trying something new

Back when I started this round of Project Spectrum, I decided that I was going to use the project this time around as encouragement to try new techniques. Of course, I then spent the first 3 months doing exactly what I’ve always done for PS: knitting, and taking pictures. Heh. These aren’t bad things, mind you… and honestly, I think they’ll always be my first love anyway.

But in month #4 – the second half of the second “cardinal direction” – I did try something new.

This is soumak weaving, a centuries-old Persian tapestry-weaving technique that basically consists of thousands of tiny knots, individually hand-knotted on sturdy cotton warp on a loom. It took a while to get the hang of it – getting the tension right is harder than you’d think, at first – and don’t be fooled, it IS laborious and time-consuming. But once I got it all figured out, I fell in love.

This bracelet, which I’m calling Pele’s Fire, is a really simple example of the craft: it’s done with all one yarn, just back and forth like normal loom weaving. That isn’t traditional soumak at all, but it was one of my first pieces and I wanted to practice making the knots… not to mention that the yarn I picked, that pesky hand-painted Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, is too busy to be conducive to much patterning.

The bracelet was begging for beads, which turned out to be really difficult – again, because of the busyness of the yarn. I ended up scattering some antique red glass beads, from a 1910s necklace, over the surface randomly. Then I backed it with cotton tape, and added a button and loop closure. Everything is hand-stitched.

I admit that I’m a little self-conscious about it, because it is a new technique for me. I posted a picture on Facebook, where I’m used to getting immediate praise for my handiwork; hours passed without a single comment, so I sheepishly took the picture down. I don’t know if the bracelet really sucks, or if it’s just that people don’t know what to make of it, because it’s such a departure from the delicate lace and soft fuzziness that I normally make.

Actually, I’m finding myself not completely caring if it does suck. I like it, even if nobody else does. Also, this is me continuing to do what my yarn tells me to do, which seemed to work out pretty well for the Magellanes shawl – and, incidentally, I thought that shawl was atrociously ugly and was convinced that nobody would ever buy it. So who knows, maybe my judgment is just that whack.

But Pele’s Fire is what she is, and she’s also on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27191519

score!

No secret here: I love yard sales, and I’ve been having PHENOMENAL luck with them since moving to Michigan. I don’t know what it is, if people just part with things easier here than in Maine, but I’ve found some real treasures.

Sunday morning, Woody and I hit a sale that had some boxes of yarn. I started to pick through, hesitating only because the smell of mothballs was so overwhelming, but before I could decide anything one way or the other, Woody had negotiated $5 total for both boxes. I hoped for the best. I mean, the smell was so bad that we had to open the rest of the windows in the car just to get home without being overcome by fumes.

I laid everything out in the sun and wind for the afternoon, and lo, after only one airing-out, about half the yarn is descented. The rest should be a-ok after another day of airing and/or a trip through the dryer with Dryel.

For $5, it was a steal. It’s all vintage yarn, and much of it foreign-made. Georges Picaud Chahut. Schachenmayr Nomotta Melodia. Lane Borgosesia Soft Fantasy. Isola Neveda. Welcomme L’Hispano. There’s bunches of discontinued Bernat, like Kabuki (a silk-acrylic blend), and Berroco, like Dante. There’s cottons: Corticelli, Unger Italian. The vast majority is mohair-blend. I think there was ONE lonely partial ball of crap acrylic out of the entire bunch, which is so unusual for a yard-sale lot that it kinda blows my mind. All told, it ended up being 150 balls of yarn.  For $5!

I’m very sensitive to mohair, so obviously, most of this will become things to sell on Etsy, probably shawls and scarves. Here’s hoping I can get the last of the smell out!

miracles do happen after all

I haven’t talked much about the whole college thing, mostly because I wasn’t sure it was going to happen after all.  I mean, eventually, yes, definitely, but not necessarily this year.  The difference in tuition costs for a resident vs. a non-resident is staggering, and even after Stafford loans and a couple grants, I still found myself about $11,000 short.  And yes, I could go to private lenders, but I really don’t want to do that;  the idea of being $25,000 in debt after only my first year wasn’t appealing at all.

So, I figured I’d put it off a year… not the end of the world by any means, but I was pretty disappointed.  College is the reason I moved out here, after all!

In today’s mail was a thin little letter from Eastern’s financial aid office, and this is how it started…

Congratulations on your successful academic achievements! We are pleased to offer you the Transfer Scholarship and the National Scholars Program beginning the fall 2009 semester for undergraduate study at Eastern Michigan University.

…and it ended with me jumping around the living room, squeaking and saying OHMYGOD! over and over, because I just got almost $15,000 worth of scholarships.  I am absolutely jubilant.

Of course, there’s a teeny tiny bit of sheepishness, because almost $14,000 of that is based on my past (previous college) academic achievement – aka, my GPA – which is a funny story in and of itself.  I was somehow under the impression that I did horribly in college the first time around, which also played heavily in my reluctance to go back.  Then, in the process of moving, I found my [unopened!] final transcript from OCCC, opened it, and realized I’d dropped out with a 3.2 GPA and a mere 15 credits to go till my A.S.  Whoops.

Anyway, so today is pretty much the best day ever and although I know only a couple people read this – and mostly people who already knew this news anyway – I had to share.

And by the way, that job I got back in early May?  I quit it a couple weeks ago.  I didn’t move all this way to be back in the same kind of overworking-underpaying-crap job I left behind in Maine.  I’m aiming for bigger and better things these days.

Crafty things tomorrow!

the wonder and glory that is handpainted yarn

My Fire Dancer shawl found a home! Woohoo! Alison, if you happen to be a reader of my blog, I thank you very much for your purchase.  I’m celebrating this small victory by immediately putting another shawl on the needles.  Like Fire Dancer, it’s a pi shawl, which I think might be my new love… but this one is a full circle, done in a hand-painted laceweight.

The handpainted yarn is a recurring theme right now, because I have a lot of it in my stash.  It’s hard to resist buying, honestly.  I mean, the colors! and when you see a yarn that’s either a combination of colors you love, or a surprising mix of colors you never thought of, how can you NOT take it home with you and see what it becomes?

And herein lies the problem, at least for me, because 9 times out of 10, I don’t really LIKE what it becomes!

I am privately referring to these as my WTF socks, because seriously, this yarn was AMAZING in the skein, I swear!

I suppose it’s all part of your evolution as a knitter.  You try different things.  You realize you really prefer making socks on dpns rather than circulars.  You’re completely spastic at colorwork, but your lace is so awesome that it makes expert knitters boggle.  Etc. Well, I’ve realized, after a whole lot of knitting, that no matter how beautiful a skein of handpainted yarn is, I just don’t like the finished color mix at all.  I think a lot of it is because lace knitting is my love, and painted yarn is too busy for much of a pattern.

So, you know, I’ve got all this painted yarn, and I have to do something with it.  I could destash it, but I’d never get out nearly what I’ve paid into it, so I’m mostly using it to do up things to sell.  It’s a challenge because, like I said, I don’t much care for the rainbow stripes anymore, and it makes for a less-enjoyable knitting experience.  But of course, the more of it I get rid of, the more I can buy of the stuff I like!

kip’ing

Today is World-Wide Knit In Public Day.  For as long as I’ve been aware of the annual observance, I’ve wanted to live in an area where there were actually other knitters, and ones who wanted to get together to knit in public besides.  So you can imagine I was pretty jazzed to hear that there was going to be a get-together today in a park in the town I live in.

And then, Michigan weather being not at all unlike Maine’s unpredictability,  it rained, and the backup plan didn’t sound nearly so appealing, so I just skipped the whole thing.

But that didn’t automatically mean NOT knitting in public today – oh no – because the weather wasn’t the only thing going wrong.

For the latest installment in the never-ending drama surrounding me and my automobiles, I had a busted axle seal (which meant my transmission fluid was leaking, and quickly – and keep in mind that I had the transmission replaced a couple months ago) and a squealing belt (also keep in mind that the belts were replaced a month ago, aka “The Sock Incident”), so I was less than pleased about all of this… but I did get to knit in public while I waited.  Yay?

fire dancer

You’re in Bar Harbor for a day trip, and in your jaunts, you find a yarn store.  Woohoo!  You go inside and, among other things, you find a lonely skein of Araucania Magellanes in the autumny colors you love so much.  Even better yet, it’s an orphan, so it’s also half-off.  You can’t resist, and it comes home with you.

Then, of course, you’re left wondering what the heck to do with this skein of (rather scratchy) yarn that isn’t really enough to do much of anything with, and – bonus! – is mostly comprised of colors that look terrible against your pale Scottish-American complexion.

So Mags hangs out in your stash for a year, and then the cheeky little bugger whispers in your ear one day:  I want to be a shawl.

A shawl.  Seriously, now?

I did some researching on Ravelry, and came across the Storm Cloud Shawlette;  different yarn altogether, but it seemed like it might work.  I didn’t know if regular garter stitch would stretch the yarn further than a dropped garter or not, so I decided to just leave it as regular garter and take my chances.  I busted out the big needles and my complete lack of math skills (I was trying for a slightly different shape than Storm Cloud and didn’t quite achieve it, but… sorta?… random math for the win?) and, in a couple evenings, I had a little bitty shawl.

She measures about 39″ wide by 17″ tall, and it took a serious hardcore blocking to get to that point.

But Mags’ journey wasn’t quite over yet.  I got it in my head that what this little shawl really needed was beads.  Yup, beads.  We will not discuss how much money I spent on beads, between a trip to the local craft stores (yes, plural) and mail-order from Fire Mountain, because the bottom line is that I was practically buried in amber-colored beads… but couldn’t figure out what the heck to do with them.  I tried a couple different things, didn’t like the end result, ripped it all out.  Frustrated, I tossed Mags in a box and left her there for a few weeks.

Today, I finally just accepted that Mags didn’t want beads, and the yarn, my friends, always wins.

My original inspiration was the canopies of bright autumn leaves in my beloved Maine.  The end result reminds me more of something a flamenco dancer might drape around her hips, over a swirling red skirt, and so I named her Fire Dancer.

One problem remains, though, and that is that these still are not my colors… so I put her up on Etsy.  May she find a loving home.

cheetos!

Pattern: “Spring Forward” by Linda Welch (knitty.com)

Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Socrates in Jennifer’s Yellow

I love these socks! I think they might be the happiest item of clothing I own right now. I *know* they’re the coziest. They are definitely also the yellowest!

I’m not sure what I’m going to work on next. I have my next Project Spectrum work in mind, but I’m waiting on the delivery of beads, so that’s on hold for now. After working on the same project for a month, I think some instant gratification is in order… we shall see!

warning: strong language ahead

I think it’s possible that I might stay awake long enough to blog something. Not for nothing, but this job is kicking my ass. I don’t know if it’s because I’m living so much further west now – meaning, it’s darker in the morning than I’m used to – but holy crap, it’s really hard for me to get up and moving in the morning, a whole lot harder than it was to get up even earlier than this back in Maine. That tired-and-dragging feeling usually goes away when I’m in the full swing of things at work, but by early afternoon I’m crashing again. Thursday night I was asleep by 9, which is unheard-of for me. But Thursday was a whole other story…

I was on my way to work – proud of myself for being a little early for a change – when suddenly there was a thump, and my battery light came on. A few minutes later, I noticed my car was running really hot. I decided to get on the highway and risk it anyway, but as soon as I got to highway speed, my temp gauge was in the red. I guessed it was probably the radiator hose or something. I pulled off at a bank in Ann Arbor, called Woody (my housemate), made arrangements with him to get my car later in the day… then called a cab, and 1 hour and $23 later, I finally made it to work. (Being late, at a job like this, even by only 1/2 hour, sucks; I was behind all day and ended up working through my lunch, which didn’t improve my mood at all.)

By the time I was able to actually take a break, there was a text message from Woody: the problem was a sock. A SOCK, dude, a motherfucking SOCK! It somehow got sucked up into my engine, got wedged in there, and – that thump I heard? – was the fan belt breaking. Woody pulled the sock out on the spot, but of course he had to get to work, so he took it to the nearest garage. $125 later, I have new belts. I also have a dirty and stretched-out men’s white crew sock, for proof that my universe is a fucking strange thing sometimes… and especially where cars are concerned, I can’t catch a damn break for anything.

So there it is… bet you never guessed a $125 sock would be so ugly, huh?

Other than the car mishaps that I seem to attract like moths to a flame, things are going well.  I really like my new job so far.  They all like me, so far.  So far, so good!  But I am, honestly, very tired all the time, and that’s taking some getting used to.

I’ve managed to get a little knitting done, after dinner but before crashing:

I can’t even begin to describe how much I’m loving this sock pattern… short attention spans and long lace repeats are a match made in heaven, turns out.  The entire sock only has 5 1/2 repeats of the lace pattern, so if you’re forcing yourself to finish a repeat before you call it a night, you’re actually making significant and visible progress on the sock, you know?

My usual plan for a Saturday is yard sales, but between the stormy weather and the fact that all of my yard sale partners are either working or out of town, I’m thinking that knitting and napping sounds like a better idea.  Happy Saturday, all!

sunday yellow sunday

My original plan for today involved grabbing my camera and heading off to shoot some yellow all around me – because there’s plenty, I see it all the time – but alas, laziness (and a chill to the air) has prevailed on this Sunday, and I’m instead amusing myself by making mosaics.

I felt compelled to share this one because they’re all photos from my talented stepdad, Jay, who does business under the name Black Mirror Photography.  Not only does he take pretty pictures, but every single one of these makes me smile, a little reminder of my hometown (and, incidentally, east).

Happy Mother’s Day to moms and moms-to-be… and a happy Sunday (lazy or not!) to the rest of us. 

well there!

When I was getting ready to move here, people I was meeting online in this area warned me to not expect great things, job-wise.  I didn’t realize this when I applied to EMU, but Michigan has an even higher unemployment rate than Maine – something that’s truly scary from the point of view of someone who saw most of her friends in Maine either losing their jobs, or working minimum-wage crap desperately so they don’t lose their houses.

Anyway, so I got here, and wasn’t expecting much as I started to fire off resumes.  But lo, luck is on my side, apparently, because I landed a job today.  Prep cook, nothing glamorous, but I have a good feeling about this job, after talking to the man who will be my manager… I think there’s potential here.  I start Monday, and I’m very excited.

And how, exactly, does a knitter celebrate re-joining the work force?  That’s right.

Upon the recommendation of a friend’s coworker’s wife (follow that?), I drove north to Whitmore Lake, to the Whitmore Lake Yarn Co.  Very cute shop, very friendly people.  It’s hard to say if I’ll make much of a habit of going there, only because I tend to buy luxury yarns – Artyarns, Habu Textiles – or, at the very least, my current addiction is lace yarn – and Whitmore Lake has very little of any of the above.  But I do know that if I have need of Lamb’s Pride or something basic like that, they will definitely get my business, because they (and some of their regulars, who were sitting around crocheting when I walked in the door) were so pleasant and friendly to me.  It was very… family-like. 

I did, of course, find things to buy:  Cascade Yarns “Heritage” sock yarn, Universal Yarn Co. “Cotton Supreme”, and a Lantern Moon project bag (clearance! 40% off!). The Cotton Supreme is the find of the day, only because it’s the most amazing pure-cotton yarn I’ve ever touched;  it seriously feels like alpaca.  I was looking for a cotton yarn to make a summer shrug out of, and very nearly passed this up because I didn’t want white, but one touch and I was sold.  Hey, it’s cotton – I can dye it!