Low Cost Tips from the Lilypad #3

The last tip for keeping things inexpensive in your crafting mentioned reusing the cutouts from a cardboad light tent. Keeping in that vein I've got a quick and easy fix for people blocking swatches.

Since I only need to support three areas of the light tent I had plenty of cardboard cutouts left. In my case the size of my box was 12x12 so that left me with an approximately 10x10 square. (I've never, ever been able to cut a straight line..... even with a ruler.) In the close up picture you can see that I have pinned a swatch to the cardboard to help set the shape. Obviously this isn't going to work for really large items but it can work. I've seen some really big boxes around. I also don't like to soak my material because it takes longer to dry. Instead I choose to use a spray bottle and get the object signifantly damp on both sides. Then I shape the item and pin it to the cardboard, using the pins to get just a slight tension so the items doesnt pull back up. That may not be the way to block "officially" but its my way.

I don't know how long I will swatch yarn. I really am much more the run with whatever I have type knitter/crocheter/spinner/dyer. However, I get left over yarn all the time so I'm sort of brewing in my head what I should do with them. I'm sure it would make a great piecemill blanket or something. Until then I am very happy to know I have a quick and easy way to "perfect" my sample knits.

(A Disclaimer - this swatch was already blocked but the previous photos weren't great so I "staged" these photos.)

WIP - Baby Belle Update

I was soooo wanting to have this done by the end of the year and I totally think I could have. Only I didn't. By mid month TheBoy was getting out of school for holiday break and was the unfortunate recipient of a cold. Colds spread. Especially when you kiss little children good night before bed. So got sick and so did my husband. My lovely husband however managed to keep it together as well as the house. (I am so thankful to have such an awesome partner in life!)

What does all that have to do with my current unfinished object... a baby sweater... you say? Everything because I was so sick I couldnt think straight, which lingered through Christmas. Then by the time I was feeling better we tried to visit my parents and the car water pump exploded. No time for serious thinking and I wanted serious thought put into my first knit sweater. Plus, after being sick I totally lost my motivation for like... well... everything. So now I am getting it back.


I would say I am about a quarter of the way through the Baby Belle sweater but having never completed one its hard to guess percentages. My new goal is to complete it in the next two weeks. Okay, three weeks. I agreed to do career day at my son's school this Friday and I have to prepare so I don't embarrass my son and myself both.

Experimenting in Fiber

The last few days have been about experimenting with different things. Some techniques, some not. I love sharing the results of experiments, be they good or bad so here is a tiny glimpse into my laboratory. (Okay, no fancy lab but lots of fibers and tools sitting around looking for use.)

Knitting:

Knitting is hard enough for me without all the technical aspects creeping into my life. Sure I can knit and purl. Heck, I've even made a pair of socks... once. But cables, intarsia, entrelac... heck no. Yeah, I'll get there one day. Probably sooner rather than later to be honest but for now its a taboo knitting world once you pass Stockinette Avenue.

However, I did do a not so technical thing with knitting this past week. I took some left over yarns from an order I was working on and made swatches.



Okay... I haven't blocked them yet, but that's because I have one other yarn I intend to swatch. Once that is done I will block all three and take another photo. Not that I need another photo of yarn, spun, swatched or blocked on here. (Plus my blog seems to suffer from bad photos... my shop photos are better though not perfect... something to work on.)


My other experimental knit is based more on playing with technique and needles. It's just a simple garter stitch made with what I call my "Mugly" yarn. It's mugshot ugly. Really, its just a combination of samples and bits and bobs of handcarded fibers that I had laying around and decided to spin.


I've considered doing some coordinating fibers and spinning several more but haven't committed. For now I am working on this:


It doesn't look like much right now but when it is done it will span several types of yarn and consistencies and (as of this moment) 3 different needle sizes. The large needles I am starting with are a #19 and yes, the yarn is pretty laceweight if you ask me. (See ask me what I think, not for reality. It works best that way.) I plan to go from #19's to #13 to #10 (possibly eight for more dramatic effect... haven't decided yet.) Again, will update with pictures as we go.

Spinning:

On the spinning front, (as if you couldn't read the bold print that signifies a subject change instead of a normal and gradual verbal transition....) I was inspired by a thread on Ravelry's Fiber Prep group about gradient carding. I have seen people tackle this before but never gave it a second thought.

This time, however, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with some wool that I dyed prior to selling off my drum carder. So I broke out the handcards (at which point I wish I had just broke the handcards) and went to blending the fibers together. (Yes, I miss having a carder... and a wheel that doesn't break when I use it more than two days at a time but... that's a whole other story.)


This picture may be a bit deceiving. I was working with cheviot dyed Mulberry (Gaywool acid dye) and Cormo dyed with Baby Blue (Cushings.) On one end is an all cheviot rolag, on the other end is three all cormo rolags. In between are various combinations that should represent a gradual change. Well, let me tell you... Cheviot and Cormo do not blend well together. Period. In all actuality, I had to place the purple on one end and the blue on the other just to make it look like there was more transition then there was.

That all said.... it was a great spin! Plus, the cheviot still had a little lanolin in it and with the cold winter my hands have been super dry but not after spinning that. (Well, at least for the rest of that day.)


This is the finished yarn on the bobbin. Since I ended with the cormo you can sort of see the bits and bobs that are present in the cheviot on the left side.


The yarn itself looks lovely to me as well. I quite like the striping and difference in colors. There is just one thing, and of course my husband pointed it out. I knew it was there... I just didn't notice it as much until he said it. Cormo and cheviot have two different textures. The cheviot is not course like Scottish Blackface but its not soft like merino. The cormo is soft.. maybe softer than merino. So put the two together and its a bit of a stark contrast.

But that's it. These are the fibery things I have been exploring. What about you? What explorations are underway in your world?

My first sweater

Well, for my first post back after being AWOL I decided to show you a work in progress.



This is the Baby Belle designed by Cosette of Cosymakes. I have never ever knitted a sweater before so I am working really hard to do it right and per pattern. On that thought, I have never knitted anything to pattern before. Well, my socks, but I was walked through it week by week with the creator before I ever knew there was a written pattern. So this is really important to me. I'm even willing to frog back things if I make a mistake. (none to date that I know of though.) I must say I am quite impressed. Many people suggested that when I do my first sweater I make it a baby sweater because it will be quicker and easier and you will see the progress sooner. Boy were they correct. I can see this developing along as I knit and love it, even if the colors don't match the way I imagined they would. Don't worry, I will post more pictures when this cutey is complete.

Boy's Fleece Tie Blanket

I finally finished doing the work for my mom yesterday. I completed the fleece tie blanket for a boy. It's more for crib decor until the kid is older though. The blanket would also be good as a cover for long trips with the kids (toddler and below.) The final product is quite spiffy in my opinion, just take a look.


Also, I am pretty excited because I was working on my repurposed handspun yarn scarf tonight. This is a pretty big deal to me since I hadn't worked on it in a few months. Tonight I braved the needles though and fixed the mistake that paralyzed my progress. I picked up slipped stitches and you know what? It worked. Oh happy day. Now I can finish it sooner rather than later.

Protege and Knifty Thrifties

Yesterday I didn't get much spinning done for the September Challenge. What I did do was spend some time attempting to teach my son how to spin on a wheel. He previously tried spinning on the spindle which was moderately successful. We both tend to have short leashes on failure and frustration so the spindle went to the wayside. However, the other day he expressed an interest in learning to spin on the wheel. So yesterday we worked a little on treadling and then on trying to add the twist to the fiber. (Okay, we actually did some "drafting" but we will have to come back to that later.) At the end I had him practice his treadling some more. 30 -40 minutes was all we spent working on it but we will try again today. Short lessons are definitely best for our collective temperaments.



Outside of the yarn challenge I wanted to share my recently thrifty finds. Okay Okay... really its another eagle-eyed husband find and some books. While running some errands we stopped by the local Goodwill in town to see what type of items they had available. As we were passing by the normal section of goods my husband turned me into an aisle and said "Look, isn't that one of those knitting things?"



Sure enough he had found a Knifty Knitter Loom at the Goodwill. Even better, it was only $2 bucks, the complete loom set and came with instructions. After securing our purchase, we moseyed over to the GoodBooks Cafe to browse. I went to my normal craft and hobbies section but didn't expect anything. Usually the books in the craft section are old and not very useful but I got a great surprise this time. Two relatively recent knitting books in hand and a knifty knitty loomy thingy. Not sure what to do with the loom since I know how to knit already but I always wanted one so... there you have it. A little spinning, a little knitting, a little reading and a little thrifty adventure.


Come Join the Fiber Arts Friday Blog Fun at AlpacaFarmGirl.com.

Done and Done!

So I finally finished the hand knit blanket for my Mom's co-worker. The finally specs ended up being 90 stitches wide times 6 skeins. So instead of having vertical stripes we ended up with horizontal stripes.


This picture is from Friday night. Saturday morning I wove in the loose ends and traveled to Atlanta to take it to my mom.



Also, here is a picture with the original blanket for comparison. If I went with the original 7 skeins of yarn the blanket would have been both longer and wide. Still this is a good size for a baby blanket.



Mom also picked up the pink fleece tie blanket for her other co-worker's baby girl and commissioned a blue fleece tie for the baby boy. Whew! No more blanket knitting for a while. =D

Customer Creations - Easy123

The other day I received the best type of message on Etsy that a seller could hope for. Michele from Easy123 had purchased some yarn called "Parakeet" from which she made a beautiful scarf.
Just look at it!










Michele has lots of great items in her store so be sure to check them out!

Craft Fail

Everybody makes mistakes.... and that's what CraftFail is for. I just wrote my first post there all about my baby blanket. Read More here and be sure to leave a comment and read other peoples experiences as well.

Talk about Insane Knitting!

So I know I'm a little late posting this but its still just as interesting. With the new Coraline film out in theatres interest has been growing in this website. The owner knits detailed, miniature clothing the size that a doll would wear, perhaps smaller!

Check out the YouTube video about it:


But seriously, check out her galleries on the website. If you think accountants are detail oriented, they've got nothing on this fiber artist.

UFO's vs WIP (Part 2 UFO's : It's a funny thing really)

So, I'm back! I'm sure many of the two people who read this blog figured that I wrote a half funny post with promises of more only to fail. Well, you would be partially right. So, lets get right to it.

Unfinished objects are the inspiration of our lives and the bane of our existence. Whenever I have a UFO, it usually starts out as this wonderful idea but turns into a grueling battle of mind over matter. What was supposed to be a simple v-stitch crochet blanket sits at the bottom of my personal yarn hell. What, oh what went wrong. It had lovely colors, a rough draft in my head and the motivation to start hooking away. Or even that simple garter knit scarf (from 2 winters ago that I promised my son.... ) that's sitting in a storage tote STILL on the needles. Really, I don't have that many pairs of needles I cant have them permanently occupied.

So I'm not really sure what happened. BUT... If I pick that scarf back up and knit a row before I go to bed... does that make it a WIP? Seriously, I think I can do that every six months or so. What about if a previous UFO suddenly becomes useful in the state that it is in. Take this blanket to the left. I started this back in 2004 or 2005. I started to run out of a color and I was no longer sure where my symmetry lie. (Yes, I'm huge on symmetry. It's a terrible habit that I have to break.) I didn't know what to do because my plan was wrecked. So I did what any sane crocheter would do. I took a step back, took a deep breath and walked away for a while. Well, at least I thought it would only be a while. Fast forward three to four years and the blanket/rug or whatever it was going to be is still connected to a ball of yarn. The only difference is instead of being at the top of my finish soon list its on the "oh, I should really finish this project ... at some point in time" list.

Your probably wondering what that blanket has to do with my statement about UFO's being useful suddenly. Well, currently, that pretty purple crocheted rug blanket is used whenever I spin on the Louet S51. Since the house has hardwood floors I noticed a subtle rocking whenever I spin. (Did I mention the floors are ever so slightly uneven?) Also, the slickness of the floor allows for my treadling motion to slowly push the week backwards. However I was able to remedy this situation very easily. I simple grabbed some scissors and .... get ready.... I ... cut... the ball of yarn loose. So this left me with a few loose strings and a blanket rug just wide enough to sit under the wheel. Trust me, this comes in handy for those outdoor on the sidewalk events. No one wants to scratch up a spinning wheel.

For another metamorphosis example.... 3-4 years ago I was crocheting this huge 2 strand crochet blanket. I started out just crocheting but then stretched into the belief that I wanted a bed size crocheted blanket. This my friends, was the beginning of the end. I ran out of yarn and was destined to buy more from my dreaded local Walmart. I found my color, purchased another 2 skeins of Red Heart and retreated back to the luxury of my abode. Then I finished up the previous skeins and started in on my join. To my horror these colors were nothing alike. I was so naive, so young and reckless and it ruined another good project. This was tragic and so the blanket was "put away" until I could find a subtle color to border the blanket. As of last week, this blanket is sitting on my son's full sized bed. I had made him one when he was younger but he outgrew it. My husband figures it will keep him warm and be a mommy reminder when he lays down for bed.

So is my wheel rug any less a finished product just because I didn't weave in the joined yarns? No, its being put to use. Any time something is being put to use and not sitting in a basket of unfinished objects they become finished objects. Sure I can pretty it up if I want... or pick it up later and re-envision the project all together. These are just examples to show how subjective it really is to say something is unfinished. I know that the blanket on my son's bed has a few loose strings but that doesn't make him love it any less.

In the end, that's the real funny thing about an "unfinished" object. They become finished objects when you decide they are.

Blankets, Cookies and Cards

Whew! That baby blanket was one UFO that was quickly becoming a PITA. (uhh, use your imagination.) Now that I have finished that little project I can go back to working on other things, like blog posts. Unfortunately, part two of the war of acronyms will have to continue some time this weekend. Only because the rest of the night and tomorrow is preparing for our son's birthday party on Saturday. Preparing really means unpacking the boxes that stayed in the corner for the last three months because they should have never made it to the house. Plus we have to buy all the party goods tomorrow when I get off from work. Fun Fun Fun!

So on to more fiber related news. Here is the blanket all wet down and blocked to rectangular. I'm a little afraid it will be too small for a baby.


Here's hoping the baby is not ginormous. When I crochet blankets that is usually about how big they turn out. Its probably just nervousness over the size of the knit project.

Now, in non-fiber related news:
I denied my sweet tooth 24 hours of the best peanut butter cookies I have had in a while. I did it all so that I could take pictures for this post. See, just about two weeks ago I got a taste for peanut butter cookies. The only problem is that it couldn't be just any old peanut butter cookie, it had to be that peanut butter cookie. I wanted a cookie with peanuts and big chunks of peanut butter morsels. I wasnt looking for macadamia nuts or those tiny tollhouse morsels and I certainly wasnt looking to bake for myself. (It's been a long time and we have a heater for a stove at the moment.)
Imagine my surprise when I meet Just Bakin' in the Etsy chat room. In the past I never seriously considered buying food from Etsy sellers. Nothing against the sellers but getting my food in the mail was not appealing. The only other item that tempted me was a caramel apple cheesecake but it was local pickup only and I don't live in Alabama.
So I started up a conversation in the chat room asking all the questions. What do you know, this seller can make cookies to custom. Better yet, she made them to my specifications and that makes me extremely happy. I was so happy that even though my husband and I were about to head out to rum errands Wednesday, when the mailman showed up I had to wait. I saw him scanning the package and I didnt want my cookies sitting in no leaky mailbox. Well it turns out he was taking it to the front door. (Now mind you, he watched us come out the door but on his way back out he says... "Oh, y'all live here?" Idiot.)
The presentation on the package was outstanding and she even threw in a sample of chocolate chip cookies. I like the cookies best when they are heated for about 10 seconds but they were definitely good either way.

Last but not least in my guilty indulgences. Really guilty indulgences. Since I don't have money to spend on Etsy it is amazing for me to make two purchases in one weeks time. My second purchase was from hdawnparratt.
This was totally another chat inspired purchase which may only prove to my husband that I am wasting time AND money in the chat rooms. The sea otter card was too adorable and the frog card was the icing on the handmade card cake. The inside is blank but I have no intention of mailing these. I want to find a complementary frame or matboard and hang it on the wall.

So, that's it for the night. I finished the blanket, I bought some goods that I loved and I have a birthday party to prep for this weekend. (Which is scary since it will be the first time my parents and my husbands parents have meet in a nonformal setting. In fact, his mom was the only one at the wedding so it will be the first time his dad has meet either of my parents. Yea, this is getting scary....)

UFO's versus WIP (Part 1)

So a question came to mind and I decided that I wanted to explore the difference between Unfinished Objects (UFO's) and Works in Progress (WIP.) Sorry my alien geek friends, this is totally a crafting post.

So the first thing I did was Google "UFO versus WIP" which had a surprising amount of entries.... only five of which were not omitted due to repetition. Also because I used quotes, none of them had anything to do with an Unidentified Flying Object. Though I often think that is what my UFO's will become as I fling them across the room instead of working on them. So I was thinking before giving my very objective and yet incredibly subjective opinion on this I would go with the technical aspect first. (This is for our none knitting friends, its like having the IT guy explain the inside of a computer.)

First is the WIP. WIP stands for Work in Progress. I have no knowledge of a predetermined definition for this so I will make one up. A Work in Progress (WIP, must remember our acronyms they come in handy later) is a project that is being worked on at a steady pace during the current point in time. I didn't want to exclude other artists or crafters so that is the general description.
For knitters (and crocheters) a work in progress is that arm wrist, sweater, pajama pants, baby blanket or tunic vest that is currently on the needles/hooks. Yes there can be, and most often are more than one WIP. For the multitasker in all of us that's not usually a problem. (Unless your me and be happy your not.)

However, there is a very important part missing that makes this a Work IN PROGRESS. That project on the needles has to be making a forward motion toward completion at a steady pace and during the current point in time. Simply put, next week that vest or sweater or hat really should be a bit more complete then it was at this exact moment. Even if its only a row, its a little more done and closer to making you or someone else extremely happy. That is current point in time. Now when you have made another row by the week after next, then you are setting a steady pace.

But wait, I am not unreasonable. I know that sometimes a yarn just calls out and you have to put aside that project that you were working on. The project is so great and so gratifying that you find that you have completed the whole thing without working on your lonely ol' hat. Perhaps you knit or crochet for a living and your suddenly bombarded with a rush of orders for Warm Fuzzy Christmas gifts and its several weeks (3-4 not 52) before you have a chance to even look in the direction of that lonely ol' project... hat... blanket... whatever. Does that suddenly mean that the project has slipped into the despair of an unfinished object?

Of course not, we're flexible people and this is subjective. Remember?

Speaking of WIP.. this post is about to become a two parter so I can work on a certain baby blanket. So tomorrow, or later on tonight "Part 2: UFO's - It's a funny thing really." Oh, and to break up the post a bit I included some pictures of some old WIP's or in progress shots.
So, come back okay?

Soft and Squishy

The last few days I have been working on a baby blanket for a co-worker. I was recommended for the job through word of mouth. I don't actually knit terribly fast but I accepted the work anyway. It's awful funny that I never said how much this was going to cost and she never asked. Not really expecting it to turn out very good in that respect.


The blanket is a knit stitch on size 11, 14 inch straight needles. The LYS owner prefers circulars but I wasn't in budget for that. Really, I wasn't in budget for any of it but I never said that the lady had to buy the yarn before I would start. That doesn't really make sense anyway, she wouldn't know what to get. Also, she was letting me pick the yarn because she is just ready for the grand baby to get here. I got to choose the colors as long as it was neutral to the normal color associations. No pink, no blue, no purple.

This project is so soft and squishy that I hate having to sell it. It is made with Plymouth Yarns "Heaven" which is a 100% nylon yarn. Not inexpensive, just not wool. What I do hate so far is that of the two full skeins I have knit through (total of 5 skeins but I am working on my third now) there have been knots in the last fourth of both skeins. I know that the company wants to minimize waste but when you pay $5/skein for something like 50-75 yards you expect something better. I have Red Heart, I expect that from Red Heart. I do not expect it from the higher end yarns. Blah!

Overall this is an enjoyable and easy project. However, from the last 5-6 years spent as a desk jockey in corporate America, I can't make more than a row before my hand starts to fall asleep. If I try for a second row my hand becomes painfully numb and lacking of proper nerve sensation. So much for ergonomics. I don't even like the corporate peon job, especially since it manages to make what I do like extremely difficult. Great, just great. On the other hand, no pun intended, before I go nutty and quit this job I plan to have my workers comp claim finished out. Preferably where I would never have to file a claim again (third times a charm?)

New Handmade Crafting Site

Hey, I was introduced to this great little crafting site called Art Fire. Its new and in the works and looks to have a lot of potential. There were a lot of other sites that cropped up after Etsy made it "big" but this is the first one that I had a good feeling about. I have even gone the paid membership route because it was a good deal and I didn't want to miss it.
My store will be located at here.

In other more exciting news. I have gotten a new camera! I would take a picture of the new camera with the old camera but my son has somewhat co-opted it for his own picture taking purposes.

Also, I am in the process (or have completed) a trade in which I will no longer have a drum carder but in its place I will own an Ashford Country. Woo! First real (i.e.- wooden) wheel.
Currently in the way of projects: I have started a commissioned blanket knit with Heaven yarn from my LYS. Its so soft and made from nylon. This is for a baby blanket for someones 4th grandbaby! I hope it comes out well. I will upload pictures as soon as I get used to my camera. It's just a bit different taking pictures with this. I don't know all of the idiosyncrasies that come with using a camera for six years.

Now, moving forward I am going to make a strong effort to get back on track. My mom once said a cluttered house is a sign of a cluttered mind. Seriously, you don't want to know what my house looks like (even on a good day.) =D

Check out that new site, I really think it will be worth it. Yea, its in "BETA" but if they stay the course they really will have something going.

Success!

In what I would like to call an amazing feat... i.e a miracle... I finished with my knit hat. There was even plenty of yarn to spare. The reason there was plenty of yarn was due to the fact that I made the hat a wee bit to small for my head. Well, unless I like a snug beanie. I'm overall happy with the hat just sad that I can't wear it.

On the other hand, I have to count my triumphs.
(I like lists.)

1. First hat

2. First hat, using no pattern

3. First time decreasing the crown of a hat (yay for internet!)

4. First attempt with DPN's (and successful too!)

5. First (and potentially only) knit project finished in less than a week. (3- 4 days depending on if you include the start day or count forward from it.

So, just off the top of my head five good things for one bad. And I suppose its not all bad since my son was very excited about his new hat that his mom made for him. In fact, as I was on my way out the door to work he said, "Oh you finished your... I mean MY... hat." To which the only proper reply is that it is indeed MY hat, its just to small for me so "I am letting you wear it." Now I know why my mom used to say she could never have anything of her own. =P
(Apparently he didn't take it off all day.)

When I get some extra money I am hoping that I might commission a remake of that color scheme from the seller. I know it wont be quite the same "dyelot" but I figured with what I have left in yarn and another four ounces in roving to spin I could make an adult size hat to match. TheBoy would be over the moon if we had matching hats and TheMister probably couldn't stand to be around us all that much. Too bad for him.

Taking a break between the madness

Granted this little break has stretched about 3-4 days but after all that moving I really was starting to tense up. So, as a little stress relaxer and treat (once I made it past the frustrating part) I finished spinning the roving I purchased from Julie Spins. Now I am attempting to free hand knit my first hat on a pair of circular needles. That's right, no pattern. I am just armed with my basic skills of knit and purl. I laugh in the face of common sense! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!


Okay, now that I have gotten past the madness I will get to the specifics. The first picture is the finished yarn spun into a 2 ply. I didn't bother to set the twist because I wanted to start knitting before I changed my mind.

Ohh, and this second picture is me daring to attempt a little pattern, some ribbing even.

Finally, here is my new craft area. Craft area and other stuff at the moment as we are still surrounded by packed boxes. Besides this is more like a storage area for the crafts I have. I just have to deconstruct, pick something out of a storage bin and take it in to another room to spin or knit or crochet. Yep, its much much (much) smaller than the space I was occupying at the apartment but its probably for the best at the moment anyway. Still, having a yard is a fringe benefit of renting this house that I'm totally going to take advantage of. (i.e. - Dyeing and Drying!)

Handspun Undone.. kinda

Just recently I finished spinning up some commercial Wool/Soysilk Blend. I was very excited about it because I it felt like it was taking forever to spin. I was impressed with how much yarn was produced. Okay, I don't know what the yardage is yet but I think its a fair amount. I was planning on using the yarn to knit the Morning Surf scarf on the cover of the recent Spin-off thinking how I wanted it to be relatively lacy. But then I chickened out as I often do when it comes to knitting something thats not simple knit purl knit purl. So I went online to find another pattern and picked this. Its probably a little more complicated (since I dont know how to PSSO) but I think it will be perfect for this yarn. Besides, I have this month's spinning meet up and I'm going to take the pattern and have someone show me how to do it. They are such nice people in the group.

Speaking of, just this past week I set the twist on the yarn and to my disappointment the color ran. Ick! Okay, when I say ran I don't mean just a little dye. What I am talking about is the OH NO my water is no longer clear its (insert color here.) In this case my water was a dark orange color. The water wasn't hot it was luke warm. The yarn wasnt sitting in the water for hours it was there less than two minutes... not more than five, before I took it out. The only reason I took it out then was because I didnt want the color to bleed on the lighter fibers in the yarn. Seriously... disappointed. A major commercial brand should not bleed when the fibers are set. My husband commented that the water looked like Kool-Aid.


*SIGH* Okay, but its not the only thing I did this week. I spun the roving that I purchased at Knitch from Gale's Art. (She has an etsy store.) I wanted to keep the colors true so I split the roving into four long pieces and spun them with the expectation to do a two ply. That way the long repeats she created in the roving would ply against itself and make a somewhat self striping yarn with defined blocks of color. When I finished I pretty much changed my mind and decided to Navajo Ply. (See a theme here ;P) I am seriously no good at it. Every time I do a Navajo ply I end up with a very dense yarn. I believe the culprit is that I am treadling too fast on the ply. I think. I'm welcoming any opinions or advice to the contrary. Oh and when I set the twist on this fiber... Just a small light green tint in the water. Yea for well prepared fibers from small business owners!

And a quick note in unrelated (i.e. real life) news. We are finally getting some of our stuff moved into the new place. And yet again I realize two important things.... I hate packing and I hate moving. It's even worse at the moment because my husband is injured and can't lift more than 5 pounds and only on one hand. Of course this would be the optimal weekend to have these issues since the father in-law could only help us move all our big stuff like dressers, bookshelves etc on his trailer THIS weekend. That's just our kind of luck though. Bah! I can't wait til this is over.

Choosing your knitting needles

I'm not much of a knitter, really I'm quite the newbie at it. I have one short scarf and a pair of socks under my belt for the last 1 1/2 years since I was taught to knit. That's not going to stop me from touching on this subject though.

Okay, so we've established that I'm not an expert by any means. So in this case I will defer to the mass appeal of internet knowledge out there. Cause seriously, even I know that the right set of knitting needles means the difference between success and heartbreak.
So let's start at everyone's favorite, Wikipedia. The article there on knitting needles is nice and relatively simple. The good thing about Wikipedia is that it's user created so the article is most likely to be written and edited by people who know what they are talking about. The bad thing about Wikipedia is that it is user created so sometimes (beside the obvious intentional edits by bad seeds) the terms can be a bit too technical. That or I'm an extremely lazy learner... the verdict is still out on that one.

Okay, so maybe I need something that catches the eye a bit. You know, the kind of thing that tells you were all the important sentences start. Not that every sentence isnt important. Just that, if I want a quick browse through I know those sentences are going to provide more information then a random one in the middle of the page. Just like the eHow.com Article on "How to Pick Knitting Needles." It's short, simple has bullet points... it even list the difficulty as Moderately Easy. I think that was being very generous.
So, maybe you want something more indepth then EHow.com but less then Wikipedia. Well, keeping with the theme of user-edited websites, lets combine the two and search wikiHow.com. Why not? Obviously in this age of "anyone can write on the internet" you managed to stumble across my blog, filled with my opinion/reaction/wordiness. Why not zip to another site were someone else can teach you something that you didn't even know that you needed to know until you decided to Google it one day.
But really I like wikiHow's knitting article because it uses the ancient art of the bold lettering. How many times have you skimmed over an article and not stopped at the bold print. Seriously. You have to try to miss something important about the size, diameter, length or material types. Plus if you are looking for specific information you can jump right to it. But alas, again user created and edited so how do you know if what you are reading is valid or any good? I guess you just don't unless you have been there. It's always been said that experience is the best teacher.
So for what it's worth, I would just go over to Expert Village and ask Michelle about it. Why read something for the next 5 - 10 minutes when she can tell me the same thing in under 2? Sure she is prepping us on how to pick needles to knit a scarf. You can't really blame her though since most new knitters (such as myself) always end up knitting a scarf as their first project. But hey, if a scarf wasn't your first knit object, I'd love to know what you chose and why?

June 14th - National Knit in Public Day

Today is National Knit in Public Day. I don't have any plans to knit today but I thought I would share that with those who have unfinished projects they might want to work on. Here the day is very nice. The sun is out and the weather is warm. I think a nice shaded park would be a good place to knit before noon or after 7pm only.
What I would really like to see is a National Spin in Public Day. I have never heard of one, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. I'll go Google it and see if I come up with anything. If not, maybe I could get a group of people to help spearhead the first ever SIP day. (Spin in Public... SIP... get it?)

Edit: Apparently.... its Worldwide, not National. Oh well. Knit in public anyway!
Oh... and no such luck on the Spin in Public day though I keep getting results that show that Spin-off calls the First Friday of every month "Spin in Public" day. So let's pick a day and proclaim it ours!