tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-211222752024-03-07T03:17:06.643-05:00Yarn, Ho!Sporadic updates of my continuous foray into the world of yarn and needles. Socks are a personal favorite, but there's pretty much no knitting technique I won't try, so bring it on!Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-57009463585753021732009-09-28T10:03:00.003-04:002009-09-28T10:32:25.102-04:00Playing catch-up<span style="font-family: verdana;">*blows dust off the blog*</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I suppose since I haven't posted a darn thing since May, that I ought to do a little catch-up posting. What exactly have I been doing the past four months? A brief run-down:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Spent a little time learning that, when something you really, really want fails to work out, the best way to deal with it is to cut your losses and move on.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Spent a little more time discovering that being a caretaker requires patience of a divine nature.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Finally exposed myself to Firefly and </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.drhorrible.com/">Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Unofficially joined the Bible study that my mom has been attending.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Delved deeper into the foods and ideas associated with veganism and have enjoyed every minute of it, including attending a local </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.nyvegetarianexpo.org/index.php4">Vegetarian Expo</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and testing out numerous amazing cookbooks.</span><br /><br /><img style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; width: 199px; height: 178px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/abbeyhammock.jpg" /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Acquired another guinea pig, named her Abbey, and subsequently discovered that Zivah was not, in fact, a girl. No further guinea pigs resulted, but Zivah </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">did </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">have to be neutered and was subsequently re-named McGee. (Why yes, I am an NCIS fan...why do you ask?)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And, of course, I've been knitting. Not as much as I would like, but still an appreciable amount. This is a good thing, considering the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.sheepandwool.com/">NY Sheep & Wool Festival</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is fast approaching, and I still have a bunch of yarn and fiber from </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">last </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">year that hasn't yet seen the light of day.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I did some more sample items for the local yarn shop:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/glovesdoneoverlap.jpg" /><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><img style="width: 120px; height: 288px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/keathblog.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Put It All Together gloves from </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Kristin Knits</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and the Keath scarf from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.oceanwindknits.ca/?page_id=299">Oceanwind Knits</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I really enjoyed doing the gloves, which I think is unusual for me. I prefer to knit gloves with DK or even fingering weight yarns, and am completely unused to adding details with duplicate stitch, but it all worked out in the end. The scarf, too, was perfect; knit in Duo (100% acrylic, which doesn't feel a thing like 100% acrylic) on big needles with pattern changes occurring just often enough to keep my brain interested while still being a great mindless knit.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I finished </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cookiea.com/patterns/stricken.html">Stricken</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 152px; height: 253px; float: left; margin-right: 8px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/strikendoneblog.jpg" /><img style="float: right; margin-left: 8px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/dolphinsockblog.jpg" /><span style="font-family: verdana;">and moved on to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.nysfarm.com/poseidon.htm">Poseidon</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, which has been my pride and joy as of late.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm currently working my way through the dolphin pattern on sock #2, and am determined to finish them before Sheep & Wool. Why? Because this kit's been sitting in the stash since </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">last </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">year's Sheep & Wool, and my budget-conscious self can't justify buying another of the Tsock Tsarina's amazing kits until I'm done with the one I already have.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Well, okay, I probably could. But I'd feel a lot better about myself if I had these done before another kit made its way into my stash...)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And that, dear readers, is what I've been up to these past months. I will be trying to work blogging back into the equation somehow, though there will no doubt be more activity over on </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://infinitenesmith.livejournal.com">my other blog</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> once I officially re-launch it for the Vegan Month of Food.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yep, Vegan MoFo is nearly upon us. And I love food. So you can see where that will be going...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: apathetic<br />Music: The Swell Season - Paper Cup (live @ NPR)</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-27811765782547715312009-05-19T19:05:00.003-04:002009-05-19T19:21:30.892-04:00Time is still marching on...<span style="font-family: verdana;">I haven't yet given in to the ribbed tank, if only because life has exploded (in a good way) to the point where I can barely keep on top of eating and showering, much less knitting!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Which is not to say I haven't been knitting, just that I haven't been doing so very quickly. And that, my blog friends, is because this happened:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/weareopensm.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">After months of planning and learning the necessary business steps as I went along, I finally did something I've been wanting to do for ages. I became my own boss.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Long story short: in 2005, a coffeehouse called Slow Jed's Mud House opened in a town very close to where I live. Being the eclectic sort, I fell completely in love with it and practically lived there until it closed in early 2008. And since '08, it just sat. And sat. And sat.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">When it became apparent that nobody else was going to go in and reopen it, I got the crazy idea that maybe I should. And it wasn't an easy or fast process, but I managed it. I now run the very place I loved as a customer for two awesome years. It's completely exhausting, but rewarding as hell.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now, of course, most of my not-quite-so-rapid knitting gets done during lulls at the cafe rather than at home, but I </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">am</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> moving along with my two pairs of socks!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/bamboosocknearlydone.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">One plain old sock, done save for grafting, in Plymouth Yarns Sockin' Socks. (Can't remember the colorway right now, but it's a departure from my predominantly blue sock collection!)</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/strickeninprogress01.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And Cookie A's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cookiea.com/patterns/stricken.html">Stricken</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, in progress, in KnitPicks Essential Kettle-Dyed. It was the Spruce colorway, but it looked too green to me and was subsequently overdyed to a color more my liking.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The plain socks are better for cafe knitting, since I don't need to cart a pattern around and I can stop and pick back up with relative ease. But I may toss Stricken in my bag tomorrow for a bit of a challenge. We shall see if I can keep up with it between pulling espresso shots and steaming milk for lattes!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mood: tired</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Music: The Airborne Toxic Event - Innocence</span></span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-26866240716872332482009-05-04T08:45:00.002-04:002009-05-04T08:54:34.488-04:00It never rains, but it pours<span style="font-family: verdana;">It must be some sort of variation on Murphy's Law that knitters get startitis at </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">the </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">most inopportune times.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Like now. The past week has been one of the busiest of my life, and yet my brain continues to clamor at me to cast on new projects. It doesn't seem to care that I'm already working on </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cookiea.com/patterns/stricken.html">Stricken</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (after messing it up three times); or that a recent trip to my LYS yielded a beautiful skein of Plymouth Yarn's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cYarn.yarnDetail&yarnid=001004&searchcollection=000005">Sockin' Socks</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, which is now being worked up into a pair of plain vanilla socks, ready to be picked up in the rare moments of downtime.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">No, for my insistent brain, regular life business, a stack of library books, and two ongoing projects is not enough! It is now demanding that I cast on a ribbed tank, the very same ribbed tank that I once tried to knit before gauge and I had become friends (and therefore failed at miserably). It craves the mindlessness of k2p2 on large needles, and it just plain won't take no for an answer.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I haven't given in yet. But the six skeins of blue-purple ribbon yarn in the stash are calling to me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Watch them not be enough.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Music: Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin<br />Mood: antsy</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-68187732793733565032009-04-24T10:59:00.002-04:002009-04-24T11:17:03.350-04:00More stitches, less introspection<span style="font-family: verdana;">In the spring, a knitter's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of lace. (Unless you're me, whose knitting mind is nearly always fixated on socks, but as I often tell people, I pride myself on being a freak of nature.)</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/wavestoleunblock01blog.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Needless to say, the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2005/12/patternia.html" target="_blank">Print O' the Wave stole</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is done! (</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Yarn used: <a href="http://www.maplecreekyarn.com/default.aspx" target="_blank">Maple Creek Farm Merino</a> in colorway "Tucan Sam".</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">)</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 282px; height: 202px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/wavestoleblockblog.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I took it on a quick jaunt yesterday, but as it's not yet </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">quite</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> warm enough here to be going without a coat, it only saw a little time in public.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/wavestolewearblog.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I really am excited to have it done. I just never know what face to make in "modeling my own FOs" pictures.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Next up, Cookie A.'s </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cookiea.com/patterns/stricken.html" target="_blank">Stricken</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. (It was going to be the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring09/PATTsourwood.php" target="_blank">Sourwood Mitts</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> from knitty, but for once in my life, my insanely tight knitting did not conspire along with the weight of the yarn to help me get gauge. I may be forced to pop down to the LYS later and get something that will work better...)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In other news, I've realized that, in reading other knitblogs, I've sort of "gotten to know" people via the bits of their daily lives they care to share with the blogsphere at large. And I've realized that I don't really blog a lot about myself here. That used to be because I was rather active over on LiveJournal and babbled about everything there, so once I was done with that, all that was left over was the knitting talk. But LJ has since lost its charm for me, for whatever reason, and that leaves this blog as my "main" blog, so to speak.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm not one to go divulging my deepest, darkest secrets to the internet (as if I even have any, lol), but I'm wondering if it might be time to start talking about myself at least a </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">little</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">, outside of the bits of my life that involve yarn.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">This ought to make a tentative start, at least:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/zivah06.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">A more recent picture of my dear Zivah Faraday, who is growing quickly and amassing enough fur that my fingers tend to disappear in it when I pick her up. She has also, thank goodness, started to learn that biting me does not make her food appear faster, nor does it make holding her any easier for either of us. In other words, she's growing up!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Also, that orange stuff is bell pepper. She </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">adores </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">it even more than hay, which she sucks down like it's going out of style.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">That's all for now. I know I say it all the time, but--I'll try to post a little more often in future. This month-between-posts stuff is insane!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: productive<br />Music: Paramore - I Caught Myself</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-53817356676662476152009-04-21T07:35:00.001-04:002009-04-21T07:59:08.945-04:00Introspection<span style="font-family: verdana;">It never ceases to amaze me, as humans, the sheer amount of information we fire off on a weekly, daily, hourly basis.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">We Facebook and Myspace and Twitter. We YouTube and blog and instant message. Many of us are in a near-constant state of connectivity thanks to portable devices and wireless networks.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And yet, for all of this, how much do we really <span style="font-style: italic;">say</span>? How much of what we shoot off into electronic space is real communication? In utilizing all these massive sources of information, are we simply creating a shield behind which we can hide and only reveal exactly what we want other people to see? Are we lulling ourselves into a false sense of security so thick that, when one of us chooses to reveal something a little more personal, a little more serious, a little more adamant...no one can handle it? Have we opened the door to a forum that requires us to constantly pretend, or otherwise be ripped apart by our peers--or worse, by people we don't even know?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">By using these ways to "connect", have we simply exacerbated an existing problem? Have we amplified the flaws in our species ability to communicate?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I wonder all these things when I look at the electronic community at large, but then I think of sites like Ravelry, and of networks like the knitting blog community. I marvel at the way people of so many different backgrounds, religions, political affiliations, etc., etc., can suddenly push all of that aside--push aside the things that so regularly tear people apart--and become one truly caring community. I'm continually amazed how one common denominator, one shared hobby, can unite people as different as night and day.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And I wonder...why can't it always be like that, with all people?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: conflicted<br />Music: Mutemath - Spotlight</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-15976609062862316542009-03-11T08:30:00.002-04:002009-03-11T08:54:40.498-04:00"Here's Davy Jones singing 'It's Been Lonesome in the Saddle Since My Horse Died'!"You know those times in life when absolutely everything that can go wrong, does?<br /><br />Yeah, I've been going through one of those times lately. In fact, I've been feeling rather like Everything That Can Go Wrong showed up at my door like an uninvited houseguest, barged in, put up its feet, and has been eating me out of house and home.<br /><br />As I'm sure many of you are aware, when this state of affairs hits, it can be hard to concentrate on anything for long enough to make decent headway. You get half a row into the shawl you're knitting, and suddenly Everything That Can Go Wrong is bellowing from the recliner that it needs another beer and, damn it, don't you get any decent sports channels?<br /><br />But I have been persevering. Between determination and startitis, some good things have been happening on the needles.<br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/tffrontdoneblog.jpg" /><br /><br />The Twisted Flower socks are <i>done</i>! I've been wearing them here and there, and boy are they comfy. They look good, too, for which I'm glad. It's the second pair of lace socks that I've knit in superwash yarn, and I was a little worried that the pattern wouldn't look quite lacy enough, but once they're on, I think it pops. Plus I <i>adore</i> Trekking XXL. It's become one of my sock yarns of choice.<br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/wavestoleprogresssm.jpg" /><br /><br />And this is a result of my startitis; the <a href="http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2005/12/patternia.html">Print O' the Wave</a> stole by Eunny Jang. I'll readily admit that the bug bit me when I saw the finished product on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=21122275">Franklin's blog</a>. Despite all the concentration that lace takes compared to other things I could be knitting, I had to get this on the needles. So I pulled out the lovely <a href="http://maplecreekyarn.com/">Maple Creek Farm</a> yarn I've had sitting in the stash (waiting for the perfect project) and cast on.<br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/wavedetailblog.jpg" style="clear: right;" /><br /><br />(The colorway is called "Tucan Sam". I don't know about you, but it does remind me of the original Froot Loops, back when they only had three colors.)<br /><br />One distraction from this lovely pattern arrived on Saturday.<br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/zivah02.jpg" /><br /><br />This is Zivah Faraday, "Zeeves" for short. With nods to two TV characters and a scientist, I realize it's a pretty big name for a guinea pig to carry, but out of all the names I looked up to consider, Zivah was the one that stuck.<br /><br />Except for a rather skittish day yesterday, she's quite amicable and loves to sit in laps. She also loves to baffle me by completely ignoring the wooden chew sticks I bought her and electing to chew on the cage instead.<br /><br />Now, I am not a "small, furry domestic animal" person. I've always had a rather distant relationship with dogs, cats, etc. I get along better with animals of the fiber-bearing sort. (Big surprise, right?) So, of course, I never intended to have any pets more demanding than fish. But on Saturday, my mom and I were at the mall and she wanted to make a trip into the pet store to look at rabbits. And wouldn't you know it, on one side of the rabbit pen, there were three guinea pigs: two a more camel-colored brown, and Zivah. Something made me want to hold her and, once she was in my hands, I knew I couldn't leave without her. And now that I have her home, I've found her nothing less than enchanting...except maybe for that moment yesterday when she tried to climb inside my shirt.<br /><br />Two of the funniest things she does so far:<br />1) Runs around the cage in glee after I put her filled food dish in the corner.<br />2) Purrs at the sound of rock music. (I kid you not!)<br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/zivah03.jpg" /><br /><br />That face. How can you not love it?<br /><br />Oh my, I'm gushing. I think I'd better go work on the stole.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Mood: annoyed<br />Music: <a href="http://www.therevrecs.com/artists_tommcwatters.html" target="_blank">Tom McWatters</a> - Dishonesty is the Second Best Policy</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-70911037127445131382009-02-22T06:39:00.000-05:002009-02-22T06:51:23.707-05:00Visually uninteresting<span style="font-family:verdana;">I often hesitate to make a post here without any pictures, which is sort of strange, since I blogged like a fiend on LiveJournal for years without worrying about anything but words. Granted, that was a personal blog and this is more about knitting, but I still probably shouldn't be worried about whether or not every single post is visually entertaining.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I'm posting now because I just spent a bit of time catching up on blogs via my GoogleReader feeds, and as I read one of <a href="http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/2009/02/redress.html" target="_blank">Franklin's recent posts</a>, I realized something. Something sort of depressing. I realized that it's been a long time since I last knit something that truly captivated me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, I love knitting in general. I love shopping for yarn, choosing patterns, knitting up patterns...everything except finishing, which I think just about everyone harbors a secret (or not-so-secret) grudge against. And it's not that I dislike what I'm knitting now--far from it. I have thus far found it quite impossible to dislike a sock designed by Cookie A. It's just that I feel like I've been working on my WIPs forever, even though I haven't and there are only two of them. It's knitting ennui; I want to try something new and exciting.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">By "new and exciting", I mean new yarn, as well. My stash is a good stash. It's a servicable stash, with some real gems hiding in it, some of which I know exactly what to do with and some of which I'm still trying to decide on. But in going through it recently, I haven't touched upon a yarn that screams, "Knit me now!" For someone on as tight a budget as I am at the moment, this can be a bit of a problem.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I have decided, however, to say screw budget this one time, and to buy myself some brand-new yarn to knit <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/saddle-shoulder-aran-cardigan-wg-63-so-49" target="_blank">this beautiful cardigan</a> (the Saddle Shoulder Aran by Meg Swansen for those of you not on Ravelry). I've been eyeing it for ages, and it's time. It's time to knit something a little bigger than a pair of socks (much as I adore socks), something that's going to give me not only a new garment to layer up with, but also the satisfaction of seeing a large pattern come together. The satisfatction of knowing that yes, I knit this, I had a good time, and I'm damn proud of it, thank you very much.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I've also been eyeing larger lace projects, but I'm not sure if I ought to dive into one of those yet. I must be having a more wicked case of startitis than I thought.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Mood: impatient</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Music: They Might Be Giants - My Man</span></span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-25866947823033997042009-02-13T08:35:00.003-05:002009-02-13T09:03:16.961-05:00Late again<span style="font-family: verdana;">I've gotta knock off this month-between-posts stuff. My online presence has been far too lacking lately! This is due in part to being rather sick and spending half my time sleeping that off, and also in part to the fact that my laptop is off for repairs, so therefore I can't laze around on the futon while simultaneously using the computer.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I can, however, knit!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/tfsideblog.jpg" /><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><img style="width: 181px; height: 284px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/tffrontblog.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">First Twisted Flower sock, done!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I also made these for one of my mom's very pregnant co-workers:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 309px; height: 180px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/bootiesblog.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because, come on, how can you resist </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://xalleykatx.livejournal.com/50196.html" target="_blank">little Converse booties</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">? I hear they were well-received. Hopefully I'll get pictures of the little recipient wearing them once he's born!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Other than that, I'm afraid there's not much to report. Life has been slowed to a crawl with the illness-and-resting bit, leading me to watch more House and play more Facebook-based Tetris than is probably healthy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the upside, all that time on Facebook led me to discover </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.paperbackswap.com/" target="_blank">Paperback Swap</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. How cool is a site that lets you get rid of the books you never read (or bought in error...yeah, that never happens to me *innocent whistling*) in exchange for ones you actually want? It's like a library, only far, far more vast. Very cool, in my opinion.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now for more of that "resting" stuff. Illness </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">does </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">go away at some point, right?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: tired<br />Music: Iron & Wine - Naked As We Came</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-37379497781302185782009-01-16T08:21:00.002-05:002009-01-16T08:29:30.212-05:00Arctic knitting<span style="font-family: verdana;">It's 8:15am, it's freezing ice cold out, and I'm curled up on the futon, drinking Cherry Vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper. I realize that, given the weather, this may be a tactical error, and that there are much warmer things like coffee and tea at my disposal, but man...cherry vanilla.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have also finally been jumped by the cold that's been trying to get me for weeks, and have thusly been rendered lazier than usual. Alas, after I post this, I'm going to have to venture out into the arctic air to do the grocery shopping, because it's very hard to eat food that we don't actually have.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But, as I was saying to a couple of friends last night, I knit, therefore I have wool things, and thank God for that!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Speaking of wool things, I am once again on a sock kick. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cookiea.com/patterns/trystero.html">Trystero</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is done:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/trysterofront.jpg" /><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><img style="font-family: verdana; width: 204px; height: 293px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/trysterocross.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And I've begun </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cookiea.com/patterns/twisted_flower.html">Twisted Flower</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, which is a simply gorgeous pattern:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/twistedflowerprogress.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(The yarn is Trekking XXL in color 329. Nice, no?)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Also on the needles is a pair of </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/PATTbroadstreet.html">Broadstreet</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> mittens for my mom, but given the pattern's tendency to run large and the fact that I'm substituting a yarn with a different gauge, it's mostly trial-and-error at this point (i.e., I did the ribbing, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">convinced</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> that I had all the stitch counts right, and it turns out I need to rip it all out and go one size smaller with the needles).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">So there's wool on the needles, wood in the stove, and blankets easily at hand. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to try not to freeze while buying produce and such.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(P.S. Is anyone else massively excited about </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Because_You_Left">next</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lie">Wednesday</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">?)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: cold<br />Music: Ani DiFranco - Napoleon (Canon version)</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-89867303681002915972008-12-31T12:40:00.002-05:002008-12-31T12:46:37.666-05:00What are you doing New Year's Eve?<span style="font-family: verdana;">I haven't a clue how it got to be </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">after</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Christmas already. Surely some sort of quantum weirdness--a freak wormhole, perhaps--is responsible, because there is no way that 2008 could possibly have passed this quickly and shuffled us all into the tiny space between Christmas Day and the dawn of a new year.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I understand that some people like New Year's. I don't. When it comes to a new year, that "brand new start", I am not a glass-is-half-full sort of person. I am a "how the hell did the old year go so fast, and how did I do such massive amounts of nothing?" sort of person. I think part of the problem is that it's a human tendency to look at other people's accomplishments and measure our own against them. This is, of course, one of the greatest follies of humankind, since what we accomplish is unique to each of us, but I think a great many of us do it anyway.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maybe that's why we take stock at the end of the year. The advice to count our blessings may not be as cliché as it sounds.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In lieu of any sort of "this was the year, this was what happened, wasn't it grand?" sort of blogging...let's move on to the knitting.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cardigan is finally, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">finally</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> done!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/arwenpreblock02.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I checked my Ravelry queue...that thing had been on the needles since July. July! I knew I'd taken a few little breaks here and there, but I had no idea that it had been quite that long. But it was worth the wait. The yarn is great, the adaptations I made to the pattern worked out just fine, and it looked perfect as it was sitting there, blocking.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 403px; height: 139px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/arwenblock02.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">After blocking, it fits like a dream. It's rare that a women's pattern has the proper armhole and sleeve sizes for me, but between the pattern and the cooperative nature of the yarn once it was wet, everything worked out great!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/arwendone01.jpg" /><br /><br /><img style="width: 289px; height: 249px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/arwendone02.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Modifications: only one, which is the obvious one...no hood! I was using this yarn for another pattern at one point and, due to a miscalculation of gauge, ran out before I finished. I was afraid of the same thing happening with this, so instead of adding the hood to the left and right fronts, I bound off, then added cabled edging around the neck, picking up stitches as I went. It was the first time I've ever knitted an edging onto a finished piece that way, and I think it worked out well!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">All I have left on the needles is the second </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cookiea.com/patterns/trystero.html">Trystero</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> sock, and then I'll be ready to pursue new and exciting patterns! And also make a pair of </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/PATTbroadstreet.html">Broadstreet</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> mittens for my mom, because she loves mine and thinks it's a great idea.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">For those of you who can manage it better than I can...Happy New Year. :)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mood: disappointed</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Music: Savage Garden - Promises</span></span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-67304711624314728402008-12-06T09:51:00.002-05:002008-12-06T10:32:11.559-05:00Personal accomplishments<span style="font-family: verdana;">Holy foop, I can't believe that I haven't posted since Rhinebeck! I guess I haven't been in a bloggy mood. That, and my body has been demanding more sleep than I feel is strictly necessary, so my usual online night-owl activities have been kind of lacking.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But I'm back now! I am here, I am alive, and I have been knitting!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">First, though, one other reason that I haven't blogged much: this year, I once again participated in the insanity that is </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">National Novel Writing Month</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, or NaNoWriMo for short. And I wrote about...wait for it...knitters! Well, knitters and quantum physics, but knitting was a big part of the story. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with it, but I am proud to say that I worked hard enough to be able to display this here:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/nano_08_winner_small.gif" align="middle" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I feel strangely less accomplished than I did last year, maybe because I wrote a great majority of my novel in bizarre chunks using </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html">Write Or Die</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, an online application that gives you a variable grace period after you stop typing before it starts playing annoying sounds at you. Yep, annoying sounds like squeaking violin practice, noisy goats, and Hanson singing "MmBop". It's amazing. If you suffer from writer's block at all, I highly recommend giving it a try. It gets you typing, and I found that I was more inclined to roll with my crazy ideas rather than spend inordinate amounts of time debating about whether or not they would work.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now for the yarny stuff. Remember that </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/multimerino.jpg">multicolored merino</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I got at Rhinebeck?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The blue stuff is yarn now.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 304px; height: 298px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/multibluemerinoplied.jpg" /><br /><br /><img style="width: 314px; height: 165px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/multibluemerinosingles.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think I've mentioned that I love spinning merino. I'm a compulsive predrafter, so once I'm done with that, the roving practically spins itself. This spun up into a beautiful blue-purple two-ply with occasional slubs of yellow.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And, due to a silly incident that wasn't comical at all and which left me with only one glove, that yarn became these:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 348px; height: 225px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/broadstreetgloveon.jpg" /><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/PATTbroadstreet.html">Broad Street</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, from the young days of Knitty.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 249px; height: 293px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/broadstreetmittenon.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I gave them a test run last night, and I have to admit that I don't miss my old gloves at all.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 310px; height: 264px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/broadstreetdoneglove.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(They're less purple and more blue in real life.) I'm still not sure if I'll sew on a button to keep the mitten flap down when they're open, or just skip it. For now, they seem to work well without one.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Other things that have been giving me those little moments of joy lately: the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Soundtrack-Various-Artists/dp/B001ED7C58/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1228575843&sr=8-2">Twilight</a> soundtrack, <a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.harney.com/hotcinnamonspice.html">hot cinnamon spice tea</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.killerbunnies.com/quest/index.html">Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Plus I'm knitting another sample for the local shop, and finishing the mittens gave me a big boost of energy with which to attack my other WIPs. All in all, knitting and life are good right now.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: decaffeinated<br />Music: Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-83705256692309893662008-10-19T21:09:00.003-04:002008-10-19T22:19:23.443-04:00Defying (financial) gravity<span style="font-family:verdana;">Remember how I said something about probably not being able to go to the Sheep & Wool Festival because of budget?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Well, I was industrious. I spent weeks not buying anything that I didn't need, and letting things that could wait, wait. And today I brought home a nice haul from Rhinebeck (for a relatively small amount of money)! I rode out with the lovely </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.woolnword.com/">Stephanie</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> and her friend, Tomi, and we had a wonderful day.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">First, the non-fiber stuff:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/soaps.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Eucalyptus, chai tea, and choco-mint soaps <span style="font-family: verdana;">from </span></span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.merriweathers.com/">Merriweather's</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> handmade</span> soaps. Holy cow, do these smell good! I love natural, hand-made soaps.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">And, though I missed </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/">Franklin</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">'s book signing because I couldn't go yesterday, this</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 324px; height: 312px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/franklinbook.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">miraculously turned up in the hands of someone I met while futzing around the author building. He was just browsing, and kindly handed the book off to me to buy. Dude, I owe you one! This book is a gas.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, for fiber! Yes, fiber. I tried to stay away from yarn this year mainly because I still have yarn from </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >last </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">year that I haven't gotten around to, and my stash is fast outgrowing its plastic tubs. I figured that I couldn't go wrong by procuring some stuff to spin, since I don't spin a ton but get a great amount of enjoyment out of it when I do.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I wish I could remember which vendors all of this came from, but alas, I don't have cards from all of them. So here it is, in all it's fibery glory. And to all you fiber dyers/sellers out there, you rock!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/multisolidmerino.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Six ounces of pretty, solid-color merino. I'm not sure exactly how I'll handle it when I spin it, but I thought the colors would go nicely together.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/multimerino.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Multi-colored merino! I looked at a lot of this stuff today, but finally decided on these two. Blue and blue-themed colorways are usually what I go for (in case you couldn't tell), so I added the brownish one instead of another blue one I was eyeing. I thought it'd be fun to mix things up a bit and spin something in a color I don't already have tons of in other projects.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 319px; height: 251px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/bamboo.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The "I bought this, want to touch it? You know you want to touch it," item of the day: bamboo! I was too afraid of messing it up to buy more than a couple of ounces, but it is so, so soft. You know how kids imagine clouds should feel? Yeah. That's what this stuff feels like. It might be destined for the drop spindle, after it's served some time in the stash, being petted at random intervals.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">And yes, I did buy yarn. I'll admit it. But the yarn I bought is all...drumroll please...sock yarn! Yes! Yarn I might actually use up before next year's festival, yarn that won't sit in the stash until I'm 105 because I couldn't find the time or the right project or the stamina to use it up!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I treated myself to some Socks That Rock in lightweight (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/newmoon/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19_20_257&products_id=2669">Basan</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">) and medium weight (a nice dark colorway, one of their Rare Gems):</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/str.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">And I picked up the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.tsocktsarina.com/sockkits/poseidon.html">Poseidon sock kit</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> by Tsarina:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/poseidonkit.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">It took a while of looking at display socks to decide on this one. I was initially drawn by the Vintage kit, but this caught my eye even more. I love the dolphin pattern on the leg!<br /><br />I also picked up three patters by the astoundingly talented <a href="http://www.cookiea.com">Cookie A.</a>: <a href="http://cookiea.com/patterns/trystero.html">Trystero</a>, <a href="http://cookiea.com/patterns/stricken.html">Stricken</a>, and <a href="http://cookiea.com/patterns/twisted_flower.html">Twisted Flower</a>. I've been eyeing the Twisted Flower one for ages, and snapped it up when I saw it. I have a feeling that I'll be having a lot of fun with these!<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">And last, but certainly not least, the social stuff! Because there most definitely is a lot of that going on wherever knitters and lovers of fiber gather.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I waited in line to get a book signed and say hello to the ever-amusing Yarn Harlot again this year:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana; width: 517px; height: 458px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/yarnharlotyear2.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">and was privileged to meet and hang out with geniuses of Ravelry at the Ravelry meetup.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana; width: 508px; height: 475px;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/Rhinebeck%2008/ravelry.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I met and hung out with a bunch of other fun people, Ravelers and non, and had a wonderfully relaxing day. It never ceases to amaze me that, despite my hatred of big crowds and being around tons of people for long periods of time, there is always a certain peace to being in a place where everyone loves the same thing. There is always a common ground, always something to talk about, and always something to learn about each other and people in general. It's a great way to disconnect from all the craziness that goes on in the world every day, and reconnect with the way the world ought to be.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">So that was my day at Rhinebeck. If I met you there, hi! If not, hi anyway, and I hope you had at least as much fun as I did.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Mood: fibery</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Music: The Frames - Denounced</span></span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-48626034700004523032008-09-27T09:58:00.003-04:002008-09-27T10:40:58.738-04:00Comfort food<span style="font-family: verdana;">It seems that, like on a real diet, a knitter on a yarn diet craves "comfort food".</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm on both, and it sucks.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I've been on the food diet for 10 days, and it's going okay, except that counting calories is driving me nuts. Due to lactose intolerance and other various factors, I'm having a hell of a time 1) getting </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">enough </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">calories every day, and 2) getting the right </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">balance </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">of calories. Adding healthy fats without being able to consume much dairy has been an interesting challenge.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I've been on the yarn diet (mostly) since June, when I bought that KnitPicks lace sampler. I've bought a bit of sock yarn here and there since then, but have made no significant yarn purchases and have been knitting solely from stash or working on UFOs. And now...I'm sick of it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I want to buy a bunch of nice, comforting worsted weight--since all I've been working with is lace, fingering, and sport--along with a nice, comforting pattern, sit my ass down, and just knit all day long. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, I can't afford to do any of these things, so it's back to the UFOs while startitis stalks my brain.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this quest to tackle knitting without actually buying yarn, I </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">did </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">finish the socks </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://northeastyarnho.blogspot.com/2008/08/ive-done-some-blog-worthy-things-over.html">Glen Hansard lent his awesomeness</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> to:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 264px; height: 355px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/glensocksdone.jpg" alt="Glen socks" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">love </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">the colorway (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.berroco.com/shade_cards/sox_sh.html">Berocco Sox</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> 1426) and would have no problem knitting with it again in the future. I've already made some very tiny socks from the leftovers as a dangler for my key chain. 18 stitches on size US1 needles makes for one adorable little accessory.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">As far as comfort knitting goes, I'm in the mood for something big, warm, and cabled. Something like the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dickinson-pullover">Dickinson Pullover</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, or the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/must-have-cardigan">Must-Have Cardigan</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. (I'll admit to being in love with that cardigan ever since the Yarn Harlot blogged her way through knitting it a while back.) Even </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall08/PATTcamden.html">Camden</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is looking pretty good right now. I just want something that feels comfortable to knit, looks great to wear, and is just plain </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">fun</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">. The macaroni-and-cheese, or mashed potatoes, or big-bowl-of-ice-cream of the knitting world. (I haven't had any of these foods recently, either. Mac & cheese makes me sadly ill, mashed potatoes are a bit out of season, and even with a calorie count leaning toward "not enough", I haven't managed to sneak any ice cream in.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Alas, I crave all these things without the current budget to support them. I'm still wondering how I'm going to manage the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.sheepandwool.com">Sheep & Wool Festival</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> this year (hint: it's looking like I won't be able to). Although I suppose it's all for the greater good. Ending a diet with a binge isn't that great of an idea, right? Even a yarn diet.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Right, I'll try to justify it that way.<br /><br />In the meantime, <a href="http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall08/PATTanneshirley.html">Anne Shirley</a> is looking promising as something that could be satisfactorily knit from yarn I have on hand.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: decaffeinated<br />Music: Gillian Welch - By the Mark</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-78487519869228207062008-09-13T18:54:00.003-04:002008-09-13T19:40:09.138-04:00Necessity<span style="font-family: verdana;">In pondering life, I occasionally come up against something that seems impossible to resolve without causing a paradox when its principles are applied on a broad scale. No matter what angle I look at some things from, it seems that there's no way to settle on an agreeable explanation that makes sense in every situation. So often is the case with important matters.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the midst of this, I've come to one definite conclusion: there is only so much that each individual person in this world can care about. And yet, in realizing this, it's also important to remember that, just because we don't all care about the same things, the things other people care about are not less or beneath the things we care about. Everyone cares about a different subset of things because there has to be a balance. If we all tried to care about everything that needed attention, the world would come to a screeching halt.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The point of saying all of this is to declare that I'm going to try my hardest to stop feeling guilty about the things </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">I </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">care about. I'm going to try and appreciate the time and energy that goes into and is required by the things that are important to me. I'm going to stop minimizing myself.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And one of the things I care about greatly is (big surprise) knitting. And yarn.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 440px; height: 224px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/springgreen.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">My first attempt at using Jacquard acid dyes! I was going for more balance between the yellow and green, but I'm still quite happy with the way it came out. It reminds me of early-to-late spring when the new leaves have just come, and everything is getting green again.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I dyed this at my grandmother's house, which is in much more of a city setting than I'm used to. I'm a country girl at heart; I grew up and still live in a place where it takes ten minutes to get to the post office and longer than that to hit a grocery store. My grandmother, on the other hand, lives a hop, skip, and a jump away from just about everything, from banks and grocery stories to soft-serve ice cream and Chinese takeout. It's interesting to spend any length of time down there. It's a really different world for me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Her house also has a couple of things mine doesn't that make yarn dyeing that much easier: 1) a full basement with surfaces on which to lay out yarn and other materials, surfaces that have never and will never be used for food prep; and 2) a giant, two-sided metal sink with its own taps, perfect for wetting out and rinsing out yarn, and also for hanging yarn to do its initial drip-drying. I had a great time dyeing this yarn and hope I can do some more in the near future.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Because of the colors and where I dyed it, I've dubbed the colorway "Springtime in the City". It's for sale over at </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://northeastknits.etsy.com">my Etsy shop</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> if anyone's interested!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now that I've waxed personally philosophical, and rambled about yarn in true knitblogger fashion, I'm off to play with the new Sims 2 expansion. And knit. 'Cause Sims is awesome like that.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: depressed<br />Music: Michael Nesmith - Back Porch and a Fruit Jar Full of Iced Tea</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-89034961833421566732008-08-18T16:15:00.004-04:002008-08-18T16:48:58.059-04:00<span style="font-family: verdana;">I've done some blog-worthy things over the past few weeks.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I made a hat:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 300px; height: 264px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/redhatangle.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(An important hat. More on that later.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I made a pie:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 300px; height: 278px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/zpie02.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(An unusual pie. More later.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But I'd say the most amazing thing that happened (possibly in the whole of the summer) was this:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/glensockcropsm.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">That, ladies and gentlemen, is Glen Hansard.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">GLEN. FREAKIN'. HANSARD.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">WITH MY SOCK.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Needless to say, knitting socks at the Saratoga Music Fest was a very, very good idea. Glen's music, with the Frames and with Marketa, has had such a huge impact on me over the last year...meeting him was wonderful. I can only hope I didn't make too much of a fool of myself.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am now eternally indebted to the Yarn Harlot for starting the "hold my sock" thing. I suppose you can only hope that the person you ask to hold your sock is a good sport--and Glen was. He didn't even ask why a sock, or "You want me to do what?" He just held the thing. And, as a friend pointed out, it kinda matches his eyes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">This picture is now 8x10 and is on my wall. Framed. Is that silly? Because if it is, I'm silly and proud of it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I really hope I can find some audio or video from the performance yesterday. Technical and sound issues were, regrettably, cutting into people's set time, none more so than Glen and Marketa's, and it really upset Glen. But then he covered Van Morrison, which he does so well that he actually manages to be </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">better </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">than the original recordings, and just rocked the house. He made more noise with just himself and that wonderful guitar with the extra hole in it than the entire, full band that had played before. It was truly a moment that captured the essence of Glen and what he means to me musically.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Onward to knitting!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cute little red hat is the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.iliveonafarm.com/emily_hat.html">Emily Hat</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, a pattern I found via Ravelry's pattern browser. I made it for the one-year-old daughter of a friend of the family as a sort of cheering-up present. The poor girl is having absent seizures, and her family hasn't been able to get a concrete reason as to </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">why</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> yet. I wanted her, and them, to have a little bit of comfort, and I'm no good with verbal condolences, so I dug through the stash for some cotton yarn and made this.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">As for the pie, guess what's in it. Go on, guess. I'll give you a hint: it's not fruit.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Give up?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Zucchini. For serious.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now, I like zucchini in things like quesadillas, and as a side dish with pasta, but I had no idea it was possible to make a pie out of it. No idea, that is, until I bought </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Serving-Up-Harvest-Celebrating-Vegetables/dp/1580176631/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219092294&sr=8-1">this cookbook</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I had flipped through it before, and decided to pick it up the last time I was at Borders.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm so glad I did! It has some amazing recipes for most of the vegetables my family grows in our garden, as well as things that are easily available at area farm stands. Zucchini is one thing that we always end up with far too much of, no matter how little we plant, so I was glad to find that the book has a large section devoted to zucchini-based recipes. Apparently, if you cook chopped zucchini in lemon juice and season it like apples for a pie, it makes a very apple-like pie.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Guess what? It really does. It's nearly impossible to tell that the pie </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">isn't </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">an apple pie. If you love produce, I highly recommend this book.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am now off to try another amazing recipe: seasoned sweet potato fries, baked in the oven!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: ecstatic<br />Music: The Frames - Your Face</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-56378763393828679792008-07-31T11:01:00.004-04:002008-07-31T11:49:27.347-04:00It's not about that, is it; it's about you and me<span style="font-family:verdana;">I'm not particularly happy about anything right now, which is a dreary state to be in at the start of what's left of the summer. But I suppose I--and many people--hit this point at some time during whatever season they find most promising. To me, late spring and early summer hold great promise, the promise of long days to come, of productivity and fun with friends. And it's not that I've done nothing this summer. I've done a great deal of things that have been a lot of fun. I just haven't done as much as I was hoping, and that always leaves me feeling somewhat depressed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">My knitting hasn't been at all cooperative or helpful on this front.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0636.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">This will be the back of </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.kategilbert.com/p_arwen.html">A Cardigan For Arwen</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. It's perfect mindless knitting for watching movies, knitting by the light of the monitor while RPing, or reading long books, but as a "sit down and knit happily away" project, this part is lacking.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">As for the North Star scarf...</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0637.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I'm rather tempted to dub it an impolite seven-letter word with the way it's been going. It was moving right along for a while at a pace I was happy with, and that was reasonable for the amount of concentration it takes. Now suddenly, as I'm approaching the halfway point, it has decided to rebel on me. Things aren't lining up, stitches are disappearing, and I often wind up undoing most of the progress I've made, trying to find where things went wrong. I'm beginning to doubt my decision to knit lots and lots of lace in the coming months.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">These circumstances have conspired to start up the startitis again, and even as I knit these things, my mind is casting about for what to cast on next. I have some sock yarn that I bought at Knitting Needles in Newport last week, but that needs to be saved for the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.livenation.com/event/getEvent/eventId/331724">big awesome concert</a> <span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm going to on the 17th. (After much deliberation, I decided that, yes, the best thing to knit while basking in the awesome that is The Swell Season is, indeed, socks.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Another unfortunate aspect of my current discontent is health. Mine isn't necessarily </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >bad</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">, more that I'm rather bad at managing it. I have trouble sticking to an exercise plan, because I just plain don't like structured exercise. I find it boring. And I love food. This, as you can imagine, leads to arguments with the scale over what it should say I weigh vs. what it actually says, which never end well. So it's back on the diet and exercise train for me, a train that I always wind up getting off of before my scheduled stop. Maybe it's time to start considering knitting as therapy?</span><br /><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br />Music: They Might Be Giants - Contrecoup<br />Mood: blah</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ></span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-91504927874549840932008-07-13T15:10:00.004-04:002008-07-13T15:57:47.787-04:00Moving right along<span style="font-family:verdana;">After being kept up until 4:30 in the morning by an RP thread that was far too interesting to abandon, today has been a decidedly lazy day. Pretty much all I've done is eat, poke around on the internet, and read through another life of </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/13-2-Lives-Captain-Bluebear/dp/1585678449/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215977019&sr=8-1">Captain Bluebear</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Knitting will no doubt figure into the day somewhere, but silly me, being away from home this week, only brought lace. Nothing mindless at all. Which means I watched a great deal of </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Teen-Titans-Complete-Fifth-Season/dp/B0016PURB0/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1215977327&sr=8-1">Teen Titans</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> yesterday without having anything for my hands to do. A dangerous endeavor, indeed!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Remember how I said that I needed to have a talk with the stash? Well, that's begun.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 215px; height: 190px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0487.jpg" /><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><img style="width: 328px; height: 190px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0486.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The stash used to have a free reign of the closet, and of the corner of my bedroom that houses my book collection (which is another growing "stash" in and of itself). This was unacceptable, especially since the closet stash was beginning to cause my laundry hamper to launch itself out of the closet whenever the door got opened.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 223px; height: 273px; float: left; margin-right: 10px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0489.jpg" /><span style="font-family:verdana;"> So the stash and I had a little chat, as part of my ongoing summer project to tame the mess in my bedroom.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Yep, this is the same stash. Same stash, same yarn, tamed and organized into a lot of Ziploc bags, grocery bags, and two clear plastic storage tubs, which are now stored in the closet and have made stash diving a whole lot easier.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://northeastyarnho.blogspot.com/2007/11/but-it-looked-so-pretty-on-website.html">circus sweater</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> is in there, too, albeit no longer as a sweater. I was finally forced to admit to myself that I couldn't live with finishing it, and into the frog pond it went. Which leaves me with a lot of dark blue DK weight and several single skeins in very, er, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >vivid </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">colors. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kaffes-Classics-Glorious-Knitting-Designs/dp/1561584134/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215977916&sr=8-1">Kaffe Fasset</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, anyone?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">In addition to taming the stash, I've done something that it seems most knitters vow to do, but never quite get around to: I've begun knitting from it. Well over a year ago, I started knitting </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jarrett">Jarrett</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> with some Schachenmayr nomotta Extra that I'd gotten on sale at Wool 'n' Word. Problem being, I didn't think hard enough on the fact that changing the gauge would also change the amount of yarn I would need for the project.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Feel free to laugh.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Okay, you can stop now.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Anyway, that sat and sat and sat, unfinished, one lonely skein in the bag with the project, waiting for partners to finish the sweater with. Partners I could never find, at least not in the color I needed. So Jarrett, too, eventually hit the frog pond.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Then I discovered </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.kategilbert.com/p_arwen.html">A Cardigan For Arwen</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Again, not something that's supposed to be knit in sport weight, but I have a couple plans for modifying the pattern which </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >ought </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">to mean I'll wind up having enough yarn to finish. Until I get to the bits with cables, this will be my mindless knitting. 18.75" of stockinette for the back! That'll get me through a lot of summer DVDs (Monk, anyone?) and summer reading! I'm sure it'll also prove extremely useful when my mom and I go on vacation next week. Yey oceanside knitting!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Off I go to track down some food and read more about the lives of Captain Bluebear. If you're looking for some interesting summer reading, Walter Moers rocks!</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: hungry<br />Music: Almost Awake - Third Street</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-67583082749928220972008-06-25T17:38:00.002-04:002008-06-25T17:49:38.723-04:00The future of the blog...and socks<span style="font-family: verdana;">It occurs to me that I ought to get more involved in this blog. I read plenty of other knitting blogs, and they're full of neat stories, amusing witticisms, and useful information. What do I do? Post pictures of knitting. Woo-hoo.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now the core purpose of a knitting blog is, of course, knitting. Pictures of knitting, discussions of knitting, that cool things found on Ravelry, etc. But I've also discovered that, through knitting blogs, I've begun to get to "know" people in the online knitting community, great people whose existence I might never have known about otherwise. I see their knitting, but their blogs also offer little windows into their lives. What's up with their families, what cool things they've been doing and attending, what sort of knitting/spinning/dyeing techniques they prefer or have been trying...I learn it all through their blogs, and I'm happy to have those glimpses.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">What do I post? Pictures of knitting.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think it's time that changed. It has been changing at bit over the past few posts, what with my waxing lyrical about Elizabeth Zimmermann and talking about what books I've been reading to teach myself things. But I'm not sure that I've posted anything here that allows a potential reader to really "know" me. (Do I even have any readers? I wonder this at times!)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">So, I vow to post more interesting non-knitting things along with the knitting things. I shall strive to babble occasionally about things that are happening in my life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But, for starters...here's a picture of knitting:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/monkeysocks1.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Monkey socks are done! I steam blocked them today and the lace opened up a bit and stopped trying to fold the socks into a 4-cornered flower shape. Great pattern. I'd definitely knit these again!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: introspective & caffeinated<br />Music: The Frames - Finally</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-17145120412871933122008-06-13T22:23:00.001-04:002008-06-13T22:53:19.905-04:00Just about everything from the past few weeks<span style="font-family: verdana;">I've finally read my first Elizabeth Zimmermann book. I know, I know what all you seasoned knitters are thinking. "You've been knitting since 2004, and you're </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">just now</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> trying Zimmermann?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'll admit it, I'm Miss Modern, who started with the Yarn Harlot and am working my way back as far as humorous, opinionated knitting books go, but I do have a slight defense. Only slight. About a year ago, I got another EZ book out of the library, and was simply too overwhelmed by my schedule to have time to read it. (Okay, for all I remember, I could have been wasting time making Desmond icons, but the point </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">is</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">, I </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">did</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> get my hands on an EZ book before now.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The book is </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Knitting Without Tears</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and I find the iconic EZ to be rather astounding. It seems to me that the casual way she approached knitting, and the problems that may arise while working on a knitted piece, would scare the heck out of a lot of modern knitters, and possibly modern knitting book authors. There are so many books out there on new techniques, old techniques, traditional techniques, and what to do when they all fail you; but Zimmermann simply took it all in stride. Not enough yarn? Do a little stash diving and add a border. Completely genius, something you'd think we would occur to all of us, and yet...well, I know </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">I</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> don't approach knitting that way. Clearly, in EZ terms, I am far too much of a perfectionist.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.knitpicks.com/phoebe%20pullover%20pattern_PD50526220.html?">Phoebe Pullover</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is based on the seamless saddle shoulder sweater that EZ presents in this particular book. After having worked on the pattern for a while, seeing the casual way the construction is presented is extremely liberating. I'm finding myself dreaming up the beginnings of designs for yarns that have been sitting in the stash, just waiting to be used.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Speaking of, after venturing into my closet to grab a few things, I came to the conclusion that the stash and I need to have a little talk. A serious talk. A "this gigantic bag of yarn needs to become a much smaller bag of yarn before any more yarn is purchased" kind of talk. The irony of this is that I just bought </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">more</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> yarn in the form of a </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://knitpicks.com/Sea+View+Lace+Sampler_AD40052.html">KnitPicks lace sampler</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. (I have a feeling that all knitters experience this irony at some point, or perhaps constantly.) But now I think it's time to reign it in, both for the sake of my budget and the sake of my closet.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yes, it's time for...the dreaded yarn diet. We'll see how well that works.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now let's see. As far as catch-up goes, I think I'll start with the spinning. A couple of weeks ago, I finally pulled out the BFL roving:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 607px; height: 199px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0444.jpg" /><br /><br /><img style="width: 607px; height: 177px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0448.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Rufus Lupus colorway, from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.sakinaneedles.com/">SakinaNeedles</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I wanted to try doing some low-twist singles, something I've been a bit too chicken to try in the past. So, I did a little Google-fu and scared up a decent tutorial. Despite clear instruction, though, I found that the technique involved was a bit like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. The differences in speed between treadling and feeding the fiber in are going to take some time to master.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nevertheless, I'm not unhappy with the results.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/rufuslupussingles.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I had a </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTbsjohnson.html">hat</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> in mind for these, but I'm not sure there's enough. I'll get to swatching eventually to see if it's even appropriate yarn for the project.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">As for knitting...a while back, I told myself that I had to clean up my small collection of UFOs. For someone who started out knitting only one thing at a time, diligently finishing each project before casting on another, having four unfinished projects on the needles was starting to feel a bit overwhelming. I promised myself that startitis wouldn't take over until all my needles were empty.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">That went well, at first. I finished the socks with the Trekking XXL I got in PA. I finished the socks with the Kool-Aid dyed handspun. Then, I happily attacked the Phoebe Pullover once again.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And encountered the cruelest irony ever.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/unfinishedphoebe.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">That sad sight is a sweater one ball short of being finished. That is a sweater for which I, the knitter who </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">always </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">has an extra ball of yarn left over, somehow managed to under-buy. That is a sweater that is laughing to itself as it sits stowed under the futon, awaiting one last ball of navy Andean Silk. It has blown a big raspberry at both my yarn diet and my spirited attempt to whiz through my UFOs. Oddly...I don't resent it. I'm more annoyed at the USPS for taking so long with one itty-bitty package. (Of course, I didn't just order </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">one</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> ball of yarn. I tossed the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Knitting-Whether-Wanted/dp/1603420622/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213411325&sr=8-1">Yarn Harlot's latest book</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> in the cart, too, to make it worth my while.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is, of course, only one thing to do while waiting, and that is succumb to startitis.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/monkeysock1.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">First in a pair of </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter06/PATTmonkey.html">Monkey</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> socks. I've had my eye on this pattern for a while, and it didn't take me long to see why so many people knit it. It has enough variation to be interesting, but is quick and easy enough to suspend with any lace-related frustration. The repeat is short enough to be jotted in a small notebook and carried anywhere. I whipped through an entire repeat during a car ride back from the bookstore yesterday.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The yarn is Plymoth Happy Feet that I picked up at </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.woolnword.com/">Stephanie's</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> a few weeks ago. The picture I snapped of the swatch gives a better representation of the colors:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/GEDC0456.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I really like the subtle variation. It adds visual interest without detracting from the lace pattern.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">That's it for now! I'm all caught up. Remember that tomorrow is WWKIP (World-Wide Knit In Public) Day! I'm heading over to Stephanie's to sit, knit, and enjoy the gorgeous lack of humidity. Perhaps there will be pictures, if I can remember my camera.</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-22878016395618985062008-05-25T22:37:00.002-04:002008-05-25T23:24:58.564-04:00Colorful?<span style="font-family: verdana;">I like colors. My wardrobe may offer examples to the contrary, as it is predominantly black, but there are several things I like colors in:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Socks. I'm a sucker for self-striping sock yarn (in case this wasn't obvious).</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Nature. I've lived in a rural area all my life, and every year I am struck by how vibrant spring and summer can be. Trees, flowers, birds, fresh produce...it's all beautiful, and I look forward to all of it no matter how many times I've seen it before.</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">-- Guitars, particularly </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-Les-Paul-Standard-60s-Neck-Electric-Guitar?sku=517188">Gibson</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. 'Nuff said.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite this, I've never been very enthusiastic about experimenting or playing with color. I always felt that I didn't have an eye for it, a belief that the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://northeastyarnho.blogspot.com/2007/11/but-it-looked-so-pretty-on-website.html">Circus Sweater</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> drove home rather painfully. Lately, though, my thoughts have been turning to serious dye projects. Experimenting with Kool-Aid is great, but I want to be able to have more control over my dyes. I want more vibrant colors, in something that isn't going to leave my yarn smelling like lemonade and fruit punch. I want...a dye studio.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I know a have a lot to learn before a studio setting could pay off for me, so I've been doing the logical thing: reading up on dyeing and color! I recently perused several such books, including Deb Menz's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Color-Spinning-Deb-Menz/dp/1931499829/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211771508&sr=8-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Color In Spinning</span></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, Linda Labelle's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307352536/ref=s9subs_c2_at3-2871_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0J2ZGXM5YAYFK0MV4S60&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240301&pf_rd_i=507846"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Yarn Lover's Guide to Hand Dyeing</span></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and, most recently, Elaine Eskesen's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0892726679/ref=s9subs_c2_at1-2871_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0J2ZGXM5YAYFK0MV4S60&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240301&pf_rd_i=507846"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dyeing to Knit</span></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I found the latter two especially to be great sources of inspiration. I've learned a lot about the color wheel that I never managed to pick up on before, and tonight I did some experimenting:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/colordesign.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I had to darken the image a bit to make the colors stand out properly. It's still not exact, but it's close to the way the design looks in real life. It's in a book of black-and-white, color-them-yourself line designs I got when I was much younger, and I colored it in while referencing a small color wheel in </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Dyeing to Knit</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I even laid the crayon colors out to correspond to the wheel, so the right colors would be easily within reach. I tried some work with complementary colors, color triads, and color harmonies. I think it came out good! I'd like to do a few more, both referencing the color wheel and freehand.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm finding some of the information hard to retain, probably because I've never been artsy in that sort of way, but I'm liking what I'm learning. It's fulfilling to feel like I'm finally getting in touch with a side of my creativity that was previously closed off. I'm beginning to feel a little more adventurous where color is concerned, and I think that's the first step towards being able to do the dyeing that I want to do in the near future. I have colorways in my head, inspired by everything from movies to books to RPG characters. I want to continue learning as much as I can in regards to color and dye techniques so that I can make these ideas a reality.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Also, I have discovered the work of Kaffe Fassett. Talk about delightfully insane...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: tired & distracted<br />Music: Left Bank - Just Walk Away, Renee</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-70468709174397609262008-05-20T14:07:00.003-04:002008-05-20T14:58:27.103-04:00The computer and the blog both need attention<span style="font-family:verdana;">Here I am, playing catch-up again. I was doing so well for a while there! I definitely need to get back into the blog groove.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">My laptop has started sneezing on me every time I try to scroll through a large amount of files that are also of large size. Read: Explorer crashes. This is decidedly annoying, especially since I don't know what's causing it. It's making it quite hard to transfer large files between the desktop and the laptop. For now, I'm defragging the hard drive and letting Avast AntiVirus do its thing to make sure all's well on the software front. I'd forgotten just how long defragging takes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">While all of that is going on, and </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.pandora.com/">Pandora</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> serenading me in the background, I'm going to bring this blog up to speed!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">First off, the spinning:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 495px; height: 158px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/tiedyeyarn.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">This is one skein (approximately half) of the merino I spun </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://northeastyarnho.blogspot.com/2008/04/patience-has-her-perfect-work.html">a while back</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Before I started some socks with it, I decided to do a little dyeing experiment. No pictures from that, but it involved five jars, some Kool-Aid, and a bit of steam! The colors didn't turn out as vivid as I wanted, but the result was a yarn with a somewhat tie-dyed appearance, so overall it was a good result.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The first sock, done toe-up to maximize yarn usage:</span><br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/handspunsockone.jpg" style="width: 270px; height: 230px; float: left; margin-right: 5px; font-family: verdana;" /><span style="font-family:verdana;"> The ball of yarn next to my foot recently became the start of sock #2.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The yarn has more variation in thickness than I thought, and far too much twist in places, but it's knitting up fairly well. I may have to block the socks when all's said and done. It's a learning experience. As I knit, I find myself thinking about things I've read regarding spinning, and considering how to apply them in future spinning ventures. In my experience, this sort of learning takes a little longer and incorporates more trial-and-error than being taught in, say, a class setting, but it works just as well. I'm really enjoying learning new techniques and how to improve what I'm already doing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Remember the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://northeastyarnho.blogspot.com/2008/04/twisty-tales.html">Eastside Weavers roving</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">? Here's what it became:</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 378px; height: 186px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/il_430xN26601033.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Thick-thin yarn, predominantly purple, of all things. I didn't realize just how much purple was in the color scheme until I started predrafting and spinning the roving. This led me to think (don't laugh) of Barney, of all things. Which, in turn, led me to think of the Garfield & Friends parody of Barney, Sidney the Pink Dinosaur (Season 7, "The Beast From Beyond"). Which is why this yarn is called "Sidney".</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Okay, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >now</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> you can laugh.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">This yarn is available for purchase at my Etsy shop, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://northeastknits.etsy.com/">The Casimir Sheep</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (formerly Northeast Knits).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, the knitting! Excuse the crappy webcam pics; I don't currently have my good camera on me.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 225px; height: 307px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/Picture11.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I knit the majority of this pair while watching </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Lost</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> and </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >House</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">, and got a bit more work in while reading extremely long discussion board threads on Ravelry and fighting the Morphing Bacterial Infection of Doom.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The yarn is Trekking XXL that I picked up on that road trip to Pennsylvania, colorway 312. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">As you can see, I made no attempt to make them match.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 215px; height: 310px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/Picture1.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">First picture of the elusive Phoebe Pullover! This is sleeve #1, attempt #3. The pattern isn't difficult, but it requires more concentration than a lot of what I've been knitting recently (read: socks). My brain keeps trying to convince me that it's mindless, really it is, and I believe it until I find myself three-quarters of the way through a round and realize that I have no idea what stitch I just did, or if it was the right one. I'll have to keep re-training myself to pay attention, I guess!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">With the exception of what's on the drop spindle at the moment, that's it! Catching up has been achieved. I can only imagine the chaos that's going to bloom around here when I start on my next endeavor: stash reduction...</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: cold<br />Music: Jim Croce - Dreamin' Again</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-35553249105590975332008-04-30T17:11:00.002-04:002008-04-30T17:49:54.639-04:00Twisty tales<span style="font-family: verdana;">Oh hai, I've been spinning again.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I can tell you're not surprised.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">On Saturday, my mom and I ventured to a small fiber arts/craft fair and sale in Clifton Park. The main thing I had my eye out for was a drop spindle, and sure enough</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 420px; height: 223px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/dropspindle.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">that's what I walked away with. The spindle is from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.millpointemporium.com/">Millpoint Emporium</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and the fiber I'm spinning was from the table </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.eastsideweavers.com/">Eastside Weavers</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> had set up. I also got this</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 493px; height: 218px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/earthtone.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">from their table, and can't wait to spin it. I'm not usually one for purple, but I thought the overall effect of the colorway was very earthy and pretty. As you can see, I've already isolated the color repeats and am storing the fiber like that so it'll be ready when I am.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I really enjoyed the Millpoint Emporium table. I wish I'd been able to afford more! Among their other beautiful products, they had </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://store.millpointemporium.com/product.php?xProd=8&xSec=1&jssCart=567b8e980c308990ccbd9bd825fe989b">hand-turned nostpindes</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, as well as some lovely </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://store.millpointemporium.com/product.php?xProd=42&xSec=4">niddy-noddies</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I could easily have bought half the contents of the table!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">As it is, I'm loving the drop spindle. It's done its share of dropping, due to my being rather clumsy with the process, but I'm getting better! I've spun a fair amount of the black/red/blue fiber these past few days, mostly while watching the 50th Anniversary Collection of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Perry Mason</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">. (Incidentally, I thought I'd take a look yesterday and see if anyone writes Perry Mason fanfiction. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.fanfiction.net/tv/Perry_Mason/">Apparently so</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">! Most of it is Perry/Della. How cute is that?)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And...it's starting. I barely have room for my yarn stash, and yet I've begun to amass a fiber stash.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 257px; height: 220px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/exparrot.jpg" /><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><img style="width: 230px; height: 220px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/rufus.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Meet Ex-Parrot (100% Corriedale), and Rufus Lupus (100% Bluefaced Leicester), both from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.sakinaneedles.com/">SakinaNeedles</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I ordered these for two reasons. One, I like the colors, especially in Ex-Parrot. Two, both of them have, either in the name of the colorway or in the product description, references to British humor.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ex-Parrot:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">"For some reason, all the "weird" kids in my grade at school took Latin instead of Spanish or French. While we were all sitting around one day before class, we realized that with everyone having memorized their favorite scene, and everyone having different favorite scenes, our Latin class could collectively quote our way through the entire script of Monty Python and the Holy Grail."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rufus Lupus (this is from the merino version of the colorway, which I looked at first):</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">"My mom claims that I'm turning away customers with names like this because not everyone reads Latin. But I have faith in you. Most of you might not read Latin, and most of you may not have even read Thomas Hobbes, but I have noticed a distinct tendency among spinners to like Terry Pratchett."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">If Rufus Lupus is still available in 2009, I'm totally bringing some to the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.nadwcon.org/">North American Discworld Convention</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and spinning it while walking around. Stop looking at me like that; the idea wasn't the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">only</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> reason I had for buying a drop spindle.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Seriously, it wasn't. Stop staring.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In addition to all this fiber acquisition, I've been reading up on hand-dyeing, both yarn and roving, in books like Deb Menz's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Color-Spinning-Deb-Menz/dp/1931499829/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209591925&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Color In Spinning</span></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Plus, I'm still working on the Phoebe Pullover, and have cast on a new sock to knit while watching things like Lost and House. How one pair of socks is going to last me until the end of the season for both shows is beyond me. I may have to cast on another before finale time rolls around!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">No wonder I want to spend all my time doing fiber-arts-y things rather than working. I need to put some more thought into how badly I want to pursue the possibility of making fiber arts a paying gig.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Is that nuts? >.></span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br />Mood: full o' ennui<br />Music: CCR - Who'll Stop the Rain</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-68080384675362409802008-04-25T21:40:00.003-04:002008-04-25T22:15:20.951-04:00Patience has her perfect work<span style="font-family: verdana;">Yep, more spinning talk!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/naturalmerinosingles.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">These are singles spun from just shy of 5 oz. of merino that I picked up on a recent road trip to Pennsylvania. My mom and I were driving along 202 on our way to Blue Bell, and came upon </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://twistknittingandspinning.com/">Twist Knitting & Spinning</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Seeing as we haven't ventured into PA since I was extremely young, and I'm a sucker for any LYS wherever we happen to be, we stopped and took a look around.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">It's a really cute shop. They have a lot of well-known names in yarn, including hand-dyed/handpainted, as well as a diverse selection of fiber. I had the pleasure of sticking my hand in a bag of 100% cashmere, which was, unfortunately, far beyond my budget. There was also merino, angora, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">camel</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and all manner of blends! I settled on the merino, it being both reasonably priced and amazingly soft.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">It took me nine days of diligent spinning to get it all done. I spun the singles very thin, with sock yarn in mind, and Navajo plied them.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/pliedmerino.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then, with the help of a postal scale, I split the yarn into two skeins, roughly 2.5 oz/each.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/pliedskeinedmerino.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I haven't swatched yet, but I </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">think</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I managed to get sock yarn, or very close! I don't know how much it amounts to, yardage-wise. I really need to invest in a yardage counter, or something of the like.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Though it's very pretty as is, I'd like to dye both skeins at some point. Problem is, I've put so much work into them, that the blue and yellow Kool-Aid I bought yesterday somehow doesn't seem like it will do them justice. I'm pondering making concentrated dyes and hand-painting the yarn blue, yellow, and green, but I'm not sure. Having spent 30+ hours spinning and plying this, I don't want to ruin it with a bad or substandard dye job.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have, however, been practicing dyeing techniques!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/handpainted.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I had some KnitPicks' Bare Peruvian wool left over from making Inishmore, so I skeined it up yesterday and goofed off a bit with Kool-Aid and food coloring.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">My original intention was to make a colorway with blue, black, red, yellow, and orange. A shortage of red food coloring and a miscalculation in color mixing had me end up with the blue, rose-pink, yellow, and brown in the picture. Despite the difference from what I was picturing, I like it! It's kind of psychedelic. I don't know what I'll do with it, but I'm thinking it'll become a hat for a baby and/or small child.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In case you're wondering, I hand-painted using concentrated Kool-Aid/food coloring dyes mixed up with water and a teeny bit of food coloring. Being unable to locate the sponge brushes I know I have, I ended up cutting a bit off an old sponge, cutting the end at an angle, and using that to dab the dye on. It worked quite well! Then I wrapped the whole thing up and steamed it for about 45 minutes in a strainer suspended over a stainless-steel pot. One thing I learned during the whole process is that I definitely need to hit the discount and thrift stores and get myself a full set of dyeing equipment.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the near future, I would like to embark on adventures in dyeing with something like Jacquard acid dyes. Perhaps I'll get some practice in with that before I try to dye the merino. I know I want to do some more reading on the subject, especially on making </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Yarns-Dye-Creating-Self-Patterning-Knitting/dp/1931499810/ref=pd_sim_b_title_3">self-striping yarn</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Tomorrow, I'm off to a local fiber arts and crafts fair. I think the world of fiber arts has truly eaten my brain, and I'm not upset about that in the least.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: tired<br />Music: Michael Nesmith - Rio</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-64927151308586193862008-04-15T20:32:00.003-04:002008-04-15T21:05:35.198-04:00I can has handspun?<span style="font-family: verdana;">Yes, I can has handspun!</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/multicolorskein.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The picture's a little blurry, but the color is fairly true to life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">This psychedelic yarn started out as hand-dyed wool top from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5545256">Uniquely Yours Design</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, in a colorway called Flav-Or-Flav.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 364px; height: 251px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/flav-or-flav.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The bits of red really caught my eye, and I was pleasantly surprised by the vibrancy of the colors when it came in the mail. I split it up into color repeats:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/colorrepeatsseparate.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">and split those further in order to spin stripes in succession.</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 319px; height: 202px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/singles.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The singles I made from this are the best singles I've spun to date, which makes sense, I guess, seeing as practice has a tendency to beget better results!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Speaking of, I thought about Navajo plying the singles, but decided to go for two-ply this time. I've only practiced Navajo plying once, and didn't want to risk screwing up the process and ruining this great colored wool. I went for two-ply, which resulted in the groovy, Froot-Loop-like effect in the final skein. Thusly, I'm calling it Fruit Loop! I'm not sure exactly what I'll be making out of it yet. I might just let it sit for a while and admire the colors.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I continued my adventures in color yesterday by taking the time to do some dyeing in the kitchen. A little while back, I spun the rest of the natural-colored wool into some two-ply:</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/whitehandspun2.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Still kind of slubby, but a lot more even than the first batch! I took that, along with a recipe for food coloring dye from Linda Labelle's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Yarn-Lovers-Guide-Hand-Dyeing/dp/0307352536/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208307557&sr=8-1">The Yarn Lover's Guide to Hand Dyeing</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and went to work.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was going for a teal, which turned out as a somewhat muddy green at first, so I tossed the yarn in a second dyebath that was just plain blue, and ended up with a neat ocean color.</span><br /><br /><img style="font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/oceanskein.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">If I had to give it a name, I'd call it Under The Sea. (That was always one of my favorite songs from </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">The Little Mermaid.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I mean, really, how can you resist a singing crab with a Jamaican accent?) It's destined to become a thick-and-thin garter stitch scarf. Boring as that sounds, I think it'll really show off the color, and the simple stitch won't suffer from the unevenness of the yarn.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Phoebe Pullover is still underway. But I've really been in a spinning mood lately, so I think I'll wind up posting more about that than knitting over the next couple of weeks!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: distracted<br />Music: Kate Blain - The Good Life</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21122275.post-19198900743339249872008-04-07T20:42:00.003-04:002008-04-07T21:25:39.769-04:00Felting and Fitzcarraldo<span style="font-family:verdana;">I've really got to stop with these huge gaps between knitblogging. This has become my primary hobby blog, since my interest in Lost blogging has been replaced by extensive post-episode chats, and yet here I am, finding myself in catch-up mode after another month-long gap!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">It's been a good month for knitting. I finished Inishmore, but have yet to procure a good photo of the recipient modeling it. I'm quite proud of the way it came out, and she loved like crazy. There's nothing quite like enthusiastic appreciation of a FO!</span><br /><br /><img style="width: 218px; height: 284px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/bagprefelt.jpg" /><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><img style="width: 207px; height: 284px; font-family: verdana;" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/bagpostfelt.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">In the "knitted for friends" department, I present this adorable machine-felted market bag. (Pre-felting on the left, post-felting on the right). I love making felted things, but so rarely have any use for them that I don't bother to do many felting projects.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I especially don't need bags, which is a shame, because bag projects are quick, easy, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >fun</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> knits. This particular bag only took six days from swatching to felting. A friend of mine knew exactly what sort of bag she wanted, and pointed me toward a pattern that replicated what she had in mind. The handles and bottom are stockinette, and the bag body is garter stitch in the round. The bottom is technically supposed to be all one color, but for some reason I didn't have enough black, and so had to improvise. I think it looks cute, personally!</span><br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/InfiniteNesmith/PostedStuff/primarysocksdone.jpg" style="float: left; width: 283px; height: 199px; margin-right: 5px; font-family: verdana;" /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The primary-colored socks are done, too, as predicted. They're fun socks, although one seems to be a bit too small. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to pop the kitchener stitch, unravel the toe, and knit a few more rounds before the decreases. I've done that before with other socks, but it's always a bit of a daunting prospect.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Once the socks were done, I cast on for the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://knitpicks.com/Phoebe+Pullover_PD50526220.html">Phoebe Pullover</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. I'm--gasp!--using the yarn recommended in the pattern: </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.knitpicks.com/andean%20silk%20yarn_YD5420126.html">Andean Silk</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, except I went for navy blue instead of chocolate brown. Given my small budget, it was a splurge even at the very reasonable KnitPicks price. Totally worth it. Holy crap, is this yarn yummy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The sweater interests me in several respects. The sizing is very flexible, meaning that, for once, I'll have a finished products that fits without having to make a bazillion little adjustments along the way. Also, everything is knit in the round. The body is done in the round, the sleeves are done in the round and joined to the body...everything. That means practically no seaming, which makes me a happy Sammie. Seams continue to be the bane of my knitting existence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">In between (and sometimes during) all this knitting over the past month, I consumed far too much </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://monsterenergy.com/product/locarb.php">Monster</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, co-wrote a massive Lost/Discworld crossover fanfic with a close friend of mine (more on that in future posts), and devoured several albums by the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://theframes.ie/">Frames</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">My latest love? </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Fitzcarraldo-Frames/dp/B0000251DK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1207534897&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Fitzcarraldo</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. It is an amazing album. I can't stop listening to the title track; it's six minutes of pure awesome. If you love the Frames (or Glen Hansard), try and get your hands on a copy. If you've never heard them...start here. Seriously. I'm not plugging this for any other reason than the fact that I love it to bits. There is real beauty here, and not nearly as much of the anger that crops up on later albums like </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Burn the Maps</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I'm off to knit more on the pullover and probably make myself cry re-watching "Goodbye Radar", parts 1 & 2. I love M*A*S*H.</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Mood: headachey<br />Music: The Frames - Monument</span>Northeast Yarn Hohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01052819582711841710noreply@blogger.com0