The Sinister Spinster

A birthday shawl

2011-09-11T12:38:00.001-07:00

It's only been since July.... Well, posting in the summer is hard. Your taking trips, going to events, trying to stay as cool as you can in your house, and no the afghan is not the perfect project.

In any case, this past month, I joined my first ever mystery knit a long (KAL). There was a Stephen West KAL coming up on Ravelry (and I already had one finished Stephen West pattern, and two more on the way), so I decided to join in.

The way it works, for those in the audience wondering, you sign up, and then you get clues a week apart. These clues are successive sections of the pattern to knit, in this case a shawl. You only know what came before, not what comes next. There were guidelines.

We were told to pick three colors (yardages were recommended for different shawls sizes). I went to sock summit and had fun in the "Verb for Keeping Warm" booth. I got several colors to choose from for my shawl. I ended up using the yellow on the left, the color in the middle, and a skein of pico accuardi in the color "Gwendolyn," not pictured.

Then the first clue came out (I waited until the third one before I started really, as I wasn't thrilled with how the first and second looked). For those interested, I modified the pattern and did a bi-color garter tab for the cast on, rather than in color A. I didn't like the look of the little nugget at the top of a different color.

The next week, clue two came out.

And then three (which basically repeated, so pretty easy to do)

And by then, I was basically done. Mom and Angharad helped me get some good photos for the next part of the KAL, which was to post your photos of your completed object for a prize drawing (and it was on my birthday too). So here it is: my Indigo Garden, pattern Earth and Sky, by Stephen West.

Happily enough, my shawl one a random drawing. Sometime soon, I am going to get a skein of beautiful yarn in the mail. I can't wait! Well, I guess I can, but it will be a wonderful late b-day present when it comes.

The joys of procrastination

2011-07-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

There are many other things I should be doing now. I know this, yet here I am in the library, sipping coffee.

Part of the reason being a good friend from forever is in town. All the way from NY, and I haven't seen her in ages. Last night a large group of us locals got together with her and played pictionary, Duel Style! It was brilliant.

For those who have never played this version, we made it up. But the rules are fairly simple, and easy to remember even after several drinks. Split up into teams (we did girls vs boys) and alternate who draws. We had an enormous white board to use bigger than me. You have one minute to draw what is on your pictionary card (the category being detirmined by rolling dice or some such). Then both teams guess, and whoever guesses first gets the point. If there is question, the two people who guessed at the same time then get to have a duel!

Girls won of course. Although the boys won all but one of the duels.

Rays of Sun

2011-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

I just finished a new shoulder shawl. I am in love with small shawls that just warm your shoulders.

The shawl is the Lakedale Shawl by Stephen West, from Malabrigo Book 3.

Yarn: The blue is Jitterbug from Colinette. I don't have the label, so I don't know the color way. The yellow is Socks that Rock lightweight. These colors were in my stash (Jitterbug from A, and Socks that Rock from J) and I couldn't resist the combination. Nice and bright. The blue makes me think of Starry Night and also what has come to be known as the Duc du Berry blue (from a medieval manuscript that reaaaaally liked that color).

I knitted this lovely shawl in three weeks. It kept me interested and enthused the whole way. I will say the bind-off was a pain (1000 stitches ish), but well worth it! I love this pattern. Here is the finished piece blocking:

I had a few modifications. Jitterbug has slightly less yardage than what the pattern called for, so I did fewer repeats of the center blue (I went to 211 instead of 231). The pattern is really easy to make larger or smaller because the edge repeat is two stitches. At the very end of the shawl, I didn't have enough of the blue to do the bind-off, so I bound off in the yellow. I think it looks quite nice that way, if I do say so myself. It reminds me of a few things, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, a sun against an azure sky among them. Here is a ravelry link, if anyone is interested.

And now, eye candy!

And I will leave you with the flowers in bloom! What do flowers need? Rays of sun!

Yarn Disaster

2011-07-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

I recently was given some yarn. This yarn was given to me with the promise that if I untangled it, it would be mine (or whomsoever had the patience). It was hand dyed by Janel Laidman. I felt up to the task, so I took the bag o' yarn home. When I got it home I spread it out on my living room floor and stared in wonder (more like abject horror):

But, I am a patient woman. I got out my ball winder and began to turn the mess into a skein of yarn:

At which point I began to discover that there was stuff inside this ball. Christmas ornaments. Peacock feathers. Rafia. Sticks.

But, I have now wound two skeins, and I still have a mess. I think there are at least two more skeins of yarn to be found. I have my work cut out for me!

Of Sheep and Rainbows

2011-06-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

Occasionally a pattern comes along that you just want to make again and again. Sometimes you get sick of it, but you come back to it a year later enthused and wanting to make it all over again.

For me that pattern is a Felt Flock, from Fiber Trends. This year I decided to make a rainbow of sheep. Who wouldn't? I can make about one of these cuties a week if I put my mind to it.

And here I am at the Egil's Skaligrimson Memorial Tournement this year with them in all their cute glory.

Laure

2011-05-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

I recently (and by recently, I mean a few months ago), I cam across a beautiful Nora Gaughn pattern from Berroco's website called "Laure." Now this was a beautiful pattern with curves and angles, so I decided I needed to make it. I had 4 skeins of an Alpaca I bought on the internet in college that are about the same weight as Ultra Alpaca, so I went for it.

This thing was a pain. You make all the little hexagons seperately (okay, I'll give you that), and then you go and pick up stitches all along the edges of the hexagons (and here: when they say the k1 edge, they mean the selvedge edge rather than the outside of the hexagons. That was my first sign that all was not well. And, up to this point, I had been trusting that the pattern knew what it was doing. Because, honestly, I had a pile of blobs that were supposed to morph into my new scarf (I was skeptical).

Once I had that edging done (and this is the point that all the hexagons were connected) I still had to pick up and knit a ruffle edging around each and every single *@%#in one of them! And to make matters worse, I ran out of yarn close to the very end. Thankfully I was able to find a yarn with a close color match (Ultra Alpaca) and finish it.

And it still looked like nothing I would wish to inflict upon even my worst enemy. It looked like a mass from outer space that had latched itself to my neck and was searching to leach every last bit of life from me.

But then I blocked it. And it magically turned into something I would wear. Often even. My friend K graciously agreed to a photo shoot. I managed to get photos of several things that I have made recently but have no photos of (isn't it hard to get photos of yourself in a hat?)...no decent photos I should say. The photo above being the perfect example. So again, thank you Kelly!

Pattern Laure (Ravelry Link)

Yarn: Filatura Lanaroto Puno and Ultra Alpaca

In other news, I have been making a rainbow of sheep. They are all felted, and I feel a photo shoot coming on. Rainbow sheep and....skittles!

Shawls in Review

2011-05-10T14:05:00.001-07:00

I have been bad about taking pictures of finished objects. Recently I bothered my new house mate enough that she agreed to help me photograph some of my projects. I don't think I blogged the Aeolian Shawl when I finished it last year, so I need to fix that.

Project: Aeolian Shawl

Materials: 2 skeins Malabrigo Lace in shade Lettuce, US 5s (I love the Addi Lace needles by the way). And lots and lots of beads. Ravelry Link

The other lace shawl I made last summer was Haruni. This was a lovely shawl. I am super happy with it. I made a smaller version with beads to get a light summer shawl.

Project: Haruni

Materials: A random cone, possibly linen/silk. Ravelry Link

Thoughts of Spring

2011-05-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Spring is here! And, no, its not time for assassinating pigeons.

No, it is, in fact, time to make a bajillion little felted sheep. I am using the pattern A Felt Flock from Fiber Trends. I quite like this pattern. I usually end up making a felt sheep or two for

people a year. This year I decided I needed a rainbow flock to tempt people at the Norse Trade Blanket at the Egil's Skaligrimsson Memorial Tournament.

So far I have red all felted and stuffed. I have orange, yellow and green ready to be felted, and blue on the way.

I have also made a few that aren't rainbow. The natural one was made for a friend, who I am waiting for to come and collect it. The pink is going to Egil's, but for now, it is on sale at Heartwood Naturals, an Artist Co-op at 6th and Olive in Eugene.

That is the project that has been taking up a good portion of my time lately. Instead of madly knitting away for me, or working on clothes for Egil's, I have been working on stuff to put up for sale at the co-op. This is an experiment. I am not hoping for a huge income. Rather, I am hoping for "Pizza Money" as my Latin professor used to put it. So, if you know any one looking for cool handmade stuff for mother's day...

Powering Through

2011-04-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today has been a day of fail. I have been horribly mopey and grumpy, and wanting to make skeletons for my closet. I am not going to be terribly specific (since an internet post on Ravelry is the reason I am crabby), but suffice it to say someone said something on a public forum that really upset me about my work. So, the solution? Cry a little in the morning, then clean the kitchen. I may have even unearthed part of my desk (not in the kitchen, but part of my afternoon madness nonetheless)!

The other part of this be productive so I don't wallow kick is to blog about new projects. Monday night at knitting I finished another pair of fingerless mitts using my Willow pattern.

This is my 4th pair of this pattern. It is super quick to knit up, I knit the pair above in two days. They took:

1/2 a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock (40% lambswool, 25% silk, 25% nylon, 10% kid mohair | 328 yards | 100 grams) and US 5 needles

I decided to stripe these as I had some leftover Silk Garden Sock in my stash. I striped them by alternating 2 rows from the center, and two rows from the outside of the skein. I also decided not to do the picot bind off as the mitts are already busy enough without the picots. I am super happy with how these turned out, so I am making another pair for the shop in another color.

If all goes well, I will be trying to sell some hand-made items, including these at an Artist's co-op at 6th and Olive. Wish me luck!

Question?

2011-04-08T14:24:00.001-07:00

So, a question to the masses:

What do you knit in spring and summer?

And then the second part is: What handknit things do you wear during the spring/summer?

I ask this as I have had the conversation recently with several people about the "seasonality" of knitting.

In other news, the local Barony held their annual A&S championship. This means.....I am done! With that hat in any case. I am still the Arts and Sciences Minister for Adiantum. A job I love, no really.

But seriously, congratulations to Bastian Eisengart for two beautiful entries on medieval food! He is the new A&S champion.

I was delighted by the number of entrants this year. Especially as I was in charge of organizing said championship. But I am glad that it is over. The picture is me, being done (and being thanked too)!

Now I get to think about classes for Egil's. Hmm, I should go work on that. Cheers!

Finished Project

2011-03-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

2 Weeks ago, I finished a new sweater. I am really happy with this one. It also broke the sweater block I've had lately. I don't think I've made a sweater in over a year. I have started (and stopped) several in the interim...just never finished them. Needless to say, this one makes me happy.

The yarn is something I have had in my stash for quite awhile (sorry, no pre-op photos). It was a worsted weight, worsted spun yarn from the Norlands, a living history museum near Livermore Falls, ME. If you are in that area of Maine for any reason, it is quite wonderful. They have tours of the enormous estate that includes: The main house, the stables, a Universalist Church, the library, and a one room school house. But I digress.

I bought 5 skeins of yarn milled from the wool of their sheep (as it is a living history museum) at abt 4 oz each. With the help of Fyber Duck, I dyed the yarn, three black, and two in a variegated pink with One Shot dyes. The black turned out grey...but I was still happy with it. This is probably 4 years ago, by the way.

In February (when it snowed, remember?) I took this yarn out of my stash and swatched. Since I didn't have a pattern in mind, I went for it. My goal was a striped, yolk sweater. Sort of like the garter yolk cardigan, but my own design. I did end up using the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd for my numbers.

I did find that I had to do my decreases faster on the yolk (every 1.5" instead of every 2") and I went down to a smaller size on the yolk. The yolk is a little big in back (as I am so small across my shoulders) but it is not enough to tear out, and it is supposed to be a big, wear over other things sweater anyways.

In any case, tada!

Is spring here yet?

2011-03-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

I have been working on several things the past two months, and so have been lagging on my blogging.

Reason 1 is that I have been working on editing some of my patterns and putting them on Ravelry for sale and download. This is a time consuming process, and a little nervewracking for someone who has not done this before. I am posting links to the patterns here, lets see if this actually works.

The first is a ruffled scarf in Kidsilk Haze:

1 skein Rowan Kidsilk Haze on US 8s. This scarf has a lace edging that is fun, and gives your scarf a little zing. This pattern is available for $5

The second is one I'm quite proud of. It is a fingerless glove pattern with a short row thumb. It is side to side, so no need to knit in the round!

One skein of DK or Sport Weight Yarn, I used Regia 6 ply for the first, and Rowan Felted Tweed for the second.

I also have a couple of patterns waiting in the wings that I need to write the pattern for. Here is one, and easy Earflaps hat with a simple colorwork pattern in Frog Tree Alpaca.

Reason 2: The weather is just blah, and although I have been knitting a gajdillion miles, I have felt very little inclination to blog about it. And you have probably realized by now how horrible I am at following a set time to blog. At all. Period.

New Years Resolution

2011-01-16T17:20:00.001-08:00

So, a little belated, but my intention is to actually blog occasionally. My goal will be to post at least every Sunday. We will see if this actually goes into practice.

On the plus side, I have a new computer that may aid me in this endeavor. I have a lovely Toshiba laptop that was a part Christmas gift from my Dad, and part investment on my part.

To get said computer, for the first time I braved the shopping malls on Black Friday. It was terribly and mentally scarring. Thank goodness for my lovely mother who ferried us around to two computer shops and then back to the first one when I decided they had a better deal.

Now this being said, let me tell you never to buy a computer from Office Max. I ended up buying one there because it was the end of the day and I had found a computer, but their business practices seem to be perfectly abysmal. Lets just say that if they had not had this lap top in stock I would have given up on the whole thing and gone computerless for another couple of months.

In other news, 12 Night Adiantum has come and gone another year. I had a lovely time, but did not get my outfit completed in time. As a consequence, I wore my underdress for a good portion of the event without the overdress. Here is a lovely picture of the 6 (bloody!) hour court. During which I bullied several friends into beating my fingerloop braiding for me.

For a 12th Night dress, my plan was a linen underdress in green silk (the one I am wearing in the picture) with a light salmon overdress in silk (a herringbone twill) lined in linen. Alas, despite staying up late the week before, and much frantic sewing, I failed to complete said dress. At one point I tried putting on the dress (ignoring the lack of buttons and safety pinned hem) and sewing myself into it. At the point where the thread I was using broke, I gave up and decided it will be finished for the next event I go to.

Part of my lack of finishing has to do with now being the Arts and Sciences Minister for our local group, Adiantum. As such I am getting less sewing done than I used to. I fully expected this when I took over the position in June, but I failed to compensate by starting my 12th Night gown early this year. The other stumbling block was my fabric. I couldn't bear to cut it. I may have purchased it for $3 a yard, but I know what fabric like this is worth ($15-$20 a yard probably). And I only had a little over 3 yards. Based on the schematics I drew, this was barely enough for my dress without resorting to piecing. And I was terribly worried that it would fray horribly as soon as I cut into it. Needless to say, I procrastinated.

So here I am at 12th Night, sewing the dress I wanted to wear:

Flemish and Egil's in Review

2010-06-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

So, Egil's is over and done. Merchanting went okay...not great, but I didn't loose money going, which was very important.

I finished my flemish outfit just in time for the event, and even took 1st place in the costuming contest! So, here are pictures of the finished outfit:

Egil's and Craziness

2010-05-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

Egil's Prep work is going full steam. I feel like I have a gajillion things to do, and can't quite bring myself to work on them this evening. My to do list for Egil's:
1) Finish sleeves for my Flemish (see previous post). These are going to be awesome! The are the same plum colored linen as the kirtle, but...they are lined in Orange!
2) Possibly Finish my 2nd Jacobean Jacket (in teal and pink brocade, you will be able to spot me anywhere). I have to attach the sleeves and hem.
3) Make two more Caps for the booth, as well as finish a bunch of other small projects I have been hoping to have for the tailor's shop.
4) Make a new shift! I have decided I need a new light-weight shift. It is all cut out, I just am not in the mood for machine sewing right now. I sat down at the machine and realized I needed to change the thread. That was the end of that for the evening.
5) I want a new hood! Maybe if I cut one out I can hand sew it at Egil's.

In lieu of anything else exciting picture wise, I got a new hat! It is very cute, and I will have pictures at some point of me actually wearing it. Isn't it pretty? And I have the perfect ribbon to affix it to my head!

Flemish Working Women's Outfit

2010-05-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that I have costuming ADD? No? Well...I do. Majorly. It's a bit of a problem considering all the free time I have on my hands right now.

Well, two weeks ago, after doing some research on flemish 16th century lower class for a friend of mine who is having me help her make garb, I decided to have a stab at making one myself. I have also drooled for a long time over Drea Leed's site and the flemish information she has there. I also have, at various points in the past, stumbled on dress diaries for the time period and drooled over them.

I haven't done enough research at this point to enter anything, but I think I will have a new outfit for Egil's. Yay!

The kirtle (underdress) is the linen/rayon from Joann's (it's okay...) and only the bodice is lined. I used knife pleats because those work the best in an underdress. Cartridge pleats are lovely but not for a kirtle. The kirtle is side lacing, and surprisingly easy to get into.

I will take more pictures later. It's really hard to take pictures of yourself wearing a dress I might add. And I am horrible at the self timer thingy.

The outer layer is wool lined with a linen/cotton. Both are striped, and I really like the effect. The colors aren't normally what I would associate with Flemish stuff, but both fabrics are from my stash.

I am currently on round 4 of pleating the skirt. In the picture you can see round 2. Frustration!!

Cartridge Pleat Attempt #1: Everything was going brilliantly, I love cartridge pleats by the way, when I realized that the end of my pleating thread had come unsecured and all my pleats fell out. Curses! $%$@$

Cartridge Pleat Attempt #2: Got the skirt all attached (as pictured above), and I realized that my bodice was too long and not hitting me right. Plus, after looking at other peoples overgowns, I realized that I liked the look of the overgown better with a flat front. I had angled the two fronts down like my kirtle initially. So, off came the pleats and I chopped off bits of the bodice.

Box Pleat Attempt #1: I decided at this point that I was going to try box pleats. From the backs of the gowns I have looked at, it doesn't appear to stand out quite as much as cartridge pleats do. And, box pleats make more sense for a lower class gown as they use less fabric to achieve fullness. Not that I am making a definitive statement on what they used. So, I pinned the sides and center back of my skirt to my bodice, pinned half the pleats and started sewing. My luck was not with me. I got to the middle of the back and realized it wasn't the middle of the back. I had pinned the center back of the skirt to the side of my kirtle. So I had half the skirt left to pleat into only 1/3 of my bodice. Oops, back up.

Box Pleat Attempt #2: Keeping fingers crossed that this one will work. I have half of my skirt pinned and it looks great! I have three knife pleats in the very front, and then double box pleats across in order to accomodate the amount of fabric I have. I did knife pleats in the very front so that it would lie flat and flow into the double box pleats which are very thick. Please Please Please, let this work.

Two Recently Finished Outfits

2010-03-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

I have been working the past year on developing an SCA persona. For the non-SCA people out there, I have been developing a character for those crazy medieval reinactments I do. This means, at this point, picking a time period I like and choosing a name appropriate to the time and place as well as starting to construct a wardrobe. Up until this point, I have been trying out outfits from all different areas of SCA time frame. I have tried a Greek Peplos (early period), Norse apron dresses (also early period) which come in and out of Vogue in the SCA, Basic T-Tunics, generic gowns, Italian Renaissance (yay! late period), Tudor and Gothic.

Gothic, for me, has the best clothes, the best art, best architecture, and cool history, so I decided to go with that.

I have finally chosen and submitted a name. And in all fairness, I have had the name picked out for a year, I just hadn't sent in the forms. My old name had been something I chose on a whim which stuck - Hildegarde - and had used for 4 years, but I honestly didn't think it was me. And since I want my persona to be English, also doesn't work. I went with a pretty name from one of the name books (I think it opened to the page randomly) - Idonia - and then chose one of my family names as a last name - Sherwood. Sounds like it will pass the submition process, and then it shall be mine forever.

I have been working on fleshing out my SCA wardrobe with gothic fitted gowns which my housemate D has been helping me fit. I now have two, and have plans for a third for 12th night this coming winter. Here are two very silly pictures of my new dress (finally finished all the seams, eyelets and hem!) and a bucket. Awesome bucket for taking to events.

Details: 3 yards medium weight Linen (purchased from Fabric store.com) in red, and three in white for the lining.
This is a front laced dress with eyelets spaced 2 cm apart. The hem is not all the way to the ground as this dress is for tourney wear, and I dont want the skirt dragging through the mud and grass. This is a short sleeved version for now, but the short sleeve is based on peasant dress in Les Tres Riches Heures de Duke de Berry.

I have also taken a detour into later period with my Tudor gown. And now I have fallen in love with the so called "Jabobean Jackets." My friend Karis is a bad influence. Here is my latest from the back. The cap is one Karis made, patterned from Tudor Tailor, but it is too small for her, so I can wear it.

Knitted Coaster Pattern

2010-02-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I had a quick, easy idea for Christmas presents. Something everybody needs. Something small and good for giving to the people in my life who I want to give something hand made to, but not something super time intensive. My solution was felted coasters with needle felted designs. And since coasters are entirely too easy to loose, I decided to make them in as bright colors as I could manage.

There were many test runs with this pattern, I think I knitted it 3 or 4 times before I came up with a pattern I am happy with. The end result fits most cups/mugs and has an attractive raised rim around the edge.

Since then, a few people have asked for the pattern. This is a fairly easy make, but I haven't found this patterns out there in exactly this permutation, so here it is:

Knitted Coaster Sets

By the Sinister Spinster

Materials:

Lamb's Pride Worsted from Brown Sheep Co. (one skein will make about 6 individual coasters, this works great with left overs since it doesn't take very much yarn)
US 10.5 double pointed needles (If you want you can do this on 2 circs or magic loop, but it does start from the center)

With double pointed needles cast on 8 stitches and divide onto 4 needles. You will have two stitches on each needle. Join in the round and knit first rows as follows:

Row 1: KFB (Knit into the front and back of the stitch), mark as begining of the round and KFB to the end of the round.
Row 2 (and all even rounds): Knit around
Row 3: *KFB, k1* repeat around
Row 5: *KFB, k2* repeat around
Row 7: *KFB, k3*
Row 9: *KFB, k4*
Row 11: *KFB, k5*
Row 13: Join a second strand of yarn as the bind off is worked with two strands. P2tog, *take this stitch and place it back on the left hand needle and p2tog with next stitch* Repeat until all stitches have been bound off.

Weave in your ends, using the center end to close up the hole and then make a bunch more.

Felt in your washer on hot (felt a bunch at the same time to save energy and water please). One cycle is usually enough to felt the coasters enough. Take them out and lay flat to dry. Be warned, different yarns felt differently and at different rates if you use a different yarn. If you do use a different yarn, felt one first to make sure you are happy with the size (as the pattern is easy to make smaller or bigger if needed).

Final note on finishing: Needle felting is a great way to personalize these and you can use the left overs from other coasters to make designs on these.

Shiny

2010-02-04T16:48:00.001-08:00

At Midwinters last month, I got this new pretty:

In other news, this means that I finally have a camera charger. I am sure that now I will find my old one. It is inevitable.

The pretty is a "Fern and Quill" which is an arts award. Yay. I now have a pretty. This is my first award in the SCA, so I am pretty excited. Notice that it was signed in September last year...that was an event I was not able to attend sadly, so this pretty thing had been waiting to go home with me all that time.

Court was fun because I got to go up twice (and under two different names even!). Once for the Fern and Quill and the second time as A & S Champion. Now I just have to find pictures...

In other news, I have a new pattern that is up for sale in the knit shop for fingerless gloves

Willow

Materials: 1 skein Willow Tweed by Louisa Harding (DK weight) and size US 5s

Saga of the camera charger part deux

2010-01-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

....sigh....

Tuesday: Not surprisingly, the camera charger I wanted was out of stock, and is apparently back ordered from the company. I got a call at 7:30 this morning (I was planning on sleeping till 8) to tell me this and to offer to let me buy the newer charger at a discount. The newer, more expensive charger. Which charges my camera faster...I just want my old charger back.

Well, its ordered. So hopefully this one will ship and will work. I'm not holding my breath. Hopefully I wont have to buy a new battery to go with this new charger cause my old one is outdated or something. Grrrrr.

Coming soon: My week in review, or how my basement flooded, also to be known as why we need a new water heater.

Saga of the Camera Charger

2010-01-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

So, at some point this autumn I misplaced my camera charger. I looked and looked and cleaned and cleaned, and I finally managed to find the cord to the charger. Now, as this charger requires a little black box to actually place my battery in, the cord alone does me no good.

"It will be fine," I told myself. It will turn up while you are cleaning someday. So I cleaned some more, and looked some more, and I have come to the conclusion that either my fabric, or my yarn, ate it.

The last straw was Midwinters last weekend (a local SCA event) that I went to. Surprisingly, I won A & S champion for the barony and also received a feather and quill. Yay! A great event, and I wore my new Jacobean jacket and cartridge pleated skirt. I, by the way, received several compliments on my new outfit (as well as the critique that I wasn't wearing a hat or coif). At the end I regreted that I did not have my camera (as I have run the batteries down since loosing said charger).

So, I came home and decided I would go find/buy myself a new charger to replace the old one. I have a beautiful camera and I want to use it!

Wednesday: I went to Office Max as it is close to my work and I know they carry Olympus cameras (mine is an Olympus FE 280). Unfortunately they don't really carry the chargers seperately. And well I understand that, it was slightly disapointing. They didn't really even have a universal charger that would work. Which is what I was hoping for.

Thursday: Thursday I helped Karis set up her new sewing room. We went out to Lowe's and bought shelving then went to Malwort to pick up printer cartridges. While there I decided to check out the camera chargers and they had a bunch. I found one that looked promising as a universal charger that stated on the label that it worked for Olympus cameras and had a million different attachments. $40 I walked out of the store happy in the knowledge that my camera would now work.

After helping Karis set up her sewing room, I returned home and immediately tore open the package (does anyone else hate plastic packaging that requires a hacksaw to open?) and all the little bits fell out. But that was okay, it was going to work and everything would be okay, right? I found the plug bit that fit my camera and realized that although it fit, that was a data transfer cable. The package included data transfer cables as a "bonus" inside the package. So I looked at the bits that actually worked with the charger. No luck, not a single one of them actually fit in my camera.

Are they serious? They included a data transfer cable as an extra in this package, but not a battery charger for my camera?

Turns out my camera was not on the included list (hidden deep inside this stupid thing I will have you know) and you have to have them send you an appropriate plug thing. Grrrrrrrrrrr. D was nice enough at this point to tell me "It's okay, you can return that," and to put all the little stupid bits back in the packaging. Needless to say that went straight back from whence it had come.

Friday: I called Dot Dotson's camera place and they said "no" and told me to check with Batteries Plus in Coburg. I called them and was told they had a universal for $38 that would work with my camera. When I explained my worry that my camera apparently is not "universal" the nice man on the phone said that I could try it out in the store before I bought it.

Sunday: Today I looked on the internet before heading out to Batteries Plus and found my original charger for $21 and not some universal that will not like me. So I ordered that and have my fingers crossed that they will not steal my identity or send me something not what I want at all and then refuse to take it back.

The moral of the story being: Do not loose your camera charger, and clean your room more often.

A review of the year

2010-01-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

Last year had its ups and downs. I knitted a large amount of the year, but I did not make nearly as many sweaters as last year (probably a good idea for my hands and wrists).

New Year's Resolutions:

Find new job (as a subitem of said list: work on Resume)
Eat healthy and cook more
Make a pretty GFD for 12th night next year (I just ordered the lining)
Read more edifying material than my usual silly Sci-Fi

As a part of my year in review, I thought I would post pictures highlighting my year:

The pictures are:

My first GFD with l putting on my hem at Egil's
My Tudor gown I made for 12th Night in January '09
A shrug I made for my cousin A (she can still wear it, yay!)
A and I at a Regency Ball in my 1st attempt at a Regency costume
My first SCA knitted pouch based on designs from Rutt's History of Handknitting
My second SCA pouch made for the Baroness of Adiantum featuring my own chart (based off of a cross stitch chart) of a bicranial bear
Koolhas by Jared Flood made in Malabrigo Worsted (made in January '09 I think)
Me'n Dad in Maine at the 2009 family reunion
My 3rd SCA pouch made for Brenda in LA as a thank you.
Spinning on the train (at the train station rather) on the way to LA. Hint *If you spin on the train, no one sits next to you...it worked out great.

New Hat

2010-01-11T22:02:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all! In celebration of no longer knitting Christmas presents, I have been designing a couple of hat patterns for the shop where I work. I was inspired by the currently all popular "slouch hat," which several people have come in recently looking for patterns for. As my hair is getting longer, and I am sick of not being able to wear a hat because my hair is up, I decided to make a pattern for myself. The result is my arrow head lace hat. It has too be lace, because, quite honestly, stockinette is too darn boring to bother with. I am quite happy with the results, and the pattern is now available at the knit shop. I am also working on a smaller size now, because this one is a little large on me (I have a small head).

Materials: 2 skeins Rowan Felted Tweed DK
Needles: 16" US 4s and 5s and US 5dpns

Mom was kind enough to take pictures for me, and they turned out really well. As a bonus, I also got pictures of two sweaters I made a year ago and have no pictures of:

The first is the Katherine Hepburn Cardigan from Lace Style out of Tiur from Dalegarn, the second is "Honey" from Elspeth Lavold's patterns made in the Kashmir DK from Louisa Harding. Both were made about a year ago.

Brain Freeze

2009-12-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

Look at all the pretty colours. I looked in my fabric stash yesterday and realized just how much of my fabric is in gold/red/blue. Poor me. So sad. Now I just need to finish all my current projects so I can move on to other things.

I was working on garb for the current Prince and Princess of Summits (do not ask me to spell their names). I made a light green linen undertunic, Persian. No, not the cat, the culture. Good experience, it was fun learning a new construction technique for the gown. I did have to finish all of the seams by hand, so it took a little while to do. Then, at the last minute, it was decided to add buttons...but that was okay. Alas, I did not get a photo...

In other news, it is almost Christmas and I am getting close to finished with Christmas presents, still have socks to make for Dad, clogs to make for R and other assorted brick-a-brack.

All is well on this front, I will survive the Christmas madness.

D is making chex-mix tonight, so I must go and smell the heavenly odors as they waft through the house.

14th Century Cap/Coif

2009-10-06T15:27:00.001-07:00

For Egil's this summer I decided to start trying to make myself period head gear. I had been reading the Medeival Silkwork blog and saw her information on the cap of St. Brigit and I decided that I had to have one to go with my 14-15th century persona.

The visual sources for the cap are the Maciejowski Bible of the mid 13th century, of which, if you are interested, pictures can be found here. This source has several caps with ties looping several times over the head and the body of the cap.

Another source is the Tacuina Sanitatis of Vienna from the late 14th century. Images of the Tacuina can be found through Wikapedia here at the bottom of the page.

There are several other images of such caps which are discussed at Medieval Silkwork, but the two I have listed are the most pertinant to my persona.

There is also and there is an extant cap that looks like the pictured caps, the Cap of St. Brigit which is extensively discussed in Medieval Clothing and Textiles IV and is discussed more briefly (but very helpfully) at Medieval Silkwork.

The feature that I find so appealing as opposed to other types of caps is the bands that loop over the head and crisscross to hold the cap in place, rather than tying the strings under the chin.

My first prototype worked wonderfully for Egil's and I have made several since as gifts (and as a nicer linen one for me.

I cut my linen to fit my head (one side of the square to equal half my head measurement with no seam allowance). I later made a bigger cap out of linen, and you want a nice snug cap because the linen will warm up and stretch as you wear it.

After I rounded the two halves and hemmed all edges I did an embroidery insertion to connect the. To save time, this cap has a modified embroidery insertion, I did a simple double herringbone instead of the interlaced herringbone stitch of the original cap. I like the way this looks, but I have also done the cap with a seam connecting the halves and like it as well.

The pleating I used was cartridge pleating because I recently learned how, and I have found that it creates nice even pleats with little effort. Also I have found that it is the best way to gather a lot of fabric into a small amount of space.

In the extant cap, the binding over the edges and the ties for the cap were done in a different fabric than the original (both are linen, but the thread counts are different for the cap and the ties) so I had a little fun and put some inkle woven trim on my cap. None of the caps I have found images of indicate that this was done in period. I did this partly because I wanted a pretty cap with a nice edging and partly because I was out of the linen I had used for the body of the cap. Plus I had just made some inkle woven trim. The inkle is sewn to the brim and then I pleated the bottom of the one side of the cap (that goes at the neck) into the trim which then also forms the ties.

And voila! I have a nice cap to keep my hair clean (or pin a veil to) at events. This is me at Festival of the Roses in Caid knitting a medieval pouch. This is not the cap pictured so far, this was my first attempt with out embroidery and with just a plain linen band for the ties.

I have since been able to read the article from Medieval Clothing and Textiles IV, which has a wonderful article on this style of cap and have a few adjustments that I will be making to future caps. In the extant cap it looks as if the back seam wasn't sewn up/embroidered all the way down to the neck (pictured in other people's reconstructions and the diagrams in medieval clothing and textiles IV).

Knitting Humor

2009-08-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

So, someone just sent me this through one of my knitting lists, you should watch it too. It think it contains humor approachable even by the non-knitter.
Just a happy little break from a hectic day.

End of Days

2009-08-20T17:49:00.001-07:00

Well, work continues apace. I will have pictures to amuse people with soon, but not yet. I have explained my lack of posts by: A picture is worth 1,000 words, and since I have no pictures, I have no words. Therefore, no posts to regale people with.

But, on to the exiting news from LA and Mirm.

This weekend is crown, we will be traveling to Fresno (4 or more hours I hear) and I am frantically trying to work on my outfit. Yes, I know, how frantically can I be working if I am typing on my computer? But I have fixed my shift so that the arms are no longer skin tight and I can actually move. I am quite impressed with the results, I added gores into the cuff of the sleeves.

My Gothic Fitted Dress needs work on the sleeves. I was unhappy with how my inset sleeves worked out the first time through, so I am attempting sleeves version 2. The sleeve caps were just a little too poofy, so I am taking off a little of the sleeve caps so they wont have to be eased in so much. Also, the dress needs to be hemmed. Doubt I will get around to actually hemming it by the event...My plan is to make my sleeves lace up too, wont get to that by the event. I might have enough time by crown labour day weekend.

Yes, I will be going to Caid Crown, and then 2 weeks later, attending Antir Crown. I am well traveled. For those of you who dont know, Caid is the SCA kingdom of Southern California, and Antir would be Oregon/Washington (and some other bits).

We have one week left in work before I head back to Eugene, we are not going to finish the tapestry (we really were hoping to) as there just isn't time. I did finish 3 areas in the past two days, so I am feeling good about that. We had a party today at work at a lovely restaurant called Samosa House that has wonderful food. And I got prezzies for my birthday! The first was a beautiful book on cheese types (a conosieurs guide) for my kitchen and the second was:

A magnetic wand!!!! So excited. I am going to go back to Eugene and D will be so incredibly jealos of me. It is the coolest for picking up pins and needles and makes an awesome noise when it extends. It makes me happy.

See you all in September.

***8/22/09***
By magnetic wand...I mean a wand with a magnet on the end. It is teh awesome. I can use it to pick up the multitude of pins and needles that I have dropped over the past 6 months in our house.

If I told you I would have to kill you

2009-06-22T19:08:00.001-07:00

And by that I mean that I don't have much to say with the job front. The studio is fun and awesome and I adore the people I work with (all except for Kim of course). We are putting patches on the back of a textile and I am helping to stitch them down. The excitement of our days is when we get to make off a section as done. I am on a large patch so that may be awhile.

One of my coworkers' birthdays is tomorrow, so we shall be celebrating with a "green" birthday. My contribution is an apple pie, fresh out of the oven (okay it is fresh right now, wont be tomorrow). The "green" part will be green food coloring in whip cream if P & B have food coloring in their cupboard. I may fail and have to bring ordinary food coloring.

Am trying an experiment, I will wait to see how edible the pie is before I tell you the secret ingredient. It looks pretty though. No pictures as I do not have picture capabilities currently.

I was bored and made a batch of whipped cream (even without food coloring) and so tonight we will be having strawberry shortcake.

Everything is good, I am missing my kitchen though, P &B's kitchen is tiny.

LA

2009-06-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

So, in crazy news, I may be going to LA for the next couple of weeks. Haven't finalized details, but I did get the okay from work (and there will be a job when I come back to town if I wants). Don't have tickets yet, or know when I am leaving, but it will probably be in the next week or so.

I will miss D (my housemate) because this is the sort of thing we do if we have too much fruit on our hands:

And now, since I don't have any pictures of cute puppies, you get pictures of bears:

This is a pouch I made with the baronial crest:
see Jane, see two headed bear, hear two headed bear tummy rumble...run Jane, Run!

Egil's

2009-05-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Another Egil's has come and gone. This is the primary reason for my lack of up-to-date posts recently - that, and I'm lazy.

D and I decided that we needed new outfits for Egil's. Well, I decided I needed a new outfit, D decided she needed a new outfit for her friend L, and her fellow. Her fella' ended up in a hand-me-down of mine, go figure. This dress was somehow made with 14" of ease on me about 6 years ago. For some -bizarre - reason, I never finished the outfit. When D first moved in, her fella' was on a pink kick. And so, she thought it would be fun to see if my enormous dress would fit him, since the dress is pink.

It fit. And he adored it, so it went to a good home, with a few alterations. The sleeves were admittedly short, and the hem was long for a guys tunic, so D took the extra from the hem and added it to the sleeves with some piecing.

We wont even go into the horrors of the other outfit D decided to make for Egil's. Which, by the way, turned out beautifully, just took way too much brain power trying to make it at 5 am the night before we left.

On to my outfit. Here is me at the event trying to stand still as L (out of frame) bastes the hem so the safety pins don't show. This is a gothic fitted dress (gfd) based on Robin Netherton's notes on the construction in Medieval Clothing and Textiles I. D helped me fit it - and did a splendid job of it. The second and third pics are of my new pretty cap for my GFD. This is also based upon an article in Mediev al Clothing and Textiles IV on the cap of St. Brigit. The cap is quite easy to construct. I had fun figuring it out, with very few instructions in English, but it is such a simple construction. I would like to make another with my handwoven fabric at somepoint and try the herringbone embroidery used to connect the two halves of the cap.

On another note: Things are growing in our garden!!!

Of Dancing and Sewing

2009-04-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

A quick summary of my weekend. Saturday was spent sewing in preparation for The Regency Spring Ball here in town. Sunday was spent sewing and in fun at the Arts & Sciences Social/Baronial Birthday Bash.

Above are two pictures of my finished Regency Gown. Last time I wore it (in winter), I hadn't finished any lacing for the dress, and it was held together by safety pins. D was awesome though, and came home early and finished my eyelets for me this time! And look! They are spiral laced. This is my new favorite technique. For it is awesome, and totally period.

I then took that finished dress and went to a ball. See the dancing and merriment? We danced for 4 hours, and I didn't sit out any sets. So much fun to be had.

Sunday's picture (right) was me teaching 5 people how to fingerloop braid. Which is wonderful. I was so happy so many people wanted to learn. What is fingerloop braiding you ask? Fingerloop braiding is a totally period way of making trim/laces. They have extant period instruction manuals for this technique. Again, wonderful.

I have to work in the morning, so it is off to bed for me.

Shrugs and Stuff

2009-03-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I survived week one of hell. Next week, round 2. Last week was a 6 day work week for me. Saturday was supposed to be 2 hours of work, and turned into 7 instead, so I had a nice full week. This coming weekend is looking very nice.

Not much knitting has happended this week, so I have to content myself with pictures of two shrugs I knit in the past two months that I recently took pictures of.

The first is a little purple shrug I made for a shop sample:
Knitting Pure and Simple #288
2 skeins Touche from Berroco
Size 6 needles

The Second is round two of the same pattern made for my cousin A (pictured here grinning like a maniac)

Knitting Pure and Simple #288
2 skeins Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece

Death by Yarn

2009-03-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Actually, currently it looks like death by too many hours. Over the past several months I have had to contend with too few hours at work (as anyone out there who has listened to my woes knows) but the next two weeks I am working 40 hour weeks. Wahoo? Let me just say, that being receptionist at my office is one of my most hated jobs. And the receptionist is away for the next two weeks, and guess who gets her job on top of mine? A scooby snack to the first person to guess. I may have to do some serious yarn/fabric therapy next month to compensate. At least I will be getting monies.

In other news, I finished this cool project:
a medieval bag with charts based on those in Rutts History of Knitting. I had a lot of fun knitting it, and I think that I will make several more based on Rutts charts and other medieval charts for gifts and such. The fabric you see will be the lining. It is all that is left over from lining the skirt of my Tudor Gown. The braid is a cotton that I used a basic 5 loop fingerloop braid. And now, because I want to show off my pretty project, come more photos:

Happy Pi(e) day!

2009-03-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Pi(e) day all! okay, I'm a little bit late. But Saturday was officially pi(e) day. There was much pie to be had. We had a bunch of people over who all brought pies (of one sort or another). Dorothy and I made Spanikopita, and a Berry Pie (I supervised as I was sick) and D made Quiche (Woot! my spelling is correct on that one). Her fella brought inverted pie in the form of bread pudding. C S and S brought cheese pie, aka cheese cake. Other peoples provided our stomachs with pizza pie, vinager pie, Greek tomato pie, and a pear claufourt (sp?) pie courtesy of K from Monday knitting. There may have been more pies, but the details are a little fuzzy (no, there was no alchohol involved this time).
There was much yumminess to be had. And L provided back rubs for the sick feeling cook.

Yes, for Saturday was full of plague. I feel mostly better today, after having slept most of Sunday. I decided to be a lump and sleep and read Goblin Hero, sequel to Goblin Quest. Funny series by the way for those in search of creative silly writing with a runt of a goblin as the reluctant hero (very reluctant). Recommended by a friend in Salem. Sick days are perfect for catching up on reading.

In work news, I finally have more hours at the Law Office. The next two weeks I even have almost full time as the receptionist is going to be out of town. I can't make up my mind whether to be thrilled or to want to run screaming. Being receptionist isn't the most thrilling esp. with an impatient boss. Who according to the mother unit, might want someone (i.e. me) to work on his website. Because I'm young, so of course I know how websites go together. On the other hand, it would be something to do when our clients don't bother to bring me the paperwork I need. Grumble grumble...

I have been knitting quite a bit while having little to no hours last month. I know have a pattern I am selling at The Knit Shop, where I work.

It takes one skein of kid silk haze. And it took me forever. This was initially going to be a camisole for the shop. Hahahahaha. Why did I decide to do a camisole out of a lace weight mohair? Someone should have shot me then and there. Anyways, after frogging that (oh, 6 months ago...) I decided to make a scarf as the only viable thing to do with the yarn. Then I ripped this pattern out like three times because I was unhappy with the width of the repeat. It is a ruffle scarf (I know, lots of them out right now) but I added a simple lace to the edging because I didn't like how the stockinette of other ruffle scarves curls. Plus, when you do it in a lace weight it is so much more. Here is a close up:I have a skein left over (as the camisole was going to take two skeins) so I am planning on making the Ice Queen Cowl out of the remainder. How much pink do I need again?

Farthinglae: Take 1, 2 and 3

2009-01-20T00:49:00.000-08:00

I have been much remiss in telling all of my adventures in costuming of late. As I am sure everyone is dying to hear about the stages of my dress (the good, the bad and the really ugly). My plan is to post information on each step (we'll see how many I skip) in order to document the work that went into this the past three months or so. I made the following layers: Smock, corset, farthingale (hoopskirt), Petticoat/underskirt, dress, partlet, false sleeves and hat.

Today's post is about the trials and tribulation of my farthingale. A Spanish Farthingale is a shaped hoop skirt work in Tudor england. The effect is to turn your dress into a hover car. And when you wear it you can't navigate around your house for the fittings if its messy (as mine is most frequently).

For the farthingale I used fabric that Mom gave me ages ago (since no one sees it anyways) in red with white hoop casing (on the inside I am a candy cane). I used directions from Alcega's 1589 farthingale pattern as interpreted in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion with help from the Elizabethan Costuming Page for interpretation. The hoops are plastic tubing (.19 a foot) from the local hardware store. Review: it kinks...a lot. Yeah, first I tried steaming the plastic to get it to unkink, in the kitchen sink this time. I then placed it in front of the heater with boxes on top of it. It looked unkinked, so I cut lengths and started feeding them to my fabric. No biscuit. As soon as I tried this, the plastic decided it wanted to be a flamanco skirt:

After Dorothy and I laughed ourselves silly, (and tried it on multiple times) I tried the bathtub. I put the tubing in the bathtub and poured hot water on the tubes. I let them sit until they relaxed, took the farthingale out, and let it hang dry. This was moderately sucessful:
But still, my skirt had definite flamanco aspects. And was bathtub shaped.

Next, I tried my shower, seeing as my shower is square and not rectangular as is a bathtub. Again I let the farthingale hang dry so the weight of the skirt would help the hoops hold their shapes. Sucess!

Happy New Year

2009-01-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

A Post! And my first of the new year (and in several months as well).
I have been sewing frantically for practically the past 3 months so that can explain my lack of posting. I really will post some pictures of my newest project soon. I swear.
Here is the finished product in any case:

This is the finished product: My 1530's Henrican Court Gown. (For those non-historic geeks out there, that would be Henry VIII). More notes on the trials and tribulations of said costume to come.

Of Stays and Bodies

2008-10-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I completed my regency outfit that I was working on to the point where it was wearable for my evening of dancing and frivolity.
The dress was mostly finished, except that I didn't bind the the bottom of my corset with bias tape (homemade!) and I didn't finish the closures for the back of the gown itself. I also still have plans to make a overgown for evening wear, but had no time to make said garment.
For my outfit I looked heavily at Jessamyn's Regency Costume Page, which is a good resource for Regency Era clothing.
My corset was based on the corset pictured in "Corsets and Crenalines," a nice source for shaping of pieces, but very difficult to use when trying to figure out the stiffening of the corset. I went with cord for my stiffening as the earlier corsets looked to have been stiffened rather than boned in regency, and relied mostly on the busk down the front for any stiffness and posture support. I am very happy with the result, but I still have some fine tuning to do. I need to bind the bottom, add pretty detail work and figure out what is wrong with my busk. I made it out of two layers of a sturdy linen. The eyelets are curtesy of the "Eyelet Fairie," otherwise known as my roommate.

The dress is made of a silk that I got at Egil's from Gold Key this year. Its like butter, and I am in love with it. The front is gathered into the waist band and has a draw string at the top . I chose this method because the pleated fronts are later in Regency period than I wanted to go for. When I complete my lacings for this gown (I had to be safety pinned into it for the dance) I will do spiral lacing. You can't see it, but my corset it spiral laced. This is more period as cris-crossed lacing is a little later. I have found that I like spiral lacing, seems easier to lace to me. Although this corset and the Tudor Bodies are the first I have ever attempted. My Tudor bodies lace spiral up the front and back. Woot!

I also made a simple shift out of a cotton muslin. Pretty impressive for one weeks worth of work?

A pair of bodies in the Closet

2008-09-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

I don't even want to say how long it has been since my last post. But, I am moved in, and I have fully functional internet. Life is good.

I lost my phone on my birthday, so if people would like to call me so I can have your phone number (you know who you are).

The past week has been very hectic. I am going to a regency ball this Saturday, and I decided to make a costume. We'll see how well this works out. I have the corset pretty much done. Still have to make the actual dress and a shift etc...

I also am working on a Tudor outfit for 12th night. Currently I have a mostly finished pair of bodies (stays, corset, whatever). I have the fabric all picked out though. Woot!

In food news, I made a pear & honey pie with a cheese pastry and it was yummy! Slice pears, and drizzle with honey. Armored turnips are also lovely and surprisingly easy to make.

I'm done now. I might post later when I am more in possession of all of my mental faculties.

A Much Belated Post

2008-06-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious me, it has been quite a while since I have posted. I apologize profusely for the lack of updates. My life has been fairly busy of late.

-Mom bought a new house (okay, 1925 isn’t really new, but who’s counting) is Eugene and the plan is for me to rent it from her and pay utilities. Exciting? Yes. Very. Kelly and I were planning on renting it together, but she has possibly got a job in the Virgin Islands. In the meantime we have been fixing the house up.

-The electrical system is old from oldsville. Old knob and tube wiring…

-The paint needs updating. In one room they painted around a bookcase leaving the wall blank the last time they painted.

-The floors need to be redone…principally the disgusting harvest gold linoleum in the kitchen.

In other words I have been knitting quite a bit. I have finished the Katharine Hepburn Sweater from Lace Style:

and a cotton cardigan from last summer’s issue of Vogue Knitting:
I also started a summer camisole from Fitted Knits, my new book of prettiness.

On the other hand, I have a new job. Which commenced at about the time I stopped regular posting. I am working at a lawyer’s office and can’t figure out if I don’t have enough work, or too much work.

Egil’s this year was lots of fun. A big gang of us went, but Kelly got the plague and couldn’t come. By the end of the event it was only team “Die Hards” left (Hawhawhaw, I crack myself up). It was still fun at the end, especially the fact that the three of us left had food left for eight. Let’s just say there was plenty of bacon for us all. We also successfully made “mush” from memory. We did pretty well all things considered; we had no recipe to work from.

I also get to work the next two Saturdays at the Knit Shop. I am quite excited about this, since I really miss interacting with proper knitters sometimes. I enjoy the people I work with, but they are definitely not the crafty types, with the possible exception of the receptionist whose mom knits.

Damn Meth Labs

2007-12-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

As the title of the post suggests, I am about to embark upon a rant of epic - for me - proportions.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.
Now that that is over, let me just express my sincerest wish that all things related to methamphetamines be stricken from this planet. With the exception of beloved nasal decongestant. Those should be given to me, over the counter, not locked away where I can't clear up my bloody stuffed up head - which, I might add, is making things dastardly difficult to type and alliterate to boot. It's all their fault, well, that and law makers who have taken decongestants - which I can't even manage to type to a point that the dictionary elves hidden within blogger will recognize. Well, when I am not sick, I understand the point of trying to remove a component for the vile drug as a ready source, I bemoan the loss as a sick person.
On to the knitting - meth and knitting, bet you never thought to hear those two in a sentence together, did you?
Not much knitting has been happening, I have been sick since Tuesday. When, I might add, I managed to take my French exam, which I think I passed, it's all a little hazy. I did cast on for a lace shawl Monday and have a bit done on it, not really enough to post pictures of yet, but let me see what I do have pics of to post.
Well, here is my progress with Jaywalkers from Magknits. I am past the heel on both:

And I made a shrug from Fiber Trends, "Shrug your Shoulders"

J'aime chanter

2007-10-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

A whole month since my last post, give or take. Not much has changed. My French course has started up (thus the foreignness of the title). I am enjoying French, more than I did the last course in French I took at PLU.
In recent news, I went to a lovely medieval music concert at Beale Hall with Kelly and her mom last Friday. The music was wonderful, and there were a few new pieces that would be worth learning. One was "Annum Novum" (or was it Annus Novus?) for the new year that the group sang by progressing around the music hall while singing the verses. It was wonderful and a nice medieval version of surround sound. There was also a really amusing one about a knight and a peasant girl, where the knight was trying to seduce the girl, and she was quite deliberately putting him in his (rather ridiculous) place.
On the other hand the concert was 3 hours long, and would have been longer if the singers had not commenced to cut out verses following the intermission. Lord, 11 pm was late enough as it was! The last few songs were also modern interpretations of medieval monophonic music, and they were boooring. Though that may have just been that they (the singers) had saved those three songs 'till the very end, and at that point, most of us were wanting to depart.
Sunday I went to the Haunted Corn Maze with Laura and Audrey. I almost chickened out at the last moment (seriously, I am a chicken) but Audrey convinced both Laura and me to go. I am glad she did because I enjoyed myself immensely. And it was really quite funny watching Laura say "hi" to everything in our path (friend, foe or corn stalk). Although, I did get quite freaked out at various points by chainsaw wielding masked villains. One such scare happened when Dad called for our usual Sunday chat. I was talking (quickly) and saying "goodbye," when I was startled by someone with a flashlight (not a villain, just another maze goer) and screamed into the phone. I haven't called him back, so I don't know if he still possesses his hearing...
In knitting news, I am finally finished with Clapotis, pictures coming soon, starting the fronts on the Katharine Hepburn sweater from Lace Style, and making tons of scarves for Christmas..
I am also now on ravelry. If you have not yet checked it out, ravelry is lots of fun for knitters. You can inventory your projects/stash, and get info on new projects, knitting network, etc.

OFF (Of Flocks and Fibers)

2007-09-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

Another Sheep to Shawl finished. Sheep to shawl, being (for those less fibre jargonly inclined) a competition to make a shawl in 5 hours by first spinning the yarn, and then weaving a shawl, and all done by 5 spinners and one weaver. Our sheep to shawl wasn't quite the same:

No competition actually took place.
There were 4 of us (Three people didn't show up).
We warped the loom with commercial yarn (a Shetland yarn in the grease).
We were aiming for a stole, rather than a shawl...etc.

Well, when I say finished, by that I mean mostly finished. Our shawl wasn't quite complete by 5 pm, so Asher took the shawl home to finish. But that was because we were down on the number of spinners and we chose a time intensive pattern on a table loom. Sheesh. But we did remarkably well, and I love how the shawl is turning out.

It is a herringbone twill with a dark gray warp, and a mix of lime green and turquoise for the weft. Lots of fun. The finished product is ultimately a raffle item to raise money to bring a spinning wheel to an underprivileged youth or some sort. So, all for a good cause.
Remarkably, I came home mostly within budget. I bought 2 lbs of some 21 micron merino blend roving ($10 a lb), a skein of a silk cashmere (90/10) blend, a sock yarn skein (in fire colours, I kid you not), a diz for drafting, and 4 oz of a superwash merino alpaca (80/20) blend. A good haul. And to prove that I have been spinning:

And last but not least, lets see if this works for a banner.

New Camera

2007-09-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

So far I find myself able to stick with posting at fairly regular intervals. Fancy that. I looked at the date of my last post, and it is from exactly one week hence. Verbal pat on the back aside, I have spending the interval playing with my new camera. For I finally have one to replace the old, after its sad death.
My new camera, I might add, is mighty pretty. And small. Perfect for midget-me.
Otherwise I have spent my time running around preparing for OFF (Oregon Flock and Fiber for those not in the know). A group of us will be demo-ing a sheep to shawl (very informal) on Sunday from 10 am to 3 (I think?). We had three people at the beginning of this week for said Sheep to Shawl, and the normal amount of people for said recreation is generally 6. 5 spinners and one weaver. And did I mention we had no loom with which to weave? A sad state of affairs.
As of yesterday though, we have 6 people and a loom!
-And there was much rejoicing-
A, Jodie, Erin, Mackie, Katie, and little old me. Plus a table loom someone's mom is loaning us. Should be fun come Sunday.
I also have my first bats made up from my new drum carder (b-day gift from Mom). Here is my new pretty in all its glory:

I also finally have pictures of the snow drop shawl from the Yarn Harlot's website. I am quite proud of it. Only took me 3 months to get up the courage to block it. But I think it was worth it. And the shawl won first prize in lace at the Lane County fair! Woot.

Bread, Bread, Bread

2007-09-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

Here I sit (in a chair that is entirely too tall, I might add) in Kelly's kitchen, with a computer open in front of me, and it is time for a new post. May I just say that Kelly's family has more cookbooks than anyone in the entire world?! You say I exaggerate? Surely I jest? I lie not. But all is well, I have recipes to take home, and there is bread in the oven. Cuban bread, if I recall correctly. I'm just hoping that the recipe doesn't call for a half cup of cigars or anything. Hmmm, I think that should that eventuality come to pass, I may have to run screaming for the hills.
But I digress. And my post is starting to sound like one of Kelly's with entirely too many references to food.
On a side note (still on the subject of Kelly's kitchen), it has been highly amusing watching the roofers (or, more accurately what they have thrown off the roof) as we chat. Entertaining, but scary, was their attempt to saw something for the roof using the hot top as a sawing surface.
And through it all Kelly's mutant gray squirrel has calmly been digging to China. Serenely ignoring the disturbing thumps and bumps coming from the roof.
Knitting-wise, I have finally thrown my name in the hat for ravelry. It will be another 10 years before I am accepted into that much lauded group. I have no idea how long the waiting list is now, but the number is sure to be astronomical. Everyone and sisters and mothers (and yarn inclined cats for that matter) seem to be signing up. But I was convinced at knitting that I should sign up.
Off to watch the bread cook.

Belated Posts

2007-09-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

This month has been a busy month, thus a distinct lack of posts...
Okay, really, I've just been lazy. But Maine, NH and a birthday party cut into much of my crafting time. And my digital camera bit the dust, terribly, horribly, and is very definitely dead. D-E-D- dead.

But, my goal for this week is a post a day. And I might even get a new camera this week.

On to the knitting. Currently on the needles I have:

Jaywalkers with Shibui. These are to the heels (long plane trip to thank).
Clapotis with Koigu (Yay!).
Cardigan with Dalegarn Tiur from Lace Style (back done)

Greetings from Maine

2007-07-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

I have been sadly remiss in my recent posts. But I finally have pictures of something worth posting.
These past two weeks I have been in Maine, for a family reunion. The weather has been, in general, perfectly lovely. Normally it is hot and muggy here, but it has been tolerable.
I have been spending a vast amount of time in the pool/lake, and next to air conditioning units, knitting, of course. I have worked on:

The watermelon socks are now finished! And I have worn them as well. I am very happy with how they turned out.
A linen stitch bag in hand dyed (not by me) indigo yarn from Orting, WA (Heritage Yarn, I think). It's a nice sturdy yarn, good for a bag. Almost done, just need double points for the bottom of the bag.
A red tank top in Kashmir DK, from Louisa Harding. I am basing it off of an Elspeth Lavold pattern from the new Cotton Frappe book. Front's almost finished.
A cell-phone pouch from my leftovers from the socks.
I bought a skein of yarn from Peace Fleece here in Porter, ME. It's in pretty Peacock colours. I have one skein, and it's a DK weight, 100 grams. Have no idea what I shall do with it yet though.

This past week I have been working on my family's loom down at the Jay Historical Society. The ladies (and gents) there were all so sweet and so glad I was working on the loom. Here is a picture in all of it's enormous glory.

History of the loom:
The loom was made in the 1700's (supposedly, and believe me...it is old) in Massachusetts. It was brought to Jay, ME in the early 1800's (not necessarily by my family) and resided in Jay until it was used by my Great Grandfather, Jonas Godding Pike. After his death it stayed in the attic, mostly unused, and unmoved (it's so big!) until the 1960's-ish when my great uncle Stanley donated it to the society.
In recent history, it has been used by a local weaver who set it up and rigged up heddles to go with it and replaced the ropes that were dead. It has been moved several times. And two years ago a drunk on the adjacent highway crashed into it damaging one of the legs. Stupid drunk! Grrrr.

My project:
I wove a rag rug (there was already a linen warp on the loom set up for a rag rug, so I re-tensioned the warp and re-used it) with cotton prints. It took me a day to repair things on the loom and replace ropes and strings, and then 2 hours total to weave it.
It took the longest time to figure out the heddles. I had the worst shed possible until I realized that they were crooked.
Now I have to take a picture of the final project. But here is the weaving in progress:

A Wikipedia Game

2007-07-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, I found this on Knit and Run today. The rules are as follows: Go to Wikipedia, type in your birth month and day.
Then post the folowwing on yer blog.
3 Events
2 Births
1 Holiday
Well, I did so, on a whim (and sleep deprivedness) and came up with the following.
Events

1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora dies suddenly without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty.
1864 - American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.
1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris. (I was in Indonesia for this one).

Births

12 - Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41)
161 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (d. 192)

Holiday
St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, patron of firefighters feast day.

In other news, I recieved my swap package from England in the Handspun/Handcraft swap. I love the package! S sent me some lovely handmade jewelry and a journal for my spinning, already in use. She sent a lovely set of shell earrings.

Two other sets of earrings:

And Two lovely bracelets to match:

"Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Shed"

2007-07-01T00:46:00.000-07:00

I promise to post several times in the next few days. Really I do. I have been bogged down with finals and black sheep gathering for the past few weeks.
First on the list of updates, however, is my finished weaving project. I made 4 1/2 yards of fabric at 58" wide for weaving this past term in a double plain weave. It was quite a chore.

1. I had to dye the yarn. I had two yarns I wanted to combine for the warp, a camel coloured wool/poly (70/30) blend (12 wpi), and Emerald Fantasy (Nature Spun Fingering, 12 wpi) with 16 brown threads and 4 coloured threads to make up the pattern. But the camel was the wrong colour, so I dyed it brown. That was fun, I needed to dye 1.5 lbs of wool. I ended up using one packed of cocoa brown and one of dark brown in rit dye, and it seems to have worked fairly well.
2. Warping. God, I couldn't seem to do math for this project. I had to warp in sections (big surprise) and I kept getting the wrong number of colour repeats in my bundles. For one, I decided that 14.5 x 2 = 35. I promise you that it does not. Gah. So I kept have to go and warp more and more thread. And then I ended up warping still more when I realized that I had 31 inches of space in my read, and I had only made my warp 30" wide. So I warped another bundle.
3. I hated my loom. It hated me. Let's just say that it was too big for my 4'11.5" frame. And it had a sectional warping thing so I couldn't lean on it, and was continually skewering myself upon said spikes. Again, Gah.
4. I had the worst shed in history because of the double weave and the wool yarn. The top shed was fine, but the bottom shed hated me. With a passion. I kept getting the two layers stuck together. We came up with a commandment for weavers the world over: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's shed."
5. 4.5 yards is a bloody lot of fabric to weave. In actuality, it is like weaving 9 yards of fabric because it is double weave.

In the end I am quite happy with the result:

Next time I get around to posting: "The Trials and Tribulations of Black Sheep" and "My New Swap Package of Coolness."

New Title

2007-05-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is the title I originally wanted to use for my blog, I felt it was more original than the "Yarn Mafia," but I went with Yarn Mafia for some reason. Now that I am doing Sheep to Shawl for Black Sheep Gathering in June, we are going to use "Sinister Spinsters" as our team name, so I decided to change my site to go with the original (and cooler) name. It is rather appropriate since I am over 21, unmarried, a spinner, and quite dastardly when I put my mind to it.

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Shetland Wool. You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a little on the harsh side. Though you look delicate you are tough as nails and prone to intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are widely respected and even revered.
Take this quiz!

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| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

I just took this quiz, after reading A's newest post on yarns to find out what type of yarn I would be, were I to be yarn. And the result: I quite agree with this. And I adore Shetland Sheep. It's probably more appropriate than A's, seeing as she got Mohair, which she is allergic to. Ironic?

In other news, the swap package I recieved from eatmoreplants last week (the week before?). This is just what I pulled from the box, She managed to get everything somehow attached to the yarn. I was very impressed.

In the next picture we can see the ball of yarn, with some other yarn peeking out.
And further the cute sheepy stationary eatmoreplants sent. Woot, perfect for swap packages.

In all she sent:

A drop spindle
hand dyed superwash which is currently part of a woven scarf project
sheep stationary
a notions baggy with spinny pretties
nice smelling lotion
a pattern for fingerless gloves
stitch markers
"crafted with love by" patches

Of Swaps

2007-05-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

I recieved, and sent swap packages on Craftster in the magic yarn ball 4 swap. I sent one to missidekick, and recieved from eatmoreplants. Without further ado, I present pictures. This is the package that I sent to missidekick last Monday first, the outside of said package:

Inside I made stitch markers with some glass beads with a flower design, I am not terribly good at this sort of thing by the way.

The yarn I sent was handspun, merino in a blue grey. I sent A's panta pattern with it. I also dyed some fabric in Shibori for a head scarf with Rit dye in Kelly Green. Lot's of fun. Later I'll post what I got in the swap. ^_^

Fiber and Yarn

2007-04-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

I am probably so far away from this resolution not to by yarn/fiber or fabric that I need to completely reset my clock. Still working on how to accomplish it though...
Oh well, I saw the best movie ever this weekend! Well, maybe not the best movie "ever," but a darn good flick. Everyone should go see it. The movie of which I speak is the new film entitled "Hot Fuzz" from the director (s?) of Shawn of the Dead. We were practically rolling in the aisles for this entire movie. And, yes it is a tad bit gory (okay, at some points a lot gory), lets just say some one gets exploded. But it was brief gore for the most part.
Review: 4 needles up (on a scale of 1-4)
In knitting news, I am getting fairly close to finishing "Audrey" from Elspeth Lavold out of the new Cotton Frappe. I really like the yarn, I just want to warn people that the label lies. It is not 5-5.5 stitches to the inch, it is not even 6 (my tank top is a little loose at 6), in fact I'm willing to bet that the stitch gauge would be best at 7 per inch. That's how far the bloody label is off. But, don't let that discourage you. The yarn is beautiful, and wonderful to work with. I love how it knits, less harsh than many cottons, and the polymid wrap around the yarn gives it a beautiful little sparkle. The yarn is very sturdy because it is one of those tube yarns and the polymid bit gives no trouble with snags.
The pattern, "Audrey," on the other hand, has several big erratas, so if you use the pattern, be sure to check those out.
I now have the back and over half of the front done! Yippee!

New Layout

2007-04-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of the pink of the old layout, time to try nice soothing colours. What do you all think?
In other news, I recieved my package from littlesailor on craftster for the panta swap. And I have pictures! The first is a photo I took myself with some wool I am carding. It is romney, but I have to use my stash up at some point. It's a pretty turquoise that I am carding other colours into.
Then I gave the camera to Mom and asked here to take a couple of photos. I think that I need to remember to get her to take my photos in the future. Kudos to Mom.

There were also 6 stitch markers in the package. Here they are posed with my cat, Mayumi. Ik tried to get her to play with them for the picture, but she wasn't cooperating. Silly cat.

Two Classisists and a Movie

2007-04-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Friday night I went with A and Em to see 300 after Good Friday service. A nice way to cheer up after sitting through service which I don't believe in (being a Catholic Agnostic who attends a Lutheran Church).
In any case, after service (why couldn't it have been in Latin?) we went to see a comedy: 300.
I guess that it really wasn't intended to be a comedy, but that's how it turned out. We laughed ourselves silly, not that we weren't already silly... But I promised to post a list we made after the movie with our impressions:
A Comprehensive List of Historical Inaccuracies Contained Within the Movie Entitled "300"

The cast was almost entirely garbed in tight leather underwear (yumm). And although I appreciated the view, it was inaccurate, very much so. And A claims that several of the actors were falling out of said garments
The cast was wearing floor length cloaks into battle. Impractical anyone? Try fighting in that during battle. Plus the length was closer to something a woman would have worn.
Hair? Aside from Leonidas, everyone else had interesting hair (and what was up with his rattail).

bad wigs
What's up with the Queen's hair?

Speaking of which, did anyone think the Queen's outfits remarkably period? Though I have to say I am impressed with how those things stayed on. I guess lots of ductape was needed.
What was with the diapers the children were wearing, were they supposed to be loin cloths?
And what were those imbred, leper priests doing in a temple on top of a cliff (how's anyone supposed to get an oracle?) having sexy sexy with a red haired oracle/prostiture (who had nipples the size of marbles). Not even going to ask. And the oracle was drug induced? No, that was from fumes from the ground at Delphi, thank you very much.
There was a pile of baby skulls. No, this is not right, babies exposed that young do not leave skulls (and would probably have been picked up for slaves or something). And what was with the wierd training regime they made up? The Spartans were wierd, but the movie was ridiculous. And there was a wierd CG-ed Warag type wolf who randomly appeared with snow (In Greece?) who's eyes glowed, literally. Sigh
The whole Xerxes thing. Could we have laughed any harder? I doubt it. A was biting her knuckles when he first came on scene.

Gay Xerxes?
Xerxes in golden underpants with chains?
Xerxes in blue (Em thinks it was turquoise) eyeliner?
Xerxes trying to give Leonidas a massage? (Was that an oil massage?)

Xerxes on a Minoan Bull throne?
And his jewelry? Come on...
The actor who played him was too young and had a shaved head.

The Spartans in the movie had virtually no armour, except those leg greaves.
My personal pet peeve: Stirrups. Stirrups are not period, and they put them in the movie. Grrrrr...Neither are knights, or destriers.
Rhinos? In battle? Giant Oliphants?
There were honest to god longbows in that movie. Way too early and wrong location. And really bad arrows which didn't even look aero dynamic. And the quivers were also medieval.
Ninjas? In Greece? Hahahahaha. Seriously, these guys had Asian masks on, ninjaoid outfits and what looked a heck of a lot like katanas.
What was with the hunchback? I just didn't get it.
The Spartans all seemed to have different accents (I don't expect them to all speak ancient Greek, but come on). Lets see, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English (of various derivations), American, and Aussie. And they were all supposed to be from the same tribe?
Those swords looked absolutely bizzare and not even remotely Greek, I'm sorry.
The houses looked more like Roman villas.
Blond Spartans? Who were all body builders (not that I'm complaining, but they looked like body builders, not fighters) and quite a few of them had man boobies. Did they have breast implants?
The language was just off, descriptions of things.
What was with the S&M outfits on the Acadians?
The fighting was just off. And so sad too, considering that not minutes before battle was enjoined, Leonidas bothered to explain how hoplite warfare worked in a reasonably accurate manner. Then they didn't bother with any of that and jumped and cavorted (in tight leather underwear) about the battlefield complete with Ninjas (immortal ninjas) rhinos, a cave troll (I expected Boromir and Aragorn to jump in here. Faramir was already there), and Oliphants.
They also decided to make a wall with dead bodies. I don't care what Hollywood (or baliwood for that matter) tells me, dead bodies are not good building material. And they're smelly. And gooey, and nasty.
Tortuga (sp?) shields? That's a very Roman idea, not Greek.
Did I mention that they had a cave troll?
They kept calling the soldiers slaves, but in reality it is more likely the Persian soldiers would have been mercenaries.
Xerxes harem was....I'm not even going to go there.
The belts had modern buckles, the fibulae were bizzare, and the shin protectors were metal.
The jewelry was bizzare.
The shield were all the same and metal (they should have been wood and leather painted)
There were no people doing normal things: pottery, spinning, weaving etc.
Gold coins? No, more like silver, bronze, stuff like that. And certainly not stamped with Xerxes' profile (complete with face piercings). I'm pretty sure portraits on coins are later (like the romans).
Iron Swords? Where is the bronze. It is called the bronze age for a reason.
There were people impaled with spikes coming out of there mouths. We just couldn't figure out quite how they managed that. It looked like it would have been tricky. Why not just hack the head off and impale that?
There were people throwing "magic" grenades who really looked like beduin women. Yeah
And I swear that I saw some huns somewhere in there.
There seemed to have been no 2nd king in Sparta. When in fact there were always two kings so one could be at home ruling while the other was out fighting.
Plus, 300-10 does not still equal 300, they seemed to have had a hard time with math in the movie.

Lots of fun. This movie really should have been billed as a comedy.

The frozen lands of the North

2007-03-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

I am headed up to Seattle at o-dark-30 tommorow morning. Greyhound...wish me luck.
In the meantime, I have pictures of stuffs sent for swaps. I have been crafting, honest! Here is a lace sample of singles spun from some tussah silk I dyed with one shot (Rasberry). The pattern is out of Victorian Lace Today.

The second is a felted bag (minus the strap) I made for the Hogwarts' House Swap through Craftster. The confirmation thingee through USPS said that it has gotten to its destination, but my partner has not yet posted pictures. Grr...I hope she will soon! 'cause I forgot to take pictures before I sent.

In other words I still have a couple of projects going:

Starting a tank out of the new Cotton Frappe from Elspeth Lavold. It's working out okay, despite being 95% cotton. Don't have more than 3 rows yet though. It's going to be a project for this weekend.
Self-designed tank. Not sure of the name yet. It's 100% linen (I think) that I got at Goodwill. It's a light greyish blue, and I dyed some of it brown as an accent colour with Rit. Note to self, next time don't try one shot (I thought at first that it might have some silk in it, but no). I only have a couple of swatches made at this point, so more later.
Leg warmers from knitpicks. I am almost done with the first of them. Yay! They are not going with me to Seattle though, as dealing with two yarns at once on the bus would be a major pain. Anywho...

Ciao

Days Since last purchased fibre:16 days
Fabric: 22 days
Yarn: 16 days

Swap Package

2007-03-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I received my package for the Harry Potter Houses Swap on Craftster...Here they are:
A Mudblood T-Shirt. Perfect for a Ravenclaw?

A Ravenclaw blanket. I think I have some navy bias tape that will compliment it around the edges nicely.

A bag will my initials. Maybe I can find some nice silver bias tape for it. And the seams on the inside in the second photo.

Lastly I was sent a headband and candies, represented by the white chocolate rat. Anyone want some candy. I have lots now.

2007-03-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

I got this from A's site. It looked like fun. I'm skipping songs I did not put on this thing for the sake of my sanity (Especially considering there are Sailor Moon songs on there...I swear I didn't put them on, although I have to admit I own them.) I will put those in a subscript or something for amusements sake though considering how often the stupid things came up.

Opening Credits: "Tehcno Dance/Bu Yao Lai (sp?)" China Dolls
Waking Up: "The Coventry Carol" Medieval Babes
-"Rainy Day Man" Sailor Moon Soundtrack
-"My Only Love" Sailor Moon Soundtrack (creepy)
First Day at School: "The Nightengale" Mary Anne Custer La Rue
Falling in Love: "Hangover Song" Michael Longcor
Fight Song: "Kung Foo Fighting" Foo Fighters
Breaking Up: "Army" No idea-anonomous SCA song
Prom: "Tokyo Girl" Ace of Base
-"Call My Name (and I'll be There)" Sailor Moon Soundtrack
Life: "Gypsy Rover" Clancy Brothers
Mental Breakdown: "Last Unicorn Theme" Kenny Loggins
Driving: "Charlie's Sweet" Mary Anne Custer La Rue
-"La Isla Bonita" Madona
Flashback: "Someone (Thai version)" China Dolls
Getting Back Together: "Wooden Toy Sword" Heather Alexander
Losing Your Virginity: "Help" Beatles
Wedding: "You wanna Dance?" China Dolls
Birth of a Child: "Igraynes Dance" -Unknown
-"Larger than Life" Backstreet Boys
Final Battle: "Two Maidens" in Bawdy Songs by Oscar Brand
-"It's a New Day" Sailor Moon Soundtrack
Death Scene: "Bedlam Boys" Heather Alexander
Ending Credits: "Butterfly" DDR

I have to say that I have great End Credits. Though some other things are a little wonky. Like my Final Battle song, and my getting back together song. I was sort of hoping March of Cambreath would come up...Anyways, L put some very interesting stuff on here, I couldn't believe how many times I had to skip past Sailor Moon songs. Gag me with a spoon please.

Days since last purchase fibre: 1 week
Days Since Last Purchased Yarn: 1 week
Days Since last purchased fabric: 2 weeks

A Cornucopia of Yarn

2007-03-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

I looked at my stash this afternoon, and I thought that A's yarn diet might be a good idea...Maybe not as strict a yarn diet, but maybe "Yarn Watchers". So, I think that I shall keep track of how many days it has been since I last bought yarn/fiber/fabric. So, not a diet per se, but something of the sort. That should, hopefully, help. But I can't stop cold turkey. I don't have that much will power when it comes to fabric.

I bought fabric. Again. This is a pale peach silk in a herringbone twill from 27th street Fabrics on Willamette. Sigh. There were 3.25 yards and 30% off. Okay, so I spent $10 a yrd, but its really pretty. I doesn't seem to want to photograph (bad colour), so I will just have to show peoples in person. I also found some buttons that I am dyeing to have that are .90 each. They are little metal shank buttons with a stylized knight on them. Are they worth it?
I made the mistake of stepping into Soft Horizons on Tuesday. I had the afternoon off, and I was in the area, so...My pain wasn't so great though. I managed to get away with a skein of Inca Alpaca (on sale) and a bit of camel/silk roving. Did I mention that Soft Horizons is now carrying more fiber? They now have some mohair, some merino/silk, camel, and camel/silk roving. Thankfully it is not nearly so bad as stepping into Dye Lots.
I made a panta based on A's pattern. It's hard to see because the lighting in the picture isn't so great (need to photograph outside next time) but I did it in Alpaca Silk DK from Debbie Bliss on size US 4s with my own cable pattern. I love the yarn by the way. It is much better to work on than the Alpaca Silk Aran weight. It seems a little less pilly and is harder to split. I also have two caliometry pantas ready for me to sew buttons on, no pictures yet, as one is going to a swap partner (Thankfully she's in Canada because it is quite warm). The other is going to the daughter of one of the other choir members in my church choir.

I finished the snow drop shawl. I will try to take pictures where it is nice and sunny (ha!) tomorrow. More on that later.
Hogwart's House Swap is just about ready to send. I don't think that I will be able to send till Saturday, just because that's my day off. Here's a preview:

Ta for now!

Days since last purchased fibre: 2 Days
Days since last purchased yarn: 2 Days
Days since last purchased fabric: 1 Week

Duck Socks

2007-03-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

Not much to post right now. Maybe later. But I thought that I would post now that I have finally figured out to get into blogger with google. Gah. Remind me to write theese things down next time. In any case my life is as follows:

I still have weaving for 3 more weeks and have 2 feet on my shawl. It is huck lace in the simple "Huck Lace" pattern (original ne?) alternating with stripes of plain weave. It's a 6 WPI warp and a 10 WPI weft that is my own handspun merino bought at the Puyallup fair several years ago. The picture of the cone is to illustrate just how little yarn I ended up with after warping.

Work Work Work. Life is going to get interesting, J's leaving for Thailand the 21st.
A pair of socks for housemate B. They're fun, but a little bit ducky. I didn't intentionally do so, really. As I told our Pastor's wife: "It wasn't intelligent design, but more of evolution..." Will that get me excommunicated? Probably not from a Lutheran Church. Too much to hope.

Craft Swap 1: I need to finish up a project for the Hogwart's House Swap. I'm making stuff for a Gryffindor. Send out date was yesterday, but I lost a skein of yarn and had to order more... Can't wait to see what I'll get.
Craft Swap 2: I just dyed the roving yesterday, and I am not entirely satisfied with the results. Hmmm...I'll try to get some advice from A. I recieved my yarn from Tristitia though. Lovely roving in a neutral and a wine colourway. Plus a skein of yarn from Knit Picks for dyeing.

Craft Swap 3: I just got my partner info (though it sounds like it may change...) and I need to make a panta in like a black/blue colour scheme. This should be a fun/easy/quick swap. Which I need after signing up for three consequtively. Sigh.

Coming soon: My new panta! Death by yarn? How much is too much to spend on fabric?

Winter Blah

2007-02-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

It has now been almost a month since my last post. I have been fairly busy, thus my lack of postage. I have been working on a few projects, and have little to show. One sweater, the sweater of "doom" is not yet finished. I do not have any pictures of it (because it is the sweater of "doom") but suffice it to say, I went to sew up the arms and shoulders, and the arms do not fit in the shoulder. And by not fitting, I really mean that they do not fit. The shoulders turned out to be about 2 inches smaller than the armhole. No, you heard me right, the armhole is bigger, and so needs to be gathered into the arm, and not the other way around. Needless to say, it looks terrible. So I borrowed the Ann Budd sweater book from A, and am going to try and fix my arms. I think that if I make the sleeve cap longer, it should work. And yes, before people ask, I did check the web for erratas, and no luck. If any one was wondering, this sweater is a bolero pattern from Debbie Bliss in "Simply Soft." I am doing it in a Plymoth Yarn, Baby Alpaca Boucle in a magenta/red. Pictures shall be forthcoming (once I figure out the bloody shoulder). After that all I will have left will be to pick up stitches and knit the shawl collar. Yay!
In other news, I finally got my Thai music in the mail from ethaicd.com I ordered several CDs by my favourite Thai groups: China Dolls, and Bazoo. Their music holds fond memories for me. Woot! A search on UTube (or however you spell it) will bring up their music videos. Highly amusing, ne? As soon as I have a little more money (which is not going to be spent on more yarn for a long while) I think I will order some more. I found a group with is called "Pop Angels" that has Thai remakes of 60's 70's songs like the "Monster Mash." It's an absolute hoot. Endless hours of amusement.
In other knitting news: I made a shop model out of the Baby Alpaca Boucle (Sale of the Month) in autum colours (don't like them personally, but others seem to). I feel proud. The yarn was the colour we had the most of (35 skeins) and now we have like ten. And such a hideous colour too! Nice yarn to work with though. It's a bulky nylon/alpaca blend. I'm just sick of it now from trying to sew up the sweater (seams in boucle are EVIL).
And apparently the pictures I just transfered to my computer are gone (I had a picture of the scarf, but it is no more. So you will have to content yourselves with this picture that Asher took of me. This is Sunday at Starbucks, the new location for knitting. I am sporting my newly finished panta, courtesy of a pattern from Fyber duck. They are loads of fun to make. I'm currently making another one with a cable pattern of my own with Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK (the sale of the week). I adore this yarn. It is so soft. If only it wasn't normally so expensive.

In other news, I thought that I would post this, I doubt anyone will comment, but I have to post it. Post a reply in the comments section, if you feel like it. I got this from A's blog:
1. Can you cook?

2. What was your dream growing up?

3. What talent do you wish you had?

4. Favorite place?

5. Favorite vegetable?

6. What was the last book you read?

7. What zodiac sign are you?

8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?

9. Worst Habit?

10. Do we know each other outside of the blogsphere?

11. What is your favorite sport?

12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:

16. Do have any pets?

17. Do you know how to do the macerana?

18. What time is it where you are now?

19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be???

21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22. What color eyes do you have?

23. Ever been arrested?

24. Bottle or Draft?

25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?

26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?

27. What's your favorite bar to hang at?

28. Do you believe in ghosts?

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

30. Do you swear a lot?

31. Biggest pet peeve?

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

33. Will you repost this on your blog?

Back in the Saddle Again

2007-01-30T19:07:00.002-08:00

Well, here's the first post in almost 2 months now. I am a lazy, no-good slacker, but now I shall endeavor to post more frequently (and no, my fingers are not crossed behind my back ^_^).
A lot has come and gone in the two months since my last post. I won't bore you with the details, especially considering that several of you see me regularly off-line.
But, I have the SKB finished..almost. It wound up a little big and I still have to take out the bottom and redo it without the darts, and that should, theoretically, make it fit. Admire my truly terrible attempts at picture taking. All together, the SKB was a good project, though the pattern had some major issues. Just about everyone I know had issues with the purl ridges at the edges. I solved it by knitting a bit beyond the purl ridge and binding off to the inside to form a hem, but the downside to that is that it makes it really lumpy. Grrr...

I also just finished a craft swap from Craftster. I am really happy with how everything for it turned out. . SicMariaVic (my swap partner) sent me a lovely hand made hat in mohair, and three skeins of pink/maroon yarn with bobbles. Here is the hat, and the yarn.

I really have no idea yet what I'm going to do with the yarn. In the hat picture you can see the gift I made for my swap partner, it is a neckwarmer from my handspun. Some really old handspun I might add. This yarn was spun for Katharine, a friend of mine at school, and she made mittens from it, this was the leftover which she returned to me when we were all packing up at graduation time. The yarn is so old (relatively speaking), that I spun it with my first wheel. Yes, I used to own a Babe . I have since had several wheels, and the Babe was, by far, the worst, most picky, ugly, ungainly, breakable, not to mention shoddy, wheel that I have ever owned. Can you tell I don't like them? It was free though. But this yarn I spun my freshman year of college on that wheel. I'm happy with how the neckwarmer turned out. It is a merino from Lamb's Ear in Tacoma.
I think that's enough for now. I will write later on my knitting travails.

The Early Bird Gets the Early Worm

2006-12-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

And thus goes the saying that I most should keep in my mind. I have noticed that it has been quite awhile since I last posted. Much has happened, much has been spun, much has been knit (I love the passive voice) in the interrim. The knitting is going well. I just started A's Hanukah present today, and I'm happy with how it is turning out. I am almost finished with the SKB, but it's not yet to a stage that I would like anyone to yet see me in.
A couple of weekends ago, we went out to the McT's farm for a photo op. I thought to share some of the lovely results (courtesy of B's camera and A's computer). Shetland sheep are absolutely adorable and so friendly (when given the proper incentive).

A and I sat down on the manger amidst the wool and sheep, and there we knit. Electra was rather cooperative. A is wearing, by the way, the SKB that I am working on making (half a sleeve, the neck and I will be ready to block it).

That is, until she decided to wander off to greener pastures (i.e. outside), the yarn I was knitting got tangled around here and both my yarn (homespun!) and my project (fingerless gloves!) dissappeared out of the barn.

To make matters worse, three other sheep got spooked by our trying to rescue my yarn from Electra. They in turn dragged my yarn through the pasture (muddy!) and managed to wrap it around three separate posts in the process. I still haven't gotten up the courage to look at it or wash it. *Sob* And here are the sheep, looking very unrepentant.

In other news, I finished and sent off my Inuyasha swap package to my partner, C. Mom called me at work today to let me know that my side of the swap package had arrived. Hooray! I can't wait to get home to open it. I have some pictures, but they didn't turn out the best. I need to take the pictures during the day rather than at night. The lighting in our house is just hideous. At least the overhead light in th ekitchen is now finished. It hasn't been working for the past few months, so it is an enlightening (ouch*) experience.

Ta for now, we are almost to closeing at work.

A discourse on the subject of buses

2006-11-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I love riding the bus. And I think that the bus system in Eugene is okay (not necessarily great, but okay). And I have been riding the bus since childhood. I, however, do not appreciate being left in the cold and the rain.
Yes, dear readers, the bus left 4 of us today at the Amazon Station, just drove right past us. And this, I might add is from a bus that cannot possibly be overcrowded, as it is a bus that is articulated (meaning that it has an extra caboose on the back). No, it drove right on past, as happy as you please. Stupid busses.
Thankfully, there was a girl who had her car and drove the poor stranded students, that being us, to school. Stupid busses.
Onto a happier note, I have no pictures for all y'all (did you like that A? I used the proper 2nd person plural!) because I am to lazy to transfer pictures to my camera. Maybe I will add them later. If I had pictures, I would post that I am working on the following with some sucess:
1) A cabled hat from handspun that I made from leftovers from the fibre guild at the U of O (It's about half way)
2) The SKB, yes, I am still working on it, but I am about to bind off the bottom of the body. I think, however, that I shall take S advice and knit a little extra and hemming it under.
3) A purple feather/fan scarf. This is almost finished...finally. I have half a skein left.
4)My Inuyasha swap, I have my small project finished, and have finished mapping out the big project...I just have to go find the bits for inbetween (sounds like its time for a trip to ECC and Sunrise Food Market...oooh, I could do that on the way home from work!). I am soo excited. I just hope my partner likes what I'm making her. I'll post pictures when I'm done.
Now I have to go home and take pictures so as to add them.

Pictures (Katie's projects)

2006-10-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Hey, look, I figured out how to post! Why'd it take so long? Well, my digital camera had no battery life, that and well, I just haven't. But yes, pictures! What have I been doing up here in the northern waistlands of Washington?
Well....

First we have a picture of the stuff I've done on the knifty knitter, or peg loom, as I like to call it. My second, third and fourth attempts at hats, which turned out pretty good. The first one I already donated, seeing as I'm making them for charity. Although the red and yellow one isn't cause my mom claimed it, and well, it is my real first attempt at multi-strand patterning ever...unless the scarf counts. That scarf has so many issues with it, and it didn't turn out at all like I had planned, but oh well, it too is getting donated, so someone will have a nice warm (almost too warm) scarf.

Next we have my two scarfs, the one on the right was made first, same pattern. I love this pattern, it's so damn cool and I don't get sick of it!! But the first one turned out better than the second, mostly cause of the type of yarn. And although this picture doesn't show it, both are of decent size, it's just that the first one dwarfs the second so it looks small, but it really isn't. Still don't know what I'm goinbg to do with the second scarf.

Then we have my second attempt at peg knitting a scarf, which peg knitting this yarn is a heck of a lot easier than knitting it. I couldn't see the stitches when I tried to knitt it. And that's my second scarf on the loom there, which will be wider than the first one, which is a good thing, cause you can't quite tell from this picture, but my first one is impossibly skinny AND long! It's hugely long, actually. I think it's one of those things you have to see in person.

So that's me. I'm also working on peg knitting a shawl, which I forgot to take a picture of, so I'll put that up when I'm done :) I really like knitting on these things, actually, a lot more than I figured I would.

But yes, by the way, Miriam, I like the 'wrist supports' as you put it, or someone put it, or whatever. But yes, very nice. :D

Of Mice and Cats

2006-10-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

This post is a tribute to my wonderful cat. Recently I have found myself taking lots of pictures of her. In thinking upon this desire, I wonder if it stems from the worry that my cat is going to pass on sooner rather than later-she is about13 years old now and no spring chicken). I am sure she will live many more years, but I am growing more aware of her mortality. Recently she lost a great deal of weight because she lost a tooth, and she can no longer eat big cat dry food (she can still eat the kitten sized stuff). She's putting on more weight now (I keep feeding her as much as I can), but I do worry.
In any case, I recently put my mind to making her and Baxter (the Siamese) catnip mice. So far I have only made one, but Baxter doesn't seem to show much interest (possibly because Mayumi (my cat) has drooled all over it) and so I may not make another for him. Mayumi, on the other hand, is absolutely enamoured with the mouse. I am a bit worried that it will fall apart from her worrying over it (no pun intended) but so far it has stood up to her teeth and claws.
Last week Mayumi caught a real mouse... and killed it (Happy day, we have a slight problem with mice in our house right now). Mayumi deserted her mouse, and Baxter decided to play with it. Whereupon it dissappeared for two days.
You know where it reappeared? MY BAG!
On my way to school I found it between my Chem book and my notebook. I picked it up, thinking it was a piece of yarn or lint, and to my horror, it was soft and squishy. ICK!
Thank you Baxter.And now Mayumi is sick of me taking pictures of her, so I will entertain you with my recent knitting exploits. I finished the boucle fingerless gloves I was working on last post, unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of them finished for you peoples. I am working more on the SKB, Asher and I both worked on ours last night at knitting, and I am finished with the lace band on the body. My Harry Potter scarf is getting longer, slowly. I am a little over halfway done. I still haven't gotten up the courage to take up my snowdrop shawl again. It just hurts so much to rip parts of projects out.
I am going now, lunch calls my name sweetly and urgently.

Noru Fingerless Gloves

2006-10-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since my last post. Sorry...some times it's hard to get up the energy to take photos and use the internet, etc.
I have been working on a couple of projects, none of them the big ones though. I have been abandoning the SKB (Simple Knitted Bodice) and the Yarn Harlot Shawl. More progress has been made on the Harry Potter Scarf, I am now about halfway done, it's about time for another (better) picture of the scarf. I only work on that during class, and I seem to get about 40 rows done per class (wow!).
My latest finished project is: These are my Noru Fingerless Gloves which I have ripped out like 3 times and remade countless others. I like the yarn and all, but it took me awhile to find the right needle size (I settled on US 10s), and I first started them in the round. I am quite happy with how they turned out, although they were supposed to be for one of my housemates, and they are too small for her. Oh well, they're mine now! They are knit garter with a scalloped, crochetted border for the buttonholes. You can't really see the buttons, but I found some really cute ones with fleurs on them. Someone in choir commented, "They look like wrist supports." I'm feeling a little insecure about that still...

In other news, I am making a second pair out of a wool worsted and a mohair boucle (from Maggi I think), these are for a friend for her birthday, I know they don't look like much yet, but I have now finished one, and am working on the second. I'm having fun making them, and they knit up quick. The only problem is: My friend's birthday party is this Saturday, and I am halfway done with the second one. Ack! Oh well, this afternoon I am going to go to the fabric store for buttons. Yay! Field Trip.

In other news: My mom came home Wednesday with 4 big bags full of black walnuts, does anyone want any for dyeing or anything? I can't possibly use that many. Please...think of my sanity.

School

2006-10-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

I am now into my second week of classes at LCC. In case anyone was wondering, I am taking Chem 104. Let me tell you, this class is boring. I am really hoping that it will pick up and become more interesting. Please God! I would really like to stay awake in the class. Speaking of staying awake, here is my newest "in class" project. Sorry the lighting isn't very good, I took these pictures before I left for class, and it was at 7 am, thus bad lighting. For those of us who can't see colour very well, this is a Gryffindor scarf for moi. I have wanted one for years, and never actually bothered to make one. As fiber duck pointed out, there are patterns online that have the figurings for the correct number of stripes to do down to the stitch count and everything...but I am doing a scarf from the Philosopher's stone, not the later ones. Those are nice and chunky, like mine. I am doing this on Clover 30 cm 9s, the stitch gauge is 5 to the inch, it is in the round, and my stripes are 20 rows (in case anyone had the hankering to know the knitty gritty details, no pun intended).

Last week I went to Dye Lots, a big mistake. I ended up coming away with this:

This being a spindle from Spindlewood made from purple heart. I really like it, it is nicely balanced, and pretty too! That is a big consideration when you are going to be looking at it for long hours while spinning yarn upon it. The wool on it is a grey merino that I got at the Puyallup fair this Spring. I am going to ply it with some handpainted merino, so that should be interesting.

In other news, I found this last weekend. It is a skeing of worsted wool from who knows how long ago, which I found for 10 cents at a garage sale. Any ideas?

Flock and Fiber

2006-09-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Flock and Fiber was great fun! I went last Saturday with my Mom (who I think enjoyed herself) and I came home with Fiber Duck and Ewe Spinster. I got some roving, well...lots of roving actually. Maybe not as much as some, but I bought 1 lb of baby alpaca, not roving, but cleaned already, and some mystery bats, which I am spinning right now.
Well, I broke down and bought a new wheel. I don't yet have pictures of it on my flash drive, so I can't post the pictures... next week for that. Her name is Clothos, in case you were wondering. More tales of that to come. (Erin, do you want a spinning wheel?)

Finally I have pictures of my fir cone shawl up! I finished her before summer, but I haven't posted the finished shawl. Baaad Miriam... The bushes outside my house made a lovely backdrop for these pictures. That, by the way, is the butterfly bush that my Aunt Sara planted to attract hummingbirds. My cat, Mayumi, loves it. She used to bring us little presents all the time. My aunt, for some reason, did not like these "presents."

I also have my next project lined up. I have four skeins of the ultra alpaca from Berocco (that's 400 grms at 215 yards per skein), and I am looking for advice on a project to do. Any suggestions? It should be enough for a sweater for me...

Spinning

2006-09-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

I am currently at Theo's waiting for knitting group, so I though that I would take advantage of the internet cafe here (again). I also have my flash drive, so I can post some pictures of my lovelies for all of you to see.
Currently I am getting ready for OFF (Oregon Flock and Fiber) which I am going to with my Mom. We are leaving Friday, and coming back Sunday, so it should be a fun trip. Like I need any new roving. Speaking of new roving, here is a picture of my spiffin' birthday loot:

In case you are wondering, there is fabric (a rayon blend), blue kid mohair locks, a button tape measurer, baby alpaca roving (4 ounces) a bookmark, some pink fire star, and some mohair/silk roving which is not in the picture because it is currently on my wheel. And of course, chocolate....yummy.
In other news, I just finished the hedgehog from fibertrends, and here is a picture of the cute little bugger: He was so easy to make, I think that this one is even easier than the sheep. Next I want to do the squirrel, cause he's sooo cute. Plus Baxter would probably looove to play with it (Baxter, the cat, enjoys terrorizing the squirrels). Maybe it would distract him from my yarn.

I also have been spinning a lot recently. Ariadne has been getting a lot of use from me. Mom has permenantly claimed Helen, which I am sort of irked about...There's something about naming objects that makes them so much harder to let go of, you know? Helen, in case you are wondering, is my 2nd wheel, an Ashford Traditional, and I have had her for 3 years now. I feel like Mom is enroaching upon my territory.

More adventures in picture land

2006-09-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Today I had quite an adventure. By that I mean that I walked all over town trying to post pictures.
Yesterday I purchased a brand new spiffy, shiny, etc. flash drive for my own use. Yay! I put my pictures on to said flash drive (I haven't named her/him yet, though I think "Zippy" might work) and today I trundled off to the library to post. My first stop was the Knight Library at the UofO (even though I am not a student there), but to my eternal disappointment, I couldn't find a single computer with a USB port on it. So I thought: "I shall hop skip and jump (not reall, but I did walk) over to EPL (our public library) where I know they have internet and computers." And so I walked (through the rain I might add) over to EPL. Only to find out, upon arrival, that all the computer's USB ports are not functioning and have not done so for the past three weeks. So moping home I came.
I did, however, meet a very nice Bulgarian lady at the bus stop who took out her knitting when she saw mine. I din't catch her name, I had to run and get my bus, but we had a lovely time chatting and trying to make ourselves understood. She was knitting with the yarn circling behind her neck, and she said that this was to keep the yarn straight, and I might have to try it. Though it looks to me like a recipee for disaster (I have cat genes in my blood, and I might just wind up with a knot around my neck).
In other news, Mom has decided that the spinning wheel of mine which she is using is hers; she is now referring to it as "mine." For some reason, this just bugs me to no end. This might have something to do with when she took one of my projects on the wheel and finished the bobbin because she "couldn't find all of hers." It's getting really aggravating.
***
Okay, pictures are still not working (I tried three times now, and took Carolyn's advice). I will try going to the Knight Library again (apparently I need to go up to the 2nd floor) later to add pictures to this post.
***
Edit: I am now in an internet cafe, so here are the pictures I was going to post:
This is me and my new spinning wheel, Ariadne. I have had her for two months, and I love her!

And here is a new scarf I made from Noru, it is a multidirectional scarf. Now I just have to find someone who likes the pinkness.

Thinking I should update more frequently...

2006-09-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here is my newest attempt to post pictures. Sorry I haven't updated for so long, I just have so little incentive to do so when I can't show you all my lovelies.
I am currently working on:
1) The snowdrop shawl from the yarn harlot
2) A pair of fingerless gloves for Lorinn out of some Noru yarn (I think it's lotus)
3) The simple knitted bodice pattern with Rowan felted tweed
4) Fixing up my silly loom (which all I need to fix it being s hooks of peculiar sizes)
I think that's it, but there might be more I can't think of right now. I also have a bunch of projects I recently finished which I should post at some point. Just as soon as I get a flash drive and figure out my libraries new internet system. I will give it one more try today though.

***
Post Picure edit (post as in after rather than in the writing type).
It took my about 12 minutes to upload the picture (one singular picture, I will see if it takes longer with more of them)...and that was about the limit of my patience for sitting at the computer waiting. In the meantime I got out my snowdrop shawl (which is getting close to finished) and knit a row. Agh, it now takes about 10 minutes to do a row.
In other news, I am waiting with baited breath to see when my down stuff will come out of the wash. Asher (to whom I shall soon post a link) said that I should wash them regularly and then tumble dry them low. So, that's what I'm doing. I'm a little nervous because my mom has raised me to fear the washer and dryer. I always get this feeling that if its not a heavy cotton that it will fall apart as soon as it falls into the washer. Since I have a lot of things that are not cotton, this is a wee problem for moi.

This picture is of my red flannel coat which I made at the begining of the summer. I have just now been able to start wearing it again, and I am so happy. It's really difficult to find times to wear a full length, lined coat during the summer months. It's nice and roasty toasty warm.

I just tried to post a picture again, and this time it didn't work. Oh well, I will try again tomorrow.
Ta all!

Emmeline and Trolls

2006-07-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, here I am in Maine, still having trouble posting pictures. But for now I want you all to know that my family is wierd!
I watched the other night a video called "Emmeline," which although, is not about an anscestor of mine, interviews relatives of mine, and they are wierd. Anyways, wierd story:

Emmeline is about a woman in the 19th century in Lafayette, Maine. As a 13 year old (or so) she was packed off to the mills to work and send money home to her poor family. There, away from her families protection, she fell in love with her boss in the mill and got pregnant. She gave away the child to a family there and in return they paid for her return trip to Maine.
Much later in life, she met a man who had come to work on a road with a work party. They fell in love and were married.
Later his family came to meet the new bride and congratulate the couple. To their horror, they recongnized the bride, she was their son's biological mother! Emmeline had married her son! Well, the marriage was immediately annuled, and the groom went home and left Emmeline to be ostracized by the community of Lafayette.
This was a very interesting PBS special, and has interviews with very interesting characters. I have to show you guys this.

In other news, you guys should go here: http://www.hatchlingshorts.com/
The "Toll," you will notice was directed by Zachary Pike, my cousin. It's wicked cool! It is a 3D short documentary on a Bridge Troll with interviews. It is absolutely hilarious. What they have posted so far is just a preview, they are showing the actual short at ComiCon in Sandiego. I hope they do well! The troll's story is so heartrending (I have to say that or the troll might come after me!).
Another one is "Mordred's Isle," which is a take on Survivor from a D and D perspective. It includes such great bits as a "+6 cloak of charisma" for picking up chicks and a kraken, and Juan the Bard. Check it out.
The third bit on there is a long (30 minutes) live action spoof of the DaVinci Code, which is called the "Norman Rockwell Code." I have yet to watch it all the way through, and it is not quite so amusing as the others, and if you don't know Norman Rockwell. But it is an amusing way to spend half an hour.
Well, that's enough for now.
Miriam

2006-07-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

I miss you all!! :( Just thought I'd drop a line to let whoever still reads this that I mis them, and Pirates was much fun! We'll have to meet up and do something like that again. (ANd if it includes pirate costumes, then even better!!)

So I'm going to Florida the first week of August, lol. This whole Florida trend with the roomies makes me laugh. Ok Mack and Katie, when are you guys gonna go?!

Just to let ya'll know what I am doing...well, it's not much- haha. I've been in for a few interviews, and I have another on the 1st. I think I have a pretty decent shot at the State of Oregon job, so cross your fingers!!

Well, I hope the summer is treating you all well. And I hope it's cooler where you are, cuz it's NASTY here right now (105 degrees yesterday or some such EEEEVIIIILLLL). Love you bunches! :)

Greetings from the Lands of the South

2006-06-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

A new post! Fancy that! Well, I'm sure that no one actually reads this anymore, but I will still try. I haven't been posting because my computer no longer has internet, so I have to use mom's. And we have dial up here at home, so posting is slow. And, to further complicate things, I couldn't find the cord to use for connecting my camera to the computer. I found it, and here I am.
Well, what has Miriam been up to, you ask? I have 1) a scarf out of Noru that I am working on ( a wool, angora, silk blend) that I got for 75% off at Ben Franklin's. I am making it into a bias scarf, and I love the yarn! (No pictures yet, they didn't turn out very well).
2) An undershift with four panels and lots of gores! No, not the blood, guts kind, but the cool triangular kind...sorry to disappoint y'all. It is out of a white cotton, and I am happy with how it turned out, I'll post a picture later, it is currently in the wash pile.
3) A skirt out of a rayon brocade. Again, in the wash pile, no pictures. Laterz.
4) A coat in a burgundy flannel. I purchased the flannel ages ago at JoAnne's (actually, it was a 17th birthday present from Dad, I think). I lined it with a light pink cotton...and for y'all as advice: Sheets make great lining fabrics! I used a trim that is actually cut out of fabric scraps from a scrumptious velvet thingy (garage sale), and there is hand made! bias tape on it too. The closures are nice black frogs that I got from my local fabric store. It is finally finished and I loooove it! Here are pictures:
5) A shrug out of my homespun yarn, I think I posted a picture a while back... it is a pattern from knitty called "shimmer," although I didn't use the shinny yarn it called for. I really like how it turned out. I have pictures of this one too!

I just have to say that having a dress form is a wonderful thing. This was a gift from someone in my Dad's co-op in Seattle, and I have fallen in love with it! It makes hemming soooo much easier. Now my hems are actually straight, most of the time. But Erin, don't despair, I will always prefer a human dress-form (grins evily).
That really is all I have done so far. I went to Florida, where I have a 5 year old cousin. This meant I couldn't get much crafting done over there. That's okay, I had a blast playing with her. She is entirely too cute for her own good. I was lucky enough to be there when Alberto was going through, so the weather wasn't too bad most of the time, and I got some pretty pictures of the storm.

In other news, Erin, call me! I keep trying to get in touch with you, but no luck. Tickets? When? This weekend is the black sheep gathering, are you coming?
That's all for now, ta ladies and gents!

P.S. Sorry, no pictures quite yet, the computer seems not to want to let me post them, I'll work on that. Ta!

gradumutation

2006-06-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Hahaha! So I figured out how to post! Just wanted to say hi to ya'll and I MIIIISSSS yew!! I hope you all are having fun, keeping busy n stuff. I'm still waiting on a job. :( Hoping to work for the State of Oregon, but one of the jobs doesn't close til tommorrow so meanwhile I'm twiddling my thumbs. Oh well, I guess we'll see. Oh, I'm going to Florida next month! What are the odds that 3 out 5 of us roomies all went/are going to FL within 2 months of each other? It makes me laugh. Oh, and btw, we need to order tickets for Pirates soon. Since I do not have a job, I either need someone else to order them, or have people send me monies. Whoever orders them is going to have to order a TON cuz a bunch of people are going and we want to mke sure to end up in the same theater. I'll send out an email about that. Anyway, I miss you all and I hope to see ya'll soon!

Oh, and look! It's us! :)

Move out

2006-05-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I am currently working on moving out and back to Eugene. Can I just say that I have lots of yarn and spinning fibre? Well I do.
Since I am moving, here is a tribute to my wonderful roommates (minus Sara cause I don't have any recent pictures of her uploaded from my camera).
I love that I have roommates who sew and knit! Here they are working on pirate outfits:
Erin and her blue silk/poofy shirt:

Erin and I in Mackenzie's skirt together (Mackenzie's skirt has like four yards of fabric, so this wasn't that much of a stretch). Notice the beautiful stripes. I must say, I wasn't quite so much of a fan of it on the shelf, but with a ruffle it is splendid.

And here is Mackenzie, not wearing the skirt, and trying to hide from me and my camera. She's still there, and looking a little cookie. Why are all my roommates crazy?

Here we have Katie getting ready to cut out pieces for her pirate garb. As of now she has some poofy pants finished and a vest to go with them.

And yes, I have been making things too. In the picture of me with Erin I am wearing a shirt that I made, not a very good picture though. And here is some yarn I made last week drying in the bathroom (towel racks are great for drying yarn!). I also made a coat for Katie out of some periwinkle blue wool with a boarstooth edging, finished a hat that I have been working on forever, and made myself an SCA dress (woot!). I have been a very crafty person the past week. I also started working on a shrug from knitty (that's right, I'm too lazy to put in the link right now), in my homespun.

Finals

2006-05-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, finals are coming up, and I have been working on finishing up a bunch of projects before leaving town. I will post my other projects this week to make up for my lack of posting last week. For now, here is my newest dyeing project:

I I used koolaid in green, yellow, red and blue to achieve this. Here is my roving soaking in warm water in our bathroom. Note: The sink is fixed! It now drains properly!

Next is the roving before it went in the stove, with the koolaid already on it. For some reason I have a devil of a time pouring anything, so the colours are a bit random.

Here is the roving hanging up to dry, and the yarn all finished. I am not entirely happy with the result, I think that the colours aren't bright enough. Katie thinks that her mom will like it though, so it will be a present for her.

Soup

2006-04-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, I just made a new soup (for me at least), and I wanted to share with you all (that would be me, as one of the few people who actually read this), the recipee.

Miriam's Curry Potato Soup

Ingredients:
3 cups water
2 potatoes
3 small carrots (or two big ones)
1/2 cup of chopped green beans
1/2 a chopped onion
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder (to taste)
1 tablespoon chicken bullion
1/4 cup milk
1 tablspn butter

Directions:
Boil water in saucepan. Add chopped potatoes, carrots and green beans. Let simmer for half an hour (or until the potatoes are soft). Mash up potatoes in pot (they do not have to be 100% mashed, chunks are yummy), enough to make the soup creamy. Add onions, milk, butter, curry and bullion. Let cook for 10 minutes and add meat if you would like (I add maybe a quarter of a cup of sliced sausage.). Bon appetit! This serves 1-2 people depending on if you combine this with other dishes.

Fir Cone Shawl

2006-04-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

In recent news: I am almost finished with my fir cone triangular shawl I am very happy with how it is turning out. I still have to add the edging, which is going slow. Very slow... I am currently almost half way done with the edging (7 repeats short), and have decided that it is at the ad nauseum state. Here are pictures for those of you out there who are curious.
Here is the beginings of my shawl back a month or so ago:

And here is it in its current state:

Yesterday it was absolutely beautiful out, I took Helen, my spinning wheel outside to play, and we quite enjoyed the sun. One of my aquaintances, Bret another History major, brought out his camera and took some pictures of us in action. I was spinning some lovely romney, mohair roving in a blue colour way from the fair.

Here she is later that day soaking up the sun through the blinds. I absolutely adore my spinning wheel by the way. I know that she is only a plain Ashford Traditional Wheel, but she fits the bill.

Shopping

2006-04-24T00:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been a bit delayed in posting. I have two capstones which I have been working on. This past week I had to devote a large chunk of time to them, and that left little time to post here. I have done a little spinning now that lent is over. I got Helen out of my closet, and played with some colonial top that I started spinning ages ago on a drop spindle. I am Navajo three plying it, and I hope to make socks out of it. As so much time elapsed between skeins though, I think that I will make socks, with one skein for the foot part, and one for a lacy decoration up the leg. What do you think?

Well, I have had two restock trips in the past two days. Not that I needed more yarn or fabric... Anyways, I went to the Puyallup Spring Fair on Saturday, they have a section called the "Shepard's Extravaganza," and I found lots of fibre to play with. I got this stuff which is Merino for $1 an ounce (it's a pretty gray).

I also got this which is a merino, silk, mohair blend:

And this merino (I think its merino) roving in a navy with some purple.

The next shopping trip, Sunday, we went to JoAnne's. I usually don't buy anything there, but we are making costumes for the premier of Pirate's of the Caribean, so I needed something to go with my purple bodice. I found this, it is 100% silk, in a gold and black brocade. I have three yards of it, and it will go to a blouse and an overskirt for under the bodice. Unfortunately, I don't know quite yet what I will use for the underskirt, none of my fabric seems to work. I might have to find something from mom. The first picture is the fabric drying in our bathroom (it dried in like 3 hours, I love silk!) The second is a detail of the border that runs along one of the selvedges. That will be the edge on the sleeve, and the bottom of the skirt. It was a little spendy for me at 5$ a yard, but I figure that's pretty good for a silk brocade. It was 50% off. I also got some crimped silk that is tie dyed for a shirt or something. I took a picture, but my camera's batteries were running out.

Well, that's all for now. Night.

--April 25th edit--
Pay Day! Hopefully it won't all go to the local yarn store...
In other news, Erin now wants a spinning wheel. I feel like she is progressing so well (she has joined the dark side). In other words, I feel like I need to announce this to the world:
As if this wasn't already obvious...

Easter Break

2006-04-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well, Easter Break is over and done with, thus no posts for a little while. I forgot my camera, so no pictures from Eugene.
Let' s see, it was a fairly uneventful weekend. I got some new yarn. I can't remember the yarn company off the top of my head, but it is a two ply wool, alpaca, viscose blend. I have 6 skeins of 100 grams of this stuff. I love it. It is a burgandy colour in a tweed. The plan is a lacy shirt.

In any case, last Monday I went to one of the Immigration Reform Protest Rallies, this one in Seattle. It was quite fun, though most of the chants were in Spanish...
As usual, I was the one with the knitting project. Erin had a project, but it was buried in her bag under stuff. In the picture I am working on the Fir Cone shawl, which is getting bigger, I have almost three skeins on it so far, and have two more to go!
While we were there, I don't think I've ever seen so many cops in my life (except when the riot police came out in Peru in Arequippa for the taxi strikes). We saw bicycle cops, we saw car cops, we saw motorcycle cops, we saw foot cops and ones on horses. Well, there were 25.000 people or so there.

In other news, I just made a hat. I started it at about 4 or so, and finished it at 11pm. Woot! A one day hat! I will post a picture once it is all blocked etc.

And the weekend has come

2006-04-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

Let's see, the weekend has come and gone. It rained, the sun shined, the usual.
I worked on another sewing project, I just seem to be in the mood for sewing this week. I am working on an Italian Ren. The fabric is a linen damask in a paisely pattern (je l'adore) which I got at Ursulmas last winter for like 3 dollars a yard. There were ten yards, so I split the fabric with Liz and we each got 5 yards for our own nefarious purposes. 5 yards is plenty to do stuff with, especially if you happen to be as short as moi.

I currently have the top parts cut out, and I am working on embroidering the back paiselys in lots of colours. Hopefully this will turn out as I envision.

I also will make myself a shift. Since the linen is a non bleached linen colour, I am going to make myself a coloured shift to go with it, otherwise it would be way too bland. I have some navy silk noil which I think I might use. I also have some periwinkle, but I have a nice amount of that fabric and think that I might like to save it for something nice.

In other lands, I got to model in my garb today for a sculpture, that was fun. I got to stand around a lot while Kim twitched the folds of the fabric so they were just so. I also got treated to lunch, which is good considering I currently have no monies on me. We went to Pho down the street from school, and it was scrumptious.

And here they are, pictures!

2006-04-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

Lookie Lookie! Pictures of the final project! I'm not really going to add much in the way of comments, as I already posted today, but suffice it to say I am very happy with how they turned out (Even though the underskirts are slightly askew).

Finished!

2006-04-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Short post this time:

I have now finished all of the dance costumes! Rejoice! It is a wonderful feeling to not have to look at that fabric anymore. Now I just have to clean the living room, I made a little bit of a mess with all the fabric ^_^.

The dance production will be today in Red Square, so I am looking forward to seeing it. I will take my camera, so there should be some pictures of the final product up here soon. I am hoping against hope that everything looks okay. They hadn't given me the buttons, and were going to sew them on themselves, so...last time I saw the costumes they didn't have buttons on them. I also wasn't able to see the finished (minus the buttons) costumes on the other girls last night, because not all of them were there at the rehersal. On the plus side, I now know how to do buttonholes on a sewing machine! Woot! It was a bit interesting because I don't have a manual for my sewing machine.

In other news, I am now a fireplace, to see a picture, go here: Kim Graham Studios.
Katie also gave me some yarn. Her Mom purchased this linen print at Hill Top Yarns in Seattle. There were some other colours, but I liked this the best. I normally don't knit with frufru yarns (Give me natural fibres or give me death-to mangle a famous quote), but I will give this a try to see how it turns out. One more week and I get to spin again! I gave up spinning for lent, and let me tell you, it has been hard. Though with the costume project I haven't been able to do much else anyway... Well, off for a day of study!

More Ruffles!

2006-04-04T19:52:00.002-07:00

Well, I have been working away at the outfits for the dance thing (carnival I think) on Friday. I finally got someone in the group to complement me on them! Woot!

First we have Erin doing a swishy swish to test out the billow power of the skirt (she makes such a good dress form, ne?), I am quite proud with how this turned out, I had to add a triangle in the back because the original skirt wasn't full enough, but now it, thankfully, is full enough. It also now has ruffles. I think that I can quite safely say that I absolutely detest ruffles and the sewing associated with them. My room shall henceforth (once the project is finished) be a ruffle free zone.

I was quite ruffled out this weekend and here is the result...silliness.
Yes, I dumped all of the ruffles on Katie, she laughed...what could I do? Anyways, I call this picture: "Death by Ruffles" Appropriate? If you looked behind the couch she is lounging on, you would see piles more of fabric I still have to cut and sew.

John, Erin's boyfriend came up this past weekend, and we all had fun. He brightens up the apartment (even when I am ready to chase after anyone who even thinks of saying, "ruffle."), especially when we are all bogged down by projects and homework. Here is John cooking for Erin in Sara's apron. Notice the bright orange and green...Erin made it for Sara for Christmas. We thought that he should be wearing it since he was being all chefy.

Last but not least, I have a silly picture (I know the others were really silly too, but this one is silly plain and simple). What are my roommates doing, you ask? Why, they are fighting each other with their tails. Erin is wearing my tail, and Katie is fighting with hers (this started out as, I wonder who's tail is longer? I know, it sounds wrong out of context, even in context it sounds a little wierd).
Have a good evening, and wish me luck with my sewing!

Kitties!

2006-03-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

Here is Baxter, the new Kitty. I have some others of Mayumi (my cat) which shall be posted later, they are on my other memory card. In the first one he is stalking the squirrel (through the window). Look how much the squirrels ignore us and our cats. The next one is Baxter trying to hide from me. He doesn't blend very well with the apple juice though. He had the funniest reaction to a flash I have ever seen. Instead of running away, like most cats, he ran towards the camera and started batting at it. Bizzare?

In the next photo we have the dress of doom. Suffice it to say that I am not happy with the fabric or the dress. Orange? No! Orange plaid? No! Erin is being a lovely model, isn't she? She put so much into this shot (almost fell down dizzy). Not much is happening in the knitting sphere as I am working on the bloody dresses, but hopefully more will come. (And a random picture of a Greek vase, for those of you who are wondering.)

Nada Mucho

2006-03-28T23:53:00.000-08:00

Here it is...time for a new post. As of now, I don't have any pictures to post. I have a few from my Spring Break that I will post later. But for now...
Back at home we have a new cat, his name is Baxter. He loves yarn. And when I say this, I do not mean in a normal cat-play-with-yarn way. No, Baxter not only plays with yarn (and there is plenty for him to play with as there are four knitters at my house), but he steals it. This is quite interesting when the yarn is still attached to your knitting. It's quite cute.
I finally saw Memoirs of a Geisha, and I love it. Though, I had a hard time getting over the entirely Chinese cast. It wasn't necessarily a problem with the chinese actors (though they did have interesting Japanese accents), but more a problem that the entire cast seemed to have been in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. In any case, the movie is beautiful and well worth seeing.
I have a sewing job currently, I need to have four outfits finished by next Friday. They only gave me the fabric today, so I have my work cut out for me. The fabric, I have to say, is absolutely hideous, I claim no responsiblity (I will post pictures later). I made the prototype dress tonight, and I hope that it is what they want. Their instructions to me have been rather vague. I think that it looks pretty good, aside from the fabric.
Other than that, nada mucho. Erin and Mackie brought me back a pretty pashmina from New England, which I am absolutely in love with.
Well, Ciao for now!

Learning html, and baking!

2006-03-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, it has been a boring day/weekend, thus the number of posts. I have been baking and cleaning (cleaning from the baking mostly really), and today I finally figured out how to make links in the text. Woot! Like this: I attend PLU in Tacoma Washington.

In any case, this morning I made myself breakfast. French toast, bacon and cheese biscuits and a glass of milk. My corn bread didn't turn out very well, it is very dry. (I have also made pancakes, homemade syrup, and potato soup.).

I also have, for your viewing pleasure, my newest project Fir Cone Triangular Shawl, out of my homespun yarn.
(Sorry if my links are getting a little too frequent, I'm just trying to practice.)
And last, but certainly not least, my new favourite chair, which I have been sitting in soaking up the sun and knitting.

My amazing rainbow scarf

2006-03-18T15:25:00.000-08:00

Here is my newest scarf. I think that it is bound for my Dad. It looks like it will be a perfect pride day scarf. Though I might give it to Hugh (one of my Dad's friends), because it would match the rainbow hat I made him for Christmas. It took me three days!

I am quite happy with the scarf, and thought that I would try my hand at putting a free pattern up for people to use. Here it is:

Requirements: Lots of left over yarn in similar sizes (though if you have small yarn, you can always double it up to match the thicker yarns), for my example my yarn is worsted weight, or thereabouts.
Needles: I used size 6 circulars (US), use larger needles for chunky yarn, and smaller for thinner yarn.

CO 24 stitches (or an even multiple of four) in a colour that you want to start your rainbow in (I started with purples).
In same colour work basketweave pattern with a two stitch garter border on each side:
k2,* k4, p4* repeat * to last two, k2.
k2, *p4, k4* repeat to last two, k2.
repeat these two rows once

k2, *p4, k4* repeat to last two, k2.
k2, *k4, p4*, repeat to last two, k2.
repeat once

now change to another colour in the same colour segway and repeat ad nauseum. If you have less or a little more of the colour that you are using, you can start the next yarn earlier or later.

Change to the next colour (i.e. from purple to red and so on) after about a foot (or when you run out of yarns in that colour).

At the end you can add fringe, for mine, I added fringe in the colours at the ends.

And block

Now, here is my tank top. I finished blocking it, and am now wearing it. This isn't a terribly flattering picture of me, but I try. I am quite happy with how it turned out, the first top I have successfully made that fit me! Woot for my week tank top.

My newest knitting project

2006-03-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

And, I am terrible at posting. I have recently come to this conclusion. But, nobody really reads this anyways...not even my parents. Oh well.
Isn't the view from our apartment lovely? This is the golf course by the way. Note the cars at the bottom (I should crop that later).

Next, we have my newest project. My "it took me a week to make tank top." The pattern is from Knitty, and it is the soleil pattern. Yay! It is finally done. The yarn is some lovely homespun that I purchased this summer at the Lane
County Fair from one of the demo people. (The orange towel is courtesy of Sara).

Now, for my roommate's things (well, what I could take pictures of at this hour of the night).
On the left are Mackenzie's philosopher finder puppets partying (doing the can can I believe). And on the right are some stuffies that Katie made needle felting. (Sorry, the pictures a bit fuzzy).

That's all for now. I must needs sleep.

Skeleton in a pot!

2006-03-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

More pictures from England.

2006-02-20T22:26:00.000-08:00

Here are more pictures from January. These are from the British Museum. There were some pretty Viking things that I thought my SCA friends would like.Here is the main entrance to the BM, impressive ne? This was the last day in England (each time prior that I went to the BM my camera batteries died on me. Grrr.), and it was beautiful. Notice the blue sky. One of the few sunny days we had in the entire month.
Pretties! I love the one on the right with the yellows and reds.
And hair sticks, always useful...and decorative too. The middle one is impressive, but I like the one just to the left of it.
Here we are, back in the V&A. This is a tapestry showing the fates triumphing over chastity (down at the bottom). One has a distaff, one measures the thread, and the third holds the spindle.

I still have more photos coming.
On a personal, recent note, I got an A on my final History 301 paper. 192 out of 200! Woot. That was the longest, hardest paper I have ever written. My secret, a title with a colon does wonders! Mine was: "Norman Propaganda: A Utilization of Disparate Sources in the Eleventh Century." Wow, I can't believe that I came up with it and how little it actually says. I confess that I came up with it one day 5 minutes before a draft was due, and decided to keep it.
Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

England and January.

2006-02-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

So, I went to England during January.
I went for a J-Term study abroad, studying England's involvement in WWII. I took some textile picutes, so I figured this would be a good place to post some of them. These are from a hunting tapestry circa 1430's on display in the Victoria and Albert in London. I took these mostly for costuming resources (and they are just plain pretty).

I quite like the V & A, some of the prettiest textiles I have ever see, including these tapestries. The also had a textile of linen from King Tut's tumb.

A warning: I got lost in this museum. I map is quite useful when you go into any I mean any building in England. I ended up lost in the British museum, the V & A, almost in the British Library, and in the Ashmolean in Oxford.

More later, I am not very good at adding pictures to my posts yet. Ta!

Raining

2005-11-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

Well, it's raining. The perfect time to post. Outside it is cold and bleary, and inside I sit with my warm cup of tea. It also makes a wonderful way of procrastinating my 10 page paper and my Latin translation for tomorrow (though Catullus is quite fun, once you get to know him).
This weekend we went to a wonderful jazz preformance by one of Erin's friends from the mall. We had a few drinks (a bit stronger than was expected, so Mackenzie was the only one to have more than one), and some wonderful desert. The music was wonderful, sometimes a little odd, but always fun.
I worked on yarn this weekend. I am spinning a blue/pink
/red/green romney roving that I bought at the Puyallup Fair. It is nice to spin, and I hope that I will have enough for a shawl. Speaking of shawls, one of my friends may let me knit her a shawl/veil for her wedding, and I am very excited. Hopefully I will have enough time, her wedding is in the summer.

Now, here is Katie's first mitten. Isn't it pretty (and pointy)? This is one of her first projects and has turned out quite well. Now she just needs to make the other one, which shoudl go pretty fast.
I am really jealos of the yarn. Her mom found it for her at a place that was going out of buisness. Though, I guess that I can't be too jealos, her mom got yarn for all of the rest of us too. I believe that it is 100% wool.

Mackenzie is currently working on a baby blanket in a shell and wave type pattern. It is a varient that has the pattern row on the reverse side. She has about 4 inches and a long way to go before it is done. Mackenzie, Sara and Erin are all working on blankets, and I laugh, because my nice little scarves and shawls go so quickly in comparison.

Let's see, Erin is almost finished with a crochet blanket, but I don't appear to have any pictures of it. I do, however, have a picture of her hideous green and yellow scarf. She's making it for her sister for her birthday. Her sister goes to the U of O, so the colours are perfect. The yarn is wool ease from Lion Brand. The pattern she is using is a mistake rib.

As for Sara, she has been working on a afghan in a very pretty pattern. As she has persevered for so long, and it is so very pretty, I thought that I would post a picture of it for her. Oooh, ahhh.

Project Post Time

2005-10-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Miriam- Hello everobody! It's a new week, time for new projects to play with. This week we all got yarn from online (some from JoAnnes, and some from Smiley's). Here is my pretty purchase. There is a denim skein, 4 plum skeins, a charcoal skein, and 5 natural skeins. 4 of those natural skeins are for a friend, but they were getting lonely while I was photographing.
Here is my shawl that I finished in August. It didn't win any prizes, alas, but I loved making it, and love wearing it even more. The yarn is handspun, and it is (obviously) handknit, but I didn't dye it. The yarn is a romney/mohair/silk blend. It only took me half a year to make.

Here is a sock of Erin's that she is working on. The needles at the bottom of the picture have the second sock. Notice the pink color.

I don't have any other pictures of my dear room mates projects, but they will be posted soon.

Here come pictures of us all.

2005-10-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

No, this is not me, Miriam. I have not sprouted extra arms and turned blue (although I am known in certain circles as midget smurf). As the one with the camera I find that I am usually the one to take the pictures. This is the project I love most out of my recently finished ones. It is my homespun, home dyed (coolaid) and home knit scarf in a basket pattern.
Here is Mackie, no projects in hand, contemplating the meaning of life (or possibly just Law and Order, you never know). Mackie is currently making a crochetted blanket.

This is Katie with her first knitting project! Lookie. This is a scarf knit in stockinnette that turned out very well, especially as a first project. Currently she is working on a hat and naalbinding a bag for herself.

This is Erin, no spinning or knitting in it, but it is the best picture that I have of her on my camera. She is currently working on a scarf out of her homespun (she made the yarn a year ago and is finally getting around to doing something with it.

This is Sara spinning. She is spinning this hideous (or as she would say, beautiful) bright orange and yellow yarn. As of yet the yarn has no destination.

Sara edit: It's not hideous!

Now testing pictures

2005-10-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is me. This isn't a terribly great photo, but I am really just trying out this whole uploading images thing. I really do have more pictures of yarn. Really.
Behind me is my roommate (also playing with yarn) and we are at a student fair for clubs and activities at my university trying to get people to come to our knit club. It was a blast (though, it was actually last year).