Yarmando tests drives the dark side

And I got a surprise of yarn.



Here's the evidence of Yarmando and the spinning wheel.


This photo is purposefully grainy, just in case he denies this happened...

This is the yarn Yarmando gave me from handwoven by Tina

Great Lakes Fiber Festival Finds

Hilltop Heritage Farm
Briar Rose Fibers
I saw Anne Hanson from knitspot and baby knitspot's mom picking up some amazing Briar Rose.
I flirted briefly with a male knitter at the Briar Rose booth. We were both looking at the same yarn so he had great taste.
I regret not buying this yarn

From Handwoven by Tina. I am really attracted by the color. I don't have anything in my stash that's yellow.
Josh helped me with my drop spindling.

I need to practice 15 minutes daily to create the muscle memory. Tour de Fleece will help with this.

I also regret not buying Twist & Knit when I saw it at the Fiber Optics booth after I first arrived. She was sold out by the time I came back to buy it.


Apparently, it's a difficult to get. I found it on Amazon and added it to my wish list bought it because it was almost sold out.
edit 5/29/2012 I didn't order from Amazon. I'm going right to Miriam Felton's website to order it so I can get a digital copy.

Sideways Stories Props

Back in March I helped with Sideways Stories from Wayside School. I'm sharing photos of a few of the props I created.



One of the characters brings on a shopping cart full of stuff. It was great fun putting this together. I found lots and lots of things to include and the stranger the thing the better. The actor (Kate) pulled the props she needed for each scene. And she maximized the fun factor based on what she used.



This is a piece of rutabaga cake with crunchy noodle topping. It looks yummy, doesn't it? Of course, I had to sample it.



Did I forget to tell you it was a huge piece of cake. It wasn't very tasty.



Mr. Gorph didn't like it much either.


I enjoyed my work with this show a lot. Making odd props is surprisingly satisfying.

I created this post back in March and just found the draft. I thought I would finally post it. It was one of the things that kept me busy and not blogging.

Tintern Abbey Toe Up Sock Class

I enjoyed the Tintern Abbey Toe Up Sock class I took from Brenda Dayne at Knots, Knitting on the Square.
Being a knitter who finds patterns more of a suggestions rather than rules, the Sherman Toe and Heel will fit my visual style. I like to read my knitting. I think after I knit the second little learning sock and my own pair, I won't need the directions anymore. This is empowering.

This is my finished little learning sock. I think it looks good.

Brenda passed this sock around for us to see the finished toe and heel on an sized sock. She said we could try it on so I did. I like the fit. I now know what size sock Brenda wears. Perhaps I could knit her some pink socks to match her pink pajamas.

Thanks to Knots Knitting on the Square for bringing the Cast-On 2012 to Ohio!

Top Down Raglan

I took the top down raglan class with Brenda on Saturday. It was a great class and provides me the information I need to design sweaters!

Extra Yarn Book Review (sharing)

Wendy sent me a rather cute book. I wanted to share it with you.

Perhaps a library near you has the book? Check Worldcat.org here.

Cascade Colorwheel

Last Friday, I visited Loopy Yarns in Chicago. During my visit, there was a customer selecting yarn to make a colorwheel of Cascade Yarn so she could knit a knock-off version of an Adult Surprise Jacket. I wandered the store, enjoying the yarn options I don't have at my LYSs while listening to her struggle with getting it "right."

You know I used to work at an LYS, right? I'm really good at color. I'm also a good salesperson when needed. I believe the staff had helped her as much as they could before I arrived. I listened to this customer struggle and decided to find out where she was stuck. There were two colors she wanted to get in the circle and couldn't make the transition smooth enough...a bright yellow and bright blue.

I like a challenge. I ended up taking out two colors and adding four. I went lighter to help transition instead of brighter. She was thrilled. I'm pleased with the result. What do you think?




I count 35 skeins of yarn in my (poorly) photographed result. The customer spent over $350 for this yarn. She was shipping it back home to the UK. She knew she has more than enough yarn for her sweater. I think she could knit each of us a sweater with all that yarn.

I wonder if the staff were glad to have me help.

I walked out with three skeins of Miss Babs Yowza I intend to use for a vest.



The dark skein is called Black Bird and is dark blue, almost black with hints of navy. I think it looks right next to the white based yarns with the black, gray (Ansel) and red (A Day atPowells), black and gray.

note to self: design a vertically striped vest, write up the pattern and become a well-known and wealthy knitwear designer.

A Fanboy Prepares

I'm taking two classes with Brenda Dayne this weekend and I'm looking forward to it. I've blogged about Brenda before. With any luck, I'll vlog some over my classes.

Cheers!

Tag, You're It!

Tag, You're It!, a photo by knittingbrow on Flickr.

This is Matt.
He was in the Sideways Stories from Wayside School production I did props and ran backstage. During one of the performances, I asked Matt to help me "tag" my friend Trixie.

Matt's character wore a clipboard around his neck. He put different things on the pages for different scenes. It was a lot of fun to watch him figure out what to write.

Trixie and have been playing "tag" through the mail for almost 20 years. It's been fun.

So the night Trixie came to the performance, I had Matt "tag" Trixie. It was early in the performance and Trixie saw it. She laughed.

And yes, Trixie is still "it."