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.
6 January 2012 · 5 Comments
I have a mystery yarn. Not a mystery yarn as in ‘I lost or threw away the tag, sure in the knowledge that I would remember the info’ (note to self, you will not remember). No, a different sort of mystery. I totally have the tag. But the tag does not seem to match up with any of the listings I can find online.
The brand is the Great Adirondack Yarn Company. Them I can find. It’s the base that’s tricky. The tag lists it as “ROSA 3/5.” It also says that it’s 100% merino superwash, that it’s 232 yards long, and that the colorway is mixed berries (number 1110). You’d think that would be plenty of info, but somehow I can’t seem to find any mention of Rosa or Rosa 3/5. Not on Adirondack’s page, nor on ravelry’s.
Anybody have any insight? Because I’m playing with a lovely skein of this stuff, and I want to give credit where credit is due when I list it.
3 January 2012 · 8 Comments
See, I told you it was making progress. I’m rather taken with these. What do you think, do they work for you too? The color here is a tiny bit off, but it’s snowing outside and I don’t feel like either putting on my coat or going outside in my jammies. You’ll have to just imagine it a bit more orange and a bit less pink.
The mate to this one is on the needles now, but is making slow progress. It’s not the pattern’s fault though. Not at all. The pattern is surprisingly close to autopilot knitting (despite what it looks like…it’s kind of magic).
You see, we just got season one of Breaking Bad from the library. Then we fell over gobsmacked with the goodness of it all. Then we went and procured season two…and made plans to procure seasons three and four (and don’t tell me what happens…we’re just on season two and don’t want spoilers). The show is good enough I actually watch it…with my eyes. Normally I listen to tv while watching my knitting. Or I split the watching between the tv and the knitting…it makes watching tv feel more productive. But not for this show. For this show I don’t want to look away, and I can’t quite do these socks without looking. It’s totally slowing me down.
I know there’s a person or two anxious to get these on their needles though, and I don’t want you to despair, they’ll almost certainly be the next thing I write up. Fingers crossed I’ll have it up for testing some time around Monday.
2 January 2012 · 5 Comments
But my hat was so delightful! See, I told you the hat was much cuter on.
And warm…very very warm. I’m fairly sure I could stand outside in that bluster and blow for just about forever and my head would not be cold. (Please pardon the blowing hair, it really was kind of stormy outside. We’re standing in the driveway out of the main force of it because otherwise the tassel sticks straight out in the wind. Speaking of tassel, it’s really the tassel that makes the whole thing, it’s ridiculously fun.)
Everyone should immediately go get their very own wheel (plate, disc, what are those things called) of pencil roving and make their own. 1×1 ribbing for a row or two in a contrasting yarn, 3×1 ribbing for a nice long time, decrease, add tassel. It will take you about two days if you dawdle. You won’t regret it!
1 January 2012 · 5 Comments
I hope you all had just the sort of New Year’s Eve festivities that you wanted (we watched Ghostbusters…what can I say, we’re old, that’s what we do).
As promised, the first of the Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet patterns is available. I’m working with the wonderful Wendee of Hazel Knits on her January knit along. All the details (including how you can download the Linaria bipartita Sock pattern free during the month of January) are over on the knit along thread.
As for my own knitting, I’m ready to do the toe on the first of the orange spiky socks. Next post should have a picture, and some time in the next week or two they should go up for testing.
30 December 2011 · 4 Comments
I had all sorts of clever plans to avoid the dreaded blog silence over the holidays. And I mostly made it…there totally were posts. Just not as many (and not as knitting-rich) as I would like. It’s mostly because I’ve been doing stuff other than knitting over the last few days. It’s surprisingly hard to have knitting to show you if I don’t actually knit. Not impossible…just hard.
I’ll offer two little consolation prizes. First, there’s a wee little interview with me on Robin’s site. Second, if you come back on January first, I’ll let you know how you can start knitting on one of the patterns from The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet right away. You know, just in case any of you might want to do such a thing.
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