Lanam Facio

Wed - May 25, 2005

It looks like a shadow puppet

That's my Andean plying bracelet last night. The yarn broke a few times as I was plying from it (the wool was very grippy), so I have 54 yards in three pieces.

I've also done three more eyelets on the Victorian corset.

I haven't really touched Birch much; it's in the forties here, wet and rainy (I'm wearing two wool sweaters right now), and some deep ancestral urge is telling me to spin more wool to make things to keep myself warm. A slightly shallower urge is also telling me to stay up late and then read trashy novels in bed while curled up with a hot water bottle to keep warm.

Posted at: 11:55 PM |

Sun - May 22, 2005

Revenge of the Sock

Yesterday, Caleb and I went to see Revenge of the Sith. We bought our tickets right at the time that the movie was scheduled to start and got in in time to see two or three trailers.

As we settled in, I reached into my bag and pulled out the sock to knit during the movie. There were only three needles in it, which didn't much surprise me; what did surprise me was that the missing needle wasn't in the bag. I had to sit and watch the movie with no spinning, knitting, blogging, writing, or research to distract me from the more horrible moments.

Luckily, there weren't that many scenes that I needed to distract myself during. As Caleb and I were talking about it afterwards, there were some plot holes/oddly unintelligent decisions that bothered us, but I thought that it worked as a movie really well.

After I came home, I got some knitting on the sock done once I found my backup needles:

And in the background? Nothing. Merely...an interesting sock rack. Or modern art.

Whatever it is, it's not the handspun you're looking for.

Posted at: 06:53 PM |

Fri - May 20, 2005

And...

Nine eyelets.

I caved Wednesday afternoon, but with a good reason; I wanted to bring in my spindle to show my students. To do that, I needed to have some wool spun. See? Perfectly justified.

I think I'm getting better. My yarn looks much more even, and my cob actually looks like a cone. (I didn't understand how I was supposed to be winding it when I was at MDSW.) I'm getting a single of about 24 wpi, which seems as if it'll ply up into a nice worsted.

Since taking these pictures, I spun up some more of the black, wound it all off, and am now spinning up some of the white. I think they'll look rather nice plied together.

Posted at: 09:42 PM |

Tue - May 17, 2005

Halcyon is fast.

I ordered this on Sunday from Halcyon and it was here when I got home from work today:

(I tried taking a picture with flash as well, but when I was playing with it before putting it up, Caleb walked in, looked at it, and said 'Ewww.' I'll try to get a better one in the natural light. )

I already put a quill on my spindle to start spinning. (I used the instructions here: http://www.spinnyspinny.com/articles/spindleplybox.html)

There's a hitch, though. As much as I want to start spinning, my Victorian corset, which is necessary for the next steps in the Victorian outfit I'm making, Is unusable until it has the eyelets put in the back. The handsewn eyelets. The twenty-six handsewn eyelets. The twenty-six handsewn eyelets done in Gutermann silk thread, which is very narrow and so requires many stitches around the hole that I make with an awl and open with a size 6 dp to make each eyelet. I have eight done now, and I'd really like to get this finished before I start on something new.

I feel as if I should take bets on how long it will be (and how many eyelets I will have done) before I cave and start spinning the lovely roving.

Posted at: 10:06 PM |

Sun - May 15, 2005

Exquisite Killer Umbrellas

One year ago today, I moved to Providence.

We played Trivia on Friday night as 'Exquisite Killer Umbrellas' or 'Killer Umbrellas...Exquisite.' Even though we lost forty percent of our team at 3:30 a.m. and the rest of us stopped at four (Caleb and I, however, woke up in time for the last question, which I answered), we finished in sixteenth place, with 115 points. There's something really fun about placing a phone call and that's answered with 'Your Mom is a Geek Army,' (it was the name of the running team, not an insult) to which one is expected to reply 'Killer Umbrellas.'

In preparation for Trivia, I finished the heel on the sock so I'd have easy knitting during the contest:

I then ended up not knitting at all until Saturday evening.

On Saturday, Caleb and I got to spend most of the day just hanging out, which we hadn't gotten to do in a long time. I worked on my Victorian corset and read, and he read, played video games, and slept. It was one of the nicest afternoons I've had in a long time.

Posted at: 06:49 PM |

Fri - May 13, 2005

Round the Bend

Here it is, spun and plied:

The part spiralling up the shaft even looks like real yarn.

I'm hooked. I'm now trying to figure out where the best place for some more roving would be. I'm trying to decide between Halcyon, Carolina Homespun , and Babe's . Or does anyone have any suggestions for plain white wool roving to practice on that's not too expensive? (And yes, Mom, I am kicking myself for not going back and getting more at the festival.)

How do I know I've really gone round the bend? I had to go to school early this morning, and there were more squirrels than usual running around. I found myself looking at their fluffy tails and wondering what they'd look like spun up, and if it would be like spinning from a rabbit.

Posted at: 10:30 AM |

Sun - May 8, 2005

MDSW

MDSW was a lot of fun.

To save space, I put most of the pictures here: http://homepage.mac.com/nikandre/PhotoAlbum53.html

Mom and I got to the festival pretty much as it opened. We were directed to our parking spot by two young Boy Scouts who were having an awful lot of fun with their orange flags. By the time we got in the main gate, it was 9:37, and there were already women wandering around with large bags of roving and yarn.

I'd read Claudia's blog, and so was prepared: Mom and I headed over to the information tent to try to find the Spirit Trail booth. Unfortunately, they didn't know where it would be, but we managed to find our way there. I got some very nice sock yarn there, and none too soon; when we next went by there, the sock yarn was almost all gone.

As we were wandering around the main hall, Mom was looking at the fisherman style sweaters, trying to figure out what exactly she wanted the one she's going to knit to be like. She saw one that looked promising in one booth, and we headed over to check it out. As we looked at it, we started commenting on how much it looked like the fisherman I was wearing, which she'd knit for me. We did realize that it was the same pattern, and got a picture of me with it.

After that, we wandered for a while, looking at things and marveling at the length of the line for t-shirts. We stopped into a booth in Barn 5, where I was looking at the ribbons, laces, and tapes that one stall had for sale. I was amazed at their selection; I thought to myself that I hadn't seen so many different kinds since Wooded Hamlet's website. I looked for a name, and it did turn out to be Wooded Hamlet. They let Mom and me touch the gold lace, which was amazing; it really had a weight and authority of its own.

Then, after we'd wandered around for a while, we went to Carolina Homespun and I got this:

The saleswoman, after she'd found me a book, told me how to choose a nice roving to work with, and then, even though she normally spins top whorl, showed me how to spin with it. The roving that I got was so pretty that I ended up getting this purple stuff from Stony Mountain Fibers to practice with first.

After getting the spindle, things start to blur together. I was clutching it tightly; maybe I cut off some blood flow? (Do I really keep my brain in my fingers?)

A woman in front of us in line for lunch was spinning and let me watch, and a nice man named Steve who was sitting outside a barn showed me how to spin again and gave me all sorts of hints, even as his lunch was getting cold. That was what made me really get it.

I got to meet Rachael. Her sweater is even more beautiful in person. When she saw that I was starting spinning, she pointed to the giant bags of roving that she and Lala were carrying to show me what I was getting in to. I was amused then, but now I realize that she was deadly serious; I'm almost out of the two ounces of purple stuff and am wondering what I'll do next.

As I was going to one of the exhibition halls, I saw and talked to a woman who was sitting in the sun, staunchly wearing her beautiful Rosedale.

There were grown women walking around with bags of multicolored roving and little girls walking around with bags of cotton candy, all clutching them with the same happy expressions on their faces.

As my mom and I were in the main building, listening to the hammered dulcimer performance, a man walked a few steps in and said. 'Oh. It's just another building of...crafts."

The best sell that I heard at the festival was after a skein of yarn got caught on my bag and I, not noticing, walked away, pulling the yarn off the rack. The stallkeeper stopped me, untangled me, and said 'You know, it really seems to like you. Have you considered what you could make with it?'

I got twill tapes at Wooded Hamlet for fixing my Regency corset and putting ties in my Victorian petticoats.

After I got home, I started luceting on a barbecue fork to see if I could do it.

It was a good trip.

Posted at: 10:19 PM |

Wed - May 4, 2005

Something to show?

I am making progress on Birch. I'm up to about seventy stitches cast on.

I haven't been doing much knitting recently, and what I've been doing has been on the sock rather than on Birch. Things are sort of stressful and harried right now, so I tend to sew on my Victorian ensemble (large pieces of cotton twill and steel) or read in the evenings to relax.

I'm going to be going to Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend. I'm really looking forward to seeing my mom again and getting to hang out and talk fiber with her.

Knitting, though, seems to be contagious these days. Two people at two of my jobs have started knitting recently and ask me all sorts of questions about it. One even said it was like an addiction. There's even been knitting interest in a rather unexpected direction; I bought the new Vogue Knitting last Friday and showed it to Caleb, telling him (as a joke) that I was going to knit the bikini. He took the magazine and flipped through it, critiquing the various sweaters thoughtfully.

(I'm now up to 104 stitches cast on.)

Posted at: 10:07 PM |

Sun - May 1, 2005

Sweater and fish

I've finished sewing up and weaving in the ends on the second sweater. Now all that it needs is a zipper.

Caleb and I went and saw Hitchhiker's Guide on Saturday. It was wonderful!

There were geology jokes for him, and for me there's a scene where everyone got turned into knitting. I was squinting at the screen (I wasn't wearing my contacts), and I think that I recognized the hair of one puppet as being Koigu. The scene ended before I could figure out which color number, though.

Anyway, it was a really fun movie; it captured the madcap sensibility of the original, I felt. Yes, there were a lot of things that they cut out, but not all of them would have translated well. The effects were amazing; they really balanced the computer images and puppets well.

Also, the musical number that the dolphins of the world perform at the start of the movie; it's a really catchy piece in the style of thirties musicals. As my dad pointed out, only when you listen do you realize they're singing about the fact that the Earth and humanity are about to be destroyed. Caleb and I keep starting singing and dancing to it.

Here's the singalong version of it: http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/games/dolphin.html

If you listen to the song, though, you have to use it for good and not, heaven forfend, for cruel and nefarious purposes such as starting dancing with someone who is about to go into the bathroom and then spinning her off into a big twirl and using the time you've gained to get into the bathroom before she can. Not that anyone would do ever such a thing.

Posted at: 10:39 PM |

Sat - April 30, 2005

Homage

On Thursday, Caleb, I, and one of Caleb's friends went to a Paw Sox game.

If you look closely, you can see a rainbow on the right, just touching the roof over the stands. There are more pictures here: http://homepage.mac.com/nikandre/PhotoAlbum52.html

It was a fun game to watch. It was over pretty quickly, though; only two hours and twenty minutes.

Posted at: 10:53 AM |

Wed - April 27, 2005

Shame

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten much done on Birch.

I'm stuck on about twenty.

That's stitches cast on, not rows.

I think that my MDSW goal will be to have Birch entirely cast on.

It's really fun, though, looking at Christina's list of other Birch knitters to see what mine, I hope, will look like someday.

Posted at: 09:44 PM |

Mon - April 25, 2005

Some progress

The sweater is coming along. Here's a current picture:

It now just needs three and a half more inches of collar, a zipper, and a few inches of sewing up under one arm. Oh, and about nine million ends woven in...

I figure I should have it finished in time to wear for winter.

Posted at: 10:00 AM |

Tue - April 19, 2005

I really do knit on this at other times than during elections

I'm going to be sad that the papal elections are over; it was so nice to hear Latin spoken on NPR today, and there were the Jon Stewart campaign ads in Latin. Now nobody can say that Latin doesn't have a real world use.

Since there was another election going on, I worked on the sweater some more. All I have left to do is weave in approximately nine million ends, sew up a few inches of underarm sleeve, knit four and a half inches of collar, and install a zipper. Oh yes-- and ignore the smart alecky remarks about how I'm finishing it just in time for it to be unwearable. I try to look at it as that I'll have a brand new sweater all ready for fall, and occasionally I even get myself around to that way of thinking.

Posted at: 09:48 PM |

Sat - April 16, 2005

My loathing for Spring continues unabated

I'm starting over on sixes.

Posted at: 11:28 AM |

Wed - April 13, 2005

Stepping forward and back

I thought that I'd gotten a picture of my second try at knitting this sock, but apparently I didn't. This picture of my third try will have to do:

The first try was much too big. The second try was too big and also pooled unattractively. There were variegated stripes, and, although it did remind me of the socks decorated with serpents that Victorian ladies supposedly wore under boots (but only plain white stockings with shoes, of course), it wasn't the look I was going for. This is now on 60 stitches.

Posted at: 10:03 PM |

Finally!

Super duper Secret Project

The end is near, but the finishing stretches on and on.

Lost

Back

Strapless, but not entirely armless

Rock(star) me all night