TYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Crafty Diversions: November 2006

Monday, November 27, 2006

Attn: Logophiles and Fiberphiles

After spending much time these past 2 weeks madly re-skeinning some dyed yarn in preparation for craft fair this weekend, I started wondering, Is skeinning a word? By all accounts, I think it should be. However, to my dismay, when I looked up skein, it's listed only as a noun. The logophiles and linguistics experts out there who form petititions, committees and decisions about the lexicons and language used in modern English, and who ultimately decided whether a new word should be added to the dictionary, must not be fiber lovers.

Can you believe it? Fiberphile is not a word. However, technophile is. And why not? The suffix -phil (phile, philia) denotes love or attraction, usually of an obsessive nature. There are many types of philia, with pedophilia being the most notorious. Then there are also other more obscure ones:
Lygophilia - love of darkness
Taphophilia - love of graves,cemeteries and funerals
Audiophilia - Love of high-fidelity sound reproduction
Hippophilia - Attraction to horses

Wikipedia maintains a short list. I found AlphaDictionary, which has a bunch o' philias in their list, which according to them, they basically replaced the known phobias from a list from the Canadian Mental Health Association with the -philia suffix. Hey, why not? Makes sense to me, with some exceptions that really leave me agape and pondering:
ankylophilia - love of immobility of a joint -- ?!?!
leprophilia - love of leprosy -- ?!?!
oneirogmophilia - love of wet dreams -- hahaha!!! poor preteen and teen boys!
pediculophilia - love of lice -- okay...I can imagine "Ohh...I just love a itchy head full of lice and lice eggs!"... yuck.

I did find one fiber-related philia -- Textophilia, which means love of certain fabrics according to AlphaDictionary, but I was unable to find a definition for it through Dictionary.com. I think the following words SHOULD be added to English language dictionaries:

SKEIN, skeinned, skeinning - verb. the act of winding or reeling yarn or thread into coils.
RESKEIN, reskeinned, reskeinning - verb. the act of rewinding yarn or thread into coils when the yarn or thread is already in a coil. This act of rewinding yarn is mostly used by knitters and crocheters who dye their own wool.

FIBERPHILIA - noun. the love or enthusiasm for fiber, textiles, wool, and yarn. FIBERPHILE - noun. one who has a love or enthusiasm for fiber, especially in knitting and other crafting that involves wool or other fibers.

LANAPHILIA or WOLLEPHILIA - noun. the love or enthusiasm for sheep and wool! (not related to any weird bestiality or zoophilia festishes or anything, of course! yuck.)
LANAPHILE or WOLLEPHILE - noun. someone who has a love or enthusiasm for sheep and wool! (again, not related to zoophilia or other such festishes and orientation!!)

Don't you think that these words should be added too? These words are certainly being used in our fiber culture lexicon.

On another interesting note, the craft fair this weekend is sponsored by the now-notorious Piecemakers. There were 2 articles in row in the LA Times about the 85 year old sect leader wearing fatigues and a beret as she was getting sentenced for not allowing a health inspector into the Piecemaker's store. This will be my first official craft fair. I should note that my friends and I are not part of their organization, nor do our views necessarily agree with theirs, but the ladies are nice and we're just having a booth at the fair. I attended the October Piecemakers fair, where Zona had a booth, and they had a great eclectic turn out. I hear the December holiday one is better attended and more exciting. How can it not now with the additional notoriety? (hopefully) If you are in SoCal, come by and say hi! Zona, Aubrey and I are splitting a space and we will be selling various yarn and fiber related stuff. Hopefully, I will be able to post some pix of some of my stuff tomorrow, if I'm not too exhausted.

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posted by Anne at 10:34 PM 2 Comments

It was a set up, damn it.

After hearing about what my "kids" tried to do to the giant ball of roving Aubrey left behind, Aubrey, who has no kitties, wanted to see what kitty love with roving looks like. So...we left out the roving ball on the floor and I summoned Whitey Coyote. (We tried Maggie first, but she's a fat and lazy cat who refused to move more than one paw and expected roving draped on her.) Whitey Coyote was a little skiddish about the obvious set-up, but she got over it rather quickly and made this wet slobbery mess in no time. If you recall, Whitey Coyote is also the "MohairRipper."

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posted by Anne at 10:08 PM 1 Comments

Monday, November 20, 2006

Wine, Dye and Knit III

Not counting other crafty things we've done at my house that also happened to include yarn, dye and wine (which happens quite a bit!), I hosted a 3rd Wine, Dye and Knit party at my house. In addition to the usual suspects, Aubrey, Zona and Rachel, we also were joined by "JayJay" and Amanda. We took over the entire kitchen - all 4 ranges, the eat-in nook, the dining room, the entryway, the floor,the bathroom, and every single countertop and table top. I wish I had taken pictures-- didn't even think of it, for it was surely a crafty delight.

OK, get your visual and imaginative brain cells ready. I'll have to describe it...Picture 2 long-armed table top swifts, an umbrella swift and a ball winder on a 6' long dining table with wine glasses scattered around any available corner or space. Then around the perimeter around the table and the rest of the dining room were everyone's bags of yarn and roving. In my kitchen nook, which is connected to the dining room through a pocket door, my round 45" breakfast table was covered with food, yarn, more wine
glasses and yummy (and beautiful!) muffins (made by Chefs Amanda and Rachel). Then all the counters and ledges in the kitchen were covered with dye supplies, dye pots, cups, spoons, more dye supplies, yarn and rovings. The kitchen sink was filled with
piping hot dyed yarns waiting to get a rinse bath, while the floor had more tubs of dye supplies, yarn and Aubrey's giant ball of roving. The shower stall in the bathroom was filled with wet colorful yarns, and it stunk like it too. Well, the whole house smelled of wet wool. Luckily we used citric acid, not vinegar, which can burn your nose if you do it for hours. Yep, we dyed for hours. I think it may be due to the yet-to-be-researched addictive qualities of wool. I will offer some of my hand-dyed yarn if someone can give me and Zona a reasonable and scientific explanation proving our theory on the addictive qualities of wool. Even non-knitters and non-crafty people always want to touch and ooh and ahh over wool. Why?

Pictures: top - a lacy scarf I knitted then dyed; middle - a hat I knitted, then dyed; bottom - Aubrey's big ball of roving that she left behind. My kitties were surely happy with her forgotten roving!

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posted by Anne at 6:49 PM 1 Comments

Friday, November 17, 2006

I Do Knits

KNITTY GRITTY
"I Do Knits" apparently is the title of the Knitty Gritty episode that Aubrey and I will be shooting in a couple of weeks. The producer just emailed us the pattern and shipped us yarn to do the project. I can't wait to see it! I should be getting the yarn by tomorrow. Yay! I know I can't distribute the pattern, but I'm not sure what I can reveal....it's a wedding-themed show. The pattern calls for a crocheted edge. I don't know how to crochet (shouldn't knowing a chain stitch suffice?), nor am I really interested in learning. Luckily, we can alter it to our own taste and spice it up if we want. Woo hoo! That means no crochet for me! No offense meant for you crocheters out there.

MAGKNITS
More Awesome knitting fun! Last week, I submitted a pattern to MagKnits for publication. I got a response from the editor within a few days (damn she's fast!) saying that they want to publish my pattern. I read it a couple times just to make sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me. They are wanting to put my pattern in their Feb. or March 2007 issue, so I don't want to get too excited and celebrate prematurely until it comes out. This will be my first published pattern. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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posted by Anne at 7:14 AM 4 Comments

Thursday, November 16, 2006

My Celebrity look-alikes

Ok, I saw this Celebrity Look Alike match thing on someone's blog, then I heard it at knitting, and today I saw it on Zona's blog. So...I decided to try it. I tried a few different current pictures and did get a lot of similar hits. I also tried a picture from a couple of years ago.

I wanted to see if how the program worked and if I would actually get similar hits with photos taken both at similar and different times and with photos where I looked a little different. Maybe a little vain too. I got repeat hits on Rachel Bilson, Kristin Kreuk, Tata Young and Christina Ricci.

What's funny is that I was expecting to get matches/hits on Ming-Na, who is known best for her roles on ER and as June in The Joy Luck Club, but I didn't get any matches. Although I don't really see much of a resemblance, many people have come up to that I look like her; surprisingly, even my mom thought so after watching Joy Luck. My most emphatic and interesting encounter occurred when Hubby and I honeymooned in Kuaui. I went barefaced to a free make-your-own lei class at the hotel. A woman and her grandaughter were doing the same. They kept whispering while staring at me. I thought maybe it was 'cuz they thought I looked like shit or maybe I had a huge streak of unblended sunblock on my face. I even rubbed my face to make sure. Finally, the woman asked me "Um, excuse me, are you the girl from ER? The Chinese doctor on the show?" No, I'm not. They kept staring and asked "Really? Are you sure?" Uh-huh. I am not Ming-Na. "Oh...I could swear...." no, no. The lady turned to her granddaughter "Doesn't she look like that doctor on ER?" Then she asked again, "Really?" I shook my head. They tried not to stare. "You look soooo much like her." hmmm... They kind of left me alone after that, but trailed me a little as I headed back towards our room after I finished my lei. It was really weird.

This one is a picture taken just this past weekend, on the 11th at my cousin Amber's wedding.


This picture was taken on the 3rd of this month.


This one is from a picture taken at the 2nd taping of Uncommon Threads this past September. Hmm...Margaret Cho? C'mon!


This picture is from November 2003.


hmmm...maybe I should go to sleep now and stop playing with this. ;-)

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posted by Anne at 11:15 PM 0 Comments

Dad's Green Thumb

Here are some photos of my dad's botanical prowess. I meant to take more, but my memory stick was full. I guess I have to wait until my next trip back home to see him. Click on photo to enlarge.


Left: Sugarcane - very sweet, juicy and yummy. Right: Japanese loquat -- it's not in season yet, but the fruit from Dad's loquat tree is sweet as honey.

Left: A bouganvilla bearing multiple-colored flowers. Yup, from ONE plant. Gorgeous isn't it? Right: I don't know why the picture is not loading properly, but if you mouse over and click it you can get the image of a papaya tree. Dad has 4-5 papaya trees in his backyard. I hope I get to eat them. I love papaya, especially organic from Daddy's garden!!

My dad grows lots of really awesome guavas, 2-3 varieties of the white meat ones, not the pink ones you get in Hawaii. He's grown them so successfully that all his friends, their friends, and so forth all want one. This picture shows some smaller guava plants that he grows and sells or gives away. Yum. I wish he lived closer so I can have lots of pesticide-free yummy fruit.

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posted by Anne at 6:20 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Craftiness In the Genes

My dad is a self-taught jack of all trades. Literally. He has started his own businesses, is a master gardener, is a McGyver, and is very crafty. He never went to school for any of this stuff. I think I got his craftiness genes. He grows all sorts of exotic tropical fruits in his yard, with mostly organic fertilizers, no pesticides, and in Texas of all places. Fruits and veggies that have a hard time surviving in good growing climates like California grow under his green thumb. Some of the things that he has grown since like forever include many varieties of gourd, edible and decorative. See his gourd art, which started innocently over 15 years ago with a couple of penguins. Click on the photos to get a better view.











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posted by Anne at 9:20 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

It's Up, It's Up!

Leave it to me to find it first. I am an insomniac afterall! The SqueezeOC website posts the weekly magazine online as well as in traditional print. Here's the article. Here's a bio on Aubrey and me. The photos below are from the magazine.

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posted by Anne at 11:55 PM 1 Comments

Knitty Gritty Knitster

KNITTY GRITTY KNITSTER?
Yep. That's me. I just received confirmation that Aubrey and I will be knitsters on Knitty Gritty!!! It all happened sooo fast. I saw a post on SNB-LA asking for people to be a knitster for a wedding-themed episode. I immediately emailed Aubrey to call and apply since she just got engaged. After a few minutes, I decided to write in too, especially since I'll be going tons of weddings. It also turns out that Aubrey needed another bridesmaid and asked me to be one (of course on the condition that she didn't make me look like I walked through a Pepto-Bismol factory explosion). Anyway, it all folded together at the same time, and the assitant producer, Joy, called us today to "officially book" us! They like the fact that Aubrey and I met through knitting and I will now be in her wedding. I don't know if I'm supposed to say what the project is, but it is wedding related! Another cool thing is the producer of this Knitty Gritty episode was the assistant producer for one of the episodes of Uncommon Threads that we taped this past September. (Knitty Gritty, Uncommon Threads and several other craft shows on the DIY Network are produced by Screen Door Entertainment.) Yay us!!

OTHER MEDIA NEWS!
Ok, remember when I posted about a teeny weeny bikini I was making? I made the top and Aubrey made the bottom. It was for a photo shoot for a weekly publication, SqueezeOC, a subsidiary of the Orange County Register. Well, the issue is supposed to come out tomorrow!! I can't wait to see it! If you go to the website, they post current issues online too!!

The reporter came by the knitting group and interviewed us 2 weeks ago, after we said we'd knit the bikini. I don't know if she quoted us in the story (about knitting) but I'm sure we're credited for knitting the teeny weeny bikini. I still don't know what the bottom looks like, although Aubrey and I sketched out some designs, and since I started and finished my piece first, I was able to email Aubrey my top pattern to that her bottom and better match the top. It is a totally functional bikini, one made to go in the water and move with the body, not like those "sit and look pretty" ones in Sexy Little Knits. What make it functional? We used Cascade Fixation, which is cotton with lycra. Knitting this was quick and fun, but we sure could not try it on since the model is a 31A and Aubrey and I are much more busty. It would be x-rated if we tried to wear the bikini. We haven't had a chance to take a picture of both pieces, but here's the top, taken in my car as I dropped it off for the photo shoot.

CRAFTY THINGS
I have made and written several patterns recently. However, because I am trying my hand at being a "published" knitter, I am planning on submitting them. Thus, I cannot post the pictures! bummer! Books, magazines (online and traditional) and other legitimate publications have a clause that you cannot post a picture of your work until they publish it (if selected), plus some time (i.e. the issue expires). I did submit something to Debbie Stoller for her upcoming book on more advanced knitting skills, but I got rejected. Don't worry, I'm not bummed about it at all. I knew the chances were slim and although I am happy with my abilities and what I can achieve, I totally know and appreciate that there are many much more skilled knitters and patternwriters/designers. I simply tend to make up my own patterns because I don't follow directions well, and also because I need something to think about when I can't sleep. :)

One thing I can share is a lacy lace-up gauntlet I finished writing about 3 weeks
ago. The photo here is of the prototype (unblocked), so it's not very good and really doesn't show off the lace. Necia of Jane of All Trades volunteered to test knit for me, so I custom-dyed some yarn for her. She just finished and I am eagerly awaiting her response, comments and photos. She did post one picture and blogged her experience here.

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posted by Anne at 10:46 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Have you knitted with goats?

I don't want to double post again. But, really, have you ever knitted with goats? or Bathed with yarn? Answers here.

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posted by Anne at 7:58 PM 0 Comments

Cult of Knits

Ah yes, as any crazy fanatical will understand, we want to convert everyone into knitting, because it is the best thing ever! (ok, dark chocolate is pretty darn close on that list). Anyhoo...this weekend I was stuck in the boondocks of Fremont and having to eat crappy hotel food. I was there for 3 days for conference/training. The good part of it is that I suggested that we have a Stitch 'n Bitch circle and they went for it! hooray! It wasn't called SNB -- probably too "out there" for a work function, and because I'm in the legal field, I guess maybe they didn't want to use the name since all the legal hoopla around the use of the SNB between Debbie Stoller and SewFastSewEasy is still ongoing.

So, some fellow colleagues from other offices also volunteered to teach and I think some people really caught on! Noelle, one of the volunteer intructors is pictured above. (Noelle had some super awesome Frog Tree alpaca with her and a really nice colorway of the Bamboo from SWTC.) It was really fun having an evening devoted to teaching people how to knit, and throughout the weekend, during some unstructured down time, we'd gather in the lobby and knit away. My good friend Matt decided to get into the game and he learned to knit this thing that somehow ended up looking like a tie. Others referred to it as a loin cloth or thong. Matt started out with 12 stitches but he kept decreasing. Matt would tell folks that he's a fast learner, but those who know him know that he's full of BS. He likes to make stuff up like, "Oh, I see you are knitting the double back twisted inside out stitch" or some other similiar BS. Of course, it totally cracks me up and make non-knitters really think he knows what he's talking about. I even made Matt wear his masterpiece at dinner as an earring (I don't know why he turned blood red when he put it on and why he just wouldn't remove his hand! ha!). All in all, I have to say that Matt did a great job, especially considering how much wine and beer we had. He's showing off his Loin Cloth in this picture to the right.



This is my friend Kim and roommate for the weekend. Kim is the one for whom I made the seafoam stitch scarf several months ago. Kim and some non-knitting folks were playing cards next to us -- they were really loud and talking a lot of smack. I think Kim was talking so much smack that she didn't even not notice I was taking pix. ;) Am I right? Kim, you still look great.

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posted by Anne at 6:38 PM 1 Comments