 3 bobbins worth -- one spruce green wool (from the gladys shipment) and two mystery white wool from carolina homespun (i thought it was merino superwash but karrie doesn't think so...?) -- and it looks pretty good. i think that when my dye comes i may try to dye the two white skeins some complementary color scheme -- either variegated greens or blues -- and make a striped scarf (and/or hat) with the green.

unfortunately, my new plying bobbin makes a really funny noise. so i'm going to have to figure out what that's about.....

crafty day

i ordered a bunch of dyes last night from dharma trading co. i got jacquard acid dyes, which is what i used for the fanta yarn. when you order 10 or more of the dyes they're 3.95 per 1/2 oz. i ordered 10 -- i think it came down to one yellow, plus 3 shades each of greens, blues and purples. bear in mind that this was a very scaled down order from what i initially had in my e-shopping cart. what's this about my problems with restraint?

today i was supposed to have brunch with a friend in redwood city but i cancelled because the weather's been so bad and it was supposed to storm today and i hate the san mateo bridge enough on nice days.... (i'm feeling a little bad about this since now it's actually *not* storming, but what can you do?)

so instead i'm going over to karrie's house for some spinning, and then we're going to knit with B for awhile. i think i'm going to bring the sock yarn and the absurdlytiny needles so they can help me figure out (finally) how to start socks! then tonight kristie and i are going to try to figure out the ascot pattern she got at stitches. she's a very ambitious beginner -- this thing involves a lot of increases and decreases and a lot of picking up stitches.

tomorrow night is our weekly Alameda Stitch N' Bitch. i've had several folks email me about it, so hopefully we'll see some of them. We meet around 7:00 at Coffee for Thought -- 1544 Webster St., Alameda. i'm looking forward to seeing who else i can get on board for the 3rd thursdays thing. (Steph left me a comment saying she and Schelle were game -- hooray!)

now that i have this dye coming i have extra incentive to spin more of the white wool. i still haven't plied anything because the lazy kate isn't done. terry wants to sand and varnish it to make it all purdy, but can't do that until it's nice out since his 'workshop' is our backyard and the varnish needs about a day to dry. i'd use it in its virgin state, but he wants to wait until it's otherwise finished before he (1) fastens in the little guides yet (don't know what they're called -- little metal triangles through which the yarn passes between the bobbin and my hands) and (2) adds some kind of tensioning device.

if the rain doesn't let up soon i'm going to be really tempted to just take the yarn i was going to ply and see how it looks as singles. (i have 2 bobbins full -- one white, one blue. i'm not going to ply them together, i just don't have any additional bobbins to spare. i only have three (regular-sized) bobbins, so i've been spinning thicker singles with the remaining bobbin, and then when the lazy kate is done i'm going to spin either the white or the blue and ply it with its already-spun counterpart. make sense? i should've bought extra bobbins at stitches. ('cause i haven't spent enough money on the fiber arts in the last 2 months).

on an unrelated note, terry and i went to the MOMA yesterday where i learned that i have little patience for most "modern art." then we got into an argument about whether the 'fiber arts' are really 'art.' never have that fight with someone who teaches aesthetics. it'll only piss you off.

my undoing....

big turnout at SNB tonight. anne convinced me of the following: (1) i need to tear out the bind-off in my sweater's collar. it's too tight. i don't know what i did exactly, but it's too tight. i'm going to re-bind-off in rib, too. (2) i need to use smaller needles to make my socks. damn.
rachel, meanwhile, convinced me to get the twisted sister sock book -- i didn't know it had so much info about dyeing. i'll pick up a copy and then i'll have a sock pattern, too!
and shelley wants some fanta colored yarn. hooray!

stitches recap

Holy sensory overload, batman. Here's a recap:

(1) Items bought:

- PLYING KIT: now I just need Terry to finish building my Lazy Kate.
- ROVING: 2 big balls of white superwash merino, plus 8 oz. of cinamon-colored Blue-Faced Leicester/Alpaca. (I spun about 2 oz. of this tonight -- it's dreamy!)

- SOCK YARN: A lot! I fell in love at the "more than socks" booth. (Ironically, of course, I plan to make only socks). I think I bought enough for 4 pairs. Let's have a close-up:
Now I need a good pattern for big loungy socks (I'm going to knit them on size 3 needles; I want something fun to romp around my unheated house in ....)
- OTHER YARN: 2 skeins of DK Misti Alpaca in my favorite color green (the color of my car). I also bought a kind of lacey scarf pattern to go with it. It's more complicated than things I usually knit, so I'm going to have to find some time to actually look it over and figure out the pattern. i.e. time when I'm not at the Mel-o-Dee.
- DYE: none (but Pat of West Valley Alpacas is apparently an Acid Dyes dealer and said to email her about what I need).
- TOKEN UNEXPECTED RIDICULOUS ITEM: cashmere poncho (to wear, not to knit). It's so damn cute. Kristie bought one too. We will have to take great pains to never accidentally show up wearing them at the same time.

(2) Knitters seen: most (all?) of the mel-o-dee crowd; 5 folks from the Alameda SNB (Stephanie, Shelly, Amanda, and the 2 teenagers whose names I really need to learn) (I'm not counting Kristie, since we went together!); plus the nice woman who works at Yarn!

(3) Embarassing moment: accidentally knocking over bowl of glass buttons. Fortunately nothing broke. I'm such a dumbass. Thank god for the kindness of random knitters who helped pick them up! Damn my oversized-sleeves....

(4) Infuriating moment: 30 minutes spent driving in circles around Milpitas and San Jose before determining that Yahoo! Maps simply does not know where the Santa Clara Convention Center is. Morons. Thank god for the kindness of random Starbucks patrons.

In other news ... Tonight I spun some of the new wool, then knitted for awhile on (1) the black sweater (finished the collar) and (2) tang/fanta scarf (it's actually pretty cute). I'm surprised at how soft it is -- must be b/c it's superwash. Here is a photo:

As for the sweater, I had a moment of panic after I finished the neck because I went to try it on and it wouldn't fit over my head. I was totally flipping out. I managed to get it to fit, though. And it looks damn cute. This pic doesn't do it justice -- it looks really cute on - and form-fitting, although youd' never think so to look at it from this angle:

So now I have to start the sleeves and get this damn thng off the needles. I think I'm going to look at the cute sock pattern in Hip to Knit tomorrow and see if I can start on a pair of socks. It's a good thing I have the tang/fanta scarf to work on for Tuesday, though, since everything else in the works is all complicated.

Meanwhile, while I'm waiting on my Lazy Kate (our drill broke, which is apparently slowing things down), I need someone to explain plying to me. Specifically, do I have to ply from the bobbin? What about plying with wool you've already dyed? Can you ply from balls of yarn? Do they have to be center-pull balls?

abe, i hardly knew ya.

inspired by last night's science project, i spent a lot of today with suzie. here's what i made (plus the now-dry fanta-colored yarn):






the blue-ish one and the desert-colored one are both from sarah's grandma's roving. (each of those is the entire amount of that particular roving). the brown one is also from her roving -- i have about a pound of that. it's a total pain to spin but is coming out nicely. i was going to dye it but terry is lobbying for something undyed. (it's actually very close in color to his alpaca sweater). the burgundy one is merino top from deep color. too bad i will never go there again and so will not be able to spin any more of that. ah well.

and here's a picture of the yarn and suzie :



(did you notice the two bobbins full of nice uniform yarn waiting to be plied...?)
okay, now it's bedtime. i have to be well-rested for tomorrow's big adventure!

shopping list

i've been making a mental shopping list for tomorrow. i want to get:
(1) plying kit for suzie (morgaine says she's set one aside for me);
(2) undyed roving;
(3) dyes!! (because it's taken enormous self-restraint this morning to keep from ordering about 15 different colors of Jacquard Acid Dyes from Dharma Trading Co (and if i ordered them by 11, they'd ship them out today! no. no. must ... have ... restraint...!)
(4) sock yarn (although terry wants me to make him socks but i'm afraid it'll take me forever because of his unnaturally large feet. i think i should start with socks for me...!).

i'm sure i'll wind up buying other stuff, too. i'm going to try to exercise some restraint. but it seems unlikely.

in other news, i think i'm going to try to spin some of the brown roving i bought from sarah, and then overdye it with my orange dyes. i used light brown scrap yarn to tie the skeins i dyed yesterday, and it actually dyed to a really pretty color. so i'm going to give that a try. the stuff is really sucky to spin with, though, so it's slow going....

fortunately, i have the day off!

in the light of the morning

good morning, mr. lincoln. here is the (almost dry) finished product:

(that's a crappy picture, light-wise, but i wanted to show you that it's kind of variegated. kind of.)

i guess it's time to make that orange scarf i've been dreaming of. (wait -- have i been dreaming of an orange scarf?) maybe i'll stripe it with something else.... I guess i'll see how it looks as i go.

a whole new world!

now i want to dye EVERYTHING!!!!! (as soon as i buy a broader spectrum of colors, that is.)

happy birthday, mr. lincoln

in honor of my 3-day weekend, i finally bought a dye pot and dyed my first batch of yarn. now that everything is drying in my bathtub, let's recap: first of all, i spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how the whole process works. i found some good websites (including this, which cracked me up) and got some very helpful advice from karrie. then i pretty much disregarded every useful thing i'd read. I mean, what could possibly go wrong...?


five words, my friend: she blinded me with science....


i dyed 4 skeins of merino superwash and 1 skein of blue faced leister (is that how you spell that?) anyway, it's an interesting mix of yarn since some of it predates my love affair with suzie.



what i had envisioned was a variegated mix of golds/oranges.




i like what i wound up with, but (1) it's not exactly variegated -- i should have listened to morgaine and gotten colors that were more distinct, and (2) in retrospect i probably should have dyed some of this wool a different color. what the hell am i going to do with all of this orange yarn? (Just kidding -- i do really like the color. And there are some subtle color variations. I guess I stirred more than I should have (i think i was antsy because i'd heard that the superwash didn't dye particularly well). Anyway, I guess I'll make a scarf or something. Any suggestions?




p.s. do you like my fancy weight-system? the rubber ducky does....

the mother lode

I almost didn't go to the mel-o-dee last night, but what a good thing I did! First, in a surprise move, Terry agreed to go with me. So that was a nice treat. And not only because I had a designated driver. (His reaction to the bar: "It's not nearly as divey as I'd imagined....")

The excitement continues, though: Karrie brought the 3 boxes of orphan roving that Sarah's mom sent. In what looked like a fantastically suspicious encounter, Karrie, Terry and I gathered around the open back of K's station wagon and rifled through several cardboard boxes before selecting some items in big ziploc baggies and weighing them on the pavement on Karrie's little digital scale. Then I took the bags and gave her money. We're lucky we didn't get arrested. Which makes you wonder what else goes on in that parking lot....

Incidentally, Terry was pretty incredulous about the whole transaction (e.g. you're giving her $40 for a bunch of ... fluff?) but he'll get over it.

Came home and spun about 4 oz. of some kind of variegated blue/rose thing. We'll see....

In other news, I finished the body of my sweater at lunch yesterday and temporarily locked myself out of my office while trying it on. Dumbass. The sweater fits nicely, though. The neck is next, then the sleeves.

Is it Saturday yet????

purling, pirates, etc

Another Monday night, another round of sea shanties. The group consensus among the knitters is that we need some kind of knitting shanty.... Any suggestions? Anyway, we had another good turnout -- including someone who found us via purlinterrupted! We also had a visitor who found us through the craigslist posting, so it's good to know that people actually look on there. Lots of folks from last week and the week before came back -- everyone has great projects going so it was fun to check out who's doing what. And Rebecca didn't come but called me on the Coffee for Thought phone to ask a question about joining a new yarn. :-)

Next Thursday is my debut as a knitting teacher. The Webster St. Business Association is sponsoring a "3rd Thursdays" craft school -- different shops are having various little crafts classes, and John & Jen asked if I'd teach an intro knitting class at Coffee for Thought. I wonder if anyone will come. This might be extra incentive to take the "Yarn Train" to Stitches (they're offering on-board knitting lessons; maybe I can pick up some pointers....)

In other Alameda knitting news, Rachel reports that the Alameda (County) Knitting MeetUp is now going to be at Coffee for Thought, which is a profound improvement on the former meeting place (a Starbucks? In Berkeley?). Anyway, I'll have to check the date with her; it's either the 3rd or 4th Wednesday....

As far as actual knitting progress (yes, I still knit sometimes) -- I finally started binding off the body of the alpaca sweater. I hope it's not too long; I sort of lost track of it. But I have a habit of making sweaters too short, so maybe it'll work out for the best. I can't wait to finish binding off so I can try it on! (I had to stop because it was closing time.) I guess I'll bring something else to the Mel-O-Dee tomorrow -- I have to start the sleeves, and that's definitely too much counting to do while drinking in a dark bar.

progress with Suzie!

I spent some quality time with Suzie (and an Allen wrench) this weekend and have had a real breakthrough. I adjusted the positioning of the whorl and it made all the difference -- it's amazing! Many thanks to Gen for spinning support on Sunday -- it was so helpful! (And so reassuring to know that the problems I was having are pretty common, not just a sign that I'm incompetent.)

I can't believe how different it's going now. For example, I no longer produce an equal amount of waste roving for any amount of yarn that I spin. Now I just get yarn, not a huge pile of remainder fluff on my carpet. And since I've toyed with the whorl and brake, I've been able to get it to spin more consistently without sticking.

I've spun about a pound of the superwash merino, and am hoping to procure a crockpot on Friday so that I can dye it. Gen lent me a copy of Hands-On Dyeing, which looks really helpful. Thank god for state holidays!

Also, now that I've learned how to spin thin yarn, I need to start plying, too. Terry is going to build me a Lazy Kate since I can't see spending $75 for the Majacraft one. (Why are they so expensive??) I am going to buy the plying kit (big fat bobbin), though. I need to ask Morgaine to bring one to Stitches.

Speaking of Stitches ... it's not coming a moment too soon! At this pace, I'm going to be out of stuff to spin by the weekend. Talk about a dangerous confluence of events.

ride that train....

I checked Amtrak's "Capitol Corridor" webpage and there it was plain as day:
This year, Capitol Corridor makes travel simple by dropping you off just steps from the Santa Clara Convention Center. Grab your knitting, leave the car behind, and take the train instead. Here's what they say:

Join us onboard for a special Stitch N' Ride event Saturday February 12th on train 727!
Learn the basics of knitting from one of our onboard instructors, or get help with a project you are already working on! Participate in a free raffle for fun knitting supplies and Capitol Corridor prizes. And best of all, sit n' stitch with other knitters onboard, and arrive at Stitches West ready for more!

Since we know you'll be saving your pennies for yarn, Capitol Corridor is offering a 10% discount off the lowest available fare to Santa Clara for Stitches West. Discount travel is available between February 7th and February 16th. To book your reservation for the discounted price, call 1-800-USA-RAIL or contact your local travel agent. Please be sure to refer to Convention Fare Code X11G-935 when making your reservation. Convention discounted fares cannot be booked on the Internet."

HMMMM. Sounds tempting. I'm going to call today to find out what this so-called "lowest available fare" is. If you want to check out the Amtrak info, go here.

Alameda Stitch-n-Bitch

Our nascent Alameda SNB met again last night, with 8-year old Sarah putting us all to shame with her snappy knitting. Anne made most of another snake scarf for her nephew, and Kristie -- who's gone in 3 weeks from complete novice to teaching 2 friends to knit over the weekend -- made progress on her second project, a really funky oscar-green scarf. Plus, Karrie and B. made the trek all the way from El Cerrito, so now undoubtedly have a stronger appreciation for my Tuesday night pilgrimages to the Mel-O-Dee. (There were about 5 other folks there as well, but I can't remember everyone's name. Everyone had really great projects going, though!).

In other news, thanks to Ingrid's crazy movie-watching idea (11 hours of Lord of the Rings ....) I've finally made serious progress on my black sweater. I'm hoping to finish the body and start the sleeves this weekend. I figure that if I finish it ... and maybe Lisa's long-overdue-half-done white cable scarf ... before Stitches then I won't feel so bad about buying more yarn (or roving?) even though my stash is a little out of control. It's all about rationalizing.

Speaking of Stitches, Anne reports that Amtrak is running some kind of Knitter's Train to Stitches from Emeryville. She's going to send me the info. It sounds so cool, but Karrie makes a good point ("I don't have to take the train, and doing so basically cuts directly into the yarn budget.") Damn those scientists and their logical thinking.