21 January 2012 · 8 Comments
There was a period in my misguided youth and childhood when I thought I might become an engineer. Perhaps it was a function of the time, but it sort of seemed to be the default assumption for what smart girls who could hold their own in math and science class ‘should’ do. I had no particular objections, and I didn’t have any better ideas, so I just sort of smiled and nodded and went along with it. It meant I took a lot of math classes. I took every single math class my high schools offered, and then toddled off to college and took quite a few more.
Turns out I didn’t actually want to be an engineer. Not really at all (though it wasn’t the math classes that turned me off, those were kind of fun). But all those math classes, those years and years and years of math classes? They’re languishing in the back of mind doing me no favors at all. I’ve yet to find myself in a situation where my life depends on my ability to recall and utilize L’Hopital’s rule (and just to be clear, I don’t wish to find myself in this situation, because the chances I’d make it out alive are slim at best…though if I did survive, it would make for a hell of a story).
This is the closest I come to math these days. These are the notes for getting the heel flap positioned correctly over several different sizes of sock. Back when I knit my own socks, and only knit them in one size, I could just write down what I did. Now that I have help with the knitting and try to include several sizes, I have to do a wee bit of figuring ahead of time. I’m pretty sure if my math teachers could see this now they’d smack me upside the head for having wasted their time. On the flip side, if I do this right, lots and lots of knitters will have attractive, well-fitting socks, which seems somehow more satisfying than acing a calculus test.
18 January 2012 · 3 Comments
Yeah yeah, two posts in one day, but they’re both short.
Folks…guess what’s printing out in my office right now. That’s right, the first draft of the finished book is here from genius book designer Zoë Lonergan. I know it’s immodest, but I’m totally smitten. Now pardon me while I go admire the new pretty!
18 January 2012 · 1 Comment
Apparently I also got an extra and unexpected goodie when I bought my yarn. The bag I got at Romni has proven to be the most coveted cat toy in the land. All three kittens have been in, on, and under it at various points since I’ve been home. Right now Douglas seems to have conquered it and declared it his personal fort. He has absolutely no intention of vacating this seat of power. Move it at your own peril.
17 January 2012 · 2 Comments
A bit of careful planning (taking into account geography, lunch plans, your recommendations, and other scheduled events) led to the conclusion that there was time to visit two yarn stores. I knew I wanted to revisit Romni. I’d been there back in 2007 when I was a very new knitter, and to be frank I’d found the whole thing more than a little overwhelming. I wanted to go back and see if it felt different now that I had a bit better grounding. I had been to Lettuce Knit before, but hadn’t visited Purple Purl, so I decided I’d try something new and make that the second one.
We started at Romni. Well no, we started at breakfast so as to be properly fortified for our journeys. Then we went to Romni. I splurged on rather a lot of Fleece Artist / Hand Maiden. I justify it by saying it’s Canadian…so it’s fitting to get in Toronto, right? I got three skeins of Fleece Artist Woolie Twist (they’re the ones with the handwritten tags), and one of Hand Maiden Silk Twist. Neither of these were bases I’d seen in stores around here, and both companies have color that is so variable from skein to skein that I try to only buy their yarn when I can actually see what I’m getting. So it seemed like a great chance to pick up a bit of something new.
Over at Purple Purl, I fell prey to the charms of two skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts DK weight (it’s actually a bit greener than it looks there…not sure what’s up with that) and one skein of Malabrigo Arroyo. It totally stunned me, but I actually bought it in a fairly pink sort of color. I normally make funny faces at pink, but this one was singing my name, so I gave in. We’ll see if the appeal lasts, but for now I’m smitten.
Oh, and as further proof of the fibery nature of the town, I grabbed a shot of this wee sculpture as we wondered around. If the internet is to be believed, it’s called Uniform Measure/Stack and was created by Stephen Cruise in 1997. That’s a stack of buttons, topped by a thimble. In case it’s obscured by the snow, on the ground around it is a giant yellow tape measure. There were, alas, no knitting needles, but it still gets high points for textile awareness.
16 January 2012 · No Comments
From about 3pm on Friday, until about 9am today, I didn’t use a computer. I didn’t check my email, I didn’t check ravelry, I didn’t check the blog. None of it. And it was wonderful. I have a feeling I’m going to have to do this more often. I may even have to declare the weekends as a no-computer time. Of course this particular internet hiatus was because we were headed off to Toronto. We probably can’t quite manage to do that every weekend, but I think I could just pop the batteries out of my mouse and keyboard and call it good. As for the trip, we had a splendid time, and I’ll report on it at length later in the week. But for now, I have a wee bit of catch up to do.
12 January 2012 · 6 Comments
Upon hearing of a planned trip to the Slaughter Innocent Woodland Creatures store, I asked The Boy to look for something for me. It’s not a store I generally frequent myself (gee, could you guess), but I knew they were likely the best place to find a wee little gizmo I wanted. It’s something called a line counter. These things are marketed as ‘Fishing Accessories,’ but they are clearly ‘Yarn Accessories.’
The theory is that you thread your fishing line yarn through that little slot on the left and pull it through and the little counter on the right spools up and tells you how long your strand is. I haven’t any idea why you’d need this for fishing, but I can see lots of applications for yarn. I need to figure out a way to mount it between my swift and my ball winder, but I’m confident that a trip to the basement, the garage, or possibly the hardware store will let me accomplish that nicely.
And the best part of the whole thing? It cost $12.99. I’ve seen similar things sold in yarn stores for close to $50.00. This seems a much better deal! Anybody else have one? Any tips for mounting it?
9 January 2012 · 7 Comments
So I’m fleeing the country on short notice once again. Well, compared to previous flights, this one is actually with a huge amount of notice…whole days in fact. The summarized version is that I’ll be in Toronto this Saturday. It’s been a shockingly long time since I’ve been to Toronto, the last time was way back in November 2007.
Now in 2007 I was a very new knitter. How new? Well, consulting my ravelry notes, I see that I took my very first sock ever with me on that trip in 2007.
Even back then I knew that Toronto had a certain reputation as a yarn store haven. But I didn’t really have the resources (wasn’t yet a ravelry member…found yarn stores a bit intimidating) to properly appreciate it. All that’s different now. Yarn stores no longer scary. Putting ‘town name’ and ‘yarn store’ in google before leaving for a trip is now standard practice. But more importantly, I have you guys and can shamelessly ask you what your favorite yarn stores in any given spot are. So, Toronto, Saturday, any suggestions?
ETA: Lies…it turns out I’m telling you all terrible lies. It seems I was actually last in Toronto in February of 2009. But it was for just long enough to have lunch with a friend and buy one wee ball of yarn…not anything resembling a proper visit. This will be a rather longer trip (a few nights rather than a few hours) and afford much more opportunity for socalizing with wool.
