superwash merino, dyed by moi and spun in singles, with sparkles, and superdupercoiled.
July 10, 2006
May 14, 2006
one skein
A while ago (so long ago I barely remember doing it, actually) I signed up for the secret pal exchange Interweave put together in honor of Leigh Radford's book One Skein. I'm not much of a sweater knitter, so I'm in favor of anything that promotes little projects. Sweaters are not the pinnacle of skill or accomplishment.
Also, strangers sending me yarn? Nothing wrong with that.
My secret pal contacted me from a secret, anonymous email address, to ask me the not-so-secret questions that everyone is supposed to ask their pal.
1. Which yarn is most like your personality (you can be specific or general with your answer- brand, type, color, fiber, whatever)?
Can I be roving, or is that cheating? A merino-tussah blend, empowered to become many different yarns? Or maybe I only like to think I'm roving when I 'm actually predictable old Cascade 220.
2. What is your favorite color yarn to knit/crochet with?
Right now, teal. Averaged over time, red.
3. Have you ever used variegated, or magic, yarns?
Yes, and twice on Tuesdays.
4. Do you tend to favor certain fibers when choosing yarns?
Animal fibers, mainly. Wool, alpaca, mohair. I hardly use cotton at all. I do have a weird fondness for tencel, though.
5. Do you prefer to work with center-pull or traditionally wound balls of yarn?
I don't trust the center-pull balls you buy at a store. I end up re-winding 80% of my yarn on my winder, regardless of the put-up it's sold in. Then I pull almost everything from the center, except laceweight. That's just asking for trouble.
6. Have you ever worked with organic yarns or are you interested in trying them?
It's not the first thing I look for in a yarn, but I consider it a plus in most cases.
7. How many and what projects have you made in the last year?
I... oh... umm... that I remember right now: 6-10 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of gloves, over a dozen felted bags, 2 fishtail lace scarves, a 3/4 sleeve shrug, 2 pairs of slippers, at least 4 hats, most of a sweater for Shannon's Spin to Knit, a mohair diamond lace stole, most of a sweater for myself (now waiting to be frogged), a lot of swatches that were curiously never intended for projects, and I just finished a sweater for Stefanie's book.
On the needles now: a Gothic Leaf Stole, a glove from Folk Knitting in Estonia (which is taking a time out because it's much too small for my relatively little hands), and two socks.
8. Will you be knitting any gifts this year?
Oooh, probably.
9. What is your favorite one skein project?
Gloves, I think. Most of my lace projects have been really cool and only taken one skein, but that's not quite fair if it's a 1400 yard skein.
10. How much yarn do you have in your stash and how do you store it?
It has a small room of its own. I picked this apartment partially because it had a perfectly sized little yarn room.
11. Do you have a yarn in your stash that you love so much you can never use it or part with it?
Yes. I wasn't going to explain at all, but it's Mothers' Day, right? It's the yarn from my mom's chenille scarf. I've already knit it at least twice, and I can't imagine ever knitting it again. Every time I knit it up, it just stretched and stretched to ridiculous proportions. And I would rip it out and knit it again at a smaller gauge. The last time she gave it to me to redo, I ripped it and soaked it, and didn't have a chance to knit it for her again. It's not really a question of loving the yarn for itself, because it's a blue and green handpainted chenille that I would never even have picked up, but she loved it enough that she kept asking me to reknit it.
12. Do you knit less or differently in the summer?
Only because I don't have central air.
13. Do you belong to any knitting groups (online or offline)?
I'm a member of Stitch n' Bitch Cleveland (West Side)
May 03, 2006
nerves
Another part of the reason I've been such a bad blogger is that I've been a slave to the book since February. We'll talk more about the book later. The point now is that you might think that having designed for a few books already, and having shipped off a whole book worth of work a month ago, I might be kind of used to this submission process. But really, no. It's just as bizarre every single time.
I just sent a little something off to a certain publisher. Wish it luck.
April 30, 2006
Sorry
I've had a couple months of camera difficulties, which I used as another excuse not to blog. You didn't actually want to read without pictures, anyway, did you? Of course you didn't. So I got a new camera, which is worlds better than the old one.
To test out the amazing tiny new camera, and get the blog going again, let's take a look at the goodies Natasha just sent.
A spinning batt of blended mohair, ingeo, angelina, and silk
Really spongey soft blended wool (and maybe alpaca?) with just a little sparkle.
Blended yearling mohair.
And a generously sized ball of her handpainted superwash sock yarn.
And if you think that's great, you should see her handspun yarn. Go buy her stuff!
February 27, 2006
February 19, 2006
down at fraggle rock
as predicted, the blog lies neglected for a year while i continue to pay for it every month. i'm thinking about what to do about that, while knitting some lace and watching season one of fraggle rock on DVD. meanwhile, enjoy this song from episode 19: The Great Radish Famine.
Performed by: The Doozers
It's neat and it's sweet.
It's a ding dong treat,
Knittin' socks for little feet.
Just sittin' with your knittin' all day long.
You know, knittin's friendly,
And knittin's fun.
Knittin's good for everyone,
And that is why we sing this knittin' song.
Well it's knit one pearl two.
What's a Doozer gonna do,
With a gol-darn,
Ball of yarn?
It's stitch three drop four.
Pitch that knittin' out the door right now.
There's a green, there's a red.
There's a knot in my thread.
A knitter needs his noggin read,
So don't come 'round and speak to me of yarn.
You can k-nit all day and k-nothin' fits.
'Cause only k-nitwits like to k-nit,
And k-nittin' k-needles just ain't worth a darn.
Well it's knit one pearl two.
What's a Doozer gonna do,
With a gol-darn,
Ball of yarn?
It's stitch three drop four.
Pitch that knittin' out the door right now.
June 08, 2005
March 01, 2005
poor miss charlotte
Charlotte Sometimes
2000-2005
February 04, 2005
not dead yet
i've been alternately very busy and very lazy. since the last post, i've polished off work on not one but two books that my work will appear in this fall. and i've knit a bunch of crap. i may even have pictures of some of it, once i sort through them all.
last night, on a lark, i knit the womb from knitty.
it took maybe an hour and a half and it's smaller than i imagined. but cute! i used a little ball of leftover pastaza that i found, so it's extra soft.
the designer's little womb likes to knit, but i think mine looks like it wants to play drums. i'll have to work on that.
December 07, 2004
catching up
pool is done. my scarf model wears it for you:
as you can see, it looks exactly the same as the last picture, except longer.
i also finished a bunch of bags this week. these four are a custom order for christmas. i debated whether or not to post them, since they're gifts, but the chances that the recipients will stumble onto them here are negligible.
the red one is nature wool with an especially nice wood handle. i think it's a little fascinating that the color variation flashed to look just like wood grain. the orange in the corner is a little uni bag with pink tulle and shiny ribbon trim.
here is a close-up of the rosette and felted button on the bottom of the uni.
i know i've sworn several times that i would never felt kureyon again, but the colorway was too perfect for the job. this small tote is edged in cascade 220 for a little extra structure.
i'm never home during daylight in december (sad but true) so the pictures are not so great. for some reason, the really electric combination of purples in this bag suffered more than the reds tonight. unless i get a peek at the sun before these ship, you'll just have to trust me that this bag is really really purple.
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