I Dyed a Little.

I finished spinning the last of my fiber a couple of weeks ago. The result was a nice, but very boring silk yarn, so I picked up some kool-aide, and threw it in a pot with the yarn.

I forgot to take a before picture until it was in the pot. The fiber was natural white, though the grey I tried (and failed) to dye a few years ago with food coloring. The grey was okay, just not really what I wanted.

This, naturally, made me think of this:

Which is one of my favorite movies (we won't talk about the books, especially the third one).

(No marmalade was involved in the making of this yarn.)

After about an hour simmering in blue raspberry lemonade, I wound up with this:

It's hard to tell, but the tweedy looking ball actually has some white in it still, so it's not a solid blue/grey. For that matter, the smaller one also has some white in it, but not as much. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with it, but I can't wait to knit it up.

Quick Reviews

Intertwined: The Art of handspun yarn, Modern Patterns, and Creative Spinning by Lexi Boeger

Honestly, I don't know what made me pick this book up. I knew from the cover that it was going to be about art yarn (that would be "non-traditional" yarns made from things like plastic bags, cassette tapes, and with stuff like ribbon, beads, gears silk flowers, and scrap fabric thrown in for embellishments), and I neither enjoy looking at art yarns nor using them. But, I haven't read much about spinning beyond a couple of beginners books I grabbed when I was first starting, and thought it might have some interesting techniques.

"Interesting" is maybe not the right word. It isn't so much a book of technique as it is of theory. Art theory, to be precise.

Art theory and the people who spout it are the main reason I don't work in art despite my degree. I forced myself to skim the first fifty or so pages of this 300 page volume before I just started flipping because I just couldn't take it any more.

The yarns she gives instructions for in this book are neither pleasing to the eye (at least not mine), nor are they practical, and the patterns which make up the second half of the book are more of the same: ill fitting caps made of slubby yarn, scarves that are essentially a dozen strands of "art" yarn tied together into a giant tassel, and felted shoelaces that I suspect would snap the first time you tied them snugly or would go from knotted to felted in the rain.

Needless to say, I'm not fan, but your millage may vary. If nothing else, it's good for a laugh.

KnotMagick Rating: one out of five skeins.

Vogue Knitting: Spring/Summer 2013

 My first thought about this issue is that the color scheme is fantastic, but I might be biased, since that turquoise blue/green color on the cover? It's my favorite. That's the same color as my bedroom.

I love most of the patterns in this issue, especially the cover collection, "Sheer Magic" which focuses on lace. I'm not a lace knitter. I've always wanted to learn, but it's not something that has ever clicked in my head. Still, I might give it another go for some of these sweaters.

I was somewhat neutral on the black and white themed "Optical Illusions" collection, but I've never been a fan of the mod, 70s graphics these recall or of color blocking, even when it's only black and white.

"Parlor Pastels" also features a lot of lace, with a more feminine, almost old fashioned feel. With the exception of a few wayward bobbles, I love most of the patterns in this collection.

As far as the articles are concerned, the highlights for me where an interview with fiber artist Adrienne Sloane. Her work brings to mind the types of things I was doing for my senior thesis show in college, only a little less...craft? And much more fine art. If I'd done my show in her style, my professors would have lapped it up.

The other bit I really liked was a short article on "The Evolution of Invisible or Tubular Cast On and Cast Off," which is another of those techniques that I've been wanting to learn but never actually looked up. The article is clear and concise, just the way I like it, and now I'm trying to find an excuse to use this technique.

Downsides to this issue--I felt that most of the departments were rather bland, like I'd seen them before, so the first twenty or so pages weren't all that interesting. Things didn't kick up until I hit the articles and then the patterns. 

KnotMagick Rating: Three and a half skeins.


AlterNation: Transform. Embellish. Customize. by Shannon Okey and Alexandra Underhill

By now everyone probably knows that I'm flat broke, so any time I can recycle old clothes, it's a good thing--you might remember the courderoy skirt?

I got this book mostly for inspiration, and inspiration it provided. I don't think I'd make any of the projects exactly as they appear in the book. For starters, many of them (such as the cover skirt, which I adore) would look downright indecent on me (or anyone, really), so I'd be adding linings or just a little more judicious with the use of corset lacing.

Most of the projects I liked in this book were skirts; I like making skirts, though I don't often get to wear them.

Downsides: Some of these projects just made me go "WTF?", like the ruffled collar made of ties. Seriously, who would wear that?

Like I said, some of the projects need a little, um, censoring. Because while I might swear up a storm, I am not the kind of girl who goes around flashing her undergarments, or skipping them altogether to make a skirt or dress look better.

Well, we all have to draw the line somewhere.

Also, there were one or two project where you never saw a photo of the entire item. There were lots of close ups, sure, or shots from one side, but not the other.

At any rate, each project's materials could easily be sourced from one's own closet or the local thrift store. The instructions are clear, short, and to the point, and I don't think any project takes more than 3 pages. It's definitely something that I'd like to have around to flip through when I'm feeling blocked.

KnotMagick Rating: four out of five Skeins

 Designer Bead Embroidery: 150 Patterns and Complete Techniques by Kenneth D. King

The thing that struck me first about this book is how neat and well organized it is. It makes the scientist side of by brain giddy.

I skipped ahead and flipped through the patterns, first. Every single one of them has a great, close up photo, a pattern diagram, macro shots of the beads used as well as a code that corresponds with the index in the back, telling you specifically what bead was used. There's also a note on what percentage each pattern should be enlarged by in order to match the photo, with completed dimensions, recommended applications, and a brief paragraph on technique.

The bulk of the book is taken up by these designs, and they range from more traditional looking patterns, to retro-inspired, to modern, graphic images.

The first section, though brief, is well illustrated with lots of photos showing tools and materials, and drawings to explain different techniques. The clarity of the instruction is unsurpassed, in my opinion; It's short and to the point, but also perfect, just like so many of the designs.

KnotMagick Rating: five out of five skeins (or beads?)

Fleece as White as Snow. Almost.

 

But not quite.

This isn't actually fleece. It's milk fiber. Yes, milk. Like what you drink and put in your cereal. Or tea. 

Some people have shawls of shame. Others have sweaters that have sat in their PhD piles (Projects Half Done) for months...or years *cough*London Calling sweater*cough*. Me, I have spinning shame.

 

This fiber has been on my wheel since before we moved. Well, not quite this fiber exactly. I have several ounces of it, divided into thirds to make a three-ply yarn. The first third went on the wheel sometime last year. The second third went on last month (you can see it above). I have a bout a 1/4 or 1/3 of that third left to spin before I can start the final bump of fiber. I am determined that it will be completed before we move again at the end of November, which is coming up much faster than I would like, considering we still haven't found a new place to live, my NaNo plans aren't coming together, and I have a knitting book to write. 

I'd better get back to work. 

Or possibly watching anime. One of the two. 

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.

Teaser

Well, it’s not the picture I promised.

But it still makes me really, really happy.

I’ve spent the last couple of days dying. I had to remind myself of some of the process, since it’s been about a year or a little more since I last got the dye pot out. I’ve got eight ounces of wool ready to be spun, just waiting on some bamboo to come in and then I’ll be able to spin/dye both it and some silk I’ve got. Then I can start setting up the shop. :) I’m very pleased. (The yarn you see in this picture, by the way, is mine. MINE. Not for sale. The roving, however, will get spun and end up in the shop.)

Stick around. I've still got more to do.

Teaser

I would like to take a second and ask that people please not spam my comments anymore. I appreciate the feedback I get from people, but I really dislike having to go through and delete the trash that people have tried to post that is completely unrelated. I'm already moderating my comments; please don't make me have to stop allowing anonymous comments, too.

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One thing that completely boggles me about Florence is the number of master painters who lived and worked in this city and yet the lighting is so terrible. Maybe things were different back in the 1500s, when there were fewer buildings, but it's hard to imagine this city as anything other than tightly packed stone buildings.

Please pardon my poor photography. My camera cord is MIA, so I used the webcam on my laptop. It's actually not a bad photo, considering I had to tilt the screen to a 45 degree angle just to get the yarn into the shot.

If you're wondering why that yarn is on toilet paper tubes (yes, you're not mistaken) it's because both of those are my handspun. I've been doing a ton of spinning. I actually used up the last of my fiber that I brought with me the other night (that would be the purple and blue ball. It's tussuh silk). Thankfully, Alice brought her entire, untouched stash of fiber, so I have probably two to three pounds of bamboo, silk, and I think some corn fiber to play around with. It's a great deal--I get to spin her yarn (a task she isn't too crazy about), and she gets pretty yarn to play with. Lately I've been in more of a spinning mood than a knitting on, so I don't even mind that I won't get to use what I've made.

What I have made, however...Well, obviously, this isn't all of it. The solid blue is Navajo plied bamboo. I've tried plying before on my spindle, and it always ended badly, usually with tangled, dirty yarn. So I started winding the singles off onto tp tubes, and then Navajo plying, which means I can turn a single into a three ply. Only one strand to deal with! I am in love with this technique. Because there are more plies, the yarn is more even and stronger. The only problem I'm having is that it can be difficult to prevent tangles if I have to stop in the middle. I have to be very careful about how I put it away and how I pick it back up again. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here is a youtube video that shows it pretty well. Actually, I think it might be the video I originally learned from. I start out a little differently--make a slipknot from both the leader and the single together, then just cut the knot off when I'm done.

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. :)

Sigh

By now everyone has probably realized that I'm not the best at the whole promotional advertising thing. I try, but really, not that good at it. So, after much debate, I decided this week that I am closing down my etsy shop. Basically, I'm taking offers. Want something? Just tell me how much. I'm sick of looking at this stuff. I've still got items that were posted when I originally made set up the shop. I had things that I wanted to add, but they just weren't cost effective. Since it opened in 2007, I've lost over $100 to etsy, either through fees, shipping, or materials. I tried the whole "you have to spend money to make money" thing, and it really never worked out. So, either it sells or it's gone. Some of it I might give away or tear apart, but a lot of it will probably end up in the trash--like the wool. I doubt the local thrift shop will take roving, and I don't know any knitters here who aren't allergic to it. So, save a fleece and make a purchase. Really.

It's just been kind of depressing in general in internet land for me. See, on top of shutting down my etsy site, I also have been skimming though the job boards on ravelry, and it's like a graveyard there. All of these "ISO Work" listings, and no one hiring. There has to be a way for a group of skilled fiber artists of varrying sorts from around the country (or the world) to make a living doing what they love. I just can't think of a way to do it that would provide fair pay to everyone without giving the customers sticker shock (or outright heart attacks, if they didn't die laughing first). What do you guys think? Some kind of fiber arts collaborative? I keep thinking of programs that I set up for spinners and knitters in third world countries, but those women get paid pennies (even if they're still paid double what anyone else in the area receives), and then their products come here and we get $40-50 balls of yarn, or $150 sweaters. So how could an American female support her family on her knitting without charging thousands of dollars? How could she do it with a product that normal people could afford and find useful?

Any thoughts would be welcome. It just doesn't seem right that there are so many people out there with these skills and the exact same problem finding employment, and yet no way to join the two.

Spinning a Tangled Web

So...um...I'm going to preface this by saying that I was following that new healthy plan for a week before I made that last post.

I didn't so much fall off the wagon for 48 hours, as fall, then was backed over and dragged for a few miles.

It started with icecream for dinner, because when you get off work a t 10pm, you often don't feel like cooking, even if it's just mac and cheese (which really, is about as healthy as icecream). It ended with a cookie for breakfast, pizza for lunch (because I forgot the one I'd packed), and my dad's cooking for dinner, which consisted of homemade chicken fingers and french fries. Soooo good, but the kind of food where you can feel your arteries clogging as you eat it.

My internal clock has also been off for the last too days, meaning that my only exercise has been running around putting stuff away at work (which, honestly, I think should count for something. Please be nice to your local retail associates. We work our asses of trying to make people happy, and more often than not we get yelled for things we have no control over).

Okay. Now that I've just written a page of excuses...

Hey look! Spinning!


This hand dyed bamboo. Can you believe it? I love the way it dyed, and it's spinning so wonderfully. I though it would completely fall apart, but it's just fantastic.

The ball of black on the left is also bamboo (both were dyed with fiber reactive dyes). The one on the right is hand dyed, hand carded 50/50 silk bamboo.

Speaking of hand carding, I NEVER want to do it again. Ever. That little ball of silk/bamboo? Sat on my wheel, staring at me for months before I managed to finish it. I was actually supposed to have three times that amount, but I decided I was sick of hand blending the fibers and it was time to spin something that I would enjoy.
(by the way, the bamboo I'm spinning now is the same bamboo that I used in the silk blend.)

Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever shipped a wheel internationally before? How much did it cost?

Gimp

Does anyone know where I can trade in my body for a slightly newer, more gently used version (and preferably ten pounds lighter? Maybe with better skin and hair that's an actual color)? See, this past week, my allergies attacked with a vengence. The problem with Ohio is that it doesn't have Allergy Season. You just have to keep the meds and the tissue box handy from March until October and hope for the best. My nose is raw, and this evening is the first time in three days I've been able to breathe with my mouth closed. It hasn't been fun, and there's no telling how long it will last.

To top it off, I did something to me knee this afternoon. No idea what, but it feels like it's been twisted or something, and I can hardly put any weight on it (and wouldn't you know it, about five minutes after I settled in with the rice cozy, my boss calls to ask if I could pick up a nine hour shift). Heat, cold, pain killers--none of them are really doing much. I can't see any swelling or anything out of place, it just HURTS.

Anyway. To take my mind off of that, I've been knitting. I got all the way done with the sleeve, was about to cast off--and then I realized that my measurements were way off. So I ripped back six inches and started again. I'm just about to cast off again, hopefully this time it will be right.

I did a little bit of spinning. The house has been topsy turvy from getting the kitchen re-done, so I didn't have anyplace to work. But I cleared a spot for my wheel, and spun a few yards of the silk/bamboo mix I've only been working on since, oh, March? February? Earlier? and am still less than halfway done with.

Did a little sewing but I really need to oil poor Gemma, and my bottle of oil is nowhere in sight. Anyone know of an alternative to sewing machine oil until I find it?

I went to the Asian Festival over the weekend, but a full report on that will have to wait, since it's already almost midnight and I'm not done yet with everything I need to do.

Bullet Points

1. I'm taking a page from Crazy Aunt Purl and doing this list style, because I'm too scatter brained for anything coherent.

2. Vanyel is the new love of my life. I'm working on a three ply right now, and have fiber on five of my six bobbins.

3. My show will officially open in one week, three days, and seventeen hours.

4. My white matter is making a lovely catered BBQ out of my gray matter thanks to #3.

5. Because of #3, everything that doesn't need to be done NOW has been put on hiatus, including the other blog.

6. I had a mental break down on Tuesday. I literally sat in my studio and cried for four hours straight. I am that stressed out.

7. If any of you are going to Santa Clara, CA for Baycon in May, could one of you send me Mercedes Lackey's autograph? I would love you forever. And give you yarn. Hand dyed yarn spun on Vanyel. Cookies?

Meet Vanyel

Remember that Major Purchase I mentioned about a month ago that I didn't want to jinx? Well, this is it.

Vanyel is a Kromski Mazurka, which I purchased second hand from someone on Ravelry. I'm still learning, but here is the first bobbin I spun last night.


It took me about an hour and a half. I spun a second bobbin right away in natural white, and this morning I started plying them together.I've got about half a bobbin on the wheel right now.

Treadling is different. I originally wanted a double treadle, but I just couldn't say no to all of the wood turning. I try to use my left foot as often as possible, since I use my right for driving and my sewing machine. It's pretty smooth, and my biggest problem is that the wheel "travels" as I work. I'm going to get one of those no-slide mats and sew myself a little rug for it.

I've been doing a lot of dying when I'm not working on my thesis show, but not pictures yet. I've got a bit more to work on.

And in case you were wondering, yes, my new years resolutions/goals have gone out the window.

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.

Birthday Swag

I turn 21 tomorrow, but we celebrated yesterday by inviting family and neighbors over. Mostly, I got cash (just the way I like it), so today I went out to spend it.

I got three old French primers from my great-great aunt who recently passed away (I only met her once and we never spoke; mostly I knew her son and his wife. They found the books while cleaning out her house a few weeks ago). I collect old books, and I love French, so they passed them on to my willing hands. I picked up some thread (I have lots of colors but no white thread? How did this happen?), some sour patch because I am addicted acid--citric acid, that is. Can't get enough sour candy, and these were on sale at CVS. Lastly, I went to one of my favorite DVD stops (Walmart. Got to love the $7.50 DVDs). I love digging through the sale bins at Blockbuster and Walmart for movies. There's lots of crap to laugh at, but every once in a while you'll find some gems. This week that have patriotic DVDs on sale for $8, so I picked up The Great Escape (*sigh* Can I go back to 1963 and get me some young David McCallum?), as well as a double feature disk of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, which were two of my favorite books/movies growing up. Hey, two movies for $7.50? I'll take that!

I also got my "adult" driver's license today--the horizontal one with the yellow bar at the top. I don't care about drinking (I could do that in Canada and in Italy, and I didn't enjoy it that much, so what's it matter here), but the new card is nice and shiney, and I won't have people asking me where the expiration date is anymore (well, to be honest, that hasn't happened since I was 17, just after they implemented the whole under-age vertical license thing, but still).

And I have to say thanks to YarnHead over on Ravelry. I was asking questions about silk hankies in the Beginner Spinning group, and she PMed me to say she had a few "just lying around," and would I like them. Hello? Free silk? Yes please! Those arrived today, about half a dozen I think, so thanks so much to her.

Oh, and the rest of the cash? I bought 8 oz of undyed alpaca online this morning. I'm in fiber heaven. I made a resolution to not buy new yarn until I'd used up everything in my stash, but it doesn't count if I just by fiber, because that's not yarn, see? And I have to spin it all up before I can order something new, which mean it takes me longer to work through it all.

I can rationalize anything. Especially birthday purchases.

Changing colors

I dyed the alpaca yarn yesterday using two packets of black cherry kool-aide and some instructions I found on Knitty. The alpaca didn't take the dye as well as I had hoped, especially considering the concentration of the dye and the fact that I nuked it three times. Maybe it didn't soak long enough? But in was sitting in the water for several minutes before I added it to the dye bath.

Oh well, it's not bad. I don't think the lack of saturation ruined it, or anything. Either way, I'll have to blend it with something else in order to make anything out of it.

Getting Twisted

I was too excited last night. I had to.


I used a PDF download of a tutorial from Spin Off magazine. I don't remember where I found it; it was a few weeks ago. The instructions were very simple to follow, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Of course, the fiber I used was already drawn out nice and even, so I just had to add twist, no drafting or anything.

I only used 1.7 oz, so I didn't get a lot of yarn out of it--only about 24 yards. Still, I'm quite pleased with it.

The only problem that I had with the spinning was that when the yarn came up from the shaft through the hook, it kept slipping and then the spindle would fall and I'd undo a bunch of work. I went around this by using a hairclip.





The hairclip is my friend. I used it in several parts of the spinning process, including holding the finished yarn in place overnight until I could set the twist this morning. I also used it to clip the yarn to my 1 yard measuring rack. I like my little clip. I've added it to my shoe box of spinning stuff (which right now is a shoe box (for holding the spindle in place when I skein the yarn) and my spindle. And the clip.)



This is what came out in the end. Tomorrow I'm going to try dying it with Cool-Aide. I'll post pictures soon. And I am so buying more fiber with my next paycheck!