tagged

I took a break. I didn't mean to, I just forgot to blog for awhile. Now I am back and I pledge to blog more often.

I was tagged by cosy! I find this so funny because I just sat down to renew my blogness with inspiration from another of cosy's posts. So I'll do both!

Seven random things about me:

1. I started out my university degree with a major in English. When I started my first year at Mt. A they required all students to have a quick look at all the faculties. One of my stops was at an introduction to Art History. Art History? I never knew that a person could legitimately study art at university. I fell in love and never looked back.

2. I can't eat green, lime flavoured candies. When I was 5, I stole the bottle of Flintstone vitamins and dealt them out to my brother and the neighbourhood kids. I ate all the green ones. We were taken to the hospital. To this day, "green" candies turn my stomach.

3. I can't do somersaults. Not at all. Never have, and never will. But I can do cartwheels.

4. I am an Austrian citizen. I speak basic German.

5. I wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian. I even worked at an animal hospital when I was in high school.

6. I am still friends with one of my friends from Elementary School. We met in Grade 3. We have the same birthday. We have been friends for over 20 years! And for those who don't believe in astrology - she and I both have daughters, born 6 weeks apart.

7. I have had 4 sets of braces. The first ones at age 9 to pull back my Bugs Bunny front teeth. The second set were right after the first and the straighted up everything else. The third set was just after high school to realign everything in preparation for jaw surgery. The last set was last year. My front teeth were starting to move and I didn't want to end up like Bugs again!

And now for the second list:

Bold the things you have ever knit
Italics the ones you plan to do sometime
Leave the rest

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fibre yarn
Domino Knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publish a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Entrelac
Long Tail CO
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed Toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Phew...that is a long list.

Moving Forward

I quit my job! It feels so good to finally be done with a job that was not my true calling. What did I do, you ask? I was doing food photography for a local organic grocery store. I had done wedding photography a long time ago, and some artwork photography at my pre-baby job. The food photography came up at a time when we were consolidating debt and it was a great opportunity to make some extra money to pay off the debt. I have been doing it for two years now. Over those two years I have fallen in love with fibre arts. I could spend all my days with wool and fabric; sewing, knitting and spinning. It started small at first - I picked up knitting. Then I learned how to spin and dye. Sewing has always been a favorite (I won an award for it in high school, but I never took the hint and pursued fibre arts as a career). I have been collecting stuffed sheep from long before I knew how to knit - I always knew it was in my destiny to care for some of the darling animals. So now it is time to move forward. I am so happy to take the W out of WAHM and be a true SAHM or can I amend it to be AAHM (Artist At Home Mom). I can be creative and not worry about guidelines. Yay!!!!

Secret Santa Project

Last Christmas I participated in the CanSpin Secret Santa exchange. I have never done one before and I found it to be lots of fun. My Santa sent me a box full of samples of different kinds of fibres. I finally got the nerve up to spin them on the weekend. Each fibre was unique to spin.

First I spun up the Navaho Churro roving. Donkey, non? I thought I'd take a risk on the weirdest one. It is the first time I have spun a naturally dark fibre. It was a dream to spin. Soft, too.

The Llama was in a batt - not combed or washed. I found it frustrating at first because my fingers were turning black from the dirt and there were tones of earthly matter attached. Some of the hay fell out as I spun, some fell out when I washed it and I picked out as much as I could when I balled it up. My carpet looked like a barn. The fibres pulled from all directions when I was spinning so the yarn ended up with lots of slubs. I loved the final product, though. Once washed, the caramel colours showed through and it is incredibly soft. See photo:

Next I did the soy and mulberry silks. Not my favorite. They are slippery and shiny. Once washed, they were stiff. They feel very "plant-y" - like linen. I think I will stick to animals.

I saved the best for last - tiny bags of cashmere and baby camel down rovings. Both were not that easy to spin, but felt so soft to the touch. The cashmere is is warm grey colour and the camel is, well, camel coloured.

One last bag of goodies - green cotton. It scared me. I remembered from my spinning class that cotton has a very short staple (short fibres) so it makes it very difficult to spin. It was. It kept falling apart. So I gave up on it and have saved it for another project - maybe stuffing?

Well, now all of these fibres are spun, washed, dried and balled. Ready for a project. I am thinking that a scarf would be fun. All the fibres to show and tell.

Thank you, Santa, wherever you are!

Coffee & Wine

Well, grapes, really.

We have been making smoothies for breakfast lately. We used up all the blueberries in our freezer, but found some frozen concord grapes hiding underneath them. They reminded me of the organic concord grape popsicles that stain B's teeth and tongue. So why not wool? I boiled up the grapes and smashed them to smithereens. I soaked only half the skein in the pot. I really like the purple! The other colour came from coffee. I was hoping for a darker chocolate brown, but this caramel colour is nice too. So many non-toxic things to dye with! I must find more....


This skein of mohair soaked in the leftover grape juice and turned a very light shade of lilac. Very pretty.

Beets

I did some experimenting last night. I had spun and plyed the wool last week and had it sitting around, waiting for inspiration. The beets I cooked for dinner left a beautiful red soup that called for wool. I added some vinegar. I added the wool. And this is what appeared. The top skein was natural. The bottom skein was light green (previously dyed with kool-aid, but not all that attractive). I like the results, but I thought the colours would be brighter. I envisioned reds and purples, not peach. I'll have to do some research to find out what else needs to be added to the mix.

My Knitting Bag

I love my knitting bag. It is an ancient doctor's bag. My Oma gave it to my a long time ago. It is in such good condition. It had been in storage - i was saving it for something special. I have slowly realized that there is no time like today. Carpe Diem. Why hide it away. it must be used. And since it holds itself open, it makes a great knitting bag. What do you use to carry your projects around?

An actual WIP

I took this photo at B's class last week. I have started my third pair of socks! I love the two-up pattern from knitty. I like that the toe and the heel look like real socks. The heal flap that I have seen on other socks looks so "home-made". Too clunky. This pattern taught me how to do short rows. It was tricky at first, but now, at the third pair I have finally got the hang of it and I don't have holes at the joins. I really like the colour-way of this wool, but I was hoping that the stripes would be thicker, like at the toe. I must dye my own! It has to be cheaper too. $12 per sock. It seems obscene to pay that much for one sock - plus all the work.

Birthday Kitten

In trying to be a "good" natural parent I decided to make B's 4th birthday present. She has been begging for a real white kitten so I thought I'd make her a knit one. I started just after Christmas so that I'd have lots of time to make the kitten and a whole wardrobe of clothes. You see, she does not like dolls, but she loves animals. I thought that if I made clothes for it she might get the idea of taking care of a "baby". The kitten pattern came from this book. The pattern is for a mouse, but I modified the ears to make it a cat. Some of the clothes came from there (although those clothes didn't fit as well as the ones I made from these patterns). I was so happy knitting all of these cute miniature clothes. It was great to use up all sorts of small balls of hand spun and hand dyed wool. Here are some of the clothes:






























Well, after all the hard work and love put into the gift - she didn't like it. She liked the clothes, and she uses them on all her other animals. But she doesn't like the kitten. It broke my heart. I ended up putting the kitten away with the beautiful Waldorf Doll I made her for her 1st birthday. Maybe she'll ask for it one day. Maybe she won't and it will be there for another child who will love it as much as I do. At least the clothes are getting used. Right?

Bonnets

My new addiction (knit-wise) is baby bonnets. They are quick easy knits - something I need when I am knitting outside with constant interruptions from inquiring minds. I am hoping to knit enough that I can sell them on etsy when I eventually get a store up and running. I knit the first one with a badly dyed yarn (from the dye class). It was supposed to be rainbow, but the colour red didn't show up except for a few very light pinky/peachy spots. UGLY, but perfect for trying out a new pattern. The trial worked out so I decided to over-dye the whole thing with blue, hoping that the pinks would turn purple. Yes, I know I should be more scientific about dyeing, but I am a wing-it kind of gal. The Blues got bluer and the yellows turned green. The pinks disappeared. A very cute baby boy bonnet indeed. Before and after shots are below.

Fingerless Mitts DO NOT WORK!

I was always skeptical of fingerless mittens. How could they keep your whole hand warm if your fingers were not covered? Then I read a few blogs where the people swore that fingerless mitts kept your hands warm enough that the fingers stayed warm too. I have been knitting outside a lot at B's Waldorf class because she hates playing outside there (She claims that it is too boring because it has no swings and will only play outside if I am outside too). But my hands get cold. I have long skinny fingers as shown in this photo. There may be mild winters here in Vancouver, but my skinny fingers turn purple very easily. Anyway, I though that fingerless mitts would be the answer. I found a cute pattern. I attempted and loved my first cables. The colours are gorgeous! BUT THEY DON'T WORK! My finger nails still turn purple. So much for knitting outside. Thank goodness Spring is almost here.

Long Lost Chickens

I knit these chickens about a year ago. B's Waldorf Parent & Tot class had them. When I realized how simple they were - just a knit square - I had to make some. I had some hand-spun wool from my spinning class that I took to my dye class. Well, the colours were odd and the balls were small, so the odd balls became the chickens. Notice the playsilk?

Shorn

I had my hair cut. A lot of it. I am actually very happy. It was so long and heavy and I had it tied up all the time anyway. I asked the guy to make sure to keep it long enough to make small pony tails. His logic was that if you are going to put it up, you might as well cut it off. So I did.


I asked the hair-guy to keep all the hair. It is a big pile that I hope to spin. Yes, I know it will have a rope-like texture. But I have heard many a story of spinners spinning hair. Now I need to figure out if I have to comb it or if I can just grab pieces and go for it. Maybe it should be mixed with some wool to hold it together. But I don't have a drum carder. Oh well, I'll just have to jump in and try it.

One more (almost) Christmas thing...

I wanted to dye some playsilks for B for Christmas. I ordered them from Dharma Trading and had them sent to my mom's house in California so she could bring them with her when she visited us in early December. Well, they missed her by a day and so she couldn't mail them to us until she got home a week later. Then hit the Christmas mail rush and they didn't show up until long after Christmas. So I thought it would be a fun project for B and me to dye them together. She picked out the colours (kool-aid) and I dyed them. We did one for each colour of the rainbow. Some of them turned out a bit blotchy - but it was a first try so I think they turned out great. She uses them for so many things - blankets, costumes, landscapes. Playsilks are a great thing!

We also tried making an enormous rainbow striped silk - but the colours turned out faded in areas and concentrated in others. I wasn't impressed with how it turned out- but she still likes it. I can't figure out how to dye such a large piece of silk in stripes. I must try again some day when I have an outdoor space to splatter with dye.

Another Christmas Present

This I made for a dear friend who is a scarf addict. The end bits are hand spun and dyed. The rest of the scarf is some ancient pink mohair (doubled). The flower on the end is kool-aid dyed and needle felted. Very cute, I think. I hope it is keeping you warm in that big blanket of snow Jennifer!

B's Christmas Present

B picked out this yarn so long ago and I finally got down to making the slippers for her for Christmas. They were a big hit. The pattern is the same as the mini felted ones I made for my niece. I was surprised how thick they ended up. They are a bit big, but the ribbon can pull tight to keep the slippers on. One of her teachers thinks that they look like pink porcupines.

My First Art Yarn

For Christmas my mom bought me this:
I first heard about Lexi at my spinning class. My very traditional teacher used her as an example of the many possibilities of what you can create with a spinning wheel. But she wouldn't show us the techniques - too strange for her tastes. Pluckyfluff had a place in the back of my mind until my last visit with my mom who lives in Placerville, CA. I visited the local yarn shop in search of some parts for my spinning wheel. I saw the book and it reminded me of the reference in my spinning class a few months before. The women working in the shop noticed me looking at the book and told me that Pluckyfluff lived down the street. Excuse me?!?!? The enigma of a spinner lived in Placerville? She also told me her family owned the winery on the hill. I knew the winery so I hopped in my car and went into the tasting room. No one there knew where she was so I left a message. I got in contact with her later that day and made an date to see her spin. I was so excited to learn all about the rouge ideas that my teacher dismissed. When I met her I was shocked - she is the same age as me, and has two kids - a daughter the same age as mine! I watched her spin some sushi yarn and was totally inspired. I could do this! So, my mom got me the book - and even had her sign it (how embarrassing - but sweet). And this is my first attempt at art yarn:


It has coils and wrapped-up knots and stick-out squiggly things. It is soooo against all I learned in my first class, but I loved it! I can't wait to knit something out of it to see how it looks in action. Lexi also made me think about some of the first spun yarn I made on my own wheel at home (I had put all the bad spins in a bag to use as stuffing for animals or something). She talks about how no yarn is bad. Everything is unique and beautiful. Every bump and lump is meant to be. It is hard to remember this when you are first taught to spin straight and narrow. So I untangled some of the crappy stuff and it really is great! It has character. Thanks Lexi! I really appreciate your work and how it has changed my view on "craft". I'll have to look you up again when I come to Placerville this summer. Happy spinning!

Tiger Tales

Another birthday gift. B's friend M loves tigers. So we got him tigers. But tigers need a home so I dyed and wet/needle felted a habitat for them. They needed a pond to drink from and a bit of greens to munch. And of course a cave. I hope they like their new home.

I haven't been all that great at blogging lately. I get too caught up in reading other people's blogs. Other people seem so much more crafty and prolific. So much more interesting. I wish I knew how those other moms do it - two or more kids and they still create so many wonderful things. I really have to just do it. Not worry about what other people think and just type.

I have to go back and photograph the gifts I made for B for Christmas. Right now I am working on a big project for her birthday which is in a few weeks. Photographing it will be tough as I don't want to let the cat out of the bag (literally) before the big day. And she happens to be around all day long when the great sunlight is too. I'll have to set up my lights and dress up the meow.

And...in the works in an oolawoola logo. A very talented friend is drawing an amazing logo for me. Maybe that is holding me back. To me the blog doesn't seem official until it has a pretty design up top. Silly, but a mental block is a mental block.

Meatheads

Lovely name. This is my first knitalong, and I can't wait to do more. I used some wool that I have had sitting around for ages, but didn't know what to do with. This pattern called for a super bulky yarn that is used doubled up so the Padraig yarn worked well. Very thick to knit. Super warm to wear. B calls them elf hats, and today we made the rainbow one into a princess hat by pinning a silk scarf to the top. I'll have to post a picture of what they look like on - flat photos do not do them justice.

Freehand Hedgehog

This hedgehog came out of a request from one of B's teachers. She had a similar one that a parent made 15 years ago. I thought it was cute and told her I'd try to recreate it. It was so easy to do and was made up in two evenings. The knotted quills took longer than knitting the whole thing!

The SNB Capelet

I loved knitting this capelet, even though it was my first attempt at lace. Knitted lace is so amazing in that the odd instructions turn out to be a lovely pattern in the end. But I guess that is true for all knitted projects, non? It is frustrating at first. It took awhile to get the sequence under control. I used some beautiful handspun Shades of Narnia wool. Luckily I had just enough to finish the whole pattern. I wish I had made it a few sections longer, but ther ewas no more yarn. It was perfect as a cover-up for my borther's wedding in August. It was one of those freak August days were it rained, and up on the mountain where he got married it was foggy and freezing cold. My spidery capelet kept me snug and warm.

Don't you love the model? I do not have any wedding photos of me wearing it...