I just finished my first ever sock!!!

As you can see, the left sock doesn't quite keep the toes warm... yet, I will cast on tonight. Promise. No second sock syndrome for me, cuz I have more yarn to cast on another pair after this one is done.

I got home Wednesday to a package at my front door. It's my ebay yarn from The Natural Dye Studio!!!
I love to order yarn on line. When I get yarn in the mail, it feels like it's free, like a present! I love to get things in the mail!

That's my sock yarn on the left, then two different colorways of wool slub (about 90 yards each) and the two on the right are cotton chenille. I am not ashamed to say that I do not have a plan for anything but the sock yarn. It's pretty and it's soft and I need no excuse to just keep it by my chair and pet it. Afterall, I am the only knitter on the planet without a cat, or four.

Speaking of cats, I had a dream last night that my mom bought me a cat. In the dream I picked up the strange plastic and metal mesh container that held the kitten and thought, "My own mother doesn't remember that I am allergic to cats". Then she told me that the woman who sold her the kitten told her that I could train the cat so I would not be allergic to it. I remember saying something next about training it to not sleep on my face all night. I played with the kitten until it scratched my cheek and then I woke up. Strange. I'm a dog person anyway.

If you have a tv that won't have football on it on SuperBowl Sunday, turn it to Animal Planet and watch the PuppyBowl. It's about the cutest thing you'll ever see, next to being there in person of course.

As for my cross stitch quilt, I have 3 sets of 5-value gradations for the background. They are perfect and I am very excited.


Next step will be to take them all to a store that sells paint and pick out some colors that look good and then I'll try to match them with dye. Shouldn't be too difficult, since I'm not extremely picky when it comes to my dye results, and also considering my timeline for this project.

Hump Day

Happy Hump Day everyone!
I haven't thought of that phrase since high school. It reminds me of all the stupid shit that goes on in high school. Things like, "don't you know if you wear green on a Wednesday it means you are gay?!" (of course you know they did not mean 'happy') and the whole "what lunch hour do you have? I have B, do you have B? oh my god, who am I going to SIT WITH!?" Being called on when you don't know the answer, teachers ALWAYS call on the one that looks down at the book real quick to avoid being called on. And of course, waking up when your forehead hits your desk with a loud thud. Unfortunately, I can say that has happened to me, at least twice, well, maybe I am fortunate it only happened twice in all my years of school. All these things are coming back to me this semester. I am taking a physics class, which they covertly call "Physical Science 1" I thought I was taking a science class, you know, chemistry, periodic table, maybe the anatomy of a cell thrown in for fun, but no, it's physics. I haven't taken a math class since 2002 and I got a C in it. (in my defense, I would have gotten a B or better if I had studied for the final) So this morning, I was sitting in my physics lecture, listening to Mr. Physics explain some formulas for calculating acceleration and velocity and some other letters that will some day stand for numbers and then I could see him pointing at numbers and writing letters on the board and demonstrating things at the front of the class, but I was hearing, "this guy's wife must let him dress himself in the morning, his beard reminds me of Ryan, I miss Ryan, I wonder what we'll have to do in lab today, I don't remember putting deoderant on today, when am I going to have time to do my homework?, how many times will I have to call Shannon while I'm doing my homework to have her explain this to me, oh, he's writing something else on the board, maybe I should pay attention, pay attention!!!" That's usually how it goes, at least once per hour of lecture, I drift off to never never land and think about weird things. Another week of physics is over, only 13 more to go.

My textiles class on the other hand, has started off with a bang! wait, does that mean it's good or bad? I am confused about this metaphor. I meant that it is going well so far. My first project is going to be a large wall quilt based on cross stitch. Last night I dyed 10 half-yards of fabric, 5 different values of 2 different greens. and tomorrow night I will dye another 5-value gradation of another shade of green, (or is it a hue of green?) and rinse/wash the first 10 pieces. I am using instructions (modified instructions) from Elin Noble's book Dyes & Paints. These three greens will be the "aida cloth" background, which I will cut into 3 or 4 inch squares and arrange artfully on a piece of batting and fuse them to it. I will also dye lots of other colors to make the stitches. So each 3 or 4 inch square will have an X in it of a different color. The colors of the X's will also be chosen carefully and arranged artfully on the green background. This project will be a test of my ability to let things be planned and random at the same time and a way to give a quilt using the same base block (square with X in it) an interesting composition by manipulating color and value. So, pictures to come as the project gets further along and more picture worthy, all I have right now is wet fabric in buckets.

Yarn Harlot has proposed a knitting olympics, and I am extremely tempted to participate, against my better judgement of course. I don't know when I'll have time to knit, or you know, sleep, eat, breathe. I want to knit the skating queen skirt from Knitty for my sister's birthday. I haven't officially joined yet, because I am afraid to commit to something and then come February, not have time to knit it and then feel obligated to knit instead of do physics homework, or instead of working on textiles or something else important. And, the most exciting use of my time is... drum roll... Chris Roberts Antieau has commissioned me to dye fabric for her work! That is the most exciting thing ever!!! I still have to make up some samples for her and give her a price quote. So if all goes well, that is what I'll probably be spending my weekends doing.

As for my sock, I am past the heel, working on the knit around section until I get to start decreasing for the toe.

The bribery works

Apparently, just the mention of yarn can motivate me. My plan yesterday was to get my errands done and then go to Knit A Round. I returned my stuff to TJMaxx, then headed to the Salvation Army, dropped off all four bags of stuff without a second glance even though one bag was full of shoes and another half full of purses. So I was driving away from Salvation Army, through the back of the one way parking lot when I realized where this little lot was leading me. The Salvation Army drop off lead me right to the front door of Ann Arbor's other knitting shop, Flying Sheep. Well, that must have been fate, so I had to go in. I got a ball of Sockotta and a skein of Classic Elite Silk Mohair in lavendar. I already had two skeins of sage green at home that I thought the lavender would look neat with.

Saturday I started my first sock and I am ready to turn the heel on it.


I just got that sock book from Borders today. I am not thrilled that it is shaped like a sock. I wish it weren't and I almost bought a different one becuase of it, but this one had the most patterns in it that I thought I would be most likely to actually use. I think the sock shape book is pretty cheesy and makes me feel like I am reading a childrens book. Like, maybe it should say "one sock two sock red sock blue sock" in it.



So after I made the requisite purchase at Flying Sheep I headed to the North side of Ann Arbor to Knit A Round. I probably made three or four loops around the store, touching everything and kept going back to the same couple things that were pretty and soft and I had equally no clue what I would make with any of them. So, the logical thing to do, find the really soft lace weight acrylic/nylon that only costs $3.50 for a 350 yard skein, and buy 6 of them. That makes sense right?

Bribery

After a long and busy first week of school, it is finally Saturday. All I want to do is be lazy today, but I have stuff to get done before another hectic week starts. I have 4 garbage bags full of stuff to drop off at the Salvation Army, mostly clothing, shoes and purses that don't fit or are way out of style (I have such a hard time throwing things away that I still have stuff I wore my freshman year of high school... 1994/95). I have returns to handle at Kohl's and TJMaxx. So in order to get that stuff done, I think I will bribe myself with a trip to the yarn shop. This is one that I don't make it to very often because it is not convenient to where I live or anywhere I have to go... which I guess is a good thing in a way.

Last night I had a nice relaxing evening at home. I watched Bye Bye Birdie on tv and knit this:

a tiny mitten, on tiny needles with tiny yarn. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha

proof

Just a quick post to prove that I am not lazy.

I have started this Branching Out at least three times and finally got all the bugs worked out and I am about 4 or 5 pattern repeats into it. It is so much fun to knit!!! I can't do it while anything else is going on around me though, because there is so little repetition in the pattern, but that is what makes it fun! I'm using Decadence (100% Baby Alpaca) from Knit Picks. Which is much thicker than laceweight, but I want this to be a warm and useful scarf when it's done, not just a pretty one.


I also finished all the baby things I was working on. Here is the roll brim hat (Yarn Harlot pattern), for Kahner and the pink pixie hat and baby booties for the new baby in the family.

Also, I am uber-paranoid that my new iPod is going to get all scratched up from being in my pocket, or in my purse or in my car all the time, so I had to knit a little iPod Cozy. I made the pattern up as I went along and I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. So much in fact, that I've cast on one for my sister's mp3 player and am planning one for a digital camera too. It's a good way to use leftover yarn.



Today was the first day of school. I got up at 7 so I could leave here at 8:15 for my physical science class that starts at 9. Class goes until 10:50 and from there I went straight to work, worked through my lunch break and stayed at the office until 6:00. Tomorrow I get to go to work from 8:30 till 5:00 and then right to school for my textiles class that goes from 5:30 till 8:20. I am anticipating a very stressful and hectic four months. But, it will all be worth it, becuase these are the last two classes I need for my bachelor's degree. Does "bachelors" get an apostrophe or no? Which expensive class should I have learned that in?

Accolades

Have you ever received a hand made present from someone and had to feign excitement, love and appreciation? I have, and it made me think, what if I am making all this stuff that makes me happy, but giving it to people and they have to say, "oh... uh... great Candice, thaaaaaanks."

This thought was quickly washed away by my favorite person to make things for, Leah.

Shown here, wearing her Christmas present.

She sent me this picture along with these words:

"yesterday night I got out the other gifts from you and just threw the new weaved scarf on.
Just for a place to put it till I got to where it goes, well I was wearing black and it just looked soooooooo beautiful.
You see I thought I would only wear it for super fancy but no, I realize now I love it just so much that I wore it to lunch with my aunties and Grandma. Well boy if they did not have a fit about it! and then to learn that you made this TOOOOOO........on top of all that you can do, boy they are floored. Then the cash out lady had to love it up too!
So now I came home and thought I would send you pics of me wearing it. Photographs photographed by Jon Wheeler Jr.
LOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEE you and your amazing care and creativity. It is so fun that I am getting such a huge Gigi collection, really fun when people come over and observe something and then I get to go on the tangent showing them everything that you have ever made!
Now I have one more thing to add to the list!
you amazing girl you!"

Leah knows by now that not a single holiday can go by without her receiving something hand made from me. She has said a couple times that her gifts to me don't compare to the ones I make for her. What she doesn't know though, is that I would make a hundred more quilts and weave a thousand more scarves for her, even if I never received another gift from her ever, hand-made or not. I love her that much.

Thing

I have a thing.

I think we all know that I have a "yarn thing".

"yarn thing"

"yarn thing"

I don't understand how anyone can NOT have a "yarn thing".

I also have a "fabric thing" but that has slightly subsided since I began knitting over the summer. I could post 3 or 4 more pictures of my fabric stash, but I'll leave it to the imagination.
But I have an excuse... I'm a quilter, I'm a knitter, I'm a weaver. I do NEED this yarn and this fabric. and I will always need more and want more. That's just the way it is. I can't and WON'T feel bad about it.

The one that I don't quite understand though, is this need I have for pens. I have this need to buy pens. Pretty on the outside pens, pens that write really smooth gel ink, pens that are shaped different, pens that write but also do other things. I always have a pen or two in my car, I have two pens in my purse right now, and I even went out and spent $13 on a set of colored pens yesterday, even though I already have a set that is so similar to it, it scares me. I don't really write on paper, except maybe to plan out a quilt pattern or some other art work. I don't write letters to send in the mail. I haven't been taking academic classes in school for the past couple years, so I haven't had to take notes in class. I have no explanation for this "pen thing".
This is just one drawer full as an example. Yeah, that's right, I even have pens that are shaped like frogs wearing boxing gloves that REALLY BOX, and you know what? I don't just have one, but THREE of them.

So I think this is just an example of overabundance and obsessiveness in my life. When I like something, I REALLY like it, to the point of obsession. This goes for yarn, fabric and pens, but also with food and of course, shoes and purses. I think I need to work on that this year. Less shopping, more working in the sewing room. I predict now through mid-April will not be too hard to accomplish this though, I will be too busy with work, school and homework to shop.

And I am afraid to actually say this out loud, becuase then I'll feel the responsibility of actually doing it, but I need 25 pounds to be off my body. That is the weight I've gained in the past three years since I've been living on my own and working at a "sit at the computer all day" job. Now I've done it, I said it, let the work begin. It is, afterall, 4 days into the New Year. Let the betterment begin!

What I gave and what I got

I had a great Christmas, it was spread out over 3 days, Christmas eve with my dad's family early in the day, then Ryan's family in the evening, then Christmas day with my immediate family, then the day after Christmas is Ryan's birthday, so the whole weekend was a big party, with presents for everyone! the best kind!

First, here is some of the stuff I made for people that I couldn't show pictures of before Christmas.
This is Shannon's "potato chip scarf" from Knit Picks, made from the rayon/silk varigated yarn from Forma Loom.
And this is a scarf I wove for Leah with Tencel from Heritage Yarns.

I also made my mom a roll-up dpn holder, because she has been keeping hers in ziplock bags. I didn't get a picture of it, but I made myself one yesterday, so here's a pic of it.



I also made some little stitch markers for my Grandma, my mom and for Leah, we're a knitting family. And for Ryan's dad, I made him a scarf, because he shaved his long beard this summer, for the first time in probably 25 years. So I figured he'd need something to keep his neck/chin warm this winter. I made it from grey Lion brand Wool, hopefully it is soft enough for him Ryan approved it's manliness, or at least it's un-girliness.

I am so excited about all the stuff I got!!! From my parents I got an iPod!!! ahhhhh!!! I've wanted one for so long! It's a black 30GB color screen photo iPod! ahhhh!!! I haven't really played with it yet though, because I need to get small earbuds for it, the ones that come with it don't fit in my tiny ears.

I got books from Ryan's family and some other small things. I also got some beads and... drum roll... a 20 yard bolt of PFD fabric!!!

One of my bosses gave me these great glass knitting needles. I was so excited that I cast on this scarf IMMEDIATELY and started making another Christmas present! although, it didn't get finished in time.


Shannon made me this great hat that I LOVE, and also got me some neat dressy earrings.
it's not the greatest pic of the hat, or me, actually. The hat has a pattern with two snowflakes, a diamond shape and two tassels on each side like pig-tails.

And from my best friend Leah, I got two skeins of yarn, both are hand painted, and she gave me her mom's pearl earrings inside a little leather pouch of hers. That is very special. I'm a little nervous about wearing them and losing them, so I want to take them and have screw backs put on.


So tonight is new years eve, I am heading out to Ryan's house in a couple hours where we'll count down to the new year, drink some wine for me, gin for him, probably some beer for both of us. I am considering running to the store to buy ingredients for Spinach Artichoke dip... yum! so cheeesy, so garlicky... yum!!!! funny how you can't really taste the spinach or the artichokes, but that is the name of the dip.

Back to work on Monday and back to school on the 9th, so there will be quilting and fiber related content soon. Promise. I got a B in Textiles this past semester. I am not too pleased. I don't think I deserve a B. maybe I'll have a talk with her when I go back in two weeks. oh man... two weeks, that will come so soon!

I know, I know... it's been a week, more than a week. Sorry! I will make it up to you after Christmas with lots of pictures.

Last weekend, Shannon came "home" from North Carolina for Christmas. I say "home" because I think it depends on your definition of the word. If home is where you keep your things, it is in North Carolina. If home is where your family is; Michigan is home.

We spent the whole day baking and eating cookies on Sunday, I think we made at least 5 or 6 different kinds of cookies. ooooh yum. Even our dog Dakota got a treat! That would be Shannon feeding the dog yogurt. She's still in her pj's, I won't say what time it was when I took that picture. ;)

The days since Sunday have been somewhat of a blur. Those of you that have been reading my blog already know that my best friend Leah's mom Michele was diagnosed with uterine cancer in June. Her battle with that cancer ended on Sunday. We knew it was coming, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept or understand. Monday at work was hard, I had to email all 12 of my coworkers to let them know, because I knew if I went in and tried to repeat it that many times, I would make a blubbering idiot of myself. Most everyone was understanding and respected my request not to talk about it. All it took was one person to say, "I'm very sorry for your loss" to make me lose it. Just opening my mouth to say thank you, I could feel my face start to quiver and my eyes well up with tears.

The memorial service was yesterday, it was beautiful, as beautiful as a funeral can be. It started with a relative of Michele's and then a former coworker of hers speaking about her, and sharing stories. Then the coworker introduced Leah, you could hear everyone in the room quietly gasp, sniffle or otherwise share their disbelief that she can get up there and talk. But she did and it was beautiful. The love that mother and daughter share, even in death is just amazing. I've said it since the beginning of this six month battle, Leah is so strong and so amazing. I am so proud of you Leah! The service ended with a slide show of pictures of Michele and her family. It was so great to see so many pictures of her beautiful smiling face.

After the service, we all went back to Leah's house and stayed for a few hours, mingling with friends from high school, relatives and other friends and acquaintences of Leah and Michele. Leah handed me an envelope with a few pictures she had found while creating the slide show that she wanted me to have.
Here is Leah and I, we are six years old and getting ready to ride our decorated bikes in the Children's Fair Parade.
This is me and Michele, I don't specifically remember this day, but it looks like we had built some kind of fort in their back yard and were hanging out in it. This looks like it was about 6th or 7th grade. I'm not sure about the cat's name, but the dog is Lou Lou. (yes, I was allergic to cats back then too, but I just didn't care).

Michele's friends and family have been leaving stories and messages on the blog, I hope it continues for a long time. My mom wrote a wonderful story about her here (as well as some not so flattering pictures of Leah and I as kids). I also posted a story here.

My very very first memory of Michele: I was probably 5 or 6, Leah and Michele lived in an apartment above a storefront downtown in Chelsea. I have the most clear memory of Leah and I sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for lunch. Michele is at the counter, about to pour two glasses of milk, until I tell her, "I only like the milk with the BLUE cap." And even after that, and probably many other "picky-eater" moments that I don't recall, she still welcomed me with open arms, as if a second daughter.

a pair, or two

After about three tries, I finally have a pair of booties! This is a different pattern than the first bootie I knitted. The first one was knit on two needles, so it had a weird seam and was just a little funky looking anyway, so I found a different pattern. I made one bootie with the new pattern and it was a tad loose and had some strange holes in it where I switched between needles (knit in the round). So I considered that one my practice bootie, and made two more with that pattern, and even took notes on the things I changed, so I could make a matching one. and here we have it... a matching pair!
It might be a little hard to see, but there is one row of frilly fringey yarn just above the sole. oooh, uh... did I say they were DONE? I still have to do some i-cord for a tie around the ankle, but THEN they'll really be done. But for now, I'm moving on to Christmas knitting, because the baby isn't due until late January/early February.

Here is a picture of the finished mittens that I never showed off. I still need to wash them and block them. The one I finished first is bigger than the second because everyone I showed it to, wanted to put it on, including men with big hands. So it is stretched out a bit, but I think I can fix that by washing and a VERY quick bounce around in the dryer.

They were really fun. I have this terrible urge to find the tiniest yarn and the tiniest needles and knit tiny mittens. I have no idea where that came from, but I really want to do it.

And here is what I've been working on at school. It's not too exciting, they are just practice pieces, I've been learning doubleweave.

The shorter piece on the right is what I started first. It is an 8/2 Rayon and Rayon Boucle warp and same for weft. It was a nightmare. It wasn't until I started to pull all the ends thru the heddles that I realized my mistake. the little bumps on the yarn were catching on each other and tangling, getting wrapped around heddles and snapping. I snapped 3 warp ends before I even had the thing tied onto the back beam. I managed to get it straightened out, tied on and tensioned, and when I started to weave, I was still getting the bumpy threads tangled on each other, so I could only tolerate weaving that much, which is probably about 6 inches. I decided to get some new yarn and tie it on to the existing warp and pull it thru the reed and heddles. It worked really well, it only took about an hour to tie each new end onto an old end and pull it thru and tie them all on the back. Once my new warp was on, I wove like the wind! That rayon is so soft and slippery and smooth, it's just great to weave with. Especially with doubleweave, because you have twice as many threads shoved into places where only half as many should be. Maybe that is confusing... if your yarn is 24 ends per inch (wraps around a ruler 24 times to equal one inch), you need 24 of each color (because in doubleweave, you are weaving two layers simultaneously), so there are 48 ends in one inch, where really only 24 are supposed to be. So I've come to the conclusion, even after using this great slippery yarn, I don't care for doubleweave. I can see it's usefulness, and possibilities, but I don't really enjoy doing it.

I don't mean to rub it in, but... MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IS DONE! I've never been so prepared, so early. This is the first year I've made a budget and stuck to it. I decided how much I could spend on each person I had to buy for, and I only spent that much and stopped shopping. In years passed I've started early and just kept shopping until Christmas eve. But this is the first year I can actually see the bottom of my savings account, so it made it that much easier to budget. I am waiting for one more thing to come in the mail. Something I bought on Ebay, I paid for it on the 23rd of November, I should have it by now. It better come, or someone's in big doooo doooooo.

Oh, the scarves, I never reported how much was made for Habitat for Humanity. We are still selling scarves randomly to people who stop by the studio, but last I heard, we sold about 30 scarves out of the 45 we dyed. So we probably donated close to $300. I didn't end up selling any of the bags I brought in. I think my prices were too high. The average college student, walking through the union at lunch time probably doesn't have $35 in cash. But I would rather not sell them than get less for them. I have to turn a profit, don't I?

I have 6 more days of work before I'm off for 10 days. I can hardly wait. I am already compiling a mental list of everything I want to work on while I have the time. I need to finish the calendar contest piece. I have a quilt I started last December that needs to be quilted, I'd like to re-vamp my website a bit and of course knit knit knit. I might also dress my loom for the alpaca shawl. But at the top of the list is to get a contribution to The Sampler sent out. I think I'll dye some fabric and cut it into fat eighths and maybe dye some silk noil yarn to go with it.

But now, it's back to work for me.

the cold... oh the cold

I can't get away from it, everywhere I go, I am freezing! I am sitting at work right now, on the verge of shivering, I am wearing two shirts plus a fleece pullover thing and I am still cold. It feels like the heat in my car doesn't work anymore. My apartment was built in the 60's and I think "insulation" was a concept unheard of at that time, not to mention the windows are as old as the rest of the place and are drafty as hell, which can be fixed with those plastic sheets that you stick to the window with a hair dryer, but the stuff doesn't stick. So I am cold. The only place that isn't cold is in my bed with my electric blanket on. It is an exercise in will power and strength to get out of bed in the morning. Believe me though, it doesn't happen quietly, it's a bad sign when the first words you utter every morning are "sonofabi***".

Despite the cold, I have been having some fun lately. Last weekend, the EMU Textile Design Guild had a dye day. We learned to dye silk in the microwave, it was unbelievably easy and quick. We bought 45 silk scarves from Dharma Trading Company and dyed them.


Then on Wednesday we had a table in the student union where we sold the scarves. We bought the scarves for between $1.50 to $3.00 each and sold them for $10 to $12 each. All profits went to Habitat for Humanity. I haven't heard any figures yet as to how much we raised, update will follow, possibly tomorrow. We were also invited to bring in things of our own to sell at the table as well, I brought in three of my bags and haven't heard yet if any of them were sold.

Also last weekend, Ryan and I went to see Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash movie. Holy crap... I haven't seen such a good movie in a long time. Joaquin Phoenix is amazing as Johnny Cash, he does all the singing and was just incredible, not to mention sexy. My knowledge of Johnny Cash and his music before the movie was pretty close to nuthin', I knew he sang "I fell into a burning ring of fire and it burned burned burned..." and that was about it. So I do not have a biased opinion of the movie being good just because I'm a fan, which I am now, but wasn't before. The movie was over two hours long and we didn't fidget in our seats for a minute of it. Ryan is a tall guy and usually gets uncomfortable in theater seats, but he didn't even move throughout the entire movie, we were just enthralled. I highly recommend it.

In knitting news... I finished another baby bootie, I used a different pattern, this one is knit in the round so it turned out much better. I will do one or two more to get a pair, but probably after Christmas. Since all of a sudden I decided to knit Christmas presents for two more people. I'll have a pic of the bootie soon.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. There is an exhibit of his artwork here in Ann Arbor this weekend. I don't know which day, but Ryan and I will be going. I have never seen any of his artwork in person before, only posters and commercial copies. The entry fee is $2 and will be donated to Dawn Farm, I think it's a local charity, not sure. I'm just glad my money won't be going to Yoko, though, I'm sure she already has some of it anyway.

How to Knit at Work

Knitting at work is a tricky thing. I have a job that lets me sit and do nothing and wait for the phone to ring, or wait for someone to come along and give me something to do. If you don't have a job like this, it may be a little more tricky. But for all you knitting secretaries out there... this is how I knit at work.

We are in the process of digitizing 30 years worth of files. Part of my job is to digitize these files by scanning them through our copy machine, which sends the digitized file to my computer. Since it takes a while to do this, a lot of my time is spent staring at the wall, waiting for one stack to finish scanning so I can put another stack into the scanner. This is a HUGE reason why less of this gets done than I have time for... it is extremely boring. A stack doesn't take long enough to go through so that I can go do something else, and it doesn't go through quick enough to stand there and wait... what to do? grab your knitting of course!

So yesterday, I brought with me my second mitten to work on, I was getting close to the decreases at the fingertips, so I worked on that while I digitized files. I was just about to do the first decrease, I checked my bag for a stitch marker... didn't have one. Crap! my plan had been ruined! I looked around, hmmm... paperclips... YES!!! a large paper clip fits perfectly on a size 8 dpn. bwa ha ha <> Nothing can stop me!!

Of course, when you are decreasing and trying to keep track of k2, k2tog, on this round, k around the next, etc. the phone will ring. The phone always rings when you are telling a co-worker a funny story that happened over the weekend, it always rings when your friend on the Instant Messenger is asking you a question about something very important, and it ALWAYS rings when you are counting stitches. How to remedy this? Post-it notes. Find a post-it note (you may need more than one, depending on what you are working on) fold it in half so the sticky part sticks to itself. Since I was switching between k rounds and k2/k2tog rounds, I wrote "k2, k2tog" on one side, and "k around" on the other side. When I passed the marker, I just flipped over my little post-it note, so if the phone rang, I wouldn't have to listen to what the caller wanted AND keep repeating to myself "knit two, knit two together" in my head, I could just read my little post-it note reminder.

I actually got to the point of casting off the fingertips yesterday. The pattern I am using has you decrease until there are 11 stitches on the needles, break yarn, thread yarn thru last 11 stitches and pull tight and weave in the end on the inside. Ok, piece of cake... I'll just grab my darning needle... uh... no darning needle. Ok, I don't have a darning needle, but I do have paperclips... lots of paperclips. For this I used a small, smooth paperclip (not the kind that has the lines scratched into it and not the plastic covered kind). If you have played with paperclips as much as I have (I am fidgety) you know that if you bend a paperclip in the same place about 5 times, it will break at that spot. I opened up a small paperclip, bent it until it broke in half and kept the half with the smaller loop on it. I stuck the yarn inside the loop and squeezed the paperclip until the loop closed, trapping my yarn inside. I then could use this to thread the yarn through my last 11 stitches. I didn't attempt to weave in the end with it though, I think that is asking too much of a paperclip. The make-shift darning needle has a little point that sticks out on the side (unless you work in an office that has needle-nose pliers, which I don't), so that catches on the yarn and snags it, save your end-weaving for when you get home.

I hope some of these office knitting tips will help you, whether you knit at work, on the bus, at the gym, at school or you just have not invested in all those "extra" knitting notions.

Knat

Why isn't the past tense of "knit"... "knat"? Sit - Sat... knit - knat... right?
anyway... I have one finished object, one nearly finished, one started, and supplies purchased for two more projects... it's been a full day!

First, I finished a Christmas present this morning, here's a picture.



Of course you don't see anything, I said it's a CHRISTMAS PRESENT. The person it is for reads this... wouldn't want to ruin any surprises. Sorry... there will be a picture after the gift is given. I promise.

Second, the nearly finished is my mitten! I want to run around screaming I KNIT A MITTEN!!! while wearing it. does that make me wierd?



Going to mom's tonight for dinner with the family and then she can help me finish the tip of the thumb and the fingertips. I LOVE this mitten, the colors are great, it fits perfect and feels great, that Manos del Uruguay is just amazing, and it was so much fun to knit.

When I got done weaving and realized I couldn't finish my mitten, or start the second, I had to knit something. So I cast on this hat that I found on Yarn Harlot's blog. (it's not in a recent post, I have started from the beginning and am reading the whole thing. That's what I do when I'm bored at work. I think I have a knitting crush on Stephanie) I just got the last stitch cast on and joined to knit in the round when mom called and said she was there to pick me up.


See that pink curled up thing there next to my needle guage, that's a swatch, I even made a swatch to count my stitches per inch! woohoo!

Mom was picking me up so we could go out to Forma loom. It is a weaving/knitting shop WAY out in the country of Whitmore Lake (just about 10 minutes outside of Ann Arbor). I need some yarn for my double weave project for school, so this is the only place around here to buy weaving yarn and supplies. Here's a pic of everything I bought.

The two cones on the left are what I'll be weaving. They are about a pound each of sapphire blue and lilac, 100% rayon, and so smooth and shiny. After what I've been using at school, this will be a dream to weave with. I would like to take that rayon boucle off the loom at school and burn it and dance around it naked, it is such a pain in my arse.

That pink cone in the middle is some neat 2ply cotton and something else that is really cool, that I can either knit or weave with... what a dilemma. and the cone of white is a cotton rayon blend (only 14% rayon) that I plan to dye, what I do with it after I dye it is not yet determined.

I see you are admiring those two skeins in front of the cones. As well you should... that is a silk/rayon 2ply, space dyed in all my favorite colors. That will also be used for a Christmas present, so there will be no more pictures of the yarn, until after Christmas. It is amazingly soft and will be perfect. There is 300 yards per skein and can you beleive it was only $8.95!! I had to get two, even though one should be plenty for the gift.

What's with all the rayon today?

Thanksgiving part two is tomorrow. Yesterday I went with Ryan for his family's thanksgiving. It was SO much fun, their family is about 30 people at this point and they are all close and get along (as much as a family should anyway). It is the complete polar opposite of anything I have experienced. My family is very small and not close at all, with the exception of a few extended family members. So I feel very lucky to have found this other family that has accepted me as their own and lets me share holidays with them. Thank you Ryan!

So part two is my family: mom, dad, Shannon, Ryan and me. The plan is to spend the day watching old beta tapes of home movies and also The Monkees tv show. Shannon and I and our two best friends growing up, Tia and Leah (respectively) grew up watching two beta tapes full of Monkees episodes that were taped off MTV in 1986, when there was some sort of Monkees anniversary and a full day marathon. My parents had just gotten their brand new beta recorder and were taping anything and everything. Lucky for us, our beta still works and we can still watch old monkees episodes. We used to watch these tapes after school and we'd all call out which one was our boyfriend, "I get Micky!" was always what I would say, but now that I am older, I think I like Mike better. He was always the rational, level headed guy (and with the most "real" musical talent).

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and that no one got trampled in any stores today.

RENT

We saw RENT last night at the theater, it was amazing. I give it two thumbs up, 4 1/2 out of 5 stars and an A. Wow... It was just so good, and I am a die-hard fan and hard to please. I will be listening to the soundtrack for the next couple weeks, I'm sure. They did an amazing job at sticking to the original story and making it more screen friendly. I think the movie is much easier to follow than the play. I was dissappointed that quite a few excellent songs were left out, one of my favorites in particular is Christmas Bells which is at least four different parts singing different songs at the same time and they just go together beautifully and shows what talent Jonathan Larson had. The few parts they had to throw in for the story to make sense were good, I was skeptical for the first few minutes of each added scene, and my sister and I each took turns looking at each other and rolling our eyes followed by the "what the hell is this?!" look. But the scenes were usually necessary and well done. They were short enough to not really change anything or make the story too complex. The beauty of the stage version is how everything is played out on a single stage with a single set up, the pit band is on stage visible throughout and the same props are used over and over for different things. In my opionion, the stage version is pretty much cheese-free. It's hard to have more than one person burst into song and choreographed dance without a little cheesey-ness, and I think the movie did very well with that too. The movie has far more speaking parts than the play, but that's ok, becuase the rhythm at which the lines were spoken, kept the same feeling that it had in the play.

Go see it... No day but today! Oh yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving!

A watched pot...

My day job is mostly me sitting in front of a computer all day. When I have nothing else to do, I peruse the internet, which is bad for a number of reasons.

• My credit card gets a good work-out


• My gluteus maximus is widening


• This laziness has bled into the rest of my life


• When I finally do get some work to do, I'd rather be reading blogs or playing on the internet


• I check my web hosting stats at Yahoo! repeatedly, to the point of obsession.

Which brings me to my question of the day. Does a watched web site never get hits? If I go to my Yahoo Web Hosting page, say, 8 times a day to see how many people have visited, am I watching a pot that will never boil? or am I just impatient and irrational thinking that among the bazillion websites out there, mine should be more popular.

Last night I finished my first set of Fiber Art Post Cards, they went out in the mail today... only one day before the due date. I signed up for this group thing in October, because at that point I had plenty of time to work on them and was really excited about it. But then, of course, the due date got closer and closer and I lost interest before I even started working on them. But they are finished, done, ca-put and I really doubt I'll sign up for another one; it's just not my bag baby. Here they are...



Now I am on my way to school, to battle with the loom some more. I am learning double weave. So far it's not difficult... the maddening part is that I used an 8/2 cotton in combo with a rayon boucle yarn in my warp. the bumps on the rayon get all tangled up with the cotton and with other strands of rayon for a big nasty mess, so far I have snapped 3 warp ends, so tonight, hopefully I'll get it all straightened out and the tension right and be able to start weaving.

My little sister is home for Thanksgiving from North Carolina and I can't wait to see her tomorrow night! She is meeting me after work and we're going straight to the movie theater to see RENT. I can hardly contain myself... the two in combination: the RENT movie AND seeing Shannon.... ahhhh!!!!

it's back

I knew it would happen, I've been in denial for at least a month or two.
Winter. it's here. and it brought with it snow and whipping cold winds. grrrrreeeeeaaaat... my favorite.

I guess the one good thing about winter, I can sit inside under a blanket and knit and not feel guilty. ok, honestly, I can do that in the summer too... I don't get guilty about knitting or sewing or weaving... because I am doing something, I'm not laying on the couch watching soaps and eating bon bons.

I finished the hat part of the hat, all that is left is the chin strap... which might take forever... I cast on 6 stitches and it has to be 26 inches long. yeah, twenty-six inches. sheesh.

Christmas present number one is half done. It's a not-girly-at-all-scarf.
Christmas present number two is not quite threaded onto the loom yet. I have the reed threaded, just have to thread the heddles and tie all the ends. That's the time consuming part, the actual weaving will go quick.
Christmas presents number three and four are still ideas in my head.

Who are they all for? I'll never tell.

I haven't done anything to the shibori panels. I think I have decided to do hand stitching on them, instead of peeling off the fused pieces. Maybe that will be on the agenda for my time off after Christmas. I like to save a week or so of vacation days and have the whole week between Christmas and New Years off work. it's great, just like being in high school again, without the homework.

I registered for my last semester of school last week. I am taking one more textiles class and Physical Science 101 with lab. I knew it, I knew I would leave one stupid academic class for last. Oh well, it shouldn't be too bad. I took physical science in high school and a biology and chemistry class, this should be review, right? The scariest class I ever took was Chemistry. I took it at the local community college, the lecture part was fine, but the lab was awful. Everything was easy, I understood everything we read, but I could barely make out what the lab instructor was saying. She had a VERY thick Asian accent. That was only half of the problem. The other half was the students in the class. I could not beleive the dumb things they were doing. My lab partner and I were seriously afraid. The worst part, the three students across from our lab station, were all nursing students. They couldn't measure liquids in a beaker, they couldn't follow instructions and their results were frequently wrong. I took a mental note of what they all looked like, in case I'm ever hurt and run into them again.

Tomorrow, I learn to knit in the round. Mom's going to teach me to knit mittens! I did a swatch of my Manos del Uruguay yarn on size 8 needles; perfection! After the mittens, I'll be attempting either socks or a sweater. Possibly both. I have a feeling that I will succumb to the sock obsession. Once I learn to knit in the round, I can make some better baby booties. I was just not impressed with the one I finished.

My poor neglected blog

Oh my! I haven't posted in almost a week! Bad blogger, bad! I do have an excuse... how many would you like?

Excuse number one:


I spent all of monday night after work, hand stitching with my hand dyed silk noil on all three panels. Where is all that hand stitching you ask? don't strain your eyes looking for it, it's not there. I went to class Tuesday night, expecting a critique, but we didn't have one. We had one-on-ones with the teacher, which was fine. I hung my three panels up and immediately we decided that the lighter pinkish one didn't really need to go with the other two. so that has become a separate piece. Then we spent quite a while figureing out what to do with these other two. I stayed for another hour in class and did more hand stitching and hung them up again to look. The hand stitching was only visible from about 3 foot away, once you got more than that far from them, even with gallery lights shining on them, the hand stitching dissappears.

Reluctantly, Wednesday night, I ripped out all my hand stitching. I cut out all those thin pieces of fabric and fused them to the panels. I am not in love with it. I definitely will do some hand stitching on them to help the fused pieces to blend in. right now, it looks like they are floating in front and are not a part of the background. I don't think I'll do anything to them for a while though. I need to put them out of view for a while so I can look at them fresh after a few weeks, months... uh... hopefully not years. I am just sorta dissappointed and wish I hadn't put those fused pieces on. I kindof liked that you couldn't see the stitching until you got up close to it, it's like a little surprise. I'm imagining them hanging in a gallery, from across the room, you see them and they are interesting enough to walk up to for a closer look. once you get there, you see all the meticulous hand stitching. I am kindof sad that it is gone. and mad at myself for doing the fused pieces, in part to please the teacher. So I MIGHT try to steam the pieces off. I used wonder under, has anyone had any experience un-fusing wonder under? does it leave nasty glue marks behind?

Excuse number two:

Here is the hat. I am more than halfway done. I am having so much fun knitting this. It's so easy and so not boring with all the k2, p2 ribbing and keeping track of what row I'm on. I love it!

Saturday, my mom and I drove to Grand Rapids for a visit with my best friend Leah and her mom Michele. They found out earlier this week that the cancer has spread to her liver and brain. They don't know how much time that leaves her. Leah has been staying with her at the hospital all day and all night for the past week. We came to help her out at home in any way we possibly could. They have been remodeling their basement since mid-summer so Michele would have her own bedroom there, it is nearly finished, that is mainly what we helped with; cleaning and vacuuming drywall dust and scraping globs of plaster off the cement flloor. We didn't get it all ready to be painted and ready for carpet until about 9pm, so we stopped for dinner and we left for home around 10.
I am very glad we could come help and also very glad we got to go to the hospital to see Michele. She was laying under the quilt I made for her. Leah has told me many times how wonderful the quilt is, that they take it everywhere they go and it brings such comfort to Leah to see her mom with it. That is exactly what I hoped it would do.

During the day, we escaped the "real world" for a while because Leah had a knitting class. She was learning to make a felted purse. So of course, we went with her and perused the yarn shop and some other little shops in the area. Did I leave empty handed? Of course not.

I got one skein of recycled silk. I have always wanted some of that! but it usually is kindof rough to the touch. this skein is particularly soft, so I had to have it. I don't know yet what it will become.
The other two skeins are Manos del uruguay, chunky wool. I think these will be mittens (for me!).

It was a bittersweet day, but I am extremely thankful we had it.

One day to do it

Once again, I have put off the finishing of a school project until the last possible moment. I worked on my shibori pieces for probably about a whole half hour on Saturday. I did maybe 4 lines of hand stitching with my hand-dyed silk noil thread, then hung up the piece and walked away. I had planned on coming back to it after a half hour or so, to look at it fresh and decide where I'm going with this, but after I walked away, I got sidetracked. I cast on a really rediculous hat for the new baby in the family. I started and frogged it at least twice before Ryan came over and we went out for dinner. mmmm...chinese food.... I've been craving that for a long time.
Ryan told me something that I found quite funny; partly because it's so true and partly becuase I didn't realize how true it is. He was talking to his mom over the weekend, she mentioned to him that she saw the bootie on my blog, and he told her, "yeah, every time I call her she's knitting". hahahahahhahaha! oh man... it's so true. And amazingly, even though I am "always knitting" how do I only have ONE finished knitted item?

We rented Melinda and Melinda. A new-ish Woody Allen movie. It's the first Woody Allen movie I've seen and I liked it. It was a two in one story, sortof similar to Sliding Doors that shows two perspectives or two outcomes of the same situation. Only this one was the same story, once depicted as a tragedy and the other depicted as a comedy. Will Ferrel is in it and was great. He should definitely do more toned down humor like this, it was great. (I didn't like Anchorman or his other SNL movies, not that that has anything to do with, well, anything.)

In other news, I have been informed that the OSU objects I donated to the auction went for $55 for the small wall hanging and $70 for the bag (paired with another item as a his and hers package). I am glad to have helped the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The auction raised $21,000 total! YAY!!!!

Critique is tomorrow night, so I will be spending all evening on hand stitching more detail into my three shibori panels. Photos to come later this week.

Got it all figured out

This is the new plan... there will not be a log cabin wall quilt. There will be a shibori triptych.



I went in to school on Tuesday with all my fabrics that I've been working on for the past 3 weeks or so. I laid them all out on a table with my modified log cabin drawing. I hunted down the teacher and asked if I could borrow her brain for a bit. I explained where I planned on going with the fabric and showed her my drawing, asked her my questions, and we actually discussed things and she helped me work through some things. After we decided on a direction for me, I took another look at that green and brown shibori piece. I hung it up alone so I could look at it and decide if I really could bare to cut it up. a few other students saw it and told me how nice it was just as it is. So I got that dark puple one out and hung it to the left of the green, then found the lighter purple and hung it to the right of the green. Then I hunted down the teacher once again and asked if she could look at one more thing with me. I asked if those three pieces were interesting enough to stand alone. She said they were. So that is where I'm headed. I will not be cutting anything up and sewing it back together.

I admitted to her that the previous modified log cabin plan was somewhat comfortable for me, that I was doing that because I know I can do it. These whole-cloth panels are something I have never done before. And for that reason too, I am glad the log cabin is out of my head. I have a lot of shibori fabric left that can become a log cabin quilt later.

This is a close-up of the panel on the right, that I put back on the pvc pipe, scrunched it and bleached it.


The log cabin design came out of a challenge from a friend at school. She brought in a design she had seen, it was some company's logo, just printed on the bottom of a shipping package.



She asked me if it could be sewn, she didn't think it would be possible to sew a piece into a corner like that, but I assured her, I could do it. I had done it before because I have never really liked the traditional log cabin patterns because there is always one piece that is either the same size as the center square or there is a piece that goes all the way across the bottom of the block. So I took the drawing home with me and set out to prove it could be done. And I did.

Holy crap, it's November!

Where the heck did October go?! I swear, wasn't it JUST August? Being busy sure makes the days and months go by fast!

Over the weekend I got absolutely NO sewing done. I should never have learned to knit. It is consuming my brain, I can't concentrate on all the projects I am in the middle of. I have all that shibori fabric that somehow needs to become a wall quilt before next Tuesday and all I have is an idea and a stack of fabric. I did one drawing on some graph paper and colored it in with colored pencils, but it's not exactly what I had pictured in my head, so I'm kindof stalled. Maybe I can go in to school tonight and get some help from the teacher. If she's willing to spend any time with me. So far she just sorta checks in once a week for 2 minutes or less and moves on to the more beginner students. Thanks for the gesture of confidence, but support and interest is great too, and I'm not getting any of that.

So what did I accomplish this weekend? THIS!!!! One baby bootie! yeah, that's right, I knit a baby bootie, second one is on the way, and there may be a third, then I can pick the best two out of the three. (no jokes about a 3-legged baby here, that is bad luck!) I still need to get it wet and shape it, it's sortof funny looking right now. I might also try to alter the pattern a bit because the foot looks like it is way too long for a newborn. I hope this doesn't turn into picking the best 2 out of 4 or 5.



For Halloween, Ryan and I went to hand out candy at his nephew's house while the family went out trick'r'treating. It was fun despite the cold and rain. Here is me and Joey, he is a sharp-tooth dinosaur, of course. I didn't dress up this year, last year I wore some vampire teeth and some yellowish brown contacts and he wouldn't come near me. The vampire teeth were just little caps to put on your own teeth with denture adhesive. Oh man... it sure made me appreciate my teeth and encouraged me to floss and brush well every day. That denture glue is the grossest stuff!



After Joey came back with his parents from Trick'r'Treating, he helped us "sell candy to the kids".
He was still rambunctious as ever at 10:00 when we left, hopefully they all got some sleep last night. I'm reallly starting to appreciate the whole nephew thing, you can come over and play for a while and then go home and sleep all night.
Here is Ryan responding to Joey's request: "Kunkle, make me hit myself!"



We left there around 10 when my nose started stuffing up from their two cats who aren't happy unless they are laying on your chest. Yes, it is possible that I may be the ONLY knitting blogger that does not have or want cats.