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| Meet my newest knitting recipient.This is Spike, my newest buddy. He's a "sato"--Spanish slang for a stray, or street dog. Spike was abandoned on a street corner in Puerto Rico by his owner. He stayed on that corner for days waiting for his owner to come back. Spike was rescued by a shelter in PR who gave him medical care and lots of attention. He then stayed with a foster family for several weeks before boarding a plane for the US. He lived at a shelter for a few weeks before finding his new home. Spike is a total sweetie--he's friendly and affectionate--the complete opposite of his name. Someone in Puerto Rico gave him his name--his medical records are in Spanish and on the line asking for his nombre it's given as Spike! Friends have joked about my new "attack dog." It doesn't help matters that I coincidentally ended up getting my first tattoo on the same weekend I got Spike. His favorite method of "attack" is to curl up on someone's lap and settle down for a cuddle, then fall asleep. Yep, he's 12 pounds of fury all right. Spike had a hard life before I adopted him. He is so getting a nice handknit sweater!  I bought him a cute yellow parka and a blue, green and brown argyle sweater from the local pet boutique. He doesn't like the sweater. It's too big, and as my sister was walking him in it the other day a neighbor (male) said to her, "Who put that sissy sweater on my little buddy?" I think Spike took it personally. We bought a sweater because we wanted him to have something right away. He shivers when it's cold out. Now he'll have to wait until I knit him one. Now that I have to keep the whole "sissy issue" in mind, I'm not sure what to knit. It will have to be a basic, plain-colored sweater. I have a couple of free patterns from the internet. I ordered some yarn today from Webs. I was originally on their website to buy the supplies to make the new Blue Skies stuffed chickens with their dyed cotton but I threw in a couple hanks of Blue Skies' bulky alpaca in a nice orangy-natural and a nice brown color, respectively. I'm hoping to knit it up quickly, but the warm weather's just around the corner so it may have to be put away until next fall. I'm sure there will be a few more chilly mornings though.
Spike is a daschund/chihuahua mix, and we suspect there is some terrier in him as well. I think he's also part cat. He can jump pretty high for a dog, and often ends up on balancing on the arm of my armchair or the sofa. He seems to be laying claim to my entire knitting area. He thinks my armchair is his, and he's gotten into my yarn a few times so I may have to move my Lantern Moon three-tiered yarn holder. I have a nice green wooden Chinese rice basket that I had set up by my chair to store my current knitting projects in. He got into that so I had to move it somewhere else. I can see that knitting with Spike around is going to be a challenge for a while, but I'm confident he'll get used to my knitterly activities and that he'll settle down. Maybe getting a sweater of his own will help. | | |
| Socks for Spring Crocuses are slowly sprouting all over the place, the temperatures are tentatively reaching out for the 60s, and tourists with maps in hand have been sighted all over Salem. That can only mean one thing: Spring is here! And even though I'm still plugging away at the hooded tunic, I've cast on not one but two different sock projects.
For my birthday a couple of months ago, I treated myself to a custom-dyed yarn order from Three Irish Girls for some colorful socks. This is the Donegan colorway, a gorgeous blend of soft blue, turquoise and chocolate in their Adorn sock yarn. It's deliciously soft and "sproingy." This yarn cried out to me for a cabled sock pattern so, after much pattern book consultation, I chose the Zigzag sock pattern from Vogue Knitting's Ultimate Sock Book. The pattern is an adorably clever fake cable: a slightly confused cable that zigs and zags all over the sock. No cable needle required, it's all done with knits, purls, yo's, ssk's and k2tog's. I don't have a good close-up photo showing the cable pattern, but once these are done and i can put them on I'll post one. In the book the sock is done in a pale pink and it's very pretty. I think a variegated yarn may be a bit too busy for this pattern, which also has subtle lacey holes throughout, so I bought some Knit Picks Palette in pale pink to do another pair of Zigzag. But this is a fun, interesting pattern; a wee bit challenging but not really. I love how soft this yarn is and the funky colors are making this a blast!
 Here is my sock-in-progress. It begged me to walk over to the harbor on my lunch hour to knit on it for a while and to be photographed amid the natural scenery. I didn't have any checkers or chess pieces with me, but the sock didn't seem to mind.
 Here's a lovely view of Salem harbor. It was 70+ degrees yesterday in the Boston area. I love being near the water; it's relaxing and it refreshes my spirit.
I've spent entirely too much money on yarny goodness lately (just when is that Economic Stimulus check coming, anyway? I do have bills to pay, you know) but it's fun! I made my way over to Seed Stitch last night for the funky Friday night iPod party knitting night. It was a great group of ladies--there were no guys last night, though rumor has it they show up from time to time. Anyone with an iPod was asked to make a mix at least 2 hours long and bring the iPod in so they could plug it into the awesome sounding Bose iPod dock. I totally want one even more now but I hesitate at spending the money (wait a minute--did someone say Economic Stimulus check?). I planned on buying the yarn to make my own version of Skully, but with a different chart on the sleeves, so I could start it there. But like an idiot, I forgot to throw Donegan in my bag in case they didn't have the yarn I wanted in stock. Of course they didn't so, instead of placing an order and leaving, I threw in 2 skeins of Regia's Kaffe Fassett sock yarn in Fire and some Addi DPNs. Hence my second sock project. Oh well, I kept drooling over this color in the Webs catalog anyway, so now I've got it! I had to order Lamb's Pride bulky in black, of all things, so now I need to begin planning my sweater.
I want to make a more fitted version of Skully, with not-quite-so-humungous sleeves. But this requires math, my evil nemesis, so I may need to sign up for a studio session or two to have a knittng professional help me write the pattern. I'd also prefer to knit it in the round rather than flat. I'll keep you all posted once I get going on this.
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| Ruby Red Goodness (sans plaid) Today I successfully hand-dyed my first hank of yarn. I'm so proud! Ain't it pretty? I used a hank of Knit Picks' Bare Fingering Weight yarn and Blastin' Black Cherry Kool-Aid. I know it's in keeping with the whole "ruby/red" theme I have going on here, but I expected it to be a little darker, perhaps veering toward purple a little, like black cherry usually does, as opposed to a bright cherry red. But I like it a lot, and I'm very happy with the results. This is a picture of my yarn simmering away on my stove. The finished result is the same as the color you see here.
Thanks to Knitty's instructions I was able to put my yarn on the stovetop to simmer, start doing some homework, and check back on it periodically. Don't you love when knitters share? It was extremely simple, and lots of fun. I made a quick trip to Special Thoughts, the local discount outlet/seconds/overstock store to pick up some cheap cookware supplies that I'll reserve just for dying yarn. I love the nice, deep pot--it comes with a lid. I filled in the gaps in Special Thought's inventory with a stop in Wal-Mart for the rest of my supplies: cheap tongs, rubber gloves (I got pink ones-HA!), turkey basters and, for a mere $9.99, a three-tiered set of bamboo steamers for when I start hand-painting yarn. Not bad.
Here are the specs, in case anyone's interested:
1 hank Knit Picks Bare yarn, Fingering Weight (the hand-wash only version) 440 yards/100 grams (4 oz)
5 packs Kool-Aid in Blastin' Black Cherry (1 pack per ounce of yarn recommended, I added one more in an attempt to produce a darker color)
 Now my yarn is hanging in the bathroom drying. The flash from my camera has added a pinkish sheen around the middle but the yarn is a nice, uniform bright red all over. The yarn is well-saturated and there are no uneven/undyed areas.
I was planning on making a pair of red socks with a Gingerbread Cable pattern (found in Vogue's Ultimate Sock Knitting) but there's so much yarn in this hank I may just knit the socks and then set my sights a little higher. Perhaps a shawl too? I could dye two more hanks in different colors and do some type of lace patterning. I'll have to think about/play with this a little. Spin Off's Spring 08 issue has inspired me with its article on Scandanavian shawls. Bare's hand-wash was $3.49 per hank; I expected it to be a lot smaller. I didn't pay attention to the details in the catalog, I just added the yarn onto my book order at the last minute and decided to go for the hand-dying process. This is my first, but certainly not my last, round of yarn dyeing. Now I'm just waiting for my apartment to stop smelling like fruity goodness and wet wool. | | |
| It's Official  I'm a geek. I had this epiphany while reading Spinning the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Don't get me wrong: this is a great book. It has everything I wanted to know, answered all my questions, and the illustrations are clear and easy to comprehend. I was doubtful about having to follow illustrations rather than photos. But as I was reading I began to imagine what a non-knitter/spinner might think if they were to pick up this book, with its diagrams on the right and wrong way to make yarn, how to apply to correct ratio of spin to roving, etc. I was reminded of car buffs and mechanical-device enthusiasts who love nothing more than to pore over schematics; of mathematicians and scientists who lovingly apply themselves to their pi charts and their Venn Diagrams, and...whatever else really smart and/or nerdy people do that I couldn't possibly begin to comprehend. It occured to me: everyone has their own geek manual, TMI-filled publications for a subject near and dear to their own heart but incomprehensible to other people. If you look to the left of this post you'll see a Xanga group listed called Yarn Geeks. That's me. I'm the founder, and two or three other people, bless them, not counting my sister, proudly answered the call. So I'll continue to study my little charts and diagrams. And eventually, I'll end up with something fabulous and useable, something called yarn. | | |
| Dear Crochet, I've been thinking about you a lot lately and, even though we didn't exactly hit it off the first time, I'm willing to give you another chance. You knew knitting was my first love, but you deliberately beckoned to me with your shiny, colorful aluminum hooks, and your dainty lace-like edgings that suspiciously began showing up in more and more knitting patterns I wanted to try. Before I knew it, I was dreaming of groovy granny-square aghans, cuddly little toys, and retro-inspired home accents.
Sure, there was a lack of commitment, but admit it: we were both guilty. I was already knitting, but I began to cheat on my local yarn shop with the local quilt shop. From there, it was but a mere hop over to the needlepoint shop (they're all on the same street, after all). My attention and interest waxed and waned like the phases of the moon. I dumped you after one month because my needs just weren't being met. I wasn't getting what I wanted out of the relationship. We weren't going anywhere.
But you? You played a part in the breakup as well. You're hardly left-hander friendly, so you kept pushing me away. I had two choices, gain more strength in my right hand ASAP (tension? I'll give you tension, all right--tension over getting my stitches to come out normal), or spend the rest of my crocheting life holding all instruction charts and patterns up to a mirror. And lets face it, crochet hooks give off a creepy dental-instrument vibe.
We've had a long, tempestuous on again/off again relationship, you and I. Remember when I was in 6th grade, and one of the moms who volunteered during school recess held a crochet lesson? I struggled to embrace you, but you wouldn't let me in. I gave you a second chance in college, but you hadn't changed. Eager to give you another chance, I joined a class two summers ago to get to know you again. I made small, tenuous steps to repair the relationship, but soon grew frustrated at our lack of progress.
We've still got a few hurdles to face: In addition to my many other fiber sweethearts, I've recently begun flirting with spinning. And guess what? I'm still left-handed. Crochet hooks still remind me of those toothbrushes dentists hand out with that little rubber tip on the bottom and the plaque scraper. But I got a 25% off coupon to Barnes and Noble in my e-mail, so I purchased Deb Stoller's The Happy Hooker. I feel newly inspired. I've still got that purple H crochet hook I bought for class, and yarn is certainly not a problem.
So we could give it another chance, yes? Whadya say?! | | |
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