Inspired by the lovely handmade books from misshawklet, I decided to try my hand at book binding. I checked a few books out from the library to learn how to do the chain stitch binding. So this isn’t the most perfect book, but now I know how to make it better next time. Obviously the cover stock isn’t cutting it for a cover. It will be much easier when I have access to a real paper cutter and such.
I’m in the process of switching all my websites to a new host. For some unknown reason the background here is missing. I’m trying to fix it so please bear with me. Thanks.
I was showing my roommate the Amy Butler fabric I bought in Portland when her boyfriend came in. He said it looked familiar and that his friend’s wife was a rockstar in the quilting world. In fact he had gone snowboarding with the friend while his wife was in town for a big quilting show. So I asked what her name is and he says Amy Butler. Ha..small world. Her husband is his bff.
Now I want fabric hookups. 
I was in Portland, OR for a few days last week and I want on a little fiber binge. Scouting the yarn shops was good way to see the city!
My first stop was Knit Purl. It’s a relatively large shop with lots of different stuff. They carry ShiBui yarns – I later learned the shop’s owner started ShiBui. They had a ton of Koigu. I bought a skein of Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn and ShiBui Kid Merino in honey. Right around the corner is Josephine’s Dry Goods – a yarn store. It’s awesome, they have the most luscious fabrics. I bought a yard and a half of two Amy Butler cottons to make skirts. Then I went to a bead store and picked up some peridot tear drops for earrings I’m making.
Later that day I took the bus across the river and went to Yarn Garden in the Hawthorne district. I think this store must be knitting nirvana. There are 3 rooms at least the size of my bedroom that were floor-to-ceiling yarn. Then there’s another room that was full of books, patterns, and needles. They also have a connected cafe. The people there were very nice. I asked about bamboo yarn and was shown a whole “section” of it. Crazy! I ended up buying a ball of Crystal Palace Merino Frappe, 3 skeins of Louet Kidlin (for a wrap), and 3 balls of Classic Elite Bam Boo for a beret for my sister.
On the flight over and during my hotel downtime I’ve been working on Rusted Root. I’m glad I took the time to laminate the instructions. It’s going pretty well. I’m over 25% finished. The pattern is pretty straightforward and the way the sleeves are made is rather nifty.
I received an invite for Ravelry.com today. It’s a crochet/knitting community where you can track your stash, projects, needles, etc. It’s incredibly well done. I think I need to learn Ruby. I spent several hours this morning playing around with the site. It’s in beta so you need an invite to join.
I had a good sized cardboard box, a bunch of white tissue paper, and these instructions. So I made a lightbox. This is good because I have a huge sliding door in my apartment which lets in a ton of light…sometimes too much light.
The light box really helps diffuse the light so that I don’t get big shadows. I can also still shoot on my table. Most of my photos are taken on that table so I like consistency. It’s also nice to know i can also use a long sheet of paper to make a seamless background for photos as well.
So once I made the light box I had to take some photos…of hats. Yes, more hats!
So I love this first hat. When I was buying the Berocco Peruvia to make Vanessa’s hat I also picked up some brown, orange, and green to make one for myself. At the time I had no idea Peruvia was a new yarn. The
colors are heathered, but not as heathered as they look in some photos. It’s very soft and at $8 for 100g it’s a reasonable price. I should also point out that what looked like yellow in Vanessa’s hat was really my orange. I love color theory!
So anyway this is knit on size 9 needles starts out with a 2″ band of k2p2. I might even make it a little longer next time since I really like the way the band looks. Then I just did 3 rows of each color. I tried the jogless jog technique for changing colors and it really works. You can see my color changes along the left side. They don’t look so great but that was more my spastic end weaving then the technique. I do know that next time I need to wrap or pull the ends tighter since there were slight gaps that I was trying to sew closed. I still have tons of yarn left so I might make another similar hat with a green band, since the brown kind of blends in with my dark brown hair.
Lastly is the waffle hat. I can’t remember what this yarn is but when I first started knitting it pooled horrible and then I somehow manged to cast on the magic number of stitches where it doesn’t pool. It’s 3 rows of k3p3 and 3 rows of k. I wear it inside out sincen I really like how the variagated yarn looks in reverse stockinette.
Even more photos…this time it’s hats. I have way too many hats but they are my favorite thing to knit.
This one is made from handspun and olive green knit picks merino style
This is a basketweave hat I made from some handpainted yarn, but I totally forget what brand it is. It’s just 2 rows of knit and 2 rows of k2p2, but I wear it inside out.
Here is the finished product of twinkle tweed. I intended to put earflaps on it, but I wanted to wear it at Xgames so I crocheted the band on the bottom and Heidi made me an official pH Pom.
My birthday is coming up and every year I buy myself a nice present. This year I am trying to decide between a new spinning wheel and a LAMB handbag – yes, they cost about the same amount.
I am thinking about getting a Kromski wheel. I definitely want a castle wheel, and I like the way they look…but how do they spin? I read enough good feedback on the darpnet to want to try one out. I probably haven’t mentioned this yet but I’ve temporarily moved to Salt Lake City for the winter! So I looked up a spinning stores in the area and found Warm Threads. They don’t have a retail store but you can make appointments to come to their studio to try wheels. I called several times and left a message but I never heard back, so I decided to try another local dealer. On the Kromski website I found Three Wishes Fiber.
I called up and spoke to the owner to see if she had any to try out. She said she had a Mazurka and was in the middle of staining a Minstrel. They were open until 6:30 and it was only 3 so I decided to head down there. It’s a large and very nice looking shop. I tried out the Mazurka and I liked the way it spun, but it felt a little tipsy to me and it was single treadle. I also tried out the Sonata as well and I really liked it but it rather large and since I don’t need a portable wheel the extra cost isn’t justified.
Kristine showed me the Minstrel she’s in the process of staining and we got a brochure to check out ratios. She was very nice and helpful and was the second person to warn me that weaving is the next step. I don’t know about that..it’s never really interested me.
Her shop is very nice. She’s got lots of fiber including painted roving and specialty stuff. There’s a whole wall of yarn on cones that I assume is for weaving, plus tons of nice yarns. I bought a couple of skeins to make hats to keep me entertained until the rest of crafty stuff arrives from NJ.
I’m seriously contemplating a Minstrel. She said it’s a little more stable than a Mazurka and it’s double treadle.
I recently discovered via LiveJournal that Knitty Gritty is now being shown on HGTV! That’s awesome for those of us that don’t get DIY. It looks like it airs weekdays at 11am, but check your listings.
I was in San Francisco at the beginning of November. While I was walking around Union Square the windows of Tiffany’s caught my eye – they were all knitting themes. I took some photos to post on here. It took me awhile since right after I was in San Fran, I spent a month in New Zealand. Anyway I’m not really into Tiffany’s but I thought they were pretty nifty.
click on any to enlarge
I really want to go to the NYS Sheep & Wool Fair but I’m pretty sure it’s not happening because
1. I should be packing so I can move out of my apartment by the 31st
2. I shouldn’t be buying stuff when I’m going to be out of work and moving
But then this is me, so maybe I will get enough packing done on Saturday that I can allow myself to go on Sunday.