Awesome swap

I got a package from Ireland on St. Patrick's Day! How cool is that? (Answer: Extremely cool.) It was a swap from the feminist group on ravelry, and was feminist themed.
No one has cooler feminist quotes than Eleanor Roosevelt, so this was the perfect card. The little tin is lavender scented temple balm (like you rub it on your temples for soothing properties).



It spent its time in the package right next to this:

lovely purple cashmere cowl. I was taking pictures of it this morning before work, and I realized it kind of matched what I was wearing. It's kind of a drizzly day, so it's a nice cozy thing to have, and still smells like lavender. Duncan was not quite as amused with it as I am.

(For those not familiar with my blog and/or cat, that is Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod. There can be only one.)
Continuing with the feminist theme, there was this book, which I am looking forward to reading.

Because my swap partner evidently post stalked me all over ravelry (which I highly approve of), she knows I enjoy crazy things from all over the world. So she sent me this, which is so freaking cute. I think he's going to be a zipper pull on my knitting bag, because I don't want him to get dented as a key ring.


But truly awesome, tacky thing is this:

This is no ordinary leprechaun pen. Oh no. It blows bubbles. I was so excited when I saw it for just this reason. But then! I scribbled with it so I could see what color it was and IT LIGHTS UP. Yes, it lights up green when you write with it. I am too delighted for words.
Because no swap is complete without candy, I got an excellent selection of that as well. I love Kinder eggs, especially the toys, and I am really looking forward to the chocolate mint. It's one of my favorite flavors.

But as this was a swap for knitters, there was also lots of awesome knitting materials. There's a UK knitting magazine that I have never seen over here. It has some pretty cute spring patterns in it, and some educational looking articles.
There's a little journal with fully blank pages (not lined, all the better for sketching). There's some pearly purpley stitch markers.


And there's some truly amazing yarn. In keeping with the feminist theme, the yarn is called Scattaich (I hope I came close to spelling that right), who my swap partner informs me was a warrior woman. Maybe she's in my book. I shall have to read and find out. It's really gorgeous sock weight yarn in pink tones. It's dyed by a woman on ravelry who shares some similar interests (coughLSGcough), so it's actually supporting a woman who owns a small business. It doesn't get much more feminist than that. I will have to find something very special to make with it.
All in all, teaandcakes was an amazing swap partner. I'm feeling quite guilty about the package I sent her. Thank you so much!

Lorna's Laces

Despite the fact that I haven't been showing you any knitting, I have been knitting, and I should update soon. In the meantime, I went on a yarn tour! My old knitting friends back in South Bend arranged a trip to tour Lorna's Laces in Chicago. I met them up there, more or less halfway (actually, less for me, but that's not the point).


I got to see Vicki, Aubrey and Kristine, among many others who remain blogless. I also met some new people who have joined the old group, but they seem pretty okay, so I'll let them stay. (Hey guys, sorry I blogged your asses, but it was the only picture I had of the group.)

The place is in a rather scary looking warehouse in a cool part of the city. Their actual space looks like a nice place to work though. The entire dyeing operation is done there.


They showed us around, let us fondle all their yarns, and then the owner, Beth Casey, gave us a demo of how she dyes the yarn. It's pretty much the same as I saw a lot of when I worked at the shop that dyed Dream in Color. The biggest difference is that they apply the dye to dry wool, as opposed to wet, which I found pretty interesting.


This is certainly a familiar sight though, and often the most time-consuming part of the process.


And then, there was shopping.

They had about 5 big tables full of mill ends at discounted prices. There's nothing wrong with those yarns, just that maybe they didn't conform to a certain colorway, or they were experiment, or they were the odd one out. At any rate, I don't mind having something a little unique.

Despite the vast piles of mill ends, I only bought one gift for a swap partner, and enough for one pair of socks for myself:

It's very practical, and will make excellent dress socks, for when I have to look all grown up and professional. I'm not showing the other one in case said swap partner decides to read my blog. But it's also very pretty!
All in all, I'm glad I went. It was pretty hard to haul myself out of bed in the cold, with the schedule I'm working, but I'm definitely glad I did it. It was great to see everyone again, and pretty neat to see how a functioning small business operates.

Best Deal Ever

You might have thought the spinning wheel was enough. You might have thought that I had acquired enough fiber hobbies to last more than a single lifetime. You might be correct. That won't stop me.
At the lab, people are constantly moving and in out of the area and the country. They often have things they need to buy or sell, and the grad student mailing list sometimes becomes an unofficial craigslist (not that craigslist is all that official, but you know what I mean). When people send out messages, I usually browse what they have for sale. Most of it is IKEA crap they're trying to sell for too much, but occassionally you get really good deals. I got a very nice DVD player for $35.
This time, as I browsed, there was something the seller called a "tapestry maker" for $20. I sort of expected it to be a cheap kit like you would buy at a hobby store, but for $20, I was willing to take a risk.
Best Decision Ever.
It actually wound up being a pretty nice Schacht rigid heddle loom. I had seen one of these at the craft fair I bought my spinning wheel at, and the lady had explained the basic principle. I thought it was pretty neat, and that maybe in the far, far distant future, I would look at weaving. At that point, I completely put it out of my mind. Then this "tapestry maker" came up, and even you would take this for $20. The guy really didn't think he would sell it at a physics lab, but he underestimated the number of crafty people here (I know at least 4 knitters scattered throughout the lab, and those are just the ones brave enough to knit on site).

Not only was it this complete, good quality loom, it also came with 4 shuttles, a little thing to brush the yarn into places, a complete set of warping pegs (things used to measure out the length you need to put on the frame), the manual, two beginner books, and several magazines.
I remind you, this was $20.
Luckily, about a month before I had run into that lady at the craft fair, or I would have absolutely no clue what was going on. There are all sorts of crazy new words you have to learn for weaving, like warp, weft, and heddle.
The warp is the bit that goes up and down. You have to measure out the full length all at once, and this is by far the most annoying part of weaving. If you're doing something long, you have to wind it all up at the top wheel with sturdy paper (from grocery bags, in my case) between each layer so you don't get all tangled. It looks like this.


It gets threaded through the heddle, that white bar towards the top of the frame. Half of the strands go through slits between plastic teeth, and the other half goes through holes in the center of the teeth. When you move the heddle up or down, only the yarn going through the teeth moves, the ones in the slits just hang along for the ride. When you lift up all the teeth, you move up every other thread. Then you can pass the shuttle through without having to go over and under each strand individually. When you do this, you make the weft, the horizontal bit. Then to go the opposite direction, you push the heddle down, which moves the strings in the opposite direction, making the normal looking weave you're probably thinking of. Each time you do this, you push the weft strand into place with the heddle, which slides all the way down, or use the little brush thing if that didn't do it tight enough to suit you.
It took a long time to figure out how to set up the loom, but naturally I did it the first day I got it, and wove up a little piece. As usual, it matches my mom's kitchen, so it went directly to her. She was *ahem* supposed to take a picture for me since I forgot. But really, there was a pretty steep learning curve and I still managed to get it done in one (rather devoted) night. Plus, the Olympics were on, so I wasn't going anywhere anyway.
So in the first picture, you can see I've started on some dishcloths for myself to practice. It turns out you can do some really complicated-looking stuff right away. It leads me to ponder about the directions of things, which I suspect will have to be another post.

Update on that spinning thing

Um, so, I told you all I bought a spinning wheel, right? I can't really explain it. I went to Midwest Folk and Fiber Festival planning to browse, maybe pick up a skein of handspun or two. I really wasn't expecting to buy a wheel. It's not like I don't have a wheel, it's beautiful. It's just also a big pain to work on, because it was definitely not made for a beginner. See, the foot pedal likes to fall off from the wheel itself, and the drive band confuses me a lot.
So I met these cool people from spinundrum , sitting there with their spiffy Hitchhiker wheels,
and they talked me into trying it. I played with it for a bit, and I started to get the hang of it. I thought it would be a great way to learn, especially because the wheel is small and portable - it even came with its own tote bag. I should get some better pictures later, but here it is with some pretty blue wool I'm spinning.


As you can see, it has a cute little foot-shaped pedal. The drive is friction based, which means it's all simple points of connection. You pump the pedal, and it turns that big wheel. The big wheel turns a little black gear, the gear spins the flyer that holds the yarn. It's all very straightforward, and just a bit noisy. It's not enough to bother me, but I've read that it's noisier than other wheels.
Naturally, I went crazy right away. I had bought two bats of roving from the sellers, one cotton candy colored bat, and one tonal red with a little bit of gold sparkle. I spun the cotton candy first.
It can only really be described as beginner's handspun. It's not so much thick and thin as thick and thicker. But I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt.
Here it is sitting on the spare bobbins. The bobbins are apparently interchangeable with the Ashford Joy, so finding more shouldn't be a problem. I'm going to have to get some more, because three just isn't enough.

So I have about 60 yards of very bulky, very random yarn. I'm not sure what to do with it. It's about enough for a hat or a small clutch. I'm leaning towards hat, but I might just pet it and love it and call it George for a while.

Here it is with my couch. This picture shows the texture pretty well.

And here it is with the Spanish Inquisition....I mean, with Duncan. It's not a great picture of the yarn, but we always need gratiutious cat pictures.

Of course, I couldn't stop there. No, that would be sane. I had to immediately begin on the other bat I bought (say that three times fast) and spun it up within a day or two. I am so incredibly happy with this yarn. I would buy this yarn if I saw it in a shop. It's so very me, it's irresistable.

I managed to spin a lot more thinly and consistently this time. I couldn't believe how much I improved from one yarn to the other.

Oh, and the wheel also came with a PVC knitty knoddy. The knitty knoddy is a way to estimate the yardage of the yarn, and also to put it into a nice skein. The advantage to the PVC is that you can wash the yarn to set the twist (don't think too hard about that, it just needs to be done) and you never have to take it off the knoddy. Sure, the wood ones are a lot prettier, but this is just convienient.
I think this is about 80 - 90 yards of this yarn, and it's probably about an aran weight. I am utterly in love with it, and can't imagine anything special enough to make out of it.
As you can tell from the first picture, you can see I started spinning some pretty teal blue wool as well. I'm done with a lot of the spinning the first part of it, but it's also going to take a while to ply, and I'm running out of bobbin room. I'll get to it though. I'm sure it's going to be something for my mom, because it's exactly her color.
I am spinning some white and purple wool on my other wheel, which is going to go a lot better now that I've got the hang of the whole spinning thing. Besides that, the only fiber I had left was some alpaca. Apparently alpaca is just a bit trickier than wool, so I'm going to hold off on that for now. I picked up two more things (I'm not sure what to call them. One is in a bag, the other is in a ball) of roving at Stitches - one is firey oranges, reds and yellows, a blend of wool and silk, and the other is grey wool with bits of recycled sari silk fiber thrown in. I'm looking forward to those. I guess that means I better get working on the first stuff

Stitches

So, Stitches Midwest was today. It moved to the Schaumburg convention center, where parking is free. And thanks to Debbie Macomber, who had a coupon for her book signing, admission today was also free. So in theory, one could go to Stitches and not spend any money. In theory.
I had a plan going in. I was going to buy some beautiful new sock needles, some roving, and maybe one or two really good deals or two. I kind of sort of stuck to that.
On the first pass, I found some nice sock yarn for $5. Really, you can't fault me for $5 sock yarn. It also came with a nice shopping bag that will get reused as a project bag.
I did buy the beautiful sock needles right away, which were far too expensive. I knew they were going to be expensive, and they still cost more than I was expecting. However, they are lovely 5" dpns in lightweight aluminum with a grippy body and an extra-pointy "stilletto" ends. I am such a sock junkie that these will get a lot of use. I had tried the straight version of these needles last year at Stitches, and they were so very beautiful I nearly bought some then. The only thing that held me back was that I really don't use straight needles, and they were planning on doing dpns. I can't wait to test them out. I hear they are doing circulars next year, which may also prove my undoing.
As for roving, I was a little disappointed in the choices. Too much of it was too variegated and not well dyed. I like tonal, but brightly colored yarns and I had some trouble finding it. I got some lovely naturally died orangey-red with yellow in corriedale and silk, about 5 oz, which I will get me a small project like hats or mittens, or so I'm told.
I also got some lovely grey wool mixed with fibers of recycled sari silk. It was an 8 oz. bag, and it should spin up really well.
Then, well, then I hit a really good deal I couldn't resist. You know that yarn that my naughty little kitten liked to steal? Well, they had bags of it at 60% off. I had heard rumors the yarn was being discontinued, and this was 2/3 off. So, I kind of bought a couple of bags of that. That's really where my plan fell apart.
So, the plan falling apart that much, I also broke down and bought a kit for thrummed mittens. I have been wanting to do some, and after trying some on, I couldn't resist this set. The nice shop owner even assembled a custom kit for me, since the colors I wanted weren't available. I got light grey mitts with dark grey thrums. Also, did I mention they're alpaca? They're alpaca. Nothing is going to be warmer this winter, and Chicago has some nasty winters.
But really, yarn hauls aside, it was really just a fun experience. I saw some people from my various knitting groups, and some people I haven't seen in quite some time. It was a lot of fun. And, barring the ridiculous amounts of money I spent, free. Sort of.

Stringy Theory Fashion Tips

Always match your yarn to your cat for extra cuteness:





Btw, the yarn is the color Journal from Knitivity. It's super soft and there's 435 yards of it!

Also, you may notice it's not my usual colors. It's for a swap. I remain as personally obnoxious as ever.

For Prachett Fans Only

Um, sorry guys. For the rest of you this just isn't going to make any sense at all. (Don't worry, though, pretty socks coming soon.) However, go to your local library, look up Terry Pratchett, and start reading. I recommend Good Omens, which is a standalone book. The rest of this comes from his parody/fantasy series, Discworld.
So, there's a group a for everything on Ravelry. I don't know why it took me so long to find the Terry Pratchett one, but there it is, the Ankh-Morpork Knitters' Guild (motto: Favete linguis, ego numero. ("Shut up. I'm counting.") )
We decided that it would be fun to organzie a swap of cardboard boxes, The Discworld "I'm just sending this box so my partner can have cardboard for their boots and I was guilted into putting stuff in it" Swap.

My partner was the very cool Shirley, all the way from Scotland. (Also, Pratchett fans, she's assembling the Pratchgan, so go check it out on her blog).

For starters, here's how the box came wrapped - Ankh-Morpork stamps and addresses all over the wrapping paper! Could this be cooler? (Hint: The answer is no.)

Inside, it was filled with all sorts of fun goodies.

Here's a CMOT Dibbler's Genyooine Growe-Thine-Own-Dragon Kyt. It's approved by the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons with the warning that a dragon is for life, not just for Hogswatch. Inside is everything you need to knit your own dragon, and the pattern is wrapped separately with a faux lizard skin cover.

There is also sock yarn (and you know how I feel about sock yarn), in a color I can only assume is Octarine. It is hand-dyed Wensleydale, and that is a very fun word to say. Wensleydale.

Great minds must think alike, because I also sent her a dragon (I knit it though) and octarine sock yarn (but being non-magical, our interpretations of octarine differ).

Inside was also a Morpork Mist cowl.

I tried it on, and nearly drowned/ choked in it (whichever it is you do with Morpork Mist - if it's anything like the Ankh, I think it's choking).

There is a very pretty beaded crochet or knitted wire bracelet ( sorry, I can't tell with the beads).

There is also Mustrum Ridcully's change purse (I'm warned to beware of bats if I try to open it) filled with chocolate coins. I actually can't open it as intended. I don't know if this is intentional, but it's very funny either way. I can still get the chocolate out, and that's what matters.

Now, Shirley is also a supreme crocheter. Check out all this. First, a family portrait by Otto Chriek. Look at the Death of Rats! Look at how cute he is! The rest of it is very impressive as well, but is thoroughly overwhelmed by his cuteness.

Also, fingerless gloves in Noro, which I also take to be octarine. I wonder the practicality of actually wearing magic gloves. I imagine a lot of strange things will pop up with the background magic. I'll risk it, though.

And I've saved the best for last. It's Binky! Who doesn't love Death's horse, Binky? I'm so very impressed with this. This was cool enough, but his saddle bags also contained surprises.

There was a collection of funny drink mixes.

And some very cool stitch markers. Magrat would approve. They're going on my Gothic Spire socks almost immediately.

Thanks, Shirley! When she gets her pics up on her blog, I'll link you over there. I'm pretty proud of some of the things I made too.

Fun Swaps

The kitten continues to have good taste in yarn, and I feel about the same way.

What's he's happily sleeping on is this:

Nearly 800 yards of beautiful handspun corriedale, from a swap with Vicki.

It's really lightweight, sport or smaller , so will likely become some kind of lace. I'll have to find a good pattern though.

The other thing that came with the swap is this:

Vicki's Tweets cat toy and pattern, available on her website.

Duncan approves, and I probably really need to sort out that tangle of wires under my desk before he does some damage.
Worfy is very pretty, but does not care.

Thanks Secret Pal!

Guess what I got?




If you guessed a subscription to Interweave Knits from my Secret Pal, you're right!
I've sort of been thinking about it for a while, but I always just wind up buying it at the LYS. Well now I get it delivered right to my door!
It showed up before my pal said anything, and it didn't come with a card, so I was a little confused at first. But it all makes sense now, and I'm a proud owner.
There has been some rumbling about this issue, many people are not crazy about it, but I have to say, there are quite a few that I like.
I am completely and utterly in love with this bag, and will probably make it once the current knitting rush is over.

I had thought about felted textured pieces before, but I never knew how it would turn out. Looks like it will turn out completely awesome, especially if you stitch around the cable with a contrasting yarn first. I can't believe I've never seen this done before, it's so smart, but it makes perfect sense.
I am also a fan of a couple of the sweaters (the Gathered Pullover and the Henley Perfected, if you're curious), and there are motifs and designs from several others that are inspiring (including the kitty cat fair isle pattern).
Thanks again!

Two Packages

Fugly Friday is on vacation today, because I say so. I'm still dealing with complications from the wisdom teeth surgery. Unpleasant. I highly recommend avoiding complications. But I digress.
I got two packages in the mail today. When the boy became the ex-boy a few weeks ago, I civilly mailed him back his things. I just got my things back in the same box, with my return address label still on it.
He misspelled my name. My first name. We dated for a year, it was sitting right in front of him on the return address label, and I get a package addressed to Sara S********.
So I really needed the second package, which was from my secret pal.
Since I can't keep it in any longer, I'm just going to start with OMG Hello Kitty knitting needles!

I squealed.
There was more Hello Kitty-ness with this reuseable lunch bag.

I am powerless against this level of cuteness, I swear.
Then comes the yarn.
Here's a skein of Wool Bam Boo, which I have heard good things about, but never tried.

And two skeins of cotton angora. I didn't even know someone made a cotton angora! I'm very intrigued by this one. Pattern suggestions? It's tempting me right now, and if I had a pattern in mind, I'm certain I would cast on.

And last but not least in the fiber department, there's sock yarn!

100% superwash merino from a brand called Mama Llama (which is cute, but there's no llama content). I'm sure I can find something to do with this.
And to top it all off, there's a bag of chocolate covered dried cherries. I hear cherries are a good natural painkiller, so I'm going to do the responsible thing and keep eating until I feel better.

Thanks, secret pal!

Fugly Friday will be back when I'm not feeling so fugly.

Oops Again

My name is Sarah, and I am a sock yarn addict.

After that haul at Stitches, two days later (two days!), I managed to stagger home with not one, but 6 more skeins of sock yarn. Six.

See, it's not all my fault. First, Carrie sent me this really cool pattern. Then Jen dyed this really cool sock yarn that suits it perfectly. See? I couldn't resist. Also, Jen came out to the LYS's knit night, and I got to meet her IRL for the first time. Her yarn is awesome, and super soft as well. I can't wait to start that pattern.

Also, the shop got in a shipment that day of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock solids. I had been bugging them for it for, I don't know, a year or so. So I had to snap up four skeins or so. That was restraint on my part. The black will likely be dress socks for the boy. The royal blue might get incorporated into some Cubs socks, if I'm smart enough to figure out how (I think the answer is duplicate stitch, but somehow that feels cheap). The other solids will likely get turned into some very patterned socks, such as some Cookie A socks that have been lurking in the back of my mind. I'm paralyzed by indecision at this point. I want to cast on about 10 pairs at once. I'm trying to finish up some Irish flag socks for the boy first, but he has really big feet.

Also, I had been eyeing this colorway at the shop for a while. I have no excuse for buying it, since there were at least four skeins there and not in danger of going anywhere. But...it's very Sarah-colored, and as long as I'm going for broke here....

I think these might want to be Broadripples, especially after seeing Jen's in person.

I did get some stuff done, since afterwards I went over to Lorna's and used her robo-washer to felt some things. Pictures of that when they finish drying.

Also, in case you're wondering where I get the time, this is my life.