etsy friday

long time, no see! :) let's skip ahead to the good part, eh?


Toddler backpack from bratsacksbaby.etsy.com

Yall know the kiddo by now, this is a major favorite. Bratsacks uses all recycled and vintage fabrics, and does different details (ladybugs, trains, etc.) in mainly corduroy fabrics. This is a nice backpack-- drawstring and velcro close, great for little hands. The straps aren't adjustable, but I can see this fitting my (somehow) slight, tall kid for a while.

The only drawback is that he stuffs it to the brim with toys, and often has me carry it home for him. :) Too small for me to wear, and you parents out there know how heavy those metal Thomas trains can be.


Crocheted toddler cap in cotton by pdxbeanies.etsy.com

I know, how cute right?! Except he never wears it... only today since I was taking pics of him. (Such a ham, I don't know where he gets it from! ;)) The workmanship is great-- everything's even, finishing is very professional. I can't say anything more than I've *never* seen a commercially made cap for toddlers look better, and this is handmade for me in a custom color choice.


Looby Lou bag from loobyloucrafts.etsy.com
(fixed link, sorry!)

For being a tomboy, I sure collect a lot of purses (under the guise they hold my knitting, of course!) This bag is really awesome though-- a smaller profile than my felted miter malabrigo messenger bag (any interest in the pattern for that? i found the notes the other day...), and I just am head over heels in love with the ume blossom print. The webbed strap is adjustable, and also takes the purse out of that too-dressed up realm (I can't bring myself to wear anything but tshirts and jeans), and overall its sturdy, well made and fully lined. It also has little details inside like a zippered pocket and a keyfob-- I didn't think I'd use either but both are currently employed :)

And something to go with the new messenger...




Silkscreened print on silk business card holder from RedMailboxPress.etsy.com

Love this. I'm going to use it to hold business cards with sample stitch markers attached (like the ones I send with orders from my shop). Red Mailbox Press has a shop full of great stationery, too.

Finally, another repeat of something delicious...


Superwash blue faced leicester (BFL) roving from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com
(artichoke & blackthorn)

I actually custom ordered these from Krista, so I didn't have to do the snatch and grab that often occurs during her etsy shop updates :) I am almost thru the "nightshade" colorway, and the blackthorn is haunting me already.

Something I haven't bought, but yall may be interested in...


etsyFAST goody bags from etsyfast.etsy.com

I'm a member of the etsy Fiber Arts Street Team, and our moderators recently put together a "goody bag" for sale on etsy containing samples from some member shops (including mine). I'm not buying one to give someone else a chance, but the goody bags look so tempting and full of great stuff! There should be more supply sample bags available for sale soon, so keep your eyes open (or rss feeds on!) :)

Another great way to find new things on etsy is to look at someone's favorites list... this is a list of items (or shops) that a person has "hearted"/saved for later. My favorites list is pretty long... it is full of things I will buy eventually (crafty alien's adorable felted knit patterns, red stapler stationery from pinkbathtub), wishful things (if i had another baby i'd carry her in this, if i ever got married i'd want a wedding band like this), inspiring things (crocheted dinosaur skull, fishscale stained glass) and everything in between. You can look at just about everyone's favorites and see what they're into, its a fun peek inside :)

Have a good one!

robot, please?

"mom, please. robot, please. robot. robot. robot, please. please, robot mom."

The past few nites around here, bedtime has taken a foot dragging turn and even more recently, its been plaintive robot-tinged whines. Henry Kikiriki the Bear needed some emergency surgery after losing an ear and a leg (80/20 split between poor finishing to begin with and effects of overloving), and when I pulled out Jess' booklet for finishing tips, its been all about ROBOT around here since.


ROBOT, from jess hutchison's "unusual toys for you to knit and enjoy"
paton's classic merino in grey mix and black single, and knit picks wool of the andes in tomato red (?) doubled
US 6 dpns, 2
started: 2 june 2006
finished: 5 june 2006

It took me longer to finish it than to knit the pieces, even though this is my first completed (albeit tiny!) intarsia project. Also, once ROBOT's body was seamed and stuffed, it was promptly liberated and went on to thrash poor Henry Kikiriki the Bear while Geppetto growled, "robot! robot! robot!" and spirited away when I wanted to make ROBOT stop beating up the just-released-from-surgery bear.

Is it the testosterone?

Anyway.



As pointed out (numerous times) by my cohort, ROBOT looks a bit different than the pattern. I did knit a bright red icord antenna, but 1) forgot to seam it in when finishing and when I finally remembered, 2) couldn't find the darn thing. The arms are placed differently, since I knit one arm longer and just wanted to stop the ROBOT whines... you can't tell as much with the "x power" fist, at least that's what I think. I also neglected to notice that the head and legs/arms are different colors from the body in the pattern, so fewer colors. (Reminds me of an og Nintendo controller!)

I used US 6's (with worsted yarns) so the fabric would be tight-- I didn't like seeing Kikiriki's stuffing thru the knit fabric.



The pattern's great, while my finishing really leaves something to be desired. (The pattern's front & back are knit flat, and the arms seperately and seamed on afterwards). Its not *bad*, but with something like this, its the details that really make the toy great-- awesome face (I didn't have safety eyes, but ordered some... may keep the evil eyed face though), that "seamless" look when attaching body pieces. Oh well, its a toy and well loved already... toddler love is determined by the amount of blurriness in attempted photos.




i know you all know this already, but no i'm not comfortable with copying this pattern (or any patterns i own), and i'm not really interested in selling the booklet either. sorry to put this here, but with the last project, i had too many requests and don't really want to write the "no, sorry" letters this time. thanks for understanding, and sorry.

right angles never looked so good

Math Whiz socks from knitspot
Cashmere/merino/nylon yarn from Pigeonroof Studios
US 2/2.75mm dpns, 4
Started: 23 May 2007
Finished: 2 June 2007

Still love them.

I went on (and on!) last time about the yarn, so its the pattern's turn today :) I've been working on a gift design, and these were my go-to knitting for those many times I just was dizzy from numbers and sizing and just.wanted.to.knit. These were perfect and filled that need-- more interesting than the vanilla stockinette of recent socks, but not too confusing or chart-heavy.



The stitch pattern's a combo of right triangles in knit and purl reliefs, tilting into a windmill shape (or, at least to my eye!) Its obscured by the deep color of the yarn, but the purls do some interesting work and break up the color in a fun textured way. I liked how it reminded me of the right triangle work of my hypotenuse scarf (also from knitspot), and the good math/love connotations that I still can't put into words and will save for another time :)



Anne's pattern has a little fun surprise as well... instead of a traditional ribbing at the top, she skips ahead to the good part and lets the pattern stitch work doubletime in keeping the sock up and on. It works and is a fun treat-- something new to my experience. I love that many of anne's patterns are unisex-- these'd make a great pair of socks for the man man enough to wear pink.



Simple short row heel (I used PGR's as always-- I just realized that it was profiled by Ann Budd in the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits "A better sock from the toe up" article, too) and flat toe. Doesn't get much better, a warm little treat today as I seam up a little treat for my son (ugh, I hate finishing inversely to the amount I love him!)

Have a good one! Today's the last day for the $10 threadless tshirt sale... and they have an awesome new sheepie offering too (from their May 31 new shirt selection, "hairstyle secrets of a sheep"):

sometimes a cigar

well, you know.


handcarded merino (?) fleece rolags, washed during Deep Color's Fleece Day class & purchased w/ my (used) Ashford Joy wheel.

My Strauch handcards came yesterday from The Woolery's Spring Sale (along with 3 more bobbins and a tension spring-- my son decided to see how far he could make the scotch-tension brake band with its spring go and it went faaaar :)). I'm really having a fun time carding; I still don't know if I'm doing it "right" but it looks good and totally spinnable. The fleece is super short staple, almost doesn't roll into a full "cigar" shape.

Carding the fleece, I had one of those back of the mind fantasies to buy a fleece, wash, card, spin, design and knit a sweater for a loved one-- such a fantasyworld I live in! For now, the total fleece I have weighs about 12 oz., not quite enough for a (real) large project. I'm planning on carding all of it before spinning, a relaxation project when everyone's asleep and I can indulge in dirty secret tv by my lonesome.



I also finished spinning and plying one of the superwash merino rovings I kept after my last dye session-- "the color." Its going to be pretty neat... reminds me of candy and should knit up tweedy. My sock yarn spinning's getting finer & finer though (not necessarily a good thing), these I'll have to knit on US 1/2.25mm or US 0/2.0mm. (Did you hear KnitPicks added US 1/2.25mm and US 2/2.75mm to their available needle sizing?! Their dpns are my favorite... too bad they don't take paypal or I'd own several sets already). So much for fast socks, but with the effort that goes into spinning it's more than worth it (or so says the gallery).



When I was drying the merino superwash, I finally skeined up some of the bobbin-ed yarns I showed in this post (I make the messiest skeins)...





...merino/tussah silk (ashland bay-- rose colorway, my guess) and superwash merino from fiberfiend.com. Both were navajo plied since their singles looked too thin to me-- washed up though, they look light/worsted (there's a great looking shop on etsy I need to try one day-- he makes wooden wpi meters and plying templates for spinning). I think the merino/silk worsted would make a great sub for the Seashell Shrug from Runway Knits that I have mad love for-- I only have 8 oz of fiber total, but since its commercially available I'm thinking it won't be hard to find.


Seashell Shrug back, merino/tussah handspun (color's off)

On a personal note, I'm dying sick right now (food poisoning, wishful thinking, voodoo doll?) so I don't expect to have an etsy friday post ready in the next few days. Karrie has been linking some great etsy stuff lately... I bought a pendant from one of her shop recommendations a few weeks back that I need to remember to share.

...and close to my heart and made me feel ridiculously better-- Alyson finished her Belloq thighhigh stockings for her upcoming wedding, and wove a freshwater pearl stitch marker from my etsy shop into the top. Too cool, all around... babies and weddings make me cry.

Be well yall!

math whiz socks in pigeonroof yarn

I had a really long story about math and love here, but hey! You came for socks, yeah? :)


Math Whiz socks by knitspot
Cashmere, merino & nylon sock yarn from Pigeonroof Studios in "poison"
US 2/2.75mm dpns, 4
Started: 23 May 2007

I.love.these.socks. Seriously... I am such a touch and feel person. My tastes in colors change a lot of the time (more for adding to than subtracting from), but these socks feel so good and just want to be held. I shouldn't go on about a yarn that's not available right now (Krista says it will be back with a higher cashmere content at the end of June), but I can't stop :) Its crazy soft, and one of the rare times that I actually prefer the knit fabric to a skeined yarn. You know what I mean-- stuff sometimes just doesn't have that strokability once knit up-- Koigu (et al.) is smooth and sproing but is almost too slick to love, frictionless like skin in the shower once in socks. This yarn though... its missing the "hardness" of say Socks that Rock and Koigu, even though it has a super great twist. The closest hand-wise that I can compare it to is Henry's Attic Kona DK Superwash (not the fingering)... you know its surface softness? Like that.

And the color? Dude. For you non-pooling cats out there:



It was a tight fit (my favorite kind!) yarnwise with the pattern's looong cuff (7"+)...



...but I made it. Full cuff as written, PGR short row heel, flat toe for a 10"+ foot. Yay! :)

Have a good long weekend if you're in the States... I'm off to spin and play on Ravelry (if you're on already, add me as a friend!)


edit, 5/30-- the book bundle is back to regular price :(
ps! if you didn't know already, amazon has knitting nature AND last minute knitted gifts bundled together for 10.98 (?!!), and threadless (my favorite place for tshirts) is having a $10 tee sale sitewide, incl. women's and kid's american apparel shirts! happy happy :)

etsy friday

It seems that Friday's been a good day to keep the etsy posts on, so lets go :)





Mexican (Crazy) Lace Agate stone cabochon-- hand cut, polished and set in handmade sterling setting by Ahna.etsy.com. You could have knocked me over w. a feather when we were chatting (via Etsy Conversations, you know what a chatterbox I can be ;)) and Ahna told me she not only made the silver (and gold) settings for her stones, but that she was the one that selected the cut and finish of each stone. I kept repeating like a madperson-- you CUT the STONE yourself?! I thought... well, I had never thought about that but it was one of the neatest things I'd heard in a long while.

I've loved crazy lace agate for forever (even want the "crazy lace agate" colorway from Blue Moon... but I think its been discontinued), but only ever saw it loose and had no use for a stone no matter how beautiful. You can see how well she solved my dilemma... simple sterling setting, stamped w. her mark on the back. I couldn't be happier or recommend her shop or work highly enough. She also is the webmaster for the Eclectic Jewelry Artisans of Etsy, and they're having a Summer Solstice prize drawing for those who add their emails to their mailing list-- I have mad love for Etsy Street Teams, so go check them out :)



I knew all about lots of kinds of artists (or thought I did!) but polyclay artists were totally new to me. Polymer clay in beads, sculpture, functional pieces... all over etsy were these things that just wowed me-- they have handmade all over them, as well as art and function. I've bought beads from ArtisticJen before & made them into stitch markers for my shop-- these are a few more sets from her shop that will eventually succumb to the same fate. (If you're interested in stitch markers of any of these, lmk-- I only have enough of each style for one unique no-one-else-will-have-them set.) I love the look of the polyclay markers-- they're really bright and have depth (as the designs cut all the way thru), and are much lighter than glass of the same size so you can have a larger sized bead marker without weighing down your needles.


cards purchased from etsy. top left, clockwise:
amnesia (cat & fish) from jmulcahy.etsy.com
tori (popup cranes) from tracychong.etsy.com
gocco-printed tree with gold leaves from plasticpumpkin.etsy.com
vintage white noise (oscillate*ing fan) from bellajean.etsy.com
robot physics, lost girl & good guest from HeyBuddy.etsy.com

Cool cards, yet again... there's never really a day that can go by without me finding some really cool cards on etsy. The popup cranes is dear to me-- crane motifs strike my heart as my mom learned bunka (japanese punch embroidery) from my paternal grandmother to pass the time as she was pregnant with me... one of the finished pieces that hung for a long time in our house was of two cranes preening themselves at sunset and I've loved cranes since. I have a bunch of her old finished bunka pieces in storage... should take pics and return them to her.

Anyways! :)


Shea butter skin spread from clevergirl.etsy.com

I debated on sharing this one, not cos I want to keep her a secret, but the CleverGirl shop has gone on body butter hiatus for the warm weather in the south. (She's still making rad jewelry in the meantime, tho.) I was able to swoop in and grab a bunch of these sets and I'm glad I did... I'll also share a "secret"-- that each shop on etsy has an rss feed, so you can be updated in your readers when a shop adds new items. You could watch for these to come back, it'll be worth it. Super thick and lightly scented, and packaged in sweet hand decorated tins.


Blue Faced Leicester SUPERWASH roving in "nightshade" & mini merino sock yarn sample skein in "plum tortie" from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com

I admit, I didn't want to share about the rss feeds since its hard enough shopping Krista's store. :) BFL in superwash? So I'm a stalker, spank me. Love it though... and it was braided even more nicely than the unseemly bumpiness you see-- that was me tugging at the end, wrestling with myself and the need to spin it right when it arrived. I didn't obviously, but that's just cos I'm waiting on new bobbins for my Joy... (and her next shop update!)


Alpaca, silk & merino hand carded batts by loop.etsy.com, "kimono" colorway
(2 open batts in the front of the picture-- front & backside of each.)

Yes, this is a lot of fiber. One of the best things about etsy is that you have the ear of the artist right there... want something repeated that they've already sold? Want a bigger quantity? I've bought a lot of things this way on etsy-- skimming thru a shop's sold items and asking for repeats, or a different quantity, etc. I asked Steph of loop to card me 8 oz of her mini batts in "kimono" and, lord help me its a lot of fiber. Eight just sounds like a nice number off the tongue, doesn't it? (I have no excuse.)

She sells "mini batts"-- about 5" wide, 2 ft long. When I unwrapped them at first I was struck by their size, but the more I thought about it-- this is a really good size for me. When I spin from batts I'm usually tearing off a piece this size, and here I don't have to. Its all really nicely carded and super soft-- I don't think I'll need to do much predrafting at all for as lofty as it is. The color's off, I can't capture red (story of my life ;)) but I think my pic is closer than the color in the listing... it looks brighter than the deep red of the listing picture. No matter, its still beautiful, even though I have no idea what to do with it :)

Have a good weekend! Go celebrate it by checking out the yarn4socks.com "flash sale"-- 20% off of all previously non-discounted yarns, needles and stitch markers (zero stitch markers, yall!) with the code: May07. Valid thru 5/31. I've already made my purchase :)

i've heard it said that i give good knee. or, german stockings complete

German Stockings by Cookie A
Fearless Fibers Sock yarn, colorway "Royalty"-- 2 sk.
US 1, 2.25mm dpns -- 9 sts/inch **different gauge than patt**
Started: March 19, 2007 (?)
Finished: May 20, 2007

Beautiful, inspiring, impractical... all the things forbidden love should be! I really like this pair of stockings :)

I think I wrote about the things I wanted to cover already when I finished the first of these, but a little echo. The yarn is FF Sock and knit at a tighter gauge than the Louet Gems Pearl of the pattern (9 sts/inch v 8 sts/inch), but that with Cookie's sizing options in the pattern, I was able to use her numbers for a large sized stocking (I'd usually fit a M) and it worked out well as far as fit goes. This is pretty cool, since as long as you know your gauge and can spotcheck your math for the important circumferences (calf, ankle, foot) you can easily switch in your yarn of choice.



The Fearless Fibers yarn is great-- I love the color. I know that this stocking's patt pops more on a solid background, and also more when on a light colored background, but since I knit the sample pair of these stockings in white I wanted something different this time around. When on, the pattern pops much more than when taking unmodelled shots (you can see some pics of the stockings off in my flickr stream). The variation of color in the yarn was just fun for me to knit with, and I'm happy with the choice-- however impractical.



I used US 1's to get 9 sts/inch with the yarn, but I think that the yarn will do best on US 0's. I have a mental block when it comes to the idea of kneehighs on US 0's, though. :) I used 2 hanks of yarn (4 oz each, 120 gm) but only used 70 gm & had 50 gm left over from each. That means I have enough for another pair of purple socks (yay! I'm thinking anne from knitspot's smoke socks...?) and that if you have a smaller calf/leg than me you may be able to eke out a pair of stockings for yourself from only 1 hank of yarn.



Don't think that the 2 months it took me to knit these was an indication about the pattern or yarn... life and spinning just has a way of distracting me sometimes. I think it took me less than 2 weeks to knit the (XS) sized pair, so its not a tough knit at all... just one you need to stick to. (To be honest, the "hardest" part is the cuff ribbing... it seems to go on forever! Stick it thru and you'll just sail, really.)



I know, in the back of some of your minds you're thinking this is an obnoxious color pairing for these, and if I wore them out the house I'd look a mess. (It's okay!) Really though, they're already impractical since I don't wear skirts or shorts, and looked actually pretty silly taking these pictures downstairs with my neighbors all wondering about my apparent foot fetish again. I think they're just really fun, and will be a little nostalgic for me... I used to wear thigh high stockings with a garter belt when I was in high school-- underneath my jeans. I did it for me, because I liked the way they felt and looked, and that they were a secret that no one else knew about. I think these are going to be like those.



I also think I may need sock garters for them. They slouch a little too much during actual wear for ocd-me, but they feel really good on. :)

I think that's it! Very anticlimactic :)

since i'm all about adventure

socks on caltrain!


Black Purl toeup socks, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' method
76 st, 14 st space btw heel/toe
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Black Purl colorway
US 0 (2.0mm), 4 dpns
Started: 11 May 2007
Finished: 19 May 2007



I feel so silly... why am I the last to know how wonderfully Lorna's knits up?! Yes, its superthin, but on US 0's the fabric is so nice and smooth! I think it must be the nylon content I'm enjoying-- watching the fabric, I know that these will take a beating (like the Opal socks, and my two pair of Lisa Souza Sock! socks-- all with nylon content). Its been on my mind lately, as every pair of my merino socks has holes... I have wide feet and insist on forcing them into shoes that aren't wide enough, rubbing little holes into socks at the widest point of my foot just below the toes. I need to darn them, but the weather's getting so that all I want to wear lately are my stinky Tevas... no socks needed so not on my radar right now.

Anyways! Back at hand, I love LL! But hate every colorway except the one above! :( Any nylon-content sock yarns out there you love?

[edit, 5/6: i am SO mad! one day of admittedly hard wear on these socks, and a hole appears. officially retracting the love... :( ]



Of course I love PGR's toe up sock method too... you can always check out my PGR label/tag to see all of the socks that (recently) fall into that category-- post-Blogger beta, of course. With stockinette off my back, I may go thru this week and start tagging/labelling my older blog posts, I love tags far too much. I also finally broke down & bought the flickr pro account, so I'll be organizing photos into projects over there and joining some groups (like Cookie's Sock Creations). AND (last one) I'll finally have time to play with Ravelry... :)



I think I've beaten out the stockinette urge... hopefully it lasts the 6 weeks. :( I do have another project otn, and finished another...



More on those later.

Etsy wrangling

I should be working on the second sock, but am wrestling so much with this I decided to do an etsy post today :) As I mentioned last week, the USPS postal rates for small packages has skyrocketed... many etsy sellers are facing more than 100% increases in shipping rates. I thought mine was going up 50% and I could eat that, but it looks like packages from my shop are going up more than 100% as well.

Bummed, and its been reflected in a raise in pricing for stitch markers in my shop. I've decided to echo the raise in my pricing (and not shipping), since I've been considering this for a while and the USPS ratehike was just the nail in the coffin. I didn't think my shop would be as successful as it has been, and its *not* that I'm ungrateful in the least!!... but its success it has meant for much less free time for me during my day, and its been a tough decision how to quantify the value I place on that. I think its a fair increase-- especially as I've decided to eliminate the secondary shipping costs for multiple purchases (it costs nothing extra now to ship more than one purchase made at the same time), and to use paypal as my shipper so delivery confirmation costs are also being reflected in the purchase price.


zero.etsy.com

Phew. Yall don't know how tough this was for me to decide!! I really feel for the other etsy vendors out there, wrestling with this new shape & weight based pricing reality. Thinking of that, support your "local" (USPS makes everyone a local ;)) etsy artists!

A few favorite purchases recently:


Marbled papers on notecard & Moleskine Cahier by LostMyMarbles.etsy.com

I had no idea what a moleskine was before stumbling onto LostMyMarbles (its a notebook, check out more on its history here). Doesn't really matter, its the marbled papers rocking my world-- so stunning. I've decided to keep the moleskine to archive the patterns I'm writing up as well as other things I'd like to keep near to hand (I've already transcribed my notes from the Fleece Day class, that sort of thing).

Sherry wanted to hear about my favorite shirt shops on Etsy...


Chopsticks, easy as 1 2 3 from HeyBuddy.etsy.com
(Cherry spree pendant from LORiOLA.etsy.com-- still my reigning favorite)

Dan was really nice and helped me by measuring this shirt armpit to armpit after I purchased it (he lets you pick the size you want). I just love red, too... lots y lots.


Analog & Yellow Birdie from supastarr.etsy.com

Last week when posting my kid's new shirts (yes, we now have matching shirts), I discovered supa was having a sale and I couldn't pass these up. These two were silkscreened on American Apparel ("sweatshop free" made in the USA shirts), and I don't even think you can buy AA shirts for as little as she's selling them screened. These make... 6 shirts I have from her now, AND her sale's still going on :)

I've also purchased an etsy-branded shirt from etsyLABS, a silkscreened shirt from Salmon Street Studio (gift, so no pics), and some closeout silkscreens from stevester (ill fitting, my fault for buying the wrong size). Everyone had great service and products :) So does threadless (non-etsy), where I've bought more shirts than all my etsy shirt purchases combined :)


Glycerin sheep shaped soap (five times fast!), honeysuckle scent from daisycakessoap.etsy.com
(pic from daisycakessoap, used w. permission)

I always try and take pictures of the products I receive. That said, my son loved his sheep soap (to death) in the bath too much... its no longer a discernable sheep :) No matter, both my son and the sheep smell awesome. So do my other purchases from DCS (chai tea, basmati rice, mocha coffee bean)-- but you know... sheep!





One of my favorite searches on etsy is for "batt," and one of my favorite sellers of batts is stringtheoryfiberart.etsy.com. Merino, cashmere & some glitz... not enough to scare tomboy me away. This one feels like secret, 3am payphone love :)

That's it for now :) Have a good weekend everyone!


eta. i was going to ignore the 1st tag, but now 2? i've already done 43 things, yo! i was going to smackdown turtlegirl's get out memes free card, but i'll compromise with one and a half and let it die with me :)

1. i watch digital clocks with a little too much intensity. i'm constantly dividing the minutes by the hour, and get a little icewater thrill when it comes up a whole number. if i can't stop looking, i'll start rolling around the lcd arms in my head, turning the numbers into different ones, "carrying" extra arms and letting them dance on the periphery of my vision while i wait for another minute to roll around... praying one number will morph into another evenly.

1a. i first remember doing this at my babysitter's house. she had a coffee table perpendicular to the tv we kids would gather around, a two tiered wood job where we'd fight ("placebacks!") over that spot where we could rest our head inside the table on the lower wood slat but still see the screen. above the tv was a small digiclock on the betamax (mom also sided with beta), and i'd stay in that spot as long as possible, knowing that my sister or one of the millions of other kids would sneak in if i moved. bored with monkees reruns, this was the seed of playing with myself.

running against the wind

Racing against a self imposed deadline. (Saturday or Sunday?!)

Wish me luck, second's just a toe!

(details: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Black Purl, expect me to wax on about this yarn later. US 0/2.0mm, toe up using PGR's method. So predictable!)


eta... anyone check out the article re: resurgence of "menial labor" in america (incl. knitting) from the freakonomics guys (nyt magazine, may 6 2007)? you can read it here online (for now), and comment over on their blog too. i've been following the comments and trying to put words to what i feel, but really and honestly don't know what i feel about it... labels and names, work and pleasure, maslow and pyramids (esp. with the echoes of rutt's history of handknitting rattling around my head...) too much, its just knitting ;)

Deep Color Studio, Fleece Day class

I spent my Sunday at Deep Color Studio in Kensington, CA (near Solano Av in Albany--can you say Gordo's?!), a fabulous studio cottage stuffed with fiber and natural dyes (and a brilliant instructor). I took one of Claudia's classes-- "Fleece Day" where we learned about how to select fleeces, their types and varieties, what to look for and avoid thru different acquisition methods... but the hands on part was the BEST. We washed fleeces (including one of mine, purchased when I bought my wheel), and learned about carding and combing, and how different fleeces would spin.

True to form I took my camera but forgot my cf card, so no pics. Just as well, I eavesdropped on conversations about the lameness of some bloggers (no, I didn't mention I have over 450 blogs in my bloglines now, or that I jabber on here in my little anon corner of the world...) but nonetheless the atmosphere was really nice and non-intimidating. I think I was the only one who hadn't taken a class with Claudia before (or had even been to Deep Color!) but I didn't feel outcast like I did at the nearby Stash. (I'm such an introvert, stuff like this is so important to me.)

It really was eyeopening, the washing of fleeces... reading Alden's book (we're on a 1st name basis, the way he talks to me!) I felt that in my shoebox apartment there'd never be a chance for me to wash fleece. Claudia really opened my eyes though, showing me I didn't need to do it inside in my bathroom (without a bathtub, if you didn't know!)-- that Ace Hardware would be my friend, and that it really wasn't that scary, if at all. I love that, when someone can "teach" you the accessibility of something you always were intimidated of. Its not so much the words but the "don't worry!" vibe... unteachable but definitely something I can pick up on and make my own.



I don't think I'll be washing fleece anytime soon (did I mention we washed this honker I bought? I have no idea how much is here, but its beautiful...), but to know I CAN is so freaking empowering. I did take a spin on some handcards as well-- I bought myself a pair for mother's day (still in transit) thinking I wouldn't be able to go to the class this weekend (it was full, but had a last minute dropout)... so I'll be making rolags a mess of my little fleece soon.





No one tell me I need a drumcarder, please.

I did pick up a bit of merino top... the depth of color in the finished product is going to be amazing.



Definitely someone's "color" but not superwash, so no socks. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

There was so much stuff I could dive into (roving, dye, naturally dyed yarns), but I knew I would be coming back. Claudia's class was the most fact-filled 4 hours I'd spent in a loooong time (including those when I actually made it to my law school seminars!) If you have a chance, take a class at Deep Color. I want to take her intensive dye class, but its a little steep for me. Taking the fleece day class though, I know it would *totally* be worth it.

Don't forget to congratulate Hillary for being drawn randomly for some STR and zerO stitch markers, too :) I had no idea what a GOOD feeling I'd get reading all yall's "best day" comments-- if you haven't read thru them, just skim and you'll just... feel good. I did :)