Further Adventures July 30, 2011

 

Pencily has been having a grand old time at the Sock Summit.  Everybody loves Pencily!

 

He went through the Sockgate:

 

Then he came back and told me how cool the Egyptian-like society on the other side was and how they were just inventing knitting there with thin cotton thread and skinny needles.  He also mentioned something about being worshipped as a god there, but I didn’t believe that part.  He dragged me through the Sockgate to show me.

 

 

This was when I discovered that on the other side of the Sockgate… is more of the Convention Center.  Pencily got confused with all the bright colors on the carpet.  And people wanted to take his picture in the gate; I think the fame is going to his head.

 

 

We took a class with Laurel Coombs and I learned that Pencily is an even bigger caffeine addict than I am.  I tried to make up for drinking most of the coffee by knitting him a little sock.  He said it was nice, but he needs three more and can one of them be a cable sock and one of them could be a lace sock and one of them could be a traditional Fair Isle sock, and by the way, can I make an argyle fourth sock for him because he doesn’t like this plain one?  And what about a hat?

 

 

 

We spent a lot of time in the marketplace yesterday.  We bought more than a little pretty fiber and yarn.  Pencily convinced me to buy a Turkish spindle.  It’s a very small laceweight spindle and he says it’s just the right size for him to spin on.  We also bought some pencil roving in honor of his mother.

 

Here he is just before he put the spindle away for Franklin Habit’s Photograph Your Fiber class.

 

 

And here he’s just misbehaving to get attention.  He crawled into my Glass Slipper sock and got more people to take his picture, like Stacey Winklepleck from Knit Picks who recognized him from the blog!  (Shown in the second picture trying to ignore Pencily’s blatant attempt to be the star of the show.)  That went straight to his head.

 

 

Pencily even got Franklin to hold him, but in a tragic turn of events, the camera ran out of batteries just as I tried to take his picture.  Franklin seemed a little weirded out by the whole pencil-case aspect of Pencily.

 

Tomorrow Pencily is hoping to visit the sheep in the Fleece to Foot Challenge and is very much looking forward to a class with Judith MacKenzie.

Pencily! July 28, 2011

A few days ago, I got a package in the mail from Millie.  Inside was a black sheep finger puppet, and a sheep-shaped pencil case.  I knew I had to bring the pencil case to the Sock Summit, because when you squeeze its face, it’s eyes pop out:

  

 

He’s been a big hit here.  He’s holding my needles and scissors and things, but mainly he’s been jumping into my pictures.  So, here’s introducing Pencily!

 

His mother named him Pencily, he says, because she loved to make pencil roving.  But I think it’s because he’s got a zipper in his back to hold pencils.  He’s easily surprised and stressed out, but he loves to relax with long rides in a dark bag.

 

He took the train down to Portland with me yesterday and we met our new friend Kristina at the station.  Then we all went to the convention center to register under the dragon boat.  He appreciated that no one looked at him like he was out of place and some even offered to hold him for a better picture!  But he’s very self-conscious about his zipper in photos.

 

 

Here’s Pencily with the stitch markers (for swapping) that I decided suddenly to make the night before I left.  They’re made from leftovers from my chainmaille jewelry.

 

 

Pencily even helped me knit during the Opening Ceremony.

 

 

Although he sat out during the flash mob practice.

 

 

The marketplace overwhelmed him a little…

 

So he took a little rest at the Paradise Fibers booth.

 

What will happen to Pencily tomorrow?

Sir Elton July 27, 2011

I designed a pair of socks for the Sock Summit edition of Tangled (I may have mentioned this before).  The issue went live today, so I can show you Sir Elton!

 

(picture shamelessly “borrowed” from Tangled)

 

These socks were originally named “Adara.”  Since the Tangled issue has an 80’s theme, like the Summit, the patterns got renamed with 80’s music names.  We submitted a few of our favorite musicians/bands for them to choose from.

 

These socks grew out of a Celtic knot-esque cable I designed.  I wanted it to grow organically from the ribbing and I wanted a stockinette foot.  I particularly love the way the side cables taper down to just one stitch on each side before the heel.

 

These socks are available for $6 at Tangled.  You can use the code SOCKSUMMIT11 to get $1 off the pattern until August 14.  And don’t forget to stop by and see these socks in person at the Tangled booth if you’re at the Sock Summit! (More on that tomorrow.  I have to get too sleep so I’ll be awake for my morning class!)

Birthday Goodies July 8, 2011

It was my birthday last week.  Yup, I’ve crossed the 30 barrier.  Funny, it doesn’t feel that different from 29 except for this irrational desire to yell at kids to get off my lawn.  And the cane.

 

Birthdays come with presents, of course, and I got some nice fiber-y, knit-y things.

 

Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting.  I can’t stop collecting Fair Isle charts- I’m addicted to those snowflakes!

 

My sister sent me some soft, squishy mystery fiber from Three Waters Farm in North Carolina:

The burn test revealed that it’s wool, not alpaca.  I think it’s Blue Faced Leicester.

 

I also got some fiber from a local Washington dyer, Rain City Fiber Arts:

 

85% BFL, 15% silk, yummy!  I’m not normally a pink person, but I love the combo of pink, purple, and natural undyed wool in this colorway.  I think it will spin up into a nice muted mauve-like shade.

 

100% Falkland wool in foresty greens and browns.  I’ve never spun this breed before.  It’s got about a 5 inch staple length (medium-long) and it’s pretty soft.  Actually, this could spin up into a great sock yarn!  Hmmm…

 

And in the “I had to buy this for you so that I could find out what it does” camp, I got a McMorran balance!

 

 

It’s really, really hard to take a good picture of a piece of clear acrylic!  I’m going to write a post with more details about using this thing, but the general idea is that a McMorran balance will tell you how much yarn you have.  Once you’ve got your strand of yarn there balanced on the scale (the one in my photo is too light,) then you multiply the length by 100 and that gives you the yards per pound of your yarn.  This is obviously great for handspun, especially if you’re too lazy to count how many times your yarn goes around your niddy-noddy (another crazy named handspinner tool).

 

Also, only 18.5 days until I leave for the Sock Summit!

Crazy Things June 21, 2011

A commenter pointed out a  problem with the page for the Wintergreen Gloves over the weekend.  All the links to it had stopped working.  I looked into it and it had disappeared from the server!  I couldn’t find the actual post anywhere.  Luckily, I happened to have a local copy of the post and I fiddled with the “posted date” to make it seem like I had posted it in ‘09 like the original.  So the URL is the same as it was, but it’s a new post.  Trippy, man.

 

In other news, a bear has been trying to use our trash can as a buffet.

 

 

And last night he poked a hole in our gate, presumably because there wasn’t any food in our trash.  I’ve been keeping the trash can in the shed, but I forgot to put it back last time.  It’s in there now!

 

 

And I finished my first 3-ply yarn.  I started with this fiber from Chameleon Colorworks.  I bought it two years ago in Portland.  I’ve been trying to move through some of my older stash, either spinning it or giving it away, to make room for what I’m sure will be a massive haul from the Sock Summit.

 

 

I spun the singles on my Mt. Rainier spindle, with what I call my “Mostly Worsted Short Draw.”  It’s a mangled, customized draw that is mostly a worstedy short draw, but with less smoothing of the fibers and a slight backwards pull.  That didn’t make any sense.  Anyway, it’s my personal style draw when I’m not going for a specific goal.  I divided the fiber into three sections, with no thought for the color changes.  Then I wound them onto plastic bobbins and plied them on my wheel (I hate plying with a spindle).

 

 

Despite careful fiber division, one single ended up much, much shorter than the others.  Not just by a few yards or even a bunch of yards.  I mean it was 30 or 40 yards shorter!  You can see above how much is left on the other two bobbins.  I don’t know how that happened.  I don’t like the yarn very much, though, so I didn’t stress over it.

 

 

 

I think it ended up being worsted weight.  I’m not sure I like plying with three singles.  I had a really hard time keeping an even tension on all three at once and keeping the twist under control.  Two singles kept twisting before the third, making a 2-ply yarn with a third single swirling around it.  I eventually got the hang of it, but I still couldn’t find a comfortable way to hold things.  I might try again at some point, but right now I’m sticking with 2-plys.

 

Oh and my schedule for the Sock Summit has changed!  One of the classes I was wait-listed for got an opening, so instead of “The Perfect Rib” on Saturday afternoon I’ll be taking “Photographing Your Fiber.”  I’m very excited.  Just about a month left until the Summit!