Fire Lizard Studios

The sound of crickets chirping

2010-09-29T11:09:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time since I've posted here. Nothing bad has happened to me, I just don't seem to have much to say about yarn these days. If anyone misses my writing, I've started a new blog about the pursuit of happiness here: 17000 Days. I still expect to post here occasionally when the yarn urge strikes me, but that's a lot less often than it used to be.

Evidence of yarn crazies

2009-09-14T20:48:00.004-05:00

So the Lion Brand and WEBS catalogs both came on the same day a few days ago. I've been trying to get myself re-motivated to do yarn stuff, but so far it really hasn't worked. The WEBS catalog is the closest I've come, though. Dudes, that cover sweater?

I adore that sweater. If I wasn't fully aware that it would take the entire rest of my life to make at my knitting speed, and if I had that kind of money to spend on a sweater I'd never finish, I would be all over that. Love it! Go WEBS! Now I'm starting to feel the beginnings of the fall yarniness stirring. The more I look at it, the more I think maybe I'd finish it and I'll never know unless I try... It has been a long time since I've bought any yarn. Really, you could say I've been saving up all summer for this sweater, ha ha.

After I finished the WEBS catalog, I started looking through Lion Brand. Now, a lot of people scorn Lion Brand, and their catalog is mostly the same stuff every time (or so it seems to me), but this time they had a new section about crafts you can do with yarn even if you can't knit or crochet. They had a few cheesy projects, including clothes hanger cozies and a vase made by gluing yarn to an empty milk carton, but then, alone on its own page with no explanation or other information, was this.

I stared at it for about five seconds, then burst out laughing. Ok, folks, if something like this starts sprouting in my house, please stage an intervention and hire a cleaning crew! I guess what makes it so funny to me is that I really like it. It has the cottage garden charm. And I can totally imagine how it came about. Woman knitting in corner, glances over and notices moss starting to grow on the other chair. Hm, she thinks. I better take care of that... after I finish this row. Well, maybe just two more rows. In the next scene, the afghan she's working on is longer, and so is her hair. Grass and dandelions have started sprouting from the chair. Next scene, her hair is almost to the floor and some little weeds are growing around the chair legs. Next scene her hair hangs past the floor and has turned gray, she's telling herself she'll clean after she finishes the edging on this thing, and the climbing roses are blooming on the chair. This crazy yarn sprout garden chair is a cautionary tale for us all. But then, who needs to go outside when apparently the outdoors will come to us if we just knit long enough?

travellin' yarn

2009-08-10T21:04:00.004-05:00

I do complain, but life is actually very good. For example, I went to Pennsylvania to visit my family, and came back with this:

Oh yeah, and let's not forget this:

(It's not as dangerous as it looks--that's merino and tencel, not mohair, so it's very soft. If I ever took pictures in the daylight, you'd see.)

It ended up being a pretty hardcore trip. I was driving my Miata (mountain roads!! It would have been a crime to leave it home!), and that's not a car with a lot of cargo room. My spinning wheel barely fit in the trunk, with my teeny laptop crammed in the teeny remaining space, clothes in a backpack on the passenger's floor, and snacks in easy reach on the passenger's seat. Luckily I don't have a passenger.

Dudes, let me tell you, that trip was made for the Miata. When I did it last winter in a rented Kia, it did nothing for me. But this time, I had a blast. Even though it took 12 hours and I arrived in the middle of the night and I accidentally bought myself 24 extra miles by getting back on the highway in the wrong direction after a gas stop (duh! south is not how to get to Pennsylvania from Alabama!), when I arrived, I basically bounced out of the car and, with a rebel yell, cried "more more more!"

It really was a great trip. I got to see lots of people I hadn't seen in forever, and I got a lot of spinning time. In the first picture above, the blue yarn is from a Little Barn dyed then combed blend. Love it! The other is from something I bought from Yarn Expressions, but unfortunately exactly what is lost in the sands of time. It's color combination I never would have done myself, which was exactly what I was looking for when I bought it. It's fuchsia, olive, and tan. It's really cool, but it is surprisingly felted. Not impossible to work with, but not easy, either, especially in all that PA humidity. (It rained almost the whole week I was there.) Also, when I started spinning it, I decided to split it lengthwise and try to do a two-ply where the colors match up, at least mostly. Well, a lot's happened since then, and I really don't remember what I could have been smoking when I divided it, because the first "half" was about 2/3 of a bobbin, and the second "half" was a full bobbin plus a pile of wool still unspun. I ended up with a whole bunch of barber pole, which is pretty but the opposite of what I was going for. I haven't decided yet whether to attempt to make at least some of it match up. (Heroic Andean plying to get the current remaining singles into a two-ply, and then re-attempt the split trick on the rest? Navajo the singles and split/two-ply the rest? Give up and let the yarny chips fall where they may?)

The crazy merino/tencel in the second picture is a Fire Lizard reject--I dyed a pair of the same thing in my Love colorway, and this one ended up getting overprocessed. It appeared to be quite felted, so I declared it defective and claimed it for my own. To my surprise, though, it's been spinning like a dream. Not sure what's up with that, but I'll take it.

they say it makes you stronger

2009-08-08T20:23:00.002-05:00

Everyone,

I apologize for the blog silence all this time, especially right after declaring a contest/giveaway! What timing. I've been having some rough times, which I'm not going to talk about because this blog is about adventures with yarn, not woe is me. But everything has basically been a seemingly impossible mess, only obviously it is possible because here I am.

So, without further ado, the winner of the green Phat Fiber mix yarn is l33t_dreams. Congratulations, l33t!

I'm also happy to announce that I have my new studio set up, or at least semi set up. Well, ok, it's a disaster. But I managed to dye some yarn, and that is anything but a disaster.

It started out as autumn woods, but due to some unusual circumstances, it came out much more purpley and sun-dappled than any other autumn woods I've ever dyed. Rest assured, it's still fully set, colorfast, and light fast as always, but this batch is so much more beautiful than usual and probably impossible to duplicate. What a comeback! Every time I walk past it, I just have to stare at it and take in all the nuances. Well, and then I fondle it. I am a yarn maniac, after all. If you want some, you'll find it on Fire Lizard Studios as Autumn Woods 2009 Special Edition.

Also, I just found out Phat Fiber was giving away a skein of my yarn. We're too late to win it (drat! look how great it looks! Even I want to win it!), but I wanted to give a shoutout to them anyway. The Phat Fiber Sampler is a super cool thing run by really nice people. Look for Fire Lizard Studios yarn, or maybe even spinning fiber, in September's box.

spinnin' some phat green yarn--want some?

2009-03-26T07:31:00.004-05:00

I took all of the fiber samples from the March Phat Fiber Sampler box and spun up some mixed yarn.

It contains:

Suffolk/Hampshire cross wool, organic and gently treated, from Extreme Spinning. This is the downy breed wool that can be washed without superwash treatment. It was a different spinning experience--the fibers are interconnected and pretty grippy, as I expected. The closest thing in my experience is shetland, but it really wasn't like that either. Not like spinning the carded fiber I've gotten, not like spinning the combed fiber I've gotten, really not like anything else. It was pleasant to spin. I'm a person who likes things to behave as I expect; I imagine the more I worked with this wool and got used to it, the more I'd like it. Even for a first try, it was an enjoyable spin.

South African Fine Wool from Vines. This is the one that came in a braid of various shades of green. The preparation is a combed top, which is very much what I'm used to working with. This wool was very soft and easy to spin. I clicked with it immediately.

Unspecified wool from a small batt from Tracy Rios. This was also very nice wool to work with. It had a bonus hidden inside: although all you could see from the outside is an olive green, inside there were some streaks of maroon, which really provide an intoxicating blast of contrast. What a great surprise!

A blend of BFL, mohair, and silk from Liberty Fibers. This one did not make it into my Phat Fiber Sample box posts (here and here if you somehow missed them) because I could not get it to photograph for anything. But it was a tempting little batt in their Tartan colorway: mostly blue, with some green, and little neps of chartreuse silk. This was very fun to spin--I was utterly fixated on the neps. It would be fun to spin a whole yarn of this.

(The nickel is there for scale.)

It came to roughly 104 yards--not bad!

All right, I'm pretty newly back into spinning, so this yarn is decent beginner handspun, but not super consistent. I would use it, but somehow these greens are just not speaking to me, so I have a better idea. In celebration of this being my 199th blog post, if anyone would like it, leave a comment with a happy thought and a way to contact you (ex. email address, ravelry ID) and I will send it to you. If more than one person comments by Saturday (3/28) at 9 am, I'll choose a winner by random number selection.

a little detour

2009-03-25T07:02:00.003-05:00

Spring is really taking hold around here--some of the trees have switched over from flowers to leaves, and others are all a-bloom. I decided to go for a walk on Rainbow Mountain.

I like going there for its magical quality. It's a pretty short trail, but it's steep enough to provide a challenge if that's what you're looking for. (If not, just mess around a lot and take pictures, like I did.)

What gets me about this place is all the rocks and how varied they are in one small area.

Wile E. Coyote, don't play near that rock!

What the...? How many times do I have to tell you?! Now look what you've done!

There were a lot of flowers out--lots of little violets along the side of the trail, and some really nice pink tree flowers. I attempted lots of arty shots--even a spider web!--but alas, none of them came out usable. That's when I miss my real camera.

more Phat treats

2009-03-23T06:45:00.001-05:00

Oh, I'm Phat all right. Here are more highlights of this month's Phat Fiber Sampler box.

Here is a very elegant little Celtic stitch marker from Black Tie Fiber Arts.

Isn't it pretty?

Next up, we have some intriguing wool from eXtreme Spinning.

(That's a puff almost the size of my fist on a very large card, not a teeny tiny puff on a business card, like it looks like in the picture!) This wool is special in that it is machine washable, despite not having gone through the chemical superwash process, which strips the scales off the wool to keep it from felting. Instead, this wool is naturally washable due to the breed of sheep, apparently. The explanation card doesn't make it 100% clear, but this wool is organic and untouched by nasty chemicals (dyed with Greener Shades dyes). The fiber feels spongy, not super soft like BFL but not as scratchy as shetland. It feels like it will be grippy like shetland--fun for spinning.

Now, here is the treat that really knocked my socks off.

It's a shawl pin from Dawning Dreams. I've been wanting a shawl pin for a long time but never saw one that quite struck my fancy, except this gorgeous one that was encrusted with polished stones and way too heavy for the sort of open work shawls I tend to make. But this will be perfect! It's light weight, simple, elegant.

Here's another fave:

It's Curvy from Knit it up! in colorway Cordelia {jewel of the sea}. It's a very lofty thick and thin yarn. I recognize this base; I love it.

I was also lucky enough to score more Wooly Hands handspun!

I just love her yarn. It's very soft, textural, and lofty. I'm trying to quit petting it so I don't felt it before I have a chance to make anything out of it!

Another very practical treat from Ruddawg:

A Knitting in Progress bag. I usually use plastic gallon baggies for this purpose--this very nice, lined draw-string bag puts them to a hundred kinds of shame. The only question is, which project gets first dibs? The boring scarf? The bamboo top that was hoping to be finished in time to wear last summer? The Mrs. Dalloway cuffs that are waiting to be started?

And last but not least, from Jags:

This yarn positively glows amidst all the green!

Oh, there is one more that would not photograph for anything but was one of my favorites. It's super luminous green bamboo yarn from Oriri Draco Design. It's this one on her site, but it's more electric lime in person. It is gorgeous and sure to have incredible drape.

That's all the phat treats for now; can't wait for next month! Oh, next month--that reminds me, it's time to get my samples ready! Doesn't it seem like it was last month about two minutes ago?

a red-letter day in yarnland

2009-03-20T10:58:00.004-05:00

It's sunny and warm. I have the day off. And yesterday, my Phat Fiber Sampler box and Yarn Market News arrived! It's like winning the yarn lottery.

There is too much great stuff in here to do all in one post. First, the bis--hey, who ate the biscotti before I could take a picture?! (That would be me. Sorry.) Ok, help me out here: imagine biscotti. They're dotted with little green pistachios, dipped in white chocolate, and sprinkled with a dusting of more nut bits. I must admit I wasn't expecting much--my only other experience with biscotti was a very dry, disappointing, dusty creation, edible only when dipped in a beverage of some sort. But these were truly fabulous--light, sweet, and moist enough to stand on their own. They were made by Matilda Chiapparelli's Italian Cookies.

Aside from the biscotti, one of my favorite things in this month's box is this super adorable stitch marker.

Don't you just want to squeal and pinch its little cheeks? So cute! It's from Yarndemon Designs. I've heard that some people are wearing these as charms on necklaces, bracelets, cell phones, etc. I may do that. What fun to go around with this little sheepie all day!

My favorite yarn of the box is this one.

It's 50/50 superwash merino/tencel sock yarn from Abstract Fiber, in colorway Andromeda. Doesn't it just look like spring? And I love the sheen from the tencel. This is enough to make something out of, like maybe these cuffs.

This is a pattern from The Crochet Side, and it does call for lace weight, but crochet is easily adaptable.

Don't worry, there are also plenty of spinning treats. Here's a fuzzy green batt from Tracy Rios. Looks like some very easy spinning.

And here's a baby braid of South African Fine Wool from Vines in colorway Chameleon.

It feels poofy, like it will make springy, lofty yarn. We'll see! Now that I'm spinning regularly again, I can't wait to try these out. Most of the goodies this month are green, but I did get some naturally brown raw Border Leicester/Corriedale wool from Farmgirl Chic which did not want to be photographed but which looks intriguing. I think it's time to experiment--just start spinning and ply it all together into one funky mixed sampler yarn.

Anyway, there's a whole lot more--stay tuned! I show you the rest on Monday.

a happy reunion

2009-03-19T07:10:00.002-05:00

Anastasia? Is that you? I barely recognize you after neglecting you so long!

Anastasia is my Polish princess, a Kromski Sonata. Here's what I can't explain. I love spinning. It is my favorite thing, the one thing that never fails to make me all zen and happy. Less than a year ago, I gleefully drove the six hours to Asheville, NC, to choose her and bring her home. Furthermore, since I got back from the festival last month, all I've wanted to do is spin. So how is it that, other than packing her up and driving her to Pittsburgh and back, I've had no interaction with Anastasia since October? (To add to the irony, in my last post about spinning, I expressed a resolution to ply all of the yarn I was working on immediately so that I wouldn't have a bunch of full bobbins sitting around.)

In any case, better late than never. Although I have been spinning on my drop spindle whenever I get the chance, my first time back at the wheel in months was still pretty awkward. I think Anastasia may be part cat: she was a little recalcitrant when I suddenly reappeared in her life and wanted to play. But she doesn't seem to be the grudge-holding sort, and within a few minutes, we were getting along famously.

I finished up the Stargazing roving that was my treat after the festival in October.

It's one of my hand-dyes. The wool is BFL, and it's super soft and fabulous to spin. I'm absolutely delighted with it. I had done the caramel part back in the day and then lost the end of the blue part.

Do you see the end? Of course you don't. All the king's horses and all the king's men, scotch tape, a toothbrush, other knitters--nobody could find the end. I finally gave up and broke it to make a new end. I kept following promising bits of yarn until something crossed on top, then following the one that crossed on top, until I got to a seemingly M. C. Escher-esque infinite loop of two strands that both crossed on top of each other. I couldn't make heads or tails of that, so I broke one of those and started plying from there. I expected to run into a problem pretty soon, but instead I plied and plied, until I finally got to a point where the yarn crossed under something. I looked at the bobbin, and there was just a narrow band of yarn on top of the piece I was working from, and there on top, plain as day, was the end. So I pulled that off until I got to the other end of where I broke it, set that aside, and kept on plying. It turned out to be only a few yards, and I would have joined it onto the end, but it was really bad yarn anyway--thin parts, not enough twist. I wasn't paying attention for a while before the break that caused the lost end, apparently.

So! I finished the blue yarn. Here's the last of it.

It looks a little sketchy now, but I think a bath will even it out. I also finished the purple part. This roving is completely spun, I have two empty bobbins and one small alpaca surprise that was hidden under all this wool, and I'm ready to start something new. I'm so excited. Do I really have to go to work? Can't I just stay home and spin?

ooh, samples

2009-03-13T08:03:00.001-05:00

Any time yarn shows up in the mail, I'm a happy camper. Here's what came the other day.

This is yarn from Cestari Farms, a farm and mill in Virginia. From left to right, it's Flecks, Traditional Wool, and Fine Merino, all worsted weight. Flecks is 90% Fine Merino, 10% Rayon--dyed with acid dye, the rayon will stay its present colors while the wool takes the dye, so the resulting yarn will be interestingly speckled. The Traditional Wool is from the Columbia breed. It's yellower in color than the merino, and the company spokesperson encouraged me to swatch some up and try machine washing it on cold. (They don't do superwash or carbonization processing because they believe it diminishes the integrity of the wool. Small bits of vegetable matter are present in the yarn, giving it a rustic air. They also allegedly don't use a chemical mothproofing process, but these skeins have a pretty strong moth ball odor, to the point that they're going back in the garage as soon as I finish this post. Phew!)

I'm psyched to dye some of this yarn and see how it behaves. I definitely like to buy US-made when I can.

I've never seen the like

2009-03-11T11:27:00.004-05:00

I was flipping through the latest Lion Brand catalog at breakfast this morning. Now, I know Lion Brand doesn't sell the best yarn (of course not--I do! Ha ha), but for breakfast time catalog-flipping, any yarn is good yarn, so I took what I could get. And then it looked at me with its big brown eyes and said "You ain't seen nothing yet."

Luckily it stopped before the stuttering part of the song, but it turns out it was right. Lion Brand has a new yarn that's part of their luxury fiber collection: LB Collection Wool Stainless Steel Yarn. It's 75% wool, 25% stainless steel. I've never heard of this before. Stainless steel yarn? In some discussions about cashmere, I heard multiple people say that a fiber has to make up at least 15% of the yarn to change the feel. This is 25% stainless steel, so it's not just that there's some insignificant little tidbit of it in there to add strength or something. Is the point of it that it's like wire, so you can knit colorful chain mail more easily? Super strong rust-resistant socks that never wear out? Or is it so you can make conductive clothing that monitors people's health, like this project did? The official website offers only a hint: "unique Wool Stainless Steel yarn creates unique pieces that keep their shape." Also intriguing is their claim about the gauge for this yarn: "Variable gauge is acceptable for all knit and crochet." (It's super fine. I guess the idea is that if you knit it with bigger needles, you get a stiff lacy effect?)

I am certainly curious. I doubt I'll be seeing this yarn in the wild any time soon--it's too esoteric for places like Michael's and Hobby Lobby, but too, well, Lion Brand for places like Yarn Expressions--so I hope somebody at least writes about it or something. I could just buy some, I guess, but I'm not $10/14 grams curious.

ETA: A little more Google-fu has revealed some funny discussion on Instructables. No real information, though.

pretties

2009-03-05T07:14:00.004-06:00

I'm having some technical difficulties here, but I wanted to show you something that made my day. One of my customers from the festival spun up the fiber she bought, and the yarn she made is absolutely gorgeous and fascinating. She took two different colorways and plied them together--they interact in a way I never would have thought of. I could stare at it all day. Check it out: Buttercupia (scroll down--it's after the pink yarn, which also looks good enough to eat.)

my wild weekend

2009-03-04T07:25:00.000-06:00

You know how the house was all pristine and perfect? Hah!

(Don't worry, I put it back when I was done.)

I had to get my samples ready for the March Phat Fiber Sampler. One might argue that I could have done it in the studio, but it's cold and windowless out there, so I took over the kitchen.

Here they are, all ready to go.

There will also be a giveaway of a full skein (100 grams -- enough to make a pair of socks) on the Phat Fiber blog at some point, so keep an eye out.

This is my enchanted forest colorway, and as I stood around reskeining dozens of little sample skeins, I had plenty of time to ponder how much I like how these colors interact.

Making samples is not too exciting, but spotting them on the web later sure is!

knitting night

2009-03-03T06:39:00.002-06:00

As late as 6:00 last night, I was still vacillating about whether to go to knitting night last night. I was really tired--mounting sleep debt from all last week--but I didn't want to miss the fun.

In the end, I went. I'm still tired of all of my current projects, but as I was walking out the door, this yarn threw itself at me.

It's a yarn blend that I bought last year on eBay from Spin City Yarns. I don't remember any of the details except it's called Peacock and I think there's some mohair in it. I was thinking a drapey, open triangle shawl. I think that would be super cool.

However, in the end, the call of the spinning was louder. I had the forethought to take my drop spindle with me this time. Ever since the festival, all I've wanted to do is spin.

It seems kind of sad that in almost three hours, that's all the yarn I made, but whatever. It's pretty and shiny, and that's what I was looking for. Also, I just realized: my back didn't hurt at all by the end of the evening, whereas usually I'm in misery after sitting on those awful chairs. I may be onto something here.

snow!

2009-03-02T06:19:00.002-06:00

I woke up yesterday morning, looked out the window, and saw this:

Now, I know you folks in the north are more than sick of snow by now, but allow me to remind you: I live in Alabama! This is the only snow we've had all year and the most snow I've seen while living here. So to me, it's exciting! The only thing that would have made it even better is if it had happened this morning and everything was closed and I didn't have to go to work. But que sera sera. It was beautiful. The air even smelled like snow, which is a phenomenon I had forgotten.

Snow on the sky light.

Snow for the kitty cat. (She always loved to lick it up, so I brought some in for her.)

Snow on the forsythia.

Snow on the henbit.

Pretty, pretty pretty.

This being Alabama, it's good that I took the pictures first thing, because by noon it was all gone, as if it had never happened. Beauty is in the moment, but I'm happy I got to capture it for a change!

yarn vs. real estate: another smackdown

2009-02-27T06:18:00.002-06:00

For those following the saga, I still haven't sold my house. I've got a new real estate agent, and as soon as all the paperwork is done, the house will be back on the market. As everyone who has been through it knows, having a house on the market is a big pain in the butt. You're supposed to keep it pristine all the time and be perpetually on call to get out so people can see it without you being there to make them feel weird about looking in the closets. Besides that, it's a down market, and nearly every real estate agent I've talked to has led me to despair. However, I've found a gem. Her name is Christina Stolaas of Carnival Real Estate, and so far she totally rocks. Talking to her gives me hope and energy!

Meanwhile, she's been doing some staging. She's made little changes all over the house, but these are what made me squeal with delight.

Dudes, do you not want to come over right now for a fancy luncheon?? I've always loved the kitchen, but check out that dining room!

For reference, left to my own devices it looks more like this:

I'd say real estate wins this round.

something different

2009-02-26T07:22:00.001-06:00

I've been feeling a little one-dimensional lately, so I've decided to try some new things. One of those is letterboxing. In letterboxing, somebody hides a box with a log book and a special stamp in it, and then publishes clues so that people can find it. When you do, you stamp the log book with your own special stamp, and you stamp your own log book with the stamp from the box. More information here if you're curious.

Anyway, I was reading about this, and I got really psyched. It's a walk and an adventure, and if you get carried away with the stamping aspect, it's also a craft project! Of course you really don't need a special stamp for this--you could use your thumbprint if nothing else was available, and there's nothing wrong with store-bought stamps either, but reading about stamp-carving and seeing some of the incredible stamps people have created, I wanted to try it myself.

First I spent a ton of time working on the image I wanted: a lizard sitting on a ball of yarn. That's just not available in the standard clip art, even on the web! But with some heavy Photoshopping (actually, Gimping), and then tracing when my software skills ran out, I managed to come up with this:

Considering that I can't draw worth anything and I didn't even have any tracing paper, I was fairly impressed with the fact that it is clearly an iguana, and you can pretty much figure out that he's sitting on a ball of yarn. It could still use some refining, but it's not a bad start. (Ok, stop laughing out there.)

But then I started thinking, wait a minute, that's pretty complicated, and the finished stamp is supposed to be small, much smaller than this, so you don't hog the whole logbook. Maybe that's not the best image for your first ever attempt at this. So I decided to go with the Fire Lizard Studios lizard instead. He's pretty simple.

Well, this carving stuff is not as easy as it looks in the tutorial. (Duh, Cara, if they made it look hard in the tutorial, nobody would try it!) My first two attempts look like they were produced by kindergartners, and I kept accidentally amputating things when I was trying to carve out the extra stuff around the image. But the third attempt is passable.

I'm still having a hard time getting the toes right, but these are a million times better than the first two tries. Also, I think I heard that there are blades for cutting finer lines--I think if I had one of those, maybe I could actually get it to look how I want. I wanted to give him spots on his back, too, but there was no way. I could barely get the little circle where his tail curls. I definitely want to keep playing with this, but it's not bad for a first attempt. Don't think I'll be quitting my day job any time soon, or even the yarn job. But I did get a bunch of printmaking books last time I went to the library. Onward and upward!

are you sayin' I'm phat? oh, thanks!

2009-02-25T06:54:00.004-06:00

This is my second month participating in the Phat Fiber Sampler Box, and this month I got a box of my own.

Holy cow, treats delivered right to your mailbox--who could ask for more?

First of all, there was a lot of chocolate tucked away throughout. This I consumed immediately for the protection of the wool. I'm noble like that.

There was even homemade fudge from J. D. Melaine! Unfortunately, by the time it got to me, it had absorbed a lot of the scent from my sample of Happy Hands Goat's Milk and Shea Butter hand creme, which might have been cool if I had gotten the citrus sample, but I got tea and roses. It was kind of like opening the Washington Post on Sunday morning and trying to eat your Golden Grahams despite the perfume samples. I'm hoping the fudge will be restored to its glory by a few days' airing out; when I had a nibble, I could tell it was excellent fudge, even through the tea and roses.

The hand creme also rocks. I just tried some, and even though my hands were a complete dried out nightmare, the hand creme did not sting, and now my skin looks nearly normal. It officially beats my former favorite hand creme, and I've tried my share. Get your own at Local Gringos.

The box included way too much awesome stuff to go into detail about everything, but here are my top picks. It was going to be just the top five, but a few extras snuck in. There is a ton of seriously great stuff!

My absolute favorite of the box is this incredible confection of spinning fiber.

It's superwash wool and angelina from Extreme Spinning. This is an incredibly generous sample, it is super soft and absolutely gorgeous, and it's colors I wouldn't have put together myself, which makes it an even bigger treat. This just knocked my socks off.

A very close second is this sweet little sample of handspun yarn from Wooly Hands.

It contains merino, mohair, Angelina, and silk noil, a fiber blend from Hobbledehoy. I love the colors and the textures in this yarn. It's a fun, lofty treat that makes me want more.

Next is a very nice, soft and sophisticated sample from The Twice Sheared Sheep. The yarn is gorgeous lace weight merino in a rich, fabulous wine color, and if that wasn't enough, it came with a pretty pearl stitch marker! I've seen her stuff around the internet, and it's every bit as good as it looks.

Then we have a trio of sweet little samples from Jags Funky Fibers.

I love yarn that is different and interesting, and that seems to be Jag's specialty. I'll definitely be lurking in her shop.

Next up is some really intriguing fiber. It's hand-painted BFL locks from Polyartgirl Designs.

Is that not totally luscious? Can I go back and change which sample I said is my favorite? I've never attempted spinning locks like this, except on the day of my first lesson when Merike encouraged us all to play with the locks. I added parts of one blue lock to my crazy first yarn, but it kind of fell out some time before the plying was done. Now that I've had some practice, I'm psyched to revisit this.

Then we have the cutest little puffy treat from We Love Thor.

This is corriedale wool in "chocolate strawberry cookies." It looks like a great spin--can't wait to try it. And seriously, chocolate? check. Strawberries? check. Cookies? check. Any one would be great, but put them all together and you've got something that also satisfies my delight in excess. Bring it on!

Next up is a truly glorious treat.

This is a whole ounce of 50/50 merino/tencel from Natural Obsessions in Black Nightie. Wasn't I just saying I want to play with shiny things? Oh yes, we have shiny. Love love love it! I can't wait to see how this spins up.

And last but not least, we have some really sweet handspun camel down yarn from Hedgehog Fibers.

This yarn is super soft, and the color is gorgeous. Very nice.

I could go on and on--it's like Christmas!--but dudes, I am so behind schedule. I need to get my house cleaned up and ready for real estate action, and I thought I had tonight too, but I just remembered there's a thing at my church tonight! That will probably occupy the whole evening. Thus it's now or never. Will I ever get it together to the point where I'm not rushing from one last-minute freakout to the next? On top of that, I need to send in my goodies for next month's Phat Fiber Sampler. Now that I've experienced it for myself, I'm even more proud to be phat.

back to the blue scarf

2009-02-24T08:29:00.002-06:00

I went to knitting night last night--the first time I'd been in about a hundred years. It was great to be back, although it was a quiet night as knitting nights go. In my experience, that means next week is likely to be an uproarious good time. Bring it on!

I didn't manage to come up with anything exciting to work on, so I'm back to the blue scarf.

It is a nice scarf, and I'm pleased with the design. Even on Bartleby's skinny neck, it's clearly nowhere near big enough yet, though.

(I cropped out Bartleby's head, but imagine him smiling at finally getting to model something manly for a change, instead of all these frilly capes and stuff!)

If the metric for this scarf being done is running out of yarn, I estimate I have about five sessions left to finish it. It would be the perfect project for watching movies or talking on the phone, but I don't seem to be doing a lot of either of those lately. That is a handy sort of project to have around, though. Maybe I'll come up with something more exciting to do, and meanwhile have this waiting in the wings any time I need a brainless wonder.

a finish!

2009-02-23T07:04:00.001-06:00

I finished my keyhole scarf already!

Bartleby, my usual model, has way too skinny a neck to show this off, so I give you Rita Lampshade. Work it, Rita! The camera loves you!

This is a super simple keyhole scarf made from one skein of Colinette Shimmer 5. This yarn is shiny and totally luscious in its colors. (You can get your own on my website some day if I ever get pictures taken.) Huge yarn + huge hook = super quick project. This is the first time in about six months that I've finished something before getting sick of it. Instead, I wish there was more. But this will make a fabulous neck warmer for my frigid office--that place needs all the color it can get! Now I have to pick something else to take to knitting night... (or just work on the projects I have, but I'm kind of tired of them and they're not all shiny).

my treat

2009-02-20T07:56:00.003-06:00

So I never did tell you guys what I got myself at the festival! I always get myself some kind of treat, even if it's from my own shop. You know, life is short, buy more yarn!

When I was getting ready for the festival, I thought I wouldn't have nearly enough stuff to make my booth look well-stocked and inviting, so I bought a collection of Colinette Shimmer 5. You'd think that would be an easy thing to do, but acquiring this yarn actually required a lot of determination. (Luckily, I have a lot of determination!)

Anyway, the result was that I spent a lot of time thinking about this yarn before it even arrived. On top of that, it's shiny and very colorful and not what I would do. Therefore, it was the perfect festival treat for me. The more I stared at it all hanging in my booth, the more I coveted it, so I chose my favorite colorway and made it my treat.

The colorway is number 21, Turquoise. It is totally fabulous.

I wasn't even planning to crochet anything at the festival, but I had to do something after all the spindles sold, and I had my hook collection with me (as well as two projects in progress, but no need to dwell on that fact--they'll get done some day). I kept trying hooks until I was using the largest one I had with me: 11.5 mm (P). It's been a while since I've used anything quite so large, and still I might have gone up a size if I had been at home. The fabric is not as drapey as I usually like, although I'm a total freak when it comes to crochet. I usually use a hook twice the size of what's recommended. However, as I was trying it on as a skinny scarf, I realized the extra body is an asset in this application. It looks like one skein will be just enough to make a short keyhole scarf, and the fabric is just stiff enough to stand up and cover the back of my neck. It's perfect! And the stitches are so huge, I could easily finish this tonight if I wanted. Wouldn't that be a change, after the three-month scarf that was my last project! I just need to look up how to do the keyhole--I know I used to know what the trick was, but it's lost to the sands of time now, and the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Sometimes there is such a thing as thinking too much.

lettin' the blog down

2009-02-19T07:24:00.002-06:00

Aside from simply not posting for days and weeks on end, I've let you down, my friends. Yesterday, there was the most gorgeous double rainbow! And did I have my camera? No! I didn't! %^*$%^*#$%@$#%@%!!

A friend once told me that beauty is in the moment, and that's what I tell myself to console myself every time I miss out on a great picture, so let me pass that on to you instead of the fabulous rainbow. Beauty is in the moment. All around me, people were buzzing about their usual office tasks, completely oblivious to the huge fabulous double rainbow right outside these walls! That seemed like a huge waste to me. I intend to take notice and appreciate these beautiful moments whenever I can. The drudgery at my desk will still be there when the sun goes back behind the clouds.

If that wasn't enough, my post about the festival completely neglected to mention one of the best parts of the whole thing: my sister! She came and helped me with the booth and sold stuff and oohed and aahed over my yarn, and getting to hang out with her made the whole thing twice as awesome. It added a whole extra dimension of awesome, in fact. (Again, no pictures. Beauty is in the moment, beauty is in the moment...)

the festival

2009-02-18T06:59:00.003-06:00

I had a wonderful dream. There was yarn and knitting as far as the eye could see, so much that you couldn't even begin to knit it with regular needles--you had to use huge ones.

And the yarn was everywhere, and the yarn was good.

People banded together to help their neighbors. Peace, harmony, and warmth were created.

And on top of all that, there were bunnies.

Seriously, the festival totally rocked. This was my second time at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival, and my first time as a vendor. I've been to other festivals, and this one seems to be unique in its fabulous atmosphere and perfect size. Everyone is super friendly at most fiber things, but they kick it up a notch at this one, and there are enough vendors to create an ecstatic sensory overload but not so many you end up dizzy from it. I know they had great classes, too, although of course I didn't have time for that this year. Overall the experience was shiny, like spinning straw into gold. I will be back next year for sure.

Vending at a festival is kind of a strange experience for me. I'm very much an introvert, and talking to people and being friendly takes a lot out of me, but it's a huge rush, too. It's almost a contradiction. And fiber festivals are unlike my daily life in that I can go on and on about yarn, and people are actually interested! It's a blast. Also, just spending the whole day surrounded by my favorite colors and textures instead of my beige office walls and computer was a huge treat. On top of all that, I got to teach a little bit! I was a college professor for a while, and I thought that completely burned me out on teaching, but what it actually burned me out on was excuses, whining, grading, and the like. A few people wanted to learn to spin on a drop spindle, and I gave mini-lessons on that in my booth (totally unplanned and unexpected), and it was such a blast! I'm considering proposing a beginning spinning class next year. I really didn't think much of anybody would be interested in spinning at this show--I brought the spinning fiber almost as a decoration. It's pretty, the merino/tencel stuff is shiny, it draws people in. But it ended up that there was no room for my spinning wheel in the booth, and I needed something to keep my hands busy and start conversations, so I decided to break out the drop spindle. I hadn't tried to spin on anything but my wheel in about ten months, and even the wheel has been sitting idle since before Christmas, so it felt extremely awkward to me, but people flocked over and asked questions and bought every drop spindle I had. I sold the one I was using right out from under my yarn! What an unexpected delight! For me, learning to spin was the last thing that pushed me from liking yarn and wanting to do more with it to loving yarn and doing more with it and starting the business, so to share that with other people is a huge treat.

All things must end, even good things. When it was time to go, this Alabama girl was concerned about one thing in particular.

Gah! Snow! Van! Pittsburgh! Deep breaths into a paper bag...
Actually, I think I'm still a pretty decent snow driver from my time in lake effect country, and I do have brand new tires on the van at least, but I was still exceptionally unhappy about this. I felt betrayed, like somehow by moving to Alabama I was exempt from experiencing snow. As it turned out, I kind of am. It stopped before I was ready to start driving, and nothing stuck on the roads. Phew! It was a long enough drive, no need to make it longer with bad weather.

Now I'm home at last, and it's all over but the unpacking. Well, that and figuring out what festival to do next! I'm hooked!

are we there yet? ...yes.

2009-02-13T22:04:00.005-06:00

Dudes, all I've got to say is it's a long drive from Alabama to Pittsburgh. Well, of course that's not really all I've got to say, and it wouldn't have seemed nearly so long if I had been remotely ready for this trip and had a prayer of leaving on time. It's a really good thing I left a huge amount of slack everywhere when I made up my schedule for this trip, because I needed all that and more. But I'm here, and I figured out how to assemble all of my display devices, and I got almost everything labeled and priced and on display.

It looks more crowded in real life. (And what the heck is that check mark PA thing under my sign? I don't remember seeing that in real life.) I was going to set up my spinning wheel so that I could spin during the slow times, but I'd seriously be trapped in my little corner then. It would be really awkward. I'm hoping for no slow times, but if there are, I'll just crochet one of my mindless scarves. Not much of a conversation-starter, but very portable.

There's still a good bit of stuff on reserve, including some of my own hand-dyed merino/tencel spinning fiber. I just ran out of time. It looks really nice, though, and I can fill in with the rest as people buy stuff.

Things I've learned so far this trip:
- Super 8 rocks. They mean it when they say free wireless. (unlike some people)
- Next time, bring a dolly! Duh!
- Those cube thingies and garment racks really are easy to put together.
- Speeding loses all its fun when you're driving a minivan. Not that going slow is much fun either, and let's not even discuss parking.
- On the other hand, the minivan really isn't scary or a piece of crap after all, now that it's been fixed. (Thank you, Bruce!)
- Show up in Pennsylvania from Alabama and people will think you talk funny, even if you've only just moved to Alabama from Pennsylvania a year and a half ago. Add ten hours of book on CD set in Ireland into the mix and you're bound to get some strange looks. Sure and I'm lookin' for the fiber festival, y'all? (I didn't really say that, but the voice in my head has definitely been talking in an Irish accent all day. Last time I did this, I actually had a whole argument with someone in Irish, only it was on instant messenger, so he didn't realize.)

I am beat. Somehow wearing myself out and then trying to set up the booth really didn't work out as well as I planned (nor as badly as I feared). Since it's bedtime and beyond, I will leave you with the top five things I'm grateful for as of this moment. This is a habit I picked up from Happy for No Reason and it really works: before you go to sleep, list at least five things you're grateful for. When you look for that stuff, you find it. So here goes. Among other things, at this moment I'm grateful for:
- safe travels
- a Super 8 only two doors down from the conference hotel and an Eat'n'Park right across the street! Such convenience so cheap--it warms the cockles of my frugal little heart.
- learning before I left that the van can go at least 279 miles on a tank (gas gauge broken)
- a good dinner
- quiet solitude in my motel room. and wireless! and a fridge!
- the friendliness of my vendor neighbors
- everyone coming by and complimenting my yarn! I will never get tired of that!
- absence of snow, rain, and bitter cold during unloading time, plus a good parking spot
- everything working out fine
- temporary lack of neurosis
- getting to see my family this weekend
- being (internetically) reunited with an old friend I've dearly missed.
- bed!

Good night, all.

off to rock the festival

2009-02-12T14:33:00.003-06:00

Dear Cara,
Where have you been? What have you been doing? Are you dead in a ditch? We never hear from you any more!

Signed,
Everyone you know

Dear Everyone,
This.

This.

This this this.

In other words, I've been getting ready for The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival, which is this weekend, Feb. 14-15. I went to this show last year, and it totally rocked my world. It's where I re-learned to knit, in fact. This year, I'm going as a vendor! I'm going to have a lot of great stuff, including my hand-dyes in every colorway I do, a whole raft of gorgeous spinning fiber, and a brand-new yarn! It's crazy thick-and-thin stuff, very lofty, and I love it so much I was actually talking adoring nonsense to it while it was drying. I also scored some great books on knitting with hand-dyed yarn, and a nice collection of Colinette Shimmer 5, which was not easy to come by. It is droolicious. And, to top it all off, I'll have free chocolate for everyone in honor of Valentine's Day! So if you're going to be anywhere near Pittsburgh this weekend, come see me at the festival. Fire Lizard Studios will be in booth 9, just waiting for you! Come on, it's Valentine's Day, forget your honey and spend it with your true love: yarn! Oh wait, that's probably just me. Well, for you more normal people out there, come to the festival and then go out with your honey. There's plenty of time for both.

lizard yarn spotted in the wild

2009-01-28T15:48:00.002-06:00

Look look look, it's my yarn!

Ok, this is probably not exciting to anybody but me, but every time I see someone post pictures of my yarn, I feel like I'm famous or something. Only not the bad parts of being famous like people bothering you all the time and taking your picture with your butt looking fat and lumpy in a swimsuit for the front page of grocery store checkout line magazines, just the good parts where people admire you. Yeah. I've got my imaginary sunglasses on, tooling around in my imaginary Maserati. Think Joe Walsh: life's been good to me so far.

a new project

2009-01-22T08:32:00.002-06:00

Guess what? I'm actually making something! (besides yarn)

This is Suri Merino from Little Barn, the same yarn I used for my mom's scarf only blue. It really is a fabulous yarn. I know I was so tired of the last scarf I wanted to throw it out the window by the time I finished it, but this one is different. A) There's no deadline, not even an imaginary one. B) I've got other things going at the same time. C) It's totally mindless crochet, just one v-stitch after another. It's perfect for my current mental state. So far, I love it.

It looks oddly huge in this picture (at least to me), but in reality, it's about six or eight inches wide. It will be a nice, generous scarf.

yarn of the day

2009-01-20T07:13:00.004-06:00

No time to write, but here are some pretty pictures of my latest yarn for your viewing pleasure.

This is my Love colorway on Joy, the super soft 80% superwash merino/ 20% nylon sock yarn. If you like it, it's on my website.

preview

2009-01-16T08:05:00.003-06:00

I can't believe the Phat Fiber Sample Boxes for January are sold out already! If you got a box, you may be getting one of these:

If you missed this one, my yarn will be in the February box too. I think this is such a cool idea for experiencing indie yarn and fibers before you buy them, and the proceeds go to charity, so it's a win all around.

Well folks, it is cold cold cold here. I keep hoping in vain that the university will be closed so I don't have to go to work, but it just hasn't been happening. If I was one of the cool kids, I'd be off to TNNA this weekend. Oh how I dream of being one of the cool kids! So much yarn, so little time! (Oh wait, my life is like that already...)

New yarn

2009-01-15T06:52:00.003-06:00

Check it out, fresh from the dye pot!

Dudes, can I just say I love this yarn? That's my favorite thing about dyeing: nearly every batch, when it comes out of the washer from having the water spun out and I see it in its final state for the first time, my heart swells and I think "This is the best yarn ever!!"
These three are all Joy, my new sock yarn base, which is 80% superwash merino wool and 20% nylon. The nylon makes it durable, and the merino makes it super soft. I adore it. My other base is very durable and practical; this is more of a treat. The colorways are Enchanted Forest, Wildflower, and Shimmer. They're all available on my website. Or, if you're local and prefer to shop in person, Yarn Expressions has a small collection in stock. Good stuff!

Meanwhile, what have I been doing all this time I haven't been writing? Well, mainly freaking out, as always. I'm vending at The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival next month, and there's a ton of stuff I need to do to get ready. Wish me luck! I attended this festival last year--they even held it on my birthday last year!--and it was a total blast. That's where I re-learned how to knit! It's a really great show, and awesome people like Robyn Chachula will be there. If you're going to be anywhere near Pittsburgh Valentine's weekend, ditch your date and come to the festival! It's worth it! Ok, in the interest of love you could go commune with the yarn all day and then go out with your honey at night: the best of both worlds. See? Some problems have easy solutions.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T09:34:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year! I hope you all had some fabulous and relaxing time off.
I had a blast myself. You know that scarf that took me three months to finish? I gave it to my mom, and she loved it. She was totally showing it off to everybody. It was all worth it.
Otherwise, my holiday involved a lot of family time, a lot of crocheting, and a lot of driving. It was totally different from my normal life, and I think that was good for me. Now it's back to work and back to the dye pots!
Not everybody has been slacking, though. The creators of the Phat Fiber Sample Box made a video of some of the samples that will be included in the January box, including my yarn. In case you haven't heard of this, it's a box of small samples of a lot of different indie yarn, fiber, stitch markers, and other fiber-related things--a chance to check it out before you buy. I'd say it's very cool but dangerous--talk about enabling! Anyway, I'm always psyched to see my yarn somewhere other than my house.

one last announcement

2008-12-23T14:57:00.002-06:00

Free shipping while I'm gone, on the Fire Lizard Studios main page and the Etsy shop. I'll ship everything on Jan. 2 when I return: Priority within the US, First Class outside. We all deserve a treat after the holiday madness; this is the perfect chance to get yours and save a little money!
Safe travels and best wishes to everyone! See you in 2009!

resurfacing

2008-12-22T07:30:00.002-06:00

First I wore myself out with a manic dyeing marathon. Then I hurt my shoulder and spent most of the past week hopped up on drugs. Now I'm getting ready to make the trip to my parents' house for the holidays. Last year, it took much longer to fly than it would have to drive, and I'm tired of being treated like baggage, so this year I'm driving. I've still got some business stuff to take care of before I go, though, and packing everything (including the kitty cat and all her luggage).

I hope you all get time to relax, good cheer, and lots of love this holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Kwanzaa, Cheery Solstice, whatever you like--let's hear it for days off, family and friends, blessings, and more sunshine on its way.

what a week!

2008-12-12T07:34:00.004-06:00

I still don't have pictures of the scarf, but I did get the ends woven in on Tuesday. Very psyched.
For my next project, I think I'm going to preempt the scarf and do the cowl next instead. My office is unbearable, and I think some wool and cashmere around my head and neck would be just the thing.
Meanwhile, it's not that I've been slacking: I've been in the dye studio every night. Here are some of the latest. These are on my new base, which I'm calling Joy. It's 80% merino/20% nylon, and I love how soft it is. It's also much fluffier than my regular base.

These are all available on the Fire Lizard Studios website if you like them. I also have a couple in my Etsy shop.

victory is mine!

2008-12-09T07:12:00.004-06:00

Dudes, I finally finished the scarf! I finished it!!!
Well, ok, I still have to weave in the ends. But I'm done knitting it! I thought it would never end. I'm determined to weave in the ends tonight so it will really really really be done. Pictures tomorrow!
And then, I'm ready for this.

(It's the Plymouth Boku from Little Barn.) I can't wait!
Can anyone suggest a stitch pattern that doesn't curl but doesn't require switching between knit and purl every other stitch? Otherwise, I'm breaking out the crochet hooks.

uh oh...

2008-12-05T07:01:00.000-06:00

will I never learn?

2008-12-04T07:27:00.002-06:00

I was trying out the three-skein feature on my new electric skein winder, but the yarn escaped the guides and crossed between two skeins. I'm pretty sure most of it belongs to the back skein, but I can't seem to find the point at which things went wrong. Of course I couldn't leave it alone and think about what to do, I had to keep messing with it.

Ugh. Note to self: if it's later than 10:00 and something goes wrong, step away from the yarn!
I do have a plan: I'm going to move both skeins to my old vertical skein winder in the same configuration they're in now and wind off of that and back onto the new one... very slowly. I don't think I've managed to make them hopelessly tangled yet, so they should wind off no problem. This sure didn't save me any time, though!

my vicarious obsession returns

2008-12-03T07:11:00.000-06:00

When I first started my current day job, it was after teaching and then taking the summer off to move and get my new house set up, so I suddenly found myself with way more money and way, way less time when I started work again. During that last summer off, I spent a lot of time crocheting and designing with yarn--it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that yarn was all that kept me sane that summer, or preserved what little sanity got preserved, or ... whatever. You get the picture. Anyway, when I started work after that, I found myself buying tons of yarn, and after a month or two, I realized why: it felt like I was still getting some time with the yarn, even though basically all I did was fawn over it on the Internet, buy it, and then hang it on the guest room wall. Well, despite the fact that I spend practically every waking hour that I'm not at work dyeing yarn, I think I'm starting to do that again.
Remember the yarn I bought for the Noro scarf? I haven't touched that. It's sitting in my kitchen. But that hasn't stopped me from buying this

for another Noro scarf, and this

for a cowl of some sort. It's Cash Island, from the mega sale at Webs. At 60% wool, 30% cashmere, and 10% nylon, it is soft and luscious and totally a steal at $6.49 a hank. I had four different colorways in mind for two striped scarves, but they sold out of the one I liked best before I could get any, thus the cowl in the second picture. (They substituted two more skeins of colorway 17 for me, so I should have enough. Uh oh, did I just jinx myself?)
I'm still totally into bright, saturated colors, but after seeing some people's gorgeous Noro scarves in subtle colors, I'm totally psyched for the pairing in the top picture. Now I just need to find time to actually make it!

light at the end of the tunnel

2008-12-02T07:38:00.004-06:00

I went to knitting night last night, and it was a fun time full of laughter. What great people--I'm so glad I met them!
And, with my stunning powers of concentration, I managed to finish a scarf part that required a lot of counting to five without messing it up at all, despite all the amusing and interesting conversations.

Voila! I actually accomplished something at knitting night! And this brings the end of the scarf in sight.

I had begun to despair that I'd ever finish it, but now that all that's left is a little garter and stockinette, I'm all psyched. I'll bet I can finish it next knitting night, even if I don't work on it before then. Yay! Which of course leaves visions of Noro scarf dancing in my head. I would like to knit it, but 1x1 rib sounds like some kind of punishment out of Greek mythology, the way I knit. (I knit purely English style, but when I purl, I put the yarn in my left hand and do sort of an almost-Continental hybrid. Switching between those every single stitch? Um, no.) I'm trying to think whether there's any smooth pattern that will look nice and not distract from the changing colors but also not require switching between knit and purl any more often than every four or five stitches but also not curl like stockinette. Otherwise, it's going to be crochet.

totally new website

2008-12-01T07:27:00.007-06:00

Well, I didn't go anywhere over the holiday, didn't even pig out on turkey. Instead I spent a lot of time redoing the website for the business. I used to do web stuff for a living, but finding a host with the stuff I need in my price range and then setting everything up?

It's about enough to make you go toes-up under the table.

It was worth it, though. Check it out: Fire Lizard's new home. I still have more spinning fiber to post--hopefully I'll get that knocked out over the next few days. All the hand-dyes are up, though, and that's the best stuff. I'm still doing the Etsy site too, but the new website will be the main place to go for all things Fire Lizard.

the weekend in pictures

2008-11-24T07:19:00.002-06:00

First of all, here's the yarn that was such an utter misery to dye last week, that I said it better come out pretty or it was in trouble.

In case you were worried, it's not in trouble. :)

I had a bit of a crazy weekend--after a month and a half of dead silence, suddenly realtors were crawling out of the woodwork wanting to show my house this weekend. So weird, but I'll take it. The phone rang off the hook, people made appointments, cancelled them, made new ones, and it was all general madness. As a result, I found myself fleeing the house quite a lot (so that buyers would feel comfortable to open closet doors and hopefully start feeling like the house was their own). I've been really tired, and on Saturday, I just wanted someplace to go and sit down, so I decided to go to Little Barn. Honestly, I usually don't like going there because I'm on a mission to accomplish everything on a mile-long to-do list, and I always feel anti-social for not joining the group hanging out there. So this week, I thought "This will be perfect--I'll actually sit down and knit with those folks!" Well, it turned out nobody was there, and I felt really foolish just plopping myself down and knitting by myself in a store, so I looked at the merchandise instead. Duh, I haven't spun anything in weeks, not even my own fabulous roving, which is still sitting around half-spun and waiting to be plied, but I thought I was safe to look at stuff because I had just been there the week before and not seen anything that interested me except the Plymouth Boku that I went there intending to get. But I guess every day we're slightly different people than the day before, and it gives us slightly different tastes.

This is a Bombyx silk cap. I fell in love with the colors but had no earthly idea what to do with a silk cap. But the label said "instructions included"--sold!

This is my first ever batt. The colors are very subtle and may just make a pale muddy brown, but with that purple, I couldn't resist finding out.

Otherwise, it was dye dye dye.

I'm skipping knitting night tonight to keep at it so I can get this order finished and shipped. I'm tired, but I persevere.

more dyeing

2008-11-21T07:29:00.002-06:00

I was a bit bummed when I started dyeing this yarn, but it cheered me right up. Just look at it.

Last night's yarn (which I haven't rinsed yet), on the other hand...the dye didn't want to flow right, I had a cold, my back hurt, and I just wanted to blow the place up. That stuff better come out pretty or it's in trouble.

good dyeing

2008-11-20T06:41:00.002-06:00

Dark, rich colors, enough light to really see what I'm doing, and this luscious soft yarn... oh, yeah, things are good.

This is my "Love" colorway, which is one of the first few that I thought up but which required persistent efforts to get the purple to come out right. I'm so happy that I've got that figured out.
I'm dying on a pretty ambitious schedule to get my next order ready in time--the best kind of busy! Also, I'm working on some process improvements--it is taking me way too long to dye this yarn, so I'm working on some ideas to get more efficient. It's all very exhilarating. Sometimes it's frustrating not to be able to put in as much time as I'd like--I see a lot of areas where the business would grow immediately if I could just tend it more--but today I just feel great.

disappointing dyeing

2008-11-19T07:00:00.002-06:00

I dyed some more of the new yarn base. I totally adore how soft this yarn is, and I've just about got a good balance between acid and salt in the soaking stage so that the dye flows and sets like I want it to.

Unfortunately, I guess I wasn't thinking when I dyed this yarn--it's supposed to be my Fire colorway, but I usually do that so that all the yellow is next to orange, which goes to red, then purple, not in a yellow-orange-red-purple circle like this where the purple is next to the yellow. Also, there are a lot of white spots on almost every skein. This really bums me out--all that time and yarn, and the best I can do with it as is, is put it in an "oops" basket and sell it at a major discount. Feh.
I think the problem is that it was just too darn dark in my studio--I messed up one skein with dark colors, but only one, whereas almost every skein with yellow (way less contrast to the natural color of the yarn) had a lot of flaws. So I bought two shop lights and put 100-watt-equivalent compact fluorescent bulbs in them. What a difference! I hope that will take care of the problem. I'm way behind my production goals as it is--I can't afford to blow a whole night making defective yarn.
Anybody want a bunch of very soft not-quite-right yarn? I can give you a real good deal. :P

I'm in

2008-11-18T07:20:00.002-06:00

I went to Little Barn over the weekend. I thought I remembered them having something Noro-like, and sure enough, they did.

It's Plymouth Boku. I know many of the people who make the Noro scarf seek something toward the tame end of their colors, but not me. I'm in the mood for bright, intense color. My only concern with this pairing is that they're too similar and won't be contrasty enough. Oh well, if that happens, I'll just have to pick two different ones and try again. :) Actually, I'm also a bit concerned that the yarn will be too scratchy for a scarf. I plan to wash it in vinegar or hair conditioner (or one after the other); hopefully that will take care of it.
This yarn is hanging out in my kitchen, enticing me. I won't let myself do more than pet it until I finish the darn scarf, but I have had two dreams about it. You can't beat that.

just a little dyeing

2008-11-14T07:51:00.001-06:00

No time to write, but here's what I've been working on. That's my new base yarn. It rocks.

goodies

2008-11-13T07:23:00.003-06:00

A much-anticipated box of yarn samples came in the mail today.

Glorious goodies, and a full skein of each yarn! Now that's what I call a sample! I feel like a kid: goody goody goody goody gumdrops!
In other news, yesterday's Yarn Harlot post about Noro scarves has me off on a new tangent. "But wait," I know you're saying, "aren't you currently working on a scarf that you're sick to death of?" Yes, you're right. And when the Yarn Harlot talks about how sad it is to follow knitting fads or refuse to knit something because it's a fad, I think it's an order of magnitude sadder to knit the thing because the Yarn Harlot is. Maybe two orders of magnitude. Not that I have anything against the Yarn Harlot, it's just that she's such a phenomenon, anything she does becomes an insta-frenzy faddier-than-fad fad. Those colors sure make me drool, though. Well, no problem: by the time I finish the current scarf, the Harlot and the entire rest of the world will have knit their Noro scarf and left the idea behind long since. When I do my Noro scarf, it will be retro, so I'll be cool after all. Ha ha! Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

time for a new obsession

2008-11-12T07:45:00.004-06:00

So I've been thinking about a cowl. As it's rapidly gotten colder and more wretched in my office, the idea of a cowl has begun taking over more and more territory in my brain. Well, that's what Ravelry is for, right? So I started snooping around. Well, first I found the gorgeous Ice Queen. If I wasn't fully aware that it would be stealing, I'd copy one of their images here, because you've got to see this thing. It is gorgeous and made of Kidsilk Haze, a yarn that still has me deeply enthralled. But, oh wait, I was just complaining that my darn scarf was too complicated, and this thing has lace and beads and charts and oookay, moving on. Then I found the Aspen Neck Cowl, which doesn't look like anything super special on its main page, but check out how awesome this girl's looks. Suddenly I'm eyeing my Royal Llama Silk (from Yarn Expressions on Franklin day) and wondering if it's enough.

It's a very simple pattern, and the Royal Llama Silk is worsted/Aran weight, so maybe it wouldn't take too long. Some people have made this pattern in two days or less. Of course, those people probably knit a lot faster and a lot more often than I do.

In fact, hey, didn't I just say yesterday that I don't want to do any more monochrome projects and maybe not even a knitting project at all for a while? Has anyone out there met both of my personalities? If so, will you please introduce us? I think we have some things to discuss.

this is the scarf that never ends...

2008-11-11T07:09:00.003-06:00

...it just goes on and on and on, my friends.
But I'm sure you're getting about as tired of it as I am, and it still looks exactly the same, so why bother posting another picture of it? I worked on it again last night at knitting night, and I swear I mixed up the pattern and was doing "knit one, frog two" instead. Feh. But I finally finished the second patch of lace, so the rest should go pretty fast. I'm just going to duplicate what I did at the beginning so that it's symmetrical, and that stuff is all pretty simple. I don't know if I ever want to do the Feathery Lace Stole, though. This project was supposed to be kind of a warmup for that, and they share two qualities: single-color yarn, and a pattern requiring a minimum level of concentration and short-term memory. Neither of these qualities is working for me right now. I'm sure I will attempt that project some day, but not right after this scarf, that's for sure! Also if I wasn't trying to finish in any particular time frame, I could switch to other projects, so maybe I wouldn't get so sick of it. Right now, though, if I ever finish this scarf, it will be a long time before I consider any more monochrome or thinking projects.
While I was waiting for knitting night to start, I browsed around the book store and discovered Happy for No Reason. One of the tips in there was to note which areas of your life you're not satisfied with and think of what you can do to make even tiny improvements. Well, one area of my life that I'm not satisfied with is recreation. I don't feel like I have enough time to do fun things like knitting and spinning, and when I do knit, it's this boring scarf. Well, one thing I could do to improve that is do a couple of rows on this scarf every night like I did when I first started knitting. Then I would make more progress and eventually finish the darn thing and be free to start something more interesting. That is my new plan. Also, now that all that's left is easy stuff, maybe I won't feel like picking it up is such a commitment. During the lace part I was afraid to start a row for fear of getting interrupted--I made enough mistakes even when I wasn't being interrupted!
Anyway, I have done something I'm pleased with: I dyed a lot of really nice yarn over the weekend. In my mad dash freakout to get it shipped, I forgot to take pictures, though! So mad! But here's the one skein I still have.

It's my colorway Relax, which it totally my favorite of the moment. This is my new base, and I absolutely love how it takes the navy dye (the others too, but the navy is the one that makes me want to yodel or something).
So why do I still have this one?

Yep, defective. I'm going to touch it up, maybe with a fabric marker or maybe by overdyeing that spot, and then I'm going to make something awesome. I want a cowl, maybe a mobius, but I have no idea if this is enough yarn. Time for some research.

I love this job

2008-11-07T07:13:00.002-06:00

My new, gorgeous spinning fiber is dry.

It is exceptionally soft, shiny, and luscious. I believe it would be irresponsible of me to sell any without spinning some myself first though, just to make sure it's good. Oh, twist my arm, ouch. I know what I'm doing this weekend! (Of course, two of my three bobbins are still full of Stargazing--I'll have to finish at least one of those first. Again, woe is me.)

new stuff to dye

2008-11-06T07:11:00.002-06:00

I finally dyed some of the new merino/tencel fiber I got. It is everything I dreamed of. It's not quite dry yet, but here's a preview:

Soft, luminous, and utterly gorgeous. It's actually darker than this in real life, but the shine makes it appear lighter in the picture. The contrast gives it the illusion of depth or extra three-dimensionality or something. It's really compelling. I think I will have to test-spin one of these as soon as possible.
I also had a new base yarn to try--I got a good deal on a small amount of this yarn, but if I like it, it will be the next addition to my line of yarns.

It's supposedly within 5% of the same content as my regular sock yarn--same fibers, just a slightly different balance between them. But it's spun a lot looser, which may account for why it soaked up tons more dye and why it feels about five times softer. Here's the same colorway dyed the same night with the same water and the same dye stock on my regular sock yarn base.

You wouldn't guess, would you? Obviously if I start using this new base, it's going to require a lot of experimenting to get the right concentrations with the dye stock and everything. Also, it bloomed like mad when I dyed it--I need to find out what the post-dye yardage is. I bet we lost a lot. It sure is soft, though.

scarfity scarf

2008-11-05T07:11:00.002-06:00

Given an hour of uninterrupted knitting time and nobody even telling any funny or interesting stories, I really had no reason not to fix the mistake in my scarf.

Ok, so it doesn't look all that different from last time I showed it to you. I never realized what a slow knitter I am until this project--I worked for an hour on this thing, and even I can't tell any difference. If I ever attempted one of those lace shawls, it would end up being like something out of Greek mythology. But whatever, I was happy standing in the sun knitting instead of sitting at my desk at work. I immediately started trying to plot a way to arrange such a situation more often, but the only real possibility I came up with involved getting fired, so I don't think I really want to go there.
Anyway, I never did figure out what was up with the missing stitch, but I successfully tinked back both of the last two rows. It turned out that in the middle of the next-to-last row I had forgotten which of the two-row repeat I was working on and cheerfully purled right across where I was supposed to do yarnovers and stuff to make the pretty row of holes that goes up this scarf. Yeah. It was a pretty glaring mistake. I sure do fall apart when I get tired. Just imagine what a knitting disaster I'd make if we held knitting night at a bar instead of a bookstore! It would probably reach the level of abstract art or something.

rockin' the vote

2008-11-04T12:56:00.004-06:00

Everyone, I just found out that if you vote, you can get a free scoop of Ben & Jerry's ice cream! Dude, what's better than that? Also, Krispy Kreme will give you a free donut (not their regular glazed kind, though, a star-shaped frosted sprinkle-covered one), and I've seen rumors of free coffee at Starbucks. And let's not forget 10% off at Yarn Expressions! Not that you needed any more incentives to vote, but what awesome bonuses!

Personally, I think it's extremely refreshing to see such a resurgence of interest in this country. Suddenly everybody cares! I think that's great--a much-needed change from the apathy and despair of recent times. For myself, I had a little over an hour wait at my polling place this morning, so I got to stand in the nice warm sun and knit while waiting to exercise my rights and stand up for my country and all that good stuff. Life is good.

finally, something to do with yarn!

2008-11-04T07:54:00.003-06:00

I went to knitting night last night, and lots of my favorite people were there--it was great.
I continued to labor on the scarf, which is getting longer and thus will probably end some day.

Unfortunately, the time change was not my friend last night. I'm loving it in the morning, but in the evening, not so much. I hit a wall around 9:00 and completely lost my short-term memory, as in "wait a minute, what stitch did I just do?" A smart person would pack it up and go home, and I did stop knitting for a little while, but then I got bored and picked it up again.

Um, yeah. Somewhere in that top right corner, a stitch went missing. I don't seem to have dropped it, so things could be worse, but??? My theory is that I forgot a yarnover in the second-to-last row. Sigh. Every time I try to tink this pattern, I get all messed up and create some worse problem. I know this is knitting heresy, but I'm considering just adding a stitch in the last row and continuing merrily on my way.

2008-11-03T07:10:00.002-06:00

Missing: one weekend. Please return if found. Reward.
Actually, I know where the weekend went, and although it doesn't make for good yarn pr0n, it was stuff that had to be done. Bookkeeping, laundry, etc.--the kind of stuff that as a kid I imagined my twin would take care of if I had one, not realizing that twins are people too and don't want to do any of that yucky stuff any more than you do.
But tonight is knitting night, and I will go and play with gorgeous soft alpaca/merino yarn and everything will be good. I'm still bored with the scarf project, but since I knit so rarely, I'm afraid if I start something else, I'll never finish the scarf. Plus all the really wild yarn that's calling to me is in the office, but my ball winder is at home--not conducive to starting a new crazy crochet project on a huge hook, which is what I really feel like right now. Maybe next week.

buzz

2008-10-30T07:45:00.003-05:00

Something I've been waiting a long time for has finally arrived.

It's the 70/30 merino/tencel spinning fiber that's been on back order for a month or two. I did manage to procure some 50/50 merino/tencel from Little Barn in the mean time, but it's not as soft as I would have expected, and the tencel is in streaks rather than all blended in.
The new stuff, on the other hand, is the fiber of my dreams. I bought some that somebody else dyed at a festival, and it's been my quest ever since to get some to dye myself. Here it is! It was delivered to my office, which was nice since that's where I usually am. When the secretary called down to tell me it had arrived, I said "SWEET!" She said, "What?" She also thinks it's really funny when I say "dude."
Anyway, here's a closer view.

It's not that yellow in person, but it is very luminous and exceptionally soft. The only thing I've spun that's softer is alpaca, and even that is not much softer. (I haven't done any silk, though, so I can't speak to that.) I can't wait to dye this!

look who's famous

2008-10-29T07:29:00.003-05:00

Ok, not really, but something I wrote is in Amazon! Check it out: Exploring the relationship between cohesion and complexity.: An article from: Journal of Computer Science

This is an article from my dissertation, which was published in a real paper journal several years ago, but somehow it's still really exciting to see something of mine on Amazon.

(No yarn today. Sorry.)

kitting night!

2008-10-28T07:53:00.002-05:00

I went to knitting night last night! It's the first time I've been in weeks, and it was really great to be back. It was a small crowd, but no less fun. I was really happy to see everybody again.
Unfortunately, the yarn doctor was not in, and the end of my blue singles did not get found. I guess I'm just going to have to make one and wrestle it out--everything I grab seems to immediately go under something else, a sure sign that it can't be the one with the end and a harbinger of much frustration in trying to unwind this darn thing. Definitely not happy about that.
But whatever, knitting night is a night to forget all your cares and just knit. I'm still working on the alpaca/merino scarf.

This yarn is still an absolute dream, but I must confess I'm getting a little bored with this project. I guess it worked--its purpose was to get me feeling comfortable/practiced with knitting again. I even incorporated some of the pattern from the Feathery Lace Stole, the project I'm in training for, into the scarf. It was shy, but trust me, it's there. I was having a ton of trouble with it before, but it seems pretty easy now. I think it's partly that I was knitting a lot tighter, but as I've gotten back into practice, I've loosened up. I'm surprised the scarf isn't a funny shape as a result, but it isn't so far. Also, this yarn is just really easy to work with. It's Plymouth Yarn Suri Merino, and it is incredibly soft and luscious in addition to being a dream to knit. Also, it has alpaca hairs that stick out and act as the perfect disguise for any cat hair that may get incorporated into the scarf. What more could a knitter ask?

the ongoing saga of the unfindable end

2008-10-27T07:47:00.002-05:00

Well, I tried the scotch tape. I tried the old toothbrush. I called in all the king's horses and all the king's men, I jumped up and down and did a find-the-end dance, and I still can't find the darn end of that blue yarn! I don't even know how it happened--normally when I break my single, it's on my side of the orifice, and the end is just hanging there, easy to find. And this wasn't in the midst of making a bunch of tiny skinny air yarn--all the yarn I can see on the bobbin is good, solid yarn. It must have gotten snagged on something, but still, you'd think the end would be pretty easy to find, or at least possible to find! Anyone out there know, if I arbitrarily make an end, will that make this significantly worse?
I finally gave up and started spinning the purple part of the Stargazing roving on another bobbin. I'm going to take the problem child to knitting night tonight and see of one of the talented folks there can help me.
Meanwhile, even the frustrating blue part is very pretty and soft, and this purple part is so luscious I want to eat it. (I must be part cat.)

I had semi-resolved to ply everything immediately upon spinning it so I don't end up with all my bobbins full again, but I just expired in the middle of spinning this last night, so there it is, still on the bobbin. Maybe I should just buy another set of bobbins? Oh wait, that would probably make this worse, not better.

workin' for the weekend

2008-10-24T07:48:00.002-05:00

Anybody else really glad it's Friday? On top of the accumulated tiredness from the rest of the week, it's dark, raining, and chilly here. This is a day made for staying home with some cocoa, a kitty cat, and a good book (or some knitting!). Too bad I have to go to work.
I did get a little spinning in last night--I just couldn't resist the Stargazing fiber.

I wanted to ply whatever I did, but it was getting late, I was getting tired, and then the yarn broke and I can't find the end. It will just have to wait.

spinning--yay!

2008-10-23T08:46:00.002-05:00

Every time I go to a festival, I always buy something for myself. This time I was pretty much stuck at my booth the whole day, and (not that I'm ten kinds of stuck on myself or anything) I didn't see anything in the neighboring booths that I wanted more than my own dyed stuff. So for my treat this festival, I bought one of my own rovings.

It's called Stargazing because it reminds me of some fabulous old memories. My undergrad school is way out in the country, and if you climbed the hill behind the college, there was an open space where you could see everything crystal clear: the constellations, the Milky Way, and at least one shooting star per night. Looking at the stars there with a certain someone--some of the best times in my life.
So I picked out a Stargazing roving (there are two more, which will be appearing on Etsy soon) and started spinning. I usually dye spinning fiber in one long progression instead of smaller patches of color to give the spinner ultimate flexibility: spin it as is and get one long progression of color in your yarn, or tear off smaller chunks and alternate among the colors as you spin. I decided to go with one long progression, and I started at the caramel end.

The rest of the deep dark sky colors remain to be spun, and if I wasn't already late for work, I'd do it right now. This fiber is super easy to spin, which I was very pleased to verify, it's fabulously soft, and I just love the colors. I'm doing Navajo ply again so that the colors line up without any effort on my part (and I don't need three free bobbins). Bliss.

still recovering

2008-10-22T08:04:00.002-05:00

Phew! I finally got everything inventoried and put away from the festival. The trip wore me out more than I realized--I didn't even go to knitting night, just went home and sat on the couch with my kitty cat, then went to bed early. So tired.
I did get some nice spinning in when I was at the festival, and it's got me re-hooked. Also I have two empty bobbins now, and just a tiny bit of leftover alpaca on the other one. Yay!
First I finished the BFL from the roving I dyed a month or so ago. It has been sitting around on the bobbin as singles for weeks, and then I plied about five feet and got tired, so it was sitting there in progress for another week at least.

This turned out not to be very good yarn. It will be better after a bath, but that doesn't solve everything. The singles broke about eleventy-billion times when I was trying to ply them. Not that much fun. Also, when I got to the purple singles that were on the bobbin before this stuff, I just went ahead and plied them too, so this dark moody yarn suddenly turns purple at the end. Whatever. At least whenever people were in the booth watching, it mostly behaved--it saved its serial breakage for when I was alone. Very polite.
After that, I wanted something really cheery and easy to spin, so I got out some carded roving from Little Barn.

I totally love this stuff. It's easier to see in person, but this yarn varies from green to teal to purple, and it's all subtle and random changes. It will make a fabulous something. I still have more of this fiber, too. It is awesome.
While I was spinning this, a lot of families came by with small children and asked me to explain what I was doing and how it worked, which I really enjoyed. The best part was when one lady was talking to her kids, and she told them about yarn, and making yarn, and all that, and then she said, "See? That lady just sits there all day and spins yarn!" I couldn't resist responding with "It's a good life." I just thought that was hilarious. I wish I just sat around all day and spun yarn! But actually, I discovered at the festival that even spinning is not fun for eight hours straight. I'd be willing to bet it still beats computer science, though.

The Festival

2008-10-20T07:42:00.002-05:00

I went, I sold, I conquered.

Actually, that's overstating things quite a bit. I was really psyched to have my very own booth and set it up with all my stuff, and I met some really great people. The other vendors were very friendly and supportive, and the customers were awesome too. It was a fun day. I took my spinning wheel with me and spun most of the day, which was totally awesome for me, and a lot of people came over and asked questions. I explained how spinning works to a bunch of families with small children, which may have been the best part of the whole day.
I didn't sell as much as I hoped, but I made a good showing, and lots of people came over and said they loved my colors. A lot of people commented on the name "Fire Lizard Studios," too. That was cool--I can never get enough praise. And I booked an extra night in the motel so I wouldn't have to drive home right after the festival (definitely a smart decision), so I had a little free time Sunday morning before I drove home. Free time, what's that?!?! And what did I do with it? I bought shoes! Happy happy! Furthermore, tonight I'm going to knitting night. I haven't been in weeks because I was too busy moving, dyeing, freaking out, etc., but now I'm taking some time for me.

freakout

2008-10-16T08:15:00.002-05:00

Total madness, not ready for the trip, going to be late for work. But look at this!

It's brushed mohair yarn that I dyed about a month ago and am in the process of reskeining for the show. Love.

dye dye dye

2008-10-15T07:51:00.002-05:00

No time to write much, but I have some pictures of the spinning fiber I dyed the other day. I'm on such a warm colors kick. Every time I walk by this fiber, it makes me drool.

Love love love. Otherwise, I'm running around like a madman trying to get ready for the Southern Indiana Fiberarts Festival Saturday. Very psyched. Wish me luck!

Fire Lizard goes global

2008-10-14T06:50:00.004-05:00

This week, there's a huge yarn show going on in London. It's called the Knitting and Stitching Show at the Alexandra Palace, otherwise known as Ally Pally. This sounds like something I would make up, but it's real, and guess whose yarn is there? Very psyched. Here's what Yarn Market News had to say about the show in 2006: "Why do they hold it in a palace? It's the only place big enough to hold all the exhibitors--let's just say Rhinebeck was a walk in the woods after this show!" For once I envy my yarn--I wish I was there! We can all live vicariously through this lady's post about it, which features lots of excellent yarn pr0n, including some Fire Lizard Studios sock yarn! Yay!

Red-letter weekend

2008-10-13T06:42:00.003-05:00

This weekend was yarny heaven. It was a Scrooge McDuck-worthy wallow in yarn. It was bliss.
Of course, I dyed. Picture of that maybe tomorrow or something. Maybe you guys are getting sick of seeing dyeing day after day anyway. But let me tell you, this yarn (and especially the spinning fiber) makes me drool whenever I walk past it. Not that I'm impressed with myself or anything.
I also went to Little Barn for a whole lot of spinning fiber, bought pseudo-wholesale to repackage for the Southern Indiana Fiberarts Festival, which will be my first show as a vendor, and which is this coming weekend.

Although this is not for me, there is still something so satisfying about going out and buying a big pile of spinning fiber and bringing it home! Also I only picked things I liked, so if something doesn't sell, worst case would be spinning it myself, woe is me.
Then, on the very same day, Franklin Habit of Panopticon fame was at Yarn Expressions! It was the last stop on his 1000 Knitters tour and the first on his book tour. I still can't believe we got so lucky!
I was giddy about this until I was getting ready to head over there, when I realized that if I was having my picture taken for this project, it suddenly mattered what I looked like. Crap! I did a low-grade freak-out right up until my turn, when he introduced himself, joked about school picture time, and instantly put me at ease. So much so that I forgot to take the big fat bandaid off my hand, in fact--I guess it will be immortalized too. Feh. But who cares? I had a blast. He is so gracious and charming and all-around awesome, he just about turned me into a fan girl. It never occurred to me that you need to be charming to be a good photographer, and I guess if you're doing grand sweeping vistas it really isn't necessary to put the mountains at ease so they don't look self-conscious in the picture, but for people, it's really important! All those people he's taken pictures of, all looking calm and none looking dorky? That's not just being good with a camera, and it's a really impressive accomplishment if you think about it.
So I bought his book: It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons It is even funnier than I expected. It is truly a delightful little book. And he signed it.

Yep, I'm a total fan girl. Squee!!
After the festivities wound down, we all sat around and knit. So cool. And the hat Helen made went over bigtime. Here he is admiring it and commenting on how well she made it.

And here he is twirling his braids! What a hoot!

As if all that wasn't enough, I bought myself another treat. We're really gilding the lily at this point.

Everybody: ooh, aah. This may be the softest yarn in the history of the world. It's going to be a scarf for my freezing cold office this winter. I'm a wanna-be French girl: instead of wearing ten sweaters and a hat, I just chic it up with a scarf. I have been wearing one that I made on the Knifty Knitter before I learned to crochet or knit. It's a very nice scarf with a lot going for it, but I love the idea of an actual knitted scarf made by me out of this gorgeous luxury fiber. I have to finish Mom's first, though--she actually lives somewhere cold.

happy dyeing

2008-10-10T06:47:00.004-05:00

Last night I dyed some Caribbean yarn (blues, greens, a little bit of purple), which is still warm--it needs to finish cooling before I can wash it and hang it up. I love dyeing!
Lately I've been really drawn to the warm colors, which kind of surprises me. For most of my life, I've been strictly a cool colors girl. Occasional ventures into magenta, that's about as warm as I got. But lately it's all fire and warm warm warm. I figured I'd better do a little cool something for the folks like the old me, thus the Caribbean.
Anyway, I'm getting the fire yarn ready for Etsy. Dude, does that not look like fire?

Total love. I was excited when it was wet, but it looks ten times better dry. Here's the roving.

These are going up on my Etsy shop today, so get 'em while they're hot!

we are victorious

2008-10-09T08:31:00.006-05:00

I washed the fire yarn. Here it is still wet.

Dudes. I am so psyched about this. Fire! Fire!
Seriously, I love it when something works. I would like a little more red (and a redder red) but that's a tweak. This yarn is clearly fire.

trying to make fire

2008-10-08T07:45:00.005-05:00

Last night I was all into the dyeing. I decided to make a bold move: trying a colorway that's still in the experimental stages on the BFL. Remember this crazy yarn that I dyed the other day?

Well, I almost liked it, and when I saw it hanging up to dry, it really looked like fire, except it was missing the orange. So last night I decided to wing it and add some orange. I have a pretty good handle on what to expect from the sock yarn, but the BFL is still a bit of an unknown.
Well? Well???
It's still too warm to rinse, so I still can't say 100% what the final result will look like when it's dry. Here it is through its steamy plastic bags, though. The yarn:

The spinning fiber:

I can't wait to wash it and see what it looks like dry, but I guess I'll have to. I can't believe it's still so warm! Last night must have been a later night than I realized. Anyway, it looks promising. I diluted the yellow, and it's still so bright. Which could be awesome if it really does look like fire. I want to know nooooooowwwwww!!!
I'm sure I'm not the only one with problems delaying gratification, so here's something that's finished.

This is a semi-solid yarn, which I don't usually do. It's part of my new Color Stew collection. What do you do when you have a whole lot of little bits of great stuff left over, and it's really not enough to make a whole thing of anything? You make stew. That's what I did with all the last little bits of dye left in the bottoms of jars before I mixed a whole raft more. These skeins are one-of-a-kind, didn't even try to pay attention to what I was doing. This one is a personal favorite; even though I usually don't like the whole light colors/pastel/lavender scene, this one calls to me because of the depth provided by the darker spots. That's why I'm glad I'm not in some boring business like radiators or something--if nobody wants to buy this one, it's mine!

priorities

2008-10-07T06:58:00.003-05:00

I set up the spinning wheel right in the living room and spun again last night. Am I the only one who puts the things that give me the most joy at lowest priority? Why do I do this? It's crucial to make time for balancing the checkbook and filing your $0 sales tax return and holding an open house and taking the car to the shop, but somehow relaxing and meditating and restoring my soul never get done. As I took the wool in my hands, I could feel the tension flowing out of my body through my toes and disappearing. Well, better late than never.
I was spinning the rest of the BFL I dyed at the same time as the merino/tencel blend I posted about yesterday, mainly to get it off my bobbin. I have only one empty bobbin at this point, and you need someplace to put the plied yarn! Given a fresh start and an organized life, I would have been spinning something purple instead. But this is very soft, very nice fiber, and I'm pleased with how it's turning out.

Again, I'm Navajo plying. The yarn is very dark, but I can think of somebody for whom it would make a perfect hat. Unfortunately this person has a history of not appreciating things like this, so I'll refrain. Isn't it funny how there's this knitter's fantasy world where knitted things would be the perfect gift for somebody, but then there's the real world where the same perfect gift just isn't?
Anyway, I didn't exactly accomplish my goal of freeing up a bobbin. I got tired after about two minutes of plying, so I still have this left.

Yeah. It's a good thing I've abandoned the idea of being goal-oriented with spinning.

pure fun

2008-10-06T08:54:00.002-05:00

I finally got to spin something! It seems like it's been forever since I've done that.
Remember this roving?

I dyed it about two weeks ago and was surprised at how dark it came out. Well, I had to see whether those tencel streaks would become more blended in the final yarn or what.

This is where my knowledge of exact terminology is lacking. Heathered? Marled? Whatever, I think it's a really cool effect. The fiber was super easy to spin, too. It's not as soft as the luscious BFL, but still very nice. I Navajo plied it to keep the colors lined up, and also because I have leftover ends of unfinished stuff on all my bobbins, so trying to spin two identical halves and then ply them together was even more unlikely than usual. This is representative of my life right now--kind of a perpetually behind disorganized mess. I can't decide if I should try to be zen about it and just chill, or go nuts and straighten everything out. In the end I think my level of tiredness will be the deciding factor, rather than any great wisdom or insight, unfortunately.
Part of the problem has been trying to keep the house pristine for showings. Notably, yesterday we had an open house, so I stashed a lot of stuff not where it belongs for dumb reasons like making closets look bigger. But you know what? Nobody showed up. Not a single soul. And all the people who have shown up on other occasions to see the house, whether it was pristine or not, they haven't wanted to buy the house. Why am I wasting all this energy? I'm not going to go around trashing the place, but I'm through worrying about keeping it exactly perfect any more. And despite the various physical spasms this would probably cause my realtor if she knew, I'm setting up my spinning wheel... in the living room. (That's the only room left with any chairs.) Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.

my new digs

2008-10-03T06:59:00.004-05:00

Dudes, I finally got my new studio set up. Check it out.

For those following the saga, my house still hasn't sold. I was doing my dyeing in various kitchens, including the kitchen of a tiny apartment where I was staying. There was a little over two feet of counter space on one side of the sink (after I displaced the microwave), a little over two feet of counter space on the other side of the sink, and that's it. Other features included a very shallow sink, no washing machine, and a huge cloud of paranoia that I would accidentally turn something purple and lose my security deposit. But now I'm back at the house, and I've had this splendid laundry sink installed in the garage. It's wide and deep, and get this: the faucet pulls out and becomes a sprayer! So totally awesome!
It still needs a lot more light, and I want to get bed risers for under the table so I don't lean over so much and hurt my back. I also want to get some of those squishy floor tiles they have for gyms and kids. Concrete floors are not my friend. But even without all that, I dyed last night, and it rocked. All that space! That huge sink! No worries about staining something! I was in heaven.
I experimented with a new colorway. I'm not sure whether I exactly like it. Here it is still a little damp.

That yellow is so bright. The purple doesn't look quite as crazy dark in person, but almost. Hm. I'll keep working on it.

shameless self-promotion

2008-10-02T08:24:00.004-05:00

I got some more pretties listed in my shop last night and this morning. I can't believe I got so far behind--there is still a ton of sock yarn to be listed.
Here's some BFL in my new colorway Roses. It actually came out exactly as I envisioned, which doesn't always happen with dyeing.

This one is Autumn Woods, also BFL.

And just so the sock yarn doesn't feel entirely left out, here it is in Jewel Tones.

Hopefully tonight I will do something with yarn besides take pictures of it for the internet!

late, as usual

2008-10-01T07:46:00.004-05:00

Well, the promised influx of items to my Etsy shop has been delayed by darn stupid life getting in the way again. Last night my car quit working right, and I'm hoping it's just bad gasoline, but after a nerve-racking adventure involving getting someone to the airport, paying the plumber back home, stalling at Wall-Triana and 72 (but luckily not in the intersection), death-defying thrills and chills, and a problem that suspended itself only for the ten minutes the car was near a mechanic... I took the rest of the night off. And this morning, apparently Etsy's servers aren't feeling any better than my car. I did get a few things posted, though. You saw the Beach Dreams fiber yesterday, but here's another roving (technically top) in Jewel Tones.

And here's some sock yarn in my brand new colorway: Roses.

I've got a lot of really great stuff dyed, and I'll continue adding it in the coming days. Meanwhile, if I don't hit the shower, I will be late for work on top of everything else.

what I did on my summer vacation (finally)

2008-09-30T08:59:00.003-05:00

This is old news by now, but I finally got pictures of some of the dyeing I did on my yarn retreat. I did a lot of the usual sock yarn, but I also tried out some new stuff: spinning fiber, some really awesome brushed mohair yarn, and some absolutely luscious alpaca/merino/silk yarn.
On one big experimental day, I dyed a whole bunch of different things in the same colorway. It's one of my favorites: wildflower. I think it's interesting to see how the different fibers took the dye. Here's the brushed mohair.

And this is the alpaca/merino/silk yarn.

It's even better in person. After dyeing all this sock yarn, I've mostly stopped wanting to keep the yarn that I dye, but this stuff is so soft and so gorgeous, I totally want to keep it.
I also did spinning fiber that day. Here's some BFL, still the same dyes.

And finally, a 70/30 merino/tencel blend. This is the one I got from Little Barn because the 50/50 stuff I really wanted is on back order.

Again, the tencel is definitely not integrated with the wool, so it makes those white streaks. I kind of like it, but I'm still eager to get the more blended 50/50 stuff.
I've done some other colorways, too. Here's Beach Dreams in BFL.

After the first batch I did where everything came out so dark, I'm really pleased with how these came out. My first festival as a vendor is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I need everything I dyed and way more to be ready. Meanwhile, the spinning fiber (these and more) will be up on my Etsy shop by tomorrow morning.

pseudo book review

2008-09-29T10:02:00.002-05:00

After stalking The Friday Night Knitting Club on the library's card catalog (or whatever it's called in these newfangled times), I finally happened to be at the library on the day it was waiting to be reshelved, and I got one of the nice employees to find it for me. "Yay!" I thought. "Something light and fun, and bonus: it's about knitting!"
Well. I'm not going to go into details in case anyone hasn't read it yet, but it has a sad ending! I was furious! I know a lot of people like sad movies and sad books, but I have never understood why. Maybe nobody else gets a really bad headache whenever they cry like I do? Whatever the reason, when I read a book, or worse, watch a movie, I want to be happy. I want to laugh, and maybe some minor sad thing can happen, but don't do anything drastic like killing off characters I like! Life is sad enough, and I get plenty of chances to cry. In fact, lately even many happy movies make me cry. So don't frickin' make me cry when I'm trying to take a break from all this and just be entertained! There are so many movies in which this is done in a way that seems totally gratuitous to me. The characters go through all this stuff, conflict, denouement, blah blah blah, and finally they make it and if you ended the movie right there, it would be a perfect happy ending, but then they add five minutes to the end where the main character is suddenly run over by a log truck or drowned or something. Why why why?!?!
I know not everybody feels this way, so I think there should be a rating system for movies and books, based on the Greek symbols for comedy and tragedy. Just put a little smiley face on the ones with a happy ending, and put a frowny face on the ones with a sad ending. Then everybody knows what they're getting and people like me don't have to stand there scrutinizing the cover for keywords like "bittersweet" (always a dead giveaway for a frowny) or "you'll laugh and cry" (ambiguous).
So. I warn you all. The Friday Night Knitting Club is a frowny. It's a good book, I liked the characters, it's well written; if you don't mind reading frownies, I recommend it. But you won't see me at the theater when the movie comes out--I won't be there unless I completely forget about the ending, which I have been known to do. (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants anyone?)

I'm back

2008-09-24T07:54:00.004-05:00

My yarn retreat was fabulous in every way, and for once I actually accomplished my entire to-do list. Design ads? Check. Dye lots of yarn? Check. Dye some spinning fiber? Check. Spin? Check. Knit? Check. Go for walks? Check. Relax? Check check check!
Of course, today is freak out and try to get to work on time after six days away from schedules and alarm clocks day, so I rushed out the door without much in the way of pictures. But here's a taste of what's been going on.

There is currently so much wet yarn and fiber, I ran out of room in the bathroom and had to hang some in the closet. That's how crazy things have been in yarn land. In other words, I had a blast.

finally, some spinning

2008-09-23T06:31:00.000-05:00

I had to spin the sample wool I dyed to make sure it worked (woe is me), so I finally got some spinning in!

This is the BFL that I showed in this post. At one end, the color spots were very small and close together, so as I was spinning the singles, it just looked like black. I was very disappointed. But as I went on, I got to some bigger spots, and I started liking it better. Then I Navajo plied it.

Even the "black" parts have depth and interest, since they're not true black but very dark blue and red mixed together, and the other parts really set it off. I was surprised to be very happy with this yarn after all. And it was a dream to spin, not felted at all, so my process will work. Off to dye more!

some relaxation time

2008-09-22T06:15:00.005-05:00

As part of my yarn retreat, I decided to take a nice long walk in the woods (at least one). I headed up to Monte Sano to enjoy the day.

There was some dryness in the air and a very few colored leaves, but basically, it's still looking like summer up there. And I haven't done much spinning lately, but somebody has!

Monte Sano is one of my favorite places to go for peace and comfort. I always feel like I'm home there.

After I got back, I was looking through my pictures and found some I never posted from The Knit and Crochet Show, which I attended in New Hampshire in July. The Crochet Guild of America hosted the conference and held a crochet contest. The winner was a gorgeous crocheted wedding dress that was shy come picture time, but there were some other cool entries.

I especially like the under-the-sea themed freeform afghan or wallhanging. And check this out.

A crocheted pizza--isn't that a hoot?

isn't it ironic? don't you think?

2008-09-18T19:36:00.004-05:00

So I'm taking a couple days off work to dye and recover from all the upheaval in my life. Thus I finally have stuff to write about, but I'm away from my house and my job, so no internet! D'oh!
Anyway, the yarn retreat started with the delivery of a big fat bunch of yarn and spinning fiber.

Oh yeah. I dyed a few samples last night. It's really interesting how different fibers react to the same dye. Here are a brushed mohair yarn, a BFL roving, and my regular superwash/nylon sock yarn, all dyed the same colorway.

Kind of amazing, isn't it? The colors come out very dark and more to the blue end of the spectrum on the roving, and much less saturated on the mohair. In fact, that's the only time I've ever seen the gray dye actually look gray instead of more of a pale blue-green.
Also, I got a little sample of a merino/tencel blend from Little Barn to try out.

I really like this. I didn't expect the tencel to leave such obvious streaks like that--I bought some 50/50 merino/tencel that somebody else dyed, and it had the tencel distibuted more evenly, resulting in an overall luminescence. But this stuff, even if you look at it before it's dyed, you can tell which fibers are the tencel. It's a cool effect, too, just not what I was expecting. I'm eager to see what it looks like spun up. Unfortunately, I don't have a washing machine to spin the water out of everything--I just have to wait impatiently for everything to dry.

the scarf continues to rock

2008-09-17T07:15:00.002-05:00

The scarf project is totally working. It's enticing me to knit all the time, and sure enough, it's starting to feel much smoother again. And today we have a picture!

Unfortunately it's impossible to capture the perfect gorgeous fuzzy feel of it on the blog, but it's there. And in person, it looks all official, like it was knit by someone who knew what she was doing. Yes, it's about the simplest thing ever, which is part of what allows me to enjoy it so much, but seeing it coming along so well still makes me feel accomplished. And I'm going to finish it before winter, and my mom is going to love it. I couldn't wait to leave work to work on it yesterday.

love the scarf

2008-09-16T07:28:00.002-05:00

Well, I undid the beginnings of the scarf and started over. That was way too many stitches--it would have been about twice as wide as I wanted. I got it going again real nice. Too bad I forgot to take a picture--duh!
Anyway, knitting with this yarn (Suri Merino) feels great. Perhaps when I'm done I'll feel up to tackling the Feathery Lace Stole, but if not, I don't care at this point. I'll just find something else to do with thick, soft yarn like this project. It's such a pleasure. Maybe I'll do the Vanda sweater from Knitter's Magazine. That's the one that said "Easy--go for it!" And being at Little Barn this weekend reminded me that I do have an excellent source for inexpensive superwash yarn in a drool-worthy assortment of gorgeous colors, right here in town. Oh yeah.

new stuff

2008-09-15T07:16:00.004-05:00

So I was working some more on the original swatch for the Feathery Lace Stole and managed to get off by one stitch somehow. This time I did not throw any tantrums, however, just set it aside. Now I have no recollection of where I left off, but at least the thing is still in existence if I ever want to try again.
Meanwhile, I wanted to do something and not screw it up, so I got out the crochet. Remember this yarn?

It's Mohair Thick n Thin from Cherry Tree Hill, and I think the color is Sugar Maple. I decided that it should be a warm shawl for ME! So I broke out the huge-o hook and started crocheting.

It's a mill end, and although it seemed huge in the hank and wound into balls, it soon became clear that I would not have enough yarn to make this thing as big as I wanted. But I noticed something amazing: the fiber I got at the Michigan Fiber Festival is almost exactly the same colors.

I spun a bunch of this into yarn while I was in Michigan.

Ironically, the Mohair Thick n Thin is sort of commercial faux badly spun homespun, and I'm putting it with my actual homespun, which is pretty skinny and even and well spun (in this case anyway). It looks overtwisted, but that's just because I let some of the singles rest before I plied, and it hasn't had a bath yet. I probably should have done that before using it, but I was so excited that it would work, I couldn't wait for all that. And this is crochet, so it shouldn't really matter.
Incredibly, I finished the whole thing this weekend. It's super warm, too. Of course, I couldn't get a decent picture of the whole thing to save my life, but here's a closeup.

Meanwhile, I have concluded that I'm simply out of practice with knitting. In February, when I re-learned how to do it, I was so excited, and I was practicing at least a few rows every night, and it started feeling smooth and comfortable. Then I almost finished a hat, got stuck, and haven't really touched it since then. That would be, um, about five months ago. Yeah. So I decided I should pick out something simple and start practicing again. Something with some nice thick yarn--this sock yarn is driving me crazy.
So I was up at Little Barn on Saturday, and I decided it was time to treat myself to some really nice yarn. I probably spent 20 minutes petting and rearranging the alpaca, trying to figure out which color to get. That yarn is such a fabulous deal, I've been intending to buy some for months, but I just can't figure out what to do with it. Even with a mission, I couldn't quite pick any. But then I spied some Suri Merino from Plymouth Yarns, and I touched it, and it was love.

This is going to be a scarf. It's really ruffly, which means I cast on way too many stitches and it will be really wide if I don't undo it and start again with fewer stitches.
This yarn is so fabulous. I love the color, I love how it feels, and it's a dream to work with. Now I understand why people knit all the time! This project makes me want to make a sweater. I realize that an alpaca sweater knit out of worsted weight yarn would work for about one day out of the year in Alabama, and I already have a sweater that has dibs on that day. I'm just sayin'.

witch hunt in yarn town

2008-09-12T07:18:00.003-05:00

So I've been dyeing like a maniac and too tired to write. But the results are pretty awesome.

I intended to go at lunch today and ship the order I've been working on. I got it all into display skeins and almost all labelled. Very happy. But then I remembered, one skein had a weird little part where some fiber that didn't take the dye was plied in with the rest, resulting in a funky white and purple barber pole. I wanted to make sure that one didn't get sent with this yarn.

It's in there somewhere! Sigh. And the only way to find it was to take the labels off and unfurl them until I found it. You can imagine how happy I was at that realization this morning. They were only all labelled already because last night I took the time while the yarn was steaming, which I usually use to wind skeins for next time, to do all this twisting and labelling. Then to have to undo them all, or hopefully not all unless the barber pole was in the very last skein!, well. If I were a cartoon, I would have said something like this: !#$^#^*$%&(*$^&@$#%@#$%!!!!

I did eventually find it.

Somehow I remembered it as being a lot bigger. And now I have this mess.

I still may be able to ship it at lunch time, though. Maybe maybe. Besides sticking the labels back on, I still have to reweigh them all to make sure there aren't any runts, pack the box, and do the invoice. Yeah, I'm crazy. (But perpetually, unreasonably optimistic! That has to be worth something.)

feh.

2008-09-09T06:54:00.002-05:00

Last night was knitting night, and I gave myself the evening off and went. I've been wearing myself out lately, and I thought it would do me good to get out among nice people and relax.
I started a new swatch for the Feathery Lace Stole, this time with thicker yarn and smaller needles, and things were going much better. The other swatch really doesn't look as stupid in person as it does on the net, but this swatch was still better. The knitting felt less awkward, and I was loving the interactions of the colors.

This is the point where I'd normally put a picture and say "see how cool this is? Total love." or something like that. Well.
This guy came over to our large collection of knitters and started talking to us. There was the usual "Wow, that's really cool what you're all doing. I could never do that." "Yes you could." "No I couldn't." "We'll teach you if you want." that seems to be mandatory whenever anybody approaches a group of knitters. Then the guy said he's a photographer and would like to take pictures of us for his personal projects. He was cute and funny and seemed a bit tipsy, although he said it was just from coffee. Anyway, the whole thing was so entertaining, I totally forgot where I was in my pattern and messed up my knitting. Undid it, but messed it up again. Then when I went to undo it again, I dropped a stitch. As I was trying to recover that one, three more made the leap and disappeared into oblivion. At this point, I threw a total temper tantrum like a two-year-old, yelled "I give up!", whipped the needles out, and frogged the whole thing in like two seconds.
Of course, two more seconds later the remorse set in and I thought about how when everybody else screws up, they pass their knitting over to somebody with a clue and get it fixed. Oh no, not me.
Thus I have nothing to show you today. Even a big triple chocolate cookie and some very easy crocheting did nothing to soothe my spirit.
I've given some consideration to Sarah's comment two posts back about knitting vs. crochet and one not really being any fussier than the other. Sarah is wiser than I am by far and has been doing both crafts for much longer than I have, so she's probably right. But it may be the case that crochet just suits the way my brain is made better. You never have to worry about a whole bunch of your stitches committing suicide with crochet, for one thing. And it's certainly true that being able to follow a pattern is a useful skill and that following a pattern is harder than following the vision in your head, but for me, that's not even a comparison that can be made between crochet and knitting. With crochet, I just make stuff. I made one thing from a pattern once, but otherwise, I just make it up as I go along. With knitting, I can't do that. It's not even that I think of things to try to figure out how to do and then can't. I don't even get to that point. I'm a blank. I'm stumped. This pattern inspired me, so I decided to try it, but it wasn't like I could have just made something up instead. I just don't seem to be able to do that with knitting.
Anyway, it's not that I'm going to quit knitting and only crochet from now on. I still like the idea of knitting, and I'm sure that if I keep practicing, eventually I'll get good at it. I'm constantly amazed by the folks at knitting night--someone will ask one of the really amazing knitters how long she's been doing it, and nine times out of ten, the answer is three years or less. Also when I was knitting all the time, I was a lot better at it than I am now, even though I had just started. Lately all I've been doing is working and dyeing, and everything else has gotten clumsy from neglect. I need to find a better balance in my life. Meanwhile, perhaps I should stick to the totally mindless for knitting night, but I think I am going to break out the Kidsilk Haze and start this stole. Adventure calls.

ready for the weekend

2008-09-05T07:31:00.000-05:00

"More dyeing, less sleep" has been my motto this week, and it's definitely catching up with me. If I don't fall asleep at my desk today, I'll be pleased. (This rain is not helping!) But I temporarily have some space for my dye studio that I don't have to break down and set up all the time. I'm trying to make the most of it. (Oh yeah, and there's the small matter of an order needing to be shipped out...)
Anyway, last night I did one of my favorite colorways.

That's what it looks like wet. A little bit drier:

This is the best I've ever liked the purple--it usually comes out too dark or too blue, but here it is almost exactly as I envisioned.
Also, I have some exciting news: my yarn is available at The Woolly Workshop in England! Check it out: Fire Lizard Studios at the Woolly Workshop. I think this is too cool for words.

risking the ire of the mohair

2008-09-04T09:08:00.003-05:00

I finally started the Feathery Lace Stole! Well, maybe that's overstating things. When I bought the Kidsilk Haze, Meg (of Yarn Expressions) recommended trying the pattern out first because this kind of yarn is really hard to frog. So I'm doing a swatch or possibly a scarf first with some Fire Lizard mill ends.

I guess that's how it's supposed to look--as far as I know I haven't messed anything up except casting on one too many stitches. Maybe it will look more organized when I've done more. Or maybe I should have gone with smaller needles. My reasoning was "They say use size 8 for the Kidsilk Haze, which is teeny tiny skinny, and this sock yarn is thicker, so I should use 10.5s for it." But I think they just picked such big needles for the Kidsilk Haze to leave room for the fuzz halo around the yarn. When I crochet, I always use a hook way bigger than is supposedly appropriate for the yarn, but somehow in knitting that seems less comfortable. Or maybe if it was just a few sizes bigger it would be ok, but the jump to 10.5 needles from the yarn's recommended size of 0-2 is just too much. Yes, I'm starting to feel a bit foolish here.
Anyway, as advertised, the pattern is super easy to remember. I've already just about got it memorized. The only thing I don't like about it is the SKP that happens periodically. Does anyone have any advice on this? Maybe I'm doing it wrong. I move the stitch to the right needle, knit the next one, and then when I try to pass the first one back over the second one, it's really tight and I have a hard time grabbing it with the needle. Or could I substitute some other decrease that's easier? I love k2tog, which also appears in the pattern, but I'm assuming that slants in the opposite direction?
Yeah. So the Kidsilk Haze can either sit there impatiently feeling neglected (even thought I pet it and admire it every time I walk by the coffee table and see it there), or it can be honored to be the only yarn I've ever done pre-project knitting experiments and research for. I recommend the latter.
Is it because I learned to crochet first that knitting seems so much harder and fussier? Or is it because I crochet only easy stuff that I make up myself, whereas I'm knitting other people's patterns? Or is knitting really harder and fussier?

more yarn (what else?)

2008-09-03T07:35:00.005-05:00

Dudes. I was playing with some new dye last night.

Love love love! As usual, it's not quite what I expected, but it's totally great. And I believe this is the first time in the history of the world that yarn has successfully been photographed in a bathtub! (Well, maybe not, but it's certainly the first time it's worked for me.)
I've made some improvements to my process, so I'll be able to be much more productive with the dyeing now. Obviously, I'm very pleased about this. And when my motorized skein winder arrives from Crazy Monkey Creations? I'll be unstoppable.

I stood up the Kidsilk Haze

2008-09-02T07:14:00.003-05:00

I broke my date with the Kidsilk Haze--all I did was sleep and dye this weekend. I didn't even tell it definitely no, I just kept saying "oh, later, for sure." Very inconsiderate. Do you think it's mad?

It looks put out to me.
I didn't dye nearly as much as I had hoped, either. I was just so tired! It's a good thing we had the holiday weekend--I was probably headed for an illness if things had continued as they were. Meanwhile, I did create two new colorways.

I love dyeing, but my absolute favorite part is rinsing the yarn after it's cooled and seeing for the first time what it will really look like.

Happy Labor Day!

2008-08-29T08:52:00.003-05:00

Here's my date for the three-day weekend.

That would be Kidsilk Haze in color Blushes (583). Oh yeah, life is good. Don't be fooled by the godawful appearance of this color on the Rowan page--the color in my photo is pretty true. I had a terrible time trying to figure out what color to get, since the same color looks totally different on the Rowan site vs. Yarndex. Thank goodness for Yarn Expressions! They were going to order me whatever color I wanted--they have a color card--but it turned out it was love at second site when I looked through their stock again and saw this color.
I wish you all a fabulous holiday weekend--I hope you have as much fun as I do! It's supposed to be a big weekend, yarn-wise. I've heard it said that Labor Day is the start of knitting season? Most knitters I know have been knitting all summer, but for myself, I'm definitely feeling a renewed eagerness to knit. There's probably something to it, especially for folks with cooler climates and late-starting school years. I've heard something big is brewing at Yarny Goodness, but I don't know what, except that my yarn will be featured there soon. Stay tuned for that one. Also, Cherry Tree Hill is having a big Labor Day sale, which I would be all over if I hadn't just bought a ton of their yarn in New Hampshire. Have fun shopping, or just love the yarn you're with!

a little spinning

2008-08-28T06:51:00.002-05:00

I wanted to start on the Feathery Lace Stole yesterday--suddenly I'm totally re-obsessed with this--but I left the yarn at work. Darn it! That's the problem with all the yarn being at work.
I did get to spin a little, though.

This is the last of the test roving I dyed. It's brown mix from Sheep Shed Studio, dyed with the dye runoff from the other two sample rovings I dyed.

The yarn seems darker than the roving, but maybe that always happens. I haven't even plied this yet, but it was really nice to do even a tiny bit of spinning. So relaxing. And of course I'm very pleased to report that I didn't mess it all up when I dyed the roving--it's still quite easy to spin. I'm planning to get a whole lot of spinning fiber and start dyeing it, as soon as I catch up on the sock yarn!

knitting, kindness, and inspiration

2008-08-26T06:57:00.004-05:00

Last night was knitting night, and although it was totally pouring and I knew it would be freezing in Barnes & Noble, I missed my knitting buddies, so I went. Also, I was very psyched to finish the cozy for my EEE PC. Under the plan to switch direction this would have been possible and is probably done. But one great thing about being around other knitters is that they give you good ideas. (Another is that they loan you gorgeous wool shawls that immediately toast you right up when you come into the psycho air conditioning all wet from the rain.) Two people suggested sticking with the original plan but felting it back down to the size I want, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. This would allow me to incorporate more of the barber pole yarn, which I think is very fetching with the Navajo plied stuff, and it would make the cozy a more protective case. Thus, the new plan is to go back to the old plan, so I'm not done yet. That, too, is a bonus, since this is such a soothing project. And I absolutely adore the way the colors are coming out.

I also got to spin a little. I've got a lot of stressful stuff going on right now, so I'm looking for solace wherever I can find it. Teal carded wool goes a long way.

This is more of the Little Barn wool that I bought as a gift and couldn't resist getting some for myself, too. It's so satisfying. It practically spins itself, and the color is so intense and gorgeous. It's the perfect antidote to too much freaking out.
Things do seem to be turning around, at least in my mind. Here's a symptom: when I look at patterns and yarn that I don't own, I feel covetous again. For a while it was like "ugh, no more yarn, I have way too many project to do now--I can't take on another thing." Of course, this didn't mean I stopped making fiber purchases, it just meant I bought roving instead of yarn. But over the weekend I discovered a pattern I'm totally lusting after: Vanda from the Summer 2008 Knitter's Magazine. In Ravelry, it's green, but in the magazine it's a dusky purple. Total love. And it actually said in the magazine "Easy--go for it!" Wow, don't mind if I do. Of course, to make it out of the yarn used in the patter would require five skeins of Lorna's Laces Green Line Worsted, which comes to about $100. That's a little rich for my blood. I'm considering substitutions. Knitpicks makes their Andean Silk sound like heaven: 55% super fine alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino wool, and it's very close to the same weight as the original yarn. I'm not sure how much using different fibers would screw up how the sweater came out, though. Another strong candidate is their Wool of the Andes. It's more different in weight from the original and has to be less soft, but look at the color Lullaby. If I could have that color in the Andean Silk, it would already be paid for and on its way to me.
Meanwhile, as I was adding that project to my queue, I rediscovered the Feathery Lace Stole from Exquisite Little Knits. It's the beautiful stole with the two-line pattern repeat. Also, this coincides with unpacking (at work) my fabulous Kid Silk Haze that I bought from Yarn Expressions for this purpose. I love that yarn so much it hurts.
In short, I have two projects that I'm feeling exceedingly inspired to start, plus some good ones currently in progress, and when you come right down to it, life is good.

some updates

2008-08-25T05:49:00.004-05:00

Thanks to some inspiration from a comment by Bay Home Stager, I worked my butt off this weekend and got a lot of stuff stowed. I don't know why it never occurred to me before that it's not cheating to get the stuff out of sight by packing it, and then you have a head start on moving! Duh! So that's what I did. The house looks a lot better, and it didn't feel pointless like just redecorating for hypothetical people with no imagination. Also, I took the time to organize stuff as I was sifting through it, so now my life will actually be easier, too. (During the first pass I just kind of madly stashed stuff, which made it really hard to remember where anything was.)
Phyllis asked a question, and I thought others might also be interested in the answer, so I'll address it here. How did I hang the yarn? I went to Lowe's and got some decorative chain that's normally used to hang plants or lights, and I hung that up with a picture hanger--just put the top loop over the hook and let the chain hang down. Then I wanted a whole raft of S-hooks, but I couldn't find any that were cheap enough, so I went to Walmart and got a package of wire from the hardware section. The stuff I got was about $3, it has a galvanized coating, and it's stiff but you can bend it with your fingers. To make each hook, I bent the wire around the round handle of my file, bent it again the other way to form the S, cut it off the spool, and filed the ends. It sounds crazy, but each hook probably took about a minute to make. Then I took the ball band off the yarn, punched a hole in it and hung it on the hook, put the hook through the yarn, and hung it on the chain. I didn't want to see the ball bands, but I also didn't want to forget what yarn was what. For the long stuff, I hung the chain horizontally from three picture hooks and put the yarn so the hanks just hung down next to each other. (The nice thing about making your own hooks is that you can customize them: I made really big ones to hold a whole bunch of my handspun yarn or big things like Cherry Tree Hill stuff.)
It was a very satisfying project, and even including the cost of some really good wire cutters, I think the whole thing was maybe $30. I totally loved being able to see all the yarn at any given time--I knew where everything was, and when I was working on mixed-yarn projects, I could just walk around holding the project up to the yarn until I picked what should go next. I'm definitely doing it again in my next house. The only drawbacks are that the yarn would get dusty eventually, although in the year that mine was up, there was no noticeable accumulation of dust, and that it could fade from the sun. The room where I had mine has only a north-facing window--there's never any direct sunlight in there--so I wasn't too worried about that. In a west-facing room, you might have a problem.
In other news, I took the pretty colors mohair yarn off the bobbin.

The colors are great, but holy crap is that nasty yarn. It feels like rope with little fiberglass shards sticking out everywhere. I have no idea what I'll do with it--even to make a purse or something out of it, you might want to wear gloves while knitting or crocheting. Yikes! That kind of took the thrill off of spinning more of it, but I will eventually. I'll certainly think twice before buying any more mohair, though.
Also, I'm making a lot of progress on the cozy for my EEE PC. I love this project because it's totally mindless, but every row is interesting as the color changes through the yarn. What else can I make out of plain old rectangles?! I did buy Crochet Squared a while back, which is all about making stuff out of only squares and rectangles--I'll have revisit it if I didn't pack it. You have to watch out for this book, though--if you look closely at the garments in the pictures, some of them clearly had some cheating going on. You can see shaping, not a simple rectangle, on a lot of the ones that look good. Yeah, I know shaping makes stuff fit better, that's why people do it. But don't write your whole book around making garments out of squares and rectangles, and then cheat for the pictures! Totally not cool. The people who are likely to buy this book are beginning crocheters, myself included when I bought it, and it's not fair for them to follow the patterns, come out with something much crappier than what you see in the picture, and think it's their fault for being a bad crocheter. I was filled with righteous indignation when I made this discovery, but the book still has use to me as inspiration.
Anyway, as much as I'm enjoying making the cozy, there is one slight problem with it.

It's way too big. The rectangle is actually a slight trapezoid because the later yarn is thicker than the yarn at the beginning, which doesn't help. I think I can work that out with blocking, though, and the whole thing will fit pretty well if I turn it sideways. The stripes won't go the way I wanted them to, but it will still be plenty cool. It's a good thing I checked the fit this morning--suddenly I'm much closer to being done than I thought!

pretty colors

2008-08-22T06:23:00.004-05:00

I got myself all worked up into a state again yesterday. But suddenly the Voice of Reason showed up and said, "You know spinning always makes you feel better. Why don't you quit whining and drooping around, and spin some?" For once, I listened.
The new, brightly colored mohair from last weekend called out to me as the perfect antidote to the blues.

It was a little harder to spin than wool--a lot like the alpaca blend I bought a while back, the fibers are slippery, and if you don't really put in a lot of twist, the yarn wants to break. When I was doing the alpaca, every time I put in enough twist for the singles to stay together, it seemed like it was going to be really stiff, hard, loftless yarn. But when I plied it, it came out gorgeous. I applied that lesson to the mohair.

Love! Navajo plying sure is a handy skill. I'm definitely not consistent enough to reliably get the colors to line up in two plies, and I really didn't want barber poling on this yarn--I wanted to preserve the intensity of the colors. This yarn makes me drool.

a sad day in yarn land

2008-08-21T06:35:00.002-05:00

My house has been on the market about a month now, and I know it's early to get discouraged, but I'm discouraged. I've been reading about staging your house and companies that will help you and what they charge and how much faster your house will supposedly sell. If it works, it's worth every penny. Also, if they do the work, I'd say it's worth every penny. If they just tell you what to do and you have to do it, not so much. I was looking at some of their before-and-after pictures, and most of them basically look like they picked up and put away the junk the homeowners left scattered around, and added a few plants. That's hardly rocket science.
Anyway, comparing my house with some of the "after" pictures and the well-staged homes I've seen at open houses and in pictures online, I realized that my yarn stash is definitely not helping and needs to be relocated. I find this pretty painful because I have an overly sentimental view of the yarn. Last summer it was basically what kept me from having a total breakdown and losing it completely. I have friends, I have family, they love and support me and did their best, but in the end ~~playing~~ creating with yarn was what kept me clinging to that last thread of reason until I could get strong enough to pull myself back up. Whenever times get tough, I find it comforting to go into the yarn room and look at it and touch it and just be surrounded by it. Well, now you all know I'm crazy, and it really was making the place look "cozy." Everybody knows cozy is bad, and in the end it's more important to facilitate the sale of the house and moving on than to keep the yarn on the walls as a giant security blanket.
It really was cool, though, I thought. Here's what it looked like.

I haven't finished the bookshelf area you see in the first picture, but the rest is gone. And all is not lost--I'm taking it to work to try to alleviate the beigeness there.
Meanwhile, as I was trying to get everything tidy and impersonal, my unfinished hat stood out as something a stager would remove. Here's where we left it in April.

That hat has been sitting around waiting to have six stitches bound off and a seam sewn down the back ever since. What was my problem? Aside from laziness, I couldn't remember how to bind off, and I didn't have a plan for how the heck to sew the seam with this big fat yarn. So last night I looked up how to bind off, which is really so simple, and I decided to crochet the seam. It's not the most elegant way to do it, but it worked out fine. Next time I'd probably use a different yarn--something more normal and thinner in similar colors--and sew the seam. Duh, but I didn't think of that until after I had already finished. Somehow I felt like I should be dissatisfied with it and undo it and redo it some sleeker way--I guess I've been reading too much Yarn Harlot--but I'm tired of being a perfectionist. I like the hat how it is, it fits my head nicely, and I'm planning to keep it, so there is absolutely no reason why it can't stay exactly as it is.

In other news, my head is apparently the same size as a small lamp shade.

festival update

2008-08-20T06:55:00.006-05:00

The Michigan Fiber Festival was a blast. There were tons of vendors, more than I even got a chance to see, and lots and lots of animals. The amazing thing was that for such a large festival, it wasn't very crowded--you could still get around and see everything without feeling like part of a herd yourself.
There were bunnies, goats, llamas, and of course sheep.

We also got to see some shearing demonstrations. This little fuzzy creature did not want to be sheared at all and complained bitterly throughout the process. Here's before. (That's her head on the right under the handler's knee, which might explain some of the acrimony. She rather reminds me of Dolores from The Panopticon in this picture.)

And here's mostly done.

When there are a bunch of sheep all waiting to be sheared, the ones who are done look really embarrassed, and ones who are waiting look really nervous. It's difficult to get more than a sideways glance from them--forget about making eye contact.

Showing unusual restraint, I bought only two things. It was strange--there were tons of really beautiful yarns and rovings there, but most of them just weren't speaking to me. This one did, though. It's hand-dyed mohair from Mar-Rita Farm. I've never spun mohair before, so it will be a new adventure for me. I just couldn't resist the colors.

I'm back

2008-08-19T06:54:00.002-05:00

I had a blast on my trip. I got to see my best friend and her beautiful, charming children, and I got to go to the Michigan Fiber Festival. How much of a vacation was it? I actually had time to spin! I even got to "teach" my three-year-old honorary niece to spin, which consisted of showing her how it works and then making sure she didn't fall or wreck anything while she treadled a million miles per hour. It was really fun, and she had a total blast. She also "helped" by mushing up pieces of roving for me. I think in a few years we'll have her spinning for real. Before we even started, she already knew that yarn is for knitting, that what I was working with was wool, and that wool comes from sheep. She's a very clever little girl.
No time to write more now, but I do have more to say. Here's a preview.

a bit of spinning

2008-08-18T06:57:00.000-05:00

Since I've been noticing such a decline in the quality of my spinning lately--due to lack of practice--I've decided to try to be more regular about it. Besides, it makes me feel so good! Why do I always put the best stuff at lowest priority?
I decided to try out the last of the test rovings I dyed a month or so ago. This is the impromptu one that soaked up the excess dye from the other two (which are now the yarn for my computer cozy).

It didn't get as much soaking time in the acid as the others, so maybe that's why the color isn't as dark, or maybe they sucked up a lot of the color and didn't leave as much for this one. In any case, I love the shade of purple, and I love that you can see some of the original brown through it. (This was brown tones mix from Sheep Shed Studio.)
It's very nice to spin. I had trouble with this wool before it was dyed because it was so darn slippery, almost as if it was alpaca. But the dye stuck everything together a tiny bit, just enough that it's great to spin now.

Very nice yarn. I definitely want to keep this up.

a little crochet

2008-08-15T06:52:00.003-05:00

I'm making some progress on the cozy for my teeny computer. I love this project--it is so soothingly simple, and the colors change just enough to keep it interesting.

Here it is up close.

It's small, it's simple, it's pretty, and it shows off my dyeing. What more could I ask in a travel project?