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March 30, 2006
MS&W
I just purchased my tickets to Maryland Sheep and Wool. Now to figure out exactly when Rhinebeck is cause I totally plan on being there this year. Also with the arrival of my new wheel comes the unloading of my old wheel. I have a Lendum collapsable double treadle with all the bells and whistles including carrying case, lazy kate, high speed flyer, jumbo flyer and and ply head. I have used this wheel maybe a dozen times so its practically new.... are you going to be a MS&W and would like to purchase my wheel? If so make me a reasonable offer.
Posted by Elka at 07:35 PM | Comments (2)
March 27, 2006
What Not To Wear
Last weekend I watched a few episodes of What Not to Wear. I normally do not watch this show being stuck on L&O. I realized rather quickly that I was a fashion faux pas but thats unimportant. What is important is my mind whirring round the concept of WNTW in regards to knits. Never fear~ I am not gonna turn into a YKW clone.
As you may have gathered I have been spending some time doing knit repair and I have formulated a few rules:
1]Do not ever, ever, ever wear a watch with a buckle closure with a long sleeved sweater. The buckle piece will eventually wear a hole into your cuff*
2] Do not ever, ever, ever wear a belt with buckle closure with your handknit. The buckle piece will eventually wear a hole into your ribbing right round the belly button area
3] Do not ever ever ever carry pens in your sleeve pocket under a cardigan. The part of the pen that hooks over the pocket top will eventually wear a hole into your sweater right round "the girls"
Add these simple rules to your sweater care bag o tricks and you will not spend hours repairing sweaters. At least I am getting paid to do these repairs ;^>
While we are at it~ please, for the love of all that is holy, do not dry clean your knits. I am assuming that you actually use natural fibres. Cotton/linen, sheep/llama/mohair goats/rabbits etc all get rained upon. Really. Silk BTW, especially the high quality reeled silk, is obtained by dropping the cacoon into boiling water and killing the silk worm prior to reeling the fibre. Water will not kill your sweater. Dry cleaning fluids and the extraordinary high heat required by the dry cleaning process will cause your sweater to become brittle. And if you have some overwhelming reason to disregard these rules: make a little yarn bobbin and tack it onto a seam. Preferrably one that doesn't get a lotta friction. So that your washed yarn has faded [dye runoff] along with the garment.
yarny days and knitterly evenings
*one cuff of every sweater I have ever repaired has a teeny tiny hole in it caused by wristbands. I suppose it could be some clasp from a bangle or bracelet but you get the drift. If one always wears a buckle of some sort on their left arm then the left cuff will eventually get a hole. Period
Posted by Elka at 09:42 PM | Comments (3)
March 22, 2006
#318
yah so I have been on tenderhooks waiting and waiting and waiting. And it's finally here. Ordered on Thursday, November 20, 2003 8:56 PM per email confirmation and arrived Monday, March 21, 2006 4:05PM. Supposedly 12 are made each year but June's is numbered #301 and she got hers in October of 2003. According to Heidi the waiting list is a piddly 2078 so just hop onto it alread. Mine is figured maple. The tag:
Now to figure out how to do this double drive thingie.....
Posted by Elka at 12:20 AM | Comments (11)
March 16, 2006
Something Different
And now for something totally non fiber related:
I have spent the last two weeks thinking about the garden. Seeds have been ordered and started. Soil ammendments stocked up. A guy hired to rototiller it all into the clay stuff which passes for dirt in MO. I spend hours staring at my seedlings dreaming of good organic food. Being a non garderner I asked around for help. I found a gal at my local knit ins who used to garden but now lives in an apartment. She comes and visits every week anyway so I thought tra la la la Urban Girl! would appreciate some sorta community garden. In my back yard. I profit from her experience she profits with food. Works for both of us I think OK I'm teaching her to spin as well but that is fibery and doesn't suit the non fibery post. BTW I am not a good spinner but still I have fiber and drop spindles sitting around and can show her the basics.
Anyway wanted to post and this is the topic near and dear right now. And hello! Royally Repulsed by Ribbing
Posted by Elka at 08:19 PM | Comments (4)
March 12, 2006
Misery week whatever
No I haven't dropped off the face of the universe. I have been feeling rather funky. Cannot wait til my tulips blosom. Their leaves have popped out and I recall how, last year, the pink blooms really cheered me up. Weds rain was followed by even more Thurs dreariness. Not even my sockapaloooza yarn could cheer me up and I didn't even think of knitting. Friday was Nece's birthday.... my baby is 3! Saturday I went to knitting group and knit a bit on the socks. I was paid a grand compliment actually two the first was that I should teach knitting !!! and the second that they were always real pleased when I showed up cause no knitting problem would go unsolved. Isn't that the bestest compliment ever? Anyway today was a knitting bust again. For a problem solver I sure seem to run into several of my own making. I CO for some Red, Red, Red cause I couldn't bear it another millisecond and decided the yarn was too drop dead for my ingrate of a daughter and should be for me. Mind you my mittens would take more yarn than hers but I ripped hers out and started some for myself. Then I decided that EZ was just plain wrong. I have been greatly admiring the Mitered Mittens on My Knitting Life and pulled out my Almanac. I adore the little Icord tie and wrist shaping~ so girly girl. I decided right off the bat to go at 5spi instead of the called for 4.5spi cause I like snuggly nether garments. Even with the tighter gauge the mitts are humongous on my hands:
I guess I need to actually measure my hands and do math. Heaven forbid. Anyway after I ripped the mitten I decided to work on my MKAL and spent the required time sorting out my yarn. Somehow I have misplaced 2 balls of yarn for this project. If you recall I took all my yarn upstairs and dumped it allover the place and I think it got packed up with all the non WW& heavier stuff that I sent downstairs. After all manic behavior did lead to my gathering up all my heavier yarns into cubby land. So now that you have the bad news: lost yarn I will share the good news: I didn't go into a wicked yarn buying frenzy Whew!
yarny days and knitterly evenings
Posted by Elka at 10:12 PM | Comments (2)
March 09, 2006
Old News?
I received an order of yarn for mittens from Schoolhouse Press the other day and tucked into the package was a notice: Barbara Walkers Mosaic Knitting is being republished. Hopefully ready to ship in April. If you order from them by April 1st you get free shipping. Now I happen to have a copy of this book and am personally not that into Mosaics but I do recall scrambling madly for a copy a year or so ago for a e-buddy. Can't recall exactly which e-buddy was bemoaning not having purchased it before the print run was sold out. But if you have been hitting yourself in the head for missing out well there you go~ a second chance.
yarny days and knitterly evenings
Posted by Elka at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2006
Predictable
It was a dreary day here in Saint Louis. Drizzly and overcast. What else would I turn to other than the new snazzy sockapaloooza yarn to cheer me up? I lurv this yarn. So bright and colorful. As to pattern I am branching out and making it up as I go. I started yesterday with a swatch and calculating how many sts I would need for specified circumference. I am using larger needles than I usually use for socks cause its handspun and the cushy goodness deserves room to cush. Because my swatch was so ooo la la I decided against a fancy stitch pattern and am going with a 3/1 rib for a bit extra hugability but plain appearance. The colors seemed extreemly feminine to me so I added a ruffly edge at CO and used a twisted 1/1 rib to snuggly up right under ruffle which hopefully accentuates the border. Mind you I have no idea how femme my sock pal is and her blog offers No Clues as to colors and styles preferred. If she doesn't love these socks I want them. I want them real bad. Bad. I'm telling you I want these socks. I keep eyeing my shades of blues Hot Socks going eh good enough. But I know it isn't so these are going to sock pal. She better like em. Or else.
yarny days and knitterly evenings
Posted by Elka at 08:06 PM | Comments (6)
March 06, 2006
Sockapalooza Update
I just received the yarn for my sockapalooza pal's sock.... I think, judging from her questionaire, she will like this yarn. Now to figure out a pattern. I only have so much yarn since it is handpainted and handspun by somebody other than me thank heavens. There is no more to be had since this spinner supposedly only does a single skein in any given colorway. Maybe contrasting toes and heels if need be. Off to think on sockity goodness
yarny days and knitterly evenings
Posted by Elka at 09:02 PM | Comments (2)
March 05, 2006
For the Love of Pete
I logged on to talk about going for the RED. Yes, like a bat outta h*ll, I am hurtling at super sonic speed back to all that is fiery and hot and red. Let's review. I spent 16 days half assed knitting on Olympia for a Gold Medal and got to @ 4" past armhole's initial binding off on back. Compare this to the past 3 days of knitting so that I may knit guilt free on Red, Red, Red and I finished the back and am now at armhole of front. Obviously Red is far better than Gold IMB.
Anyways since I was online I decided to check and see how people were getting to my blog. That Saartje is pretty darn popular for good reasons. My hits have doubled since she linked to me in the other days post. The great linkage of Norgie knits is due entirely to the swap I had with her. The joy of ads in foreign mags is beyond description. Anyway guess what? And this is why I am rolling my eyes with the Pete's sake mutterings. Give up.... My site is the first you get when you search for "knit blogs menopause" The first out of 2,524 results. Can you believe it? Mention that I am NOT menopausal just once and this is what happens. Jeesh.
No sockity knitting, no misery, no nothing but Olympia. Yarny days and knitterly evenings
Posted by Elka at 08:27 PM | Comments (1)
March 03, 2006
So very, very sad
OK so I decided that Weds should be my WIP days~ you know WIP Weds sounded zippier than any other day of the week. This Weds was my hubby's birthday and I managed to CO the 64 sts for the other Maimu's Mitten and that's it. Sad sigh.
I then decided that I would feel too guilt ridden to CO any of the glorious red projects in waiting for Spectrum with the 2 shawls, socks, mittens, and 2 work projects{!}, sitting undone. Why oh why didn't I just knit the freaking 10 balls of yarn for Olympia so that I could proceed guilt free despite not being done? Plus I was asked, urm OK I begged and bordered on paying, to knit some samples for a friend. Shussssssssh don't tell her I woulda paid her if she held out on the job any longer. Super Sad Sigh.
Expect NO pictures until this design is knitted up as far as I can go with the yarn I have because I am going to be grudgingly working on it instead of RED Glorious RED. And yes I am aware that speaking of my design as a grudging knit kinda doesn't sell it very well.... it's cute, or at least I think it's cute, and a simple knit so I am overall pleased just not where my heart is at right now RED RED RED RED RED
yarny days and knitterly evenings
Posted by Elka at 12:15 PM | Comments (2)