The Virtual Knitter

The annual Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat started yesterday in Tacoma, Washigton.  I’ve attended this fabulous event for the last three year and I’m excited about going again this year.  I’ll be heading down to Tacoma straight from work today, hoping to get there in time to do some shopping at the public market. 

I’m only taking two classes this year – both of them jewelry oriented.  On Saturday, I have an all-day class with Betsy Hershberg on knitting beaded jewelry.  You can see here amazing work here.  And on Sunday, I’m taking a half-day class to learn the basics of kumihimo braiding.  I’ve usually taken some spinning classes, but this year, my wheel’s just going along for the ride (and evening entertainment). 

Look for a full report here later!

I recently upgraded to a Google Nexus 1 phone, which I absolutely love. In an attempt to fully utilize all of its features, I’ve downloaded a Wordpress application. I’m trying out the mobile application right now. In fact, I’m using the phone’s voice recognition abilities to write this post. So far, with a few minor glitches it is working well. I’ll upload to see how well it works.

I did end up needing to come back and make a few edits, but overall, it seems to work quite well.

Well, I finished one of my toe-up socks – still have to add the heel and finish off the second one.  However, I’m not at all happy, so I may just frog the whole project and chalk this one up to experience.  I learned several things – both what TO DO and what NOT TO DO when knitting a toe-up pair of socks, so I guess all is not lost, should I frog them.  I’m making a list of things learned so I’ll see this is a learning experience vs. a “socksaster”:

• Learned to knit two at a time
• Learned Judith’s Magic Cast On for toe up socks
• Learned to do an afterthought heel
• Learned the suspected bind off

But here are the problems and how I should fix them:

• Dropped a stitch so early on that I had to pick it up through several inches of the sock, which left a ridge where the guage is significantly tighter.  Note to self – count the stitches regularly to make sure none have been dropped.
• Got so excited about adding the waste yarn for the afterthought heel that I completely missed some ankle shaping in the pattern.  I don’t think this shaping was critical though, but it might have helped the fit.
• For a longer sock, it might be a good idea to do some increases in the leg to go over the wider part of my calf.  As it is, it’s too tight at the top!

Other observations

I didn’t like the afterthought heel decrease and finishing.  It was don with evenly divided decreases like a hat and finished off just like one too, so there’s a bump at the heel.  Doesn’t seem like it will wear well, and it looks sort of silly too.  I think for my next pair, I’ll learn a short row heel instead.  I think it will look much tidier.  I don’t want to be discouraged and stop trying to improve my socks skills, which I could easily have happen after this project.  Fortunately, I uesd really inexpensive yarn to make these, knowing that they were sort of experimental.  I’m going to rest from socks for a few days, and then forge ahead with another pair.

Image Test - my beautiful Kitty-boy, Rajah

Well, it appears that all that’s improved is that the uploader is different, and that you can resize the photo using the uploader.  I was able to choose from several sizes – the one above is “medium.”  I thought that it was going to allow me to show a small image linked to a larger one without having to manually link to it, but not so.  Oh well.  It’s still a little easier I guess.

Next thing I need to do is try to alter my stylesheets a bit.  I seem to have lost a small bit of my formatting, like my background color, during the upgrade.  I’m also working on a new header image, so that will come later.  I’m creating a cool new “Virtual Knitter” logo that I hope to use in the future.

Wow – I found my old theme immediately. I’m still going to think about some updating, like possibly a new header image, but at least now I’m not in generic land until I do it!

I just did a long overdue upgrad WordPress upgrade for my blog.  Lo and behold, my theme is gone, along with my header!  Ack!  Well, maybe it’s time to refresh my theme and header.  I may remain generic for a few days while I figure this out.  I’m not sure what I did wrong because I thought I’d followed the directions and did what I was supposed to do to preserve the look of my blog, but apparently not! 

I did have a scare in the process.  I failed to upload the files in the root directory of the new version, uploading only the folders.  For a few moments there, I was sure I’d completely broken the Virtual Knitter and that I was going to have to start over completely from scratch.  Thank goodness after sitting back and re-reading the directions, I realized what had happened and got things put back together again.  Now to start playing with themes!  Maybe there are some new ones that I’ll like better than my old one ayway!

I’m so happy – just yesterday we ditched the DSL and switched to cable modem, and our internet speed has vastly improved!  I recently learned that Qwest would not be installing their new fiber optic network on our street anytime soon, so we broke down and switched to Comcast.  Turns out it’s really not any more exensive, and the speed is, get this, 10-20 times as fast as what we were getting via DSL.  Unfortunately, I don’t think this is going to do anything to help my blogging frequency, but maybe I’ll just enjoy being online so much that it will just a little bit.

My last post was about New Year’s Goals and making this the best year ever.  I never did come back to explain more, but what I was really getting at is that barring any really aweful events, we really do have a lot of control over having that “best” year that I was referring to.  It’s all in how you look at things, what you do with the things that get thrown at you, etc.  So far, there have been a couple of pretty bad things tossed my way this year, but I’m making the best of them.  I’m also continuing to work on other improvements to my life and well-being that hopefully will result in the outcome I’m looking for.  I’ll try to post about this throughout the year in more detail as appropriate.

Now for some fibery goodness.  I went to my third Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat last weekend (it was the event’s 10th anniversary, but only my third).   It was great, as usual.  I took 4 classes this year, and made several passes through the marketplace.  I bought a few skeins of yarn (like I need more yarn!) and bought some wheel accessories and books, but resisted buying much spinning fiber.  I still have fiber I bought last year that’s not been spun yet!  Here’s one example of yummy yarn I purchased though – a ball of yarn that I’m not even sure I can use, it’s so pretty this way:

It’s a ball of Schoppel Wolle Zauberball Sock in the Fuchsienbeet colorway.  According to the image shown on the tag, the socks knit from this will go transition from purple at the top to a firey orange, back to purple toes – one color change per sock.  They look like flames!

Now for the highlights of my classes.  As I have the time over the next few months to explore what I learned, I may write more about some of the techniques:

On Thursday, I took Fat, Fun and Fulled: The Art of Big Yarns from Judith McKenzie McCuin.  I’ve heard more than one person say that they would take a class on how to boil water from Judith – she’s that good of a teacher.  This was a truely enjoyable all-day class.  We learned tips on setting your spinning wheel up for spinning bulkier weight yarn,  what fibers respond best to fulling, the best way to card for fat spinning (for more on this, and Judith’s apparently earth shattering instruction to put the fiber in SIDEWAYS, see the Yarn Harlot’s blog post about it), and how to properly full the yarn so that you can make useable singles.  Here’s sample of some merino/silk that I spun and fulled in the class

On Friday, I had another class with Judith – Just Dying for Socks.  In this class, we got to hand paint some different types of yarn using Judith’s own acid dyes.  I’m actually not real happy with my results so plan on overdying in a week or two to subdue the colors a bit.  I’ll post pictures AFTER the fix!

On Saturday, I had two classes.  In the morning, I got an Initiation to Entrelac Knitting with Joan Schrouder in the morning and Double Up and Around, an introduction to double knitting with Lucy Neatby in the afternoon.  I didn’t have any familiarity with Joan in advance, so didn’t have much in the way of preconceived expectations.  I found the class to be exactly what it was – a good initiation that will get me started on Entrelac knitting on my own.  I think I would have rather had a full day class in this technique though as it’s a bit complicated and fussy to learn.  I was somwhat familiar with Lucy  in all of her technicolor brightness!  However, I had no experience with her as a teacher.  I thought the class was very well done – I must say that Lucy is a really good teacher.  I’m looking forward to experiementing with the double knitting techniques I learned in the class.  I’ll also consider taking more classes from Lucy in the future, or at least investing in some of her instructional DVDs (she has a ton!)  She mentioned that she’s trying to cut back her teaching schedule in order to concentrate more on designing, so we might not see her so often at Madrona in the future. 

Well, it’s been a week, and believe it or not, I haven’t finished unpacking from my Madrona adventures yet, so I best get to work!

Happy New Year!  Now that we’re a few days into 2009, the activity of the holiday season has settled down and it’s time for life to get back to normal  (whatever that is LOL).  This gives me the opportunity to take some time to reflect on the past and make plans for the future, as is common practice with many folks.

Often times, we make RESOLUTIONS for the upcoming year.  Things like ”I will lose weight” or “I will not eat chocolate” or ”I will not spend more than $xxx on BLANK each month,” etc. are spewed forth by optimistic folks who set high hopes for self improvement.  That’s right – self improvement.  What is a resolution other than a statement dedciated to self improvement?  Well, if you look it up in the dictionery, you’ll find that a resolution is the result of the verb “resolve.”  So you loom up the meaning of ”resolve” and find the following listed as the word’s fifth meaning (from www.m-w.com): 

5: to reach a firm decision about <resolve to get more sleep> <resolve disputed points in a text>  

Hmm.  That’s pretty weak if you ask me – not to mention the fact that it’s so far down on the list of definitions for that particular word.  So maybe I shouldn’t make resolutions.  Maybe “GOALS” would be better.  Let’s look that one up:

2: the end toward which effort is directed  

Now that’s more like it.  It seems a lot more concrete to me than the wishy washy “resolution.”  So I’m making goals from now on, instead of resolutions.  As part of our annual evaluations at work, we set goals, and we’re directed to make them results oriented, realistic, and if possible, measurable. 

Upon reflection, and some discussion with others, I’ve decided on one main goal which ultimately can house many mini goals.  It’s a goal that may sound nearly impossible at first, but by breaking it down a bit and defining it, it’s not unsurmountable.  And it’s one I can actually use over and over each year if I want.  So here it is:

My goal for 2009 is to have the best year I’ve ever had.

More on how I’m going to achieve this in my next post!

In September, I’m doing the Seattle 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk.  I’ll be walking 60 miles over 3 days with approximately 4000 other walkers. In order to participate, I must raise $2200 towards the cause (Susan B. Koman foundation).  At this point, I’m only about 1/3 of the way to my goal.

Anyway, I’m holding a special raffle for my knitting and spinning friends.  Any of you who donate a minimum of $5, between now and my fundraising deadline of October 10th, will be entered to win a “Winner’s Choice” gift basket.  I’m calling it Winner’s Choice because I’ll create a gift basket with a minimum value of $75 for the lucky winner, based on her/his knitting/spinning preferences!  What could be better than that?

Here’s how you enter.  Go to my personal 3-Day Donation page at http://www.the3day.org/goto/knottyknitter and donate $5 or more.  Contact me via PM or e-mail to let me know you’ve entered (make sure I can match you up to your entry by providing me the name or e-mail address you used when making your donation).  You’ll get one entry into the raffle for each $5 donated.  For each $25, you’ll get one extra ticket (so $25 gets you 6 entries, $50 gets you 12, etc.)  When you contact me, let me know if your preference is knitting or spinning, and tell me a little bit about your fiber, color, and project preferences. 

After the donation center closes, in mid-October, I’ll draw a random winner and notify the winner by e-mail so I can get shipping information for you wonderful gift basket!

This is for a great cause. Not only does it raise much needed funds for breast cancer research and detection, but due to the shear size of the event, it raises public awareness of the need and desire of so many walkers to find a cure.  Good Luck!

First off, a blog migration update:

Slowly but surely, I’m moving my comments over to my new blog home.  I have to do it manually (see my lightbulb moment in my last post).  Meanwhile, Wordpress has released their upgrade, and I hope to install that soon, so I don’t want to bother moving the rest of the comments since I’ve just done my pre-upgrade backup . Once I get all the comments moved, I’ll shut down the other blog and redirect any traffic over here.  I’m sure happy with my move so far!

And now the knitting:

As far as knitting goes, I’ve been slowly plugging away at my 2nd stranded knitting project.  I’m knitting the small leaf hat from Ruth Sorensen’s packet of hat patterns that she put together for the Madrona Fiber Arts annual retreat.  I didn’t take her class there – instead, I purchased the patterns at Acorn Street, a local resource for Kauni yarn.  My first stranded project was also from this packet – at this time it’s serving as the header for this site.  Unfortunately, as my first ever stranded knitting project, it ended up being too small.  This is due to the fact that my initial gauge swatch and subsequent calculations were based on flat knit un-stranded stockenette.    Unfortunately, my stranded knitting knit in the round, turned out to be much tighter.   Although I’m very happy with the way it looks, it doens’t really fit my head.  I’ll hang onto it as a sample, but unfortunately will not be able to wear it.  See the photo of both below.

I’ve long wanted to learn stranded knitting but only recently felt ready for it.  Sure, I’ve been knitting for 4 years, but due to my hobby ADD, I’m not a very prolific or focused knitter, so have stayed at a level of just beyond beginner.  Now that I’ve attempted it, I’m hooked.  One reason I want to stick with it is the fact that it really is part of my heritage, being of Norwegian (and Viking) descent.   I’ve always admired the Scandinavian knit motifs so it’s really fun to know that I can recreate them myself!  Now I’m off to continue perusing the “Stranded” group gallery at Ravelry…