Month: May 2008

  • Overheard…

    “Susan Bates doesn’t deserve to be in a Lexie Barnes.”

    (Emily meant a Lexie Barnes needle case). Emily is blissfully between Grad School and her new job and she agreed, thank goodness, to let me hire her to organize my studio, pre-move. She has declared, among other things, that “You don’t need any more circular needles!”

    Emily is really, really good at organizing. Now that we’re done with the major clutter she’s excited to be down to the nitty gritty of sorting buttons and needles. I actually love this kind of task too, but with TNNA and the move approaching I am now much saner having a deculttering partner in crime.

    Here’s Emily when she had finished the yarn cupboard:

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  • Crocheting in spite of me…

    On Saturday, we attended the Hamilton College commencement ceremony because it was the last commencement where my dad would be College Marshall–the person who leads the ceremony and directs everyone. (Here he is calling the ceremony to order.) He retires this year.

    Calling Commencement to Order

    Here he is after the ceremony. Do you think he looks happy to be finished?

    Dad in the Gauntlet

    He doesn’t look old enough to be retiring! He’s not actually going to stop teaching. As an emeritus professor, he’ll teach one course per semester, but not have any administrative work that goes with a full time job.

    My dad is an English professor, and he is a huge influence on my career as a writer. His influence began when he read to me as a little kid–everything from nursery rhymes to Robinson Crusoe. He reviewed and commented on practically everything I wrote through grade school, high-school, and college; he’s taught me more than anyone about how to write.

    Anyway, after all of the marching in at the ceremony, once the speeches had started, I pulled out a sock I was crocheting and began to work on it. Selma, who had forgotten the book she was going to read, was watching me intently, and after a few minutes, I handed her the sock. I had tried to teach her to crochet a year or so ago, but she wasn’t interested, so I didn’t push it. This time, however, I didn’t really teach her, I just gave a little non-verbal advice when she got stuck, and it all came naturally–I think the fact that I couldn’t talk (because we were in a ceremony) helped–I probably would have given too much advice and annoyed her. This way, I let her work it out on her own. I also think the smallness of the sock yarn and hook may have been a better fit for her small hands than worsted weight and a big 5mm hook. Here she is continuing her work at the picnic after the ceremony.

    Selma's Learning to Crochet

    Of course, she has another new fiber love, she learned to spin at Maryland sheep and wool:

    She also designed her very own batt on Rebecca’s drum carder:

    So it will be interesting to see what keeps her attention.

    Today the movers came and took away our express shipment including, (GULP!) all my stitch dictionaries. I’m feeling a little naked without them.

  • Wishful Thinking

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    This weekend, my mom took the kids over to the fountain in our the little village green, one of the many picturesque parts of Clinton, NY, the town where I grew up.

    After she let them throw in a few pennies, she asked what their wishes were, and Jay said,

    “I wished…I had my penny back.”

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    Later that day, Jay’s theme on wishes continued, when, after blowing on a dandelion, he told his sister,

    “I wished I had another flower to blow on.”

    We’re back after a 10-hour traffic-filled drive yesterday. Tomorrow some movers come to take an “express shipment” of 600 pounds of essentials we can use in Alaska until all of our household goods arrive, so I’m gathering linens, pans, silverware, etc. I’ll try and get back to some fiber-y content soon!

  • Downstairs from the fabric store…

    …is a tattoo parlor. Yesterday, Emily and I were taking a break from de-cluttering and went shopping for buttons. She dared me to get a tattoo, so…

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    GOTCHA!!!!

    It’s really a “tattoo sleeve.” I’m not sure when (or why) I got this in the first place, but it’s one of the things we found when cleaning up. I think I’ll hang onto it for the kids to play with.

    We’re leaving tomorrow to spend the long weekend with my parents. I expect to do lots of knitting, but little or no blogging, so see you next week!

  • Latest Handspun

    I finished this a week or so ago, but then as it was single ply and as I’m a novice, it was a bit over-spun, so I washed it and blocked it and dried it on the swift to straighten it a bit. The yarn is a mix (not a blend) of merino top and merino-silk top. Both fibers were left over from my spinning class with Maggie Casey. I spun the yarn “over the fold” alternating locks of the white, then the purple to get the stripey effect. There are about 70 yards of sport weight. Not really enough to make much of anything, but it’s the first handspun that I’ve felt compelled to use, so we’ll see what comes of it!

    Latest Handspun

    Today Emily came over to help me organize my studio for the move, and we got a good start, but we haven’t gotten to the YARN yet… Our friend Lisa (ravelry) came over and brought us Salvedoran food for lunch–yummy cheese and vegetable Pupusas which are like a flattened tamale. I sent Lisa home with some tiny swatching skeins of yarn I’d collected over the years and the promise to teach her to make a granny square so she can use them up making little grannies.

  • Race to the end of the month…

    Things are just a wee bit crazy around here these last few days. James had his last day of work, and now he’s home, feeling great about his time off, and getting ready for the move. We have so much to do, we’re using project management software to keep track of it all. Craziness. This week was all about cars. We have to sell both of our current cars and replace them with 4-wheel-drive (or in my case all-wheel-drive) vehicles. I bought a 2002 Subaru Legacy (with heated seats!), and James a 4-wheel drive truck that he can take out into the Alaskan wilderness (I’ll keep my car to the 12 miles of road Cordova has).

    Now there are 4 cars in front of our house–not something that totally excites the neighbors. James is in charge of selling the old cars, and he’s been doing paperwork and getting them ready, etc.

    I’m also preparing simultaneously for a quick trip to my parents in honor of my dad’s retirement, and a big trip to Columbus, OH on June 5th to teach and exhibit at The National Needle Arts association trade show. Normally, I attend TNNA just to network and take classes. This year, I’m both exhibiting with Stitch Cooperative, and teaching two classes: Caps à la Carte (design your own crocheted hat), and It’s Easy Being Green–a class on understanding the ins and outs of the new green movement that’s taking place in the yarn industry. I’m thrilled to be teaching and exhibiting, I feel like I’m seeing all sides of the industry this year, but there are a million little details involved in getting ready for TNNA too. Some are fun–I got to help design a button we’re giving away (I designed buttons for my own pattern line too)–others are mundane like deciding how many tables and chairs we need for the booth.

    On Sunday, while Selma and James were playing parents against kids soccer in the rain (Jay was the ref, whistle and all!), Heidi came over and let me take her picture in all of the garments in my pattern line that didn’t ever have live model photos. The overcast weather was perfect, and we got some nice shots. This one is the Hemp Shawlette, that I’ll be debuting at TNNA–it will be available on my web site after the show.

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    About halfway through the photo shoot we realized that Heidi had been looking off in the same direction for every photo, so we started to get a little more creative. We also discovered how much easier it is to look natural when you’re leaning against something.

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    (The Antique Lace Shawl).

    Here’s an early shot, Heidi’s wearing the Herringbone Mesh Jacket:

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    Heidi liked wearing the Half Crazy Sweater:

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  • Drafting Sanity: A (long) day in the life…

    At Robyn‘s request, I’ve written a blow-by-blow of my day, yesterday (Wednesday).

    0555: “Mama–can I go downstairs?” Jay is patting me on the head, trying to wake me up. I poke James in the arm. His alarm clock will be going off in five minutes, so he gets up and takes Jay down to have breakfast. I’m exhausted because I had stayed up too late the night before obsessed with having a few minutes at the spinning wheel. I couldn’t find my carders so that led to me not starting to spin until after midnight.

    0730: “Maaaaaaam! It’s time to get up!!” Jay shouts from the bottom of the stairs. James must have just left for work. I get up, shower, and dress.

    0800: Kids have breakfast, and I’m making lunches.

    0830: We get on shoes and jackets and walk the two blocks to the school bus stop. Jay and I ride the bus with Selma for a couple of blocks then get off at his pre-school. I drop him off and then walk back home.

    0905: Back home. Put on water for tea. Go start a load of laundry, pick up from breakfast and morning kid mess. Remember an e-mail I need to send first thing in the morning, sit down at laptop in living room. Send e-mail then check inbox. Check Ravelry for rav-mail.

    0945: Remember about making tea. Turn water back on to boil (it’s an electric kettle with an auto shutoff, thank goodness.) Make toast. (I eat sprouted grain raisin toast every day for breakfast, this may sound boring, but it’s delicious!) While eating toast, I make my two regular morning calls to my mom and my friend Lisa.

    1000: Make my long commute–down the stairs to my basement studio. Call the landlord about the furnace *still* not working. Call the military transportation office at Fort Belvoir to find out why our move hasn’t been assigned to a moving company yet, wait on hold for 20 minutes and three different people saying “can you hold, please?” Finally get someone on the phone:

    Me: “Hello, I was wondering if a carrier has been assigned to our move yet.”

    She: Oh, well, no. It looks like it hasn’t been started. Normally, you would just wait for us to e-mail you, but since you got me on the phone, I’ll start it right now. (I got the carrier notification the next day!)

    1030: Call 2 yarn companies who are providing materials for classes that I’m teaching at the National Needle Arts Association summer conference June 5. Both agree to send stuff right away. Cross that off the list.

    1100: Write a blog post about my house’s rebellion against me. Remember I need to send a crochet chart to a contract crocheter who’s working on a cashmere shawl design for me. Then forget.

    1130: Work on tech editing some patterns for a friend’s crochet book. E-mail the completed edits to her.

    1230: Stomach growls. Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of soy milk for lunch. Wish there was something more interesting in the fridge. I do have a fond nostalgia for pb&(grape) jelly because I had it every day for lunch in grade school. While I’m eating, I work on a graphic for a button I’m making to give away at TNNA.

    1300: More tech editing.

    1415: Grab socks that need to be overnighted to magazine that’s publishing them. Weave in ends. Attach a tag and put them in a ziploc, grab mailing address and head to post office. Notice a group of high school kids all wearing polo shirts in a decidedly non-preppy way, is this a new trend? (UPDATE: I found out today-Thursday-that the socks didn’t arrive on time-is usps express mail always so unreliable?)

    1550: Meet Selma at the bus stop. Make her a snack (peanut butter, honey, pretzels–her request, perhaps the peanut butter love is genetic).

    1630: Pick up Jay at preschool. Take Selma to Yoga class. Jay and I connect with a knitting friend Hannah, who’s son is also in yoga. We walk into Old Town Takoma and I order takeout for the kids and me, and order Jay a lemonade. We chat a while, then walk back to the yoga center.

    1745: Selma comes out of yoga and we eat dinner in the park. We are planning to go to the Art Showcase at Selma’s school. Jay has an accident, (very unusual for him, but I should have seen it coming since he just drank a whole glass of lemonade.) I’m not prepared.

    1800: Call another parent: “Can Selma go with you to Art Showcase?” It turns out they’re already in town eating at the Mark’s Kitchen (where we got our takeout). Drop Selma with her friend Aaron and his Dad who take her to the event.

    1830: Bring Jay home, get him ready for bed, brush teeth, story, rocking, put him back in bed after a “pop-up.”

    1900: Begin work on a hairpin lace sample shawl that I’m making for a class I’m teaching on Saturday at A Tangled Skein in Hyattsville. Realize I love the Clover hairpin frame (I’d never tried it before, and it’s compact and has holes in the pins to hold your guidelines. Brilliant).

    2000: Heidi, Emily and Lorraine arrive for craftnite. We were planning on making crafty luggage tags but I convince them to let me teach them Hairpin Lace so I can practice for my class. Heidi has brought ingredients to make a yummy snack–melba toast, pesto, and buffalo mozzerella. Emily brought brownie muffins. Lorraine goes into my kitchen to make tea and got attacked by tea boxes when opening a cabinet. I should have warned her that the house is out to get us.

    Here’s the headband Heidi Made:

    Heidi's Hairpin Headband.

    Heidi is an amazing crocheter and knitter–she’s an artist who ads her own flair to every project, and started designing the moment she got the hairpin lace in her hands. I taught her the most basic stitch, and she immediately added double crochets and back-loop single crochets as well as her own take on a crochet edging. Definitely take a look at Heidi’s blog and the adorable raglan tops she’s making–she’s made about 3 or 4 for herself in the last month and they’re all gorgeous.

    2030: Hillary arrives and she learns hairpin lace too.

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    2200: Friends finally leave after another fun and funny craftnite. I continue to work on hairpin project until I get too sleepy.

  • Time to move?

    I think that our house is kicking us out. Our phone has been intermittently going on the fritz, every time it rains, as a matter of fact. And last week our furnace broke. Someone came to fix it, but a few days later, it broke again. Oh, and all the rain we’ve been having flooded the basement (i.e. my studio), so rugs are piled on top of boxes and things that I had to move to allow the carpet to dry. Argh. We do have to be here at least another 6 weeks until the movers come, so the house and I are going to have to reach some sort of détante. Maybe a little feng shui is in order.

    Meanwhile, I have a new hat design in the works… here’s a quick snapshot. I hope to be doing a photoshoot of this and a few other new projects this week that we’ll be debuting at TNNA in June. The yarn is a sock yarn from Pagewood Farm. It’s a hand-dye on a lovely sock base that is great to work with–this is part of a trio of knitting patterns I’m doing with Pagewood Farm that will include a scarf and a purse.

    Pagewood Farm Hat

    This weekend we had a break from many, many days of torrential rain on Saturday, and we took advantage of it by going to see the US Women’s soccer team beat Canada at RFK stadium in DC. We had front-row seats, and the kids really got to see the action. A few of the players were moms and their kids got to run out to the field and bring them flowers for mother’s day. Afterwards, some of the players came and signed autographs.

    Selma Gets an Autograph

    One of them, Kate Sobrero, who was carrying her son, Keegan, tossed Jay one of her signed Jerseys!

    Soccer Mom

    Of course, he had to put it on, right away.

    Jay's Jersey

    If you’re a Heroes fan, you’ll appreciate this adorable Mohinder amigurumi doll created by Violet Anchovy. I love the sideburns.

    She based it on Kim Werker’s Amigurumi Dude pattern at CrochetMe. Oh, and she’s made a Sylar one too!

  • Kim dresses down the hipsters

    Kim Werker has a great post about the comeback of big glasses à la the 1980s. Kim, I have to say I agree, and in honor of your courage in posting your glasses photos, here are mine:

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    Hmm… Kim and I had almost identical glasses and bangs. We went to high school only about 90 miles apart from one another (we didn’t know each other) so that could explain the coincidence. Was this Upstate New York style, circa 1989?

  • More Takoma Park Indie Fiber Goodness…

    If you had fun at the Homespun Yarn Party (or you didn’t make it), you should c’mon out to the Takoma Gazebo (in old town) for the Old Town Knitting and Craft Fair.

    Here are the official details:

    Event: Old Takoma Knitting and Craft Fair
    Date: Sunday, May 18
    Time: 12:00 – 4:00 pm
    Location: Old Takoma Gazebo – Red Line Metro to Takoma Station, four blocks North on Carroll Avenue
    (across the street from House of Musical Traditions)

    Join some of your favorite local yarn dyers, including Mama E’s C*EYE*Ber Fiber, Storm Moon Knits, and Woolarina, plus designers, writers, jewelers, and crafters for an afternoon of wool-inspired bliss. Designer Amy O’Neill-Houck will be signing copies of hers latest book, The Color Book of Felted Crochet. Also enjoy the Takoma Park Farmer’s Market which will be open from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

    I won’t have any of my handspun (below) for sale, since I’m spinning just for the fun of it, but I may bring my wheel, to demonstrate my novice abilities!

    Random Merino-Silk from Class Practice Handspun from Spinning Class