First and foremost, a great big thank you to the wonderful Melissa over at Craftygrrrl.ca for being my super-awesome super-secret pal these past few months! I received your final gift today and it was just wonderful!
That’s right, that’s two of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s books! Also a super-handy tool to estimate my yardage of the yarn that I spinn and two Laura Secord chocolate bars! Thanks so much Melissa, you certainly did spoil me!
I’ve been sort of half-heartedly knitting the past few days. Mostly because I’ve been thinking, and having good talks with those with lots of insight. That’s never a bad thing, even if you hear things you don’t necessarily want to hear from people you love and people who only have your best interest at heart.
That being said, I have plans. A few plans that reach their tentacles out into a few different areas of my life. Most recently though, and in the online world, (as in ongoing right now because we’re talking about it), Penny and I are discussing the changes for our beloved Nervousness.org. We’re excited, but that’s all I’m going to say right now.
As for other areas of my life, writing, knitting, photography, spinning…. I’m looking into reaching out more into those a bit. No details on that either. I’m sort of being vague, I apologize, it’s just that there’s nothing to be detailed about yet.
Needless to say though that elusive creativity I was spouting off about before seems to be coming back into my life. Maybe it never left, but it sure felt like it took an extended vacation for a while.
Here’s the current neverending knitting project (click here to read about it). As much as I’d like to be working more quickly on it, two things come to mind:
1. It’s not about speed; and
2. My wrist has been bothering me and that makes it hard for me to knit.
Not to mention, I do have that pesky honeymoon camisole redux that I’ve been working on for a month. Not to say that the pattern is pesky or the fact that it isn’t a fun, easy, and quick knit. But you know sometimes you start something and you’re so excited, then your mind changes and it just goes on the backburner? I love this cami, I want to finish it, but it’s hard for me lately to stay on any projects that are large.
Funny I say that as I begin to create something that will become massive and neverending – but really that to me is a thousand little projects – each unfinished skein is a project and once the skein is done the project is done until I join the next one.
But enough jibber-jabber, here’s the progress photo:
I need a name for the project. Badly. But I’m so poor with titles, it might take a while. Do you have a suggestion? Leave me a comment.
I plan on hurrying up that cami over the next week and hopefully finishing it. Not only will it be one thing I can check off the list, but also I’ll have a wonderful new cami to wear.
That all being said, today I woke up in a foul mood.
Okay, that’s actually a lie.
I woke up in a fine mood, but thanks to a series of unfortunate events first thing in the morning (before the caffeine had hit my system) that turned my mood sour before I had even left the house. Currently I’m feeling a little better, but my industrious project for the day has been striken from my list of things “to do”. This is not because it got done, but rather because I don’t have the patience to finish it.
See, I’m a collector of postcards. I send and receive postcards from people all over the world with the aid from a few online communities (Postcrossing, Postcardx, etc.). I’ve been collecting postcards for a few years now and have amassed quite a collection. Today I decided it’d be a good idea to scan all of the postcards and save them.
Less than halfway done and two hours later, I’m cursing my scanner for not being faster and my poor computer set up (due to the lack of a desk right now) for the pain in my neck and the fact that I’m nowhere close to being done. So that’s it, I’m not scanning my postcards. They’ll just have to stay in the analog world.
They actually generally live on my wall in a wonderful and large collage, but since the move of cities, I haven’t yet had the chance to put them all back up. That’ll get done… at some point.
I’ve prattled on enough. Now it’s time for lunch, and possibly and old movie. If I feel the urge, I might get to sewing that skirt today.
Filed under: Knitting
I was inspired by a project started by Germaine Koh’s “Knitwork” which she has been working on for 14 years, and the idea of freeform knitting and I wanted to do something like it in my own way. See, I’m a big believer that knitting is art. Even if you’re only knitting a scarf, look at it as art, and it’ll become it. Then of course, there are far more outlandish ways to create art with knitting, and that is what I intend to do.
The themes: knitting as memory, knitting as art, knitting as unstoppable.
Knitting as memory – each thing that you knit is a snapshot of you at that point in time. It is a piece of work that demonstrates not only your skill, but your favourite colours and you at that exact point in time.
Knitting as art – Knitting can be whatever you make it. Something to warm a loved one, something to share, something to create just for the sake of creating it. To me, it’s art.
Knitting as unstoppable – Once you become a knitter I’m a firm believer that you don’t ever stop. You’re a knitter for life, even if you may take a break for a few years.
What I intend to do is give every odd-ball a home that I can. I want to create something huge, in a freeform knitting style, made completely out of oddballs and the ends of balls/skeins/hanks/whatever. That yarn that you have sitting in your stash that you have no clue what to do with because there isn’t enough to do anything with, I want to take and incorporate into this huge piece of work.
If anybody decides they want to donate they’re odds ‘n ends, I will take tags and affix them to all the areas of the freeform knit with the name, address (email or otherwise), and location of the person that donated that yarn. I want the whole world represented here.
I have already started on this project with my own odds ‘n ends. There will always be knitting done on it, and I never plan to actually bind it off or have needles not on it. I want to continue on with it until I’m 80 years old and sitting on a veranda with this massive piece of work.
If you’re interested in helping out, please leave a message here with your email address. The comments are moderated, so if you don’t want your email address on the website, please just say so in the comment and I will edit it out.
Thank you in advance to all of those who wish to help.
It’s still very small, but here’s the beginning:
Huzzah, the cable has arrived and I have photographs to show you all.
This is going to be image heavy. You’ve been warned (although I can’t imagine there are many people still on dial-up?).
Above is the wonderful gift from my SP 2 that I received a while ago. Pictured are green hand-dyed silk hankies, a new spindle, and some wonderful brown fleece, which has since been spun (see below). Not pictured: chocolate which I’ve eaten.
Skeins that I’ve spun! All are 2-ply. Left to right: 100% fleece (thanks SP!), 50% corridale/50% fleece, and the last two are 100% corridale. All were done with a drop spindle because I don’t have a spinning wheel. Yet.
The beautiful merino roving I got from a local store. They have racks of this stuff in so many colors. They also have silk, mohair, and corridale. I love it. They sell it per 100g so you can get as much or little as you want.
100% wild silk also from the same store mentioned above. I couldn’t even capture how awesome the colours are, but you get the idea.
Perdita – Lilacs, from Knitty Summer 2006. I’m in love with these and now I can’t stop making them. This is made with 100% hemp yarn that is locally made.
The cool thing with living in an artsy fartsy town is that there are lots of local artisans making some cool stuff.
Also, stay tuned for a knitting project that I’ve started working on in an update tomorrow.
So I’m glad to say that at least my money wasn’t wasted, as a through search has not yielded my camera cable. However I’m secretly pissed off too because I have a lot of photos I want to put on my computer.
That being said, I’ve decided that I really freaking want a spinning wheel. Really badly. There’s a generalized antique/junk store by my house and they have three for sale. Of course they’re technically “antique” making them far more expensive than they should be, but that’s not the point (and I doubt they’re even that antique!). The point is, I want a spinning wheel.
I’ve made three skeins of yarn, 2-ply which I will have photos of shortly within the past week. Two of these were partially made up of wool already spun, but another was done completely within a few days time. I’ve been a spinning fiend, partially in thanks to my wonderful SP who sent me the gorgeous fleece and the wonderful brand new drop spindle which makes spinning just so much easier.
I also splurged yesterday because I got a new job. A job that pays more than my old one, and is arguably much better than my old one as my main job title won’t be “cashier”. Head cashier or not, it’s a shitty job!
But back to what I splurged on. I bought some beautiful teal merino roving and some wild silk (meaning the silk worms were actually wild) dyed in greens and reds and oranges. Pictures, I swear, will follow.
I was going to write more, but the thunder and lightening is telling me that I should turn off my computer for now.
Stay tuned for photos!
So I’m more or less settled… meaning I’m moved in and the essentials are out, but unfortunately there are still bits and pieces that I just cannot find at all.
However, I am enjoying my apartment in a building built 95 years ago. Top floor. Big bright sunny windows with lots of room for planty goodness (also a bit enough outdoor sill to house a little window box with some herbs!!). We have a chair… B. and I like to eye it sneakily and try to make it to the chair before the other does (all in good fun of course). Our little kitchen is little, but it’s bigger than the last one so what more can we ask?
I wanted to grace my blog with photos of the neat old building, the film noir-esque hallways and the creepy basement, but alas, I can’t seem to find my damned cable that connects to my camera. I know I have it, I remember grabbing it, it’s just lost beneath a sea of boxes and odds and ends.
That ALL being said, I received a gorgeous gift from my secret pal! A wonderful new spindle, some beautiful green silk hankies and some gorgeous brown fleece (which is already getting spun!). There was also chocolate which I promptly pigged out on (although I did manage to save some for a future date).
My own computer is still out of commission, I need to get a monitor as I left my other one in Vancouver. Monday that will happen, and hopefully I’ll happen upon the rest of my computer stuff stored away somewhere. Until then, it’s B.’s little laptop for me.
Now, I’m off for a night of barbequing, and then off to a job interview tomorrow (conviniently located across the street from where I live).
Think good thoughts!
Filed under: Knitting
I move tomorrow, and I’ve been on the phone with random utility companies far too long already and I’m not even a third done.
So, in the meantime while I’m listening to the muzak on the other end of the line, I’ll fill out this SP8 questionnaire.
1) What is your favorite season of the year?
Spring or fall… I like the colours of fall, but I love what spring promises (warmth, vacation, all that jazz)
2) Where is your favorite vacation spot?
I have yet to find a favourite vacation spot, but definitely somehwere with archaeological significance.
3) If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be?
Guatemala
4) If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be?
I don’t have a brand. I’m very pragmatic in my brands – I use what works for the project. As for the kind of yarn, a wool/cotton blend.
5) If you won a shopping spree to your favorite yarn store, what would you get?
I would get some nice roving, some luxurious yarns I couldn’t usually afford, and a set of Denise interchangable needles.
Filed under: Knitting
I’ve taken much time in the past few days to get knitting done. It’s been extremely hot (although there was *gasp* a breeze yesterday!) which means you stay as still as you can during the day, and then at night you might go out and do something. So I’ve taken to knitting during my days.
First and foremost, I finished the slipper! It’ll be in the mail ASAP to my mom who has been more than patient waiting for it. Of course it’s been just as hot where she is so I don’t think she needs the slippers right now anyway.
Next, I’ve picked up the old circulars again and I’m once again making a honeymoon cami because it’s awesome and I want another one. I love my brown one and all but live in it (because I do have to wash it from time to time), so I decided a nice creamy white one is in order. I’m doing everything exactly the same as the first, including the adjustments I made, but I’m lengthening it by about an inch this time and it’s going to be “natural white” in the Elann.com Sonata instead of “deep olive”.
Pictures!
And the detail:
The slipper will be done by tomorrow come hell or high water!
I say tomorrow because I still have my tapestry needles and whatnot in the bed of the truck and I may not feel like getting them out until tomorrow. But I’ve begun shaping the toe, so the end is definitely only an hour or so away.
I forgot to mention this in my last post, but during the second day of travel, when we woke up in Hope, within 30 mins of me crawling out of bed I get stung by a damned wasp! Good news, I didn’t die. Better news, B. acted quick as can be, killed the wasp, and then mushed up some aspirin, put it on the sting, and to my surprise it worked! The pain didn’t disappear, but it was a lot less worse than it was seconds before.
I mention this only because for 20 years I managed to not get stung by anything, and then twice in one summer I get stung by a wasp. Both times because they were hiding in my clothes. Damned sneaky wasps.
Also, I love the Okanagan. It’s way too bloody hot, hotter than it is here, but I love the sagebrush and the brown hills spotted with green.
The above photo was taken outside of Osoyoos, possibly the hottest place in all of Canada.
Here’s the slipper for my mom. I’m a horrible daughter, but I swear it’s coming along.
It’s so damned hard to find time between moving, working, and then trying to knit. Damned near impossible.
The moving is going well however. I just realized today that I really only have like ten days left before it’s all ready to go (supposedly) and I’m off. Ten days. It’s seems almost impossible, but so exciting! I’ve been talking to people about darkrooms in my new city, I’ve been scouting out places to get supplies. It’s all falling into place, oh yes.
Also, in response to my lamentation the previous entry, I shot off two rolls of film on a whim yesterday. It felt really damned good to do something like that, especially because I’ve been so absent from my cameras. My cameras are like my limbs, take them away and they still itch.
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