Immediate Gratification -- Denied

This past weekend, I decided to purchase a pattern via Ravelry instead of the designer's website. Why? Because I wanted designers to know that people LOVE Ravelry (like they already don't know), but to help support Ravelry as well.

I used my PayPal account to purchase the pattern. Now, when I've purchased on this designer's site before using the same exact method, I got my pattern immediately. I *really* wanted to cast-on this pattern ASAP!

However, apparently, Ravelry requires your payment to be "cleared" before you can get the pattern, and it can take up to several days for it to happen. :-(

I wish I had known that before. It's been 4 days since the pattern purchase and I still don't have my pattern.

I guess I'll be buying directly through designer websites instead of Ravelry itself. :-/

Hat Kick

I'm currently in a hat kick currently. It started when I was working on my BIL's trilobyte hat for his birthday.

It turned out lovely and the walnut Cascade Superwash 220 knitted up soft & lovely

However, I had some left over from the skein when I finished it, so I decided to cast-on another hat (Turn a Square) and supplementing it with the Yak I had spun up previously

The colors were in approximately the same brown shades/tones, and looked really well together. At first I wasn't sure, but the walnut of the Cascade muted the dark brown of the yak.

I managed to finish the hat in a single day; I couldn't stop knitting.

DH tried it on, and although he's not normally a hat person, it goes really well with his coloring, and he claimed it for himself (esp. as the trilobyte was already claimed).

So, guess what I did after I finished this hat? Dove into the Stash, pulled out some more Cascade 220 superwash (along with leftover yarn) and cast on another hat.

Finishing Silk Merino Blend -- Picking the Collective Brain

The internet has really made things easier, especially in terms of collecting general knowledge into a "library" of sorts. There are good & bad sides to this -- there's the trashy novel sections where people mistake fiction for fact, and the huge trivia section where you can drown in a sea of interesting, but non practical knowledge. Then there's the reference section, where you can find EXACTLY the piece of information you need.

Ravelry is a smaller version of that collective knowledge, but highly specialized, and I have made multiple use of it finding nuggets of knowledge.

Earlier this week, I navajo plied half of the the silk merino Bonfire that I had spun previously.

into this:

And it came out gorgeous! Love. Love. Love. I'll have about 230 yards of this wonderful 3-ply sport weight yarn (once I finish the other 2 ounces).

However, I wasn't quite sure how to finish this yarn. Its a 50-50 merino silk blend; and I wasn't sure how the silk would stand up to my normal aggressive finishing (which involves alternatively dunking in hot & cold water, thwacking, whacking, snapping, and fulling). However, there is a grand collection of knowledge on Ravelry that is an amazing resource and should have the answer I need.

A quick perusal on Ravelry found a post by Abby Franquemont on this very problem! It involves only a much less aggressive finishing technique (still involving hot & cold water and simple snapping)

(Paraphrase)
A) Hot water with wool wash
B) Soak skein for 20 minutes until it's saturated (or longer if needed)
C) Dunk in cool water as a rinse
D) Get out excess water
E) Snap all around the skein
F) Dry unweighted.

NOW, if Ravelry would only provide me with the definitive answer of exactly *what* I should knit with it to show off the colors to the best advantage? Unfortunately, it can only offer up potential suggestions and letting me make the final decision. That's the one thing that the collective knowledge can't do for me. :-)

Yakkity Yak

Earlier in March, I spun up a Yak bundle that I picked up over at Stitches West this year.

It included three 1-oz bumps of:

* brown yak
* yak merino
* tussah silk & yak

I had trouble with Yak before, and I wanted to get some practice in before spinning up my other yak merino bumps from Abstract Fiber.

So, I pulled out my Ashford Kiwi and set it to a ratio of 14:1. Because yak has such a short staple length, I also criss-crossed the fiber across the flyer hooks so I could get more twist into the fiber before it went onto the bobbin. This worked really well. (Tip learned from one of the Ravelry forums)

The simple brown yak proved the most problematic for me, because of the short staple length. The yak-merino was only slightly better, with the merino adding a little bit longer staple.

The tussah silk/yak had its own challenges. The silk added much needed staple length to the yak, but I don't think it was well blended. I would get areas were it was obviously only yak and so had similar problems with the simple brown yak.

After spinning all 3 bumps, I:

1) spun a 3 ply from each bump - 60 yards

2) spun a 2 ply (yak-merino & tussah-yak) with left overs from Step 1) (14 yards)

3) navajo plied the remaining tussah-yak (14 yards)

Of course, with only 87 yards, this doesn't leave me much to work with, so I'm planning on picking up some matching solid yarn to hopefully incorporate making a very very warm hat for someone.

Sometimes, It's Not Meant to Be

There are times, when we push forward with something and no matter HOW hard we try, no matter how much effort we put into it, it's just not meant to be, but you try anyways?

Take Noro yarn, for instance:



I like it. I love the colorway, and I like the yarn. I've even made myself a scarf with another colorway that's just warm as can be. I looked at projects with Noro yarn and they look great.

However, I'm not sure about the knitting-up part. It's a bit scratchy and eats the moisture from my hands. It's not exactly fun to to knit.

So, it's going to be placed in 'time-out' and hibernate a little bit until I decide what to do with it. I'm not wholly sure I want to frog it (as it does knit up prettily), but I might want to use another yarn to finish up the body.

Spinning Every Day Keeps the Doctors at Bay...

Spinning as physical therapy is a great way to get my PT exercises in AND be productive at the same time. I took a break from Frank and started spinning up a bit of color on my Ashford Joy.

Abstract Fibers: Silk Merino in BonFire

Not only is it beautiful, but the spinning is really helping put movement back into my foot. It doesn't feel as tight, and it's helping me walk better every day that I'm at it.

It's not everyday that your beloved hobbies help get you back onto your feet again (literally!)

Trilobyte Hat

I love knitted items with a slight twist to them, especially when the recipient can really enjoy the product, not just as a crafted item, but the theme that goes with it, whether it is a specific genre such as a t.v. show (Dr Who), or science based, or whatever. And a lot of ingenius knitters have developed a fair number of knitted items that can apply to a variety of geeks.

One of my family members is a geologist. He's pretty darn funny and he appreciates handmade gifts. Nearly two years ago, I made him the Trilobite Hat for the holidays, because what better present for a geologist? He's since worn it to pieces (literally!) The last time I visited, I had to do some major mending of the hat, but it was only a temporary fix.

As he's proven himself knitted-gift-worthy, I decided that I need to replace his much love well-worn hat with another (or two). So, consequently, I've been knitting up another trilobite hate for him out of Cascade Superwash in walnut in between finishing up my sweater.

I made the hat brim a little bit longer to cover up cold ears or to fold over onto itself. When I made the first one, it seemed that the hat brim was a wee bit short. Now, I'm only half way done with the hat, but it's a fun little knit.

Spinning for Physical Therapy Purposes

After my foot injury, one of the owners of my LYS told me that I could use my spinning wheel as part of my physical therapy. Up until now, the foot hasn't been capable of doing much, and I had been spinning one-footed on my double treadle wheels. As much as I love my Ashford Kiwi, I love her even more now, because she spins very very easily even with one foot.

My Ashford Joy is a little harder to spin with one foot, due to the wheel as there is a definite "bottom" and top of the wheel which causes it to wobble ever-so-slightly when spinning with one foot when the heavy part comes around. This is not a problem, and I've learned to compensate for the slightly heavier part of the wheel.

I did attempt to spin on the Kiwi with two feet, but the angle & treadle size wasn't right and it hurt to use my foot on it. HOWEVER, the angle & size of the Joy works with my poor hurt foot. So, the other night, I put the hurt foot on its treadle and let it just "ride" while my good foot does all the work.

So, I spun for a while. I let my foot "ride" for about 5-10 minutes, then gave it a rest while my good foot continued spinning. Later, I'd let the foot "ride" again....repeat for a bit. It felt pretty good and got some blood flow into the leg. My foot also felt "looser" instead of being tight. But, just like any other workout, the next day my foot was slightly sore (but not a "bad" type of sore) and I noticed that I had a little bit more movement than I did before.

When I go see my physical therapist, I shall be sure to talk to her about spinning. Mayperhaps, I can start a trend where spinning is recommended as part of physical therapy for those who have ankle injuries. :-)

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.