Creative juices

The completion of the Adult Surprise Jacket set my creative juices flowing the past couple of weeks. Out of the leftovers sprang a netbook bag. I made it so that it was padded well enough to protect the netbook yet look fun. This bag turned out to be a little small but it works.

With that completed, I turned to thinking about the year and what I need to get prepared for Rhinebeck. The Knit In Public Day event is in June. I'm thinking that I could sell some of my handspun there, so I'm working on spinning yarn for that event. Currently I have some Briar Rose Fibers BFL on the Joy that I'm spinning up into fingering weight.

My colleague in crime at the office is pregnant and will be going on maternity leave in the summer. So on the needles is a Baby Surprise Jacket, this in yarn I picked up at GLBT Knit Camp in 2007 when I walked out with my arms stuffed with yarn from WEBS' back room.

In the back of my mind there are also craft projects for selling at the employee craft fair in November (I'm thinking washcloths and baby things) and Christmas projects. My neighbors in particular are on my list for all the things they have done for me. So there may be times when I'm working on a project and I can't say anything because I don't know if they're reading this or not. Fun stuff!

FO - Adult Surprise Jacket

When my mom first taught me how to knit, she was your typical knitter of her generation. She didn't have many patterns but she had knitted for some time so had reached the point where she didn't need a pattern to make the basics. She had two books, Mary Thomas' Knitting Book and the Reader's Digest Book of Needlework. But she never did any knitting patterns from Elizabeth Zimmermann. I don't know if she ever watched her Knitting Workshop or other TV programs.

When I took up knitting later, I discovered Elizabeth's books and methods. Her writing encouraged me. My first lace shawl was her Pi Shawl. I tried the Baby Surprise and after a couple of attempts was able to complete it. I've looked at the Adult Surprise Jacket and wondered what I could do with it. The possibilities were endless.

When the February Lady sweater was popular last year, a number of my buddies knitted it. I tried it on but I didn't like how it looked on me. But as the months went by I wanted to make a sweater. Other projects were on the needles and wheel that required my attention. During the secret project time I revisited the Adult Surprise Jacket and looked through my stash to see what I could do with it. It naturally lent itself to being striped but the examples I had seen didn't appeal to me that much. However, the construction intrigued me so I went hunting in my stash to see what I could come up with. Several colors were in my Cascade 220 stash to do the job, so I gathered them up to hold until I could start the sweater.

The sweater took 2 skeins of 6 colors and one skein of ivory. It was knitted on size 7 needles and took me less than a month to complete. A friend of mine had said she had done it in one color and found herself growing bored. The color striping made my sweater fun to knit like self striping socks so in no time I had it completed.

What to wear

Oregon spring is fickle. Some days are warm and sunny with the promise of summer, then the weather turns to cold, rainy, and windy and you feel betrayed. This year has been no different than others. We had some really nice days during March where the temps got up to 70 degrees. Then some Pacific storms came in bringing in cold air from up north and socked us. The mountains got more snow and people grumbled about the rain and wind. I got sucked into Mother Nature's temptation of the warm weather and reprogrammed my thermostat, only to be rewarded with 30 degree nights that froze our collected keisters off. It's hard to roll over in bed when you're plastered with cats trying to suck the warmth out of you.

But the days are getting longer and the spring colors are making the neighborhoods bright and cheery. It's a good time for working on a colorful sweater. I mentioned in my last post I had started working on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Adult Surprise Jacket. It's coming along very well. I'm nearly done with the sleeve section. I try to get a stripe done each day but of course there are the longer stripes that sometimes take two days to complete. It will be a great spring and summer jacket.

Yesterday I went with Agent D to view "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers." For those of you who were either not in the US in the early '70's or not yet born, Daniel Ellsberg was an employee of the RAND Corporation who was active in the decisionmaking on Vietnam in the mid '60's. He and others compiled a history of US involvement in Vietnam that came to be known later as The Pentagon Papers. These documents were rated top secret and contained incriminating evidence showing how deception upon deception had been made to Congress and the American people. Ellsberg at the time (so he claims) was just doing his job but had a crisis of conscience. The story of his involvement and subsequent leak of the Pentagon Papers to the press is told in "The Most Dangerous Man In America".

I went to see the movie partly out of curiosity and a desire to fill what was a hole in my understanding of that time period. When the Pentagon Papers were released to the press, I was just a kid, ten or eleven years old, with no true understanding of the implications of his act. I had heard of Ellsberg and the papers. But the movie helped fill in holes in my understanding. My political beliefs had already been molded in some ways by the Watergate scandal. I feel more how important it is for Americans to not take everything we are told as the absolute truth. It is easy to be swept by idealism and jingoistic rhetoric. I'm still one for seeking out nonviolent methods of resolving conflicts but understand that this is a very difficult goal to achieve. It's important for those of us who live in this country to do what they can to find out as much as they can from different sources and work to preserve our fundamental right to know.

Spring is here, oh spring is here!

In some sections of the country there are faint whispers of spring being heard but here in Portland the yards are in full riot. The early blooming trees are finishing up, leaving their petals lining the gutter streams. Magnolias, camellias, and daffodils are all open and the bare branches are turning green with sprouting leaves. Saturday was to be clear so the air was filled with the hum and grumble of garden machinery.

It didn't surprise me when I went to my monthly Portland Spinnerati meeting that the turnout was sparse. Sunny days on the weekend are rare in the spring around here. If I was a gardener I'd be out cleaning up the debris of winter and preparing the garden beds. But I opted to be with my fellow spinners for we had a carder demonstration and I had a drum carder to share. It was just as well that I was indoors with all the pollen and grass flying about in the air.

I've been informed by a regular reader that I've been slacking on the blog. The last few weekends have been very busy with knitting up a sample for an upcoming book Judy Becker's publishing. I've watched plenty of movies and tv while knitting on this. I couldn't bring it to knit night so I worked on another special project there. The result of all this is that I have no pictures I can share of the goodies until they are released from their secrecy. Now that those projects are done I've started an Adult Surprise Jacket out of multiple bright colors of Cascade 220. They will be framed with ivory wool yarn from Pendleton which will set them off very nicely. It'll be a good project for mindless knitting as long as I remember to do my decreases and increases in all the right spots.

In the meantime I have some lovely handspun finished up. Black Bunny Fibers Border Leicester blended with mohair and silk in the Hailstorm colorway. I spun the singles from that and plied it with a coordinating strand of Jaggerspun Zephyr to stretch out the 4 ounces of fiber. I came up with 657 yards of nice fingering weight.

Give me a head of hair

One of the things that I tend to cast aside when money is short is having my hair cut. I did it when I made the career change from grocery to office work then cut it off when I had a steady job. My hair grows quickly -- 1/2 an inch a month -- and with its natural curl can look messy after a while, so I was having to have a hair cut every month when it was short. Last year a couple of things made me forego having my hair cut: losing my hairdresser to a fella in Texas and medical bills that took my extra money. By my measure I've been growing out my hair for over a year, cutting my bangs periodically. I had forgotten how much fun I had in the past with playing with my hair, putting it up in different ways. Now there are all sorts of hair gadgets that weren't available when I last grew out my hair and I'm having fun trying them out.

The Olympics ended last weekend with such a joyous bang for Canada. While my dad emigrated to the US when he was nine, he was proud of his Canadian roots and would sing the first line of "Oh Canada" periodically when it was mentioned. It was a tough call to pick which team to choose for the gold medal hockey game but I chose Canada for the Canadians' sake. I don't love my country any less but there's a point when all the gungho boosterism gets to me and I root for the other guys just to be spiteful. After having no golds for two previous Olympics hostings, the Canadians deserved to have an Olympics that really made their country shine. Their graciousness during the entire event added to it.

Knitting Olympics 2010

The last time I posted it was the beginning of the Olympics and the parallel events of Knitting Olympics and Ravelympics. In past years I've been an enthusiastic participant but this year I've had a few challenges. A deadline for a project kept me from pulling two weeks out of the knitting schedule and illness in various forms interfered in other ways. So consider me the knitting athlete whose medal dreams are sidelined by the vagaries of nature and time. There will be other opportunities.

This year's broadcast of the Olympics disappointed me. There were too many commercials, too many cuts from one sport to another, and too much commentary during the events. I was glad to be able to watch the curling but at one point I was so annoyed with the commentary I turned the sound off. There is word that ESPN is vying for the next contract for broadcasting the Olympics. I hope that if they succeed they do a better job of broadcasting. NBC was awful this year.

Last weekend the NorthWest Regional Spinners Association had their board meeting at the Aloha Grange so there were vendors and a spin-in. I had a good time meeting up with a number of my spinning buddies and partake of the wares of local vendors. I found some beautiful fiber for future batts; silk hankies and a bell; angelina fiber in copper, red, and purple; targhee and merino/silk blends in warm browns and gold.

Last weekend was also a time for getting together with friends. Saturday morning I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in a couple of years for coffee. He was dealing with the aftermath of an accident where he had been struck by a car while crossing the street. It was great to see him though I missed seeing his wife who was ill with the crud. We had spent many fun times together camping and partying so it will be great to be back in contact with them. Sunday was my monthly pinochle group which started with a potluck of nummy roast, root vegetables, salad, and fresh bread from Grand Central. While it was marred with a last minute catastrophe in the basement when a pipe clog forced our hosts to shoo us out of the house, the pinochle gods were in my and my partner's favor, granting us three sets won.

Update: I finished the pattern write up I needed to do including the charts just before the closing ceremony began. It hasn't been tested but that it's completely written and charted was one goal I wanted to meet during the Knitting Olympics. Ooorah!!

Catching up

It's been a while since I've last posted. Two weeks ago I was busy tying up the loose ends of the project I had been working on at the office and coming home exhausted. When all the processing for the month was done I took some time off and went to the beach. It was the break I needed.

The beach trip centered around the Newport Spin In hosted by the Northwest Regional Spinners Association(NWRSA). It's an annual event sponsored by the chapter that had vendors from around Oregon as well as a gathering space for spinners. I had my money from my scarf commission to play with so I could indulge and help support local wool farmers.

I left work early on Friday so I could meet up with Shelia at her farm outside of Newberg. I had never been out on her farm before so it was a real treat to get to meet her in her milieu, replete with spinning wheels, fiber, and animals. She raises sheep, cows, chickens, and yaks on her farm set on the side of one of the hills of Chehalem Valley and surrounded by vintners.

Adam, her husband, was out and about doing farm chores so I got to meet him while I was there. He resembles Tim Gunn from Project Runway with that Nordic appearance. I saw most of the animals but kept my distance from the yaks, not knowing their temperament around strangers and not being very nimble to avoid their horns.

We headed west then south to Lincoln Beach where we were to meet up with our friends Tammy K, Tami H, and Sara at Tami H's aunt's beach house. On the way, Shelia and I stopped at Nestucca Bay Yarns while we waited for the others to catch up. While there we got to chat with the local knitting/spinning group that meets on Friday evenings there. They have a very nice selection of yarn so if you're in the neighborhood, swing on by. Finally, we hooked up with the others and reached the house. It was very comfortable and spacious, and soon we settled down to eating dinner then sitting around to knit and spin. As with all beach trips there were snacks and lots of great conversation. We even have an Finished Object!

The next day we headed out to the high school where the Spin In was being held and settled down in one of the circles. Other NWRSA members who were familiar faces came and joined us with their various wheels. There were many Lendrum folding wheels and a fair number of Ashford Travelers, Ashford Traditionals, and Schacht Matchlesses.

There were other wheels, though, that one rarely sees. One vendor had her Ashford Country wheel, which is mostly used for spinning up bulky yarns. There were a number of antique wheels as well. One of our circle had a Louet S45 "Hatbox". Two owners found that they had similar wheels and one conferred with the other as to how to correct an issue with her wheel. A few folks had their handspindles too. There were also door prizes and trivia contests. Tami H came away with a seat cushion and Sara won a sweater pattern from Norsk Needleworks. A fun filled day.

There was a variety of vendors there ranging from a couple of the larger commercial merchants I've seen at OFFF to smaller merchants and local breeders. Norsk Needleworks has patterns for Norwegian style garments (I purchased this one from her). Another vendor was selling the fleeces from sheep raised as 4H projects. Another sold batts done up to create self-striping yarn with long color changes. All surrounding the center which held about 100 spinners all chatting and producing yarn. I found a couple of fleeces and some Ashland Bay roving the same color as roving I had received at Sock Summit.

Knitting Olympics

The Winter Olympics are in full gear up in Vancouver BC and so are the Knitting Olympics and Ravelympics. For those of you not familiar with those, the Knitting Olympics (hosted by the Yarn Harlot) and Ravelympics (hosted by various folks on Ravelry.com) are challenges to crafters to set a goal (such as knit a sweater or spin a particular amount of fiber) to be completed during the Winter Olympics. The project is to be started at the time of the lighting of the Olympic Flame and completed when the Flame goes out at the end of the Games. In 2006 I knitted a sweater. This year I have a commitment that I have to work on in private but I do have a project for my public knitting: a pair of socks. If I am able to complete one project I'll be pleased. If I'm able to complete two, even better.

Gray days filled with color

There's something about finishing up a huge project that makes one sink back in one's chair and let out a sigh of relief. I did that at the office and came out with tired limbs and a kinked back from all the computer work. I'm looking forward to doing ordinary things which allows for a variety of movement and work methods. In the meantime I'm giving myself a fair bit of tender loving care this weekend. As part of that therapy, this entry will be mostly pictures.

I finished the commission. Now to remove the white souvenirs my cats left.

Sammy decided Maisie needed a bath. It was on the inaccessable part of the nape of the neck, so it worked out very well.

"Do you mind? We're having a PRIVATE moment here."

Pictures at last

I've been remiss in posting pics lately of what I've been up to. For the most part there hasn't been much to show as I've been working on the commission scarf. The touch pad at work has made it easier to do the knitting so I'll have it done by its deadline. This weekend I'm working on getting as many stripes done as possible.

You can see in the corner of the above pic the latest addition to my spinner's toolbox - a Fancy Kitty Kitten drum carder. It's been baptized with some Abstract Fibers wool combined with a silk bell I picked up last year. The blending is turning out beautifully.

I've added a ticker for when I'm going to Rhinebeck this year. I've made my motel reservation (the HoJo at Saugerties) and hooked up with a roommate. Now to wait a couple of months and save my money for the plane reservation.

Call Me Slacker

My days at the office have been quite full since around Christmas. I've been coming home feeling like I've been rolled out by a pastry chef and left to rise. However the leavening in me hasn't been very responsive so by the weekend I was spending the day feeling like flatbread. But I've been getting more energy lately. Not enough to wash the walls and scrub the floor but enough to get a few things done like taking out the recycling and washing and folding (yes folding!) the laundry. There haven't been very many spoons* available thanks to the asthma occasionally coming up when I least expect it and kicking me in the gut, but something's changed and so far (fingers crossed) I'm finding more spoons in my energy drawer to use.

One thing I did was the Seattle to Portland Yarn Train** last Saturday. This is the crawl's 3rd year. A group of Seattle knitters ride the train south to partake of the riches our city's yarn shops provide. Since I have access to these pretty much all the time, I didn't go about with the crawlers but parked myself at the Starbucks in the Governor Hotel as Portland ambassador, navigator, guide, and commisserator to those with sore feet. Around 1 pm a group had assembled with me and took over a healthy chunk of the place, changing the ambiance from a quiet corner to a place full of gabbing knitters. However I didn't escape the fumes from the nearest shop, Knit/Purl. I came home with a couple of skeins of sale yarn and a new tote that looks a lot like an attache instead of a knitting bag. Tres chic!

I currently have on my plate another Harry Potteresque scarf, another commission from the same woman who ordered the Gryffindor scarf only this in black and green. Combined with the work at the office, my hands were getting a real beating. For a while I was having to not do any handiwork at home while my hands recovered but I found a solution that has helped me immensely: a touchpad for my office computer. It has more features than the touchpads you usually find on a laptop computer and the motions require much less effort and tension on the muscles. The effect was almost immediate. Now I'm doing my knitting without feeling like I'm getting claw hands from all the work at work. I'm also spinning on a handspindle at work on one of my breaks to have something different for my hands to do.

I was asked what I would be doing when I was 80. I told him I'd be running races up and down the nursing room corridor. I probably wouldn't in reality because I don't want to hurt someone who couldn't get out of the way, but I'm sure I'd be thinking up some kind of mischief or something to make people smile. Like attaching playing cards to my wheelchair's frame so that they flap in the wheel spokes. The staff won't forget me.

*If you want to find out what the heck I'm talking about, read this.

**Here I am a slacker because I have no pics of the crawlers at other locations, but here you'll get Michelle's posting.

Dear 2009

It's been a few hours since you've left. Like your predecessors you left in the middle of the night without a word. But unlike them you left your mark on my life in good ways and in not so good ways. You did a number on me big time. I know some people have said "Good riddance!" to you but there's a bit of wistfulness in my heart. Let me recount some of the highlights.

Those mad skilz needed for fiber manipulation-- In the past year I put in more spinning hours to fine tune my technique, used a drum carder for the first time, participated in a shearing, and went to my first Spin Off Autumn Retreat. It was enough to encourage me to do a workshop for the Portland Spinnerati for the first time and make some yarn for a very good friend. It gives me the impetus to pursue making some batts for raising funds for travel and other off-work mayhem.

Participated in a number of local events -- Two events, Black Sheep Gathering and Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, I've been to before. Those are fun even when the wallet is a little empty for you never know what you'll run across. But two national events were also local events. The first Sock Summit, ably put together by Tina Newton and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, was a stunning success in so many ways. The entire vibe of the four days was one of a mutual love of crafting. There were many fangirl moments and Internet buddy meetups. There will be another Sock Summit in 2011 but none will compare with SS09. The other event was the SpinOff Autumn Retreat (SOAR) in Sunriver. For many, including me, it was their first SOAR. While the altitude didn't help my asthma, the classes I took were excellent. The knowledge gained inspired me a lot and gave me a hunger for more. I got a good taste of the spinning community and made new acquaintances that have carried over to the Internet. On top of those events I managed to negotiate the appearance of Franklin Habit in Portland. Yes, he's just as adorable in person as he is in his blog.

I found a fellow space traveler who speaks my language -- Sometimes you get lucky and find someone who, in the course of everyday living, understands you when you decide to go in an entirely different direction than everyone else. I have friends with which I can carry on conversations that are decidedly whacko. But I have to say that Dan beats them all. The synchronicity we have is at times a little uncanny even though we come from definitely different backgrounds. Today at lunch we held a conversation for at least half an hour that sounded like two spies getting together after a hiatus and all without a blink of an eye or "You are just so weird!" We share a fascination of the grotesque. He's a gentle soul at heart and a true delight. I look forward to spending another year with him.

So 2009, even though you threw at me financial and health issues that challenged me (don't forget the computer crapage of September), you did have much to recommend for you in my house. Thanks for the fun. 2010 has its work cut out for it.

Counting down

If you've made it this far in the month of December, you either have no children or grandchildren in your house, you use your TV for watching movies only, or you live in a hole in the ground somewhere south of Yellowknife. Not that those who live in Yellowknife don't celebrate Christmas. They just haven't been inundated with American-style Christmas. If it isn't the gifts that need to be purchased, made, or otherwise acquired, it's the preparations for visiting friends and family. The corridors of the office are abuzz with holiday stress releasings. Yet the carols talk of joy and peace and tranquility. Christmas is supposed to be fun isn't it?

You can count me in as one of the few who is not undergoing major stress right now in the face of the holidays. The cats don't expect presents or a feast on Christmas Day. My house is looking more like the intersection of Chaos and Mayhem to fit even a table for setting food on. I plan on spending the day with the local classical station playing in the background while I sip tea and work on a jigsaw puzzle. I'll prepare something nice for dinner and call my siblings. All is calm, all is bright. I hope your Christmas day ends up being pleasant for you after all the preparations and the stress.

Secret Santas

If you work in an office with a fair number of people in it you probably have a Secret Santa exchange or something similar. For those of you unfamiliar with this interesting game it's a gift exchange. Participants fill out a form of favorite things (beverages, food, hobbies) enter their names in a hat, then draw names. The name you have drawn is the recipient of your bounty. During a designated week, usually a week before Christmas, you leave one gift on that person's desk. That person doesn't know it's you who's leaving the gift, providing the mystery and fun. Well, for the most part it's fun. If you get someone who has no clue what you're like you can end up with some pretty crappy stuff. Often there's a money limit, like $20, so you can end up with cheap goods. But if you get someone who is resourceful you can wind up with some really fun stuff.

I'm fortunate to be working in an office full of the latter. We have quite a number of creative people who go all out for the exchange. One year I received my name done up as a beaded panel. Another year I received a handpainted coffee cup. I'm one of the people that participants want as a Secret Santa as I try to find things that are not the usual gifts you can find. If I can, I try to make something special for the recipient. This year my recipient received beaded earrings and handknit and beaded wristwarmers.

I do have to say that the exchange is done with fun in mind, so I don't take quite as seriously as I have in the past. My Secret Santa did pretty well for the most part. The thing that made me chuckle though was a fleece throw in bright green with red, green, and white holiday sentiments like "Ho Ho Ho!" and "Happy Holidays". It was soft and cozy but it's Grinch green. I knew the furries would take to it and sure enough Miss Mazola seized it as hers. All I could think was how many Grinches died to make these throws. It came from WalMart -- oh the horror!

Strap on your helmet!

The Winter Olympics are coming! Skiing! Skating! Bobsledding! Hockey! Luge! I look forward to it every time it comes around. I don't know what it is about it. Maybe because it's a celebration of everything cold and it isn't a USA propaganda fest. But I have to wait two whole months. I didn't think I could wait so long. Then while I was channel surfing I ran across on an obscure sports channel world cup competitions in various winter sports. The last couple of nights I've been watching ski jumping in Austria and Germany. The crowds have been incredibly loud with horns and flags. Hot air balloons with advertising logos have been stationed around the stadiums. The jumps have been magnificent and frightening at the same time. I couldn't imagine sliding down a hill and jumping off but the sight of the jumpers flying with their skis splayed out to give them air is so thrilling. Other nights I've been watching luge and slalom skiing. The excitement these have been giving me has helped me crank out my latest project. It's been a great prelude to the Games.

A surprise Christmas gift

I received some good news at the office. Thanks to the hard work of all the staff at the company I work for at not only keeping costs down but helping the company thrive during the economic downturn all the employees received a bonus. I work at a very large company that in the past has given out only gift cards for turkeys during the holidays so this is a very big thing. I could spend it to clear up the last of the bills but I'm thinking that it can be an investment into a tool I can use to make some money on the side.

A very productive weekend

There is something so satisfying in completing more than one project. This weekend was the one I had available to complete projects for this week and prepare for Christmas. It's Secret Santa week so I had to fetch gifts for my recipient. Of course she'll have handmade gifts as well.

Some beaded wristwarmers.

And beaded earrings.

One of my knitsibs has been recently diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. Instead of a blanket from those of us in the group, she's asked for hats to wear while she's going through treatment. She lives in Minnesota so a warm hat was definitely in order. I found some Cascade 128 in my stash and whipped this up today.

Last year I volunteered to do a test knit for one of my friends. The pattern called for Handmaiden Camelspin, which is a sport weight yarn of camel and silk. It has beautful drape but no bounce so it's not very forgiving to knit up. I didn't finish the test knit because I fought the yarn. I tried another pattern with this yarn and was fighting it there as well. This time around, though, I was successful in producing a nice little neckscarf.

The Winter Olympics are next February and the talk on Ravelry is about teams and preparing projects for the two plus weeks of crafting time. The new line up my cable company has for my package includes Universal Sports which has been showing some of the World Cup competitions of various winter sports. I've always enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics even though the US has not been a strong contender in many of the events. My loyalties will be leaning toward Canada's team in those events where the US isn't a contender for medals. In the meantime, I'm trying to decide what I will do for those weeks. One possibility is another Dale sweater, this time in black and white with red trim. I have some patterns from previous Olympic games that I can consider.

In the meantime, I have one UFO I should return to, namely the sweater I started last year out of Kauni yarn. I'm on the body with the second sleeve left to go so any progress I make on it will be good. If I complete it by the end of January I will be very pleased.