Insubordiknit

Cleaves, my way

First it was merino top, then I dyed it to this, spun it to this and now, after only 4 hours of knitting, it's something I never thought I'd wear but I totally LOVE! I'm so happy I could almost wear it out into the 90 degree, humid as hell day. Almost. It's lovely to feel and wear and it's the first thing I've knitted from my own handspun. Werd to ya mutha.

What's that smell?

I've been washing raw fleece in my sink and boy does my house smell like sheep. Yep, wet sheep, a smell akin to wet dog, but not as nice on the nose. I've also finished knitting cleaves with the merino but instead of showing the whole world (or, um, the 3 people that read this) me in my skivvies and merino cleaves, I'm gonna wait and post pics tomorrow, but it is soft and pretty.

It's late and I just got back from the the second meeting of the new baltimore spinning/fiber arts group. I spun up some black wool/mohair for a devilishly nasty bit of red and black yarn I'm making for the hot guy that lives with me. There were a few new faces there tonight, oh wait, kinda the same faces what's she doing here, and she can SPIN?, and my favorite should someone sneak out while she's turned the other way and call security? But I've got news for you L.A.D.I.E.S, I never turn away -- Bwahahahahaha! Yeah, so there was a bit of a clod shoulder at first and then I started spinning and giving what few hints I know, and, I admit it, showing off, and they warmed right up from calling that tattooed girl to calling me jessie, which btw, is not my name.

I'm kidding a bit. I really do enjoy the whole thing, the ladies are nice and it's quite good to look to my right and left and see other people spinning, or at least trying to spin. So take me with a grain of salt, it's a goodish group, you should join!

Better than porn

Clickity click, ya gotta. I think the color is truer in the one on the right. OMG, so lovely! It was a little tougher to spin up than what I've done of late but holy hot shitcakes it was worth it! It's 2 ply, one ply is thick with a loose twist while one is thin and tight, both Z twisted and then S plied. It's slightly thick and thin (uh, for design purposes). Behold the softiness, the flufiness, the chunkiness, the merino-y goodness. Oh my goodness, I think I may be aroused!

The blue sky

here's the Little Bit's roving all spun up into 220 yards of single, worsted yumminess. I had to seperate it from the blasphemous post below so as to not contaminate the yarny goodness.

Little Bit says it's soft enough for a pillow. He also named it the bluish sky.

Hell's bells

cause ya gotta have friends

This was yesterday at Air and Space. Damn cute eh? We had the pleasure of taking one of the twins with us and it was a blast. The kids were amazing together and fun was had by all. We walked, we talked, we lauged, we picniced and thankfully the kids slept through the grueling 2 1/2 hour drive back to Baltimore. We got caught in the terrible traffic where we edged along at almost 1 mile/hour, passing overheating cars and through the tinny smell of radiator fluid. Poor old Blue Emma was full hot on the temp guage and we thought we were done for when teh check engine light came on. However, that old volvo pulled through and the temp dropped like a homemade biscuit once we started flyin.

It did provide us valuable time to consider a shirt we saw on a clean cut young man at the museum. Picture the old AC/DC logo, right? the slash is kinda a lightning bolt, right? a sharp and pointy S shape, right? Now picture the AC says JE and instead of DC it says US. Like this one. Now I'm not a metal head anymore, at the ripe ol age of 30 that's like 17 years behind me (I had an older brother to learn from), I'm also a complete devotee of non-violence, but even now, I had the immediate urge to KICK. HIS. ASS

So, on the torturous drive home, the converstation inevitable turned to this kid and what it would be like if my 13 year old self had gotten in his 15 year old face -- 'cause I do things like that, though it's usually for something righteous.

Nu uh. AC/DC is totally cooler than Jesus. It's totally uncool to mooch their singage dude. Like Jesus would never sing Highway to Hell, or Hells Bells, or Big balls, and if he did, he'd probably ruin it with allegories, hyperabolies, and you know, lessons (I was pretty smart back then too, which is a lethal combo, a brain and no common sense). Humph, I bet he'd sing 'highway to heaven' or some shit, would he get Michael Landon to sing back up, maybe do some little dance steps, ohhh, Kit could drive circles around them and toot it's little horn instead of the real and totally bad-ass sound effects.

I'd like to say the conversation in the car ended there but unfortunately much time was spent changing all the AC/DC lyrics we could remember into songs Jesus would sing, Holy deeds done dirt cheap, (no more) Sin City, Kicked in the teeth (and nailed to a cross), beating around the (burning) bush, You Shook Me All Night Long (didn't even have to change that one, cause,y/k, Mary Magdeline),What do you do for Money, Honey (again, Mary M), Deep in the hole (Mary M, you guessed it), and finally and to just alienate the remainder of my 3 readers -- Let me put my love into you.

hey, there's merino in my oven!

Yesterday I spun this lovely purple wool/mohair mix. Little Bit helped me dye it a few weeks ago. And when I say he helped me dye it, I mean he picked out the colors and stood across the room while I did the mixing and pouring. I tried to get him to put some other colors in it but he insisted purples and blues only, so that's what I did and it's just freakin' goergous. He thinks it's his though, and I let him, 'cause I'm good and generous mama. Of course, anyone else try and claim my fiber and your lookin' for some scrappin, sista!

My plan was to do it thick and worsted-ish as practice for this large chunk of merino I also dyed yesterday. I want to spin it (the merino) up and knit a variation on Cleaves from knitty. Little Bit's is hanging on the rack in all it's blue/purple goodness. I post pics and details later.

As for the merino, it was my first experience dying merino, and like the fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants gal that I pretend to be, it was also my first time dying it in the oven. I followed little miss hello yarn's step by step instructions, kept my colors in the same value range and general mood, and jumped offa the cliff, holding tightly to 2 lbs of fluffy merino top. Yeah. I was unsure about how much liquid was supposed to be in the pan when it went in the oven and I think I may have used a bit much dye, like always, because I poured quite a bit out. It was like little merino mush when it emerged all hot and steamy after 25 minutes, and I have to admit I was a bit scared. However, once I layed it out and then up, it dried up just like I wanted.

Now let's just hope it spins up the same. I usually don't use so many colors in such little sections but I've been reading this book, spinning with color (which I'll tell ya about soon), and it seems like this will get me the final result I want. I split it 2 times, wrapped it in balls and am ready to start spinning like the motherfuckin' wind. werd.

Real quick before I head to air and space for a day of free rockin' fun with two three year olds, for those with eyes that only see knitty-goodness, all my secret knitting is ovah! so keep your eyes peeled for lotsa knitting ahead!

Wheels, read 2 ways

I've mentioned before about my two very different wheel rights, Pablo and Matilda? No? well, I have two wheels, Pablo was my first, a louet s-10 bought offa e-bay in the height of my gotta have a wheel days, he's named Pablo after Picasso and if you've seen the s-10, you know why. The second is my Ashford traditional acquired at the Maryland sheep and wool in the height of my gotta get another wheel days, her name is Matilda, which is what my grandmother used to call me as a wee tot and I figured I must have been just like the ashford -- quiet, well-mannered, graceful, and just a damn sweet treat to be around. heh.

My scrap of a family also currently has two Volvos, one is...no, there both pretty much, while completely viable and working, one step away from the scrap pile -- so that analogy doesn't hold. Okay, let's pretend I've got my old volvo (89) and a new volvo okay? The old volvo is Blue Emma Pants so named by 3 yr old Little Bit after he heard me read aloud the autobiography of Emaa Goldman (red was switched to blue because, duh, the car's blue). We'll call the new one...New Volvo.

So my Pablo is much like Blue Emma Pants, older, clunky, a bit on the noisy side, not so smooth, but, it gets the job done through thick and thin, always. You need to spin some thin yarn or fat as a tampon yarn, it's ready to chug through it, just like Blue Emma -- nice and trusty. Blue Emma hardly ever needs routine service, you can go hundreds of thousands of miles (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating) before an oil change, much like Pablo, who wouldn't know what to do with oil if you offered it. And they're both so easy to get up and running, not a lot of ceremony but also not a lot of fine tuning. They can also haul pretty fefty loads too! Okay, so you may have to pump the brakes a bit hard, just as your damn leg may feel like it's gonna fall off from exhaustion if you choose to spin that thinny thin thin yarn, but eventually Blue Emma Pants will stop and Pablo will give you some fine thin yarn.

On the other side of the SAT analogy, New Volvo is very much like Matilda. Sleek, smooth, quiet as a mouse, oh-so-adaptable, graceful, and just the teensiest bit confusing. What the hell are all those fancy buttons for on this New Volvo? Blue Emma's just got 2 - red and blue (hot and cold). Cimate control? and what the hell is the difference between scotch tension and double drive? I mean, yes, I have eyes and a keen sense with diagramed directions so I can effectively set each one up and spin on it, but really, what is the difference? Nobody I've asked knows. Not even the woman that sold me the wheel I just put mine on ST and leave it she replied before she quickly moved on to how to correctly apply the oil to all the points that need it.
Also, this New Volvo seems to need alot more routine service calls yep, more frequent oil changes. Just like, you guessed it, Matilda, she goes into shock if the oil can isn't within 3 feet at all times. Did I mention all the bells and whistles you gotta go through to get New Volvo started, there's the alarm chirp and the ignition sequence, and the diagnostic run through (heh), yeah, not the easiest car to start up, much like Matilda -- changing a bobbin is a bit of a pain in the arse and someday that little plastic do-hickey is gonna plum break off. Imported parts can't be cheap. Also, this new volvo, like Matilda, can only haul much smaller and thinner loads. However, the new volvo won't stall, can be infinitely adjusted, can go quite a bit faster, burns less gas, and looks mighty fine doin' it. Just as Matilda can go quite a bit faster, can be infinitely adjusted, uses less human energy, and looks like a round, wheel-shaped, wooden angel doing it.

Yeah, I love both my wheels. And hell, I gotta get me a New Volvo.

yarn and the family we were

Yep, lookit, go ahead, you can click on all my pics for a biggie look. Together they make 330 yards of fingering wieght, 2 plied, worsted-style, purple-y goodness. B-ill is thinking he's going to make socks with it and use the peavomit yarn as accent. As for the little nugget of boyhood, that's Little Bit, my boy-wonder. He's getting so big, 3 1/2. For those of you new to me and mine, here we are just 6 months into this crazy parenting adventure --

I miss those little sausage-y legs, and hair! I had hair!

Still spinning

Still spinning yarn...

This yarn is actually plyed and drying right now. A whopping 320 yrds, fingering weight. But I get ahead of myself, I'll tell you about it when I post the pics tomorrow. I just couldn't help but give ya a peek now. That and I want you to be suprised when you see how lovely the yarn is after seeing that hideous roving! Yikes.

Have I mentioned that after 3 months I've finally exhausted my local library of all it's knitting and spinning books? Well, I have. So today, much to the delight of Little Bit, we ventured downtown to the biggest freakin' Enock Pratt Free Library I've ever seen. The building had gargoyles! okay, little carved stone lion heads, but still! BIG BIG BIG! A pond in the kid section, which happens to be 2 floors below the main library, and fiber books as far as my arms could stretch. Yep, it should hold me for at least 6 months.

I got these very old handspinning books that have some info on fancy-schmancy yarns, y/k, the ones with flubs, nubs, twists, twirls, and specks, the ones where one or both of the yarns are plied the same way it was spun, Z, S and all. Yep, I'm gonna tackle some fancy-schmancy yarns, like the big girls.

In knitty news, I've finished the submission project and I'm polishing up the pattern, taking out all the cursing, the slang, and the overt denunciations of our government. You know, anything that may keep it from being accepted (except the actual design - lol). I'm also knitting another one, just to test the pattern as written. Now I know it's best to get someone else to undertake this task but I don't really know many other knitters and B-ill didn't feel he could get it done within the time frame needed so I'm steppin' up, or sittin' down as the case may be.

I've still got to finish my pop's father's day present but this has taken priority over the man that reared and raised my ass -- thanks for that btw, I know it was hit or miss for a while but in the end you did a bang up job! They will get done, not only because he deserves them but because I'm itching to cast on for Little Bit's sweater vest from the blue/brown homespun, and for my own tank top though I've yet to see a pattern I like.

Hunger takes me from the computer.

If spinning were sinning, I'd be in hell

Here it is folks, the blue brown lanaset dyed mystery roving spun up on 2 bobbins and 2 plyed for a whopping 305 yards! I spun it on the louet, short draw, worsted style and it worked my leg crazy! And while I'm not one to toot my own horn...oh wait, yes I am, especially about my first totally balanced yarn! Hell ya. After I plied that baby you coulda laid it out in a flat line with not a kink or curl for, well, about 305 yards. I think it's rather pretty. It's also hairy and not super soft so I'm thinking I'll make Little Bit a vest out of it. It's definitely my best yet. As always, you can click on the pic to see it bigger.

The following yarn, which has been given the fond moniker pea vomit, is from the same mystery roving (and wait, there'll be more, I've a big chunk that's dyed redish black) was dyed with shades of greens and yellow. I spun equalish amounts on 2 bobbins on my ashford, short draw worsted style, plied then together and soaked it all between Little Bit going to bed and me going to bed. It's 100yrds of fingering weight and for such a thinner yarn, I had to work so much less than I did for the beat me brown and blue yarn, love that ashford!

Finally, I've had some little bags of misc. fibers in my tubs since I started spinning and decided to get over my fear and test my hand at what people had deemed harder. Heh. They were right-e-o. I started with the alpaca, such long and soft hair. I had to shut the slider just so it wouldn't blow away. But look how pretty. It wasn't too bad, given a little time, I could totally spin this and love it. Next I tried a bit of silk, lovely to spin after I got over huge enormous flubs of unspun fiber that were things of spinner's nightmares. I'd never spun such a long fiber and it took a bit to get used to but after I did, it seemed to go silkily. I decided, having never used the carders that came with my e-bayed louet, to card a bit of the silk with a bit of the left over blue brown roving and spun that up nice, silver, and shiny. I did the same to a watermelon roving. Both spun up well, not great, but not poor enough to intimidate me. The same can not be said for the cotton I tried next. WTF? Fiber length? Not at all. I started with short draw and that sucked, I then moved on to a real long draw and while that worked loads better, it still turned me out some shit yarn. Ugh, but also yay because after all, shit yarn is still yarn and I spun it!

The brownish lumpy stuff to the left is the cotton, the red is the wool/silk mix, the silver is the blue/brown and silk mix, the white is the cotton, and the brown on the right is the alpaca.

Shew, had enough of me yet? I have.

A spinning we will go

the red is practice yarn spun on my ashford wheel and the right is this roving I dyed, it's spun on my Louet and I plan to navaho ply it, we'll see!

Yay for spinning! I went and spun at my #2 LYS and got a little ego bump, like mainly that I should cancel my spot in the upcoming spinning class because I am already too advanced! Woot! Me, advanced...well at least more than a beginning class. It was a great time, and while I didn't learn too much new spinn-y stuff, I definitely feel way more comfortable using my Ashford with it's fancy scotch tension and double drive -- which btw, I'm still not sure when you'd use once opposed to the other but right now I'm focusing on scotch tension.

To top is off, my #1 LYS called to let me know about a new Fiber Arts group meeting twice a month and the focus is spinning! The first meeting was last night and while there were only 4 of us, 2 I've-never-seen-a-spinning-wheel, one experty-type, and me. It was a lovely good time (once they stopped making the sign of the cross upon my arrival and everytime we happened to make eye contact.) I even got to use my first drop spindle, supa cool.

It was so great to be around other spinners, or at least people sitting at spinning wheels. I did learn a few things too. Like how long draw makes a more woolen yarn and short draw (with top) makes a more worsted yarn (I hope that's right). Now that I know what all those words mean, I should re-read my library's spinning collection, it'd probably mean more now.

On the knitty front, I'm still plugging away at my father's day gift . It or they (remember we're bing mysterious in case my pop gets here) is/are coming along swimmingly. Unfortunately, I don't think they're gonna get finished because I really have to finish my knitty submission. Here's a obtuse and completely unenlightening view, 'cause you know I've gotta keep it supa-secret on the off chance it makes it in.

And with that I bid farewell, we're going tubin', because is there anything better on a sweltering day than sittin in a big trucker inner tube that's floatin down the river?

Friday five

Since I couldn't show any of my current super secret knitting projects, I decided to do the friday five.

1. What's your favorite summertime foods?

I'm kinda a foodie (heh, take that as you will) so as long as I've got the AC on I'm good to go on anything as long as it's on the vegan tip. If I'm sweatin' it old school with no AC, gimme the frozen grapes, avocados, watermelon, and mangos.

2. What is the best part about summer, in your opinion? Is it your
favorite season? What are your plans for this summer?

hey, that's like 3 questions mr. friday 5. 2a --The best part of summer is making a whole dinner out of your vegetable garden. Ohh, or eye-spying the girls in their skimpy clothes 2b -- Hell no it's not my favorite season! I'm so not a thrive-in-hot-weather gal. I like spring and fall, even winter better. Extreme heat leaves a grumpy, damp, limp noodle where once a happy, damp, semi-firm girl used to stand. 2c -- I'm stumped. People make plans?

3. Do you tan easily, or do you tend to burn badly? What's the worst
sunburn that you've ever had? Do you go to a tanning booth in order to
prepare for the summer season?

Have you seen me? I burn like a angry crab that fell into a bucket of red paint. My childhood was awash in burn-y badness. It's as if my grandmother had never heard of sunscreen. It never failed, of the month I would spend with her in Florida, 3-5 days would be filled with yours truly, shirtless and wailing, too sick to do anything but watch square pegs, weep and collect my peeling skin in empty yogurt containers. Tanning booth? yeah, right.

4. If you could spend this summer absolutely any way that you wanted,
with money being no object, what would you do and why?

Wait, let's see if I can even wrap my head around money not being an object or doing anything I want...nope, can't do it.

5. What are your favorite summer clothes to wear?

Clothes? those are so 2004. But really, I a big fan of the tank and can't wait to get past my current project deadlines so that I can knit the hell out of one.

Family 'reasure

I love you so much I would explode if it were so easy

that's how my 3 yr old little bit has been declaring his love for me lately. So freakin adorable, makes me want to eat his tiny ear for lunch, if it weren't so hot. I mean, could it be any damned hotter? It's like a previously unopened can of summer got vigorously shaken and exploded all over this city. Mind numbingly hot, lay on the couch and grump humid, eat nothing except cold grapes and frozen mangos sticky, motherfucken HOT. Ayurveda is right, us Pittes have no constitution for the heat. Maybe today'll be different, I don't think it's even supposed to hit 700 degrees, that'll be refreshing.

The knitting projects are moving along at a sluggish but acceptable rate. I'm on #2 of secret project #1 and secret project number 2 is cast on and well on it's way. That's really all I can say except in this heat, the yarn wrapped around my sweaty fingers to control tension, comes very close to felting. This is the first time in my short-ish knitting career that I've had so few projects at a time, and they're all secret! It's driving me crazy. I need variety...and disclosure!

And just so this post isn't a total bore, this should make you smile.

Hot and knitty

It's been a hotty and knitty day here in ol' B-more. The boys went hiking and I got to spend some serious time on (don't look if your initals are BM) this. I'm happy how it's coming along I just need it to come along faster, the day's fast approaching and I'm used to knitting for myself, and I'm quite a bit wee-er than the man in question.

In the same knitting for other people that are your parents vein, I finished and sent my mom her b-day present, which is the design I'll be submitting to knitty (with minimum modification). It's so rockin'. I wish I could post the pix, alas, I havta wait until it gets rejected or until fall when the issue comes out.

Elsewhere in the knitdom, I, in one evening, the evening before the party, in fact, I whipped out this groovy little bag for Little Bit's friend's 4th b-day. It's my yarn, dyed with koolaid and then felted. Little Bit made the button as Zoe holds a special place in his kid heart. The party was fabulous, I seriously need a tramploline. Here's one of my favorite pic, get a dose of the flavor of my boy --

Oh, and I got some cotton from knitpicks, orange and red, I'm going to start a tank as soon as I get past all the deadlines.

Still feeling all hermitty. I'm sure everyone around these parts thinks I've gone addled and am slowly consuming my own digits, or I'm just the worst, flakiest friend in the freakin' world. I just can't help it though, for a brief moment in the evening, I think I might wanna go out, see people, chat it up, and then I get all twitchy, all umm...all something that lets me know that that's totally the very last thing I want to do in the entire world and really the only thing that doesn't sound mind-numbingly terrible is sitting on my couch, munching grapes and knitting. And here starts my career as a knitting agoraphobe.

Except not really. I did recently go out ON AN AUDITION FOR A MOVIE! Strange, eh? I'm no actor. It was a fluke but the director called and said he really wanted me but only had a part for an old old man or a middle aged woman and that he'd like to use me later and would I be interested in working on the production team. I said HELL YEAH. Cool, no?

Zoe

free form pattern knit with bemidji wool, dyed by me.

Things you can't see

Shew. I feel like I've been put threw a juicer, or maybe a blender - cause I suppose all my parts are still here, they're just battered, not so much sucked dry. But I'm taking care of it, putting my efforts and energy where they need be, no more pussyfootin around, lolligaggin and whatnot. Huh? Yeah, that's what I feel like too. Regardless, things are beginning anew, like they do every minute, every day, every and c (which is my own little homage to DFW).

In knitty news, I don't have much. Well, that's not true exactly, I just don't have much to share here, now. I've completed the 2nd of what I hope will a evolution of only 3 of a project I'm going to submit to the fall Knitty. The first one had several problems, this one is almost perfect (and also for my mama's b-day) and the third will be the final design. Oooh, you can't stand it can you? Bwahhahaha says the evil blogging knitter.

I'm also most of the way through a tiny fancy bag for a friend of Little Bit's who's having a 4th b-day this weekend. She's quite the groovy girl and needs something extra spicy.

Oh, and of course there's Father's day coming up and I, dutiful daughter that I am -- Wait! Do not click to read the following if you self-identify as the father in question -- that means you El Presidente!

I'm making my pop his first ever pair of home knit socks, and his first ever pair of wool socks. They're 100% merino so they're deliciously soft. I cast on tonight, 2 sets of circs, size 1, 9 stitches/1" with a cast on of 76 stitches, increased to 84 after the ribbing. Yikes! They are lovely er...manly though, aren't they --