Knitting Conductivity into Your Gloves

Over on Craft magazine, I saw this nifty article about a knitter who knit conductive wire into her gloves so that she could easily check her iPhone without taking her gloves off in 10 deg F weather!

How awseome and geeky is that?! Ya'll should go read it.

Nelkin Designs Blog: Techno Gloves

Grrly Post about Handbags

As a geek grrl, I'm not big into handbags. I use a lot of messenger type bags, especially those from Eagle Creek and Timbuk2. I don't like "girly" type bags that need to match my outfit or shoes.

My small Timbuk2 bag looks kinda sort like this:

It's small, it's practical, and it fits all my daily gear neatly (including a small knitting project. AND it goes with everything. I usually carry it with me everywhere. (Yeah, I'm not the fashionista!)

However, as a photography geek and fiber arts geek, I like carrying around my knitting projects and (sometimes) my camera gear around. As a professional photographer, I have some hefty gear. My point-and-shoot camera is small enough to fit into any bag that I might have, but not so much with the DSLR and lens.

My Timbuk2 & Eagle Creek are great for carrying out general gear and a knitting project, but not so much the camera gear.

This means, I need a bigger bag than I normally carry, but with enough protection for my camera gear. AND that I can take to more social events without clashing too much with whatever outfit I'm wearing. And, it doesn't necessarily need to be a messenger bag.

Now, most camera bags can fit the bill, as they are big enough to handle my gear AND take a knitting project. BUT are basic black, made for men, heavy, and generally boxy, ugly and SCREAM "camera bag"!

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my camera bags, which are great for when I have to go out on location to shoot or if I'm going out into the woods with my gear. But for general urban shooting or social events? I'm no fashionista by any sense of the word, BUT I like to be a little bit stylish. Plus, have I mentioned some of these camera bags/backpacks are HEAVY when empty?

So, I started looking around. There are more and more women photographers out there, and surely, someone's got something that is
a) practical
b) somewhat stylish (even for a geek grrl like me)
c) fits my needs

I found two potential candidates:
* Kelly Moore bags
* Jill-e

Now, I'm leaning more towards the Kelly Moore bags, because of Kelly did a bunch of videos showing off the bags; how big they are, what they can fit into them, and how they fit against her body. It gave me a really good idea of how it would work with me. PLUS she's got a wide variety of designs & styles.

They aren't boxy at all and come in a variety of colors. This one is catching my eye:

However, the Jill-e bags aren't bad either.

It's definitely outside of my normal style, and appeals more to the *girl* in me, than the GeekGrrl, but I think I can manage.

Cat Warmer

Since I've gotten injured, my cats have been very attentive. They've been taking advantage of the fact that I've been limited in movement, and been spending a lot more time at home.

My youngest has discovered that my injured foot pretty much remains immobile for periods of time and is a perfect headrest. On the flip side, he also keeps my foot warm. When he purrs, it tickles.

 

Geekery: A Definition

According to Wikipedia:

The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual".[1]

Back in the 80s, if you were a geek, it meant you were a computer or technical nerd of some sort. However, words change over time. The term, geek, pretty much means someone who is devoted to a particular skill, hobby, area of interest, and pursues that to the best of his/her ability.

Nowadays, you have:
* computer geeks
* sci-fi geeks
* film geeks
* comic book geeks
* roleplaying geeks
* knitting geeks
etc. etc

In essence, for me, a geek is someone who is an enthusiast, who loves their particular area of interest (often passionately) to the point of distraction.

Now, not only am I geek in the true sense of the word (a computer geek), but I have varying areas of geekery that have nothing to do with computers. I am a jack-of-all-trades sort of geek.  Some main forms of my geekery include:

* comic book geekery
* book geekery
* photography geekery
* fiber arts geekery (knitting, crocheting, spinning, etc.)
* costuming geekery
* sci-fi geekery
* steampunk geekery
* music geekery
* gamer geekdom
* baking geekery

In this blog, I'll touch on various forms of my geekery, while trying to maintain focus on my crafting geekery.

Time to get my geek on!

A Sad Day in the Who-verse

If, you're like me, a bit Doctor Who fan, there is some sad news today;

Elisabeth Saden, who played Sarah Jane, died due to complications of cancer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13137674

She's held her own again many a Doctor and even had her own show, the Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Who-verse will be a bit more lonelier because of it.

From Dork Tower

Change is Good.

Change is good. When I created my blog, I really didn't know what to name it and flailed a bit for a good name. I thought "Sharp Pointy Objects" would be appropriate since I deal with SPOs all the time. But, it was always intended to be more

However, I'm also a geek at heart, and I have different areas of geekiness -- from fiber arts, to sci-fi/fantasy geekery, to costuming geekery, to photography geekery. Then one day as I was waking from a half-sleep, I realized what the final name of my blog should actually be!

Hence, Geek Grrl Crafts!

I've moved over all of my posts, but kept Sharp Pointy Objects as to redirect people to this new blog site. I hope to get more general geeky-ness written in future posts.

Spinning Frank

Last week, I ran out of quills in which to store my one ounce singles of Frank. So, I plied two skeins and got him washed & thwacked. He looks absolutely beautiful.

(Compared to a Chibi)

I got about ~130 yards (+/- 5 yards) for both skeins. So, I'm pretty confident that I'll get about the same yardage across all plied skeins.

Plying freed up about 6 quills so I started spinning more singles. I just need to do 2 more ounces of singles, which would give me enough to ply for the cardigan.

(If not, I still have 1.25 pounds of Frank waiting for me)

In addition, I also washed & thwacked some BFL that had been waiting on one of the niddy noddies.

Pound of Frank

Tonight, I got a FULL pound of Frank spun up which is a total milestone for me! (Of course, there's still 1.25 pounds left!) So, I took some of the sample yarn I spun up so I could figure out exactly how much I had left to spin.

12 yard 3ply sample = 1/4 oz = 48 yards / ounce = 768 yards/pound

For the sweater, I need about 1000 yards (give or take), so therefore I need:

1000 yards / 768 yards/pound = 1.30200 pounds = 20.83200 ounces = ~21 ounces

I already have one pound of Frank spun up (16 ounce singles), so therefore I would need another 5 ounces spun of singles. (For safety sake, lets say 6 additional ounces because I did make a sample of a 3-ply & 4ply up which used up some of 3 ounces of singles.)

Then I'd need to ply all of those, and THEN I can start knitting the sweater!

I'm a lot close to being done than I thought....at least with the spinning portion.

Spinning my Wheels

This past weekend was a spinning weekend. There was much needed cleaning to do, but DH insisted I not help (something about being on crutches was not helpful). So he marched me to my desk area.....where got to some serious spinning on the wheel. I had discovered (to my delight) that I could operate with one foot with only a minor bit of fiddling (as I have double treadles). So, I listened to podcasts and spun for a good chunk of the weekend.

I spun 3 ounces of Frank, then needed a little something different for a while. Digging around the Stash, I found a batt I had gotten a while ago. The colorway was "Cedar Waxwing", which I discovered is a type of bird (didn't know) that is black & gold color.

While spinning, the batt reminded me of everything from black opals to black hills gold.



3.25 oz batt. 60% merino/ 30% bamboo/10% firestar
Single: 4.5 TPI
Finished: 2ply / 166 yards / ~ 3.15 oz
18 WPI (sport / DK weight)

Just so that I wasn't completely unfaithful to Frank, I decided that I needed to spin a test swatch for Frank. So, I spun up a 3ply and a 4ply. My simply plyback tests had told me that a 3ply would work for the sweater I wanted to knit, but I wanted to make sure and there's no better way than to knit a swatch.

After plying, the samples got washed, thwacked, and dried (in the nice day sun), and afterwards were knitted into swatches.


3ply
(Before washing: sport/DK weight)
(After washing: Aran/light worsted)
Knitted Sample: 4.5 stitches/inch (18st/4 inches) on US6


4ply
(Before washing: light worseted)
(After washing: heavy worseted)
Knitted sample: 4 stitches/inch (16 stitches/4inches) on US 7/6

Both samples were very nice, although I much preferred the 3ply as the fabric because it matches the gauge for the sweater I want to knit and it has a much drapier hand. Whereas the 4ply was a bit thicker than I wanted, and could probably be made into a much thicker sweater or hat.

An Update

I apologize for the lack of contact as of late. You would think that having a lower extremity being injured would give you lots of time to knit and post to your blog.

However, you'd be wrong in that regard. Right after the surgery, some things got a little painful that didn't leave me with much brainpower to knit, watch t.v. or read. I slept. With my foot propped in its new splint (post surgery)

Eventually, after a few days, they removed the splint and put me in a shiny red cast. And I stayed in my shiny red cast for two weeks. I was able to move around and walk, but they advised that I keep my leg elevated as much as possible. I attempted to go to work one day, and was hurting by the end of the day.

Yesterday, they removed the cast and put me in a boot, where I will stay for a month or two trying to get back into two regular shoes.

Honestly, it would have been easier to break a bone than rip my achilles.

Unfortunately, I still had to "work" even when I had to keep my foot elevated 90% of the time, because if I don't work, I don't get paid. There's no sick time or disability available to me as an independent contractor. DH set up a tiltable desk, propped me up with pillows, propped my injured foot with pillows and I set about working. There are certain perks to telecommuting. There are also a lot of drawbacks into not getting into the office.

However, sufficed to say, I DID get some knitting done. One cannot work 100% of the time.

* a new pair of socks
* my cashmere silk cowl -- which I love love love and haven't taken off since I finished (okay, I've taken it off, but only for short periods of time like sleeping.)
* two sock squares for my left over sock-yarn blanket
* matawa silk handwarmers
* one sock (working on the 2nd sock now)

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to take decent photos of them, because getting my photography gear required getting up out of bed, and DH was having none of that pre-boot. He was like a mother hen, clucking at me, anytime he heard the Click-Click of my crutches. So, I had to make do with my camera phone whenever I had proper lighting. As such, I will leave with a single photo of my matawa silk handwarmers that I took with my camera phone.

I loved working with the silk hankies. It was like working with spun gold.

A Case of Start-itis (or More Time = Less Time)

You would *think* that with so much time on my hands, I would finish projects. You are only partially correct. Oh, I have finished quite a bit -- I finished hand-stitching the top of waist cincher. I've stared and finished two crutch bags (some handsewing was required).

And I even started working on a oh-so-nummy yarn (cashmere & silk) as part of my "injury" knitting. I mean, it's so soft and delicious that I keep burying my face in it. HECK, it went with me to the hospital and I knit on it until they wheeled me off to the surgery room.



You would think that working on such lovely, beautiful drapey fabric would be enough. But nooo..... Even while working on it, I have a severe case of start-itis. And it's overwhelming my need to finish something.

I want to start on at least 3 new different projects (a new pair of socks, maybe a cast cozy, a new costume piece). I mean, I have a sweater already started, and that I love working on, but I want something new, shiny.....****

This is the type of situation that gets me in trouble. When I don't have time, I'm more disciplined about time. When I have all the time in the world, I get nothing done. You'd think it'd be the opposite, but no....

****(HELL, I started looking e-spinners just because I can't use any of my double treadles and I want to spin! Not that I'd actually BUY one, but still...)

Fasion & Necessity

Despite knitting (quite a bit), I find myself *still* a costumer at heart. A true** knitter would have knitted a solution to the problem. Me? I sewed instead. LOL

I'll be going to a convention later this month, and much of the costuming I had planned to do (and had even created) kinda fell apart as I realized that crutches + current costuming = bad idea. (One costume has a 2 foot train with 4 foot long sleeves. This does not bode well with crutches).

However, being a costumer, I can make my crutches 'accessories'. I did some searching on the Interwebs for crutch costuming ideas, and found one that sold little "saddle bags" for crutches. Being the crafty sort of person, I went ahead and made some myself (because I had the fabric & accessories and the time.)

First, I made a prototype using some left over fabric & the necessary materials, and within 2 hours (only because I had to hobble from table to sewing machine and finding everything took forever...) I had my first prototype.

It's pretty, very functional, and was immediately very useful to carry around my phone or a bottle of water as I hobbled from place to place. BUT, I also immediately noticed how I could make it better. So a day later, I made another one (in the theme of the convention) that had more options.

a) it's slightly bigger
b) has segregated pockets on the inside
c) it's fully finished.
d) has an outside pocket
e) has a backstrap so that it's secure to the crutches.

It's made from leftover material from the kimono (with 2 foot train & 4 foot sleeves) that I *had* been planning on wearing at the convention. And what's nice is that I'll be able to use it long BEFORE the convention and AFTER the convention.

And once I no longer need the crutches? It becomes nifty knitting project bags.

Now, I just have to completely rethink my costuming options that include crutches.



** I use this term facetiously, and generally poking fun at myself.

When Life Gives you Lemons...

When life gives you lemons, you cast on a cashmere project. It's guaranteed to make things 1000% better.

This past week, I had a small 'incident' during a sports activity, and managed to rip my achilles tendon...completely. It hurt like a SOB. I went to Urgent Care and they put me in a molded splint.

Of course, it was cold today, and as a knitter, we have warm things. DH took one of his house socks and it fit neatly over the HUUUGGEEE boot/splint. But at least my toes were now warm.

Unfortunately, after this happened, one of the first things I thought about (besides being in pain) was not being able to SPIN! I had plans this coming up weekend to be spinning at a craft night with friends! Plus Frank was going to fall farther and farther behind! So I tried to console myself as any knitter would do.

I cast on a cashmere project.

I usually try not to have too many things on the needles. However, as this was a major thing that means that I will be laid up with minimal movement for a while (as there is surgery involved) AND no spinning, I decided that I need to cast on something "soothing" and something that will make me smile.

So, I grabbed my Tess Kitten yarn that I got at Stitches this year, and cast on a Twisted Rib cowl, because knitter needs a little cashmere in their lives just to make yourself smile.

And this stuff? 50% cashmere/50% silk....is soooo wonderfully soft, I have to refrain from burying my face in it so I can knit it up into a wonderful cowl that I can bury my face in on those cold days. I am also planning on leaving enough to cast on some handwarmers as well...just coz.

Coming out of Hibernation and into the Frog Pool

This year, I thought to finish off some of my FOs from last year. One UFO was a flat-knit seamed cardigan out of alpaca that I started back in January 2010. I had made all of the body pieces, and just needed to finish the sleeves.

So, I blocked all of the body pieces, and started in on the sleeves in-the-round. I was good and went on Ravelry to check out all of the user found errors and fixes that they made.

After blocking, I seamed the body pieces together and put on the first sleeve. Then I tried it on....

Only to find that it doesn't fit. Despite blocking to the prescribed size, the shoulder cap/shoulder seam doesn't lie where it's supposed to lie and it fits all wonky. I'm very disappointed, but not surprised.

This was one of the first sweaters I attempted to knit, and unbeknownst to me, the pattern had all sorts of issues found by other Ravelry users. Many did their own modifications to make it fit, but I hadn't done that for the body as I was still new to knitting and didn't know about things like errata, Ravelry user modications/comments, and the ilk. There might also be issues about my own gauge which has changed over the past year since I started knitting it....plus I don't think the alpaca was a good choice yarn for me to use for one of my first sweaters.

I'm afraid this one is coming right out of hibernation and into the frog pool. The alpaca is very lovely, and I will have to pick out all of the seams and frog to salvage the oh-so-lovely yarn ...which is going to be a chore in of itself.

I still love how the sweater looks, and will have to make it much later with different yarn and after resizing it to fit ME.

Stitches West -- came and went

This past weekend was Stitches West. Last year, I went a wee bit hog-wild in the market place, so I promised myself that I would be more restrained in my shopping.

I had "rules"
1) I would not buy anything I couldn't already purchase at my LYS
2) I would buy quality versus quantity...and maybe splurge on some more luxury items.
3) I wanted sock yarn -- specifically Blue Moon sock yarn for more boot socks (I love their stuff). If I could only get a few skeins and nothing else, I would be good.

Since DH had given me V-day money to spend, my budget had grown considerably, and I wanted to stay in budget.

So I went on Friday, as it would be far less crowded than the weekend, and with far more quantities of goods available. After a hearty breakfast, I got there an hour after opening, and wandered the marketplace looking at this year's new yarn samples, patterns, and whatnought. I ran into many friends and acquaintences, so we talked knitting & fiber (of course).

Bijou fibers had a "yarn tasting" where you could try Signature Needles and some lovely yarns. (The yarns were lovely, and I didn't quite "take" to the Signature needles)

And all around me, the spending sprees had already begun. I picked up quite a few things here and there following my general "rules"

- the aforementioned sock yarn
- one ball of quivit / silk blend -- Oh so decadent! (and they had a show special)
- 1/2 ounce of quivit fiber to spin -- I know that it's *not* enough to really do "anything" with, but I wanted to at least *TRY * and spin with it.
- a pair of beautiful glass circular knitting needles that I tested at the dealer,
and they're LOVELY to work with AND she has a lifetime guarantee.

(This is Gigi Knitmore's fault, really. She recommended that I go over to a specific vendor and look at her glass work. I did, and the vendor had these lovely knitting needles to try...which I did...and fell in love.... Apparently, the Knitmore "enabler" tendencies are genetic.)

- some blank silk hankies to dye and dyed silk hankies to knit with
- a beautiful 400 yard skein of cashmere and silk
- some beautiful mixed shetland fiber to spin (moorit, white, and black)
- sampler bumps of yak / yak-silk fiber to play with (as practice for the quivit)
- a small alpaca teddy bear (OMG so soft!)
- a replacement for my turkish spindle that I lost at the SLO ren faire last year.

There were a lot of other things that I looked at, picked up, and even got in line to purchase, but decided that they did not fall into my 3-rule set that I set for myself.

Overall, I stayed quite under my budget, so much so that I came back on Sunday for the last two hours of the marketplace to pick up 2 sweaters worth of cashmere/wool blends during the "last day specials" and ended up spending less than half of retail for one sweater.

Stitches West

Stitches West starts tomorrow (or at least I'm going there tomorrow)....and I'm a little bit excited.....

SQUEEEE 

(ahem)

DH was kind enough to give me pocket money for Stitches as his V-day gift to me, because he knows I'm going shopping. so I'll be picking up a few additional things here and there. And yes, I do have a list to try and keep myself in check. :-)

Polyamorous Relationships

In regards to my last entry about spinning Frank on Nona (my Ashford Kiwi), I haven't been completely honest.

I haven't exactly been monogamous with Frank & Nona this entire time but taking some time to spend with DH's Xmas gift, Joy.

and working through some lovely mixed BFL (1 pound).

However, I'm planning on Navajo plying these singles, so I'm not even bothering splitting them into 1 ounce quills. And I'm currently 5 ounces into the full pound.

This is a totally polyamorous relationship between myself, Nona, and Joy....not to mention Frank and the nameless mixed BFL. I'm trying to split my time evenly between all of them (which doesn't always work) but I do feel guilt twinges here and there.

I wish I had more time to spend with all of them.

Frankie Baby

Currently, I'm still spinning away on Frank. Per Jasmin's spinning lessons & suggestions, I'm only spinning an ounce of fiber and transferring them to quills before spinning another ounce.

This technique works well for me, as I can easily get through an ounce in one long sitting, or 2 spinning sessions if I only have a short amount of time. However, the downside to only spinning 1 ounce at a time is seeing the HUGE PILE that is left of Frank. I am not a production spinner by any means. (Currently, I only have 12 quills (12 ounces) of Frank spun up as singles. My half of Frank is 3.25 pounds.

Tangent Math Time!
16 ounces / lb = 52 ounces = 52 quills.
I still have 40 quills left to finish before I can really start plying. (OOFDA!)

The sheer number of what I have left to finish is daunting, to say the least, but currently, I'm looking at it one quill/ounce at a time. EVENTUALLY, I'll get through Frank. And then it's a matter of plying, THEN knitting. I hope to finish my Frankie Sweater by the end of the year. Ooof.

I know that if I just plow through Frank that I could be done within a shorter amount of time, but it's a matter of having that much dedicated time. Sometimes I fear that Frank feels neglected, although I know he is a very patient ram and doesn't mind at all. He just sits there and taunts me silently with his lovely chocolately brown goodness....whispering, "spin me....."

And he is ever-so-lovely to spin.

FO: Socks & Mitts

So, as mentioned previously, I've been getting a lot of knitting done on my commute to work. I knitted myself a new pair of socks that I made
out of skein I picked up at my LYS (Cascade Heritage Paints). It's a generous skein with nearly 500 yards in the skein. And I really like how well it knits up.



In addition, I designed my own hand warmer using the same skein as the socks and the same design elements. It's cute. I like it. The increases are incorporated into the design.

I made the right hand first, and it fits like a glove (pun intended). It's easy knitting with enough 'interest' to keep it from getting too boring.



Unfortunately, when I made the matched pair, it's not fitting as well as I would like (unlike the right one). I only made cursory notes when making the first and I tried to knit to match the glove and not my hand. I made the thumb portion too big, and the part around the fingers a bit too tight. But I know what I did wrong and will make corrections as I want to reknit the left hand.

Luckily, I have MORE than enough of the Cascade Heritage so I can easily make the 3rd glove, and I'll probably have enough left over for a baby hat or two.

Then, eventually, I'll write it up as the handwarmers as actual pattern!

Commute Knitting

Currently, I'm back working up North again, which means taking the train to work. The train ride (each way) is about 30-50 minutes (depending on whether or not I get the bullet train).

Either way, I'm guaranteed at least 1 hour per day of dedicated knitting time. The commute isn't the greatest, but at least I'm getting lots of knitting done in the meantime.

This meant I finished a new pair of socks in under a week. And I designed, cast on, and finished the first of a pair of fingerless mitts.