Monday, 10. November 2008
Since the last time I picked up a spindle kit in May 2008, I must admit, I haven’t attempted spinning since. I can say that I’ve been busy with other knitting projects, but deep down, there is only one reason: the home-made yarn was lumpy, frumpy, and down right ugly.
Fast foward to the Fiber Festival in Torrance last Sunday, and all of a sudden, I was swayed once again. This time around, I picked up a new spindle from the Custom Handweaving booth, and was determined to give spinning another go.
Enter Exhibit A – the bird’s nest.
The darn bird’s nest is so ugly that I don’t even want to show it “big”. Frustrated by the fruits of my labor, I started reading up on every single handspindling post on Ravelry. It seems that the general consensus is to keep at it, until one day, lightning strikes you up side the head and you’ll just “get it”. Really? Well I must be horribly dense because you know what? I’m not getting
it. Fortunately, the advantage of reading Ravelry forums is that people keep posting beautiful pictures of their spindle collections (I’ll explain how this is a fortunate turn of events in the next few sentences). And in particular, the awesomeness of
Golding spindles. So I called my friend
Bobby, who unfortunately has moved away from California to DC, telling him that I would like to collect the winnings of our bet. You see, back in September when we attended the Beck concert at Hollywood Bowl, he and I had a little bet on whether or not Beck would perform “Debra”. He was adamant that he would, and I said no. We agreed that the wager would be around $70 — the price of a new pair of earbuds from Mac. Suffice to say that I won, and I want a new Golding spindle.
Enter Exhibit B – Golding Le Fleur, all 0.75 oz of magic.
Within 30 minutes of its arrival since Friday, I was spinning thin strands of yarn. Hello? Thin, improved-uniformity strands of yarn. Then I realized in that very moment that I, self-proclaimed enemy of spindling, has “gotten it”. 2 days later, my little Golding is full. My friends, it’s all in the spindle. Quality tools make for quality spinning. I believe that firmly, and it is with this belief that I will justify all future purchases of additional Golding spindles. And to prove that I really really got it, I went back to the other spindle and tried it with a different fiber.
Enter Exhibit C – mystery spindle from Custom Handweaving, much much heavier spindle.
By golly, spindling is FUN! Unforunately, I did find that the 2 fibers that I have at home (both corriedale — cheaply bought from etsy) are somewhat felted in various spots, making the drafting and spinning process somewhat less pleasurable than it could be. My ultimate goal is to advance to spinning enough merino for a pair of socks. Of course, this means that I will need to learn how to ply… but we’ll talk about that much later because I haven’t the slightest clue what the difference is between Navajo plying and just normal 2-ply.
And lest you think that I have gone over to the dark side and abandoned knitting, you are sorely mistaken. But we’ll save that for another day, because it’s so very close to being a FO.
Posted in Spinning by winnie -
Monday, 6. October 2008
Preface:
I spent yesterday in San Diego hanging out with a friend that I haven’t seen in a year. During the much anticipated catch-up story-telling session of everything that has transpired in our lives, I realized that alot of the punchlines and “oh-no-you-didn’t” moments have escaped my short-term memory. This is definitely no bueno in my book, because you see, I need instant refreshers to all things funny and tragic that have occurred in my life.
And so, encouraged by my Life in a cubicle commenters, I’ve decided to incorporate more of the funnies that have happened to me. My friend Bobby calls it the “Human Interest” section of the blog.
Date: August 7 2008
Location: Cubicle
Anonymous Person within my hearing range had been groaning in pain all morning. The story was that he fell off a horse and injured himself. But as all things go in life, there was more to the tale.
*crack*
Truth is, he cracked his rib on the shitter.
Moments later, the same person suffered a bout of non-stop sneeze-fest. In the midst of his sneezing, all I heard was:
Merde! Merde! Merde!
That must have been some merde indeed.
Posted in Life by winnie -
Wednesday, 1. October 2008
You know those times when you’ve finished your knitting and because of the lack of a decent camera you never got to post the FOs? Well that’s the case with my knitting these days. And then you put off posting the pictures because you think someday you’ll take better pictures and write a post about them? I’m sure you’ve all been there. (Ha ha.. October 4th update: Situation amended)
My sister called me up in mid-September and said that the weather conditions in Toronto already required winter coats. And then she requested for a scarf.
“Sure, of course. Let me email you some patterns so you can pick which designs you like. What color are you thinking of?” (imagination goes wild with heavily cabled patterns in reds, pinks, and other jewel tones)
“Oh, black, brown, or dark gray.”
“Seriously? But if your clothes are already in that color scheme, don’t you want your scarf to have some color to punch up your outfit?” (I mean, seriously, knitting with black yarn ain’t fun)
“Yea… but if the scarf is black then it’ll go with everything I own..”
“Well, I’ve got really really dark purple. Like, grape. It’s almost black. How about cream white? Can we settle for cream white?” (hello? color? hello?)
And then, before she told me which scarf designs she liked, I went ahead and knit her the Circles Scarf from “Knitting New Scarves”.
Then I sent her the link to Lynn Barr’s “Knitting New Scarves” and she liked it.
“I really like the Gathered Scarf too” (and also the Boteh scarf, but I don’t crochet, so that automatically disqualifies)
“Oh really? Then you’ll get that one as well. Color choice?” (thinking now that I’ve shown her that cream and gray looks well together as a neutral color combo, she may want to be adventurous with her second color choice)
“Black.”
Well, I guess in the end, she wants what she wants.
Posted in FOs, Scarves/Shawls by winnie -
Tuesday, 2. September 2008
Preface: This post has nothing to do with knitting. But it is a true story. First hand experience.
3:08pm
There is a repair man working on our air vent on the ceiling. This entails removing a ceiling panel, climbing up the ladder, and repairing… whatever that needs repairing. All I can see is a pair of navy blue work pants and his derriere. His upper body is in the ceiling, and all this is happening in the cubicle adjacent to mine.
So picture this:
He’s on a ladder, drilling stuff. *Bzzz…bzzz…bzzz*
I’m in the other cubicle, with one earbud from my ipod in the ear.
All of a sudden, he farted.
There was a 3 second awkward pause in the drilling.
No one moves. His torso is still in the ceiling.
I proceed to put the other earbud in my ear.
When he emerges from the ceiling, he will see that I am listening to music and therefore, my pretense of not hearing him fart is believable.
Posted in Life by winnie -
Sunday, 24. August 2008
To say that this has been the worst summer for me would not be an understatement. There was very little knitting involved, and I’ve lost the ability to enjoy alot of the things that I normally look forward to in the summer : beach, knitting, concerts, and a nice summer tan.
Back
This week is the first week that I’ve picked up my knitting needles and finished one of my lingering UFOs.
Front
Pattern: Cherry Cardigan, 32-34″ by Anna Bell
Materials: Elizabeth Lavold Hempathy, 4.5 balls, Sz 3 and 6 needles
Buttons
Notes: Hempathy is soft and not very splitty, and I love the fact that it is machine-washable. I had initially started this cardigan way back when in May 2008, but didn’t get to finish it until this week. The only adjustment that I made was to cast on in Sz 34 for the hips, but gradually decreased to Sz 32 for the waist and followed directions for the rest of Sz 32. It is a wonderfully written pattern, and I can see this being a go-to cardigan for the summer (or what’s left of it).
Sleeve
Would love to stay and write some more.. but I have to ski-daddle now to the Radiohead Concert. Parking spots are supposedly hard to find!
Posted in Cardigans, FOs, Life by winnie -
