OH MY GOD ONLY ONE MORE WEEK OF CLASSES UNTIL THE END OF THE SEMESTER AND I THINK MY BRAIN MAY HAVE JUST LEAKED OUT OF MY EAR!

So, a bit hyperbolic but yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m 4 brain cells short of a complete vegetative state. I’m hanging in there though with the help of a highly supportive group of friends (both online and in real life), family and my wonderful boy, Mike who is literally the thing keeping me sane right now. How he manages to keep things light when I am trying my damndest to be in a bad mood is amazing.

So! New things: I joined yet another social media/crafting website thingy and am quite smitten with the whole thing. It’s Mixxmade.com and it’s a pretty comprehensive site for independent artisan crafters of all persuasions. Wonder Webmistress Amy turned me on to the site and I’ve been elbow deep in exploring it since. I also took advantage of their ‘artisan spotlight’ feature and am currently featured on the front page in an interview style profile. If you are either a) a supporter of the handmade, DIY or indie goods movement and want to find some great handmade artisans to give your money to or b) a indie artisan of some kind yourself (everything from soap and yarn to artwork and pottery) I recommend you check out Mixxmade. Supporting websites like this supports the indie crafting community.

In the dying/spinning/knitting arena I have completed a few things:

New yarns available at Knit Las Vegas:

Very nice merino/nylon base yarn that is squishy and soft and took color beautifully. All of these yarns are hand dyed with Greener Shades dyes which are natural and heavy metal free.

I also dyed 5 more hanks of lace weight based on the artwork of Georgia O’Keefe to go in the Phat Fiber Shop but I haven’t taken photos of them yet because I still need to rehank and tag them. I also dyed the May Rock Your Socks Off yarn based on Sleater Kinney’s ‘One Beat’ album, which I have taken photos of but the packages haven’t gone out to club members yet so I’m not going to spoil the surprise. I’m hoping on Friday I’ll be able to package them up and get them shipped out to our current members.

Speaking of, remember the bit about me being brain dead because we’re so close to graduation and all my energy and creative juices are going into studying for finals and such? Well, I need your help who who we should do for June RYSO. We’ll do a little mini contest, winning entry gets bragging rights and a 50 yard hank of my handspun. Which I will take a picture of soon. It’s blue and brown and soft. And AWESOME because it’s handspun.

Guidelines: I’d like to do someone who currently has a song on the radio since we’ve been doing pretty much 90’s alt rock the last three months. This is a pretty broad guideline though so pretty much anything goes as long as they currently have something on the air waves. Try to think summery since it’s June. Taking entries from now until May 7th (the day after my in class finals are done).

That’s all I have for now. I have several WIPs that are nearing completion, including the Kai Mei socks and a tank top for my favorite baby Madison. As soon as they are actually done I will post pictures of those. If you don’t see anything from me for the next week do not be alarmed; it’s finals. I will be back with with a vengeance after the 12th. (the day all of my finals are done.)

Wish me luck with Chemistry! It’s the only thing I’m in danger of not passing and having to take over the summer. (Blech.)

Socks. I’ve been knitting socks like crazy. TOP DOWN! On DPN’s! Holy Pointy Sticks, Batman! Has the world gone topsy turvy? Yes, I believe it may have. I love top down socks. I can’t even believe how much I love them since I resisted it so long. I still believe toe up two at a time to be more efficient, but I love the simplicity of a top down sock. I love the undivided attention you can give the sock and I love the classic fitted look of a properly turned heel and gusset.

This is the sock I’ve dubbed ‘Coachella Socks’ since I began knitting it on the way to Coachella last weekend and worked on it the entire time I was there.

Then of course we have the gorgeous Kai Mei sock from the Cookie A Sock Innovation book.

This is the same sock from slightly different angles, I’m about 3/4 the way through the second sock and hope to have it finished sometime before graduation because since the graduation shawl didn’t work out, and then the attempt at a graduation scarf also went by the way side I believe I may just have to settle for graduation socks. Which is fine, since they’re the only thing you see from under the gown any ways. Is it silly to wear hand knit socks with high heels for special occasions?

And then of course we have spinning and fiber fun!

This is handspun I’m calling Gaia for it’s beautiful Earthy colors. It’s spun from a variety of fibers including a mystery batt from Rawfish Designs, some hand dyed merino roving from Kanagroo Dyer and a wee bit of fiber from Serendipity Fiber Arts in the form of a sample batt I received in the April Phat Fiber box. They all came together really beautifully I think. This is of course available for sale in my Etsy Shop. It’s 153 yards of roughly sport weight (12 WPI) in mostly merino with bits of other wool crosses, silk, mohair and a teensy bit of glitz. Also, I still have the Spring Cleaning sale going on in the shop so even though it’s a brand new item you can still get it for 10% off (15% if you have a Phat Fiber code or are on my mailing list!)

I also dyed some fiber yesterday as well, I had bought several ounces of farm fresh Lincoln lamb and mohair blend undyed fiber from Desert Garden awhile back and yesterday I dyed it up. I broke it up into smaller sections instead of dying it all the same color. I dyed several ounces of it to go with some milk fiber I dyed a while back that I will be sending to my dear friend Roo at Moonwood Farm to blend into a batt for me since I find the milk fiber nearly unspinnable in it’s current form.

Anyways, here’s the other sections of this great fiber that I dyed.

I love these Greener Shades dyes I’ve been using, I get such great vivid colors from them. I probably should put these rovings up for sale, but I have a feeling I’m going to keep them to spin myself, I just love them too much.

I also dyed some 100% hemp yarn yesterday as well to try out as wash clothes and other home/bath items.

Today, after I go take my Chemistry exam (which I’m leaving to do in about ten minutes), it’s dye day for May’s Rock Your Socks Off club yarns, some new sock yarns for Knit Las Vegas and some more lace weight for the Phat Fiber Etsy Shop.

Speaking of Knit Las Vegas if you haven’t been to the shop site in a while you owe it to yourself to go check it out again, our web mistress Amy has been working her cute little buhunkis off to make it a great and easily navigated site. We now have a blog (which has details for the Summer of Socks on it right now!) and a shop and a gallery and all kinds of cool stuff! So go check it out and if you live somewhere that doesn’t have a LYS, consider making us your online LYS, I promise you, we’re fun, we’re run entirely by self sufficient women who depend on this business to make their living entirely and we are big fans of making sure all of our customers online or in the actual shop get exactly what they’re looking for and end up with a beautiful and one of a kind finished item. In short; we’re awesome. (And soon you’ll be able to get special Dyed by DaniDo yarns exclusively dyed and spun for Knit Las Vegas through the website.)

Okay, so I got a Wii Fit for my birthday. Which is awesome because I’m a little dumpling of a woman and at the ripe old age of 27, I’d really like not to be as ‘dumpy’ as I feel. I also have an intense phobia of working out in front of people because I’m unbalanced, uncoordinated and chubby. Also, walking in place on a treadmill in a gym makes me feel entirely too much like a hamster on a wheel. So the Wii Fit really is the answer to all my work out woes. I just christened the thing with a 32 minute work out testing out the various games and activities. Turns out I’m pretty good at the yoga poses (having done yoga off and on for 2+ years now, I’m glad that I’m out of the ‘wobbly n00b’ stage at least) but that I suck at everything else. Except after a few tries I did manage to get the hang of the Hula Hoop game. The running in place thing made me work up a sweat and I hated it, so I’m assuming I probably need to do more of that. My little Mii is a little sphere and I’ve been dubbed ‘obese’ which is a blow to the ego but I’m determined to make my Mii svelte and gorgeous (and hopefully the real Me as well).

I am 27 today. I am graduating college in t-minus 28 days (even though I still have 1, maybe 2 summer classes to take and then will be enrolling in a BA program next spring) and I an determined that 27 is going to be the year of changes. Christina Marie is making this year the year of quitting things, and I’m making it the year of starting things; hopefully good habits and actually reaching goals. 

So, internets, I’m putting my goals here and asking you all to hold me accountable. I will need constant prodding, reminding, nagging and down right virtual bitch slapping to keep up with these goals, but I trust that you guys can handle it. Up for the task? Here’s the goals (not just weight goals, by the way.)

Goals:

Weight: –1 lb roughly every 2 weeks, achieved by eating better, drinking more water, doing at least 30 minutes of Wii fit exercises (and at least 1 session of that damned running in place thing) every day. EVERY DAY. No exceptions short of broken limbs or catatonic state. Also, when it is warm enough (and we’re fast approaching warm enough) get in the pool and do laps at least twice a week. I have a pool in my back yard for crying out loud, I should be using it. By the end of summer I’d like to be in a size 12 pant/dress. I’m not as worried about pounds as I am about physically changing the shape of my body.

Education: Graduate in M ay and then IMMEDIATELY begin working on final touches to TKGA Master Knitters Level 1 course I started last fall. I’d like to have that finished by the end of July and ready to submit. Work hard at summer course to get actual AA degree and begin the transfer process to UNLV for the Spring. Sign up for at least one class that scares me in the Spring. (Statistics maybe?)

Business: Hank a week goal back in full effect starting this week. I want at least 1 fully finished hank of yarn to be spun and ready for sale in my shop or at Knit Las Vegas each week. I have plenty of fiber, there is no reason this isn’t entirely reasonable. I also have an expensive new wheel that can be buckled into my front seat for easy transport. Learn new spinning techniques (slubbing, beading, different types of plying, etc.) and get competent enough in the basics to be able to offer spinning lessons at the shop by the end of summer. Sock club: continuing at a great pace, continue to expand and listen to member input to create new and interesting additions to the club. Develop and implement the fiber club idea that I’ve been working on with my as yet unnamed friend. (Super secret!) Shooting for end of May early June for fiber club signups. Create dye workshops to teach at Knit Las Vegas and help Christine/Megan as much as I can to reach their goals for designing and such.

I think 27 is the year of awesome. I can feel it in my bones.

I’m exhausted and starting to get sick, but I did want to at least share the Flickr photo set from our Coachella trip.

The Cure WAS AMAZING. I almost cried at several points. Seriously. Also, they played In Between Days and I could have died a happy woman right then. (Followed directly by Just Like Heaven).

More details from the trip, the contents of my Phat Fiber box from this month and other new fun stuff coming up. Just too tired today. Also, it’s my birthday. So I’m going to go spin and/or knit for awhile.

The math. OH MY GOD. The math. It’s making me cross eyed. I had to take a break.

I want to talk about music. We all know I love music. I am inspired by music, constantly. All day everyday all I think about is music (in between fiber day dreams and puppy snuggles and occasional breaks to fight with math.)

I use the website last.fm a lot. I have playlists for work (Songs for a Yarn Shop) and I have play lists for homework and house work (Rocking Out) and then I have my loved tracks and my library and so on. It’s pretty awesome. Currently I’m listening to my Rocking Out play list and right now it’s Red House Painters – Song for a Blue Guitar, which I might add is most definitely NOT a rocking out song. I love it anyway. Red House Painters are going to have to be a Rock Your Socks Off yarn soon. As I realized that I started compiling all the bands that I want to do and here’s a list, in no particular order that should be making the rounds in the next year or so:

• Concrete Blonde
• Mary Lou Lord
• Rilo Kiley
• Bloc Party
• Santogold
• The Weakerthans
• Alkaline Trio
• Oasis
• Mazzy Star
• Joy Division
• the Pixies
• Deathcab for Cutie
• Jimmy Eat World
• Third Eye Blind
• Ani DiFranco
• Tori Amos
• Fiona Apple
• Placebo
• Mates of State
• Girl in a Coma
• The Gossip

I’m having this really hard time with the club, I think I may need to have two yarn offerings per month the (as Christina Marie and I refer to it) ‘Indie as F*ck’ bands and then the ‘Other people actually know who this is’ bands. I feel like my tastes tends towards two things: a) older and b) indie-r. I feel like maybe there needs to be sub groups in the Rock Your Socks Off club, so that those of you who have no interest in Red House Painters or Mary Lou Lord yarns can opt out of that stuff and get the Aerosmith, Johnny Cash, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance yarns instead. Or does it really matter and the important part is really awesome sock yarn?

I would love to do a whole three month set of yarns for say The Gossip, Pj Harvey and Girl in a Coma. Or even Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis and Postal Service (Jenny Lewis is the lead singer of Rilo Kiley and has collaborated with Ben Gibbard of Deathcab for Cutie on Postal Service songs). Or we could do Bloc Party, Placebo and…

You know I went looking for a third ‘gay’ band to put with Bloc Party and Placebo that I really love and I found this: http://lovegodsway.org/GayBands which is a list of ‘gay’ bands. But not gay in the way I was looking for, in that members of the band are openly gay. This list is of bands that can evidently MAKE you gay. Which is funny because ZOMG I SHOULD BE GAY ANY SECOND NOW! According to this list (which reads eerily similar to the one I put above of bands I wanted to make into yarn) a wide variety of bands are ‘gay’ including Ghost Face Killah and Metallica. Also, I love the notations next to some of these bands such as “makeup”, “really gay”, “lizbians” (what the hell does that even mean?) and really, best of all next to Ted Nugent “loincloth”. Does that mean that the Aboriginal people are gay? Or pre-historic humans? Or, dare I say it, Adam and Eve for only wearing fig leaves?

File under “Things that make me Stabby”.

Anyways, I think it’s time to go back to my math homework since this little ‘break’ just made that vein in my head start throbbing and I’m trying to figure out if it’s possible to virtual shin kick a website.

Sleater Kinney wins!
Concrete Blonde will be forthcoming though guys, because really I need me some “Still in Hollywood” or “The Beast” yarn.

Also I’m extending the deadline to buy in for May to the 23rd this month since I will be going to Coachella the 18-20th and have to work the 21st and 22nd and will not get a chance to dye until at least the 23rd. So if you wanted to sign up for the Rock Your Socks Off club and want to get in on the Sleater Kinney yarn, you have until the 23rd of April. Any subscriptions after that will get their first shipments in June.

Speaking of June, I should probably nail down who we’re doing for June and maybe even July as well here soon so people can know what they’re getting themselves in to.

For June lets do a band that currently has a song on the radio since we’ve been pretty 80s/90s alt rock-y lately. I’m thinking maybe Bloc Party, The Killers, Deathcab for Cutie or Weezer. (I know, I know, the last two could totally still count for my tendency towards the 90s, but a good band is a good band.)

Let me know what you think. I need to start winding hanks because we have a lot more members now! (YAY!)

Rilo Kiley. Concrete Blonde. Sleater Kinney. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Gossip. Fiona Apple. Tori Amos. WHO DO I CHOOSE?!?

Weigh in so I can announce next months band for the Rock Your Socks Off club. It’s getting about that time already and I haven’t made a decision. I am determined to make choice by tomorrow night so I can start planning the colorway.

Write-ins welcome also. Just tell me who you want to see forever imbued in 400 yards of sock wool.

Edited: Totally forgot Mary Lou Lord, Ani DiFranco, The Arcade Fire (they have a girl singer sometimes), The Pixies (same thing), The Breeders, Girl in a Coma, Mazzy Star and Santogold. And probably a ton more.

First things first, let’s welcome home Niobe my brand new Majacraft Pioneer that arrived yesterday (much the relief of my harried mail man I assume)

Here she is:

So the name. Here’s the story: (as I explained it to Jess of Phat Fiber earlier today)

There is a series of books by Piers Anthony that I read as a young adult that I really loved, I’m rereading them now. They are the Incarnations of Immortality series. The 3rd book in the series is about the incarnation of Fate, who has three aspects, Clotho, Lacheisis and Atropos. They spin, measure and cut the thread of life. The first aspect, Clotho spins the thread. In the book the woman who assumes the role of Clotho is a talented spinner/weaver named Niobe.

I suppose I could have named the wheel Clotho, but I didn’t like the ring of that as much. So, Niobe it is. I’m thinking of finding an artist to help ‘tattoo’ her for me, maybe paint something pretty on it. After a few false starts last night I’ve managed to get the hang of it now, I think/hope. It’s almost like learning to spin all over again because this wheel is so different than the Ashford Traditional I’m used to. I love the double treadle though!

Here’s the 30 yards I managed to spin and ply last night on the new wheel:

It’s some of my hand dyed wool top plied with the Kangaroo Dyer sample from last months Phat Fiber box. A little over spun in parts, a little fluffy and under spun in others, but I was still getting the hang of it.

Okay, winners! The “No One Wants to Look Like Robert Smith” contest ended (somewhat unceremoniously thanks to the arrival of Niobe) last night and I picked winners this morning. The winners are Jennifer from Desert Garden Farm who won first place with her BRILLIANT entry of her bottle feeding a lamb dolled up like Cyndi Lauper and 2nd place goes to Jess of Phat Fiber for her lovely portrayal of Steven Tyler (which I thought was much more Stevie Nicks). I will probably even send an extra special treat for the incredibly photographically gifted 3 year old who took Jessies’ pictures. They have not been notified yet, because quite frankly I just decided right before I started writing this blog post. Ladies, thank you for humoring this crazy rock n’ roll fan.

Speaking of rock n’ roll, the first known finished knit from a Rock Your Socks Off yarn has been completed by my bestie and prolific sock  knitter Christina Marie.

Wonderful toe up socks in the March colorway Cherub Rock.

And now my own current WIPs.

I finally cast on a scarf for that 300 yards of hand spun lace weight I did a few weeks ago.

It’s the arrowhead lace pattern from a stitch dictionary and I quite like it.

And socks of course!

Funky toe up socks in Noro Kureyon sock yarn. Great for t.v./movie watching, no thinking involved, just plain stockinette.

Last but not least, we got the new Cookie A Sock Innovation book in at the shop last week and I immediately fell in love with the Kei Mei pattern. I dug out some stash sock yarn (the Brooklyn Handspun Mike brought me back from his trip to NYC last year) and cast on immediately. TOP DOWN! On DPNs! Holy Cow, I loved the pattern so much I was willing to completely reverse the way I always do socks just to be able to knit these. These are my very first top down socks.

They are coming along very quickly and very nicely. I love them. I think, thanks to a mirrored lace pattern, that I may even be able to slog through the normal Second Sock Syndrome I suffer from to get the pair done.

Knit Las Vegas will be hosting a Sock A Long this summer (I’m considering Summer 2009 the Summer of Socks) and I believe I personally will be doing several more patterns from the Cookie A book. I love almost all of the patterns in the new book. If you’re in Las Vegas (or wish you were in Las Vegas and want to join our Summer of Socks anyways) check out the brand new beautiful Knit Las Vegas website, we’re going to be selling anything you can find in our shop online so buy some of our sock yarn (new limited edition Knit Las Vegas – Dyed by DaniDo sock yarns will be in the shop next week!), grab a copy of the Cookie A book and knit along with us no matter where you are!

I have to leave for work in like 10 minutes but OH MY GOD MY NEW WHEEL IS HERE AND I’M SO FREAKING EXCITED!

Photo shoot and coo-ing, oohing and ahhing coming later.

I’ve named her Niobe, which I will explain at great length later. Going to try to put it together in 10 mins or less so I can take it to work.

I have delusions of grandeur. I fancy myself a bit of a writer even though aside from this blog I don’t write anything. Well, that’s not technically true but I’m terrified to write anything that could be submitted somewhere for publication because rejection scares me and as I understand it about 90% of being a writer is being rejected. Anyways, I have a few major obsessions/loves in my life that I pursue whole heartedly and with the rabid voraciousness that is expected of a woman on a mission. It used to be that I was satisfied with just knowing how to knit and crochet, the very act of it was fine with me.

Something snapped one day and I lost my mind a bit. I started hoarding information like a squirrel hoards nuts before the long winter. I started taking in as much new information as I could stuff in my little brain cheeks. My obsession expanded from merely knitting and crochet to yarn, and dying yarn, then making yarn, then how yarn started being made in the first place and who thought of making a device (let alone a variety of devices!) that could do this? Where did the techniques come from, why are there so many techniques? Why is there 1,000 different ways to make a sock and WHO ARE THESE GENIUSES WHO COME UP WITH THEM?!?

For those of you who don’t know I’m a Sociology major in college. I have a particular affection for the intersection between craft and societies. I love digging around in history and cultural ethnographies to find the root of where crafting traditions came from and why they are still practiced and how they are practiced. I’m one of those nerds that would love to go live among the traditional people of Peru for a year or something and learn how they spin and knit. It is my greatest ambition in life to figure out how to get paid to do just that. (And then write about it naturally)

Now because I am a big geek for history, culture, knitting/spinning/crafting AND writing I naturally have taken to honoring the Yarn Harlot as though she were a professor of mine that I just don’t take classes from in person. I have read absolutely everything she has written, including her blog, and literally dream of going to a book signing or even better Sock Summit or the recently past Madrona Fiber Arts winter retreat.

So yesterday I was explaining to Mike why and to what degree I love the Yarn Harlot and after the first 30 seconds once he figured out this was going to be an important and passionate dissertation detailing why this was important he turned on the camera on his Blackberry and filmed it. Dear readers/watchers you must pardon the terrible angle, lighting, Godzilla-like audio and lack of make-up and just listen to the very important words I am trying to beat into my dear boy.

If you don’t know who Sarah Vowell is (then where the Hell have you been?) she is a writer, actor and NPR contributor. Mike and I recently listened to her audio book “The Wordy Shipmates” on a trip to California. She is wickedly funny and frighteningly smart.

Has anyone else noticed that this blog has shifted from showing off finished knit projects into something of an ongoing thesis about knitting and spinning?

I’ll dig out some knitting here shortly, I do have FO’s and WIPs to share, I promise.