Insubordiknit

The old, it was good, but it's out

Three and a half hours until the new year peeks it's promising head through into my life. Three and a half hours. What a year 2007 was, I grew in so many ways, the most obvious being by a whole other person! But there were other growths as well, more subtle one. I'll remember it fondly and welcome 2008 with eager arms. I hope everyone out there feels the same.

Winter holiday was magical. Really wonderful, and I think and thank everyone that had a part in it. It was the craftiest yet, every face was glowing and smiling that morning as we opened
our presents, emptied stockings, played with our giftees and toys and made our seasonal offerings
to friends via secret porch dropping in the wee of morning. Yes, it's become something of a tradition and the thing I love best about the holidays with my little family. On each equinox and solstice, we craft a goody and make a local list of people to sneak-gift. In Spring it was a handwoven paper basket filled with 4-6 experimental muffins (strawberry-chickpea, spinach-curry, banana -coconut etc). For this Winter, we made candied nuts in three flavors (vanilla, spicy old bay, coconut cardamom) and hot chocolate bags made with our own homemade vanilla sugar. We drive around, slowing pull up just past the target house, LB hops out, dashes madly to their porch, drops the preslette, rings the bell or knocks, dashes even more madly back to the car, hops in and we speed off into the sunrise to the house of the next person on our list. I hope it's a tradition we keep up and it's a memory my kids take with them into their adult years. It feels special.

That night we made the traditional stuffed seitan roast, also known around these parts as the grub. And it only looks slightly better cooked. Ate and laughed with people we love that live near us.

Like I said, a magical Winter Solstice. The Winter Moose was good to us this year.

As for the upcoming year, this is gonna be our year! I can feel it.

K.ad already got another sign job offa the ones he finished for the Red Canoe, a folky bookstore for kids, a few weeks ago. They turned out great, the owner cried a bit at their super coolness, she's even afraid to put the sandwich board outside for fear it might get snatched. The new shop he's doing signs for is super cool candy shop called Rock Candy. And I'm already booked for several spinning workshops! Plus, there's that super secret new product that's gonna take the world by storm...or you know, cause some strong winds for a few fiber lovers.

I hope everyone has a lovely night, a great new year, and sweet lips to kiss come midnight.

Happy Holiday yarn, final

The third installment of the happy holiday free yarn is going on right here! And this one, instead of being based on number of comments over a period of time, it's gonna be based on speed. So, it will be one of the first 5 commenters. After I get all 5, LB will pick a number from 1 to 5 and that person will get their choice of yarns from the shop, any single yarn they choose now or sometime in the future.

We had an amazing Solstice, I'll share the deets in the next few days. Hope everyone's winter holidays are going smashing!

oh, also, can I make another request for call ins? Please? I'm trying to get the next podcast out this weekend and need a few caller IDs. For details, go here. It's super fast and you'll be on a podcast listened to by tens of people. Heh. Not really, there's a few more than tens of listeners, the point is, they'll all here you!

Edit to announce winner -- #3, Cali. Gimme an e-mail and collect your free yarn card!

Happy Holiday yarn#2

#20, Jenn, it's you! Send me an e-mail and we'll work out the details! Everyone else, the 3rd happy holidays free yarn will be up for commenting on Sunday, I'll let you know! thanks so much!

edited to say Jenn is the winner, I miscounted. If you were the mistaken winner I'll honor my mistake as well, but right now your e-mail is bouncing.

Flickr, podcast, flickr, podcast...

Okay, so I know that the last post is the Happy holiday yarn give-away week number 2 post (ohhh, you didn't see it, all the way at the bottom of that long post, it's there, now with extra commentable material, including woodworker crack) but I've got a few other things to post, so make sure and leave your comments there, not here.

First, I realized that I'm like a hundred projects behind when it comes to posting all your wonderful FOs on my website. You go to all the trouble to take pics and send them to me and what do I do? Nothing. I can't be trusted.

So instead of relying on me, which clearly is a poor idea, please upload your insubordiknit knits to this fickr group! ! I put up some of mine but haven't added the some of yours from my gallery. So, if you have any, even if they're currently in my gallery, plop them right over there, okay? thanks so much!

Also, guess what I finished last night? Yep! Episode 5 of the podcast! So go, listen, leave a comment on the podcast page, on itunes, on ravelry, on the bathroom wall of the nearest truck stop. Some of you may recognize the parking avenger story, but what the heck, it's the holiday and I needed to spread some good ol' holiday cheer.

What I used to did.

Do you know what I did before I did what I do now? Do you? Let me tell ya. My life's work has gone like this--
waitress
waitress
waitress
and then all the sudden...woodworker!
and then all the sudden...woolsmith (that's my fancy word for what I do now).

Yeah, before I sat my pink bum down in the spinning chair, I built furniture (hence the woodworker's crack over there). I know, right? Weird. It started innocently enough - when I was twenty-five years old and I was five months pregnant, I made ol’ Crazy Pete. At the time, my belly barely rounded but I wrapped my arm around it like it was the weight, or the jewel, of the world. K.ad was out of town for the weekend and I was feeling alone, a bit co-dependently lost, and what-do-I-do-now when I noticed, for the gazillionth time, that the bathroom door was held open by a rusty pair of needle nose pliers that had been wedged between it and the floor. This makeshift doorstop was put in place to keep the out-of-plumb door from swinging open and settling somewhere around the middle of its trajectory. Aside from shakily and unattractively doing its job, it had gouged a hole in the already slightly dingy linoleum. I decided, in all my pregnant glory, to do something about it. With that decision I became a woodworker.

Ol’ Crazy Pete was what I named the piece I made that day, although I wasn’t calling them pieces yet. He was a wooden wedge about five inches long with a spiky, red haired-head cut into the non-tapering end so that when placed under the door, you could see the two faces, one coming and the other going. I made it out of an old piece of two-by-four stud that I found in the garage, nothing fancy. I carefully cut it with a jigsaw (after I figured out how to use it – kind of), sanded it by hand, and painted it with acrylic paint. I painted red and blue spirals where eyes would normally go and named it Ol' Crazy Pete.

It didn’t feel like art, it felt like some home improvement crafty project. I wasn’t creating, I was stretching my new homeowner muscles. But this was the first time I'd done anything artistic and I ate it up. By the end of that week I had made five more doorstops. By the end of the month, fifteen -- plus I had started carving tiny features in their tiny faces. I started to feel a bit more confident, artistic, and creative. I decided to call myself carveGirl, build a website and start selling doorstops. However, after the first 40 doorstops, I never wanted to look at a doorstop again, much less make one. I moved on to bookends and light-switch plates -- from there, on to kids toys, mirrors, and tables, learning as I went and loving every new project. With each bit of woodworking I did, a little bit more of the artist hiding inside me came out. Had I not been pregnant, my artistic side would have been forever confined to wistful, rainy-day musings done mostly while staring out of trendy coffee shop windows furtively glancing at hip art students with paint and plaster on their worn dickies. Secretly hating.

I don't really have pictures of many of these projects, though when I discovered fiber and decided it was my true love, I kept a few pieces for, you know, posterity, or something. I sold lots of this stuff, never enough to support us, but enough to make me feel like I was doing something cool. I even got one large job, designing and making the coffee tables for a local coffeeshop. K.ad (which is what bill is going by now, in case you didn't know) and I did it together, him building the bases, me doing the tops. They turned out really well, something I'm still proud of.

So there were 7, I think. Each had some warpy version of something they sold at the shop (herbal tea, coffee, espresso, cap, baked goods...) and along the curve of the item I routed a shape and filled it with coffee beans or herbal tea and epoxy. The shop loved them! The customers loved them as well, as least judging by the number of people that wanted us to make the exact same tables for our own home. Yeah, I thought it a bit strange too. We filled a few of the orders because we needed the money, some were diner style tables, some were coffee tables (like the one below) but everyone wanted the same coffee theme. I was so sick of coffee and woodworking by the time fiber saved me.

My point in telling you all this? Well, I've updated the shop but it's a light update. The reason? Bill has been locked in the art room all week covered in wood dust and old memories, working on some carved signs for our favorite local indie bookstore. They look awesome but man, so much time! All week it's been me and the kids and I'm exhausted.

With all the woodworking going on around here, it will be the first of the year until my brand new awesome new product will be in the shop. It'll be worth the wait, I feel sure.

Also, if you read this far, the winner for the first week of happy holiday free yarn is number 28! Rae who came this way via the Rav. You, my gal, get to pick any yarn you'd like. It need not be from this update, hold on to that free yarn card as long as you like and when you see something that strikes your fancy, gimme a holla!

As for the rest of you -- this is the post for the 2nd week of happy holiday free yarn. I'll take comments until Tuesday, get the Boy Boggs to pick a number and announce it Tuesday night! Happy holidays.

The Best Mail day ever!

I had the best mail day ever! Really. The best! You remember my last post (which is still going strong, btw, I'll probably take comments until Saturday night and name the winner on Sunday) all about genorosity? Well when my man in brown showed up with an unexpected box the other day, I was schooled in the ways of the generous. Yes. A wonderful customer turned lovely internet friend saw my previous post about how I'd never knit with Noro and what did she do? She packed up 10 skeins and sent them to me!

Seriously, I was floored. It may the the sweetest gift for me that I've ever received from a non-family member. I must have told everyone I saw that day all about it, and none of them were fiber people, poor souls. So I've had this bounty, this glory, for 2 days and you know what? I've already knitted a sleeve and a half!

Not only did Ms. Diane's gift give me enough Noro for a stunning sweater, it also had the effect of giving me back the handspun I thought was going to be noro-esque but failed terribly. Oh, I didn't tell you? Yes, many things were wrong with this handspun, at least if I wanted it to be vaguely noro-esque.

1. the stripes were too long.
2. the color changes were too short. They were 12 stitches instead of being 12 rows.
3. the yarn was too springy.
4. the yarn was too dense (it's the same thickness of noro but I had to go up from an 9 to a 11 to get an kind of good drape).

I knit it up and hated it. Really really really hated it. However, upon getting my real noro, I realized that I didn't hate the yarn, I just hated my failed expectations of the yarn. The yarn itself is pretty okay. I spun it a bit thick and thin because that's how kuyreon is, so I like the homespunedness of it, the colors are medium okay, the softness is lush, so now that it doesn't have to be noro, I like it, well, I medium like it. Perhaps, if I find a good pattern for it I could love it. For now I'll be happy with medium liking it and LOVING the noro Poppy I'm knitting!

Thanks Diane, because really, you gave me 2 sweaters worth of yarn!

However, I think I'll try again with the spinning of this yarn, I've got an idea.

Happy holidays yarn!

I can't even tell you how filled with joy I am! Joy and snot must be like oil and water because the more joy, the less snot, which is always a good thing. But joy, let's talk about it a bit shall we? Since Mamatron.org (a parenting community I owned and that crashed and burned almost taking me with it) I've had a bit of a thing against the internets, feeling like it really allowed people to be as mean as they'd never be because it was nameless, faceless, safe. I've kept myself out of major online communities, fearing to really commit. I decided I'd just blog, just me, just myself. Blogging. Little did I realize, I became a part of a community, not a message board, or e-mail group, but bigger, and more importantly, nicer!

A few days ago I put it out there that, being a little light in the pocketbook, I'd like to do some swapping for winter holiday presents, the response I got was overwhelming! People offering to swap so many cool things, people offering to knit things, people just offering things! Really, it's been wonderful. I think everything on my wish list has been taken care of, plus some! I'm aghast. I'm awed. I'm bowled over. So wonderful, everyone, thank you.

I want to do something as well, I mean besides the swapping etc. I'd like to give away a yarn out of my shop each week until the New Year. Every Tuesday up to the 1st of January. Ideally I'd like it to be to someone that hasn't been able to buy any, or at least hasn't been able to buy as much as they'd like, but in the end, I just want to make someone smile, feel as good as I feel when somebody shines their generosity on me. So, I'm having Boy Boggs pick a number between 1-100. At the end of the day, the person who leaves that number comment, gets their choice of yarn, whenever they want it, could be this week, they could wait until February before pick what they want, it's a blank yarn gift -- whatever yarn they want. Again, if LB boy boggs chose #17 the person who leaves the 17th comment gets the yarn. if he chooses number 88 and there's only 30 comments, the last comment gets it, them being the closest to 88. Get it?

Yeah. Happy Holidays. Leave your comments!

Sick.

Bah. Sickness has descended on me and mine. My head is filled with cotton, snotton, and pain. For everyone waiting on an e-mail, yarn, etc. please be patient, it will come. The podcast is almost done, I've got a bit more to record but have to wait until my voice doesn't sound like a 70 year old smoking man with a stuffy nose.

As for the update tonight, i'll try to get it done but it may be tomorrow night instead. However, make sure and come back as I've got a rockin' new product that's (hopefully) going to knock your hand knit socks way off!

Holiday swapping

Yeah, well duh. Handmade is always better! However, since I'm flat busted (it seems to be going around these days), I can't afford to buy much! So that's where I take a page from some other very smart and savvy internetians and say, hey, wanna swap? Really, let's help each other! I can't afford much and kids only want so many handknitted items in their stocking -- but I can make some stuff, and we can swap! I can swap handpainted wool, handspun yarn and knit kits (take a look at the shop and some other odds and end. What I need is cool gifties for my almost 6 year old and my almost 1 year old and my super-awesome partner, k.Adventure. Some things I'd really like are:

-art! art! art! art! I love and need art! the partner and the boy love it too!
-handknit mittens for my boy and girl (i don't have time, drat)
-handmade or handprinted clothes for all three
-handmade pottery
-wooden toys for the babe
-toys for the boy
-a gocco! . I so want to get the boy and the man one of these, I think they'd love it! anyone got a spare one around, heh.
-dangerous book for boys
the list goes on and on...

the only think I don't need is yarn and fiber, everything else is fair game.

what cha got?

Handspun Poppy

I told you I had the knits! Last night I spun 700 yards of singles for my handspun Poppy! Oh, I didn't mention my handspun Poppy? I love this sweater. Love it. I love the one on the cover and I've loved every single of the 49 that other Ravelers have made. But since I can't afford 10 skeins of Noro and since I've never seen one knit out of handspun, a creature is born!

The thing is, I love the look of the yarn in the sweater, those colors, those long colorchanges. Fucking fantastic. However, I've never knit with noro ( I know, can you believe it?). I have an odd ball that a friend sent me a while back and I've done nothing but gaze upon it. That all changed last week when I pulled out a bit to see how long the color changes were -- 20-30 armlengths.

The next day I dyed up 6 pots of wool and last night I set to spinning. The arms and top of the body are blues, greens, teals, turquoises, purple and a bit of gray throughout. The body is gray with hits of the other hues throughout. I wanted the gray body to tone down the rest of it a bit, lend a bit of calmness.

I don't have anything for myself out of these colors so if it works out I'll be overjoyed. We'll see. I'm not totally secure that it's going to look anything like the pattern, but I'm really excited to knit it up. I'll probably spin the gray tonight and do some gauge swatches tomorrow while I wait for my $1.55 copy of the book to arrive (I got it on SALE, I know, right?).

I am still knitting the Loop d loop sweater, though it's lost a bit of it's shine, what with the yarn-assiness and all. I should have pictures of the progress soon and you can marvel at the crumminess.

Oh, and the shop is updated, early nonetheless.

The lynch that stole x-mas

I know it's short notice, but you're fly-by-the-seat spontaneous types, right? So if you're in the Baltimore area, stop by tonight as Save vs. Poison turns that holiday frown upside down by presenting The Lynch Who Stole Xmas party. That’s right, put on that Agent Cooper trenchcoat, wrap yourself in plastic, or rot some teeth out, and come down to the Hamilton Art Collective for one wacky celebration of all things Lynch.

Party starts at 8:00 with an hour’s worth of free PBR, in honor of Blue Velvet’s Frank. Music begins around 8:30 with the soothing sounds of the slow club (2/5th of GunWife Gone), followed by local insanity-provokers Puddle. Up next is the entity known as OFM, bringing their special blend of mind-bending psychotropic space rock. The evening’s entertainment ends with a Dune mini-opera by Bene Gesserit Witch: that’s right, a mini-rock opera about Dune.

Seriously, you should go, if not just to tell Bill what a freaking cool flyer that is -- can you identify everything lynchian in the Mangeresque scene? There's at least 11 with the setting counting as one. If a person could, I might have a prize for them...

I won't be there, though if I did go LB would be dressed in a tiny red suit, me as the log lady and sweetpea would be rocked out as the log in my arms.

Have fun!