TYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Crafty Diversions: June 2007

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Hunter's Orange

Have you ever tried to find yarn in hunter's orange? It's certainly no easy task. A few weeks ago, I scoured my well-stocked LYS in search of a superwash wool in Hunter's Orange, and even with the help of the shop owner, we really didn't come up with more than 2-3 yarns in the appropriate shade.

Why that particular shade? Linh's husband Nick is a hunter. *gasp* Just the word "hunter" does not sit well with me, since I was a strict vegetarian for 11 years. (And although I am no longer a vegetarian, I really don't eat much meat, and when I do, it's usually just chicken and seafood.) Nick requested that I make him a hat with earflaps for him for the chilly early morning hunting outings with his friends and family in Arkansas. If they weren't such good friends, I surely would've said "no."

Most oranges were more rust and a few scary neon ones. I couldn't find any superwash, but I finally settled on a worsted weight virgin wool that was the perfect shade, albeit not superwash. There was some Anny Blatt superwash that came as a close second, but the color still was not right. I ended up knitting the hat by double stranding it and working it on US #7 so that it's extra thick. For the earflaps, I continued the double stranding and thrummed it with some merino and alpaca roving. Nick will surely have warm ears! Because the virgin wool is a little scratchy, I soaked it first in hair conditioner and then later with Soak wool rinse.

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the hat. Even more unfortunate is that Linh reports Nick's head is super large and the hat is a little snug. Bummer. Maybe it'll be tight enough to distract him and make him miss shooting Bambi and Mama Deer.

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posted by Anne at 10:56 PM 6 Comments

She's Done It Again!

My secret pal in SP10 has done it again! She's spoiled me rotten! 1000 thanks to my pal, Becky, who is from my home state and an avid sock knitter. Becky has been spoiling me from day one of the swap. My final package did not just contain one, two or even three yarns, I got a giant bag full! Some of the other fantasitc goodies in my box included sour candies, and my favorite popped rice green tea. If you've ever had this tea, you should definitely try it. It's called genmai chai. If you live in and around the San Francisco area, I recommend supporting one of the local cooperatives and purchase the tea at the fabulous Rainbow Grocery, which has a regular and an organic version. If your're not that fortunate to be able to shop at Rainbow, then you can get the tea online at Adaigio Teas. A lovely pendant from a fantasitc etsy seller features beautiful artwork sandwiched between glass. It's a little heavier than one would expect, but it's quite a unique piece. The only thing I'm worried about is chipping the pendant, since my secret special talent is breaking glass.

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posted by Anne at 10:35 PM 2 Comments

Monday, June 18, 2007

New Toy!

I teased y'all two posts ago regarding the unveiling of something new. Here it is!!
Yep. I got a spinning wheel last week! I did a random search on Craigslist and came across an ad posting for a spinning wheel for $200. After contacting the seller, I decided that this wheel (and price) was worth the 1 hour drive through L.A. traffic to see.

This wheel is slightly rickety and it was missing the drive band and the spring set-up for the Scotch tension brake, but it is otherwise in good condition. It's nothing a screwdriver and some light elbow grease can't remedy. After a smooth haggle, I became the new owner of this single treadle Ashford Traditional, along with the 4 bobbins, lazy kate, drop spindle and a set of Clemes & Clemes carders, for a great bargain of $150!

According to the seller, who is a non-knitter and non-spinner, her mother bought this wheel about 10 years ago. However, upon closer inspection, I think this wheel was bought and made before 1990 (or sitting in a store since). According to my research, wheels before 1990 only had a 2 flyer ratios, just like mine. I don't think there's anything wrong with the 2 ratio flyers, it's just not as versatile as the 3 ratio flyers. The flyer update, although not necessary, would probably cost around $32.

With a simple trip to the hardware store, I bought some springs and rigged my own Scotch tension brake. It's not the same kind of spring that Ashford puts on the wheels, but it works. For the drive band, I'm using a really thin cotton yarn. Everything seems okay so far, except for a few more loose screws and some oiling. I can't complain for the price I got, except for that I think I prefer a double treadle. After having played with Aubrey's double treadle Ashford Kiwi, I think the double treadle system is better and the single treadle. The double is faster and seem more natural for my feet. I have to check with the manufacturer for compatibility first, but eventually, I'd like to purchase the double treadle conversion kit for my wheel (but it's $70).

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posted by Anne at 3:13 PM 6 Comments

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Is It Really Interesting?

I don't usually do memes, just like I don't do chain letters. But since I got tagged from Prof. JayJay for the 7 Interesting Things About You meme, and I'm trying to procrastinate, I guess I could give it a go.

The Rules: Tell seven things about yourself on your blog, then tag seven other people to do the same. List who you are tagging on your blog, and leave a comment on their blogs to let them know they've been tagged. I don't know if this is all that interesting. Some probably in the more embarrassing category, for sure.
  1. I'm ambidextrous. I was born left-handed, but where we were at the time, it was not as socially acceptable to be left-handed. Honestly, I just think the right-handed people were jealous that left-handers are smarter and tried to squash us lefties. Anyway, I was behaviorally conditioned with candy. I can do most things with both hands, except use a chopping knife. I almost sliced off my thumb once when I tried to use a knife with my right hand. I write with my right, and although my left handwriting is slower and not nearly as nice, it actually is neater than most peoples' regular writing.
  2. I speak 3 languages pretty fluently and/or proficiently. I also speak a little Spanish and minored in German in college. I barely speak any German now. And of course, like many people, I know bad words in over 10 languages. It's a special skill, I tell ya.
  3. Once at a party, with the fog machine blasting, I walked really fast into a patio door. I couldn't tell that the glass door was shut, and I think the verberation of the impact was lower than the loud music. My friends on the other side didn't even come in to see how I was -- they just laughed until their stomach almost burst and pointed out the large noseprint on the glass. The worst part was that an asshole of an ex-boyfriend was at the party and I think he saw the whole thing.
  4. I have double jointed elbows. I can make both rotate almost 360 degrees without moving my hand or shoulder.
  5. I was voted "Miss Prim and Proper" in the 6th grade. Honestly, I was so boring and nerdy that I don't think the teachers could come up with anything good. I wore giant pinkish-red rimmed glasses and wore uncool dresses my grandmother made. No on believes me that I was anywhere near prim or proper and that I was painfully shy until I was about 20-21 years old.
  6. I can't believe I'm actually daring enough to divulge this one. :-/ I have/have had a total of 7 names/nicknames that family and friends actually called me. Including my given, naturalized and married names, I have had 4 different "official" names. At one point, some nuns at a school in Brazil called me Suzy. It's a very long story. My parents had a nickname for me, and one of my best friends, Tedd, calls me Bo-Bo (I have no idea how he started calling me that, but he's the only one who calls me that and usually will choose that over my name). The most unfortunate nickname was dubbed by a former "banana" classmate with bad Chinese skills. He called me "Pot," short for "Pot of Germs," a very twisted and badly translated homophones of my Mandarin Chinese name. Luckily we only hung out about 1 year - I'm sure that all my chemistry classmates who heard me being called "Pot" thought I was always getting stoned or something, and if they heard him call me "Pot of Germs," well...I guess it figures why no one in my chem class asked me out on a date. If any of my friends reading this ever calls me the latter, be forewarned that there will be dire consequences!
  7. When I was in 4th grade, I got really mad at my sister for being a brat and for gettting me into trouble for no reason at all, so I scraped off some soap and put it on her toothbrush, then I put on a thin layer of toothpaste to hide the soap. She tought I was being nice by pre-loading her toothbrush for her. Of course, she cried at the nastiness in her mouth. I swear, I only did it once and never did anything else that mean to her. She doesn't even remember this incident.
Who shall I tag next? I don't have that many blogging friends, and even less who'd humor me on this.

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posted by Anne at 4:13 PM 2 Comments

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

In Recovery

Just when I thought I was finally nearing the end of my recovery from Aubrey's wedding, I got hit with some crafty deadlines.

First of all, the wedding, veil, and flowers all turned out fabulously. Of course, the bride was glowing, gorgeous and flawless. We were all relieved and elated that the famously klutzy bride did not fall or trip on the uneven grounds of the nature preserve -- not once! Whew! Seriously, this is a lady who trips on air on a flat level surface. However, the bride did not lose a special Aubrey touch: She lost her garter, which slipped off her leg somewhere, and she lost an earring, which she later found with a flower from her bouquet inside her bra.



Above: me and Linh. I don't have any photos of the gorgeous arrangements. I hope Linh blogs them soon!


Above: The knitters! It was really nice seeing some of the knitters dressed up for a change. We rarely see each other looking spiffy and not covered in yarn and fiber fuzz.

Soon after the wedding, I realized that I had an upcoming deadline for a contest that I wanted to participate in. Did I ever mention that I'm trying to do something for an Etsy contest? I had originally planned on entering the 3 maximum allowable entries per person, but it looks like I will only be able to do one before the June 15 deadline.

As I was planning out the contest entries, the author of an upcoming book on recycled sweaters contacted me about some of my project/idea submissions. She and her editor liked the things I submitted and they requested that I send them finished projects and descriptions ASAP. So I spent the week after the wedding getting the projects finished and mailed off. In all, I think I sent in about 6-7 projects. From what I can tell, it appears that the book will be some sort of anthology of projects from various crafters/artists. Hopefully, they will select at least one of my projects.

Wish me luck on both (I think the Etsy contest is a longshot though.)!

Things finally appear to be slowing down a little from the recent flurry of miscellaneous crafty activities. Maybe now I'll have more time to devote to knitting and spinning. I haven't done much of either. I had been making great progress on a double knitted hat and was near-ready to decrease. Then, I realized that my image was not right. I failed to check as I knitted and knitted. What's more is that I lacked foresight in planning the design image, so I ended up with a backwards design on one side. *sigh* That's the Zen of Knitting.

Not having time to knit also means no time to spin -- I still don't think I have more than 6 yards of the alpaca lace I started nearly 4 weeks ago. I DO have some new spinning-related news though! I will keep you all in suspense until I can photograph the great news. ;)

Well, before I get to do more spinning and knitting, I do have to do more sewing. I need to make more headbands for the shop. In the next couple of weeks, I will also be making more of my Fortune Cookie purses (like this one I made for Aubrey) for the shop and for two custom orders I received at the wedding.

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posted by Anne at 11:20 PM 3 Comments