Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Too Hot To Knit!?!?!?!?

It is so hot. I hate the heat. I live in Maine for many reasons, and included in those reasons is that I do not enjoy having my underwear become part of my pores. I can't even knit, I tried to work on the Urban Aran, and my hands were so sweaty that I got all tight and sticky and finally gave up. Wool's hot in the summer, who knew?

Speaking of urban, I finished the first sleeve in a BIG push when Mr. VT was in Ithaca, then ended up unknitting the wrist and adding a few inches. I'm probabally most of the way up the forearm on the second one now. This is a guess, as it's too hot to try it on. I'm currently debating how to do the collar. I'm not sure if I want the collar as in the pattern, or if I want to change it. I'm partial to hoods, but don't think I'll have enough yarn. As I'm doing it as a zip cardigan, I kinda like this idea of not doing a collar per-say, but more of a roll-neck type thing. I'll probabally seam the shoulders and arms then take it from there once I can put it on.

Had an event today that involved wearing my new suit from Banana Republic (thanks mom). I knew my instinct to buy a NICE suit in advance was the right one, as I had about three days notice to wrangle up an appropriate outfit. Normally this would involve a METRIC SHITLOAD of freaking out and obsessively hunting every store within 50 miles. This instead involved clipping the tags and taking a leisurely jaunt to Freeport to get a dressy t-shirt at the Gap. For $6.00. I am a bargain rock star. So anyway, this event (which did not involve court proceedings) went well despite the fact that I got on the interstate in the wrong direction and drove 10 minutes in the wrong direction cause after that loonie lady in Portland got charged with manslaughter or something after turning around in the median break and causing a mega accident, I couldn't bring myself to do it. This meant 1. I had to drive, like 80mph. 2. I was even more out of gas and was too scared to turn on the air conditioning. 3. I arrived at my location to discover that, like the professional that I am, I had sweat through my new Gap shirt. Remember, it was hot, actually 94 degrees. By some miracle and the #1 mention, I got there only 5 minutes late. And things went well. And that's all I'm gonna say about that cause I'm superstitious.

In more news, I finished plying the pink-orange-yellow yarn from the last post. It will probably join Fred as it is a small enough amount that I do not know what one would do with it. I am discovering that I like doing looooooooong draft pulls. I also want to make enough yarn that I can make something out of it. But not now, as it's too hot. It's so hot my finger tips are sweating from typing. So I'm gonna go and sit in front of the fan. And imagine that we live in Alaska.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Maine Fiber Frolic

I went up to the Maine Fiber Frolic this past weekend, which was super cool and so cute and fuzzy all over the place!!! It was essentially a 4-H style fair, but for things having to do with spinning. So I saw alpacas, lamas, bunnies, goats, and sheep, and lots of shearing and spinning and fiber and yarn, it was cool. And the biggest reason I went (aside from the cute fuzzy things) was cause I took a spindling workshop...AND I MADE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was so cool. It's my first mini-skein. I will hang it from my rear-view mirror and name it Fred. (thank you twerpburger). I don't know how many yards I made, but I think it's about a half an ounce of fiber. It's thick and thin and too twisty in places, but as it was my FIRST TIME EVER spinning yarn, I think I did pretty darn good. So good in fact that while I was there and had vendors at my disposal, I bought a spindle from the Spunky Eclectic who I have heard about on Lime and Violet, but did not realize was here in Maine. She was very nice and even gave me some free play fiber, and I went home and have been working on this...

See? It's yarn!
It's even even yarn, it looks like something that could resemble a store-bought yarn.
Ohhhhh, isn't it pretty? and even? There are some parts where I had a chunk or thin spot, but those are hidden in the pic, and there aren't too many of them. I'm having a hard time getting the spindle to maintain spin and not go backwards, but I am pre-drafting a lot so I think I just need to go faster. There's a fiber shop in town and I picked up 7oz of corrindale to practice on too.
Didn't I SWEAR I wasn't going to have any new hobbies? I guess that this is really just an extension of knitting, so I think that's okay. When I came home Mr. VT and I were talking about the way we both like making something from scratch, kind of living off the land style but minus the crunchy hippie part. We do our own beer, and try to make our own wine, and I just made rhubarb jam, and the bread thing, and pesto, we both really enjoy making things from scratch. Like here's this bottle of rhubarb wine that we made at home AND grew the rhubarb to boot! I think that spinning will meld into that style of our living well.

Friday, June 01, 2007

New Chair!!

So this...
Went to this!!!!!! The super comfy Ikea Poang Chair that MR. VT's parents got us for christmas has been reincarnated as an actual fashion accessory.
So cool, tricky but not too tricky to make, I bought the piping foot for my sewing machine and that made the world of difference!!! I found the fabric at a remnants place in Pawtucket RI with my mom.
The colors here aren't super accurate, it's a rich chocolate brown and dusty greyish teal. Kickass! I do have enough to cover a second chair when we buy one, and should also have enough to separately cover the headrest thing, as well as make little cathair covers for the part where Zora and Dulce like to sleep.
And speaking of Zora, she's very pleased that Mr. VT was kind enough to buy her a box at LL Bean, but is a little insulted that it came with something already in it. She would like the fishing boots to be removed immediately.

My 100th post...with FO's!!!

I had to wait a while to post these so that my brother and his wife would receive them before I put up pics. First up, Calorimetry, made out of Patons SWS. I mod'ed the pattern following advice from knittyboard, cast on less sts and made it less wide. Super cute, super cosy. Modeled by a friend, not my sis in law.This is the button I put on it. Super cute. I think she'll really like it.



Next up, a essentially made up pattern for my brother, who has a lot of hair and requested a dready hat, but not rasta or marly-ish. I started with a pattern, quickly fudged it, abandoned it and just made it up as I went. It has a SWS lined brim so it's super soft (no noro against the skin) and as it is HUGE on my little model who is 10, it should fit my bro nicely. And I forgot to put on the brim. Duh. I'll be adding that one at some point. The pinched appearance of the decreases was a surprise, but I REALLY like it, I think it makes it less sack-looking.