etsy friday

Nicole's blogged about this shop before, but I've actually had this etsy purchase under wraps for months til I worked up the courage to send it on to its new home :)


Earthenware tab from circaceramics.etsy.com

I love Circa Ceramics, for the range of handwork that goes into their products and just how neat they are. They start by screenprinting (or gocco-ing) images and fusing them to brightly colored earthenware or porcelain. They make a range of fired items, like magnets, bowls, coffee cups, and tabs like this one.

What's a tab? What to DO with a tab? Fall in love and let it go? Keep it though you haven't figured it out yet?

Onto the fiber portion of our program... seriously, Ravelry needs to get a fiber stash database going; my yarn stash page is the little white angel on my shoulder when it comes to etsy and yarn.* Until that void's filled I keep getting sucked into buying more (and finding new places to stash it around the house...)


Scoured merino fleece from shunklies.etsy.com

Despite the fact I am wrestling with spinning my brown merino fleece I handcarded into rolags (more on that later), I still am interested in handcarding wool. Shunklies had this 3.5oz listing of scoured merino (cleaned of grease and farm grime) and I immediately thought it would be rad to card it with scraps of dyed superwash merino leftover from spinning. There is at the most 2 oz of dyed scraps, and they're all different colors-- once carded the result will look just flecked with color. Can't wait :)

The fleece is very clean of grease, soft with very little vm. And all the way from the UK!

From stateside, a small family Maine farm where they process their own wool...


Merino/silk/sari silk batts from enchantedknoll.etsy.com

I really like batts, and I really like when I can get more than 4 oz of fiber at a time. 4 oz just seems too small for me when I'm not spinning for socks... so when I saw that Enchanted Knoll had 4 oz listed but could card more, I pounced and bought 8 oz total. It's 50-48-2 merino-silk-sari silk-- sounds cool, eh?

A closeup:



Still in love, hasn't waned.

Both Enchanted Knoll and Shunklies sell yarn as well as fibers in their shops for those of you who don't spin (yet!) :)

A few more headsups...

* Jolene (blogless!) sent me a link to a NYT article featuring ikea hacking and handmade; etsy snags a mention but it's interesting overall even though i have a bit of an agoraphobic skincrawl happen when thinking about ikea
* Alyson has rounded up a bunch of shops (etsy based and others) that are having sales on fibers and yarn... you may see some on upcoming etsy fridays :)
* Elizabeth (blog?) showed me this awesome broken plate pendant necklace that i fell in want.love with, a mirror too much into my heart right now
* LORiOLA, one of my favorite etsy glass artists, is still having a sale and listing new items daily. i love this orange bone! she's already shipped my order (whoa!) or it would have been added to my collection of her glass jewelry...

and not etsy but...

* Mags Kandis linked the weaving in ends as you knit tutorial i shared a while back in the comments to the latest Knitting Daily post! i'm a dork, a fangrrl but still-- it made me grin :)
edit afternoontime, 9/7: another link from Knitting Daily!
9/10: Sherry W loves it too :)
9/11: so does Lime & Violet's Daily Chum blog, and Yahoo! Bookmarks

Miss you. Wish me courage and luck...


* Don't be bummed if you're not on Ravelry yet! For the super curious I have been trying to keep all of the stash pics hosted in this folder in my flickr stream.

Colors and voices

Totally in love with the colors in my recent handspun purple stockinette socks, I broke out the dyepot this weekend and dyed some more "glass" roving (twice-dyed superwash merino). I was still feeling the Ovid and Bulfinch inspiration, so went with that again.

All (except noted) are currently for sale in my etsy shop, zeromarkers.


"glass amphitrite"


"glass daphne"


"glass atalanta"


"glass phaeton"


"glass nyctimene"
(reserved)


"glass ariadne"
(may keep this one, can't capture the color well enough for pictures to sell)


"glass eurydice"


"glass baucis"


"glass philemon"

(baucis and philemon were dyed separately but have similar coloring. baucis has more plum red, while philemon has more royal and overall purples.)

...on a billy the kid note, check out the most recent Stash and Burn podcast if you ever wanted to hear what it sounds like when I say, "uh..." :) Krista did a much better job under the gun, and Jenny and Nicole were really good at keeping it going. (They sound *just* like their podcast, so I must sound like that... as much as I don't think I do. Didn't know rolling on and off the tongue could be so fun :))

stfu: gee, bmp, dy, pom, 224

I have a thing about our wonderful language, how it looks :) That said, can a picture really compare? You tell me!




GEE Magazine, "love for games" (German)
July-August 2007
(with my bmp space invaders sock inside!)

When the editors of GEE asked if they could have some hi-res photos of bmp for their print magazine, I didn't really know if they were serious. Then the mail comes on Saturday...! :)

I took 3 years of high school German, and came away with 1) ich libe dich 2) how to make out in a semidark classroom while everyone else watches home movies of the Rhine and 3) that the boy with blue eyes would never ever notice me *like that* even though we had like, 5 classes a day together. So I have no real clue what the copy means in my mother tongue: "Stricken Von den Socken Die Space Invaders haben es, trotz heftiger Gegenwehr, geschafft, sich auf dem ganzen Erball zu verbreiten: Sogar auf Socken sind sie inzwischen zu finden. Das Strickmuster gibt es unter: http://sockpr0n.blogspot.com," and babelfish is more funny than helpful, but I like it.

[edit: Nadine was kind enough to translate for me in the comments! Thanks Nadine :) "Despite fierce resistance the Space Invaders have managed to take over the planet earth: you can even find them on socks now. The knitting pattern can be found at http://sockpr0n.blogspot.com."]

Recently, a bunch of yall were kind enough to alert me to bmp making the 10 geekiest yarn creations on the web list by threadbanger, too :) I found out before the story hit its tipping point from a post on Alyssa's blog (she has some fun photos of a Cookie A trunk leg show). All of this in addition to the other fun linkage when the pattern was first published, and its heady 224 keycard days all over again :)

(I thought it was fate that this t-shirt was printed today, so its on its way to me too:

from threadless, june 18 2007 printing)

Another fun stfu: Rachel and I were chatting and she mentioned that she heard mention of zero stitch markers on some knitting podcasts and that I should check them out. I don't have a soundcard on my pc, so podcasts are pretty much outfield for me... but what should appear in my mailbox? CD copies of Lime & Violet and Socks in the City! :) I knew the Stash and Burn ladies knew about my freshwater pearl stitch markers from their pre-Stitches West coverage of the Bay Area Knit Coop (hi Nicole!), but its neat to actually be able to hear my very first podcasts! Very cool, Rachel's a f*ing rockstar. :)



The CDs are hanging out with some of Rachel's "scratch art" yarn from her etsy store, Dyeabolical Yarns. She does custom orders if you love this colorway as much as I do. (Another, better pic of the yarn in this etsy post.) I think this hank wants to be a pair of teosinte socks (from knitspot)-- what do you think?

On another note, over the weekend I remembered why I think Cookie should be dipped in bronze like baby shoes:


(okay, so I didn't really forget why.)
Pomatomus in handspun superwash bfl, dyed by Pigeonroof Studios

Yum.

spinning and sock pattern pr0n

So much, but so little knitting! :)

I had an awesome weekend, kicked off by a spin-in at spinnity's... real spinners, yall! Alden Amos ain't got nothing on these girls. I picked up the second braid of Mars Superwash from Margit (I wasn't the only one there who fell head over heels for this colorway, I tell you knit flix and Nathania have excellent taste, too ;))...



...met someone famous, proved to Cookie I am a real live person most of the time, generally was my afraid of people self, uttering oh about 5 sentences the entire evening (mostly goaded on by Kristi and cold medicine), and had an all around super time.

I spun, too! :) The second sock's worth of the "Crying of Lot 49" merino top I saved for myself after listing them in my etsy shop a week or so ago...



...and I'm in love. Is it okay to be in love with two things at once? Oy, but can you blame me?!



This is definitely my favorite handspun yet. DK-ish weight (once taut, its really lofty... does that still count as dk?), about 333 yd of two ply loveliness that will be some insane socks. At least one sock's going to have a yellow foot and a charcoal leg (or reverse), but I don't care. I took Teyani's recent sock (hop!) yarn spinning posts to heart-- not trying as much for a balanced yarn off the bobbins in the end but one that will be springy once the twist has been set in the wash... and I think it works. Not perfect, but definitely a breakthru for me.



It'd been hanging to dry in my hall closet's doorway and everytime I passed it, I had to squeeze it... this is the first merino handspun I've produced that is actually squeezable, huggable. (Does that make sense? My merino sock weights before felt wiry, scratchy though the base fiber was so lovely and soft...)

I'm waxing over yarn, but so in love I don't care.

I can't start knitting it though (i KNOW!)... I have finally gotten back on track w/ my Denmark STR sock thanks to kind knittyboard souls who rescued me from my sorry loss of a US 3 Boye dpn, and I should finish the second sock from the sock madness competition, despite the fact I am out on the first round... not to mention the fact I actually bought yarn (I haven't bought sock yarn in forever!) for a project I'm jonesing for... no hard and fast details til I have everything in my hot little hands, but hinthint... a Cookie A pattern :)

Speaking of...



Yeah. Holy crap is what I said, too. Thanks Cookie :)

Hm... oh! Back on the holy crap tangent-- Boing Boing, Craft:, Kotaku and Wil Wheaton dug the bmp pattern along with most of yall (don't forget to enter the contest if you haven't! on til the 20th! win something etsy-riffic!)... I had several emails asking me to sell socks knit from it (no thanks, but find a local knitter and pay him/her well is all I ask!), a marriage proposal (no joke), and shock in discovering that the pattern was a top 10 story on digg.com...

Rockstar week :)

bmp space invaders socks... and a contest

bmp socks, by me :)


I have to say I'm just so happy today :) My bmp pattern was a love letter thru process and product, and I am just thrilled knitty gave me an opportunity to share it on this scale with all of you (whom I really do cherish in my anonymous, blog reading way).

So of course I have to celebrate with a contest! Something new this time... yall may notice by my posts and lack of them that I have been spending quite a bit of unexpected time with my knitting accessory shop on etsy. Not only that, but much of my wakare earned goes directly back to artisans who sell alongside me. (You can sneak a peek at my covet/favorites list here to grasp the extent of my obsession and oddity.) I couldn't think of a better celebration than giving away gift certificates from a few of my favorite vendors from etsy...


***


$25 gift certificate for Fearless Fibers. Goodness knows Deb is a true dye artist, and has so many inspiring yarns (in so many variations!) that I know it'll be hard to choose. Or not to brag. Or something involving happiness and yarn. (Thanks to Deb for her donation!)

***


$16 gift certificate to tinymeat. I'm very much a wallet girl, and tinymeat's float my boat... but they carry passport covers, card holders, iPod covers-- to have and to hold. Can't ask for more. (At least I can't!)

***


$15 gift certificate for LingGlass. I am blown away by the simple beauty of her pendants and glasswork, and think you'll love them too. I'm not much of a jewelry wearer but I want one of everything she makes :)

***


$10 gift certificate for Three Owls Knitting. Our own Sherry W's shop-- featuring double pointed needle protectors that are one of my favorite knitting accessories (seriously, I think I own 6 sets now??) They're great for keeping your work on the needles and for making sure those needles don't poke thru fabrics.

***


5 custom cards and envelopes (and shipping) from CreativeApples. I've recently become an etsy card junkie, and April's are just... wow. You can choose up to 5 images from her flickr pages and she'll make them into beautiful cards for you to mail and share.

***


$10 gift certificate for time2cre8. If you've received an order from zerOmarkers somewhat recently, you'll recognize MaryLou's work-- I use her recycled atlas business card envelopes to send sample stitch markers and thank you notes in. I love them, and she does other great things with all sorts of media.

***


$10 gift certificate for zerOmarkers. Uh, because I can? :)
(For those of you that are new, this is my etsy shop.)

***


2 hardback copies (to 2 winners) of The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I know, I know... this isn't etsy stuff! Penguin Books sent me these copies (well, they sent me three but I'm keeping one!)... and said to have fun giving them away. What more fun could this be? :) (You may remember my little writeup about the book... they have other bloggers' reviews linked on their "buzz" page, too.)

***

All of the certificates should be enough to cover at least one item in their shops and shipping, so no worries about needing alternate payment methods (unless you want to stock up, which my fellow vendors and I fully endorse ;)).



Cool? Since we have something new, how about something old... that's right. "How can I win something fabulous?" By submitting a couplet to the world's longest poem at Choka On It (if you're new, please read how first...) and copy/pasting your couplet in the comments to *this* post. I reserve the right to disqualify you if you don't follow their (simple) submission requirements... I'm mean like that, ask around ;) Any doubts, check my past choka contests here and here for more info. You must leave me either a link to your blog or a valid email address (so I can contact you if you win!)

Contest will run thru Monday March 19 20, 2007 at 3pm pacstandard... and winners will be chosen *at random* (one entry per person), so no worries about your skilz or lack thereof. I'd love for you to help me spread the word for my little celebration, too :)

Hm. Now for something borrowed and blue...

(Good luck!)

Lizard Ridge afghan complete

Lizard Ridge afghan
from Knitty, Fall 2006
Started: October 11, 2006
Finished: November 16, 2006
Noro Kureyon, colorway 116-- 19 balls
Patons Classic Merino, Black-- 1 ball (more than 1/2 of the 100gm used)
US 8 (5.0mm) 24" circular needle, Addi and size f crochet hook for edging



What can I say? :) Checklist stuff first.

Basics:

I used 18+ balls of Noro Kureyon, knitting from 2 balls at the same time and alternating colors as directed in the pattern. I followed the pattern as written, except for the modifications I'll rewrite about below.

I used only one colorway, and knit the entirety in panels instead of blocks. I knit until the end of the skeins and just added a new one in when needed. When adding in colors (or compensating for knots!!) I just spit spliced. I didn't really make an effort to keep the colors the same when adding in a new ball; I took skeins and pretty much worked them in a grab bag way, working a dark or light starting yarn into a dark or light end of skein if I could, but not a big deal if not. When I spit spliced knots that joined non-similar colors, I just went for it and spliced them where the knots were. I didn't switch or change out colors if they lined up to the same color from the previous skeins, so what you see is an example of the kureyon patterning every other row.





I used mattress stitch to seam it up, and edged it with the black Patons merino wool. On the second row of the crochet edge, I skipped 3 stitches instead of 2-- I think on my sc (1st) row of crochet, I picked up too many and the resulting second row was bunchier than it should have been... my "waves" looked more like peaks, so not wanting to redo the 1st row (I've not crocheted before!!) I went with this. Still a little "peaky" but that's okay.





I wet blocked it in Kookaburra woolwash, and just laid it out to dry (first squeezing the water out in towels, etc.) I didn't block it to any measurements, just tried to make the edges even and the panels straight. They're not perfectly straight, but I'm okay with that... neither am I :)



Mods:

1) I knit garter ridges instead of stockinette for the non-short row rows; so rows 1-3 garter (knit every row), row 4 as written, rows 5-9 garter, row 10 as written, rows 11-12 garter. This made the afghan less shibori like when knitting it; the pieces generally were flat pre blocking.



I really enjoy the texture of the garter ridges, even though they are less pronounced after the wet blocking. The garter edges also made seaming *much* easier for me... I used the ridges as markers to make sure my seams were straight and even. I think the line of garter ridges across the afghan helps with the horizontal continuity, and also gives a visual "clue" as to when there is a color/skein change as the colorway is darkish and there were overlapping colors between the 2 skeins.

2) I broke yarn and wove in the ends while knitting instead of carrying the yarn up the sides. I actually do consider this a mod, especially seeing the panel where I did carry the yarn up the side compared to the next three where I wove in the yarn ends as I went... the carrying yarn panel was "shorter" (more compacted) than the others, even though the floats were as loose as I could make them without flopping on the wrong side (WS). I was a bit uncomfortable with the loose yarn on the WS (I didn't plan to and won't back the afghan), and doubly so for the panel that would be on the far right edge and edge of the blanket-- so I'm happy those fears were allayed this way.





[edit, friday nite... i thought i'd posted too many pics, but here's one of the entire WS of the blanket since some of you were interested in the back (i like it too!)...



btw, i haven't trimmed the ends yet, wanted to take photos first to show how deep they were woven in-- but i will be cutting them down before its given to gma.]

It took a bit more yarn to do this (weaving in ends while knitting), but not much. (I wove in the ends over approx. 2.5-3" where carrying the yarn up the side would take less than an inch, depending on the place in the pattern.) Now, there was no way I would have ever have done this if I wasn't weaving in the yarn ends as I went-- it would drive me crazy as I hate finishing. Luckily I was taught how to weave in yarn ends while knitting from JP Pett-Ridge during a colorwork class (and was accepted to Yarnival! vol 1.3 for showing off the technique! w00t!), and definitely think its a great way to go with this afghan.


The elephant in the room? What about the Noro Kureyon?

Knots in Noro, who knew?! ;) 17 in 19 balls, most not keeping the color continuous and joining dissimilar colors. Vegetation? Yup, picking out stuff as I knit-- straw, hay, farmland stuff. Even all of that, I loved it. I like the "rustic," not super processed feel of the wool and I didn't mind the knots in this project. It wet blocked softer than it started, and is warm and makes a nice afghan. However, part of the new love I feel for the the Kureyon is how much it makes me think and wonder how they make it-- how they arrange such delicate color transitions while spinning long colors, all in a mass-production way. The knots really detract from that; I wouldn't want to try and guess where stripes will repeat in the Kureyon, but I hate missing out on the gradual color changes when dissimilar colors are knotted together. I'll use it again sometime, but for smaller projects... I don't see myself knitting sweaters anytime soon, but I'm not averse to it. I want to know how they do it though! (Yarn spies, call me!) :)

[edit, November 29... Rachel pointed me to her discussion with Noro/KFI re: knots in their yarns, and her discussion also includes some background on the base fiber and spinning it; very interesting stuff! Also check out the links here 1, 2, 3 from Anne's discussion with Jeffrey Denecke of KFI, Noro's USA distributor, about her Noro Knot Experience. Yes, *that* *same* J. Denecke from yarn recall/no cashmere in Debbie Bliss/Noro fame...]

The Patons Classic Merino was the real eyeopener for me... $5 for 100gm/223yd, comparable to Knit Picks Merino Style but heavier weight, often on sale at craft stores. I've never tried it but I'm glad I did. I stopped myself from getting a few armloads for making toys for the kid (with the current $10 threadless tshirt sale, and my yarn binge last weekend, its for the best anyway!!)


Jack London was a Knitta, yall.
(See the pre-at at's in the background?)

Roundup... I loved it. I loved knitting it, I loved the final product. I'm awfully pleased with it, and think that I may make it a bit of tradition to knit my grandma an afghan every year (and I can start earlier this time!) Maybe the Great American Aran Afghan or Barbara Walker's Learn to Knit afghan... I've batted that idea around before, but I really like the result and scope of this project so I think I'll do it. Need to think about it more after the holiday though!! :)

One last shot for scale...




Previous posts on Lizard Ridge:

October 12, 2006
October 16, 2006
October 18, 2006
October 23, 2006
October 24, 2006
October 26, 2006
October 30, 2006
November 4, 2006
November 10, 2006

Days of mini-posts and roses.

i. "what i did on my labor day vacation."







I spun *all* weekend. Even outside in the sun (yo quiero mi Joy!!), watching my kid play with other little people. The white turned into the pink navajo plied skein, the black in navajo ply and another little hat in the making, and the brown/white is 2 ply.

Is navajo plying the best thing ever??! Survey says, yes! :) Its not terribly awesome looking at this point, but my goodness my guinness is it a miracle to watch and supercool to execute! Makes me almost not be afraid of ::gulp:: crochet as much.

I dyed the navajo plied white skein in acid dyes, pink and a twitch of black. I think it may be a nice (gasp) HAT for me, sometime. The brown/white should stripe in places and remain marled in others, I'm thinking a hat for a big head or a chunky mittens would be best (90 gm and not soft enough for scarf stuff).


ii. "my mailman missed me."







Brown Sheep roving mill ends, from The Sheep Shed Studio.

$7.50/lb, a pound each of "medium brown with wide stripes" and "grey with black dye error." Dude. (The brown/white 2 ply above was from the roving pictured here). All are uninterrupted looong strips of roving, no breaks... except for the little extra more-brown bit at the front of the brown/white picture-- that was quickly felled in my first navajo ply attempt. No pics, the horror!

They even tossed in a 3 oz+ sample of some caramel colored top. Very cool, and very fast shipping (received via parcel post about a week after the order was placed, parcel post can be hit or miss though.) I only paid $2 extra in shipping than what was paid to the post office, a good deal figuring everything was packaged in plastic and had to be boxed up, etc. (It seemed high at the time, but really isn't.)

iia. "what i did with my knitty honorarium."


Henry's Attic "Silk & Ivory" 50% wool, 50% silk
2000 yd/lb unscoured, 1 lb cone
aka "carrera"


Henry's Attic 64's superwash merino roving
5 lb (!!) bag
aka meow!!!

The honorarium I received from my Summer 2006 knitty pattern went to help pay for all this undyed glory here :) It just arrived and I'm in love.

Someone have good links or tips on dying roving? Pretty please, mangosteens on top? My ultimate goal in spinning is to spin my own sock yarn someday... :)

I love you, knitty.


iii. "i still knit!"



Blue wool tweed handspun cap
Started: August 29, 2006
Finished: August 31, 2006
US 4 dpns, 4 (+ a spare addi when it got too big!)
Handspun dyed with acid dyes

Last time I checked, that's not my kid's head. No no no no NONONO, he doesn't want to wear it. Oh well. Too bad I've already started another (the black, above) :) I see a lot of top down hats for my big headed kid in the near future, nice way to eat up the practice yarn without guilt.

Btw, Whip Up's September Whiplash challenge is "hats" and they have some decidedly awesome knitter/crocheter slanted prizes this time around (can you say yarn, knitting books?)...

As for my too long for socks project...



Uh, yeah. These are *pre-rip* back to the knee... I just started knitting them again after working on the blue hat during last week and spinning all the long weekend, and I realize my intention of creating a super-tight knee, while it worked in theory and practice, makes for a very uncomfortable object when wearing them for more than a second and a half. (Oh, and a hoot in watching me try and cajole them up over my "jaunty" calves too.) So, this is my pre-rip to the knee pic at the same place I was more than a week ago, but eh-- what can you do? :) I'll be ripping the longer one just to where the one on dpn's is, to give you an idea of my pseudo-pain. (Not really a big deal, I want to be able to wear them at least once, so its worth it to make them wearable. At least I'm not knitting them both at the same time!)

I also started working the leg on the addis so I could easily try them on as I went along, but I find it takes me soooo muuuuch loooonger to knit one sock on 2 circs than I'm used to (used to 2 on 2), and its driving me a little mad. I may just put them back on the dpn's and knit them onto addis during the rounds I want to try them on.

I'm still undecided about the buttonhole tops-- purrl (who knows way more about this than me!) says that the holes won't help me as the stockings will eventually stretch and the repositionable snaps on garters help alleviate that... but I like the idea still! I still have a loooong way to go though, so we'll see! But I am awfully glad for the advice, just what I was looking for! :)


iv. who, me?

"Best Sock Blog" via Lucia's "Addict's Choice Knitting Awards"

"Yarnival" contributor: Vol. 1, graciously hosted by Eve

Linked on the Victoria and Albert Museum's website, via their fashion/knitting collection page


ps... gratuitous kid pic.



Could I help myself? No. :)

Am I jealous his form is prolly better, and he looks better sans pants? Maybe :)

Did he have to help me pick up the spanish/english flashcards? Yes :)



...the non-staged pics are the best, even when they show the house in disarray. Monkey see, monkey do indeed-- I'm raising a spinner here!

Have a good week yall!