Snakes and Lichen and “Sunrise” and Motley Origami and Tuesday Morning

Serpentine Sock progress is stalled at one repeat done on first sock. So, like 10% completed. It needs its own name to survive my inattention. (If you have forgotten this project, I am making the Wendy Johnson “Serpentine Socks” in a modified form to use Mountain Colors’ Barefoot yarn in “Winter Sky”. I am not sure why they call it Winter Sky since it looks more like a blue variant of Aurora Borealis. I am not sure why the socks are called “Serpentine” either. So whatever the project ends up being called, I doubt it will have anything to do with other people’s nomenclature. Hmm. I wonder if there is a project naming group on Ravelry. I would love something like that, but only if other people were more creative than me.)

—-

Leuca Sweater could use for me to actually finish the sleeve, duplicate the sleeve, then work on attaching them so I can actually finish the yoke of the sweater.

—-

I have not spun anything, including last month’s fiber club shipment. But I did take pictures before the next shipment arrived.

—-

What has been taking up my time is knitting up slippers made from garter stitch squares which are then folded and seamed together to make motley boots. It is really interesting and it has been a while since I worked on something flat using fat yarn. It went really fast but used a really unreasonable amount of yarn.

—-

Also today I was in a parking lot with a Tuesday Morning. I had only heard of it because it was mentioned in a local Rav group as sometimes having phenomenal deals on yarn. I do not care if they were selling gold for the price of silver and offering free delivery. The store had on extremely offensive religious propaganda music. I wandered through the store, but knew from the moment I heard the first lyrics that I would not be buying anything and would not ever go back. There is something really wrong when the majority religious group that already legislates its morality feels the need to proselytize. But regardless of how the individuals feel, I think it is inappropriate for a store owner to deliberately ostracize potential customers. It was more subtle than a sign saying, “Christians only!” but the effect is the same to anyone paying attention. No one recommending Tuesday Morning had mentioned any inkling that they are a prejudiced and evilmongering place, but that was my personal experience today. I do not care what kinds of bargains they have, it would have been immoral to patronize that store because it promotes hatred of people like me.

chock full of news and updates.

For once, I have lots to say.

In reverse order, I went to a new LYS. It.. um.. does not suit me.  The people working there were pleasant and they had a nice range of yarns. But everything was very jumbled and crammed— and yet! they did not have enough range in the particular items that caught my eye. I would have bought 5 skeins of Cascade 220 if they had them in the same painted colorway, but when I asked if I could order more, I was told I must speak to the owner. I did not do a double-take about that, but I wanted to.  A lot of stuff was hidden away behind other things, so someone else had to dig through and hand me things one by one. Really nice people since they were willing to do that, a complete contrast with the store here in Oakland— the one everyone else loves. But even this new store,  for all the disarray and apparently random organization, they have MSRP+ prices.

I do not mean to constantly disparage LYSs, but it obviously is not something that is well suited to an urban environment, though this one is in an obscure suburb and has parking.

–

I successfully cast on for the sleeve to my Leuca sweater. (That is not the pattern name. I am using the generic wireframe “Round Yoke” from Priscilla Gibson-Roberts’s Knitting In the Old Way. And like BrooklynTweed, I heartily endorse this book.) I have decided to go with a provisional cast-on, and ( finally understand the whole crochet chain business because there was a really useful explanation and diagram in Wendy Johnson’s Socks From the Toe Up book. I bought Wendy’s book even though there was nothing really novel in it, I found the collection of techniques I always have to look up online to be extremely coherent and usefully organized, which made it worth the sale price.  Plus I liked several of the patterns even if they are vaguely derivative.)  started at just above the elbow. Elbow-length sleeves are sort of the minimum length I can tolerate and this allows me to conserve yarn until after the body is completed. There might be color transition issues, but sometimes you just have to make a choice.

–

I have been working on my Serpentine Socks (from the Wendy Johnson book), but progress is slow because I do not seem to work on them often enough.

—

There has been no change in the spinning department. I did not order the musk ox from RH Lindsey.

–

I now have a crockpot for dyeing. Cost to me, $free. I found it in a closet. I plan to do some Koolaid dyeing in it this weekend. (Starting with food-safe things in case I change my mind about the repurposing.)

–

Not quite fiber related, but I am in search of new glasses. I can no longer knit with my glasses on, and cannot watch the TV with them off. I might splurge and go somewhere with interesting glasses options, because I got treated badly at the two big  chain places recently.

–

I am considering buying a fancy new phone. I would like it if it could display knitting charts. Any recommendations for apps or phones?

–

I am planning to go to the Dixon Lambtown October 3, but not for classes. If you wanted to meet up. Send an email or leave a comment.

–

ps. I do not have pictures of the August fiber club shipment. I might take pictures tomorrow.

Spinning My Wheels

I am still stuck on not wanting to spin what is on the bobbin. I was 80% of the way through my birthday fiber when I left for Yarn School.

I have not touched my wheel since I have returned. It is somewhat sad because I had this amazing idea for plying the fiber with a natural colored fiber (not sure which shade) and having a much more subtle (and longer) skein of progressive rainbow yarn. Then I was going to knit that into a mobius scarf. 

Hopefully the spinning blahs will go away in time. I am still bitter and angry and sickened by the experiences at Yarn School. I do not feel like spinning because it reminds me of the horrible time I had and the disaster that trip was. I do not feel like spinning because the other spinners I met were not people I want to know. So if I spin, maybe I will not want to know myself anymore. Unfortunate timing since we are about to head into summer here and I cannot spin when it is too warm. 

I need to finish this bobbin because I do not think the pre-drafted fiber will resurrect well if it gets crammed into a corner somewhere. 

I am already having storage problems with my carded batts. 

Knitting-wise, things are sort of stalled because I am bored. I am honest enough with myself to know that I will never finish a cabled sweater. I doubt I would finish a ribbed hat even. So that means it has to be plain stockinette. But I do not have a huge desire to sit right down and knit a thousand stitches to get half an inch of length. 

I should probably start another sock so I have something I can measure progress on. Or I could at least copy the charts out big enough to see. I should, I should, I should. 

Honestly, Yarn School was so terrible an experience that I have read 15 books since we got back, written a short story, cooked a bunch of food, done a bunch of laundry, and spent a lot of time outside instead of even looking at anything to do with yarn or fiber. It took me a week to even open the box I shipped back. 

Yarn School should have a warning label that says “We will ruin spinning for you and you will run screaming into the night never wanting to see a ball of yarn ever again.” That would be truth in advertising. It makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it. And worse yet, I know no one reads this blog, so no one will know the truth.

This week in Yarn.

I am mostly over my ranting. There are still no pictures of the good stuff from the trip. Largely because the stuff is not here yet for retaking pictures.

I have a new skein of sock yarn, Mountain Colors Barefoot in “Winter Sky” . I bought that and a new knitting bag (Lantern Moon) at Yarn Barn. I knew when I saw it that I really wanted it. Which is what I have been waiting for as far as investing in bags goes. It was ludicrously priced, but I have never seen them in person before and I doubt they are ever cheap. 

I figured as long as I was nearby, I would look. But, I really needed a better map of Kansas because Lawrence and Topeka and Harveyville and the airport in Missouri are all just a smidge away on the map. I think it was rounding error, but these things are all about an hour apart. 

The box of wool I sent myself is not here yet, even though I mailed it on Monday the 11th. I did opt for cheap shipping, so it is not late yet, but I am getting antsy. I have lots of carded batts and several pounds of dyed roving. I took some preliminary photos at my MIL’s house, but they are weird pics that do not show the fiber off to its best angle. 

I have been knitting on the sole project I traveled with, my sweater from the “Moss in the Dark” handspun yarn. I spent some time thinking about how fast this is going. I get about 5sts/inch and about 7.5 rows/inch. I can do about 6 rounds in 2 hour-long shows minus commercials. Or about 1 round in the 15 minutes of The Daily Show before the guest comes to be interviewed (does anyone watch the interview part? it seems to be all authors of books I will never read) .  That comes out to being ~15 stitches per minute. When I was doing my gauge samples, I calculated the number of stitches needed for the torso, with these needles, I need 23,000 stitches. That is about 25.5 hours just for the torso. Also, it looks like I am going to run out of yarn, so either the sleeves will be including another yarn or this will be a short sleeve sweater. Still beautiful yarn for the project though, so it is fun to work on. 

I got the new Wendy Johnson sock book, Socks from the Toe Up from the library. It looks like the kind of book I want to own, mostly because there were  a lot of no-purl texture/motif options. Also, just from the reading through it looks well organized. But then again, that was what I thought of the Cat Bordhi book, which is completely unusable once you are past the demo socks where all the instructions are part of the pattern. Wendy Johnson wrote the generic toe-up feather-and-fan pattern which was the first real pair of socks I was able to make; so I think of WJ as the battering ram for my knitter’s sock block. 

I frogged the failed March sock while watching Criminal Minds last night. That was the Schaeffer yarn which had been so unbelievably ugly in the previous pattern. Hopefully a different pattern will solve the variegation issue, it is a tri-color sock yarn that looks like it wants to stripe and instead I got this mottled effect that was really butt-ugly. Plus the sock was too tight. The yarn knits to 8sts/inch, I have made several pair in that gauge, so I thought I knew what I was doing. But this yarn has almost no give to it. Possibly it should not be used as sock yarn, but I am going to try once more, this time with a lacier motif.

What is not an elephant, but still has a trunk?

I went to the Tactile Fiber Arts Trunk Show at Knit-One-One.

For those who saw my question weeks ago about what a trunk show is, I can explain. A trunk show is when a merchant brings their wares to a separate temporary location and invites people to view and purchase. This is especially useful for merchants who are online-only who want to draw in local people (who probably resent being asked to pay both tax and shipping.) The difference between something like TNGA or Stitches and a trunk show is that trunk shows are individual merchants, not a room full of tables/booths.

I saw some things there in person that I would never have considered while browsing online, but did not come home with anything. Tactile Fiber Arts does only natural dye, so their fiber is at a premium price. But most of it is very pastel. Only the few things that were indigo dyed over dark fiber were rich enough for my tastes. I did like some of the colors on the 100% silk, but I have not had much luck spinning silk yet. Everything they sell is packaged in 2oz mini-bumps. Somehow buying BFL or merino in a 2oz bump just means I will not have enough to do anything with it and at $16 for the 2oz, I would have to love  it. Nothing really cried out to come home with me. 

There was some weirdness in the experience. Sile, the owner of Knit-One-One cornered me when I came in. It was not uncomfortable, but she held the door for me to enter but when I tried to look around at the fiber, she said, “Hi, I’m [Sheila] and you are?” What was weirder yet is that I had met her before. Brooke and Maia look different in person than they do in their photos, but I did have questions so I sorted it out. They were both friendly but as the hosts of the event, which got to feeling like a party, I felt like I should not talk to them too much. There is some pressure to buy something, but not like if I had to call and make an appointment. I did not buy anything. 

One thing you absolutely must know about trunk shows is what payment methods they are taking. Unfortunately no one bothers to specify this in the announcement and I feel weird emailing someone to ask. One person paid by check. Later I saw some charge slips. There was no cash handling I could see. They did charge tax and acted like they were a real business despite the temporary location. Parking was excellent. 

If it had been a RedFish trunk show where I got rockstar parking, I would have been hundreds of dollars lighter coming home. So it was not about the money, I just did not want anything enough tonight.

heat impedes progress

Nothing got knitted or spun this week. It was too hot.

I looked in the Elizabeth Zimmermann books for a while and finally got too annoyed. I doubt I would have been so angry that no one bothered to put all her patterns into a single book if it had not been so hot.

I have some more of the Crown Mountain Farms BFL pre-drafted. I really do not know what that will become, but if I start on it now, when I realize what it should be, I will be ready.

I got some advice on taking better pictures of that alpaca yarn and dark yarn in general.

the sum of XXme

I am almost on my way to the yarn store. If I added the standard household joke here, I would say, “To buy butter and cheese.” That is strangely appropriate since I want a fingering weight yarn in a colorway approximating those.

I spent a bunch of time trying to work out the kinks of dealing with Flickr. You, my dear readers, may assume that much cursing and ranting has been excised from this paragraph.  It severely ate into my knitting and spinning time this week.

There is a new (to me) knitting group meeting this week. Hopefully that turns out to be wonderful, but I admit some reservations.

I appear to be going to Stitches West. I had been dithering about it because: I have never gone before, I do not know anyone else who is going, I do not knit fast enough to need a stash refresher, myriad reasons of the sort people use to talk themselves out of things. But the local spinning guild was looking for volunteers for a demonstration booth. I have time but very little experience and they said that was fine.

I need to print out my icon so people can recognize me places.  :-)

I subscribed to Spin-Off. And I have been private messaging people all over Ravelry in hopes of making new friends.  And now. I am off. To buy butter and cheese.