Insubordiknit

Mayor of knitty town

My mom and her/our friend J have been visiting so there's not too much going on in spinny town (next week there'll be a real update, not like the weak-assed update going on this week, jeez jacey, what's up with that? 2 yarns? really? 2? oh, well, at least Vitreous Humor is back). However, in knitty town, I'm the mf'in mayor! Yep, I'm a KNITAH! Check it --

First up there is the men's shooting socks. They're are almost done, lacking nothing but a toe on the second sock. Oh, and they're for me, I'll be wearing them to shoot men, yeah, shoot 'em with my piercing wit. Next is Poppy from yarnplay. It's chugging along, being the project I pull out least but not because I don't love it, it just doesn't have a deadline while the others kind of do. I've got 4 o5 five inches done on the body, I went dark. Next is the yoke of my artyoke sweater. I can't tell too much about this but all will be revealed soon. Finally, the last shot is of the yarn I'll be using tonight to cast on a top down raglan for a class I'm teaching. It's a new color for me, all organic and plant-dyed.

And that is what makes me the mayor of knitty town. Yep. This morning Sweetpea got elected Queen of Cute-Town but we're peace-loving nations, there'll be no warring for knitted crowns and what not.

Gawker

really, how strange is this -- my eyeballs in gawker?

that picture is from my site, here!

and life just gets stranger and stranger.

Self-indulgent

Oh no, I went and did it.

handspun raglan pullover

This took exactly 2.5 minutes to knit. Really, it was so quickity quick. Okay, it was more like 2.5 days, but still. It's knit out of these handspun singles. You remember, the ones I originally spun for Poppy? the ones that failed miserably for Poppy?

Well, I grabbed some 8s, and then some 9s and finally settled on 10s and knit up a top down raglan lickity split. I started with 6 hanks and only used 3 for the body. That means I still had 3 left from which to knit the sleeves but I decided I really liked it shortsleeved, gives me a funky layered look because it's very warm merino so it's not summery but wintery when layerd over a long sleeve fitted tee. Maybe I'll use the rest for a baby surprise sweater.

I crocheted a chain of red around the neck and knit a turned hem on the sleeves and bottom. However, my turned hem, while it will work, isn't as beautiful as say, all the turned hems that hello yarn whips out. How does she do that?

Really, if you've any advice, let loose with it! This is what I did. Knit down to length, changed to the red yarn, much finer, purled one row, decreased by 10% on the next rown, knit an inch or so then without binding off, I loosely sewed the unbound edge to the inside of the sweater, just barely skimming the stitches. Yet still, it looks all messy and loose inside until it's on when it starts to look all flipping and weird. I messed around with this one enough that it's passable, from the outside view, as long as no knitter grabs the hem and turns it up, which you know they will. Any advice?

4000 hours

Happy Pi day! Happy Ides of March. Hey, it's the Pides of March! Happy Pides of March.

I'm buried in eyeballs, test knitting, sock class knitting, baby nursing, kid toting, mother-visiting-preparing so I can't post much. I've still got finished objects to share but for now I leave you with a bit of information and a question--

after some figuring, some estimating, and some math, I posit that I've put in a grand whopping 3,600 - 4,000 hours of spinning in my life. That's based on my minimum of spinning 4 hours/5 days a week for a bit better than 3.5 years with some time taken off for babies and some time added for weekend oh-my-gosh, i've gotta get these orders done rushes. Almost four thousand hours! That's over 166 full days of spinning, or 23 weeks non-stop treadling, or 6 months of never moving arse from chair! What about you? How many hours have you been spinning? Knitting? I couldn't even begin to calculate knitting time.

List for next 2.5 months

Holy taco-mama! I'm so busy. I've got a spinning queue that's 30 Vitreous humors deep plus 22 various other yarns and that's not including the upcoming shows I'm doing or all the work that needs to be done on the video for it's June release date! This post is not going to be chatty or chitty or FO-esque (even though I've got 2 finished objects to show you!), nope, it's going to be a list of stuff for the next 2 months, for my brain organization, as well as for you --

1. It's official, I'm teaching at Springwater fiber studio this semester!
Two classes --

Coils Coils Coils -- all 4 ways I know how to spin them
saturday april 26th from 10-4:30

Art yarns, comprehensive! -- almost everything I know
saturday and sunday may 31st and june 1st

info and sign up info here. Let me know if you sign up!

2. Homespun yarn party! !
march 30th 2pm-6pm
I'll be there with some Monster hat kits, some Vitreous Humor and some art yarns, but better than that, check out all the other vendors! Yep, that's the amazing, magical Loop and the the talented and awesome Mama-e". It should be lots of fun and I've never done a craftshow or festival but how could I resist doing one of only local fiber artists? I couldn't!

3. Ongoing classes at the excellent shop Spinster Yarns and Fibers! Here's a calendar. Last night I taught the first in a 3 class series on knitting socks on 2 circulars. It rocked and I was so impressed with the 2 knitters and their stick-to-it-ed-ness. Plus, there's just something magical about being in a yarnshop after it's closed!

4. Project underway with Erin of Mama-e.

5. I'm going to be at Maryland Sheep and Wool! Yep. Lots and lots of my stuff will be in the best double booth evah! Cloverhill, booth 27, right as you walk in the main barn! In fact that booth is going to be stock full of indie artists, spinners, and dyers! I'm so thrilled about it. It'll also feature a brand new kit from me!

6. And of course, the instructional DVD which is due out in June, there's going to be some kind of fancy release party. Guess what? You're invited! details later.

Lace leaf clapotis pulloever combo

Jodi Green, with her constant knitting last weekend, gave my knitting a kick in the ole ass-a-roo! Yep, she knit every spare moment and it was inspiring and endearing.

Jodi -- Hey Jacey, are you going to be chopping those sweet potatoes for long
Jacey -- umm...maybe another 2 minutes...
Jodi -- ohh, I better get my knitting.

Jodi -- How long do we have before the next take?
Director -- 10 seconds
Jodi -- ohh, I can get at least 17 rows of my sweater knit in 10 seconds...

Really, she was a knitting dynamo and she must have tracked it in on the carpet because since she left I've finished 2 stagnating projects, Loop d Loop's lace leaf pullover out of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky (and if anyone knows how you pronounce that, tell me!), and my second clapotis, this one out of See Jayne Knit, some lovely stuff from before she was famous.

Let's see, Lace leaf pullover, super fast, really easy especially with the modifications that I used. As you can see, it's not big and sloppy, I wanted a slighter fit so I knit the small size, however it could have been a bit longer. The pattern calls for knitting it from the bottom up, stopping in the middle, then knitting it from the top down, stopping in the middle and grafting the 2 together. She did this because the lace leaf motif is reversed at the collar and she wanted it worked from the stem to the tip. Well, from what I read around the interwebs, a graft that long is murder on the hands and ego so I went another route. I found a reverse chart for the lace leaf and it worked out wonderfully.

A couple things, I don't love how the neck fits when it's buttoned and I don't think the lace leaves are really that standout in this yarn, I don't know if it's the darkness or the lack of shine, but they don't really stand out (though the YO on the sleeve really rocks!).

All in all I'm medium happy with it. I'll wear it and know that it took 5 days to knit.

The clapotis. What can I say about it. I don't like knitting them but I like wearing them. I need a band of clapotis knitters to work round the clock and fill my closets with claps so that I wrap myself in their lovely bumpy waviness but never have to take needle to yarn for one again. This one is for spring, I used one hank of sock yarn on US#13 needles and it's open and lacy and matches the orange cable hoodie perfectly.

And the knits just keep on coming. Yesterday I got to hang with one of my new favorite people Mama E, her friend (soon to be mine) Jody and Paula. There was much knitting going on. I worked on knitting those singles I spun a while back. On 9s I'm knitting a top down raglan that may be sleeveless depending on how much yarn I've left be the time I get there. It's thick and soft and knitting up quick so I should have another FO soon. Thanks Jodi, for leaving some of your knitting residue (ewww) behind.