It’s That Time Of Year!

On By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And Everything3 Comments

It’s March, and North Shore yarnies know what that means: Yarn Crawl 2012!! Boston’s North Shore’s yarn shops are getting ready for the yarn-hungry hordes to invade in two weeks. This is the third annual crawl, and it gets bigger every year.  Last year was the first time I attended, and I had a blast stretching my crawl out over the weekend.  I can plot the routes two different ways: North up to Newburyport one day, and East out to Gloucester the next. Both are enjoyable scenic drives and there are plenty of great places to eat along each route. Saturday should be especially fun this year since it’s Saint Patrick’s Day.  Some green yarn and green beer are in order, I think, though I’m wondering what to do for dinner, since there may be a lot of folks out celebrating (i.e., imbibing) that night. :0

I am really, truly going to try to rein in the spending but as usual, I can’t make any promises. The fact that I get paid that Friday doesn’t help my resolve to not spend, yet enables me to spend if I want to. What to do?!?! What I should do is pick a project, just one project, and make that my goal for the crawl. I cohabitate with way too much yarn as it is, but the danger lies in accessories and acoutrements:  I can always be persuaded by books, magazines and project bags. I’m trying to narrow down the project to shop for. A sweater would be lots of fun, though there are some awfully cute stranded mitten patterns floating around on Ravelry, and the Hippocampus mittens are calling my name. Who doesn’t love adorable little seahorses? There are some mindblowing color combinations out there and I’m leaning toward a bright oceany blue background with a bright orange or white seahorse. The contrast has to be high or the seahorse gets lost in the background. The Kauni yarn the pattern calls for is gorgeous but $29.95 a skein. There’s lots of Zauerball colors out there to choose from…but then again, I have tons of Socks That Rock yarn lying around unused that I could–should–use instead.

Dreaming and planning is almost as much fun as crawling and shopping, yes?

In other events around town, the Salem Film Festival is in full swing this week.  It’s a weeklong all-documentary film festival that has really grown in the five years since its inception. Films from all over the world are shown and in some cases, premiered here. There are so many wonderful documentaries screened, and this year is no exception.  I don’t have time to see everything I want to, but if there was one movie I had to see this year, it was Becoming Santa. I had several chances to view it this week so I picked Sunday, when it was shown in a much smaller screening room, with only 18 seats. 

L.A.-resident Jack Sanderson lost his sense of Christmas spirit after the death of his mother; this film documents his journey to regain it by attending Santa school and training to work as Santa Claus during the Christmas season.  Jack takes us along for the ride, through an intense weekend of Santa training and on to his many Santa gigs, including mall appearances, parades and the Polar Express. 

This movie was at times hysterically funny and heartwarmingly tender.  I laughed, I cried, I cheered for Jack as his often sardonic observations gave way to the Christmas insight he was searching for.  The audience was small but enthusiastic. I love when a theater audience applauds after a show! If you’ve ever believed in Santa–or perhaps still do–this movie will truly move you.

Socks On Two Circs? Not 100% Sold On The Concept…

On By happygingerhomeIn knittingLeave a comment

Happy Leap Day everyone! I’ve been a very bad blogger and a very bad knitter, ignoring both for the better part of two months. I’m still knitting the two cowls I posted about earlier, and I haven’t made much progress on either. At this point I’ll be lucky if I can wear either before spring.

Speaking of spring, there are tiny signs here and there assuring us that it’s just around the corner.

We seem to have a 50-degree day once or twice a week this winter.  Yesterday was so nice I went for a walk down by the waterfront on my lunch hour, yet today we’re expecting snow. No wonder everyone around here is sick.

As you may remember, I was knee-deep in socks last fall. I finished the Almondine socks from Ann Budd’s Sock Knitting Master Class but…no photo today. 😦 I still need to knit the second Jaywalker sock. Again, I’ve been a very bad knitter! In November I signed up for a class on knitting two socks at the same time on two circular needles, a 16″ one and a 24″ one.  I couldn’t find both pairs from the same supplier so I bought a Susan Bates 16″ and an Addi Turbo 24″ and I’m glad I did, since the cables are two different colors. Susan Bates’s is clear, Addi’s is blue.  This made it easier for me to tell which one I was using and I realized that I’d never paid attention to the cable before. Are they always different colors depending on the length? Because that would make a whole lot of sense.

Our class met for only two sessions and worked the socks at a miniature scale just to learn the technique.  The instructor taught a full-size class once before, over four sessions, but reported that the attendees were so frustrated that nobody showed up for the final class.  We worked from Antje Gillingham’s Knitting More Circles Around Socks (I bought my copy during a Knit Picks sale for $10 less than retail).  I was excited because my local shops offer a socks-on-circs class fairly often, and I sign up every time, yet they seem to get canceled due to lack of interest. Finally, this one went ahead with 6 participants.

Do I enjoy knitting socks with this method? Not entirely. The cast on, while clever, takes some concentration, as does the knitting itself. I loved seeing two socks appear, side by side, simultaneously, but it was a lot of work just to knit.  The two balls of yarn got tangled constantly. BUT…look at those stripes! How cool are they?! And they match up almost perfectly! That was the most fun of all, using a self-striping yarn and watching the stripes appear.  I used the oldest yarn in my stash, some Regia that’s been sitting around since 2003! I bought it soon after I stared knitting and saved it for the future, when I was more experienced and ready to learn sock-knitting.  When I took the plunge two years later, however, I didn’t pick up the Regia, I bought some Opal and started with that instead.  I held on to the Regia through all the subsequent stash purges because I couldn’t bear to part with it. I love the color combination and I knew in my heart of hearts that someday I would pull it out and knit with it. 

I’m not sure if this pair will end up on two circulars or on good ol’ DPNs.  I’ll take these mini-socks off an cast on for full-size on the circulars and see how it goes. If I find the process too frustrating I’ll switch to DPNs. I would love to learn a new technique and reduce the time it takes to knit a pair, so I really do want to knit using this method. Then again, those yarn tangles are a bear.  We’ll see what happens.

I’m Afraid To Stop My Washing Machine Mid-Cycle. Is That Weird?

On By happygingerhomeIn knitting2 Comments

It’s irrational, I know.  Am I the only person who feels this way?  The fear of interfering with the natural progression of my washing machine has prevented me from trying felting for years.  To be honest, I’ve never had that much interest in felting, so my reluctance never really bothered me.  There have been a lot of cute felted bag patterns that I’ve admired over the years but nothing moved me enough to try it for myself.  For one thing, it seemed like too much trouble to run the washing machine, stop it mid-cycle, and then let it run through the rest of the cycles.  I suppose if I had some jeans or some towels to wash I could have thrown those in and let them finish after removing the felted item.  The rational part of my brain knows that when you open the top of a washing machine, it simply stops running.  You can stick your hands in there and everything. But the irrational part convinced me that sticking my hands in a dormant but technically “on” washing machine was a bad idea.  So merrily I knit on, convinced that I wasn’t really missing out on anything by not wanting to felt.

Until I met this scarf.  This is Cheryl Kubat’s Chevron Scarf from Knit Noro. Cheryl is a local designer, so when this book came out I made a point of driving up to Newburyport so I could buy it from A Loom With A View,  the wonderful fiber arts shop that caters to knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers.  I bought the book as well as all the Noro Kureyon needed to knit the scarf.  The knitting was fun and easy; I finished the scarf in a week last June.  It was the final two words of the pattern that sent chills down my spine: felt slightly.

I wasn’t ready to felt, not even slightly.  I thought about felting it by hand but that would have been impractical. The scarf is over seven feet long and I didn’t relish the prospect of felting it section by section in the bathtub. So my scarf sat in a project bag for six months. It was only when the weather grew colder that my desire to wear the scarf won out over my fear of the washing machine.  Finally, in December, I took the scarf down to the basement along with an old pair of jeans and some towels I wanted to wash. I was ready to felt–slightly.

Slightly seemed like a good place to start. I wasn’t going to end up with a completely stiff item, and I could always throw it back in if I wanted it a little more felted as I went along. As you can see, the process was a success–and I didn’t break the washing machine, or lose a hand, or flood the basement.  A whole new world of felted possibilities is now open to me.  There’s a felted hat pattern in Knit Noro that’s also knit in Noro Kureyon that I want to make.  I have everything I need: the needles, the yarn, and the washing machine. By the way, can you spot the error in the scarf? I forgot to switch colors after two rows so there is a larger patch of blue on one side of the scarf.  Nobody’s perfect.

My LYS Seed Stitch Fine Yarn is holding their annual sale this week.  They offer yarn by the bag, patterns, books and project bags at discounted prices.  Every year eager yarncrafters mob the giant sales table in the middle of the floor and grab their bargains.  I  went looking for books and patterns, since I really do need to knit all the yarn in the house before buying any more.  I picked up some back issues of The Knitter, a British magazine, as well as a really cool project bag.  I already have too many bags around the house but this one was too good to pass up.  There was a stack of five of these bags on the table.  Personally, I can’t imagine why there were so many of them sitting around. Sure, skulls aren’t everyone’s thing, but this is Salem; the skull and crossbones is a very popular motif both with tourists as well as locals. Maybe the original price of $32 put people off.  The bag is a little lightweight; I wouldn’t cart books around in it but I can easily put a decent-sized project in it.  It was a good deal at 50-percent off.  It’s made by a women’s co-op in India.  I hope Seed Stitch sells the other bags this week.

Another Christmas has come and gone, and all the build-up and anticipation leading up to it have faded into memory.  As time goes on and available space in my house shrinks, the question “What do you want for Christmas?” becomes more difficult.  Things for the house are always appreciated: kitchenware, a nice set of towels, a nice warm blanket. This year, what I really wanted from Santa was the gift of storage.  Santa, in the form of my favorite aunt, came through and on New Years Eve a new bookcase was delivered to my house.  I could finally take all my books out of the boxes they’ve been sitting in for over a year and give them a new home.  I have space for all my craft books with room to spare! So now I can buy more…

Knitters, Knitters Everywhere

On By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And Everything2 Comments

Ahem. I don’t usually report on conversations that took place in the ladies room, but I’ll make an exception today. Nothing indelicate, I promise…

I walked into the ladies room at work this morning and saw a single ball of Noro yarn sitting on the chair by the door.  If I had to guess I’d say it was Kureyon, in a variety of purple shades.  It was still wrapped in an unbroken ball band, new, fresh and waiting to start a new project. Beneath it was a folded up piece of paper–a pattern, no doubt.

“I see yarn!” I exclaimed.  I thought the yarn’s owner might be a friend of mine who also knits.  A laugh came from behind the closed stall door.

“Don’t steal it!” Came the reply.  It didn’t sound like my friend.   Stealing someone else’s yarn never entered my mind.  Of course it didn’t! Knitters don’t rip off other knitters, right? The bad knitting karma would get you, resulting in broken needles, splitty yarnm and frogged projects.  But I will admit my heart skipped a teeeeny tiny bit when I saw it was Noro.

I never did see who the other knitter was. 

There are several knitters and crocheters in the surrounding offices that I know of.  We see each other knitting on our lunch hours and stop to chat about the pattern or the yarn.  Two ladies I know are able to knit at their desks if it’s a slow day.  I, unfortunately, don’t have that kind of freedom.  Some of the knitters I know moan to the crocheters that they just can’t get the hang of crochet, no matter how much they try.  Some of the crocheters complain that they don’t”get” knitting for the life of them.  Either way, everyone’s working on something they’ll love, and we’re all enjoying the process. Life is good!

Cowl Crazy

On By happygingerhomeIn knittingLeave a comment

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and received some nice knitting and crafting gifts.  My sister gave me Clara Parkes’ new book The Knitters Book Of Socks and that made me very happy.  I have a ton of sock yarn lying around the house, and I can’t wait to dig into some of the patterns. I made several pairs of socks last fall (OK, I confess: I still need to knit the second Jaywalker) so I’ll put socks away for awhile.  But I’m going to read the book from cover to cover first and savor Clara’s incredible knowledge and love of all things yarn.

Right now I’m knitting two cowls at once. I know, I’m crazy.  I started Ann Weaver’s Albers Cowl in November, fresh off my sock-knitting jag.  You can buy it on her website or on Ravelry. It’s a devilishly cute and easy knit made up of log cabin squares.  It’s nice mindless knitting that I can churn out on my lunch hour at work.  This pattern made me overcome my aversion to all garter-stitch garments.  So why am I knitting a second cowl?

I’ve developed a little New Year’s tradition over the past couple of years.  I like to cast on for a new project bright and early on New Year’s Day, no matter how many WIPs I have going. I choose a small or simple pattern like basic mittens or accessories so I can finish it relatively quickly and return to the other projects I have on the needles.  I cast on for a new year to symbolize a new beginning.  I choose something that can be finished quickly to symbolize the importance of following through, but I take care not to put any obstacles or anything insurmountable in my path.  In other words, enjoy the process, don’t sweat the small stuff.  I like to think this will bring me luck for the new year.  This year’s new project is Lion Brand Yarn’s free  Cloudsong Cowl pattern.  I adore the color palette and the simple fair isle.  Keep reading for cowl details:

Albers Cowl

The Albers Cowl uses sock yarn and is a great way to use up all that extra stash sock yarn lying around the house.  Not that I’d know anything about that…I used Knit Picks Palette because I love the stuff, and I have the warm palette sampler they sold a few years ago still in its original plastic bag.  This cowl was a perfect way to make something useful out of it.  Plotting out all the colors to use for each square made me realize something about this sampler: no matter what the color, all of the shades are very similar to each other.   The browns and tans in particular are virtually identical when placed side by side.  I did a lot of playing around before settling on the color sequence.  I actually cast on for this project twice.  The above picture is my second attempt, the square that I like.  This is the first square I knit:

It’s feeling…groovy. Not that I take the comments of others to heart, but my sister remarked that the color combination made it look like a potholder from 1972.  And I have to say, I agree. :0  I think the yellow is the real culprit here.  I was desperate for a color that stood out from the others, but when taken together, all I can see is that “classic” harvest gold/avocado combination those of us of a certain age grew up with (think  kitchen appliances).  It was a pain to cast on for another square but I’m glad I did.

Cloudsong Cowl

The cream, magenta and green colors Lion Brand uses spoke to me of the spring blossoms that will be here before we know it.  They were too perfect together to alter.  This is knit with Cotton-Ease yarn in Sand, Hazelnut, Azelea and Cactus on circular needles.

I didn’t have the right sized circular needles so this project gave me the perfect excuse to try the Knitters Pride circs everyone on Ravelry has been talking about.  My LYS’s owner had positive things to say about them and showed me a pair she was knitting with.  Each sized needle uses a different color of wood.  These are size 7 on a 24″ long cable, and they’re a gorgeous black with white marbling.  But the real test is how they knit and not how they look.  These are very nice to work with.  The join is smooth and doesn’t snag my knitting. Now, I love my Addi Turbos, but the real reason I have so many pairs is that they are the only circs the LYS closest to me stocks.  The store that stocks Knitters Pride also stocks Knit Picks needles.  It’s nice to have a cheaper option close by, even if it is a slightly longer drive (the Mexican restaurant nearby also makes the trip worthwhile!).

Last week brought temperatures in the single digits.  Some areas saw below 0 with  the windchill factor.  On Wednesday it was 8 degrees in the Boston area.  It was not a good day to lose knitwear, yet two people did just that.

This is the first piece of sad knitwear I came across.   Someone lost this, or left it on the coat hanger, at work.   This is a cute little scarf, and it looks handknit.  Someone either made this and left/lost it, or someone made it as a gift and it was left behind.  Maybe it was deliberate? We all know how some people don’t appreciate handmade knitwear. But I don’t think it was deliberate. 🙂 It’s too bad, because single-digit days are the kind of days where you definitely don’t want to forget stuff like your knitwear.  I shrugged my shoulders and passed it off as an unfortunate oversight until I stepped outside two minutes later and saw this:

Someone else did the same thing. Or maybe it’s just one forgetful person.  Either way, there was at least one person kicking him- or herself on one of the coldest days of the year.  I just hope they didn’t have to wait for a bus.

Rockin’ Socks For October

On By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And EverythingLeave a comment

Fall is finally here, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at all the trees that haven’t changed color yet.  I’m putting my summer clothes away and pulling out all my sweaters and scarves.  Downtown Salem is off-the-hook crazy, in the grip of Halloween madness.  It’s annoying for a lot of locals because simple things we take for granted like driving down the street or getting a table in a restaurant become difficult and arduous.  I have a strict no-leaving-Salem weekend policy during October because, while getting out of Salem isn’t a problem, getting back in is.  The movie Bridesmaids is playing across the bridge in Beverly this Saturday night but I’m not going to go! I think this weekend is going to be the worst of all because Halloween falls on a Monday this year so everyone will turn it into a long weekend celebration. Bring on the crazy! I’ll be at home watching ghost hunter-type shows and knitting some socks. Say hello to my sock-in-progress, Grumperina’s Jaywalker. 

This is the second time I cast on for this sock. The first time I started it, I cast on 76 stitches, which is the smallest size on the pattern. I knit all the way down to the heel shaping before unraveling the whole thing and starting over.  This. Sock. Was. Huge. Huge! I could tell the leg was a little, shall we say roomy, but when the sock came halfway down my foot and I wasn’t even done shaping the heel, I knew there was a problem.  I started over and cast on 60 stitches onto #1 (US) dpns.  I know I’m committing blasphemy here, but *looks around nervously* I don’t bother knitting a test swatch for socks. It’s a gamble, I know.  This time I lost. 

I cast on 60 stitches, because plain socks on #1 dpns fit me. I know the zigzag pattern pulls in a little but I’ve been trying this sock on as I go along and it fits. I was able to catch up to my previous stopping point at the heel in a day and I’m working toward the toe now. I divided the stitches on 4 needles, 15 stitches per needle. I knit the zigzag pattern as follows:

Rnd 1 Knit all stitches. Rnd 2 k f/b, k5, dd, k5, k f/b.

This is a lot of fun to knit and I love seeing the color changes. I’m using Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Currier and Ives colorway. I was attracted to this color because of its festive Christmas palette, but it’s muted.  The colors go from darks to lights, reds and greens, but shot through with sky blue and cream.  I’m surprised at how the sock is turning out. The blues are a little more prominent than the greens. The red is dominant, while the blue and green jostle for attention, and the white makes frequent guest appearances throughout. 

I’m having fun zipping along with this pattern, which barely requires any more attention than plain sock knitting. There’s only one problem here: I didn’t order enough yarn.  It gets worse: I made this mistake for not one, but two sock patterns.  Remember the Almondine sock in my previous post? It’s patiently waiting for its mate, while I impatiently wait for another skein of STR in Blackbird. You see, I picked out the yarn first, and the patterns second. One hank is usually enough for plain socks, but no, I had to get fancy.  Likewise, I can’t complete the Jaywalkers until the second skein of Currier and Ives arrives.  I’ve been cyberstalking my BMFA order hoping to see the status change to “Shipped” but it’s been almost two weeks and no change. I think they may be at Stiches East, so I might have a little bit of a wait before my yarn comes.

In the meantime I’ll work on my short-sleeved cardigan some more.  And I’ll go downtown and enjoy the Halloween excitement. This is my favorite time of year and the novelty of downtown Salem’s October atmosphere hasn’t worn off yet.  Last Saturday I caved in and temporarily suspended my boycott on $5 fried dough. It was delicious. I also ran into this guy, one of my favorite comic book/movie characters:

Hellboy! He called me Darlin’. 😉

Dark, dark yarn

On By happygingerhomeIn knitting, Spinning1 Comment

It’s 80 degrees out today, yet Salem is full-swing into October’s Haunted Happenings.  It’s only October 10th and so far I’ve survived the second annual Zombie Walk, which is silly, but I get it, the first annual Steampunk Walk, which I totally do not get, two weekends of Crazy Costumed Crowds, and criminally inflated prices on fried dough concessions.  It used to cost $3.00 a piece for most of the month, and then the price would go up to $5.00 for the last weekend in October through Halloween. This is the second year in a row stands have charged $5.00 all month long. ENOUGH!!

It’s crazy hot today, in a scary, global-warming kind of way, but that meant one last day to sit on the porch with a book, some knitting and my furry little friend Spike.  I’m reading Matthew Pearl’s The Poe Shadow, a mystery set in Baltimore shortly after Edgar Allen Poe’s death in 1849. I love period historical fiction, though I do find myself wondering how exciting this story can actually get, since Poe dies before the story opens and we’re following a protagonist who barely knew him as he tries to solve the mysterious circumstances of Poe’s death. I’m enjoying the period details, and Pearl’s imagining of early Baltimore.  After all, October is perfect for Poe, and all Poe-related musings.

I'm in a Goth mood today.

On the needles today: I present Almondine, a pattern by Anne Hanson from Ann Budd’s new  book Sock Knitting Master Class. It’s a simple but elegant lace pattern–nice mindless knitting, as lace patterns go. You can see how the diamond shapes undulate through the sock.  There are tiny lace peepholes in there as well.

The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ Blackbird colorway, in lightweight superwash merino. It’s black without really having black in it, and I like that.  It’s all dark purples, reds, greens and blues.  There may be a tiny bit of black in there but I can’t tell anymore. I flipped through several sock books to find a pattern to do this colorway justice and once I saw Almondine my search was over.  The colors put me in a Halloween mood.  I’m quite smitten with the slightly goth turn this sock is taking, with its lacy diamonds snaking their way down the leg. I believe this sock would look equally fabulous on zombies as well as steampunks! I was going to knit something from Cookie A.’s Sock.Knit.Love. but the patterns there were way too technical and I wasn’t in the mood.  I’ll save Cookie A. for another day.

I made yarn!

I’m still zipping through that 8-ounce bag of Romney/alpaca blend fiber I bought in August.  I have two roughly equal-sized balls of yarn.  I need to decide whether I want two-ply or three-ply, though right now I’m nowhere near plying.  But happily, the spinning is coming along nicely.  I need to pick up the pace on the spinning end of things. I’ve been spinning for two years but have never knit anything from my handspun except for a couple of swatches.  I’ve barely even plied.  This yarn is destined for something warm, elegant and useful. I’m determined that his will be the first yarn I knit a project with.  It will not end up with the other random balls of yarn sitting in my cabinet. It never fails to blow my mind that I’m actually making yarn. I mean, who makes yarn?! I can’t remember how I became interested in spinning in the first place, but somehow I came across some examples and wanted to know more about the process of making yarn from start to finish, of taking ownership and having complete control over color and thickness.  It was definitely before Ravelry, and I can barely remember anything pre-Ravelry except for a handful of outstanding blogs. It was probably Hello Yarn, since I bought a beginner spinning kit from her five years ago or so.

I started knitting Almondine Saturday night and so I’m quickly knitting up this first sock while watching TV.  The weather will get cooler sooner or later, no more sitting outside to knit.  I had a good summer, but I love autumn so I won’t be sorry to see the hot weather go.  Now I can look forward to knitting inside with some cocoa or hot apple cider, and Spike flopped down on the couch next to me.  Sometimes…he tries to lick my knitting…

Have you met Spike?! 😉

The bad news: the world is ending. The good news: my spindle came.

On By happygingerhomeIn Life, The Universe, And Everything, Spinning2 Comments

When I moved my blog I vowed to post regularly on Wednesdays and Sundays. That hasn’t exactly happened.  I’m making an effort this week, but a day early, due to an unexpected day off from work.  A thunder and lightning storm started around five o’clock this morning.  At 7:30 I received an automated phone call that my workplace was going to open late due to the weather. I assumed it was because the parking lots were flooded, since they flood regularly when there’s heavy rain.  When I turned on the TV it became clear that the whole North of Boston area is underwater.  Strategic off-ramps leading from 128 are closed in Peabody, major roadways throughout Salem, Peabody, Swampscott, and Lynn, to name a few, are all closed due to extreme flooding.

Facebook updates from the Salem Fire Department are cataloging call after call responding to stranded motorists whose cars are partly underwater. That’s a pretty scary situation, and this morning there were several instances on the street I used to live on. There was a school bus full of kids stranded elsewhere in Salem.  None of the reports mention anyone injured so thankfully anyone who needed rescuing was successfully rescued.  But hours later roads are still closed and partially submerged, and TV news helicopters are buzzing around in the sky.  This area is currently under a state of emergency.

Since June Massachusetts has dealt with an earthquake, Hurricane Irene, and now this. I don’t even know what this is! It’s not Hurricane Ophelia, since that went offshore. Anyway, here’s a picture of Fort MacDonald’s, currently sitting in the middle of a moat, on Canal Street, which now has an actual canal. Across the street at Dunkin Donuts cars were abandoned at the drive-thru line because the water came up over their wheels. This is pretty crazy.

But you’re all here for the fiber, right? In my last post I told you about my shopping expedition.  I’m happy to report that my Bristlecone spindle and my Fat Cat Knits fiber arrived on Saturday.  This is my phoenix twindle, with a fiery orange Austrian crystal tip.  The shaft is birch. I gave it a quick twirl and man, did it ever spin! I still need to work on the nuances of support spindling, but here’s some Bristlecone eye candy. I call it Still Life With Pumpkin, just in time for the Halloween season.

Bristlecone's phoenix twindle

Here’s another shot, with a closer view of the crystal tip.

And what’s a new spindle without a little spinning fiber? The braid on the left is Fat Cat Knits’ Bugaboo colorway.  On the right is Curry. Both are Bluefaced Leicester.

I’ve been posting photos of tools more than projects lately. I’m at a seasonal impasse where work on my Noro Runway #4 short-sleeved cardi has slowed down. Halloween is upon us in Salem, and that has me thinking about skulls. I might start that slouchy skull cap pattern I bought on Ravelry.  The gnome mittens I started a few months ago will probably wait until that hat is done, and I might just keep those for myself, too.  I have decided not to knit anything for Christmas this year. Frankly, I’m too tired to worry about deadline knitting.  My family is dealing with a health crisis, and while, the outcome looks good, the next month or so will be taken up with hospital visits and procedures that could go into the holiday season.

I’ll spin and knit at my own pace to relax and to soothe my soul.

I’m On A Fiber Bender!

On By happygingerhomeIn knitting, SpinningLeave a comment

Two years ago in September I took a drop-spindle class and finally “got” spinning.  As the days grew cold and grey, and the leaves began to change, I bought my first Golding Ringspindle and some Louet light Coopworth roving and got to work.  After class I sat by the Merrimac River to practice with a spindle, some wool,  and a pumpkin-flavored coffee.  Ever since, autumn puts me in a spinning mood like no other time of year. 

Despite a cupboard full of roving and a dresser top covered in spindles, my thoughts this week have turned to scouting the internet for all things spinning.  I looked in on the usual retail websites for something new and fun to buy, but everything there was like the stash I have sitting around, unused, as it is.  It was then I turned to indie suppliers. Ravelry has been my best source of information and my fellow Ravelers have been my biggest enablers! I checked in on the Spindle Eye Candy group this week and, well, one thing led to another.  New discoveries have turned into new obsessions.  Suppliers I never heard of until last Friday are now the object of some serious internet stalking on my part. This in turn has led to my bank account suffering a little bit, but I’m sure I’ll be able to forgive myself once I start playing with my new tools.

Since I have some time to kill before my packages start to arrive, and stalking my mail carrier will do no good, I’ll vent some steam by telling you about my new fibery purchases. Because I know you can all relate.  I’m sure some of you actually do stalk your mail carriers.  I’m not ruling that out personally in the future.

I made three online purchases last week, and out of those two were companies I had never heard of.  The package I’m most looking forward to is from Bristlecone’s Artisan Heirlooms.  I was totally unaware of the beauty of their spindles, glindles, and twindles, but now they’re all I can think about–and apparently they go fast.  Glindles, as I found out on Friday, are GLass-topped supported spindles.  Twindles are topped with Austrain crystal (they’re TWinkly spindles). They’re basically Russian support spindles with fancy tips. I first spotted their work on Ravelry’s Spindle Eye Candy group.  Intrigued, I checked to see if there was a group devoted to these beautiful objects. There is. Now I’m like a little kid with a sugar high waiting for my twindle to come in the mail.  I have to admit that until recently I had zero interest in learing to spin on a support spindle.  Mike, aka the Spanish Peacock changed that with his gorgeous Tibetan spindles (also very hard to get a hold of).  Until my twindle comes I’ll hop onto YouTube for some helpful support-spindling videos. I wanna learn how to flick it!

Spindles need fiber, right? I feel a brand new spindle deserves brand new fiber. A lot of Ravelers were talking about a woman named Ginny and her company Fat Cat Knits. As with Bristlecone, it was love at first site. Again, I blame Ravelry. How could I resist the before and after photos? Her colors are amazing, and the finished spun yarns are absolutely breathtaking.  Fat Cat Knits offer their colorways in a variety of fibers, including superwash. I picked some Bluefaced Leicester in two colorways: Curry, a blend of deep yellows, gold and light greens, and Bugaloo, a cream, brown and turquoise mix.  Fiber? Check. Support spindle? Check.  Now all I have to do is learn how to use it.

During my fiber frenzy (hey-what a great name for a fiber festival! I wonder if anyone’s using it) I browsed one of my favorite online shops, Blue Moon Fiber Arts.   My problem is this: when I can’t decide on one color, I end up buying two.  This time I bought two skeins of lightweight Socks That Rock yarn from their new seasonal line.  I chose Blackbird, a black and grey yarn with hints of orange, and Currier And Ives, a festive holiday blend. So now I’ve got Halloween and Christmas covered, I may use Blackbird to finally knit the Jaywalker socks that have been around for years.  I’m saving Currier and Ives for something out of Cookie A.’s Sock Knit Love book.

So there you have it, my impulse shopping confession.  I apologize for the pictureless blog post. 🙂

Tom Foolery At The Office

On By happygingerhomeIn Spinning1 Comment

Today I did something I thought I’d never do: I spun in public. That’s right, I SIPped.  Now, I don’t mind knitting in public.  I’ve been doing it for years, especially on my lunch breaks.  I used to half-expect a barrage of “hey, my granny knits” comments whenever I pulled out a project in the cafeteria and seven years on, none have come.  No one pays attention or even cares, except for the college boy who once asked me what I was making.

“A sock,” I replied.

“Are you going to make another one after that?” He asked. He seemed genuinely interested.

To which I replied, “I sure am!”

I don’t mind if someone is amused by my knitting in public but with spinning I’ve been more hesitant because, to the uninitiated, it looks weird and no one knows what it is.  I don’t want to have to explain it unless someone really wants to know or try it.  Also I need a lot of elbow room when I spin on a spindle.

Today I had a change of heart because I am deeply in love with this black Romney and alpaca blend I bought from The Woolen Rabbit last Saturday. Can I tell you that this stuff has changed my life? I’ve been getting up in the middle of the night to spin it.  I’ve been getting up an hour early in the morning to spin it. It’s bliiiiisssssss!!! I didn’t want to put my spindle and wool down this morning but I had to go to work.  I suppose I could have called out sick 😉 but I didn’t, so I did the next best thing. I packed up my Greensleeves Tom Foolery and some roving and took it to work with me.  The main cafeteria was out as far as a spinning location goes–I needed someplace with carpeting.  There’s a small lounge that’s carpeted and today it was  completely empty! I expected to use one of the swivel armchair, but when I got there I found they had installed tall bistro-style table with tall chairs! It couldn’t have been more perfect. I was able to spin almost down to the ground from my high perch and except for a couple of passing people I didn’t meet a soul. Of course I did drop my spindle on the carpet a few times but it’s my own fault; I like to see how fine a yarn I can spin, so sometimes I push the envelope and it backfires on me. An on-the-spot inspection each time showed no dents, nicks or things of that nature. It was a perfect break in what turned out to be a pretty sucky day and all I’ll say about it is spinning definitely saved some lives today… :0

So there’s a nice close up of my new Greensleeves spindle.  I like it a lot. It doesn’t spin quite as long as my Goldings but I am very impressed with it.  It does have a nice spin on it and the woods and the craftsmanship are just beautiful.  The whorl is is made out of pink ivory and pommel bubinga and the shaft is bubinga too. I love saying bubinga! Typing it, though, not so much.  Pink ivory is one of the woods I’ve been coveting in a spindle.  I would still like to get one on which it’s the primary or only color.  Other woods I want are purpleheart, ebony, and bois de rose. So many colors! I’m happy with the weight of the yarn I’m spinning on it so I think the combination of spindle weight, fiber and spinning ability are all coming together nicely here.

So this is my achievement after two days of spinning this fiber.  What a cute, fuzzy little ball of yarn, no? I’m so in love with this.  I should have stuck a dime in the middle of it for scale but I’ll do that another time.  I’m spinning it extremely fine, but all of my spinning so far tends to be thicker when plied than I expect it to be so my goal here is to spin as fine as possible an ply it two or three times.  If I play my cards right it will be fingering weight, and hopefully no thicker than worsted.  Then all I have to do is decide what to knit with it.  Does alpaca make yarn too slippery for socks? What are you all knitting with alpaca/blended yarn? Suggestions please!