AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Treasure hunting

I have a number of friends who have shops on Etsy (and I could open one too if I ever got off my butt and finished my initial design), so I go treasure hunting.  I rarely buy anything (budget mostly goes to yarn and chocolate after all), but it is wonderful to see the pieces and occasionally to pick something up.

Liz owns Lush Beads (where I buy all of my beads now) and has an Etsy store.  She has necklaces and other fun things, but her signature pieces are the spiders.  I know a lot of people find spiders frightening or disgusting, but that has never been my problem.  My only bug problem is when they crawl on me.  That tends to freak me out a bit (the sensation is just a wee bit alarming).  She has classes, and I should actually sign up for one of them.  My beading skills are sadly weak.

I just found Eastmanhomeart (the Etsy shop names can be a mouthful), who has this gorgeous pillow for sale.  It reminds me that I have a ton of fabric (all stashes grow, just not all grow equally fast and fat) and I was looking for information a few months ago about devore.  I should dig out that information again and actually make something.  Too many crafts and not enough hours in the day.  Truly.

Of course, no trip to Etsy is complete without checking the yarn selections.  Oh my god - lace weight!  I know about Black Bunny, but this one caught my eye (seller is White Willow) as a blend of flames and autumn and Indian Paintbrush.  Gorgeous, though I need more lace weight like I need another hole in the head.  I would happily buy any one or two of these, but I've already spent my fair share of money on yarn.  Hopefully somebody nice will offer these items a good home.

Classy cows

Class started up (last week was conveniently spring break) again last night with a lecture and a graded lab.  A little harder than before, but mostly because my brain was rusty. 

Stephanie posted about a really cute teapot and it made me remember all of the teapots (and other kitschy stuff) I have.  Most of them are on the highest shelf way above my head in the kitchen.  They are probably completely covered with dust, but I immediately went to search for cute bunny teapots (I have a Japanese style koi teapot, but nothing too terribly cute).  Teapots are one of those things I never really buy for myself.  I had my old pot pretty much rust out before I replaced it even though it had gotten grimy in a way that washing wasn't fixing.  So, anyways, I was looking for a cute bunny teapot and while I didn't find that...

I found this.

I don't think my mom ever intended to collect cows, but she bought a set of plates with a very country-esque cow and a few other rustic animal motifs and bam! We have been giving her cow things for a few years now.  She's probably getting tired of it.  Last year, my hubby and I walked the Cows of Boston and took as many pictures as we could.  She later received a CD of cow pictures.  Umm, 101 cow pictures.  That's a lot of cow.

The New York Adventure - Kinokuniya

Kinokuniya
  n.
  1.  A great excuse to visit New York City.
  2.  A Japanese bookstore with a crafts and hobbies section
  3.  The source of this knitting book

When Sasuga was local (and I was more local than I am now), I used to work for them.  I'd work on the newsletter, hand craft web pages, scan book covers (mostly manga), and a ton of other little tasks.  My job was eventually made obsolete through the power of the database driven web site, but I loved it (loved a bit less the 3 jobs to pay the bills thing).  My Japanese is woefully rusty, but the best thing about playing Japanese video games and having friends as into Japanese as you are is the constant incentive to not let things slide.

So, I now have a Japanese knitting book and I will be making this pattern first (if I can come close to gauge with the yarn).  I am armed with my poor Japanese reading comprehension (I'm so much better at listening - sad, because that's not that great either) and websites.

ABCs of Knitting Japanese Patterns
Clearwater Japanese Charting Lessons

I am pretty sure that I know enough Japanese to smooth out the edges of my learning curve.  It would be great to finally have a decision on what I'm making with all of my Silky Wool (though that will have to wait until I'm done with the Fiery Bolero).  I have already figured out the stitch pattern - the charts are on the second page - the patterns for the increases, decreases, and some of the particulars for my size.  It comes in two sizes, Medium (98 cm) and Large (104). 

As far as I can tell (and I really haven't had the book for very long) the best thing about Japanese patterns is because they tell you how many rows and stitches every section is (including how many stitches you are decreasing every so many rows) is that it is even easier visually to change things to match your stitch and row gauges.  I bought Silky Wool over a year ago to make Scoop It, but my row gauge was so compressed that I gave up on it.  I'm pretty sure I can make this pattern work even if I don't manage to expand my row gauge (I was getting nearly 40 rows per 4 inches).

The New York Adventure - Part 3

Gosh, my photography skills are poor.  I didn't take pictures during Stephanie's talk (it just felt rude), but it was quite a gathering of knitters.  I recognized four or five people (max), but was too dang shy to talk to anyone.  Kind of silly, because we were all there for the same reason.

It was wonderful to see all of these projects in person (though there were a few too many Clapotii for me) and fun to sit in a place where you were encouraged to knit at your hearts content.  What I saw:  knitters with lace, knitters with socks, knitters with the most gorgeous shawls I had ever seen.  There were young punk knitters, knitting normal looking things (socks, scarves, squares, what have you) and working age women (and men) knitting fancy and functional garments.  There were older men and women knitting tons of interesting things (most of the people near me were working on shawls, sweaters or socks). 

Of course, because I was being stupid and shy the most conversation I had with anyone was with a woman who asked me about the sock I was knitting.  The conversation went something like, "What size needles are those?"  "0."  Hey, it was what I had on hand (and both the yarn and the needles came from my trip last year to Toronto).  Granted, I'm now wondering if I've finally managed to make a pair of socks too small for my feet (instead of my normal too large). 

Stephanie's talk was humorous and a bit dogmatic.  She was obviously a wee bit nervous (though she managed to talk at a human pace - I would have been rambling and fast).  I think some small part of her must have been thinking that it would never work, that the knitters wouldn't come.  But come they did.  There were knitter(s) from England and Lucerne (Switzerland), and from all over the United States.  Made my boring train trip seem short and easy by comparison.

The New York Adventure - Part 2

Yarn.
I'm a knitter.  I love yarn.  I'm also on a budget and the stashalong (though the program with free days is a lot more flexible and happy making), and I needed 4-5 skeins of yarn for the Fiery Bolero.

I didn't go as wild as a lot of the knitters I saw (I'd have needed to save up yarn dollars for quite a number of months to equal that haul), but I did get to Habu Textiles and School Products.

Habu was a novel experience.  Sale yarns were in baskets on the floor and involved some vibrant reds, a few vivid purples and then mostly naturals for the rest of the color sets.  A lot of the yarn was on cones or small packages.  It was nifty, but nothing I was going to go completely gaga over.  Then someone noticed the room with the non-sale stuff behind a curtain and people started to file in there.  I've bought from Habu before (online) and it is not really the place to go with a project in mind.  You need to see what is there (especially the smaller bundles of yarn) and decide what you can make.  It's like building a functional art object.  I bought a single bundle of bamboo lace weight (because I need more lace weight like I need a hole in the head... umm, exactly) in a silvery grey color.  I'll probably make one of the smaller Interweave Knits lace shawls or I'll get a copy of Lace Style and see what I can make in there.  I already have a lace project on the needles (too nascent to show off) and enough lace weight for four or five shawls, but anyway more lace weight!

I went to School Products on the suggestion of a friend, and for making a published pattern it is definitely a better place to go.  There was a lot of variety (and if I hadn't been shopping for a single product there was some Koigu in a s et of wonderful berry reds that I would have snatched up), though it is black hole of Karabella products.  The owner suggested Karabella Margrite for the Fiery Bolero, and once again I succumbed to the softness of the yarn.  It is hard to buy a yarn quite that expensive.  I was hoping to make the bolero out of something a bit more affordable, but the yardage on the more affordable yarn I was looking at was small enough that the price difference for the project was 3 dollars.  I skimped by only buying 4 skeins.  They were alarmed at my not buying the standard extra ball.  The project calls for 6 skeins for my size (but so does the next larger size) or approximately 605 yards.  I have more yarn than that and knit loose, so I will make do.  This will, of course, be the time it doesn't work out.  I need to finish one of my older projects on the needles to reclaim a size 5 for the project.  Maybe I'll do that this afternoon.

When I go back, I think I'll take another yarn shop address or two and see what other areas I can explore (and go to the Cupcake Cafe or some other sweet shop).  Heck, I might just go back with a few coffee shop addresses of the non-$bucks variety and drink the happy brew.

Run Log

You'd think I'd have thought to do this by now, given I signed up with Runagogo on January 5th.  I even have a log book, so this is just so I can look at the running stuff when I'm not near my exercise stuff.  (I am signed up for so much exercise stufff at this point that I probably have too many places to record my exercises, but this is at least one I control.)  Four months ago I don't think I could have imagined running 5 miles straight much less my 10 miles of Sunday. My training runs are typically Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. 

Vogue Knitting Sp/Su 2007

I'm always so happy to see a knitting magazine (or catalog come to think of it) in the mail, so I was extra excited to see the new Vogue Knitting.

Ugh.

This issue was a whole lot of disappointment. 

Pros:
EZ's Surplice Baby Jacket.  It's good to see the general instructions with lots of options for a cute baby sweater.  I really should get a copy of the Baby Surprise Jacket (and some of EZ's other stuff).  It sounds like her mode of operating is right up my alley.

Cabled Cardigan (page 62).  Umm, I love the huge ropy cables, though I don't think I would ever make this.  The cables like huge hand holds for kids to climb you (or others, but we'll stick with kids, okay).

For that matter I like the top on the following page with its weird criss-crossing, though I would also never make this.  I was hoping that the summer issue would give me a good idea what to do with those annoying four balls of Karabella vintage cotton I have kicking around.

I really liked the lace tank (page 69) and most of the lace section was pretty even though I am mostly in the constant market for work appropriate clothing (aka, tattoo covering).  It's one of my big pet peeves (which has nothing to do with lace) that the back neck for the garments  always seems to come out low.  My ex-boss tended to have conniptions if the tattoos on the back of my neck were too visible. The garments though, that's probably user error.  I am prone to user error.

Everything else?  Eh.  Most of it has been done before.

Cons:
Really, I'm only writing this because my eyeballs are bleeding!  I really do respect Annie Modesitt for her chutzpah and innovation, but if I am going to cause any child of mine intense hours of therapy it isn't because I decided to knit this frightening monstrosity of a garment.  Gosh.  Looking at it makes me ill.  (Bobbles, ruffles, twisted ties, cables, embroidery - and it says it includes freeform crochet)  Normally I don't get quite this vehement about a pattern, but it looks like it would take hours to knit and cause mental anguish for both the user and anyone in the eyeball vicinity.  Oy!

While some of the other things are forgettable, honorable mention in the more money than sense department goes to the rainbow cape (modeled over a bikini) in cashmere!  Even with wool as an option, I wouldn't either make or wear something that huge for the summer season.  For the record, it calls for 10 balls of 100% cashmere yarn.  I could explain more why it hurts me so, but I'm being distracted by the cat.

There are also a lot of knit dresses in this issue.  While I don't find that inherently bad, it does seem to be rather limiting.  In proof that I don't really have that great a taste, the sick kitschy part of me really likes the halter sundress (warning, it is pretty bright!).  I think the pattern is written in a way that would make it easy to just truncate it into a regular halter top without too much fussing. 

The New York Adventure - Part 1

I'll probably end up writing about this off and on over the next week, because for all that I wasn't there for long I feel like I covered a lot of ground.  Probably literally.  This isn't a timeline, because no one really needs that, including me.

The short notes:
I took the Amtrak Regional, which leaves on the late side and gets in butt early.  I think in the future I should just take the 6 a.m. bus and both leave and arrive on a shorter term basis (the things I wanted to do most were all 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. kind of things).

MoMA!  It was wonderful and having a friend with (who actually knows things about photography - duh!) makes the entire experience better.  I'm mostly a casual appreciater of art.  I like looking at things and making my own connections, but most of the time it is on a purely visceral level.  Having someone there with more background helped me take at least some pieces out of my gut and more into my head.  I'll probably ramble about the exhibits later when I have caught up on sleep (about the same time you get my two lousy pictures).

I didn't do the Today Show or the Sock thing.  Despite being out there with a blog that theoretically anyone can find (hi Mom!  hi Boss!), I am really shy around most people in public.  The city was full of knitters and I would keep on running into them, but I'd rarely say anything even when I recognized them (maybe especially if I recognized them).  I did some yarn shopping with my Stashalong Free Day and got a little bit of laceweight bamboo from Habu and 4 skeins of Margritte (not exactly within my budget *sigh*) for the Fiery Bolero.

The Harlot.  The presentation area was huge.  While we were waiting for it to start, there were slides of socks on rocks (and other interesting places and with interesting people).  It was insanely funny and just a tiny bit more dogmatic feeling than normal.  It was a very different experience from when I saw her at Circles.  Almost larger than life (and she only said arse once during her talk (and a few more times during the Q & A)!).  I was trying to explain to my friend earlier in the day about knitting and what was going on and I ended up using the word cult.  I'm not completely convinced that I am that far off base.  It's like one of those huge strange religions that no one talks about with odd customs and weird symbology.

The Craft Yarn Council of America worked with Storey Books to have a bag for each knitter with yarn, needles, and a small write up on Warm Up America.  Most of the knitters at the start of the talk cast on for a 7x9" afghan block.  I'm getting two out of my ball (and it is yarn I know I have in the stash, so I'll be making more).  It's always good to know what you're doing with your yarn (other than just petting and drooling on it).

I need to go to bed.  The 3:15 a.m. train is not the most restful place to get your night's shut eye.

Wii Play isn't enough knitting

Hamsterz Life is a game by Ubisoft.  I really know nothing about the game.  Unlike Wii Play, I haven't either played or watched the game being played (thus the link to a review).  What I am writing about is knitting.  Hamsterz Knitting.  Go into any GameStop
and you can see for yourself.  The hamster on the left (with the purple blob) is presumably knitting.  The knitting needles are kind of chunky for the little rodent and are hooked on the end. 

Doesn't look exactly like knitting.

What's more, the hamster has live stitches on the bottom end!  I don't normally want my work to unravel from one side while I'm working so hard to make it grow on the other, but that's a hamster for you.

(There'd be real knitting content, but New York!  Maybe something more interesting tomorrow.  Hee!)

New York!

The power of GMap-Pedometer compells me! 

Here is my route for Thursday.

1. Arrive at Penn Station and go to Tick Tock Diner (which is 24 hour - yippee!)
2. Walk to Central Park (around 6 a.m.) and do some touristy KIP for a couple of hours.
3. Strawberry Fields sock picture thingie?
4. Go to MOMA!  I will probably be there until just before 4 (I'd stay longer, but then I wouldn't get to do anything else for the day).
5. Habu Textiles (and maybe School Products) from 4:30 to just before 6.
6. FIT/Book Launch!
7. Food and other fun?
8. Rent diner space until my train back.

I might skip the sock picture for more time at the MOMA.  Even arriving early there aren't enough hours in the day for everything I want to do and my list is short!  I'm hoping to see my friend (you want to check out her photography - she's amazing!) for the first time in ages. 

I'd write more, but I'm watching Azumanga Daioh, which makes me giggle.