i’m a wild child

i’ve been a bad blogger and haven’t updated in a while. so, to make up for it here is (insert your choice of theme music here) super-post

first, new knits- my love affair with peace fleece finally culminated with me buying some and casting on for the central park hoodie. of course everyone else finished it last year, but the sheep in me wants to follow season’s be damned. my goal is to finish it before i leave for camp on the 29th, it looks like its going to happen! this knits up FAST. even though i realized just before i started the armholes that i was four stitches short and had to rip out 14 inches of knitting (there were tears, as well musings on why the gods were displeased with me) i’m almost done with the hood and i re-started on memorial weekend. the pattern itself is really good. there is only one bit of errata, which i didn’t fix, and it still came out fine. i knit the body all in one piece, and didn’t have any problems altering it. my issue lies in the sizing, specifically the arm sizing. the arms are tiny! i have pretty sticklike arms but i still ended up having to add 8 stitches to the initial cast on and then increase every 20 rows. And even with that alteration thee sleeves are a bit more snug than i would like. but arms aside i’m really happy with it. the yarn is super warm and cozy and the color is to die for, a really vibrant grassy green with flecks of blue and red.

i had a mini photoshoot last week where i took the above picture as well as these

new hobbies- i told you guys before that i had learned how to spin, and my interest how now grown into obsession. to further enable my obsession, i bought a spinning wheel!!!! its a baynes. i unfortuantely wasn’t able to try any wheels before i purchased one so i based my decision on:

• cost (preferably very very cheap)
• look (i wanted a wheel that was pretty, why would i want to spend hours in front of something ugly?)
• easy to use and easy to learn on (i’m going to be teaching my self so ease of use is essentia)

the baynes is all of those things. i got the clear finished double treadle which was within my price limit. the wheel looks classic but still very polished and modern. and, from the people i’ve talked to it is really easy to operate and learn on. plus, the customer service from susan’s spinning bunny was great! she and her husband walked me through the process and answered all of my questions. now all i have to do is wait stalk the mailperson and hope that customs doesn’t suspect that there is dynamite hidden in the bobbins.

new knitters- i’m working as a counselor at a pre-school summer camp (the same one i attended. i like to wear my shirt that i made there when i was three) and i mentioned that i like to knit. it turns out that another counselor and one of the grown-ups knit to! we ended up excitedly discussing sock and maryland sheep and wool as the muggle counselor looked on in amazement. this is the first time that i’ve really discovered knitters in the wild and i’m really excited

and we did!

Obama for President 2008!

well, this one presents some problems as i still am in school, so lets pretend that i ended my education in th fifth grade

1. we didn’t have heely’s back then, we had to sprain our ankles more creative
2. recess was a right, equal to that of free speech, not the hot-button issue it is today.
3. and during our taken-for-granted recess we were allowed to play dodgeball. (honestly, i don’t see what the fuss is about, i think people get hurt more often playing soccer and football in p.e.)
4. cupcakes for birthdays were encouraged, even the teacher needs a little sugar jolt to keep going. (as a late june birthday i’m still bitter about having to bring in end of school Popsicles instead)
5. the standardized tests have come. ( at middles schools they even come with bonus pep rallies)
6. bribery is now an accepted form of motivation ( as seen in the mcdonalds report card snafu. not only is it unethical its packed chock full of trans fats)
7. homeschoolers are seen as (relatively) more normal than they were when i first homeschooled in kindergarten
8. facebook is the new neopets
9. kids weren’t reading, they were watching tv instead, so the tv got brought to the library. the latest trend in children’s publishing is tv show spin off books. of course to really get the story you need to watch the show
10. the world may be 70% water, but its working towards being totally green. almost every school now has an environmental club, and middle schoolers will energetically explain he effects of greenhouse gases to you.

i’ve decided to start doing 10 on tuesday.  i love reading about random bits from other people’s lives, so here are some from mine

10 favorite time-wasters

1. checking my googlereader. because in the 5 seconds since i last checked someone could have posted

2.knitting

3.spinning.  this and knitting often go together, because knitting prompts a trip to the craft room and in the craftroom there is fiber along with the stuff required to make it into yarn, in what is obviously the fate’s way of telling me that i should spin

4. re-discovering websites.  remember that cool website for a year ago, lets go find it again

5. finding things.  the hunt to find something is one of the best time-wasters in that trying to find somehting doesn’t really seem like wasting time, because at the end you hopefully have something that you needed.  but it does lead you to other forgotten things which must be picked up, re-examined, and played with

6.ravelry. there are thousands of patterns in ravelry, and eventually i will have looked at all of them

7. reading blogs.  this is different from checking the googlereader because i’m not just talking about 1 post.  i’m talking about reading the blog, preferable starting at the first post and working my way forward.  whenever i add a new blog to my list i like to do this.  it lets me get to know the person, in a virtual way, and its like having all the fun things about blog-reading compressed into one big lump

8.  making schedules.  planning the work that will be done after the procrasinaiton makes the procrastination feel more productive, and i like having to do lists even though i have never looked at a to do list after i was done writing it.  just having it makes me happy

9. reading. the newspaper alone has the front page, style, metro, health, business, and comics. and then there are the 2 or 3 works in progress of the literary type

10. playing pointless games on the internet. the ones that require you to sink into a part meditative and part vegetable state are best

i recently saw a preview of a movie about the chihuahuas of beverly hills, it involved rapping lapdogs and an insinuation that the only reason the aztecs were so great was because the chihuahuas were close behind

it was :

A- a spoof, of the sort found on Saturday night live and some of the wittier youtube channels

B- in theaters because the preview is real and come September we will be able to see chihuahuas dancing on the big screen

C- i made up the whole thing

it makes me very happy to report that the answer is in fact B.

first- the yarn

a skein of tess designer yarns superwash merino. the purple is much deeper in real life, almost black. it’s so soft, and smells really good (i think they scent the dye). once i get around to winding all skein-tieless 550 yards of this i’m hoping for it to become a shrug of some kind

here is my first skein of malabrigo. while soft, i don’t think its quite as ridiculously soft as people made it out to be, but it will make a nice scarf. the color is actually much more neon, and will clash perfectly with the red hat and kelly green gloves i’m planning on

this was my first buy of the day. it’s very shiny almost metallic, and i’m spinning it up into fingering to someday make a shawl.

this was my remorse buy. it is pretty, and drafts like a dream. but i don’t really like pink. i suppose other people like pink, and if it just doesn’t work i’m sure it will work for someone else.

so, not only was there yarn there were sheep, and llama, and bunnies, and goats. there were so-adorable-that-if-we-didn’t-live-in-suburbia-i-would-have-taken-them-home-goats

the goats from the front

the goats from the top

the goats with a random child

it was an awesome day, i’m already planning next years plan of attack. it involves lots of fiber (especially the mystery bumps of fiber i saw, but didn’t buy and now wish i had), and lots of sock yarn ( i was good this year and didn’t get any, but i dont think my resolve will last)

seeing as the primary is about to come to a close, it may seem as though this post is a little late, but it’s never to late to embrace hope (super-cheesy, but you have to admit that deep down you know its true.  i like what he represents, his platform, and him- what a great and charismatic speaker.  plus, i think he could actually win (always a good thing).

also, look at this video, a very cute story- and one that i bet keeps hillary awake until 3 a.m.

so, i did say that i would get to why i needed roving so here it is.  I MADE YARN!!!!!!!  yes, the wild child has learned to spin.  most of my yarn still looks like a curly coiled mess, but its getting there.

Ta Da!  its very much an “art yarn”, and will never be knit up, but its still pretty awesome

and here is the bonus shot of me making the yarn.  i won’t go into the details of it, but basically my yarn is (relatively) even because i tear my roving into thin strips and just spin those, instead of thinning out the fiber from a big handful.

the last week i’ve developed another satellite hobby to knitting, making stitchmarkers

(sorry about all of the blurry pictures,  it seems that crafty energy takes away from photographic energy)  this is the latest set i’ve made.  my markers are unique because instead of a solid ring that you place on the needles they are flexible wire, so they hang down comfortable when working instead of being pushed up by the knitting, and can flex to fit a variety of needle sizes

and there is just one last thing, it was a pretty simple garter stitch ipod case for a friend’s birthday, but it did involve a foray into the unknown land where only one needle is required ( and it isn’t even a sharp one you can defend yourself with)

i am totally in love with crocheted button covers!  they looks so cute and you can make buttons that match PERFECTLY.  i used this really awesome tutorial at crochet me.  ( check out the rest of the patterns while you’re there.  they almost make me want to become a hooker)

for a long time i was in stash denial, “it freaks me out to have a stash, i don’t like it” i cried as the yarn came in. most of the blame falls on the ravelry karma swap group. basically free yarn? i’m there! so, i present to you the fully self-accepting stash

level one- needles, fo’s and other detrius

level two-roving. why do i need roving? we’ll get to that tomarrow

level three- stuff i have plans for.

the next two levels are the yarns i don’t have plans for. the top one is nice yarn and the bottom is the not so nice yarns. call me crazy, but i get twitchy when the homespun touches the angora

then there is the bag of manos del uraguay and the bag of bernat cameo on the floor, and after that it’s done.  but, stay tuned for the three bags of yarn i just ordered.  (the word sale is my achilles heel)

so, the friday plan has also fallen through.  i like the idea of being organized- the practice not so much.  so, i’m back with a vengeance and a apology to subjecting you to all those boring planning post.  and what better way is there to get back on the blogging wagon than a nice long rant

we recently drove down to rehobeth beach and sis and i were watching videos on her ipod, specifically anthony bourdain goes to sweden.  he was supposedly meeting with two knitting snowboarders.  i know for a fact that there are actually knitting snowboarders, i saw a poster (now i totally want one to hang up, knitting guys are just as cool as fall out boy).  these were not them.  THEY WERE CROCHETERS!  there was only one needle!  didn’t anyone on the production staff have the mind to think back to when their mothers and grandmothers were knitting away and realize that knitting involves two needs, not one hook?  there were even lots of nice close-ups of the guy making the hat, in which it was quite obvious that

1. all of the stitches were not live or on a needle
2. only one needle was involved
3. the needle was a hook

as if that wasn’t enough there was the tellatale heart.  i caught just a glimpse of a red on black line drawing at first, but after re-winding a few times i was sure.  they were CROCHETING  with RED HEART.  why i ask, why?  not only is red heart the worst of all acrylics, acrylics are sometimes necessary but for those times there are caron, dark horse, vanna’s choice, and wool-ease, all of which lack that scratchy plastic-ness that defines red heart.  also, these people are from sweden!  home of Icelandic wools an fair-isle!  i can only hope that the pulled the red heart out of the back of the closet when they had been hidden after deciding that an american wouldn’t properly appreciate all of those stunning sheep wools that usually use.

the yarn  (a simple google search turned up no hat pictures, apparently the evidence has been destroyed)