Knitting and Typewriters

If you have been following this blog for any period of time, then by now you've probably figured out that I tend to do things in phases. Sometimes, this blog is all about writing, or typewriters. Sometimes it's all about what I'm reading or drawing, sometimes sewing. It seems that lately, it's knitting.

As promised, I have pictures of some recent acquisitions:

This is the Malibrigo Lace I picked up last week at The Yarn Shop in Clintonville (I would link to their site, but it seems to be down for a revamp). I don't go up that way too often, since I have a difference of opinion with both the owner and most of the regulars, but the last time Missouri and I went in, there were several new people sitting around the work table and they were all very lovely to talk to--enough that I'd love to make another trip in the near future.

I do apologize for the poor photographs. My camera is driving me up a wall right now, but a new one is not in the budget. I have no idea where the glare keeps coming from, but it seems my camera has a very low tolerance for imperfect light.

The colors are Whales Road and Saphire Magenta, though honestly, I'm not sure which is which since one has blue (saphire) and the other has the magenta. I'll have to look that one up.

My second yarny purchase in the last couple of weeks was some spinning fiber from Fiber Optic Yarns. I wanted something brightly colored and easy to spin to take with me to Steampunk Symposium, and decided that as much as I prefer to use fibers like silk, I wanted something a bit grippier and easier to work with while at the busy convention, so I settled on some superwash merino. I usually don't spin or knit with wool unless it's in a blend that is at least 50% something else, but I can use superwash. I suspect that whatever chemical treatment makes it superwash (i.e. removes or "glues" down the follicles on the individual fibers so that it can't felt) also removes the lanolin or whatever it is that gives me problems with it. I might not be able to rub my belly and pat my head at the same time, but it is a very good thing to be able to spin and breathe at the same time.

Again, the colors didn't come out as true in the photograph as I would like--it's much brighter and leans more on the red/orange side of the fence than shown. The colorway is "Hot and Spicy."

I've been meaning to write more about typewriters on here (since it's been so long since I have), but since I live in something of a typewriter vacuum, that hasn't happened. Budget cuts have prevented new machines from coming home, as well as the purchase of the supplies I need to continue working on the Royalite. I've also been attempting to come up with a way to combine knitting and typewriters, and ended up resorting to Google, where I found this, a typewriter that knits, and then I found this page, which is a collection of knitted/sewn/crafted retrotech.

While I haven't gotten that ambitious yet, I have been combining typewriters with my knitting in another way:

I've got the ribbon color selector, caps lock, and (on my right hand, which did not photograph as well) the tab and semi-colon keys. In retrospect, I realized it would have been cool to use Magic Margin instead of the caps or tab keys, but maybe for next time. This is more of a dry run, anyway. I'm not crazy about the base color, and I need a larger color pallet before I can attempt the glass keys I originally wanted to do. I also had to redo the lettering. The first time, I asked Missouri to do it but it rubbed off before I could apply the clear coat. Once I get the chrome/metalic I need, I'll try again in more detail.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yep, that's right. Another year older, as of 8:49 pm, EST. And what a great two days it has been.

I got some of my presents early, things from my mom because apparently, I'm hard to shop for (when did this happen? Seriously. Three words: Amazon Gift Card. That's all you need to know). Both of them came from work--one of those IHome thingies that you can charge your ipod on, and wake up to actual decent music rather than annoying morning shows (that alone makes it worth the $39 price tag), and a super comfy dress in a cotton jersey, light blue. I need to make a couple of alterations, though, so no pictures.

Today, however, I got this:

Counter Clockwise, that would be a handmade necklace from Alice, a set of ergonomic interchangeable crochet hooks (more on that later) and a travel journal from my parents, and a picture of one of the crochet hooks and the test piece I was working on while talking to my uncle on the phone.

Of course, no birthday would be complete without a present to yourself. In my case, I splurged and spent $13 (don't laugh; that's almost two hours pay from my job over here) to get myself this:

That's right. I'm going back to Italy. The letter came yesterday, and I was dancing around work with excitement.

I'll be spending September 2-Dec. 15, then coming back to the US for two weeks, and then flying back Jan. 7-April 22. Alice and I are already plotting spring break in Cardiff. Torchwood sightings, anyone?

I know, some of you are probably wondering why I'm going back. Well, there are a lot of reasons, foremost among them being that if I'm a student, I don't have to repay my student loans just yet. Also, if I want to get into grad school for conservation of textiles, then I kind of need a conservation background, not just an art one, so going back to Saci is pretty much the only way I can get into grad school at this point (which is good, because if I'm not in school then I loose all of my insurance. Which is really, really not good.

Of course, I'm still on the market for that Canadian husband resembling Kyle Schmid so that I can move to Canada and gain citizenship, but alas, no one presented him to me gift wrapped (not that I would have objected unwrapped), so I'll have to settle for the Blood Ties DVD set, which, coincidentally, came out yesterday. Yet another wonderful gift that the world has chosen to present me with!

----

Okay, now for the knitting portion of the show:

Like I mentioned, I got those fancy ergonomic crochet hooks from my mom. I'd been eying them for a while because of my carpal tunnel, but alway nixed them because, well, I'm broke, and it didn't seem right to buy a fancy set of hooks when I already have at least one hook in every size from F on up, and two or three of my most used sizes.

I tested them out while I was on the phone with my uncle, like I said (his birthday was yesterday, by the way. This might be one of the reasons we are so close, despite the 2,000 miles between us).

I have two grips that I use when I crochet, alternating between an underhand grip (the most common, which is a lot like how I'd hold a pencil), and an overhand (which I only use when my wrist hurts and involves my index finger and thumb running on the the top and side of the hook, parallel to the shaft, with the other three fingers curled around it). So far I've found it easiest to use the trigger handle, but the frustrating part of this set is that it forces you to hold the hook in a certain way. I suppose that's the point, training you to change the way you do things, but so far I find all but one of the grips somewhere between awkward and downright uncomfortable. Also, the hook can only face one direction, regardless of how you hold your hand, which is unspeakably irritating.

I'm still using them though, and trying to adapt. If you are interested in the hooks, you can find them here. They run about $15 for two handles and six interchangeable hooks.

My current fiber projects include the blue sweater (still plugging away at that second sleeve), the sample project shown above, a crocheted death cloak/Anubis mask for Anubis (the details of which will be available on the ResinCast blog sometime next week), and a whole hell of a lot of spinning.

In the last two weeks, I finished with the silk/bamboo blend that I began ages ago (remind me never to hand blend fibers. Pain in the arse)then plied the lot, spun the left over blue bamboo into a gorgeous single, spun the black into a single which got turned into the afore mentioned death robes/Anubis mask, spun and plied together the leftover silk, and have begun spinning a blend of grey milk fiber and hot pink merino into something resembling sewing thread, that will eventually become a three ply. If I can get the fibers to stop coming apart at the wrong moment.
Vanyel, of course, is reveling in the attention, since he sat and collected dust for so long. And plying means that he gets to spend time with his beloved Lazy Kate, Tylendel. He is a very happy spinning wheel at the moment. I'm not sure how to break the new that he won't be coming to Italy with me, especially since I don't want to leave him be hind anymore than I want to leave behind my cat, but some things just can't be helped. He's way too expensive and valuable to ship.

And that my dears, is the end of this long-winded update. Hope you enjoyed. :)

Everything is linked

Do you know what this is?

That would be several ounces of alpaca fiber I am in the process of unspinning and re-carding.

I got a pair of hand carders in this morning from Minabear on Ravelry. I had to wrestle a postal worker to get them, but they're here and I love them. I used this video on youtube and this article in Knitty to get the basics down. I'm going to dye the batts on Monday with some food coloring, and then card them together with some silk I ordered from ArtemisArtemis a while back. She is the reason I am addicted to silk, and I would so marry her for citizenship if she were only Canadian.

"Worth It?" was measured last week. It is now over 24 feet long, and just about 1/2 way completed. I have to knit 36 rows every day between now and Dec. 31 to finish on time.

My anatomy class is killing me, but I'm plugging away in the other classes and doing well. I love my papermaking class, and will probably be adding hand made journals to my etsy shop soon.

I'm saving up for a spinning wheel. I'm thinking I'll probably get an Ashford traveler (double treadle), but I'm going to a spinning group this week to see about trying out some other wheels just to get a feel for them.

Fiber Reactive

Apparently, my addiction to fiber extends into papermaking.

This class started out very slowly (mostly because the instructor over-explains everything, but that might just be me), but now that we're getting into book making, I'm in love. Really. Maybe it's because I used to be a bibliophile, back when I had time for things like reading.


I'm a neurotic journal collector--I love to write, and buy empty notebooks, and now I get to MAKE empty notebooks! These here don't have too many pages in them (only eight, actually), because I had to use some 140 lb watercolor paper, which is pretty thick. Once I'm finished with this entry I'll be going to buy a few more sheets of Reeves lightweight to make some more, thicker books.


Once the semester is over, some of these books might show up in my Etsy store, but for now, I need to get graded on them. (speaking of the Etsy store, don't forget to check it out if you haven't already!)


I'm also experimenting with some stitching and embroidery on paper. This is a piece that I'm working on right now. I've also got a bit of beading in there, too.