Tipsy Tuesday: Civil Unrest

This beverage was discovered at a recent work event, when we had a partial bottle of raspberry vodka, and needed a mixer. That cocktail was about 1/3 vodka, 2/3 lemon-lime soda, with a squeeze of lime. Surprisingly refreshing. (I'm sure it'd knock you on your ass if you drank them like I wanted to.)

The above illustration is for a permutation that I've been in love with for ages. It really is refreshing, since the alcohol content is negligible. That's a pint glass with a shot of raspberry liqueur (any will do, but use Chambord if you're feeling fancy), filled with lemon-lime soda. The liqueur gives a light raspberry flavor to the soda, without giving it any boozy kick. I don't usually bother with the lime.

Want a boozy kick? Add a shot of vodka.

Totally Manic

There's a short circuit in my brain somewhere. I normally consider the idea of knitting a blanket ludicrous... I mean, why spend all that time and money on a large, worsted weight item that is never going to be finished anyway?

Somehow, though, knitting a blanket in tiny squares of sock yarn seemed totally reasonable.

And I'm making two.

Above, you see the "colorwash" blankie (so called for the group that fuels my madness: BlankieMania) as it stood a couple of months ago; it hasn't changed much, since I motivate myself to work on it afresh by disallowing myself to work on it the moment I feel ennui or have something else I should be doing. I was inspired by this one, choosing each new square color by matching it to the two squares it grows out of. (There is no seaming in this project: I pick up stitches from the squares below, and ends are woven in as I go.)

The other one is random, with a black border between each square, to give the eyes a break. It's still in the too-small-to-photograph stage.

Uh, yeah, and my other blanket project (that's right, blanket #3) is also garter stitch, knit on the bias out of handspun Romney (this is why it's obvious there's an error in my wiring).

FO: The Dark Dance

Another knit from a favorite designer, this shawl was an absolute delight. That's actually not emphatic enough, but you get the idea. Birgit Freyer's designs exemplify German design at its pinnacle: her patterns (like German cars and German architecture) are graceful, complicated, and intuitive. There are almost no written instructions, because the charts tell you everything you need to know. (The bits which you need to have written instructions for come in five different languages!)

This shawl is Flamenco, my first Birgit knit. I purchased several patterns from her over a year ago, but waited 'til now to make one up, and I don't know why I waited so long; Birgit creates beautiful motifs, wielding an impressive control of yarn overs. Other lace patterns seem poorly designed after knitting one of her patterns. Really: when she wants to introduce a centered yarn over into a motif, she has you work a double increase. That may not seem like much until you are in the process of knitting one of her patterns, and the design appears under your needles as if by magic.



My addiction to beaded knitting extended even to this piece, although I knew the knitting would be a pleasure by itself. (That's why it's an addiction: I know I don't need it, but I want it.) I went over the charts before I started, and placed them wherever it looked like they'd be pretty. I placed predominantly on plain stitches, but in retrospect, putting beads on decreases would have looked great and given me a little more space to add beads in. (Still looks pretty, though, whatever improvements I might have made.) Beading lace makes the whole project much slower; by the end, I was glad to have some bead-free right-side rows.



Specs:
Pattern: Flamenco by Birgit Freyer
Yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Cashmere Lace in Boreal, an exclusive Lace Club colorway. I used 1.7 skeins.
Beads: Silver-lined gold (it's quite a light gold) AB finish, size 6.
Mods: I worked 5 repeats of the pattern (Birgit calls for 4 or 5 repeats, but I wanted more than a half-circle), and added beads.

This shawl ended up as a birthday gift to our former manager at work, who has been back in the city for a month, in the middle of his year-long national roadtrip. The muted purples suit him really well (they were too muted for me), and the large size means he'll have plenty of toasty cashmere around his neck next month, when he's in New York.

Tipsy Tuesday: Victoriana

While cocktail mixing has always been of interest to me, I have never been one to use exact measurements or fancy equipment, being much happier eyeballing quantities and using a spoon to stir. 

In light of this, my drink inventions have previously been kept under wraps, since I couldn't bring myself to pin down how much of X ingredient goes into Y drink. 

Here, with the help of an image, we have my "recipe" for a Victoriana:

Earl Grey vodka. I steep my own, but any tea-infused alcohol would be fine, I'm sure. 

Honey syrup. I use a 1:1 honey-to-water ratio, but some honey-loving bartenders use 2:1 or 3:1. Pour hot water into a container, pour in honey, stir until dissolved. Refrigerate.

Lemon. Lemon is a traditional accessory for Earl Grey tea, so might as well use some here. I use an 1/8 wedge. (Add a bunch of lemon juice, and you've got a booze Palmer.)

Soda. I like plain soda water, to keep the tea flavor topmost, but using tonic or other lightly scented fizzy waters would work.

Pour vodka, syrup (to taste... I admit I'm a sweet fiend), and soda over ice in a mug or low glass. Stir. Squeeze lemon.

Yum!

PS. If you want to make your own Earl Grey vodka, it's really easy: using the vodka of your choice, insert Earl Grey tea bags (or loose tea in a tea ball or fine cheesecloth). Let it steep until the vodka is dark, around 24 hours. Remove tea bags, store your new Earl Grey vodka with the rest of your booze.

FO: Midday

This pretty shawlette is from one of my favorite designers, Susanna IC, whose crescent-shaped shawl patterns have garnered her thousands of projects and a Ravelry group of the same name with nearly 1500 members.

While not the largest group by a long shot, this group (which I confess I'm biased to, since I'm the one that started it) acquired 1000 members in about 10 months. To celebrate this, Susanna hosted her first mystery shawl KAL. The result: Polaris (this links to my project page).

There was chatter, on-the-fly pattern changes, yarn drama, and prizes.

It was awesome.

I got to test knit, which pleases me no end, since I have a huge problem keeping track of clues in mystery knitalongs. The only downside was that I had to keep it under my hat (so to speak) once I'd finished, so as not to spoil the mystery.



Specs:
Pattern: Polaris by Susanna IC
Yarn: less than one skein of Manos del Uruguay Lace, in L2330, possibly Rhiannon. (The label wasn't very clear)
Beads: Silver-lined green with AB finish, size 6.
Needles: US7, US10 for the cast on.
Mods: none.

The Manos yarn was lovely; the wool content saved it from being inelastic. I was surprised at the simple "Lace" line name compared to the fiber content. The drape on this yarn, after a hard block, is amazing... it doesn't matter how you throw this shawl on, it always looks great. In the end, it was the yarn color that didn't draw me in. Since I love greens of all kinds, I'm not sure exactly what about it doesn't work. No matter: this shawlette was gifted to someone who loves "scarfy things" (her words) and acid green.

Gifted

Evolution is wonderful, and I'm not talking about Pokemon or Kansas: I have evolved into a process knitter.

My evidence for this is the gifting of two beautiful shawls that I started making for myself, enjoyed knitting, and then handed off to someone else. Times past, I would have kept them both for myself, even though the colors did not end up suiting me. I am very happy at this development, since it not only means that my scarf/shawlette collection hasn't taken over my apartment, but that I am finally spreading the love of handknits to deserving non-knitters. (My definition of "deserving" is pretty strict, and there are extremely few who I think would understand, love, and care for a hand knit item. But more on that another time.)

Bibliophile

Or, Haul.

I made the trek over to the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library's 50th annual big f*ing book sale. The sale takes place in the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason, a 50,000 square foot warehouse, with row upon row of book-filled tables. The books cover all topics, and are dirt cheap (which somehow leads to spending way more than you'd think). It's like being at the biggest garage sale in your life, except they give you a shopping cart.

Which I put to good use.

I thought the sale was Thursday-Sunday, but it actually started on Tuesday! On Sunday, every single item is $1. Not that going earlier is going to hurt the wallet, unless you buy books like the end of the world is tomorrow, like I do. (Apparently, I expect to be stuffing my coat full of old paper when the world ends, like in The Day After Tomorrow.)

Besides the usual steep-discount-sale pitfalls like buying things you don't need or want, and having to lug all the loot back home, and tramping about on cement floors for hours, the one drawback of this sale is that once the books were sorted into a gross category, they aren't organized any further. I left the fiction areas pretty early on, because there's only so many times you can see Frank Herbert and J.R.R. Tolkien before you decide there's no way you'll find something worthwhile, and after pulling out an interesting needlework book, left the "How-To; Crafts" area; again, only so much quilting and beginner's wiring one can take before deciding there aren't any knitting books.

So, those are my new aquisitions, in the above photo. I've got a bunch of art books, a couple of cooking and craft books (including a Joy of Cooking from 1953, which may or may not contain roadkill recipes), some french short stories (I was unwilling to sift through all the Foreign Language section books in Russian to try to find any Maupassant or Balzac in French), and several pieces of fiction. (Ok, so once I saw the "Fiction; Classics" section, I tottered right over to pluck some interesting old editions of things I like.)

Also, in the right-hand background of the top picture, you can see the books and sheet music I got for gifts. I mean, seriously. Getting an old-school cloth-bound copy of a favorite book is a great gift, especially when it cost $4.

All in all, a fun day! I am really tired, though; hauling my ass home on two buses with something like 70lbs. of books in a backpack and a paper bag turns out to be hard work. (Next year, I'll have the foresight to go with someone who has a car.)

Indian Summer

I finally got around to making a summer sandwich of whole milk ricotta, heirloom tomato, and home-grown basil. (Ricotta has a different texture than mozarella, but it's what I've got, and it still tastes amazing.)

Even though in most of the country, Fall weather is in full swing, here in San Francisco, we're experiencing the warm, cloudless days of Indian Summer- hopefully it'll last, as I love being able to leave my windows open all night.

Will She Make It?!

I'm nearly done with the body ribbing for Cecilia, and I feel as though my goal of having this cardi done in time for Black Sheep is within my grasp.

However, I still have the elbow-length sleeves and the collar/button band to knit. It's Tuesday, and I've got until Saturday to do it in, but we're already on vacation, and vacationing must happen!

I understand that we will be missing The Imaginary Invalid in Ashland, since the Bowmer (sp?) Theater has some structural problem or other. I was more excited about the Molière than the Shakespeare (Measure For Measure)!

If I can manage to knit a sleeve a day (we'll pretend the button band takes as much time as a sleeve), and I don't have to drive, or do anything else much, I'll have a finished sweater in time for BSG (and it will have taken me two weeks)!

loop Bullseye Bumps #1

Having allowed my other clubs to lapse, and feeling the need for some fibery adventure, I went in search of a fiber club to join. The decision was readily made, and I now find myself with the first installment of loop's Bullseye Bumps fiber club ("Siamese" iteration, which means I get 8+ oz. of the same fiber).

My new roving bumps, which you can see from her site, have an awesome color shift. Now, why don't I have pictures of these gorgeous bumps? (And they are gorgeous, since they were customized for me, and are therefore GREEN!) Well, I do have pictures, but the light was fading, and so the color is terribly untrue; no amount of photo editing could fix it.

Instead of bland and inaccurate fiber photos, I've provided a lovely photo of the little extras that were provided. These sequin flowers are going in the pile of ornate tidbits I'm stockpiling to give my mother. I try to encourage her to make the crazy quilt she's been wanting to make by gifting her things she can use in it.

I am really, really excited to spin these, since they contain: alpaca, merino, corriedale, kid mohair, bamboo, tussah silk, angelina, firestar, and kid mohair locks. However, only the Ashford Traveler is at my apartment (the Pipy Saxony is still at my parents' house, with soy silk from my last fiber club on it), and it has two spins waiting to be finished and brought to work. And in any case, I am trying to knit a cropped sweater in time for Black Sheep Gathering (I'll be there on Saturday, so that's a bit more time), so spinning will be thrown over in favor of knitting.

Until I buy new spindles and fiber at BSG!

Twelve Dancing Princesses

I'm hosting a Dye-It-Yourself (DIY) swap in the BlankieMania group on Ravelry (ravlink), with a fairy tale theme. For my tale, I chose my favorite, "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." In that tale, the princesses walk through three forests to get to the palace where they dance all night: a silver wood, a golden wood, and a diamond wood, where the leaves and fruit are made of diamond.

I wanted to dye a skein of yarn that would look like the princesses' dresses reflected and refracted by the foliage in the diamond wood, and I even delayed dyeing because I was worried how it'd turn out! (I'm usually the one who says, "It's a swap; it doesn't matter if it doesn't turn out exactly the way you imagined!")

The skein turned out very close to how I wanted it, so I'm quite pleased. (Especially since looking at the yarn in the pan, with the dye freshly poured, it seemed as though it would end up as clown barf.)

Annis Blocking

Annis is blocking on the bed right now, and I have to say that I'm very satisfied with this knit: it took me ~3 days to complete (probably less, since I was quite busy, and unable to knit intensely), and the pattern is interesting the whole way, what with the challenging bit at the beginning, and then the short rows that end right when they seem to be getting long.

I also have to enthuse about this yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Cashmere Lace (in colorway Malice- deep purples with the rare touch of grey and deep pink). As you might imagine, this is a very soft yarn. While being a delicate yarn (you can break this two-ply with a firm yank), I was able to rip this out without undue fuzzing or yarn breakage.

Which brings me to how I came to knit this Annis. I had printed this pattern out, along with a lovely, simple lace shawl pattern called Summer Flies (free on Ravelry). I chose Summer Flies, since Annis has you cast on all the edge stitches, and I was feeling lazy. I got most of the way through Summer Flies when I noticed that my semi-circle would fit a small child, but not me. It was only then that I took note of the called-for yarn: worsted weight. So, that got ripped. (I also tried making a lace-edged sideways triangle shawl of my own design, but I realized that casting on 50 sts for one corner was not going to make a nice shape, nor a shawl that I could wear as a scarf without it looking like a bandana or a bib.)

Specs:

Yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Cashmere Lace in Malice

Needle: US6

Mods: cast on with knitted cast on, instead of a larger needle; used beads (6/0 silver-lined seed) instead of working nupps.

The only thing I'd change would be blocking this thing with blocking wires. I don't have any, and I think this shawl would look a lot more symmetrical when blocked with wires, and not just pins.

More Holiday Knitting

Last night, the shop where I work had a trunk show. I stayed up way late there, and then again at home, so blogging was curtailed. Knitting, however, proceeded apace.

I had about two inches of another ribbed hat on the needles, and brought it along just in case I had a chance to knit. Well, as is so often the case, I made a chance to knit: I carried the ball under my arm, and worked away while I chatted with customers and neighbors, and listened to some live music. I only put down the knitting when I had to ring someone up.

By the end of the night, I'd gotten to right before the decreases, and today I finished what will be another Christmas gift.

It's a 3-ply handspun (chain ply, I believe, actually) in a heavy worsted. The fiber is a really fun blend of wool, with little bits in: other wool, snippets of ladder yarn, silk neps, sparkle. I purchased 6oz. from a seller at this year's Lambtown. She said she'd had her fiber processed by Spinderella (and I believe it- it's gorgeous stuff). I've got another 6oz in red waiting to be spun, but I'm holding off until I get older fiber out of my stash. (We'll see how well that holds up over time!)

Update

Just to update that last post, the fiber is from Bungalow Farm Angora. Also, you can find my ultra-simple hat "pattern" in my dad's hat project page on Ravelry (rav link).

I've cast on another hat (for mom this time) that I have no doubt will be ready in time for gift-giving.

Pictures and a full post tomorrow!

Oh, and beads!

Well, I have discovered a new love: lace.

I've knit lace before; it started with choosing a single pattern from one of the Barbara Walker treasuries, and then knitting until I ran out of yarn. The first time I can recall using this was for my mom's Christmas scarf two years ago, when I chose Vine Lace (which is about the easiest lace pattern you could hope for- four row repeat, two of which are purling, and the other two of which are the same, really, just offset by one stitch).

I tried a few lace shawl/stole patterns, though I pretty much never got past the cast on (there are three that I can think of off the top of my head). I even have a small bin that has laceweight yarn in it, which, in comparison to the rest of the stash, is but a trifle. Who knows what I was thinking when I bought that yarn?

Much time was spent admiring the amazing lace on the blogs of others, and never once did my internal Adventure Knitter say, "Holy moly! That looks like the best challenge ever! Let's do that!"

Somehow, I got it into my head to knit a lace shawl. It's those free radicals, I swear; they change the brain! So, I bought four skeins of Malabrigo lace from Imagiknit (not that I didn't totally have laceweight at home): two skeins in dark teal (Azul Profundo, I think), and two in Black Forest. I immediately cast on for Aeolian, from the Spring 2009 Knitty. The top picture is a perfect money shot, even unblocked. Can't wait to block the bejeezus out of this project.

Now I'm perhaps halfway through the charts (but of course the rows get longer and longer), and only halfway through my first skein, and halfway through my beads (which are size 6, since the local craft store didn't have 8s). So it all seems to be doing OK.


In other knitting news, I made my dad a hat for Christmas. It was knit from some bulky handspun I nearly couldn't part with, since the color is so amazing- heathery moss green and tweedy. (Sorry for the blur- I was using the last of the daylight). It's a super-simple ribbed hat, extra long so he'll be able to fold it as much as he likes. (I've made him a couple of hats before, but they ended up rather shallow- he's got a big head.)

Unfortunately, the ol' spinning wheel has been languishing. I've been spinning a decadent blend of polwarth/angora in pale green, and I bought 5 oz. from the angora lady at Lambtown back in October. The unfortunate part is that it's quite neppy (not too unusual in such delicate fibers), and since I'm spinning it finely, I've been stopping to pluck out the nepps (and occasional second cut), and so it's not a quick spin. I've got 1 1/4 oz. to go, about, and then there's the plying. This yarn will do well with a thwacking- something I've never really done before.

Last time I tried to spin, Margaret- one of our three 17-month-old cats- was convinced that the treadle and my foot were there for her to play with. She also thought the rotating wheel was trying to escape (and could only be subdued with her teeth).

Snowflake Slouch Hat

This pattern was totally improvised, so I'm reading my crochet as best I can. I started this as something to make while watching a movie on Thanksgiving, and even though it's a quick project, I was too out-of-it to finish until Friday.

I reccomend this hat to be worn kind of slouchy, and I designed (if you can truly design anything while flying by the seat of your pants) it to be a much looser, unstretched gauge at the top so it could drape a bit. You could do away with row 10 if you wanted a closer fit (or work another round if you want more slouch to your slouchy hat).

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Aran. I chose this yarn because it was what was at hand in my mother's stash, but the finished product will hold up pretty well, even if I find the yarn squeaky to work with.

Hook: I don't know; I fished a hook out of my mom's pen cup. Might've been size M, but you should work with whatever feels right, in any case.

NOTE: I end every round with a slip stitch, as it creates a neat base for the next round to be built upon. Usually, this stitch is worked into the top of the chain st that was worked at the beginning of the row.


EDIT: I use American abbreviations, so in English crochet terms, sc would be a double crochet, dc would be a treble, and tc would be a quadruple.

Make a slip knot. Chain 3 and join with a slip stitch (sl).

Round 1: Work 14 single crochets (sc) into the hole.

Round 2: Chain 1. Work 2 sc into the top of each sc of Row 1.

Round 3: *Chain 7, work 1 sc into the fourth st.* Repeat 5 times. Chain 7, work 1 sl into the base of the first loop.

Round 4: Chain 1. *Work 11 sc on each loop of chain sts. Work a sc into the sc below.* Repeat til the end.

Round 5: Work 1 sl into the top of a sc below, 4 times. You are now at the top of a loop. *Chain 5, work 1 double crochet (dc) into the top of the sc between the loops, chain 5, work 1 sc into the top of the sixth sc below.* Repeat til the end.

Round 6: Work 1 sl into the top of a sc below, 3 times. *Chain 5, work 1 dc into the loop left of the dc below, chain 5, work a sc into the loop right of the dc below.* Repeat til the end.

Round 7: Chain 1. Work a sc into the top of every st.

Round 8: Chain 2. Work 3 dc into every loop (there ought to be 14).

Round 9 and 10: Chain 2. Work 3 dc into the space between the 3 dc-bundles below.

Round 11: Chain 3. Work 1 triple crochet (tc) into the top of every stitch below.

Round 12: Chain 2. Work 1 dc into the top of every stitch below.

Round 13, 14, and 15: Chain 1. Work 1 sc into the top of every stitch below.

Fasten off. Weave in ends, and enjoy!

Urban Fauna Studio

To say I was excited about a new fiber store opening in SF would be an understatement. I love Carolina Homespun, but there's only so much fiber one store can carry, and I'd burned myself out on Carolina Homespun a while ago (which is not to say that I don't browse them at every fiber festival- I just save my money for rarer finds).

I think San Francisco has a large opening for fiber/yarn/craft stores, especially since DIY stuff is still becoming more & more popular. Spinning, though, is not a craft that "normal" people get into. Spinning is a craft that people who are already crafty get interested in. I've never met a woman (or man) who learned to spin, and that's it; they always knit or crochet (or weave) first.

Also, opening a new brick & mortar store (especially one off the beaten path) is quite ballsy in this economy. Jamie Chan must have a really awesome business plan- and she also has the sales from the well-established Mary Jane's Attic- which she owns- to help her out.

So I took two short bus rides to get to the Urban Fauna Studio (kind of a weird name, and isn't there a knitting store in Hayes Valley called Urban Design Studio?)- it's just off Irving- and I was immediately surprised at how teeny-tiny the store is. Teeny-tiny, eenie-weenie, itsy-bitsy... well. The whole store is smaller than my living room. Maybe 8' by 17' (and it has a low ceiling). Of course, the fact that there was about 20 women packed in there didn't help.

They had some nice stuff: Traveling Rhinos minibatts, some handdyed fiber & yarn (though not as much as I'd have thought), almost a whole wall of notions, and adorable apothecary jars filled with a rainbow of wool puffs.

The best thing? They rent spinning wheels for $20/week! That means you can try the Mach 1 or the Ladybug at your leisure. They'll also have classes.

Something I felt detracted from the store: it seems like Jamie is aiming for a craft store, not just a fiber store. She had needle felting stuff (which is to be expected in a fiber store, I guess, but it's not my thing, and it seemed like there was WAY more needle felting stuff than knitting or spinning stuff, not including the wheels), sock monkey kits, and luster dust for embellishing fabrics and polymer clay (which she says she's getting a shipment of soon).

I thought it'd be like a brick & mortar version of the Sweet Sheep, or even Etsy, so I was actually a little disappointed by the physical store. And I didn't enjoy being packed into the tiny space like sardines, and trying to maneuver around all the other shoppers. However, I really enjoyed the energy of the people, and I got to chat quite a bit with the women in line in front & behind me. The ladies in front seemed only aware of knitting & crochet (they were buying some handpainted and some O-Wool), and they'd dragged their bfs along. The woman behind me- Barbara (Rav link), as I later learned- had been to WWKIP Day this past June (it was awesome, btw), and was just as interested as I was in a new fiber store. We chatted about kittens (I need some, she fosters them). The line was very long, for two reasons: there were a ton of people who'd arrived "early" to be one of the 75 who got a goodie bag, and because the checkout process was not what you would call speedy.

I bought a minibatt, a 1/2 oz of a lovely teal-blue Angelina, and a braid of merino-tencel in red-orange-purple.

Minibatt pic is blurry so you can see the colors better (it's minty green with felted nubs in shades of pink).

Can I just say?

I don't think Stephanie Pearl-McPhee would like me. I am slovenly, I can't run a household, I'm arrogant, I'm pedantic, we're from completely different social backgrounds, and I have very little life experience, compared to her. If we were ever near eachother for a length of time, I don't think we'd become friends. She'd be nice to me, because she's nice to everyone, but we'd never become close, I think.

I say this because I admire her so much that I fantasize about being in a knitting group with her. I've seen her twice live (at SOAR 2006, where she was guest speaker, and at Maker Faire this past year, where I made sure we got there early enough to get a good seat), and I've always really enjoyed knitting and laughing with her. I'm not one to get my books signed, so I've never seen her from more than 50 feet away. (That's not true- I kinneared her at SOAR 2006 at the opening ceremony, when she sat in the row in front of me... and she hadn't yet coined the term "kinnear.")

However, I'm determined to do so next time, just so I can be face-to-face with someone who is making a living with knitting (and not even by owning a yarn store, either). The thought of being in front of her- and I know she's a normal person, and probably dislikes being the object of knitterly fantasy- makes me daydream of what token I can offer- handmade fimo stitch markers? Homemade marshmallows (covered in chocolate, just for her)? Handspun? My firstborn? I'm sure she'd be fine with me just saying "thanks" for signing my books, but I'm equally sure that I'd gush in a creepy way. At Maker Faire, during the knit-in, where there were so many people who just wanted to be close to her that it was standing-room-only and she had to have a microphone, she asked to use my knitting as a demonstration (I was the only one with long straights), and I said to the group, "Oh my god, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee touched my knitting." I only realized afterward that while I was joking (my sqealing fangirl impression), it sounded pretty weird.

Another dream of mine (one of those "If I won the lotto tomorrow" ones) is to invite S P-M to San Francisco on my dime (like, for Stitches West, or the Golden Gate Fiber Institute). I imagine the house being tidy-ish and no longer under construction, with the silk moire wallpaper in the hall that my mom wants, and all the cats the most beautiful and well-behaved creatures, and me with an astoundingly beautiful handspun, handknit, self-designed sweater on. And Stephanie Pearl-McPhee taking a picture of the outside of the house (freshly painted, and with a tasteful amount of gold leaf) with the sock, and blogging that she's amazed I live in this gorgeous Victorian house.

What stops this fantasy dead, is, of course, that I think she'd politely comment- she might even take a picture- but she'd never blog about it. I don't leave comments on her blog (or any blog), I'm terrible at emailing people, I mostly lurk on Ravelry, I stopped swapping because I'm too cheap to go to the post office. And she, at least in my mind, is always very prompt with her correspondance and blogging, she documents her work religiously, she buys sweaters-worth of yarn without a moment's compunction.

So in the end, I can but continue to dream.

...until I perfect my hypnotism.

Back in the Saddle, Or, Ravelry is a Great Motivator

Last weekend was busy: I went to the movies on Sunday, I did some housework that needed doing and I spun. Saturday, though, was what it was all about.

Lambtown 2008!

Lambtown is a small fiber festival in Dixon, CA (I think I blogged about it in the past, but I can't remember, and I'm afraid of my archives). It's in the middle of July in the Valley (near Sacramento), so it's always boiling hot in the sun, but if you can find shade and a breeze, you've got it made.

Only two weeks before Lambtown, I was noticing that several different groups on Ravelry had threads about Lambtown, or offering carpools, and I wondered why no one had started a group. I mean- there are groups for absolutely everything on Ravelry (TV shows, tools, yarn companies... anything you can come up with), and every major (and no doubt many minor) fiber festival was represented. And now so is Lambtown. Since most group-type things I start fizzle because I don't advertise enough, I PM'd a bunch of people who'd been posting about Lambtown in different groups, inviting them to join.

Lambtown was, I feel, a success. There were some comments to the effect of wishing there were more lamb food dishes to eat (which makes sense, as this is more than just a fiber festival- it's really an agricultural festival focusing on sheep). My only real complaint was that the lighting in the vendor building was so poor- some of the fiber that I thought was buttery yellow, turned out to be a pale yellowy-greenish in light. Usually, I thought, vendors bring their own lamps to get the exact right lighting... I don't know how it went awry this year, and hopefully next year they'll either put the vendors outside, or mention the low lighting.

On the purchasing front, I was pretty good, as I'm theoretically saving up for that Girl Scout trip to India next July. I bought $45-worth of merch from Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill (I think that's what it's called). Her stuff is always a pleasure to work with, because the blends are fun (not sparkly, but just a nice change of pace, you know?) and I love love love the colors, although the stuff I've spun so far has had a bit more VM than my taste, but that may have more to do with my super neppy and VM-y fiber I bought at Black Sheep this year that I've been working my way through ust to get it finished, because it makes a beautiful yarn.

Anyways, I spent most of my time at Lambtown (where the entry is free, BTW) parked with my wheel and my mother under the shade of a huge tree. We had gotten there at about 9:30, and scoped out a good place to have the Rav meetup (next year, I think we should do BINGO). The shade lasted until about 4pm, so that was pretty good- we avoided the peak heat. A bunch of people sat with us, and in true fiber festival style, some would wander away, some would wander back- it was all very laid back.

I'll admit: I fell asleep like a two-year-old on the car ride home. Being outside, in the heat for hours is surprisingly tiring, even if I did move around so little.

Well, Blogger is hating me right now, so there will be no pictures today.

Reclaiming a Sweater

I've just realized I probably should have taken a picture of the sweater when it was whole. Oh well. It was from the Goodwill, and while a designer sweater, was made of tomato-red mohair, so there was no way I could resist. It was very bulky, and probably could have fit me, but as we all know, a chunky sweater on a fat girl is a recipe for disaster. I thought the yarn was a Lamb's Pride- like wool/mohair single, but in reality it's two strands of fingering weight brushed mohair (with some wool as a stabilizer). So the yarn has been ripped and caked, and will probably become some kind of entrelac, because that's what it's telling me.*

Also, I've finished the rainbow cowl. It's quite nice; I've made it into a moebius cowl, because that kind of design element is so easy and yet quite classy.

Each color in the yarn somehow lasted exactly the width of the project, so there isn't an abrupt change mid-pattern. Also, the project had exactly enough yarn. Seriously, the blue repeat ended, I bound off, and sewed the seam, and I now have about a foot left of handspun. If I kept a project journal (which I undoubtedly never will, because I know how I start things and don't finish them**), I'd put it in there with a note on how surprisingly successful this project was, considering I was just trying to use up the mohair locks. Now, I think it'll go into my fancy-additives for when I finally spin an art yarn.

*The yarn is, of course, not actually speaking to me. ...Just wanted to clear that up.

** As evidenced, of course, by my long blogging absences.