Insubordiknit

A room fulla tangle

This week's fiber friday theme was celestial. I call it dark matter and I call it often. Oh, dark matter, ohhhhh, dark matter... Here's another shot of it, as seen from free floating in space. And here's one more, from the knitter's viewpoint, 150 yards of falklands wool, with short bursts of crazy, curly, white kid mohair, and longer stripes of crazy, curly, blue/purple/green kid mohair. It's all plied with a shiny, silver nylon thread. Oh, dark matter, you're shameless!

I spun it up yesterday, with a brick on my chest and a stale piece of toast in my throat (aka, sick, otherwise that'd be some comical pictures!), along with dead pool, 150 yards of bulky singles , wool and mohair mix. I wish I had another 150 yards for a vest for myself. bah. Little Bit loved it and insisted he be able to model it for y'all. He cam up with the pose himself.

And of course, there's post-fair, which is a slightly nicer name that puke, but you get the idea. 150 yards of self striping very soft wool mix. If used for a hat, it'd start off with soft, bright green around the head, then yellow/green/brown romney, then random stripes of those 2 with a stripe of bright red thrown in. It's thick and thin and will be lovely knit up! I'm really diggin' spinning the striping action. Here's the hank in it's whole state.

And finally, so you don't think all I do is spin, here's what I like to call 2 day socks. Knit with harley from a few days back, they're my first homespun socks and they rock! B-ill's got a show tonight and he'll be sportin' these fancy footies on stage! I used the singles for the cuff and foot and the 2 ply for the heel and toe, and would ya look at my self-striping goodness!

Harley socks

Basic sock knit with my own harley handspun. Cuff and foot in self-striping singles, heel and toe in 2-ply

I got tagged (feel free to ignore)

10 years ago: Wow, 10 years ago, to the month, I was leaving behind my tattoo artist boyfriend (Ugly Bill) and hoppin’ in my packed-to-the-headliner Jeep Cherokee, leaving Kansas City, and driving off to California. Poppy C, who would later go on to steal all my earthly belongings and disappear without a trace, was in the passenger seat and Jawbreaker was on the stereo. Oh how I loved, uh, love, Jawbreaker. I’ve tried numerous times to contact Blake Schwarzenbach, yelled at him in the street, written letters, but he resists our clearly natural connection. I could make him so happy. Blake, call me.

5 years ago: I was just moving back to Kansas City after a very successful 5 years in SF. B-ill and I were buying our first house, a giant restored mansion, and returning to school. As a person though, I had no real direction.

1 year ago: I was in Baltimore, living in house number 3. My Little Bit of a boy was 2 1/2 and the perfect mixture of beauty and brains. I was working hard and pretty steady at carveGirl, my woodworking biz. I’d just finished designing, building, carving, and painting the tables for a new cafe. I thought I found what I loved but that was still a few months off (for those of you not keeping up, that would be fiber baby, fiber!) I just got an essay published in mamaphonic a book about being an artist and a mother. I was also just getting involved in the charm city kitty club, a queer caberet around these parts. I’d been on stage as a pussycat player and was just startin’ to get down and dirty with Jody. She’s the one on her knees, very uncharacteristic.

YESTERDAY: I sweat off the rest of my pregnancy weight while doing my weekly dying of fiber. Fuck, it’s hot in this city. What’s up with that? I miss SF. I did make some pretty rovings though, except for one, it’s kinda ugly. Also, my throat was scratchy.

TODAY: The scratchy throat turned into a brick on my chest so I let the Little Bit go swimming with the wonder-twins and I chilled on the couch, started, and all but finished a pair of socks for b-ill. They’re the first socks I’ve made out of my own yarn, I used harley and they rock.

TOMORROW: I’ll spin in the morning before the Little Bit wakes up. I’ll play with him, maybe find a cool (temperature-wise) park and make up for being sick yesterday. When he hits the sack, I’ll knit a bit. The socks should be done so I’ll probably start of a design I’ve been knocking around in this old skull o mine.

5 snacks I enjoy: roasted seaweed, tings, grapes, avocado right outta the shell with a bit of salt, and trader joe’s unsweetened dried mango (it’s soooo good!)

5 bands/singers I like: Do I even have to say it? Blake Schwarzenbach, he’ll always be my #1, know him? Send him my way! Tom Waits. As for the others, they are ever changing, right now I’m listening to Nelly Mckay, Jonathon Rickman, and Devandra Banhart.

Things I would do with $100,000,000: I’d be happy,of course! Right?

5 locations I'd like to run away to: oh jeez, isn’t this thing over yet? Is anyone still reading? You can’t be, even I’m bored and I’m the one writing it. Blah, blah, blah. Many places, none are in the US, in fact, that’s one of the requirements – not in the US.

5 bad habits that I have: I’m a bit controlling, though I think I’ve exercised some control over it and am getting better. I eat faster than anyone you know. I've been known to exaggerate. I a terrible speller. I talk about peeing a lot.

5 things I like doing: I like peeing. I love to listen to my son laugh. I love to laugh. I loke knitting and spinning.

5 things I would never wear: Shoulder pads, oh my, kill me if that particular 80’s bit comes back, I can hang with the side pony-tails but shoulder pads? falsely broad broads, eeek.

5 TV shows I like: Hmmm… For years I’ve not had a television because I could not be trusted. I’d watch anything and it’d eat away all my time. Now that I knit so much, we have a TV again but it’s not connected to anything so I belong to netflix and only watch at night while I knit. That said, Buffy is the shit, the best thing ever on. Joss just got it all right, the cool, the geek, the gore, the politics, so fucking good! I’ve got all of the DVD sets except season 5 and whenever I need something to knit too, it’s buffy and spike keeping me company! Oh buffy, I miss ya! Other stuff I’ve liked recently (from netflix): the wire, deadwood, and queer as folk. If you’ve got any recommendations, send ‘em my way. I love teen dramas, so help me., I admit it.

5 movies I like: They live. Miller’s Crossing, Memento, A night on earth, Charlie and the Chocolate factory (original), I'd say Pi, but I feel that'd be pretensious.

5 famous people I'd like to meet: Blake Schwarzenbach, five times, and one of those times should include much inappropriate groping.

5 biggest joys of the moment: My Little Bit. Spinning up a really nice, balanced yarn. Knitting. A big secret I don’t wanna share with the world yet (no I’m not with child). A cool house in the face of unconquerable heat.

5 favorite toys: Hitachi magic wand. Ipod. Spinning wheels, Pablo and matilda. Silly putty.

Union Market spin-a-thon

Holy hot shit cakes! The Union market-spin-a-thon has officially come to a close. The final tallies find us with 1010 of the darker green and 400 of the lighter green. Now some of you may notice that those numbers are a bit shy (still gonna get laid but gonna play hard to get first) of the yardage called for in the pattern. However, I say fuck it! It's a bit thicker, instead of getting guage on a forsaken #3, I'll get it at on a #4 or perhaps, cross those nubblies, a #5! So all should be well in the land of camo. And if it doesn't make it, it looks smashing as an arm adorment, don't you think? By the way, not to lick my own pudding, but more as record keeping, I started this 1400 yards on July 13th and finished it on July 24th, and spun up another misc. 1000 yards in the meantime. Okay, that was a bit of puddin' licking, but I couldn't help myself, it was a big feat.

Also, yesterday I spun up fussy harley, 110 yards of harley with long stripes of orangy/yellow kid mohair, and trollop, and trollop up close, it's reddish wool/mohair mix spun thick and thin with stripes of orangey-yellow romney, thick and thin with super-coils and plied with a varigated red to pink nylon thread, 65 yards with enough left to do another 60 or so. Also another 200 yard of fobidden forest. I'm officially out of dyed roving now, looks like that's what I'll be doing today.l

I'm happy today, scratchy in the throat but beside myself with the glee of secret good news!

Honeymoon and hair

click if you just must see it bigger

Tankity tank tank. Honeymoon from knitty is now gently covering my own honey moons. I used some yarn that mysteriously landed in my stash, DK Luxor, I happened to have 5 skiens of it in this lovely coppery color. I've also got a bunch in an olive green, which would be another tank it it didn't suck so much to knit with, but then again, maybe knitting with shitty splitty yarn is akin to childbirth, you forget the pain and only remember how good it feels when it's all over and done, and so you do it again. Yeah, so the yarn was splitty enough to make me curse like, well, like me. Shit. I followed the pattern pretty much right on though I wish I'd tried it on before starting the neckline, I'd have rather it been a bit longer, I'm not really a belly-show girl. It's not as bad as it looks in the pic as my shorts are riding a bit low. I suppose it looks best that length so that you can see skin though the eyelets, still, the belly, bah.

And here I digress, getting caught in what is pure boring-blog fodder. This picture is taken post-shave but pre-bleach, they're usually done the same night but I felt a bit scratchy in the throat and decided to wait. So, the fodder? You guessed it, the dreaded hair advice. I really hate hair. Hate it, hate hairstyles, hate hair product, hate hate hate, who knew I was so full of it? Preemptive to any hurt feelings, I only hate my own hair and I'm sure yours is just the pussy's meow. Yep, mine? I hate it so much I shave it with a 4 on the clippers every 2 months so that in between I don't have to touch it and I know what it looks like at all times, even if what it looks like is, you know, shit. The bleach is just to, and this may come as a shock to ya, make me stand out. So, with the picture before you of me and my reddish hair, and the blond me here, which do you prefer? Am I wasting time and washing out with the bleaching?

I'm also aware that I'm breaking another blog rule -- never ask questions directly. It's a sure fire way to make you (me) feel like the biggest loser since that time in highschool when you (I) stole that picture of Nate Minnis off of the spirit board and got caught by his girlfriend. Yet here I am, asking the question and hoping the one person that reads this will be kind and leave many and varied comments under several convincing aliases.

It's a yarn-y good time

Busy is as busy does. Yeah, I'm not even sure what the hell I mean by that one, but I'm wrinkled in the knees I've been so swamped. I finished honeymoon and will post pics tomorrow along with some major ranting about what shitty, splitty yarn I used, and that goes to show you that when I rhyme I'm not necessarily having a yarny good time.

But a yarny good time I have been having, and the proofs in the puddin'. This post is pic heavy and content dry, like internet porn, have fun!

First there's harley, named after my pop's mean machine when I was a kidlet. It was painted orange with purple flames and no other bike will ever do it for me. The yarn is 175 yards of double ply, 2 hanks of singles, 200 yards and 100 yards. It's all merino, sock wieght. The single should be self striping, random, for the leg and foot while the 2-ply is a color mish mash for the toe, heel and whatever else. It's softee, and I think it'll knit up to be a pair of socks worthy of the name.

Then there's forbidden forest, can you tell what I've been reading? Like a hungry dog. It's also merino. Two hanks of singles, 70 yrds and 105 yrds, and a hank of 2-ply, 90 yards. It wasn't my intention to do them this way, I figured on spinning about 150 yards of double but after I got one bobbin full it looked so pretty I knew the other balls of roving would have to be singles, the one on the wheel was already spun to be plied (more twist than a single could hang with).
So, again a mix, but not sock weight by any means. The singles are so soft and finally, I've got to the point where singles are pretty balanced! Not so many little twisty parts from the drafting, too. If you click on the pics and compare the purple/orange singles to these singles, you can tell how much nicer they are. What a difference a day makes! Rock.

Finally, here's pink goose, 2 hanks of about 55 yrds each. Thick and thin, plied with very thin red fade to pink single. VERY BULKY.

For those of you who come here for kiddie goodness (that'd be my mom and pop), here's the current state of my drive way, at least until it rains --

The tongue actually extends all the way down the driveway, a good 15 feet. Yesterday we saw a neighbor bring over a ladder so that he could get a full shot picture.

Honeymoon tank

Honeymoon from knitty is now gently covering my own honey moons. DK Luxor cotton in fingering wieght.

Pinching for fun, and magic

And that rock-as-hell picture from last week is to put an end to my new name she who spins and knits for cabbage patch. Cause the dreamy guy on the right is my partner (in life and crime) although, I will add to any wondering, he does actually have lips that cover his teeth like any normally constructed human, he's just making rock-face. Werd.

Okay now that my reputation as a hardcore, club-hoppin' rocker girl is seated firmly in place, (and don't let the irony of the next sentence skip past ya) let me show you the pretty, pretty yarn I spun!

It's 200 yards of self-striping romney and kid mohair, it's got some thick and thin, some unspun blotches, and some super-coils too. Ya gotta click it to get the full and magical effect. I dyed and spun it for the friday fiber topic magic, so don't go blabbin that you've seen it already because I've got 3 more days 'till friday. Shhhhh.

And for S, who comes for the pictures, here's my Little Bit, left to his own devices after his bedtime story and I descended the stairs to read harry potter. You gotta click on that sucker, the closer look is mandatory. Check the hands, firmly grasping. It's a constant now, all the time, and I will not be a mother that makes him feel ashamed or wierd or like there's something wrong with it. You should see people's faces when we're out in public and to my question do you have to pee, kiddo?, he answers nope, just pinchin' for fun. That's my boy.

bubbletop trash-heap

Check the yarn to your left! 500 yards of what will be 1400 yards of merino for my Union Market sweater, nice colors eh? Yeah, I was feelin' all the shit and my inner narscissus started with the ohhh, you're so talented, you've got that perfect yarn-y thing down, hot sista. You're the master, the boss, the WOMAN! You're also quite attractive. Yep, I was feelin' pretty good so I thought I'd branch out, stretch out my yarny fingers and try making yarn that strongly resembles a pile of trash. Observe --

On the left we have bubbletop trash-heap, it's 80 yrds of self striping white merino, coral merino, natural alpaca, and coral merino with unspun/felty bits in blue, green, and white, plied with a thin silver. It's also pretty thin, to be knit on size 3s and you'll see by the small pictorial at the bottom of this post that 80 yards on 3s, ain't shit.

On the right is blackrain, 50 yards of a bit of rain I found hiding in a corner, plied with black merino, alternating coils and red flubs every foot or so. It's pretty cool, I wish I had more.

And just what the hell am I gonna do with this?

Now to my humilation, with all that big talk about me and my even yarny hand shit, you knew humiliation was coming right? I couldn't be so bold and not have the fiber gods cut my thread to the quick. So I thought it'd be a grand idea to knit up a bit of bubbletop trash-heap and see if it really did some stripey goodness. I though 80 yards should make a hat. Observe my ignorance --

hmmm...this doesn't seem right at all.

mom, is it supposed to make my head hurt like this? I can not make a normal human face.

What? What the hell is this thing? Well, at least in this picture I'm wearing clothes, but you should see what they do to me sometimes. Sick. Now where's my official birth certificate, I'm outta here.

Opened spam

Dear fellow American,
Will we still be the Country of choice and still be America if we
continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other
countries that came to live in America because it is the Country of
Choice??????
First, I'd like to thank you Random, Anonymous Emailer, for including
me on you random, anonymous e-mail list. You took the time to include
me, and I'll do you the courtesy of reading and responding. I feel like
I've made a new friend already, don't you? So, Ummm… are we really the country of choice? especially with the recent election, let's think on this, shall we --

The Supreme court? Soon to be stacked
Women's right to choose? Soon to be repealed.
Sensible immigration reform? Never gonna happen.
Rights and services for the poor, disabled and disenfranchaised? Yeah, right.
Tolerance for difference? ? Never been.
Affordable health care? Nope.
Affordable higher education? Not anywhere on the horizon.
Sensible foreign policy? Clearly not.
Seperation of church and state? Bad and about to get worse.
Not to mention, where's my same sex marriage?

Choice is a funny thing you know, if you ask me, everyone doesn't really have equal choice
in this country, I mean, you recognize that the choices one person has
is not the same as another person has, right? Choice, and the ones
affored you are informed by who you are and where you started. Everyone
knows that, right?

Think about it .
Oh yes, Random, Anonymous e-mailer, I will.

All I have to say is, when will they do something about MY RIGHTS?
Is that really all you have to say? I mean, it looks like this is pretty long.

I celebrate Christmas,
Yeah, I love Christmas, all the lights and food and yummies. Ohhh, good times.

but because it isn't celebrated by everyone, we can no longer say Merry Christmas.
Well, I don’t think you can’t say it. I think that you can, go ahead, say it, you know you want to, let that cheer out! I, for one, choose to say season’s greetings to people if I’m not sure of where they fall on the jesus-o-meter, I
think it’s just, you know, nice and respectful, but you, who says ya
gotta be like me?

Now it has to be Season's Greetings.
It's not Christmas vacation, it's Winter Break. Isn't it amazing how
this winter break ALWAYS occurs over the Christmas holiday?
Yeah, it also occurs over Chanukah, Chinese New Year, Diwali, Kwanza,
occasionally Ramadan, St Lucia’s Day, and damn close to St. Nicholas
day, Tet, and Taeborum. Also, just for the record, the reason that all
of these holidays occur during the winter is because a long time ago,
before you had the choice of forced air or radiators, people needed a
little pick-me-up through these long cold months, large celebrations
that included gifts, food, and well wishes were just what the pagan
gods ordered. Later, when organized religions came into the picture,
those in charge of the different churches, picked this very same time
because they knew that people would adopt anything as long as it came
with a rockin’ good party. You know, kinda like today. Yep, I could
point you to the research if ya want to actually do any before you
spout off.

We've gone so far the other way, bent over backwards to not offend anyone,
gone so far the other way? So you are admitting that we were offensive, right? Good, as long as we both understand one another.

that I am now being offended. But it seems that no one has a problem with that. This says it all!
No, come on Random, Anonymous E-mailer, I care. Really I do.

IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT.
Yeah, and I’d say they do a hell of a job, especially since there’s so many nice people like you to show them the ropes.

I am tired of this nation worrying about
whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the
terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in
patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the
attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct! " crowd began
complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending
others.
Well, RAE, you don’t mind if I call you that do you, it’s so much easier than writing Random, Anonymous Emailer each time, plus, each time I’ve gotta spell check Anonymous damn public school! Anyway RAE, I think what the politically correct crowd was complaining about was the possibility of our racism
offending others. You have to admit we’ve a bit of a mob mentality here
in the good ole US of A. Heck, Ida B. Wells used to write about it, how
if a white woman said she’d been attacked by a man of color, any man
with more than a tan better watch out, hang man’s comin’ and all. Yeah,
I think that’s what the PC crowd was trying to avoid, the idea from
spreading that anyone the least bit middle eastern was trying to jihad
us right in our evil bush.

I am not against immigration,
Really? ‘Cause ya are startin’ to sound a bit like you might be.

nor do I hold a grudge against anyone
who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population is
almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants.

Ohh, good, you know that, I was afraid I was gonna have to point that
out. Our population is in fact entirely made up of descendents of
immigrants, except of course those who were indigenous to this land,
but umm…we weren’t very PC to those people. Oh wait, your not
suggesting…no, I’m sure you’re not.

However,
Oh shit.

there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here,
ohhh, I’m excited, I think this means me…

multicultural community
yep, that’s what we are, I’m right there with ya! Yeah for
Multi-Cultural communities, I mean, that’s all America could be given
our rooty-toot roots. Yeah, I love it too!

has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity.
Huh? Ya lost me there. dilute

our sovereignty? Our national identity? Didn’t you and I just have that
whole discussion about how this land (which is your land and this land
is my land) was established by immigrants? Also, I’m not sure you know
what sovereignty means, which, ya know, I understand – it’s a
motherfuckin’ big word. It sure sounds important though, smart too, I
sure do like you, RAE!

As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language
Ahem. Sorry RAE, but I have to interject again, just to make sure that
you know that English, and I imagine you’re referring to English, isn’t
just our language, take the following countries for example, it’s either the official language or spoken by the majority of people: Antigua and
Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda,
Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominica Fiji, The
Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho,
Liberia, Malawi, Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa,
Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United
Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Not to mention that America is like, one of the last countries where
the majority of it’s people’s still only speak one language.

I’d also like to point out, and you probably already know this, that
English is a hard ass language to learn as an adult. Like, way harder
than most. I mean, you seem to do fine, but me, I still have trouble
and I scored a 36 on the Language portion of the ACT! Let’s give mad
props to those that do learn it ‘k?

and our own lifestyle.
Yeah, you’re not kiddin’ there, though I wouldn’t be super quick to
brag, I mean, what has our lifestyle produced? Video games, fast food,
slavery, racism, sitcoms, KKK, hummers, crack, highest rate of violent
crime? Yeah, scary stuff, but there is Celine Dion, don’t ya just love
her? Man, when she hits those high notes...

This culture has been developed over
centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and
women who have sought freedom.
Wow, has it been that long? Isn’t it great when something finally hits the 200 mark and you get to start saying centuries. Wow.

We speakENGLISH, not Spanish,
Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language.
Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the
language!

Heck, RAE, speak for yourself. I, for one, took Japanese in college and
I know a smattering of Spanish too. I even have a friend that speaks
Russian, oh, but he’s from Russia so maybe that doesn’t count.

"In God We Trust" is our national motto.
Ohh, this is where things might start to go a little south between us
RAE, I’m a bit of a heritic, hell, I’ll just say it, I’m a god damned
atheist. However, we’d all do well to remember that the word GOD is
English for supreme being, and since most religions have supreme
beings, in god we trust could pretty much cover the needs of any religious nut with a computer. Oh, I hope that didn’t offend, I’ve been trying really hard not to, ‘cause like I said earlier RAE, I do really care.

This is not some Christian, right wing,
political slogan.. We adopted this motto because Christian men and
women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is
clearly documented.
Wellll…You are right, it is a
national motto. Though it wasn’t the motto this country was founded on,
that motto was E Pluribus Unum, adopted in 1776, you know, the
beginning of the Revolutionary War. It means out of many, one, in case ya didn’t know. The other one, in god we trust that didn’t come around until 1958, yep, less than 50 years ago RAE.

It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.
Did you take debate in high school? Maybe that program was cut in your
school, lemme let you in on a trick of proving an argument, if you’re
gonna use evidence for points A and B, don’t make point C which refutes
the previous evidence you used to back up A and B. Like this, see, you
go on and on about the founding fathers of this country and how they
were right, motto, victory, blah blah blah, and then you say this, how
it’s appropriate to display God on the walls of school. Well, the
founding fathers took pains to write into the Constitution a foundation
for separation, I think, to protect both church and state. Now here I’m
gonna go and not take my advice because while I am thankful that they
wrote in this separation dealio, I still think they were a pack of
greedy assholes, but, well, that’s well documented too. We’re still
friends right RAE?

If God offends you,
Well, I wouldn’t say he offends me so much as humors and confuses me. I
mean, I can dig on the streets of gold, but what’s the deal with the
beard and the winged things?

then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.

And, like we established earlier, god, or shall we say supreme being, is pretty much a part of every culture. It’s like part and parcel, you wanna culture, ya gotta take the god.

If Stars and Stripes offend you,
Ohh, stripes, I’m offended by stripes, shifty little bastards! I'm like a lion, how'm I gonna take down that stripe-y zebra, all confusing like he is?

or you don't like Uncle Sam,
oh, uncle sam, yeah, I’m not really a fan. He’s based on Samual Wilson,
who was in the business of providing beef in barrels to the US Army,
and see, I’m vegan, so, eeew. Also, there’s that whole representing the US gov’t thing he’s got going, so not cool. I mean, I do have the guy tattooed
on my arm but that's more in a villian capacity, you know?

then you shoud seriously consider a move to another part of this planet.
Haven’t I tried. You don’t even know. It's damned hard. I even got a book once from the library.

We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change,
Really? You think so? Then how come the almost 50/50 vote split in the
past several major elections? Yeah, I think some of us wanna change and
change the perception of Americans.

and we really don't care how you did things where you came from.
You’re starting to sound not very nice RAE, did I misjudge you?

This is OUR COUNTRY,
Ours? You mean every citizen, right?

our land,
Yep, we did steal it fair and square.

and our lifestyle. Our First Amendment gives every citizen
oh good, I knew you meant every citizen.

the right to express his opinion and we
will allow you every opportunity to do so! But once you are done
complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our
national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage you take
advantage of one other great American freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.

Once again, I’m not sure you did your homework, the right to leave
isn’t actually one of our great American freedoms. In fact, it’s damn
hard to leave this country, believe me, I’ve looked into it quite a bit.

It is Time for America to Speak up
Yeah, cause too often we’re the wallflower of the world.

If you agree -- pass this along;
if you don't agree -- delete it!
ohhh, it’s so hard to decide, which one will I do? I just don’t know.
Either way, RAE, I’ve enjoyed our time together, you really gave me a
lot to think about, I hope I’ve returned the favor.

AMEN

Fuck you.

In which I spin, knit, and curse

The next step has been taken. This is the swatch for the UM sweater. It's the 2nd bit of yarn I spun, the first one was knit tighter than me in highschool, wait, that's not true at all. I've already spun up 2 balls (hehe, I could throw another highschool joke in here but aren't we all more mature than that?) of the lighter color. I'm spinning on Matilda (ashford traditional) and will ply it on Pablo tomorrow. It's so damned thin! It reminds me of all the girls at my transfer orientation for school today, walking skeletons in sexy little clothes -- my brain was all confused, should I be disgusted, turned on, DIETING? Ouch. I had to go thinner and thinner because this merino really poofs up! I hope to get the first hank finished tomorrow, then this shit'll be ON!

Also in spin-fucking-tastic news, I finished spinning all the roving I dyed up last week. Pretty good, 6 days. Bodes well for the plan to get this sweater yarn done in a week or so, here's hopin'. And to your left, ladies and gents, is one of the last bits of it -- yellow fish, falklands wool, very soft, balanced, pretty smokin even, 200 yards, worsted weight and hot damn pretty.

There's also 100 yards of the what was left of rain. It's the roving I did in thirds, one third short draw, one third long draw, and here's the last third, modified long draw (my default) and plied. I think this is the best use of it but the difference is interesting, no?

In case your wondering, I've not left knitting behind. I'm steadily plugging away at honeymoon cami which is lovely but the first few inches tore my fingers up -- cotton's an evil thing. Finally, at 7 inches, it's getting a bit easier. Also today, during the deathdrone that was orientation, I started tempting, even though I'm not enthralled with knitting it at all. It's not the pattern, I think it's just me and the fact that I like to knit things that contain something I've not done before. I'm sure I'll wear it and tempt all the boys and girls with my bare, bare shoulders plus it's nice and easy for those times I don't want to have to look down for freaking hours. I've got 4 inches or so done. Thrill.

Y'all know you can click on my pics to see them BIGger, right?

The evolution of UM pt.1

Here starts the slow growth of the Union Market Sweater that's on the cover of the new IK. I plan to meticulously document every detail so that future generation (or at least y'all) look back and see exactly where it all went straight to hell. Alright, it starts with 16 oz, or 450 grams of (happy, 'cause as a vegan, my wool's gotta come from the happy sheep) merino wool for the main color. The pattern calls for only 400 grams but I'm covering my ass. This will be dark greens with a little of the lighter green for matchiness, and hopefully spin up to a whopping 1400 yards. The contrast color is lighter greens with a bit of the darker and starts as 3.5 oz or 100 grams which will (fingers crossed) spin up to 400 yards.

First I dyed the roving, using the oven method I learned from Hello yarn. I like this method for colors you want to mix and meld and get all cuddly-wuddly with each other. For the MC I used 6 different colors of dark greens, 2 light greens from the CC roving, a bit of yellow and a bit of blue for contrast. I actually measured my dye out and shit. Went for a dos (depth of shade) of 2, taking a total of 6 cups of dye and 3 cups of water (though I let the water in the wool from soaking count for that). The CC took only 7 oz of dye and a cup of water to reach a dos of 1, this was split up between 5 light greens, 2 dark greens, yellow, and a bit of light blue for contrast. Then I washed, rinsed, and spun it dry-ish in my thrift-store salad spinner.

After it dried, and I quit freaking out by the though of my giant camoflauge sweater, I split the rovings into 3 foot sections and then split them length-wise into thin strips so the color mishes instead of pools. Each roving roving was split in half and each half into 7 pieces, making 7 piles.

It took a long time.

Finally I made balls out of each pile, making sure to mix the tones up so that there's not a long patch of one or the other.

Tomorrow I'll spin a bit and see if I can get the guage right, 27 st to 4". WTF, it's a sweater, not socks!

Pre-school vest

Pre-school-boy vest
by Jacey Boggs (insubordiknit.com)

This little bitty treasure almost knits itself and takes no time at all! It’s very basic. I used my own handspun in a scholarly blue/brown with a bit of lime green ribbing to jazz it up, but any yarn that’s soft and gets gauge can and should be subbed. It’s worked in the round up to the armholes. The back and front are then worked separately. The armholes, V-neck, and slope for back of neck may seem a bit excessive but you’ll be picking up stitches and knitting the ribbed edge at the end which will make the whole thing the right size. If you’d like some handspun, let me know and I’ll be hap-hap-happy to spin you some all custom-like and for a goodly price.

SIZE
Childs 3-4 years (more coming soon)

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Chest: 26 inches
Cross shoulders: 10.5 inches
Armholes: 4.5 inches
Length: 14.25 inches

MATERIALS
MC: 240 yrds any yarn that gets guage, I used handspun, worsted, 2-ply
CC: 25 yrds of any yarn that gets similar gauge as your MC, again, I used handspun, worsted, 2-ply.

One 24 length-inch US #7 circular needle

Darning needle

GAUGE
10 sts/# 14rows = 2" in stockinette stitch

PATTERN
body

CO 120 stitches in CC
Join round beginning with K2, P2
Cont the 2X2 rib for 6 rows
Join MC
[Inc row] K every stitch, inc 1 st every 10 stitches for one full round (132)
K every row until piece measures 10 inches
Slip 66 stitches on a holder.

Back/armhole shaping
You are now working the back flat in stockinette, so alternate K and P rows.
BO 10 st at beg of next 2 rows
Work even until armholes measure 4.5”, ending after RS row
Back neck shaping
K16, BO until 16 left, k16

You are now working the 2 sides separately.
BO 4 at the beg of next 2 RS rows (8 st remain)
Work in stockinette until arm hole measures 5.5”
Put 8 st on holder

Work other side by:
Join yarn
BO 4 at the beg of next 2 WS rows (8 st remain)
Work in stockinette until arm hole measures 5.5”
Put 8 st on holder

Front/armhole/neck shaping
BO10 at beg of next 2 rows
Work 2 rows ending after a RS row
K23 turn
P across
[dec row] K to within 3 st of end, ssk
Repeat dec row every RS row until 8 stitches remain
Work in stockinette until arm hole measures 5.5”
Put 8 st on holder

Work other side by:
Join yarn
P across
[dec row] k1, k2tog, k to end
Repeat dec row every RS row until 8 stitches remain
Work in stockinette until arm hole measures 5.5”

Ribbed edge
Hint: for BO st, pick up 1 st for every BO st. for the rest, pick up 3 st, skip one, pick up 3, skip 1, and so on. Be sure to pick up an even number, even if you have to pick up an extra or drop one.

Kitchner the front 8 st with back 8 st on each shoulder

With CC, pick up and k around armholes and neck(read hint above)
Work in 2X2 ribbing for 4 rounds
BO in k2, p2

Finishing
With CC, double stitch your shortie's inital etc.

lightly block if needed.

werd.

are me and my yarns desperate?

Is it seen as real dedication, or real patheticness that I'm here everyday or two bothering the e-world with my exploits? I wonder.

The yarns of the day are: old man snoring, a practical exercise in short and long draw.

Short (worsted) is on the left and long (more woolen) is on the right. Each is 70 yrds each, single and lookin' for love. The difference in feel is astounding. The worsted is soft but the woolen one, holy pita sandwich, who wants to curl up and take a nap? Soft as all-getout. Both are thick and thin, and no strangers to here and there over-twisting. I'm pretty proficient at short and modified long draw but more practice is needed for a legit long draw, can't have my long draw cred threatened, yo.

The next yarn up features the colors from that delicious treat from the 80s, 2-toned hubbabubba, watermelon flavor-flav. I'd eat so much I'd be foaming at the mouth. I'd borrow change from my mom's change drawer and get packs and packs for the sole purpose of buying friends in the 4th grade. Lol. I guess not much has changed -- look at the pretty yarn, you are getting drowsy and also starting to feel like you need jacey to be your bestest friend ever. Again, a single, but not desperate yarn, after all, it's got 200 yards to keep itself comfortable.

All cocked up and no place to go

Knitting has suddenly turned against me. Evil lurks within my sticks. Ugh. I cast on for the honeymoon cami last night in an attempt to (1) get a sexy new tank and (2) use up some knit picks crayon yarn I bought a while back. It was terrible. Utterly. I spent like, 2 hours on 4 freakin' rounds. It's not even a hard lace pattern (not that I'd know) but the combo of the pattern with the soft but textured-and-totally-without-any-elasticity yarn, SUCKED. The ripping was a pleasure, a pleasure I tell ya I lauged like a maniac - bwahahaha! So this morning I cast on for tempting and it was like dejaSUCK. Well, except that it was an easy knit and I got 4 inches before I decided that the whole thing needed a less chunky look. Smaller needles. Back in the bag, baby. I don't even know if I like this pattern. I'm afraid I'll get ever so bored knitting 2x2 rib for, like, a million inches. Why am I knitting it, you ask? I have no answer. I am very much not a ribbon girl. Still, there must be something about it that makes me want to knit it -- I'll let you know when I find it.

Finally, tonight I cast on for the honeymoon cami again, and that's a big step for me, not just moving on to another pattern and givin this one the big sideways slap to the ass. This time I used some strange cotton called Luxor DK. I've never heard of it but there it was, in my stash, and a pretty burnt umber color to boot. It's a bit splitty and seems to actually squeak, but I managed to make it through the lace pattern without any major problems and it seems like the drape is nice. Who knows, it may be ripped out the next time we jaw.

I think I'm gonna use the knitpicks crayon for Tivoli, assuming it works out in the guage department and I don't have 2 circular needles jabbed in my eyesockets

Yeah, so not so happy on the knitterly front. However, on the spinnerly front, things are moving alone at an acceptable, pace.

I spun up the red/orange/yellow roving from a few posts back and while I cocked it up by spinning it a bit thicker than I planned and thereby only spun up 250 yards plied instead of the 350 I hoped for. It's quite nice, if not a bit ropey. I call it peach fuzz because over all, it's like an overripe peach.

The day

I though on this day, with all the fucked up shit that went down, you could use a gleeful picture. We melted down all his broken crayons and created new and super-way-cooler ones. I wish we could do that with this world.

Homespun school-boy

School-boy is done! It looks and fits pretty well for my first go at a sweatery-type designing. It only took 2 days to knit! It's knit in the round with no seaming but for 16 kitchner stitches at the shoulders. The monogram is double-stitched and was a total after thought. I'll post the pattern later. More importantly, check myhomespun yarn out! It's the beat me brown and blue from a few weeks ago. How freakin' nice is that, like he should be carrying a copy of 14th century Estonian Poetry (and yes, I know. I was going for stodgy and impossible to learn and that fits the bill - lol) and headin off to Oxford. He loves it and keeps thanking me thank you for knitting me a sweatervest mama, now will you knit me a tam? A tam! How does a three year old in America know what a Tam is, you ask? Well, my friend G (who is now boyfriends with the girl I used to crush hard on), who's aspiration it is to be the self-proclaimed gayest knitter in America, left his How to knit Tams so you can be the gayest knitter in America book here last night. He already is well on his way, he was featured in the City Paper's big bad GAY ISSUE, though I don't think he mentioned knitting. Oh well, I'm still proud. So, thanks G, now I've gotta figure out how to make one of those crazy things!

Yesterday B-ill and I dyed up a bunch of roving for this weeks spinning adventures. The orangey-red on the left was oven dyed, the next two bits, the blue/green/yellow and the orange/gray were done in the steamer, the lightish blue/purple was done submerged on the stove, and the pink/green on the far right was done in the crock pot. I spun it all out in my thrift store salad spinner and hung it out so all my neighbors can gaze upon it while smoking their ganja and flashing the peace sign. I can't wait to start spinning. The question is, where's it all gonna go?

School-boy sweater-vest

my own pattern made out of my homespun yarn --

Look at me, all patriotic and shit

Against all good and holy inside me, I call this yarn Patriotic, and truely, it's about all I can muster on the patriotic plateau. But here, on this day, the 4th, it seemed fitting.
While I can staunchily get behind a night of loud and pretty colors as a celebration of walking away (or fleeing in the night and then with guns a penchant for putting people of color on the frontlines) from an oppressor, we sure fell into the old adage of looking into the abyss, didn't we?

But the yarns pretty, right? here's a final picture of it coiled, cause I just can't stop with the pics! The recreation of the previous spinning experiment except with more twist, turned out swell. I spun it with the roving I dyed from a few posts back, just split and then how it came, and it came with a patriotic thunder (something I hope my naughty bits never do). It's wool and mohair and about 160 yards.

I'm running out of room for all my yarn, I can't knit it fast enough and I can't stop spinning!

I finally finished the socks that wouldn't end. They should have been done in time for fathers day but I got cocky and since I usually finish a pair of socks in less than a week, I figured I could do these within two. I figured wrong. What I didn't remember was when I put on my pop's boots, it's like I'm still 6 yrs old -- my feet swim in them. For the pic, I should have put my mailbox next to them so the size could truely be appreciated. B.I.G, and quite long. They took so long I had to take breaks and knit other things, like the secret pattern that I submitted to knitty, of which I knitted 3, and cleaves, and... But they're done and I'm all smiley. The little design between the stipes is his initails - B.M.

I worked last night on Little Bit's vest and I'm thinking of casting on for my tank soon, and perhaps the UnionSquare pullover from the new IK, though I'd have to spin some yarn for it, ohhh, yeah, I'll do that!

Father's day socks

Free form socks, merino sock yarn, dyed by me.

A mish, a mash, coiled yarn and a flash

It went well, my experimentation veering off the even steven spinning highway. Not great, and I have complaints (when don’t I, right? Especially when it concerns M to the E). Altogether though, I’m happy and well on the way to atomic wonderland -- thanks to the help of Hello Yarn, who's on vacation and won't be able to heap on me the praise and advice I so need.

I didn’t want to use my handpainted rovings on what held all the earmarks of promise of a trip to shitty-yarn-land, so I used up some old pre-dyed brown sheep I had from when I v first learned to touch foot to treadle. I split it and spun it in stripes, long red sections and shorter turquoise. I love this color combination, the way it buzzes and jumps. When I was wee and coloring in my childhood kitchen with my lovely mother, I thought, really believed, that she invented it. She used to outline things in red and color them in turquoise and I would beam at my totally original and inventive mama. I’d tell other kids about how my mom invented those 2 colors together and they’d look at me like, well, like they look at me now, as adults.

Anyway, spun it up thick and thin, plied it, and set it. It's about 50 yards. My major complaint with this one is that many of the sections are too loose, they scoot around on the strand on which they're plied. I think more twist to combat that particular offense. I’m gonna try again today (with stove dyed rovings that happens to have a bit of my mama’s famous color creation it them).

In knitty news, I finished the pop’s socks and will post pics as soon as I kitchner the toes (btw, I looooove to kitchner, and nope, I’m not kidding – love it!). I also cast on for Little Bit’s sweater vest. It’s being knit out of the beat me brown and blue homespun, with bright green ribbing. I’m thinking v-neck but we’ll see at it grows. My plan is for it to take only a few days but may have to cast on a tank for myself, which will increase it’s needle time.

And to round this post out to cover an even everything, our good friends M and K and their great kids came down from NJ to hang out and once again I’m floored at what good people this world can spit out when it wants to. It’s not often I meet people in real life that move me but these folks never fail. The day was amazing and the kids were awesome. Little Bit is such a creature from another planet, such a kind, compassionate, other-worldly kid, and Beanie Bean (what he calls S from hearing K say it once, 2 years ago) is the same way. Here’s a picture that’ll make you wanna run out and fill your belly up with a baby, I know that’s what it makes me wanna do –

Roving, Roving, send ugly roving right over

Quickity quick yarn posting --

This yarn began as the ugliest roving you've ever seen. A crockpot dye-job gone terribly wrong. It was supposed to be reds and yellows with a bit of blue but as you can see, color theory reared it's (un)predictable head and gave me, what forever will be known as -- crockpot brown. Clearly my crockpot method needs some tweaking. Luckily, the yarn, though not what I planned, turned out pretty nice, if not a bit boring. It's 200 yrds of bulky worsted from a wool/mohair top

here's a roving I dyed yesterday and plan to spin up today. It was dyed in the handy dandy steamer basket, wrapped in plastic, on the stove. Ha, not that I wrapped the steamer basket in plastic, you feel me, right? I'm gonna try out some new tricks with it, thanks to some guidance from the...wait, I better not give my source away yet, if it turns out horrible, she shouldn't be to blame.