look who's drinking the joy-of-spinning kool aid!
and did you see that the chronicle did a big feature on spinning yesterday?
possible next projects
(1) for which I already have yarn in my ridiculous stash:
- lime green alpaca scarf (lacey pattern) (from west valley alpacas via stitches)
- booga bag in black/grey/burgundy
- silk kurekon scarf
- grey cashmerino sweater (but no pattern picked out yet -- mariah?)
- return to once-frogged, then restarted, but probably needs to be refrogged black silk tank top. i started this 11 months ago after i managed to get a frequent flier ticket to go to hawaii for a week before i started my new job. i was working on my first sweater (in chartreuse rowan polar), and wanted something else to take with me on my trip. this was a watershed moment because it was the first time i had more than one project going at once. and it's been all downhill ever since.... anyhoo, i decided to make this, and carted it with me to vegas and then hawaii for some great "you-took-your-knitting-where?" travel knitting. i used a different yarn than the pattern and had to adjust the # of stitches, but either my guage changed or my math sucks, or both -- i got 3/4 through the back and realized it was going to be too small. frogged it, started over with new math, but i think that my math sucked again b/c it looks very large. (or maybe i just have an unrealistic body image). anyway, after all that, I think I might scrap the whole thing and use the yarn to make a different tank top.
- returning to the 1/3 finished baby blanket I started in July -- this one's tricky because the blanket was my first real attempt at intarsia, and it's really pretty but there was clearly something not right, and finally the good folks at the mel-o-dee helped me figure out that i had read the pattery wrong, doing the background in stockinette instead of seed stitch. this was pretty early in my knitting career. there's no way i'm going to tear out what i've done so far, so i have to decide whether to keep going consistent with what i'd done thus far, or switch to seed stitch, which would be a noticeable change but would make the rest of the blanket look much much better. it's not like the baby's going to care. unless i take much longer with it and she becomes a teenager....
(2) for which I don't have yarn (unlikely to happen for awhile because I am now on strict yarn/roving/bead starvation diet) (but a girl can dream, right?):
- ribby cardi? unlikely - it seems like kind of a pain in the ass.
- anouk for calista.
- ??
in other news, the "bead faire" was mesmerizing. and expensive. oi.
Guess what I wore to work yesterday today ... a black alpaca sweater!! I finished it Thursday night. It's very dreamy. It's sort of boxy, but that's b/c I just made myself a only-slightly-modified small from the men's pattern. But I like it a lot. Pictures soon.
I actually undid the bind-off for both the collar and the 1st cuff and re-did them using the tapestry needle technique for binding off in 1x1 rib (as per the great big vogue knitting book). It took awhile, but it works really well. So well in fact that I'm thinking of redoing the the bottom edge as well.
Then I'll have to dig through my ginormous stash and figure out what to knit next! I still have a sweater's worth of grey cahsmerino, but I may have to wait awhile before jumping into another sweater. And I might want to make something with color in it first (although that wouldn't really match my wardrobe).
I'm still afraid of the ribby cardi after B's experience having to give hers away. I'm not as nice as B, so I'm afraid I wouldn't take it as well....
In other news, there have been dramatic developments in the Alameda business world that may affect our merry SNB. Coffee for Thought has been taken over. Not by singing pirates, but by new owners. This was all very unexpected (at least for me) and the new owners have had the place closed for a few days while they apparently try to get their bearings.
So who knows if it'll be open by Monday. If it's not, I think we'll meet down the street at the New Zealander. I hope the pirates don't have the same idea....
Today I think I'm off to the "gem faire" to increase my bead stash, because you can't have enough hording-related hobbies.
okay, i've been a sucky blogger. sorry about that. but it's only fitting, since i've been a commensurately sucky knitter/spinner.
last week, work ranged from just busy to awful and busy. i did manage to make it to both Monday night (Alameda SNB @ Coffee for Thought) and Tuesday night (knitting at the mel-o-dee) knitting circles, yet still did not manage to finish the alpaca sweater. I'm on the cuffs, though, so that's exciting. I need to finish this sleeve, and then I need to undo/re-bind-off the other cuff and the collar. something wierd happened with the other cuff -- the bind-off started coming undone (huh?) so i must have somehow missed a stitch. loser. ;-)
i'm also thinking about redoing the bottom ribbing. i used a smaller needle than the body, but not as small as the pattern indicated because the picture looked awful (it was very 80s -- the ribbing really pulled in; very unattractive). however, on mine, the ribbed part actually flips up a little. so that's not cool. i might undo it. although t's is the same way (used the same needles) and it works for him. sheer laziness might take over once i fix the things that need to be fixed (collar, sleeve).
oh, the other thing i did last week was teach my first knitting class. it went very well, despite a really rough start. it was at Coffee for Thought as part of the "Thursday night crafts campus" on Webster Street. i'd had the folks at CFT pick up supplies so we'd just charge students for a materials fee and not have to worry about people bringing the right stuff. but somehow the CFT people subsequently managed to lose the bag of knitting supplies, something not brought to my attention until 10 minutes before class time. sweet.
so i figured i'd have to cancel the class, but then a student showed up who'd brought her own materials. so we started, and then 2 more students showed up (sans materials, unfortunately). i'd brought along a bunch of yarn and notions for show&tell, so i wound up lending them needles and yarn. which worked out pretty well, although i felt bad taking it all away from them at the end of the night....
other than that, no knitting at all last week or this weekend. hard to believe. i was all excited to get back on track with SNB last night, but got a 4:45 p.m. visit to my office asking for urgent research that needs to be done by 10:00 this morning. excellent. so i was at work until nearly 8:00 - something i haven't done since i quit my stressful job. ugh.
i wonder if any of the thursday students came to SNB last night....
Our second try at the intro knitting class will be this Thursday night. I agreed to teach it as part of the Webster Street Business Association's "Third Thursday Crafts Campus." The idea is to offer a class for absolute beginners. Last month it didn't actually happen because they did a bad job of advertising for it and the only folks who were interested were looking for an advanced class (e.g. folks from the SNB). Which would be great, but this is not that class.
Anyway, I've gotten several inquiries about it, so I guess it's time to start coming up with a lesson plan.
Meanwhile, I'm still taking it easy as far as crafts go -- poor Suzie probably feels very neglected -- but hopefully I can get a little done on the sweater over the weekend.
I found out from my mom that my brother and his wife are in Colorado on their ski vacation right now. I feel pretty bad since I have a 2/3-done cable scarf that I'd intended to send her before the trip. Whoops. I wasn't crazy about how it was turning out, though. It's a very nice scarf, but it was knitting up pretty stiffly, so wouldn't have been good for her (largely fashion) purposes. So I think I stopped working on it because I wasn't happy with it. Lame, though, since they live in Miami so their need for knitwear is definitely now passed. I'll have to come up with something really cool to make for their next big trip. Because I'm definitely not making her one of those knitty-type knit bikinis.
I don't know why but I've been feeling very surly all week. T has talked me into taking a brief knitting hiatus to see if I can get my RSI problems to calm down. I finally got voice-activated software at work which is incredibly cool. I think I'm going to have to get it at home, too. It is amazing how much the technology has improved from when I was in law school. But anyway I have a lot of irritation and just need to take it easy for awhile.
I felt really lame for skipping Mel-O-Dee night *again* last night but I felt really crappy and wound up going to sleep at 8:00, which I guess means I made the right call. Hopefully I'll be able to recoup this weekend and get back to knitting and spinning.
I did finally start the sleeve but have about 3/4 to go. And I don't know what my continuing bind-off problem is, but I think I may try B's suggestion and redo the bind-off with a HUGE neelde because even the cuff (done in rib, unlike the neck) is really stiff.
But I'm pretty bummed to be out of the craft loop, at least for now. (Incidentally, we had another great SNB turnout but I think it may be time to ask CFT to get rid of the pirates. There were 16 of us and 4 of them, and they drove us out by 9:30.... I'm not saying that sea shanties and knitting can't mix, but you've got to sing in tune at least some of the time. This week was rough.)
I don't know where the sun has been for the last month, but it's back now. Huzzah! We had a really fun weekend up in the wine country. And I'm not just saying it was fun because I got carded twice today. Tee hee hee....
On friday night we went to a mardi gras party at belvedere winery (yum) and I met a very nice knitter, Jen, who complemented the fanta scarf. she's a new knitter, so was a little startled by the fact that I knitted the scarf after spinning & dyeing the yarn. she seems really into it, though, so i told her this was just a vision of her future self. (Meanwhile, her fiance asked T, "so what do guys talk about while girls talk about knitting?" I didn't hear the answer. I was too busy talking about knitting).
Anyway, the weekend was great. Our room at the jenner inn had a balcony overlooking the russian river. Splendid for knitting on a sunny sunday morning!
I *finally* started the second sleeve on my alpaca sweater. the sweater is knit in the round from the top down, so the sleeves are the last piece, and are knit directly onto the body. most of the stitches have been set aside; you pick-up 12 more and then decrease every 6 rows or so to the wrist. and since i've given up on the little socks (for now, at least), this should go quickly.
tomorrow night is first monday spinning at carolina homespun but i'm probably not going because it's so far to drive after being in hayward all day. (they're in SF). plus, monday is Alameda knitting night at Coffee for Thought (1544 Webster St)!
Gen, who couldn't get the "comments" function to work (a common problem, browser-related, I don't know what to tell ya....) shared the following re: dyeing roving:
I have dyed roving before and it worked out fine, it was some of
the blue faced leicester from claudia. I dyed it in a pot on the
stove , and was just careful not to move it around too much. I hung
it up in the bathroom to dry, it took a few days, and when it was
almost dry, I carefully fluffed it back up by pulling it apart
width-wise, if that makes any sense. When it was dry it was exactly
as fluffy as it had been before dyeing, and it spun up very easily.
Unfortunately, I tried the same thing with some of the Gladys roving
and I found that it didn't fluff back up as nicely, i haven't spun it
yet but I think it's going to be hard! I think it toally depends on
the roving.
But she also said that yes, it is kind of gross. As I expected. I don't think I could get away with hanging that stuff up in our bathroom for days at a time (even Terry has some standards, I guess). So I guess I'll stick with dyeing the yarn itself.
Of course, once I get into making self-striping yarns I'm going to have to figure it out. But that'll be awhile.
I bailed on Tuesday Night Knitting Circle last night because of all the rain and my general crabbiness. Instead, T and I went to Dynamite Cheesesteaks in Alameda and gorged ourselves on a little hometown treat. Mmmm.
Kristie and I went to Yarn! on Sunday to pick out colors to match her creamsicle-colored coat. I bought 2 pairs of tiny circulars thinking that for my next pair (or even sock #2) I would use those. But now I'm thinking that I could switch sock # 1 over right now.
Unfortunately, though, I think I'm going to have to set aside the socks for awhile. My RSI problems are already bad enough, and lately my right wrist has just been killing me. Usually knitting doesn't aggravate any of those symptoms (unless I knit for say, 6 straight hours on a plane). So it might be unrelated. But I'm going to lay off for a few days and see what happens.
Anyway, it'll give me a chance to finish the alpaca sweater. T and I are going up to Jenner for the weekend. (It's the annual Barrel Tasting Weekend in the Russian River Valley!) Maybe I can finish the sweater in the car and wear it while we go wine tasting! (That might be a little too ambitious, though). But I'll start sleeve #2 tonight and see how far I can get.....
Another big night at the Alameda SNB. We had several more newcomers, and some folks unveiled some great projects. A knitted "little black dress" -- who knew? I worked on my sock, which I think is going to be a little loose. If I ever finish it. Which seems doubtful. I really need to finish the black sweater; I'm tired of carrying it around.
I left SNB a little early and went home and spun for awhile. After a small knitty-knoddy catastrophe I got everything back where it was supposed to be. I'm still have a lot of problems with consistency -- finding a somewhat uniform thickness. I guess I just need to keep practicing. I'm really disappointed in the free fiber I picked out when I bought my wheel. It's a rust-colored Corriedale that, as it turns out, is appallingly scratchy. It spins great (e.g. with THAT, I have no problem making a uniform yarn) but you'd never want to make a garment out of it. I guess I could make a vest or some kind of outerwear. Or a felted bag, but it seems like that would be depressing (felting something you spun).
I'm trying to decide whether to dye some of my white roving. It seems like it would be kind of gross to deal with wet roving. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?