Back to the Real World
Lovely time at Family Camp, took not a single picture, however. Probably because my very best friend did not attend this year, boo-hoo!! But we still had lots of fun. Our theme this year was "keeping the Sabbath" and we tried to take time out. Now all I have to do is manage it at home. We can't really do it on Sundays as I work in the morning (church choir section leader/soloist). But Friday after school to Saturday before Brownies might work...but only if Karate class counts. 24 hours might be too difficult, but we can have a nice dinner together and have quiet time on Saturday morning.
Now I will try the current meme:
10 Knitterly (and Spinnerly) Things You Don't Know About Me
1. I like to buy vintage needles at thrift stores. I think the fact that they have been used (and sometimes bent!) by knitters before me to make things with love for others adds to the love that goes with my gifts.
2. I really dislike Intarsia. My edges never look nice enough. I much prefer fairisle and cables, even though I don't have huge amounts of experience with either. But I'm not afraid of anything!
3. I was taught to knit by the old lady across the street at about age 9 and had no success whatsoever. I didn't understand letting the yarn flow through my hands and was knitting on the tips. The square got tighter and tighter and the biggest thing I made back then was a doll blanket for a Dawn doll (about the size of a Polly Pocket for you youngsters).
4. When I was working as a legal secretary in New York, there was another secretary who knitted as well as crocheted. I had just learned to crochet and immediately became obsessive. I asked her, "Is knitting harder, or was I nine years old?" Her answer, "You were nine." And so a Knitter was born.
5. I ruined my first sweater by blocking. It was knit from Wool-Ease in black and Oatmeal and the pattern was from Vogue Knitting. It was really cute, IMO. But I blocked the ribbing out (it had ribbing all the way up the ribcage) to the full width and killed it with the steam iron. Threw it away.
6. I hate spinning white fiber. Hate it. Won't do it. The dye pot is my friend!
7. I own way too much spinning fiber and sock yarn. My linen closet is 2/3 fiber, 1/3 linens. I have three partial fleeces in the garage and a spacebag full of dyed fiber. I have three other cupboards in the house that hold exclusively fiber and yarn (and UFO's). And yet I continue to lust after and (only occasionally, but thanks, Joy!) purchase more.
8. Although I am a total color junkie, I often wear neutrals. But not my socks. My socks are almost always bright, bright, bright.
9. I have a terrible fear that my fair entry socks and yarn will never be seen again. If so, I will take is as karmic payment for getting DS back at the fair and will NEVER regret their loss. If they do come back, the gods are on my side...
10. If I could knit while I'm sleeping, I would.
If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged. But let me know so I can go over and read yours!
Pictures soon of my Socktoberfest socks from handspun, progress on Rogue (am at the back shoulders) and Navajo plying of some very old singles I'm finishing up. Then I shall spin my Spunky Club fiber for this month, which is exceedingly lovely.
Have a great day!
Now I will try the current meme:
10 Knitterly (and Spinnerly) Things You Don't Know About Me
1. I like to buy vintage needles at thrift stores. I think the fact that they have been used (and sometimes bent!) by knitters before me to make things with love for others adds to the love that goes with my gifts.
2. I really dislike Intarsia. My edges never look nice enough. I much prefer fairisle and cables, even though I don't have huge amounts of experience with either. But I'm not afraid of anything!
3. I was taught to knit by the old lady across the street at about age 9 and had no success whatsoever. I didn't understand letting the yarn flow through my hands and was knitting on the tips. The square got tighter and tighter and the biggest thing I made back then was a doll blanket for a Dawn doll (about the size of a Polly Pocket for you youngsters).
4. When I was working as a legal secretary in New York, there was another secretary who knitted as well as crocheted. I had just learned to crochet and immediately became obsessive. I asked her, "Is knitting harder, or was I nine years old?" Her answer, "You were nine." And so a Knitter was born.
5. I ruined my first sweater by blocking. It was knit from Wool-Ease in black and Oatmeal and the pattern was from Vogue Knitting. It was really cute, IMO. But I blocked the ribbing out (it had ribbing all the way up the ribcage) to the full width and killed it with the steam iron. Threw it away.
6. I hate spinning white fiber. Hate it. Won't do it. The dye pot is my friend!
7. I own way too much spinning fiber and sock yarn. My linen closet is 2/3 fiber, 1/3 linens. I have three partial fleeces in the garage and a spacebag full of dyed fiber. I have three other cupboards in the house that hold exclusively fiber and yarn (and UFO's). And yet I continue to lust after and (only occasionally, but thanks, Joy!) purchase more.
8. Although I am a total color junkie, I often wear neutrals. But not my socks. My socks are almost always bright, bright, bright.
9. I have a terrible fear that my fair entry socks and yarn will never be seen again. If so, I will take is as karmic payment for getting DS back at the fair and will NEVER regret their loss. If they do come back, the gods are on my side...
10. If I could knit while I'm sleeping, I would.
If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged. But let me know so I can go over and read yours!
Pictures soon of my Socktoberfest socks from handspun, progress on Rogue (am at the back shoulders) and Navajo plying of some very old singles I'm finishing up. Then I shall spin my Spunky Club fiber for this month, which is exceedingly lovely.
Have a great day!
posted by Wendy Stackhouse at 5:23 PM
5 Comments:
Welcome home! 24 hours of sabbath is a lot... I have never been able to do it... unless you count sleeping, I mean a lot.
10 knitterly things you don't know about me? Hmmm...
1. I learned how to make an adorable lettuce edge on Friday - I wrote down the counts from a pattern which I didn't buy (so I am a lettuce edge THEIF??). Easy!
2. I dream about knitting... I think I even turn around and around as I knit my dreams...
3. I have now knit 2 Mobius Strips... One was a while ago, the other was, sadly, today - adorable lettuce edged sock for my almost 4year old neice... now I have to do it again... (darn if I didn't do the hard part before I figured it out...).
4. I often leave needles in my hair and they go flying when I do things (like kiss my girl goodnight or get ready for a shower).
5. I am thinking about doing fair isle.
6. Once I get good at things I usually stop. Do we think I will do this with knitting? I guess there is lots more to learn.
7. I'm going to teach a gal to knit sox at the ballet school! I am so excited.
8. I went to 4 new yarn stores in one day on Friday (I only bought stuff at 3).
9. I wish I could knit without looking.
10. People who mock my socks make me MAD. "Oh, you're making socks? How weird"... GRRRRRRR!
Anyhow, there you go. Mostly you know every knitterly thing about me, since you are my enabler...
xo,
Joy
Luckily, we're not talking 24 hours of doing nothing, just things that recharge you and your family, not so hard. Knitting counts!
I am also one who stops when I've learned everything (I think there is to learn; I'm sure that I am often wrong about this but whatever). But knitting just seems to go on and on...lovely!! Think, fairisle, cables, celtic cables, twisted stitches, intarsia, designing never ends.
Everyone copies down instructions from books that they're not going to buy for little techniques like that. I think. I certainly do. It's hard to buy a book for one thing. How do you do a lettuce edge? Does it involve casting on 3 times as many stitches as you need kind of stuff?
I find that the likelihood of my joining my round with a twist increases in proportion to the number of stitches in said cast on. The more stitches, the more likely. So you're right on target!
Let's have another yarn crawl soon...so I can come!
Well, as long as you can knit... then 24 hours of no rehearsalgirlscoutssportswork etc, sounds divine! Imagine how much knitting you can get done... (Which, I am finding is the silver lining to all these #$@#&(*ing Nutcracker rehearsals - enforced knitting time! Lots o Socks!)
I knit two colors in these Birthday sox, they have two round stripes on parts of them. This is my 'testing' for using multiple yarns. I am aiming for Fair Isle, I think... eventually.
Indeed, Lettuce Edge involves casting on 3 times as much as you need, knitting just two rounds and then decreasing by K3 together and then going on your merry way (which in this case was about 8 rows of K1,P1 ribbing). The cast on and 2 rows gives a nice, healthy ruffly edge, very festive and pretty. Everyone who has seen it is drawn to it. Now, casting on 3x a child's sock (about 140 tripled) is no big deal... but I shudder at casting on oh, say even a childs sweater... Three times anything but ankles or wrists is daunting! But, it's a nifty technique!
Those twisted mobius strips are demoralizing... the only 'upside' is that you know you are among friends, since I bet NOBODY has NEVER done it!
I went to 4 yarn shops on my crawl. I went to Happy Hookers Too, which was an (in my opinion) old fashioned yarn store. They had a reasonable selection of sock yarn and some fancies (banana fiber that was AWESOME... it's on hold... $20... ) and lots of basic nice stuff and some plasticy stuffs. I got the self striping red white and blue flag socky yarn there. Stitch Cafe was very artsy - all hand dyed, Noro, not a lot of sock stuff. I was tempted but bought nothing. I might go back tho. La Knitterie Pariesienne was the largest collection of yarn! Yikes, she has a lot. She didn't have that much self striping, but I did get a ball (one, only one) of the CUTEST Regia Stretch - which is what my 'birthday party' socks are being made from. Also I got some heavier striped stuff for mittens.
Then, accidentally I passed Sit & Stitch in Toluca Lake... a block from Trader Joeys. Cool store - lots of rooms to explore. I got a ball of very nice bamboo. I think it will make nice sox for ME... it's smooth, soft and oddly weighty (like the ball feels twice as heavy as a regular one, tho it's the same size).
I have found three more stores in the near valley area and someone told me about a fantastic one in Arcadia and two in Pasadena. I am probably going to go to the Arcadia one with my mom next week (she's coming) since they supposedly have a cool child's clothing store across the parking lot - and a good restuarant named Peach.
We shall crawl again soon! Although I wasn't kidding about stopping buying commercial yarn and paying you for your hand spun, it's so interesting. I LOVED that stuff at Crown Mountain farms but the yarn is back ordered. I liked every color!
Exs and Ohs...
Joy
Lots of knitting time during rehearsals would be lovely. Lucky you don't have a younger child to keep track of...but he's pretty manageable these days.
Let me tell you, everyone has done the mobius strip thing. The Yarn Harlot did it LAST WEEK and she is a goddess!
My LYS opinions: Happy Hookers is good for standard stuff. If you need a skein of black sock yarn, you're golden
Stitch Cafe has lovely stuff and they do the dyeing there. They also have some good classes but their yarn and fiber is VERY expensive.
La Knitterie Parisienne has snotty proprietors and they do not mark the prices on their yarn. 'Nuff said.
Still to be determined: Stick and Stone, stores in Pasadena, place in Monrovia.
Have you been cleaning out the sock yarns at Handmade? I was up there this morning and she was SO nice. I really like her! Plus the prices are good and she carries useful yarns. I'm going to take some handspun up there and see if she has any interest. But YOU are my first customer!
Later!
Yeah, I was a little grumped that La Knitterie Pariesienne didn't have prices - It makes it hard to count up how much your dreams cost... She (the french woman) was very distracted - she said she had just gotten a call about her son being in a car accident. She wasn't really snooty, but nor was she interested in socks. I like socks.
Stitch Cafe told me about a dying class. I almost went, but then I did not.
I adore Billie Jo/Bobbie Jo/Billie Jean, whatever her name is up there at Handmade. She is a very nice gal.
If the handspun is sock weight, can I see it first? I wasn't kidding about loving all the yarn you make. It's so beautiful!
Yesterday at ballet, I sat and knit happily. It was VERY noisy and I was in the zone, in my own little knitting world until.... I realized I had started to make gusset decreases before I turned the heel... Nice. I was three rounds into it already, la de dahing my way around when it all of a sudden looked weird. Yeah. So the sum total of the hour and a half that I sat there... one turned heel. Period. Although it was the first time I actually ripped anything back and didn't tink it back. I didn't lose any stitches (although I think I split a few... oh well...don't call the knitting police)and I made my way deeper into the gusset during Grey's Anatomy and ER.
See you at recruitment night. Can you bring that extra Brownie Pin for me please!
eckses and ohhhhs.
Joy
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